By Godfree Matthew Esq
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Introduction
Nigeria is an interesting nation when it comes to accountability and transparency in management of public finances. The leaders are global actors in the complicity of corruption, and the followers are apologists of their leaders in the theatre of corruption, provided ethnicity and religion bind them. Global indexes on corruption and other related indexes do not help matters. They are rich with information that is research friendly, especially, if one is a cynic of this regime.
Animals as Metaphor of Corruption
In Nigeria, corruption is a relative concept depending on who committed the act, who was the beneficiaries of the corrupt practices, who got caught and who is prosecutable. Perhaps, that is why Chinua Achebe in his book, the Trouble with Nigeria, 1983, said, “Keeping an average Nigerian from being corrupt is like keeping a goat from eating a yam. Just as a goat needs yam for its nourishment, so does a Nigerian needs corruption for his survival.” What an ignominy of analogy! But the bitter the pill, the better the panacea. That is not to say all Nigerians are corrupt. Just yesterday a Nigerian police officer was commended for refusing $200,000 bribe.
Achebe’s metaphor of a goat in describing corruption is now becoming a reality. His prose has shown that there are instances when a metaphor can become a personified reality. Today in Nigeria, especially under President Muhammadu Buhari, animals are the center of a lot of corruption controversies. If the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) is applicable to animals, animals in Nigeria will receive a lot of laureates and accolades of ‘ignominy’. This is because in Nigeria, ‘grass-cutting’ (which later became popular as ‘grass-cutter’) was alleged to gulp ₦544M, a snake was accused of swallowing ₦36 Million, and a gorilla swallowed the highest amount; ₦6.8 Billion in Kano Zoo. Python and crocodiles have selective places they choose to ‘dance’ and ‘smile’, and the latest stunt is that of termites eating up documents containing expenditures worth ₦17b. And currently, the intriguing news is that, the Minister of Agriculture in Nigeria, said ₦19b was used to clear the bushes where some of these animals resided. Is this creating another impression that perhaps the ministry of agriculture is searching for these animals to arrest via bush clearing?
The first popular saga alluding to the metaphor of animal in corruption scandal is the grass-cutting gate. This is a corruption case involving millions of naira relating to the office of the Presidential Intervention in North East (PINE). The main actor in this theatre was the former SGF. The case is still on trial.
Corruption by animal kingdom in Nigeria is not only restricted to politics alone. It also permeates the educational sector. In 2018, when the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) could not account for ₦36 Million, the Clerk, said that the amount was swallowed by a snake- a great mystery of the 21st Century.
In 2019, report has it that a gorilla swallowed ₦6.8 Million in Kano Zoo. In response to this development, the governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje assured Nigerians that the matter is under investigation. Up to now, no cogent update was given either in favour or against the gorilla.
Also, animals are used symbolically to promote extra-judicial killings in the guise of security operations. In promoting security in the South East, the Crocodile is ready to smile and the Python is ready to dance, but in checking bandits and terrorist in Nigeria, smiling and dancing are not attributes of animals. With this, both python and crocodile are on recess. Moral lesson-python and crocodile are only active against the Southerners, but when it comes to security in the North, these ferocious animals are kept in Zoo.
Recently, the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) said that termites have eaten the documents evincing transaction of ₦17b. The question to ask is when did the transaction occur? What were the other alternative means of effecting the transactions? What were the previous, and the latest audit reports of that organization? Also, what role has other financial institutions played in monitoring such transactions?
The recent reference to termites destroying the receipt is not only pathetic but a metaphysical horror. It further shows how retarded Nigeria public sector is, and how inefficient our institutions are.
What is even puerile about references to animals as the perpetrators of the corrupt act is that authors of those statements are not metaphorical, but real. They are not figurative, but literal in what they meant. I think it is high time for People for the Ethical Treatments of Animals (PETA) to institute a class action against Nigerian public office holders for defaming animals for acts that are purely committed by human beings.
In legal parlance, cases involving animal liability, the animals per se, cannot be sued for any act they committed; rather it is their owners who will be responsible for the acts of their animals. Lawyers call this a doctrine of vicarious liability. As such the question to ask is who owns the grass-cuter, the naira swallowing snakes, the dancing python, the smiling crocodile and the receipts eating termites? By law, all these animals are under the care and protection of their owners (including government), as most of them are wild animals. That is why the government has Zoo. Thus, the escape of grass cutter, snakes, python and crocodiles into human habitation to wreak havoc to Nigeria’s public finance and the citizens is a clear indication that something is wrong with the management of the Nigerian Zoo. Thus, are Nigerians prompt by this development to agree with Nnamdi Kanu’s allusion to Nigeria as Zoo? One’s freedom of opinion is allowed here.
As of termites, it is animus terra habitus that lives in soil and since all lands belongs to the government. Termites only operate in a habitation where its victim is abandoned. It acts on abandoned property. Thus, termites eating vouchers implies negligence on part of those entrusted with the custody of preserving those documents. As such you cannot blame a vulture for perching over a carcass.
Symbolic Imports of Animals in African Value System and Nigerian Paradox
Some of the animals referred to as culprits of corruptions by Nigerians are revered ‘spirits’ in African cultures. Socially, they are symbols of prestige and virtue; religiously, they are totems and deities of some people, and culturally, they are ancestors of some people. Here one must respect the tolerance of traditional worshipers (who venerate these animals), because referring to some of these animals as agents of corruption, is an attack on their deities that should have aroused the accusation of blasphemy, but they choose to overlook.
In animal world, a snake represents wisdom, healing and protection, but in Nigeria, it is portrayed with vices of theft and vandalism. The hailing symbol of snakes is manifested in the fact that one of the Greek Heroes, Asclepius, associated with medicine and study of poison, has a snake as his symbol. That is why the staff of the Cardescius also has a snake encircling a staff. Christians and Jews also allude to the import of the symbolic healing of snake, when Moses made a bronze serpent to look up to for healing.
Animal experts say whenever one sees grass-cuter in a dream it symbolizes popular support and generosity, but the story in ‘Nigerian Dream’ is a different one. The ‘grass-cutter’ in Nigeria is a ‘greedy animal’ that gulped public finances to the detriment of outstanding arrears, salaries and other emoluments of Nigerians.
Gorilla represents dignity, good leadership and family. The family import of gorilla is tenable from the scientific findings that all human beings belongs or evolved along the family lines with gorilla. Thus, one expects that ‘gorilla’ in Kano Zoo should have been a symbol of dignity, good leadership and familihood. However, the ‘gorilla’ in Kano preferred to do the opposite- in place of dignity, it chose ignominy, in place of good leadership, it chose kleptocracry (by swallowing millions of Naira), and in place of family, it elected to be a loner. The gorilla allegory fits aptly into Nigeria’s context today where there is no dignity in leadership. Bad leadership has helped in disuniting the ‘Nigerian Family’ along the religious and ethnic lines. That is what the action of the gorilla in Kano symbolizes about Nigeria.
Termites symbolically represent overcoming challenges, capacity building and confidence among other things. The termites would have been an ideal animal symbolism that Nigeria needs in times like this. Nigeria as a nation has a gargantuan challenge to overcome. In order to do that, capacity building of Nigerian leaders and followers are necessary. Confidence in the leadership of Nigeria needs to be addressed. Thus, the termites ought to be a national ‘totem’ that Nigeria direly needs in a time like this. Instead, the NSITF has chosen to give termites a different nomenclature as ‘terrorist’ who wreck havoc on our public finances.
Grass cutters, snakes and termites are animals with friendly and nice attributes, did not make Nigeria ‘smile’ and ‘dance.’ Rather, the animals that make Nigerians smile and dance are the crocodiles and pythons. Symbolists will tell us that crocodile represents deceit and danger. In another clime, seeing crocodile in dream means that danger lies ahead. A question that this reader needs to ask is, considering the current wave of unbridled insecurity in Nigeria and political turmoil, is the crocodile omen a reality? May God save Nigeria.
Python is another animal that has a good symbolism in animal world. In West African tradition, Python is believed to protect people from slavery. Hence it attracts the veneration of its followers. It is apposite to say that Nigerians needs python in times like this. They need python that will save them from slavery of banditry, kidnapping, terrorism and other social malaise. This is the type of python that they will need so that they can dance to the tune of liberty.
Because of the role of python as a protector, it is believed that if one sees a python in a dream, it symbolizes a sign of vigour and strength to overcome. The question is how many Nigerians are dreaming along that line? How many Nigerian have seen crocodiles as a protector in their dreams? For if in reality, a python, cannot prove the symbolic imports of python as powerful agent against insecurity in Nigeria, it will be difficult to believe what the python stands for in a dream. For dreams/symbolisms will make more meanings of tallies with reality on ground.
Conclusion
The reference to animals as culprits or conspirators of corruption in Nigeria is not speaking well about us in 21st Century. Such views portray Nigeria as a nation that is still with the mindset of Stone Age. It is the opinion of this writer that these cases should be prosecuted to logical conclusions. We also enjoined anti-graft agencies (May God increase their wisdom) to keep records of all these spurious cases and prosecute the perpetrators of such acts of corruption. After that, let the world know the outcome of these trials so that these animals could be vindicated against such allegations. Animals’ dignity should be respected in Nigeria, even in words.
Written By Godfree Matthew Esq
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