₦airaland Forum

RantOut: Corrupted Corruption Corrupts...Absolutely
(Written in response to an argument about Jonathan being tagged weakling)

Okay, so Jonathan is a weakling...
Yes, Jonathan was weak on Boko Haram!
Yes, Jonathan's response was tasteless on Chibok girls!
Yes, Jonathan was a poor public speaker!
Yes, Jonathan failed in several aspects in his administration. ..

Yet, Jonathan was proudly a proud Nigerian. He showed we were not animals, he refused to treat us like animals. He valued Nigerian blood spilled, and didn't believe one drop was worth his reelection- he was David and the sweet well waters. He believed and tried to implement rule of law. He believed in the sanity of the Nigerian populace. He believed we did bad because the system made it easier to be bad than good- a system our colonial masters nurtured and sustained for their own maximum benefits.
His approach to corruption was also unique and smart... he didn't believe in punishing the offender as much as rejigging the system to prevent the thief. He knew stealing was a symptom of corruption, and not corruption itself. He knew once there is a way, there will always be a will. True, he allowed those who embezzled to spend the money within the country without much fear of persecution or prosecution. This led to brazen impunity by lots of office-holders, and a chop-and-come-chop atmosphere all around. This perpetuated the widespread image that his administration was very corrupt, but in fairness this resulted in less capital flight from the country and much more infrastructural developments.
Maybe this very policy pitted him at odds with Western nations who preferred that our politicians looted the country and stash away the monies in their own countries where it worked for their economies at the expense of ours. Then they'd whistle-blow the money if or when the owners(?) tried to withdraw them triggering investigations and allowing them to freeze the assets and liquid cash (Note: assets seized still generates revenue into their economy. Then we'd spend a million years doing a ratrace trying to get a refund which would come piecemeal-wise such that it would hardly make any meaningful impact in the economy. Also, you'd have to cut political deals with them to facilitate its success. I suspect that this was part of the jigsaw puzzle of why "they" helped evict him).
Anyways, for all the hues and cries of corruption, we had a better and growing economy than now.
Argue it with yourself, if that let's you sleep at night.

***

Anyways, compare this to President Buhari's corruption fight, I feel sorry for us really. We Nigerians are so so used to propaganda at the expense of our welfare!
We love perception more than we love ourselves. We prefer a grand funerals to taking care of our elderly. We prioritize weddings over marriages, convocations over school fees, clothes over health. Our parents would rather firstly be more concerned about public views than their kid's welfare and health when a child gets pregnant, "Ahh, what will my neighbors say now? Now my enemies will rejoice! "
So little wonder it carried on to the national scene.
We don't mind destroying our economy to present to the world that we are less corrupt even tho recent discoveries show we only are recycling profiteers. We don't mind that present crop of politians will just start stealing the monies and taking them to offshore accounts and service is resumed for them overseas people while we obviously saw a decline in forex as a result of heavy-handed and equally heavily-selective fight against "corruption". After all, the goal is to look less "fantastically corrupt", not actually become less corrupt. What's being hungry when some oyinbos can say we are less corrupt na? Small thing! What's hunger when there is a well fed propaganda machine? Ask North Korea!

***

Let me stop my rant soon jare... after all being pro-Jonathan earns one no love in the general public these days unless it's with some Ibos who are mostly just being racist and pained that they lost the central seat. Who supporting Jona don epp?

But I will still insist, GEJ with all his flaws, is a leader Nigeria does not deserve. We don't have a leadership problem as much as a followership problem, in my opinion, we deserve what we get. We deserve Buhari's change!

Kolabomi�

ADJOINER
In Nigerian parlance, a weakling is one who tries to implement changes through refined and intellectual means and not through fire-brigade methods. We prefer the "strong-man", the one that thinks, "My people are useless, my people are senseless, my people are indisciplined." We are like the spouse in an abusive relationship, we get our kick-ons from harsh words and hard knocks. Yes in truth, we have been long abused, by colonialist, by globalists and by local politicians alike, and hence we have become desensitized.
We are cows to a Fulani herdsman, we must be checked with hard measures, with the whip...
"KAI! Kai!
"WAI! Why?"
We have become mere animals, and some of us less so- kitchen animals, bedroom animals!

Kolabomi