The Quest To Sanitise Nigerians Has Began
FOR many years now our country has been labelled one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Whether this is true or not is an issue for another day.
However, what I find most interesting is the determination of the new administration to bring sanity into the polity. The past few weeks have seen President Buhari revealing mind-boggling funds allegedly looted and carted away by some of our past leaders and their cohorts, and his determination to bring them to book.
Already, he has begun to make some changes such as overhauling the petroleum sector and ensuring sanity in the use of foreign exchange within and outside the country.
A close look at all sectors of the economy shows that corruption has indeed become like a second nature for many Nigerians. Businesses are being grounded everyday and our youths are wasting away, as a result of their inability to put their talents and creativity into productive use.
The monthly salaries of the average workers can barely take care of basic needs; talk less of paying for quality education. What these means is that for the average family to survive, the father must find ways of supplementing his earnings.
This is a leeway for corruption to come in. We have all been praying for a better Nigeria, and from the look of things, it appears that there is hope after all.
But the truth is that no matter the number of people that are eventually indicted and prosecuted, the prevailing condition that provides a fertile ground for corruption to breed must be stamped out.
How? There must be a total overhauling of the system such that all existing loopholes for the siphoning of public funds by corrupt government officials are sealed once and for all.
We must begin to create a working system that allows for creativity to thrive and which supports local production at affordable prices. A situation whereby we continue to suffer from epileptic power supply does not help our local industries to thrive.
We all claim to love and worship God yet we seem to love money more than our fellow men. A situation where people kidnap and use their fellow men for rituals is not acceptable.
It is barbaric and retrogressive. Where are our values? Why do we honour people with questionable sources of wealth? Why do we conspire against honest people because of parochial interest? Why do we join hands with fraudsters to defraud our nation and throw millions of people into abject poverty? Not all Nigerians are corrupt.
Indeed, many are honest and God-fearing. But when the good ones remain silent, the corrupt ones tend to overshadow them. The on-going changes in our polity offer opportunity for all honest Nigerians to support the quest for probity and accountability.
Parents should begin to teach their children that honesty remains the best policy. We must get to a period, where truth and honesty are given a pride of place in all facets of our lives.
It is only by so doing that we can truly show that indeed, God is taking charge of the affairs of our country. May God help us. Very Rev. Msgr. Osu, Director, Social Communications, Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos.
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1 Comments
A people must be spiritually fed up with status quo ante before they can attain transformation.Being ready implies that they are empowered with inspired,examplary leaders to engender real transformation.Thus real change is partly spiritual maturity of the people,their leaders and their clergy provided such clergy are not actively involved in power politics,directly or indirectly
We will review and take appropriate action.