Recently, former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, warned that the fate of the funds meant for the critical sector of Health in the 2025 Budget must never be the claims of Snakes, Termites, Gorilla, swallowing it.
One could ask; Is Atiku Abubakar pre-empting something? In the years past, we have heard of cases whereby claims of animals accountable for missing public funds and till date, such cases were not investigated let alone dishing out the severe punishments to the culprits.
Truth be told, Nigeria is a country where corruption in the system has been making it a mirage to turn the country to El Dorado as corruption usually fights back in way you cannot imagine.
When it comes to public funds, snakes and termites must have something to swallow, meanwhile, the 2025 Budget could be transformative if it does not get swallowed! There is nothing new in Nigeria, as corruption has eaten deep into every sector and is so prevalent that it has become commonplace.
With the growing corruption in the system, the despair faced by millions of Nigerians may not end soon because corruption is on astronomical level and how to bring sanity into the system remains a major obstacle.
One should not be surprised that even most of the borrowed money by Nigeria may end up eaten by termites, swallowed by python, stolen by monkeys, hijacked by bandits and licked by greedy politicians…
Some Nigerians argues that there are so many lapses in the 1999 constitution as amended, that encourages corruption, but even if we have a perfect constitution in place, do we have the right set of people to drive it? Until we overhaul our entire system, it might not be Uhuru as a country…..
BY
HAKEEM LAWAL
HEAD OF ENGLISH PROGRAMME,
SUCCESS 105.3FM, IBADAN.
