by Jumoke Olusoga

“Africa has produced more self-seeking leaders than public-spirited ones. But thank goodness, the masses of the people remain largely unspoilt and uncorrupted and are developing fast the technique of differentiating gold from lead and real metal from dross. What is more, they have begun to show their preparedness for the very rough action against any political leader who may be caught in the game of public trickery and fraud” Obafemi Awolowo, from The People’s Republic, 1968.­­­­­­

On a Friday night, my friends and I sat round Tunji’s dining table in his fancy 1004 apartment. While he deludes himself that he is a great cook and so invites friends over every now and then to share in his overly spicy, half cooked efforts, we, his friends are always excited about the invites not only because desserts are great (and ordered) but we also get to gist, laugh and generally get the week’s load off our shoulders.

The night was no different; I had smartly excused myself from the main course.

Me: “TJ, I’m going straight to desserts oh, I won’t let you spoil my diet with this delicious looking food”

Tunji: “You should have a little of the butter rice, my first time and I killed it” smiling with pride

Over his shoulders, I could see Oyin signaling strongly to decline the offer as she herself was struggling to swallow the rice grains soaked in butter and cheese.

“You killed it alright!” Jonathan’s exclamation was the final warning I needed. I got my way and settled with the yummy strawberry tart and a glass of wine.

We went from topic to topic until we got to the recovered cash by the Federal Government between May 2015 and May 2016. N78billion, $185million, £3million, €11,000, almost 5% of the Country’s entire budget! You’d almost go dizzy trying to comprehend what the Country has lost in loots if all that was recovered in only a short period and this is exclusive of funds and assets covered by the interim forfeiture and funds awaiting return from foreign jurisdictions.

By now, everyone at the table had raised their voices and found the right opportunity to abandon the “dead butter rice”; even the host had finished the ‘dodo’ and chicken in his plate leaving the rice to its fate of drowning in butter and cheese, but if you ask him, he’d be all too happy to repeat, “I killed it”.

The three men and three ladies at the table had similar opinions in the magnitude of theft, corruption and selfish interests exhibited by some people who had been entrusted with the country’s resources, all the more embittered by this reality in a country where the majority of people are in constant struggles to keep their stomachs full.

Tunji: “I don’t understand why the names of the so called looters cannot be published; we have a right to know, don’t we?

Me: “What does that do for you though? You know the names, curse them out in the comfort of your living room or at a bar over expensive beer and then create a whole new buzz around a few looters, while the remaining go into hiding for fear of having their names published. What are we trying to gain anyways, funds or law suits?”

Tunji: “In what country do people steal and get a pat on the back for returning it instead of getting punished for taking it in the first place?”

I really don’t think there is a right or wrong answer, there are many reasons why people would demand a list showing the source of the recovered funds and there are good reasons that justify the other side of the debate. My primary concerns are, how would the funds be accounted for? Who would account for it? What would it be used for? Who would monitor and control it? This isn’t the first recovered loot in the Country, what would be different about this one?

Coincidentally, in recent times, there has been some banter about a government administration that looted recovered looted funds from a previous administration (I’m not even sure that English was constructed correctly, seeing the difficulty of the situation).

The point is, if you reprimand someone for doing something wrong, you should be prepared to show them how to do it correctly. A country’s wealth can only be looted when there is no structure for accountability and transparency, so if funds have been recovered from people who were unable to treat the Nation’s resources with integrity and respect, I expect to see intentional efforts of transparency and accountability in the use of the said looted funds. I think this should be the primary concern.

Finally, we were done with dinner and it was time to clear up, the men pretended to be distracted by their phones or the TV, and the rest of us pretended not to notice they were only pretending. We got up, cleared the table, filled Tunji’s trash can with his “dead butter rice” and said our goodnights.

Awolowo gave the “masses” (in his own words), “citizens” (in my words), the credence of being largely uncorrupted and by now, have developed the technique of differentiating gold from lead and real metal from dross. Hopefully, we can objectively differentiate important matters from distractions, self-seeking leaders from public-spirited ones, and as citizens, make this Country what we want it to be. I have chosen this path, this journey, of a concerned citizen.

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Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

Concerned Citizen is authored by Jumoke Olusoga, who can be reached via [email protected]