It was Elie Wiesel who said that, “there may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.
If you are in Nigeria today, take a look around. Have policemen stopped extorting money from motorists? Have they stopped collecting money from criminals to set them free? Have custom officials stopped collecting money from smugglers to turn blind eyes while trucks filled with contraband goods make their way through our borders? Have immigration officials stopped showing people boxes to drop something before collecting their international passports? Have they stopped asking for money from travellers at the airports?
Have ministry officials stopped collecting something before pushing your file forward? Is the era of lecturers publishing unnecessary handouts and books to make money from students gone for good? Did your child sit for SSCE recently and tell you that nobody asked for money to settle the supervisors? If all these things and many more are still happening in this country, which corruption are we now fighting? Why is this government rating itself so high in the fight against corruption?
It just goes to prove that Buhari and his APC government have absolutely no idea what corruption is all about.
Goodluck Jonathan said it in an interview that what we are always calling corruption is just stealing by individuals. APC twisted it and came up with the “stealing is not corruption” slogan. Now the fight against corruption is limited to the arrest and detention of Jonathan’s men for stealing. We might as well change the slogan to “corruption is just PDP stealing”.
We now forget that abuse of power in whatever form is also corruption. Arresting individuals and illegally detaining them just because they are on the opposing side is also corruption. Turning a blind eye to thieves and corrupt individuals just because they are in your political party is still corruption.
Let us tell ourselves the truth.
This government is using this corruption story to deceive themselves, and it is up to us as the people on the receiving end of their actions and inactions to speak up before we all die in this country.
After all, the policeman on the road will not extort the government officials. Politicians walk into the immigration office and collect their passports from the ‘oga’s’ office. We are the ones who suffer, and if we don’t do something about it, no one will.
In case you have not noticed, take a look at this government and you will see that nothing has changed.
If there’s any change here, we have gone back to pre-1999 days where you can be picked up and detained indefinitely because the government does not like you. This government has taken us back to the era where Nigerians fight for food in socials .They have taken us back to the era of buying ‘black and white ‘televisions because the ‘coloured’ ones are out of reach of the common man. They have taken us back to the era of the military junta where the principle of separation and the Rule of law are not obeyed. I need not talk about not obeying court orders or the executive arm invading into the affairs of the other two arms of the government. They have taken us back to the era of one party system. In Abacha era, five political parties endorsed him (under duress) to run as a civilian president.
They have taken Edo state even when it was reported that there were massive monetary inducements of voters, the so-called corruption fighters turned a deaf ear to that reportage but if it were PDP that won the governorship election in Edo state, the electoral officers would be arrested and dealt with. Rivers state governorship election is still fresh in our memory.
The judges who gave unfavourable judgements against APC, the presidency or Mr president’s certificate saga and the judges who gave favourable judgements for the release of Nnamdi Kanu and Sambo Dasuki, or for the victory of Nyesom Wike or Akwa Ibom state government were marked for ‘demolition’ in what they ignorantly called sting operation.
There is hunger in the land and the people are angry. The hunger and anger have made our people not to reason well. Can reasonable set of people lynch a seven year old boy no matter the alleged crime? Our people no longer reason well as a result of the harsh economy situation this present government created for the people.
They increased the cost of living without increasing the salary or better still pay workers monthly. Many states are owing workers not less than 7 months salaries, yes you heard well, 7 solid months without salaries and they still expect the workers to be diligent and not to collect any bribe?
They increased the petrol pump price of PMS from PDP price of N97 to N145. One bag of rice has risen from PDP price of less than N10, 000 to now N25, 000. CBN just announced that soon any call above 3 minutes will be surcharged.
I heard that the good people of Sokoto turned Jonathan’s condolence visit to a clarion call for Jonathan to come back. I warned them that ‘bad are not good until the worst happen.’ One dollar will soon be equal to one thousand naira under the watch of a government that was said to be able to make one naira equal to one dollar. Electricity bills have since been increased and more harsh policies will soon come our way.
PDP government came in 1999 and made life easier for Nigerians. We no longer queue up in NITEL phone stations to make calls. ‘Black and white’ televisions disappeared in every home. Electronic gadgets became commonplace but since this government came on board, it has been one blame on top of another because Steven Graham said that,’ excuses are the tools with which persons with no purpose in view, build for themselves great monuments of nothing.’
Under their watch, many companies either relocated out of the country or folded up due to the harsh economic policies of the present government, thereby increasing the number of unemployed citizens. Even if the present government finally employs the 200,000 citizens, it promised during the campaign, the number of workers that their harsh economic policies laid off is more than the 200,000 citizens to be employed. That means they just robbed Peter to pay Paul.
Let us continue to bear the brunt of their trial and error economic policies. Anybody that attempts committing suicide should be arrested and prosecuted, we are all in this mess together and nobody should leave the stage no matter the circumstances.
– Dr Paul John
mazipauljohn@gmail.com,08083658038
