Ibori’s moment of sacrilege

By  Vincent Akanmode

 

An intriguing aspect of life is the ability of matters considered dead and buried to rear their heads again, sometimes in a manner as furious as the second wave of an epidemic.  Consider the case of former Delta State governor, James Onanefe Ibori, whose loot of 4.2 million pounds (about N2.4 billion) during his time as the state’s chief executive the British government promised to return during the week. This was four years after Ibori presented himself before the congregation as a martyr at a Baptist Church in his Oghara hometown where he declared himself as clean as a hound’s tooth in respect of the twin allegations of corruption and money laundering for which he spent 13 years in UK prisons.

Upon the completion of his jail term in 2017, Ibori had returned to Nigeria amid pomp and ceremony, culminating in a thanksgiving service at the Oghara church, declaring that he was not a thief and would never be one. He said: “Today, I have decided to speak for myself. I am not a thief. I cannot be a thief. Today is the day they say I should give testimony to God. For Those that know me, you know that my entire life is a testimony itself, and I have said it over and over again that my life is fashioned by God, directed by God, sealed, acknowledged and blessed by God, and I believe that since the day I was born. “

Cheered on by ecstatic supporters and family members, Ibori had made his boastful declaration in the belief that the chapter concerning his arrest and conviction for corruption and money laundering had closed with the completion of his jail term. That, however, was not to be as the promise the British government made during the week to return his looted funds sprang the entire episode back to life and subjected him to fresh public scrutiny.

Ibori’s case is symbolic of how much joke our country makes of corruption and how much fun we are willing to poke at God by turning his altar into a stage meant for comedy. Many Nigerians are living witnesses to how Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (rtd) literally made corruption the guiding principle of state matters in his time as the head of the country’s junta. Till today, he enjoys the singular honour of being the Nigerian head of state that introduced the settlement culture into governance. His then second in command, Vice Admiral Augustus Aikhomu, would later earn the reputation for publicly making a distinction between embezzlement of funds and misappropriation of same, and implying that the latter is much less in gravity than the former if ever it is considered an offence.

Read Also: Reps move motion to halt spending of £4.2m loot linked to Ibori

 

Former President Goodluck Jonathan would later prove himself a good student of Babangida and Ekhomu when he declared in the build-up to the presidential election he lost to Gen. Muhammadu Buhari in 2014 that corruption should not be equated with stealing. The former president also sent mouths agape during one of his campaign rallies in the build-up to the said election with his castigation of the military administration of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari between 1983 and 1985 for committing former civilian governor of Anambra State, Chief Jim Nwobodo to prison for stealing a sum Jonathan said could not even buy a brand new car.

Jonathan’s statement, it was gathered, has since become the pivot on which anti-corruption studies in Oxford, Cambridge and other world class academic institutions now rotate, as scholars and academics seek to determine how much a public office holder must steal before he or she could be accused corruption.

Yet Ibori must be given credit where it is due. He has not only proved to be a good student of the pro-corruption school, he has also provided leadership in terms of daring God. It is now fashionable among governors, senators and other public office holders to head straight for the altar to give thanks after some abominable exploits. That explains why every election year, we are confronted with the sight of politicians storming churches and mosques for thanksgiving after rigging their ways to victory, conscious of the evil means they deployed, including the shedding of innocent blood. They think nothing of their abominable deeds because they know that with the patient and merciful God Christians and Muslims worship, there would hardly be consequences for their actions.

The foregoing is the basis of the agitation by some of our patriotic countrymen that political office holders should no longer be sworn into office with the Bible or the Quran but with the symbols of traditional deities like Ogun, the god of iron.  I wager that most of them would shudder at the prospect of being sworn into office with a piece of iron, knowing that they risk being ripped apart by lightning if they renege on their oath.