Welcome, Guest: Register On Nairaland / LOGIN! / Trending / Recent / NewStats: 3,195,105 members, 7,957,131 topics. Date: Tuesday, 24 September 2024 at 07:38 AM |
Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Crime / Is Eradication Of Corruption The Motivating Object Of The On-going War? (366 Views)
Is Corruption The Fuel That Powers Nigeria? / Video Of Soldier, Amos Adorable Sobosu Royal Motivating Pupils Before Death / Fulani Man Escapes With Sharp Object In His Throat After Militia Attack (Graphic (2) (3) (4)
(1) (Reply)
Is Eradication Of Corruption The Motivating Object Of The On-going War? by Marcoassensio: 10:41am On Jan 14, 2018 |
The object of the war against corruption, in which successive
governments in the country profess themselves to be engaged,
needs to be clearly stated and constantly borne in mind. The
Constitution is unequivocal that the object is the eradication or
abolition of “all corrupt practices and abuse of office.” Accordingly,
a duty is laid on government, federal and state, to do so, i.e. to
“abolish all corrupt practice and abuse of office” : section 15(5).
What, then, does the duty thus laid on government require of it?
The Rt Rev Matthew Kukah, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese,
answers the question thus: The battle against corruption, he said,
“is not so much going to be won by how many investigations and
probes we conduct. It will not be won by how many people go to
jail.” Nor will it be won by how much money is recovered from the
looters of our common wealth. Corruption has to be fought in the
minds and hearts of people, with a view to bringing about a change
in their attitudes towards it, “a change in the Nigerian psyche.” This
is not, however, to say that the anti-corruption war should be
discontinued or that the corruption probes should be abandoned.
They must continue with increased vigour. It only means that the
eradication of corruption and the cleansing of the pervasive
rottenness in our society, of which corruption is a manifestation,
call for a social and ethical revolution, which in turn calls for an
effective mobilisation of the people for the purpose.
Effective mobilisation of the people for a cause, a worthy cause of
course, is one of the most arduous tasks of political leadership. It
requires, as leader, a president with the energy of youth, an energy
that will enable him to move round the country and meet with the
people in their various communities, at town hall gatherings and
other fora, down to the grassroots, and address them on the
imperative necessity for change in their attitudes and mindset, and
the need for patriotism generally. I think that at 75 a person, man
or woman, whoever he or she may be, no longer possesses the
sort of energy required for the purpose. For nearly three years since
his installation in office on 29 May, 2015, President Buhari has not
embarked on such mobilisation exercise apparently because his
advanced age (75) does not enable him to do so and partly
because he appears not to have the necessary inclination or
disposition. The reason of advanced age needs to be remedied by
prescribing in the Constitution an upper age limit for a president, as
is done in some countries of the world, and as is done for non-
elective public officials.
A social and ethical revolution is needed not only to rid the country
of the cankerworm of corruption, but also to launch it upon a New
Beginning, a new socio-political order, a more or less clean slate,
unsmeared by the rottenness that presently pervades the society. A
“change in the Nigerian psyche” is a radical change that requires a
social and ethical revolution to bring it about.
The growing public cynicism about the sincerity of President Buhari
as an uncompromising spear-head of a crusade against corruption
Given that President Buhari was initially acclaimed, hailed and
idolised by the people as an uncompromising spear-head of a
crusade against corruption – taking crusade to mean, not just a
war, but a war fought with great passion and zeal – it is
significant that, in less than two years, the acclaim is giving way to
cynicism about the President’s sincerity in the prosecution of the
war. Is he really the uncompromising crusader that the public had
been led to believe? There is reason to suppose that the public
cynicism is the by-product of the President’s Northernisation
Agenda, as it is being carried into effect by his lopsided strategic
appointments which are so manifestly skewed in favour of the
North and against the South.
Viewed from the standpoint of the war against corruption, it is
significant that all the key officials involved, even if it be indirectly,
in the prosecution of the war are northerners appointed by
President Buhari since his inauguration as President on 29 May,
2015. A list of such appointees shows this assertion to be an
incontrovertible fact.
Babachir Lawal, Secretary to the Government of the Federation
(SGF); appointed in preference to a hotly tipped candidate from the
South-East; after his removal following allegation of diversion of
funds meant for persons displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency
in the North-East, he was replaced by another northerner, Boss
Mustapha, again in preference to a rumoured candidate from the
South-East.
Maj-General Babagana Monguno (rtd), National Security Adviser
(NSA), replacing Dasuki, NSA under former President Goodluck
Jonathan.
Alhaji Abba Kyari, Chief of Staff to the President, replacing Brig-Gen
Jones Oladehinde (rtd), the holder of the office under former
President Goodluck Jonathan.
Ibrahim Idris, Inspector-General of Police (IGP) appointed over the
heads of some Southern officers senior to him. The IGP is heading
a Police Force, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), in which 15 out of
the 22 Assistant Inspectors-General of Police (AIG), who exercise
much of the function of the operational control of the Force, are
northerners, while 3 are from the South-West and 2 from the
South-East. These blatantly lopsided appointments, all of which
were made since the inception of the Buhari Administration, portray
the NPF as an army of occupation deliberately designed to carry
into effect President Buhari’s Northernisation Aganda in furtherance
of the dream of the Sardauna to reduce the South to “a conquered
territory and thereby prevented from having control over its future”.
The President’s implacable opposition to Re-structuring which
envisages the establishment of State Police should not, therefore,
surprise us. He wants to be able to continue to exercise control
over the internal security of the Southern States and to continue to
hold them hostage. It caricatures true federalism that a constituent
State in a
Federation should be under the control and yoke of the Federal
Government in the matter of its internal security.
Daura, Director-General, Department of State Security (DSS)
replacing Ita Ekpenyong; apart from the DG, the directors are
mostly northerners.
The control of the NPF and DSS by northerners must be taken
together with the fact that the Minister of Interior and the
Permanent Secretary of the ministry are northerners; that the Army
and Air Force are headed by northerners; and, above all that
President Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner, is the Commander-in-
Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, and has the power under the
Constitution to direct the operational use of the NPF for “the
maintenance and securing of public safety and public order”; his
power to direct the operational use of the DSS is even more
plenary. The implication of the control of security by northerners is
that the security of Nigeria and Nigerians is an exclusively northern
affair, thereby putting the rest of us at their mercy.
Abubakar Malami SAN, Attorney-General of the Federation and
Minister of Justice (AGF), a young SAN, who was raised to the rank
in 2008, i.e. seven years before his appointment as AGF.
Lt-Gen Abdulrahman Danbazau (rtd), Minister of Interior.
Magaji Abubakar, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Interior; he has
publicly admitted to have wrongfully sidetracked the Head of
Service (HoS), Mrs Winifred Ekanem Oyo-Its, a southerner, in the
reinstatement of Abdulrasheed Maina, and has apologized to her
accordingly: see the Vanguard of December 1, 2017.
Ibrahim Magu, Acting Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC); still kept in office in an acting capacity since 9
November, 2015 because of repeated refusal by the Senate to
confirm his appointment.
Hamed Ibrahim Ali, Controller-General, Nigerian Customs Services;
customs is the underbelly of corruption in Nigeria.
Mohammad Babandede, Controller-General Nigerian Immigration
Services; immigration stands implicated in Maina’s escape out of
Nigeria after his sack from the civil service and his subsequent re-
entry into it.
Amb. Muhammed Dauda, Acting Director-General National
Intelligence Agency (NIA), replacing Ayo Oke, a southerner; after he
was sacked, following the discovery in the NIA offices in the
Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, of the sum of $43 million, £27,800 and N23
million.
Alhaji Amed Idris, Accountant-General of the Federation, replacing
Jonah Ogunniyi Otunla, a southerner.
Maitanti Baru, Group Managing Director, Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), replacing Ibe Kachukwu, a
southerner, who, as Minister of State for Petroleum and Chairman,
NNPC Board, was sidelined by Baru in the process for the award of
some NNPC contracts; earlier he has been downgraded from
Minister of Petroleum to Minister of State for Petroleum, with the
President taking over as his own Petroleum Minister.
Abdulrasheed Maina, Chairman, Presidential Task Force on Pension
Reform; although his initial appointment took place before the
Buhari Administration, his reinstatement after he was sacked
occurred during that Administration, with the President’s approval
as the evidence shows.
The 15 appointments listed above are the strategic appointments
as they relate to the prosecution of the war against corruption.
There are of course other lopsided strategic appointments, such as
the appointment of Professor Mahmood Yakubu as Chairman,
Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) and Hadiza Bala-Usman
as Head aof the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). The listed
appointments raise critical issues as to the intention or design
behind them. They look like a swoop on the South, a jihad
designed to foist Northern domination, or even subjugation, on the
South in pursuance of the Sarduna’s agenda, announced as far
back as 1960, to “subjugate” the South and “reduce it to a
conquered territory”, with the object of preventing it from having
“control over its future,” an agenda which President Buhari, in a
speech in May 2015 as President-elect, re-echoed and vowed to
carry to a “finish”. What other reason could there be for
concentrating in the North the appointments to all the positions
vital to the effective prosecution of the war against corruption? We
need to be told. One hopes that the order for the purchase of war
planes from the U.S., ostensibly to fight Boko Haram terrorism, is
not connected with the hidden agenda for a jihad.
The 15 appointments stand uncontroverted. And yet in a futile
attempt to controvert the incontrovertible, the President, responding
to a newspaper report that 81 of 100 appointments made by him
were from the North, published a list of 159 appointments made by
him, 85 of which were from the South and 74 from the North: see
the Vanguard November 6, 2017. We are being treated again to
another irrelevancy designed to befog a critical issue and to
hoodwink the Nigerian people. The President is simply preying on
the gullibility of the public in anything that comes from him.
What all this means is that corruption is being fought, not by an
all-inclusive team of officials, but by officials drawn from one
section of the country, the North, separated in interests, outlook and
attitude from the South, which makes the war look like an
exclusively Northern affair. Hence the increase in public cynicism
about the President’s sincerity as leader. The cynicism seems to
have reached its peak in the Maina case, tagged by the media as
the Maina saga or Mainagate, involving several billions of naira
allegedly stolen from the pension fund scheme superintended by
the Presidential Task Force Reform Team of which Abdulrasheed
Maina was Chairman.
The aspect of the Maina case that aroused great public interest
and heightened public cynicism about the sincerity of the President
as leader of a crusade was the threat by the Chief of Staff to the
President, Alhaji Abba Kyari, a northerner, to “query” the Head of
Service of the Federation (HoS), Mrs Winifred Ekanem Oyo-Ita, a
southerner, for saying that she informed the President of Maina’s
reinstatement which was effected against her opposition. The
threat was made in the view of people, including the Vice-
President, arriving at the Council Chambers for the weekly meeting
of the Federal Executive Council. The threat and the HoS instant
but angry response triggered public reaction. Is the HoS under the
authority of the Chief of Staff as to make her amenable to a query
by him? Why should he publicly utter such a threat, except
perhaps as an over-zealous show of solidarity for a master from
the same section of the country, the North? Was the motive a
concern to shield a fellow northerner? The public was not told
anything more about this scandalous exhibition of sectionalism
other than that the controversy had been settled by the President
meeting privately with the two quarrelling officials.
But the public cynicism remains. Was something being concealed
from the public about the whole Maina saga? Was the President in
fact privy to Maina’s return to the country and his reinstatement
into the civil service, and did he authorise it? Maina’s testimony
came on 29 November, 2017, as reported in the Vanguard of that
day. He said:
“When this government came in, the president gave his note that
go and sit down with Maina. I have given you the approval. They
sat down with me…..The process of my reinstatement started after
the Attorney-General, Mr Malami, visited me. As soon as the
present government decided to sit with me, and after sitting with
me, I told them I will not leave you to go back to Nigeria without
something in your pocket. I’m going to give you something in your
pocket, and the Minister laughed.”
Maina’s testimony has not been countered by government.
The eradication of corruption requires the concerted efforts of all
Nigerians fighting together as one people under an all-inclusive
government, not a government perceived to be one for one section
of the country only, the North, and from which the other section
feels alienated. |
(1) (Reply)
Pirates Kill 2 Policemen, Cart Away Arms In Bayelsa / Ndlea Seize 855g Of Drugs From Polytechnic Graduate Ic / Elderly Farmer Beheaded By Herdsmen In Oyo State.
(Go Up)
Sections: politics (1) business autos (1) jobs (1) career education (1) romance computers phones travel sports fashion health religion celebs tv-movies music-radio literature webmasters programming techmarket Links: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) Nairaland - Copyright © 2005 - 2024 Oluwaseun Osewa. All rights reserved. See How To Advertise. 40 |