NIGERIA: STATE OF THE NATION, A COUNTRY GONE MAD
NIGERIA: STATE OF THE NATION
Contentment is the grace to stand up from the dinning table
and look away from the food tray when your belly is full.
But the Nigerian public official, although filled and belching with excess, would still hide stolen meat within the corners of his mouth at a dinner, stuff fried rice into his socks, and try to shuffle moinmoin into his shoes.
Madness wouldn't you say?
Who else would steal 80 billion Naira except a mad fellow.
One is terribly saddened when you consider the professions
of the pen robbers.
Kemebradikumo Pondei, that dramatic NDDC acting Managing
Director that fainted in the Senate was a Professor of Medicine. A man trained
to build, repair and even possibly manufacture life. Yet, he too got to table,
and scooped jollof rice into his boxers.
She was a trained architect who transformed to become Nigeria's first female petroleum
minister. Yet, despite these privileges, Diezani stole our barbequed fish,
roasted yams, and hide them in her bra. Like a mad woman.
You recollect that JAMB/NECO ex Registrar, that Professor,
the one that stole almost a billion. Just go through his CV, he had been eating
from one educational agency to another non stop since the military era.
But at almost 70, a grandpa, he comes from detention
facility and goes to court to defend himself for stealing monies he would never
need.
At 70, a man is nearer to his grave, but in Nigeria, a 74
year old Minister would steal to buy a plot of land to build a new mansion.
Some apologists of corruption say people steal government
funds because they fear to fall back the poverty after leaving office. But how
do you explain a Uzor Kalu or a Rochas Okorocha who rode on private billions
before politics and still stole the community goats and chickens. Lucky
Igbinedion, the former Governor of Edo State, had a golden spoon in his mouth
at birth , but he nevertheless seized
the feeding bottles of milk from the mouths of Edo babies.
Achattered accountant allegedly stole such staggering sum. A
fellow of ICAN, a distinguished member of a privileged elite group. Who else
should know the cost implication of fraud better than a chartered Accountant?
The almajiri, area boys, touts, and their likes are not the
main threat to this beautiful country. The elites are. The Directors, Permanent
Secretary, vice chancellors, CEO, solicitor generals, Senators, Governors are
the ones bleeding us. It is not bandits, boko haram, or IPOB. The elites are
the ones bombing and destroying the social architecture of our nation with
their unbridled hedonism. They think the stolen billions would enamour them to
the dangers ahead.
Having broken the social ligaments that hold our nation
together, by stealing monies meant for education, healthcare and
infrastructure, the elites have rendered Nigeria a classless nation.
Billionaires are now stolen, emirs are kidnapped, and
attempts had been made in recent past to abduct a serving Governor. The elites
had sowed wild thorns, the harvest is fully here.
Politicians steal in Japan, and Senators thief in America. A
$50,000 bribe. A golden watch. Or a misappropriated flight ticket or inflated
hotel bills. But in Nigeria, our leaders don't embezzle, they haul. Why?
Because they are mad.
What exactly is our problem?
It is not money; definitely not money. It is a lack of the
knowledge of what actually to do with it. Where people have wisdom, they
understand that once possessions go beyond a home and two cars with ample
retirement fund, the use of money is to build your community and to build your
nation.
A look at what the thief does with the stolen money confirms
the madness.
He buys things and people. To him everybody and everything
has a price tag; even Justice.
He buys power and more power and traumatizes his community
with his wealth. He makes the poor feel their poverty and the average person
bemoan his averageness.
His shopping list includes pressmen, clergies, judges and
policemen. He funds his political party and he is rewarded with even more money
which he recycles the same old way.
He also goes after women; all shapes sizes tribes and tongues
for the sole reason of being able to boast about his conquest.
Religious homes are also infected with the madness. The big
thief gets honoured by religious homes devoted to Mammon where he gets praised
by the worshippers of the idol there who promise the money-man life hereafter
for a slice of his goodies.
Then he dies hoping that people will be talking about him.
Soon he is forgotten like other fools.
Our politicians, despite their jejune certificates, lack the
intellectual capacity to solve our economic problems, and worse, they lack the
contemplation of the right philosophy of public service. They aren't kingly,
neither are they philosophic.
No man living personally needs a billion.
What for?
Dangote, Buhari, Bua, Otedola, OBJ, Elumelu, TY Danjuma,
cannot spend fifty thousand naira daily
on Nigerian foods or meals. If they do, they would die sooner than their time.
You would too.
Every extra gift, talent, grace, money and wealth we have,
is not totally for us but for society and state. We are to give, give and give,
for state, humanity and posterity.
It is normal and accepted to have optimal material rewards
and compensation for our efforts. That is why the Accountant General of the
Federation, Minister, Governor, Senator, Rep, permanent Secretary are well
remunerated above others, so he won't run mad and go about stealing.
Not a single man or woman among these people who have
spirited away billions of naira has thought of establishing a factory
manufacturing cellphones in Nigeria?
Nobody wants to invest wealth in people. There are people
everywhere around you who can be raised.
They can't come together and say, 'Lets solve the
electricity problem'. None has said, 'I want to make a dent on the housing
challenge. I will go into affordable housing and build new cities'.
It is a proof madness that with all those billions, there is
no impact on society and people are mostly unemployed and there are no
spectacular undertakings to fire the imagination of the younger ones.
Oby Ezekwesili was former minister of solid minerals, and
education. Although she may not be hundred percent clean, she does not have the
look nor the body scent of a thief.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala handled our billions of dollars at the
time Nigeria was awash with much. Her hands may not be hypo clean, but she didn't
haul our billions into her truck. If she had, no one would call her higher into
World Trade Organization.
We also have the like of Professor Ishaq Oloyede of JAMB who
started reporting and returning surplus to the Treasury unlike his predecessors
as JAMB Registrars.
The sad thing is they are few and far between.
They hardly get honored or acknowledged by society. Young
ones hardly see them as role models.
The big thief flaunting his ill-gotten wealth all around,
corrupting everything he touches is the one revered by young and old.
Values and ideals have taken flight for our collective
madness.
How long this will last and how far it will go before the
bubble bursts remains a conjecture because THIS COUNTRY IS OUT OF ORDER.
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