Impunity, the destroyer of Nigeria's social fabric - Oby Ezekwesili

Former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, has revealed how impunity is destroying Nigeria in stages since the time of the military era.

The chartered accountant shared her view on her official Twitter account to her over 1million followers on Saturday morning.

"The fastest route to the destruction of the social fabric of Nigeria is the Culture of Impunity.

"What is Impunity? It is the “exemption from punishment or freedom from the injurious consequences of an action.”

"Imagine then how horrible it is for such a thing to become a Culture.

"Anything that attains the height of a Culture for any society of people never happens overnight. It takes a gradual condoning of a word, thought, mindset, behaviour and such like, by first a few who with the leverage of influence pull in others to their side and Culture happens.

"Name every crime or misdemeanour that has become the Norm and gained “wide acceptance” in Nigeria and we can tell for a Fact that it did not just suddenly attain that status. It happened initially once, was ignored, a few others joined and did it, ignored and many others repeated.

"Let me use the example of the Crime known as 419 — Advanced Fee Fraud to explain how destructive the Culture of Impunity can be. 419 is named after a formerly relevant section of the Criminal Code of Nigeria. 419 has brought the worst disrepute to our country globally. Next...

"Some of our young Nigerians who were born after 419 had become a Norm within our society may never imagine that it was a crime that was once a “fringe racket” by a few gangs of people— a very few gangs were involved in 419 as of the late 80s and early 90s. #Impunity

"90s military-led Nigeria, our society watched on, some of the officials of institutions like the @PoliceNG ignored and in fact became friends of the few 419 ‘king-pins’ that were defrauding people within and outside our country. There was zero consequence for 419. More joined.

"As more people waded into the ‘profitable’ criminality of 419 in the late 90s, decade of the millennium and the decade of 2010- Date, a crime named after Criminal Code 419 started mutating into many variants of fraudulent schemes and now has all kinds of “fancy names”. #Impunity

"So, the ruin of our country can be traced to several other Crimes and Misdemeanors that happened once, ignored, repeated by a few and ignored; repeated by many more and again ignored until the whole society simply NORMALIZED the evil.

"That is the classic #CultureOfImpunity. The Nigerian-State @NigeriaGov and its “Institutions” have habitually led the way in entrenching the #CultureOfImpunity in our country by failing to Punish Bad Behavior.

"The wider society of Citizens are complicit in failing to collectively Demand Accountability from Government.

"The worst #CultureOfImpunity has to be the kind that NORMALIZES the killing of people without ANY CONSEQUENCE.

"The @NigeriaGov has led the way in condoning this highest-level Criminality that is fast becoming a Death-Knell to the existence of Nigeria and Nigerians.

"Over the last decade especially, our @NigeriaGov and State Governments condone the ABERRATION that KILLERS can go into communities and carry out MASS-KILLING of citizens in their communities, without ever being PROSECUTED and PUNISHED. Horrific height of #CultureOfImpunity.

"One Human Life is worth ALL THE TREASURES OF THE EARTH - In the 21st century, I believe the mission of the United Nations will be defined by a new, more profound awareness of the sanctity and dignity of every human life, regardless of race or religion. — Kofi Annan

"Where most of our world — countries and people — believe in and respect the Dignity of the Human Life, how did our Nigeria-State and our wider society of Citizens choose to NORMALIZE this acceptance of Mass Killings of our fellow citizens, WITHOUT CONSEQUENCE to their KILLERS?

"Sadly, when I saw this in the news, it DID NOT RAISE MY CONFIDENCE their KILLERS WILL FACE CONSEQUENCE and that the 17 deceased people of Kajuru and their faimilies will get justice.

Why so? The entrenched #CultureOfImpunity. There is a PATTERN.

"How often have we read of @NigeriaGov @NGRPresident @MBuhari and various State Governors and Governments make statements after several MASS KILLINGS of citizens in their Communities and YET NO ONE IS EVER FOUND, SUCCESSFULLY PROSECUTED AND PUNISHED?

What will be DIFFERENT NOW?

"KILLERS of the 17 fellow citizens in Kajuru LG know that, “as it was in the beginning, it is now and will be” with our @NigeriaGov and Kaduna State Government.

"They, therefore, STRIKE AT WILL and slaughter their fellow human beings because #CultureOfImpunity. It is ABOMINABLE.

"I CHALLENGE @NigeriaGov @NGRPresident @MBuhari and the IG @PoliceNG to PLEASE, PLEASE SURPRISE us and PROVE ME WRONG by actually breaking the PATTERN in Kaduna State and everywhere else in our country, where citizens are KILLED in their Communities and NO CONSEQUENCES follow.

"Countries that have no RESPECT for the SANCTITY of Human Life inherently lack the basic ingredients for Social Contract between Government and Citizens. Countries that are void of Social Contract end up eroding their Social Capital among their Citizens.
Is this not Nigeria now?

"Citizens who do not realize how complicit our wider Nigeria Public have been in entrenching the destructive #CultureOfImpunity are the ones that think the Human Life has Religion, Ethnicity, Gender, Status, Ideology etc.
No, people. No.

"The Human Being is simply a Human Being.

"It is the Citizens of Nigeria that it falls on to take a stand and Demand Accountability from all levels of our Governments led by @NigeriaGov to #EndTheCultureOfImpunityNow and stop reducing the Value of the Nigerian Life to ZERO. #EveryNigerianLifeMatters . #StopTheKillingsNOW

"May God of All-Comfort and Peace that Passes All-Understanding surround the families of the 17 fellow citizens killed in Kajuru LG in Kaduna State with his Everlasting comfort, peace and love in Jesus name.
Let God Arise and give them Justice!"