By Okolo Chimennma
One of the major pillars on which President Mohammed Buhari rode to Aso Rock was his avowed promise to fight corruption to a standstill. I still recall how the then opposition party made a song and dance of GEJ’s attempt to explain the difference between corruption and stealing (which is more pervasive in the country) and that Nigerians should not anglicise stealing by calling it corruption but by its name -stealing.
I also recall that immediately Gen. Buhari found himself in Aso Rock he started a supposed war on all those who purportedly stole our commonwealth.
Every day we were inundated with reports of the arrest of this or that former this and that. As usual Nigerians were taken in.
It’s almost two years now that Buhari got himself ensconced in Aso Rock; the question Nigerians should be asking is – how far with the Buhari so called war on corruption?
Is it not surprising that NOBODY (other than the media trials we have been treated to) has been successfully prosecuted by this administration?
Does it not call for concern that despite several and severe allegations of graft against some leading lights in this government the supposed anti-graft General has not seen fit to “shoot” any one down?
How come we have had the anti- corruption crusader bringing probably the most corrupt budgets in Nigeria’s history?
How come people like Amaechi (indicted by a government sanctioned judicial panel), Fashola (the #78m website master), Babachir Lawal the SGF (indicted by the NASS for grass cutting), the Chief of Staff (alleged to have collected #500m from MTN) are not only walking free but still holding unto their positions with the Gen. anti corruption even absolving them of any offence?
Outside the media hype what really has been Buhari’s achievement in his self imposed task of fighting corruption?
Under Goodluck Jonathan Minsters lost their jobs for “alleged” (and till today not proven) corruption cases usually orchestrated by the opposition in cohorts with a docile and supportive media.
It was GEJ’s desire to fight corruption to a standstill and check fraud that led to the introduction of the bank verification number, BVN which has aided in raising a data base unprecedented in Nigeria and curbing fraud and corruption.
His cashless policy helped in no small measure to reduce graft, still we hounded him out of power.
His use of technology led to the discovery of over a hundred thousand ghost workers and deleting them from our payroll thereby saving us billions of naira.
He initiated and started the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA), all in his bid to minimise corruption and fraud in government.
It’s on record that it was under “corrupt” GEJ that the EFCC has had the largest number of successful prosecution of corruption cases. Still we said he didn’t do enough!
Why is the media silent or lukewarm on the massive graft going on in this government. Have they not heard of the CBN, Immigration recruitment and indeed other recruitment scams?
What really is the policy thrust of Gen. Buhari and his government in fighting corruption?
Everyday I thank God for giving us Buhari because we now know the unfathomable depth of the hypocrisy of the Nigerian elites and those who claim to always speak and act in our supposed best interests.
Okolo Chimennma is a lawyer, youth activist, political commentator and environmental rights campaigner
