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| Controversial social commentator Joseph Odok Esq., Ph.D |
Joseph Odok|2 December 2017
Nigerians must begin to see corruption as our common enemy. I have never seen any one who opens a community bank account to save spoils of corruption for his community. The fat banks accounts of Dangote belongs to him and his family, those of Tinubu are his personal account same with those of Obasanjo, Liyel Imoke, Ayade Benedict, Donald Duke, etc.
I don’t care if any one is criticised in matters of corruption and looting of public funds, I enjoy when a strong man rises to call thieves to accountability. My worry is accountability is now limited to only the poor man. If a poor man steals, he is killed or burnt alive, he is immediately arrested and incarcerated, he is tortured and the gossip stays all through centuries with his name stigmatized.
This is not the case with the rich man. If a rich man steals our common purse, we see a section of media men prepared/paid to defend them, we see security agencies paid to compromise the case, we see cultists and assassins paid to eliminate any one that opens the cankerworms, we see religious and political institutions, politicizing the corruption to defend their own, tribal, religious or political sentiments. Political affiliations becomes the protective belt for covering wanton corruption, this is wrong, corruption has no political party, there are corrupt elements in APC as well as PDP.
We had been deceived to believe that party have a common purse, Nigerian political parties belong to the powerful and often the most corrupt people. These glorified corrupt men only play on our our tribal, religious and political sentiments to get a loyalty that will protect them from loots. At the end of the political struggles, they are the ones that gets appointment. All political opportunities the secure by our common efforts is shared to their friends, family members, cultic affiliations, cronies, concubines etc. In fact the highest labourers are not remembered during the sharing.
Like in most political parties, the more powerful you are the more dreaded you become, the more you are to be neglected during the sharing of political gains, so as not to be empowered. The corrupt fear losing power, they feel unsafe before the bold, intelligent and independent to the extent of building strategies to eliminate them. In Nigeria sycophancy, and ineptitude pays more than integrity and hard work.
We may actually not agree politically, we may not think alike, but let us openly condemn what is undeniably corruption. In democracy we have freedom of expression as far as what is expressed is statements of facts, let’s not make efforts to stop anyone from expressing his opinion no matter whose ox is gored. For me I am gamed and no one can stop me from my focus on Cross River State, it is my choice, it is passion. We must build a corrupt free Cross River State and Nigeria.
Joseph Odok
Social Change Agent
