“In The Two Bags, Fable tells a short story. “According an ancient lore, every man is born into the world with two bags suspended from the neck, one in front and one behind, and both are full of faults. But the one in front is full of his neighbour’s fault; the one behind full of his own. Consequently, men are blind to their own faults but never lose sight of their neighbours”
July 8, 2020, news/editorial
Yes, there is something in our national sphere that pushes some of our brightest leaders in power to unimaginable end. They start well and end badly. This has been the phenomenon in Nigeria. Certainly, it is a bad commentary that must not be condoled at all, because, it’s a sign of total retrogression- that a country like ours cannot produce men and women we can entrust our national assets to. Too bad.
In the past, some of our elites entrusted with public trust on our collective resource ended up with disgrace, because they could not resist and fled from materialistic temptation. The former acting Chairman of Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu has again joined the leagues of unworthy servant, who betrayed national trust.
He was the hunter, hunting the bush meat with total hate and selective in the crusade against corruption. His ordeal is now being liken to the favourite music stars, Olanrewaju Fasasi, popularly known as Sound Sultan’s song, titled, ‘ole’. The lyrics “see, one day, bush meat go catch the hunter, one day, bush meat go catch the hunter…” That was the case of Ibrahim Magu, , who was seen as a saint and disinterested fighter against the real thieves, looting the country’s resource and parading themselves as Nigerian litany of saints. Although, he tried his best, but ended up with the maxim in a book titled, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born by a Ghanaian Writer, Ayi Kwei Armah, Published in 1968.
Magu has been the acting Chairman for five years without confirmation from the Senate, something very hard to comprehend, but that is Nigeria, where everything is possible. Magu acted like a supreme officer, without control, but forgotten that power only intoxicate for a while. His problem started when he saw himself as “ All powerful and disregarded the power of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, who the EFCC should be reporting to, but Magu saw himself again as a ‘Rambo”
Sadly, Mr. Malami’s memoir on allegation of fraud nailed him in a shameful manner. It could be recalled that the AGF, accused the former acting EFCC boss of diversion of recovered loot to insubordination and misconduct, alleged accounting gaps or discrepancies of figures concerning the recovered assets, lack of transparency in the management of recovered assets, disclosing a total naira recovery of N504 billion but lodged N543 billion in the Recovery Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), exceeding the disclosed figures by N39 billion, blatant display of arrogance and insubordination against Malami.
Thisday Newspaper had reported few weeks ago that, one of the sources who spoke with select journalists on Magu’s survival said “I can authoritatively tell you that though Magu has survived previous plots to remove him, the AGF’s legal opinion remains the deadliest plot to get Magu out of the EFCC as AGF’s letter to the president contained 22 weighty allegations that require Buhari’s decision on whether or not to send Magu’s name to the Senate for confirmation or replace him….. This is because the office of the AGF is the supervising ministry of the EFCC and so his legal opinion cannot be treated with levity”
Indeed, Magu’s sack is a welcome development, and would serve as a lesson to others who see themselves as mighty and most powerful. The former EFCC acting boss saw himself as unblemished man without a stain, so, was always diagnosing political enemies back and at the end, no concrete evident for courts to rely to dispense justice. Today, his back has been watched and spotted. No wonder in an Aesop Fable, titled, ‘The Two Bags’, reminds us of our inefficiency and imperfection of our existence, but always fast to nail others. In The Two Bags, Fable tells a short story. “According an ancient lore, every man is born into the world with two bags suspended from the neck, one in front and one behind, and both are full of faults. But the one in front is full of his neighbour’s fault; the one behind full of his own. Consequently, men are blind to their own faults but never lose sight of their neighbours” We are therefore constrain to trade with caution on our daily activities and do our work diligently with the fear of God, without any element of self-enrichment.
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