A list of allegedly corrupt persons is circulating fast on the social media but without anyone claiming to have released it, raising a number of questions: Is it possible this was the original list Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Information Minister might have originally wanted to circulate before thinking twice? Or, is this something compiled by a self-interested observer? Or is this the handwork of a mischief maker taking advantage of editorial ‘anarchy’ of the social media. Would this style of releasing names carelessly not undermine the war against corruption in Nigeria, especially that in this mysterious list, no details are given as to the nature of corruption, the time or the parties other than those named.
Although the earliest few platforms from where this list first came to Intervention are APC linked actors, that does not provide any credible evidence as to where this list might be coming from because there are also top APC players on the list. The list is thus a case of the more one looked, the less open to the eyes. The only proven criterion in compiling the list is the alphabetical order. It is not that there is much that is entirely new in the list, the question is who might be issuing such a list which touches almost everyone, including those who have never been arrested or charged to court? In fact, one of the few governors who is free of EFCC cases is on the list and it is intriguing. It is interesting that the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP) whose members are more on the list has already declared its preparedness to commence a serialization of all looters it believes to be hiding in APC and the Presidency. Might Nigeria then be heading to a media determined war on corruption?
Four major phases of war against corruption in contemporary Nigeria have been identified: the Murtala/Obasanjo purge; the Buhari trial of politicians in 1984; the coming of the EFCC under the Obasanjo administration in the Fourth Republic and the current phase. Some observers are wondering if these phases might not be producing its own synthesis in the explosion of the war in which it might be impossible to distinguish between accusers and the accused in terms of collective class fate. Or are the elite likely to take a collective mitigation of their crisis of mission by following Murtala’s nobility in asking everyone to return his or her loot and begin on a clean slate? Can they do that, given the consensus among the elite in favour of corruption as there is usually no ethnicity, regions, language, religious or class conflict when it comes to corruption, unlike when it is about how to make politics serve the people. Below is the controversial list which is completely different from the one released yesterday by Alhaji Lai Mohammed. Intervention is using it without any editing.
Batch “A
In alphabetical order:
Abba Moro (Ministers forum); Akpabio (Governors Forum); Akume (Governors Forum); Alao-Akala (Governors Forum); Anenih (Ministers forum); Bafarawa (Governors forum); Bode George (Boards Forum); Dakingari (Governors Forum); Dame Patience (Wives Forum); Dariye (Governors Forum); Dasuki (Advisers Forum); Diezeni – (Ministers Forum – Diaspora wing); Dokpesi (Free thinkers Forum); Ekweremedu (Guild of Senators); Elechi (Governors Forum); FFK (Ministers Forum).
Others are Goje – (Governors Forum); Halliru Bello (former Party Chairman); Ibori (Governors Forum – Diaspora wing); Igbenedion (Governors forum); Iyabo Obasanjo (Guild of Senators); Kashamu (Guild of Senators); Ladoja (Governors Forum); Lamido (Governors forum); Mu’azu (Governors Forum); Odili (Governors Forum); Ohakim (Governors Forum); Shema (Governors Forum); Sheriff (Former Party Chairman); Stella Odua (Ministers Forum); Suswam (Governors Forum); Turaki (Governors Forum); Udenwa (Governors Forum); Yero (Governors Forum)