Part I of
“Buhari’s First Hundred Days—An X-Ray”
By Chinweizu
27sept2015
Introduction
Many Nigerians are puzzled by President
Buhari and wonder what his #Change agenda really is. Someone has even gone as
far as to say that “Most people are feeling conned, and it's only morning yet.” Luckily,Buhari’s First Hundred Days now belong to history. So
historians can begin to examine it for clues to Buhari’s actual mission and
agenda as president, and how he will go about implementing it. This essay is my
contribution to that effort.
*Buhari
It is helpful to divide his actions
into two groups:
(A) those he embarked on without public
pressure and, in some cases, in great haste, as if to accomplish them before
Nigerians wake up to what he is
up to;and
(B) those he embarked on only after
public outcry and pressure.
(A) includes his napalming of Akwa Ibom
villagers claiming that he was going after what he called “Oil thieves”; his
sending of Boko Haram detainees to Ekwulobia prison in the Igboland; his claim
that those seeking the breakup of Nigeria are crazies; his determination to
limit his anti-corruption prosecutions to the Jonathan administration; his
directive to make Islamic books mandatory in all secondary schools; his
slowness in appointing his cabinet; his war on corruption; his pattern of
lopsided appointments.
(b) includes his delay in making public
his assets declaration.
Nigerians have protested against most
of these.
------------------
To help those who are confused about
Buhari’s agenda, this series will X-ray his First Hundred days with the aim of
finding clues to his real but hidden agenda.
-----------------
This, the Part I of this x-ray series,
shall examine Buhari’s War on Corruption to see why it won’t work, indeed why
it will further entrench corruption and lootocracy; how it is being restricted
to implement the Caliphate hidden agenda; and if it is real or fake.
Buhari’s War on Corruption
The question to be answered here is
this: Is Buhari’s War on Corruption real or fake?
The first thing to note is that, as we
all know, corruption is a worldwide malady. But what most people don’t know is
that the Nigerian brand of corruption is peculiar in two ways. First of all, it
is primarily lootocracy. Whereas corruption is the dishonest exploitation of
power for personal gain—as by a clerk who hides a file until he is bribed; or a
policeman who mounts a checkpoint and extorts money from bus drivers; LOOTOCRACY is the constitutionally approved
and protected looting of the public treasury by officials. It should be noted
that the bribe-taking clerk or policeman is breaking a law, but the governor or
president who empties the treasury into his personal bank account in not
breaking any law. His constitutional immunity is a license to do so.
Secondly, because lootocracy is legal and not prosecutable in Nigeria
In his Inaugural address, Buhari listed
Corruption among the enormous challenges which he promised to tackle
immediately and head on:
“At
home we face enormous challenges. Insecurity, pervasive corruption, . . . are the immediate concerns. We are
going to tackle them head on. Nigerians will not regret that they have
entrusted national responsibility to us.”
-- President
Buhari’s inaugural speechhttp://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/05/read-president-buhari-inaugural-speech/
And he has also just told us that:
“corruption in
our country is so endemic that it constitutes a parallel system. It is the
primary reason for poor policy choices, waste and of course bare-faced theft of
public resources.”
While further
clarifying his administration’s commitment to the war against corruption, the
President said “our fight against corruption is not just a moral battle for
virtue and righteousness in our land, it is a fight for the soul and substance
of our nation.”
Giving an
insight into the way corruption destroys the nation, the President told the
Second Plenary of the Conference that “it is the main reason why a potentially
prosperous country struggles to feed itself and provide jobs for millions.”
In the same
way, the President posited that “the hundreds of thousands of deaths in the
infant, maternal mortality statistics, the hundreds of thousands of annual
deaths from preventable diseases are traceable to the greed and corruption of a
few. This is why we must see it as an existential threat, if we don’t kill it,
it will kill us.”
--Corruption is cause
of poverty in Nigeria
Despite all that rhetoric, we must ask:
How serious is Buhari’s war on corruption? What are the chances that it will
reduce, let alone kill, corruption? What is the likelihood that it is just a
foxy PR gimmick that will further entrench corruption by leaving its
fountainhead, lootocracy, in place?
I must first draw attention to how a
war on corruption can paradoxically obscure and protect a corruption system.
*(L-R) Pres Buhari, Sultan of Sokoto, Osinbajo...
How an Anti-corruption campaign can
obscure and preserve a corruption mechanism: A Paradox
From his rhetoric thus far, Buhari will
noisily hound, prosecute and severely punish hundreds and even thousands of
corrupt officials. That is all well and good. But, unfortunately, that isn’t
part of the solution to the plague of corruption. Paradoxically, that is a key
and devious part of the ways to preserve the plague, for it camouflages and
distracts attention from the looting system itself. It is like when a magician
makes a noise in the east to turn the gaze of the audience eastwards while he
strikes a silent blow from the west.
Of course, all those caught looting
must be punished severely, routinely and without favoritism. But paradoxically,
that punitive approach, if used all by itself, contributes to preserving and
proliferating corruption. It hides from public view the fact that there is a
mechanism or system that breeds corrupt officials every day, in their hundreds
or even thousands, and in fact more than you could hope to catch even if the
entire criminal justice system was commandeered for fighting corruption alone.
It also hides from public view the fact that the elimination of that system or
mechanism is the key to winning the war on corruption. You can’t win your fight
against mosquitoes in your house unless you destroy their breeding ground in
your compound. That corruption breeding mechanism must be eliminated if the war
on corruption is to have any chance of success at all. If that breeding
mechanism is eliminated, the number of corrupt officials to be caught and
punished will dramatically reduce and become manageable. But what is that
breeding mechanism that must be eliminated? It is the 1999 constitution and any
amended version that has certain of its key features.
Dumping the 1999 constitution is the
key to winning the war on corruption.
Corruption in Nigeria
or Chinweizu, Four Frauds That Are Fatal For The
1999 Constitution
In that “Four
Frauds” essay, I examined the 1999 constitution and showed that:
(a) The 1999
Constitution is the Godfather of corruption, through the immunity clause 308. (1), which protects, and thereby
implicitly invites, looting by the highest officials who have brazenly set the
terrible example that the rest of society have emulated.
(b) It is a
fraud for the Godfather of corruption to give the impression that it is against
corruption, and the fraud is compounded when it empowers the State to fight
corruption but then surreptitiously discourages it from doing so. That’s double
duplicity/double perfidy!
(c) All in all, the 1999 Constitution has been, and remains, a
Guarantor of bad governance and the Mother of all evils in Nigeria
Buhari claims that “corruption in our country . . . constitutes a parallel system”; it should be clear from the foregoing that, contrary to Buhari’s claim, corruption is at the constitutional heart of the system. It is indeed the Nigerian system, not a parallel system to it. And so long as we have that constitution, nobody can end lootocracy and the corruption that it spawns.
A
commitment to get rid of the 1999 constitution is therefore the litmus test of
anybody’s seriousness about getting rid of corruption. If he is serious, Buhari
can get started by implementing the 2014 Confab report and organizing a truly
democratic People’s constitution to replace the 1999 constitution. But of
course he won’t do that! Why? He won’t because, entrenching the 1999
constitution is the most fundamental task on his Caliphate hidden agenda. And
Buhari’s Caliphate constituency is already moving to prevent any implementation
of the 2014 Confab Report. [Northern
leaders move to block implementation of confab report http://sunnewsonline.com/new/northern-leaders-move-to-block-implementation-of-confab-report/]
And some presidency sources have
claimed that Buhari will not implement the Confab Report.[Buhari Will Not
Implement Confab Report – Source
If these sources are proved correct,
then it means Buhari is not serious about defeating corruption, his hot
rhetoric notwithstanding. We’ll have to wait and see what he does.
If he refuses to implement the Confab Report, then, like Obasanjo before him, Buhari will
merely use the EFCC, ICPC etc. and noise-making against corruption to harass
and persecute his political enemies, including some Caliphate men, to cheering
from his delighted and ignorant dupes. He is already using it to avenge
himself on those who overthrew him in 1985. He has started with Col.
Dasuki, the man who arrested him during the IBB coup. We can expect him to
extend his vengeance to David Mark, John Shagaya, Joshua Dogonyaro and the
others who made that coup against him, and eventually, when he has consolidated
his power, he will go after IBB their leader.
The Nigerian corruption system is a
clever mechanism. It is so configured that it continues to covertly serve as
the Caliphate’s principal device for plundering Nigeria Nigeria
People should not be fooled by Buhari’s show of impartiality when
he goes after some Caliphate looters. An institution under serious attack will
sometimes find it expedient to sacrifice some of its own members, throw its
most blatant offenders to the baying dogs, and save itself to continue business
as usual. For example, during the Vietnam War, the US
army sacrificed platoon leader LieutenantWilliam
Calley for the My Lai massacre of March 1968.
He was made a scapegoat and accused of directing the killings, and in 1971 he
was convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison. As a
result, the army’s numerous and contemporaneous massacres in Vietnam US
To understand why no caliphate
politician, let alone Buhari, the current political leader of the Caliphate,
will seriously fight corruption by getting rid of its fountainhead, the 1999
constitution, we must examine the function of corruption in the Caliphate’s
mechanism for plundering Nigeria
*Obasanjo and Buhari
The 1999 Constitution and the Caliphate
system of plunder and exploitation.
“pre-capitalist agrarian ruling classes in virtually every case
depended on what Marx called surplus extraction by extra-economic coercion to
reproduce themselves. They therefore owed their ability to take part of the
product of the peasants not to their role in production, but to their capacity
to organise themselves politically to exert force against them. . . . . In European feudalism, [the]
lords’ place in agricultural production, notably via the management of their
demesnes, was in general quite limited, and in some places non-existent; but
this in no way impeded their ability to dominate and exploit the peasantry, a
capacity achieved through their self-organisation into politico-military
communities or groups, lordly states on whatever scale.”
[The origins
of capitalism-debate in 2004, between Chris Harman & Robert Brennerhttp://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=219 , Accessed Sept 2012]
Like their counterpart in feudal
Europe, the feudal Caliphate sarkuna (aristocracy) in Nigeria Nigeria Nigeria South Africa
hoped to forever exploit the natives of South Africa Nigeria Nigeria
Furthermore,
the looting immunity granted to the state governors ensures that in every state
there are local politicians who stand to benefit personally by the looting
arrangement. This device co-opts the political class in the whole country as
accomplices and self-serving defenders of the Caliphate system. That is why the
Caliphate is adamant about keeping the 1999 Constitution, even by resort to
civil war as Junaid Mohammed threatened in 2013. That is the system that Buhari
has come to entrench.
Since corruption/lootocracy, whereby
state revenues are looted into the pockets of key office holders, is precisely
the Caliphate’s main feudalist mechanism for plundering Nigeria
He will make a big show of catching and
punishing many high profile looters, even starting with some of his fellow
Caliphate officials so as to give the impression that he is impartial in
fighting corruption.
As some have speculated, Buhari may
sideline the EFCC, ICPC etc. and hire consultants to ferret out corrupt
officials; he may even set up special courts to try corruption cases so as to
reduce the logjam in the regular courts, as advocated by some—but that’s all
like trying to swat, one by one, the mosquitoes in your bedroom that are bred
in the swamp in your backyard, instead of destroying the breeding ground of the
mosquitoes by draining the swamp.
Confining his war on corruption to the
Jonathan administration
Another aspect of Buhari’s
war on corruption that gives a clue to his Caliphate hidden agenda is his
insistence on confining it to the Jonathan administration. [Buhari will probe Jonathan’s govt only; not Obasanjo’s,
others – Presidency
Nigerians have
rightly condemned this as an indication that he is on a witch hunt, instead of
a genuine war on corruption. Balarabe Musa, the civilian Governor of Kaduna
state during the Shagari presidency, 1979-1983, has already challenged President
Muhammadu Buhari to extend his corruption probe to past regimes starting from
1966. He said such an investigation should include Mr. Buhari’s military regime
between 1983 and 1985.
“At the moment, he seems to be sparing
some people because he said he will probe only Jonathan’s administration and
will not probe the others.
“That is negative and short-sighted and will not solve the problem of the country. He should go the whole hog from 1966 till date because the corruption we find today started at that time,” the former governor said. . . .
“That is negative and short-sighted and will not solve the problem of the country. He should go the whole hog from 1966 till date because the corruption we find today started at that time,” the former governor said. . . .
“He should probe everyone and
everything including himself. . . .” he said.
[Balarabe Musa to Buhari--Probe your military
regime if you’re serious about corruption war
In support of Balarabe Musa, I shall
focus light on a special aspect of Buahri’s limiting of the scope of his war on
corruption. Lawyers are fond of telling us about coming to equity with clean
hands.
Coming to equity with clean hands
In this war on corruption, Buhari is
the chief accuser and prosecutor of the accused. But is Buhari himself innocent
of corruption? If there is evidence that he is not, then he ought to start by
prosecuting himself and withdrawing from the role of prosecutor until he has
had his own day in court and is discharged and acquitted of every charge of
corruption.
Nigerians who are under fifty today
were either not born or were too young in 1980 to have been aware of the
scandal over the N2.8bn, which was then more than $2.8bn, that went missing
when Buhari was in charge of the NNPC during the Obasanjo military regime that
ended in 1979. That scandal was never cleared up under President Shagari before
Buhari overthrew Shagari. So the question arises: In prosecuting anybody today,
is Buhari coming to equity with clean hands? Shouldn’t he be obliged to begin
by probing and prosecuting himself? For the sake of justice being done and seen
to be done, Buhari should be required to give an undertaking NOW, before he
starts prosecuting anybody, that the case of the N2.8bn shall be the
second taken to trial by whatever court tries the first of those he accuses of
corruption. And his solemn pledge must be sworn in public and on the Holy
Koran. And he should also swear to resign as President should he fail to
prosecute himself the day after the first case is concluded. Only so can he
assure the world that there will be no sacred cows in his war on corruption.
The Caliphate’s three castes view of
Nigeria and Buhari’s interest only in Corruption under Jonathan
For an insight into why Buhari insists
on limiting his war on corruption to the Jonathan administration, we must peer
at things through the lenses of the Caliphate’s concept of Nigeria as
consisting of three castes: The heirs of Dan Fodio; the Northern
minorities, the peoples of the Middle Belt, who are to be used as the willing
tools of the heirs of Dan Fodio; and the conquered peoples of the south.
The classic statement of this caste
system was made by none other than Sir Ahmadu Bello, a great-grandson of Dan
Fodio, who was the political leader of the Caliphate when Nigeria 1960.
A few days after Nigeria
“The new
nation called Nigeria
–Sir Ahmadu Bello, Leader of the NPC and
Premier of Northern Nigeria
This three-castes concept of Nigeria Biafra , the Caliphate relied heavily on the
“willing tools” from the Northern minorities, and on the Yoruba from among the
conquered territory of the South. After the war, the castes had to be shuffled
to reflect that reality. The modified version was publicly articulated in 1992
by a senior Caliphate politician, Maitama Sulewhen he described the revised
version of the caste system they deem proper for the relationship between the
peoples of Nigeria
“In this
country, all of us need one another. Hausa need Igbos, Igbos need Yoruba and
the Yorubas need the Northerners. Everyone has a gift from God. Northerners are
endowed by God with leadership qualities. The Yoruba man knows how to earn a
living and has diplomatic qualities. The Igbo is gifted in commerce, trade and technological innovation.
God so created us individually for a purpose and with different gifts. Others
are created as kings, students and doctors. We all need each other. If there
are no followers, a king will not exist, if there are no students a teacher
will not be required, etc.”
– 1992, Alhaji Maitama Sule in an
address which was written and spoken in Arabic during the launching of The Power of Knowledge authored by Alhaji Isa Kaita, at
Durbar Hotel, Kaduna on December 22, 1992.
{ Ayoada, J. A. A. Nigeria and the Squandering of Hope,
Ibadan : University of Ibadan
The main
post-civil-war changes were as follows: the Yoruba from the South were promoted
to join the Northern minorities in the caste of willing tools and junior
partners, i.e. house slaves, to the Caliphate masters. The defeated
Biafrans remained in the lowest caste--the slaves who were never to rule over
the Caliphate masters or to be allowed to have control over their future. From
this Caliphate perspective, it was a serious breach of the
Caliphate-established order for Jonathan, from among the defeated Biafran
slaves, to be a president ruling over the Caliphate masters. That aberration
was made possible by the quarrel between the Caliphate masters and their Yoruba
junior partners over the annulment of the June 12 election by Sultan Dasuki.
The masters had been forced to hand power temporarily to their loyal Yoruba
agent, General Obasanjo. But Obasanjo, for his own personal purposes, schemed
to place Jonathan in line for the presidency by making him the running mate to
Yar’Adua, the Caliphate scion to whom, in 2007, he dutifully handed back their
power that they had lent him. When Yar’Adua died in office, the Caliphate
plotted to prevent Jonathan from succeeding him. When that plot failed and
Jonathan was installed to complete Yar’Adua’s term, the Caliphate demanded that
he not exercise his constitutional right to seek election in 2011. They
threatened that if he did, they would make the country ungovernable for him. [North ’ll
make Nigeria ungovernable for Jonathan–Lawal Kaita http://www.nairatown.com/index.php?topic=6190.0 ]
But Jonathan had the temerity to defy
them and win office in his own right instead of vacating it when the masters
demanded it back.
In Caliphate
eyes, Jonathan’s living in Aso Rock was a desecration of an inner sanctum of
Caliphate power, like a slave sleeping in his master’s bed. The indulging by
his officials in the looting that is a privilege of the masters was seen as
eating the forbidden fruit. For this unforgiveable sin, he has to be punished
now that the masters, through Buhari, have retaken what they regard as theirs
and theirs alone. The usurper slave from Biafra
has to be punished as a deterrent to any others who might dare to repeat the
crime of usurping the masters’ power and privileges. Those to whom the masters
lent their looting privileges are exempt from punishment. But those who usurped
that privilege must be punished for the crime of usurpation. Accordingly,
usurpation of Caliphate privileges is the real crime for which Jonathan and his
officials, especially his fellow ex-Biafrans, must be punished under the guise
of the war on corruption. That is why Buhari’s war on corruption must be
confined to the Jonathan administration and must not be extended to the regimes
of President Yar’Adua, President Obasanjo, General Abubakar, General Abacha, Ernest
Shonekan, General IBB, General Buhari, President Shagari, General Obasanjo,
General Murtala Mohammed and General Gowon.
From the
foregoing examination, we can see that Buhari has tailored his War on
Corruption to make it serve the Caliphate agenda of protecting the Caliphate
system of lootocracy. Looting by regimes led by Caliphate scions or by
Caliphate-approved agents must not be probed, prosecuted and punished. And
above all, the 1999 constitution, the godfather of lootocracy and the
fountainhead of corruption must be preserved. That is why Northern leaders want
to ensure that the 2014 Confab report is not implemented. [Northern leaders move to block
implementation of confab report http://sunnewsonline.com/new/northern-leaders-move-to-block-implementation-of-confab-report/]
Conclusion
We can now answer the question: Is
Buhari’s War on Corruption real or fake?
It depends on what he does: (1) whether
he extends it to cover all the regimes since 1966, like Balarbe Musa demands;
(2) whether he prosecutes himself for the missing N2.8bn and, above all (3)
what he does about the 1999 constitution.
If he omits (1) then it is a war with
many sacred cows; and if he omits (2) then he is coming to equity without clean
hands.
That would be bad enough.
And if Buhari goes along with the Northern leaders, it will become
clear that he is opposed to dumping the 1999 constitution—that he refuses to
meet the necessary condition for “killing” corruption before it “kills”
Nigeria. Should he do that, Buhari’s “War on Corruption” would have failed the
litmus test for being genuine, and would become exposed as fake. And Nigerians
would be justified in feeling conned by Buhari.
No comments:
Post a Comment