NIGERIA: TEN YEARS OF MUSICAL CHAIRS

Olu Maintain (red) singing Yahoozee with General Colin Powell (Ret.) at the Royal Albert Hall in 2008

The Federal Government celebrated 10 years of Democracy in Nigeria on May 29 yet the country suffers from epileptic power supply and lack of pipe-bourne water. Political activists including Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, President of West African Bar Association Femi Falana, Former EFCC Boss Nuhu Ribadu, Dr Okey Ndibe, Professor Sola Adeyeye, Kayode Ogundamisi, Affiong L. Affiong and Sowore Omoyele were at a symposium titled State of the Nigerian Nation. The venue of the event was the London Metropolitan University but pro-democracy activists had nothing to celebrate.
Apart from the privatization of telecommunications under the Obasanjo administration, some court judgements and injunctions Nigeria has not achieved much in the last decade but the embezzlement of public funds by politicians and government officials. The democratic process was more or less ten years of musical chairs and electoral fraud.
The richest man in the world, Bill Gates had to travel to Nigeria to 'sort out' the polio disease of Nigerian children yet 28 Nigerians bought private jets in 2008/2009 according to Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. Nigeria is not a poor West African country but most Nigerians are poor. Former United States Secretary of State, retired General Colin Powell said at the Tell Magazine Conference on 10 years of Democracy in Nigeria that,“Elected leaders are servants in a democracy but not bosses. American democracy is driven by performance.” Well, former Nigerian leaders were not driven by performance but by arrogance, ignorance and selfishness.
Powell narrated how a Nigerian said he would prefer Politicians to spend embezzled money in Nigeria rather than store it in Swiss banks. How many Nigerian politicians have Swiss accounts? I don’t know but several years ago, the prodigal son of a late second republic politician from the South-West tried to decode his father’s Swiss bank account number but failed woefully. His father died without revealing the secret bank code. Switzerland recently planned to end secret bank accounts after a lot of pressure from the international community and 300 years of a secretive banking policy. If you are one of such embezzlers don’t forget charities in your will so that God may forgive you, Amen? According to Newspage Weekly, “ …in the last ten years, the total sum of N2 trillion has been stolen by various government officials”. Below is Newspage Weekly's corruption scandal list.

SOME NOTABLE CORRUPTION SCANDALS WITHIN THE LAST 10 YEARS
[/align]1. Defence Ministry scam by Julius Makunjuola & others – N421m
2. Sagem/National ID card scam – $214m
3. Halliburton bribe to officials of FIRS – $2.4m ($5m tax evasion)
4. Halliburton, KBR bribe to past heads of govt & officials- $180m
5. COJA scam – N38 billion
6. COJA/JVC – $21 million
7. COJA/Ace commuters – $51 million
8. COJA/Stella Obasanjo – N6 billion
9. Joshua Dariye – $50 million (N36 billion)
10. Diepriye Alamiesegha – $260 million
11. Wilbros bribe to PDP, NNPC officials – $6 million
12. Orji Kalu – N5.3 billion
13. Saminu Turaki – N36 billion
14. Patricia Etteh and Co. – N628 million
15. Iyabo Obasanjo et al – N300 million
16. Barishade and Fani Kayode (Aviation Intervention funds) – N18.5 billion
17. Senator Ugbane, Rep Elumelu and Co. – N5.2 billion
18. UBEC officials and a foreigner – N787 million
19. GMD transcorp and others (NITEL) – (N15 billion)
20. Officials of nigeria electricity regulatory commission – N1.5bn
21. Chief Kenny Martina (PEF) – $98.5m, $97.8
22. COS Rivers State – N4.670bn
23. NEPZA Insurance scam – N160 million
24. Vaswanis Import duty scam – N3 billion
25. Widespread looting of Nigeria Airways – $400m
26. Seizures from 419 Kingpins, money laundering, bunkering – $5bn
27. Ekiti election re-run bribery scandal – N250 million
28. Attempted bribery to Nuhu Ribadu by an ex Gov – $15 m

The Lashing of a Spin Doctor

[/align]Commentators were extremely angry with Prince Dotun Oyelade last week when he tried to 'paint' a nice picture of Oyo State as the Special Adviser to Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala on Public Communication. Hell was let loose as Bola Amole called BEN TV and told Oyelade, “I have never known you to be a liar”. According to Oyelade, “She has decided to pitch her own camp against the Governor”. Amole said that they both worked under former Governor Lam Adesina and she had a lot of respect for Oyelade in those days.
Oyelade was probably too ‘gentle’ to be sent on image laundering trips. Well, there is nothing as bad as cheap propaganda like Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey’s song: Ohun Ti Koda Koda. There are some members of Governor Alao-Akala’s cabinet that would never fly to London to ‘spin’ Oyo State because they have their integrity and political future to protect.
Oyelade said Ibadan has changed since Akala’s tenure which was ‘spin’. He could not mention all the good things Akala did in Oyo State apart from street lights and allowed commentators to lash him with their sharp tongues. As a former broadcaster he could not show viewers the clips of such changes. Spin doctoring is a serious business with effective sound bites. It may take a British Professor three hours to prepare for a university lecture so you can imagine how long it takes a spin doctor to get the attention and support of audiences. The art of persuasion is not garnered in one day.
Nevertheless, 'Uncle’ Oyelade may need to get closer to renowned spin doctors like UK’s foremost spinmeister Alastair Campbell and learn a few tricks of the game. Campbell was the former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair’s director of communications and strategy. He resigned in 2003 when the game was up or when the ovation was loudest.
Update:
Three commissioners sacked in Oyo
Gordon Brown hires new spin doctor