"There are many types of tears...There are the tears of innocence. The kind that never end. The ones you don't know why you're crying. But they still come... There are the tears of anger. The kind that come after the slamming of the door. The kind that make you even more mad, than before because you let yourself cry. There are the tears of sadness, there are tears of fear. The ones that come after the piercing scream. The ones that come in the darkness through shivers". Abridged. Prince Charles Dickson For ex-Governors in the last dispensation it is a sad twist to a tale of power, greed, corruption and shame. Whatever the tale, one certain thing is that none of the men in EFCC net are shedding tears of innocence, joy, rather it is a mixture of fear, sadness, anger, shame, regret and uncertainty. I'm for the truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it's for or against. Let the ball roll, from Adamu, Odili, Attah, Tinubu...and obviously Obasanjo. At every bus stop of this democracy those that are found wanting should pay, for now even the price may be negligible but by and large tomorrow we would all smile knowingly that the right thing was done. Who would have believed it that the tables could turn so soon.

I watched stupendously as the men were arraigned before the court. It was with that tingle feeling, I was overjoyed that some of the men have even been remanded in Prison. My only worry was hope, the hope that this is just the beginning, the hope that the chief in thieves and thieves in chief would not be let off the hook. Despite the tears from the one granted bail, the tears of those remanded in jail...all are false tears. As usual some are already playing the trump card of political undertone and the because I am Kalu or Turaki sentiments and to this I say who cares anyway. It is a long list for the EFCC, maybe finally the consultancy services they sought has yielded fruits. The EFCC has been provided with money that the ICPC said it lacked to prosecute these men. For a Ribadu, a man I dislike, a chance from heaven to redeem his image, a chance to prove me, you and us wrong. Much as one would not want to preempt anything, it is obvious to a blind man that most of these guys have indeed sold on the plate of greed the ernomous trust that their respective States entrusted them with.

And here is the argument, no matter how much tom, dick and obasanjo hates an enemy, it is not enough to manufacture some of the charges against these men. Whichever way we tend to look at it, and pray that the rule of law is applied, some of these men have committed savage crimes against their people. It is sad that a man would have as much as 100 houses, a man would steal as much as N33B and we want to see that person as sane. Some of the actions of these men lay credence to the calls for psyche evaluation for men and women that aspire to public offices. Besides let us just for a minute play sanity, for those of us that have sighted the charge sheet, some of the charges were to say the least unimaginable, it also made us cry, a tear of perplexion, a tear of confusion and gross sadness. I am naive but they were all not just manufactured and then these men plead not guilty? Just musing, if a man had six children and spent a million on each, spent two on himself and wife and 5million on his external families and another million on obligations yearly. That would amount to N14M, multiply that by 10 years and we would get be N140M and in 50years, a mere N700M compared to the billions they have carted away.

The men so far picked by EFCC whether fair, unfair, political or apolitical when scrutinized represent the face of corruption in Nigeria, the only missing link being the Ota farmer, by and large I personally believe that he either would be free as a bird or damned as going back to one of those cells they refused to renovate nor rehabilitate. Away from the tears these men are shedding, I want to ask if Governors have raped our society this bad, if these charges have a semblance of the truth, if men entrusted with leadership can descend this low...who will bring in Ministers, Director-Generals, Local Government Chairmen, Commissioners and their likes? How much of this nation's collective wealth has been eaten without regard to the multitude of poor suffering Nigerians. In the animal age, when cannibalism was it, would these men have been given anything close to fair hearing...Why then do we think that a man that stole a hundred thousand naira should get a six year jail term, when give and take if any of these men are convicted they would get less then two years at the maximum and six months minimum.

These Governors that are crying, can someone tell me where they christians, muslims, traditionalists, pagans or what? To what faith did they subscribe to...Often I have queried our attitude as a people, how we face such national issues, how we simply refuse to learn from the past and continue to repeat the errors of the past. There was Tafa Balogun, but Ehindero did not learn, no body seem s to grasp the enormity of the situation. Today it is stealing Governors, tomorrow who will it be, maybe not Governors stealing but the people revolting. I end this short take, with a word for the EFCC, at this bus stop, the commission must be doing it the right way and seen to be doing so. To the Governors, these tears do not deceive anybody, refusal to admit guilt is not innocence either. There is always a day of reckoning, some call it Karma, others say it is the day that the monkey would go to the market and not return. May the Almighty Allah help us.

Robot  Villager

# 1 "There are many types of tears...There are the tears of innocence. The kind that never end. ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 26.07.2007 18:05

Fon  Villager

# 2 Dear Prince, I do agree with your suggestions... let it not stop at the governors, it would be unfair and selective.. for using your calculation as an analogy if governors take billions, then wonder if ministers didn't take millions, Nigeria is really a rich country.. May God help us recover the years eaten away by locusts and cankerworms.... Posted by Fon| 27.07.2007 06:36

Amy  Villager

# 3 May God help us recover the years eaten away by locusts and cankerworms.... Amen and amen to that powerful prayer!!! Posted by Amy| 27.07.2007 11:20