…Tunji Braithwaite and the Snake

By Joseph Edgar…

Those of us who were old enough to witness the politics of the second republic would remember Mr. Braithwaite very well. He busted into the scene with a revolutionary approach and talked about snakes and rodents. He wanted us to perish the lot with the insecticide of transparency and good governance. He was unrepentant in his hatred of the rodents which he truly believed were the cause of the malaise we were then facing and are still facing. Like everything Nigerian we laughed at him, derided his unique outfits and even scorned his beards which gave him a clean aristocratic look.

Pity the gentleman, died just a few years ago not living long enough to see what the rodents he was apparently talking about are doing in our national life. Even in his revolutionary elements he would not have fathomed the fact that these rodents which he spoke of in the ephemeral would really come to life to ransack our economy and way of life. Just a few months ago, real life rats ransacked our dear President’s office and much more recently a real life Snake appeared and ate up N36m. if Braithwaite was alive today I am sure he will die again from the shock.

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But my people, this is the bane of our anti-corruption story. This lady who had the guts to bare-facedly tell us that her maid told her of a Snake is actually taunting those who are pursuing the fight against corruption. She is daring them to come after her and laughing from both sides of the mouth or how else can you explain this kind of situation.

Of all the stories that we have heard, this is the most ridiculous. We have heard of stack of funds, just appearing at the airport, billions used just for grass cutting and hordes appearing in a flat in Ikoyi but a Snake eating up currency must be the height of indolence. This is the system calling all 180million of us fools.

It is ironic that this is happening in an institution that has been receiving accolades recently for its massive revenue generating performance in the face of a past infamy. That this amount of raw cash can be kept loosely for a snake to eat shows the level of regulatory and supervisory looseness entrenched in the system and if you ask me, I will make bold to say, that this was a brazen attempt by its officials to steal the money and this lady got greedy taking it all for herself and daring them to do their worse. Yes, they did their worst by merely suspending her without handing her over to the authorities.

Our dear EFCC has jumped into the matter and I am sure they will get to the bottom of it all. The annoying thing in all of this is not even in the theft but in the boldness in trying to explain the action. Telling us a snake, a snake!!!!. And to continue to rub injury on our collective insult. The spokesman now queries us for trivialising the issue with all manner of jokes. What else can we do when we find the whole thing is so incredulous but laugh.
This JAMB people have really pushed the boundaries of ineptitude, there is no more to say or do.

 

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