Records of the Good Book. The corruptible King Uzziah had reigned as a prosperous royalty. For more than 50 years, his control over the kingdom was appalling. Suddenly, the king felt grieved and grieved. His glory without his glory slipped away in an eclipse. He was ostracized as a leper in a hospital. The place became his final abode as a being that breathes, boasts and oppresses. Under a cloud of fire, he breathed his last and died. As a consequence, the heavens opened up over the life of a prophet who had been blinded by the daring demon cloud. Balms were removed from the prophet’s eyes. A man of God with destiny was clearly and undoubtedly capable of seeing God.

In less than 48 hours, the entire world will go from 2022 AD to 2023 AD Many rumbles and shakes are already beginning to take place in the realm of the spiritual. Destinies will be built or destroyed. The lives of humans and nations will change from worse to better, and vice versa. Amid possible prolonged chaos, Nigerians will still keep hope alive. Let me remind you of what Greek mythology teaches about hope. A woman named Pandora was the first goddess created on earth. The day she got engaged to Pandora, she was given a storage box full of all sorts of evils as a wedding gift. And one by one, as she opened the box, all the evils it contained flew free into the world. As the evils poured out, something stirred inside Pandora as she closed her box, leaving an evil trapped inside it. That evil, according to Greek mythology, was hope.

Many Nigerians hope that the pain that has plagued them will soon lessen in intensity. They expect life to get better, food to be more plentiful, roads to be wider and smoother, people’s pockets to fill with money, days to turn rosier, and dreams to come true faster. . The only thing Nigerians have and freely express today is hope. Nigerians’ hope that the country survives and succeeds does not depend on any particular political party promising to save the day. They have heard that song performed in the government choir many times, but without success. The hope of Nigerians is not anchored in a politician who wants gullible, touchy, watery-eyed Nigerians to see him as the messiah who has come to die for the sins of the world.

Ask the Nigerians what they base their hopes on. Some trust God that he is waiting for them to play the part they have refused to play. My people don’t have much understanding of a nation’s corporate freedom struggle. Nigerians are not fighting forces with money and power to fight them. Many have joined the forces of evil. Many are on the waiting list to enlist. They don’t mind picking up the crumbs that fall from the master’s table as they expect. What else do Nigerians pin their hopes on? Some are hoping for a ‘big-bang’ event that, out of the blue, will usher in a new government. What is that event? they don’t know Some aren’t sure what they’re hoping for. They just strongly believe that Nigeria will be changed forever one day. Ask them ‘how’? They won’t be able to tell you. But like the life of the prophet, until Uzziah died, the anointed eyes of the prophet did not see the Lord. Until many things die, many good things that happen to Nigeria will remain a pipe dream.

What represents Uzziah in Nigeria? Many things. Corruption is one. And corruption must die! Corruption as depravity is as old as the country itself. Discussing the nauseating inexpiable absurdity has become so maddeningly supererogatory. The cancer cells of the menace are in a metastatic rage. How many businessmen and women have become billionaires in Nigeria without going through the baptistery of corruption? How many of them dodge taxes, skip levies, dodge mandatory tariffs on imports, and offer and accept large bribes? The default system has nurtured and raised cumshaw presidents/CEOs; commanders-in-chief of the Nigerian gravy train; and crooked capo dei capi of corruption Only in Nigeria do civil servants become billionaires without a track record of where the wind of wealth is blowing. Such a religious and pious nation with splash and splash of churches and mosques, and with millions of Nigerians in a daily mad rush to worship from 4am. However, the many so drenched are in doubt and impropriety.

A few years ago, it was discovered that more than 30 government agencies had not remitted N3.8 trillion of their operating surpluses in the previous five years. The spotlight fell on the Joint Admissions and Registration Board and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Security Agency. And, scared like crazy, and in just nine months in office, JAMB management paid N5bn into federal coffers; and another 3 billion N3 will soon be deposited in treasuries. Every opportunity to serve the Nigerian homeland is now an opportunity to steal while serving. Until many things die, many good things happening in Nigeria will remain a pipe dream.

Greed is another Uzziah that must die. Not long ago, security agencies discovered a gigantic pile of foreign currencies in a fireproof bunker. It belonged to a man. A fleet of new exotic vehicles hidden in the bushes were also unearthed. The vehicles belonged to someone else. Both men were former trusted public office holders. A staggering sum of $9,772,800 and another sum of £74,000 was unearthed in a cache in Kaduna. These two guys are little tadpoles in a huge pool of greed in Nigeria. The large, deadly, poisonous barracudas of greed and the tigers of robbery roam free. Some of them are today holders of public office.

Greed is still the king of the castle in Nigeria. Heinous acts of greed and corruption are obstacles to any government’s efforts to improve the lives of its citizens. In a nation where more than 100 million people go hungry; there is an insatiable chewing of the fattening calories of greed. The fundamentals of the Nigerian economy are still at a standstill. No thanks to the greedy and gluttonous who have wreaked hellish havoc. When a human being brings home about 3,000 million dollars; and another $5 billion from the national treasury; only the ignorant will expect the miraculous in an economy with a plundered stock market. I recently heard that when department heads serve even for a month; they become automatic billionaires. How? Nigeria ranks No. 10 with nearly $2 trillion in illicit outflows from the nation’s treasury. The fanatics of greed have wrapped Nigeria around their fingers. Recent reports from Transparency International, the Berlin-based non-governmental organization established to combat global corruption, said Nigeria is the second most corrupt country in Africa. Nigeria, according to the organization, has experienced a decline in score over the past six years by an average of 0.8 percent. The current system in Nigeria only works for fanatics of greed. Decisively despises and disappoints those who work, suffer, need and hopeless among us. Until many things die, many good things happening in Nigeria will remain a pipe dream.

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