The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has foreseen the re-occurrence of the 2012 flood in many parts of Nigeria even as it advised communities along the river Niger to evacuate immediately to safer ground. The Director General of NEMA, Muhammad Sani Sidi, in a statement, said the floods may occur at any moment from now as a result of intense rainfall and rise in water level. Sani Sidi said the agency has received alerts of the flood from information given by the authorities in the Republic of Niger that the present water level in the river has reached a point that may result in the flood. “Niger Basin Authority notified Nigeria that rainy season, which started in the Middle Niger (Burkina Faso and Niger Republic) in June, 2016, has led to a gradual rise of the level of River Niger in Niamey, Niger Republic. This high level of water in Niger Republic is already spreading to Benin Republic, and invariably, to Nigeria.” He said that the level of water in all the hydrological monitoring stations across the country, as at Friday, has exceeded the corresponding values at that time, which is an alarming situation that requires the prompt and coordinated action of all governments and stakeholders. “if the heavy rainfall continues in intensity and duration within these regions of the River Niger, it is imminent that flood situation similar to that of the year 2012 may occur.” The Director General of NEMA then called on all stakeholders to take necessary actions in line with their various mandates. “The states and local government are advised to take action on the threat in order to avert imminent loss of lives and properties that might certainly arise in the event of flood.” Sani Sidi identified the states along the River Niger belts as being the most vulnerable as well as those along its major tributaries that include Benue River belts, the confluence states and downstream to the Atlantic Coast. The Agency’s Zonal and Operation offices, he said, have been instructed to continue with advocacy visit to the state governments and asked the states to utilize the flood vulnerability maps given to them earlier by NEMA to identify safer ground for temporary shelters in time of evacuation as well as reviewing all their contingency plans. [myad]
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that it is embarrassing for anybody to link him to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which he left a couple of years ago.
Obasanjo, who reacted to a news story that went viral on Friday to the fact that he attended an event of the PDP at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja said that the story was fabricated by some spin doctors to embarrass him.
In a statement on Saturday, the former President said: “The attention of the former President, His Excellency, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has been brought to the photonews story, which has gone viral on the social media on Friday, August 5, 2016 of his purported being ‘spotted’ at a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) event at the Shehu Musa Yar’adua Centre, Abuja.
“While ordinarily his first reaction to the news was that those behind it targeted to get him annoyed and embarrassed him, his conclusion was that he has told the world that he has quit partisan politics and that is final. Anybody hoping to drag him back will fail like any man feeding mice to a dead cat.
“To clear the minds of doubting Thomas’s and those behind the orchestrated news in circulation and particularly those who had been calling to ascertain what actually happened at the Shehu Musa Yar’adua centre. On the invitation of the Commodities Association Stakeholders, His Excellency was invited to the ‘Zero Hunger Nigeria’ event at the Centre.
“He arrived at about 10.00am and immediately moved to the meeting. The meeting commenced but few minutes into the session, his attention was drawn to the presence of some people walking up to where he was seated.
“At closer glance, he recognized them to be politicians and they exchanged pleasantries, saying they came to greet him and they walked out again from the meeting. The former President cracked joke with them calling them ‘invaders and gate crashers’.
“The photo news in circulation, which claimed that he was spotted at a political party event is therefore mischievous, as a responsible journalist ought to have gone further to ascertain his actual destination in among the number of venues at the centre and not taking photograph of his alighting from his vehicle to read another meaning. Shocking also to note that the picture was actually taken while on his way out of the Centre after the programme he had attended had finished.
“This is the height of irresponsible journalism, which the former President is calling for its investigation and sanction on anybody involved in order to serve as deterrent to others who may want to be used either by omission or commission to misinform the public on such sensitive issue.” [myad]
Catholic Priest and Director of the Adoration Ministry, Enugu, Rev. Father Ejike Mbaka, has described the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan as a disaster.
Mbaka said Jonathan’s government laid the foundation for the mess in which the President Muhammad Buhari administration has found itself.
Mbaka, who was on Saturday reacting to stories in the media that he castigated the Buhari administration over the current hunger in the land and that the President was not likely to get the votes of Nigerians in 2019 if the situation persisted, insisted that the impact of the rot the Jonathan administration left for Buhari to battle had not been felt in full.
A statement by his spokesman, Maximus Ugwuoke, quoted the Reverend Father as denying that he attacked Buhari, saying he was quoted out of context in the message titled: “Bless and Be Blessed.”
He said that the initial message, which was followed by another one titled: “Mega Change of Conditions,” explained his position fully on: “Bless and Be Blessed.”
He was quoted as having said in the second message where he absolved the President of blames over the hunger situation in the country: “There is sword that is moving about in the country. People are dying like flies. The sword of Hunger is eating the land. And as I have told you this is just the beginning.
“If anybody is telling you it is going to be well very soon that person is deceiving you.
“This is because many of us were among those that were alive during the years of the past government.
“The past PDP government was a grasshopper and locus to Nigerian. The past government was a disaster to the land of Nigeria; the past government was cancer to this country. There is no need trying to cover their incalculable and iniquitous mess. If you don’t feel it now, you will feel it later.
“The impact of their horrific mess is yet to be felt. It was a regime where hooliganism became a political slogan; where looting became the order of the day; where the neglect of youths became a pattern of administration. The result is what we are passing through now.
“Hunger is everywhere; the hunger was created before this new government came in. Buhari is not the maker of the hunger.
“The hunger was created during the Jonathan PDP administration but Buhari should abate the long procrastination, bureaucracy and slow methods in tackling it.
“Understand it very well. People will know the truth and the truth will set us free. Buhari is just an agent of change. The money in our treasury was nothing to write home about before this new regime came. The country was in an embarrassing mess.
“Apart from the petroleum that we sell and get money, what other means of foreign exchange do we have? The foundation of the Nigerian economy is oil which has now collapsed and the foundation once destroyed what will the just man do? Psalm 11:3. The past administration did not prepare this administration for this season. That is why the sword has risen. Many will die by this sword but there will be survivors.
“That is why I have been saying and I keep on saying that the past administration should publicly come to apologize to Nigerians. They should not be foolhardy. They should not continue to perpetrate this type of iniquitous attitude planning about 2019 election for them to continue from where they stopped. All these years of Jonathan, nothing happened in Niger-Delta specifically to be recorded in the annals of history. What a shame? What an embarrassment. The place where the oil has been coming from remained underdeveloped under a man from the same soil. If you go to Niger Delta today you will cry. But what worries me is that our people are good in shifting blames.
“Somebody entered your kitchen carried your pot of soup, entered your store and farm, raked everything in the store and farm and ran away. And another person entered the kitchen where there is no pot at all and you want the person to turn the kitchen into a magical kitchen that will produce a magical pot and a magical soup, which soup?
“I am just telling President Buhari that people are hungry because he cannot not come to the street like me and notice people’s feelings. But Buhari is not the author of the hunger. The past government planted the tree of hunger and they want to come back to water it.
“If it is in a developed country by now from the Senatorial to the reps to the governors, all who participated in the last administration should have resigned with apologies to our youths; otherwise the youths one day will begin to stone them.
“They will soon confuse you that present governments don’t want to feed you. Feed you with what? It will surprise the whole Nigerians to know that even after Buhari was a petroleum minister and a military president of the country, he had no oil bloc. Is it not a shock? Don’t you hear the quantum of money that is being recovered from one person? Buhari just came as a redeemer. I don’t know if the people of this country are hypnotized.
“How can we be fighting somebody who is fighting for us? Apart from this Buhari, how can somebody talk to these political juggernauts and tell them to bring back what they have stolen? It is only a Beniah personality like Buhari that can enter into the cave and catch a lion and kill a lion in a snow season and come out. The president needs support. He doesn’t know where to begin because there are many holes dug for him by the past administration, and they carried the sand away expecting him to cover the holes with what?”
Ugwuoke said that Mbaka “merely reinstated the obvious sufferings that Nigerian are facing (which even the president himself had at points acknowledged and sued for patience and perseverance) and advised the president on the ways to tackle it i.e. by engaging economic gurus and listening to good advisers.
“We wonder which portion of the message could be viewed as ‘an attack’ or ‘bombing’ of Mr President as twisted in the media. The acclaimed message of the cleric to Mr President to us is rather a further demonstration the cleric’s love to see that the president succeeds in his messianic rescue operation mission in Nigeria and that is why it is devoid of hypocrisy.
“It is obvious that those who are arm-twisting the said message of the cleric to Mr President as an attack on Mr President are those who want the president to fail or be blindfolded so as to use the obvious hardship Nigerians are facing as a weak point of his administration to ride onto power mindless of the fact that Mr President has done so well in fighting corruption and insurgency in the country, which are mega achievements that scores him above average in just few months of his administration.
“In the background of the message, Fr Mbaka encouraged the gallant warrior, President Buhari, to continue his battle against corruption and insurgency asserting that if not a man like President Buhari, by now people may have stopped going to church and mosques. Boko Haram might have wrecked this country. People might have equally stopped going to schools, markets etc. Kudos to Buhari .Fr Mbaka revealed that corruption, insurgency and poor governance by past governments gave birth to three horrible children (1) Hunger (2) Anger (3) Danger.
“He asserted that Buhari is not the cause of corruption and insurgency yet he is fighting them frontally and enjoined the president to extend same to hunger even though he is not the cause. He pleaded the President to begin a War against Hunger, as many are dying hopelessly. He stressed that if the hunger, anger and danger continue, Nigerians may not vote for him again, as they would mistake him for the cause of these maladies while in fact he is a solution.
“Fr Mbaka equally advised the President on being careful about how he appoints people to prominent positions, so that no region will appear marginalized- as happened in NNPC board and charged the President to make sure that those around him are not misguiding him. He advised the President on human empowerment and making sure that those who worked for him (Buhari) during the election ought to be empowered –as one good turn deserves another.
“For the purpose of clarity, granted that Fr Mbaka stated the obvious, that there is hunger in the land, he never attributed the cause of the hunger and economic hardship bedeviling the nation to Buhari rather he attributed it to the offshoot of the actions and inactions of the past administrations of this country.“We recall that earlier this year, Fr Mbaka had during his New Year message predicted that hunger and hardship will come upon the country this year and so we wonder why this message should make a headline at this point of the year.” [myad]
The Emir of Katsina, Dr. Abdul-Mummuni Kabir, has made it clear that President Muhammad Buhari cannot solve within a year, the economic blunder which was committed by the government of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 16 years.
“The President cannot solve the economic blunder committed in 16 years within one year. President Buhari needs some time to marshal plans that will solve the several challenges facing the country.”
The Emir who spoke at the inauguration of a book on family lineage of late chief Imam of Kano residing in Katsina, Muhammad Zaharaddeen, on Saturday in Katsina, lamented what he called the blame game being unleashed on President Buhari by those he called some disgruntled people.
Alhaji Kabir advised Nigerians to rally round and support Buhari to enable him discharge his duties for the betterment of the people, adding “the President needs the support and prayers of his brothers and sisters from the North to overcome the several problems facing the North and the country.”
The emir commended the author for writing the book on his family lineage that migrated to Katsina in 1894 during Hausa/Fulani civil wars.
He said that the book will serve as a reference material for history students in tertiary institutions in the state.
Earlier, Governor Aminu Masari called on thed citizens to emulate the late chief imam’s family by promoting both western and Islamic education.
“This prominent family has produced lawyers, doctors, university professors, administrators and politicians.’’
Masari said that the family had some prominent politicians like Secretary to the Government of Katsina State, Alhaji Mustapha Inuwa and Senator Hadi Sirike, a serving minister in Buhari’s Administration.
NAN reports that the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammad Sanusi, who was the chief launcher of the book, donated N1 million. Over N5 million was realized at the launch.
The book is written by the former correspondent of BBC Hausa Service, Aminu Abdullahi. [myad]
Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited has laid off 182 regular and 103 contract staff members in Akwa Ibom State between June and August 1. A dependable source who preferred anonymity told the News Agency of Nigeria on Friday in Ibeno that those affected were at its administrative block at Qua Iboe Terminal, Ibeno. The source said: “The company had long paid their contract staff before laying them off. “Yesterday, when I went to ExxonMobil, the person I went to see at the maintenance office was also sacked. “He was among the three contract staff disengaged yesterday at Qua Iboe Terminal and more staff members will be retrenched by September.” A sacked ExxonMobil staff member, Okon Ibanga, said the sack had caused hardship for him in view of the economic crisis in the country. Ibanga said the company was preparing the entitlements of the sacked workers to ameliorate their sufferings. Ibanga alleged that the retrenchment was politicised as majority of those affected were from Akwa Ibom and Cross River States. Responding, the Media and Communication Manager at ExxonMobil, Ogechukwu Udeagha, confirmed the development. Udeagha said the company had adjusted its business in response to the challenge in the export system. “Our response to your inquiry is that we have adjusted our business in response to the challenge in the export system, which necessitated curtail of production,” Udeagha said. He noted that ExxonMobil’s operations would be reviewed on an ongoing basis. NAN. [myad]
An amalgamation of youth groups in Taraba state under the auspices of PDP 100 percent loyalists have thrown their weight behind Mr. Emmanuel Bello for the position of the National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The group said that Bello, who was the former commissioner of information in the state, possess the needed qualities for the position. In a statement, the leader of the group, Hon. Dennis Shima said: “we are delighted to endorse the candidature of Hon Emmanuel Bello for the position of the National Publicity Secretary of our great party. We note with deep humility that Emmanuel Bello, while he held similar roles in Taraba state performed creditably well, displaying high level loyalty to the party and his principal. As an accomplished journalist, it is our belief that Bello comes to the contest with sterling qualities of a news man who has also worked in government cycles where he was first a special adviser on Media and twice a commissioner of information. He has also been prepared by his principled stand at the most trying period of the state’s history where he became famous for stubbornly standing by ailing former Governor Danbaba Suntai. This was at the time it was easier to compromise loyalty.” It would be recalled that the Makarfi-led PDP has zoned the position of National Publicity Secretary to the North Central even as the party said viable candidates can still contest positions, irrespective of the zoning formula. Emmanuel Bello, a former editor with leadership newspaper among other newspapers, has not officially declare for the position yet. A source close to him said that the 45 year old former commissioner is currently consulting with stakeholders in the state. [myad]
Virginia Thrasher, a 19-year-old college student from Virginia, has emerged as the first gold medalist in the ongoing Rio Olympics. She won the 10-meter air rifle competition on Saturday morning.
Thrasher set an Olympic recording, beating China’s Du Li 208.0-207.0. At West Virginia, Thrasher became the first freshman rifle shooter to win individual titles in air and smallbore while leading WVU to their fourth-straight NCAA title.
“Smallbore” refers to rifles that are small-caliber, but not fired by air, which is certainly a thing we all knew and did not just look up.
Thrasher grew up in Northern Virginia and hadn’t fired a gun until five years ago. Three years ago, according to the Washington Post, she was the 45th-ranked junior shooter in the country and wasn’t a popular medal pick before the competition. Now she’s the best in the world.
Also, her nickname is “Ginny.”
Meanwhile a bomb alert at the Beach Volleyball Arena in Copacabana had, early on Saturday, sparked an evacuation and the deployment of bomb disposal robots, while Maracanã Stadium hosted the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics.
The military and armed police cordoned off a section of Avenida Atlantica, a major sea side avenue in Rio de Janeiro bordering Copacabana beach where the Game’s Beach Volleyball Arena is situated, at around 8:40pm local time on Friday.
Bomb disposal teams were deployed over two suspicious bags around 10 minutes later, the Telegraph reports. Explosives robots were also brought in and the items were later found to be safe.
The bomb alert came after thousands of anti-government protestors marched along the waterfront seemingly in support of ousted President Dilma Rousseff.
Michel Temer, a 75-year-old law professor, became acting president after the Senate voted in favour of launching an impeachment trial against Ms Rousseff, suspending her.
Posters at the protests, translated, read: “‘Out Temer! The people should decide.” A bin with a spray-painted stencil had the words “stop coup in Brazil” written on it.”
The pre-ceremony protest followed violent demonstrations on Thursday that marred the Olympic torch’s arrival in the Brazilian city. [myad]
The above headline came from The FCPA Blog, one of the anti-corruption international blogs I subscribed to for news and commentaries. I became curious to go through the write-up authored by Caveni Wong. He discussed something so intriguing that normally passes as part of our behavioural traits but never taken serious – CHEATING – as an integral form of CORRUPTION.
Here are excerpts from the article: “It is an uncomfortable thought, but given certain circumstances, most of us would cheat. Ron Carucci just wrote about how easily one can cross the line in Forbes article that featured a conversation with Richard Bistrong. The cheating often involves people who don’t even realize that they are crossing the line.
“Studies have repeatedly shown that most people cheat when asked to self-report their own performance on a task if it means a higher pay-out. But they only cheat a little bit, enough to gain a little extra benefit, but not so much that they’d feel bad about themselves.
“That’s consistent with what I observed early in my career. Lunch among a few colleagues would somehow become a “client” meal, in which actual client names would be scribbled on a receipt and submitted for reimbursement. A colleague admitted he often embellished expenses. A $45; a $25 dinner into $40 — a practice my colleague said he learnt from watching others.
“These small transgressions tended to be committed by those I considered to be good work ethic. Those employees didn’t know they had crossed the line. Their actions were just part of the informal culture. And that’s the insidious nature of minor cheating that goes unchecked. It slowly builds up a culture that can eventually set the stage for more serious violations.”
This is the crux of the matter. Corruption has so eaten deep into the fabric of everything in our lives- be it social, political and economic –a malaise that is presently driving Nigeria’s economy to its worst recession in history. Then, who is to blame? I draw strength from John 8, where Jesus Christ exonerated and rescued a woman allegedly caught in adulterous act from accusers who were ready to stone her to death. Jesus simply stooped down, and scribbled something on the ground and asked a thunderbolt of a question: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”
That question pricked their consciences. One by one, they moved away. What a timeless lesson for all. Today, many of us are shouting corruption at the rooftops. At most major fora, the thrust of discussion is corruption but in our subconscious minds, are we not guilty one way or another? Do we not cheat and cut corners in our inter-personal dealings- be it at home, at work and businesses? How many of us can vouch that if appointed into higher public office will not cheat? Just look around you, and tell me if corruption is not staring at you.
Seriously, I believe that instead of mouthing corruption at every public discourse, let us start a serious re awakening of anti- corruption crusade, starting from ourselves, home and neighbours. Our children,today, have lost every value of integrity through the mind-boggling revelations of looters of the national treasury being hyped by the media on daily basis. These looters are not aliens. They are not ghosts. They are people at our backyards and homes.
It is not too late to start fighting the monster from self. Man’s insatiable greed for primitive acquisition is so alarming that you keep wondering whether he will ever leave this Mother Earth. When you look at the crazy acquisitions, one discovers that most of them are products of cheating. Then, where do we draw the line between cheating and corruption? There is a very thin line between them. In fact, they are birds of the same feather.
In writing this article, I sought the perspectives of some of my friends and I got them talking. One of them, Mr. Femi Adefemiwa, said: “What a sound argument! There is no collective guilt but individual guilt. By nature, every human being is selfish and perhaps self-centred. The deprived background which a significant number of us experienced, and the undue societal expectations from us, have created some primordial tendencies in us, e.g. primitive acquisition. To make matters worse, justice in our land is always to the higher bidder. So, an innocuous combination of these ills has put us where we are today. But we have to start somewhere. Cleaning the mess must not be by academic exercise. Whether we are all guilty or not, we just have to draw a line and start from somewhere. And perhaps we have started.”
Another contributor from the United States of America, who identified himself simply as Tolu, wrote: “Your Food For Thought is direct and challenging indeed. It is the type of introspection that will help us not to be hypocrites. It is like admitting categorically that I have never sinned. I admit that I’m not pious enough to admit that I’m free from the taint of moral and character flaws. As human, I still need to recognize the society’s decadence and my personal contribution to such moral bankruptcy. The challenge of the conundrum is knowing how to maintain a balance between transparency in my conducts and standing against blatant disregard for the rule of law and sense of decency by the people in power.”
Similarly, another friend, Fisan Bankale, loved the Food For Thought “because it energized my thoughts in the direction of how to get people to own up to their contribution. Let me share a thought here. A man or family whose son or daughter was given a job at CBN or FIRS would go to church or mosque to thank God. But that job is a proceed from a corrupt act because the job was through an abuse of due process. The late Yar’adua publicly acknowledged that the election that brought him to power was riddled with fraud. Such open acknowledgement of wrong doing is what everyone should subscribe to.”
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may be heading to another major crisis as it has reportedly zoned the position of the national chairmanship to the South West, thereby technically knocking out Chief Raymond Dokpesi, who has been campaigning for the position in many parts of the country. Chief Dokpeai has already reacted to the development, describing it as unfortunate, adding that it is a repeat of the same mistake that led the party to where it is today. A statement by his media aide, Omor Bazuaye, quoted him as saying: “leaders of the South met and decided to micro-zone to the South West. These are the same things we did that brought the party to its knees. “I have come here pleading and begging that if I become National Chairman it is me and you that would be chairman. I have been on the road in the last eight days, moving from armlet to armlet, soliciting for support, asking, pleading and begging the people to vote for me. “They have received us well, warmed up strongly to our brand of populist democracy, which has returned power to choose their leaders to the people and it’s in the true spirit of our motto: ‘Power to the people.” Dokpesi said that he has been emboldened by the massive support from the people and would be holding on to their words as he goes for the challenge in Port Harcourt, adding: “it is this assurances that I’ll hold on to as I transverse the length and breadth of the country.” Dokpesi called on citizens to join in a campaign that is “bound to change the face of politics forever in the country.” [myad]
Four times winner of Olympic gold medal, Serena Williams has said that she loves her body and would never change anything about it.
Williams who was reacting to ridicule from people who said, despite her incredible figures, she still has a strong frame, said: “I love my body, and I would never change anything about it.
“I’m not asking you to like my body. I’m just asking you to let me be me. Because I’m going to influence a girl who does look like me, and I want her to feel good about herself.”
The Top ranking Tennis women’s player who appeared on the cover of Self magazine said that she adhered to a strict diet that did not allow her to eat wheat or sugar in the course of her fight to stay at the top of the Women’s Tennis Association rankings, a spot she’s held for over 170 weeks.
“I got super disciplined this time, for the first time in a while,” she said.
Williams will be journeying to Rio to hopefully win her 5th Olympic gold medal.
Speaking about Beyoncé who had invited her to twerk it out in the “Sorry” video, Williams said: “I was nervous. But Beyoncé was impressed. I was like, ‘Well, you told me to dance like no one was looking!’” [myad]
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The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has foreseen the re-occurrence of the 2012 flood in many parts of Nigeria even as it advised communities along the river Niger to evacuate immediately to safer ground.
The Emir of Katsina, Dr. Abdul-Mummuni Kabir, has made it clear that President Muhammad Buhari cannot solve within a year, the economic blunder which was committed by the government of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 16 years.
Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited has laid off 182 regular and 103 contract staff members in Akwa Ibom State between June and August 1.
An amalgamation of youth groups in Taraba state under the auspices of PDP 100 percent loyalists have thrown their weight behind Mr. Emmanuel Bello for the position of the National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Corruption: Who Cheats? Most Of Us, By Folu Olamiti
The above headline came from The FCPA Blog, one of the anti-corruption international blogs I subscribed to for news and commentaries. I became curious to go through the write-up authored by Caveni Wong. He discussed something so intriguing that normally passes as part of our behavioural traits but never taken serious – CHEATING – as an integral form of CORRUPTION.
Here are excerpts from the article: “It is an uncomfortable thought, but given certain circumstances, most of us would cheat. Ron Carucci just wrote about how easily one can cross the line in Forbes article that featured a conversation with Richard Bistrong. The cheating often involves people who don’t even realize that they are crossing the line.
“Studies have repeatedly shown that most people cheat when asked to self-report their own performance on a task if it means a higher pay-out. But they only cheat a little bit, enough to gain a little extra benefit, but not so much that they’d feel bad about themselves.
“That’s consistent with what I observed early in my career. Lunch among a few colleagues would somehow become a “client” meal, in which actual client names would be scribbled on a receipt and submitted for reimbursement. A colleague admitted he often embellished expenses. A $45; a $25 dinner into $40 — a practice my colleague said he learnt from watching others.
“These small transgressions tended to be committed by those I considered to be good work ethic. Those employees didn’t know they had crossed the line. Their actions were just part of the informal culture. And that’s the insidious nature of minor cheating that goes unchecked. It slowly builds up a culture that can eventually set the stage for more serious violations.”
This is the crux of the matter. Corruption has so eaten deep into the fabric of everything in our lives- be it social, political and economic –a malaise that is presently driving Nigeria’s economy to its worst recession in history. Then, who is to blame? I draw strength from John 8, where Jesus Christ exonerated and rescued a woman allegedly caught in adulterous act from accusers who were ready to stone her to death. Jesus simply stooped down, and scribbled something on the ground and asked a thunderbolt of a question: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”
That question pricked their consciences. One by one, they moved away. What a timeless lesson for all. Today, many of us are shouting corruption at the rooftops. At most major fora, the thrust of discussion is corruption but in our subconscious minds, are we not guilty one way or another? Do we not cheat and cut corners in our inter-personal dealings- be it at home, at work and businesses? How many of us can vouch that if appointed into higher public office will not cheat? Just look around you, and tell me if corruption is not staring at you.
Seriously, I believe that instead of mouthing corruption at every public discourse, let us start a serious re awakening of anti- corruption crusade, starting from ourselves, home and neighbours. Our children,today, have lost every value of integrity through the mind-boggling revelations of looters of the national treasury being hyped by the media on daily basis. These looters are not aliens. They are not ghosts. They are people at our backyards and homes.
It is not too late to start fighting the monster from self. Man’s insatiable greed for primitive acquisition is so alarming that you keep wondering whether he will ever leave this Mother Earth. When you look at the crazy acquisitions, one discovers that most of them are products of cheating. Then, where do we draw the line between cheating and corruption? There is a very thin line between them. In fact, they are birds of the same feather.
In writing this article, I sought the perspectives of some of my friends and I got them talking. One of them, Mr. Femi Adefemiwa, said: “What a sound argument! There is no collective guilt but individual guilt. By nature, every human being is selfish and perhaps self-centred. The deprived background which a significant number of us experienced, and the undue societal expectations from us, have created some primordial tendencies in us, e.g. primitive acquisition. To make matters worse, justice in our land is always to the higher bidder. So, an innocuous combination of these ills has put us where we are today. But we have to start somewhere. Cleaning the mess must not be by academic exercise. Whether we are all guilty or not, we just have to draw a line and start from somewhere. And perhaps we have started.”
Another contributor from the United States of America, who identified himself simply as Tolu, wrote: “Your Food For Thought is direct and challenging indeed. It is the type of introspection that will help us not to be hypocrites. It is like admitting categorically that I have never sinned. I admit that I’m not pious enough to admit that I’m free from the taint of moral and character flaws. As human, I still need to recognize the society’s decadence and my personal contribution to such moral bankruptcy. The challenge of the conundrum is knowing how to maintain a balance between transparency in my conducts and standing against blatant disregard for the rule of law and sense of decency by the people in power.”
Similarly, another friend, Fisan Bankale, loved the Food For Thought “because it energized my thoughts in the direction of how to get people to own up to their contribution. Let me share a thought here. A man or family whose son or daughter was given a job at CBN or FIRS would go to church or mosque to thank God. But that job is a proceed from a corrupt act because the job was through an abuse of due process. The late Yar’adua publicly acknowledged that the election that brought him to power was riddled with fraud. Such open acknowledgement of wrong doing is what everyone should subscribe to.”
Olamiti is a Media Consultant. [myad]