Corruption In High Places

Corruption In High Places: A Decadent Society Called Nigeria

Ritchie Ejiofor

All too sudden, fulore and surprises have attended the heroic and startling revelations by El-Rufai one of the very honest ministers in the newly appointed cabinet of the present administration that he was a victim of solicitation and pressure by a cabal within the upper house for his ministerial nomination to be accepted .On the face value of this alleged bribery scandal coming from a public office would have prompted a national outcry and stiff investigation enough to rock the entire integrity of the crop of leadership pretending to be public servants of the people and elected representatives of their constituency.

As it now a common practice, political writers have dubbed it Rufaigate but as has become the general and Nigerian conventional pattern, even with the Ngigate, episode, nothing would happen except that some ignorant press conference will insult our common sensibilities by shamefully informing Nigerians that this is purely a party affairs to be resolved internally. Cardinal principle in democracy is for every citizen to be the watchdog, because, vigilance is the price to pay for liberty.

Corruption by public officers entrusted with such responsibilities is not alien to our society, rather, it has shamefully been glorified as an acceptable means of status elevation as all too sudden, we have been bombarded with the emergence of novae-riche class whose wealth pedigree could only be traced with public service, yet the government and the larger society fold their hands akimbo and pretend of its existence.

Marcel Proust once said “the only real voyage of discovery consist not in seeking new landscape but in having new eyes”

Nigerians have murmured too long about corruption and this Rufaigate should burst the can of worms that has permeated deeply in every facet of our society. Things don’t work right in our country because even the saintly minds has become corrupt and thinks that is how the society will function properly since every one is now limited by their own experience following the kids glove treatment given to well known cases of official abuse of power, position and wealth, so there has emerged varying classification of corruption with the lesser devil getting punished while the larger image are accorded ‘official protection”

El-Rufai represent hope at this time of moral decadence that we have lived with for nearly a quarter of a century, it about time we emulate this very bold step and start the revolution to clean sweep our society and country’s image that has for long become enmeshed with corruption as our own landmark.

While every one seems to be interested in knowing what happened and who did what or are involved in this plot, there seems to be others scared about further revelation hence there is a calculated attack on El rufai’s credibility. This revelation has a prior history; the rate of corrupt practices is nothing but a reflection of the larger society. Inspite of the criticism of the present administration, there seem to be gradual decline of reported cases of corruption even though there are quite a pocket cases around not within the magnitude of Umaru Dikko or Tahir.

Nigerians are watching curiously at the ongoing squabble and physical assault by members of the both the lower and upper houses. What nobody has cared to asked is what are the salient causes leading to such assault? Is it a case of someone obstructing another from illegally enjoying the largesse of government money? Or is it a venting of anger at the system? We as Nigerians are yet to know.

There is a lesson valuable from the American experience particularly after the last election. There were unanimous to ensure the unity of American peoples and strengthening the system. Attempts are continuously made to improve and to elevate the citizen’s confidence in the electoral system even with its imperfections.

Now that the group of seven industrialized nation led by British prime minister have successfully campaigned for debt relief for Nigeria. I was amused at the foolishness of our people in the unbridled celebration with the news. For one, there was lack of understanding of what debt relief or cancellation was, and secondly, the jubilation may have been that, politicians think or perceive that it was an avenue to corruptly enrich themselves or to cover up past deed. Alas, they were disappointed when the G7 group dangled the carrot to us with stringent attached.

That is the best piece of news I have had the beginning of the millennium. The ball is now in the court of Obasanjo led administration to clean up the mess and purge the country of corrupt public servants whose source of wealth is questionable. It is so funny that majority of Nigerians know that these public servant looted and abused their position of trust but our psychic is so dysfunctional and twisted from decades of official corruption that, it has become the norm to accept as status quo for public official to misappropriate fund to be recognized by the society! What a shame.

The cleaning should start from within and spread to the entire facet of the society. Nobody should be spare this scrutiny past, present and every one since the 1983 to date. There should be a concerted effort to recover all monies looted and stored overseas.