The lies that many of us tell can make the grandmaster of lies, Lai Mohammed to look like an amateur. Many will be found wanting if there is a technique to accurately determine their age. If certificates are properly re-certified by the academic institutions, people claim they attended, Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s certificate scandal will be a child’s play. If INEC can transparently scrutinize electoral candidate’s academic claims Buhari and a great percentage of Nigerian politicians will be disqualified. If the Nigerian Medical Association does a routine check of medical practitioners in Nigeria, they will discover that many providing medical services have not seen the four walls of any medical institution. There are countless number of individuals with driver’s licenses who cannot pass a driving test. If EFCC were to be effective, many bank managers will be in jail. The list goes on and on. These occurrence makes Akinwunmi Adesina’s re-election as the president of the African Development Bank, very commendable. Putting into consideration that the United States with all the technology and oversight to thoroughly investigate any officeholders, still came out clean with what almost amounted to a gang-up and witch-hunt. Towncryyers salute his incorruptibility, a rare feat for a Nigerian political appointee – past and present. We pray for greater responsibilities including the Nigerian presidency in the future if Nigeria remains one during or after this present administration that has elevated corrupt practices to new and unimaginable heights within the last 5 years.

Akinwunmi’s probe and scrutiny bring to mind the present call for a probe by Reno Omokri of Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT). His call is centered around the alleged money conveyed in bullion vans on the eve of the 2019 presidential election. Many Yorubas and Nigeria know BAT will not survive even a motor park probe if it is done independently and transparently. It has been alleged on many accounts that BAT is the landlord of Lagos State and he gets returns from all sorts of streams ranging from daily takings from the adult street urchins that control the motor parks to the tax returns by corporate bodies in Lagos State. Rotimi Amaechi, the minister of transportation recently raised alarm about the harms of probing Chinese loans that have historically indebted nations and allowed the Chinese to take control of key national assets and infrastructure that compromised the sovereignty of these nations. This has happened in corruption-prone countries in Asia, Africa, and the Americas that lack checks and balances in their dealing with foreign nations. The recent revelation that the Chinese government will build for free Buhari’s Transportation University in his hometown is one of the most incontestable evidence of corruption that is a clear bribe from the Chinese government to get their trap-filled loan to be passed quickly by the Nigerian Senate that fully aligns with the whims and caprices of Buhari and his corrupt lieutenants like Amaechi, Fashola and Lai Mohammed.

But it is easy to point one finger at others when the 3 other fingers in our hand are also pointing to us. The new Nigeria we desire will continue to be a mirage if we do not purge ourselves of corruption personally. Our retrogression will continue if we continue to elect and select our kinsmen into public offices just because they are from our tribe or religion regardless of their corrupt antecedence. It is this collective personal flaw of us all that has helped to make someone like Yemi Osinbajo and Alex Ekwueme be a vice president to those who they are more qualified than. It is this flaw that also caused the criminal silence from elders of the Niger Delta concerning the corruption going on in the NDDC. When Yorubas are clamoring for Tinubu to be the next president, and some northerners are mentioning Atiku in a Nigeria where you have individuals like Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Akinwunmi Adesina among other clean professionals who have both public, private and international experience, you know our redemption might be far. Notwithstanding, I believe we shall overcome. But this is not going to happen by positive confession. It is going to happen by us probing ourselves and subsequently purging ourselves individually to build a nation that does not elect or select public holders by tribe but by their competence and the content of their character.

Ata Ukuta, Editor – www.towncryyers.com