The Wages of Corruption

Preface

The Wages of Corruption ix Preface After establishing the credibility of Transparency International, who twice have accorded our country the infamous first place in corruption, true patriots were moved and they realised that something was in fact wrong somewhere and something had to be done somehow. Cameroonians in one voice thought they should wage a war against this ‘most unusual friend of fairness.’ By way of tackling the issue, I thought I should elicit awareness through the short story. The first in this collection The Politician is on politics and about the politician. This is not by accident because ‘man’ in Aristotle’s opinion ‘is by nature a political animal.’ Also, our governance is wholly controlled by politicians and I was inspired by the fact that there is so much corruption in our politics that if we allow it to persist, we risk handing to posterity a nation: In which it will be common place to punish people according to the politics they champion rather than the laws they violate or the personal misconduct in which they engage. We will in short become a nation of men and not of laws. W.J. Bennett The second story The Sacrificed Lunch Pack is on education and about Alice, a typical school pupil in our country. There is this saying that goes: ‘show me your friend and I’ll tell you what you are.’ I would like to develop it thus: ‘show me your passport and I’ll tell you what you are.’ Education cultivates the citizenry. It builds in the individual a certain confidence, nobility, probity, sobriety and integrity. If our education must produce individuals with such sterling qualities then it must be rid of corruption. It must be managed by people who themselves possess the qualities that we expect from the youngsters. The rest of the stories are on corruption in different segments of society in our country and about the people who perpetrate it. We all are immersed in it and so must make every effort to resurface from it. It takes only the will to stay alive because the wages of corruption like any other sin can only be death. Sammy Oke Akombi x I would like to acknowledge that these stories have been broadcast on CRTV Buea in the programme the English you speak, produced by the Southwest Regional Linguistic Centre, Buea. Also many thanks to the Rt. Rev. Dr. Nyansako Ni-Nku, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon for readily accepting to write the foreword of this book. Sammy Oke Akombi Buea, 25th May 2009 ...