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The Sweep with Hassan Hassan: Trust as a National Burden

This week I present one of my writings published withthe title above in the past, for the simple reason that there was such an exacttime like today in our life. We are just wasting the time needed to developNigeria on purpose.

Read and see how the living public set back contractors, destructive elements and nayescapists condemning the change in the economic team, close of boarder and the CBN’s new cash-deposit policy actually did the same under the late Yarádua they now praise to escape Buharism.

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You can see that what we need in essence is simply tolook at any policy from the viewpoint of the whole, not from the self, and thatpatience in trust is all we need.

May Buhari survive our nature as a people. Happy read:

“In the wake of national disgrace, soaring prices of

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food items and a dimming future, trust is the single value Nigeria is desperatefor now more than ever before. It is one value we badly need like we need thestolen billions.

Trust is one of few words erased from thedictionary of Nigerian English and we close our eyes to, any time it has reasonto jump into our computer. It has a way of scaring us beyond the sword, like Alqaeda scares George Bush.  Almost every public official and figure, andthe many among the poor do not like inviting trust into their vocabulary.

The word has a way of cutting throats worstthan a sword can. We don’t have much of such a trust value because no one wantsto cut life to it edge. Everyone wants to live lavishly and since trust mattersin this world today are about life and death, no one is interested.

We don’t have trust anywhere in anybody.Some of us cannot trust even our parents, our family and even our selfappointed-confidants. Because none of us got trust, even if you trust anyone,you are likely to be disappointed flat and free for no fine.

In the village when we were kids, youth got a strict and effective social organisation to fine members who tell a lie, steal anything, disrespect an elder, renounce a promise, or breach a trust or confidence.

Members were charged on matters concerningtheir own families as well. For the fear of the fine, not God, errant areconscious of whatever misdemeanour they make. God and the story of heaven andhell were scarce in the village back then.

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We have lost trust along with many valuesto city, globalization and dynamism in life, where the minds are committed togetting rich only above everything. But even in the village, certain socialnorms may not be as strict but are still important and dear to proud villagers.

With all our modernism, village relationsthink we are stupid and mean. We have money, they argue, but we don’t know howto use it to invest in goats and cows. The village is a reference point to mostlife models. The best lecture on investment I listened to is the one that givesthe goat analogy: two goats become two in a year, five in another year, a cowin the next, five cows after and ten cows and so on.

But you see, we can’t forfeit the city, theState capital and the conduct of government and return to the village orentrust same to villagers. The consequences of both can be not be dared. But wenow need to bring the village and its value to direct and inform our lives asindividuals and custodians of public property. The city has erased completelyour decent human senses about the essence of humanity in our individual and collectivelives.

Back to trust. We may have lost trustindividually and as a group, like we have lost personal and public money we nowearnestly want back. We may not likely to succeed if we don’t get back oursense of trust in ourselves and in few fellows who are ahead of us in places wecan’t go.

In the ensuing saga of national disgrace inthe economy, the power probe and increased poverty, I find a national burden oftrusting public affairs conduct heavily thrust on my head. Everything thathappened, and is still happening in the coffers of government is a matter ofpublic trust wrongly given and badly breached.

Central Bank Governor, Charles ChukwumaSoludo, said in a lecture in Jos recently that Nigeria needs 20 trillion nairato “revamp the power sector” in order to meet the 2020 development target.Whether that is true or another attempt to rob us is not the matter, becauserobbing is taking place at the same time secrets are revealed at the Probe bythe same accused.

This is because theft has become a way oflife for most public officials who even as suspects are still entrusted withpublic office and money. The simplest thing anyone can think is to firstsuspend anyone currently in public office who is linked to any scandal.

Charles’ remark was a breach of both ourconfidence and trust. It just shocks to hear from a man who has been in anoffice directly linked to the release of the already trillion naira wasted inthe name of the very power he was talking about, at a time the House powerprobe Committee is giving fresh numbs about how the theft was shamelessly done.

As the signatory to huge releases from theCentral Bank, Charles, linked to the saga or not, should be burying his headunder his desk instead of the shameless acceptance to deliver a universitylecture.

There are many of the Governor’s repute andstatus who should have resigned long time, on the day the egg breaks like thatday the probe opened in one of the committee rooms in the House ofRepresentatives. But because of what all of us think of the idea of probe; thatis named; the need for an efficient energy and general national theft andcorruption, no one is feeling the chilling cold since there is no precedence ofboth resignation and punishment however mild for any determined thief in thepast.

So in losing everything, from nationalmoney to national honour, we turn to who we can trust to take care of ournegotiation for the future. Everything, from the probe to Charles’ neededtrillions for energy, to the men who will oversee the future of that energy, who to trust now is more important thaneven getting Obasanjo and the names behind the fake firms return the stolenbillions. Waste must not only be arrested now but the future must be guaranteedby putting trustworthy persons in, if not all offices, at least in sensitiveones which are direct to our live and image.

When Honourable Dimeji Bankole finallydropped the Patricia like- minds from the committees in the House, I firstthought of the mandate of the few persons of honour who are helping us with theinvestigations into the power loot. But I was actually more concerned about themany wrong persons doing a lot of wrongs in the wrong places. There is more ofsacking we need in most of the places now than the pretence we are constructingabout all that is happening.

We can trust Bankole for standing theselfish pressures calling for the dissolution all these months and for givingdifferent persons to show their best to the House and the country. We can trustthe dissolution since we trust the Speaker that reconstituting the committeesis necessary for the future in the face of the current wind of unpredictabletrends.

But can we trust who will come up in thecommittees in the face of Mr. Speakers open policy of appointment? And will thefocus of probe and good work continue in the right direction? The process ofgetting leaders in the right place is the problem, election or appointment, andif we allow it go this way, we may still get it wrong.

We can trust President Umar Musa Yar’adua whois silent on the naming and revelations at the Probe, but whose mind about suchthings must be clear to many, for his patience in tolerating the imposed andthief ministers and advisers like Joseph Makoju, this long and for his capacityto throw any bad minister out like Grange and Aduku went with the wind. Mr.President has a deepening silence which threatens the guilty more than sacksand orders can. See how his silence sent grange silently.

But can we trust the remaining ministersand those to join with the billions we are making already as a result of theoil price hike to spend commensurate amount for the exact projects. But not allministers and all departments. If habit’s like NAPEP’s audacity to buy 5,000kekes for 450, 000 naira continues, no efforts of Yar’adua, Bankole and thedecent few can turn our life.” End.

We will keep looking back in order to remind us all about the consistency in my writing, how much we have not changed for any better, how every government to come will suffer same attitudes we give it, and why the enemies of the country remain the contractors, their awardees and those of us who play to their contracts.    

See you next week.

Hassan Alhaji Hassan can be contacted on 08032829772/08050551220 (text only with full names and address)a[email protected]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect WikkiTimes’ editorial stance.

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