Workers bear the cost of powerful people’s greed

Abimbola Agboluaje

Ask anyone what is responsible for our  nation’s unending problems and you would be told the answer is our leaders’ greed. Greed is a character trait of a sick mind, a gross display of depraved human accumulative instinct that attempts to defy man’s status as a creature destined to return to its maker naked.

God, the Almighty and virtually every religion frowns at greed, a vice and deadly sin whose sole motivation is excessive or uncontrolled desire for and pursuit of much more money, wealth or power than a person requires. Greedy leaders are the bane of African nations and the developing world. Unfortunately, Nigeria is plagued by the worst kind- leaders who are nakedly greedy.
Imagine the case of ex-Governor of Balyesa State, a man who retired as a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) but who, rather than leave an enduring legacy by laying a foundation for unprecedented development in his young, deprived state, took the state’s coffers to financial dry cleaners. It is mind-boggling that a man in whom so much trust was reposed by workers and peasants of Balyesa diverted billions of naira meant for making life easier for the people into his pockets. By the time nemesis came calling in the person of ex-EFCC Chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, DSP Alamieyeseigha had stolen assets worth forty-four billion, five hundred and forty-one million, seven hundred and two thousand and twenty-nine naira (N44,541,702,029.00).
A man who could barely survive on his salary as a police DSP suddenly came into stupendous wealth by betraying workers and peasants’ trust. But for men of valour like Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the recent handing over of Alamieyeseigha’s loot by the Yar’Adua-appointed Chairwoman of EFCC- a government agency that has successfully dampened the flames of the war against corruption- would never have taken place. But for Nuhu Ribadu, retired DSP Alamieyeseigha would be cooling his heels at his ill-gotten high brow Chelsea Hotel in Abuja, or globe-trotting between his numerous other properties located in Abuja, Europe, and the United States of America. Thank God that even madam EFCC, Mrs. Farida Waziri, acknowledged Alamieyeseigha’s brigandage as “serious and grave betrayal of public trust of a high ranking public officer”
One only hopes the EFCC under her leadership will begin to exhibit the sort of painstaking investigation and unrelenting prosecution that made the conviction of Alamieyeseigha and the recovery of assets he stole from the people of Balyesa State possible. Mrs Farida should be reminded, in case she has forgotten, that ex-Governor Alamieyeseigha is not the only Nigerian leader with stolen assets in his/her coffers. This reminder is imperative given the fact that when workers of this nation are trying to recover from one corruption scandal, they are dealt much more powerful blows by other scandals. The story is the same from Etteh-gate to Siemens-gate and Halliburton-gate, greedy leaders loot the nation’s coffers but workers pay the price. Now we are being pummelled by the failed banks’ scandal, product of the greed of certain powerful Nigerians who closed down several banks with thousands of workers their jobs lost.
As recently revealed in the media, the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions named former directors of 13 failed banks as responsible for the banks’ failure. These former (mis)directors, supposedly prominent Nigerians, collectively owe the failed banks N53.3 billion, with less than 10 percent- N4.722 billion- recovered by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation. The list of those involved in this latest scandal, paid for by workers of the banks with their jobs, sounds like a ‘Who is who’ in Nigeria. Three former Ministers, popular socialites, captains of industry, an ex-presidential aspirant, an ex-Lagos State commissioner and her spouse, some serving Senators, sons of a former Secretary to the Federal Government of the Federation, a traditional ruler, etc, through collective naked greed, presided over the loss of thousands of jobs in those failed banks.
Yet these economic saboteurs walk the streets of our streets free and the EFCC beats its chest over Mallam Ribadu’s achievements as if those achievements were made under the current dispensation. If Mrs Farida wants to be taken seriously, she would not let these proven economic saboteurs to go Scot free but must immediately bring them to trial and make them refund every kobo plus interest. In all, 13 banks closed down as result of the greed of these men and women who took advantage of public funds entrusted to them as Directors of those banks. What nobody seems to be talking about are the thousands of workers who lost their jobs, the thousands more who depend on those workers including their aged parents, and the impoverishment these deprived Nigerians must have suffered.
As a result of the greed of these bank robbers and their abuse of accepted norms of banking, they brought unfortunate workers and the banks involved to their knees, and dealt another death blow to our nation’s failed economy. Over N188 billion of depositors’ funds are still trapped in failed banks four years on. As Senator Ahmad Lawan rightly stated on the floor of the Senate, “What happened in the bank was a betrayal of public trust. It was abuse of trust that people would put their money and because some people were privileged to know some directors, they would take money without due process, without even paying back.”
What happened in failed banks amounts to economic sabotage and such abuse of trust must not be swept under the carpets of Aso Rock as there is enough muck under its carpets already. Mrs Farida Waziri, the ball is in your court. Nigerian workers are keenly watching how well you play it.