OPINION: “Degoatification” and the dilemma of a yam plunderer
By Ahmed Musa Husaini
You see; it is always good to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, to take a look at the other perspective.
So I was thinking, if you happened to steal our yams, benefited from the illegal yam-bazaar, or accidentally stumbled upon illegally acquired yams at any point in the era of the great yam-plunderer of Otuoke, and you now fear that the long arm of justice will surely – even if slowly – catch up with you in this era of the great witch-hunter of yam-plunderers and treasury witches…
What would you do?
You have only one option: switch your political allegiance to the reigning side of the political divide and secure yourself an immunity from prosecution and guarantee your place at the next plundering table.
But what if you are dealing with a regime that belongs to everybody and belongs to nobody and therefore determined to “de-goatify” you irrespective of your political affiliation? Meaning; that your date with the EFCC and the courts is merely a matter of time? Meaning; you are some Olisa Metuh, Fani Kayode or Ayo Fayose?
What would you do?
You have only one further option: return the yam before the new sheriff in town comes for treasury rats like you, before the “degoatification” process reaches your slum.
But what if those stolen yams are irretrievably devoured to satisfy your insatiable greed and can no longer be fully accounted for?
What then would you do?
You have only one further option: ramp up criticisms against the government, try to label it dictatorial and tyrannical and discredit its “degoatification” crusade through misinformation, so that when your day with the EFCC and the courts finally arrives, you will cry political persecution and claim that only critics like you are being harassed, hoping that some fools – who ironically are the first direct victims of your yam plunder – will believe you and protest at your travails.
And if you are lucky to be some Olisa Metuh who is fortunately the spokesman of the yam-plunderers, or some Fani Kayode who was twice successful in goading two regimes (Obasanjo and Jonathan) into political patronage, or some Ayo Fayose whose immunity still runs until 2018, the future is not as bleak as it appears.
But with a new sheriff in town that does not succumb to political blackmail as his predecessors, body of evidence and a public opinion that are staggeringly against you, and a possibility that you can still face “degoatification” post-2018 after your immunity expires, then the future is not as hopeful as you believe.
Head or tail, there is no respite for yam-plunderers!
I only hope by the time this “degoatification” process runs through its successful course, if you shout “Chai!,” there won’t be any yam-plunderer out there to echo “diaris god.”
The views expressed in this article are exclusive to its author..
