Prince Timothy Ofuegbu is a journalist and a social crusader against the menance of corruption ravaging the country at all levels, his return of 3.7 million naira mistakenly paid into his account and his life of proven integrity recently fetched him an award. In this interview with the media he spoke passionately on the need for punitive measures to drastically reduce corruption among leaders and the masses. Excerpts of the interview:
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YOU SPOKE SO MUCH ABOUT CORRUPTION AND ITS RAVAGING EFFECTS ON THE COUNTRY
If the head is rotten, the whole body will also be rotten, the greatest problem of this country is leadership, the second problem is leadership, the third problem is leadership till it gets to number ten and to number hundred. If we have a leader in this country that can come up boldly and say, go all over Nigeria and the world where I have corrupt properties and money expose me, I will resign or kill me, others will follow but if we have leaders – governors, senators, house of representatives members, ministers that are appointed or heads of agencies and departments and there is competition in embezzlement and what they will take home, there will be corruption. It is only in Nigeria that you will see a civil servants that are driving a car worth 100s of millions, what is the salary? nobody will ask any questions.
WHAT IS THE WAY OUT
The way out is probity, the way out is openess, the way out is you members of the press like in the days of late Dele Giwa to do your investigative journalism and expose these people. If the people in leadership are not leading by example, talk from today till tomorrow. Infact let me tell you that all the people that are waiting to be governors, waiting to be ministers, waiting to head one parastals or the other, I call them looters in waiting, do they truly care to serve you and I? Is it a joke that they pay leap service to corruption and greed? The judiciary is making matters worst, somebody will be captured with enough evidence, look at the efforts of ICPC, EFCC and the police will do everything and will present the person for prosecution but the judge of magistrate will say that he is bailing the person based on self recognition and the case will die a natural death, nothing will happen again. So there is no law and order, if we have punitive measures for people who are corrupt, who are grabbing everything, who are mismanaging our resources, who said that NNPC will not sell fuel cheaply. Even this government mentioned subsidy scam, so much money, trillions of naira going into subsidy but they did not mention any name, is it not a joke, can it happen in any other country? Bandits are snapping pictures, doing tiktok, an emir was kidnapped and they made telephone conversation with the family demanding one billion naira, they did not give them the money till they killed him and started demanding 60 million naira to release the body to the family for appropriate burial. All these things were done with telephone in a country where every number is registered, where we have national identification number, in a country where they know where these bandits are hiding, negotiate with them. If we have a country where the directors, supervisors, top official’s own children schooling abroad and you have universities where they struggle to pay lecturers. Some lecturers do not even have laptops, some students in the university not primary school are sitting on bare floor to receive lecturers. The leaders destroyed the refineries so that they can build their own private refineries, they destroy hospitals where they were born so that their wives and cronies can build their own hospitals, they destroy the universities they attended so that their wives, their side chics and their family members will build their own private schools. Everything that is sopposed to be free for our own common wealth have been destroyed so that the people in government will provide alternatives. So many people will consider Nigeria a joke until the day that we will rise up and use some people as examples, others will sit up, so the way out is a strong judiciary that is up and doing, that will dispense judgement and punish offenders, security that will not be bias, let the police be police as we have police in other nations and the citizens that are honest, market women, market men, drivers, any person has a role to play to make Nigeria to be a country where there is peace, justice and integrity.
YOU ARE CELEBRATED AS MAN OF INTEGRITY, WHAT MESSAGE DO YOU HAVE FOR YOUR TYPE OF PEOPLE OF INTEGRITY
When the 3.7 million naira was paid into my account two months ago, I knew it was not my money, from my christian faith, it cannot be miracle money, I did not work for it, nobody was sending me money, I did not render any service, no business was done, so when it came I knew it was not my money, so I had to trace the owner and return the money to him. I want all our leaders to return the money that they have stolen, that is what I am saying, if you are a civil servant the 20 percent, the 30 percent you have stolen, return it. Do you know God will judge everybody, nobody is going to the grave with any material thing and all these things you are using the money cripples, blind, lame, less privilege to train your children, Allah or God, Oluwa, Chukwu or what you call the God you are serve may decide to visit these your generation with terrible diseases because people are not happy with you.
People do not fear God, they will go to Mecca every year, go to Jerusalem every year, go to Rome, what do they learn from there? Nothing, they are not ashamed that they go to such places and are not seeing how over five million people will go there every year and nobody will be kidnapped, all of them will be accommodated and there will be no robbery. You go to Rome, you go to Jerusalem, you see organized security, light 24 hours yet you are paying them hundred billion naira every year to go and look at those things. God is every where. I am celebrating those in leadership who refuse to take other people’s money, money of all Nigerians, all my fellow citizens whether the taxi driver or the gateman. Imagine a gateman in the bank that is been paid forty thousand naira, I read his story, seeing him live today my heart was filled with joy, for a gateman to return ten thousand U.S. dollars means that there is hope for this country.
