By Dr. Christopher Odetunde
“Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning.” – Psalm 73: 12-14.
Let me express from the beginning that this article is not meant to be a religious thesis because I have neither been called to preach the gospel nor do I pretend to know what God thinks. For those who always think that a Ph.D. means that when explaining simple sociological, destabilizing political acts and/or commonsensical issues, one has to overwhelm readers with mammoth statistics and convoluted verbiage, I hate to be a disappointment. The internet is not where one who is comfortable and sure of self expresses academic treaties and allured prowess.
Now then, let us look at the recent Man of the Year New York Times award given to President Putin, of all people. Why does Putin deserve this award? Because he has the interest of his people, he and only his country are defining what democracy means to them. What Putin did was no paragon of free speech nor does he represent the Western form of democratic deals, yet, he has won the award, and why? Time's Managing Editor Richard Stengel explained that the award, which was not considered so much an honor, but rather a recognition of the most powerful forces shaping the world, was awarded to Putin because he helped to reshape his country that had "fallen off the world’s mental map.”
When OBJ took over as Nigeria’s president, the nation was in shamble. Nigeria was known on the world’s stage as a nation occupied by corrupt and heartless people. OBJ, to his credit, tried to reshape and change world’s view of Nigeria initially. Unfortunately, we now know that he (OBJ) attempted to shape Nigeria in his own image. His third term is a clear example. The Times award could have fitted OBJ after eight years in office of running the most difficult nation in the world, but OBJ spent his political capital fighting his deputy, shadow boxing the corruption boogiemen, helping himself with the nation’s treasury, micromanaging our oil industry and talking down to us. Who is deceiving whom and how are the mighty falling …?
“Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?” a – Job 21:7. This same vexing question is as valid today as it was in the days of the Bible. In Psalm 73, Asaph confessed: “I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” Prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah 12:1 also complained: “Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper?” Examples of prosperous wicked people are abounding in our present world. Any list of the super-rich and super-powerful today would include very few who are genuine believers in the Lord Jesus Christ or Prophet Mohamed who are walking humbly and righteously before their almighty.
God promised to supply all our need if we are faithful to him – Philippians 4:19; Matthew 6:33, and we need to weigh all our standards of prosperity on the scales of eternity. The fact is that many wicked leaders think that the earth is the beginning and the end. “I have seen the wicked in great power, spreading himself like a green bay tree. Psalm 37: 35 – 37 says, “let he (the wicked) passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found. Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.” Psalm 73: 12 – 14 says, “Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning.”
One then asks why is it that most Nigerian leaders are incapable of taking responsibilities for bad things that happen on their watch. I will give some very recent examples.
- Chief Obasanjo was the president of Nigeria for eight years. He claimed to be a born again Christian. A revelation that scares the heck out of me because I -believe its one’s action that should determine born-again Christianhood not a mere mention of it.
During OBJ’s tenure he told the nation he had worked hard to improve the nation’s electricity output and distribution. It has also been discovered that several billions of Naira were invested in the energy sector. Today we are finding out that Dr. Iyabo Bello-Obasanjo, OBJ’s daughter and the representative senator of the Ogun senatorial district, was involved in the controversy surrounding N3.5billion contracts in the power sector when her father was the president. She was said to have been using Doing Business As (DBA), Mrs. Damilola Akinlawon. Instead of accepting responsibility and the conflict of interest exhibited she decided to become a lawyer and insisted that Nigeria’s laws and constitution do not prevent any citizen from changing names. So where is the outrage from Yorubas, Igbos, Hausas or for that matter from patriotic Nigerians?
- Almasegha blamed everyone but himself for bankrupting the Bayelsa State. At no time did he ever accept responsibility for his wrong doings. Yet when he got back to his State, the very people he robbed blind welcomed him with open arms as a hero. I shake my head at this idea;
- Even our police head prefect was not spared of dancing in the nude and betraying our collective sensibilities. When Tafa Balogun was found to have massively stolen from his departments, royal fathers from his area who had collected automobile gifts had the temerity to appeal for leniency instead of asking Tafa Balogun to remember the child of who he is. There is really no honor among thieves;
- Chief James Ibori, the poster boy of corruption, is in jail, but his people from whom he stole are asking Nigerians to show that Ibori stole from them and are protesting in nudity of ugliness and shame. This is equivalent to OBJ telling Nigerians that the complaints about IBB corruption were beer parlor and pepper soup joint gossips and now we know why. It is the wash my hand, I’ll wash yours leadership; and finally
- Professor Iwu who has gone all around the world to repair his dented image still cannot exonerate himself from the election stench no matter what type of detergent he uses. Nigeria believed that he and his boss, then Chief OBJ, had contract with Nigerians to conduct not a perfect election, but an election that was to be deemed by the world and especially by Nigerians as free and fair, but they chose to do the opposite. Even Iwu was going around the world pontificating on the flawed election, he forgot that the Electoral Act gave INEC an obligatory responsibility by expressly empowering INEC and its officers the power to nullify any result that was transmitted from any State Resident Electoral Commissioner after it has gone through internal due diligence and determine probable irregularity. Professor Iwu and INEC did not employ this power but are currently blaming third parties for complicity in the illegalities and violence perpetrated on Nigeria’s elections. Professor Iwu must singly take responsibility for the failure to act on a timely basis to safeguard Nigeria from the embarrassing election and presenting the nation with conscionable election results which depicted a do-or-die, stay in office at all cost politics. In sane society, the likes of Professor Iwu would bear the full responsibility and instead of him running around the world making a mockery of our nation, he ought to have resigned in honor. In Japan and China political environment, those given responsibilities and disappoint the nation state commit suicide to evade the shame that their country would face by their action. That is not to say I wish Professor Iwu to do the same. This is just a metaphor for honorable exit.
Those that made their money legitimately, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and Oprah Wimpey to mention a few, give back to the world in order to make the world a better place. Only our leaders think that when they die their stolen riches will be taken with them to hell or where ever likes of them go.
We cannot continue to measure a man’s success using a single metric assessment of money in the bank. We must ask where the money is coming from and how many citizens’ blood went into getting the money. Mothers and neighbors should chastise these thieves about where they got the money as it was in the past. Even though we are blessed to have Diaspora Nigerians that have seen democracy in action, many of these Nigerians are suffering from the Nigerian syndrome of encouraging leaders not to accept responsibilities. These were the same Nigerians falling over themselves to clean up some of these leaders’ unsavory in and out of office and recently rushing to take pictures with the Iwu of this world.
Let us as Nigerians cultivate a habit of good governance through telling the truth and encouraging leaders amongst us to stand up and run. Politics that are predicated upon theory is deemed to fail but politics that are pragmatic will carry citizens along as long as the pragmatism is not based on immediate gratification. Those that think one should not urge President Yar ‘Adua to do well while the election tribunal is still working on solutions, are wrong, inexperienced and are simply noise makers for the sake of being heard. I stand corrected.
A friend once asked me what I would do if any administration asks me to come and join to give my services for the nation. I simply answered that I would tell the person offering the opportunity to me that he should explain to me what my responsibilities would be and what he would expect from me. If the reason is to stop me from being a benevolent social commentator and join in stealing from the people, I will politely thank him but decline, but if he wants me to give him honest advice, I will even throw in a declaration of my assets which amounts to nothing, but I am proud of it because I earned the right to be poor in an honest setting and still leaving a good legacy for Nigerians.
Finally, with no malice towards none and love for our nation, I express my sincere Christmas felicitation and New Year well wishes to fellow Nigerians. Let us not continue to embrace two sides of an issue with the hope that head or tail we’ll win. We must take a stand not based on tribalism and nepotism but on real conviction to see Nigeria develop. Let the real education, democratic reengineering and political awareness begin in earnest in 2008.
Dr. Christopher Odetunde wrote from Houston, Texas, USA.
