By Chiemeka Ozumba
His Excellency, Chief James Onanefe Ibori, erstwhile executive governor of Delta State continued to hold control of newspaper front pages the same way he had a vice-grip (no pun intended) hold on Delta state. The dailies are awash with the allegation made by officials of EFCC that he tried to bribe them with $15 million!! My interest is not in the moral of the offer.
The man can do whatever he chooses with 'his money'. I may not stray into the usual "our stolen money", but will pause to imagine how much this man is worth if he can comfortably offer a bribe of $15 million. My principal interest is how this controversial sum of money can impact positively on the people of delta state.
Play Pumps International is an NGO that helps to "improve the lives of children and their families by providing easy access to clean drinking water, enhancing public health, and offering play equipment to millions across Africa." Last year, the NGO with headquarters in South Africa, launched a $60 million, three-year campaign to bring the benefits of clean drinking water to up to 10 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa." Ibori's $15 million is just a quarter of this budget. Play Pumps, has already achieved "one-third of the way to meeting this important goal." That is a few millions above the value of The Onanefe Bribe!
The Human Development Report 2006, World Development Report 2006 shows that Nigeria's water supply coverage and sanitation coverage is below average at 48% and 44% respectively. And according to Water Aids, another international NGO, "while the Nigerian Government has publicly committed to prioritising water and sanitation services it faces massive problems in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of halving the proportions of people without access to safe water and sanitation between 1990 and 2015." Water Aids key aims in Nigeria include helping "84,000 people gain access to water, sanitation and hygiene education every year by 2011." Do we really need dished out aids from international organisations if we have Ibori's $15 million? Water Aids wants to "support local partner organisations to raise their own funds, while keeping a strong advisory role on how these funds are spent to ensure a further 90,000 people gain access to water and 85,000 to sanitation every year by 2011." Would Ibori have donated $15 million towards this project?
It is pertinent to mention that $15 million is the approved commitment of DFID's Water and Environmental Sanitation Programme, 2003-08. A project which “aims to provide 11,000 school children and 280 teachers with access to and use of improved sanitation, 120,000 people with an increase in reliability of water supply in 4 towns and 22,000 people with resorted access to water supply in 4 towns by the end of the project."
Let us move away from the statistics of international organisations who 3rd World conspiracy theorists suspect are up to more than they preach. Let us do our own basic calculations. I am not current with the cost of sinking a borehole with a 500-gallon overhead tank, sumo pumps and taps to access the water. But if you do know do your own calculation. The shocking result would be the same!
For my calculation, I will 'blindly' estimate N10 million naira for this including the 'jara' of a 25 KVA generator, (which can supply electricity to an entire village). At an exchange rate of 150 to a dollar, The Onanefe Bribe is worth N2, 250, 000, 000.00!!!! And that would, at the assumed cost of N10 million, give 225, 000 communities the above package. Tweak the cost of the package to N20 million and still an amazing 112, 500 communities will benefit. If we even 'inflate the contract' to N50 million which is a more appealing 45 towns in the impoverished and suffering Niger Delta will have something really good to smile about. Now how big is Delta State?
If you think my calculations are simplistic check out Federal Government’s 2007 Budget and discover that most of the water schemes got below N50 million. The Issele Uku Water Scheme and Ogwashiuku Water Scheme had N50, 136,155.00 and N8, 136,155.00 approved for them respectively. The Asaba water scheme got a Federal government contribution of N18, 136,155.00. Under the Emergency Intervention in Coastal States – Delta State got N29, 068,077.
Someone please help me with these figures. Is development that simple!! It can’t be! That is probably why with billions of naira that the states of Niger Delta have received between 1999 and 2007, the extreme underdevelopment shows no sign of respite. This should be scandalous! This should set the Niger Delta aflame against its so-called political leaders! But of course nothing dey happen! No shaking! Why…We dey come…
According to international statistics, almost 2 million children die each year, worldwide due to lack of clean water and inadequate sanitation. Visit Delta State and you will be shocked to know that it is a significant part of this statistics. But we can be sure that no matter what is proved against His Excellency Chief James Onanefe Ibori there will always be a mammoth crowd of Deltans waiting to receive him with showers of praises as the great salvation of Delta State! And there will still be many religious organisations, traditional rulers, town unions, students unions yearning to be granted the opportunity to honour him with one award. Nna man must wak!!! And God dey 'bless' person by any means or person!!!
With the commendable work of EFCC and the sticking to rules of President Yaradua, the diminishing of corruption may have begun in earnest. But the challenges of ignorance, materialism and to a lesser degree 'hunger' will always make effective impact light years away. Possibly the better thing would be for Nigeria to go down further on the part of destruction until we are we shocked out of inertia by the abyss we have dug ourselves into. Like Benjamin Franklin said, "when the well is dry we learn the worth of water." Until then Onanefe's $15 million may be scandalous but e no go shock us! Na normal!! Nothing dey happen for here…no mind the bad belle people! If na them God bless with broda wey dey like Onanefe dem go dey only drink ragolis water…
For our beloved Nigeria to overcome corruption, we the citizens must crawl out from under the hypocritical gullibility of "we poor masses" to demand and assert the rights of citizens of a modern society rather than to continue dulling our senses with owambes, portions of rice and beans, washed down with sacks of pure water…insultingly dolled out by Nigerian politicians and moneybags as philanthropic deeds!
Chiemeka Ozumba wrote from London
