In Nigeria, it is common to see politicians reduce politics to a means of production. Access to power is the easy means to wealth and aggressive primitive accumulation of the common wealth. Such aggressive and primitive accumulative behavior is in the form of siphoning resources. This most times occurs as the outright theft of raw cash from state vaults, the private diversion of monies meant to carry out far reaching social infrastructure development across the country and the use of State machinery to appropriate scarce or limited resources for private use.
The aggressiveness and recklessness with which such looting of the national treasures is carried out has been the bane politics. While this goes on, our social infrastructure and economic standards of living plummet to very deplorable levels. With rising misery and poverty the state of insecurity is exacerbated. This state of affairs appears of little concern to politicians who have reduced Nigeria to a conquered territory whose national wealth must be looted and scavenged at will and without ceasing.
It is now part of our national life to see persons out of public office outrageously living above the emoluments that are accruable to the offices which they held. Sometimes, such individuals maintain outrageous lifestyles and are in apparent competition to outdo serving State chief executives, perhaps to maintain their megalomania and hoodwink their unsuspecting poverty ridden followers with a false sense of power. In a sane society however, a person who is living above his legitimate income has a duty to explain to law enforcement authorities of how he came about his wealth.
This cankerworm is daily of unquestioned sudden wealth by serving and non-serving public office holders is robbing Nigeria of the much needed progress and deepening the debt burden of which all will pay equally. Funny and interesting Nigerians obviously the victims of this carnage are always up in praise and defense of their oppressors. “He is our Oga”, “he is my brother”, he is my fellow Christian or Muslim, a member of our club, uncle etc. This is the Stockholm syndrome that the aggressive looting and pillaging of Nigeria has wrought on unsuspecting Nigerians who are victims that have now taken it upon themselves to
defend their oppressors. Studies have shown that victims suffering from the Stockholm syndrome usually have positive feelings towards their abusers and victims may likely help their oppressors to commit further crimes. This is clearly the case of the aggressive looting Nigerian
politician and the ordinary citizen who aggressively defends his looting of the national treasury and further unwittingly promotes lack of
accountability in public service.
Worse is that a successive generation of politicians that have outcompeted themselves in crimes against humanity are always and often putting on very sanctimonious outlook. They are always the first to advise the government on national issues including anti-corruption issues. They put up a fake pro- people countenance which makes their victims suffer from the Stockholm syndrome without knowing.
This appears to be the case with latest visitor to the EFCC. The Ebonyi godfather claimed to have submitted himself to the anti- graft agency in a routine checkup of accountability and to preserve his sanctimoniousness according to him. He said he was not “invited” rather he went on his own accord to clarify the involvement of his name in an
ongoing money laundering investigation. Now, one begins to wonder whether anti-graft agencies advertised their ongoing investigation into the said money laundering case inviting every person whose name was mentioned to come forward and clear his or her name. Why did the Ebonyi godfather go to clear his name (without invitation from the anti –graft agency) on a Sunday of other working days in a week? His sanctimoniousnarrative is leaking profusely. In any case, it was surprising how the music was changing to a war song after been admitted in the anti- graft facilities for two nights for proper diagnosis.
Though the Ebonyi born godfather is out, but obviously startled with reinstatement of his earlier experience with the agency. He is a very good example of an average Nigerian politician that has elevated debauchery and hypocrisy to an art. Soon blames will be visited on his imagined political enemies and his lieutenants suffering from the
Stockholm syndrome will soon be up in arms in defense of this notorious Nigerian as our own. In their quest to sell hypocrisy and cover up abominable acts such as the malicious destruction of planted Yams belonging to poor peasant farmers (a taboo in Igboland), desperate perverts will dub the writer mad. As if it goes to any issue? What did he do self? It is not farfetched. He was linked to missing monies from the common wealth, my money and yours meant for our common good. It is such huge, mind burgling, unaccounted and primitively accumulated wealth
at individual disposal that converts, coverts, expropriates and forcefully takes over peasant farmers lands without hindrance from traditional and state institutions. It is such unaccounted and
primitively accumulated wealth that intimidates and forces state institutions, including the Police to do the bidding of the godfather and further entrenching corruption and violating human rights. In all these, the godfather maintains saintly posturing and acts in role model disposition, while his lieutenants or victims are given further doses of false narratives to keep them sedated with the Stockholm syndrome lest they wake up one day and realize that are being shortchanged.
We welcome home the Ebonyi godfather who has tasted a bit of his own meal. A meal he has consistently served through the Police to those peaceful land owners who refused to give up their lands for his megalomaniac “mega city” or correctly land grab adventure. May be he has now realized that those Policemen he usually sponsors all the way from Abuja to Ebonyi to arrest and harass the resilient land owners cannot transfer title to him or any of his cronies. In any case, it is
advisable for him to cooperate timely enough and disgorge whatever commonwealth he has swallowed to avoid similar rounds of intermittent
admissions in a possible future date. His sanctimonious and hypocritical narrative that he is singled out for harassment by the anti-graft agency because of his tribe or arm chair stance on national issues remains just another dose of false narrative. However, not all of us can be fooled. I doubt if this is how to be a saint.
Comrade Ogbonna Paul Arochukwu writes from Port Harcourt