Mr President, beware of the mafia!

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By Our Reporter on June 16, 2015 The Flipside - Eric Osagie

The mafia rules every society. A small, clique of powerful individuals, pursuing their narrow, selfish interests, for the benefit of the mafia and the Mafiosi. Fact two: The mafia, like an octopus, is everywhere, in every sector, and are as diverse as the society they operate.

What this means is pretty simple: The bigger the sector it plays, the big­ger the mafia; the more powerful it becomes, the more vicious, the more selfish and more individualistic its character reveals.

Another notorious fact: No mafia rules in the interest of the generality. Even if it pretends to, like the old Ital­ian Mafiosi, the truth is it would not be what it is if the welfare of the masses was its primary preoccupation. The rule of the mafia is antithetical to the general good of the people, which democracy seeks to promote.

Another critical point to note: Profit is the major motif and motivating fac­tor that drives the Mafiosi. Nothing more. It’s the game of cash, the game of crunch, the game of survival and the game of amassing more cash. The more money you have, the more influential you are in the Mafiosi and the society you operate.

The mafia is a kindred. It is the brotherhood. The brotherhood of power and greed. Nothing like ethnic or ter­ritorial boundary for the mafia. No East, West, North or South. The network is efficient and the link is iron-tight. Unit­ed in the pulsating enterprise of wealth pursuit usually at the detriment of the larger society, the mafia is a family of ruthless businessmen far closely knitted than the rest of the society can imagine. What joins them is far more important than what divides them.

Nigeria is a nation of all kinds of mafia. But two are the most prominent. Political mafia: Those who call the shots at the different strata of governance and decide who gets what and when; who becomes governor or president; who gets the ministerial job, who gets ap­pointed into what position. In the near­est future, I hope to delve extensively into the tricks and intrigues of the political mafia and how they have held the nation by the balls and the jugular, and what to do to dismantle them if our country will truly embark on the march of progress

There is also the mafia, which con­trols the economy. You know them, don’t you? In different sectors of the economy, they are the guys in starched Babaringa and designer suits, with bil­lions of naira investment portfolios, and crisscrossing the corridors of power, dol­ing out cash donations at campaign fund­raising dinners and presidential platforms where cash is the name of the game. Their vice-grip on the banking, manu­facturing, oil and gas, and indeed every lucrative sector of the economy makes this mafia the deadliest of the mafias.

Ruthless and manipulative, because of the monstrous cash at their disposal, you dare them at your own peril. They are also in the formidable class of the AGIP (Any Government In Power). Philan­thropy and subversive generosity are the tools deployed to endear themselves in the hearts of the public, to portray them as loving, caring, benevolent corporate citizens, who care for the masses, who wish for the society to grow, who create jobs and wealth for the ordinary man on the streets to flourish and live life more abundant. But that’s farther from the truth. They take more than they give; from our collective till, they have made themselves super rich, even as they enjoy all kinds of privileges from the state to continue to build empires of wealth.

They put the men in power and the leaders then turn round to empower them through all kinds of state privileges, a case of ‘you-rub-my-back, I-rub-your-own.’ The society is the worse for it. What should have been used to provide infrastructure and other social amenities is ‘scrambled and partitioned’ between the government officials and their spon­sors both in the political and economy Mafiosi. What you then have is a com­munity of deprived, dispossessed and disgruntled citizenry. A nation where citizens keep wondering in bemusement how come their rich country is a nation of largely poor citizens. The answer stares them in the face: A ruthless col­laboration of locusts swiftly and jointly attacking the honey pot. No less.

The trouble with Nigeria is not that it is impossible to have a wealthy nation providing the best services for the major­ity, if not all, its citizenry. The point is, we have a few greedy individuals who seem sworn to creating a dynasty of the super-rich, at the detriment of others who are in the majority.

Go to any part of the globe, Europe and the United States, Nigerians own the most magnificent buildings, drive the most exotic cars, have the highest num­ber of private jets in Africa, and generally live life to the fullest. But they are not more than 0.001 per cent, while over 90 per cent of their compatriots live on less than a dollar a day. We are endowed with natural resources, which a few have cor­nered for their personal benefits. We are the sixth largest oil-producing nation on earth, yet we are still battling with basic amenities of life: Water, light, housing, health care, etc.

Except for a few states, you can’t find evidence of governance, not to talk of good governance, in many others. What you have in many states is a flurry of activities, heat without fire, motion without movement. Blaring sirens going everywhere but nowhere. Excellencies who haven’t delivered excellent services. At least, not the ones we can see or feel. You weep for a nation run down by prodigal fellows, posturing as leaders.

In the 21st century when other advanced nations are talking about technological conquests, we are still weighed down by how many kilometres of roads have been constructed; how many boreholes have been sunk. By the time we finish with our roads, the rest of the world may have abandoned roads and commenced space shuttle.

While the rest of the world are united in fighting for progressive leaderships that propel engines of growth and de­velopments in their respective countries, we are bugged down by issues of ethnic and zoning consideration. We are talking about where our leaders should come from, not the character of the man who should lead Africa’s most populous na­tion. Majority of Nigerians care not if the president comes from North, East, West or South, even Ghana, Kenya or the United States of America. We just need a man who will deliver for us the good life, a meaningful life, a quality life. Poverty knows neither ethnic, re­gional, religious nor zonal boundaries. A poor man in the North is not differ­ent from the poor man in the South. He just needs a good leader to lead him up the mountain of prosperity. It matters not for him where that saviour comes from.

In a nation that should be strug­gling to liberate its citizens from the pangs of hunger and poverty, it should matter to all Nigerians what happens to our major revenue earner; how the oil resources is managed or largely mismanaged. From the unpublished and unimplemented several probe panels set up by successive govern­ments, it is common knowledge that the oil sector sits on a barrel of stench. We are submerged by oil thieves, who conservatively could have stolen over three trillion dollars.

Worse still, Nigeria is unable to account for the number of crude it produces daily. We are bleeding from all points: Bunker­ers, importers, exporters, explorers, government officials, etc. We also have the oil mafia, those who have the lucra­tive OPLs running into the billion and trillion marks. Since we all substan­tially agree that too much stealing is going on in the petroleum sector, let’s get the oil thieves; let’s police our oil resources. Nigeria’s oil mafia are the cause of the squabble going on. They have stolen so much that the little that is left, after all kinds of parasites have feasted on the oil resources, is what the leadership of the North and South of the country have been fighting over.

LAST LINE: First published March 2013, this column reflects the land­mines the Buhari presidency must watch out if it must succeed. The many mafias shadowing his government, waiting in the wings to swoop on his government for personal and selfish benefits. Could that be the reason over two weeks after he assumed the mantle of leadership, he has found it difficult to name all his personal aides? Is he being held hostage by the mafia? Time, as they say, will tell!