An excellent choice
By Donu Kogbara
OLUMIDE Akpata – fondly known as Olu to some of his friends – is the new president of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA; and I am absolutely delighted – not just for him but for the legal profession.
His formidable intellect, extensive career credentials and pioneering activities aside, he is a gentleman of unimpeachable character.
I’ve known him for a couple of decades and can confidently say that he knows the difference between right and wrong. I know the kind of upbringing he had and can confirm that though he is sociable and flexible on certain levels, he isn’t fond of moral compromises.
Akpata, who was born in 1972, secured more than half of the votes that were cast in last week’s NBA election, pipping two respected SANs (Senior Advocates of Nigeria) to the post by a wide margin.
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It is said that many young lawyers voted for him because they are sick and tired of their profession’s tarnished image…and feel that Akpata will be like a breath of fresh air and a cleansing new broom.
At a time in our history when there is so much corrosive sleaze tainting the public space – an era in which numerous judges, barristers and federal as well as state attorneys-general have been accused or suspected of being mercantile rather than principled – I hope that Akpata will not disappoint we who have faith in him.
I will be fervently praying that he copes with the obstacles that corrupt vested interests will undoubtedly throw in his path.
I will keep my fingers tightly crossed that Olu Akpata will become a legendarily dynamic yet laudably self-deprecating NBA boss who turns the tide, restores confidence and makes his supporters proud.
Government contractors
OVER the years and on-and-off, I’ve worked for (as a political appointee) or with (as a consultant) various government bodies, including ministries, state governments, parastatals and committees. I’ve also – even when I haven’t held any official staff or freelance position – been platonically chummy with VIPs who have, at various points in time, headed one well-resourced institution or the other.
In all of the above capacities – staff/appointee or consultant or Friend of Oga or Madame At The Top – I’ve been frequently approached by desperate contractors who are owed money.
Some are owed billions, some less than N10 million. Some have been owed for a few weeks or months. Others have been owed for years.
It is, sadly, impossible to help everyone who needs help in a world that is a vale of tears and unrewarded labour for most members of the human race. But I’ve always tried to help as many peeps as I can.
However, I’m not skilled at hustling or getting the most out of my VIP pals. So despite my substantial access to the corridors of power, I am rarely able to conclusively solve my own financial problems, never mind anyone else’s. And I’m so very sorry to say that I have woefully failed most of the contractors who’ve relied on me.
OK, so a contractor called me a couple of days ago, to find out whether I’d made any progress with my promise to pursue a Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, debt on his behalf.
He had approached me because he had heard that I am on good terms with some of the NDDC’s senior executives.
I had told him that I wasn’t sure I could persuade my senior executive friends to pay him. But I had promised to try my best to drag his money out of the NDDC system. But no luck so far. The contractor was utterly distraught when I told him that I hadn’t been able to persuade NDDC decision-makers to pay him.
His voice cracked over the phone. It was clear that he was on the verge of emotional collapse as he reminded me that he had borrowed cash to do the NDDC contract and is in hock to his bank and is panicking about lacking funds with which to take care of his family.
And you know what, Dear Vanguard Readers?
The more I think about the status quo, the more annoyed I become.
Why on earth should a contractor have to know me or anyone high up to get what he deserves? If he has performed adequately, payment should be automatic within a reasonable timespan. This cruel withholding of payments, sometimes for years and years on end, generates corruption. And it needs to stop.
If organisations flatly refuse to pay honest contractors on time, the contractors have to go on bended knee to beg the big boys and gals who run the organisation. And if the contractors cannot directly access the big boys and gals, they try to access cronies like me.
Meanwhile, anything that involves begging in Nigeria will, nine times of ten, definitely have a huge price tag attached to it. And the bitter truth is that contractors often wind up having to surrender a significant chunk of their profits to anyone – whether in-house employee or freelance intermediary – who enables them to get paid.
Can I humbly address a plea to the management teams of the many government bodies that are psychologically torturing contractors? Can I beg you in the name of Jesus or Allah to abandon your hard-hearted modus operandi and start paying on a chronological basis?
I recently encountered a very decent lady whose struggling company has been owed N15 million by NDDC for eight years. Meanwhile, favoured contractors are collecting billions for work they only did yesterday…or work they didn’t do at all!!!
Meanwhile, I’m hearing rumours that some contractors have died before they were paid…and that their deaths may have been triggered off by stress caused by non-payment for work done.
If President Buhari is sincere when he claims to value justice and to be fighting sleaze, he will insist that NDDC and every other government body will start to settle debts in a totally fair way, starting with those who have been owed for the longest time.
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