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Benefits of Looting... by
Corruption is one of the major problems in Nigeria today. With all sincerity, this bizarre way of life has occupied its wrongful place in our society as a legal norm and value. Legal in the sense that the benefactors of this spiteful act go away unpunished and unreduced. No amount of litigation and authoritative intimidation has been able to hamper the prowling that has been going on for decades. It has gone beyond tradition and culture and seems to be an institution with a firm foundation in the hearts of the very elected or opportune. A mystery to progressive minds... The late Sani Abacha's reign in Aso rock closely reminds me of former Indonesia's helmsman - Suharto who ran the country's economy as his financial empire. Their families benefited from so many governmental patronage and starched taxpayers billions in foreign accounts both known and unknown. Their countrymen and women wandered in despair, hopelessness and paucity. They bothered not, cared not and thought not. Their sons and daughters became business tycoons even though they had limited knowledge of the trade to amass such wealth. They flew in presidential jets at will most at times for frivolities. That was a country's wealth squandered before the very owners with the narcissism of grandeur. Just recently in the UK, judgment was passed for the confiscation of all the ill-gotten riches of the Abacha family tuned between 2 – 4 billion dollars over a span of five years only!!! Not even Bill Gates made such money in his first ten years of hard work let alone dictators and opportunists in power. Presently, the Obasanjo regime is now trying to probe or monitor Governors and Local Council Chairmen who are now hovering all around Europe and US buying houses and properties when their people are struggling for two meals a day. This in my own thinking is a good proposition but my fear lies with the implementation of the accountability exercise because they have never been followed to the end. Beyond this jigsaw puzzle, comes the question of the proceeds of the returned loot. Will another looter loot the loot at the end of the day? Where are all these returned monies going into? I mean sectors of the economy or society... Where has all the money accrued from the Oil Windfall last year gone? These are questions the Obasanjo/Atiku regimes have to address as soon as they can. We have had enough of the lip service and prefer that the deprived masses heave some sigh of relief from the recklessness and nefarious activities of these monsters that were elected into office. Governors and Chairmen of doom. Representatives of avarice, clumsiness and dereliction of duty. Scavengers of public funds, culprits of contradiction and prostitutes of democracy. We have suffered enough in the hands of our past and present leaders and it high time this virus is not only scanned but also deleted from our national files. Nigerians in Diaspora are watching. The world is watching and the Almighty father in heaven is also monitoring proceedings with utmost dismay and disgust. We are quite fortunate to have the economy still functioning below par when the reverse should actually be the case. The loot that is being recovered must have an immediate impact in the lives of the oppressed populace or else a revolution shall be inescapable. The real benefits of the loot should not be the foreign banks or the Federal Government but the dislocated, downtrodden and demoralized citizens. That would be a worthy respite in times like this. May the Good Lord grant our leaders the serenity to know the consequences of such benefits. Uwem Inyang London
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