These, certainly, are not the best of times for the grex venalium (the venal crowd) popularly known by ordinary Nigerians as treasury looters. The ongoing battle by President Muhammadu Buhari against this corrupt cabal who have held this nation hostage for years leaves no one in doubt that it is no longer business as usual for politicians of fortune.
It is a mistake to assume that this is President Buhari’s private battle to clean the Augean stable. Rather, it should be seen as a determined effort to right the wrongs of the bad leadership which has been the bane of Nigeria’s development for decades.
Previous attempts to fight corruption were somehow symptomatic but the present government has, apparently, adopted a strong, pathological approach that aims to get to the root of the matter, which is why every Nigerian should give the President a total support. What is being done now, if carried to its logical conclusion, would free the country from the labyrinth of a deeply entrenched tribe of Machiavellian politicians whose sole purpose for seeking power is to loot our common patrimony.
When former President Goodluck Jonathan emerged on the scene, he came across as a power-shy, harmless politician on whose shoulders Providence placed the leadership of this great nation at a critical period in our political evolution. His moving story of grass to grace, with the memorable line that he went to school like many Nigerians without shoes, caught the attention of the electorate who gave him the mandate in his first-ever quest to seek elective office in 2011.
Once on the presidential seat in that enclave called Aso Rock, we saw a different Jonathan altogether. Never has a President in this country come to power with such level of goodwill and blow it just as fast as Jonathan. Perhaps, overwhelmed by the demands of office, or ill-prepared for its challenges, the first president from a southern minority exhibited poor governing capacity and inherent weakness unbecoming of the leader of a huge country like ours. He had to be goaded to act with firmness when occasion demanded, which was why he virtually lost control of his Presidency to his cronies. His appointees and associates went about looting the public treasury with unprecedented impunity; not even the intermittent public outrage moved President Jonathan to sanction them. And when he did, it was either too little or too late. Corrupt ministers were relieved of their posts with slaps on the wrist, while nothing was done about their loot. With the current anti-corruption saga, we can now understand why Jonathan and his Peoples Democratic Party cohorts spared no expenses to buy themselves back to power. This time however, the fairy tale run of good luck failed them.
The hapless President was sent packing. Serendipity was out of the kilter!
That era of impunity ended suddenly, but we cannot just sweep what happened during the PDP government under the carpet. Regardless of who is involved, justice must be done to send a clear message that leaders must be accountable even after they leave office. I perceive that this is what President Buhari is trying to prove, that is why I support him.
The charge of selective prosecution and the ethnic or religious card being played by some to discredit this anti-corruption war is nothing but a mischievous charade. Those arrested for suspected corrupt practices cut across the party, ethnic and religious divides. Nigerians must therefore not fall for the antics of the venal rich, who are fighting back, using propaganda to win sympathy.
One is however, constrained to raise this point because of a public statement credited to Anthony Cardinal Okogie in which the Catholic prelate expressed reservations about the government’s philosophy in prosecuting the anti-corruption war vis-a-vis the rule of law and his perceived thinking that other governance issues were not being addressed as should. The Cardinal is entitled to his opinion, but there is no factual evidence to support this claim.
The venerable Cardinal is unappreciative of the dialectics of change within the Nigerian context. The Nigerian scenario is indicative of an aberration embedded in our political genes. Whereas politics and economics are sociological kinsmen, yet politics maintains an ascendancy over economics in practical realities. The hoi polloi determine the political leadership but economic superintendence is the prerogative of the elite. Nigeria’s existential bane is not lack of professors in mantled academia, nor is it a paucity of economic knowledge in the geopolitical arena. Rather, it is leadership, leadership and yet leadership. Ad nauseam!
Leadership is the terra-firma upon which the citadel of progress can be erected. If the foundation be destroyed by corruption, what then can the righteous do? It is my founded expectation that the respected cardinal would urge the government to probe the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria and other pseudo religious organisations who acquired their fabricated titles under spurious Christian nomenclature.
If Attahiru Bafarawa was the accredited agent of the Muslim prayers welfare package, who then collected on behalf of the multitudes of Christians? Who? Who is that Christian proboscis whose insidious suction availed himself of billions of naira on behalf of the followers of Christ? Who is that Judas? Maybe, Judases? What about a prominent pastor’s one-plane airline becoming the surreptitious instrumentality for some covert military operations involving over $9m in South Africa? All sacred cows must become secularised.
Government must ascertain the scope of pecuniary inducement that informed their political alignments in the 2015 elections. What an irony that those who should scrupulously guide the people are themselves poisoning the water from which the flock will drink.
Corruption is a hydra-headed monstrosity that must be confronted by the gladiators of righteousness. For indeed, he who dares to face his Maker will not tremble before the sons of men. Satis verborum!
We must understand that even if the law is an ass, corrupt folks must not be allowed to ride it out of the dragnet of the law when apprehended.
PUNCH
END
Forthright,unbiased,on point
Fine piece. Even though the country’s economy is experiencing tough times occasioned by these heartless and criminally-minded politicians all in the name of governance, the President must NOT relent in identifying and meting out the appropriate punishment to them to serve as a deterrent to the present and incoming ones. In this way, they will realise the hard way that leadership is about SERVICE to the people and NOT the feathering of political nest. With the amount of loot that is being currently unearthed, do you think we, as Nigerians are supposed to suffer again in this country if they were put to good use. We may even not need another budget again because what had been looted so far is more than this year budget. As for critics, people are entitled to their opinions, after all, this is democracy but the President must not be distracted-He should go after them, rake them together and herd them into life jail after recovering our loot and put it to judicious use. By recovery, I don’t mean paper recovery;rather every Nigerian child must know what had been recovered and what it is being used for.