By Jerome-Mario Chijioke Utomi –
Any economy that has gone down anywhere in the world was revived by lawyers. So, if you want to wake up the country, you hand it over to a lawyer. Buhari was sick for about one hundred and ten days, and he handed over this country to Osinbajo to run, oil production rose astronomically in that period, all the banditry and Boko Haram went on holiday for that period until Buhari came back.
Continuing, Barr.Egede, the SuperSaver Boss stressed that if you put a lawyer in charge of the nation, you find peace, you find prosperity. Why? Society is a product of law. It sets boundary for everybody. If a lawyer cannot regulate the society, nobody can regulate it. Before, there was the reign of myth where it is said that myth is right. That was an era. Then law came, law set boundaries. The boundary for nations, for kingdoms, for society, for individuals from one plot to another, they are all set by law. Ownership of property is set by law. Regulations of behaviors from one human being to the other are set by law. If you remove the law, there is no society. You know what the economy of the United States of America was when Obama took over? Just name it anywhere in the world, if the economy is so bad, give it to a lawyer, you find the difference in six months.
At this point, he said something worth listening to; you see, collapse is a systemic thing. You don’t notice when it happens. When we think that breaking the law was something fashionable and we all agreed to be celebrating criminals. I told you that when we were growing up, our parents will always tell us to remember the son of whom we are. And if you are coming back from school, and your mate calls you a thief, you will go home and inform your mother that so and so child called you a thief. Your mother will hold your hand, carry you to their house, the parents will come out and your mother will tell them; please oh, your child called my son a thief on the way from school today. We don’t answer such name in our family. May I know what he stole from you? The parents will apologize and say that it is childish play. Your son did not steal anything and they end it there. And you go back home satisfied.
I did an article sometime ago where I stated that there is no beneficiary of corruption, nobody.
Take as an illustration, a woman is bringing tomatoes from the farm to the market. The Police man stops the truck on the road and says you must give me money. The woman says no I cannot give any money after all I have not even sold anything. And you go and park the truck at the police for four days, half of the tomatoes get decayed before you let the person go. The person will increase the price of whatever that is remaining to recover the money.
That policeman’s wife is going to the market to go and buy it. So the school that has boarding house is going to buy expensive tomatoes from the market will increase school fees to cover up. The Doctor that is going to buy expensive tomatoes will increase medical consultancy to cover up, you find out that the Policeman that took ten naira has created an inflation of over fifty naira for his own family. He will pay more for school, pay more for hospital, pay more for tomatoes and for everything. You find out that your corruption is not enough to make your life better.
Well the way my mind works is that everything that we amount for in live is a product of what we do for people. The moment you look away from the people, and begin to look only at yourself and what you will get. The truth is that the more you look at yourself, the smaller you become. The more you open your eyes to look at the globe, the bigger you become and I will give you an example.
I worked in Obasanjo Group and there, you will hear people tell you that Obasanjo’s money is government money; steal your own.
Somebody employed you and you steal his money, I don’t know what you will become with it because you are biting the finger that is feeding you. If an employer hires you to come and work with him, do the job diligently and collect your salary. If you are not satisfied with the job, you resign. Obasanjo looked at my attitude to work and in three months, I was made a director. I was given a house, I was given a car, I was given a driver, I was given gardener. I was given all the benefits of a director. And that is where merit is respected. They look at your productivity and nobody remembers that you are not from the tribe or the other.
It is not church, it is not school; homes are the place where people are developed. That is the first government that you know. Your character is formed from home. Before you associate in school, you first mimic your parents and what you see them do. So, if your father is in the house, he borrowed money and refuse to pay, each time the owners of the money comes, he will ask you to go and tell them that he is not at home, that parent is raising a liar.
You can’t tell such child that church or school says you should not lie. He has already known that to escape your troubles, you quickly tell a lie. It is ingrained. So, I don’t believe school system so much because I passed through school and I saw what people make of school. If we get ten percent of Nigerians that will be thinking that what value I can add to the next person, Nigeria will be changed. You are the one to change Nigeria and I am the one to change Nigeria. All we need do is making up our minds to improve everybody that comes around us. Whoever we meet, we should make better.
The truth is that Bill Gate became the richest man in the world at a time. How did he get there? He said he suffered to look for computer to do his assignment and he wished that no human being will suffer like that. He wished that there will be computer in every home in the world. And he started struggling to make computer available to every home in the world. And he started struggling to make computer to every home in the world. By the time computer was delivered to the majority of homes in the world, he became the richest man.
He didn’t wake up and say I wish I am the richest man in the world. No. I wish I can end suffering for people. When you just wake and gather money, the question that follows are; how much can you eat? How many rooms can you sleep in? The man who invented penicillin, the man who invented electric bulb, the man that invent telephone and most recently, the man that brought about zoom, were not looking for money. They were looking for what they will do for humanity. All your relevance is measured by what you do for people and thats what you will be remembered for.
When the Endsars started, I did an article, I looked at Endsars, popular as it was; anyone that carries the spirit of God will like to see the end from the beginning. That is the spirit of God in us. I asked; can you use endsars to change government? I didn’t see it coming. This is a democratic government. You don’t have gun, you are not plotting coup, and you are just dancing and eating and drinking at the Lekki tollgate. And when they get tired of your dancing, they just come and kill half of you and the rest will go home. Is that what you want to achieve? The Bible says that there is hope for a tree when it is cut down. At the right time, it will sprout again. You are just attacking the symptoms.
The pavement solution is for all Nigerians to get their Permanent Voters Card (PVC)-reject all the bribes that you will be offered. Identify a good leader and vote for him.
Take as an example; a lot of people believe that Peter Obi can solve the problem of this country. So all of us that are saying that Peter Obi can solve the problems, if Peter Obi goes to Labour Party for instance, and we all follow him, he will not need a godfather anymore . So if we now begin to look for people that will share for you and then leave the man you believe will solve the problem, why must you blame anybody if at the end the problem is not solved. So I say everybody should forget tribe, location and religion and say; oh we have identified the man that can solve this problem. He has done it somewhere before. He has shown that he is not money minded. That he is not interested in money. So, can we gather and put him there. He doesn’t need to go to the major political parties where godfathers will hold him hostage.
If you look at Anambra state for example, Peter Obi was the Governor in that state. And today, he has finished his tenure and goes about everywhere sharing his testimony; I didn’t owe pensioners, I didn’t owe peoples’ gratuity, I didn’t owe salaries, I didn’t owe any contractor and I have this amount left in the state’s account and he can go anywhere to say it. Has he become poor? Obiano just left the same position, is it the same testimony?
A lawless person will pursue blessing forever. But when you live within the confines of the law, blessings will pursue you and overtake you. He concluded.
Utomi is the Programme Coordinator (Media and Public Policy), Social and Economic Justice Advocacy (SEJA), Lagos. He could be reached via;jeromeutomi@yahoo.com/08032725374.