THISDAYonline

Most Nigerians are convinced that President Olusegun Obasanjo's anti-corruption war is a grand failure, long on rhetoric but short on action. Even Sani Abacha's War Against Indiscipline and Corruption (WAI-C) which saw sanity return to the banking industry following various harsh sentences handed down to a large number of bank executives for malpractices is regarded as far more successful. The two reasons often cited for the widely perceived failure of Obasanjo's ethical crusade are lack of personal will and the character of the people in his administration. In spite of everything, no one has accused Obasanjo of being personally corrupt; the only possible exception is the Tempo newspaper `.which in a recent cover story on Otunba Johnson Fasawe, the president's man Friday, suggested that the Owo-born chief may, after all, be a business front for Obasanjo.

I still want to believe that the president does not yet strike me as someone who can accept kick-backs for contracts. But one or two recent events have made most people wonder if Obasanjo can successfully escape the accusation of corrupt enrichment. Let us take the example of an interview in The News magazine of April 23, 2000 by one Emeka Offor, a controversiaL Igbo young man said to be a major financier of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The young man claimed that President Obasanjo's government "is offering me a (sic) N8 billion NEPA contract in Gombe - Bauchi axis". Earlier in the interview, the young chap had stated that the president had offered him the chairmanship of NITEL Ltd which he declined, presumably because it is infra dig for him; consequently, Emeka Offor said he gave the job to one of his aides named Martin Igbokwe, a physician based in one of the villages in the Eastern part of Nigeria.

Shortly after his administration was inaugurated on May 29, 1999, President Obasanjo endeared himself to a lot of Nigerians when he directed ministries and parastatals to call for tender from the public anytime a contract was available. Most people hailed the new policy because, apart from competitive bidding, it would make for transparency. Can the N8 billion NEPA contract offer to Emeka Offor be considered transparent?

The offer is obviously not based on competitive bidding. This means that Chief Obasanjo has gravely deviated from his own established policy of accountability. We may ask: With whom did Emeka Offor compete for the job? When was that? Did Mr. Offor offer the lowest amount? Did he offer better conditions than his competitors? Is his company technically superior to the competing companies? Is the job truly worth N8 billion?

All these questions are important because N8 billion is a lot of money anywhere in the world. One had thought that the era of the country's leadership deliberately frittering away with huge national resources had ended with the hated Babangida and Abacha regimes. What is more, is it not amazing that at a time President Obasanjo persistently declares his commitment to turn around the performance of the NEPA, its colossal N8 billion is being used for sheer political patronage?

There is nothing which shows that Emeka Offor knows anything about power engineering. He has never been in power business. But I do concede he knows one or two things about oil refinery business because his Chrome Oil company is the Nigerian commission agent of the Romanian company which caused the public to raise eye-brows when under the Abacha regime it won contracts for the Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) of the old and new Port Harcourt Refineries for over $200 million. The integrity and performance of the contracts are another question altogether.

Emeka Offor must be a most favoured Nigerian, maybe the luckiest Nigerian in history. Far from being deservedly blacklisted among those who had all kinds of business deals with the very corrupt Abacha regime, he is being offered irresistible jobs, left and right. Offor told The News that the president called and asked him to become the NITEL Chairman because he is one Nigerian who would not touch even a kobo belonging to the public. Like NEPA, NITEL provides basic infrastructure which is at the heart of Nigeria's development. What qualifies Offor to play a central role in the performance of these two critical bodies so much so that the President of the Nigeria has been begging him to accept mouth- watering offers?

In this era of information superhighway, information technology, the Internet, warts and all, if Nigeria practically depends on NITEL to make a headway, is it not sensible that a .highly skilled professional head its vital board, rather than just any government contractor? What does Obasanjo's choice of elements like Offor to head a hi-tech company like NITEL tell us about Obasanjo's vision of Nigeria in the 21st century? I can't honestly remember meeting the young man anywhere, but reports I have heard and read about him are by no means flattering. My brother -in-law who was for three years his classmate at Abbot Boys Secondary School in Ihiala, Anambra State, until they wrote the school certificate examination in May/June of 1977 never tires to tell everyone that Offor did not for once share the last position in the class with anyone; his school certificate result was, of course, outstanding! In other words, Offor does not strike me as possessing the mental acuity required to run a place like NITEL. Therefore, isn't the president toying with places as crucial to national survival as NEPA and NITEL?

Since no one has denied the claim of mouth - watering offers to Emeka Offor, I have been wondering whether Obasanjo is still as committed to accountability as he was at the beginning of his administration. Is the president so gripped by the fever of re-election in 2003 that he is enthusiastic to compromise even his battle against deliberate mismanagement of the nation's resources which we often called the Nigerian Factor? Is he now ready to go to bed with all manner of people?

Emeka Offor says he installed Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju as Governor of Anambra State. Perhaps, this is a fact. But my Igbo in-laws have always made it clear that they all voted as one man for the PDP in the hope of enhancing Dr. Alex Ekwume's presidential chances. I never heard of Emeka Offor till now. But I was stunned to read in the newspapers that he insisted on nominating the Commissioner for Finance and the Commissioner for Works in his native Anambra State; he succeeded. Most Nigerians would wonder what could motivate a young man to insist fiercely even with the last drop of his blood that the Ministries of Works and of Finance be assigned to his "boys". Worse still, a human rights group last year went to court in Onitsha asking that an impeachment process be initiated against Governor Mbadinuju because his Commissioner for Finance, Chief Mark Oduah, is an ex-convict; he was found guilty by a judicial body of financial malpractices at the African Continental Bank. Chief Oduah was, of course, nominated by Emeka Offor, the man who says the president vouches for his integrity.

As I reflect on the President Obasanjo - Emeka Offor romance, I wonder if the country has not seen its best days under the democratic dispensation. What really is the meaning of accountability? What really is corruption or the infamous Nigerian factor when neither key contracts nor appointments are given to the best in our society?

kojie writes from Lagos,