BIG RATS, SMALL MICE AND THE NEW FARMER
Rats and mice are both rodents. They look similar.
They are destructive agents who not only eat up valuable stuff but create
amenace. The biggest difference is their size. Rats are larger and heavier
while mice have smaller slender bodies. Mice also have long slender tails (for
their body size) covered in hair compared to rat tails which are shorter,
thicker and hairless.
Rats usually live higher up, mostly in the roof.
Though both mice and rats have very obvious differences
but some features are very similar.
An adult mouse has a slimmer and a smaller body compared
to a rat and the head, face and nose have
an angular look. They are the poorer types in the rodent family.
Rats are extremely cautious and you will not see them
quite often even if they have infested your house. The reason is they avoid
changes and take much time to get used to it. As they analyze everything in
their path and take time to identify them.
Though mice are noisier, Rats are more aggressive than
mice and pose more risk for destructive activities. Mice are
afraid of rats because rats will kill and eat them. Both rats and
mice carry rodent-borne diseases that can be serious or even fatal to humans.
Rats are also suspicious and they might avoid traps for a
long time before they’re familiar enough with them to be tricked. In
comparison, mice are very curious, making them much easier to trap and kill.
They also easily get scared and run.
Unlike mice, you’ll never see a rat make the same mistake
twice. Meaning that if you almost got him with a sticky trap
one day and it broke free, it will never go near it ever again.
There are usually many more mice than rats in a
particular place. However the amount of havoc wreaked by a single rat quite
overweighs that of a dozen mice.
Mice eat their fill at a time. Rats however have an
acquisitive tendency. They take away the “food” and keep it stashed up in
hidden nests. Sometimes they amass more than they would ever need.
Rats are trickier than mice. Unlike mice, rats spend
much of their time underground, and will often use their subterranean
pathways to access new areas as well as escape
predators.
So much for the pernicious rodents.
In the human world we have equivalents of the rats and
the mice playing the roles of the animals in human skin.
The “Big Man” who sits over an organ of state wields so
much power that he seemed to have become invincible.
For years they had held the nation by the jugular. The
National patrimony and resources are coveted and converted to personal
possessions so recklessly.
The rot has gotten so deep it has taken over the essence
of society. The tragedy is exemplified by a “Cleric” praying for a child, at
its christening ceremony, to be granted the opportunity to steal the country’s
resources with his pen. Some find the viral video clip funny, but I think it is
frightening.
People who, by their positions, should be role models to
the teeming youth population have become bad influences.
The country’s apex bank is key to the economic and fiscal
wellbeing of the nation and its people. So its head is expected to be
impeccable and above board.
The nation’s revenue derives so much from oil. The head
of the National Petroleum Company is expected to be a man of integrity because
the wealth of a people is held in trust by him.
Anti-corruption agencies were setup to provide a check on nefarious activities of people and expose financial misdeeds. The least place one would expect sleazes are these agencies.
Security agencies are not spared either. From the
top-notch secret service to the police force, the saddening story is the same.
Executives in positions of authority hold those positions
for the people. But Governors, Council Chairmen, Presidents and their men have
forgotten why they are in those positions. They just get carried away by the
lucre in power.
Everywhere you look you find the frenzy to acquire wealth
by sordid, distasteful and dishonorable means.
When the amounts involved in their misdemeanor are
mentioned one needs not wonder why the country is diminishing in economy and
infrastructure.
These are amounts beyond what a human being requires in
one lifetime.
Like rats, their rodent equivalents, they steal more than
they will ever need.
Over the years their activities have become so
institutionalized that they now looked invincible.
These are the rats in the barn.
They not only eat up the produce but also the ones saved
up for the future.
Like the rats, they are careful, tactful and difficult to
trap. They are also very deadly and do not condone small fries.
They are also not many; the fabled five percent.
The mice however have a larger population.
What they lack in individual destructive capabilities
they make up in numbers.
The trader who removes 2 bowls of rice from the bag,
repackages, and sells as a 'full' bag and is complaining about the wickedness
in Nigeria.
The lecturer who insists on sex for a young girl to pass
is part of the rot.
The Pastor who pays his driver 15K in Lagos or Abuja
while his son schools in the USA on the church’s bill is guilty.
The Mallam (Local
Islamic school teacher) who sends other people's children to go and beg in the
name of Almajiri and bring the money to him on oath so that he will take care
of his family while the Almajiri's are looking like slaves is an enemy of the
nation.
The civil servant who comes to work once a week and shows
up at the end of the month to receive full salary and kickbacks and complains
about politicians is a crook.
The student who spends the whole weekend at the party
after party only to start posting Instagram pictures on Monday and resorts to
bribes and violence when examinations come is a threat to his own future.
The "VIP driver" who can't join a simple queue
but keeps overlapping in and out of traffic to shunt is an example of disorderliness
in Nigeria.
Doctors in public and teaching hospitals on the
government payroll who abandon patients on the floor but are thriving in their
private hospitals are complaining that Nigeria is hopeless.
The officer sees 'roger' as his/her birthright and yet
complains that our leaders are evil.
These are the mice who are less careful and methodical
like the rats. They are the small thieves. But when their number is considered,
they are as dangerous they bigger counterparts.
They are oftentimes easily trapped and caught.
Like the hapless farmer who’s barn is infested by rats
and mice, the Presidency and Heads of Government at state and lower levels had
lost control.
Government officials have even admitted the existence of
cabals more powerful than them. Nobody dared confront them. They were having a
field day and the nation was helpless.
They took advantage of the simple lack of grip by the
Buhari presidency and pillaged the country beyond imagination.
When candidate Bola Tinubu was talking about fighting the
corrupt system, and the cabals one would think it was just a campaign.
Like the new farmer who took over the barn, Tinubu went
straight for the big rats.
I have heard people talk as if heavens will fall if
anybody took on the cartels of corruption plaguing the nation.
The President is a man that has seen it all. Not someone
to be cowed by threats from any quarter, he could dare the gangs.
Now the big rats can run but can’t hide. He knows their
secret nests. He has been there before.
To succeed, President Tinubu must sustain the putsche.
There must be no Sacred Cows.
All, repeat ALL, the guilty must be brought to book.
He must, not only tell, but show the nation that crime
does not pay.
The new farmer must rid the barn of all the rats.
Then down to the little mice. They are easily caught and
get scared easily too.
For these little thieves and corrupt people, dealing with
the big shots is enough scare.
Not to say the guilty ones among them should go free, but
no new ones will get into the fray.
Unlike in the past, when young people see examples being
made of people they had thought were invincible, their mindsets will change.
Inadvertently, an ethical revolution would have been
initiated.
God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria
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