Root Of Societal Evil

AMB. EZEWELE ABIONANOJIE CYRIL

It has become a norm that we turn blind eyes on the root source of crimes and agitate for some branches of the crime tree to be hewn down while in some cases we dress and water the root to augment in size. 

No sane minded person would be against people’s agitation, peddled towards freedom in the real sense of freedom. But to fight the leaves of a tree and leave the root to live on will not amount to long term gains, for the root will keep producing more leaves as long as it lives.

Corruption in our leadership system is the Mother of all crimes while the government, together with the people’s lack luster approach in dealing with it, is the fuel that wheels it on. The harsh system generated by the mismanagement and the embezzlement of public funds have pushed many individuals to embrace crime as a way of life, for it is not everyone that is opportune, or can see in the face of difficulties. And our elites are neck deep in corruption. The higher their certificates, the more corrupt they become, letting the veil of illicit cash to cover their senses of reasoning. Education is to know and defend the right thing. While our elites of today see education as a means to loot and subdue the right thing for their selfish desires.

Mike Murdock asserts, “There is a wisdom solution to every life situation”. And I will put it to you that there is people’s movement solution to every societal torment. It is doing something that gets things done. If you do nothing, nothing will be done and the situation will keep deteriorating for it takes constant maintenance to keep layers of dust off our dwelling places. Same way as corruption! If we don’t put it to check, it will keep giving birth to crimes of different kinds. This is why we are where we are today in Nigeria. We have nurtured corruption to maturity and it has birthed evil kids of different kinds. Yet, we fight to kill one of her kids while corruption, the mother is still very much pregnant.

I strongly believe that if the same measure with which the youth enforce #EndSARS protest is geared towards the enforcement of death penalty for corrupt public office holders, a new day will be dawn, new feelings that guarantee a better society will emerge and we shall sail towards exciting unknown.

#EndSARS protest could be correlated with the chasing of a mere rat while a whole house is on fire. I demand absolute cooperation and selfless commitment to this regard for it is time for us to stand up for what is right against every opposition.

It is time to shake the shakers and separate corrupt chaffs from seeds. It is time to stand up against the only enemy called corruption that had held us blind and chained us down in the cage of nothingness. It is high time we released our game of togetherness as we make corruption a game to be gunned down in order to save our Nation from being drowned in the deep blue sea of self inflicted injuries. It is time, for the time is ripe for us to do what is right and rewrite the book of our lives for the betterment of all. It is time we come out in numbers to make an ion float again on the Jordan River of progress. It is time for us to raise our heads for we have no time to check time as the blood of our country has been sucked by microscopic few, and it is about crashing on the rock of tribal and selfish governance.

It is time we stand together as one for there is no such thing as APC blood or PDP blood as we share equally from the pains and reckless driving of our political thieves. It is time for us to know and note that it is time. It is time we migrate from the narrow target of #EndSARS to a broader and a better pursuit of #EndCORRUPTION. And it is high time we embraced the fact that there is no other way to end corruption in our country without the enactment of a draconian decree that would prescribe death penalty for corrupt public office holders, for the corrupt situation in Nigeria has become ‘rikhanristic’

It is time for us to change for good and do away with a slave mentality that pushes one to grab everything to himself at the detriment of others, and in extension, that of his future.

Please, have this engraved in your heart: It is only when we free our minds and our lands from corrupt practices we shall be free indeed.

• Amb. Ezewele Abionanojie Cyril.

(The author of the book, ‘The Enemy Called Corruption’)