FEATURE ARTICLE

Babs AjayiWednesday, September 30, 2015
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Gatineau, Quebec, Canada

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JONATHAN FORCED OUT OF HIS HIDING PLACE, SARAKI ON THE ROPE

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here are you, Jona?"

"I am in my hiding place."

"Hiding place? Why are you hiding? What are you hiding from?"

"Ah, I have to hide."

"But why do you have to hide? What are you hiding from?"

"I see ghosts everywhere. It is like they are all after me."

"Who are after you, Jona? Are you sure you are still sane?"

"Hmm …you see … things are no longer the same, nightmares afflict me."

"Nightmares ke! What is going on?"

"I have not told anyone, but I will tell you …"

"Tell me what? What is it?"

"I don't know what Buhari will do to me. I am …."

"Oh, I see. It is the fear of Buhari that is giving you sleepless night."

"I am troubled and my hiding place is shrinking rapidly. Even Patience is losing sleep these days."

"Aw! I am so sorry to hear that."

"Thank you. I am really, really afraid now."

"You have nothing to fear if your conscience is clear."

"My conscience? My conscience is clear. The word corruption did not exist during my six years in Abuja."

"Eh? It did not exist?"

"Hmm, we outlawed it. I mean I did my best to take it out of the lexicon of the time."

"Huh, you tried. You really kicked it to the sideline and I see no reason why you should be hiding."

"I have to hide, my brother. I have to hide. This is the story of my life."

"But you were seen with Seriki in Yenagoa the other day."

Oh, jes, I was there to endorse him."

"You left your hiding place to endorse someone?"

"I was getting very bored and lonely. No one ask for us these days. I have not seen Okupe, Reuben, Mimiko, Diezani, Wike, Fani-Kayode, and even Fayose since we left Abuja."

"I can understand that."

"You can? How?"

"Everyone is now for himself or herself, trying to find ways to escape prosecution or merely avoiding the public space."

"These were people I trusted and who worked for me, and even spoke for me!"

"Yes, they worked for you and spoke in your name, do your biddings, do their own biddings sometimes, and some of them even threatened heaven and hell in your name."

"I thought they will stick with me and stand up for me always; you know like Awo's apostles are still there standing for him - even today."

"Do you now compare yourself to Awo?"

"Awo is our father now, so I can't compare myself to him."

"And Awo never banished the word corruption from our lexicon; rather he condemned every act of corruption and lived a moderate and humble life."

"I live a moderate life too. I am …."

"You, a moderate life, since when? Anyway if you say so."

"Oh jes, I live … try to live a moderate life."

"Now you are talking."

"I mean I wanted cassava bread and ogogoro but those boys said wheat bread and Hennessey are better."

"You know I was wondering why one billion naira was voted for food if all you asked for were cassava bread and ogogoro."

"It was the boys. You know Okupe will not touch any drink that is not imported from Europe and many others prefer caviar to our own bush meat."

"You guys really had fun and fanfare those days - wining, dinning, jollificating, cruising in presidential jets, even Madam Peace o! Endless foreign trips to Brazil, US, Germany, endless trips at taxpayers' expense and you helped yourselves big time."

"Yeah, we tried," a smile crept into Jona's face.

"You over did it and that is why you are now a hermit," a frown visible with anger to boot."

"I am no recluse, just biding my time."

"Biding your time? Meaning what?"

"I do not want trouble, just let me be."

"But you really have nowhere to hide. This is Nigeria and as long as you are within this border you can be reached."

"Reached for what? Why would anyone wish to reach me?"

"It is not anyone. It is the federal government who might want to reach you soon."

"For what?"

"You ask me 'for what'? Did you just ask me for what? They said you supervised a kleptocracy and a free-for-all looting and you ask me why the government would want to reach you."

"I have to ask."

"I also have to ask you why you are in hiding, why you have kept quiet all these months and why Mama Peace has been quiet. That Mama Peace is quiet tell a whole new story."

"What do you mean? What story?"

"You and I know that a tuketuke can never go by without people knowing - what with its loud noise and creaking feet?"

"We live quietly in Otuoke now and we mind our own business."

"The moment you stepped into Abuja to mind businesses that are way beyond your business, you opened yourself up to outside interests, just like Saraki."

"Did you say Saraki? He is a pretender who condemned corruption after he's been part of it for decades."

"So you don't mind if he's prosecuted?"

"What do I care? He ruined SGBN and looted Kwara State. Is he not Oloye's son?"

"Who is Oloye?"

"You mean you don't know Oloye?"

"Who is he - one of your henchmen?"

"Oloye was the senior Saraki."

"The man is dead, isn't he?"

"He is dead but his son learned from the best while he was alive. The man was behind the demise of SGBN. It was his piggy bank for years. Some folks who should know even claimed that Oloye thought the boys, the managers at SGBN, how to take out cash. There were all sorts going on in that bank at the time. Depositors left at the mercy of wolves."

"How did you know?"

"The EFCC has all the documents."

"And so?"

"And so I know, I am privy to the details."

"I also know a thing or two: At least I know that Bukola and his sister, Gbemi worked at SGBN, and when Gbemi was on her endless maternity leave (maternity leave? Wasn't her then husband a …?) Anyway Gbemi took several SGBN cars with her for maternity leave and the bank kept paying her salary, and she went from maternity leave to high boredom."

"It was the time Bukola and his father took charge after his father successfully got rid of Kotoye. Bad loans, unpaid debts, cash take out and huge funds transfers followed. After the bank was passed on to undertakers Bukola moved to take over Kwara."

"He was in Kwara for 8 years before passing it on to his sidekick who gleefully signed off current and future Kwara funds to his departing master, and Kwara will no longer be the same."

"And an anti-corruption crusader named Senator Saraki arrived in Abuja, senator like his father before him! It was their world, theirs alone."

"But you probably did not know that the father-son Sarakis were doctors who never really practiced medicine. They preferred money to people. But why didn't you let the EFCC prosecute Bukola then?"

"The EFCC was very busy at that time."

"Busy doing what? If chasing Yahoo! Yahoo! boys around Lagos or running after petty thieves is what you call busy, then you don't get it and you truly have a problem with clarity. The big thieves were having a field day and all you do was run after small time crooks?"

"The law is the law and it has to be followed."

"Is that so? Then let Buhari follow the law and bring all of your people to book, including you their leader. Everyone must be held to account and be prosecuted, even Mama Peace and Diezani."

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