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| *Nwabueze |
*Says Jonathan,
Obasanjo Promoted Corruption
By Daniel Kanu
This is the submission of Nigeria
The erudite professor of Law said Nigeria
He said the election of Buhari was a big mistake, accusing
Nigerians of suffering from amnesia and refusing to learn from the mistake of
electing ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo 16 years ago.
In his words: “I said it at the beginning that Buhari does not have what it takes, he does not have the academic and intellectual credentials to rule Nigeria . He just went from School Certificate to the army. Does training in a military academy adequately equip anybody to govern this country, knowing what it takes, what it means to govern Nigeria ? Can what you are taught in a military academy without a university background prepare you?”
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| *Buhari |
Nwabueze said while many of the contemporary
Nigerian soldiers go to the university before joining the army, many in the
Buhari generation joined the military immediately after their School
Certificate examination. He sees that as a huge problem and situates President
Buhari’s seeming inability to grapple with the numerous challenges facing the
country in his lack of capacity.
“Do
you know what it means to govern this country? The complexity of the Nigerian
society, the sheer intellectual complexity of the Nigerian Constitution. How
many Nigerians understand it? How many have read it? We don’t have a reading
culture. Have you asked yourself that question? How many Nigerians, even among
the politicians read the Nigerian Constitution and how many of those who read
understand,” he asked rhetorically.
Grouping the President among those who may
not have read the Nigerian Constitution, he asked: “Does Buhari read the
Constitution? Does he understand it? Is he prepared if he understands at all to
abide by its commands and directives? That is part of the problem.”
Nwabueze said no one who does not understand
the basic instrument, the basic charter of governance in a country
(constitution) can govern that country.
“The shout of a change
mantra does not bring about change when those who govern do not understand the
basic instrument, the basic charter of governance in our country.
“We all made a very big mistake electing
Buhari president knowing that he doesn’t have the credentials. Should we have
done that knowing our experience under Obasanjo? They lack the experience to
govern and if we were not suffering from amnesia, we should not have elected
another former head of the federal military government. We shouldn’t have
repeated the same mistake.
“We have ourselves to blame for expecting
the man to do what he is not equipped to do. He is not equipped to do this
neither by his intellectual nor academic qualifications nor by his antecedents
as former head of the federal military government. He was trained and there was
a certain mentality implanted in him, mentality of giving orders and expecting
the orders to be obeyed.
“Today, they call him the Sheriff. That is a
fitting title. He is ruling as a Sheriff, giving orders. Saying one thing today
and another tomorrow. The ministers are there waiting for him. Have you heard
any of them make any intelligent statement? They are all scared waiting for the
Sheriff to give orders which they will carry out. If you go against his orders,
you are in trouble. After all, he said ministers are only there to make noise.”
But Nwabueze, one of the two surviving
Senior Advocates of Nigeria from the first set in 1978 that included Obafemi
Awolowo and Richard Akinjide, says Buhari, unlike his predecessors, Goodluck
Jonathan and Olusegun Obasanjo, has shown more sincerity and seriousness in
waging the war against corruption.
“I think Buhari is more
focused in the war against corruption, at least he is doing more than his
predecessors. I will put it in comparative terms. Compared with the war against
corruption under presidents Goodluck Jonathan and Olusegun Obasanjo, he is way
ahead.
“I think Buhari is more sincere, more
serious about the war than these other people. Under the other presidents, the
war was a façade, a make-belief. They were not fighting corruption and that was
why corruption instead of going down blossomed. Under Jonathan and Obasanjo,
the corruption graph was going up, not down. But I think Buhari is more sincere
and more determined.”
He, however, said that limiting the war to
Jonathan’s administration detracts from the sincerity.
“Buhari has constraints, no doubt, because
of the issues of seriousness and sincerity. The question is, is he prepared to
withstand these constraints? When you talk about limiting the war to the
immediate past administration of Jonathan, you are not showing sincerity.
Jonathan’s is not the only corrupt administration. How can you justifiably say
that you are fighting corruption when you are limiting it to just Jonathan’s
administration and closing your eyes to the corruption under other
administrations? But he is clearly doing more than the others before.
“Whether the war will succeed in eradicating
corruption is the ultimate question. We must understand that corruption has
become a way of life in Nigeria
“How do you deal with the
ordinary man who on a daily basis is committing corruption? Ninety percent of
people in this country perpetrate corruption. You can’t get anything done in
this country unless you are prepared to grease the palms of either public or
private officials. And it has become, like I said, a way of life. You have to
do this to get on. And that is where my call for social and ethical revolution
comes in. How do you get this out of the mentality of the ordinary man and
woman? You cannot except by social and ethical revolution.”
*Culled from TheNiche newspaper (used with permission)
Social and ethical revolution is the answer to the corruption in Nigeria. This has to start with a well crafted civic education built into the country's school curriculum right from the elementary school. You know what they say: You can not teach an old dog new tricks. That is the reason the civic education has to start from the elementary school which will extrapulate to a social and ethical revelution as suggested by the learned professor. Where I disagree with him is his academic grading of President Buhari. The certificate he obtained from the last military training he had in the United States was compared to a master's degree by the academic board of the school. It is too soon to write him off. The mess he inherited is colossal, so he would need time and support to get the country back to sanity.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the "anonymous". How do you expect Buhari to undo what has been damaged for 16 years within one year of governance? No degree is required to govern a country. All that is needed is common sense and surround himself with good advisors. The leaned professor said "however, limiting the war to Jonathan’s administration detracts from the sincerity."
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing insincere about this, he did not inherit the government from Obasanjo or anybody else. He took over the government from Jonathan's administration, and that is the administration he needs to deal with. Going back to deal with other administrations before Jonathan's administration is a waste of time and energy that will not produce any meaningful result.