We are all Maina waiting to manifest

From the president to the man on the street, the word Corruption is the trendiest in the socio-political sphere today. We all know someone who is corrupt, and that person is not us. It is usually the policeman at the checkpoint, the customs officer at the port of entry or the immigration officer who stamps our passports. The rest of us are saints. Check the meter of outrage exhibited over the backdoor reinstatement and promotion of one fugitive into the evil service. That outrage was so much that our sanctimonious president on his way to a regional meeting where he is regarded as a cult anti-corruption figure was forced to take action.

According to the media, the president ordered Maina’s second sack and an explanation for his reinstatement and the names and addresses of the dramatis personae behind it given to him before he flew out of Abuja that evening, and it was done. Then came the game of denial with every person or agency responsible for this embarrassment denying his or her roles in press statements. Garba Shehu, presidential adviser gave the most implausible reason of them all when he fingered Jonathan’s men.

Such sanctimonious pretence is the reason things are the way they have remained for us. Between his last attempt at the presidency and the time he won election, Buhari’s mystery Abuja landlord sent him packing. He in turn loaded his chattels on a trailer back to Kaduna. But the God of Naija politicians is a God of miracles and so, by the time Buhari declared his assets, it turned out he had houses in Abuja. That’s a miracle! We should let the President be. But it must be said that there is a dynamism with this Maina story by our corruption-czar-general that was lacking with the report of the man now popularly known as ‘the grasscutter’, David Babachir Lawal and former NIA boss, Ayo Oke both of whom have gargantuan corruption cases hanging on their necks. Apparently, their boka or babalawo is bigger than Maina’s.

Influence-peddling, the worst form of corruption and the antithesis of progress and development has been alive, well and thriving before Buhari won election, and not even his famous turare has extirpated it. We, the outraged have soon forgotten that the children of who is who in Buhari’s cabinet found employment in the Central Bank of Nigeria, the NNPC and any other agency without advertisement. The story ran for a while and we have moved on.

Tell me who got hired in evil service or any government agency in the last two decades without influence peddling and I’ll show you a virgin in a maternity ward. We all peddle influence but we do not think it is corruption.

I will speak for myself. A few weeks ago, I was mailing and calling some of the friends I have in the system for any help in getting my niece into the university and the course of her choice. With six ‘A’s including English and Mathematics and ‘B’s, she still stood no chance. I am sure those who had lower grades have made it in because in our country, for every available space, there are over 2,000 qualified school leavers.

Put the poor girl in the Canadian system that saw two of my own children in universities. Not being Canadian nor even a permanent resident, I did not have to call anybody for their admission. From middle school, the Canadian school system logs their progress into a database while career and guidance counsellors pilot them through the requirements. Each of my two kids got three admission letters from the universities of their choice raising a beautiful dilemma of which one to finally accept. The system recognises only grades, it is blind to race, creed, citizenship or state of origin and catchment area. The only discrimination that exists here shows up where they register - that is where their nationality determines whether they pay local or international fees. My poor niece remains at home. If eventually she gets admitted to school, whoever helped her knows that I owe them a favour because one good turn deserves another. A system that discountenances merit cannot be expected to institute merit as a way of life.

This is the trouble with our country and our self-righteous indignation against Maina and the cabal that surreptitiously brought him back to work in the only anticorruption government we’ve had in 30 years. We all lobby for things that we ordinarily should have because we have built a system that throws merit to the dogs and instituted mediocrity. For our sanctimonious indignation, nobody has asked how a civil servant below the rank of a director became head of a task force on pension reforms. It does look to me that this nation would start making progress when its ruiners come clean on their contributions to the morass we’re all in, then sets up a corruption and reconciliation commission where everyone who has ever peddled influence or stolen public funds in one way or another can openly go and testify; pay restitution where possible and apologise before we can start building the foundation for a new nation. As it stands, we are all Maina, either hiding behind one finger or waiting to manifest.