Icheoku has been following the 10billion Naira loan saga of former Speaker Oladimeji Bankole or "Bank-thief"; and one thing has stood out from it - that Nigerians are mostly criminals waiting for time and opportunity to present itself before dipping their hands and itchy-fingers in that pot of gold.
Surprisingly Nigerians always pass the buck by blaming their leaders or the next person for what has gone wrong with the country; but they failed to realize that these leaders do not come from Mars but are products of the society called Nigeria. This seem to suggest that it is a faulty system which produces these swines that is to blame and not the swines themselves. They looked at historical records and nothing was done to their predecessors, for their crimes against the purse; so they said why not help themselves with the people's coffers since nothing would also happen to them for following in the footsteps of their predecessors in office.
Imagine the young and ebullient Dimeji who have endeared himself in the hearts of millions as that youthful , single, bachelor-boy speaker of Nigerian House of Representatives, the becon of hope for millions of youth and here he is, caught in the jar - a petty crook using his office to swindle Nigerian tax-payers of billions of their hard currency as whatever allowance which never made any sense. Icheoku says if Bankole with his youthfulness and cool demeanor could descend so low to do this, imagine the decay in that society called Nigeria and who else could thereafter be trusted to do the peoples job without dipping their filthy hands in the peoples collective pie? Is there any hope still left for a country where the majority if not all, are just bidding their time for the right opportunity to present itself for them to "gbuo- ozu" (kill dead body a local parlance for making it filthy rich overnight).
Imagine the young and ebullient Dimeji who have endeared himself in the hearts of millions as that youthful , single, bachelor-boy speaker of Nigerian House of Representatives, the becon of hope for millions of youth and here he is, caught in the jar - a petty crook using his office to swindle Nigerian tax-payers of billions of their hard currency as whatever allowance which never made any sense. Icheoku says if Bankole with his youthfulness and cool demeanor could descend so low to do this, imagine the decay in that society called Nigeria and who else could thereafter be trusted to do the peoples job without dipping their filthy hands in the peoples collective pie? Is there any hope still left for a country where the majority if not all, are just bidding their time for the right opportunity to present itself for them to "gbuo- ozu" (kill dead body a local parlance for making it filthy rich overnight).
Icheoku has no particular beef with anyone over the matter under advisement but is there any hope left when the old failed and the youth now being tried as exemplified in the bachelor 39 year former speaker has now equally failed to live up to expectation and abysmally too? Imagine a young man of thirty nine years, single and childless, who collects $1million dollars every three months to freely use as he pleases; still craves for some more like Oliver Twist and this is in a country where millions of starving unemployed youths are roaming the streets daily in search of a non existent and unavailable jobs. And then you have six principal officers of the House of Representatives collecting $4.56million dollars every three months free money and you now truly understand why the do or die brand of primitive politics is headquartered in Nigeria.
Anyway the arrest of "Bank-Olee" by EFCC is a step in the right direction; admitted nothing much would come out of it as pressure will be mounted on the EFCC to drop the charges or better still provide the bank-thief with a soft landing; but at least the former speaker was led out of his home by the men of EFCC and with the world's eye trailed on the exercise. As is usually the case with corrupt PDP chieftains, who always get away with all manners of crime with impunity, former speaker "Bank-Thief" will soon smell the air of his freedom. However, at the rate these politicians are milking Nigeria's purse, soon and very soon, an already hopeless situation will be made desperate, except that Nigerians are too complacent and unreasonably too hopeful for the future to risk what it takes to usher in an Arab-Spring styled revolution in Nigeria. But the bad news is that such an uprising will not help matters get better because it is not caused by just one person such as Mr Oladimeji Bank-Olee, but by an entire society which thrives on such opportunistic thievery. If not Bank-Olee, it is Vincent Ogbulafor; if not him it is Aminu and the vicious circle goes on round and round.
Be that as it may, Icheoku as with the rest of the world will be watching to see how far the prosecution of the former speaker will go, but we are not hopeful of a full gestation culminating to a conviction and possible jail-time because of the usual Nigerian factor. Nigeria has a problem and that problem is not the leadership but the society itself that breeds such people as make up such horrible leadership such as the Oladimeji Bankole example. It is pitiful and it is regrettable that the former speaker who represented transparency by replacing his ousted predecessor Patricia Etteh, who suddenly have now been exonerated of her alleged complicity in some corruption scandal which brought her down; himself also descended into such dubious practices. This is the first time in the history of the world and democracy that a House of Representatives took out a loan to share among themselves, give to themselves staggering amounts in allowances? If this is not 419 on Nigerians by a 419 House of Representatives led by a 419 speaker and officers, then nothing so qualifies. Now, when would the recently signed into law Freedom of Information law come into effect so that Nigerians could look into other Oladimeji Bank-Olees of the Nigerian PDP government.
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Christy 'Apena' Essien-Igbokwe , the wife of Jegede Shokoya of the New Masquerade and Nigeria's lady of songs is dead; she was 51years old. Although her family claimed that "brief Illness" killed her like so many Nigerians; Icheoku retorts that it was most likely AKwa Ibom voodoo and remote control that was used to arrest her. It is on record that she had fallen out with the governor of her native Akwa Ibiom State and have been having a relentless war for political turf with the governor? So who knows whether she was sacrificed to Ekpe cult or even Alusi-Okija as an offal; afterall African science is still very much alive and portent. May her soul rest in peace.
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