FAKE AGENCIES AND A FLAWED COUNTRY

Nigeria is at it again.

Another fake agency has been uncovered with its list of indiscretions. Exotically named the National Brands Development and Made in Nigeria Special Projects Office, its structures and staff are quite extensive.

 The timing is uncanny. Just when the furore about the other fake agency was dying down, this has surfaced. While Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew may still be in court over the PFIPC), it appears there is a bigger fish to fry. How big can it get? In a sense, Nigeria is one large blind contraption, bungling its way to nationhood.

Things are not right with the country and have not been in a long time. Africa’s giant is also its knackered knight, and the situation is truly grim.

General elections are close. Is the government doing some kind of house cleaning this close to national elections?

It appears so. Two fake agencies uncovered months apart is seismic even for a country like Nigeria where corruption is endemic. The government has not won.

If anything, these startling revelations prove that Nigeria’s problems run deep. It is nigh impossible for fake agencies to exist and operate this extensively without government involvement.

The question is to what level?

At its root the Nigerian problem is the hydraheaded monster of corruption. This cankerworm has chewed deep into Nigeria’s key institutions, reducing a once promising country to a shadow of itself.

It has proven intractable.

Government after government has struggled to breakdown corruption.

The fight against corruption has become a tool for gaslighting Nigerians with every government pledging to fight it while doing little.

The whole thing stinks. It is pathetic to see officials apoplectic with rage with every new revelation.

In a country where heads hardly roll for heinous abuse of office, one suspects that a sinister strategy is sewn around these revelations. Nigerians are the real losers.

The fact that fake agencies can operate for long without detection is damning. It indicts not just the institutions directly responsible for preventing such criminality, but the government which sets them up.

It is a crime against Nigerians. For these agencies to exist without the backing of any law is a crime against Nigeria. To pretend to represent Nigerians when Nigerians do not recognize them is an affront of the highest order on all Nigerians.

Shame should go round too. It is a shame that the government took such a long time to detect this scam. Shame on the agencies directly involved. Surely, Nigerians do not fund those agencies only for them to fall short when it matters.

Now, the bets are off. Now that a second fake agency has been discovered, there must be more.

Nigeria has always been the favorite stomping grounds of ghost workers, certificate forgers, and all manner of fraudsters and criminals. It is time to stand firm. This government does not look like it can do it, but it is time to confront ghosts. Surely, Nigeria cannot continue like this. Africa’s great hope must no longer be hobbled by the long shadows of corruption. It is time to shut the door. For far too long, Nigeria has accommodated all kinds of thieves and miscreants. This dubious hospitality has been rewarded only with slight. No country can be this willful. Beyond dismantling the fake agencies and prosecuting their promoters, action is needed. The government must promise Nigerians that this kind of national embarrassment will not repeat itself. Heads should roll.

At all levels of government, all those involved in this scandal should be punished.

Nigerians, long traumatized by bad leadership, should be spared the frustration of fraudsters running their government.

Kene Obiezu is a lawyer and writer