Thursday, September 07, 2006

Extreme measures

EFCC seizes N7bn assets of INEC dead director
ABUJA — THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has secured a court order, confiscating alleged ill-gotten assets, worth about N7 billion, belonging to a deceased Director of Finance and Supplies of INEC, Pastor Timothy Olufemi Akanni.

The assets include cash in local and foreign currencies; landed properties in choice areas in both Lagos and Abuja; shares in bluechip companies; registered schools, bakeries and expensive cars, among others.
The order was granted ex-parte by the vacation judge, Justice Anwuri Chikere, upon a request by the anti-graft commission on behalf of the Federal Government.
rest of the story

They say we shouldn't speak ill of the dead, but damn it, this guy was greedy and to make matters worse he was a "pastor". Its not as if that counts for anything but it does make you wonder if there's any morality left in our society.
They say Nigeria is the most religious nation in the world. and yet it tops the corruption list

Makes you wonder if religion and corruption go hand in hand in Nigeria....

But we shouldn't be surprised; it just goes to prove that in the Nigerian context when there's a conflict between personal and religious values, personal values will always triumph.

Christianity and Islam can never really change our value systems, its about time the government adopts traditional African measures to reduce the rampant corruption in the country. If people had to swear to ‘sopona’, ‘ifa’ or some other oracle when they assume public positions, i'm sure they'll be scared of stealing large amounts of public funds.

The oath for public office could include something along the lines of "I Alhaji, Cheif, Major general, Pastor etc hereby swear that if i steal a single kobo of public money, sango strike me and all generations of my family down."

A bit extreme but our situation calls for extreme measures...

Quote: Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power. - Eric Hoffer

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