The CBN Governor broke the silence: “There is [an illegal transaction] taking place under legal cover with huge revenue leakages embedded therein.”
The CBN Governor broke the silence: “There is [an illegal transaction] taking place under legal cover with huge revenue leakages embedded therein.”
After careful investigation into the matter, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi alerted the President of the financial irregularities taking place in the NNPC at a recent NEMT meeting in the Presidency. But the President remained indifferent about the whole thing. So Sanusi decided to write him a formal letter.
That’s when Jonathan began to harass him.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
The President plays with his promise to fight corruption. His nation’s democracy is just 15 years old and he hasn’t started cracking down on bribery yet. He hasn’t even tried. Pardoning Diepriye Alamieyeseigha last year – a man who was charged and convicted by a London court of stealing millions of dollars – was proof that the Jonathan Administration is, in fact, not fighting against corruption. Every anti-corruption crusader on this earth told Jonathan to tackle the menace, but he didn’t take heed, even after reading what Sanusi Lamido wrote him.
“… The NNPC is yet to account for, and repatriate to the Federation Account, an amount in excess of $49 billion or 79% of the value of oil lifted [between January 2012 and July 2013].”
Jonathan remains unmindful. And we, the 99% of Nigerians, are speechless. Though we are fed up with seeing headlines that read: “$100 Million Found in a Lawmaker’s Refrigerator,” “Jonathan Bribes an Italian Construction Firm” and “Oil Minister Bought Two Billion Naira of Property in Australia” we choose to remain dumb, as if we are a spineless bunch of crippled folks.
The Problem of Silence
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });
For more than a decade, we’ve been under democratic rule, but treated like refugees, like people with no human dignity. It’ll sound strange to say this, but it’s our silence that not only paves the way for the mounting corruption in our country, but also led to our animal-like existence.
We have been sitting on our hands, watching as our oil money, rights, liberties, and our dignity have been ripped off by our leaders – and we still maintain tacit acceptance, praying diffidently that “it will be all right.” We agree to the terms proposed by many of our politicians – “give me your vote, and I’ll give you N1, 000 in return” – while we know for sure that those naira will not give us the clean water or the good roads we need.
We know that our voices are useless, and we’ve accepted that. We have no problem cowering in fear in this great Republic, and we prefer to live in poverty, misery, and disease, than to challenge our governors, senators, and local government chairmen to account for the money they spend.
Today, at 54, Nigeria is the oldest independent government with Type III corruption disease. And other countries, even in Africa, are laughing at us. But we have no problem with that, because we are openly laughing at ourselves.
The problem with all this is not how it’ll affect us today, or tomorrow. It isn’t even how it’ll negatively affect our lives. It’s how it’ll damage future generations – for our children’s children.
You’d think that being silent is the only way to survive in this country, and live your dreams, but it’s not. In contrast, it’s better to live a noisy life than to die a coward. Our silence is a catalyst that will keep this corruption disease spreading. Only when we challenge our leaders, the corrupt politicians who steal our money and deny us our liberty, can we survive in this country.
When the black community stood up against the white supremacy in the US, despite all the exploitation, racism, and abuse, they won. When Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of freedom on Capitol Hill, despite the crackdown against his preaching, he won. When Mohammed Bouazizi sparked The Arab Spring, despite the dictator’s suppression, a revolution was ignited, dictators were overthrown, and history was written – he won.
If you were a patriotic citizen, you would have ended your silence long ago. But some of us aren’t strong enough to stand firm for what they believe in, or in defense of their rights and ideals. Those of us who are weaker are so not because they are not true nationalists, but because they’re scared to sacrifice their safety for the betterment of their lives.
I think we can learn something from the brave patriots and activists in the world. Not to hang ourselves or throw away our lives, but to stand against injustice and fight for our rights – by any means necessary.
Fighting for Our Rights
The worst part of being a Nigerian under the PDP’s fictitious democracy isn’t the pain of the theft of tax payers’ money or the struggle to sleep in the dark while your neighbor’s generator snores out loud. The worst part of being a Nigerian is that you’re not worthy of respect in the eyes of your leaders.
If you’re a common man, living in some tiny corner of the Republic, you’re like a slave in the hands of a cruel master. It’s extremely unlikely that you get a job: you’ve no one to give you a note. It’s difficult to get quality education: public schools are a mess, and you can’t afford the private ones. It’s tough to survive: the lack of basic necessities means you’ve nothing to enjoy. If you’re a common man in Nigeria, your life is in danger.
You and I have spent decades struggling to have our voices heard or our dreams realized but ... to no avail. Like when the fuel subsidy was suddenly removed, and we marched in the streets to protest, the President shuts us up. Or the tense reaction of our governors when we dare to question their decisions. Or the vaguely disgraced look of our law-makers when we demand an explanation of their actions in Abuja.
Their disbelief should never stop us from fighting for our rights. What our leaders do is not a matter of playing politics or being wicked as some people will think. It’s being purely evil.
How can we possibly call ourselves free citizens without securing our freedom in the face of corrupt leaders? How can we forget the achievement of our forefathers and choose the easy path – the cowardly path of keeping mute and living in shame? How can we remain silent after the God of Abraham has given us a soul, intelligence, and a voice to speak, shout, and stand against injustice?
If Sanusi Lamido Sanusi can write a letter to the world’s most clueless president, despite all the censorship of truth-telling, then we can stand up against corruption, lies, and foolishness.
If Rotimi Amaechi can brave the president’s threats and remain resistant to maltreatment, we can demand greatness from our governors in our respective states.
If Governor Kashim Shetima can come out in public to speak the truth to save his people – in the Jonathanian era of honoring lies – then we can unite under one platform to choose a competent candidate in 2015.
That’s not to imply that we’re self-centered fighters, fighting for religious affiliation, political parties, or ethinicity. We’re patriots – fighting for our rights, liberty, and the pursuit of our happiness. If you want justice and fair play, you can’t wait for the world to give you a fair hearing the way a beggar waits for food on our highways. You have to be a warrior.
Let’s face it; your rights are your struggles. You have to stand up for them, or sit down to rot in the pit of fear.
President Jonathan finally suspended the CBN governor but, in the words of Sanusi, “he can never suspend the truth.” This will never be a blow to truth-tellers and patriots who stand firm against corruption and injustice.
“Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” ~ Frederick Douglass
Suhaib Mohammed is a professional freelance writer and the founder and CEO of Haibtext. Connect with him on Twitter – @Haibtext and Facebook – http://facebook.com/haibtext
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of SaharaReporters
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });