An Ailing Entity

A few hours ago, President Pal Schmitt of Hungary, resigned his post as the top citizen of his nation. He cited the recent stripping off of his doctorate degree on the grounds of plagiarism as the reason for his decision. Plagiarism i understand means the act of presenting a piece of writing copied from someone else as your own. To the 69 year old one time Olympic gold winning President, this was grave enough an indictment to leave office for. He copied someone's work and submitted it to earn a doctorate degree. Dishonest! Deceitful! Shameful!

I read the story and re-read it again. He copied someone's writing, earned a degree and now he has resigned as President. Criminal!

Enter Mr Christian Wulff, the former President of Germany who resigned in February 2012. He was another blatant criminal. I will tell you his offence. He took a loan from his millionaire friend in 2008 to buy a house and at some point he was asked about the transaction and he denied it. He lied! Dishonest! Deceitful! Shameful!

Mr Wulff, did not however steal the money, he only borrowed money from his friend who was a millionaire. Again, i read and re-read his story. He wanted a house, he had a millionaire friend who could lend him the money and he, for whatever reason, lied about collecting such a loan and now he has resigned as President. Criminal!

On August 8 1974, President Richard Nixon read out a resignation speech to the American people. His crime? I could not lay my hands on any. He realised he had lost the political support and the confidence of the American people. He didn't plagiarize or lend money from a willing millionaire friend. He just appreciated the fact that he was not satisfying the folks who had democratically brought him to power. Shameful!

Integrity is defined simply as moral soundness. To me the common crime committed by these three men was 'integrity'. Albert Einstein said 'Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters, cannot be trusted  with important matters'. Even the Bible infers something similar about he who is dishonest with small things cannot be trusted and is likely to be dishonest with the big things.

Let us do a small mental exercise and swap the principal actors in the three above-stated scenarios with our good old Nigerians. I'm guessing you chuckled just as i did.

Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, a serving Nigerian Senator representing Borno South was arrested some months back on allegations of dirty dancing with the now dreaded Boko Haram sect. He is not a man new to the Legislative arm of government having served as a Member of Parliament for 8years from 2003 to 2011. While in detention, Senator Ndume allegedly pointed fingers at the current Vice President. He claims Mr VP is in the know of his romance with the terrorist organisation. To me, this sounds like a confession, the man just  admitted a few people know of his sin. It is like a man accused of stealing a goat and he says 'Haba,even Baba Iyabo saw me walking down the road with the missing goat'. Yet, we are still investigating and the man is still a sitting legislator who formulates laws for sane people. He still earns his 'jumbo pay' and full perks of office. Even our number 2 citizen still bounces around town living large, that he has been named as a conspirator does not bother any of the sane 160 million people he 'leads'.

In September 2007, a seasoned hairdresser in the person of the then Speaker, Mrs Patricia Etteh, was accused of misappropriating $5m in the infamous furniture allowance scandal. Till date, Mrs Etteh remains a sitting 'lawmaker'. More than four years later, she remains a 'distinguished' Member of the Nigerian Parliament.Senator Iyiola Omisore, was docked for allegedly partaking in the murder of Chief Bola Ige, he did not only win elections from the jail cell, he also served as a Senator till 2009 when an election tribunal annulled his election. Integrity did not prevail on either to vacate office honorably.

Most recently, Mr Herman Hembe and the delectably elegant Ms Arunma Oteh gave us the best of Nollywood's show of shame by publicly trading corruption allegations. Though Brother Hembe resigned as the Chairman of that committee, he remains a serving 'lawmaker'. There are several others, at all levels of government and at the 3 tiers of government.

Nigerian office holders are remarkably shameless and are entirely devoid of any iota of integrity. What's the big deal in soiling a name they will ask you. As long as the credit alerts keep flying in and the jumbo pay remains untouched. It saddens me that Caucasians will leave public office at the slightest perception of wrongdoing while ours remain there even after indictment. I often ask my friends if the same God created these white folks and Nigerians. It beats my imagination that we remain recalcitrant and refractory in our shamelessness.

A popular dog trainer once said 'I believe in integrity, dogs have it...human beings sometimes lack it'. Maybe its time we learnt from the dogs and the few good men like Chinua Achebe.