My brother, we all thought that we had reached the deepest parts of the abyss; that there could be no more ‘’breaking news’’ in the ‘ministry of corruption’ at the federal level. Yes. Most acts of corruption at the state level get papered over easily by news media. Yes. The governor who spends N1.5 billion on fuelling the cars in his office does not get any mention; the one who spends N10 billion on constructing five kilometres road to nowhere usually escapes public scrutiny. The assumption is rife that the most egregious acts of corruption are being perpetrated out there in Abuja, not here in our village; not in this city where government-owned hospitals have become mortuaries!
Until 2022 when the news ‘broke’. Breaking news, you would recall, are usually evil ones. They are labelled ‘’breaking news” simply because of their potential to disrupt your sanity, bring the unfamiliar to the familiar and upset your peace and emotion. The man whose duty it was to protect our nation’s book of accounts was caught having stolen monies generations before him would never have thought that a sane man would dare to steal and appropriate unto himself. But again, this is Nigeria – the land of the possible!
That compatriot of yours of mine took over one hundred billion naira from our national coffers and maintained his calmness and serenity! Eventually, he was caught. Eventually, he is being prosecuted. But these are no more news.
The news that ‘broke’ a week ago that I chose not to believe was that despite the egregious crime of theft and payola preferred against that compatriot of yours, he has been ‘honoured’ with a traditional title by the king of our village. He is now a Chief, if you know what I meant!
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In other words, up till this moment, I am in a state of denial; I refuse to entertain the possibility that a traditional chief in this state of learning and Islamic heritage would attempt to deodorize criminality by bringing a suspect to infest the serenity, the ambience and royalty of the palace with his persona of lucre and insuperable infidelity! In fact, I am praying! I pray that the news should turn out to be false!
Brethren, to which of the three identified groups in Aylah community do you belong? Do you belong to the camp of the rebels; those who reject the injunctions of Allah; those who constantly dare the Almighty to visit them with any retribution if He so wishes?
Or do you belong to the second group – the models, the exemplars; those who not only stand in obeisance to the will of their Creator by not engaging in acts of corruption but also go further to enjoin others to do same?
Or do you belong to the third group that emerged within the Aylah community, the tassels: those who would not openly and directly violate the injunctions of the Almighty but are unconcerned about the transgressions of the rebels?
Keep in mind that whenever retributions promised by the Almighty would come both the rebels and the tassels would be affected. Just as the rebels and the tassels in the Aylah community were transmuted into baboons, the divine punishment would be visited on the perpetrators of evil and their compradors who stood by as evils were being committed. Keep in mind therefore that enjoining righteousness and forbidding evil is wajib: it is an obligatory duty on all believers, male and female.