Missing $49.8/20bn and missing organ in the Nigerian economy —1

By DELE SOBOWALE

“It is better sometimes not to follow great reformers of abuses beyond the threshold of their homes.” George Eliot, 1819-1880. (VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p 210.)

“As American as apple pie” is a common expression when referring to something uniquely American. “As Nigerian as jungle justice” would have to be one of the expressions which can be applied to us.

The easiest way to get a man beaten to a stupor, or death, is for another man, in a crowded place, to raise alarm that his male organ had disappeared after the other man shook hands with him.

Several men have suffered the fate of being descended upon by a mob, defined here as a monster without a brain — a critical organ to human beings.


Unfortunately, mob jungle justice, in Nigeria, is not limited to physical violence. In these days of social media, it has taken a new dimension – making the atrocities of the past, by mobs, appear like innocent past times.

Today, anybody, government or organisation, can find itself the victim of mob attack based on defamation – deliberate or inadvertent.

What is even more disturbing is the fact that even when the facts are presented, the mob still refuses to apologise to the victim(s) or to turn its venom on the person(s) who misled them in the first instance.

Nigerians are rapidly losing one vital organ, when discussing issues of national importance. It is not the male organ, whose “disappearance” had led to the lost of several lives.

It is the brain – without which all other organs are absolutely useless. Let me quickly explain – with reference to a most vital national issue which should have been laid to rest, but, which is still being flogged by the mob.

A long tern reader of my columns in Vanguard Newspapers called me, the day after the news broke that the former Governor of Central Bank, Sanusi Lamido, had made the allegation that the NNPC had failed to remit $49.8 billion to the Federation Account. He wanted me to make a comment.

My reaction was simple. “I cannot comment on any unsubstantiated rumour or allegation.” The man was livid with rage – the normal reaction of those who believe in jungle justice – physical or verbal.

As many of those who have not lost their own vital organ will recollect, the nation was startled when the LEADERSHIP NEWSPAPER, ON December 11, 2013 reported that $449.8b of crude oil lifted from January 2012 to July 2013, representing 76% was not remitted to the Federation Account.

The report itself was based on a letter written by the former CBN Governor to President Jonathan, earlier on, which was leaked to the media for reasons not too difficult to understand – to generate mob reaction.

“Are you going to hang him anyhow and try him afterward?” Mark Twain, 1835-1910. Mark Twain must have had a people like those who populate the Nigerian media, print, electronic and social, in mind when he wrote that satire which a true reflection of the character of brainless mobs.

Twenty four hours after the report was published, the media was awash with comments from those who, obviously, cannot, or refuse to differentiate fact from allegation or even rumour.

For some reason, it never even occurred to them that the CBN Governor, another human being, could be wrong and might be raising a false alarm. Like the mob pummeling the man accused of making the male organ to disappear, they descended on government officials.

The primary targets were the President, the Ministers of Petroleum Resources and Finance – none of whom is my favourite.

But, irrespective of what one feels about any official, justice demands that the allegations made, against them, be evaluated on their merits and they, as the other parties be given a fair hearing. This, the mob was not prepared to do.

On my part, the operating principle remains the same for “friend” or “foe” and they were enunciated by Malvin Kalb who wrote as follows.

“A journalist should be pursuing a fair rendition of truth without regard to popular moods…” Journalism and the practice of it should never be a popular contest; otherwise the media people become partisan purveyors of falsehood – which is not in society’s interest; irrespective of any other interests they serve.

The $49.8b story was a hoax from the start and that was the main, and, only reason, there was no comment on it from me till now.

And, it was a terrible error for which the former Governor of Central Bank should be held primarily responsible and other commentators, who first believed the $49.8b story as accessories to the hysteria which followed on the media.

Let me quickly point out the danger signals which individuals, whose brains were not missing, should have observed when the first story broke in December 2011.

Even the village idiot now knows that Nigeria is heavily dependent on the revenue from crude oil. In fact, this nation is on a life line tagged CRUDE OIL REVENUE. Sever that life line for one month and the nation will experience high fever; for two months, and the nation is in comma.

Thus when the report mentioned that the $49.8b represented 76% of the crude oil lifting for nineteen months, it was clear somebody or a lot of people had lost their brains when making that allegation.

There is simply no way Nigeria would mot miss 76% of the revenue from its crude oil lifted in one month – let alone nineteen.

From the outset, I knew that the former Governor of Central Bank had made a grievous and unpardonable mistake and had set in motion mob hysteria – which remains unabated till today; long after the $49.8b story had proved to be just that — a hoax.

Culled from www.vanguardngr.com