Prepare for jail or don’t
steal – Ex-minister, Silas Ilo, tells guber aspirants
By MODESTUS CHUKWULAKA, Abuja
Monday, December 4, 2006
Former minister of state for health, Chief Silas Ilo, has
some advice for politicians currently nursing ambition of
becoming governors next year: Beware of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Ilo says in Abuja that the EFCC will be a critical factor
in the run up to next year’s elections because those
who are afraid of the scrutiny of the EFCC will not venture
into politics.
He advises the aspirants to consider a date with EFCC operatives
should they decide to put their hands into the public till,
and the prospect of doing a term in prison afterwards.
The possibility of going to jail after leaving the Government
House, he reasons, will moderate the growing tendency for
governors to treat the treasury as their personal property,
even as he commends the commission for instilling the fear
of prison in the politicians.
"One thing is very clear: Whoever wants to be governor
in 2007 must make up his mind to finish and go to jail or
walk the street free, and the issue is corruption," he
says.
Describing the development as a positive one, Ilo says moves
by the EFCC to prosecute 15 governors will have a salutary
effect on the politics of 2007 because prior to the coming
of the commission, it would appear that 419 people and criminals
had taken over the system and were running it as they deemed
fit.
Besides, he observes, what the EFCC is doing at present will
have serious impact on the way Nigeria is seen on the international
scene. For these reasons, he does not share the view that
the commission is a law unto itself. He says only those who
feel threatened are crying foul against the EFCC because the
commission has chosen to react violently against vested interests,
including governors with immunity and politicians who have
influence.
Although the style employed by the EFCC has been criticized
by many, including the Nigeria Bar Association, Ilo does not
see anything wrong with Nuhu Ribadu’s method. If anything,
he says, the man is walking a tight rope and should be encouraged.
Says he: "I think his style is in line with the situation
in which he has found himself." Nor does he think Ribadu
is talking too much as some of his critics are wont to accuse
him. If anything, he thinks Ribadu should do more talking
than he is doing at present.
According to the former minister, who describes himself as
a child of the establishment, it is necessary that Ribadu
must explain to the public what he is doing.
That way, he says, his greatest allies will be the public
since politicians should not be expected to support a person
who is after their ill-gotten wealth.
Regretting that corruption has continued to flourish despite
efforts made in the past to contain it, he says Nigerians
had watched in helplessness as kickback graduated from 10
per cent of many years ago to 20 per cent and then 30 per
cent "up to a stage where people collect money for contract
without executing it."
Ilo, now a management consultant was in the civil service
before he was appointed into the federal cabinet. It was while
he was serving as the director-general of the ministry of
agriculture, Enugu that he was appointed a minister. He later
served as a national commissioner in the defunct National
Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON) and held different
positions in different capacities.
He warns those who think that the South--east zone has given
up on the presidency in 2007 to think twice because, according
to him, politicians from the zone, and particularly members
of the South-east Forum have been silently doing their home
work so as to come up with a credible candidate that will
be acceptable to all Nigerians.
The forum, he says, mobilizes all Igbo to speak with one voice
and act as a people with one destiny. In its efforts to ensure
that one of its own emerges the next president of Nigeria,
the forum, Ilo explains, hopes to engage other geo-political
zones of the country to canvass support for its aspiration.
"We can dialogue and seek a consensus for a better understanding
of how things will go well in the country," he says.
He dismisses as trash the notion that the zone is not prepared
for a serious contention for the presidency and would never
speak with one voice, saying it is part of the prejudice that
the forum is fighting against. In his words, unity is a matter
of degree and not absolute hence there are bound to be Igbo
people who may not share the general aspiration of the entire
zone.
"Some northerners are queuing behind Igbo aspirants,
some from the South-south are lining behind Igbo aspirants,
just as Igbo politicians are queuing up behind others. Such
does not do too much violence to our bid.
It does not disturb us. By the time the primaries and conventions
start there’s going to be realignment of forces,"
he observes.
According to Ilo, the greatest tragedy that confronts Nigeria
today and the most potent threat to its democracy is the open
bickering between President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President
Atiku Abubakar. As the crisis deepens, he says, government
becomes more divided and increasingly loses the moral right
to govern.
Tracing the crisis to power play, Ilo argues that the electoral
process for 2007 is in serious danger. As the two foremost
citizens go after each other’s juggler, he observes,
the entire nation is polarized behind them with the result
that the desire to run a proper election and win decently
will be compromised.
Ilo believes that the suspension of the vice president by
the PDP can only worsen the matter, and appeal to both to
spare the country the agony of a constitutional crisis whose
outcome cannot be predicted by
anybody. "I have a very very serious worry about that,"
he says.
|
