“Governance in Nigeria is a Criminal Enterprise.” — Bishop Matthew Kukah
In an interview conducted by Seun Okinbaloye of the Channels Television’s Politics Today with Bishop Matthew Kukah on the 11th of January, 2023, Bishop Kukah made a passing remark about the type of ‘money-missed-road’ or white-elephant-project mansions he saw while passing through Asokoro quarters of Abuja, Nigeria. He wondered and he asked rhetorically, “Where is all this money coming from that Nigerians are putting up these gigantic structures all over the place. Where is the money coming from for a country that is severely malfunctioning; for a country that is the poverty capital of the world?”
Every Nigerian knows where the money came from. As the Bishop rightly and unapologetically said, “Governance in Nigeria is a Criminal Enterprise.” Consequently, Nigeria has become a ‘Crime Scene’. A country where everyone who has occupied or is occupying a low or high civil or political office in the government, ought to be invited for criminal investigation and placed in custody as a suspect in the Crime of Grand Corruption — Bribery, Fraud, Looting, Pillaging, etc., — until he/she can be proven not guilty.
Sadly, the country has been made wretchedly poor by the rat-race syndrome and the primitive acquisitiveness of the political elites. And what the Bishop saw in Abuja are mere tips of the unhidden evidences of the crimes of white-collar brigandry that the elites have committed against the people and country. These ‘elites’ are the contemptuous men and women who have the great opportunity to manage the resources of the country for the common good, but instead stupidly choose to satisfy mundane and inordinate selfish aggrandisement to the detriment of the commonwealth.
In their foolishnesses, these so-called political elites emptied the treasury of the commonwealth and bankrupted the country so that they and their immediate families and colluding business partners can live a life of disgraceful and disgusting luxury. While on the other hand, fellow compatriots whom they swore on oath to protect from “idleness, ignorance, disease, squalor and want” are left in a state of heartbreaking abject destitution. Because of the rapacious behaviours of the political elites, the result of the 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index survey that was undertaken and published by the National Bureau of Statistics shows that “63% of persons living within Nigeria (133 million people) are multidimensionally poor”.
Yet, these ‘political elites’ of the land haven’t got the message that they have failed the country. They are so pitifully shameless, because they have neither a social conscience nor soul consciousness. Hence, these lots are totally bereft of humane concerns that can feel the pains of the poor citizens around them; they have no guilty consciences about their illegal atrocities against the fatherland; and they are completely ignorant of the spiritual, social, economic and political consequences that their irresponsible high-powered robbing and raping of the commonwealth would eventually undermine peace, harmony and the progressive development of the society. The political elites of Nigeria are unmistakably suffering from serious spiritual ailments, the symptom of soul decadence.
The above tentative analysis are the only rational argument that one can adduce as reason why the political elites of Nigeria could have wilfully decided to perpetrate this unprecedented level of criminal impunity against their own racial kindred. Furthermore, it is bewildering to observe that any human being, who is laying claim to the status of an ‘educated elite’ in the society, can possess and can display the high degree of public larceny, financial impropriety and obscene immorality that are going on among the so-called movers and shakers of the Nigerian State.
Above all, the gross impunity and the nonchalant effrontery of the elites to openly indulge in unimaginable gluttonous lifestyles without fear of accountability and punishment, are the true hallmarks of a Failed Society. Because, for anyone who is endowed with a noble conscience, the nature of decadent conspicuous consumption that are found in the exclusive, heavily protected government reserved zones of Nigeria, are painful eyesores to behold for anyone with a conscious soul. This unconscionable display of ‘material success’ from ill-gotten gains and in a country that is already carrying the degrading epithet of “the poverty capital of the world”, tells a gruesome story of the level of political callousness in Nigeria
This is what Confucius of ancient China says about such rich buffoons that populate the very top echelons of governance in any country like Nigeria:“In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.”
Unfortunately, the political elites of Nigeria are a unique archetype amongst the shameless and dishonourable men and women of the world. And by their high level of insolent criminality against fellow citizens and their inhumane cruel behaviour that ruthlessly takes away the sustenances of the downtrodden and helpless people, they have simply confirmed the truth of what Captain Perverto says, “You can’t shame a shameless man, you can only remind him of the awesome shit he’s done.”
So, we can only invite the political elites of Nigeria to take a look at Nigeria and to please tell the whole wide world that they are very proud of what they’ve done and what they are still doing to a richly endowed people and to a fabulously blessed country.
In The Spirit of Truth
SAM ABBD ISRAEL
12th January, 2023
ITSOT 