"Unemployment,
underdevelopment and poverty everywhere in the land. Our people are living like
animals; we cannot even rear our children” – Source Unknown.
“Quite frankly, the war against
Corruption is not strictly about me; it is about building a country for our
children and forthcoming generations can live in peace and prosperity. All
around the country, you see dilapidated infrastructure, poor healthcare,
collapsed education, lack of public utilities, decayed social services, etc.
These are all products of corruption because those entrusted to deliver these
to the people have pocketed the money". – President Muhammadu Buhari, 11.12.2015
I am a very
simple writer; I write from the mind, untrained, unfettered, not under
obligation to or paid by anybody or newspaper, and thereby free of baggage and
garbage.
It is indeed
very difficult (or how else can we say it?), to sympathise with former
President Goodluck Jonathan, trying to absolve him of any complicity in the alleged
(yes, alleged for now) unbelievable, mind-boggling, brazen, raping and looting
of the country's treasury that they said went unchecked during his six year
tenure; insisting that because he relinquished power without a fuss when he
lost the last Elections, then he's an uncommon Hero; that he was a good and
decent man, but all admitted that he was not good leader and President.
All these
displays of sympathy are intended to appeal and convince us that Mr Jonathan
should be absolved of any crime perpetrated under his now almost discredited
government of mediocrity, nepotism, religious and tribal bigotry, deceit,
deception and undisguised hypocrisy and deliberately hoodwinking of the
Nigerian people.
How the
people who allegedly participated and benefited illegally under this ignoble
regime could think they could continue to rape the country, yet conceal their
crime for so long and further continuously consolidate these frauds without
detection at some point in time is beyond the imagination. The crime and
corruption are so massive, unfettered and unmanageable (even as a criminal
concern) that there was no possible way the "shit will not hit the
fan" sooner rather than later.
But due to
their singular mediocre minds, suffused with greed, selfishness and idiocy,
these alleged looters never ever gave a thought that their deeds will ever be
revealed. This proved to me that the PDP never expected Jonathan to lose the
election in March 2015. They were so confident they will still be in power, and
thereby able to conceal and continue the massive looting of the country’s
treasury, resources and assets. Some,
however foresaw the days of Revelation, and thought that by jumping ship - from
PDP to APC - they will be able to enjoy some form of immunity, or at least,
protection from the revelations that will eventually burst out. Some saw the
handwriting on the wall, but still decided to ignore the signs.
Even now, the
person that should engage our sympathy is President Buhari. He is in deep
trouble, if he does not know it. If all these revelations are true, then PMB's
government has a real problem on its hands. He has to see all these through to
their logical conclusions – no sacred cows or untouchables because of
political, religious and regional affiliations or loyalty. He must ensure fast,
free and fair prosecutions, and if and when convicted, long jail terms for the
perpetrators of such huge scams and frauds on Nigerians, depriving us of so
many things, causing thousands, if not millions of unnecessary deaths directly
and indirectly. It is getting more open and messier by the day, even more than
the Halliburton Scandal and Independent Power Project scam of the Obasanjo
days, probably because then, it was a PDP government doing themselves in. (They
did not know it then, but they were setting themselves up for implosion and
disgrace)
But as it is,
if all these revelations prove to be true, then our main concern should be our compromised,
irresponsible and very corrupt judiciary; our greedy, morally bankrupt and ignoble
attorneys and our stupid democracy that favour powerful corrupt politicians and
bastardise the Rule of Law, as well as the parochial and misguided partisan
Nigerians that are holding hypocritical and sycophantic briefs for these corrupt, shameless, remorseless and
nonchalant politicians’ misdemeanour and delinquency.
However, the
problem is still very much caused by us, Nigerians. The outrage against
Jonathan, Dasuki and the rest of these “exclusive sharers of our commonwealth”
is our collective responsibility. Nigerians should be marching towards Aso Rock
to demand full accountability and justice, and if Buhari fails to act on our
demands, he should be pushed out of the way. Unfortunately, folks see it
through the prism of party politics, but it's bigger than that. Before writing
this piece, I have already been accused of basing my statements on speculations
thus making everything baseless. For how long shall we continue to shy away
from the revelations and continue to call them speculations? Even if the level
of crime is not as massive as is being revealed isn't the fact that such crimes
are committed by so few a people heinous enough to be looked at dispassionately
and condemned roundly by all?
Now, it is
important to delineate revelations and speculations. Over the past few weeks,
it has become the norm of some sections of the society to denounce these
revelations as mere unproven speculations; but I am not surprised at such
incoherent pronouncement from my people; I have always said we are our own
problems. Even if the scale of the revelations are not as massive as we are
reading and come with touches of hyperbolic sensationalism, the fact remains that
massive amount of the country’s money was distributed illegally, with impunity,
total disregard for the rules of governance and with utter unaccountability
amongst some chosen elite in both government, the PDP party, the media and
business communities, including some who are now even in the ruling party, the
President’s party, APC.
Nevertheless,
as I wrote in two previous articles, "A People Beyond Redemption" and
"A Peoples’ Aversion to the Truth is their Undoing", the African mind
is so politically primordial that it always blind people from fairness and
truth. And this has summed up the kind of mixed horde we have in Nigeria. For a
person, schooled and educated to a degree level, to call the unfolding
revelation, confession, and admission by the looters themselves to be “speculations”
just confirms my suspicions about our people’s attitude to corruption, and
understanding of it from a moral viewpoint. But then, didn’t our former
President himself say stealing of public funds is not corruption? Does it mean if a person is from my clan, or
he is of the same faith with me, or we belong to the same political party, as
far as these sets of people are concerned, that person can never do wrong? The
pitiable thing is that majority of these unsolicited "pocket lawyers"
and devil's advocates suffered greatly as a result of action and inaction of
the same person they are defending.
Unfortunately
some (and again, repetitively, these are the educated and supposedly
enlightened and sophisticated members of the society) of us are blind, guided
by political, tribal, self-seeking and religious nonsense, who enthusiastically
allow themselves to be used as injudicious missiles. One would think that every
sane and sensible Nigerian will fall behind the present government in its
anti-corruption campaign. But you just check out social media and the number of
Nigerians carrying brief for the thieves and criminals being prosecuted is just
unreal. What one cannot understand is the glee with which these set of
Nigerians embrace every setback or hindrance that comes the way of the current
regime in cleansing the corrupt system. That to me is unpardonable and is the
sign of sick minds. Can you imagine a man jumping for joy and clapping
enthusiastically every time that fireman trying to put out his burning house,
with his family trapped inside, and are struggling to control the flame?
Well that is
exactly the behaviour of those Nigerians that do not wish the current
government well in its bid to stem the rot of the past years".
What is even
more shocking and disturbing should be the revelation that national budget is
being shared like groundnuts in the market under the guise of funding to
disengage insurgency and terrorism and the head of the same government claimed
ignorance of approving the release of the funds. All the beneficiaries of the bonanza
of doling out the funds were ex-President Jonathan's allies; and one would like
to know how that was accounted for in the nation's books, or maybe we do not
have books anymore? Where are the checks and balances put in place by the
Constitution, the statutes books, legislations, rules and regulations, etc.?
Where are the Auditor and Accountant Generals?
Yet, these individuals, educated, widely-traveled and men/women of the world
are worshipped as heroes nationally by Nigerians.
What kind of
criminal racket are we operating here in this country, Nigeria, that we call
government?
The political
class in Nigeria has sought office not because of the desire to change the
economic situation through dedicated, sincere and committed service but it has
been mainly for their personal development. Their primary path to financial
success has been through primitive and rapacious accumulation of wealth through
stealing of public funds. It is so deep that the fight over fiscal federalism
is nothing but for personal aggrandisement. Yet the fight is so strong and
intensive one that we may think that is for the good of the commonwealth. No,
it is not, as we ae all seeing and experiencing in our daily lives as the
unfortunate victims of these criminals, or as the late great Fela
Anikulapo-Kuti dubbed them several decades ago, Vagabonds in Power (VIP).
The scale of
this primitive acquisition of wealth can only be comprehended from the
littering of the national landscape with failed projects, moribund development,
a collapsed and prostrate economy as evidenced in dilapidated and decayed infrastructure,
poor healthcare, collapsed education, lack of public utilities, decayed social
services, chaotic way of life, insecurity of lives and properties, uncertainly
of daily bread, etc. These are all products of the prevalent and virulent corruption
that has enveloped and strangled the country and its people because those
entrusted to deliver these to the people have betrayed our trust and have
pocketed the money.
Of more
concern should be the human effects - poverty, distress, hopelessness, sufferings,
diseases, hunger and deaths that we see and experience every day; yet some
people still hang on to the belief that the current government is lying about
the looting of this country over the past sixteen, and even more, years; or
that the exercise to flush out looters is based on vindictiveness and
witch-hunting and slanted towards members of the last government and party.
Well.............................?
Do they care? Until several lots of them are handed long jail sentences (or
maybe even executed) this spectacle will continue. The hydra-headed corruption
is not a beast to be tackled with soft gloves; let some high profile corrupt
politicians, ex-governors, legislators, and their parasitic sycophantic rich
tag-along businessmen (AGIP) who derive their wealth by preying on government
contracts and largess to flaunt their ill-gotten gains in the face of their
fellowmen and fellow women go to thirty years at Agodi or Kuje prisons, with the
hardest of labour, and observe the effect and change on Nigerians.
So, dear
compatriots, please look around you and perceive the chaos, the despondency,
the desperation, the poverty and hopelessness on the faces of our people and
tell the man in Aba, Maiduguri, Asaba, Ugep, Ado-Ekiti, Ilorin, Makurdi,
Owerri, Ede, etc. that NOBODY is responsible, nobody can be held culpable for their unfortunate plight in a
rich country like ours; that the people, rulers that forced or rig their way
into power, are elected, selected, appointed and entrusted with managing their
wealth and welfare for the past sixteen, thirty or fifty years cannot or should
not be probed and jailed for their roles in the looting and raping of their
country.
A word of
caution to the current administration: Buhari must not be distracted from his
anti-corruption stance and bout, however he must also not allow himself and his
government to be swamped and grounded in the mire of the corruption fight.
Corruption will always fight back a hundred times more viciously than the ones
after it, and will do everything to stay ahead of the game. He should
concentrate of governance and put reliable, sincere, seasoned and equally
vicious anti-corruption people in place to engage in this fight for him and
Nigeria.
‘Tis indeed
the Season of Revelation of the Damned!!!!
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