By Desmond Agbama
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t was late music maestro Sunny Okosun of blessed memory who sang a song titled: “Which way Nigeria,” and that song has remained even more relevant and meaningful in the present day Nigeria, due to recent reports about missing thirty-six million naira and seventy million naira respectively.Nigeria is a country where corruption has reached its zenith and nobody seems to care about it, despite the anti-corruption slogan of the present Federal Government.
Recently, one Philomena Chieshe, a sales clerk in the JAMB office in Makurdi, Benue State reported that snake swallowed thirty-six million naira in the vault in her office, when she could not render account of the money she made from the sale of JAMB scratch cards the previous years.
As if that was not enough, the Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum (NSF) Abdullahi Adamu recently told his colleagues that monkey invaded his farm house and carted away seventy million naira belonging to the forum.
These two fraudulent cases have no doubt made Nigeria a laughing stock in the comity of nations. It has also place in doubt the fight against corruption by the present administration.
What is quite surprising is that everyone including those in authority, especially those claiming to be fighting corruption are keeping quiet, leaving people to wonder how possible or not it is for a snake to swallow N36 million and for a monkey to cart away N70 million.
Indeed, which way is Nigeria going with corruption? To the doom or to the boom? It beats one’s imagination to know that these are happening under the administration that pride itself with fighting corruption.
Then one may be tempted to ask what type of corruption the government is fighting. Under normal situation of law, the Federal Government and its agencies fighting corruption ought to have done something decisively to arrest and prosecute those involved in this snake and monkey financial drama.
In other advanced or civilized democracies where there is sincerity of purpose, these two cases are enough to attract presidential broadcast not only to condemn the acts, but to publicly invite those concerned for open trial.
Therefore, President Mohammadu Buhari should always speak out and not allow corrupt practices to thrive under his nose. It is by so doing that Nigerians and indeed the international communities will take his fight against corruption seriously.
If President Buhari still believes in what he earlier professed that “if Nigeria did not kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria” then he should rise up to kill corruption by prosecuting corrupt Nigerians irrespective of status, creed or political affiliation.
These glaring cases of corruption involving Nigerians if not dealt with could bring the country disrepute, shame and national embarrassment.
Every passing day different unimaginable things happen in Nigeria without the law taking its course. These are signs of weak system, and it is surprising to many that despite the oath taken by the President to fight corruption, it has not only increased, assumed a new dimension in the country.
According to the latest corruption perception index conducted by Transparency International, Nigeria is ranked 148th corrupt nation in the world.
Even though the Buhari administration has put some corrupt Nigerians on trial and seized their assets, none of them has been sentenced to jail, and the effect of the recovered loots have not been felt in the economy which explains why the present administration in the country has often be accused of condoning corrupt practices, especially those perpetrated by top government officials.
It should be realized by those in authority at various levels that transparency and accountability remain a veritable panacea to good governance and sustainable development; therefore all hands must be on deck to fight corruption.
