Breaking the one trillion naira corruption barrier -- Maiwada Dammallam

BY MAIWADA DAMMALLAN, NOVEMBER 07, 2024 | 05:53 AM

This is another milestone (reversely) in the history of Nigeria. For the first time a former governor is being accused of breaking the One Trillion Naira corruption barrier. Former Governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, is in the EFCC net for allegedly stealing N1.3trn from the coffers of Delta State between 2015 and 2023.

To me, this would have passed as a normal event in the Niger Delta region but it came just few days after my good friend, Greg Abolo, described northerners as “Occupiers who talk down on Niger Deltans with their entitlement syndrome.” He did this to deflect and shift blame away from the thieving leaders of the Niger Delta region while playing victim using the usual Nigerian escapist method of scapegoating and blaming just about everybody except the real culprits in matters of corruption.

Greg Abolo didn’t stop there. He went ballistic saying:

“You see, you folks (northerners) always appoint your stooges with specific instructions to do your silent biddings, then turn around to say that we appointed them.

“I say who did? It's very painful. We've never been in charge of what nature endowed us with. It is strange leaders from other regions (apparently northerners) that have always run the show. And you know it.” End of quote.

The irony of this escapism is the absolute disregard to the fact that the discovery of oil and natural gas is generally believed to have led to the sustained increase in the incidence of corrupt practices in the country. If this is anything to go by, then Niger Deltans are more suitable candidates for the trophy of corruption than the northerners Greg Abolo love to blame for the woes of the Niger Delta.

With the detention of former governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, for the alleged diversion of a dizzying N1,300,000,000,000.00 (Naira One Trillion, Three Hundred Billion) of the 13% derivation fund from the Federation Account between 2015 and 2023, let me say I’m vindicated. I’m sure nobody will dare accuse northerners of loading former governor Okowa over Delta State. Like Ibori before him, who rules Niger Delta in full or in part is strictly a Niger Deltan affair and it will remain so for as long as the prevailing terms and conditions.

Back in 2012 when the 13% derivation policy was a raging topic and romance with former President Jonathan was a political investment, I wrote a two-part article titled “YUGUDA ON REVENUE SHARING - NATIONALISM OR POLITICAL OPPORTUNISM,” an opinion provoked by hot exchanges between former Governors Isa Iguda of Bauchi and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano respectively. While Iguda was making a case for Niger Delta in support of the then raging 13% derivation debate, Kwankwaso on the other hand was challenging the over pampering of the Niger Delta on the basis of the overemphasized degradation of the region which was deliberately left unattended by leaders of the region while always running to the center shedding crocodile tears to attract attention for the region.

I reasoned with Kwankwaso and opined (excerpt) thus:

“No reason on earth can justify holding the whole nation to ransom due to the financial brigandage and fiscal rascality of the Niger Delta leaders. Is it not clear by simple review of events in the Niger Delta region in the last decade alone that, even with 50% or even 100% allocation of federal revenues the subsisting crop of leadership cannot lift the region out of its perpetual state of socio-economic impotence? We all know the billions of dollars that have gone to the Niger Delta in the name of rehabilitation, amnesty program and sundry interventions yet, there is still nothing to show for it but for a few super rich governors playing God with looted wealth. Yet nobody blames them for the misfortune of the region. Instead opportunists like Yuguda have embarked on an endless game of chasing shadows. It had to take a London crown court to commit the former Delta state governor James Ibori to prison, after being acquitted by Nigerian courts for financial crimes against Delta state. Funny enough, after failing woefully to force Ibori to account for his crimes, the federal and Delta state governments are now shamelessly engaged in a war of claims on the Ibori loot. Tomorrow, these same enemies will join forces to fight for more derivation fund to enable them steal more and keep the region in bondage while shortchanging and scapegoating the rest of the country for the underdevelopment of the Niger Delta.”

All said, I don’t know if Greg Abolo will have the kindness to apologize to northerners whom he love to accuse for the proxy-underdevelopment of the Niger Delta while absolving the real culprits because they are his own. Of course, unless if by some bizarre work of nature former governor Ifeanyi Okowa is now “Malam Ifeanyi Okowa,” I truly believe northerners deserve an apology from my good friend, Greg Abolo.

By the way, in case it’s not clear from afar, northerners are as much victims of the sustained administrative acrobatics denying Nigeria benefits of its potentials as other victims living under the spell of regional warlords. Northerners have been battling their own local demons; trying to survive the prolonged crisis of kleptocracy while enduring and managing the abnormality of a combination of scandalous wealth among the ruling class with an ever growing poverty, misery and degradation among the mass of northerners.

Saving the worse for the last. Former Governor Ifeanyi Okowa was the running mate of the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in the 2023 presidential elections. In case you are wondering if his one trillion+ corruption case would have seen the light of the day if he’s the vice president today, well, your guess is as good as mine.