The present political trepidation is a happening that could be predicted by any arm chair analyst. It is however not certain where the dramatis personae will lead themselves and the nation. Interestingly, the sides of the political divides taking out on each other chunk by chunk appear to be baited by a seductive Bermuda triangle (known as the devils island in North Atlantic Ocean).
Politicians are divided along catharsis release of bloated corrupt values which has festered in the principles and practice of many politicians in the country. Some are already in the dragnet of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), others are actually within the corridors of power impervious of the threats and sanctions of acts of financial impropriety.
The only personality spirited with the religion of change is the dexterous President Muhammadu Buhari. The pressure against corruption appears to have its boundaries. As the loots are recovered from the left, those on the right are taking it. The vicious circle of money passing hands has become as endemic as a virus, its indeed tearing through every fiber of the society.
Nigeria is a dynamic country with growing cleavages. Once it was ethno-religious walls that had ripped through the nation with tempestuous roar, pulling hard at the foundation of our corporate entity and unity. All that has taken a second place to a new and potentially dangerous cleavage of those associated and copiously united in support for corrupt politicians. It is indeed important to intimate that these class of people are so cemented in support for corrupt leaders mostly standing trial to the extent that they have sold their souls against Nigeria’s financial independence to free their paymasters by causing huge distractions at the creeks.
It is sad but a painful truth to state that Buhari is tugged asunder by known thieves and those pretending with him in the struggle to emancipate Nigeria from financial slavery. Hence those engaged in economic terrorism are wolves wearing sheep clothing’s within the government, hunting down the economy with other predators presently about to be hanged by the noose before the court of law.
The exchange of unpleasant commentaries between the EFCC Czar, Ibrahim Magu, the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, the Director General of DSS has reached a height of infamy where a probe into their war of wards is simply inevitable. The exchanges, subsequent alleged claims of missing monies, associates using names to peddle lies and paddle monies across to their bank accounts only add substance to allegations that corruption has only changed packaging, but very much alive.
The Ayo Fayose, governor of Ekiti state, Zenith bank PLC, heralds another interesting dimension in the war against corruption. Fayose, a leading critic of the PMB led administration may be paying for his “mouth diarrhea” , but his counter catharsis release regarding the wife of the president is akin to a situation where exorcism goes awry in the hands of an apprentice pastor.
The other prominent issue saturating the political airwave on account of its Machiavellian maneuvers is the issue of certificate forgery that has thrown a net over the heads of Senate president Bukola Saraki and his alleged partner in crime, Deputy Senate president, Senator Ike Ekweremadu. The law is set to do them under while the senate is fragmented on the matter. The law is not backing out, just as the senate is becoming stiff and may soon be anti government.
I have long predicted the current happening between the presidency and the National Assembly. I have warned that the president must be wary of the lawmakers. I also warned that the president must ensure that the fight against corruption be stealth, swift and silent. I have also warned that if there is need to repatriate wealth stolen during the immediate past administration, it must sweep through the yard, regardless of whose ox is gored.
The wrong turn by the PMB led administration is decision to make a circus show out of its war against corruption. It is assumed some implementers of the battle to recover lost commonwealth in the hands of prebendal politicians targeted those they had raw vendetta against. Other looters with fewer enemies only got a slap on their wrists. It is based on these foregoing that some people held that Buhari should have stuck to his earlier position not to look back on fighting corruption by the past administration he took over from if ‘secret cow syndrome’ will prevail.
It is indeed easy to hope that PMB looked the other way and start on a clean slate, but that would have been a great injustice to those who voted him primarily to force corrupt officials to account for their crimes. He had to do what all Nigerians expected him to do. He had to plunge his fang deep into the hydra headed monster of corruption, regardless of its grave potentials of fighting back.
Sadly, the anti corruption war is succeeding and at the same time failing. Nigerians especially those in position of authority appear to be ganging up against the system. The progress on other sectors of the economy is slow, government at the center is also distracted by the spate of attacks by militias ostensibly sponsored by corrupt Nigerians accused of looting.
Nobody is querying the probes, trials and fund repatriations. The problem is the way some officials have managed to hijack the process to embark on personal fights. Others use the anti corruption war to veil themselves while they silently plunder the economy. It is indeed alleged that corruption at high places continues to soar – as the rumblings between earlier mentioned key government officials have managed to reflect.
Corruption is already weighing down on the system. The fight was not well coordinated, ill timed, laced with loath instead of logic. Replete with shouting instead of stealth. The fight became a tilted drama instead of and inclusive dragnet. It is indeed unfortunate that the potency has waned, the effect subdued and the impact whittled before those on economic terrorism.
Written by Israel A. Ebije.
ebijeo5@gmail.com
@ebijeisrael
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