CORRUPTION in Nigeria and the BITTER TRUTH
(Written by Comr. Kings kekwop. comradekings@gmail.com, www.facebook.com/kingskekwop, www.9icelinks., twitter:@comradekingsk)


“Corruption is something that we talk about, it is something we complain about, it is something whose negative impact we recognized, it is something that even the corrupt acknowledge a bad thing; but the irony and the tragedy at once, is that those who engaged in corruption love it. The tragedy at once is that, those of us who do not engaged in it directly accommodate it. Our level of tolerance for corruption in Africa is Amazing”. Prof. PLO Lumumba (2014)

I’m not here to bore you with the normal concept of corruption and its adverse effect on Nigeria. It is glaring to the blind that corruption is the bane of Nigeria De-development. It has become worst over the years because the people being rubbed see nothing wrong with it. They have attached emotions as the popular parlance of witch-hunting, victimization have faulted the fight against corruption. The bitter truth as Lumumba said, we celebrate thieves and vilify innocent people.


Accountability is a myth in this part of the world. Corruption has become a terror wrecking our progressive existence. Even from the infancy of our micro family, corruption has built dynasty. It is laughable to hear various generalizations on corruption such as Due Process, Sorting, Tip, Show Appreciation and what have you. This attitude towards the cankerworm has caused our nation greatly.


We now appear to be fighting corruption since the assumption of this present administration on May 29, 2015. The daily trending events on corruption reported in media outfit is laudable because it has now increase their revenue but the reality still surfaced. The fight against corruption will only surmount To Beating a Death Horse if we cannot face reality. The bitter truth is that our constitution must be revisited.


The Nigeria Constitution is so passive on corrupt officials. This is witnessed in several corrupt cases that have not yielded any positive result. These officials after numerous count charges on corruption are asked to pay stipends or go free without punishment because the eye of the law is indeed blind to the carnage corruption inflicted on the people.


At a point, President M. Buhari charged the Judiciary to join hands in the fight against corruption. This indicates that the proclivity in fighting corruption depends on the exoneration of the latent constitutional backings corrupt officials get. In the words of Lumumba, “Nigeria is a great country but is famous of producing some of the greatest thieves that the worlds have ever known”. He buttressed that “The tragedy of Africa is, Africa are in the business of canonizing thieves and demonizing its saint”.


To this end, we need to fight this with utmost vigour. As opined by Thomas Sankara, their must be certain amount of madness for critical changes to occur. Enough of the noise; lets be more proactive by making our laws harsh on corruption because what is obtainable now is a truce.


Those echoing witch-hunting should note that, if there were no witches hunting wouldn’t be an issue. We should separate people’s identity and their actions. Nigerians need to divorce the consequences of people’s actions from social status and ethno-religious background. Like our president stated, people should only fear the consequences of their actions. No one deserves a soft landing for corrupt practice because of affiliations. No matter whose ox is gored, the fight must be stern because the pain of corruption does not know religion or ethnicity.


Poverty, unemployment, terrorism, high mortality rate and so on are repercussions we have being paying by allowing corruption to strive in our country. It is not necessarily providing security to combat crime (terrorism) or building roads and hospitals. It is also not necessarily giving aid to the poor that we will applaud ourselves for making progress. In as much as, corruption is not eliminated, we are only watering the rate of poverty, unemployment, terrorism, underdevelopment to mention just but a few.


Change indeed is long overdue in our country. But this must start with our ideology; we must change our attitude as a people. Our tenacious input and push in fighting corruption must be vigorous. We are all in the dark room corruption has built for us. It is obvious that the room is dark and all we need is to light up our candles because light conquers darkness. Hon. Solomon Dalung once said, “Corruption cannot be reduced to an opinion. It must be defined by an act of the National Assembly”. On this note, our constitution must redefine its take on corruption if not; the fight will be a scratch on the surface. #ISupportTheWarAgainstCorruption!

Corruption in the LitCaf Encyclopedia

https://litcaf.com/corruption/