by Nwokedi Nworisara
I have read a few of foreign media commentary on Nigeria concerning the
Boko Haram kidnap of over 200 girls from the North Eastern town of Chibok
near Maiduguri North Eastern Nigeria recently. As I could recollect,many
of these Media organs gave the impression that the Nigerian government
under President Goodluck Jonathan was slow in response to the kidnapping
majorly because the government was perceived as corrupt. In a nut shell
the above is what I took away from these media coverage even though their
effort helped galvanize the on- going international assistance to the
Nigerian government on the impasse. I am writing to throw some light on
two key issues that strike me so far. First is corruption. The other issue
is the perceived weakness of government response to these terrorist
attacks. Weighed on these two points ,my own perception of things from
here In Nigeria is that The foreign media even though motivated by genuine
concern for the preservation of innocent Nigerian lives came out too hash
in their judgement of the Nigerian government and in so doing may have
unwittingly emboldened the terrorists seeking headlines to perpetuate
their dastardly crime.
It is therefore important to reexamine the assumptions behind the
employment if the word corruption especially in the third world. Is it
fair to assert that corruption is responsible for the weakness of the
Nigerian response?
Corruption may be defined as the misapplication of a system or ways of
doing things so that it ends up often achieving the opposite of its stated
or original goal. It is not restricted to financial misappropriation of
those in public or private offices. It goes beyond the tangible monetary
valuation. In order words,corruption cannot exist in a vacuum. It must be
qualified by a system which is being corrupted. In order words the system
has to be able to have basic expectations contained in laws that is not
met by actions of the corrupt and also a measurement of just how much of
this deviation from the normal can be claimed. This I suppose is how
things are in Developed nations. So each polity has its level of
expectations and the international community can of course judge from the
commitments of the country.
For a Long while this has not been so with Nigeria. Nigeria is just
emerging from decades of military and pseudo Military rule. President
Goodluck Jonathan aside from late President Yar A’dua,happens to be the
first true civilian President who was not a retired Military personnel.
His attempts at Transformation of all sectors to bring back Nigeria to the
pathway of sanity in line with international standards will likely pitch
him against those who made what you call “corruption ” a way to keep the
lopsided governance you hailed as Amazing democracy in Africa going
through the prolonged transition from coercive rule.
Ironically Nigerians have been complaining for decades about systemic
corruption which the Military cabal institutionalized in their so called
experiments with “Diarchy ” and it is the West that gave these regimes
support to institutionalize the impunity ,did I hear you say ” No Go
Areas” which you now appear to complain about. It was ironically the
same media organs that once sang praises of the Nigerian military when
they performed peace keeping duties and when its officers monopolized
Nigerian oil wells without accounting for anything. We do not have such
short memories here.
This author has been shouting himself hoarse for years about the way
things have gone on in Nigeria and these media organs never saw a reason
to question “corruption” the way they are doing just now . Okay,maybe
there were not yet a movement as the win win #Bringbackourgirls to kick
start such focus? Well thanks Goodness they wake up today to “alert “the
world that a Nigerian President who is perhaps the only one of its
predecessors trying to put forth transformative reforms under globally
acclaimed stringent conditions was the corrupt and therefore weak. It is
okay. But is it fair?
Let us get it right here. The Nigerian political system has been lopsided
by the withdrawal of parts of the 1960 constitution that made Nigeria
accepted by the international community at independence. The constitution
has never been repaired by pseudo Military governments constituted by
retired Military Generals who conscripted 80 percent of Nigeria’s oil
wells. Today Nigeria is the only Federation with unitary configuration.
You liked it perhaps because we now run a Presidential system with
conflicting parliamentary background of the old civil service thereby
making complementarity difficult indeed. Did you ever give us an advice
on it? Again perhaps it was self interest because there was no problem
with oil imports!
Today the President wants to do a far reaching petroleum industry reform
that may correct income disparity starting with oil blocks ownership by
2016. Now this is a reason to question his style I suppose!
I am happy that the world is beginning to understand beyond media such
campaigns. This is not the time to be negative but a time to build.What
the international community should do is to work closely with President
Jonathan to ensure Nigeria returns to a constitution that guarantees
international legal environment that constitutes the basis for measurement
of corruption and even weakness of governance. For now there is no such
system to make your judgement fair enough. Even if you put your head in
the sand like the Ostrich the World cannot evade responsibility for
allowing the Nigerian dilemma to last so long as to produce Boko Haram.
This is no longer a time to unfocused the world on negatives. I welcome
the growing partnership of all permanently reposition Nigeria to play her
vital peace keeping role within the sub Region and beyond.