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Apr. 13, 2007 Corruption is a global phenomenon whose origins dated back to centuries ago. Nations in the wider world battle not to eliminate it altogether in their various systems where it's found but to minimise it's crushing effects. From Bangladesh to China, America (remember ENRON scandal?) to Europe down to Africa with Nigeria as the head the cankerworm has eaten deep in the human psyche becoming a way of life of some governments and peoples around the world. The menace of corruption cannot be quantified but suffice to say that it is a problem at the root of most cases of underdevelopment of nations and their peoples. Lack of transparency and accountability in governance more than any other factor fuels coruption. Corruption thrives essentially where institutions and mechanisms that ought to check it's spread are either not strong enough or are compromised by corruption itself. It thrives in a haven of political vampires and vagabonds like ours! Barack Obama, the Democrat black senator in the US gunning for the presidency delivered a damning lecture on corruption when he visited his fatherland, Kenya earlier this year. According to this embodiment of integrity and intelligence, striking unadulterated self-confidence and glowing ambition: "It is painfully obvious that corruption stifles development - it siphons off scarce resources that could improve infrastructure, bolster education systems, and strengthen public health. It stacks the deck so high against entrepreneurs that they cannot get their job-creating ideas off the ground. In fact, one recent survey showed that corruption in Kenya costs local firms 6% of their revenues, the difference between good-paying jobs in Kenya or somewhere else. And corruption also erodes the state from the inside out, sickening the justice system until there is no justice to be found, poisoning the police forces until their presence becomes a source of insecurity rather than comfort. Corruption has a way of magnifying the very worst twists of fate. It makes it impossible to respond effectively to crises -- whether it's the HIV/AIDS pandemic or malaria or crippling drought. What’s worse - corruption can also provide opportunities for those who would harness the fear and hatred of others to their agenda and ambitions". And continuing in a hard-hitting lecture delivered in Nairobi Senator Barack, son of Kenyan Obama said: "An accountable, transparent government can break this cycle. When people are judged by merit, not connections, then the best and brightest can lead the country, people will work hard, and the entire economy will grow - everyone will benefit and more resources will be available for all, not just select groups. Of course, in the end, one of the strongest weapons any country has against corruption is the ability of the people, to stand up and speak out about the injustices they see. The Kenyan people are the ultimate guardians against abuses". Back home in Nigeria corruption has become a hydra-headed monster, a social syndrome nurtured over the years by the system. It has over time permeated our very innermost existence as a corporate entity threatening everything edifying or honourable. Corruption has played a significant role in stiffling general developmental aspirations rendering every other thing from power supply to petroleum products, from provision of good water to health care delivery comatose. That Nigerians are still 'eating from the dustbin' (as Umaru Dikko had doubted decades ago) in the midst of huge petro-dollars revenue accruing to the federal government purse is still blamable on corruption. Corruption has rendered politics in Nigeria into a 'cash and carry' venture with it's concomitant unbridled principalities in which those elected or selected to provide leadership abandon this responsibility corruptibly in pursuit of personal gains. Corruption has led to the abandonment of those values hitherto held dear and dealt a fatal blow to our collective consciousness. Corruption has almost killed our collective dreams and sown in our hearts and minds opportunism and blackmail and sycophancy and hypocrisy. Corruption has reduced Nigeria into a Hobbesian state where life is simply cheap, short and brutish. Corruption has effortlessly brought out the very worst and low in every Nigerian! Corruption in high places has sent many people to their early graves becoming one of the greatest takers of life after HIV/AIDS. The history of corruption in Nigeria can never be written or complete without a generous mention of the leader perceived widely to have institutionalised it and democratized it. General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida during his eight-year perfidy brought to the fore issues of corruption and how it could be a problem solver and how it could keep a people down. Babangida made corruption which in his time was christened 'settlement' a way of life of his administration, a state policy used to maintain control and remain in reckoning while virtues once held sacrosanct were stiffled. Ibrahim Babangida who came to power psychologically prepared for kleptocracy stole billions and corrupted almost the whole nation including royal fathers and men of integrity. By the time the Minna-born dictator was chased out of Aso Rock after annuling the June 12 presidential election won 'fair and square' by his late friend Bashorun MKO Abiola Nigeria was not the same again -- smarting under the jackboot of uncontrollable national dispossession. Today Ibrahim Babangida lives in an obscene opulence in Minna hilltop mansion constructed by Julius Berger with our oil money. Attempts to bring this evil genius to book by concerned Nigerians after cataloguing his mind-boggling treachery in power has been met with erected brickwalls of legalism and evasion. When General Abdusalami Abubakar took over from late General Sani Abacha Ibrahim Babangida was one of those power-brokers who visited the released General Obasanjo in his Ota farm encouraging him to accept power from Abubakar to prevent the disgrace of the military. Obasanjo who was then half dead having been to hell in Abacha's dungeon readily accepted the offer and in an abracadabra show of 'democracy' Nigeriana he was 'elected' in 1999 as Abubakar's successor. Despite the damning Okigbo panel report which heavily indicted IBB for corruption and the Oputa panel that indicted him for gross human rights abuses Obasanjo has done everything possible to shield Babangida from prosecution. Like late General Augusto Pinochet of Chile Ibrahim Babangida has sought and obtained unofficial 'immunity' from OBJ and even those destined by anointing to replace him. IBB is a smart big thief! And like an intelligent immoral political animal he plays along singing and dancing the same tyrannical chorus with those in power and carefully avoiding any acts by ommission or commission that could provoke those in the corridors of power to mark him out for humiliation. The way and manner he was humbled by OBJ and his anointing machine during the PDP presidential selection process could best demonstrate how Ibrahim Babangida could be blackmailed into submission. He could not come to equity because his hands are soiled with blood and sleaze. Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and his EFCC has been doing a great job in ridding Nigeria of corruption though one disagrees with the double standards and 'sacred cow' credo by which the commission exercises it's functions. Without Ribadu and his Commission Nigerians may not have known how the impeached governor of Bayelsa state stole more than enough for himself and his family and army of mistresses. Alams, presently ill and in the dock was swimming in billions to the extent that he probably lost count of how many foreign properties he owned! It was courtesy of Ribadu that the world now knows that late General Sani Abacha and late Mobutu Sese-Seko were the top kleptocrats known to history. Impeached Joshua Dariye was equally exposed and huge amounts he stole using fronts (one of whom has been jailed in UK recently) was unearthed ditto Peter Odili of Rivers State whom Ribadu told us that his commission stopped from becoming president because of his looting and high-wire corruption. Ayo Fayose, the Ekiti executive rascal stole so much but was clever by half and ploughed some of the ill-gotten wealth to the development of infrastructures in his constituency to confuse prying eyes of EFCC. Lucky Igbinedion has equally cornered more than a fair share of Edo resources but as a 'loyal' party man no sanction has been meted out; after all he was championing the OBJ plan of power shift to the north drawing the criticisms of his peers who see him as a lackey of Obasanjo. Adebayo Alao-Akala of Oyo state who is Lamidi Adedibu's man friday is another bad guy who used just eleven months the Ladoja impeachment saga lasted to amass wealth for the 'garrison commander' and himself. The recent Oyo state panel that probed Alao-Akala's tenure has opened a can of worms of corruption running into bilions of naira. Yet the PDP through the Adedibu influence saw it fit nominating him as the party's flagbearer in the April 14 guber polls. The celebrated PTDF scandal involving the principal occupants of Aso Rock has exposed how we have been badly governed since 1999 when an ex-convict (I don't give a damn if he was wrongly or rightly convicted for plotting a coup) was imposed on us as a democratic alternative to military tyranny. History may yet prove sooner than later that late Abacha may ba a saint compared to those presently supervising our patrimony. The conclusion one can safely draw from these abnormalies in our polity is that mother Nigeria is crying out for change. Until those who really believe in the Nigerian dwindling bogus project, those who love the people and who are not desperate to seek power take charge of our affairs at the national and state levels corruption will be perpetrated using different names, guises and conduits. And thank God April 14th and 21st are, like pregnancy and expectant mother, upon us! ------------ About the author: Sunny Chris Okenwa is a U-K contributor based in Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire. Email: soco_abj_2006_rci@hotmail.fr Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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