Well done corruption!
We consider it unfortunate the recent remarks by the National Security Adviser (NSA), General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau, in which he faulted the on-going reform policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the strategies adopted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the fight against corruption. General Gusau, among other comment, remarked […]
We consider it unfortunate the recent remarks by the National Security Adviser (NSA), General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau, in which he faulted the on-going reform policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the strategies adopted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the fight against corruption. General Gusau, among other comment, remarked that the on-going CBN intervention “seemed to have damaged economic activity in the banking sector to the detriment of the larger society”. A statement made by the Chief Security Officer to the NSA, Adebisi Adekunle, suggests that General Aliyu Gusau made the declaration on Saturday April 17 2010 at the security awareness seminar in his office in Abuja.
The words of General Aliyu Gusau as quoted above (if he actually uttered them)and given his position in government indicate that the present administration is unhappy and does not appreciate the on-going reforms being undertaken by the CBN to sanitize the banking sector. The administration, by the same token, gives the impression that it is dissatisfied with the strategies being adopted by the EFCC to bring corrupt officials before the law. While giving the NSA the benefit of doubts, it is nonetheless apparent that corruption in Nigeria is not being genuinely fought by successive administrations. Our interpretation of the quoted remarks, which though could be wrong, is that the current administration under the leadership of the acting president, Dr GoodLuck Jonathan, prefers corruption to CBN’s reform policies in the same manner it seem to value corrupt public officers over honest and responsible citizens. No wonder, some corrupt officials whose tenures while holding public offices were rather damaging to Nigerians have become “script writers” for the administration. Corruption, in our view, must therefore be extolled by Nigerians.
Of course, Corruption has done so much for Nigerians, touching their lives in many ways. Due to the limited space for this column, the listing of the impact of corruption on Nigerians would be limited to the education sector. Nigerian universities, for instance, enjoy poor library facilities, over-crowded hostels and lecture halls, ill-equipped laboratories. We must give thanks to corruption for empowering the universities with low-level of funding, increased number of examination malpractice, cultism and unstable university calendar. Nigerians within the context of corruption have a cause to celebrate irrelevant academic programmes and low-quality graduates with their numerous attendant benefits including the killing of patients in our hospitals by unqualified medical doctors.
At the secondary level of the education system, Nigerians should be grateful for the unique and outstanding WAEC and NECO results produced by candidates in recent years, which could only be the product of a collapsed system occasioned by indisputable corrupt practices. It was good that teachers in most states of the federation would have to go on strike action for several months to enjoy a 27% increase on their basic salary. Most secondary schools in the country today can swank of inadequate number of teachers for many subjects in the school curriculum. The sale of the 102 unity schools initiated by the Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesile, under former President Obasanjo, should quickly be completed so that children of ordinary Nigerians would have equal and greater access to secondary education outside school environment.
The basic level of education in Nigeria is so functionally free and compulsory that it has guaranteed more enrolments of children in primary and junior secondary strata of education. Infact, Nigerians are urging government to extend the date for implementing the new curricular for the UBE programme launched at Sokoto by former President Obasanjo on September 30, 1999 from the re-scheduled date of October 2010 to October 2015. Nigerians are happy that only 39,000 out of the 600,000 teachers required by the UBE programme are available to teach the 25 million Nigerian children at the basic level of education.
Since the only places where we can find high quality education for our children are in the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Malaysia, Ghana, Togo and lately Benin Republic; we suggest that government should out-source the entire education system in the country to these countries so that we can help them build their economies especially in the face of the current meltdown. Government may also wish to legislate for corruption to become one of the symbols of governance in the country. We say well done to corruption. May Allah (SWT) save Nigeria and Nigerians from the self-centred orchestrations of public office holders, amin.