"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't,"---Margaret Thatcher
I have always known that the embezzled arms funds allegedly misused by Ibrahim Dasuki would be more than two billion dollars, and I am least shocked that the figure has risen to 15 billion dollars aside from four billion naira the central bank handed over to the personal guard of the former President Goodluck Jonathan for the prosecution of presidential primary election of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) pre- 2015 general election.
Hmmm! There is always wisdom in the axiom that, "what a man does, a woman can do better," going by the way and manner Mrs. Nnadi Usman, a Senator of the seventh Senate and former Minister of Finance was used as the conduit pipe to fleece this country that paid her so much for doing little. While she was caught "pant down" in stealing spree, she quickly cooperated with Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) and sang like parrot before she returned N23 million liquid cash under her pillow, and promised to return more as long as she is able to dispose some of her properties.
Already, two luxurious mansions in Abuja highbrow had been seized and she was willing, according to a news report to offer more properties to leverage her prosecution and administrative bail, because according to her, she is contending with health challenges. What a primitive acquisition of wealth.
By marriage, Nnadi Usman is a Muslim and Hausa man's wife. Another striking news was that of Diezani Madueke, the erstwhile czar of petroleum resources under Jonathan was said to have her two million British pound wrist watch seized by the foreign security operative in United Kingdom. Oh, you are also wondering who a sane person would want to impress with that kind of wristwatch? Anyway, it is another way of keeping money. By marriage and birth, Diezani is a Christian of Igbo extraction.
In a related development, the wife of the former Chief of Naval staff, under the watch of Jonathan, Air Vice Marshal Adesola Amosu was said to have acted a front for her husband, as the anti-graft agency traced two billion naira to her account apart from one million dollars the security operatives unearthed from their soak away. By birth and marriage, Kemi Amosu is of Yoruba stock. The import of this is that roguery is not peculiar with ethnic or religious boundaries.
Mrs. Usman did a yeoman job during the last election for her party, PDP. As she took the custody of her billions of naira from the arms deal on the instruction of Jonathan, she began to do "justice" to the largess by dishing out N840 million to that loquacious turn-coat, Femi Fani Kayode, Morally bankrupt Ondo chief, Olu Falae and others. No wonder, Fani-Kayode threw his life into the struggle for "Jonathan must continue"; he deployed all indecent arsenals against candidate Buhari, he called the APC leaders names, he unleashed all high sounding words laced with British accent on whoever called for logical debates on governance. Aftermath, he began to celebrate his new model range rover SUV, he showcased his thoroughly toned skin girlfriend, but quietly went underground when Jonathan was thrown out of his job.
Hennhenn! The abductors of Olu Falae must have known he got N100 million from arms deal, before demanding exact amount from his family as ransom, but the man was so secretive that he elected not to inform his family and his group, compromised Afenifere whose past time is to criticize government until it is invited to a negotiation table on parochial interest.
As if he had done no wrong, the so called Yoruba leader, Falae said he did not collect money from Dasuki but Chief Tony Anenih, as if Anenih is Dangote, as if Anenih was not the chairman of the Board of PDP, but he chose his narrative to trivialize the issue, unknown to him that people are not impressed with his story.
Besides, are you provoked by the seeming madness of some women of power? Oh, you cannot fathom why a person would use two million British pounds wrist watch, while her kinsmen and women are wallowing in abject poverty. You can not simply comprehend why a mortal would be comfortable wearing two million pound English gold jewelry, while her countrymen could not receive monthly salaries. That was inanities the men and women of yesterday spent Nigerian fortune on.
Quite pathetic, some groups abroad were decorating Goodluck Jonathan who dragged Nigeria to this sorry state, because he handed over to his successor who resoundingly beat him at the last general election, even some of our clerics want us to forgive Jonathan for finding courage to handover at all. What a country!
The long and short story is that, yes, there was global economic challenge as a result of perpetual permutation in dynamics of economics , but Nigeria's case is largely on mismanagement of resources and perennial leadership failure. We had lost fortune to stealing perpetrated by very few individuals, thousands of innocent people were hurriedly dispatched to their shallow graves based on the sharing of funds meant for the military equipment to fight terrorism. And when the former Central Bank Governor now Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi said over N48 billion could not be accounted for, Jonathan and his economic witches cried blue murder; Jonathan even said in Lagos that if such amount was missing America would know because it is its money.
Today, cat is gradually coming out of the bag. Please, blame Buhari for all the woes of the country, after all he threw his hat into the ring for it, but please evaluate the rot very well and convince yourself on where the blame should be placed.
Butikakuro is an intercontinental journalist.