A
former Nigerian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Alhaji Yusuf
Maitama Sule, has described the present level of corruption in this country as
record-breaking, lamenting a situation whereby a corrupt civil servant who
stole billions and was caught hands down would be charged to court with over
170 charges but would escape jail because of insufficient evidence.
Speaking to our correspondent in Kano
yesterday, Sule, who holds the traditional title of Dan Masanin Kano, said: “That is why I
called for revolution out of frustration.
“In China, once you are caught
stealing you will be shot, (but) in Nigeria the more corrupt you are the higher
your national award.
“Recently, over 100 Nigerians were
given national awards. In the whole history of America, less than 500 people
were given national awards there. As at the last count, Nigeria had given out
more than 5,000 national honours.”
The former politician said he was
also disappointed when he heard Nigerians from the South-south political zone
claiming a right over the country’s oil resources.
He pointed out that oil was
discovered in 1958 and the exercise was 100 percent funded by money from the
north.
Sule argued that prior to the oil
discovery, Nigeria earned 70 percent of its foreign revenue from the sale of
groundnuts, cotton, hide and skin, coal, and many other mineral resources that
were found in the North.
He said: “When Shell Nigeria
Corporation found oil in the country, they asked Muhammadu Ribadu, the
petroleum minister, to demand for royalties for the North, but Rubadu told them
that the money used for the project belonged to all Nigerians, (and) the oil
found also belonged to all Nigerians.
“When I took over from him, I took
Nigeria into OPEC. I built our refineries. Today, in spite of the creation of
Ministry for Niger Delta Affairs, NDDC, and 13 percent derivation, the
South-south people don’t want us to revisit the onshore/offshore dichotomy on
which the Supreme Court made a clear pronunciation.
“Because of our political ties with
the South-south we were the ones that advised Gowon, during his state creation
exercise, to create Rivers state. And when Ojukwu wanted to break away from
Nigeria it was Northern soldiers and Yoruba officers and men that fought Biafra
and rescued the South-south people. If Biafra had succeeded, today nobody would
be arguing over resource control.”
The Dan
Masani also
spoke on the insecurity ravaging the North, saying, “It is because of the mess
we found ourselves today that we formed the Northern Elders Forum to salvage
the North. For example, what is the basis for the Boko Haram crisis? Anytime a
credible Northerner comes out to broker a peace deal between Boko Haram and the
authorities one way or the other the exercise will be sabotaged. That means one
way or the other some people are out to destroy the North. My position is that
government must dialogue with Boko Haram for lasting peace to return to the
North.”
On why he called for a revolution in
the country, Sule, a former information minister, said: “We saw how Murtala
Muhammed changed Nigeria in six months; we saw how Buhari brought sanity and
discipline into our life, but somebody came and told us that we elders must
give way to the new breed. See where we are today: a country that has no focus,
no direction; bad leadership and massive corruption.
“Today, a governor or senator who
stole billions belonging to his people and is standing trial before a court of
competent jurisdiction is still serving in the government without shame.
Sardauna died without a house or bank account; myself, Maitama Sule, after the
1966 coup I had to borrow money to transport myself (from Lagos) to Kano. Now I
live in our family mud house.”
Source: Blueprint
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