Ugo Aliogo
Eminent U.S – based Lawyer and politician, Chief Owolabi Salis,has advised president Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the need to brace up with every available weapon at his disposal to tackle what he described as the festering sore of corruption, ravaging the fabric of the nation’s economy.
He explained that the greatest problem which had devastated the nation right from independence,and had brought the general mass of the people, especially the poor,to the unmitigated squalor,misery and poverty is the excruciating scale of incessant looting and colossal stealing of the nation’s Commonwealth.
Dali’s said: “Corruption as at today, had ballooned to a notoriously hydra-headed monster,which can only be engaged with a devastating iron fist,rather than mere kid gloves.
‘’Corruption as we have it particularly at this present times,is not just a softie that you trifle with,you need to fight it dirty and silly.”
“For many years,Ghana wallowed in terrible economic crisis,not because there were no qualified technocrats to manage the economy but simply because of endemic systemic large-scale corruption persistently prevalent at that time.
‘’It wasn’t until Jerry Rawlings got there and gave Corruption a good fight,that Ghana began to change for the better.” “Citing the case of the late Chief Obaseki Awolowo,Salis said he wouldn’t have been able to provide,free compulsory education,in the old Western Region,which other regions couldn’t provide,if his government was corrupt,neither would it have been possible for his party the UPN,to implement the free education program in the states controlled by them if corruption had been predominant.
Moreover Awo as Minister of Finance,was able to manage the war-time economy without borrowing a Kobo from external sources,because corruption was at most very minimal at that period”
According to him,this should be a big lesson to the ruling government, that no matter the expertise of your team members,you will only be labouring in vain if you don’t give the demon of corruption a good fight.And this is also the reason why no matter how much the government borrows from external sources,no matter the billions or trillions,be it in dollars or whatever,it will ultimately amount in futility,in the face of the rapacious Hawks in government,eagerly waiting to grab as much as they could into their private vault.”
“This is why in our own clime here in Nigeria,news of public appointments are always received with wild joy and celebrations,not as an opportunity to go and serve,but rather as a ticket to go ahead and loot the treasury clean and empty,unlike the civilised climes of Europe and America, where such appointments are received as a patriotic call to service”Salis said.
“If in the past,such dangerous malaise could be tolerated,such tolerance would certainly not hold in these present times when these potentially great nation should be in a hurry to catch up with the increasing pace of modernity”
He remarked that “the huge mass of corruption which had transpired over the successive past administrations were so staggering that they burst at the seams.What we are seeing is just a tip of the iceberg.
Seeing a fractional picture of it,not even the full picture,will make you collapse or faint .This is why it becomes urgently imperative to brace up in giving corruption a good fight,so that those who think they could steal with impunity,and go Scot free with their loot, will think twice.” “While it is true that corruption had been the bane ofnational progress,what is however new and gives cause for serious concern is the astronomical dimension at which corruption continues to ravage the nation to the extent that today, corruption holds the nation’s existence on the jugular.
Any patriotic Nigerian who loves this country,should be shedding tears by now,seeing how the vision of the founding fathers of this great nation is fast receding to sheer empty dream”,the learned legal luminary remarked on a mournful note
