“60-year-old
cab driver accused of causing accident”...“Woman, 45, sentenced to 6 months
imprisonment for stealing N50, 000”. ETC.
These
are typical headlines on the pages of Nigerian newspapers. And if you go on to
find out, many of those who are accused and ultimately sentenced to prisons
whether short or long terms are poor people who have no money to buy their way
through and no godfathers to grant them the kind of amnesty that the rich and
powerful enjoy.
When
you hear that someone in Nigeria has been sentenced to jail for stealing, then
find out and it will interest you that majority (say 99%) of those sentenced
are among the poor (I did not say they are innocent). But, one keeps wondering
when a top shot, polluted and corrupted Nigerian (the ruling class,
politicians, etc) will ever be caught stealing (they are always stealing anyway),
truly tried and then sent to the prison so as to serve as deterrent to others.
Bode
George perhaps fell out with the powers that be and was “punished” with
imprisonment. He came out and there was a reception and thanksgiving in honour
of him. That shows how fashionable and glorious it is to be a high-profile “thief”
in Nigeria...whether you fall or rise, you will be celebrated. Please, where is
Farouq and Otedola today? Where are the tapes that Otedola released? What has
happened to the case? I published back then that the dust will clear and what
do we have now? This is typical ‘Solomon Grandy’...Started on Monday and ended
on Sunday!
How
about that pension chief who stole billions so much that 2 billion naira was
found in his house? He stole so much that lawyers and SANs were jostling to
defend him in court. What would they say? ‘That the man did not steal money’...after
all, in Nigeria, money falls from Heaven. Smh. A country where we celebrate
thieves and emergency billionaires like Ubah, Chairman of Capital Oil who has
been implicated among the fuel subsidy syndicates and oil cabals.
Corruption
is so much that the funds raised for victims of the flood disaster are being
diverted and stolen by officials saddled with the responsibility of providing
relief. Why do people not fear God? And the President was also unable to
provide answer to the question of why no top shot has been convicted despite widespread
corruption in high places.
While
the poor and presumably helpless continue to go to make headlines and go to
jail for stealing 100, 000 naira and sometimes laptop, the rich steals millions
and billions and walks away as king. And the same judge and court that gave
amnesty to a “big thief” will sentence and imprison the “poor thief”. The only
time you will hear that the judiciary is the last hope of the common man is
when a politician gets victory at the election tribunal. Nigerian judiciary has
become an accomplice and the hope of the powerful and rich Nigerian and an
enemy of the common man. Judges take bribes, so the poor man only hopes in God.
Was Mr. James Ibori not acquitted by a Nigerian judge and court only to be
sentenced and imprisoned in UK?
Am
I saying that the poor man should not be punished for his sins and crimes? NO!
God does not discriminate in His judgement, and poverty is not an excuse to
sin. God judges the rich and the poor alike without respect. So, it may be
possible for those stealing now to be getting away with it, but a time is going
to come when God will judge. “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand
before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is
the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were
written in the books, according to their works” (Revelation 21:12).
Every
day may be for the thief now, but eternity is surely for God...the owner of all
things!
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