INTEGRITY IN A CORRUPTION DOMINATED ENVIRONMENT Our society is not favoured with the manner in which corruption invades the oddity of majority of Nigerians. The definition of corruption from my perceptive is an attitude that is antisocial, proficient of causing retrogression in the society. It makes the aims and objective of an organization or a state impracticable, makes a country to difficultly grow and the citizen of such a state wallow in abject poverty.Only natural disaster can compete with corruption in term of obliteration and we are here in this sorry state of development because of embracement of pro-corruption approach. It is surprising that the slogan of anti-corruption is anomalous in the ears of Nigeria youths and on the face of my friends is revulsion when I talk of integrity. People do not believe it exists anywhere or in any dictionary, the word integrity. Who is free from blemish? Only someone with a total clean record can proliferate what many Nigerian don’t want to hear “war against corruption”. If corruption is a virus that is capable of destroying the foundation of our country, shall we still make it our friend? Assuming I am not a saint, shall we all adopt values that are proficient of running down our country? Shall we pull down a house in which we all reside? Shall we continue to lose our good reputations in the international community? I believe that, no one dares talk of integrity as everyone has skeleton in his cupboard. After all, Hon Faruq Lawal was the champion of integrity in the House of Representatives and was recently blemished in a corruption scam. I stand to be corrected, average Nigerians believe that we are all corrupt and no one should form any level. In our society, one falls under the lens of corrupt Nigerians when you stand for integrity, the person would be scrutinized regularly and it would be difficult to survive the trial. I quickly alter my perspective when I said, we are not perfect but integrity should always be our watch word and we must not give room to the erosion of corruption to wash us away as a country. Geoffrey Chaucer said “If gold rust, what iron shall do?”The political office holders and civil servants are the promoters of corruption, as on daily bases, these persons indulge in an act of corruption, running down the country gradually. The Governor of a states are busy embezzling the state treasury and as a contractor, you know that special percentage out of the cost of project is for the persons who has made it possible to get the contract, in that manner, dishonesty is everywhere . What makes the corruption of the leaders and civil servant to be so tragic, nauseating, ridiculous and condemnable is the good salary they receive, yet! The political office holders of this country are still linked with the corruption. I quickly change my style of approach when I realized that I am hated when I talk of integrity, when I realized that I was hunted when I preached honesty, when I practicalized uprightness. No one is an angel including me, but we must be ready to see veracity as the focal point in our political and economic philosophy. It is suicidal to think migrating toward corruption free reign is impracticable as we are finished and doomed as a country on the day we preach such a caustic message. The recent rating that placed Nigeria among the leading corrupt countries in the world is a litmus test to the fact that as a country we are not yet ready to fight corruption and we cannot fight corruption unless the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria with the surplus power he controls is ready to prizefight the menace and he would be ready to combat himself in other to fight corruption. Most of people who are embroiling in corruption in this country are the so called powerful men linked to the president or governors and this makes the prosecution of the accused persons to be impossible. The presidency cannot be separated from the EFCC and ICPC and it determines what they can do as a government agencies. The Attorney General of Federation and the Nigeria court system seem not helping matter. It is my opinion that the Presidency, Attorney General of Federation, EFCC, ICPC and the Judiciary are the ones that water the seed of corruption in this country. I strongly wonder, what are the purposes of EFCC and ICPC when they could not nail the corrupt Nigerians and our court after granting bail to the accused begin to adjourn cases and the accused relaxed and enjoys the stolen money, after all interest reipublicae ne maleficia remaneant impunita. Our lawyers are finding technicality as a useful tools to save and shelve someone who stole Nigerian money and you think our legal system is fair to us as a country. It is dangerous to the future of this country the kind of attitude we nurture toward corruption.Do we realize the rate of destruction of the virus we arbor? Virus is the corruption which cannot make us to grow as a country but will make us to live as enemy and make our social equation unbalance. We are not Jesus but we need to strive to be like Mohammed and to emulate Jesus. The hatred for what kills our country should spring from deep in our mind and we religiously denounce and reject what is not good for our country.Integrity is the focal point and if we really want to grow we need to urgently shift toward the focal point.I AM A NIGERIAN, NOT A SAINT! ABDULSALAM ABDULFATAH LIBERTY NATIONAL PRESIDENT, NATIONAL CONGRESS OF NIGERIA STUDENTS (NACONS) COLUMNIST, NIGERIA VOICE PUBLISHER/EDITOR -IN-CHIEF, DYNASTY MAGAZINE 07033465033
Posted on: Fri, 28 Jun 2013 00:45:04 +0000