Abuja — There is now no doubt that corruption breeds national poverty. Studies conducted across the world have shown that bribery, fraud, favouritism and cronyism all breed and deepen poverty in the society. It is now clear that many otherwise rich countries including Nigeria are poor mainly because development resources are daily withdrawn from the commonwealth through corrupt practices. Corruption usually results in scarcity of funds for schools, healthcare and infrastructure. Unfortunately, it is the ruling elite who are guilty of this sort of dis-honesty.

The elite hold the nations destinies in their hands since they control all factors of political influence and economic production. In sane countries, this class is comprised of the brightest, wisest and the richest. But in Nigeria, the rulers are mainly plunderers and ten percenters. While other countries are being built-up by their elite, ours contribute to our ruin! They, the leaders and their collaborators bear a major portion of the blame for the mess our country has become. All the major crimes and misdeeds that have plunged our beloved country and our people into poverty and beggarliness are perpetrated by them. They are the ones who aid capital flight. No commoner has any capital, not to talk of flying anywhere with it. No area boy receives commission not to talk of aiding graft. No unconnected Nigerian has access to the resources required to rig elections or hire thugs. Who can arm and retain those murderous militia, if not the elites? They are the ones who use the talakawa to settle economic or political scores.

Our elite have wrecked our beloved country and brought us all to ruin. They have subverted public morality with the gains of their corruption. Despite the overwhelming evidence against some governors for instance, they still enjoy some political support because they use the proceeds of corruption to further subvert the moral tone of society. These fellows have sacrificed the collective future of our country for mere pieces of gold. They have sold the entire nation in exchange for homes in America and Europe. They keep the London real estate market buoyant. Their deposits ensure profitability of Swiss banks. All our local factories are shut while their insatiable desire for foreign goods, keep many an alien factory afloat. They have ruined our schools with bald policies. They have turned our university graduates into bus drivers. Our people die. They die of inadequate medication yet money for drugs have been disbursed. Money for hospital equipment has been remitted but the people die because the elite have embezzled the money. The leaders have connived amongst themselves to take our very lives from us. Even garri we may not buy, since our salaries are too small to fetch us anything. But we see them with rosy cheeks and robust frames. They eat bread and eggs and drink cognac. Our children may not know the taste of milk and may never have the privilege of baked beans.

Our people drown themselves in Ogogoro just to forget and overlook the sad faces of the hungry children. The bloated stomachs of our children that speak to us of malnutrition we learn to ignore. The elite build palaces and mansions in Victoria Island, Maitama and other such places, and withhold infrastructure from the areas where the poor majority live. Our homes have no room and no lights yet generators resound everywhere because they have killed NEPA. Our people cannot even do their petty businesses because there is no electricity to do so. Our people die daily in road accidents because they have stolen even the money for road maintenance. What kind of people will steal even the money for roads that they themselves will have to pass on? They have all the trappings of wealth, but inwardly, they are poor and mean and we cannot but laugh at them.

These rulers, they have corrupted the entire nation. They have no values, they have no honesty, and they have no love for their fellowmen. If they had, why will they decree that we earn so little when our country is so rich? If they had wisdom, why would they squander the money while the people hunger? Why do they build houses with so many rooms when they can only sleep in one room at a time? Why do they buy so many expensive clothes and jewellery, if it is not to cover their emptiness and weakness? They dress themselves in gold and diamond; damask and brocade; lizard skin and ostrich skin and mount rostrums and exhort the people to tighten their belts. They ask the people to manage while they themselves engage in non-stop enjoyment. Our leaders, they make us laws to govern our conduct but they live above their own laws. They pretend to fear God but they swim in evil. They have squandered our resources and our opportunities, yet they want to continue pull the strings even when they have left office. We have been turned into a beggar nation and a dumping ground of low quality goods, while the factories that would have provided the much need employment for the people are idle. Every day we hear of billions and trillions coming in from sale of oil yet there is no economic growth. We hear of contract awards, but no real development. What do we have to show for umpteen years of independence but fat, over fed elite classes? They have no shame.

They have all become vain and conceited. How much longer can they continue to live in opulence while the people wallow in poverty? They have a chance to act now, to reverse the excesses of these past decades, or face class revolt. They must lead the fight at putting things right. Let them change now before it is too late, or our poverty can become their doom. Let them learn from history or be condemned by it. History teaches that NO NATION WHERE THE PEOPLE ARE MISTREATED SO BRAZENLY HAS EVER BEEN AT EASE. The rich can never rest, when the masses are hungry and without hope or housing! Each frustrated or pauperised Nigerian is a potential social bomb waiting to explode! All those so-called miscreants terrorising the cities and the villages alike are simply by-products of an unfair society.

I humbly ask the rulers to think on these. Nigeria is rich enough to provide reasonably for all its citizens. This nation can provide work for all tits people. But that can happen only when the leaders stop their looting and become genuine in the real sense of the word. The time for deceitful and pretenders in power is over. We now know better.