Saleh Mamman’s conviction: Is karma coming for others?

In a creepy case against one of Nigeria’s barracudas of corruption, an unusual judicial whammy judgment was etched in the spine of history two days ago in a Nigerian court. A former Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman, a very powerful figure in Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, was sentenced to 75 years in prison after he was convicted of pilfering a whopping sum of ‌N33.8bn ($24.71m) meant to dissipate looming darkness over every nook and cranny of the Nigerian nation. Instead of funnelling the funds into solving Nigerians’ protracted darkness menace, Mamman laundered 33.8 billion naira through private companies, funds that prosecutors said were proceeds of unlawful activity linked to government-financed hydroelectric projects, including the Mambilla and ‌Zungeru power plants.

In a nation ravaged by cascading corruption and garroting greed, this conviction took many Nigerians by surprise because of its rarity. Nigeria’s powerful people always get away with murder. They steal black and blue, run for political offices and win hands down, deploying the same stolen funds into their campaign efforts to arrogate more power. Although the convicted Saleh was not physically present during the judgement, thank God to Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja, who sentenced the once-powerful-but-now-powerless power minister, finding him guilty on all 12 counts filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a 63 BC Roman philosopher, political theorist, statesman, lawyer, and orator. His landmark remarks on nations running riot within their walls still resonate till today: “A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.” The woes besieging Nigeria are caused by Nigerians.

Corruption is a monster that eyes cannot see, hands cannot touch, but ears have heard since I was born many years ago in Nigeria. Its hazardous and crippling effects on the system have always been felt by all since the nation came into existence as a convolution. Corruption is the nasty and nauseating Goliath that Nigeria has wrestled with for aeons. The monster has millions of demonic agents dispersed everywhere in Nigeria. Mamman is one of them. It is an understatement that Nigeria is rich in treasures of the earth; rich in men and women with cerebral aptitude, and rich in milk and honey flowing across every nook and cranny of the nation.

The IMF once projected that Nigeria was on track to become one of the 20 largest economies in the world by 2020. This is 2026. The cyclone of corruption and ineptitude in leadership has scuttled that aspiration. Check out comparable emerging nations recorded to be shoulder-to-shoulder with Nigeria in the 60s after independence. Check out the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China & South Africa). Today, these territories are wealthy and industrialised. They are endowed with a highly educated workforce and blessed with a strong and vibrant middle class. These nations excel in law, medicine, engineering, scientific and technological advancement, with modernised commercial and transportation infrastructures.

But corruption has flipped the state of our Nigerian cities and villages into the Gehenna of despicability. Our cities are in decay; Our roads are pits of mishaps, and the public educational system is like a public toilet. Nigeria’s young people, who are the nation’s present and future, and the crème de la crème and corps d’elite of the engine that drives everything, are troubled. They are the hearts of our Police protecting our streets; major organs of the military fighting our wars. They build our roads and labour in our businesses, and no glorious things have happened to Nigeria that her youths did not help bring about. The Nigerian state seems to have forgotten our young people and railroaded their destinies. Grating economic conditions have forced young girls to become high-end prostitutes, and the boys have turned killers, kidnappers, thugs, and armed robbers. These are the effects of corruption unleashed on the innocents. The foul facilitators of the malodor are men like Mamman, who was trusted with power.

You will recall that during a meeting with former president Buhari, US president Donald Trump said this about Nigeria: “In terms of corruption, Nigeria has a reputation, as you understand very well, for very massive corruption. I also know that the president has been able to cut that down very substantially. We talked about it, and he is working on it; they have made a lot of progress, and they will continue to make progress. We have a lot of people that invest in Nigeria, so cutting down on corruption is very important to us.” All around the globe, Nigerians have been called terrible names. Late US Retired General Colin Powell called them “crooks”. Famous Washington Post Foreign Service Correspondent, Keith Richburg, said Nigeria is “…the world capital of the business. Shake hands but be sure to count your fingers”. TV Queen and Billionaire Oprah Winfrey once said Nigeria is “the world’s most corrupt…All Nigerians – regardless of their level of education – are corrupt”. US Senator Ted Cruz of Texas has called all Nigerians ‘e-mail scammers’.

All of them based their opinion on what they found out about some unscrupulous Nigerians with so much power and access to public money.

This surprising verdict against Mamman in a Nigerian court has now become a provocateur of many questions. Is this the beginning of a sane change in the character of our judiciary and judges, or is this just a flaky and faint flash in the pan? What positive change in the mindsets of Nigeria’s greed-freaks in purlieu of power will hereon change? Will Maman’s conviction send a message to greedy and thieving powerful Nigerians that Karma is now a permanent resident in Nigeria? Are we certain that from now on, Nigerian big thieves are no longer considered sacred cows? Is Karma coming for other thieves, and how soon? These questions will be better answered as we keep our fingers crossed, waiting for the next big case of corruption involving the Nigerian high and mighty.