The “kill corruption” programme of Buhari would gain a lot of credibility if allegations of financial impropriety against these former leaders are thoroughly investigated by the relevant agencies of government, including appropriate sanctions against those found culpable. Moreover, imagine what would happen if the EFCC, acting on the orders of the President, beams its searchlight on APC kingpins, some of whom are governors and ministers right now. President Muhammadu Buhari Of course, that will send a very clear signal that President Buhari is prepared to deal with corruption no matter who was involved. In addition, those who accuse him of using the anti-corruption agencies to emasculate the opposition would, if they are sincere, concede that Buhari really means business when he says he is determined to kill corruption before it kills the country.
But as I argued sometime ago, it is very unlikely that President Buhari would allow the EFCC to probe former military leaders, who are part of the inner circle of the “invisible government,” alongside their extremely wealthy and influential cronies both within and outside government. Besides, bigwigs in APC with unsettled allegations of corruption dangling on their necks were instrumental to Buhari emerging as President on his fourth attempt. Therefore, it would amount to biting the fingers of those that fed him politically if Buhari were to give Bola Tinubu, Nasir El-Rufai, Rabiu Kwankwaso or Rotimi Amaechi what might be called the Dasuki or Metuh treatment. Still, whether Buharimaniacs acknowledge it or not, the President is in a dilemma: either he expands his anti-corruption dragnet such that it would catch allegedly corrupt prominent politicians in APC who made his presidency possible, and risks being labelled an ingrate, or he concentrates mainly on members of the PDP, as he is doing right now, which opens him up to the charge of political selectiveness in his anti-corruption efforts.
Some Buharimaniacs have pointed out to me that the case against Dr. Bukola A. Saraki, an APC chieftain and President of the Senate, and Jafaru Isa, an associate of Mr. President, shows that the accusation of selectiveness is untenable. But they forgot that Dr. Saraki, because of his defiance of APC’s choice for Senate President, is seen by the party’s establishment as a rebel. In addition, the number of APC bigwigs and associates of President Buhari in EFCC’s dragnet is negligible compared to the number of top PDP members facing serious heat from the anti-graft commission. Perhaps, in view of the above, there is some truth in the notion that most prominent PDP members decamped to the APC after Buhari won the election in order to avoid being investigated by the EFCC, which implies that the APC has become a refuge for agbata ekee PDP politicians. I have argued severally that the President made a tactical error by stating that he would only probe allegations of corruption committed when Jonathan was in office. It would have been more appropriate for him to say that anti-graft agencies were free to deal with corruption irrespective of who was in power when it was committed or who was involved. That way, he would have avoided the charge of selectiveness by leaving the door open for the EFCC to give practical effect to his ambiguous declaration that “I belong to everybody, and I belong to nobody.” Corruption is not the exclusive preserve of the PDP. On the contrary, prominent APC chieftains, including virtually all the political turncoats who abandoned shambolic PDP to join the new ruling party, were involved one way or another in the hideous plundering of our national wealth. Anyway, despite my reservations about the current efforts to deal with corruption, President Buhari deserves some plaudits for allowing the EFCC to identify and prosecute avaricious public officials engaged in financial rascality and primitive accumulation. Although often embellished with the exciting halo of sensationalism, media reports of billions of naira and dollars mismanaged by some top ranking officials of the previous administration calls to mind late Prof. Adeoye Lambo’s suggestion that those aspiring to high public office should be subjected to rigorous psychiatric test to determine their suitability for the position they are seeking.
In that regard, it is not far-fetched to believe that most of our politicians are neurotic: they are so anxious and feel so empty inside; so obsessed with material possessions in a futile effort to fill the existential vacuum at the core of their being that they just cannot stop stealing public funds and assets. The level of corruption in Nigeria is so high, so pervasive that only a complete moral pervert would not be outraged by the amount of money purportedly mismanaged by the animals in human skin who occupied important positions in government and in PDP. As one of the millions of Nigerians working so hard for so little, hanging precariously outside the expanding gravitational pull of poverty, it is heart wrenching to learn that government officials routinely wasted millions and billions of naira on frivolities. But the revived war against corruption by the Buhari administration would be an exercise in futility if there is no transparency, proper accountability and intelligent use by the federal government of the money and assets recovered from the looters. Of course, there is need to strengthen the EFCC financially and in terms increased recruitment of well-motivated patriotic professionals with the requisite knowledge and experience to handle different components of the commission’s mandate as stipulated by law. There are indications that the Father Christmas syndrome and abominable waste of public funds to satiate the bulimic appetite of politicians will continue under Buhari’s watch. According to reports, the federal government is planning to give Republic of Benin the princely sum of $1 million dollars for her upcoming elections, just to keep up appearances that we are still the “big brother,” the “giant” of Africa. I have already noted the huge sums earmarked in the 2016 budget for the presidency. Now, I want to remind Nigerians that gluttonous federal lawmakers at both chambers of the National Assembly have continued the wicked and unconstitutional practice of allocating to themselves outrageous allowances very disproportionate to what they truly deserve, despite the harsh economic realities of the present. This idiotic behaviour is not new.
Since the return to civilian rule in 1999, members of the federal legislature have been taking Nigerians for a ride all the time. Now, APC promised that if its candidates were voted into power, they would bring about positive change in leadership. Unfortunately, the change promised by the party is turning out to be a mirage, a mere slogan designed to deceive Nigerians. That is why APC senators who dominate the Senate see change only in terms of enjoying luxuries that most of them cannot afford at the expense of the suffering masses. It is utterly shameful and irresponsible that senators, after collecting car loans last August, are poised to collect 2016 Toyota Prado jeeps worth N4.7 billion, at a time the APC is abandoning one by one the promises it made to the poor and unemployed Nigerians and when the need for prudent spending is a necessity because the economy is really in bad shape. What the federal legislators are doing is insensitive to the extreme and invites a response from Nigerians. Democracy is too important to be left for politicians alone. Hence, I recommend that civil society groups should organise “Occupy the National Assembly,” a peaceful programme designed to send a clear message to federal legislators that the time for frivolous spending is over. To occupy the National Assembly, thousands of Nigerians should sit in front of the National Assembly building until the legislators renounce the jeeps and other bulimic allowances they allocated to themselves. This time around, mere armchair grumblings, ineffectual insults, curses and verbal abuse of the senators will not do. Concrete action is needed now or those pigs in our Animal Farm would think they can get away with anything and nothing would happen. Unfortunately, President Buhari is gradually losing the moral authority derived from his inflated reputation as a frugal disciplinarian. Given the large amount of money set aside in the budget for his comfort, he is not on a moral high ground to put pressure on members of the National Assembly to drop their silly plan.
VANGUARD
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