While I Wa s Away
Before any soft-sell magazine beats me to it, let me confide in you that I was away for one

Comfort Obi

month, almost. And, gosh, did I miss this country? The one month seemed like one year to me. I was looking at the calendar, ticking off the dates, to the embarrassment of my hosts. The questions I got from our brothers and sisters in the diaspora were: Why don’t you stay here and rest? What do you miss except no light, no water, insecurity of lives and property? I agreed with them, but they are lost souls. They don’t understand what it is to say: I am home. They don’t understand that, excuse this cliche, “East or West, home is the best.”
The beautiful thing about Nigeria is: there is no dull moment. So, while I was away, so many things happened. The former Governor of Bayelsa, DSP Alameyiesigha, aka Alams, was hurled back to Nigeria from Dubai where he had been for a cure to his failing health. I know The Source was not one of his fans while he was in office, but I was upset when I heard that he was brought back against his doctor’s views. I cursed whoever was behind it, and I said to no one in particular: Alams may be a thief, but if anything happens to him, it will be trouble. But talk about a light at the end of a dark tunnel! Courtesy of Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, and the compassionate side of President Umaru Yar’Adua, a plea bargain was arranged. Alams was sentenced to a mere two-year jail term (which he had served since his detention). Now, he is free, and he can now take care of his health . A free advice for him though: Forget about the forfeited assets. You will survive. Afterall, you didn’t have them before you became a governor.
Behind me too, some ex-governors were arrested by the rampaging Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and hurled into detention. The good news is that they are being granted bail one after the other by the courts. The bail terms are unnecessarily very stringent. Still, they should thank God for little mercies. If former President Olusegun Obasanjo was still calling the shots, they would have been given the Alams treatment.
At The Source here, the big one happened while I was away. We got a letter from a subject of a story that was carried in the magazine a couple of weeks back. The contents and the claim: Well, a mere one billion naira to the subject whom the story allegedly libelled, or they would proceed to courts. My reaction after reading the lawyer’s letter: Good. We’ll meet in court. By the time we finish with him in the courts, he should be the one paying us that one billion naira. I am already planning what we can do with it.
But talking about The Source, it out-sourced itself in its edition of July 30, 2007. In a cover headline, it became the judge and prosecutor in the case against the ex-governors who were dragged to the courts by the EFCC for alleged money laundering. The Source, with the photographs of the ex-governors splashed on the cover: “Their Looting Excellencies.” It had two riders. One: The case against Kalu, Turaki, Dariye, Nnamani and Nyame. Two: Plans to Implicate Obasanjo. So you ask: When did The Source become a prosecutor and judge? In casting that headline, it literarily found the ex-governors guilty of the alleged offences. So you ask again: Did The Source forget that the cases are in court, and that an accused person is innocent until found guilty? And more questions: Who were planning to implicate Obasanjo? The ex-governors?
Let the truth be told. Some of the allegations made by the EFCC are mind-boggling especially when one can claim to know some of the governors and how cash-strapped they always complained they were. But gosh, until proven otherwise, they remain innocent. All these trials, by the way, are part of life. Nobody should celebrate the misfortunes of others, even when they are self-inflicted. They should make us sober.
On a brighter side while I was away, President Yar’Adua is gradually weaning himself from Obasanjo. I beamed with smiles when I noticed some of the reversals he has made on some of the things Obasanjo’s regime inflicted on us. Here goes.
*Value Added Tax which he reduced from 10 per cent to 5 per cent. (It is easy to say he did that because of the crunching strike by the NLC, but it takes courage to do it.
*Recall of the sacked 44 University of Ilorin lecturers (The Obasanjo regime had declared that case closed).
*The release of the Lagos State Local Government Funds seized by the Obasanjo regime. (It was one of the reasons the PDP lost Lagos State in the 2007 general election).
*Re-opening of Ibeto Cement factory shut down by Obasanjo.
*Revocation of the sale of the Kaduna and Port Harcourt refineries sold by the Obasanjo regime.
*Inquest into the return of Dan Etete’s oil blocs which were surprisingly returned to him by the Obasanjo regime a couple of days before its demise.
*The stoppage of, atimes, cruel and heartless indiscriminate demolition of houses in the FCT, Abuja.
Indeed, I found it refreshing when the new FCT Minister apologised to the management of AIT over the demolition of its property in Abuja.
Just as we entered the Lagos air- space and were asked to get ready for landing, my face brightened. But my heart did a double take as I thought about the insecurity of lives and property in my dear country. On arrival, I picked up newspapers to read and the seriousness of it all stared me in the face. Armed robberies have become worse than ever. Innocent citizens are killed everyday as armed robbers have become more daring than ever. Policemen are being killed again after a lull. Assassinations and kidnappings of innocent citizens have become an everyday thing. And I remembered where I was: where one sleeps with bedroom doors open; where one could safely go out at anytime of the day or night.
Later, when I phoned my hosts to say “I’m back,” one of them replied, "We thank God for journey mercies. But please, don’t go out in the night.” I guess that was a dig at me. But well, I’m glad to be home.