We can eat what we like, rather than what is good for us. We can live on a diet of ice cream and cake, with zero exercise. But as we near middle and old age our bodies will tell the truth about our lifestyle choices. If we eat well, we will grow to middle and old age healthy. But if we eat poorly, we will reap the harvest of rotten teeth, and premature organ failure. It is impossible to eat like a slob and wake up as a 59-year old with perfect teeth, and marathon-running fitness.
The country state is like the human body. It is impossible for generations of idiots-in-high-office not to have an impact on the body politic. After a succession of private servants occupying public office, serving their stomachs and the interests of their friends and family, betraying the public with every single decision or lack of it, the result is the 59-year old country we have inherited.
What is happening in Nigeria and around Africa, our public descent into anarchy, is the consequence of the bandit leaders and their minions we have allowed into our highest offices. Of course, we will end up with shambolic institutions, bandit security agencies, and streets full of kidnappers and terrorists after allowing every stripe of misfit into our local government councils and state houses.
If we do not feed our public services with decent men and women, we will have to fight for our lives in every street corner, dig for water in every compound, and grit our teeth at every international embarrassment that is the consequence of not educating or investing in generations of our children.
When the body is diseased and the organs are failing, there is no miracle of medicine that will gift an invalid in a wheelchair the body of an Olympian who has paid the price in the gym of life. Fortunately, the body politic has a slightly different lifespan from the biological body. Although there are no quick fixes, no short-term solutions to our 59-year-old crisis, there is a magic bullet we can deploy in the short term that can slay the dragon of graft and begin, instantly, the journey of restoration.
That magic bullet is the enactment of the #Bribecode into Nigerian law. We can continue our perpetual pastime of bemoaning the incompetence and thievery at every level of public office, or we can enact the Bribecode to immediately introduce three things,
- the punishment of Total Assets Forfeiture for individual thieves and Liquidation for corporate ones,
- whistleblower protection and reward for information on corruption and waste.
- Universal Prosecution, so that any attorney general in Nigeria can prosecute serious corruption, such that no single person or ruling party can protect anyone in Nigeria, however highly-placed or powerful.
The consequence of the Bribecode as law is that even if the budget has already been padded, the funds will not leave the treasury. This means that even with a bandit public servant in office, even with godfathers waiting for their take, funds budgeted for salaries, security, training and infrastructure will be available for the budgeted purpose because corruption is tantamount to corporate suicide and personal ruin and discovery and punishment is inevitable.
The pathway to the end of terrorism and anarchy in Nigeria is not the employment of thousands of shamans or the crocodile tears and prayers of public officials elected to take action. It is the transformation of our governance system. The Bribecode is the single most transformational step we can take to end the scourge of godfathers feeding our public offices with an assembly line of stooges. The Bribecode will create the systemic framework for Nigeria to begin the sure and steady return to sanity and hope.
With five minutes of your time, you can take that step right now by visiting www.bribecode.org/signup, signing the petition, and sharing the link to all your contacts. You can also volunteer to support and carry the Bribecode campaign to every corner of Nigeria, to prevent the death of Nigeria.
Thank you,
