Onyekachi Ugwu
@onyekachiugwu
1 year ago

Of HYPOCRITES AS APOSTLES OF CHANGE

I am an incurable optimist. I don't lose hope. I always have this strong belief that it is not over until it is over. But of course I also hate to lie to myself especially when the factors that buttress my fears are germane and clear like the azure sky.

I love Nigeria. I love to see the nation progress. I love transformation from its current state to a glorious height. But wisdom compels me to loose hope on this nation where hypocrites are the very change agents.

A hypocrite is person who claims or pretends to have certain beliefs about what is right but who behaves in a way that disagrees with those beliefs. Out there across all strata of the Nigerian Society are a fascinating number of hypocrites. To say that Nigeria is a country of hypocrites is to be metaphorical. I mince no words. I am vehement about this informed position.

Honestly I used to have this incurable optimism that out there, outside the political leadership of the country are men and women in their amazing numbers who can really redesign Nigeria and make it a nascent nation not until Tai Solarin, the fiery critic of the Babangida dictatorship and a moral compass of all that is sane and right was drafted to handle The People's Bank. We all celebrated that a Daniel had come to judgment. Few years with the People's Bank, Solarin proved that like every Nigerian, he was the very opposite of what he preached.

Same was it with Bolanle Onagoruwa the vocal constitutional lawyer. He was not yielding in his criticism of the abuse of the rule of law. He was seated on a moral high horse. Nigerians looked up to him as a man that will be the change we needed. But as soon as he was appointed Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, he became part of the rot.

Arch Bishop Olubunmi Okogie was on the neck of every government. He attacked, he sermonized and criticized. He was a man of God and an embodiment of moral right standing. He had the opportunity to visit IBB in Aso Rock. Well that was the last he attacked the government during those locust era.

Shall we talk about Rev. Fr. Moses Adasu and Rev Jolly Nyame? Both were anointed men of God and the ambassadors to the political class. Both preached perfection and right behaviours but both were guests of anti corruption bodies owing to their pilfering of their state treasures..

There are several millions of the Solarins, Onagoruwas, Okogies, Adasus and Nyames. They represented the opposite of what they professed. Corruption has become so endemic in Nigeria that every fabric of our individual and collective lives have been tainted. Sanity has taken flight in Nigeria.

Over the months, there has been this public outcry which found expression in the now popular clarions call, ALL EYES ON THE JUDICIARY. I have had problems trying to understand the import of such clamours and agitations. But I find it irreconcilable that any Nigerian had the audacity and temerity to finger the Judiciary, painting a lurid picture of the corruption that has become Its signature tune. Yes, the Judiciary is corrupt. But the Judiciary is part and parcel of the Nigerian system.

In a system every component must function optimally for optimal performance. It then follows that if one part malfunctions, the entire system malfunctions. So anyone believing that the Judiciary is the Nigerian problem which must be addressed should note that it is trite natural law that whoever must come to equity must come with clean hands. The question is: who has a clean hand in Nigeria when nigeria epitomizes everything negative.

You can now begin to see why I have lost hope in Nigeria and any Nigerians canvassing for a new order. Spare me your anger and listen. You are as worse as the Judiciary. Be thus reminded that as your eyes are on the Judiciary, even as the Judiciary is symbolized by a statue of a woman with blindfolded eyes, she has her eyes on you too. She mocks your wanton hypocrisy. For she knows that you have a giant tree growing in your eyes but is concerned about the branch in her eyes.

I know that many will ask: would i condemn the good and the bad? My response is simple. I do not even pride myself to be good. Nor do you qualify to be called good. For when God perceived that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah had become astonishing and intolerable, He decided to destroy the city. But Abraham was concerned that both the good and bad will suffer the same fate. He thus pleaded to save the good. He asked God to save the city if he could find fifty men in Sodom and Gomorrah that are good. God in his magnanimity allowed him to find only ten. But he ended up dismayed for he couldn't even find less than Ten. City of Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed.

This is the case with Nigeria. NIGERIA is like Sodom and Gomorrah. You won't find a single one who has not cut corners and taken undue advantage to shortchange the system or another person. Nigeria is a nation where the citizens holler at the topmost of their voice against bad governance in the name of seeking for change. Yet they do not want the change to start with them. They are hypocrites.

When therefore I heard about a certain bunch of men and women loitering at Okpara Square carrying banners and wearing T. Shirts inscribed with ALL EYES ON THE JUDICIARY, I burst into laughter. Why shouldn't I entertain myself with laughter? Yes, what a bunch of hypocrites catching cruise in the name of protesting and pressuring the Judiciary to do justice in the matters of election petitions before the tribunals. Justice is not the justice from the spyglass of perverts who relish inverted values.

Let me show you

Make any of those people a police man...he or she will collect bribe and extort the commuters, frame up an innocent person for crime and get him or her jailed.

Make any of them a site engineer...he or she will use substandard materials and cheat the project owner.

Make any of them a lecturer....he or she will sell marks for sex or cash

Make any of them a messenger...he or she will collect money to push people's file. They will even hide people's file to make sure the person does not get what is demanded for.

Make him or her an importer...he or she will import fake products and adulterated drugs.

Make him or her a preacher....he or she will adulterate the scripture to fleece his flocks and engage in many dirty deals.

Make him or her a town Union president....he or she steals the community funds, and translate to eze onye agwana m

Make him a traditional ruler...he perverts justice, steals people's wives and landed

Make him or her a lawyer....he or she will defend the same politicians he accused of stealing and even serve as fronts through which public funds will be stolen

Make him or her a judge...he or she will merchandise judgment, pervert truth and be proud in doing evil

Make him or her an ordinary WhatsApp Group administrator ....he or she becomes a draconian leader, suppressing people's right to free speech

Make him or her a Professor...he or she rigs election for politicians, collect bribe and feel indifferent

Make him or her a food stuff dealer ...he or she will sell with compromised measure.

A hypocrite is a person who practices what he preached against....

Even the person who printed the T shirts inflated the cost just as the one who printed the flex. Each person that did one job or another took advantage of the situation to enrich himself....

Summed up...no one gives what he or she doesn't have. You can't lack integrity and clamour for integrity.

Like my brother Charles Christopherson one of our #ezimofinest Would always say.....DO NOT INFEST THE WORLD...HEAL IT.

To produce good fruit....your tree must be good.

Nigeria...like Sodom. Like Gomorrah

©onyekachi c ugwu.