Posted by
deola in Wednesday, August 1st 2007
Though the age bracket restricted my involvement, I was keen to see who was going to win the 2007 World Essay Competition, this was despite he fat that I had predicted and told everyone that cared to listen that if a Nigerian did not win, we will get one of the star prizes. Checking up on the results of the results of the last essay competition, I saw I was right- a Nigerian got one of the star prizes. The essay titled “how does corruption affect your life and the ways in which you are fighting it?” Dynamic and incisive Olumide Adekola Adewoye was crowned third in the essay competition, and I could not agree more. Corruption has done too much that a prize might just be a mere palliative. Excerpts;
“Four months after my fourteenth birthday, tragedy struck! My father was gruesomelymurdered in a war-free environment by those people who were supposed to protect us- the police.The death of my father made me to be resentful against anything that represented the government,not because I was made to be a fatherless child at such a young age or even because my poverty-beclouded future was finally crumbled by the death of the bread winner but for the circumstancessurrounding his untimely death.My father was conducting his transportation business on this fateful day when he was stoppedby a police officer at one of the multiple illegal check points who demanded for ten naira( theamount has been increased to fifty naira now due to inflation) being the money extorted fromcommercial car drivers. According to an eye-witness report, my father who claimed to be on hisfirst trip with apparently insufficient amount of money refused to oblige the police officer. A disagreement ensued; the policeman pulled the trigger and the man on whose ‘head’ the hopes of many had been heaped was left writhing in the pool of his own blood.”
This event must have happened long while ago, when the police used to charge 10 naira! Therefore today corruption has developed efficient systems to ensure that cases like this are not just mere events, they’ve now become a way of life- a culture. We have become a paradox to ourselves. One of the world’s leading producers of crude oil, bitumen, liquefied natural gas, cassava, and yet boasts of potential human superpowers that make impact in almost every nation on the earth. Some people still believe we’ve not won the corruption cup for keeps because there must be a Nigerian somewhere influencing the results. Government has continued to pay lip service to anti corruption campaign. Every facet of the society is immersed in this culture and tradition.
Again we have confirmed how committed we are to ridding the nation of corruption. The one-time governor of Bayelsa state, after being sentenced to prison, left the courthouse to pack his things from prison home, while arrested ex-governors are already negotiating plea bargaining methods for their corrupt practices. In the same week, a man who stole a she-goat, was sentenced to four years in prison with hard labour (though the judge after listening to a lot of pleas conceded to a two year term.). What an irony!These actions are affirming our values that it is okay to be corrupt, that it is possible to steal public money and still be rewarded with a national title, or more recently, a senatorial seat. The only mistake, like the former acting IG did was not to steal enough. Most of them have stolen enough t buy time in prison and may soon be rewarded with an MON. If we must progress, we must fight this affliction to a stand still. Everyone, both leaders and the citizenry must battle this epidemic before it snowballs into the collapse of the nation. We cannot consistently behave in manner that is inconsistent with our goal.
