By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
National President of the League of Nigerian Columnists, Akogun Tola Adeniyi, has taken a swipe at wealthy Nigerians who made donations to the federal government in the wake of the ravaging coronavirus pandemic.
Chief Adeniyi, the Jagun Oodua, said such donations were ill-advised and thoughtless because they were funds poured into ” leaking baskets.”
Chief Adeniyi, Fellow of the Commonwealth Journalists Association, said this in a statement on Monday, which he sent to TheNiche.
Though he commended what he called “the Nigerian Unitary and state governments” for their efforts at combating the virus, he, nevertheless, said the pandemic exposed the “thoughtlessness of many Nigerians especially those whose bags have been filled to the brim with billions of Naira.”
Wondering why anyone would entrust his hard-earned money in the care of a government that is yet to account for the trillions of Naira it claimed to have recovered from looters of the treasury, Chief Adeniyi said “the wise thing to do for anybody who wants to offer palliatives to the less privileged Nigerians locked down by the pandemic is to purchase materials, foodstuffs, medicines, beds, hospitals, testing centres and several other facilities that would ameliorate the terrible situation evil minded scientists have imposed on the world.”
Below is a full text of the statement titled: COVID-19 AND THE FEDERAL LEAKING BASKET
One must commend the Nigerian Unitary and state governments for their responses to the Coronavirus pandemic. Governments even of the so-called advanced countries did not fare better as evidenced by the ravaging speed and spread of the catastrophic virus in their respective countries. It is our hope and prayer that the Supreme Intelligence who created the earth and the heavens will quickly put to shame the devilish intentions of those who created the wicked virus.
Meanwhile the Coronavirus pandemic has once again exposed the thoughtlessness of many Nigerians especially those whose bags have been filled to the brim with billions of Naira. Otherwise it is difficult to understand how any reasonable individual with their eyes and ears open chose to pour their hard earned cash into leaking baskets.
Except such individuals had just descended from the sky they should know that the Unitary Government of Abuja is home to currency-chewing snakes, rats, and other animals that are adept at burning down wherever money belonging to the commonwealth is kept.
To date nobody has convincingly rendered any account of the humongous sums of foreign cash recovered from accounts linked to the late Head of State General Sani Abacha. Nobody knows what happened to the huge sums of money found in Ikoyi and several other locations which Whistleblowers led the Unitary Government to. Government boasted that it has selectively recovered trillions of Naira from yesterday’s looters and yet no one has given account of what all these monies have been spent on, or who and who have recycled the loots back to their private pockets.
It is therefore baffling that anybody could decide to put their money into such leaking baskets. The wise thing to do for anybody who wants to offer palliatives to the less privileged Nigerians locked down by the pandemic is to purchase materials, foodstuffs, medicines, beds, hospitals, testing centres and several other facilities that would ameliorate the terrible situation evil minded scientists have imposed on the world.
As far as thinking Nigerians are concerned, all the huge monetary donations announced with fanfare would only end up in the leaking baskets which in turn would be collected to be recycled.
