Avoiding corrupting practices in anti-corruption campaigns

Anti-corruption rhetoric and dramatics are now very popular in Nigeria. I totally support campaigns to rid this country of corruption but I also insist that such campaigns must carried with the right level of professionalism, detachment, neutrality, integrity and honesty. Anything short of these is plain dishonest. Anything short of these really amounts to the continued enthronement and celebration of corruption in efforts to combat it. where anti-corruption are not neutral, detached and honest, then they are likely to abuse their powers and influences, applying inconsistent rules and procedures in their treatment of persons and agencies. Double standards also represent critical threats to anti-corruption campaigns as they throw up different evaluations and reactions for the same behaviour. Such practices, where they occur, amount to corruption! 

Here are a few reflections on this subject matter.

• Double standards are outcomes of corrupt thinking. A nation of double standards will thus remain corrupt. 
• You cannot have one set of scales for persons in one party & another for persons in the other. Such a habit results from a corrupt mind set.
• If you practice selective hysteria for allegations of corruption against persons in one party, then your mind is gradually being corrupted.
• If you practice selective targeting in your campaigns against corruption, then your campaign is already steeped in corruption.
• Anti-corruption practices must be fair. They must be conducted without any trace of favoritism or fear. Fail to do these and the campaign fails
• To be credible, anti-corruptions must be consistent, even handed and transparent. They must be devoid of all forms of double standards.

When Body and Beauty fade

By

Noel Ihebuzor

Prompted by a poem by Nomzi Kumalo

Peel away all
layer by layer
strip bare, bare
the peripherals
to the till of the core!

Can you hear the core still hum
do you feel the peal of the core
in the still of new time
– if YES, then it was worth it all!

Balancing and balancers

By Noel Ihebuzor


Unbalanced wailers in quest for balance wailed, wept sore, till "I don't care" said, things go change, your balance turn go soon come,

Revealing Unravellings

By Noel Ihebuzor 

Fanciful filas cover crowns filled with fetid filth, sleaze, rot and scum

and we watched

and we lauded

and we wowed

Runts grew big guzzled funds like pigs 

in hot rut

The arrogance of ignorance

Installed ignorance wafts rancid fart fragrance loud, 

excessive in self assurance clad in gaudy arrogance

What is the Measure of Success?, Articles | THISDAY LIVE

What is the Measure of Success?, Articles | THISDAY LIVE

Nigerians Should Appreciate Jonathan's Deeds – Bishop Kukah PT2

Stop reminding us how PDP ruined Nigeria, start work - Bishop tells Buhari - DailyPost Nigeria

Stop reminding us how PDP ruined Nigeria, start work - Bishop tells Buhari - DailyPost Nigeria

Achievements and their claimants

It is amazing how much we can "ACHIEVE" when we define our targets with such looseness and when we bring down the bar of metrics to very low points. When we do that, waking up becomes an achievement and brushing one’s teeth becomes a super achievement. In a climate of loose definitions and lowered expectations, leaders in search of achievements to celebrate do not need look too far. Visiting a school becomes an achievement. Receiving a group of citizens is celebrated with the same panache reserved for the discovery of a new economic theory. It should therefore not surprise that our new kid on the block has ACHIEVED so much because of the slack targets & loose indicators that his media team and supporters have been and are still pushing for him. But those who must claim or sell achievements should first read up impact, causal theory, logic models and attribution theory. Claiming trivia and the mundane as achievements simply trivializes serious business and the claimants. Worse still, claiming responsibility for the success of events conceptualized, planned, nursed and "ante-natal cared’ for by another before your arrival is plagiarism. Hoha!

Noel

Should politicians be held accountable to deliver on promises they made during campaigns?

The campaign period is a time when aspiring politicians sell themselves and their programs to the electorate. These programs lay out what a politician will do if given the mandate he or she seeks. Given that governance is a serious issue, these programs are not plucked out of the air nor do they represent exercise in levity, dishonest marketing or display of naivety. The programs spelt out by politicians are important in that they guide the electorate in its decision making process on who to vote for. In other words, voters take politicians' programs as assurances of what to expect from the person who is making the promises should he or she win. Since the promises and pledges are freely and responsibly made, voters are right and justified in expecting their delivery once the successful politician assumes office. The politician is thus accountable for promises made and must be judged by how much he or she keeps faith with these pledges and promises. Backtracking on these promises and pledges in the absence of any demonstrable force majeure is proof of irresponsibility, deceit and unreliability.

Initial thoughts on the "growth" of corruption

Every corruption proceeds from the mind. Every observed corruption is preceded by an internal invisible corruption - the corruption of the mind. Out of the abundance of the mind, the body acts, the mouth speaks and valuations are made. Corrupt minds spew out corrupt valuations and churn out corrupt and corrupting comments.

The corruption of the mind is by slow accretion but yet its effects are so pernicious and pervasive. Onset is quiet and often unnoticed. Triggers are many and diverse but manifestations are most times alarmingly similiar - a backsliding on erstwhile moral and ethical postures and a willingness to accommodate  what we would normally have abhored. When we start to accommodate things we once condemned, when we start making excuses for acts that are universally condemnable, when we start to provide justifications for evil actions that shock all, then we should become wary. We should become wary because corruption's moral dimming software is gradually installing itself in our minds. Further installations may result in our failing to recognise what is bad and in statements to the effect that our recollections of evil done or our criteria for identifying evil have become confused. Final stages of this affliction is the death of conscience - a true tragedy indeed because with the death of conscience, a man or a woman dies. I have watched this happen to great men and women, and sadly also witnessed the death of my respect for such men and women.