by Eze Eluchie
Can a
beneficiary of corruption tackle corruption?
This is the
question that will haunt the incumbent President of the Federal Republic as he
continues to pontificate on his plans to ‘confront corruption’.
The answer
to the question asked is ‘yes’!
The ‘yes’, however, comes with a huge caveat – there must be conscious efforts by the beneficiary of corruption (Mr. President) to distance himself from the corrupt who funded his ascendance into Office. In the absence of a discontinuance of camaraderie between the beneficiary of corruption and his corrupt sponsors, all talk about ‘confronting corruption’ can be dismissed as inconsequential and mere hallucination.
The ‘yes’, however, comes with a huge caveat – there must be conscious efforts by the beneficiary of corruption (Mr. President) to distance himself from the corrupt who funded his ascendance into Office. In the absence of a discontinuance of camaraderie between the beneficiary of corruption and his corrupt sponsors, all talk about ‘confronting corruption’ can be dismissed as inconsequential and mere hallucination.
In his
recent trip to the United States, the official delegation of the Nigerian President
comprised of some quite shady characters who occupy or occupied high political
offices in Nigeria, positions which they use(d) to horrendously fleece the public
treasury in Nigeria. It was thus no wonder that when the US President Barack
Obama announced that he was ordering the American security and investigating
agencies to collaborate with the Nigeria Government to ensure that looted
public funds emanating from Nigeria and deposited in US financial houses or
such outfits subject to US laws, were returned to Nigeria, there were a lot of
bemused faces in the audience – men who knew that all such talk would amount to
naught so long as they had good access to their man, the Nigerian President, whose
campaign for presidency, they had bankrolled and ensured was ‘successful’.
The irony is
that some of these characters, like the former Governor of Rivers State and major
financier of Buhari’s presidential campaign, openly brag about their prowess in
graft (see Blog Article: ‘The Audacity of Thieves’ http://ezeluchie.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-audacity-of-thieves.html)
and yet others have sought to transform the opportunity of their entry into the
White House and ‘golden handshake’ with the US President into tools to further
fleece the hapless populations over whom the rule.
President
Muhammadu Buhari must, somehow, find the courage to divest himself of the
excess garbage that surround himself and purge himself of long established, though salient, nuances which may becloud whatsoever ideas he might have
nurtured to leave an anti-corruption legacy and confront corruption.
For the sake
of our contraption, it is hoped that genuine non-partisan, non-sectional and
non-parochial actions be initiated and pursued to rid the Nigerian State of the
scourge of corruption which has served to diminish us, blur our visions and
enthrone poverty in our polity.
We simply
cannot afford to continue the way we have been going on.
Picture: Two high
profile sponsors of the Buhari presidency, ex-Governor Amaechi (Rivers State)
and Governor Okorocha (Imo State)
No comments:
Post a Comment