As the war begins to widen, the anti-graft body has also just started the investigation of former Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Alhaji Abdullahi Inde Dikko. For the avoidance of doubt, Dikko is of the same Katsina State origin like President Buhari.
Therefore, everyone is now left in no doubt that there is no tinge of nepotism or witch-hunt in the war against corruption. President Buhari has also used every available opportunity to reassure the nation that the fight against corruption will be holistic and bereft of any tendencies not in tandem with our constitution.
He has also pledged total commitment to the rule of law and not aimed at any particular individual, group, tribe or religion. Most Nigerians harboured no doubt about President Buhari’s good intentions to rid Nigeria’s landscape of the monster which continues to undermine the very fabric of societal growth.
Unfortunately, past administrations paid lip service to eradicating corruption, until President Buhari came into the saddle. With a track record of abhorrence for corrupt practices, Buhari had since his foray into public life hinged the poverty and unemployment prevalent in the land to the crass corruption pervading national life.
When he formally joined partisan politics, he had identified corruption, security and economy as the areas we must address frontally if we are to extricate the nation from the stranglehold of underdevelopment.
Over the next twelve years, he anchored his quest for presidency on the need to evolve a political system that will be shorn of primitive accumulation of wealth at the expense of the suffering masses. He continually advocated that our national wealth should cease to be siphoned by people in positions of authority. Unfortunately, this message did not sink in until recently when Nigerians bestowed upon him the sacred mandate to govern Nigeria.
Having emerged president, his administration is beginning to unearth the monumental sleaze that characterised the activities of government under the previous administration. In doing that, he has incurred the wrath of the opposition, even though misplaced which now is imputing witch-hunt in the fight against corruption. It is however a case of crying wolf where none exists considering that people are being picked up for the sins they have committed against the fatherland.
Is it not strange that at a time in our history when families were being dislocated, and many people killed on account of Boko Haram’s terrorists’ activities that certain individuals in positions of authority were diverting funds meant to contain the same menace? Certainly this is the highest level of insensitivity on the part of those being accused, more so when human lives were involved? This can be likened to a case of Nero making merry while Rome burned.
It is indeed a thing of joy that we have Buhari as Nigeria’s president today, or how could we have survived another four years of PDP’s misrule, and corruption-ridden government. It is sad that while millions of Nigerians wallow in abject poverty, want and penury, a few individuals were busy siphoning and sharing the national treasury at our own expense.
With the lamentations across the land over poverty, unemployment, power outages, bad roads, is it not only reasonable that we put a stop to the monumental sleaze? Rather than vilify Mr. President for waging a relentless war against corruption, we should join hands with him to eradicate it, or else it will jeopardise all efforts aimed at developing the nation for the good of all.
It is therefore curious that while the anti-graft war is ongoing, the sing-song of PDP and its cohorts has been to malign the person of Mr. President who has severally stated his avowed commitment to the rule of law and due process. This commitment is amply demonstrated in his neutrality in the day to day running of different government institutions such as EFCC, ICPC among others.
Furthermore, he had implored past public officials not to fear him as a person, but to fear the consequences of their past actions. Now, crime all over the world is a punishable offence, and it is not statue-barred. Therefore, PDP and its surrogates should desist from misleading Nigerians on the motive of Mr. President in fighting corruption to a standstill in Nigeria.
His decision to rid the country of corruption is not self-serving, as all Nigerians will be the ultimate beneficiary of the anti-graft war. President Buhari’s Spartan lifestyle, even while in the military is legendary, and no amount of attention diversion by PDP will hoodwink Nigerians into believing otherwise.
As Nigerians await more revelations on corrupt practices in the past administration, it is only expected that Mr. President and indeed the anti-graft agencies be given maximum cooperation by all Nigerians to discharge their onerous task. Unless we all embrace the fight against graft as a collective effort, we run the risk of exacerbating and worsening our economic woes which have been compounded with the global fall in oil prices. As a people, we have been inundated daily by the negative effects of corruption, and some of these include the beggars on our streets, dysfunctional hospitals and schools, infrastructural deficit among other problems. Now, the Buhari administration has undertaken to clean the Augean stable and this decision on the part of the president is novel and deserves the support of all and sundry.
It is really disheartening the level of impunity in terms of handling public funds in the preceding administration as the #Dasukigate revelations are now showing. A whopping $2.1Billion which was shared among friends and associates could have gone a long way to fix some major federal roads like Enugu-Onitsha, Enugu-Port Harcourt, railways, power and other public utilities, but unfortunately those in authority chose to embark on a bazaar of some sorts. In the process, they only rehabilitated some old politicians, friends and relations.
To rescue the country, President Buhari has relentlessly fought a battle to stop the monster known as corruption from endangering our existence as a country, and the benefits are numerous for our country. For instance, the multifaceted problems confronting Nigeria can be fixed if corruption is eliminated and all Nigerians will benefit immensely.
Therefore, all hands must be on deck for the fight against corruption to yield the desired result and no attempt should be made to blame the president, as he has always maintained that people had rather fear the consequences of their past actions, and not him as a person. This is what the rule of law is all about, and there ought not to be any misconceptions about his intentions.
. Enekwechi, an Abuja-based journalist and politician, writes from kwechis19@yahoo.com. [myad]
