Many Western governments and firms have been accused of exploiting crises in different countries of the world for their own business and political interests. While I am a lover of America and other Western democracies and a fan of their politics, I cannot completely disagree with those who hold this opinion of them. What I will however disagree with is the pretence by the accusers of these nations of being innocent of what they accuse the other countries of. Political power is consolidated with war, money and diplomacy, and diplomacy becomes most relevant when there is crisis.
Russia, China, Iran, and all the other rebel nations competing with America and the other Western democracies are only looking for ways to dislodge them and begin to enjoy influence America is enjoying, not because they want to make the world a better place, but because they want to enjoy power and if possible; monopoly of violence and aggression.
American Republicans do not pretend about their opposition to any extreme gun control legislations because they receive a good lump of their financial donations from weapons manufacturing companies and Republicans have been accused of being warmongers because companies affiliated to them make huge profits when there are wars, whether it involves America or not. An opinion article on BBC News I read recently hold it that Americans and other Western nations have converted Ukraine to a laboratory for testing out some old and long unused weapons. All these instances go to make the argument that there is always some profit to be derived by businessmen and politicians from crises. And in Igbo land, we have a saying that; “Ala adighi mma bu uru ndi Eze”.
Few days ago, President Muhammadu Buhari told us about how over One Billion Dollars was spent to recover territories held by Boko Haram insurgents. This is not surprising to many of us who have been keen followers of the war against terror, but what would be contentious about the figure is the fact that the same Buhari was an ardent critic of huge defence spendings when he was in the opposition. He accused the PDP led administration of squandering money using insecurity as an excuse. Today, with over One Billion Dollars expended and thousands of lives of our gallant troops lost, Nigeria’s security situation has not witnessed any drastic shift in a favorable dimension, rather, we have seen an increase in incidents of terrorist attacks especially in areas that were deemed safe regions before now.
One thing about defence expenditures is that most of them enjoy some level of legislative conferred secrecy. This is why some analysts believe that such funds are the easiest to be frittered away by corrupt people.
In Imo State, Governor Hope Uzodimma had spent billions of Naira in purchasing security gadgets and equipment and in funding special operations in his bid to combat insecurity in the State. But, it appears that the more money he spends, the worse the situation gets. I was optimistic that the security situation would be brought under control before the 2023 elections, but it is obvious that the governor is either overwhelmed, being duped or has bought into the business side of allowing the violence to fester.
In the last three years, Governor Uzodimma might have bought about 600 operational vehicles for our security agencies to support the security operation codenamed “Search and Flush”. Innoson Motors has even accused the governor of not meeting up with his financial obligations to their company for vehicles bought for the same purpose, yet the governor continues to purchase more vehicles and undescribed number of other security gadgets.
The Imo State House of Assembly would have been the best institution to help Imolites ascertain what is going on with these expenditures on security, unfortunately, the crop of legislators we have in the State are among the pathetic set of cowards to be entrusted with the responsibility of lawmaking. A set of people who pass budget proposals in less than 24 hours? Well, that will be a topic for another day.
It is possible the governor makes these expenditures with a genuine intention of equipping the security agencies with everything they need to make the State safe, it is also possible that he is exploiting the gap to settle his political loyalists and business partners. It is also possible that the security agents have been so intrepid in their operations that they lose hundreds of vehicles every few months, hence, need constant replenishment. Whatever the case is, it is the governor who needs to explain to us what happens to these equipment that he furnishes the security agencies with, because he owes us that explanation. He is not using his personal money to fund these purchases, but Imo’s money.
We cannot assume that we do not have a right to know where these vehicles are taken to after the public presentations, we do. For about six hundred vehicles to be deployed for security operations in Imo State alone means that each political ward in the State should get at least two of these new vehicles and the vehicles should be found at every police station in the State. But when I visited Imo State a few days ago, I saw more of the old rickety vans like Toyota Hilux and Nissan trucks that are usually given to the police formations by the Federal Government. The question is; where are these hundreds of vehicles purchased and distributed by Governor Uzodimma for security operations in the State?
MAY IMO WIN!
