By Saad Umar
The eight years of Buhari is a corruption tragedy. It’s a tale of nepotism, bribery, embezzlement and theft of public funds by public officials. The supposed squeaky-clean Mr integrity failed and corruption triumphed.
I feel bad to hear Buhari’s Accountant-General, Ahmed stole ₦109 billion and his SGF, Babachir stole hundreds of millions, according to EFCC. Newspapers are awash with accusations of stealing running into trillions by Buhari’s family and friends. Hanan, his daughter was accused of using a presidential jet for her private journeys. His hausfrau in the other room isn’t spared from corruption allegations. Recall the school kid’s ‘mom has fed fat on public funds’ tweet. The sad stories of sleazes are endless.
Why did corruption festered and won so easily under Buhari? A cynic resignation? Is it Sheikh Ahmad Gumi’s ‘mu ma mu ɗana‘ syndrome? Or was it part of their plans to enthrone corruption? Maybe. Because, I recall one of his close confidants, a columnist in a Northern-based newspaper, once argued, long ago, for the decriminalisation of corruption. Don’t ask me about his intentionality at the time he wrote the piece. And, there appear to be pieces of evidence suggesting that corrupt acts like nepotism, embezzlement and bribery are effectively decriminalised under them.
Those the courts convicted of corruption were pardoned. The court found former governors Dariye and Reverend Jolly guilty of corruption: Buhari forgave them. Forgive, you may be forgiven. Some had their corruption charges dropped after ‘negotiating’ with them. Corruption won.
Buhari begged for forgiveness and has apologized for, at best, failure to fight corruption, a key campaign promise. Was the apology remorseful? We need a fatwa from the Sheikh in government, Saint Isiah Ally, to clarify if it’s ‘taubatan nasuhan’. Should there be accountability? Anyway, apology accepted, you’re forgiven.
Nobody is now talking about corruption. It has won. Corruption wasn’t front and centre during the last elections. In fact, the top players were thought to have corruption perception issues but nobody cares.
Take the case of Peter Obi for instance, anyone with eyes can see that the man is corrupt to the core. Pandora’s Papers spilt the beans. Critics accused him of investing billions of Anambra State funds in companies he had an interest in. Yet, men of God were dying to put him in office. The church, in the name of God, mobilized for him. It’s a crusade!
Atiku too was reputably corrupt. Achimugu released the ‘SPV audio’ evidencing Atiku’s alleged sleazes. Obasanjo, Atiku’s ex boss – not a saint either – accused him of corruption. Worse, Atiku publically but ignorantly admitted to a breach of the code of conduct. Yet, like Obi, Islamic sects, sheikhs and their Mosque promoted him. It’s a Jihad.
God hates corruption they say, so why did men of God embrace the corrupt so warmly? The triumph of corruption. They have surrendered, to the mammon.
Party primaries, prior to the general elections, were marked by corrupt practices. Tickets were bought and sold by unscrupulous politicians. A handful of honest, scrupulous, selfless but pragmatic politicians were constrained to do what works to earn their tickets. They had to participate to salvage Nigeria. My favourite politicians: the president-elect, Senator Shehu Buba and Hon Eni Chima belong to the latter class.
The honourable and distinguished members of the national assembly are about to elect their leaders, all we hear is, some seeking leadership of the chambers are bent on buying it from the members. Few of those are either in court defending corruption charges or are in EFCC en route to the courts. One of them had his conviction upturned by the Supreme Court in a dramatic fashion. Corruption triumphed.
The triumph of corruption came with colossal costs: Good policies of the APC were thwarted. Monies meant for the poor under social investment programs ended up in private pockets of fat cows in government, their families, friends or cronies.
Public infrastructure projects remain unfinished despite the stupendous sums of money released. For example, Abuja – Kaduna – Kano road. We are still unable to tame terrorism and banditry despite spending trillions. Pervasive poverty is ravaging villages and towns despite our enormous wealth and resources. The corruption created people with unexplainable and unjustifiable wealth.
Regardless, I see a silver lining in this corruption doom and gloom. I learned that integrity or its appearance alone, though necessary, isn’t sufficient in fighting corruption. It’s a mistake to put our trust in a single person.
And yes, corruption has triumphed but it didn’t kill us. What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. Undoubtedly, this is our darkest hour. But remember, the darkest hour is just before the dawn. A new momentous dawn breaks on 29 May 2023. The dawn of renewed hope. On that day, the real fightback will begin. Asiwaju has the capacity to fix our corruption problem. He must fix it. We must not let him rest. We must give our necessary support to his administration in order to defeat it. Nigerians are resilient, we will overcome corruption. In sha Allah.
Saad, a lawyer is the Deputy Chairman of APC Publicity Committee, Bauchi State and former Director-General of BASEPA.
