Well Ayo,Courage, and a steady ship.You hold up to us all the realities.These are not pleasant to contemplate.It is very important you continue to do so.Since 1966, and indeed before, this situation has festered.At some time, the boil is going to burst.At various points in the intervening 55 yearsIt seemed the time had come.But still with steadily mounting fears/ stress/ anxietiesWe watch and hope.—The oligarchs praying their time will be just long enough to see them through their terms.—The Informed and civil trying to maintain some semblance of confidence that things will get better; that this past era is a bad dream that will soon lift, and the sun of common sense will emerge, as though it had never departed; and the immense tsunami of progress for folk and country will at last be loosed.—The stalwart 98ers in this country said to exceed 200,000,000 persons, struggle ever harder for a receding survival, within the ever more faint boundary-throb of life.My comment ?No basic change since what follows was written in 2015.“ …I retain hope that we may duly move out of our ‘savage infancy.’ Tis now the job of others to wrestle with the nitty-gritty, and to seek to nudge the Ship of Life in what may be hoped to be more amenable directions."What strikes me ever more forcefully as my Elder years progress, is the essential Mystery of life. Recognition that while we may learn more and more of the technics and mechanisms, that we are thereby increasingly forcefully exposed to the reality root of Life’s Mystery. So much seems ‘impossible’, accidental, random. So it seems. But is it?
"Curious what ...Nigeria folk stirred in me more than 50 years ago. And indeed what the wondrous Orisa Osun Inspired in my feeling/ awareness/ thinking and life.
"It was a liberation. But it was a liberation that has carried its weight and price.
"Yet I am grateful. For I am held to the Light.
"And it wasn’t my people who did this. It was yours.
"I am grateful. I give thanks.” (Vickers, Bright Beams in Dark Shadow, p.476)
You see, through it all my deity the blessed Orisa Osun has remained with me. When the Darkness becomes too great, she smiles/ the tinkle of her laughter a refreshing and never-ending delight. She points out those wonders in all that is round me; those wondrous sights that render life more pleasing/ happy and hopeful.
My heart-friend Funmi Odusolu, now joined with those at the High Table of Olympus, casts down one of his wondrous spells of special magic with strong song, with the boom and sharper raps of the drums, always the drums/ the talking drums, they send his message. And always it is uplifting. …Funmi, Shaman/ Spirit Leader/ Worldly Sage who left us suddenly and mysteriously at Sagamu in December 2019, sends his love and very best wishes to us all, in Nigeria/ in the Wider World. He calls for us all to summon up those things that we know can help us/ make us strong in adversity; he calls on us to listen for the wondrous drums/ for the music/ for the strident song; the song of a “United Humankind”, his very favourite.
And I send out my prayer to all those who try hard to care for themselves/ for those of their families and community/ indeed for those of the Wider World; so many of whom face many problems we know well/ and many even more grave and demanding than any folk should have to confront.
Good night.
And with Love,
Baba m
Date: Thursday, 25 November 2021 at 19:19
To: Prof Ogunmola Ogunmola <gbogunmola@gmail.com>
Cc: Prof Ayo OLUKOTUN <ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com>, "Prof Eghosa E. 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Subject: Re: IMF'S THUMBS DOWN TO OUR ANTI-CORRUPTION POLICY
Your article is but a tip of the iceberg of the catalogue of elite failures.The burning issue remains how to start to address this foundation problem. achives are full of study reports and many commissions and white papers are on shelves with little to show how to begin to face the issue squarely as a nation. Now is the moment that we are at at the Precipe to go beyond our individualityand accept the collective guilt for we are are all guiltily and have failed the nation of our birth or acquired. Today the last Thursday in November is Thanksgiving Day in America. It is set aside to give thanks for the many blessings that individuals, families, communities and the nation have received. It is also a day to recommit to their values and ideals and reflect. May be our collective guilt calls for a national day of atonement, a day to reflect and to recommit to banish elite failure in our act of service to our fatherland, with no more iniquity against the poor and our neighbors, but to give and receive love as to see beauty in our nation that will continue to engender hope for a better future for generations .With best wishes to you all.Prof GB Ogunmola FASOn Nov 25, 2021 10:59, "Ayo Olukotun" <ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com> wrote:IMF’S THUMBS DOWN TO OUR ANTI-CORRUPTION POLICY
Ayo Olukotun
“Perception of corruption remains high…leading to low tax compliance and buy-in of reforms.”
International Monetary Fund Mission to Nigeria Report, November 2021.
Nigeria, long projected as an African giant playing on the world stage, is caught in a devastating moral and socio-economic bind. There is a downsizing of social purpose and the will to improve the human condition, not only among political leaders but in civil society as well. The intellectual vocation, in particular its mandate to inform policy-making, is in recession. Illustratively, last week, this columnist attended the University of Ibadan Convocation Ceremony where Africa’s foremost Humanities scholar, Prof. Toyin Falola, was conferred with an earned Doctor of Letters degree. The very next day, Falola substantiated his merit by presenting his latest book, “Understanding Modern Nigeria (Cambridge University Press, 2021) to the public, the first in a trilogy of voluminous books also to be published by Cambridge. Yet, hovering around the celebration was an article by Emeritus Professor, Akinjide Osuntokun, lambasting the administrators of the National Merit Award, who have consistently bypassed such a luminous scholar as Falola. This is surely a story for another day, a scandal of sorts; but please bear in mind that the NMA is supervised, not by military oligarchs or Prebendal politicians, but by very senior academics. This unpleasant anecdote is brought in to show that the treacherous crossroads in which Nigeria finds itself implicate leaders and followers alike, invoking the Biblical rebuke that “all have sinned”.
This brings us to the International Monetary Fund’s lament quoted in the opening paragraph about increasing perception of corruption in Nigeria and the deleterious consequences for economic growth. To be sure, this is not the first time the IMF has publicly criticized our anti-corruption platform. Last year, to take an instance, the Managing Director of IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, regretted that Nigeria exhibited “a culture of unaccountability and obscene profiteering at the expense of hundreds of millions of Nigerians”. You may wish to ask the question: why has the IMF come to loom so large in our policy-making and economic choices? It is simple. Unlike in previous dispensations when a measure of nationalist consciousness as well as better economic management kept the organization at arm’s length, Nigeria has plunged headlong into a season characterized by borrowing spree and the accompanying micromanagement by outsiders of our economy.
Recall for instance that last year the IMF approved at Nigeria’s behest a loan described by the organisation as “massive” of USD 3.4 billion as emergency assistance, presumably related to the management of Covid-19. It is difficult to keep track of Nigeria’s current borrowing status automatically approved by the ruling party-dominated National Assembly. Nonetheless, even the IMF was compelled to issue a warning recently concerning Nigeria’s growing and high-risk indebtedness and its consequences. You do not need a prophet to tell you that the proposed hike in petroleum prices, a familiar IMF policy mantra, may not be unrelated to our growing economic subservience.
On the issue of corruption raised by the Fund, its view tallies with those of Nigerian intellectuals, including non-governmental organizations, which have long regretted the retardation in the anti-corruption policy. Doubtless, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), will be given kudos by history for kick-starting an anti-corruption programme. Beyond that, unfortunately, there would be little to congratulate him for, partly because there has been no improvement in Transparency International’s ranking of Nigeria in successive Corruption Perception Indices during his tenure. That apart, various observers have alluded to dilations, contradictions, half-heartedness and a lack of purpose in the execution of that agenda. A few examples will make the point.
Last year, Justice Ayo Salami (retd.) headed a probe panel which submitted its report to the Presidency in an open ceremony. On that occasion, waxing eloquent, Buhari promised to employ the recommendations to institute a new culture of accountability in public service. I may have forgotten but I do not remember that anything further was heard about those recommendations including the one suggesting the prosecution of the former acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu. This is either a characteristic omission or familiar amnesia in the fight against corruption. What have become of the several cases of corruption and allegations of large scale embezzlement of public funds in such institutions as the Niger Delta Development Commission, the Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund and sundry other cases which went into oblivion after titillating the public for a while? Would you want to know what became of some heads of parastatals suspended from their posts for alleged corruption, not followed up by prosecution or sanctions, making them free to enjoy their loot in retirement? Do you want to talk about those cases which became casualties of political trade-offs as the alleged culprits played fast ones by joining the ruling party in return for turning a blind eye to their trespasses?
So, at the end of the day, we have a lot of hoopla, road shows, colourful publicity around anti-corruption, but the rewards are few and far between. Leaving aside the controversies trailing the former Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, there are so many instances, some of them dramatic, implicating high state officials including some serving ministers which apparently have been glossed over.
In a recent article published in the American Journal of Chinese Studies, Prof. Jon Quah drew a contrast between the anti-corruption policy and status of Singapore, one of the least corrupt countries in the world (ranked 3rd least corrupt by Transparency International in 2020), and China ranked in the same year as 78th by Transparency. The outstanding success of Singapore, it was claimed, rests on certain factors and attitudes which China is admonished to learn from. These are: Singapore and its ruling party exercise the political will to fight corruption and to keep the country morally sanitized. Secondly, Singapore does not confuse the symptoms of corruption for its fundamental causes and drivers. Thirdly, Singapore does not play politics with anti-corruption unlike China which leaders make anti-corruption a subject of political horse trading. Fourthly, Singapore’s anti-corruption agency is given the independence to investigate corruption cases irrespective of who is involved or which political party the culprit belongs to. Finally, Singapore has set a high premium backed by resources on its anti-corruption agency and personnel, reaping the dividends of the linkage between welfare and effectiveness.
This informative article suggests that there is nothing accidental about a structured and holistic campaign against public sector corruption. Singapore and the People’s Action Party are reaping the robust anti-corruption tradition and moral purpose begun by Lee Kuan Yew who takes the credit for being the nation’s founding father, and transformative hero, a tradition carried on by his successors. This is a much different context from a situation Wole Soyinka once described as historical throw-ups in which rulers emerge by accident or sheer persistence without a roadmap of national reinvention.
The takeaways from Singapore’s eminent scorecard apply to Nigeria which, before the page closes, can still turn around its dismal anti-corruption record. For this to happen, it must take away the lessons of genuine change, take them to heart while carrying the people along, for instance, by lessening the current human misery index.
Professor Ayo Olukotun is a director at the Oba (Dr.) S. K. Adetona Institute for Governance Studies, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye.
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