Fighting
the Global Scourge of Misappropriation of Government Fund
In his
book, The Prince, ―
Niccolò Machiavelli noted that "Only the expenditure of one’s own
resources is harmful; and, indeed, nothing feeds upon itself as liberality
does. The more it is indulged, the fewer are the means to indulge it further.
As a consequence, a prince becomes poor and contemptible or, to escape poverty,
becomes rapacious and hateful. Of all the things he must guard against, hatred
and contempt come first, and liberality leads to both. Therefore it is better
to have a name for miserliness, which breeds disgrace without hatred, than , in
pursuing a name for liberality, to resort to rapacity, which breeds both
disgrace and hatred." Continuing he went on to say that “Men are so simple
of mind, and so much dominated by their immediate needs, that a deceitful man
will always find plenty who are ready to be deceived.”
We are
all aware of the detention of 5 ex governors as a result of fraud , money
laundry and other financial crimes perpetrated
these governors by the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission.
Schuller
(1988:112) noted that success without social respect can be an ultimate and
dismal failure. But that is not the feelings of con artist, fraudsters and
politicians who t continually scheme, plan and put in strategies that will
bring in money no matter who ever that is involved. They do not even care about
the state of such poor people, poor masses at times they deliberately target retiree’s
monies because of their vulnerability.
But
what these scammers do not know is that wealth do not bring happiness as it is
stated in Ecclesiastics 5 verse 10-11 “ How absurd to think that wealth brings
happiness, the more you have, the more people come to help you spend it
and continuing in Ecclesiastics 5 verse 12, 14, it sates “
But the rich are always worrying and
seldom get a good night sleep” Riches are sometimes hoarded to the harm of the
saver, or they are put into risky investment that turn sour and everything is
lost”
And
continuing in Ecclesiastics 5 verse 19 and 20, “And it is good thing to receive
wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it” “To enjoy your work and accept
your lot in life- that is indeed a gift from God, people who did this rarely
look with sorrow on the past ,for God has given them reason for joy”.
And so
in making wealth, it is pertinent for us to have that God given joy that gives
one happiness- a lasting happiness.
Anything
short of that may not augur well especially for con artist as Robert Kiyosaki
in his book Rich dad Poor dad, noted that there are so many ways, one can be
rich, and he included the following, through inheritance, playing lottery,
investing or by being a crook or an outlaw but there is a price, you risk going
to jail. Kiyosaki (1995:351) continuing
he stated that ‘A great story must interest , excite and cause people to look
into the future and dream a little, there should also be integrity behind the
story, because our jails are filled with great story tellers without
integrity”.
As we
wait for the outcome of the various charges against the former governors, we
are no longer expecting issues of bargain plea. Let our law , judges do their
utmost best to regain our failing economy, the failure of Greek economy is
still being debated, the idea of bringing economy to a default and the impact
it may have on the Euro and the European Union leaves much to be desired.
In
Nigeria we do not know what to believe again, the $2.1 Billion Dollars dividend paid to the
Federation Account by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company (NLNG)' is
still surrounded in controversy.
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