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The Politician
- LANGAA RPCIG
- Chapter
- Additional Information
1 The Wages of Corruption The Politician T here was an impending election and there was a politician, candidate for the lone parliamentary seat for Griefland constituency. The candidate and his aides developed and adopted a strategy. It was to pocket all the village heads of this constituency. He was not going to pocket them with dependable ideas and laudable plans for the people. It was with pieces of gold, thirty pieces for each village head. The politician succeeded to have all of them, thirty in number, in his pocket. One of the village heads, very enthusiastic about his throne, and having a vainglorious opinion of himself, got everyone to know him as, and address him as His Royal Highness, Chief Nfor Seseku Nyukechen the first of Tarkamanda. Chief Nyukechen had displayed so much zeal in the politician’s campaign that note was easily taken of him. He had assured the politician of his total loyalty and that of the people of Tarkamanda. On the eve of the election he had convened a meeting of all his people and instructed them on the appropriate pattern of voting. Moreover, he requested them to swear by the gods of the ancestors of the land that his instructions were obeyed. A day after the election, the results for Griefland constituency were announced and the politician won with an impeccable majority of 70%. His strategy had worked wonderfully well. But chief Nyukechen was very unhappy. He had promised the politician 100% but Tarkamanda had scored 99.99%. This had not gone down well with the chief. He was bent on fishing out those black legs who had deprived him of the total fulfilment of his promise to the politician. He 2 Sammy Oke Akombi wanted to punish them severely for failing to adhere to the instructions of his royal highness. He requested the electoral officials to give him the ballot papers of those who had voted against the politician in order for him to identify them. But they told him it was unnecessary because this time around, politics had evolved towards a democracy, which should not allow for vindictiveness and besides, the choice candidate had won. The politician had to assure him that he had been very grateful for the service he had rendered and he should wait and see what he had for the Tarkamanda people in particular and the Griefland constituency as a whole. The politician took his honourable seat in the assembly and among his gains in parliament was a generous annual parliamentary grant for micro projects in the constituency. At the end of the session the politician went home with pockets full. He intimated Chief Nyukechen about his plans for the grant. They quickly agreed on a town hall project which would be financed by the grant and contributions from the elite of Tarkamanda. The project manager was HRH Chief Nyukechen himself. The following day, the people were gathered and told about the project and they all hailed their chief and the politician. And on the spot, a sum of two million CFA francs was raised by the elite. In addition, letters were prepared for and sent to each member of the Tarukamanda elite, appealing for more financial support for the project. At the end of the second year after the launching of the project, the elite of Tarkamanda had noticed not even a skeletal shadow of the project. So they met to assess what was going on. But the project manager, who was the able royal highness himself, was everything but cooperative. All he was persuaded to show was a thousand moulded blocks which had been carefully packed at a corner in the royal palace. His royal highness refused to hand in any [3.82.58.213] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 13:07 GMT) 3 The Wages of Corruption records for proper accounting. Apart from, the on-the-spot contribution of two million francs, some members of the elite had also sent sums of money to the project manager and they wanted to know how he had spent it or intended to spend it. His royal highness could not produce any records on the amount of money he had received, so far. Fortunately, he had responded positively to the invitation to attend the meeting which had been called by the elite. The politician too had been invited. Shortly after the meeting had begun, the spokesperson for the elite took the floor, “Your honour, honourable member of parliament, you...