okotie@revchrisokotie.com, Follow on twitter @Revchrisokotie. 08078421451. (Sms only)
In a country where people habitually lie about such mundane things as age, it is easy to understand why transparency in governance is so difficult for our public officers. Many civil servants for instance have two ages- the real age and the official. The official age is often backed by sworn affidavit, a legal authentication of falsehood and is usually far lower than the real age. This is done to fraudulently elongate the length of service in government employment and also, in some cases, beat mandatory retirement dates.
This culture of public lying begins from the elementary stage of recruitment into public service but like a deadly virus, it has pervaded every facet of our national life. Politians lie about programmes, election umpires falsify votes; government is not honest about census figures, not minding the fact that they are central to national planning; footballers reduce their ages in order to continue playing in age group competitions. Government officials lie about their personal state of health. etc
Worse, they do this lying business under oath, yet when caught the grave charge of perjury is never brought against anyone who runs afoul of it. A former American President, Bill Clinton was impeached over the Monica Lewinsky case because of perjury. That underscores the premium placed on honesty and respect for the oath of office and the sanctity of the U.S. constitution.
Few months ago, the presidency refuted media speculations that the president's wife, Dame Patience Jonathan was seriously ill in a German hospital. And when Her Excellency returned home after about six weeks, she derided the 'wicked' claims of enemies who wished her dead. She was hale and hearty, we were told. Then, suddenly, she organised a well publicised thanksgiving service where she gave a public testimony about her ''death and resurrection'', after an undisclosed illness that required a delicate surgery where her stomach was ripped open by doctors.
Of course, the ever vocal Nigerian media made an issue out of the First Lady's volte face, and justifiably so. The sore point, a shocking one at that, is that her husband, our venerable president sat through these entire charades without 'giving a damn'.
Age cheats in soccer have embarrassed this country many times, and now, questions are being asked about the merits of our famous victories in the previous U-17 world cup tournaments. The world's football governing body recently introduced bone marrow test to expose age cheats. When the test was conducted on our U-17 players in the last world cup tournament, 70 percent of the squad failed it. What a shame! We had to hurriedly recruit new players that fell within the age range to replace the disgraced team. Despite the belated effort, the new team got to the final! That shows clearly that there's no dearth of talent in this country, what is lacking is transparency and discipline.
Matters are not helped by our reputation as one of the world's leading drug pushers, internet fraudsters and 419ners. A major bank in Brazil collapsed recently, victim of a Nigerian fraud schemes. At entre ports worldwide, our citizens are subjected to the most humiliating and dehumanising bodily searches because the fear of Nigerians is the beginning of wisdom. The green –white-green passport is a passport to crime and jail in foreign lands. The number of Nigerians on death row in Asia and the Middle East for drug related crimes is alarming.
Examination cheats have damaged the credibility of the certificate and degrees issued by our academic institutions. It is very sad that parents reportedly hire bright chaps to write exams for their wards. Ladies who can't cope with the rigours of class work offer their bodies to wayward lecturers in exchange for pass marks. All these happen because degrees are the crucial tickets needed to get a job or climb the social ladder in Nigeria. Post-admission tests, introduced by universities to check matriculation fraud are now being challenged by people who may be disadvantaged by the scrutiny. But these institutions are only trying to find a way round the fraud game because the appalling system has to be sanitized.
The electorate does not hold elected officials accountable because nobody in Nigeria accounts for anything. Corporate bodies cheat in tax declarations. It is hard to believe that even companies that make jumbo profits do not make honest tax returns. One may ask how many people outside employees of government or organised private sector pay tax? Few. That's the hard fact.
Our predilections to cheat or defraud is being exploited by dubious foreigners who collude with unscrupulous Nigerians to defraud this nation in many fields. A large chunk of our oil is stolen daily by this criminal cartel.
This variant of corruption merely bears another name: bunkering. The unprecedented looting by oil thieves is depleting our reserves. Our banks were recently bailed out by the central bank after an unprecedented scam almost destroyed the financial system. Yet, the system allows the rogue bankers get away with plea bargain and disproportionately light sentence at the temple of justice.
Many of these fellas have escaped justice with their loot, after refunding little fractions. That is a clever cheat on justice by the corrupt elite with the connivance of the judiciary, an institution that was once the beacon of hope, but is now acknowledged as one of the corrupt arms of government.
In the next column, I'd deal with the concluding part in an article titled: EXPRESSWAY TO A FAILED STATE.
Rev Chris Okotie, a Pastor-Politician wrote from Lagos.
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