By Donu Kogbara
I recently watched a thrilling American TV drama in which well-connected Police and government officials were arrested for taking bribes to protect a criminal.

OK, so it was a purely fictional scenario. But it IS possible, in the Western World, for influential miscreants to be punished for the RIGHT reasons.

Will Nigeria ever become the kind of place in which one can go to jail for misbehaving, even if one is a big-shot or a close crony of a big shot? Or will we forever only hassle criminals (or innocents) who have annoyed big shots?!

Readers responses to National Conference, Akhigbe

Last week, I said that I didn’t regard a National Conference as necessary…and was convinced that all of Nigeria’s problems would be solved if we simply compelled our leaders to do their jobs efficiently and honestly.

I also praised Vice Admiral Mike Akhigbe, who had just passed away; and I fondly reminisced about once spending a very pleasant evening with him and his wife.

Many readers responded. Here are some of the reactions I got.

From Ifeka Okonkwo of Anambra State ([email protected]).

I have not, since the l970s, shed any tears over the premature deaths of government officials…because I blame them for impoverishing our country by looting it blind; and I laugh about the fact that their ill-gotten wealth didn’t enable them to live up to the ripe age of 102, like my step-mother – who died in August this year without being ravaged by illness and with her senses intact!

It beats my imagination why these looters of our common patrimony are so greedy and selfish; and I wonder whether they will take the stupendous and obscene wealth that they have accumulated to the Great Beyond when they die!  

I cannot condone the outrageous benefits our politicians enjoy. Their salaries, allowances and corrupt practices are gradually dragging Nigeria into bankruptcy. And I will only support a National Conference that will fashion out a system of government that is less expensive and more focussed on the developmental needs of our country and the welfare of its citizenry.

Because we are a docile and ethnically divided people, we cannot forge a united front to enact an Arab-type Spring in our country. And our politicians will continue to urinate on our heads and God will not come down from heaven to help us, if we do not bestir ourselves, wake up from our deep slumber and say that enough is enough. But who will bail the cat? That is the big question!

From: [email protected]   

I disagree with your statement that the country will be poorer without Mike Akhigbe’s “thoughtful and genial” presence. I want to ask what his presence contributed during the June 12 crisis. He was a member of the junta that acquiesced to the annulment of the election that MKO Abiola won.

You eulogize Akhigbe simply because he once invited you to dinner…and say that he was a compassionate liberal [because he opposed the death penalty] and devout Catholic. But he did not abhor injustice and benefitted immensely from the spoils that were shared out to…[junta members] perpetrated evil.  

 From Abulu (+2348128958605)

You have not impressed me. Ken Saro Wiwa would have stoned you for saying that the National Conference is not important! What is wrong about talking and addressing revenue allocation issues, gender issues and other concerns?

Why must the South-South give 95 per cent while others bring nothing? Is this not enough reason for a National Conference? Why the violence by Boko Haram?

Continue in your ignorance!

 From +2348035661463 (Anonymous)

You don’t support the National Conference. You think it will achieve nothing. And yet, there are Nigerians who don’t believe in resource control, Nigerians who feel that it is their birthright to lord it over this country and Nigerians who are bent on establishing one type of religion from the desert to the ocean.

You don’t belong to this part of the world. You’d better go back to Britain and leave us alone to sort out the reasons why we should continue to remain one, rather than tearing the country into shreds…and the reasons why we should strive to have strong states and a loose centre.

My Dear Donu, you may not see why we should jaw-jaw but should jolly well let those of us who DO see the need go ahead, l think that you are too comfortable to know what is at stake. Sometimes, women don’t know where the shoe pinches the wearer.

From +2348052921805 (Anonymous)…in response to my claim that Dr Goodluck Jonathan is not nasty enough to send soldiers to mow down people who choose to protest – in a public, placard-carrying way – about governmental inadequacies.

My Sis Donu, regarding your comments about the National Conference: I am 100 per cent in agreement, except that I don’t agree that the President will not send soldiers after us if we make trouble. He is capable of doing so. Do not try him!