Oyo govt and the missing vehicles

WHAT do Mohamed Suharto, Ferdinand Marcos, Mobutu Sese Seko and Sani Abacha have in common? They are all record holders for stealing in public office. They used their positions as presidents to perpetrate what the Oxford scholar, Wale Adebanwi, following the legendary Afrobeat king Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, brands authority stealing.  And if you thought public theft was something a bit remote, particularly in the current “change” regime, you probably were not paying requisite attention to the wanton theft, pillaging and robbery that has been going on in government circles since 2015, disguised as initiatives for the public good. From the billion dollar frauds in the NNPC to the bare-faced fraud in INEC which got N1.2bn for a server but claims it does not exist, it has been cases all along of wanton stealing by felons masquerading as messiahs. This is why the nation was not really shocked when Chief Bisi Ilaka, the Chief of Staff to the Oyo State governor, Mr. Seyi Makinde, alleged that  officials of the immediate past government in Oyo State went away with government vehicles, especially new ones bought at the end of 2018 and early this year. As a result, Makinde, his deputy and other officials of government have been riding in their personal vehicles while engaged in the business of state.

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Ilaka said: “From what we have seen so far, the scale of larceny by the last government  was unprecedented. Commissioners have gone away with vehicles; same as the heads of parastatal agencies. A  lot of these cars were bought by the end of 2018 and early this year. When we came in, we felt that most of us who share the political space in Oyo State are one way or the other brothers. So, we didn’t want to go out as if we are witch-hunting anybody. But they are forcing our hand. Even the local government chairmen went away with fridges and TVs. I can’t understand their mindset. They say a fish rots from the head. ” Apparently appalled by the concerned individuals’ failure to heed its gentlemanly gesture, the Oyo State government later handed a 48-hour ultimatum to former public office-holders to return the stolen vehicles to the government pool. Sadly, in his reaction to Governor Makinde’s noble action, ex-governor Ajimobi merely asked his successor to get busy with more serious issues. Speaking at a luncheon organised by the Ibadan Elders’ Forum, Ajimobi said inter alia: “Let him face the job and not talk about mundane issues. Let him look at other issues. Recently, I heard them talk about government officials carting away money, is that the issue that they should face now? Those of you who have his ears should tell him. What we have done, we have done.” With due respect to his position and personality, this utterance is disturbing. How is retrieving stolen government vehicles a ‘mundane’ issue? Not surprisingly, the state chapter of the APC shelved its facile anti-corruption mantra and declared: “How can a serious party be comfortable with the fact that a governor it sponsored into power cannot muster a significant action plan or blueprint but choose to dwell on mundane issues four weeks after inauguration without any sign of promise to deliver?” Is this what Oyo APC is all about?

It is indeed shameful that anyone would cart away government vehicles and hold on to them despite repeated calls for their return. This act of defiance and impunity against a sitting government, and a criminal assault on a long-suffering populace, is only typical of our “changing” brothers and sisters in the broom community. When these individuals came to power, they proclaimed to the high heavens that their predecessors were dirty, corrupt, nasty and illiterate, railroading a section of the public into hero worship. They had, they said, come to right the wrongs of the past, kill corruption and take the masses to Eldorado. Alas, they did just the exact opposite. They hounded critics, turned state institutions into personal fiefdoms, and brought the state into disrepute with their showmanship and garrulity. They turned criticism to mischief, talked down students, scoffed at pensioners, tongue-lashed workers and held market men and women in despite. During the campaign season, they robed themselves with pride, adopting the most infantile campaign tactic of distributing gari and kulikuli to a wounded and angry populace. Their posters were everywhere, noisy with megalomania and reeking of flippancy. And when they were booted out of power, they allegedly rewarded themselves by taking government vehicles home, pouring scorn on the same people they had tormented for years. Of course, they were only acting true to type: having undertaken so many acts of impunity, they could not bring themselves to admitting  their error. As that erudite thinker, Frederic Bastiat, puts it: “When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”

Some of the people who made away with vehicles belonging to the Oyo State government may be holidaying in the United States, but surely they do realise that theft of government property is a federal offense under 18 U.S.C., section 641? According to this law, it is a crime to embezzle, steal, or knowingly convert with intent for your own personal gain, the property of someone else, or without authority to sell, convey or dispose of any record, voucher, money, or thing of value issued by a department of the United States government. Of course, they know the law: they don’t just think it should apply to them. They are our agents of change who proclaim from the rooftops that they hate corruption. They strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. They are the set of people David Runciman had in mind when he noted in his epochal book, Political Hypocrisy, that the most dangerous form of political hypocrisy is to claim to have a politics without hypocrisy.

This crude assault on justice and the welfare of Oyo people must not be allowed to stand. Justice, notes the Roman philosopher Plato, is not to the exclusive advantage of any of the city’s factions, but is concerned with the common good of the whole political community, and is to the advantage of everyone. It provides the city with a sense of unity, and thus, is a basic condition for its health. On the other hand, “Injustice causes civil war, hatred, and fighting, while justice brings friendship and a sense of common purpose.” The stolen vehicles must be retrieved and returned to the government pool without delay—and let no one shout “witch-hunt” when justice comes calling, blind to sentimentality and delivering swift recompense.

• Ogunyemi lives in Lagos