BUHARI’S ANTI-CORRUPTION WAR: A NIGERIA’S MORAL COMPASS!
BUHARI’S ANTI-CORRUPTION WAR: A NIGERIA’S MORAL COMPASS!
By:
Nurudeen Dauda
4/10 /16.
Nurudeendauda24@yahoo.com
nurudeendauda24@gmail.com
nurudeendauda.blogspot.com
In my humble view, let President Buhari selectively prosecute only the PDP’s proven corrupt public officers. Please! Get me correctly, I repeat! Proven corrupt officials! Anytime any other party PDP or whatever party comes to power let it also selectively prosecute only the APC’s proven corrupt public officers. I mean proven corrupt public officers. However, by the time corrupt is fought by different political parties selectively, the fight against corruption would have gone round and Nigerians would be the “winners”. Had the previous government selectively fought only the proven corrupt public officers of the “opposition party” the story would have been different. Nigerians did not collectively steal from the public coffers; as such, corruption ought to be selectively fought.
Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the pioneer Chairman of EFCC, was once reported to have said to those who had alleged that the “Anti-corruption war” under his watch was “selective” just as it was a “tool” for “political harassment or witch-hunt”by the then government. In his response to the said allegation, he was said to have responded to those people by asking them to prove to the world that the people that were charged or prosecuted during his time were not corrupt. However, nobody had proved that the people charged were not corrupt up to this moment. It might interest me to get one case!
What many Nigeria’s have failed to understand about President Buhari’s Anti-corruption war is that he is setting a “MORAL” COMPASS OR “STANDARD” to Nigerian public service. Don’t forget nobody investigates the officials of his government before now which means any “right thinking” public officer of the Buhari’s government must do the “right thing” simply because he knows he may be investigated in the future. Otherwise he or she will be foolish! All the officials of the Buhari’s government should be rest assured that they will be investigated in the near future. The Buhari’s Anti corruption war in itself, in my understanding, is a “DETERRENT” and will definitely bring “IMPUNITY” to its knees. If that happens Nigerians are the winners!
The nexus between “Anti-corruption” and “development” is that Common sense would have informed everyone that in a less corrupt regime the value of N1bilion worth of contract might be equal to the value of N10billion contract in a regime of stealing is not corruption in term results. This is because about N9.5billion or even more would have been diverted to private pockets. In a less corrupt regime a contract worth N1billion might record 950million implementation while a contract of N10billion in a highly corruption regime might completely be stolen. It is now obvious to many people that what led to the long lasting period of Insurgency in Nigeria was corruption. The insurgency that lasted for about 6 years due to corruption has now recorded a tremendous success within a year.
Interestingly, no religion condones corruption but surprisingly Nigeria has been described by some analysts as the most religious country in the world yet suffers from corruption. Some analysts argue that Nigerians are religious but ungodly. Corruption in Nigeria has almost become a “culture” where those who do not partake in the act are seen as “deviance” rather than “conformists”. Incorruptible people are seen as “fools” by some individuals.
“Only the guilt fears prosecution. I really wish successive governments were selective in prosecuting those who looted our commonwealth. By now, the country would have been ridden of corrupt persons. It is only in our clime that I see people shield corrupt persons. Little wonder we were fantastically referred to as corrupt. Instead of spreading collectively the blanket of shame on looters, we give them comforting banners of ethnicity, religion and smelly sentiments. It is in our clime that, we see groups drumming support for alleged and convinced persons. Stealing is now corruption eventually. This is my message; If you do not want to be selectively prosecution, then don’t steal from government coffers. It is very simply. Only those who flirt with dogs rise with flies”-Abdullahi O. Haruna –Haruspice (Leardership Newspaper: June 10, 2016).
“Corruption damages the very fabric of a nation. It has permeated all spheres of our national life and he (Buhari) is a man everybody believes is very transparent. The fight is not something being done behind closed door-people accept that they received certain amount of money and they have agreed to refund, and some have actually made the refund. This is a very transparent way of executing the war against corruption”- Senator Mohammed Abba Aji-Former Presidential Adviser on National Assembly matters to late President Umar Yar’adu.
Hamza Idris asked Senator Aji thus: The PDP alleges that the anti-corruption fight is one sided, don’t you think it is? “Well, that complaint is expected because PDP ruled since 1999 and, therefore, corruption is available to willing rulers”- Senator Aji. He, also, asked Senator Aji thus: Some of the PDP stalwarts are specifically angry over the probe of their campaign funds and nothing is being done on how the APC sourced its money to executive its campaign. “Yes, every political party used funds but this one that is being probed came from money budgeted for execution of war on terror. The money was allegedly traced to the office of National Security Adviser. The office is not the statutory source of fund for any political party because it is not a political organ and the money that was disbursed for the PDP campaign was clearly money that had been budgeted and provided statutorily for the execution of the war on terror. So, that in itself is a crime, because misapplying budgeted fund is a crime” - Senator Aji.
Hamza Idris further asked Senator Aji thus: Are you saying the APC is innocent?” You see, the current ruling party was not in government before, so it has no access to government fund, let alone the chance to misapply it. I agree that is only true at the national level. At the states, yes, there were APC governors and investigation is yet to reach that level. But as soon as we get to the state level, we shall see indictment of APC leaders as well. The president said that there is no sacred cow. So, at this stage, it is the federal level that is being investigated and it is the PDP that was in control of the national government before now”- Senator Aji.
In this country we once witnessed a period where paid youths protested against the arrest of their kins man for allegation of corruption. Those youths wrote on the placard that they held then thus: “He stole our money not yours, release him”. We equally witnessed a scenario where paid young girls demonstrated “naked” in front of a court demanding for the release of their kins man who was facing corruption trial.
May God bless Nigeria!