Your perception of Buhari is colored by your ethnic affiliation

Buhari’s credentials as a man averse to corruption and pussy-footing is
one of the reasons that gave him the South Western vote and has
earned him admiration by many folks southward of the river Niger and Benue.
In the Core Northern hemisphere, he is viewed more as man of the people.
Which translates roughly to religious and ethnic affiliations plus some simplicity.

By May 29 2015, he will be sworn in as the president of Nigeria.
Expectations are high in the South that he will go after people with a corrupt past
and eliminate corruption in Nigeria moving forward.

Although the South generally agree that corruption is a big issue which needs to be addressed in Nigeria,
however, depending on what part of the South you are from,
the definitions for acts to be prosecuted or those to be pursued seem to differ.

While the South West seem more concerned with Buhari drawing a line in the sand from the start of his administration,
but reaching backward to Jonathan and his present PDP crew (no those who decamped oo).
The SS/SE believes that he should not draw any line whatsoever.
They appear confident that if Buhari reaches back far enough into the past,
he’s dragnet will catch quite a number of people from other parts of the country
of which theirs would be only a tiny number compared to the other regions of the country.

The SE and SS consider this as being fair and just. Of course the Northern youth don’t appear too bothered.
They’re just happy that their man is there,
and left for them they might trek all over Nigeria to show their appreciation for this feat.

A strategy for fighting corruption

My main concern is that Buhari should not become a victim of himself.
There is more to governing Nigeria than being an anti-corruption tzar.
I’ll explain.

Whereas a country like South Africa is perceived to be more corrupt than Botswana
(that is using the corruption Index), the South African people are more prosperous than the Botswana’s.
We can vaguely tell from this that ridding a country of corruption
does not necessarily translate to economic empowerment for its citizens
that is except one decides to further extend the definition of corruption to encompass quality governance.

A fight against corruption is quite entertaining
-who won’t like to see Obasanjo and Babangida being given the Tafa Balogun treatment? -,
however it could be quite distracting too,
and feels more like the French revolution where everyone was crying for blood.

Buhari should design a strategy that enables his government:

1) tackle Nigerian economic empowerment moving forward,
2) recover loot to re-inject into the economy, and
3) minimize theft of the Nigeria treasury moving forward.

The first one is different from the other two.

For economic empowerment moving forward, the way to go
is to get a team of technocrats to move us in the right direction.
This team will be driven by KPI’s that are not set in stone,
but are flexible enough to meet the yearning of the man on the street.


For 2) and 3) which are anti-corruption policies, the aim should be simply economic and not a vengeful quest.
It can be handled in one breath devoid of as much bias as possible

Buhari’s anti-corruption team should draw up a list of some 5,000 visible and most influential Nigerians.
irrespective of tribe or religion.
The team would then draw up another list of the top thousands or so suspected biggest monetary heists in the history of Nigeria
(devoid of who is suspected of being involved)
What the team would then do is to go after recovering the money in the list of heists.
If in recovering the money in this list, someones name appears in the 1st list of visible Nigerians,
then the person's case is made very public and the person can't have plea bargain.

This strategy would discourage future smaller thieves while at the same time bringing money into the Nigerian coffers.
It would also excite the general public who want to see big heads roll,
this is unlike the present kindergarten drama classes being enacted by the EFCC