By Felicia Fredrick
It is sad how cases of misappropriation of public funds have been handled by the Nigerian government over the years.
Corruption, which has become a normal phenomenon in the country, is a force to reckon with by the public, the EFCC body which has refused to actions against the government officials that steal our money, they rather chase small Yahoo boys on the street, to justify their colleagues holding powerful seats in the country.
This is a recent case of the Minister of Aviation to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Hadi Sirika, who in his exhibition, has thrown the entire country in shock with his numerous lined up houses in Kastina.
The Minister of Aviation has allegedly amassed so much funds from the nation’s wealth that he built for himself an entire city. The Minister, who was also the former DSP in the Police Airwing in Ikeja, was said to have maintained a moderate lifestyle before he became the Minister. It is justifiable that excess power can lead to misconduct and ugly behavior from the possessor.
However, the Nigeria government seemed to have channeled their energy into minute cases like Yahoo boys and ignored burning ones. They keep chasing the Yahoo boys whereas men syphoning the nation are left unattended to.
Someone would ask what my fascination is about the level of Justice and its application in Nigeria. And I will rightly say it’s more favourable to the elite than the less privileged. This is Nigeria where the less privileged suffer most of the times for the crimes they commit and the elite go scot free.
A case of the Accountant General of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Idris Ahmed, whom a whooping sum of 30 billion was recoverered from his custody was said to have been under prosecution for time now. Till when?
No wonder Donald Trump described the country as a “Shithole”. Anything can happen or be overlooked in a “Shithole.”
Nigeria is a country guided by constitution. Just the way murder is punishable by law so also is misappropriation of public funds. Or, is there a guiding rule that the elites should not be prosecuted when against the law?
However, President of the One Love Foundation, Chief (Dr.) Patrick Osagie Eholor(aka Ultimate Equals), the Father of Nigerian Students-FONS therefore call on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC), who are running after Yahoo boys, should go after the Aviation Minister and ensure what happened to the case of the Accountant General which was swept under the carpet doesn’t’t happen to this.
He said: “dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery. Politicians I hope the government is not going to sweep this under the carpet. I believe these senators will be honest with us with the probe. I am ready to follow this case to the end”
Judgement should be appropriated as God will not come from heaven to build the country.
John Kennedy, former American President, who reigned in 1961, made a speech that changed America “don’t ask for what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country” we are going to stand to take what belongs to us back from any thief.
Eholor said we are not going to get tired as a nation to call for justice over the politicians who have stolen money meant for the public. There is no difference between the Yahoo boys and the politicians which the EFCC has left to be chasing the street boys.
Eholor, who has called for the arrest of Hadi Sirika, that EFCC should at least do their job this time around: “In China, if any politician is being caught syphoning public fund, he would be treated as an animal, taken to the market place and kill him with the firing squad in order to discourage such in the society.
“The EFCC whose job is to sanitize the society by handling such cases the Hadi Sirika case is one of the cases to be treated seriously, a government official who decieves the whole of the country, taking money to buy airplane but instead went to rent the plane, write Nigeria on it for photo shoot and return to the owner, recently. The properties he built especially the new city he built for himself in his rural village in Katsina should be seized and he himself should be executed.”
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