Nigeria’s former EFCC Chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu is renowned for his anti-corruption stance and fight. Though some may argue that his fight was one-sided or prejudiced, the a posteriori facts point clearly at the reality that indeed corruption was fought by the former Chairman – whether lopsided or not.
Mallam Ribadu stepped on a lot of toes – very big toes I mean; like those of the former Governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori, Mohammed Babangida, son of former Head of State, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, to mention a few. It was thus not a jaw-dropper when he was removed from office two weeks after the arrest of former Governor Chief James Ibori.
For a fact, Nuhu Ribadu best tells the tale of the fight against corruption, especially that he was once in the forefront of the battle. Experientially, he is known to have made this pithy quote: “When you fight corruption, it fights back.”
Corruption today has become animated in the lives of many Nigerians: It has become the norm and the accepted way of doing things. It has lost its pariah status. In its various manners and forms, it has eaten very deeply into the fabric of our nation: It has torpedoed our economy, made frail our morality, rendered inert our legislative houses, stung our judiciary and ridiculed our socio-political environment. But despite all these damage and desecration done, those who foster and benefit fatly from it have sworn to protect their sources of livelihood till gaol do they part – Corruption will surely fight back.
Nigerian institutions became the funnels for milking the resources from our Nation’s treasury and then were left to lean and suffer malnutrition, consequently: Dilapidated roads, caustic poverty, moth-eaten hospitals, run-down educational institutions, an enervated civil service, tumbledown airports, a weakened military – name it, rot, rot, rot, here and there! All mothered by the monstrous corruption and fed to size by the misrule of the erstwhile administration of the People’s Democratic Party.
The majority of Nigerians voted President Buhari to fix these; with the mantra of CHANGE hinged on his tripod message to fight corruption, to secure the nation and to rescue the economy. It is noteworthy that securing the nation and rescuing the economy are organic corollaries of the fight against corruption.
President Buhari in his perspicacity understood that to win the war against Boko Haram, the battle must be fought concomitantly with the fight against corruption. The #DasukiGate revelations buttress further this truism; if weapons and ammunitions for the Nigerian Military were indeed purchased as at when they should have with the funds that were appropriated for same, many a family in the North Eastern parts of Nigeria would still be one and at home today. But, corruption had its way. And disaster was served cold to innocent Nigerians and the gallant troops of our Army.
Contrast that with the status quo today, where the Nigerian Army has been able to decimate all known camps of the insurgents in the North Eastern parts; reclaim all towns that were under the control of the insurgents and continue to win day after day the war against Boko Haram. What makes the difference? Sanitization of Defence procurements; weapons and ammunition now made available to the soldiers; rejuvenation of their morale; and a determined leadership founded on integrity at the helm of affairs.
The monumental sleaze committed by the past administration is what President Buhari is fixing – nut by nut; screw by screw.
But the Gordian knot of corruption has begun to wriggle and to bark sham propaganda and telltale lies.
Without an iota of remorse or restitution, the PDP mouthpieces have not thought it wise to rinse the foul stench of sulfurous slime that oozes when they make their failed-on-delivery attempt to put a dent to President Buhari’s war on corruption.
Corruption will fight back.
One would have expected that after losing an election for the first time on the national scale due mostly to the highhanded corruption of its administration, the PDP would have taken a moral cleansing and purgation; welcoming the lens, sponge and soap of the new administration to search and cleanse the country of this cancer. But no, it chooses rather to throw darts of propaganda, sponsor interviews that were never held, and pay jackpot lobbyists to promote puerile lies in defiance.
Corruption will fight back.
One would have also expected a sincere apology from the PDP for their atrocities in government, gross mismanagement of the country and the consequent loss of the lives of thousands of Nigerians in the North Eastern parts. But rather they choose to jubilate at the faintest sounds of gunshots in Maiduguri: “Pres. Buhari is failing, we told you so.”
Dr. Dipo Awojide in a Tweet said: “A war declared on corruption is not a war declared on the PDP.” Fair and fact this is. An addendum is that the anti-graft campaign cannot be dissociated from the handlers of the past administration, which single-handedly institutionalized the looting of our nation’s treasury. Looting was their source of livelihood, their culture, their attitude, their attraction and no doubt, their policy.
The fight against corruption will indeed be a tough one. Bulls once tagged sacred are being gored. The perpetrators of the heinous pillage of our nation’s resources are desperate not to go down without a fight. And this is not unexpected.
But President Buhari is up to the task and will surely have no stone unturned as he restores sanity back to our system. The war to rid our nation off corruption must be won; for the betterment of all.
My sincere prayer is that the God that rescued Nigeria from the infamy of the past administration will save us from its vestigial arms of corruption.
Be you apolitical, APC, APGA, PDP or KOWA, please say Amen. Amen.
Johannes Tobi Wojuola is a lawyer and writes from Abuja
What do you think?