“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered”. That is the pithy line from the Psalmist. It is found in the very first line of Psalm 32. Behold, there is joy in abundance to be mined from the timeless and regenerative verses of David and his co-authors as contained in that glorious body of Biblical works – the Psalms.
Hardball commends it to those who seek wisdom and understanding. But the line quoted above is particularly instructive for its relevance to the matter at hand today. Just as it was in the Old Testament pre-Christ era that no man was without sin, so it is today.
Sin abounds today; man does not only live it, he seems to revel in it. Many today go through a lifetime without knowing any scripture or abiding by any moral codes. They live purely according to their whims and caprices often oblivious of the difference between right and wrong. But the holy book recognises that from age to age, man in his frailty, is bound to fail and fall. Thus, man is offered escape and redemption.
What this means is that you could work for your redemption and go through bouts of penitential rigours to atone for sin. Then there is also a select few who enjoy divine favours, whose transgressions are automatically forgiven; whose sins are overlooked and indeed written off like bad debt.
Such is the sunny story of some of our former leaders and ‘statesmen’ in the recent past who managed the affairs of state in such riotous and prodigal manner. Over the years they have hedged from giving account of their stewardship. At the beginning of the current dispensation, it seemed the chicken would come home to roost this time but somehow they have managed to wriggle out of it and instead, signing on as advisers and confidants of the new government.
But one of them has gone even one step further; he has become an expert on sleaze control and anti-graft wars. He is no other than the inimitable gap-toothed former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, who turned 74 recently. The indefatigable political impresario, whole held Nigeria by the scrotum for eight turbulent years (1985 – 1993) recently granted interviews rendering a baccalaureate on how to recover stolen funds.
Hear it from the one fondly call IBB: “If he (President Buhari) is resolute, I believe he will achieve some degree of (success in the recovery of) stolen funds.” To abridge a long tale, the IBB years were long, licentious and reckless. It was an era of debasement of not only the system but the very soul of the nation.
That debilitating era was capped by the spiriting away of a $12.3 billion Gulf oil windfall that is yet to be resolved today. On a serious note, if only President Buhari would resolute enough to revisit the $12.3b affair.
And on a final note, the times call for sobriety and comportment; especially from those whose atrocities have been overlooked.
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