I just heard with one ear that the Presidents daughter is getting married tomorrow. We must congratulate Ogbuefi Goodluck Azikiwe Jonathan and his Dame on this joyful private family occasion. This wedding also brings into sharp focus one of the most benumbing dilemmas of the Nigerian condition: the inevitability and inescapability of corruption. You are corrupt because you are Nigerian, you are Nigerian because you are corrupt. Dont be in a hurry. Let me explain this Fanonian conundrum. Let us assume for the sake of argument that the Jonathans do the impossible by deciding that this strictly family occasion shall not be an occasion to privatize and personallize the resources of the Nigerian state; lets assume that they decide that not one sisi, not one resource belonging to the people of Nigeria, shall be deployed for this private occasion; lets assume that they decide that, unlike Oronto Douglas, no military helicopters shall be deployed illegally for okada purposes in Yenagoa tomorrow, the bill passed on to the Nigerian people; lets assume that the Presidential couple understands that were they a Presidential couple in civilized democracies, the people and the Opposition would scrutinize every private family function - holidays, christenings, weddings - to ensure that there is a clear demilitarized border zone between your private resources and the resources of state and that when your wife and daughters go on vacation in Hawaii or China, folks want to know who paid for aviation fuel for Air Force One; let us assume that the Jonathans know all these things and decide to do the right thing for a change: no resources of the Nigerian state for their daughters wedding. Then they get to Yenagoa and hear that more than 70% of the National Conference delegates costing Nigerians 4 million naira each per month have abandoned the peoples work and gone for the wedding party - mostly uninvited. Against the best intentions of the Jonathans, corruption would still have crept in by ensuring that time that Nigerians have paid for in order that these folks might work in Abuja has been stolen and diverted for merriment in Yenagoa. Through the backdoor, that marriage would still have cost Nigerians millions in pay collected for work not done while the conference participants went to make merry in Yenagoa. You see why corruption is to Nigeria what a long scraggy beard is to the chin of an Al-Qaeda Mollah now? You cannot separate an Al-Qaeda Mollah from his beard, you cannot separate Nigeria from corruption. It is depressing. Even raising these issues is enough to draw out pro-establishment caterwaulers who will say: why are you even asking? Who are you to ask these questions about a private affair of the President? And you remind them that if you are feeding a couple at the rate of N1 billion per year, it is your civic duty to ask these kinds of questions, evince these kinds of scenarios at all times. They will not understand for the system has manufactured psychologies of little understanding in them. And while they scream out in yelps of little understanding, corruption finds better and more effective ways of retaining its Nigerian citizenship...
Posted on: Fri, 04 Apr 2014 23:08:02 +0000
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