The 8th wonder of the world is how Nigerian President; Muhammadu Buhari managed to convince sane adults and some foreign countries that his govt is waging war against graft.
Fact is, there is no war against corruption. The so called anti-graft war is one hell of a lie, a fraud, a sham, a farce. It is a carefully planned and well executed show meant to deceive the hoi polloi of the society and take their minds off very crucial issues while the rogues in power keep preying on them in their characteristic manner.
First, president Buhari who is supposedly spearheading this anti-graft war is a man I believe to be integrity-challenged. With due respect to his office, I think the president is a dishonest man who is incapable of honoring his own promise:
Before the election, Buhari promised to fight corruption by first declaring his assets publicly, to enable Nigerians determine whether or not he had corruptly enriched himself when he would publicly declare his assets again upon leaving office. On September 3, the president's media aide; Garba Shehu read out a list of some of the president's belonging where he mentioned incoherent stuff like: "yet to be located plot of land in Portharcourt", "Unspecified number of cars" etc. Mr Shehu would later promise that the president would disclose his full assets when the CCB was done with the verification. The CCB has since finished with the verification and almost one year after, the president has refused to honor his own word
How can I trust a man who is incapable of honoring his own word? How can Nigerians trust such a man to fight corruption without corruptly enriching himself in the process? And if he is corruptly enriching himself, family and cronies in the process, can he be said to be fighting corruption? How can you claim you are fighting corruption when you have not even proven the very garment you wore was not made from the forbidden tree of corruption?
The late maximum ruler; Sani Abacha was estimated to have stolen between $6-$7billion. In the past 17 years, almost $3billion of this loot has been recovered so far. Now ask yourself, when Abacha was stealing all these monies, where was our so called Mr corruption fighter (Buhari) and what was he doing? Here, let me help; as Abacha was stealing the country blind, 'saint' Buhari was busy working for that same thieving govt as the PTF chairman. Have I told you some money equally went missing under his watch then? Okay, I just did.
Last year, this same Buhari looked us in the eye and told us that Abacha didn't steal a dime. This is even as some of Abacha loot has since been handed over to him. Now, imagine if Buhari, not Obasanjo, was the one who took over power in 1999. Do you think he would have bothered investigating Abacha for corruption?
Before you mention the term 'anti-corruption war' and 'Buhari' in thesame sentence, you need to understand how confused, lopsided and terribly bigoted Buhari's understanding of the term corruption is.
The truth is that Buhari sees corruption through his bigoted tribal lense. Once you are a Fulani, a northern Muslim, an APC member or a close associate of Mr Buhari, even if you steal the entire country, he doesn't really view such as corruption.
The main reason Col. Dasuki is in detention today has nothing to do with corruption. The ex-NSA is in detention mainly because he was the one who led a team of young soldiers to arrest Buhari when Ibrahim Babangida overthrew his illegal government and imprisoned him. Dasuki has since learnt that the Lannisters aren't the only ones who pay their debt.
Don't forget, president Buhari was named in the Dasukigate. He reportedly collected some dollars and 2 SUVs from Dasuki. His defense that the SUVs were part of his statutory entitlement is nonsense because the statutory entitlement for former heads of state are handled by the office of the secretary to the government, not the NSA.
We still remember the case of retired Col. Ja'afaru Isa; a very close friend of the president who was named in the Dasukigate and invited by the EFCC only to be released few hours later with the EFCC telling us that he had paid back some of his own share of the Dasukigate and had promised to rush home to bring the remaining balance. Have any of you heard anything about the Ja'afaru Isa's case again????? Has he returned the remaining balance?? Was he ever arrested or taken to court.
Blessed are those in the good book of president Buhari for they shall neither be investigated for corruption nor prosecuted for established cases of corruption!
The biggest evidence to the effect that president Buhari's so called anti-graft war is one hell of a fraud is his refusal to probe his own campaign fund.
Almost every Nigerian knows that Col. Dasuki was PDP's ATM for the 2015 election but the big question is:
Who was APC's Dasuki? How did the APC fund its 2015 election? Did Buhari and his fellow party members fund his presidential campaign with sand from river Niger?
We all know the APC matched the PDP cash for cash, private jet for private etc. Where did they get their own campaign fund?
Ladies and gentlemen, let us stop romancing the truth. Let us look this fraudulent #ChangeChanters in the eye and demand they probe their own campaign fund. Let us demand they tell us how APC states suddenly couldn't pay salaries immediately Buhari came to power such that he (Buhari) had to bail them out.
A betting man would bet that the allocation for those APC states (Osun, Imo, River state under Rotimi Amechi etc) were used to sponsor Buhari's campaign. And as it happens, I am a betting man.
Now, let us even look at the Dasukigate. Here, we need to look beyond our emotion and what the government want us to see and ask questions! Genuine questions! Uncomfortable questions!
Where exactly did those monies shared by Col. Dasuki come from? Were they from the PDP's campaign fund, were they from the arms fund or were the monies from security votes??
Here is why these questions are important.....even more important than this 'action movie' of arresting suspects, arraigning them before a Judge in handcuffs only to adjourn the case indefinitely.
Without establishing that the monies shared by Dasuki were actually from an illegal source, there is absolutely no way you can convict anyone that received money from Dasuki of any wrongdoing. It is as senseless as trying to convict Charles Ogbu of buying stolen property when you are yet to prove the property was actually stolen in the first place
If it is established that Dasukigate was from Jonathan's security votes, then this govt will have succeeded in wasting scarce state resources and time in the so called antigraft war because by law, a custodian of security votes does not even need to account for it. Matter of fact, he has the right to give one billion of such money to his mother or father if he is convinced that doing so will help improve security in any way. The custodian of such fund can even use ten million to buy marijuana for a criminal gang just so they could smoke and sleep in peace without disturbing the peace of the society and he would not have committed any offence.
Note, this is not Charles justifying anything here. This is me just pointing out how prone this security vote is to abuse. Please, do your own finding about this waste pipe called security vote
Remember, our president, governors and local govt chairmen all have access to the security vote. Buhari is spending his as I type this and he doesn't need to account for it.
If Buhari and his #ChildrenOfBroom were sincere in this anti-graft war, they would leave all these their 'film tricks' and pursue the Dasukigate with all the seriousness it deserve with a view to establishing the main source of the fund to enable Nigerians know how past and present government officials have managed/mismanaged their fund. Most importantly, he would work towards abolishing the security vote by way of legislation.
But no, Buhari's government has postponed the Dasuki trial for not less than 13 times in the past few months
If president Buhari's government cannot establish beyond reasonable doubt before the court that the monies shared by Col. Dasuki were from illicit means, how can it possibly secure conviction against those who took part in sharing the Dasukigate??
Many people make the mistake of thinking that anti-corruption war is all about arresting and detaining suspects. No! You have to have a solid case with which to convince the judge that the suspects actually enriched himself through corrupt means! All that the suspect is required to do is plead 'Not Guilty'.
In law, even if a judge saw a man stealing from the bank on his way to his court, if you bring that case before that judge, you are still going to have to prove the case of robbery preferred against the suspect beyond reasonable doubt before the court. That the judge witnessed the robbery on his way to work is completely irrelevant here!
How many convictions has Buhari govt secured so far??
Is the loot that were allegedly recovered not being re-looted by a group of "untouchables" within the presidency led by the Chief of Staff; Abbah Kyari? This is according to a comprehensive report by SaharaReporters.
What about the 2016 Budget that was padded left right and center? Was even a single soul punished for the Budget padding
Today, any govt official can buy dollars at 197 direct from the CBN and sell at above N400 and make his cool billions. Yet, they claim they are fighting corruption.
Is Buhari even aware that bending civil service rule to employ children of his close friends and fellow Northerners into the CBN, FIRS, NNPC, Immigration etc is corruption??
How can a man who has a very lopsided understanding of corruption claim to be fighting corruption??
Corruption is not a one-man-show. It is an institutional thing. Institutions and laws fight corruption, not one tyrant with age-long grudges against perceived opponents.
Until Buhari publicly declares his assets as he promised, probe the source of his campaign fund, investigate and prosecute all members of the APC (Rotimi Amechi and co) and his fellow Hausa Fulani Muslims (Ja'afaru Isa, Abdulraman Dambazzou, General Buratai and co) and friends and cronies plus ministers fingered in different corrupt acts and stop seeing corruption as exclusive to a particular political party and tribe, the notion that he is fighting corruption remains a very silly notion.
Written by Charles Ogbu
Written by Restore Biafra
We are Creative Bloggers who have decided to take on the Biafra restoration issues until that republic is fully restored.
0 comments :
Post a Comment