Those Two Buildings - Always Catching Fire in Nigeria
Two years ago, I spoke in a CEO retreat of all the insurance companies in Nigeria. I began by asking them if they have a different policy risk model for two specific government buildings in Nigeria - Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) Lagos, and Treasury House (Accountant General of the Federation). It was laughter everywhere. I was going on building models to personalize insurance policies over just using population and averages.
This is the deal: throughout the time I worked in Lagos, I noticed that DPR was always catching fire. And the fire was always in the records room (the left side, looking from Ozumba Mbadiwe street).
Ladies and gentlemen, firemen and women are needed in the Treasury House which houses the Accountant General of the Federation as there is a fire outbreak there right now, according to Premium Times.
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As I noted during my National TV speech on The Platform, there used to be a country where parents would give money to students and pupils to send governors to assist them on projects.. A governor wanted to build an airport, power plants, etc, he reached out to the Imo people - and they responded. My mother gave me 25 kobo to support Chief Sam Onunaka Mbakwe, an incorruptible and peerless leader of his generation. My headmaster had told us to come to school with donations to Imo State Projects. Mr. Governor executed and we all saw it.
So, we are learning that Covid-19 is already under attack. Yes, the Treasury House fire is actually where the records of all the contributors for Covid-19 funds are kept in Nigeria. Fire might have destroyed the records. You know the next move? You guess. Irredeemable, some say.
But this may not be Covid-19 related; it could be related to the senate probe where N2.9 billion is unaccounted for. Now, those documents might have been burnt!
The Accountant General was not available to answer an audit query raised against his office but his representative, who is a director in his office, Adiro Emmanuel, was unable to answer questions asked him by members of the Senate panel.
The senators expressed anger over the director’s inability to provide necessary documents pertaining to the IPPIS account put at N2.9bn.
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What is holding Nigeria has many facets, but I also believe it's way above Buhari's capacity, no disrespect here.
To handle Nigeria and Nigerians, a combination of craft and graft; brain and braun is as important as breathing in and out.
Being visionary, super intelligent, pragmatic and charismatic aren't enough; you must also be very rugged and ready to roll up your sleeves and trousers for both bare knuckles and mud fights.
No normal democratic playbook works here, you must be ready to scale fence with the bad guys, swim with them, run into a hole or tunnel with them; else you are not gonna be taken seriously.
What happens when they kill or kidnap your relatives? You must prepare answers to all scenarios, because they are going to come in many ways, including using the courts.
Nothing is normal here, until big questions are asked with short timeframe for the potential culprits to provide answers, else it will always be business as usual.
Nigeria, we hail thee!