Anna Hazare: Fasting For High Corruption in Nigeria

NDTV has suddenly become my favourite Tv station due to Anna Hazare, a
74 year old who is on a fifteen-day fast to protest high corruption in
his native India.

What a courageous act! I salute his dedication and commitment to
ensuring that the rights of common peoples are not treacherously
subsumed in the gluttony of the kleptocratic few. Corruption no doubt
ensures that what is due to the many ends up in the hands of the few.

Away from India and Anna Hazare, I have been wondering: how many 70+
public figures in my country will go the way of Anna Hazare?

I have taken a census of all of them and arrived at a decision that
most of those that could do that are the ones responsible for the rot
in the system. Of course, not the old men that were calling each other
"fool" and "bigger fool" the other day. There shameless name calling
just made our national problem obvious to me: WE NO LONGER HAVE
LEADERS WHO HAVE REAL SHAME!

A leader who has shame will not plunder or supervise the deliberate
depletion of the common wealth of the people put in his or her
custody. And as if that is not enough, they insult us with persistent
denial of any wrongdoing. Based on these, no Nigerian politician part
or present has the moral impetus to go the way of Anna Hazare because
their hands are soiled. Not only because they took from the till but
also due to their endorsement of stealing through silence as their
friends and cronies stole the country blind.

What about the academics? The 70+ Nobel Laureate has done so much
already. Do we have the right to demand this of him? What about the
internationally acclaimed novelist that has abandoned us? The very one
who has done nothing other than to permanently run into exile? Who am
to even judge? What have I contributed? I would have gone on hunger
strike myself, but who will listen to me? Countless Nigerians are
hungry not because of protest but because there is no food. No one is
looking at them.

I say it again as I have always said, it is not the youths that have
failed this nation. It is rather the generation born in the 1930s,
1940s and even 1950s. They are the ones that gained the best of this
nation and are giving us the worst. They are the ones that went to
school on scholarships, travelled abroad without hassles, had jobs
waiting for them on graduation, enjoyed the benefits of functional
public utilities as youths. And have in turn vandalised our chances of
ever seeing a fraction of what they enjoyed. Shame on you, failed
leaders! You should all go on hunger strike to rectify the rot you
created.

We're tired of stories of how good it was when you were younger. We
want you to give us a better present like your fathers have you. Look
at Anna Hazare and be wise! Shameless fools! Go and buy shame if you
don't have one!

Dad and Mom, you two are special. You taught me the virtues of living
in the home of an honest pauper than that of a corrupt rich fellow.
For this, you and other honest folks like you are honourable and we
are proud of all of you.

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