In a chat with my wife over a news item published in one of the social media platforms about some human rights group: Advocates for Human Rights in Nigeria (AHRN) and The Southern Kaduna Coalition of Professionals (SKCOP), condemning the continued detention of former Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Andrew Yakubu and demanding that he should be released immediately, she lamented: what is wrong with Nigerian brains?!!!
Andrew Yakubu, a chemical engineer, is being detained after the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) allegedly recovered huge sums of money, combined in local currency to be over N3 billion. The cash, in Dollar and Pound Starling denominations, was found at his house in the Sabo Tasha area of Kaduna state a little over a week ago.
Just before then, $153.3 million was discovered from the former Nigeria Petroleum minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke even as $5 million was recovered from Dame Patience, wife of the immediate past President of Nigerian, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. This is in addition to numerous other monies recovered from former political and military as well as judicial leaders.
One analyst has come up with what the over N3 billion discovered from Andrew Yakubu’s residence alone can do to improve the Nigeria’s electricity generation, and therefore the economy. They are N1.36 billion for the construction of 700mw Zungeru hydro-power project; one billion naira for the construction of Suliya-Ghaza-Babuni road in Niger State; N465.06 million for the construction of off-Grid renewable energy (solar) micro utility and N150 million to acquire 800 pieces of 11kv Transformers, repair of asphalt overlay and provision of drainage on Mohammed Isdrissa wat in Potiskum, Yobe State among others.
There was also an analysis of the money allegedly looted by just three Nigerians, which is enough to fund the budgets of five states. It goes thus:
Andrew Yakubu – $10 million
Diezani Alison-Madueke – $153.3 million
Dame Patience – $5 million.
Total – $168 million, equivalent to about N600 billion at an exchange rate of N350 to $1
Against the background of the 2017 budgets of Osun State of N138.2 billion, Ebonyi State of N127.3 billion, Ekiti State of N93.46 billion, Taraba State of N110 billion and Edo State of N150 billion, which brings the total budget for 2017 fiscal year for these five selected States to N619 billion.
What is baffling is that the agitation by groups has not been against the public treasury looters that have brought Nigeria to its knees in terms of economic development, but, very unfortunately, against the Muhammadu Buhari government that has been exposing them.
In a series of statements released after the EFCC took the former NNPC Group Managing Director into custody on February 8, the Advocates for Human Rights in Nigeria (AHRN) and The Southern Kaduna Coalition of Professionals (SKCOP), declared their solidarity for the detained Chemical Engineer and called on the anti-corruption agency to release him immediately.
The groups described the detention of Andrew Yakubu as a serious violation of his human rights, saying: “this arrest is reflective of an ongoing practice of harassment, arrest and incarceration of citizens unlawfully.
“The continued detention of Engr Yakubu today is yet another nail in the coffin for freedom in Nigeria. He is not a flight risk; he was out of the country when the alleged raid took place. As a responsible citizen, he flew back to meet with the anti-corruption agency and the court has since seized the funds temporarily, so why is he still in detention? He should be released and charged to court,” said Mr. Lakun Anifowoshe, director of AHRN.
“If Andy Yakubu is not being persecuted because he comes from Southern Kaduna and the Middle Belt, we challenge the EFCC to also parade all the people it claims to have recovered humongous sums of money from. Failure to so would mean the agency is lying, or has two sets of law for two kinds of Nigerians.”
Sagamu Jaspar, General Secretary of the Southern Kaduna Coalition of Professionals, wondered if there was a law which forbade anyone from keeping his earnings at home, adding: “we are waiting to see if a court of law can establish that the said amount found in his home is a proceed of crime, or whether there is indeed a law that forbids anyone from keeping his earnings at home,” Jaspar said.
“We suspect that the deliberate negative publicity the EFCC is generating over his arrest and its failure to release him from their detention after meeting his bail conditions is more vindictive and political than fighting corruption.”
The question pops out again, loud and clear: what is wrong with Nigerian brains? [myad]
