Hall of Shame

Below is a list containing 47 of the 207 individuals who were recently awarded government houses at Ikoyi without going through proper due process. The list reads like a who’s who of some of the richest and most powerful people in this country.

1. Dr. Peter Odili (River State Governor)
2. Olagunsoye Oyinlola (Osun State);
3. Otunba Gbenga Daniel (Ogun State);
4. Dr. Bukola Saraki (Kwara State),
5. Mr. Donald Duke (Cross River State)
6. Alhaji Adamu Muazu (Bauchi State).
7. Senate President Adolphus Wabara
8. Senate Musiliu Obanikoro
9. Senator John Azuta Mbata
10. Senator Isa Maina
11. Senator Ben Obi.
12. Deputy Speaker Austin Opara
13. Hon. Sadiq Yar'Adua
14. Hon. Bawa Bwari
15. Hon. Abdul Ningi
16. Minister of Police Affairs, Chief Broderick Bozimo
17. Sports Minister, Col. Bala Mande (rtd)
18. Minister of State (Defence), Dr. Rowland Oritsejafor
19. Ministry of Commerce, Ambassador Adamu Waziri.
20. Former Minister of Education, Professor Fabian Osuji
21. The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-General Martin Agwai
22. Acting Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Sunday Ehindero
23. Maj-Gen Lawrence Onoja (rtd)
24. Maj-Gen Adeyinka Adebayo (rtd)
25. Maj-Gen Olufemi Olutoye (rtd)
26. Maj-Gen A. Ajibade
27. Rear Admiral Adesokan
28. Brig-Gen J. B Akinyemi
29. Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) Bello Labaran
30. Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG), Musa Abdulkadir
31. Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) Mike Okiro.
32. Supreme Court Justice Adolphus Karibi-Whyte
33. Supreme Court Justice A. O Ejiwunmi
34. Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Roseline Ukeje
35. Former National Chairman of the PDP, Chief Barnabas Gemade
36. Personal Assistant to President Olusegun Obasanjo on Traditional Matters, Mr. Segun Awolowo.
37. Oba Otudeko
38. Chief Subomi Balogun,
39. Managing Director of Nigerian Breweries, Mr. Festus Odimegwu
40. SIO Properties
41. Power Properties Ltd.
42. Governor of the Central Bank, Professor Charles Soludo
43. Director-General of the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dr. Dora Akunyili
44. Chief (Mrs.) E. O Adegbite
45. Chief O. O Ogunbuwa, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture,
46. Architect Albert Ikomi
47. Alhaji Ibrahim Hassan.
48. All members of Stella Obasanjo’s family.

What is wrong with our rich and powerful people? What does Stella Obasanjo's family and their co-travelers on the list above need extra houses for? It is people like the individuals on the list above that have contributed to the many woes bedeviling this poor country. People who have abused their authority and/or proximity to those who wield it for their own selfish and almost insane greed for more, more than they can ever need or use in this lifetime.

Even our dear Amazon of NAFDAC, Mama Akunyili was not to be outdone. At least she has shown herself not to be too different from many of the other thieving crooks this nation has been unfortunate to have as leaders and big men. The only difference has been that she has at least been able to make some positive contributions to the Nigerian society. These contributions however do not in any way excuse her from condemnation for trying to “eat” more than her salary.

I pray that President Obasanjo will continue along this path, and continue to gather the strength and courage to face more of the sacred cows that have turned this nation into their personal feeding pasture. May the Good Lord give him the courage to look at more of them in the face and deal with them. May he become the axe of God, to be used by Him to cut them down to size, saving Nigeria from the lecherous leeches that have been the plague of the country. Kudos to you Mr. President, but more, much more remains to be done.

And as for “Grandma Housing Minister” Osomo, one would have expected a lady of her age and experience to be a lot more circumspect and conscious of the need to leave a legacy to the unborn generations. Her mission at the ministry was not to be doling out government properties to political and personal friends and colleagues. It is probably because we’ve had too many people like her in the political history of this country that Nigeria has never known peace or prosperity. If she knew that she had neither the strength nor the moral inclination to help ameliorate the appalling state of Nigerians’ in the area of housing, she should have honourably resigned her appointment or even rejected it in the first place. As far as I am concerned, her place in the history of Nigeria will always be that of the woman minister who sold and betrayed Nigeria’s assets to her friends. What kind of advice are people like her supposed to give their children and grand children concerning stealing and honesty? I think it is about time that Mama Osomo honourably resigned her appointment as the Minister for Housing. Resigning now may well be the only honourable thing she has done in her political career.

What can we also say about our dear friends in the media but a huge “thank you”? Thanks a million for being the true watchdog that you have once again proved yourselves to be. The Nigerian media has been accused of being many things, but never of being incompetent. Although the fact that almost every major paper in the country carried that story on the same day indicates that the story was likely to have been leaked to them all en-masse, I still salute their willingness to “nail” these individuals. Perhaps no sector of the Nigerian state has contributed as much to the democratic process as the media. How many Nigerian politicians, businessmen or even religious leaders have been killed, imprisoned, turned into fugitives within their own country, disappeared into thin air and even being bombed for the cause of truth and democracy? But when the time comes for something to accrue to any, and I repeat, any adequately qualified Nigerian, who gets the cream? Not the journalists, not the teachers, the students, the mothers, the needy, but it goes to these crooks.

President Obasanjo (and I call him my President here for the 1st time in a long time) has in the last few weeks taken a few actions that have started to ignite some hope in me that there might still be hope for this country. The recent arrest and detention of former Police Inspector General Tafa “The Thief” Balogun and the sacking of the former education minister Prof. Fabian Osuji, coupled with the expected resignation of “The Facilitator”, Senate President Adolphus Wabara, all of these have renewed my hope in this country.

I however fear for the President, as I wonder what kind of support he could possibly be getting in this fight against the cankerworm of corruption, when even his own wife is very willing to thwart the rules for personal gain? I pray that God will indeed give him the wisdom to find the right people at various levels who would be able to work with him to save this dear nation of ours. An inability to do this will result in him once again appointing people he doesn’t fully trust, but who he will hope will not “embarrass” him and his government by cheating the nation in such a brazen manner. For it was John Galbraith who described politics and statecraft as “…the art of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.".
Useful Hyperlinks.

TisDay Newspaper Online
http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=13397


The Guardian Newspaper Online
http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/news/article01