I was on air, last Tuesday week, when news broke of the formal handover of 753 housing units by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to federal ministry of housing and urban development, Abuja. Of course, this followed the conclusion, I think in December last year, of all the tos-and-fros in court. The footages of the 15,000 square metre-estate immediately angered me. As soon as I had authenticated the story, I punctuated my live radio/television/online programme to take it as breaking news.
I know that Nigeria is big on political witch-hunt as well as on the eleventh commandment (thou shalt not be caught) but Mr. Emefiele’s case is beyond pity and sympathy and empathy. His is a clear case of a betrayal that is both mindless and stupid. I mean, we trusted this man to the point of keeping him as central bank governor for nine years. Alas, see what he did with that trust.
He stole not only the contents of the vault but also the vault itself. He seemed drunk, which can be the only explanation for his monumental recklessness, especially from May 9, 2019, up until June 9, 2023, when President Bola Tinubu kicked him out. Remember, then President Muhammadu Buhari had renominated Mr. Emefiele in 2019 after the expiry of his first appointment on June 4, 2014, which had been given by President Goodluck Jonathan as he then was. The top banker uncleverly forgot that this is Nigeria where lions could be roasted for dinner when they no longer served the purpose.
One can bet though that Emefiele’s skeletonful cupboard is not an isolated case. It is what it is, not only at our apex bank but also everywhere else in our country. Which is why it is a wonder to the world how Nigeria has refused to cave in upon the crass thievery it keeps suffering in the hands of own citizens. Exactly why do Nigerians in positions of trust abuse that trust?
Take state governors, probably Nigeria’s most privileged -if not most spoilt- public officers, for instance. Elected for a four-year team with space for an encore, they become the god of their jurisdiction, reigning over human and material and even unseen resources of the territory. During their tenure, Nigerian state governors can do and undo. They control everybody, they own everything, and so everybody plus including everything is at their beck and call.
Why on earth should such a one leave office and be scared of own shadow in the name of EFCC? Why, just why? Meaning you stole from yourself? You stole something and from people you were in charge of?
To be sure, this is not about former governors who get victimised or harassed now and again. No, this is about former their-excellencies who had no excellent character or spirit in them whatsoever while they held sway.
This is about their-excellencies who forgot and who forget that time is a watcher and a rewarder or punisher of service. The former governor on whom the law finds nothing is a true excellency who, even if he died leaving behind nothing for his family, already left too much -a good name.
By the way, why do people steal like fools? What does Mr Emefiele, for example, need 753 housing units for in a country where 99% of the population cannot afford even half of one unit? To look rich and sustain the wealth all the way down to his children and children’s children and children’s children’s children, right? Wrong, to what end?
It is all right to work hard and honestly in order to amass what to bequeath to your descendants, if you have that calling. It is a good thing, which even the Bible generously recommends. There again, you need to pray and hope that they don’t come and sell off the dividends of your hard work and use the proceeds for drugs and allied deadly, illicit pastimes. Unfortunately, this is what almost always happens if what was left for inheritance was blood money.
Let me help you with that. Blood money is not merely what Kanayo O. Kanayo and Nollywood company told us it is. It is that and more. Blood money is what Mr Godwin Emefiele has: money meant to build hospitals, build schools, buy drugs, pay doctors, pay teachers, pay pension, pay gratuity and generally make our country less hellish but which he cornered and diverted.
He is among those who stole our trust: that might seem as a joke but the sin-crime is double jeopardy. People like the former apex bank chief have wronged God and man. They should understand the flip side of Proverbs 19:17, KJV. “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; And that which he hath given will he pay him again.”
What shall happen to those who had no pity on the poor? Those who took advantage of the poor. Those who worsened matters for the poor? Those who instead took from the poor?
The Bible also speaks about God remembering helpers of the poor in their days of trouble. What do you think shall befall you if rather than help the poor you always pushed them into a ditch? Stop pretending, dear Emefiele-like public officers of Nigeria. Stop doling out crumbs for us to bicker and fight over while thinking you have outsmarted all of us to hide the lion’s share.
Time or posterity is watching you. It is too vigilant to miss even the minutest detail. If you like: respect yourself. If you like: steal everything.
For me though, I beg you to respect yourself. Never steal from yourself. Never steal from the poor. Because, posterity shall -at the nick of time- rubbish your name, your family and whatever else is left of you.
Beware! Rather than steal from the poor, beg from your enemy. The concomitant shame of the former is much worse and more long lasting (if not permanent) than that of the latter. This is the word of the LORD!
God bless Nigeria!