It has since become common
knowledge which enjoys widespread acceptance that any day Nigeria is able
to make up its mind to end its obscene and ruinous romance with the stubborn
monster called “Corruption”, this country will automatically witness the kind
of prosperity no one had thought was possible in these parts. Just imagine the
amount of public funds reportedly (and un-reportedly) being stolen and
squandered daily under various guises by too many public officers and their
accomplices, and the great transformation that would happen to public
infrastructure and the lives of the citizenry if this organized banditry can at
least be reduced by fifty percent!
A Victim Of Corruption (pix by Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye)
Now, is this monster divorceable?
Of course, yes. But are there any signs that anyone in the corridors of power
is genuinely interested in ending the strong grip it maintains on the very soul
of this country? That is the problem. It is sheer foolishness to expect many of
them to willingly block the very hole from which great goodies also flow to them
just because some other persons are also benefiting from there. No, you can
neither fight corruption with soiled hands nor retain monopoly of it! It
spreads like cancer. And the whole thing appears now to have been so horribly
compounded by the emergence and successful empowerment of a very formidable
class whose sustenance and longevity solely depend on its ability to continue
sustaining the culture of corruption and bleeding the country pale.
