“For the powerful, crimes are those that others commit”- Noam Chomsky.
In his 33 years sojourn on earth one debauchery Jesus Christ confronted brutally was hypocrisy and double standards. He used all the strong words to attack the Pharisees on this matter.
What it means is that this human vice is as old as history can remember. From the holy book I present two illustrations from the book of Matthew chapter as a preface to my musing this week. Jesus said “Do not judge or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Similarly, the Jews said to Jesus “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
“Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life off sin.”
The basic moral lesson to note in the two illustrations above is for us to avoid hypocrisy and self- righteousness
The difference between Jesus’s time and now is that if it were now, those sinners would still have stoned the woman and damned the consequences because nobody in our time really wants to be seen as a sinner yet evil is everywhere.
If for instance, former President Goodluck Jonathan, were to be presented today by politicians the way the Jews presented the adulterous woman, his colleague politicians who are equally neck deep in the sin of corruption as him would be the first to cast the first stone all pretending that they never stole public fund in their life.
They would not mind Jesus’s admonition, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
This scenario seems like what is playing out as supporters of former President Goodluck Jonathan take on the former Lagos state Governor Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Tinubu had fresh from mourning the demise of his son and clearly unprovoked, fired a strong but a needless salvo on the former President Jonathan while speaking at a public forum in Abuja last Thursday, Tinubu, had said: “The prior government used the public treasury as a private hedge fund or a charity that limited its giving only to themselves.
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“So much money grew feet and ran away faster than Usain Bolt ever could. That which could have been spent on national development was squandered in ways that would cause the devil to blush,” he said.
Tinubu’s opinion as populist as it may seem at least to anti-corruption activists did not stop former President Jonathan’s attack dogs from hitting back at him.
Jonathan’s irrepressible social media aide, Reno Omokri, described Tinubu’s allegations as baseless and lacking in facts.
In a statement, he said Nigeria moved from 144 to 136 in Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perception Index In 2014 under the Jonathan administration. The index measures perception of public corruption in a country.
“Transparency International observed the Jonathan administration’s fight against the corruption in Nigeria’s fertilizer procurement regime, the use of technology to remove 50,000 federal ghost workers and the speed at which the then President fired ministers accused of corruption or conflict of interests,” he said.
“From that time till today, Nigeria has not made any improvements and has remained at 136 where Jonathan left us because Transparency International deals with facts, not opinions or media trial,” he said.
Omokri added , “we do know that it is a fact that the allegedly corrupt pension thief, Abdulrasheed Maina, was dismissed and declared wanted by the Jonathan administration.”
He also said: “We also now know that it is a fact that the present Attorney General of the federation, Abubakar Malami, met with Maina in Dubai. We know that Mania’s family revealed in a press conference that Maina was invited back to Nigeria by the present government. It is also a fact that Maina was recalled, reinstated and given double promotion by the current administration.
“Moreover, we know from the head of service’s leaked memo that President Muhammadu Buhari was aware of this entire saga.
Perhaps Asiwaju Bola Tinubu mistook the Usain Bolt speed at which Maina was smuggled back into the country and reinstated for the unproven claims of corruption under Jonathan,” Omokri said.
Also in the social media other adherents of Jonathan have taken on Tinubu to explain the source of his alleged ownership of dozens of money making companies as well as his continued overwhelming stakeholdership in Lagos state government. The Jonathan boys are even claiming that Jonathan in reality is more corruption free than Tinubu.
Discerning minds are virtually in agreement that Tinubu as a critical player in this government having seen the mix up and insincerity in the anti-corruption war of the administration in the last two years would have adhered to the injunction of Jesus to the Jews. Especially when he had remained mute at the flirty handling of various corruption cases particularly the case of the fugitive rogue.
“Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones” is a proverb used as advisory against criticism without looking inwards.
There is also this proverbial idiom of pot calling the kettle black used to reprove those who enjoy criticizing person for the same thing they are guilty of.
Our leaders should be circumspect in what they say or do in the public because of the impact on the larger society.
President Muhammad Buhari’s anti-corruption fight is now clogged all because of the double speak and apparent insincerity of the executioners. If crimes are only those others commit, then only the enemy is a criminal. As it does appear now that corrupt Nigerians are today found among the opposition.
As I conclude this musing, I present this interesting humorous dialogue between kettle and pot, which clearly mirrors what is going on between the ruling APC and the opposition PDP on the issue of corruption in our system. Meanwhile as they engage in the hide and seek game, corruption, the cankerworm continues to deepen its root in our polity.
“Oho!” said the pot to the kettle; “You are dirty and ugly and black! Sure no one would think you were metal, Except when you’re given a crack.”
“Not so! not so!” kettle said to the pot; “it’s your own dirty image you see; For I am so clean – without blemish or blot that your blackness is mirrored in me.” God help us.
