The enemies of Nigeria have hijacked public debates in favor of looters! And Nigerians must change that before it is too late! Nigerians must be alert. We must be fervent in letting our desires and preferences known or heard. We must be vehement and vigorous in rejecting the repackaged and recycled garbage the looters are spreading!
News reaching me from Abuja, Nigeria, state in most unmistakable terms, that those who have been indicted for corruption, will be barred from the general elections in Nigeria which is scheduled for April 2007. This is very great news!
This great news calls for dancing in the streets by Nigerians; and all those who wish Nigeria well. We ought to dance in the streets to celebrate these historic occasions, these epoch making actions in the annals of Nigeria’s history. We ought to dance in the streets to celebrate these unprecedented and ground breaking epochal tidings in which, looters are finally made to account. Looters are finally barred from any public office opportunities to continuing to engage in their lootings with impunity!
We ought to dance in the street, as we are witnessing the dawning of a new era. A fine new era, in which monies budgeted for public infrastructures and social amenity would actually be spent on such, as the leeches and parasites are removed from public offices and public space. We ought to be dancing in the streets proclaiming, good riddance to these looters that have been found and many more that will be found, shooing all looters into the ignominy and obscurity of history.
Clearly, Nigerians, a majority of Nigerians have waited for so long for the day, when looters and corrupt persons in the public and private sectors will be asked to account for their lootings and corruption. And the time has finally come! Thanks to President Obasanjo’s reforms and more thanks to him for the vision and foresight in appointing the incorruptible and indomitable corruption czar, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.
Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and his EFCC should receive our collective encouragement and support for their arduous and very adroit efforts in weeding out, from the forthcoming elections, some Nigerians who have been known to pillage and plunder Nigeria blind.
Looters, who are not able to, and cannot ever, argue innocence. They are as guilty as charged and they know that they are filthy, fetid and putrid and as a result, innocence cannot possibly be uttered in the same sentence with their stench inducing names. They have therefore determined that it was better to switch and change the debates on the electorate, in order to confuse Nigerian voters!
These looters are prostitutes for public office and they are deploying every unorthodox means at their disposal to defeat Nigeria’s national interests with their dirty tactics! These looters are stupendously wealthy, and their opulence was attained fraudulently through their corruption and usurpation of the rights of Nigerians to functioning public infrastructures and social amenities.
Unfortunately, some unsavory Nigerians have sought desperately to alter the course of current events in Nigeria through their attempts to change the debate from the egregious evils of corruption, to, the more mundane and procedural aspects of arrests and prosecutions of known looters in Nigeria.
Nigerians must not let these looters, and friends of looters and sympathizers of looters, to confuse, obfuscate or reframe the public debates about the brazen robbery, looting, pillaging and plundering that has gone on, for far too long on our fatherland. Nigerians must insist on meting out, the severest of punishments to all those whose brazen lootings and corruptions caused so much hunger, sufferings, hardships, hopelessness, frustrations, desperations,mass migrations, despair and death of countless numbers of Nigerians!
Nigerians must not accept the wilful amnesia and forgetfulness of those constipated looters, who fed fat on our patrimony, as the rest of us suffered and languished in abject poverty. Those who pillaged and plundered Nigeria’s wealth, as the rest of us, we left in thirst in the midst of the vast oceans of Nigeria’s abundant wealth.
Nigerians must not allow these looters and agents of looters, sympathizers of looters to change the subject of their guilt for corruption and indulgencies in avarice or extreme greed as the average Nigerian endured unimaginable deprivations in the artificial scarcity that were induced by looters with impunity!
Everyone, particularly, Nigerians must be clear on the crucial points of rule of law, yes, the rule of law, due process and their applications to the treatment this looters. There should be fair treatments and fair opportunity for defense by those accused of looting.
Aside of that, Nigerians must fervently insist on the severest of punishments for those who made us all suffer for so long. There must be the severest of punishments for those who made our nation a pariah among nations. There must be severest of punishments for those who looted Nigeria and as a consequence, truncated Nigeria’s development, advancement and greatness for so long! Nigerians have suffered enough hardships!
Nigerians must not nitpick or become fixated or singularly focused on the rights of the criminals at the expense of our society at large! Nigeria’s common good and greatness trumps the fine points of right and privileges of a few warped and twisted persons who have for so long, robbed Nigerians and Nigeria of hope, of our future and our pride
There must be the severest of punishments for those looters who stunted our economic growth, punishments for looters who caused Nigeria to undergo endless economic recession and depressions, which in turn led to personal depression, mass migrations, desperations which led some Nigerians into becoming stow-away in wheel-wells, on planes and ocean going vessels. There are other tales of immeasurable sufferings by Nigerians, who fled Nigeria in desperation, because of the hopelessness at home.
Oh yes! There must be the severest of punishments for those who foisted so much poverty on our land, such much so, that Nigerians thronged embassies of America and Europe in desperations to emigrate out of Nigeria, thereby incurring maltreatments in the hands of visa officials with preconceived notions about Nigerian visa applicants!
There must be severest of punishments for looters, on the behalf and to atone for those Nigerians who lost their lives in the frigid oceans waters and the scorching deserts, in efforts to emigrate out of Nigeria’s looters induced hopelessness and desperations!
We must and we should dance in the street as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission or EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission or ICPC, the Joint Tax Board or JTB (Nigeria’ Inland Revenue Service) and the Independent Electoral Commission or INEC and other arms or agencies of Nigerian, are holding looters’ feet to the fires, holding to account for ill-gotten wealth or be deemed unfit for public and even private sectors offices!
It is in the best interests of every Nigerian at home and abroad to celebrate the efforts of those fighting and crusading against these notorious and infamous looters on our behalf.
It is in our enlightened self-interests, as well as in our nation best national interests, that we vehemently oppose every stinking effort by looters, pillagers and plunderers of Nigeria’s public wealth to change the course of these anti corruption war, crusade and fight. The train has left the station and we must encourage the imperfect train operators to speed along an on track for a perfect journey to Nigeria’s development, Nigeria’s advancement and Nigeria’s greatness wh
ich have been long awaited and long overdue!
Nigerians should dance in the streets in celebrations! Nigerians should applaud the removal of k known obstacles and impediments to Nigeria’s growth. Nigerians should dance in the streets to celebrate the surgical removal of cancerous tumors, which are what looters and the corrupt in Nigeria epitomizes. We must not allow ourselves accept the massive disinformation that are sprouting and spreading from looters and their sympathizers. We must not allow ourselves to become distracted by antics of looters. Nigerians must focus on the rights of the average Nigerians, not the looters!
Nigerians should and must, dance in the streets to inaugurate the dawn of accountability, transparency and good governance! It is a brand new day in Nigeria! Dance, dance, dance!
These are monumental and most momentous times for Nigeria!
Paul, I dont know about dancing in the street, or complete innocence of the Presidency. But one thing is for sure; the activity of EFCC, ICPC and JTB leadership is the beginning of the cleansing process. These institutions should be encouraged and supported by every right thinking Nigerian. Whether they are being used to frustrate political opponents is another consideration. To remove the cloudiness as to the true motive of the leadership of these institutions, there should be NO status of limitation on the crime of looting public fund. In essence, one can be charged in life or death for the crime of looting public fund. If found guilty in death, all benefits to the family should be withdrawn, recovery effected, and the convicted name inked into the list of corrupted citizens.
This will give opponents the opportunity to investigate the activities of previous government(s).
Cletus E. Olebunne