The Bode George Carnival: The audacity of shamelessness

You might have been forgiven for mistaking the celebration for one of significant achievement - a Nigerian winning the Nobel prize perhaps, or even something less globally important but nationally significant, as a Nigerian politician finally nominated for the Mo Ibrahim Prize for leadership.

Instead it was only the spectre of the so-called strongman of the PDP's Southwest politics being celebrated for a successful stay in prison after being convicted of mishandling public funds. It came complete with a live broadcast on television and a representative of the president in attendance to give the obscene display legitimacy.

Thankfully, the public was, this time, spared the sight of the rows of aso-ebi-clad women who turned his trials into a jamboree.

Of course it is understandable why there were celebrations across Lagos State as party stalwarts sought to outdo themselves in registering solidarity. Many of them had in fact turned the Kirikiri Prisons to a liaison PDP office even as the man was locked away for months - because there is a system of patronage that ensures a veteran politician such as himself remains relevant no matter the circumstance.

Even more to the point, this particular politician was convinced of his own innocence - his lawyers not only broadcast this, the man himself has continued to maintain that he did nothing to warrant a jail term, pointing fingers at a system that he insists was simply biased against him.

Along with five other members of the board of the Nigeria Ports Authority, he was convicted in 2009, not for ‘stealing' public funds, but for the relatively ‘lesser' crimes of ‘contract splitting', abuse of office and willful disobedience of an order. When it came to inferring theft, the only charge - contract inflation - that could have so tainted him was not proven as the prosecution failed to provide a price list that would validate an unjustifiable increase.

What Mr. Bode George and his cohorts were convicted for therefore, wasn't theft but conspiracy to award contracts they shouldn't have. To justify this illegal division of contracts and in order to bring them within board-approvable limits, government officials routinely finesse this as a sleight of hand to avoid bureaucracy rather than a fraudulent intent to contravene the rules. It is in that context that one must view the celebration of his release by those who thought he was unjustly punished in a country where people who seen to commit crimes from theft to murder, are allowed to walk free.

 Viewed in this light, the celebrations might not look so brazen: except that they are.While Mr. George and his associates can feel smug he was not caught with his hands in the public till, it behooves them to re-consider that the actual conviction found that he had acted very irresponsibly with government funds.

 The fact that this group can even imagine that this is a crime to be ignored simply because their strongman wasn't caught with bags of money in his house, shows us the extent to which shamelessness has become a way of life in our polity. That the complete disregard of ethics involved in the influencing of contract processes and abuse of privilege has become something to celebrate with loud parties broadcast on TV, should give us cause for concern about how far way we are from recognising the role corruption has played in holding Nigeria back.

 The party chieftain had a responsibility to follow due process and keep custody of Nigerian monies, still he decided to promote a pattern of patronage that is symptomatic of the collapse of values in our society and it is a mighty shame that none of his praise-singers see that this is as dishonourable as stealing public money. What Mr. George did is a disgrace - and he was convicted for acting so shamefully.

 So yes, the former military governor surely has a right to seek to enjoy his newfound freedom, but he should by no means imagine that the crowds outside his house singing his praises represent Nigerians.

The rest of us look at Bode George and see a man who has yet to prove himself fit to oversee public funds or to hold public office. We will continue to see him, rightly, as one of those men responsible for the sorry state of the Nigerian nation based on wanton disregard for accountability and public trust.

 Editorial                 

NEXT. Monday, February 28, 2011