Friday Sermon: The Money Changers

By Babatunde Jose

All wealth and riches emanate from one source – the Creator, who in turn gives man power to hold in trust for him all the wealth and riches in creation. No one can hold in trust what is not rightfully given to him. Anything that one takes upon himself by force or unjustly cannot work.

It is this that defines the futility of the leaders who insist on stealing money and creating wealth they would bequeath to generations unborn: History tells us that this does not work out like that. Such monies are often squandered by inheritors and dissipated and in the end lead on to misery, unhappiness, melancholy and depression.

It was the first moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria, the very Reverend James Ukegbu who observed at the Independence Day Interdenominational service in Lagos in 1987 that “if God did not judge Nigeria, He, the Sovereign Lord, may have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah”. According to Olusegun Adeniyi in one of his interventions, ‘it was a powerful and apt dramatization of the then fast deterioration of the social and moral situation in Nigeria’. More than 30 years later, most of us will agree that things are much worse in our country.

We thought we had seen the worst of our country then, but the profligacy of that time pales into insignificance compared to today’s madness. How else can we explain the discovery of enormous stockpiles of cash, in various currencies, in unexpected places all over the country? Monies that are enough to better the lot of majority of Nigerians if judiciously used to finance social welfare projects. There is naked poverty in the land, which is accompanied by serious impoverishment and agony. People are suffering and many are dying. According to available data, facts point to a worsening of the phenomenon: A glaring indictment of successive leaders. The Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and the UNDP in 2015 published data on the incidence of poverty in Nigeria showing that, on average, 46% of Nigerians are living in poverty. This is based on the UN’s Global Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index which focuses on Education, Health and Living Standards. Although this average is in itself bad, it masks even more serious internal inequalities and incidences of extreme poverty by region and gender. The findings of Action Aid Nigeria, in their report on ‘Corruption and Poverty in Nigeria’ found that: 1. Public funds have been mismanaged by the state governors, ministers, legislators, and ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) at national, state and local government levels who control the machinery of government and are responsible for the deployment of resources for welfare and development. 2. The private sector, which has carried out capital projects on contract basis at national, state and local government levels, has also been involved in corruption, either in the form of kickbacks, non-performance, or under-declaration of internal operations including profits. 3. Money laundering has become a major means through which looted money from Nigeria is taken out to other secret destinations, usually in other countries. 4. Operations in the Nigerian extractive industry are still opaque and are not properly and effectively monitored by agencies and civil society. 5. Massive corruption has diverted funds from wealth and employment generation sectors of the economy, making poverty reduction difficult to achieve. 6. The anti-corruption agencies have not been able to win the war against corruption through effective and diligent prosecution of persons accused of corruption, thus weakening public confidence and support for the agencies and their efforts. 7. The anti-corruption agencies do not have the capacity for systematic data collection, making the building of a comprehensive database of corruption cases difficult. 8. There are legal impediments that frustrate the trial of corruption cases in the country, such as the perpetual injunction granted corrupt politicians against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). 9. The politicization of corruption by the government, in which people who have been indicted and or convicted of corruption are given state pardon for reasons of political expediency, as well as their rehabilitation by the government weakens the fight against corruption. The shielding of public officials from facing investigation against corruption has also not helped matters. 10. There is a lack of political will at the highest levels of government to reduce corruption.

The correlation between corruption and poverty in Nigeria is therefore flabbergasting, dumbfounding, if not astounding; that under this prevailing condition of recession and virtual collapse of the economy, the following cash finds are being made as if Allah in his incomprehensibility has ‘opened the gates of heaven’s bank’ to rain cash on these people. The Pendulum vividly catalogued the finds in the Boss Newspaper of last Saturday:

• The voyage of discovery started in February 2017 when EFCC operatives raided a building said to belong to Andrew Yakubu, former Group Managing Director of the NNPC. They recovered almost $10 million dollars and £100,000 from a safe ensconced in a building deep in the outback of Kaduna.
• Last March another discovery of hefty cash was made at Kaduna Airport. The sum of N49 million was intercepted by the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission as it was being ferried out through the airport. Upon examination, the bags were found to contain fresh crispy Naira notes of N200 denomination in 20 bundles totalling N40 million and N50 denomination in 180 bundles totalling N9 million with seal purportedly emanating from the Nigeria Security and Minting Plc. (NSPM) as seen in the labelled sealed pack.
• April 7 a whistle-blower tipped off the EFCC Lagos Zone that a large sum of money was stashed in an office building at the LEGICO Flats Shopping Plaza in the Nigeria Air Force Complex in Victoria Island.  When Operatives raided the office, they found almost N500 million in N1000 and N500 denominations in several “Ghana Must Go” bags. On enquiry it was discovered that the offices concerned were ‘abandoned’ Bureau De Change (BDC) offices.  The offices had apparently not been used for two years.
• The next major heralded whistleblowing event occurred on April 10 when the equivalent of almost N250 Million in Naira and various foreign currencies was recovered in a Bureau De Change (BDC) in the popular Balogun Market area of Lagos.  Although two people were apprehended, they claimed the money belonged to their unidentified boss from the Northern part of Nigeria.
• On 12 April 2017 Nigerians woke up to the revelation that more than $43 Million, was found in a flat in Osborne Road, Ikoyi. The discovery in Ikoyi has apparently opened a can of worms and it is not known who will be exposed and consumed by the debacle.  Unlike the other unknown and un-named owners affected by the previous whistleblowing escapades, a few people have been touted as potential owners of the property and the money.

Psalm 39:6 (NIV) tells us:”Asiwere nko oro jo, lasan, lai mo eni ti yio nii”, “Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom; in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth without knowing whose it will finally be.” Yet, the aggrandizement goes on at the expense of the suffering masses.

In a piece titled; NO, WE ARE NOT HUNGRY BECAUSE WE ARE LAZY! By Prof Yusuf Dankofa he opined:  “A governor spend 8 years and allot unto himself through legislative surrogates millions as pension while the poor spends 35 years as a messenger and dies awaiting his pension and the same elite parasite who had cornered all the juicy contracts and landed properties as ex-governor or senator will mount the podium and declare the poor as lacking in intellect and the drive to succeed.  Dishonesty has always been the cardinal principle of the elite’ class in Nigeria so much so that any budgetary allocation for the poor goes to them, excluding the poor.  Bank of Agriculture was established to help poor farmers but ended up helping the elites who are consumers.  Microfinance banks were established to empower the poor but end up in supporting the elites. Fertilizers that will help poor agrarians end up in the markets for round tripping and the poor becomes unable to buy. Education that should be made available to the poor as a matter of right so that he can be useful to himself and the society has been denied the poor and of what use is the life of an illiterate? Yet they become bus conductors who shout themselves hoarse from morning till evening and the permanent secretary who works from 10am to 3 pm with about 1 hour break will open his (dirty) mouth and say the poor is poor because he is lazy.”  No Sir, he is poor because you stole his patrimony and inheritance. I should add that this this is the height of injustice. Allah said in the Quran:

The Unbelievers spend their wealth to hinder (men) from the path of Allah, and so will they continue to spend; but in the end they will have (only) regrets and sighs; at length they will be overcome: And the Unbelievers will be gathered together to Hell (Quran 8:36)

Let those who are busy stealing money right, left and center; storing same in graves, burial chambers, soak-away pits and in empty luxury flats, remember the words of Allah in Sura Ar-Rum 39:

That which ye lay out for increase through the property of (other) people, will have no increase with Allah: (Quran 30:39)

On the great day of Qiyamah, they will be the losers:

Of no profit whatever to them, against Allah will be their riches nor their sons: They will be Companions of the Fire, to dwell therein (for aye)! (Quran 58:17)

The Quran says:

 Woe to every (kind of) scandal-monger and-backbiter, who pileth up wealth and layeth it by, Thinking that his wealth would make him last forever! (Quran 104:1-3)

Allah says there will be:

No profit to him from all his wealth, and all his gains! (Quran 111:2)

It is reported by Jabir that the Prophet said: The flesh and body that is raised on unlawful sustenance shall not enter Paradise. Hell is more deserving to the flesh that grows on one’s body out of unlawful sustenance.

Allay says:

“O you who have believed, indeed many of the scholars and the monks devour the wealth of people unjustly and avert [them] from the way of Allah. And those who hoard gold and silver and spend it not in the way of Allah – give them tidings of a painful punishment.” (Quran 9:34).

Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend.

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