Naija in Brief, Early Tuesday, Feb 12, 2008

After being slammed for laundering funds totaling four billion Naira plus, former Edo State Governor, Lucky Igbinedion was granted bail in Enugu where he had been remanded in custody since January. Igbinedion's bail has some strings attached to it. He is required to pay ten million Naira to the court and must provide two sureties who are permanent secretaries, and are credible with good track records of paying their taxes.

Well, I'm not sure if this is just a gimmick, a tactic to fool the public that justice and the rule of law is taking its full course. Who is fooling who here? What makes the High Court sitting in Enugu to assume the accused will go through hell in order to come up with the conditions of his bail? It's no big deal. These guys got money stashed somewhere. I'm not saying they shoudn't be granted bail. After all, what Igbinedion is accused of is a bailable offense, but my problem with the whole thing is this: will this guy be prosecuted to the limit of the law when he appears in court for trial considering how he looted public funds? I hope the courts pays attention to what he did to his people, leaving his poor folks empty and dry, wallowing in poverty.

Enter James Ibori who was also granted bail on Monday in the sum of fifty million Naira. Justice Mohammed Lawal Shuaibu in Kaduna High Court also required Ibori to provide sureties with properties in like sum as conditions of his bail.

But I do have a problem with Ibori's unnecessary compassion thanking all and sundry for their support since his incanceration two months ago. Listen to this:

My thanks also go to all Nigerians from all walks of life, who personally visited me in Kaduna, sent representatives or offered prayers — for their solidarity, support and unsurpassed love throughout these two months of detention. I particularly thank all the good people of Delta State. I extend such thanks too to politicians of various backgrounds and from all over Nigeria, most especially the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leadership and political family, for their unwavering support, uncommon confidence and huge out-pouring of love. I also wish to use this opportunity to assure Nigerians of my preparedness to pursue this case to its final conclusion for the growth and development of our nascent democracy. My confidence in the Nigerian Judiciary remains unshaken and I trust that at the end of this ordeal, justice will prevail.

Who cares about his pussyfooting. It's late and he must pay for his sins that caused the people of Delta State pain and sufferings. Of course, Ibori wishes to enhance the nations democratic fabric by justice prevailing for a man who looted his own state's treasury with impunity as chief executive. The thing is I hope EFCC and the judicial system lives up to its creed by dealing with all the corrupt politicians to the limit of the law.

Here they come again. According to a report by Emeka Anuforo of the Guardian Newspapers, Umaru Yar'Adua's administration has taken a bold step to revive the rural areas of the country with an initial amount for the project to cost about two hundred and eighty four point sixty four billion Naira. The idea is projected to take out thirty million Nigerians from the poverty line by 2011.

The question here is, how are they going to effect such a gigantic project when the local government chairmen are on standby waiting for any revenue that crosses their way? The possibility of such a task is far fetched considering what these local government chairmen have done in the past. They are not worried about going to jail like their predecessors. All they care is "money in my pocket first" and jail later. That's how it works in a corrupt and failed state. There are no two ways to go about it. So forget it Mr. President.

The News reported that officials of EFCC and journalists were attacked in a training seminar organized by the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Journalism. This is craziness when one considers how we writers and journalists help keep the government in check and yet hoodlums and democratic gangsters would not let press freedom to prevail. Just read The News and other Naija papers including the tabloids and see the kind of nonsense that has taken shape in that banana republic.