A SHAME

The current happenings in the banking sector in Nigeria only serves to add an element of credibility to the way we have always been colored as a people and a nation by the western world. No amount of National branding can clean up the image unless we start cleaning our own dirty cupboards.

The hullabaloo that has followed the N747 billion loans saga only brings to the fore the sheer lack of conscience and high level immorality that exists both in the private and government sectors.

In the past we have heard and made so much noise about high level corruption in government, now it seems we witness a new chapter...the era when the wind blew and we all saw the fowl's y***h.

The sanctimonious ways in which the banking gurus had gone around strutting and negotiating the corridors of economic land mines set by the new banking rules of CBN that ushered in the 25 "mega banks", didn't give anyone a clue as to the deep rottenness and the utter profligacy that goes on behind the scenes.

When Madam Clinton gave her scathing speech on Nigeria during a recent visit, a lot of partisan nationalists raised dust. But, can anyone prove that the level of poverty has not risen from 46% to 70% over the last 30 years, as she claims? Can anyone also present prove that there has not been successive failure at different levels of government over the years?

Even in Lagos where we are witnessing some form of a renaissance, it is a scheme fraught with lots of fraudulent acts....I won't be surprised someday when we get to hear about it.

It is a shame really, but I have always maintained that the country's problems have become so humongous we need divine help. Just like it happened with Abacha...

Like one great politician once said: "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country". But in Nigeria it has been cannibalized and rephrased: "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for yourself."

God help us all!