PRAYERS AND CURSES
As delivered by:
Professor Ishaq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)
The war against corruption has encountered several
encumbrances in the past two years under President Muhammadu Buhari.
Anti-corruption agencies have lost several cases to technicalities while the
absence of special courts has retarded efforts to bring looters to book. In
addition, the National Assembly (NASS) has been a major cog in the wheel of
progress in the anti-graft fight.
To our consternation, corrupt elements have taken shelter under the canopies of religion and ethnicity thereby compelling religious and ethnic leaders to speak out in their defence.
To our consternation, corrupt elements have taken shelter under the canopies of religion and ethnicity thereby compelling religious and ethnic leaders to speak out in their defence.
The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) expresses deep
concern at the trend of corruption matters in Nigeria. We affirm that although
corruption is the bane of development in this country, the war against
corruption seems to be at crossroads and the Nigerian people stand to lose the
fight at the end unless something urgent is done. Hunger, starvation, disease,
rise in the level of ignorance, fall in the standard of living, political
instability and a violent revolution are the likely fallouts if we fail to kill
corruption.
Only the enemies of Nigeria will say that the Federal
Government has not been sincere in its war against corruption. The problem is
that there is strong resistance to the anti-graft war mainly from members of
the past regime and their sympathisers. Corruption is fighting back using
different mechanisms among which are: legal technicalities, death wish, false
propaganda, betrayal and outright sabotage.
FG has used every known conventional and legitimate
means of fighting looters but the result has not been commensurate with the
efforts. Looters have the elephant while FG has the ant. South Africa used the
Truth Commission when it had a national crisis but it did not work when Nigeria
adopted it because many powerful people refused to appear before the
commission.
Knowing the slow nature of judicial cases in Nigeria
and over-loaded with stolen money, the foot-soldiers of corruption have
calculated that corruption cases will continue to drag for the next eight years
even if Buhari wins a second term. This is why they are feeling comfortable and
laughing at the masses.
A drastic problem requires a drastic solution. So what
else is the panacea to corruption in Nigeria? We believe that it is time to
adopt something unconventional; something we have never adopted before;
something that costs government no money or effort at all; something
revolutionary and mass-oriented; something local and scary and, above all,
something in which every Nigerian has an emotional attachment.
MURIC is asking looters to choose between prayers and
curses. What is this new idea? All past and present politicians and their
conniving bureaucrats will decide within themselves either to voluntarily
surrender whatever they have stolen and receive prayers from the Nigerian
people or hold on to their illegal loots and receive curses from the masses
whom they have sentenced to a life of destitution.
MURIC charges the Nigerian masses to seize their
destiny with their hands by mobilizing their individual and collective prayer
power. Agents of corruption have used religion to divide the poor masses
before. It is now our turn to use the power of faith against them. Let us pray
in the mosque, churches, shrines and private homes for politicians who
voluntarily return what they stole in the past. Let us also ask for forgiveness
for them. But our prayer sessions must be double-edged. We will rain curses on
recalcitrant looters who refuse to return what they stole from our common
wealth.
Greatest Nigerian People! We must curse our oppressors
three times daily. Curse them in the morning as you rise from bed or from under
the bridge if you are homeless. Curse them under the scorching sun as you trek
up and down on empty stomachs. Curse them before you go to bed at night. Curse
them as you roll sleeplessly in bed. Curse them as you sweat profusely in bed
when your fan is useless because they have stolen the money meant for
electricity supply. Curse them as your vehicle crawls on bad roads where you
spend hours instead of minutes because they stole all the money allocated to
the repair of roads. Curse them as you wonder why you are still jobless despite
graduating years ago.
We urge Muslims to recite Inna atayna (Surat
al-Kaothar) to bless those who voluntarily return our stolen wealth and
tabatiada (tabbat yada from Surat al-Lahab) for looters who refuse to change.
Christians may use prayer warriors to pray for those who voluntarily return
their loot and seek forgiveness for them. Psalm 109:5-19 or any other portion
from the Bible may be recited to rain curses on thieves and rogues who refuse
to change. The curses should be accompanied with the proviso that they will be
affected if they don’t surrender their loots but they will be free from the
curses if they do.
Yet we must not stop there. These thieves find it easy
because the system is deficient. The checks and balances are not strong enough.
An example is the swearing-in ceremony held for new appointees which has been
trivialized. The Muslim appointee holds the Qur’an and swears but he will start
stealing public property the next day. Vice versa for the Christian.
The scriptures mean nothing to looters. There is, therefore, an urgent need to
radicalize the swearing-in ceremonies.
So what is the way forward? If we are serious as a
people, let us introduce self-curse mechanism at swearing-in ceremonies. We
must suspend swearing by simply holding the Bible or the Qur’an. It has no
effect on them. They are hardened thieves and die-hard kleptomaniacs. They have
the noun ‘thief’ and the verb ‘to steal’. This is the time to
remember that we are Africans. Therefore our swearing-in method has to reflect
our environment and background if it has to be taken seriously. Enough of
colonial mentality!
Let an appointee hold the Qur’an or Bible or anything
he believes in and curse himself saying, for example, “I, Lagbaja the son of
Lakasegbe, if I betray the people’s trust, if I steal in this position, if I
abuse my office or if I am unfair to others on ground of religion or ethnicity,
let me be put to shame. Let my children end up in the streets like the children
of the poor. Let all the known and unknown diseases of this world afflict me
and my children, like meningitis, ebola, lassa fever, cholera, etc. Let me
sweat without reaping the fruit of my labour…In Allah’s Mighty Name I
swear”
Who will misbehave after this kind of swearing-in? Who
is the son of a killer of elephants in the presence of a licensed killer of
men? Politicians will become sober. In fact many of them will retire and only
the serious ones will remain in the political arena. The vultures in the NASS
will go back to their various private businesses, leaving the seats open for
young, patriotic and visionary Nigerians.
To round up, we advise FG to re-open the window of
opportunity for looters to voluntarily return public properties, cash and funds
in bank accounts within and outside the country. We call on our oppressors and
downpressors, looters of the people’s treasury, to take notice of ‘war’ from the
people. We declare total and comprehensive spiritual war on those responsible
for our predicament. There will be no retreat, no surrender.
Return our stolen
destiny and receive our blessing and forgiveness. Retain our common wealth and
receive our curses morning, noon and night.
No comments:
Post a Comment