The Tale of Four Governors

It's been a while since I've done a post on this blog. It was due to some circumstances beyond my control (permit me for using that lame excuse that media houses always use). A lot of water has gone under the bridge since the last time I posted a piece. Most notable is the unfortunate bombings that were carried out by the Boko Haram guys. May God console the families of the lost and wishing the other victims speedy recoveries.

Actually, what woke me up from my "blogging sleep" was not the bombings but the arrest of four (4) former governors by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).  The governors are Gbenga Daniel,  Adebayo Alao-Akala, Danjuma Goje, Aliyu Akwe Doma. As we all know, it's a normal thing for ex-governors to be rightly "harassed" by the EFCC especially when their successors are from an opposing party but the money involved in the case of these four men is really appalling, upsetting and inexcusable! These men were arrested for "misusing" $674 million (that's over 100 billion naira)! They all have different degrees of misappropriation of money but I'll evenly divide the 100 billion naira amongst the four of them. That gives us 25 billion naira per governor. Let's assume that these 25 billion naira was stolen (tired of referring to it as 'misuse') in just a term in office. It then implies that each of them stole 17 million naira every day while in office!

The four Musketeers

In their last report on how far the world is in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, the UN reported that 64.7% of Nigerians  live under $1 dollar per day. That means 97 million Nigerians can't afford  150 naira  for eating, transportation etc per day and just 4 Nigerians by virtue of being public servants had the audacity and effrontery to embezzle 17 million naira every faithful day of service! What a service to the people!!! Do these people know what 17 million naira would do to the lives of the citizens of their states in a day??? Imagine the number of public secondary schools that would have  desks and chairs if these governors decided to be sane for just a day! Imagine the number of beds 17 million naira would have provided for their hospitals! Do you know what? With this amount of embezzled money, they had the ability to give scholarships of 100,000 naira to 170 tertiary education students every day of their administration!

A Public Secondary School

It's a pity Nigerians hear and see all these ungodly levels of corruption and still praise, salute and blow the horns of the perpetuators of the evil act. It's no news that Danjuma Goje has over 30 honorary degrees and awards from Nigerian Universities and also 20 chieftaincy titles! This is wrong!!! Many Nigerians celebrate these men and it gives upcoming public servants the urge to follow in their evil and shameful footsteps because every man wants to be celebrated! It's a fact that hypocrisy and sycophancy are good catalyst that boost misuse of power. These guys are voted in to serve and I see no use dancing and forming parades  when one of then builds a road or provides pipe-borne water because that's his job! He's to SERVE!!!

At this juncture, I would like to state that the cases of these governors are still in court and it's also likely that they embezzled more but the EFCC couldn't track the other sums. So as our public servants continue buying vehicle foot mats for 150, 000 (Bank Ole) and renovating houses for over half a billion naira (our dearest Patricia), let's do our own part by stoning them with bags of pure water whenever they are driving past (it was my friend that suggested that ooo).

Weapons of Warfare

 But Seriously … OUR PUBLIC SERVANTS SHOULD TAKE IT EASY ON OUR MONEY VAULTS!