Bribery and Corruption

ALHAJI LAWAN FAROUK, LAWMAKER and CHAIRMAN HOUSE COMMITTEE ON PETROLEUM SUBSIDY PROBE. Am going to write about the $3M Bribery scandal presently rocking the nation but have to reproduce this blog from one Ogunyemi Bukola. The blogger titled it 'The Gospel According To ‘Saint’ Farouk'. It makes an interestind reading. 1) And it came to pass after these things, on the first day of the first month of the twelfth year after the second millennium, that king Jona son of Bele announced to the people saying; there is no money left in the royal treasury, and the future of the kingdom is in great danger. 2) Therefore, a measure of oil shall no longer sell for three scores of silver and seven, but shall now be seven scores of silver and one. But the people grumbled aloud, and said one unto another, what shall it profit our king to gain all these oil money and lose his throne? 3) For it is appointed unto him to reign but once, and after this prison, for many are the atrocities which he has committed. 4) So they said unto the king, eat thou thy food in peace in the palace, and surround thou thyself with thine women, only touch not our oil price and do thy people no harm. 5) But the king would not listen, and said unto himself, I know my people, they shall only grumble for a while and soon they shall forget. 6) But the people would not forget, for the burden was too much for them to bear, and they said; now unto him that is able to increase the price of oil exceeding abundantly above all that his people can bear or think, according to the greed which worketh in him; 7) Unto him be curses in the streets by the masses throughout all ages, protests without end. So they took to the streets and gave the land no peace, and there was no going out or coming in throughout the kingdom for two weeks, and the king feared greatly and said to himself, surely these people shall overturn me if I answer them not. 9) So he called the head of the labourers unto the palace, and gave him bags of gold, that he mayest turn off the wrath of the people against the king. 10) So the king assembled the people and said unto them; a measure of oil shall no longer be seven scores of silver and one, but shall now be four scores of silver, one dozen and five, to this your leaders have agreed. Praise me now therefore for I am a benevolent king. 11) And after all these, the Loudspeaker of the House of People said, let us inquire into the king’s claim that there be no money in the royal treasury. So they appointed Farcrook, son of Lawal. ALHAJI AMINU TAMBUWAL, SPEAKER NIGERIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES (12) And said unto him, gather ye now all the oil sellers, that we may know who stole from the kingdom. This did he with diligence, and came back with his report saying, 13) Thieves abound in the land, and so have the oil sellers stole from the people, and gave them not oil, this they did with the help of Aliyaro the king’s mistress; and the amount he mentioned was unheard of in the land. 14) When the people heard this, they were dismayed, and sorrow gripped their hearts. 15) But the oil sellers went in unto the king in his chamber, and said; “rememberest thou not, O! king that what we stole we did make available to thy campaign, and by this did we make you king? 16) “If thou deliver us unto the people that they may punish us, we will hold not our tongue from telling the people that thou art one of us.” MR. FEMI OTEDOLA, CHAIRMAN ZENON OIL AND FORTIS PETROLEUM. (17) And they said unto him, “How else shall we destroy the message if not to destroy the messenger? Let us therefore implicate Farcrook the son of Lawal in this matter.” 18) So they sent a certain rich man from the West by the name Otedollar, and he took Farcrook into his house and gave him some money, that he may alter the report which he had set before the people. 19) And it was that Otedollar went before an assembly of the people and said unto them, “Trust ye this man who said we stole from the treasury? Surely he is one of us, for he came unto me in the middle of the night, and he left with his pockets full of money.” 20) And the people where amazed, and their hearts bled, for Farcrook was a man in whom they had put their trust. 21) So Farcrook arose, and said; “Otedollar is my briber, I did not request. He maketh me to sit down in his Maitama house; he leadeth me beside the chilled champagne. 22) “He exploited my greed; he leadeth me in the path of marked dollars for subsidy’s sake. 23) “Yea, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of EFCC, I will fear no arrest: for bribes are with me; my loots and my kickbacks they comfort me. 24) “Thou preparest the dollars before me, in the presence of the SSS: thou anointest my mouth with wine; my pocket runneth over. 25) “Surely the shame and reproach shall follow me all the days of my life, but I will dwell in the house of PDP forever and ever.” 26) And the people wept, but there was no one to console them. Ogunyemi Bukola

WHAT A LOSS?

On Sunday, 3RD of June 2012, (termed black sunday because of the crash and the killing of Christians Worshippers in the church by Islamic sect popularly known as Boko Haram)a DANA Airline Flight 0992 crashed into a busy and highly populated residential area in a Lagos suburb called iju Agege killing all 153 persons on board and those on land. My friend, a staff of Central Bank of Nigeria was at the Lagos Airport that sunday afternoon waiting for that particular aircraft that was coming from Abuja to Lagos and will be returning back to Abuja. She called that i should pray that the flight is not unnecessarily delayed because she does not want to arrive Abuja late. We prayed for journey mercy and quick arrival of the aircraft. That was where we left the BB chatting until she called me with the sad news. I initially argued with her that the Nigerian plane that crashed was a Boeing 727 Cargo Airliner belonging to Allied Air in Ghana and it was a Cargo plane not a passenger plane although it killed 10 in a Bus. I tried calming her and quickly check the telly only to see

breaking news.

I was shocked because i was not expecting that. Why am i saying the crash was unexpected, DANA Aircrafts are always looking neat and well maintained compared to the others parked at the tarmac. Also, the last crash some years back caused serious reforms in the Aviation Industry and i thought the regulators were up and doing in inspecting aircraft before approval to fly. Honestly I fly DANA Air anytime and it had earned my respect with their service and the state of their Aircrafts. I guess Appearance alone does not say an aircraft is good to fly. Apart from that, Dana Air is the only one with many Aircrafts unlike others with just one. It so unfortunate that this has to happen now with the Boko Haram killing and bombing in the North. GOD will have to help us and deliver us from these blood suckers that have been unleached upon this Nation by the Politicians. One of the retired Generals who is so desperate to be the President of this Country said some weeks back that if he is not allowed to rule (if the election in 2015 does not favour him) there would be mayhem. Is that the type of a President we need, the type that has this

if it is not me then no other person

attitude? NO we do not need that type. We need the one that will come to power and enthroned righeousness, peace and progress. Anyway, thank GOD my friend did not board the flight because it crashed minutes before landing in Lagos. My friend was lucky but 153 people on board and several on the ground were not. May their souls rest in perfect peace. Dr LEVI AJUONUMA These are the staff of Central Bank of Nigeria who lost their lives in the ill fated Dana Airline flight of no return. They were coming to Lagos for a Course in their training School. This is the course that my friend attended and was going back to Abuja. Amongs them were Assistant Director Hajia FALMATA KUR MOHAMMED. The President, President Goodluck Jonathan signing the condolence register opened for the DANA Air aircraft crash victims yesterday at the State House, Abuja. This reporter for CCTV was supposed to be on board but God saved him. These are the staff of NUC who were on official assignment to inspect a private University in Lagos but ended up in the belly of the earth. Real tragedy. The leader of the team was Professor Celestine Onwuliri, former VC Fedreal University of Science. The other five are Deputy Directors. Tosin Anibaba - Fate Foundation Mrs OLUSOLA FLORENCE AROKOYA of STERLING BANK MR. ADEKOLA ISHAQ AYOOLA of STERLING BANK MR. OBIOLA E. IKPOKI, a senior staff of DIMENSION DATA NIGERIA. MRS. TEMITOPE ARIYIBI nee SOILE. ( A woman full of life and looking forward to impact on her society.) The Federal Government declared 3 days national mourning and the state where the crash took place declared a week of mourning but we know in the hearts of all especially their loved ones, the grief will remain. May GOD wipe away the tears from the eyes of all that mourn and share in the grief of the tragic incident. According to Hebrew 13:14,

"for here we have no lasting city but we seek the city which is to come."

This is a temporary abode. Our home is in heaven or where you are preparing to go to after death.

Nigerian Children yesterday, Sunday 27th May 2012, marked the Children’s Day with funfare, parade and policy statements from government that never keeps promises. In Ogun State, men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, arrested five secondary schools students at the M.K.O. Abiola Stadium, the venue of the Children’s Day Celebration, for being in possession of charms and intoxicated drinks. Unfortunately, the anti-social activities that some of their fathers engaged in when they were younger and now graduated into corrupt politicians in their adulthood are the vices that these teenagers are involved in. What a shame. The talk on being upright in all their undertakings is just a waste of time as far as these ones are concerned. While the State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun was addressing the students, admonished them to begin the writing of their own history, so that their tomorrow could be assured, some were busy planning evil. What were thes students doing with intoxicated drink? Was it for them to get drunk on or to drug their female students who will be lured to come to an after party immediately after the parade at the stadium. Hear what the Governor said at the Parade,

“As leaders of tomorrow, you must strive to be upright in all your undertakings. You should cultivate the virtues of discipline, decency, seriousness of purpose, focus, and respect for constituted authority and appreciation of dignity of labour.”

Well said but as a parent is the Governor insisting on these values at home and inculcating them in his own children or those of his cabinet members? Because most of the children that are wayward most times come from homes of the rich and powerful in the Society. Where I was working before, we had two teenage boys who were smokers. The parents lived in the duplex opposite our office and were powerful people in the society. The father, – CEO of a multinational Corporation and the mother, an Executive Director in one of the leading banks. Unfortunately, the children were so streetwise that they were smoking at age 11 and hiding it from their parents. They both attended one of the Elitist secondary schools in the Country. The driver brings them home from school and they would stay by the fence to the servants quarters to smoke a whole packet of cigarette. Unfortunately, the security man who was in their house was always given a tip by the boys so he too kept a sealed mouth. These boys will graduate from smoking cigarettes to smoking weeds and then sniffing cocaine. The lame excuse the ones caught by security with charms at the parade was that they just wanted to scare their mates. Some said they did not want the police harrassment so they used the charms as protection. Whatever was their reasons, they were too young to start dabbling into occults for help or protection. The Bible says train up a child in the way of the LORD and he would not depart. Apparently, these ones are being trained in the way of darkness and that is why they have followed that way. My fear is that if the foundation of these children are faulty or corrupt, then the enthronement of peace and order in the Country will be really difficult. Even the realisation or actualisation of their potentials will be a mirage.

One of the Governor, Gov. Mimiko said, “children of Ondo State are being exposed to a culture of peace, security, healthy, modern and clean environment as opposed to the ambience of insecurity, intolerance and violence of the era gone by.”

The children may be exposed to the above in the state, what about their homes? What is going on in their homes? May God help the children. Well, Congratulations Nigerian children for passing through all these hardships in this 21st century and you are still standing!!!!. Nigerian Children, you have done pretty well in the face of difficulties and challenges facing you and your parents such as lack of electricity, unemployment, poverty and mal-nutrition. Lack of suitable classrooms, Lack of good, dedicated and dependable teachers (not those who have not been paid for upwards of six months and so have resorted to petty trading in the classrooms) have unfortunately lowered the quality and standard of education in the Country. These Children have been subjected to poor educational system such that we celebrate a normal pass in schools now since mass failure is the order of the day. Congratulations Nigerian children for exceling despite all the obstacles to greatness that our Politicians have placed on your way to greatness. Please do not emulate the current Politicians we have now who make promises only to abandon them after winning elections. Congratulation Nigerian children for despite poor performance by the government since 1985 when General Buhari and Idiagbor were booted out of office,have been making us proud with academic laurels at home and in far away countries. May only God guide ,protect and direct our children to do that which is right for this Country and humanity.