By Yinka Odumakin
WE were being mesmerized by the tragic movie of Malami vs Magu graft joke when the “grab your copy now” of Nunieh vs Akpabio NDDC house of scandals was flashed in what has become the worst wretchedness of governance in the history of the country. Ms. Joi Nunieh, immediate past Acting Managing Director of Interim Management Committee of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, was full of rage. She reeled out criminal allegations against the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Godwill Akpabio that would make you remember in a jiffy all the Niger Delta activists who put their lives on the line to get some of these concessions for the region.
Just like the flaw in keeping Magu as acting chair of EFCC for four years, an Interim Management Committee was put in charge of NDDC. Accused of introducing corruption worse than the one about to be audited in the agency, this strange body to the Constitution is now seen as reprsenting an opportunity for quick looting without being called to account. If Nunieh’s allegation that Akpabio told her the day the committee was put together to cooperate with all his directives “because the very biro I used to sign you in is the same one I will use to sign you out”, there is no need to search further how subversion of due process is sure promotion of corruption.
And these things are in layers. There could be no missing her narration of how SA Domestic to to the President, Abba Sarki, was the one calling “settlement“ meeting of NDDC matter in his space in the villa as the whole matter already became a joke! Equally alarming were her allegations of how Akpabio was asking for public funds under ridiculous demands with only those secured with gumption being able to say no to him.
Addressing journalists outside the venue of the hearing, Nunieh had alleged: “Nobody makes any payment in NDDC without Godswill Akpabio’s approval. When we first came, on the day of the inauguration, he said to me in the car, ‘Madam MD’, if you don’t do what I say, the same pen with which I used to sign your paper, is the same pen I will use to remove you.”
She continued: “He said the first thing I should do when I get to Port Harcourt is to change the dollars in the NDDC account. I was scared to do that, and he claimed that I have a poverty mentality. That I am afraid of money.”
But denying maltreating her, the immediate past two-term governor of Akwa Ibom State declared: “She was not relieved of her appointment because of corruption. She was relieved of her appointment because of insubordination. My ministry, (truly his) which supervises her, wrote seven letters to her, but she never responded to one. The late Chief of Staff to the President (Mallam Abba Kyari) sent a petition from the anti-corruption agency stating that she did not have the requisite qualifications to work as acting MD of a commission.”
The most tragic aspect of the film so far was the appearance of NDDC IMC Director of Projects on Channels TV “Sunday Night” with one activist called Johnson who made a mess of him with facts and figures. It hit me well that the man cut an image of guilt as I watched him also on TV the day he denied he had never awarded the various contracts that were being quoted for him. At the end of it, he started toasting the guy who appeared sure of his facts: “I won’t disrespect you though you are my young brother.”
The NDDC scandals have revealed the wickedness of the Nigerian elites and sheer criminality. For those of us who have toured the area to see the shame of the plight of the people, it is difficult to believe that this is what their elites are doing with the little opportunity the iniquitous Nigeria has allowed the area. It is more tragic that these are the films coming out of Nigeria in our “season of change”.With all we have witnessed so far, people are going to take to their heels when next they hear anybody shouting “change”.
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