On Magu, Magun and Corruption by the Elites (II)

Continued from last two weeks Thus for days I supplicated that may the ‘breaking news’ be ‘broken into pieces; that may the news of the detention of Mr Magu turn out to be a fake news at the end of the day. I did all of that not because I thought Mr Magu was an […]

Continued from last two weeks
Thus for days I supplicated that may the ‘breaking news’ be ‘broken into pieces; that may the news of the detention of Mr Magu turn out to be a fake news at the end of the day. I did all of that not because I thought Mr Magu was an angel; nor was my remonstration with the Almighty to let the news pass as fake premised on the jejune assumption that Mr Magu could not have had honey dropped on his tongue without savouring a taste. No. Not all. Rather, in my inner heart, I wanted Mr Magu to not be  found culpable simply because his culpability would deepen the injury we have suffered as a nation during the past couple of weeks. Was it not only a couple of weeks ago that Hushpuppy was arrested for committing horrendous internet scams that even American security agents could not by themselves unravel? I shuddered at the thought that should Mr Magu be found guilty of the infractions and the allegations preferred against him, not a few would come to the conclusion that only bad news comes only from Nigeria; that the only thriving industry in this country is that of corruption, sleaze and scum. I wanted a situation where Horace’s statement would find no moment in my country’s contemporary history.

In other words, when Horace, the poet, said that ‘If the jar is not clean, whatever you pour in turns sour”, I began to wonder whether the metaphor of the ‘jar’ in his construction is applicable not to my country as a whole but only to the EFCC. Or on the contrary, does the signified in Horace’s signifier- ‘the jar- relevant only to the EFCC from whose ‘kitchen’ this insuperable odour and stench of corruption has pervaded the whole nation?

But when contemplated more closely, perhaps the question to ask might actually be the following- Are the real ‘jars’ of corruption not out there waiting to be opened in other government agencies like the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC), the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) etc? Are the ‘jars’ of corruption not threatening to burst into the open in our institutions of higher learning where some Chief Executive Officers, the Unmasked “Magus”, have perfected the art of turning the commonwealth into private wealth? When shall the “Magus” in other federal parastatals be unmasked so that the Augean stable of insuperable corruption may be cleaned once and for all?

Yes. Are we all not “Magus” in our own individual spaces of power, where we constantly show those under us that we are not only in power but also in authority? Are we not the unknown ’Magus’ who, whenever it is said to us “do not cause corruption on the earth,” we constantly fire back saying “We are but reformers.” (Quran 2: 11).Welcome to the Federal Republic of filch and heist; welcome to the federal ‘shrine’ of fraud and embezzlement where libations of extortions and deprivation are poured on a daily basis to the gods of looting and larceny by organized criminals and official snitchers and swindlers.

Thus I reached the conclusion that Mr Magu is not the one presently in detention. Rather it is the whole Presidency of Muhammad Buhari and his anti-corruption programme that is under detainment? It is the whole anti-corruption crusade of this government that is under interdiction. But while this may be true, truer indeed is that the on-going trial and tribulations of Mr Magu provide us as a nation the rare opportunity to come together to fight this cankerworm known as corruption. Now we have yet another opportunity to reach a consensus that corruption is the reason our nation has remained down there in the abyss of under-development; that we are the reason corruption has gained traction in our civil service; that we are the reason corruption has become the greatest industry in our nation. Yes. Whenever we praise and adulate corrupt public officers just because they posture as champions of our ethno-religious groups, whenever we take the decision to not question the civil-servant who became a multi-billionaire overnight, whenever we choose to cut corners and offer to assist our children cheat in their exams, whenever we say amen to the Imam or pastor who says we shall become billionaires tomorrow even when we know that we possess neither the means nor the chance to do so, then we are all corrupt; we are the ones producing the “Magus’ of this world, of this nation and of the next generation.

Concluded