Governor Adams Oshiomhole
of Edo State has responded
to critics of President
Muhammadu Buhari’s
government, saying the
president is already
delivering on his electoral
promises and the APC
Change agenda.
Speaking at the national
executive committee meeting
of the Nigerian Bar
Association, Mr. Oshiomhole
said, “I know that right now,
everybody is talking in the
country. Is this the change
we asked for? And my
answer is Yes. It is the
change we asked for. For all
of us in this hall, you know
that the challenge of fixing a
house that has been
destroyed is much more
cumbersome than even
building a completely new
house because for the one
that has been destroyed,
you have to start by
removing the debris. You
have to check whether the
foundations are weak so that
you remove them. You must
first do a lot of cleansing and
excavation.
“That is what President
Muhammadu Buhari is doing.
And people expect that in 12
months you would have fixed
what was destroyed in 16
years. It is simply not
possible and in any case,
you must also recognize that
even the pressure on the
naira is the result of the so
much dollars that was taken
out and it will require a lot of
efforts at a time of collapsed
prices and the challenge of
oil export to fix what was
completely mismanaged.
“So, I ask us as elite, we
have a duty to explain to the
Nigerian people: Changes will
come, but they won’t come by
trying to remove a house
with smoke under. You must
extinguish the fire and make
sure the foundations are
strong, and start the
process of rebuilding
gradually.
“Is this the Change we
asked for? Yes. It’s the
Change we asked for. There
is no way miracles can occur
in the life of a nation. The
challenge of re-fixing the
house that has been
destroyed is much more
cumbersome,” Mr.
Oshiomhole said.
He called on the NBA to join
the government in the fight
against corruption, saying
“the NBA has a very
important role to play in the
national effort to combat and
defeat corruption. But I
asked my Lord the Chief
Judge, by the time the
President of the NBA said the
Bar has been fighting the
war, and I said to my lord,
are you aware of any
casualty in the war the NBA
has been fighting against
corruption? Is it possible to
fight a war without
casualties? I think now we
are beginning to see
casualties because there is a
renewed determination by
the federal government
under the able leadership of
President Muhammadu Buhari
to demonstrate that if it is
true that corruption is as
rampant as everybody
claims, and if it is true that
we have set up institutions
to fight it, it cannot also be
true that we are fighting and
nobody is falling.
“I think right now people are
beginning to fall, and with
your help, they can fall
faster. Corruption is fighting
back and I regret to have to
say this in your presence, I
should say this after you
have left, that it appears
that corruption is fighting
back, and a section of the
Bar is supporting this effort,
because we have seen
needless adjournments,
needless amendments to
charges and needless
preliminary objections,
leading to endless
adjournments. I think that
the Bar in your business
section agrees on a code
that if as Buhari said, if we
don’t kill corruption, it will kill
us, and we don’t want to die,
then we must allow justice to
have its way without
delaying it.”
On allegations that the anti-
corruption war is one-sided,
Mr. Oshiomhole said: “the
truth is if you monopolize
power for sixteen years,
and you monopolize the
sharing of the national
treasury for sixteen years,
should you not monopolize
the burden of being
prosecuted for sixteen
years? Is it the victims of
the sharing that should be
prosecuted? You dominated
power for sixteen years,
you have operated in the
name of Boko Haram and you
spent the money and shared
the money. Who else should
be prosecuted? So, I think
the Bar needs to be bold in
dismissing those who are
seeking to trivialize the anti-
corruption war. Just now, we
are beginning to see all
kinds of groups coming up
under the guise of one
protest or the other. They
want to harass and intimidate
the system.”