A manipulative label of wholesale corruption is hovering over all former public office holders nationwide. No court has decided on them yet.
Some say the desperate political elite tags it to only potential ministerial appointees and aides in President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet.
Buhari says anyone with corruption blemish is not fit to serve under him. So, politicians pin corruption on all opponents to disqualify them from getting federal appointments.
But if everybody is corrupt, then nobody is fit to serve in Abuja.
Others say politicians want to box Buhari into a tight corner to prove to him that no angel exists in the country without a whiff of corruption after public office.
Others still say the fake corruption labels tagged on everyone is the continuation of the dirty fight between former godfathers and their godsons whose relationship went sour.
Whatever the cause, the political ramifications on party cohesion, unity and harmony hang democratic governance in the air.
In fact, a ceremony to launch three books on Tuesday, August 18 in honour of former Lagos Governor, Babatunde Fashola, highlighted the factionalisation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
The books – The Great Leap, In Bold Print, and The Lagos Blow Down – edited by Hakeem Bello and Dapo Adeniyi, were launched at the Shell Hall of Muson Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.
All the “brave” Fashola supporters (as Fola Adeola, former GTBank boss, called them), were at the venue to celebrate the achievements of his eight-year governance documented in the three books.
Absent were his predecessor and one-time godfather Bola Tinubu and his APC loyalists. Tinubu’s absence, though he was represented by former Lagos Commissioner for Education, Tunde Samuel, set tongues wagging that the face-off between him and Fashola has hit the peak.
Worse still, commissioners who served in both men’s administrations boycotted the book launch to demonstrate allegiance to Tinubu.
Indeed, Governor Akinwumi Ambode, who stands to lose the most in the two elephants’ fight, did not show up nor send a representative. But he is yet to demonstrate to Lagosians that he is his own man and not tied to Tinubu’s APC broomsticks.
The success of the event demonstrated that Fashola does not want to walk in Tinubu’s shadows anymore.
Still, he stuck to his principle not to castigate his mentor. The closest he came to it was his wisecrack that if he fought a pig in the mud, the pig feels happy while he gets dirty.
Now, we know the source of the corruption allegations in the media against Fashola four months after the state’s poster boy of good governance handed over to Ambode.
The allegations are bandied about by the Tinubu camp as reports speculated that Buhari may appoint Fashola in the cabinet. The accusers hope Buhari would be influenced to dump him from the coveted list.
Tinubu does not want his protege to outshine him; and responds to accusations that he is the premier Lagos treasury looter by demanding proof. Nobody has proven yet that Tinubu is corrupt.
However, the shenanigans in Lagos come as no surprise. Rivers State has also inundated the nation with corruption flood by the traducers of former Governor Rotimi Amaechi, a staunch supporter of Buhari.
In Ekiti State, former Governor Kayode Fayemi gets the corruption charge from Governor Ayo Fayose. Murmurings mount against former Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke.
Former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, and his successor fight dirty.
We hate the rife corruption of public office holders. Corruption is the cause of failed governance since the return to civil rule in 1999. Its corrosive influence on moral values and public institutions is deplorable.
But so also do we know that public office holders steal our common wealth to remain relevant in politics when they leave power, influence appointments of successors and… live big.
So, should any accusation have merit, the individual must face the music. But until a law court convicts a high performer being blackmailed by mediocre politicians, the scurrilous media campaigns remain mere allegations.
Buhari has defined his criteria for competent, qualified and honest persons to serve in his government. Besides, his focus on eradicating insecurity, corruption and economic resuscitation is as well known as his three-point agenda.
But we differ with him in his approach to the anti-corruption combat. It would be more effective and equally rewarding if he declares a moratorium of, say, six months, for all Nigerians who looted public funds idling in foreign banks to return them.
They must repatriate the loot voluntarily to invest in Nigeria to create wealth, jobs and incomes for the teeming unemployed. No questions asked. At the expiry of the grace period, those who refuse to make restitution should be tried in court and jailed.
We encourage Buhari to appoint any high-performing achiever into his cabinet. He is unwittingly the target of the corruption hoopla in the media to make him drop competent achievers pencilled down for his cabinet.
In the meantime, all politicians seeking to discredit competent technocrats and other colleagues with fast rising profiles know where to turn. Not to scurrilous media “trials” but to the anti-graft agencies.
Let the courts decide who is corrupt and who is not.