"There Is No Corruption But Mere Stealing In Nigeria"

In choosing the topic of this piece, care was taken not to sound overtly sensational because for many, this was a long concluded issue without ambiguity or doubts whatsoever. Which is, Nigeria is a corruption personified country.

In fact, Nigeria is regarded as one of the most corrupt nations in the world. This should be no news but, what is however news is when this particular statement was credited to the Nation’s Commander-in-Chief, President Goodluck Jonathan that “There is no corruption but mere stealing in Nigeria” during the last Presidential Media Chat.

That statement was not only alarming, upsetting and disquieting. It was simply terrifying. I tried finding an excuse for the President, but to no avail. Was the President tongue in cheeked? Certainly not, that would be un-presidential. Or don’t you think so? Let give it to him that he meant to say something different. Are we not too generous here?

Back to the subject matter, maybe the President was right after all. But come to think of it, what is the difference between corruption and stealing? Are they not the same?

Are they? Maybe the English Dictionary can help us out. Stealing “simply means to take something that belongs to someone else illegally or without the owner’s permission”. While “corruption refers to dishonest exploitation of power for personal gain”. Its pertinent to state that both words had many definitions but I took the first of each definitions. We can all agree that they are similarity but HUGE difference exist between both. Semantics or Nomenclature we have gotten what we wanted.

Wait a minute, are we forgetting the case of the Minister of Petroleum Mrs Diezani K. Alison-Madueke and billions used in maintaining private jets.

Maybe this is mere stealing and not corruption.

Is this government fighting corruption at all? How can you cure or treat a disease when you have not accepted the existence of such in your body? You feel some signs, a doctor diagnose, and you get treated. In this case, they said there is no corruption. Little wonder, former United State’s Secretary of State in a public interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts, lambasted Nigerian government, in her words, “They have squandered their oil wealth, they have allowed corruption to fester and now they are losing control of parts of their territory because they wouldn’t make hard choices” These are not my words. I rest my case.

Source: Legit.ng