By Ola Pat
Yes, the declaration of a state of emergency is way overdue except we want to agree that the Boko Haram issue is not a security threat to national security. Then, we must willy-nilly accept that the people refer to as militants in the Niger Delta area are indeed national heroes fighting for Nigeria emancipation from the neo socio-economic colonialism that is mining our crude oil. The ruin brought upon some villages in Eastern Nigeria by Herdsmen, the kidnapping and armed robbery that has pervaded and plague the nation in recent times are all signs of national development. It is indisputable that the only denominator and genesis of all of these national maladies is CORRUPTION. Boko Haram, arms fund diverted. Niger Delta Militancy, Development fund misappropriated. Herdsmen attack - border lapses (Customs Service), internal security oversight (Police) and lack of Intelligence (State security service).
Nigeria is at war on all fronts, from all known super-structures of a society – religion, politics and economy. It is high time we stop playing the Emu and face our challenges fair and square. This administration will not survive nor win the war on corruption with the current method that is deployed to arrest the situation. This current war is like using a garden fork to clear a city dump site.
Ola Pat is the Editor of Commune Magazine. You can reach him at olapat@yahoo.com
The above refers. For most of us, who are not ignorant of the way things are done in Nigeria especially when it comes to crime and punishment. Technically, the Nigeria nation does indeed have “people who are more equal than others”. In plain language, some sect of people are above the law, the Nigeria law maiden has an eye for “money, power, and respect”. And, these potential suitors have amassed so much of it that the whole nation can do nothing but to sing their praises in other to lay their hands on their own share of the national cake that has been converted into personal meals. So much for equal opportunity as guaranteed by the Nigeria constitution, after all, the United Nation offers immunity to some of her personnel too.
The war on corruption declared by the able General of the masses, President Muhammad Buhari on May 29, 2016, has so far only made public what was obvious
The war on corruption declared by the able General of the masses, President Muhammad Buhari on May 29, 2016, had so far only made public what was obvious. As I have posited in one of my submission, the war is a comic relief drama for the traumatized citizen of this nation. This war if the methodology is not changed will be Lost. Everybody and stakeholders in Nigeria know the only people that are not aware of this is the General and some of his die-hard followers. I only accept the possibility of a lost war on corruption early October 2016, even though I know you cannot fight and win corruption the way he was fighting it legally. It is said that doing the same thing and expecting a different result is madness and in this case total madness because we have used this methodology once or twice with no obvious positive outcome. So, I am breaking away from this reoccurring madness of fighting corruption, the same way, the same method that has yielded no result. If you doubt it, can any revelation in this era be as dramatic and spectacular as the ones revealed at the Oputa Panel? What is the outcome of the panel? How many people were convicted of all the crimes and misappropriation revealed? That is the Nigeria questions that have no answers. Panel upon panels, committee upon committees. And now we are back, God forbid I no dey.
I concur with the president’s determination to eradicate or reduce to the barest minimum the occurrence of corruption in our public and private lives. It is on Corruption that all our national problems are built, corruption is the cross road that is taken us far away from our dream of being a giant in Africa. However, I beg to disagree with the methodology implored to get rid of this monster. This method is tested and has proven that it can never be trusted to deliver the needed result of punishing discovered looters and deterring others. Rather, this method blatantly encourages looters to steal more with an extra enough to woo the Justices Maiden. And it is working. Corruption is still winning in a Buhari Era, unbelievable. Thus, we indeed need to retool. If the president must win this war against the corruption sitting in the National and states Assemblies, the corruption that set up road blocks across the country, the corruption that take away state money and equipment for personal use, and that corruption that pervade and submerge our brotherliness, then the President must hail the new call.
This new calling is a recall to partial dictatorship. A close down of constitutional justices. A constitutional dictatorship bestowed by the rule of law to deal with this unusual situation, indeed the continued geometric growth of corruption is unusual. And only president Buhari is seen and known to be trying to get rid of this rodent and its vectors. Most of all the governmental instrument of war against corruption is in collusion and coalition with corruption, thus President Buhari is alone in this war and all is weapons of war are compromised. The 1999 constitution empowers the president to “issue a proclamation of a state of emergency” (305.1), when (1d) “there is a clear and present danger of an actual breakdown of public order and public safety in the Federation or any part thereof requiring extraordinary measures to avert such danger”
The current Nigeria judicial system is an atomic weapon in the hands of looters and corrupt people. It is a system that dealt with the poor without mercy and pampers the rich, especially public purse looters.
The current Nigeria judicial system is an atomic weapon in the hands of looters and corrupt people used to pervade justices and against justices’ seekers. It is a system that dealt with the poor quickly without mercy and pampers the rich for a long period of retention of status quo, especially public purse looters. It is the peculiarity of the Nigeria state that made the legal system, a maid in the house of the accused person, and when you have a well traveled but subjugated maiden in the house of a justice’s evader. It is a rape galore because he will practically have her at will with no consequences. All Nigeria politicians have practically use the judicial system to subvert rightful demands using the Queen of Justices to order their wish. A simple matter of the biblical saying, the hand of Esau, the voice of Jacob.
Problems
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Root
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Corruption
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Boko Haram (Religious)
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Extra-judicial killing/injustice
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Political sponsorship
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Niger Delta Militancy (Economical)
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Destruction of important economic factor – land
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Diversion of development fund
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Herdsmen Attack (Economical)
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Constitutional injustices
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Dereliction of duty
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Kidnapping (Economical)
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Unemployment
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Conversion of public funds to personal use
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Armed Robbery (Economical)
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Unemployment/
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Misappropriation of developmental fund
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Eastern/Biafra unrest (Political)
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Unequal political opportunity
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Nigeria is at war on all fronts, from all known super-structures of a society – religion, politics and economy. It is high time we stop playing the Emu and face our challenges fair and square. This administration will not survive nor win the war on corruption with the current method that is deployed to arrest the situation. This current war is like using a garden fork to clear a city dump site.
Ola Pat is the Editor of Commune Magazine. You can reach him at olapat@yahoo.com