Ghana set an example which we want a newly-elected government under President Obasanjo to follow. In a rice scheme scam, the Ghanaian government has successfully prosecuted and got convicted two former ministers, a senior civil servant and a foreigner for their roles in the $20 million rice project which had left Ghana with a $20 million debt and no rice.
The foreigner in addition to bagging a jail term was also ordered to refund $20 million. By this measure, Ghana has served a notice to all public office holders that they will be called to account for their misdeeds in office. Some might cynically point out that those probed, prosecuted and convicted were officials who served under former President Jerry Rawlings. It is still valid to give credit to the existing government for having the will to dig into the past to punish those who have engaged in self-enrichment involving economic sabotage.
The current Ghanaian government will itself leave office one day and its officials must realise that a precedent has been established for punishing those who while serving a government and believing they are sacred cows will become subject of prosecution when they lose the protection of the offices they hold.
For President Obasanjo and Nigeria, the lesson in all these lies in the need to revisit so many scams which were perpetrated by people in high office in the past as well as some of his own appointees who might have been fraudulent. It is vital that he should include his own appointees to avoid the charge of witch-hunting political opponents. The place to start is to visit the list of external loans which by 1996 had amounted to N1 trillion.
According to a Minister of National Planning at the time, 18% of the loan had been drawn down for projects that were never started at all. That means N180 billion which disappeared into private pockets for which other Nigerians were required to pay. In many instances these scams were perpetrated in collusion with foreigners; some of whom might still be alive, carrying on business in Nigeria and planning new schemes. Another 36% of the loans went for projects that were started and abandoned mostly after the contractors have collected 10% or more in down payments. That means another 360 billion could be traced and the culprits brought to book. There is also NNPC, which has been the subject of probes whose reports have not been released and nobody has been punished.
There is the Petroleum Special Trust Fund, PTF, NAFCON; Nigeria Airways; Ajaokuta Steel; NITEL; NEPA; NPA and the outgoing National Assembly. Granted the government cannot correct all the wrongs of the past and with only four years at its disposal and so much to do; it can only scratch the surface, but, even a few former officials being hauled off to jail after prosecution and conviction is bound to have a salutary effect on the activities of government officials and check the wanton looting that has characterised government at all levels since the First Republic.
