When I was in primary school, one of my favorite subjects was social studies, and I remember how I always anticipated that particular class. One of the things I vividly remember being taught was law and order. And I remember my teacher telling us that laws are put in place to ensure order.
She also said without laws a country would be in serious disorder. She spoke a lot about lawlessness, and I realized that all that she was talking about was pertaining to citizens. So I asked her if there were different laws for leaders or authorities of a country.
And she explained that authorities are also citizens, so if a leader commits murder, he has to be given the same punishment as any other person who also commits murder. I remember being curious about if it’s even true or if she was telling us stories. Because I’ve never seen or heard of any news of an authority stealing money or doing something unlawful and being sent to prison.
The only punishment they receive is suspension. And I’ve not even heard of any case where a leader goes through a legal process and ends up in prison. The case ends up being thrown away. It’s even worse when the person has money. You know there are leaders who are just financially okay, and there are others who are Rich Richie Rich? I’m talking about the latter.
But recently, the current president, during one of his speeches, made it known that he was going to make sure any leader who gets involved in any misappropriation of funds gets sent straight to prison for 6 months. And no, those six months isn’t even your real punishment. It’s just you being reprimanded till they legally deal with you in court.
He said this after he sacked one legal leader and suspended other authorities from office due to their inability to account for money they were given for state projects. Come to think of it, if not for wickedness, why would one person decide to steal money from the coffers of a whole district or region?
Sometimes, people think others are just exaggerating until they are in situations that connect to things like this. Imagine people dying from an accident not because the driver was careless but because the road was very bad. And after investigation, you find out money has actually been given to a particular leader to ensure that same road gets constructed. Sad, right?
As a relative of the people who died in the accident, you'll definitely get angry when you find out that the whole accident could have been prevented if one person did his job.
I’m not even happy that this is happening in the first place, but I believe that just as citizens are dealt with when they are involved in lawlessness, leaders should also face the music over their own moves.
Images are mine