NigerianNews

Editorial Opinion

NigerianNews

NigerianNews
Editorial

The Moral Equivalence Please?

The Moral Equivalence Please?
NigerianNews Editorial

We are about to commence a new conflagration to deflagration phenomenon again in Abuja, a city where people fail to learn any lesson, and where only few of the highly placed residents take the business of governance seriously. We only hope the conflagration deflagrates without sweeping this republic away with it as we get nearer the change of baton date of May 29, 2007. People indeed are here for whatever commerce they can arrange for themselves and can get away with. The law matters not, and so reference and deference to it can only apply to defenseless Nigerians.

The Vice President through an Administrative investigation which he willingly submitted, to was found fraudulent. This is a very serious charge that requires serious treatment. In most countries where the rule of law matter, though it may be possible that this was a trumped up administrative panel, there is a discipline of addressing the issue raised by the panel, however, not in Nigeria! Lai Muhammed without even reading the content advised the National Assembly to throw it into a waste paper basket.

Atiku Abubakar, who should be eager to clear his own name for posterity sake immediately activated his 127 impeachable offence squad. One would expect that the most paramount thing in the Vice President's mind would be to consider this an opportunity to clear himself. Does he not know that some of his followers also think he is a corrupt individual? Does he not know that the mutual hatred for this President is the saving grace for whatever friends he currently has? What happens in this game of assymetric moral equivalence if the President is found guilty of "Not spending appropriated money, alias 127 impeachable offences" and he is impeached? Does that help this Vice President remove the permanent scar a fraudulent allegation will leave him? Where is the moral equivalence in the 127 plus impeachable offenses attributed to the President and the accusation of being a fraud leveled at the Vice President? Unless there is a fraud in one of those 127 plus offenses which clearly shows public money is embezzled, it seems to us here at the NigerianNews that there is no moral equivalence in the two. While the Administrative Inquiry findings are very serious, for all we know, the 127 impeachable offence squad only flexes this weapon when the President crosses its path. For all we know there is no embezzlement in this except "constitutional infringement" otherwise, these people ought also now be indicted for shielding a fraudulent President. On the other hand, you may dislike this president, he does not worry about a bluff, because he knows the conflagration that will come out of this brewing problem before deflagration can have a lot of unintended consequences.

Let us examine the stupidity of the judges on both sides. When does it become an offence to donate a library at ABTI University or Bell University (once you condone and get over the hurdle of sitting officials getting involved in things of this nature)? Most institutions in the world are dotted with contributions by wealthy citizens. Our answer here, it is not a crime. However, the question we must ask is, what is the quid pro quo? Right now, we can answer for Obasanjo by saying NONE. Why? Well Adenuga is building a N1billion library at Obasanjo´s University, however, the same Obasanjo has run Adenuga out of town for alleged shady deals. We also have heard that Adenuga gave him N150million, unless there is something else we do not know about this that is yet to come out, we say ditto for that one too for this guy skipped town and decided not to confront his accusers. Did we not also know that Fasawe was also a friend of Obasanjo? All we can conclude from all these about this President is that he does not allow friendship to cloud his vision when fraud is involved. We heard from a dear friend who thinks that it is immoral for someone to give you money as a friend when you are in trouble and then for that person to come out to humiliate and accuse you of stealing, to our friend who knows himself, we say, we beg to differ. This is a President with more virtues as far as it affects the public fund than vices. He has just simply demonstrated he cannot be bought with money or buildings. This is the only conclusion a fair minded person can make at this point in time.

Incidentally, the people mentioned above are substantially the reasons for Atiku's problem(s). If we were Atiku, we would let the whole of Nigeria know that our friendship with them carries no quid pro quo. But Mr. Vice President, you do not do this by sending your 127 impeachable offence squad out and expect reasonable and descent people to forget about your alleged crime. Look at it this way Mr. Vice President, suppose you get the President impeached (and by preponderance of numbers, we believe this could happen), granted, you will be the constitutional beneficiary if the other brewing plot fails (Nigerians do not cease to amaze us, the president of the senate's friends also see an opportunity for him to ascend to the presidency!), but do you know people have said for years now from beer palours to sober assemblies, that you are an epitome of a corrupt Vice President? Is this not an opportunity to clear your name without the help of your 127 impeachable offence squad? Your name sir, is more important than the trophy of being the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Remember most of your friends today are simply your friends because they do not like the president for their own personal reasons.

Who will put the Nadabo of this world on a leash thereby freeing this Vice President? Does he not know that when you see a crime committed, you ought to report it and not make it a compendium of the "journals" of 127 impeachable offence squad? Before it got to 127 impeachable offences, what did you do to stop one of it? Do you know that impeachment in a presidential system is a political decision you take when it is save to do so? Do you know how many such impeachable offences have been attributable to President Bush as a result of 911? Do you know that recently, ordinary people like you sir went to the Supreme Court in the United States to stop Bush from violating the United States Constitution by trying to hold unheard of trials for some people captured after 911? The people who went to the Supreme Court realized that the atmosphere is not conducive for flaunting impeachment every time the president made a mistake, so they went to court. This strengthens the courts by not making them bystanders, for the constitution expects the vigorous participation of all the three branches of Government.

Mr. Nadabo, where were you sir while Obasanjo was parceling out Bakassi people to the Cameroons? Did you know then that the National Assembly could stop Obasanjo without a threat of impeachment? Did you read our article about Bakassi? If you did not, please click here. We bet, in your grandstanding, your only problem is the problem you can cause Obasanjo, your enemy. Bakassi is gone forever, but while you could still do something, you pretended and looked the other way. We believe your compilation has now reached 128 with the Bakassi issue? We asked this so that we can adjust the name of your squad to 128 impeachable offence squad.

Please tell us if one of those 128 impeachable offences also includes embezzlement by Obasanjo, if it does both you and Obasanjo should be led to Kirikiri to serve some time there. If you know of any crime and you fail to report it, but merely compile it as a political weapon, you are guilty of aiding and abetting a crime and should serve time for it in addition to the person you are shielding. If however, the offences are those of not "spending" money appropriated but that money however is still intact, decent people will just laugh at the foolishness of your actions. You can be sure those who like the belated effort of Obasanjo will make sure the extension of the ensuing conflagration will last a little longer before deflagration. Even then, you may actually help in destroying this country through thoughtless actions.

Some people would also make Nuhu Ribadu the fall guy to which we say, Nuhu, ignore them. As we mentioned before, posterity will make you an angel if you keep your eyes on the price. Our dear colleague in his NigerianNews Special today said LET HE WHO IS WITHOUT GUILT CAST THE FIRST STONE. We believe this entreaty should be directed to Obasanjo, not you. We are all sinners, but in Caesars courtyard, mortals must render judgments not angels, as no angel resides in the courtyard.

We also do not buy the prevailing tongue lashing of this young man that only enemies of the president is being hassled. Isn't it said in all Nigerian languages that it is the finger that commits crime the King cuts? If the enemies of the president have no skeleton in their closet, does it matter? For all we know here at the NigerianNews, Adenuga, Fasawe and Atiku were all Obasanjo's friends, let them clear themselves and give Nigeria a tradition of honest people able to explain their actions in a court of law. It is share recklessness for people like Lai Muhammed and Solomon Lar to just dismiss indictments that have explanations as the Vice President cronies have said. Let the Atiku cronies or even Atiku himself explain this alleged fraud!!

There are a lot of wise people in Nigeria, and they manipulate the unwise. The creation of the local Government Councils in Lagos is a case in point. Lagos State followed all the constitutional requirements. Once those requirements are fulfilled, the role of the National Assembly is intended to be perfunctory. Up until today, the newly found friends of Tinubu and Lai Muhammed are in control of the National Assembly, and they have not done a thing to help Lagos State. Would this not correct the error of Kano State having more federal allocations than Lagos with more mouths to feed? Yet, Tinubu's concern is the unreleased fund and not also in addition, the remote cause of it. We believed Obasanjo had reasons not to release this fund before Tinubu scraped the councils, and the court is right in asking the president to release the fund to the old councils if they are still intact and identifiable. But frankly, Mr Tinubu, should you not indict your friends in the National Assembly for disrespecting the constitution of Nigeria which says they must sign on, once you scale through all hurdles in Lagos State? Do you and Lai Muhammed see the violation or disrespect of the people of Lagos State by these people or it is just the president? The best Nadabo could do for you is to add it to his compendium of impeachable offences.

Just like in the third term imbroglio, some unwise people will get wounded in this Atiku saga with the wise guys winning it all again and leaving nothing for them as a joint trophy. Where is the additional Igbo State today? Where are the other good aspects of the third term package? We asked a very good friend at a meeting in Willingboro New Jersey sometimes ago, and from his own knowledge, and he is a trustworthy fellow, he said they would all be brought back next week, that was almost three months ago, the wise one won again and they will win this time as well, because theirs is to fleece the commonwealth. A feat they excel in by pretending to be working for the common cause.

Some people may ask why Obasanjo is trying to catch thieves at the twilight of his administration? That to us, is a silly question, for you catch thieves when they are off their guards and you can really make a case of it. Our advice to Obasanjo is to call the bluff of these people and let them go for impeachment. We can assure you they cannot do it. If they could, they would have done it by now. They are also aware of the danger of impeachment of a president whose only sin has precedence in Abraham Lincoln, Roosevelt and lately, George Bush, in a similar form of Government. To them this is a weapon to flaunt and not use.

Theirs is what we call Shakara Oloje in our dear country.

"Just like in the third term imbroglio, some unwise people will get wounded in this Atiku saga with the wise guys winning it all again and leaving nothing for them as a joint trophy. Where is the additional Igbo State today? Where are the other good aspects of the third term package? We asked a very good friend at a meeting in Willingboro New Jersey sometimes ago, and from his own knowledge and he is a trustworthy fellow, he said they would all be brought back next week, that was almost three months ago, the wise one won again and they will win this time as well, because theirs is to fleece the commonwealth. A feat they excel in by pretending to be working for the common cause."