Once upon a time, Nigeria was graced with the iconic appellation of might and eminence in Africa, but now, she crawls from that splendour of historic glory and then flounders in the gale of global sympathy.
As a mirage, the slogan ‘Giant of Africa’ is now a cynical sobriquet meant to conceal the frightening rate of socio-economic and political malfeasances that have gorged hard to the very depth of national morality.
Blessed with abundant natural resources, the West African nation is on a progressive crumble fostered by the unofficial ratification of hegemonic venality, embezzlement and political witch-hunt at the dais of ignominious kleptocracy.
As mediocrity is being allowed to reign in entirety at the backdrop of hollowed selections and elections; impunity and immunity are being hallowed in sacrosanctity by the extremely prejudiced potentates at the upper echelon of voracity.
The only period in time that can embark on this fatal trip of economic decadency, under this ‘democratic era’ of incompetence and kleptomania, is a touch of military reign of brutal anarchy.
In Nigeria, the sovereign ruler, who obviously is the pioneer of the crusade against corruption, has shown quite a few cracks, which suggests him to be the ‘inviolable’ chief priest among the merry band of kleptocrats. Thus far, the controversy surrounding his WASC certificate remains a mystery even the oracles can’t demystify.
How about a situation where the Senate President is faced with three different charges of corruption – 16-count charge of alleged false asset declaration at the Code of Conduct Tribunal; alleged forgery of Senate rules in 2015 and the damning involvement in the list of people that subscribed to the services of the Panamanian firm, Mossack Fonseca to create off shore companies to hide properties from the regulators in their countries – and he is still not incriminated and impeached?
The anguished masses are only being fed with breaking news on litigation at the court of public opinion.
Imagine! In this country, an Appropriation Bill for 2016 would be transmuted from ‘missing’ to ‘padding’ in the National Assembly and the alleged culprits are not yet stripped of honour and respect due to their ranks.
A Nigerian, while reacting to the allegations of budget padding on The PUNCH, July 29, 2016, had said:
“The National Assembly is a reflection of the larger Nigerian society. Whether it is called budget padding or budget stuffing, they are all synonyms of corruption. As of today, Nigeria cannot boast of any arm of government that is corruption-free… Is it the judiciary or the legislature or the executive? Sadly, the civil service is, incredibly, the “Mother of Corruption”. And that brings us to the dilemma of the Nigerian nation. It brings us to why we are stagnant. Who is going to check who? Who is going to investigate who? Where are the checks and balances?”
This has clearly indicated that the country is rife with thieves, who have continuously taken advantage of corruption, to steal from the commonwealth with no mercy, in a self-aggrandized attempt to fortify their personal wealth and political power.
A nation, where graduation from the upper stratum of academic institution with a certificate of service from the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) to match, doesn’t necessarily guaranty you a place in the hostile labour market – for it is written, in the ignoble book of corruption: “Only the children of the well-to-do shall get hold of all the juicy positions in the country”.
In this country, it is indeed a miracle for a son-of-a-nobody to make it to the top.
The truth be laid nude, the federal government has neither endorsed corruption nor has it crusaded vigorously against it – all we read on National Newspapers are either a campaign of calumny on dissenters or a prosecution of persecution.
The bane of monumental corruption has penetrated into the abysmal stem of the country’s geopolitical ecosystem, to a great extent, that even unemployed graduates have now mastered the act of shutting down recruitment websites with overwhelming views, in a bid to divulge their willingness for any job opportunity – imagine a recent situation where almost one million Nigerians were vying for 10, 000 slots in the Nigerian police 2016 recruitment!
Apparently on the brink of an indelible kakistocracy, government after government have continued to hoodwink the ‘languishing’ masses with demagogic propagandas only to assume power and then focus on the embezzlement from the nation’s coffer.
A country, where a former military brass and his coterie of political bandits in the opposition party purloined and then shared over $2.1 billion – about N700 billion – from the nation’s purse – money meant for the purchase of weapons to fight Boko Haram insurgency, which directly led to the death of soldiers and innocent civilians across the North-Eastern states – and nobody has been sentenced to the penitentiary?
This is just as another military general, who instead of handing out a duly authorised salary increase to members of the Nigerian Air Force, kept the difference and collected $1.5 million a month throughout the duration of his tenure.
This is how some miserable, privileged collection of thieves and high office brigands, luxury in money meant for national usage and the judgemental rod is wielded on nobody?
You’d be so appalled by the amount of truths that lay beneath the veneer of their mendacious sleeves, for they have in shenanigan disguised a period of ‘holy fast’ to a feast in gluttony.
Should we then decide to use the N700billion as a benchmark on an estimated population of 170 million Nigerians? Each person would go home with the sum of N4,117, which would have at least put a smile on the faces of many.
A nation, where a rich and troublesome fellow in the Senate, who has an ostentatious avidity for fast cars and an exotic ego to complement his witless jocularity, is allowed to overtly threaten to beat and impregnate a colleague of equal status, and the country’s premier security agencies keep mum to the situation, but would be the first to smack the minors with lawsuit at the slightest of provocation.
This is merely a glimpse of corruption at the national level. How about the state and local government levels?
A country, where ‘change’ was the sloganized ‘bogus mantra’ of last year’s general elections but what is being dished to Nigerians is the flipside with the acute and spiralling inflation in almost all commodities in the country.
While the country is sandwiched in between a threat of secession in the Niger Delta region and a crave for Islamic Caliphate by militants of a notorious death cult in Northern Nigeria, the loquacious Minister of Information and Culture is engrossed in the evangelical ministry of advocacy for the ignoble cause of the presidency.
A nation, whose reputation is largely on the fall, while the local currency (Naira), and other commodities like; petrol; tomato; bread and even sachet water among others have soared, coupled with the severe slash in the salaries of angst-ridden civil servants.
The inimical scourge of austerity and untold hardship was made evident in the increase in the price of petrol, which further complicated the already compounded issue of epileptic power supply across the nation.
Following the inadequate supply of electricity, many Nigerians have relied on petrol to power their homes and offices, however with the increase in the twin – fuel and electricity bill – citizens have been left to rely on sunlight and trek among others to power productivity.
Sequel to the horrendous development, companies are shutting down, as the tempest of retrenchment has been provoked in every sector in the country, with thousands of Nigerians getting ripped apart by the repulsion of the economic tornado.
The way forward
In other for Nigeria to regain its depleting global veneration, all hands have to be on deck to ensure a stringent enforcement of the policies in the war against corruption.
Any person – from the President down to the junior-most civil servant – once indicted or charged should be impeached or allowed to resign before further interrogation can be conducted.
Once found guilt, (s)he should be made to feel the unadulterated wrath of the law not compromising the status, religion and ethnocentricity of the accused.
God Bless Nigeria!!
This piece was written by Datboyjerry. He writes for 360nobs. You can follow him on Twitter @Datboyjerry