As
the war on corruption takes its toll on people who allegedly took part
in plundering the nation, Churchill Okonkwo has questioned the approach
employed by the president.
President Muhammadu Buhari
We hate to make mysteries out of nothing, but we have to let
President Buhari know that the knocks from acts of corruption with
impunity by his aides is bloodying his nose. So, accept our sympathy,
Mr. President, but as your passionate supporters, you owe us an
explanation as to why you are not defending your nose.
We believed in your promise to take our interests into account in
fighting corruption since you reappeared in the political scene in 2002.
We stood with you in 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015. Even though we are
somehow happy that you are prosecuting the thieves that plundered the
national wealth in the past 6 years and recovering huge sums of money,
we are very worried that your approach is very generous. Why are highly
placed Nigerians that embezzled billions walking free while street petty
thieves are convicted and sent to long jail sentences without an option
to refund? Most importantly, we are very disappointed that you have
allowed the crooks within your kitchen cabinet to be openly bloodying
your nose by their corrupt acts.
You are bleeding, Your Excellency. We are writing this open letter
to you as an expression of our dismay when we heard it on good authority
that the malnutrition currently ravaging the Internally Displaced
Persons (IDPs) in Northeastern Nigeria was due to massive acts of
corruption perpetuated by your aides and cronies under your nose. Under
your watch, your aides set up phantom NGOs and used that to siphon funds
meant for the IDPs. We have waited for you and the ALMIGHTY EFCC to
act, but apparently, the SGF has disabled the key starter. As ardent
believers, we are demanding that you overrule your SGF and act.
Just like you instituted a committee that investigated what
happened to the billions of dollars meant for arms to fight Boko Haram,
we challenge you to set up a similar committee to investigate and tell
Nigerians what happened to the billions of naira meant for the IDPs.
Failure to do so is tantamount to paying lip service to anti-corruption
crusade. Declaring a state of emergency, and breaking fast with the IDPs
is not enough to Nigerians. You can’t be “patching” and at the same
time be encouraging “leaking”. You therefore owe us an explanation, Mr.
President.
A man who does not lick his lips, can he blame the harmattan for
drying them? Mr. President, can’t you see that your aides are licking
your lips for you? Did you not feel the heavy blow on your nose from
General Buratai? Can’t you see that the SGF, your Chief of Staff and
other crooked aides around you are operating with indomitable greed?
Can’t you see that just like President Jona, these crooks are blooding
your nose with corrupt acts?
Now, the poor masses that saw you as the last hope for the common
man are walking around with their hands up in the air. Those of us who
somehow still believe are worried about the troubling signs that you are
apparently not in control. And the Jonathanians have been reminding us
at every opportunity that “we told you so”, “we told you so”. They kept
telling us that you are too old to know what’s going on inside the Aso
Rock not to talk of outside.
Accept our sympathy, President Buhari, but soon, very soon, we may
not be able to tell the difference between you and President Jona. Goats
and yam vs. aides and backdoor employment; stealing is not corruption
vs. misappropriation of funds is not corruption. Corrupt EFCC vs. EFCC
that is under the remote control of crooked aides.
Your nose is bleeding, Your Excellency. We have been watching your
fight corruption for just over one year now. We have been counting one
by one (beginning at our thumb), the knocks you have received on your
nose (on the same spot) from corrupting, omitting some and counting some
twice only to sadly puzzle ourselves before we could reach the middle
finger.
We shouted that a new set of cabals are caging you. In response,
you asked for pen and ink. Your crooked aides brought papers too. You
took the pen and dipped it in the ink and start to write. ‘What a
glorious way to mess up my integrity, and the weapon with which I am
doing it are my ‘honorable' aides.’ You looked towards the ceiling where
President Jona's portrait and the goats used to hang, now replaced by
that of an incorruptible man and his rampaging crooks. With shaky hands
you dipped your pen a second time into the ink horn and started
scribbling dizzily “. …”
Then, the phone rang; “Look at the President Buharis's nose!”
"What about his nose?"
"It's false."
"It's true."
“It's bleeding from the repeated violent blows from corruption”
"But his moral character stands very high."
"Yet, he is communing with crooked aides."
“But he has to work with ‘trusted’ aides.”
“I agree, but why is he not defending his nose?”
Click, and the line went dead. So, the debate stopped again.
We hate corruption with all our strength, although not much is left
now. We are against maladministration and what we are witnessing under
your watch is entrenchment of chronic systemic corruption in the process
of fighting corruption. Our greatest dream was to see the beginning of
an end to corruption with impunity in our country, but, your aides gave
it a theological function, now it is more abstract. We are surprised
that you have allowed your aides to tarnish your long standing
reputation.
Even though there is still some progress here and there in your
fight against corruption, we are not sure that the masses can see it
now. The suburbs around the cities are grim. The inhabitants are fading
away, driven into hooliganism and crime. Sometimes they wish they could
abandon this country forever. But that is no longer easy after their
countrymen exported our social vices to developed countries.
After 8 years in the labor market, I picked up a teaching
appointment in a third grade private school at Nsukka, only to find out
that my students are no longer interested in learning. If only Godwin
Emefiele or Babatunde Fowler or Abdulrahman Dambazau is my friend. If
only Atiku is my father-in-law. If only I know Asiwaju. If only…
- Written by Churchill Okonkwo
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