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Nigeria: Layers of Irresponsibility By Abdullah Musa Fani Kayode is supposed to be the current custodian of our culture. He is expected to document, preserve, and show case all that is desirable in our culture, diverse as it were; and try through various means of persuasion to draw us away from negative or destructive aspect of our culture. We are rest assured that ethnocentrism will be etched into stone and erected on all the major streets of South-West Nigeria so that future generations of Yoruba do not lose one sure tool to ministerial appointments. The Hausa-Fulani have unwittingly become a gilt-edged security to any aspiring politician of South Western base. The maligning of Hausa-Fulani is the beginning of political wisdom. This is Nigeria with its layers of irresponsibility. If we would create a situation where a mentally bankrupt person can gain ascendancy just by opposing almost every thing that comes from the other side of the DIVIDE, (yes, the divide is real enough to be capitalized) then we really are a distinct and unrepeatable specie. The Obasanjo-Atiku saga afforded the deranged actors another opportunity to bare their rabid fangs, to attack the one who is not their own, Atiku. In real fact I have no sympathy for Atiku. A typical opportunistic Nigerian, he came into wealth and prominence by following paths that the Books would not approve. If as a consequence one of the paths (presidential ambition) becomes thorny, he is welcome to the path of gloom that had been the fate of those who chose to live by the Book. This is another layer of irresponsibility in Nigeria. Our discourse today is focused mainly on the reaction of Nigerians to the impeachment circus ravaging the political terrain. We are a curious lot as a people. We are uncertain as to what we really care for and what we really want to be. Without mincing words, we are not sincere. It had since been apparent through the inactions of the South West press, that corruption is condemnable only depending on who committed it. We are what we are today because we refuse to live by the yardstick that guides the conduct of civilized societies. If truth has a prism color; if justice can be subverted to make room for a kind of unjust peace; if I am a criminal just because of accident of geography; then we are having an insight into the workings of the minds of mad men. I am not clinically inclined to describe what madness is. I am however content to take a simple definition that high grade arbitrariness is a symptom of madness. We are expected to understand what societal norms are, what our role is, and most importantly, the limits we should not cross. I am particularly alarmed that Daily Trust newspaper would also be infected with its own kind of rabies. Commenting on recent impeachment efforts against Joshua Dariye, they said: granted that Dariye had killed people! (Or let them be killed) Have we descended this low, that a person who abdicated his responsibility in safeguarding the lives and properties of all citizens; callously in overseas on spending spree when lives of innocents were being snuffed out by a cabal loyal to him, be the one that earns Trust’s sympathy? We are witnessing an inversion of values. So if today we have benefited from the rule or misrule of an individual, be it Governor or President, then we are curtailed from speaking the truth? We are not asking that we consider ourselves impeccable, saintly or even angelic. What needs to be said however is that we have to be on a strong watch out for the subtle and often glaring blackmail. A cabal comes into being; they come into power; and suddenly their evil intentions get political clout and thus unleash their venom on their perceived enemies. The cabal knows itself, knows its driving creed, and as such cannot censure itself. The case of plateau falls within this definition. President Obasanjo from even the nature of his disposition does not inspire one to like him. He, or so it seems to me, is in a world of his own. Heaven knows what inspires him, the fuel that drives his ambition or policy direction. Yet, he had been able to position himself in 1999 as one upon whom the destiny of Nigeria was to be entrusted. It turned out for the sponsors a rather very indiscernible tapestry of evil machination well blended with good. He it is who says he is offering his life to be placed at the altar of fight against corruption. So far two to three State Governors have fallen. Others are on the line. Expectedly we cry in chorus that Obasanjo is not sincere, that he is also deeply mired in corruption, and that where there is element of sincerity, it is tainted by selectiveness: harsh on opponents, soft and forbearing to cronies, like former Permanent Secretary Ministry of Defense. The hope, the prayer of many people is that the system should collapse so that we are spared (or more appropriately they are spared) the selective ravages of Obasanjo. Unluckily for them, Arewa’s most portent weapon against corruption, General Buhari begs to disagree. He was quoted in a daily newspaper to have said that EFCC was not selective in its JIHAD against those who have been found to be irresponsible with public finances. Not being a man with deep education, I am not in possession of any knowledge whether human beings have defined the basic ingredients of the term ‘LUCK’. If Chief Obasanjo as alleged had been a bosom friend of the looters, and he woke up one day to put on a new garb, or rather an armor to fight corruption, then we would say he is lucky. Lucky because if it is true he had been their business partner in looting treasury, and having stashed away his portion he now hounds them to return their own, then as the Hausa Muslims are quoted as saying in situation such as this: addua’ar sa ta fi ta su karfi. The meaning being that his prayer or supplication is stronger than that of his opponents. Now when we look towards the morality of Chief Obasanjo’s anti corruption crusade, we arrive at different conclusion depending on who we are with respects to corruption. If I am not corrupt, do not benefit from corruption in a passive way, I would jubilate to see corrupt officials having the soft carpet they tread upon being replaced by hot charcoal or pavement of nails. If on the other hand I believe in hidden or inherited privileges, then this fight by a former ‘colleague’ should be abhorred; not only hated, but every effort done to turn the tables in our favor. We are unable to sell our world view to others for various reasons. Usually men and women are not willing to change any form of behavior that brings benefit. It is however not always that we are driven by the need of material benefit. In some instances it is familiarity built over a life time for instance. With regards to corruption it is not a question of familiarity. It is a question of benefit. That benefit translates into other goodies that come in the form of recognition of having arrived; top notch of the social ladder. To stop being corrupt, to forego the seemingly effortless amassing of wealth would hardly come from moral persuasion. The only antidote is terror: confiscation of left over loot, jail term and above all public ridicule. The public seems to be the worst culprit when it comes to the issue of corruption. We partake from the proceeds of corruption passively through the dubious ‘magnanimity’ of friends, family members, or members of our immediate community who have found a niche in the corridors of corruption. How can we be passive on- lookers thereafter, when we see our ‘benefactors’ being hounded, facing the prospects of jail terms from the iron-clad case that has been established against them? A study may be desirable in future to really understand the sociological effect of corruption. It was the portent sociological effect of corruption that toppled General Buhari from power in 1985; and threatens, or hopefully so, according to the passively corrupt, to truncate the current political dispensation. A story was told in Kano City of youths that established a drug trade in Indian hemp. The boys were successful to the degree they established a welfare scheme for the poor in their immediate environment: paying school fees for children, feeding the elderly and indigent and paying hospital fees. The result was that the host community was hostile to the police whenever they were in the vicinity to raid the dens of the drug peddlers. It is my prayer that this fight against corruption, whatever its motive, succeeds. We refuse, due to the direct and indirect gain we derive, to really acknowledge the destructive nature of corruption. The very concept of property ownership faces obliteration when it becomes impossible to determine who worked legitimately to possess what one possesses. Blinded by immediate gain, spurious social standing, we seem oblivious to the danger that our children, for whom apparently we are breaking all laws to amass a fortune for them, may not be able to defend their heritage. The reader may note all through our discourse we have hardly made any reference to what the Scriptures say. Hardly would any revealed religion sanction either theft or inequity. But belief and actions do not usually go together. Muslims know the censure of Prophet of Islam in relation to converting the public treasury to personal empire. If however chanced to be corrupt without any fear as exemplified in the last twenty five years, we justify it on account of necessity to educate children, to pay hospital bills, to build a house before retirement and to support dependent relative plus aged parents. The afore-mentioned are legitimate concerns treated illegitimately. In our fight against corruption we are duty bound to consider factors that aid the perpetration of the criminal act. We have to address the question of public education, social welfare, living wages, and innovative health care scheme. Our traditional norms may have to be thoroughly looked into with view to re- orient us away from dependency which is used to give an alibi to the corrupt as one who helps the poor. May Allah in His Infinite mercy strengthen us to rein-in our appetites; to live by the Books.
Abdullah Musa Special Assistant to Kano State Governor On Societal Reorientation.
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