President Muhamamadu Buhari
hehehehehe..... A
foremost northern activist and writer Jaafar Jaafar has condemned
President Muhammadu Buhari's anti-corruption fight that aims to shield
his lieutenants.
One imprecise impression we all have about the administration of
President Muhammadu Buhari is thinking that it’s ongoing loot recovery,
modelled after the bravado of Abacha’s failed banks tribunal, is fight
against corruption. No, it isn’t.
Why did I say this? The nation is trapped in a labyrinth of social
malaise but the fixation is on a single issue. Nothing is working in
Nigeria. Everything is in a state of disrepair. You cannot prevent
corruption when a Level 8 civil servant in Abuja is earning N70,000 or
so per month and when the minimum salary is still N20,000. How do you
expect N20,000 to feed, cloth, shelter and transport person in Abuja (or
any other city for that matter) for 30 days? In a country where public
institutions are not functional, how can this crumb cover school fees
and medical bills?
I suppose the messenger in the president’s office is highest on
Grade Level 6, earning a monthly of about N28,000. He cannot live on
this pittance without finding ways of making “ends” meet, either by
hiding files or leaking confidential documents.
What has this administration done, as a way of fighting corruption,
to change the life of a police constable earning N43,000 salary to stop
taking bribes at checkpoints? How do you survive in Abuja on N43,000
without getting tempted to fraudulently enrich yourself?
How do you fight corruption when you cannot control the prices of
kerosene and petrol? Did you increase the minimum wage when you jerked
the price of petrol from N87 to N145? These are ways of fighting
corruption. Make life easy for the people, tame inflation, improve the
welfare of the people, revamp the economy, fix public institutions, etc.
That is when you can exorcise the ghost of corruption. There is still
prevalence of corruption in China, Malaysia, Russia, India, etc, but
what do you hear from these countries? Economic growth!
The farcical side of the present administration’s “anti-corruption”
war is shielding members of the president’s cabinet accused of
corruption. I don’t care if Dasuki is jailed but it pains me seeing the
present-day Dasukis walking free and hobnobbing with the president.
During the administration of Olusegun Obasanjo, which was perceived
by Nigerians as one of the most corrupt administrations, there was
arrest and prosecution of agents of the ruling party.
Despite our perception and vilification of Obasanjo, he,
ironically, set the anti-corruption institutions we are today proud of.
Obasanjo is not a saint, but he set example of his anti-corruption war
on members of his cabinet, governors, party leaders, etc.
Have you, in your wildest dream, thought this government could
support the impeachment of sitting APC governors in order to prosecute
them the way Obasanjo supported the removal of late DSP Alamiesegha? You
will say Buhari follows due process and rule of law, and so he will not
take after Obasanjo. Now what manner of rule of law allows this
government to fraudulently seek court orders to freeze a sitting
governor’s bank accounts or withdraw the security of an opposition
governor?
At least corrupt Obasanjo did remove his close friend, late Chief
Sunday Afolabi, as minister of Internal Affairs and was charged by ICPC
in December 2003 for collecting kickback in National ID Card contracts
alongside his Labour and Productivity counterpart, Alhaji Husseini
Akwanga; Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ms Turi
Akerele; National Secretary of the PDP, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo; Minister
of State for Internal Affairs, Dr. Mohammed Shata and; SAGEM S.A.
representative in Nigeria, Mr. Niyi Adelakun. That was leading by
example.
Under Buhari administration, there was budget fraud in both the
executive and legislative branches. The president himself admitted this
and promised to take action. But no severe action was taken yet against
even the civil servants. There were fraudulent deals in the drastic
reduction of MTN fine, there was Burj Al Buratai, there was corruption
in the handling of refugee funds (the president himself admitted), there
was corruption in forex deals, etc.
Even Jonathan, yes that whipping boy called Goodluck Ebele
Jonathan, bowed to public pressure and sacked his Chief of Staff Mike
Oghiadomhe for alleged involvement in kerosene subsidy and rice import
waiver scams. The same Jonathan again fired two of his top ministers,
Stella Odua and Professor Barth Nnaji, following allegations of
corruption against them.
Actions and inactions of this administration shouldn’t be beyond
reproach. The greatest support every patriotic citizen should give any
government in power is none other than telling the government the truth.
-Written by Jaafar Jaafar
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