22 Jan 2008 |
|
It is a pity that in Nigeria common thing is not common. I make this assertion in line with the unnecessary uproars that emanated from the recent posting of the EFCC boss, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu to a one year course at NIPSS which thus brought the end of his stay as the Chairman of the anti graft agency. Ribadu is a civil servant and thus a government property. He is liable to be posted to anywhere and likely to be sent for study anywhere in order to enhance his capacity so that the government (read; public) would exploit his intellect. However, the anathema that followed this ideal process in the case of Ribadu is very unfortunate.
Nigeria (I mean Nigerians) has flaunted with its so many loopholes in that unbecoming hubbub. But my concern is how insincere Nigerians proved themselves to be. From the time the news of Ribadu’s ‘removal’ leaked to the press, people start shouting and lamenting how would the ‘most trustworthy, just, honest, upright…’ Nigerian be removed from the headship of a corruption fighting body. It flabbergasts me to see that we all distrust ourselves and trusted only one person out of 150 million of us. What a shame!
More disappointing however is the fact that among those condemning the due process of sending the anti grafts czar to course are people who would refer themselves as intellectuals. I am not preoccupied here with the circumstances that led to this decision but rather by how we entrust all our hope on only one person. Similarly, it is annoying that we (including the ‘intellectuals’ among us) publicly declare that when it comes to the key values for positive living, we all have mediocre or less.
It is pertinent to note that Ribadu is not the only trust worthy, steadfast, honest and bold Nigerian that is capable of flying the anticorruption flag high. But once we all agree that without Ribadu we can’t carry on the moral crusade against corruption and moral decay then we are dead and would not go anywhere.
|
|||||||||
# 
Your Comments
Please make The Square an enjoyable experience for everyone by refraining from gratuitous ad-hominem contributions, defamatory comments and off-topic posting. Such posts will be removed.