By Emeka Alex Duru
Can President Muhammadu Buhari still flaunt anti-corruption crusade as the corner stone of his administration in the light of current realities in the land? This is a question that even his staunchest supporters are increasingly finding difficult to answer in the affirmative.
But why is the President often bogged by this poser that is becoming an anti-climax any time he takes up the gauntlet against the monster of corruption? This, is perhaps, the greater question, he needs to find an answer to.
In his first outing as military head of state, between 1984 and 1985, Buhari had sold the impression of one on a messianic mission; to purge the nation of virus of corruption that he and his fellow coupists cited as reasons for toppling the Shehu Shagari civilian administration, on December 31, 1983.
While Buhari and his colleagues, hauled politicians of the era into prisons with various ranges of sentences, some running into hundreds of years, he was lionized by the down-trodden and others who seemed to have had enough of the misdeeds of members of the displaced leadership.
But essentially lacking in finesse and adherence to rule of law in going about their actions, Buhari and his deputy, late Tunde Idiagbon, had infused in the public, a certain culture of fear that was mistaken for discipline.
It however took the currency change exercise of early 1985 and accompanying ugly tale of alleged importation of 53 suitcases suspected of being stuffed with money by a relation of Buhari’s aide de camp, Mustapha Jokolo, for Nigerians to insinuate that the tough-stance, anti-corruption posture of the administration, might be a ruse, after all.
That suspicion received a boost when another group of army officers, led by General Ibrahim Babangida, overthrew the Buhari administration, accusing the leadership of inflexibility and narrow-mindedness.
However, out of power and influence, Buhari, managed to enjoy the sympathy of Nigerians, especially the youth, who seemed attracted to his fire-brigade approach to rulership. It was maybe, this seeming mystique and quest for legitimacy that the late General Sani Abacha, intended to tap from when he chose Buhari as the chairman of his Petroleum Task Force (PTF) – a platform that was charged to apply proceeds of petrol pump price tax to fix the failing health and physical infrastructures in the country.
The verdict on Buhari’s management of the outfit, is still out with the jury. However, analyses of its performance profile and infrastructure distribution, are awash with nepotism, favoritism and lopsidedness in personnel recruitment and contract execution, with his North West geo-political zone having unfair share.
Nigerians, incidentally overlooked this obvious indication of provincialism in 2015, when they longed for alternative, having lost faith with uncertain movement of the Goodluck Jonathan Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – led administration.
Of course, Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC), readily, stole into the desperation, flaunting infrastructure rebirth, security and anti-corruption as their campaign slogan. What more, riding with his trademark austere visage and manifestation of disdain for material wealth and ostentation, Buhari easily crept into their consciousness.
When, therefore he was declared winner of the 2015 presidential election and on inauguration, pledged to uproot corruption from the land, Buhari appeared to have struck at the heart of the problem holding the country down all the while.
But less than two years to the end of his first term, the President has been utterly messed up by uncertain developments in his administration and activities of some of his trusted aides.
Even the fight against corruption that he had brandished as the corner stone of his second coming, is almost lost. In fact, if anything, it has eaten deep into the system, with Buhari virtually rendered a lame duck.
With padded budget proposal and lopsided appointments that characterised the early days of the administration, it was certain to perceptive minds that Buhari’s anti-corruption exercise, was not comprehensive.
It was rather half-hearted and selective, mainly targeted at political opponents.
But it is the callous cover-up of the Abdulrasheed Maina, former chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, by officials of the administration, that is exposing the Buhari anti-corruption agenda to ridicule. Maina, a fugitive, who ran away from the country because he was indicted for dipping hands into the pension reform fund, was smuggled back by senior officials of the government, paid salary arrears and reabsorbed into the civil service with double promotion.
Coming at a time the President has been under serious criticism over his parochial leadership tendencies, the so-called Buhari mystique that had propelled him to power, is gradually being shattered. In its place, is a caricature of a grossly weakened prey surrounded by ferocious hounds.
But who really is to blame at the ugly turn of events? Remaining members of the fast dwindling tribe of Buhari supporters, try the much they can to absolve him of blame at the poor state of affairs. Some still throw up the worn-out cliché of the president being a good man working with evil men. But how far can that watery defence go?
A major principle of nature is that of like attracting like. It does not gel making a saint of one man out of a hundred-member sinful crowd. Something must be wrong, somewhere, in that case.
But no matter how that goes, somebody must take responsibility. In a presidential democracy, the buck stops on a desk and not on a cabal. In this case, it is the president that owes Nigerians explanation on why the anti-corruption crusade he promised them has gone awry. After all, it was he that appointed whoever that must have transformed into the so-called cabal. And he has not told the nation that he is overwhelmed by the antics of the group.