And Four Other Things...
Heavenly Father, 36 states and FCT have just shared over N243 billion from the Paris Club refunds. Merciful Father, when the first tranche was refunded, the agreement was that 75% would be used to offset arrears of salaries owed to labourers who, you said, deserve their wages. We later found out that while Nigerian workers and pensioners were perishing, some governors were spending the money building hotels and buying up mansions home and abroad. Loving Father, please touch the hearts of these wicked leaders to clear the backlog of salaries before they start building hotels again. Dear Lord, blind their eyes to the private jets, the yachts and those tiny girls. Amen.
Nothing ever changes in Nigeria. In 1990, FIFA suspended Nigeria from all age-group competitions for just one reason: they wrote to the NFA asking for explanations on the discrepancies in the dates of birth of Samson Siasia, Andrew Uwe and Dahiru Sadi, and we failed to reply until it was too late. Here we go again. In 2013, the Egmont Group, a global body central to the antigraft war, asked Nigeria to make its financial intelligence unit autonomous but we ignored them. Now we’ve been suspended. If we don’t do the right thing by January 2018, we will be expelled altogether, and this will affect not just the anti-graft war but millions of Nigerians doing business abroad. Sigh.
Did I just read that the federal government has filed a suit seeking the remittance of $793m, “hidden” by seven Nigerian commercial banks, to the treasury single account (TSA)? Although most of the accused banks and agencies have denied hiding any money, my real puzzle is why the federal government will engage the services of a lawyer and incur legal costs on a matter that is purely administrative. Is it not as simple as writing a memo to the defaulting government agencies to remit the money and getting the CBN to discipline the banks? Why engage lawyers on such a straightforward matter? Is it just another job for the boys? Change!
Lagos state held polls yesterday into 20 councils and 37 LCDAs. If you are like me, you would have concluded years ago that APC would sweep the poll. Why? Exhibit One: In Ebonyi, PDP won all the 13 chairmanship seats and 171 councillorship seats last April. Exhibit Two: in July, APC won all the 27 chairmanships and 287 councillorships in Jigawa. Sitting governors simply put their guys there. That is the way state “independent” electoral commissions roll. And on the issues of restructuring, can we cancel council polls and just ask governors to appoint the chairpersons and councillors? Why waste billions when we already know the results before election? Farce.