WHERE CORRUPTION AND HUBRIS ARE THE MANTRA, NATIONHOOD IS DEFEATED.

Dear Sir/Madam,

There is an Igbo saying that states that a rock behind the sea does not hear rainfall even if it rains cats and dogs. This is because such a rock is always wet to notice the rain. Like this rock, some of our political leaders are absolutely drenched in corruption. No matter the torrential outpouring of complaints from the public about their corrupt engagements, such political leaders are tone deaf because their moral fibres have been numbed by the seemingly attractive and lucrative corruption.

In the wake of the successive scandals we have heard them unleash cryptic utterances in their defense. Their obliquities and intrigues have always left the public more confounded. Amid all these, serious bribery silently takes place. Many legislators across the political divide have been hired to form a protective ring round the architects of these calamitous scandals. In fact, with Parliament`s recess coming to an end in less than two weeks time, I have a hunch that some unforeseen forces are already on the prowl for legislators who will help kill the anticipated censure motion against honorable Ongeri.

As cynically chilling as it appears, yet it is not unexpected because where partisanship and ethnicity are the mantra, hubris defeats caution. Any keen observer would not fail to discern what this arrogance is all about. Politicians across the political divide are preoccupied with amassing huge finances in readiness for 2012. Many are using the incessant and discordant fiddling in the Grand Coalition Government as a smokescreen for them to pilfer from the public coffers. It is even said that an unnamed presidential aspirant touting about “generational change” has been heard brazenly bragging that he has already “amassed” over eight billion shillings just for 2012!

In such circumstances condemning corruption becomes terribly frightening and unpopular even among the few honest politicians. They would rather see their profiles in cowardice grow than for them to fight this insidious evil. But they have a valid reason for cowering. This is because; corrupt politicians and their political hirelings will besmirch and plot the downfall of anyone who stands in their corrupt way. Power politics and corruption have truly become the diplomatic names for the law of the jungle. I am therefore not surprised that some politicians mainly from PNU have already cheekily called for the resignation of the PM for his alleged failure in supervising and coordinating activities in the Grand Coalition Government.

But wait a minute; are these not the same politicians who have time and again formed impenetrable walls round those implicated in almost all the scandals in this country? It would be naïve of the public to expect politicians from a political party whose main plank of their political platform is to tear the PM into smithereens to support his course of action. It is ironical that in their populist formula they conveniently forget the President`s inaction in the fight against graft. It is time that they told the public why they are obsessed with directing the flak at the PM yet the President`s silence on corruption has been loud enough to be heard in all the four corners of this country!

They seem to conveniently forget that under the National Accord and Reconciliation Act 2008, the ultimate political responsibility rests with the two principals. They have the power to dismiss any errant public officials below them. The public therefore expects these politicians to unflinchingly support the two principals in the coalition government in the fight against graft.

TOME FRANCIS,
BUMULA.
http://twitter.com/tomefrancis