Recently, the ghost of the long rested Obono-Obla’s 86 luxury vehicles saga again assaulted our consciousness. Resurrected by some anti-corruption crusaders who took to the media to invoke the spirit, the apparition now hovers menacingly over us. The crusaders want President Bola Tinubu to revive the glaring corrupt case buried by his predecessor, late former president Muhamadu Buhari and punish the offender.
There is doubt that Nigeria’s fight against corruption suffered its greatest setback during the celebrated case. To most watchers then , many Nigerians applauded the efforts of the Obla Committee’s commitment to corruption in the country’s civil service then, but to everyone’s utter surprise and dismay, Ibrahim not only survived the Obla assault with the active connivance of top government functionaries, but he got all the alleged loot back with apologies to booth! The poor seasoned lawyer had to run for his life, a classical case of “the hunter becoming the hunted”.
It is understandable that many Nigerians were disappointed by the turn of events and gave up on the anti-corruption fight. Under a new government, the agitation to revisit the case has been gaining traction amid pockets of apprehensions that the protagonist can as usual subvert the process and walk free.
Ibrahim had always boasted to his friends that his ambition was to become one of the richest civil servants that Nigeria would ever produce. He worked extra hard to attain the status during his career as a civil servant where he retired as a substantive director.
That the former director was able to survive every probe and petitions against him over alleged corrupt enrichment is phenomenal. However, fillers from those who know the former federal permanent secretary closely indicated that Tumsah as much as we want the justice to take its course, needs our sympathy and prayers now having said to be battling a serious end of life crisis.
The once loquacious Ibrahim who exudes fears and trepidation in ministries where he worked, talking down on his colleagues and even superiors because of his influence with some highly placed persons in government, has become a shadow of himself.
A close friend of ours visited last week and disclosed that rapid deterioration and self-destruction have been visited upon Ibrahim through unexplained physical and mental health challenges. His mental health is said to be rapidly deteriorating fast with irrational outcomes that is making others desert him including family members.
This sad development is what a writer referred to as nemesis in a piece published in some media outlets recently. The writer referenced Ibrahim’s unstable marital life, constant conflicts with children and siblings in his analogy of his mental state, stating that “Nemesis, the love child of Karma, is at work in a very disturbing and sinister way.”
“Life they say has a way of catching up with you, God will condone your infractions until judgement day, but when it comes to infractions against the larger populace leading to insane and inexplicable acts of corruption, cheating and toxic enrichment, it is apparent that one will start seeing the consequences right here on earth.
“We have seen several examples especially with elected officials and government workers who unlawfully enrich themselves by virtue of their positions, like he did, usually don’t end well because that’s the consequence of corruption arising from betrayal of public trust. Let’s all learn from the sad story of Ibrahim Musa Tumsah,” he wrote.
It is public knowledge that Ibrahim had a controversial stint in the public service with a series of corruption allegations hovering around him. The most celebrated was the one investigated by the Special Investigation Panel on the Recovery of Public Property headed by the former Special Assistant to the late President Buhari on Prosecutions, Chief Okoi Obono-Obla.
As a director of finance and account in the ministry of housing, he was found with 86 new luxury cars and charged with fraud by the Obono-Obla committee. Somehow, despite the enormity of the alleged crime, Ibrahim finds his way through the system and survives the onslaught against him. The case seems permanently buried following the dissolution of the Obono-Obla-led committee altogether by the late President Buhari in September, 2019.
But while Nigerians seemed to have given up over the case and moved on, some persons recently reawakened their consciousness by calling for a revisit of the saga. However, as the federal government ponders on the request of the anti-corruption crusaders it is imperative to reflect on Ibrahim’s current state of mind based on the mental health revelation. The former director as it were is in a precarious state if the information provided above on his current status is anything to go by. He therefore deserves some level of sympathy while drawing lessons from the turn of events.
John writes from Kado, Abuja