Maiduguri, Trump: A Tale of Contrasting Disasters

The highlights of last week were the long awaited American Presidential Debate, and the horrible flood incident that occurred in Maiduguri, Borno State. May God console those who lost their loved ones in the disaster, and ease the suffering of those who survived it.

Harris/Trump Debate

As I was watching the American Presidential Debate last week, that is, the debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, I couldn’t but see the similarity between Trump’s abusive behaviour and utterances, and that of many Nigerian politicians who are self-centred and self-absorbed, and have absolutely nothing to offer the people, but prefer to spend the time running themselves down in the media space instead! 

Donald Trump, who behaved like a spoilt child that wasn’t getting their way, appeared to be more interested in self-praise and mudslinging, than detailing his campaign manifesto, that is, if he does have a manifesto! The fact-check showed that Donald Trump more or less lied his way through the 1 hour 45 minute debate, making at least 30 false claims – if we calculate the amount of time allocated to each Candidate to speak, it could have been almost a lie a minute! – from claiming to have rebuilt America’s military, to Haitian Immigrants in Springfield, Ohio eating people’s dogs, cats and pets, to some States allowing abortions after a baby is born! How can States be actively involved in permitting murder? Donald Trump doesn’t appear to know the difference between abortion and murder/infanticide; that abortion is the termination of a pregnancy, and that once a baby is born, the pregnancy is completed, and the killing of such a new born is a criminal offence called murder/infanticide! See the case of United States v Deegan (2010) No. 08-2299 Decided May 25, 2010 in which the Appellant was sentenced to 121 months imprisonment for killing her new born son. 

This isn’t to say that VP Harris didn’t make any misleading statements, for instance, about Project 2025. But, unlike Donald Trump, VP Harris didn’t lie her way through the debate, and was able to clearly articulate some of her manifesto.

All-in-all, after that debate, most right thinking people would have chosen VP Harris over Donald Trump. And, I’m not playing the gender card here, she earned it – she is a stable, better, stronger, safer and more reliable candidate than Donald Trump. 

US Politics and Democracy v Nigeria’s

But, the truth is that, even if Americans don’t choose VP Harris as the next and first female President of USA in its 248 year history, over the years, America has been able to build such strong institutions that four or eight years of a foolish Presidency by an inept, unstable or unsuitable individual cannot destroy – strong institutions, not strong men. America also has a decent accountability structure, part of which is the mechanism of free and fair elections that works, so that if there’s a general consensus that a President or other political office holder has performed less than par, they are voted out of office at the next opportunity. Their system of accountability is also one that encourages people to not only voluntarily resign when they feel they are not doing justice to the job, they can even decide not to run for election again if need be, like President Joe Biden, if they believe that they may no longer to be able to give their best to the country. Even within the political party structure, there is more internal democracy – after President Biden’s June debate with Trump, the Democrats had voiced their misgivings and there appeared to be a consensus that President Biden should not run for a second term. He heeded the voice of his party members, for the greater good. 

Unfortunately, Nigeria has not managed to evolve that kind of system in this Fourth Republic. There is corruption and little or no accountability, particularly for wrongdoing. Whether it is the Nigerian political parties which are a component of the foundation of our democracy, that all lack ideology and internal democracy, and are permanently at loggerheads amongst themselves, or it’s government, our institutions are as weak as possible. And, we all know that a house built on a shaky foundation like sand instead of rock, is bound to fall due to its unsteadiness caused by weakness of what it stands on. 

As far back as 2018, I had referred to Nigeria as being a Fragile State, and unless, going forward Government makes a bold and conscious decision to make nation building a priority, over and above parochial and all other interests, I fear that it would be near impossible for Nigeria to get out the fragile  condition she finds herself. 

The Maiduguri Flood Disaster

I cried when I saw a news clip of the Maiduguri flood disaster – the unnecessary hell that our brothers and sisters in Maiduguri are experiencing, as a result of what may be an unnecessary flood caused possibly by negligence, ineptitude or nonchalance, allegedly arising from not taking the necessary measures to secure the Alau Dam which then overflowed its banks as a result of heavy rainfall last Monday. Are the people of Maiduguri not already going through enough, with the persistent insecurity they have been experiencing for at least a decade as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency over there? Now this? I read an Al Jazeera news report stating that, warnings had been sounded months ago about the disaster that could occur. The question is, why were the necessary precautions not taken, so that this resultant disaster could maybe have been avoided or minimised? What happened to the funds that were provided for rehabilitation of the Dam? Irreplaceable lives have been lost, while property worth billions of Naira have also been lost, including state-of-the-art hospital medical equipment. It is time to hold those responsible for this tragedy accountable, for their acts or omissions. 

I also read a news report that the Federal Government has since come out to blame the Maiduguri flood on the overflow of the Ngadda River, and not the collapse of the Alau Dam. I fear that Nigerians may never know the truth about what caused the disaster, particularly if it may be related to government error.

Unfortunate incidents like the Maiduguri disaster occur because, over the years, Nigeria has gradually been caught in a vicious cycle of regression and failure caused by an interwoven web of corruption, lack of accountability and weak institutions. These three elements are the root cause of all the other evils that have now become part and parcel of Nigeria – poverty, insecurity, inadequate infrastructure etc.

Though it is shameful that 64 years post-independence, Nigeria is still using terms like ‘nation building’ which is usually reserved for a country that has just attained independence, since Nigeria started self-rule, particularly the last 14 years, successive government administrations have allowed the country to hit such a rock-bottom that it’s almost as if the Tinubu administration has to start rebuilding from scratch, unless of course President Tinubu prefers for his administration to remain immersed in Nigeria’s regressive story. And, in so doing, this administration must avoid following the wrong roads travelled by past administrations, if not, it’s best efforts will not yield any positive results. 

Like Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, the very first item on President Tinubu’s administration agenda, should be to eschew corruption and reckless expenditure. See Section 15(5) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended in 2023)(the Constitution). Also see the case of Psychiatric Hospital Management Board v Ejitagha (200) LPELR-2930(SC) per Samson Odemwingie Uwaifo, JSC on government not exceeding or abusing its powers, acting reasonably and in good faith.

Last week, a news report concerning the son of the immediate past Director General of DSS, Mr Yusuf Bichi, allegedly stealing $2 million from his father’s safe and disappearing, made the rounds. If the story is true, the question is, what was Mr Bichi Senior doing with $2 million cash? What is the source of the funds? By virtue of Section 3 of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 (MLA), any transaction in an amount exceeding $10,000 must be reported to the appropriate authorities with the source of funds made known, failing which such person may be guilty of the offence of money laundering contrary to Section 18 of the MLA and punishable upon conviction with imprisonment of 4-14 years or a fine or both (see Section 18(3) of the MLA). See the case of Kalu v FRN (2016) LPELR-40108(SC) per Sulaiman Galadima, JSC. So, while we are looking for Mr Bichi Junior, if the story has any iota of truth in it, it appears that Mr Bichi Senior also has a case to answer. 

The issue of former Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello will continue to be a recurring decimal in the fight against corruption being selective, until the security agencies do the needful and arrest him. The security agencies failed to take advantage of the several opportunities they had to arrest Yahaya Bello in Abuja some months ago, to go and face money laundering charges filed against him to the tune of N80 billion. And today, it is alleged that he is hiding in State House, Lokoja, which is not inviolable, as it isn’t one of the exceptions mentioned in Section 1 of the Diplomatic Immunities and Privileges Act; but, instead, Yahaya Bello is the one dictating to the Judiciary and law enforcement agencies, the terms of how he should be handled, from under the rock he is hiding. It is shameful, and shows a lack of commitment on the part of law enforcement to upholding the rule of law – the optics are bad. 

Yet, it was easy for the security agencies to happily arrest the NLC President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, on what may be nothing more than spurious allegations of terrorism financing, and stop him from travelling to the UK for a Trade Union Conference last week. I call it spurious, because, if the DSS could really substantiate those allegations against Comrade Ajaero, he would definitely still be in detention by now! 

Conclusion 

If we are to start to rebuild Nigeria from scratch, the fight against corruption and crime cannot continue to be as selective as it has been under past administrations. If not, it will never be effective. We have to rebuild the country based on the right values, so we can get optimum results. Why should an individual who works in a company and is accused of Stealing N5 million contrary to Section 383(1) of the Criminal Code (CC) or Theft contrary to Section 286(1) of the Penal Code (PC) be sentenced to 3 or 5 years imprisonment (see Sections 390 & 287 of the CC & PC respectively), while a Politician can get off with a plea bargain arrangement and no jail time for stealing N20 billion from Government coffers? If all I have to do is return some of my stolen loot if I’m caught, there’s absolutely nothing stopping me from stealing as much as I like! In fact, the more the merrier, making extra provision for the funds that I may have to return in a plea bargain, if I’m caught stealing government funds. See the case of PML (Nig) Ltd v FRN (2017) LPELR-43480(SC) per Amina Adamu Augie, JSC on the position of the law on the concept of plea bargain. 

Considering the fact that corruption is responsible for almost ruining Nigeria I’m wondering whether Nigeria has come of age to use the somewhat lenient approach of plea bargain to punish corruption. Possibly, the plea bargain method can be used when corruption reduces from being the order of the day to a very bare minimum. For now, will justice not be better served and Nigeria saved, by offenders not just forfeiting their illicit funds, but serving serious jail time too? 

The multiplier effect of corruption are all its other relatives that we see – lack of accountability, nepotism, lack of infrastructure, mediocrity, regression, poverty, crime and insecurity, to mention but a few. 

The fact that it was easy to do an immediate fact check on everything thing that Donald Trump and VP Kamala Harris said during their debate, is instructive and cannot be over-emphasised. Unfortunately, in Nigeria, we run an opaque system based on minimum information and little or no statistics”. The Freedom of Information Act, is only there to decorate the statute books. Why is SERAP in trouble? Possibly for asking too many questions like Socrates, that Government doesn’t care to answer. The next question is, how do we rebuild properly without reliable statistics? We do not even have current population figures, let alone know how much fuel the country consumes per month! How do you plan and build accurately, without the requisite information to input as a basis? President Tinubu should make the organisation of a census a priority. Every country should hold a census, at least every 10 years. It’s been almost 20 years, since Nigeria had her last census (2006), and I’m sure the reasons for the delay in organising a census is not unconnected to the usual suspects, corruption and politics. 

In 2016, President Barrack Obama failed to cut his vacation at Martha’s Vineyard short when a flood occurred in Louisiana in 2016, and he was accused of dereliction of duty and lack of compassion. President Tinubu has been away on official assignments to the China-Africa Summit and the UK. Since he didn’t cut his trip short to visit Maiduguri, Nigerians hope that Borno State will be President Tinubu’s first port of call now that he’s back in the country. A hands-on approach coupled with compassion, which was sadly lacking during the eight year Buhari administration, would not only be welcome, it is the right way to go.