When Deep Voice declared that there is a power vacuum at the top, a profound silence descended on the entire restaurant. If there is no ultimate enforcer, no authority that can say No—then Nigeria is in deep trouble. It was as if a shower of ice water had been sprayed over the assembly.
Then a young man rushed to the stage and grabbed the microphone.
–We are the Who, he declared. It is we who must stop them. My fellow youths, is it not so?
–A flock of young people, men and women, stood up as if on command, jabbing their arms against the empty air.
–It is so!
–My fellow youths, are we goats and monkeys, or are we human?
–We are men! We are women!
–If we don’t turn Nigeria around in our generation, what should be done with us?
–May our children curse us!
–May our children castrate us without anaesthesia!
–May we reincarnate into deformed, misbegotten monsters and lepers!
–May the world call us eunuchs and harlots until the end of recorded history!
I saw some of the older people trying to suppress a laugh. No one was bold enough to defile what had turned into a sacred moment where spoken words took on the noumenal power of divine decree.
The youths followed their leader out of the hall. The hubbub of their voices continued to be heard down the corridor. Then, Deep Voice addressed those left behind.
–And you, the older generation, you who have tolerated this state of affairs for 50 years, what is to be done with you? What do you propose to do?
Everyone fidgeted and looked blankly at their neighbor. It was an awkward moment.
At last one brave woman (bless her soul!) ventured to break the silence.
–Actually, it is the president that ought to be the ultimate enforcer. The buck, as they say, stops at his table. He is praised for all that is good in his administration, and blamed for all that is wrong or evil. It is he who must say No.
–Yes, but he must have the moral authority.
–Right leadership is moral leadership. A leadership without moral authority is a bankrupt and bad leadership.
–An immoral leadership is incapable of saying No.
–That’s right. If a leader’s own cupboard is full of skeletons, he will have no moral authority to tell any of his subordinates not to accept bribes or embezzle public funds.
–He may say it but he won’t mean it.
–And the subordinate will know he doesn’t mean it and can’t dismiss him or prosecute him for corruption or for theft of public funds.
–Speaking of prosecution, are not the courts the ultimate enforcers?
–The Nigerian judiciary are as corrupt as the political leadership, if not more so.
–Please don’t say that!
–I hear that one reason court verdicts take such a long time is that the judge is busy extorting money from both sides. Eventually he renders judgment in favor of the side that pays him more money.
–Are you sure of what you are saying?
–That’s scandalous!!!
–Sometimes, weeks before verdict is rendered, the winner goes about telling everyone what the verdict will be.
–And does it usually turn out to be so?
–It does—sometimes word for word.
–But why are so many public officials never prosecuted or even queried in spite of reports in the newspapers detailing their wrongdoing?
–Or, when they appear before the courts or the EFCC, after a couple of weeks the news simply vanishes and nothing is heard of the matter ever again?
–You mean like the case of the leaders of a legislature who borrowed billions from a bank to finance members’ allowances—the very allowances against which there was a huge public outcry in the first place?
–Wasn’t it criminal, irresponsible and morally bankrupt for the bank managers to approve such a loan under those circumstances?
–And think back a few years ago when two or three ministers collected billions during the last week of the year—either the project they were supposedly paying for was bogus, or the entire procedure violated the rules.
–Yes, I remember. It was all over the news for a couple of weeks—then it vanished. There was no resolution of the issues, no vindication, no condemnation or punishment. Just silence.
–One of the officials was even rewarded with a juicier appointment, if I recall.
–Our media is all noise and show-off but no follow-through. They simply let the matter drop.
–Don’t forget there’s an obscure British colonial law which our so-called legal luminaries have seen fit to retain on the books after 50 years of independence . . .
–Speak no evil . . . Nigerian lawyers . . .
–These are learned gentlemen . . .
–Nigerian lawyers are the most grossly over-rated little minds on the planet.
–Are you referring to sub judice?
–Something like that. It prohibits journalists from commenting on cases before the court beyond a certain preliminary stage. You try it—and you get treated worse than Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor under Decree 4 of 1984.
–Well, the new Freedom of Information bill should take care of all that.
–I don’t know if it will. We wait and see . . . .
Onwuchekwa Jemie
