Nigeria’s Corruption Problem Starts From the Home, Not Aso Rock – Banji Alabi
Nigeria’s Corruption Problem Starts From the Home, Not Aso Rock – Banji Alabi
…..Says The Corruption We Condemn in Leaders Is Often Practised in Our Homes….
DON’T BLAME TINUBU — YOU ARE THE PROBLEM.
Every Nigerian Is Corrupt Or Potentially Corrupt
Let us tell ourselves the bitter truth we have been running from.
We love to shout: “The President is the problem! Governors are thieves! Senators are corrupt!”
That is a convenient lie. A sweet excuse to sleep well at night.
The harder truth is this: Government House did not fall from the sky. The men inside it came from YOUR street, YOUR church, YOUR mosque, YOUR family meeting. They are not aliens. They are your brothers, your uncles, your classmates, your former school prefects. They are not different from us — they ARE us.
We are not angry that there is corruption. We are only angry that the corruption is not yet favouring us.
I. WE ARE ALL GUILTY — IN OUR OWN SMALL CORNER
The politician who steals N10 Billion is corrupt, yes.
But YOU, the policeman who collects N2,000 at the checkpoint to let a trailer of smuggled goods pass — you are corrupt.
YOU, the driver who happily pays it to avoid 5 minutes delay — you are corrupt.
YOU, the civil servant who will not move a single file without “something for the boys” — you are corrupt.
YOU, the youth who abuses leaders on X but defends a known criminal because he speaks your language and comes from your tribe — you are corrupt.
YOU, the voter who sold his children’s future for N5,000 and a bag of rice on election day, then wails for four years — you are corrupt.
The only difference between you and the man in power is OPPORTUNITY AND SCALE. He steals billions because he has access to billions. You steal thousands because you only have access to thousands. Put you on that same chair tomorrow, you will do worse.
II. HOW WE MURDER OUR OWN CHILDREN IN MIRACLE CENTERS
Our worst crime is not in government. It is in what we do to our own blood.
Every June, a strange miracle happens in Nigeria. A child who could not spell “because” in April suddenly has 9 A’s in WAEC in July. A child who failed every class test scores 350 in JAMB.
It is not a miracle. It is fraud. Organized fraud. And we, the parents, are the financiers.
We save, we borrow N150,000, N300,000, N500,000 to pay the Miracle Centre merchant. We drive our children there ourselves. We sit in the car park, praying, fasting, speaking in tongues, while inside, a hired mercenary writes the exam for our child. The invigilator is paid. The supervisor is paid. Answers are on the blackboard.
When the result comes out, we dance. We testify in church. “My child is brilliant!” No, Sir. Your child is not brilliant. You just enrolled him in your school of corruption.
In that one satanic act, you have taught that 16-year-old that honesty is foolishness, that hard work does not pay, that cheating is intelligence, and that everything has a price.
You think you have helped him? You have destroyed him forever. A child who learns to cheat at 15 will rig elections at 30. A child whose mother can buy WAEC will believe his father can buy a Judge, buy the Police, buy EFCC tomorrow. This is where Yahoo Yahoo, drug abuse, cultism and ritual killing begin — not on the street, but in our homes.
III. HOW YOUR SMALL CORRUPTION IS KILLING NIGERIA
That is how your small sin in your small corner moves to kill the whole country.
That boy you helped to cheat in WAEC will graduate as a fake doctor who cannot diagnose malaria. That is why our hospitals have become mortuaries.
He will become the engineer whose 3-storey building collapses in Lagos and kills 20 people. That is why we have no good roads, no good bridges.
He will become the teacher who cannot teach. That is why our children are half-baked.
He will become the pharmacist who imports chalk as Paracetamol and starch as antibiotics and sells it to you. That is why fake drugs, fake drinks, fake engine oil, fake cement, fake spare parts are everywhere. That mother who died after childbirth, that child who died after drinking cough syrup — your Miracle Centre graduate killed them.
He will finally enter government. He never believed in merit, only in buying his way. So when he becomes Commissioner, Governor, Minister, he will do what he was taught from childhood: Inflate contracts, steal the money for roads, hospitals, water, light, schools. That is why there are no social amenities. Not because Nigeria is poor. Nigeria is stupendously rich. YOUR corruption made us poor.
IV. A COUNTRY OF FAKE PRODUCTS BECAUSE WE ARE RAISING FAKE PEOPLE
Look around you. Fake drugs in the pharmacy. Fake drinks in the supermarket. Fake tyres that burst on the highway and kill. Fake certificates in every office.
We are now a nation of fake products because we are deliberately raising fake people.
We complain about bad governance, but governance is only a mirror of the homes and schools that produce the people who govern.
You cannot sow Miracle Centre and reap good governance. You cannot sow fake drugs and reap good health. You cannot sow cheating and reap greatness.
V. THE ROADMAP TO A GREAT NIGERIA — THE REVOLUTION STARTS WITH YOU
No President can save Nigeria. Not Tinubu, not Obi, not Atiku. Only Nigerians can save Nigeria. And it starts with YOU, today.
1. Start From Your House: Swear today that your child will NEVER enter a Miracle Centre. Let him fail honestly than pass fraudulently. An honest F9 is more honourable than a stolen A1.
2. Kill The Small Corruption: Say NO at that checkpoint. Say NO in that office. Refuse to give, refuse to take. It will delay you today, but it will save your children tomorrow.
3. Stop Celebrating Thieves: Stop giving front-row seats to rogues in church and mosque. Stop giving chieftaincy titles to men whose source of wealth you don’t know. Shame the corrupt, don’t worship them.
4. Choose Merit Over Tribe: Employ, admit, and vote for competence, not tribe, church or party. A thief from your tribe is still a thief. He will steal from you too.
5. Be Citizens, Not Complainants: Stop only complaining on WhatsApp groups. Join your Estate Association, your PTA, your professional body. Demand receipts. Ask questions. Hold your small leaders accountable.
Nigeria will not rise when Aso Rock changes. Nigeria will rise when YOU change.
Don’t blame Tinubu. Look in the mirror. You are the problem. And you must be the solution.
A country that raises cheats to be doctors will bury its people with its own hands. Nigeria will not change until Nigerians change.”
Banji Alabi, Esq.
Good Morning Friends
