“I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their
dirty feet.”
- Mahatma Ghandhi.
Let’s call a spade a spade; the level of
corruption in Nigeria is astronomical. Corruption
runs in the blood of most Nigerians and are ready to participate in
corruption at the earliest blast of the whistle. Nigeria is a house built on the sand of
corruption, but regrettably its people expect it to withstand the calamities
and afflictions that go with such quest.
Many Nigerians will profess several verbiages
to convince themselves that they are not part of the Nigerian corruption. They convince themselves that things are not
what they are and expunge fallacious claims to support every corrupt practise. The
fact remains that Nigeria is corrupt by default.
Irrespective of what you convince yourself to
belief, the fact cannot be erased. Nigerians
live, dine and wine in corruption and these corruptions run from the leaders to
the common man on the streets. The leaders steal and share big money, while the
rest steal and share the little money left.
You can hide the fire that is burning, but you can’t hide the smoke. The
smoke is everywhere, nothing gets done except bribe change hands. Ask for a little favour without throwing a
bribe, then consider the job best ignored.
Everywhere you go is the same from public
sectors to private institutions, everyone readily participate in bribery. I cannot overemphasise the facts that we all
need a radical change in our ways. Let’s
call a spade a spade, we cannot continue to live this way and expect to get a
sudden transformation. Life is only a
miracle to those who obey the rules. You cannot live your life anyhow and
expect to get a worthwhile result out of it.
Until we all stamp out corruption, yes every one of us, Nigeria
may not yet be ready.
We need determination and discipline to
live corrupt free life. Bribery and
corruption has become part of our culture and way of life, we are so much
enmeshed in it that it ceases to make any difference to us anymore. Corruption is now normal. If you can’t beat them, you better join them,
but must we live our lives this way?
I am convinced we are not corrupt because
of poverty, but we are corrupt because we are rich. This is exemplified in the recent bribery
scandal between Hon Farouk Lawan, the chairman of the house Ad Hoc committee
monitoring the fuel subsidy misappropriation.
A bribe of 3 million USD was agreed and 620,000 USD already paid to
Lawan by Femi Otedola, the chairman of Zenon Oil and Gas, so Lawan and his panel
can doctor the report to remove Zenon name from the report. How much worse can it get for a country laid
on the foundation of corruption?
I am particularly disappointed by the role
played by Hon Lawan, who initially denied the bribery allegation, before
finally submitting to it when evidence was presented. Hon Lawan is another gentleman and trustworthy
leader gone badly. He represented Nigeria ’s incurable
money-craziness. Lawan and his gang of dis-honourables are well paid, even
better than their counterparts in every other parts of the world. But money is
not the reason why they steal more, but greed and the culture of corruption which
must be nipped in the bud. Dis-honourable
Lawan and his gang is typical example of many more syndicated bribery scandals
that have rocked the country in recent years.
Nigeria has reached the climax of corruption;
you either play by the rule or get sucked in forever. You are not allowed to say no to bribery and
corruption, if you do, you may get cut down in their wheel of scandals. This unfortunate predicament has got to a very
dangerous level, it now runs in every sector of the economy, from judiciary to
legislature, executive to business, religion to education, health to power
generation and many more. Nothing works
on merit in Nigeria; you either pay for it or lose out on it. Sad, really sad, how can we continue to live
our lives this way?
Let’s join hands to say no to corruption.
Play your part in stamping out this deadly practice. We cannot be free if we continue to sell our
conscience for money. Edmund Burke
wrote; “among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist.” We need
to come together and say no to corruption in Nigeria, which is the only way
forward.
By Abiola Olaifa www.abiolla.com, abiolla@gmail.com.