By Obinna Edeh ©
There is a growing pattern with
Nigeria’s anti corruption war. It is the fact that noise follows action. In
other words, the mode of fighting corruption in Nigeria is that, even before a
petition is investigated, the infraction is leaked to the media. Thereafter, a
lot of sensation builds up in the social and electronic media across the
nation. The people gather in newspaper stands to debate on the issues and
criticize the government. The electronic media runs an interview session on the
subject for almost several weeks. In this time, they invite almost all the
social critics they can reach without inviting the critical persons whose duty
it is to respond to such allegations.
On the other hand, the spokespersons
of the government would invade every available media to extricate their bosses
and justify the silence of the state. Such pattern continues for weeks (and
sometimes) for months across these media until silence returns; Nigerians move
on, the government moves on and corruption smiles home.
Noticeably, in all of
these, no serious investigation is commenced because the anti corruption
agencies would be waiting for a petition to be formally filed or to be
instructed by the Attorney General’s office.
There are also the diversionary
tactics employed by the state to take attention away from cases where state officials
place an umbrella on corrupt officials. One wonders the ‘coincidence’ of
sacking the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the Director
General of the National Intelligence Agency at the time when Nigerians are
fuming on the recall of the former Pension reform chief, Abdulrasheed
Maina. To many, this is yet another
attempt by the state to create another noise, and thus fizzle out the usual
noise that attended the recall of Maina.
Nigerians are already tired of
the noise from the from the corruption war. They need visible and verifiable action from their leaders on the
issue of anti corruption. The president’s advisers on anti corruption should be
found less in the media and more in the investigation rooms. The anti
corruption war can be won quietly without the current attempts to place the
noise before the action.
The media should be more
perceptive in their reportage of such news. Evidently, it is Nigeria’s print
and electronic media that leads the way in noise making. However, we suggest
that facts should replace noise and patriotism should be placed above patronage.
The entire anti corruption war seems like a vestige of so much motion without
movement. But we can only move silently, when we conclude all the
investigations first before coming out with the noise. The story of the arrest
of some alleged corrupt judges made headlines across all known media in
Nigeria. Yet, right now, many months after, most of the judges have been
acquitted or prosecution is on a snail-speed. The fight against corruption
would be eclipsed when Nigerians realize that it is only about the noise and
nothing more. We should place action before noise!
Obinna Edeh is a Lawyer and Research Consultant with interest in the Economics of Governance, Medical Rights and Divinity. You can follow him on Facebook and twitter @obilexie
Comments
Post a Comment