A troubled woman

For several months now, a major news item in our dear country has been the controversy trailing a wellread and experienced woman on money matters.
The woman has been accused of tendering a document that suggests that she had been given a clean bill not to partake in the compulsory one-year activity meant for graduates from our higher institutions of learning.
Two things made her case a celebrated one.
First, it is happening under an administration that has zero tolerance for corruption.
Second, the position being occupied by the women in question is very powerful and requires high level of credibility and reputation from its occupier.
While the controversy persisted, the women at the centre of it kept mum.
The administration she is serving was neither categorical on what real transpired.
This disposition infuriated the people the more who had called for the sacking or suspension of the woman.
Not only that, others have called for her prosecution on the basis that she presented a fake document in securing appointment.
Still, some had opined that she could be a victim of fraudsters, who latched on her innocence to give her the poisoned chalice.
While the brouhaha lasted, I decided not to write on the saga, not because it was not worth commenting on, I simply did not give my opinion because of the ongoing investigation that could make my views premature until now that an official position on the matter has be made public.
Personally, I believe the woman is innocent.
I strongly felt she was truly innocent, not because she is a saint.
Not because she was born, bred, schooled and worked abroad.
Not because the existing structure in our country is error-free to have detected such discrepancy.
I did not doubt the woman, not because of her boss’ antigraft disposition.
I simply felt the woman was innocent from my personal experience.
If there is anything that is commonly known to an average countryman, it is that when you go to a typical market place, you see all sorts of people mingling with each other.
Some are sincere while not a few are simply in the market to eke out a living from sharp practices.
Such is the case with the middleman, popularly called ‘oni baranda’ in Yoruba language.
They are everywhere.
At the market, they swarm round a prospective buyer the moment he/she is sighted by the ‘oni baranda’.
You are greeted with overtures like ‘what do you want?’, ‘do you have a customer you want to patronise?’, ‘I can get you quality products at a good price’, ‘with me, you cannot purchase a fake product here’, ‘I’ll help you fix and install the stuff without any difficulty’, ‘the items would be conveyed to your vehicle … where did you park?’.
I once fell victim to what the troubled woman suffered some years ago when I went to purchase examination forms for one of my younger brothers that was having incomplete school certificate results.
To ensure that I did not fall into the hands of ‘oni baranda’, I decided to purchase the forms inside a government-owned post office, despite the far distance.
I was conscious of what could happen to buying fake application forms.
Not only would such expended money be a waste and invalid registration.
Not only that, if eventually a set of result is acquired, it would certainly amount to naught, aside the fear of prosecution one gets, for parading forged or illegal qualification.
At the end, the worst still happened.
I bought a fake application package; my brother wasted his time and missed the examination for that year! Corruption, ignorance, high level of unemployment and quest for short cuts, often make many people to fall prey to the antics of fraudsters in our country, today.
If I may ask; how many of us have ever followed the necessary steps and observe due diligence while applying for our international passports, driver’s licence and other official documents? The truth is that many people would prefer to get someone to do it for them, and simply get results, due to our impatience, laziness and undue pressure from ‘oni baranda’, even when one is ready to do the needful.
I think this was exactly what happened to the troubled woman.
Should the troubled woman be prosecuted? Certainly, ignorance is not an excuse in law.
However, jurisprudence teaches that law is made for man and not the other way round.
A critical analysis of the entire scenario suggests that the woman is just a victim of circumstance and equity should be let her be and be allowed to nurse the psychological trauma inflicted on her by the ‘oni baranda’ that puts her in this mess.
The main lesson for all of us is to try as much as possible to do things, using the right and appropriate channels.
We should always create time from our busy schedules to sort out crucial tasks, since anything that is worth doing, deserves to be done well.
Life is always full of lessons for all of us.