If this or any future government is to survive as a viable entity it must clean up the mess of 79 year’s of self-rule, i.e. since 1931 because this cancer has been growing and spreading since then. Government should constitute a special commission [with teeth that can bite] to root out this malignancy from our midst.
Such a body with incorruptible men and women of standing in society should start the clean-up process with Health, Education, the Judicial system, Inland Revenue, the Police, the Customs, and other reportedly notorious State and parastatal bodies. No one should be above investigation be they ministers, deputy ministers, members of parliament, secretaries of ministries, chairmen of State corporations such as the State Pharmaceutical Supplies Corporation, school principles, judges and magistrates, police officers regardless of rank and customs personnel. Bribery and Corruption is so widespread that the list of institutions is just too long to be incorporated into this article. Suffice to say, most public sector bodies dealing with the Public are extremely corrupt.
Members of the Public need no special exposition as most, if not all, have had to experience some corrupt practice or a demand for a bribe or a kick-back or other malpractice. Everyone has been touched and many people resignedly go along with it as ‘part and parcel’ of the System that prevails. The crass mismanagement in the Health and Education sectors cries out for drastic and draconian measures to be taken against the miscreants, whoever they might be. If justice isn’t meted out and also seen to be done, the People will lose confidence in the Government.
It should be apparent that a sizable portion of the eligible voters have turned their backs on the so-called democratic process. These people state that all the elections do is replace one set of robbers with another. The People no longer believe a word mouthed by sundry and various politicians from various platforms. They go to listen and be entertained by the mud-slinging free-for-all that political public meetings have become. Even a senior politician admitted that the promises made by them cannot all be honoured; he went on to say that it was merely part of the game! The People are also make uncomfortable by the fact that politicians vote all sorts of privileges for themselves at the People’s expense. There is no voter who believes that any of these people got elected to serve the People; they know that these people got elected to serve themselves, their families, kith and kin and hangers-on, period.
It has been the experience of some people to witness bribery and corruption at first hand when a contractor gives a politician a hefty bribe to ensure that he gets the tender. After the tender is awarded, one third of the voted funds go to the politician, one third to the contractor and only one third is left to do the job—and this is commonplace practice whether it is a sports stadium, a highway, or a school building. Such things happen as a matter of routine in the purchase of disposable syringes, bandages, and imported pharmaceuticals—all substandard, potentially hazardous and usually unusable. School supplies suffer the same fate. Then, transfers, promotions, school admissions, verdicts in court cases, tenders, and purchases are ‘arranged’ for a consideration. The lists could go on and on ad infinitum and the patient and tolerant public are supposed to grin and bear it all.
The People have scant confidence in commissions of inquiry because these are rendered impotent by their Terms of Reference. Now, here’s where a difference could be made by placing the Terms of Reference before the Public and requesting the People to forward their suggestions. By paying careful attention to these, the Terms of Reference could be broadened to the widest possible. The same could go for the appointment of eminent persons of proven integrity and probity. Again, the People should be consulted and requested to make their submissions. All of this should be done publicly and transparently to strictly ensure that any commission so appointed could function independently, without fear or favour. This might sound like asking for the moon but the informed and intelligent public will see at once that this is the Way Forward.
Bribery, corruption and malpractice are costing this country billions annually and what it is doing is making a few rich and millions poorer by the day. Any professional analysis would demonstrate the truth of this statement. As a poor developing country we cannot afford this malignant cancer. It must be arrested sooner than later and the miscreants who would be convicted should be publicly executed as in China and Saudi Arabia. That should act as a grim and potent deterrent. Unless harsh steps are taken the malignancy will only get worse. It is in our own interest and that of our children’s to create a clean and orderly society, well, as clean as is humanly possible as only saints can overcome human nature.
Arresting bribery and corruption would create some not inconsiderable disorder throughout the country as high and low scurry hither and thither to cover their tracks. Some might even flee the country and we should say: “Good riddance.” To date the body mandated to arrest bribery and corruption has concentrated on the ‘sprats’ whilst letting the ‘whales’ get away. Now is the time to start concentrating on the ‘whales’ and as someone said, we’ll all see the ‘s*it hitting the fan’ as those ‘movers and shakers’ start doing aerobics to escape.
Without ‘A, B, C’ there’ll never be good governance in this country. Let’s do it!!!