I’m made to understand there’s a joke amongst the Northerners in Nigeria.
Wealthy people would usually build mosques on their premises. In most cases, most of the wealth comes from the commonwealth. They tend to see their riches as their own share of the national cake.
The joke comes from the erection of the mosques. They offer the buildings to ‘Allah’ as His own share of the stolen wealth.
Similarly, southerners who have stolen from the commonwealth are seen as home-boy-made goods. In that sense, some of them donate all the donatables to their communities.
Most of their communities may not know they are only acting as Robin Hood. If they knew, maybe they would have queried their sources of generosity.
The Yoruba will say if a son isn’t a dry cleaner but he’s always taking clothes which are obviously not his home, you hardly need to look far for the thief.
The thrust of this post is that the corrupt ones are part of us.
Indeed, we’re the corruption!
How many of us can boldly say we have not benefited from corrupt acts one way or the other? While the buck rests on the tables of the chief executives in a presidential setting, much more of the prodding comes from us as a people.
Agbepo l’aja o ja’le, eni gba ni baba barawo!
A person who has stolen is not the real thief, those who serve as conduits are the real thieves!!
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