It always baffles me when patriotic Nigerians chide a public office holder because of corruption and abuse of office and other Nigerians especially those from the chided public official ethnic group, state or region come out to defend that public officer because “he is our own”. They are so myopic that they could not realize these public officials qualified to occupy those offices only because they are Nigerians, not Hausa, Yoruba, Ijaw, Ijebu, Fulani or Igbo.
The case of the aviation minister, Stella “bulletproof” Oduah is the latest. They forgot or intentionally chose to ignore the fact the money she mismanaged was not “her people” share of the money but our money.
Or when Abdulrasheed Maina carted away with millions of pensioners money, he did not only steal pension share of his kinsmen, rather funds meant for pensioners in Bayelsa, Ondo, Kogi, Taraba and other states in Nigeria. In addition to that, when Farouk Lawan cap-banked that $620,000 bribe, he collected that for himself not the people he is representing or the people of Kano as a whole. With that action, he betrayed not only the people he is representing, but all Nigerians. To them, it is stealing without borders and unfortunately for “their people” it is our sons’ or daughters’ turn to chop.
Sometime back, President Goodluck Jonathan, Corruption–crusader in chief (C-in-C) said the problem of Nigeria is not corruption, but our attitude. Well, he has a point there because Nigerians celebrate thieves and rogues. The more one steals, the more (s)he is celebrated. This is the reason they keep breaking their own records in looting. Imagine what Gov. Rotimi Amaechi said recently, that they steal because Nigerians don’t stone them. What a self-indicting statement! He dared us, “yes we steal, what can you do?” Because we tolerate a lot of bullshit, that is why the president can say he doesn’t give a damn about declaring his asset; that is why a minister can say avoidable accidents are acts of God; that is why a minister can say the power problem in Nigeria is caused by evil spirits and similar or worse.
The earlier we do the needful, stop lying to ourselves and stand up to them, the better. We can not just sit and think that all is well, because the greatest deceit is self deceit. Therefore, because they steal without borders, we need to stand up and match up to them in that manner; without borders.
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