I Pity This Country

By Omor Bazuaye

A man was found guilty of stealing and was jailed abroad; something we wouldn't have been able to do here even at the height of this regime's much touted anti-corruption campaign. The crook is let off the hook after spending a time of six years behind bars and what do you hear, "Welcome back our hero. Welcome our great leader," and I'm like some folks got pooh in their skulls in place of brain.

A man robs you blind, rendered you and your children and their unborn children to the misery you call life and the best you can come up with is a trashy sense of hero worshipping. I hear the rogue built roads and schools, provided potable water when he served as governor. And I say, “And so what? Did he do those things with his personal money? In any case what was he supposed to do? Was he not just doing his job as mandated by law?” In other climes, Ibori would quietly sneak into the country, sober and remorseful, too ashamed of himself but here what do you get, people shamelessly celebrating and rooting for him to return and I ask, “To do what? Return to continue looting from where he left off.”

The other day, Singapore executed a young Nigerian for peddling drugs. His lifeless body was couriered back to us and what did I see? His shameless community, family and friends threw an elaborate funeral celebrating the "heroics" of a wayward 32 year old sent to his early grave because of sheer greed. I know a few idiots would want to still justify this act and in their cooked brain blame it on an unsupportive social system back home. What's wrong with us as a people? We lie, cheat, cut corners, pervert justice, murder and kill without recourse to law and still make a case for it. We've gotten so rotten, we can't even tell and admit the truth to ourselves, and the case of the "Thief from Delta is another classic reminder of how deep we've sunk."