After all the rants, insults and quotes, maybe it's time to educate ourselves.
1. The original statement, 'Stealing is not the same as corruption', came from a member of the Nigerian Judicial Council, NJC.
2. He was commenting on how our CONSTITUTION makes the distinction between stealing and corruption, and how this has always hampered the judiciary.
3. GEJ both paraphrased the legal luminary AND expatiated on the differences- that's all.
4. The vitriol that's been spewed on him over this phrase is obviously misplaced- either by those who only heard it, saw the article but didn't read it through; or merely out of mischief and cheap politics.
5. The real question is- why didn't our natural, INTELLIGENT curiosity spur us to investigate this apparently audacious statement?! Were we too busy getting angry, capitalising on the obvious political (gaffe?) gift, or simply too lazy to 'do the needful', as we say?
6. The moral of the story- However sincere you may be, avoid giving your enemies the rope they'll use to hang you.
THAT was actually quite 'bad form' on his part.
...sigh

TheCNN

True talk.

Now let us investigate "dogs and baboons".

An Average Nigerian is a sentimentalist who doesn't read beyond the headlines

Whenever I see the statement "stealing is not corruption" used wrongly, I feel the intellectual deficiency and laziness of the person