Corruption: Are We Really Looking In The Right Direction?By Bola BOLAWOLE
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“Two traditional rulers and their Oloris, not Fulani herdsmen, are said to be the brains behind kidnappings in Kwara state. Where are we headed in this country?”
“The Bible said it all: The love of money is the root of evil”
“It is because there is no consequence for bad behaviour here! Imagine if the vile elements are tried speedily, are sentenced to death and are given the Chinese treatment? Won’t it deter others?“
“It will, but the last may have been heard on the matter! It may be swept under our burgeoning carpet of iniquities.. “
“Well, our good grief! Last week we were talking about Atiku and Emilokan…”
“Yes, don’t forget we also mentioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. You seemed to suggest they were chasing shadows instead of…”
“Those were not the exact words, but if that suits you fine, so be it…”
“Without the EFCC, corruption would have since swept this country away in its entirety…”
“With the EFCC, corruption is still sweeping the country away all the same!”
“Don’t you think the situation could have been worse without the EFCC?“
“That remains in the realm of conjecture. What is clear is that we are not out of the woods yet…”
“But we said last week that they have been giving internet fraudsters a bloody nose…”
”That is the problem! They should give thieving politicians and fat-cat civil servants a bloody nose as well! They should engage the high and mighty…”
“Our elders say it is the person you can beat that you shakara for a fight! “
“Shakara oloje, like Fela said! Haven’t we employed an invalid as a security guard, what the Yoruba call ‘k’ewure ma je’le’? If he cannot catch thieves, he can at least drive away rampaging goats!”
“Let us start from somewhere…”
“But let us not stop there! It is very annoying seeing confirmed big thieves taken to court coming out unscathed after years of a charade of a trial. It’s like an arrangee trial, again, as Fela crooned…”
“Fela really sabi these people!”
“You tell me! Abami eda himself! A Yoruba traditional ruler was sentenced to prison in a US court for 419. Have the Nigerian authorities taken note?”
“My goodness! How dare you talk like a stranger? Alamieyeseigha and Ibori are precedents that should tell you what will happen to Kabiyesi when he completes his sentence in the US and returns home…”“
”Yes, I know, his people will troop out to the airport to receive him with pomp and colour. Egunguns will be there to represent the ancestors. But are our people themselves okay?”
“Of course, they are! Have you not heard it said that if you can’t beat them, join them?”
“This is not joining them! This is acquiescing to slavery and servitude! Our people appear to have lost all sense of decency.”
“There can be no decency to the hungry. Poverty has been weaponosed against the people…”
“But the worst poverty is the poverty of ideas and the poverty of character. Set the captives free!
“Do the people themselves realise they can ever be free? Kenneth Kaunda wrote ‘Zambia shall be free’ in 1962. Sixty-three years after, are Zambians free today?’
“Except if it had sunk deeper in the miry clay. Africa’s best times remain always in its past…”
“Nothing depicts this better than our university days! When we thought education was being commercialised at the time, we never knew it was still El-Dorado!“
“The downward trend actually started with Obasanjo in 1977/78, which triggered the ‘Ali Must Go students’ protest, but the degeneration, rather than abate, gets worse by the day…”
”ASUU is threatening another strike…”
“Let us kuku close down the universities! What is worth doing at all is worth doing well! Since it does appear the government does not want the universities, they should kuku close them down. I am tired of ASUU today, strike tomorrow! “
“What, then, will the government do well? The economy ails. The refineries are comatose. No light! No food. The roads are bad! Hospitals have become no-go areas! Passport fees…”
“And you still asked what we do well here! We do extraordinarily well jacking up prices and fees!
“And when we compare the amazing development taking place in China…”
“Stop comparing sleep with death! Although Tinubu started out with a very bad situation on his hands, our leaders are not competing with China at all”
“But why? China is the rave of the moment…”
“It is also its rage! The penalty for corruption in China is death by execution!”
“I see! But the president said in Brazil that he has stamped out corruption in Nigeria“
“He was quoted out of context. He only meant the corruption associated with forex round-tripping and fuel subsidy scam. When Emilokan said ‘emilokan’, did you think it is to come and commit class suicide? If you have been holding down the cow for others to milk, a day comes when others must hold it down for you to milk as well”
“Is that how it will continue?’’
“How else? What we don’t know yet is the next ‘Emilokan’. Who among the contenders is as audacious? Who has traversed the cosmos, built bridges, served others, and paid the price? Who has been a buje-budanu like the present occupant of the office?“
“What is the meaning of buje-budanu? “Have you not heard it said that he who must eat the honey lodged inside a rock must not consider the teeth of his axe? The bottom of the pot that will eat good soup must caress the fire well-well”
”Does Atiku match that description?”
”He reportedly missed a golden opportunity in 2003 when he was the VP to Obasanjo”?
“What do you mean”?
“Many of the governors and leaders of PDP, the then ruling party, were rooting for Atiku. If he had contested the PDP presidential primaries against OBJ, he would have won hands down. But he got half-way and chickened out…”
”Why? Scripture says once you have your hands on the plow, there is no looking back”
“Atiku is a Muslim. Besides, the wily fox tricked him into surrendering his advantage…”
“And who is the fox?”
“OBJ, of course! He begged. They said he even prostrated. He reportedly cajoled Atiku with the offer of a second term as VP after which he could go ahead to do two terms as president…”
“And Atiku fell for it?“
“Yes!”
“Mugu!”
“Morbid ambition is a terrible ailment. It blinds them to commonsense and reason”
“So what happened after he stepped down?“
“After securing a second term, he reportedly turned round and called that one exactly what you just called him…”
“Mugu?”
“Yes! That he cornered a General but let him off the hook!”
“What a pity! He toyed with power…”
“That is the difference! Emilokan said, grab it, snatch it, and run with it!“
“And they say opportunity once lost can never be regained! What of Peter Obi…?”
“That one is still a novice in the school of Emilokan politics. What “ofo”, ”ayajo” or “ogede” can he muster that will rival what Tinubu took out of his “apo”, as Fela called it, or deep spiritual pockets in Abeokuta?”
“I see! But the Igbo don’t have incantations, enchantments and decrees like the Yoruba…”
“They do! Zik issued a powerful one against Chuba Okadigbo in 1983, after the eccentric Chuba had described Zik’s criticism of President Shehu Shagari’s re-election of that year as ‘the rantings of an ant’ ”.
“I cannot actually remember that incident…”
“Aaaha! Zik told Chuba: ‘My boy, may you live to your full potential, ascend to as dizzy a height as is possible for anyone of your political description in your era to rise! May you be acknowledged world-wide as you rise like an eagle atop trees, float among the clouds, preside over the affairs of fellow men… as leaders of all countries pour into Nigeria to breathe into her ear! But then, Chuba, if it is not the tradition of our people that elders are roundly insulted by young men before the world as you have unjustly done to me, may your reign come to an abrupt and shattering close! As you look ahead, Chuba, as you see the horizon, dedicating a great marble palace that is the envy of the world, toasted by the most powerful men in the land, may the great big hand of fate snatch it all away from you! Just as it appears as if nothing can possibly go away! Chuba, as you look forward to hosting the world’s most powerful leader and shaking his hand, as you begin to smell the recognition and leadership of the Igbo people, may the crown fall off your head and your political head fall off your shoulders! None of my words will come to pass, Chuba, until you have risen to the very height of your power and glory and health, but then youwill be hounded and humiliated and disgraced out of office, your credibility and your name in tatters forever…!”
“Terribly terrible!”
“Exactly as Zik pronounced, line by line, precepts upon precepts, that was how it came to pass step-by-step”
“Wonderful! “
“So Obi still has to enroll in the school of the elders. Here, the head of an elephant is not a child’s baggage”.
“You mean, then, that what Obi is pursuing is not a matter of ‘Yes, Daddy’?”
“Not at all!”
Former editor of PUNCH newspapers, Chairman of its Editorial Board and Deputy Editor-in-chief, BOLAWOLE was also the Managing Director/Editor-in-chief of The Westerner news magazine. He writes the ON THE LORD’S DAY column in the Sunday Tribune and TREASURES column in New Telegraph newspaper on Wednesdays. He is also a public affairs analyst on radio and television.
