It's
obvious that Nigerians have, over the years, developed a very dangerous habit
of politicising the issue of corruption and good governance. Nigerians defend
the thieves from their "camps" or keep quiet when such matters come
up. Yes,
all region/people of Nigeria are guilty of defending bad and hurtful behavior
when the looter /thief is from their area or political party. It's always been
like that with us. It is a big point that is on both
sides of Nigeria's political divides.
When
Saraki left Jonathan and PDP before the last election, he suddenly became a
"progressive" and "patriot" to some political commentators
but when he stepped on powerful toes in APC, they suddenly remembered he was a
"thief" and started calling for his head. Once they thought they had
him cornered, many started to bet that his tenure as Senate President would end
in a matter of days, but today, the man is waxing even stronger as some of us
had predicted. No be Nigeria we dey again?
If
Dasuki and his fellows joined APC now and they are accepted by the party
leadership today, most of their critics would suddenly lose their voice. They
would sing a new tune!
We
all saw how those haunting Dasuki and others today were defending
Amaechi despite the disappearance of N54bn in Rivers State in the few months
preceding the last election and the weighty allegations of corruption that were
subsequently levelled against him before TV cameras. Those allegations remain
unaddressed till today except for the political rhetoric and abuse of Wike who empaneled
the Judicial Commission of Enquiry and asked them to televise their sittings so
the world could see and judge for itself. We were simply not interested!
Amaechi is a hero as far as we care! But if Amaechi, in his usual
character, steps on powerful toes in the APC and controversy happens tomorrow,
those who defended him today would suddenly start to call him thief and would
tell us other things we don't know about him.
That's
the type of partisan sentiment that drives anti-corruption writings, the
Nigerian type. Today, the only 'thieves' in Nigeria are the PDP officials
whilst the others are saints. I laugh but it's a pity.
It's
both political and ethnic. People will defend those from their "camp"
no matter how indefensible. In the United States, the Democrats or
Republicans would not defend corruption even if the culprit happens to be the
Chairman of their party.
Until
we get to the point where we are blind to the question of party affiliation or
ethnic origin in our 'fight' against corruption and good governance, we'll only
be deceiving ourselves to say we're fighting corruption or fighting for good governance.
When one defends an individual or
group of people who have behaved or done bad things that hurt us as a
nation/country and people that person is emboldening the bad behavior.
When are we going to collectively
say enough? It's, all the bad things, going on for way too long.
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