What The Papers Say
Unearthing the loot
National Concord of Nigeria
On Thursday, January 19th, the Federal Military Government announced a list of detainees. In all, 402 persons including many former governors are currently behind bars, while 266 others who were also arrested in the aftermath of the December 31st coup, had been released.Also announced was the recovery of more than 115 million and 148,000 pounds sterling cash from six of the detainees at the time of their arrests. Of this amount former Kano State Governor Sabo Bakin Zuwo and Imo State Governor Sam Mbakwe topped the list with N3.4 million and N1 million respectively.
The rather delayed timing of the announcement, had earlier given room for unnecessary speculations and rumour mongering concerning the number of those in detention and the amounts allegedly recovered from them. Such a situation was evidently not healthy for the country.
It may be necessary for the government to differentiate between those who, perhaps because they were businessmen, had reasons to be in possession of the large quantity of naira notes found with them, and those who, being public officials, had no legitimate reasons for keeping the sums they had with them.
It is of course true that the attitude of keeping large sums of money at home is questionable, even for businessmen in more advanced countries. It does not only raise questions about why the banks cannot be trusted to keep the money at interest rates, but also poses an open invitation to men of the underworld. In any system, this attitude is treated as a rise case of financial indiscipline. And to say that a society like ours where 'big' people 'spray' money openly on the foreheads of dancers and musicians daily is financially indisciplined, is perhaps to make an understatement. Our concern in this regard is primarily over the levels of guilt among those arrested.
Although the military is yet to tell us how those people all came about the monies found on them, some questions can yet be asked. What was Sabo Bakin Zuwo doing with N3.4 million cash at home? What was the like of Sam Mbakwedoing with N1 million cash at home? How did all six of them come about those large sums of money found with them? Were they fresh from the bank vaults or dirty old notes? Solutions to these questions may probably guide the government to the sources of the money, and the nature of financial indiscipline which our politicians generally exhibited between 1979 and December 31st, 1983.
As for those of them who were caught with foreign currencies, we can also say that their case on this score is clear enough. We do not know of any law in the statute books, under which they operated between 1979 and 1983, which permitted them to hold such vast sums of foreign money within Nigeria.
But let it not be misunderstood that N5 million and 148,000 pounds, together or respectively, bear any significant relevance to the mind-boggling level of graft and profligacy displayed by Nigerian politicians between October 1979 and December 1983. Most of those who ran the government did not believe in keeping vast sums like Bakin Zuwo's N3.4 million at home. They knew craftier ways of storing such vast sums of money within Nigeria and overseas. Nigerians therefore, expect a much more far reaching investigation into the financial conduct of the last civilian administration and its chief operatives.
All things being equal
People's Daily Graphic, Ghana
At Parliament House last Tuesday, one of the participants at the debate on the 1984 Budget Estimates, an Executive Member of Osu PDC, made a very interesting contribution.He said that Ghanaians should go back to the former SLAVE MASTER and learn from him. Only then will this country, which we all love so much, become the land flowing with milk and honey.
His contribution, needless to say, was received with disbelief by the greater part of the participants. But it was a People's Assembly and Mr P.V. Obeng, the Chairman for the function, allowed him to express his views, unpopular though many thought them to be.
At the end of the function, our reporters talked to some of the participants and invariably all of them, after expressing this and that view asked: "By the way, what is this man doing on an Executive Committee of a PDC?" We are reminded of this man's contribution by a report we carried in our columns yesterday. F.A. Jantuah, Ashanti Regional Secretary, is reported to have said that price control would work only when supply exceeds demand, otherwise not.
It would appear that our Ashanti Regional Secretary is a believer in classical economic theory in which every proposition is prefaced with "CETERIS PARIBUS" (a Latin tag which translates as "all things being equal".).
Classical Economics is founded on the PROFIT MOTIVE. It states that if prices of goods and services then, ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL, supply will increase since there are more incentives for production. The People's Daily Graphic believes that we are led into the mess we are in because however logical and obvious classical economic theory may sound, ALL THINGS ARE NOT EQUAL.
Who among us is not a witness to the manipulation of the system by politicians and privileged classes? And who among us cannot see the oppression of those who are not free in a free market?
Is F.A. Jantuah suggesting that in a situation of scarcity, the well-off can buy at rocket-high prices and the poor must do without their basic needs until such distant future time that supply equals demand?
The Graphic would agree that rigid price control which takes no account of seasonal and regional differences can bring more hardship than those which it is meant to alleviate. But we are surprised to hear his outright support for a system which favours the already favoured and penalises the have-nots.
We find it difficult to reconcile his view of economics with the report, also in yesterday's issue, that he has set up a committee of enquiry into charges levelled against medical officers of the Komfo Anokye Hospital.
The malpractices which he condemns so roundly amount to a scarcity of medical care. Demand exceeds supply. Therefore prices rise and those who can pay more get medical treatment, and those who cannot pay die.
Of course, we do not agree with this. But we are surprised that Mr Jantuah, like us, does not agree with this too because this is the logical extension of his views on price control.
We would like to see more consistency in his economic theory.
