A portion of King Jonathan's meat

As part of the all expensive, pushing N1billion inaugural celebrations for President Jonathan’s new term in office, it is reported that a Presidential Lunch had been organized with selected youths from across the nation. The said meeting as reported was set up to create a parley between the Nigerian President and Nigerian youths. It is also reported that participants of this meeting were rewarded with handsome cash gifts, termed as “transport fare”. N50,000 for participants resident in Lagos, and N100,000 for those from outside Lagos! While the idea of a meeting between the President and youths is surely an honorable idea, yet the payment of such large funds termed as “transport fare” is not only dishonorable, it is tantamount to inducement, a calculated attempt at buying over a vibrant and outspoken youth populace, and it is an expansion of the corruption psyche that pervades Nigeria’s socio-cultural life. It is therefore condemnable on all fronts.

It is time for us in Nigeria to teach ourselves the truth which could never be compromised. What is the difference between a gift, a bribe, and an inducement? According to the legal and financial dictionaries, the definitions go thus:

GIFT: is an asset of any kind that an individual transfers to another individual while neither receiving nor expecting anything in return.

BRIBE: is a gift or promise, which is accepted as the inducement for some illegal act or omission; or of some illegal emolument, as a consideration, for preferring one person to another, in the performance of a legal act.

INDUCEMENT: is an advantage or benefit that precipitates a particular action on the part of an individual. Its synonyms are allurement or enticement.

These three statuses of giving are worthy of note and study by any Nigerian who determinedly desires to keep himself from being tainted in the sea of corruption flowing across daily transactions in Nigeria. The key words to note are that a gift is given without receiving or expecting anything in return. A bribe is also a gift, but it is given to induce the performance of some illegal act; while the last one, an inducement, which could also be called an allurement, or enticement, or incentive, is also a gift, but given with the intent of precipitating an expected action from the receiver. The lines between a gift and a bribe are clear and bold; but the lines between a gift and an inducement can most times be faint and blurry, yet a lot of times, inducements are morally wrong. It takes a potential receiver to sincerely and conscientiously weigh the intentions of the giver and determine if it could be a "wetting of ground" for some future deal. An inducement is pre-thought bribe, to make a person say something in a certain way, or keep silent over a certain matter, or to sign a certain thing, or bestow a particular favour to the giver at an oncoming date. The huge largesse distributed to participants of the President’s luncheon in the name of transport fare was a clear case of inducement in my opinion. It must be condemned, it must not be encouraged.

The call for Nigeria’s transformation is one of great sacrifice. Sacrifice of time, of talent, and sometimes of one’s resources. If every well meaning volunteer who contributes actively to the call for a new nation were to expect a financial reward in return, then we would be doomed as a people. Our lives would have no meaning, we would have surrendered our destinies for the simple pursuit of what we shall eat and gain. We would all have become Esau, selling our birthright for a plate of porridge because we are hungry. The President and his team do not need to hand out such huge cash rewards to encourage Nigerian youths to engage him in discussion. Majority of these youths belong to one volunteer group or the other and I believe several patriotic ones among them would have sacrificed more than this to attend meetings of national importance at one time or the other. At George Ashiru’s THMP, we have held meetings and conferences which were paid for by member’s contributions. At Steve Enada’s NTM, we have held meetings and prayer vigils with kerosene lamps before when our generators ran dry of fuel in the middle of the night at meetings where we deliberated on our roles in rescuing our nation. At GIC we had contributed large chunks of our earnings to execute projects which were of no direct benefit to the contributors but for independent communities. Those youths who genuinely love our nation need no such “transport fare” to attend a meeting where they would have a free and fair chance to engage Mr. President. During Obama’s campaigns, Town Hall meetings upon Town Hall meetings were called, dinners upon dinners, lunches upon lunches, most of which were fully paid for by volunteers and hosts who were not part of Obama’s campaign team, no one had to be paid such huge cash reward as transport fare! N50,000 for Lagos residents to attend a meeting within Lagos! From where to where? From Akute, Mowe, or Iju Ishaga to Victoria Island and back by private taxi, how much does it cost? I remember when Professor Pat Utomi called for such a meeting at the Nigerian Law School a few years back, we were also there, fuelled our cars by ourselves to see what the man had in his heart for our generation. This whole wasteful shenanigan embarked upon by President Goodluck Jonathan and his team is at best irresponsible and capable of further polluting an already polluted thinking system.

An advice to the youth of my generation, we all have to be very careful. Lest we become trapped in the system we are angry with and have condemned in the harshest of terms. It’s a slippery slope guys; the stifling of one’s voice begins just with a process like this. At a season when we all should condemn the extravagant cost of the President’s inauguration which is put at over N1billion, the Nigerian active cyberspace has become unusually quiet because a lot of fierce voices have been drowned in the swallowing of delicacies and “transport fare” courtesy of PDP’s evil ingenious scheming. Ori mi maje ki n j’egun m’oyan! (May I never eat thorns with pounded yam!) The Biblical Daniel had all the privilege and opportunity to feast with the king’s delicacies, but he and his friends avoided it instead. It is recorded that a different and excellent spirit was found in him. To be different in this generation of perversity and corruption, one must be able to resolutely walk away always from a portion of the king’s meat. It defiles. It renders one part of the rot. One’s intentions might be altruistic, but how can you confidently and fairly criticize, correct or point out the fallacies and evil scheming of a government from whom you have benefitted undue largesse?

Governor Fashola did not achieve his popularity amongst Lagosians because he handed out cash to anyone at anytime, but rather by his performance in reviving infrastructure in the state. The people of the state see a governor whose interest is in working for them. Yes, sometimes he might make mistakes, but on the overall, his performance stands eloquently to his credit. Rotimi Amaechi is another governor who is well spoken of; I do not think he has embarked on this kind of weak patronizing of youths to achieve his popularity amongst his people. Money does not buy ideological followership. Handing out huge cash rewards in the name of transport fare to people who attend parley meetings with the President would only result in a huge waste of scarce funds, and further corrupting our society. What we need right now is a cleansing of our society and this definitely is not the way to do it. President Goodluck Jonathan’s actions and body language do not suggest there would be a revolutionary departure from our corrupt past anytime soon. Rather, it seems the President, is poised to make matters worse as far as Nigeria’s corruption story is concerned.

Let the President and his thinkers dare call for a public interactive session with Nigerian youths in a larger space, where the President himself would be on ground to answer questions directly from disgruntled, educated but jobless, hungry and angry Nigerian youths, then you would have a feel of the real Nigerian situation. You would have a number ten times the number of those that attended the former parley, and there the true Nigerian story would be told. N100, 000 and a good meal is too small a price to bury our voices in the fight for justice and equitable distribution of resources in our nation. What we want is not N100, 000 handouts but a working Nigerian system; what we want is not just one good meal in a five star hotel but good food accessible to all at all times in our nation. I urge the entire cyberspace Nigeria not to relent on our intelligent firepower. It works, it is working. We must give our leaders no rest, no respite until justice is done, for all the oppressed and deprived people of our nation, some of whom also attended the parley, and unfortunately swallowed a portion of the king’s meat.