The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) last Wednesday released a report that stupefied many Nigerians. They could not imagine the Bureau claiming with figures that there has been momentous level of corruption going on even in a regime that made anti-graft war its major task in office. Come to think of it, corruption in this regime? Tufiakwa! Can you beat that? The NBS did not say the corruption it unmasked only took place in the public sector, but it said, those working in a puritanical government so to say. The claim by the NBS was contained in its National Corruption Report. It said that 32.3 percent of Nigerian adults who had contact with public officials between June 2015 and May 2016 had to pay bribes to the government workers. Ah Ah Ah…, but this is the period when it is as if the talk about fight against corruption is fiercest. It is in this era that President Muhammadu Buhari is breathing fire, telling the world that his government had a zero tolerance for corruption. So, does it mean that while they are busy grandstanding and clamping into detention some people, particularly, public officials who served in the Jonathan era, those elected with Buhari, who are still shouting anti-graft war slogan are busy helping themselves with public funds and engaging in the same evil they openly condemn? Hypocrisy!
NBS gave categories of government officials that were into this bribery thing. It claimed that within a year in office the current administration incubated about N400 billion bribes.
Mind you, that was even in the first year of the administration, when people should have been afraid with the posturing of a new government. I am sure that a good number of Nigerians may go into a feat if and when NBS releases its report for between May 2016 and July 2017. This is the period when the president’s absenteeism became much more pronounced. As it is said, when a cat is not at home, the mouse takes over. A lot of water must have gone under the bridge in government circles with Buhari’s long stay in London. The revelation from NBS should actually make a serious government weep, particularly a government that arrogates to itself a puritanical status. Unless, the Buhari administration instills in every Nigerian the consciousness of being patriotic, so much that bribe giving and taking will no longer be a way of life, no amount of threat can do the magic. This cannot happen in a vacuum. Government must address those areas that push people into giving and taking of bribes. Salaries must be paid as and when due; pensioners must receive their pay; unnecessary bureaucracies must be removed in doing government business; workers must be paid a living way. Government must create environment conducive enough for businesses to thrive. Above all, leaders must lead by example.
The worth of a Nigerian life
I weep each time I see the pictures over the television or newspapers of people going to London to visit President Muhammadu Buhari. My sadness is not because the president does not merit all that but my worry is the fact that since the president relocated to London, over one hundred Nigerians may have died as a result of some disclosed and undisclosed ailments. Today, in Nigeria, there are many patients in hospitals who are being denied of medication because they cannot pay for their treatment. Some had been forcefully discharged and told to go home and die because their relations can no longer meet the treatment charges. Many Nigerians are dying these days for the simple reason that the facilities are so seriously stretched that hospitals have resolved not to go beyond their capacity. So, what they do is, as soon as a patient is brought to them no matter how critical the condition is, they say “No bed space, go to another hospital.” In May this year, I lost a very good friend of mine. She was rushed to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital Idi-Araba (LUTH) in a critical condition but her husband was told to “Carry Go”, no bed space.
The distraught husband put a call through to some relations of theirs in another big hospital in Ife, Osun State, who gave instruction she should be brought down there. She made to Ife alive, but lost the battle, apparently because her situation that needed urgent medical attention worsened as a result of the distance from Lagos to Osun.
A Bishop and his ways
We thought that if any person is so pious as to build a place of worship– a tabernacle- for God, such a one should have no dealing with idols or their worship. It is shocking that the alleged target in the St. Philip’s Catholic Church in the August 6 shooting at Ozubulu, Anambra State, Aloysius Ikegwuonu, alias ‘Bishop’ called on traditional rulers in the state to use the traditional means to expose the perpetrators of the heinous act. This is a bizarre solicitation. This is a man said to have built a church where the Almighty God is worshipped, turning to seek revelation from other gods! He was quoted as saying, “I implore you my lords to ask the gods of the land to reveal the perpetrators of this dastardly act.” He also told the monarchs that since they were the custodians of tradition and spiritual leaders, they should pray to the gods of the land and use seers to find the killers of the worshippers and bring them to justice.
One would have thought that building a church was a sign of giving reverence to the Almighty and relying on Him to take charge of every situation in life. Why did Aloy leave the priests and Bishop in the church in Ozubulu and in Anambra State to solicit a revelation from traditionalists? Does it mean that his allegiance is more to the small gods than to the great God, for whom he built a temple? Or does he see the church building he donated as one of those monuments to show his deep pocket? Is it possible that he also donated a big shrine to the traditionalists in Ozubulu? The answers to these posers would provide insight into where his mind actually is. But this ‘Bishops’ comes across as a man who “halts between two opinions”. He does not “offend” God and is also very careful not to offend the small gods. Only him knows exactly where his mind is. Of course, the Big God, in whose honour he built the St. Philips Cathedral in Ozubulu, knows the real Aloysius.
Spot the difference: Hate speech and hate governance
Last week, the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, tasked journalists on responsible reporting, saying they should play a leading role in tackling hate speech which he said was resonating all over the world. He was reported to have said: “Somehow these things (hate speeches) are resonating all over the world, new found nationalism and all of that. But I think for us here in Nigeria, it is a very important issue I think that it is important that it is important that we find ways of controlling these things. I think that we have a responsibility, especially leaders of journalism, do find ways of dealing with this issue because it is a cancer”.
True talk! Most times, when things go wrong in society, government tends to point fingers at journalists, accusing them of irresponsible reportage. What I had expected the erudite professor of law to have done, was to first of all admit that this hate thing emanated from the modus operandi of the current administration; and to plead with the practitioners in the Fourth Estate of the Realm to help government in the damage control. For crying out loud, journalists do not manufacture their own stories; what they report is what people say “They say, they say”.
But what do you think of a government and administration that took off on the spring board of hate? Before the coming of the administration, there was nothing like hate speeches. The current administration laid its foundation on hate and has not weaned itself from it. For instance, when a president of a country announced a policy of exclusion of some parts of the country and has been running with it; how can journalists stop the speeches and comments that emanate as a result? When the current administration began to appoint people from a particular part of the country in total neglect of other parts, was that not hate on its own? So, journalists shouldn’t have reported such appointment? So, it was such lopsidedness that triggered comments which journalists also capture in their reports. Or does the Acting President imply that journalists shouldn’t have reported the quit notice given to the Igbo by the Arewa youths? What if journalists did not report that hate moves and nobody heard of it only for them to start attacking the Igbos on October 1st? So, people should not talk about the menace of the Fulani herdsmen across the country? Or if some obnoxious rules and policies are secretly inserted into the school curriculum like the CRK-IRK imbroglio, which elicited massive outcry, so journalists should not report them?
Even those things posted in the social media nowadays are not altogether lies. There are some elements of truth in them. Government should first purge itself of negative tendencies that engender strife in society. You cannot continue to oppress an individual and expect such a one to keep quiet. Perhaps, it is such cries of agony from the oppressed souls; it is the bitter complaints of the sidelined in society; it is the repeated sighing of the army of harassed Nigerians and the marginalised that government is hearing and feels agitated that hate speeches are circulating. Truth be told, the water became contaminated from the source and until the source is properly cleaned, it will continue to issue out bad water. The physician must heal himself first.
Zebulon Agomuo
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