Nigeria Is Fantastically Corrupt: British Prime Minister

By Usman Mohammed

In an informal session before the Queen celebrating her 90th Birthday, David Cameron, The British Prime Minister voiced his personal opinion before her about corruption in Nigeria. "Leaders of some Fantastically corrupt countries like Nigeria and Afghanistan will be coming for my Anti-corruption summit next week. Nigeria and Afghanistan are two of the most corrupt countries in the world.

The current President will be here although he is not corrupt and is trying very hard to fight corruption." Once again the ghost of endemic corruption that has haunted the Nigerian nation for eons without end has been resurrected in this gaffe by the Prime Minister. But truly who can blame him.

Nigeria has become so fantastically corrupt that we have all become desensitized to the horrendous figures being peddled as amounts looted from the nation in the last 10 years. This diabolical wave of corruption seemed to have assumed new unseen levels under the last administration.

For how long will Nigeria remain the butt of jokes amongst world leaders? For how long will our courts shield the corrupt elite? For how long will we be worshiping criminal hero's who have looted the commonwealth with reckless abandon, instead of throwing tyres and Molotov Cocktails around their necks?

For how long will we continue to read tales of satanic looting on the front pages of our dailies while no one is ever convicted? And when we hear tales of Judges collecting "Burial Allowance" from highly paid SANs to procure favourable judgments one wonders if Nigeria is not the most Fantastically corrupt Nigeria on earth. Although the British Prime Minister is making jokes about Nigeria he too needs to do the needful.

Seizure of assets of Nigerians who corruptly hide their illicit loot in European safe havens is a must. Indeed James Ibori who ran the most convoluted money laundering scheme ever uncovered in the history of the UK hence earning him a nickname created by the London Met "The King of Corruption". It is a testament to the British doggedness to have imprisoned this Corruption Czar.

However, the British must realized that they have in their possession the Czarina of Corruption and pretending cancer victim, Diezani Allison in their custody. By the time the skeletons in this woman's cupboard are uncovered all the cementaries in the UK will not be able to contain them. Corruption has become so endemic in the Nigerian context that honesty is now seen as abnormal.

Nigeria is a country where Generals can divert billions of dollars meant to buy arms for their troops fighting a deadly insurgency towards buying palatial homes for their spoiled children who greedily have the nerve to reject such mansions one after another all because their father was sitting on top of a pile of ill gotten wealth or where workers salaries obtained via a magnanimous Federal Government Bailout is diverted into the private pockets of State Government aides without fire being lit within these premises in violent protest says a lot that no one is bother and actually applaud the government for doing such while awaiting their turn to climb the ladder that leads to the National cake. Nigeria is indeed Fantastically corrupt but what are we all going to do about this remains to be unseen.

Usman Mohammed,
Department of Mass Communication,
IBB University, Lapai-Niger State. 07060815443

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