By Charles Ogbu
The 8th wonder of the world is how
Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, managed to convince sane adults and some
foreign countries that his government is waging war against graft. Fact is,
there is no war against corruption. The so called anti-graft war is one hell of
a lie, a fraud, a sham, a farce. It is a carefully planned and well executed
show meant to deceive the hoi polloi of the society and take their minds off
very crucial issues while the rogues in power keep preying on them in their characteristic
manner.
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| *Buhari |
First, president Buhari who is
supposedly spearheading this anti-graft war is a man I believe to be
integrity-challenged. With due respect to his office, I think the president is
a dishonest man who is incapable of honouring his own promise: Before the
election, Buhari promised to fight corruption by first declaring his assets
publicly, to enable Nigerians determine whether or not he had corruptly
enriched himself when he would publicly declare his assets again upon leaving
office. On September 3, the president's media aide, Garba Shehu, read out a
list of some of the president's belonging where he mentioned incoherent stuff
like: "yet to be located plot of land in Port Harcourt
Mr. Shehu would later promise that
the president would disclose his full assets when the CCB was done with the
verification. The CCB has since finished with the verification and almost one
year after, the president has refused to honor his own word.
How can I trust a man who is incapable
of honoring his own word? How can Nigerians trust such a man to fight
corruption without corruptly enriching himself in the process? And if he is
corruptly enriching himself, family and cronies in the process, can he be said
to be fighting corruption? How can you claim you are fighting corruption when
you have not even proven the very garment you wore was not made from the
forbidden tree of corruption?
The late maximum ruler; Sani Abacha was estimated
to have stolen between $6-$7billion. In the past 17 years, almost $3billion of
this loot has been recovered so far. Now ask yourself, when Abacha was stealing
all these monies, where was our so called Mr. Corruption Fighter and what was
he doing? Here, let me help: as Abacha was stealing the country blind, 'saint'
Buhari was busy working for that same thieving government as the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) chairman.
Have I told you some money equally went missing under his watch then? Okay, I
just did.
Last year, this same Buhari looked us
in the eye and told us that Abacha didn't steal a dime. This is even as some of
Abacha loot has since been handed over to him. Now, imagine if Buhari, not
Obasanjo, was the one who took over power in 1999. Do you think he would have
bothered investigating Abacha for corruption?? Before you mention the term 'anti-corruption
war' and 'Buhari' in the same sentence, you need to understand how
confused, lopsided and terribly bigoted Buhari's understanding of the term
corruption is. The truth is that Buhari sees corruption through his bigoted
tribal lense. Once you are a Fulani, a northern Muslim, an APC member or a
close associate of Mr. Buhari, even if you steal the entire country, he doesn't
really view such as corruption.
The main reason Col. Dasuki is in
detention today has nothing to do with corruption. The ex-NSA is in detention
mainly because he was the one who led a team of young soldiers to arrest Buhari
when Ibrahim Babangida overthrew his illegal government and imprisoned him.
Dasuki has since learnt that the Lannisters aren't the only ones who pay their
debt. Don't forget, president Buhari was named in the Dasukigate. He reportedly
collected some dollars and 2 SUVs from Dasuki. His defense that the SUVs were
part of his statutory entitlement is nonsense because the statutory
entitlements for former heads of state are handled by the office of the
secretary to the government, not the NSA.
We still remember the case of retired
Col. Ja'afaru Isa, a very close friend of the president who was named in the
Dasukigate and invited by the EFCC only to be released few hours later with the
EFCC telling us that he had paid back some of his own share of the Dasukigate
and had promised to rush home to bring the remaining balance. Have any of you
heard anything about the Ja'afaru Isa's case again????? Has he returned the
remaining balance?? Was he ever arrested or taken to court? Blessed are those
in the good book of president Buhari for they shall neither be investigated for
corruption nor prosecuted for established cases of corruption! The biggest
evidence to the effect that president Buhari's so called anti-graft war is one
hell of a fraud is his refusal to probe his own campaign fund.
Almost every Nigerian knows that Col.
Dasuki was PDP's ATM for the 2015 election but the big question is: Who was
APC's Dasuki? How did the APC fund its 2015 election? Did Buhari and his fellow
party members fund his presidential campaign with sand from the River Niger
A betting man would bet that the
allocation for those APC states (Osun, Imo, River State under Rotimi Amechi
etc) were used to sponsor Buhari's campaign. And as it happens, I am a betting
man. Now, let us even look at the Dasukigate. Here, we need to look beyond our emotion
and what the government want us to see and ask questions! Genuine questions!
Uncomfortable questions! Where exactly did those monies shared by Col. Dasuki
come from? Were they from the PDP's campaign fund, were they from the arms fund
or were the monies from security votes?? Here is why these questions are
important...even more important than this 'action movie' of arresting suspects,
arraigning them before a Judge in handcuffs only to adjourn the case
indefinitely.
Without establishing that the monies
shared by Dasuki were actually from an illegal source, there is absolutely no
way you can convict anyone that received money from Dasuki of any wrongdoing.
It is as senseless as trying to convict Charles Ogbu of buying stolen property
when you are yet to prove the property was actually stolen in the first place.
If it is established that Dasukigate was from Jonathan's security votes, then
this government will have succeeded in wasting scarce state resources and time
in the so called anti-graft war because by law, a custodian of security votes
does not even need to account for it. Matter of fact, he has the right to give
one billion of such money to his mother or father if he is convinced that doing
so will help improve security in any way. The custodian of such fund can even
use ten million to buy marijuana for a criminal gang just so they could smoke
and sleep in peace without disturbing the peace of the society and he would not
have committed any offence.
Note, this is not Charles justifying
anything here. This is me just pointing out how prone this security vote is to
abuse. Please, do your own finding about this waste pipe called security vote.
Remember, our president, governors and local government chairmen all have
access to the security vote. Buhari is spending his as one type this and he
doesn't need to account for it. If Buhari and his #ChildrenOfBroom were
sincere in this anti-graft war, they would leave all these their 'film tricks'
and pursue the Dasukigate with all the seriousness it deserves with a view to
establishing the main source of the fund to enable Nigerians know how past and
present government officials have managed/mismanaged their fund. Most
importantly, he would work towards abolishing the security vote by way of
legislation. But no, Buhari’s government has postponed the Dasuki trial for not
less than 13 times in the past few months.
If president Buhari's government
cannot establish beyond reasonable doubt before the court that the monies
shared by Col. Dasuki were from illicit means, how can it possibly secure
conviction against those who took part in sharing the Dasukigate? Many people
make the mistake of thinking that anti-corruption war is all about arresting
and detaining suspects. No! You have to have a solid case with which to
convince the judge that the suspects actually enriched himself through corrupt
means! All that the suspect is required to do is plead 'Not Guilty'.
How many convictions has Buhari government
secured so far?? Is the loot that were allegedly recovered not being re-looted
by a group of "untouchables" within the presidency? This is according
to a comprehensive report by Sahara
Reporters. What about the 2016 Budget that was padded left right and
centre? Was even a single soul punished for the Budget padding? Today, any government
official can buy dollars at 197 direct from the CBN and sell at above N400 and
make his cool billions. Yet, they claim they are fighting corruption. Is Buhari
even aware that bending civil service rule to employ children of his close
friends and fellow Northerners into the CBN, FIRS, NNPC, Immigration etc is
corruption?? How can a man who has a very lopsided understanding of corruption
claim to be fighting corruption??
Corruption is not a one-man-show. It
is an institutional thing. Institutions and laws fight corruption, not one
tyrant with age-long grudges against perceived opponents. Until Buhari publicly
declares his assets as he promised, probe the source of his campaign fund,
investigate and prosecute all members of the APC (Rotimi Amechi and co) and his
fellow Hausa Fulani Muslims (Ja'afaru Isa, Abdulraman Dambazzou, General
Buratai and co) and friends and cronies plus ministers fingered in different
corrupt acts and stop seeing corruption as exclusive to a particular political
party and tribe, the notion that he is fighting corruption remains a very silly
notion.
Charles Ogbu is a commentator on public issues
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