A 58- year adult nation that is still crawling
like a toddler, while most of its mates are running on sure feet. Many people including political, traditional
and religious leaders have expressed their bewilderment with Nigeria ’s
chronic inability to truly rise. Never mind that a tiny minority including some who earn 12 billion Naira as
annual dividend will argue differently that Nigeria is rising.
*Nigerian President Buhari |
Yes Africa may be rising but not Nigeria and if anything, Nigeria is dragging Africa
down!
What is the trouble withNigeria ?
Chinua Achebe tried to answer this question in his book.
What is the trouble with
Many other authors have posed this question
and some have proffered answers. Many have blamed the leadership, others the followership, and some both.
Majority have rightly blamed corruption but we
have failed to reach a national agreement on what constitutes corruption and
how to identify corruption and how to prevent or punish corrupt acts.
Even the Independent Corrupt Practices
Commission (ICPC) seem to have a limited view of what constitutes a corrupt
practice.
For example appointing a serving Minister who
is maintained by tax payers to serve as DG of a partisan campaign
organization is a corrupt practice in my view.
Indeed using official time or resources to
serve private or partisan interests spells corrupt practice in my dictionary.
But those who claim to be fighting corruption
are actually only fighting stealing money in Nigeria .
They seem to think that stealing or frank
financial crimes constitute the total essence of corruption.
I fully accept that stealing is a corrupt act
but it is not all. In my opinion it is not the most weighty act of corruption.
Indeed for me, it is one aspect of corruption
that is easiest to fight or even to prevent.
There are more insidious and damaging corrupt acts than straight forward thieving.
There are more insidious and damaging corrupt acts than straight forward thieving.
Which was the point I believe President
Goodluck Jonathan was trying to make, but his detractors refused and failed to
understand his point, preferring to confuse issues in order to mock him.
One of such corrupt acts which has become so
pervasive in Nigeria
is faking.
Fake educational certificates, fake NYSC
certificates, fake drugs, fake doctors, fake motor parts, fake identity cards,
fake Naira notes, fake letters of employment, fake policemen, fake soldiers,
fake election results, fake politicians, fake news etc. Some thing tells me
that the problem of faking in Nigeria
is perhaps at the root of our national malaise.
Who knows how many of our political leaders in
the executive and legislative arms of government are in office with fake or
forged certificates. If people can forge a mere NYSC exemption certificate which ordinarily is not
difficult to get in the right way, imagine the number of our so called leaders
at local, state and Federal governments parading fake secondary and university
certificates, diplomas and degrees.
We can not easily forget the story of the
House of Representative speaker Busari who came to power with a fake University
degree. That incident quickly opened a can of worms
which threatened to cause a lot of damage to the 1999 class of our political
leaders at all tiers of government. That was when we became aware of the
difference between Chicago University and University of Chicago .
Can we possibly estimate the damage such fake
leaders have caused in our polity and economy? In the private sector where we operate, the
matter is worse. Everything is being faked. I once employed a
staff who promised to be faithful, dutiful and honest.
When I tried to check on his references, I
found that the referees knew him by different first name from the one on his
papers. Subsequently I discovered that this “ honest” employee was impersonating his
deceased elder brother.
At another occasion I interviewed a candidate
for a job. The guy showed Master’s degree certificate but
could not string together one grammatically correct sentence. We all know that many Nigerians have been
despatched to untimely death by fake drugs.
Many have been involved in preventable auto
accidents because of fake brake pads or brake fluid. And then we say we are
fighting corruption!
As I was completing this article, my friend, the one that was with me when we ran into the interminable traffic gridlock caused by the overloading of the Lagos ports to the utter neglect of the Eastern ports.
As I was completing this article, my friend, the one that was with me when we ran into the interminable traffic gridlock caused by the overloading of the Lagos ports to the utter neglect of the Eastern ports.
Those who read this column regularly will
remember that this my friend knows how to stoke trouble. He asked me what I was
writing about this week.
I announced to him that I was writing on a ‘Nation
of fakes.’ He quickly jumped in and asserted that the real reason that there is so much
faking in Nigeria
is that the Nation itself is a fake Nation.
I remonstrated and asked why he would say such
a thing.
He looked at me and said “Mazi, it is only logical that a Nation of fakes can not but be a fake
Nation” I asked him for evidence.
He referred to the preamble of the 1999
constitution. He said that General Abdulsalami Abubukar sat
with a few of his friends and put up the 1999 constitution but ended up saying
that it was done by” we the people of Nigeria”.
He concluded that this is master faking and
said that if we wanted to change his assertion that Nigeria
is a fake Nation, then we should abandon the fake constitution and get the true
people of Nigeria to draw up
a true constitution for the good and peaceful governance of Nigeria .
Truth is that I could not help but agree with
my friend.
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