Why Lai Mohammed should apologise to Melaye

ON Sunday April 16, 2017, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed caused a statement to be issued to the general public in which he claimed that the whistle blowing policy instituted by the Federal Government is forcing many looters to hide their loot in cemeteries and deep forests. Many newspapers reported the statement issued by Alhaji Lai Mohammed and endorsed by his media aide, Segun Adeyemi. But that statement was supposed to carry an attribution to the chairman, Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Dino Melaye. Without such an attribution and apology, it can only be termed plagiarism.

The Minister in the statement said that due to the effectiveness of Federal Government’s whistle blowing policy, looters of public funds now bury money in cemeteries and in deep forests.

The Minister said: “Since we launched the whistle-blower policy, we have received immeasurable support from Nigerians. Yes, there is monetary reward for any information that leads to recovery of looted funds, but from what we have seen, most of the Nigerians who have come forward with useful leads were driven by patriotism rather than reward.

“Nigerians, fired by a fervid resolve to help banish corruption from their country, have daily inundated the offices of the appropriate government agencies with valuable information. We have been told how looters have resorted to burying stolen funds in their backyards, in deep forests and even in burial grounds.”

But that statement came exactly one month and 16 days behind a similar claim made by Senator Melaye on the floor of the Senate.

On Wednesday March 1, 2017, the Kogi Senator had moved a motion seeking the probe of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) over allegations that the Corporation failed to return the sum of N5.1 trillion to the Federation Account.  He told his colleagues that some corrupt Nigerians now hide their loot in caskets and uncompleted buildings located in remote villages.

Having been recognised to move his motion titled “Discrepancies in subsidy payment and non-remittance of funds by the NNPC to the federation account,” Melaye said declared that corruption had eaten deep into the fabrics of the country to the extent that corrupt persons now bury their loot outside the prying eyes of Nigerians by taking them to deep forests and inside caskets.

The Senator said: “Monies are not accounted for and that might be the reason why we now see petro-dollars buried in caskets and uncompleted buildings in remote villages in some parts of the country.”

He said that whereas the Federal Government has been probing independent oil Marketers whose allocation of the subsidy claims amounted to 49 per cent, the NNPC which accounted for 51 per cent of oil imports has not been investigated.

The Senator further submitted: “While we are prosecuting the independent marketers whose proceed from subsidy is about N3.83 trillion, NNPC collected a total of N5.1 trillion on subsidy and this has never been investigated.

“This has never been looked at and we are busy chasing independent marketers. The time to look at the books of NNPC as regards petroleum subsidy is now. We have taken the lead in the fight against corruption in this chamber and I want to say we must do everything within our powers to investigate and bring whoever is found wanting to book.”

With or without the appropriate attribution or apologies from the Minister of Information, the statement by Melaye has brought home some realities in the anti-corruption war. The fact that the senator’s statement was not further screened and investigated and that the minister can only echo him more than a month after tells much about an anti-corruption war that is largely built on soundbites and ceremonies.

You would expect that the federal agencies assigned the responsibility of fighting corruption would immediately swoop on the statement by the senator and tear it to shreds. Within weeks, you expect that the agencies would have come up to either authenticate or dismiss the statement after the thorough investigations.

Granted however that the senator has enough legislative immunity to make statements on the floor of the Senate, the Federal Government can only re-echo such a statement after duly processing the same. If the government is saying something it can possibly not substantiate and has not investigated, that should leave much to be desired about the fight against graft.

In two years that we have moved around with the corruption battleground, it appears we have largely only instigated a war against big money men here and there. This way we can easily assault the eyes of the common man with hug haul of cash that kept them dreaming till eternity. Good as it is to make examples of the big guns, but we also have to keep eyes on the finite details, (minute cases of corruption so to say) for as they say it is the small streams that make up the mighty ocean.

Can anyone beat his chest that he can get an application or a bid through any office in the land without greasing some palms? Have we stopped those who demand 20 plus two percentages before contracts are awarded? Have we listened to any different confession from contractors who have to daily pursue their legitimate earnings from the Ministries, Departments and Agencies? Have we seen agencies including the Presidency observing the constitution ordained Federal Character Principle?