The Magu mess, currently playing out in Nigeria, has attracted worldwide attention because of the mega amounts involved and the personalities therein entangled. My previous opinion (TheWill Newspaper, June 6, 2016), advocating a preemptive judicious use of Nigeria’s recovered loot, reverberates perfectly with the wave of recent developments about the re-looting of the recovered loots. In that 2016 published article, I opined that “the recovered funds be put to quick, direct, tangible, visible, and traceable uses. A lag in the utilization of the recovered funds will only heighten the potential for a sinusoidal return to the evaporative coffers of the past.” Wow, how I have been proven right in 2020! The current fact is that regardless of who the actual culprits are (who, what, when, where, how, and why), the “evaporative coffers” that I predicted have materialized. The Nostradamus-like prediction is not something to gloat about. It is a depressing realization of what we all feared.
The prediction was predicated on an understanding of basic human nature in any project environment. Many human transgressions are borne of human frailties in mind, spiritual, mental, and/or social wholesomeness. No matter how good a mouse is, it will eventually go for the juicy cheesy munch, the longer the temptation remains within sight. Thus, the human frailties are manifested more readily when enormous amounts of money remain in sight. The admonition of “don’t do it” is never enough. We must add preemptive measures of getting the temptation out of sight through prompt project implementations. That was the cornerstone of my 2016 predictive article. Of course, “the devil made it me do it” is a common defense claimed by supposedly-good people whose proven transgressions have come to light. The devil really has nothing to do with it.
Rather than saying ‘I told you so,’ we need to regroup and do a better job of securing and utilizing recovered loots next time. When the ongoing investigations are completed and the facts come out, we will still be faced with the challenge of instituting preemptive measures to prevent a recurrence in the future. Otherwise, we will run the risk of the same prediction coming back to haunt us again.
***Adedeji Badiru lives in Dayton, Ohio, USA. He can be reached at [email protected]
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