by Eze Eluchie
At the political realm, it has always been clear that since our pretense at independence from our colonial overlords in October 1960, a very dangerous
dichotomy exists in Nigeria, a system that has tended, over the years to
elevate mediocrity above excellence, leading to the confinement of our
contraption in the very sorry state it presently find itself.
In all those years, Civil Society Organizations and those portrayed as
‘activists’ had created a very necessary semblance of a contraption still
interested in cohabiting and coexisting as a unit and finding common grounds to address issues.
Events in the past couple of weeks are beginning to reveal some elements
of the CSO’s, or rather those amongst the CSO’s who seem to have the
wherewithal to buy media presence, these purported ‘activists’ are likewise fractured and divisive as their political brethren or perhaps even
worse as they are able to camouflage their dubious partisan nature by a mien of objectivity.
A contemporary issue that has highlighted this unfortunate scenario is
the arrest of two children of the Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido, for
laundering/diverting over Ten Billion Naira of Jigawa State funds into private
accounts. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has detailed that the
sums involved are presently lodged in private accounts traceable to the two
urchins and their father, Governor Sule Lamido.
This coming on the heels of the indifference the CSO community and ‘activists’
to the monumental fleecing and public thievery which has continued across the
various States of the federation, particularly Lagos State (which is mentioned
here because of the enormous wealth inherent therein and the use to which such
has been put, {Forinstance see: http://ezeluchie.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-4-billion-naira-us-24-million-bail.html })
The loud silence that has greeted the fleecing of Jigawa and Lagos State’s
(amongst others) from the ordinarily vociferous ‘anti-corruption activists’ is
deafening!
Juxtaposing the silence on the Jigawa State imbroglio with the lynch mob
which evolved over the purchase of ‘bullet-proof’ vehicles by the Federal
Airports Authority of Nigeria/Aviation Ministry, involving the sum of
approximately one-quarter of a billion Naira, less than one-fortieth of the
amount involved in the Jigawa scam, one cannot but wonder if the two events
took place in the same solar system, talk-less of the same country.
The loquacious ‘activist’ attorneys, disgraced former federal legislators, organizations with penchant to petitions the United Nations Security
Council over mundane issues such as when the President coughs, the several partisan CSO’s and others
who journey alongside them, who took to the streets threatening and
blackmailing every public office imaginable over the ‘bullet-proof’ vehicle issue
have eerily gone comatose in the face of much larger looting.
Is reaction to large-scale corruption based on partisan and or
ethnocentric considerations? Is the ethnicity or the political affiliation of the suspects in the corruption cases above highlighted instrumental to 'CSO' and 'activists' reactions?
May I remind all that large-scale corruption irrespective of who perpetuates it, has served to debase us, pauperizing
our being, prostituting our youth, desecrating our heritage and mortgaging our
future, as such we cannot afford the present despicable and reprehensible
two-faced approach CSO’s appear to be confronting the issue with.
The only thing worse than corruption is to pretend to be tackling it in
a corrupt manner.
From the Federal to the Local Council levels, from the ruling party to
all opposition parties, corruption and corrupt tendencies exists and we should
address this societal scourge equally wheresoever it is identified.
This coming on the heels of some 'activists' with well known partisan affiliations who use the instrumentality of their 'CSO's' to serve as domestic election 'monitors' and 'observes' and thereafter proceed to announce preconceived notions as results of such 'elections monitoring' or 'observations' spells truly worrisome times for our contraption.
As CSO’s, we represent, perhaps alongside with the military, the last
threads holding our contraption together. If we allow our vision and purpose to
be diluted by partisan and or ethnocentric coloration's, we risk irrelevance and
the accompanying odium associated with it, in addition to hastening our contraptions descent into a bottomless abyss.
A look at other territories where large scale conflagrations have
erupted and that abyss has been attained, such as Syria, Afghanistan and Congo DRC, will inform us that when the
“cookie crumbles” everyone is affected. We should get our acts together and do
what we have to do to salvage the contraption from its free fall.
A holistic restructuring and renegotiation of our contraption will go a
long way to address these schisms.
Picture: Nigeria's beautiful colors.
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