AMIDST the scare created by the Pandemic, there are two other buzzwords that continue to cadge the headlines. These are ‘corruption’ and ‘accountability’. Open any newspaper and these two are always there staring one in the face.
What appears obvious is that those in power are in general agreement that ‘corruption touched new heights during the previous administration’ and that ‘something needs to be done about it’. This is where everyone comes up against a solid wall. What is direly needed is the ability to peep over this proverbial wall.
There are, in addition, vague noises calling for the need to carry out what has come to be known as ‘accountability’. The moot question is: who is to go about it and in what way? At this stage, a short trip down the memory lane may perhaps be in order. Corruption, per se, has been endemic in this blessed land from day one.
The personae may be ever changing but the cancer has always been there. There are no two opinions that the bureaucracy we inherited after independence was, by all counts, the ‘pioneer’. This went on, until the bureaucracy found it expedient to share the spoils with other groups.
Since that time, efforts to curb corruption have at best been superficial and cosmetic. The objective of the powers-that-be in their campaign against corruption has, too often, been clumsy attempts to mollify public opinion rather than to root out the malaise. With the benefit of hindsight, it is now possible to chart out t.
