Sincerity: A scarce commodity in Nigeria politics
By Samson Adejoro
We have all heard and we are still hearing and still going to be hearing of shocking revelations of how our leaders have milked us dry in this nation, destabilized institutions, thrown the polity into disarray, depleted foreign reserves,bled the treasury,wasted innocent blood and all I cannot mention.
Recently the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) stormed a residential building on the 7th floor of a four-bedroom apartment at Osborne Towers located at 16 Osborne Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, where a humongous fund of foreign currencies and naira notes to the tune of $43.4m, £27,800 and N23.2m was uncovered.
But the surprising aspect is that the owner of this humongous funds have not been found, in an article I wrote sometimes ago titled "What really works in this country?" I made a conclusion to the fact that nothing works here because sincerity and truth are scarce products in our polity, what takes center stage is insincerity and malaise.
When you study the semantics of Nigerian leaders, they are not sincere, in everywhere they found themselves, they found it as an avenue to tell lies and may i say to you that if you are still banking on this set of unscrupulous elements you are only travelling on a journey infinitesimal, a journey that will never come to an end.
Politics is never a game of deceit as opined by people, it is an instrument that can be used to better lives, it can be used to forestall unimaginable milestone. I believe through politics a lot of lifes around the world have been given a soft ride, when you get to Singapore, Malaysia, you will know politics is a life changing instrument in which God himself have supported, coming back to Nigeria you see the opposite, in Nigeria, politics is an instrument used to better a few elite, the issue is not only our leaders are corrupt, go to our universities, main aim of those vying for post is MONEY, an aspirant vying for the post of a welfare director in one of the universities in the south-west had told me sometimes ago that if eventually he emerged, he would work 30% and embezzle 70% and you ask why are we HERE?
When leaders seem not to be honest in their dealings with those who elect them into offices then you can only begin to imagine why we are in this mess. Nigerian politicians believe in piling up large amount of money for future sake owing to the fact that after they leave office, they believe those money will owe up to them but the fact about life which has been proven to be true is that those large of money that are being embezzled by this political office holders are money they dont really need, in life how much money do we really need? I had an experience with this fact, when I gained admission sometimes ago, you know that type of feeling when you just gained admission and you begin buying things, even things you dont really need and at the end, if you are not careful you might end up dashing people or they get spoilt.
The experience also reminded me of Lev Tolstoy’s popular story, How Much Land Does a Man Need? It is about a man who kept adding more and more land to his already large purchase until, out of exhaustion, he suddenly dropped dead. With the tool he used in demarcating his acquisition, his assistants dug a six-foot grave and buried him. All the land he needed in the end was no more than the six footer.
Those funds our leaders pile and store in dungeons can better citizen lifes, the money our leaders siphon, some nations don't have up to that as their national budget and their citizens still enjoy dividends of democracy. When you also look at the payrolls of our leaders, they earn more than any political office holder in the world and you wonder why we are still in this mess, and I ask myself will this nation ever grow?
Taking a digression towards the anti-corruption fight of this administration, what has happened? why has EFCC lost top cases against big thieves and corrupt entities like Justice Ademola, Patience Faka Jonathan and the rest? Has the judiciary been compromised, this anti-corruption fight is fast losing it's ground, let government invest in this judiciary, let them make it fast, you might be surprised UK spent up to $20 million dollars to convict James Ibori, this government will only continue to lose cases if it doesn't strengthen our institutions, let them train those lawyers and make them second to none among world jurist.
And as I conclude I leave you with this quote
"In business, in relationships, in life, sincerity matters a lot, when you are not sincere, people begin to run away from you, be sincere its a moral value you have to posses to get to top places in life"-Samson Adejoro.
Samson Adejoro is a writer cum a political analyst and he is currently undergoing his Bsc programme in the Department Of Computer science, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-iwoye,Lagos.
You can reach him on 09031827815.
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