Impunity: The Absurdities Of An Unaccountable State, And Light Fingered Political Elite By Jaye Gaskia

By Jaye Gaskia
Where do we begin from? Well, let us start by explaining what we mean
by impunity and why it is important for us as a people to confront it
head-on, reject, and resist it in its totality!
By impunity we mean the lawless actsof institutions and personnel of
state that undermine the very fabric of legality and
constitutionalism, and jeopardize legitimacy, thus undermining the
very foundations of human civilisation and societal existence.
In this write up we intend to go through a litany of acts of impunity
bythe state and the ruling elites that compromise and jeopardize our
collective existence as a people and nation. It is important to know
that these acts are social, political and economic in nature, and that
their combined effect is such that it retards our national development
and impoverishes an increasing majority of citizens.
In general terms on the economy, theFederal government has 'invested
more than N2tn in special intervention funds targeted at various
sectors of the economy [including Agriculture – N200bn; Aviation –
N300bn; N300bn on Power Intervention; N75bn on grooming enterprise
leadership; N32bn entertainment intervention fund; N100bn Textile
intervention fund; N126bn Export expansion grant; N200bn indigenous
pharmaceutical intervention fund; N300bnHotel & Leisure intervention
fund; N7,5bn to 25 companies from national automotive intervention
fund;N200bnsmall & medium scale enterprise grant;N200bn restructuring
& refinancing fund; etc since 2010, yet absolutely nothing has been
shown as positive results of such intervention funds.
Industrial capacity utilization continues to hover around 35% of
installed capacity, with more than 1,000 large scale enterprises
closing shop between 2000 and 2010, accompanied by more than 2,000,000
million jobs lost [776,000 jobs lost from the textile industry
alone]from those shut down enterprises.
At another level, according to the Adamu Fika Presidential committee
on reform of the public service, since July 2007; salaries of just
18,000 top federal civil servants and state personnel have gulped
N1.23tn annually, much more than the entire annual federal capital
vote for any single year since 1999.
Let us turn to the oil (petroleum sector); in spite of the more than
N20bn in combined annual maritime and oil pipelines security contracts
to just 5 militant 'Generals' from the Niger Delta [excluding recent
reports of a new multi-billion naira contract to one of the OPC
factions]; the country continues to lose approximately 250,000 to
350,000 barrels of crude oil, and several million liters of refined
products monthly, at a combine annual loss of$10bn to crude oil and
refined products theft, with an average annual incidence of more than
1,500 cases of pipe lines vandalism being reported. According to the
NNPC, between 2002 and 2012 16,083 pipelines breaks were recorded with
only 1,398 attributed to mechanical faults.
Meanwhile according to NEITI, the FGNis owed N1.536tn [$9.6bn] in non
remitted revenue by the International Oil Corporations [IOCs]
operating in Nigeria.
And with respect to the vexed Oil subsidy scam corruption conduit
pipe;subsidy claims rose from less than N600bn in 2010 to more than
N2.7tn in2011 with spurious claims for 60 million liters per day of
imported refined products. And although as a direct consequence of the
January Uprising, the subsidy claims have drastically reduced and
fallen to the pre 2011 levels of claims for less than 40 million
liters per day of PMS, sharp practices continue to be witnessed in
this sub-sector of the industry.
So for instance although NNPC claimed by March 2013 to be refining 10
million liters of PMS per day through the domestic refineries; PPPRA
claims it has no record of such production capacity or input into the
economy, and continues to pay for claims of 39 million liters of PMS
per day from importers. And although the Federal Ministry of Finance
could not verify N232bn in subsidy claims in 2012, only N29bn of this
amount has been recovered from the indicted marketers.
Yet in spite of this unprecedented scale of fraud and treasury looting
in the subsidy regime, not a single marketer has been successfully
prosecuted, nor has any single personnel of the petroleum ministry or
any of its parastatals, including the NNPC been indicted, let alone
prosecuted. Nevertheless it is inconceivable that the level of fraud
in this sector could have been undertaken without official connivance
or at the very least negligence.
What is even more amazing is that whereas since 1999 over $12bn has
been expended on Turn Around Maintenances [TAMs] of the four domestic
government owned moribund refineries, nevertheless, capacity
utilisation at these refinerieshave not exceeded 50% of installed
capacity!We have also been told that since 1999 over N1.4tn has been
spent on 34,000 KMs of Federal roads, without any appreciable
improvement in the condition of roads in the country. Instead, more
than N250bn is needed in additional funding for instance to complete
the East West Road project, a road project that has been funded by
successive governments since 1983.
And from the National Assembly's oversight committees investigations
between 2010 and 2012, we learn thatover N850bn in accumulated solid
minerals development fund, as well as, over N400bn in accumulated
ecological funds between 2000 and 2012 have been misappropriated by
the FGN; while the country's landscape is littered with approximately
12,000 abandoned infrastructural projects [excluding NDDC projects of
which less than 30% have been completed, with more than 40%
abandoned], at the combined cost of N7.7tn and with more than N2.2tn
paid in mobilisationfees.
In the power sector, despite more than $25bn investment since 1999,
total power generation capacity has not exceeded 4,500MWs from the
average of 2,000MWs in 2000. Significantly, in spite of this huge
investment no significant improvement on power distribution capacity
has been recorded with the result that in 2012 alone there were 24
system failures, while in 2013 therehas been 15 power system failures;
resulting from the inability of the national grid to accommodate more
than 3,500 to 4,000MWs of generated power.
To put this in perspective, in December 2012 when power generation was
about 4,000MWs, the peak demand during the same periodwas
approximately 12, 000MWs; and according to the projections in the
Vision 2020:20 document, Nigeria requires a power generation and
distribution capacity of 88,000MWs in order to sustain economic and
domestic activity that will enable it rank 20th amongst the 20 largest
economies in the world!
And in the public service, the situation is no different. The FGN has
announced the saving of N118bn annually from over 200 MDAs, being
salaries and allowances hitherto paid to Ghost workers. Yet no single
officialhas been implicated, indicted, let alone prosecuted or
punished. How is it possible that ledgers will be prepared and salary
checks issued to ghost workers without the complicity of any official?
There have also been allegations from the pension reform task force
that more than N3.3tn is missing from pension funds cutting across
differentagencies of government.
Furthermore, according to NASS a total of 60 revenue generating
agencies generated and failed to remit to the federation account a
total of N9.1tn between 2009 and 2012.
And according to a Punch Newspaper investigation, between June 2010
andJuly 2012 alone, there were more thanN5tn combined in reported
cases of corruption across the country. This is approximately the size
of the 2013 Federal budget and amounts to a monthly theft rate of
slightly over N220bn.
At the political level this impunity is expressed in the emasculation
and undermining of state institutions; theflagrant and incessant
violation of theconstitution; the undermining of the Justice system
and emasculation of the judiciary as an autonomous arm ofgovernment;
the complete and total absence of internal democracy within the
political parties; the emasculationof the Local Government Councils by
the state governments; and the emergent crisis in the Nigeria
Governor's Forum [NGF] as well as the tragedy unfolding in Rivers
state.
It is also manifested in the disdainful manner with which the poor,
that is the majority of the population at 70%,is treated by this
ruling class in poweras well as in opposition. For example rather than
provide affordable housing for the poor, this ruling class engages in
routine demolition of their homes and neighbourhoods, and in the
consequent eviction of the poor, thereby making many more millions
homeless. The livelihoods of the poor are also not left out of the
biased, class bigoted targeting for destruction. The means of living
of the poor are routinely criminalised and destroyed, accompanied by
constant harassment. It is as if after their greed and light fingered
treasury looting spree has impoverished the immense majority of the
masses, their solution to poverty and the scourge of the poor, is not
to eradicate poverty, but to eradicate the poor by driving them into
their early graves!
Furthermore, in the political arena, we find the competitive
accumulationof weapons, competitive arming of jobless youths, and the
competitive establishment of private armies by the politicians, in
their fierce contestation for control of political tuff as a means of
accessing control of state power. This low intensity armedstruggle
then drives and intensifies the antagonistic nature of the competitive
drive towards primitive accumulation; and thence the increasingly
grandiose scale and scope of corruption and treasury looting unfolding
in the country.At the social level, one single unfortunate and
irrational case suffices to illustrate this impunity by aruling class
accustomed to undermining our collective well being while getting away
with routine and serial violations of our rights.
A ruling class that self righteously criminalises and punishes with
long jail terms, consensual sex by adults [gay sex], goes right ahead
almost immediately to legitimize and constitutionalise the violation
and brutalization of underage girls by old men under the guise of
marriage! Let there be no iota of doubts about this; this is not about
child marriage, it is about child rape; and all those who play any
role in perpetrating or perpetuating this crime against humanity will
be rounded up and punished when we Take Back Our Country from these
Gangs of Bandits!
The combined effect of these multiple impunities has been the
increasing impoverishment of the people, with more than 69%
[112million people] living in poverty; more than 30 million going to
bed hungry; 10% of the world's out of school children [the highest in
Africa];11% of global Under 5 Child Mortality [the second highest rate
in the world]; second highest HIV/AIDS incidence rate in Africa;
record homelessness, with more than 11 million housing deficit; and
record general [at 28%] and youth [45%] unemployment rates!
To put this in perspective; Recently 16,000 applicants applied for 100
Federal Judicial Service Commission openings, while 22,000 youths
applied for 3,000 Osun state SURE-P positions.
Additionally, whereas 10% top richest Nigerians own 41% of national
wealth, while 10% of bottom Nigerians own a mere 4.1% of national
wealth [50% of Nigerians own 20% of National wealth]. And thisin a
context where the Richest African is a Nigerian [with one company
alone accounting for 33% of the value of the Nigeria Stock Exchange –
NSE]; while the richest Black Woman is also a Nigerian.
The only conclusion that can be drawn from all of these is that the
Nigeria Ruling Elite is a failed elite; that it has become the
albatross hanging round the nation's neck, and weighing down her
national development and citizen welfare; andthat this elite [its
political and economic wings inclusive] have become the single most
significant obstacle to the development and advancement of human
civilisation in our country.
It is therefore up to us as active citizens to take concrete
collective steps towards overthrowing this inept, treasury looting,
and light fingered ruling class; supplant it; and consign it to the
thrash heap and dustbin of history.
The condition for our collective social emancipation, and our genuine
national liberation, is the removal from power of these treacherous
unpatriotic and greedy ruling elite.
Against the background of global crisis and resistance, within the
context of the global resurgence of popular power, we have a historic
opportunity going into the 2015 general elections, to organise
ourselves politically, independently of the different factions of this
ruling class, and autonomously of any of its power brokers [and or
Godfathers]; and seizing the historic moment, organise our freedom
from the death grip of their pestilential rule.
We have reached that point in our historical march towards
civilisation, where failure to take immediate concrete steps and
action towards ending the impunity of these ruling elites imperils our
collective survival, and endangers our collective well being and
societal advancement.
It is our country, let us take it back from these swarm of locusts!
Let Us Take Back Nigeria Now!
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