Have you been following the recent wrestling match between Gov Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State and some young people in the State whose love and worship of money have very badly polluted the values or their State? I completely support Gov. Soludo. If we continue to legitimise the making and open spending of money not backed by any legitimate work or toil, we would have built the future of our next generation on quick sand.
It is not only in Anambra State that intellect and hard work have become vulnerable. All over Nigeria, people no longer have any respect for knowledge or industry. The sum total of life now appears to be how much money you have made and how much money you can spray in public. It does not seem to matter anymore how you made the money. I challenge other governors across Nigeria to join Gov. Soludo to rid our country of this quick-money madness. If we do not address it, I am sorry that we can never build a nation.
In my line of work, I am frequently in courts across Nigeria. For instance, in the past one week, I was at the Federal High Court in Benin City. Next day, I was at the Federal High Court in Lagos. At the beginning of the week, I had a matter at the Court of Appeal, Lagos and in the last three days, I have repeatedly been on the witness stand at the Federal High Court, Owerri.
Not long ago, I followed cases at the Federal High Court, Lagos. In one court, I continually listened to cases of Nigerians owing dizzying billions of Naira which they can never pay back in their lifetime and the lifetimes of their children and grand-children. Lawyers to the Assets Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) and judges are having a harrowing time dealing with the endless games of the purveyors of the ubiquitous non-performing loans in our financial institutions, which are dragging our economy down-down-down. You suddenly realise that much of the outrageous mansions in Banana Island and Maitama and the fancy private jets parked at our airports, have been acquired not by hard work but by borrowed money that was never intended to be re-paid. You must ask yourself: How can our country make progress like this?
In another court, I witnessed first hand, the ongoing huge national scam in which banks use every pretext and legal maneuver to freeze their customer’s accounts, hold on to their customers’ funds at no interest, sometimes for lengthy periods until the money loses real value, other times, in perpetuity, without any court order. It has become a national epidemic and scandal. Sadly, billions of Naira in innocent customers’ funds have been so wickedly appropriated by bank officials in Nigeria. While senior officials of banks live like kings and princes, their customers face liquidation or die in penury. This is a scam of the worst kind
In Nigeria, many widows walk in dismay, from pillar to post, trying to access money thought to have been saved by their deceased husbands in banks. Do you remember when if any of us wanted to say that something is safe and secure, we said, “It is like money in the bank”? Sadly, not anymore.
As a people, we love the word, ‘peace’. Our false understanding of peace is that you do not question falsehood, injustice, impunity, corruption or lawlessness. You close your eyes and live with them. We hide behind “peace” to promote evil and degradation.
I refuse to hide behind this false “peace”. I go to court to seek justice. I take the time, provide the evidence, get a court judgment and enforce it and set a precedent. I do not do it because I am cantankerous or quarrelsome. I do it because it is the most peaceful and civilized way to ensure that the weak does not dissolve under the pressure of the wicked. If there were no courts, what would be the alternative? Machetes? Cutlasses? Short guns? Juju men?
In my several years serving people in the creative industry, I have met good people. I have also met all kinds of crazy and wicked creatures. There are those who are totally consumed by their love of money. Their only measure of success is how much of the small pieces of paper anyone has packed at the expense of others. To them, the other name for God is money.
I know a guy who begins to tremble and shake at the sight of any significant amount of cash. Believe me, this guy was not born poor, yet money has become his God. When my guy sights money, he becomes an animal. You may not believe it but my guy is convinced that once you see any measure of money, you have a duty to appropriate it regardless of who owns it. To him, any money that comes within your sight is yours and whatever you do to grab it is ok.
Such people believe that everybody is a thief and that if they steal, they have done nothing wrong. In their minds, how can anyone be in control of any significant amount of money and not grab it. To them, the selflessness of Mother Theresa is a fable, the sacrifice of Martin Luther King is stupid and the 27 years that Nelson Mandela spent in prison is nonsense. After all, how much money did any of the purported sacrifice bring? To these people, if you do not worship money, you are either a fraud or a fool.
How can there be progress when there is this much free-for-all burglary going on in the land? Too many liars, 419ers, hijackers, kidnappers, armed and pen robbers, and many who think that the world was created just for them and them alone. Today, our country is sadly filled with many people walking around with only their body but no soul. They will kill you for nothing or take everything that belongs to everyone. They believe that they have a right to oppress everyone, and God does not exist except for them. How exactly can there be progress without justice? How did money so become our God?
See you next week.
