FRIDAY Column by Engr. Abubakar A. Fari
mofari@hotmail.com
In Brazil as they say, they know how to catch monkeys. Now like the thunderbolt Buhari has come back and has resumed work. The monkeys in Nigeria did not like it. And they still don’t like it. Indeed, he knows how to catch them despite the scheming. Buhari for sure knows how to catch monkeys in Nigeria. The monkey is a destructive and a mischievious animal in the banana farm. The treasury in Nigeria is like banana to monkeys in the farm. They will eat to their satisfaction even to the point of vomiting like a two years old toddler that does not understand his belly don full. Thereafter he will pick ripe and unripe banana and throw them left, right and centre. He will even attempt to destroy the tree. That is the makeup of most of the Nigerian ruling elites in charge of approving expenditures. They kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. They are too impatient and crude to live only on the eggs.
Buhari has a rich background in governance and experience. More than perhaps any Nigerian, he was a member of the Supreme Council the highest decision making body in Nigeria since ’76 about 40 years back. He was a former governor, a GOC, a Minister of Petroleum Resources and a Head of State and C in C of the armed forces. The knowledge and the wisdom to grasp leakages in government spending and appreciating where, how and to what extent to catch monkeys is like a Professor of mathematics solving simultaneous equations. Same with a chartered accountant and financial guru dissecting a balance sheet that is illogical. Budget padding were two words he never came across. Monkeys in Nigeria invented the infamous abracadabra which he has vowed to deal with, head on.
There is logic in balance sheet analysis. The moment one comes with one with k legs that could not balance will fail the test. So far corrupt governors, ministers, members of the security apparatus, bankers, and judges among the many who ran as far as to the Arab Emirates to hide the portion of the padding now have made futile investments. The paradox is that the ring leaders are the ignorant anti- Sharia non-Muslims running to Muslim and Arab countries to launder their loot. The loot is made up of direct and indirect stealing from the treasury. The indirect is made from inflated contracts while the direct from money ear-marked for fictitious projects. The monkey’s catcher had an easy walk over to recover what belongs to Nigeria back to Nigeria and for Nigerians. He had signed an Agreement with the Arabs on the recovery of the looted funds and repossession of properties by the monkeys out of what belongs to Nigerians common wealth transferred into private accounts. The choice properties callously purchased in Dubai and elsewhere by unintelligent monkeys speak volumes on the kind of education they claim to have acquired.
These so-called Christians and Muslims looters were parading themselves in churches and mosques as men and women of timber and caliber. These money bags would easily have their ways in society, courts and the Judiciary. Imagine X steals US Billions of dollars and decides to pay millions in Naira for a Judge and a SAN to shortchange millions of people. In cash flow analysis for every 1.0 US dollar which is equivalent to N365.0, he pays miserable N5.0 only. He could pay N3.5 to security, judicial and lawyers and pockets N360.0. He/she could dole out N 0.5 to Ulama in the mosques and Pastors in the churches for blessings and hallelujah respectively. The balance of N1.0 he may dole out N0.5 each to the Chiefs and traditional rulers and the press boys and girls. No wonder the Daily Trust cautions the public about giving their employees brown envelops as a policy initiated by Kabiru Yusuf. For the reader to understand, for 1 US Dollar one billion, the monkey throws around N5.0 billion to hungry elements, how about that!
Is democracy not working with monkey’s catcher of looted funds? Is democracy not for the people, to the people and by the people? Will the common man not smile at democracy at work for Allah’s sake? When the oil Sheikia Diziene was k legging with the balance sheet of the NNPC and her illogical balance sheet preparation of the affairs of the oil and gas. Like a she-monkey in the banana farm, she was building assets in Dubai and elsewhere with oil and gas US Dollars proceeds, now all over in the dailies, that belong to over 150 million people and her boss with a PhD “could not understand” the shrinkages in the balance sheet analysis. The finance Minister imposed all the way from the World Bank to instill “financial discipline and prudence” saw all the chicanery with the way funds were being hypothecated into private accounts but yet the gullible Nigerians were being hoodwinked with financial jargons.
To further divert the citizens, the clueless President was busy orchestrating Boko-Haram while the real Boko-Haram, his government and the she-monkey was manipulating the banana farm in the country. The Emperor Governors are not left behind together with Senators and major grandees as the willy-nilly government functionaries of all colours running and manipulating the treasury to their satisfaction, fully reported every day in the dailies. The irony is that the restructuring czars advocate devolution of powers and more money to the coffers of monkeys in the states. They do not care the EFCC cases against governors that expose financial crimes and embezzlement. Now the monkeys catcher has a case with them for the refusal to pay salaries and pensions out of IMF refund. How do we stand helpless with the callous indifference of the governance on their duties and responsibilities? They behave as if they have sworn to loot and empty the treasury on a continuing basis.
These facts about corruption associated with unrepentant monkeys are reported in the dailies as a matter of routine and not as exceptions. This is a sickening affair. So-called leaders not ashamed or concerned with their integrity and reputation see public trust as holy water and must drink no matter the cost. To support these assertions we have few examples. The Sun of July 23,2017 in the front page says STINKING BILLIONAIRE-Complete Story of Diezani’s Associate Kola Aluko. The Nation of July 1, 2017 in front page says ARMS DEALS: EFCC SEIZES EX-CHIEF OF ARMY STAFF’S N4BN ESTATE. The Daily Trust of April 21, 2017 in front page says NIA’S N15BN APPROVED BY JONATHAN FOR 2015 CAMPAIGN-EX-DIRECTOR. The Nation of July 19, 2017 in front page says GOVERNOR FORFEITS N500M AS STATES GET N243B REFUND, $500,000 for hotel seized by a Federal High Court. It says further that from the London-Paris Club refund the same Federal High Court seized US dollars 500,000 of the US dollars 3.0 million diverted by another governor from the refund for the building of a 100-room hotel in Lagos. The Nation of July 17,2017 in front page says EFCC to seize Diezani’s, Aluko’s Dubai mansions. That US dollar oil contract probe widens.
What else can you say had the monkey’s catcher not come to the scene?
