28-9-2024.

Nigeria has three major religions, in my belief. These are Islam, Christianity and the ‘rest of them’. By the rest of them, I refer to the other minority religions, including the traditional type, practiced in the country.

 

Whatever the religion may be, one thing is incontestable; none of them preaches stealing or illegally dipping the hand into the public till, as is common with top government officials entrusted with funds for the judicious utilisation of all. They belong to all the religions, as both followers, whether Ustaz’s, Born Agains or just a believers, partake in the mad rush for self enrichment from the Commonwealth.

I am a Muslim, very steeped in the Islamic faith, but not very knowledgeable enough to be preaching to others, or looking down on others in a ‘holier than though attitude’. So this should not be considered or misconstrued as a preachement.

There is a story of the head of a very big and rich government owned company, who had hardly assisted anyone. One day his biological father asked him for just N7,000, to buy medicine for his (father’s) brother, who was very sick. The son claimed not to have the money. But as God would have it, he (the company top man) died thereafter in less than one week of no apparent illness.

When the father learned that his late son had left behind billions of Naira, some in the bank and the rest in the attic and other hiding places in his house, he told the people invited to share what the deceased left behind to inheritors, that he would not take one Naira of the money, because he believed that the money belonged to the company. In other words, his late son had stolen the money from the company.

Even those who were taught of accounting in the next world before God how they made their wealth when they lived on earth, are not immune to the desire to over-illegally acquire from the Commonwealth. Such people appear not to believe that they would one day account for all the wealth they had amassed, in both money and other assets.

The inordinate desire to accumulate stupendous amount of money is not limited to only top public officials or top politicians, but also to the business community, which may be even richer than the so called public or ‘elected ‘ servants among us. There is an old saying that ‘there is no great wealth free of great graft’. 

A video clip is currently trending on the social media, showing a large store stocked with bags of rice being emptied from the original bags for re-bagging into smaller quantities, and all of a sudden some of the stacked bags cascaded down on the four people doing the ‘dirty’ work. Only one of the four people escaped with some efforts, while the rest of the three people, covered completely by the fallen bags, apparently died.

Nowadays, it is no more fashionable to be a ‘mare’ Naira billionaire in Nigeria, because the currency has greatly depreciated in value. One ‘must’ have the Naira in trillions, for the person to be known as a rich someone who has ‘made’ it. This explains the do or die attitude of some people towards getting a big government office, or becoming a member of the National Assembly (NASS). 

As often stated in many write ups by concerned compatriots, ours is a country where people want to make lots of money by hook or by crook, and it is by crook mostly, including sometimes the taking of innocent lives in the process, as often done by cultists, or advanced fee fraudsters, known commonly as 419ers, on these shores. Some even engage in the illegal trafficking of banned substances to foreign countries, many of which have stringent laws against such things.

A very touching video clip shows a Ghanaian Muslim lawmaker talking, what to me appears, sense to his colleagues in the chamber of that country’s parliament. After enumerating the futility in the corrupt acquisition of mundane wealth and the vanity associated with it, he asked them the whereabouts of some of their past powerful leaders like Kwame Nkrumah, Jerry Rawlings, Addo, and their like. All of them were dead, leaving the country to continue without them, said the parliamentarian.

He may as well be talking to the Nigerian ‘elected’ NASS members, since this is a country which respects those who have seemingly unlimited money, that may be used to do as one pleases, with no one asking questions about its source. The owners of such wealth are instead celebrated, admired,  respected and even fawned by most people in the society.

As the Ghanaian lawmaker asked his colleagues the whereabouts of that country’s leaders who died, Nigerians who are desperate for political power, should ask themselves the whereabouts of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, our only Prime Minister, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the only Premier of the North, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, a former Finance Minister, de facto number two citizen and a very wealthy Nigerian and Chief Chris Oboh, among the trusted First Republicans.

I once wrote an article where I asked the number one citizen of a north western state in the country, the whereabouts of his more illustrious state man and former President and the 19 ‘powerful’ governors who governed during his time. The President and all but two of the governors are all dead, leaving Nigeria to continue in even better shape despite their absence.

The likes of Malam Abba Kyari, the influential Chief of Staff of President Buhari, Malam Sama’ila Isa Funtua, an in-law to former President Buhari and ally to Malam Abba Kyari, Alhaji Wada Maida, former Senator Efeanyi Ubah, Chief Emmanuel Uwanyawu and a host of many others have all died in very recent times, leaving behind fortunes running into trillions of Naira. The fortunes would be shared by inheritors, some of whom, barely two weeks after the death of their benefactor, chattered an aircraft to take them to London, Britain, for SHOPPING.

 

Again, where is Maidaribe who, because his extreme riches, built a mansion made, in the main, of pure gold. Now, the magnificent edifice is used to accommodate  very important guests who visit Nigeria. Even his offspring’s and other inheritors are not living in the house now.

It was a gory sight to watch the grave of a deceased where the person was buried with what were perhaps some of his cherished belongings. The items include new dollar bills, a gun, expensive wristwatches and some jewellery. All but the body of the dead man were intact, as if buried not long ago. But what remained of the body were just bones, not even an intact skeleton. Proof that all worldly acquisitions are left where they weren’t acquired, whatever the method of the acquisition;  behind, on the earth that the ‘rich’ people had once lived on.

But most of the stupendously rich Nigerians, including the ‘religious’ ones do not appear to think of ever accounting before the Creator for the ‘riches’ they accumulated while alive. Even common sense should tell us that it is absolutely wrong and immoral to steal, not to talk of stealing blindly and greedily from the government.

Stealing, only to ‘appease’ God with Zakat, Tithes or other forms of ‘supposed’ assistance, will not get us His salvation and the reward we expect in the hear after.

May we be among the lucky few He always talks about in the Holy books.

Malam Malumfashi wrote from Katsina.