One of the first movies father bought after getting us a VHS home-video player was The Godfather (right after Sound of Music,
of course). I must have been about 9 years old at the time and I guess
the old man didn’t give a hoot about movie ratings.
Interesting as the
movie was, it wasn’t till I read dad’s copy of the book by Mario Puzo 3
years later that I REALLY began to appreciate the Italian mafia
sub-culture… an important part of which was the code of ‘omerta’.Omerta is the Sicilian/Italian mafia code of silence…it is a code of honor that restricts members of a mafia family from revealing information on the activities of their organisations to the authorities.
This code is strict and harshly
enforced, and those who break it are called ‘rats’ (the urban gangsta
equivalent of ‘snitch’). To illustrate the import of this… if a mafia
family member steals money from the bosses, his punishment is usually
swift. He either gets a bullet in the head, or takes a swim with the
fishes wearing concrete boots.
If he breaks the ‘omerta’ code of
silence by ‘ratting out’ on his bosses, his death is slower and will
also involve the murder of his immediate family (if he has any). His
painful death is usually saved for last, so he can be forced to watch
the brutal rape and slaughter of his wife and daughters/sons. Rats who
managed to escape death usually spend the rest of their lives looking
over their shoulders in witness protection programmes..
Just three days ago, the former chairman of the House of
Representative’s committee on appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, was
suspended for 180 sitting days and also barred from positions of
authority in the House till the end of the 8th Assembly.
Jibrin was suspended following his
refusal to appear before the House of Representative’s committee on
ethics and privileges to address the allegations of budget padding he
levelled against the speaker and 13 other lawmakers. (Do bear in mind
that Jibrin’s refusal to attend the Committee on Ethics hearing was
because his request to have members of the media present during the
questioning was denied.)
That all this harsh punishment comes before the issue of the budget
padding has even been properly addressed might seem unjustified to
normal everyday Nigerians like you and me, but to members of that ‘mafia
family’ of honorables who know the score, it is actually a
soft-landing.
Jibrin had committed the capital crime
of breaking the ‘code of silence’. How are honest, hard-working,
thieving politicians meant to make a decent living if members of the
inner circle keep ratting out their activities??
Say what you will about our ‘honorable’ representatives… if nothing else, they believe in the idea of “honor amongst thieves”.
Obi Eze is a builder and social critic. Connect with him on Facebook.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
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