BY CLEMENT UDEGBE
IN Nigeria, we cannot say that we are a bad people or corrupt people because we all greeted the government of Generals Muhammadu Buhari and Tunde Idiagbon in the late 1980s. Nigerians started queuing up for things and waiting for their turn.

There was respect for the other person’s time and space, but they were toppled in a military coup, and since that time, our slide into corruption has not stopped. We saw an ‘arrangee and settlement system’, to the extent that one of the political leaders at that time said his party slogan was “you- chop, I-chop”. Some persons even applied to register the “Chop-I-Chop” Party.

That was in the 1980s, but unfortunately many of our leaders today still operate the principle of ‘You-Chop-I-Chop’, with very few thinking about how to move the nation forward. The “Chop-I-Chop” mentality that has bred so much corruption in the system that many leaders can no longer see the difference between what is good and correct, and what is needed to grow the society.

It is the amount of money in their pockets that count, whether the society is grilling, boiling or disintegrating. Our youths have been pulled into the loop of Chop-I-Chop, and it is their quest for their own portion of the ‘chop’, that accounts for the unabating restiveness in the Niger Delta region, the kidnapping in the South East, Boko Haram in the North East, and now the AK47-carrying herdsmen in the Middle Belt of Nigeria.

Today, children of many well-to-do Nigerians have started arranging their own kidnaps and abductions just to grab their own portion of the ‘chop’.

It is corruption in the system that has made it very difficult for most high profile killings to be resolved. Only last month, the son of the late Chief Bola Ige announced that their family has left the matter of their father’s gruesome murder in the hands of God. God shall surely avenge his father’s untimely death, and that of numerous others.

The challenge of Boko Haram grew because people will not volunteer information to the Police. If any did, they would divulge his details to the suspects, and he becomes a target for elimination. In the early 1980s Nigerians would stop to help accident victims to hospitals, but not these days, because upon arriving the hospital, the helper is required to leave his details, and later police will come for him, drill him, harass him, ask for transport money, etc. The result is that today, Nigerians don’t want to help because of the corruption in the system. Who wants to suffer for helping?

Write a petition for any wrong action against you to the Police, the suspect is invited or arrested and first given your petition to read and then reply. But this should not be in every case. The matter should be investigated first, the facts in the petition should be confirmed before the suspect is invited so that he will just nail himself further more with his story.

The rush for quick arrests in order to bargain both ways is corruption and that’s why they don’t travel much these days. If you are not careful, a rich suspect will turn your case against you; the culprit goes free while you are arraigned and subjected to rigors of our court system. The criminals know these, thus, they steal your money, and if you dare to go to the police, they use your money and turn your case against you!

The magistrates do not help matters with their urge to commit any to prison, thereby making our courts most unfriendly. You hear many Nigerians boast of not having anything to do with the Police or the courts, and if people are so afraid of going to court, how do they get justice? It is the duty of all to make the courts people friendly.

People are jailed for years for stealing one telephone hand set,  a goat and so on, while those who stole millions from our common wealth, sponsor demonstrations and newspaper adverts to  subvert investigation and likely prosecution. They kill the matter with their corrupt friends and before you know it, they ask you to vote for them as your next leader!

The result is that today, we have law makers who claim to be university graduates but have no class mates. When corruption legislates against corruption how far can you go!
When buildings collapse, many unsuspecting users are killed and maimed, and we lament. The media will carry admonitions by leaders, while those who approved the building plans and supervised the construction go scot free.

They tell us that our problem is oil theft. They organise seminars, put money in their pockets, talk and make rehearsed television comments and interviews, and that is it. But they know who the oil thieves are. How can oil be stolen when we have all the Navy, Army, SSS, and NSCDC running after the oil thief? How can oil pipe vandalisation continue when there are technologies that detect any violent attack on the pipes via sensors?

Why can’t cameras be put in the place to catch the thieves or deter them? What will happen if plain clothes detectives are sent into the region to fish out the oil thieves? Can we in all honesty fight or stop insecurity in our regions, if we cannot catch the simple oil thief?

With all the money sunk and still being sunk into the power sector, the national electric power production continues to plummet, while demand continues to rise. Electric power has become a luxury in Nigeria to the extent that some state governments now collect tax from generator owners! Should Nigerians not be paid subsidy for electricity since our governments have failed to give us light?

Let them pay us for using generators, and the hazards of the killer fumes from the machines. Nigerians deserve electricity subsidy.

*Mr. Udegbe, a legal
practitioner, wrote from Lagos.