By Ebele Orakpo

The hydra-headed monster called corruption, the bane of Nigeria’s development, was the topic of discussion by commuters in the Ikoyi-bound commuter bus popularly called Danfo this Monday morning.

An elderly passenger, Mr. Adeniyi, kick-started the discussion when he saw a very large rat running across the road into a nearby kiosk, apparently in pursuit of its daily bread. “If this one enters a rich man’s room, the man will go and sleep in a hotel for at least two weeks because he will say his enemies are after him.”

“As far as I am concerned, he is his own enemy. The poor rat is probably looking for food to eat. God made life so simple but man, especially the Nigerian variety, has complicated issues so that although we are richly blessed in both human and material resources, yet, majority of the people are poor due to what I choose to call greediness of our leaders and Nigerians generally,” stated another commuter by name, Obi.

Noted Agnes: “Jesus taught his disciples to pray thus: ‘Give us this day, our daily bread.’ but what do we do today? We amass wealth for ourselves and generations yet unborn, meanwhile, millions around us, co-owners of the commonwealth, are wallowing in abject poverty.

It is absolute madness! Yet, we have accepted it as our lot due to our complacent attitude and we are branded the happiest people on earth! How can a few people steal our money and live big while majority are deprived of the basic necessities?

Many lives have been rendered useless and we go about behaving as if everything is all right, hiding under the cloak of religion with the annoying cliché – ‘Oh, that’s how God wants it.’ This attitude churns my stomach because it gives the thieves the guts to continue,” said Iyke, anger written all over his face.

“This looting did not start today,” said Yemi. Continuing, he said: “During the days of Chief Festus Okotie Eboh, former Finance Minister in the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa administration, I heard that he was so flamboyant that the cloth he used to wrap around himself was about 36 yards long.

When the coupists were trying to kill him, bullets could not penetrate his body so they tied him with his cloth, tied one end to a jeep and the other end to another jeep and drove the vehicles in opposite directions until he died. I also heard that Chief Samuel Akintola changed from man to different animals to avoid being killed but was eventually killed.”

“Ha! Africa Magic! Old wives tales!” exclaimed Joan. “Radio without station, go on.”

“Old wives tales or not, there is a lesson to be learnt in all of this. Nobody lives forever and when you die, you are taking nothing with you. Abacha looted so much but where is he today? Farouk Lawan, Dimeji Bankole, small boys of yesterday, were accused of stealing a lot of money and have not known peace,” commented Adeniyi.

Said Joan: “God gave us an example in the Bible. In the wilderness, the Israelites were told to gather enough manna for each person per day. Nobody must gather more than he could eat. Some greedy ones amongst them gathered over and above their needs just in case the manna refuses to fall the following day. Lo and behold, it was an effort in futility as whatever remained went bad by morning. There is enough for everyone in this country to live comfortably but greed will not allow us.”

“Honestly, I think the only solution to this madness is death penalty for corrupt leaders. I tell you, they are as guilty as murderers because they have indirectly murdered so many people. When you deny a fellow human being food, shelter, clothing, education, etc., what is worse than that? Some people have committed suicide out of frustration,” said Obi.

“Right on point my brother,” stated Lucky.