Is Buhari Really Fighting Corruption?, By Abba Dukawa
POLITICS DIGEST – Corruption is seen as a cankerworm that has eaten deep into Nigeria’s national fabric and poses critical challenge to its economic and social development. It has not only diverted resources from legitimate causes beneficial to the society at large, but also denied millions of their fundamental rights.
The challenges posed by Nigeria’s systemic corruption no doubt contributes to the perpetuation of poverty and hindering of economic opportunities. In 2015, shortly after defeating the incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari said “If we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill us.”
In one of his speeches during his 2015 campaigns, Buhari concluded that the nation’s politics is broken and urgently needs fundamental political reforms and improvement, ensuring more transparency and accountability in governance.
He said, “If you elect me in February 2015, my administration will prevent the abuse and misuse of Executive, Legislative and Public offices, through greater accountability, transparency, strict, and implementable anti-corruption laws, through strengthening and sanitising the EFCC and ICPC as independent entities; ensure the removal of immunity from prosecution of elected officers in criminal cases”.
With the slow pace of fighting corruption since the administration came to power, Nigerians are alienated, angry and fed up with the way the fight is being run by the administration, as there is no much to convince the electorates, years after giving him the mandate.
Regrettably, it is under the watch of our incorruptible Baba tha Nigeria has dropped on Transparency International‘s Corruption Perception Index ranking, moving two places down to rank the world’s 34th most corrupt nation, ranking 146th out of 180 countries – two places down compared to 2018 results.
Although, the index does not show real incidences of corruption, it is a reliable indication of the perception of the Nigerian public and the international community on the state of corruption in the country. The negative result from this year provokes tough questions. Despite the proclaimed war on corruption, why is Nigeria still perceived by its citizens and the international community as very corrupt?
In spite of the much hyped good intention of the President towards the fight, his actions or inactions always speak otherwise. Millions of Nigerians, especially the youths who voted him in 2015 thought he will do more that when he declared that He belongs to everybody and he belongs to nobody.
Regrettably, the administration is today characterized by high level of preferential treatment at the detriment of the masses who sacrificed a lot to bring in the administration. Nigerians hope that present administration will sanitize the system where things like secretive employment, corruption and nepotism would be things of the past.
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Unfortunately, things continued to happen under PMB’s watch at an alarming rate, and the most painful part of it is his continued silence especially when many disheartening scandals rock his government officials.
Clearly now, as PMB fights, more corruption cases appear. This led to frustration amongst Nigerians who are irritated with slow pace of progress and the selective nature of the fight. Buhari’s administration faced its first test in fighting corruption when a court of competent jurisdiction fined a South African Telecommunication firm, MTN, to pay Billions of dollars to the government, but some invisible cabal destroyed this and did what they felt was best for them, leaving Nigerians in lurch.
Furthermore, there is the issue of employment racketeering and allegations of selling job offers to the highest bidders. Secret employment in institutions like CBN, NCC, SEC to mention a few, are prevalent nowadays.
There was also the Grass cutting scandal which happens to be the most expensive in the country in IDP’s camp in North-East. Hundreds of million is said to have been spent by the then Secretary to the Government of Federation, Babachir David Lawal.
Another demoralizing scandal that rocked the nation was the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) safekeeping money apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos state where the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) discovered more than $43 million in cash.
Our own Baba jumped out and made himself the unofficial lawyer of Babachir and even cleared him of any wrongdoing.
Is Nigeria not corrupt when EFCC and ICPC recovered stolen assets hidden by serving civil servants by way of real estates in Abuja? Nobody knows anything about the recovered assets from the fight against corruption.
PMB only setup investigation committee after outcry from Nigerians, headed by Vice President which the committee found him wanting, but Baba overlooked the matter until massive pressure mounted on him before he acted on the committee’s report.
Up till now, I believe the President’s testimonials of being incorruptible and honest are still with him. But, something needs to be done towards fighting corruption in the country. There is need to reform and strengthen the judicial sector for efficient administration and dispensation of justice. Special Courts should be created for speedy hearing of corruption cases as earlier promised.
I have been a staunch supporter of the President for good 16 years, but never his blind hailer or follower. From the bottom of my heart however, I am not convinced with the way the administration fights its war agains corruption because the brawl is not moving fast enough. The good thing about Buhar is, he is not a thief, but the fact remains that leadership requires more than that as Nigerians needs a leader in every sense, a leader who will be a rallying point for the whole nation and not for few. A leader who also needs to inspire citizens to be at their best.
Dukawa, Kano-based journalist and Public Affairs commentator wrote via: [email protected]
