This battle is a battle that demands our commitment in accepting the responsibility of putting in order the vehicle of our collective future against all odds, knowing that it is in our hands to take us to where we want to be. It has become vividly clear that we cannot make a head way in the sinking sand of corruption. Therefore, we must be stubborn about winning the war against corruption and at the same time maintain a passive resistance without violence from our ends on our way to defeating the misconstrued and the embraced philosophies of our short sighted political leaders.
We must be bold to say a capital “NO” to corruption and stand for a Draconian punishment for its perpetrators irrespective of who and who is involved or how close the violators are to us, for the prerequisites necessary to put the engine of the sole vehicle of our collective future in order is on the other side of fear.
There is no historical record where a fight against political corruption has ever been won from a comfort zone. And ours will not be different! This defining and historical battle to put an end to the triumphs of corrupt political leaders can never be fought from our comfort zones. We must be ready to endure persecutions, oppressions, repressions, obsessions, suppressions retrogressions and denials from the unpredictable deleterious forces of corruption, peddled by those without conscience, wisdom and without shame, who have decided to remain monstrous statues in the evil region of anthropological library; whom have unwittingly, abysmally, disgustingly and cowardly chosen to frustrate public interests for their selfish interests; and who have allowed the glory of cash to becloud the wishes and the visions of our heroes past who struggled, suffered and died for us to enjoy the level of freedom we enjoyed today.
Though, the freedom has been taken away this time by our own political leaders and the enslavement painted in different form as a political misappropriation. Now that we have painfully scaled through the era of direct foreign oppressions, our brothers in power have made themselves task masters over us, tearing down every process that could earn us a prestigious name in the human community, throwing ashes in the air which in turn flashes back into their eyes but the veil of greed covering their eyes would not let them see the harm of their corrupt actions on the future of their nations and that of their continent.
There are some things we must engrave in our hearts as we journey uphill the ladder of a better people. Among these things, we must have it in our hearts as we support one political party or the other, we must note that there is no green colour of PDP’s blood or any blue colour of APC’s blood. There is only one red colour of a Nigerian blood. And we shall also have it engraved in our hearts that as we determine to pick our choices of leaders to manage our public offices, it must be cultivated from the field of meritocracy and never from the pit of favoritism. We shall have it engraved in our hearts that the beauty of a nation is in her many colours which means that every tribe irrespective of their faith or tradition is significant on Nigeria’s keyboard. We must have it engraved in our hearts that until we stop referring to the Igbos as Igbo men, the Fulanis as Fulani men, The Esan as Esan men, the Yorubas as Yoruba men, The Hausas as Hausa men an refer to all irrespective of their tribe and faith as Nigeria men, we will never secure the bond of camaraderie that pushes all towards same goals. And we must have it engraved in our hearts that no foreign powers will come and help to change things for us for they have more than enough problems facing them in their respective countries. They will only come to us if they have something to take from us. So, it is our sole responsibility to seat at the driver’s seat of the vehicle of our future and drive it to the destination of our choice. And we must have it engraved that we cannot fight corruption with the deprived.
Our security forces must be well paid and well taken care of if we actually want them to do their jobs without subjecting their responsibilities to the manipulation of the fittest on the ground of survival, for a hungry man is an angry man and anything done in anger is never done well. And we should note that without stable electricity supply our economy cannot flourish well as it will frustrate and discourage investors and according to Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum in his book called MY VISION, “a distinguished investor does not only invest, establish companies and provide job opportunities; he also promotes expertise, competition, diversities and excellence”………“such an investor brings us a modern business culture and new professional practices”. And above all, we should have it written in blue print in our hearts that the major problems of Africans are Africans. Just like the indications of the four index fingers and the thumb finger, once you point an accusing finger of blames at someone or at a direction, the other three index fingers will point back at you while the thumb finger will point to the ground. The index finger pointing at the direction and the three index fingers pointing at you is an indication that 25% blame may be of the direction while 75% is your own fault either through commission or omission. And the thumb finger facing the ground is telling you to study your ground of thoughts intensively and creatively for there is still a solution to your getting there. That is the good tiding about life.
A wisdom solution to every life situation irrespective of the duration of the situation is always available for cultivation as far as one remains above the ground. Finally, it is imperative you note that, in agreement with Alpha Blondy of Ivory Coast, “Everything changes, everything evolutes, it is only fools that cannot change”. So, don’t expect the corrupt to change for you are the one to change them through consistent and constructive resistance.
Ambassador Ezewele Cyril Abionanojie is the author of The Enemy Called Corruption and writes from Lagos.
