By Kenny Oc Mma
Since President Muhammadu Buhari came on board with his full determination to kill corruption before it kills Nigeria, a lot of groups has come up with so many suggestions and advice on how he should go about committing his first public murder.
Some have advised that he should beam his anti-corruption searchlight from 1960 till date. Some others has suggested that he should carry out his probe from 1976 till date. Yet another set of Nigerians, want Buhari to look at corrupt activities that transpired between 1985 till date.
Also, another group feels there is no need to go too far. According to this set of people, they want Buhari to beam his searchlight from 1999 till date.
Funny enough, there is this last group that wants President Buhari to beam his searchlight, from as far back as the colonial period till date. However, the government has defined the boundary of their probe. According to the government, the probe would span from January, 2010 to June, 2015.
In another vein, some people have suggested that the president should start his anti-corruption crusade from his party members who are also corrupt.
According to them, charity begins at home. They believe the president should first of all, remove the bean in his party’s eyes before he could see clearly enough to remove the spec in the opposition’s eyes. But, another group of Nigerians believe that the anti-corruption war should start from the opposition, since they just left power after sixteen years.
Interestingly, another school of thought is of the opinion that the anti-corruption war should not have any sequence, but should be random. In other words, anybody could be summoned at any time to explain his or her past corrupt deeds, irrespective of his or her political leanings. However, the government has assured that no corrupt person would be spared, his or her political affiliations notwithstanding.
Over the years, I have grown to strongly believe that irrespective of our differences in religion, ethnicity, dialect, Political party, culture e.t.c, we all are united by one strong and important fact, which is, we are all Nigerians (Nigeria is our our country).
To complicate the above stated fact is another heavy fact, which is, we don’t have any other country, apart from Nigeria.
Consequently, when we are are talking about corruption, we are talking about people who took money belonging to us (Nigerians) into their personal pockets: we are talking about people who in one way or the other short-changed our great country for their selfish gain.
I want to use this medium to urge all Nigerians to jettison every sentiments and support the government of President Buhari in his courageous stride to bring corruption to book, once and for all.
Issues of period under probe, when to probe, where to probe e.t.c., should not arise. Our major concern should be, starting from somewhere. We must have a starting point, else, we will never start achieving anything in the anti-corruption war.
Interestingly, the government have settled for January, 2010 to June, 2015 as our starting point.
So therefore, we should support and stand behind the government. Who knows, when we are done with 2010-2015 season, the government may decide to look back. But, I strongly believe there is need to start from somewhere, a kind of reference point, from where we could easily go back or forward in future probes.
Also, we should not be overly worried whether the anti-corruption war campaign is starting from the ruling party, the opposition party, or done randomly. Our major interest should be “is he or she actually corrupt” not “is he or she in this or that party”. Returning our money safely back to us should always be our ultimate interest.
Finally, I want to end by stating that President Buhari serves as a a model especially for us, the youths. For me, I feel challenged that a Nigerian served a country such as ours in many juicy capacities, without being tainted with corruption.
From my observation during the election campaign period, many issues were raised against PMB but nobody accused him of corruption. Also, last month in America, President Obama described him as a man of integrity. Just recently, the main opposition party described him as the only clean man in his party. All these, attest that President Buhari should not just be seen as the president of Nigeria, but a model from whom we could borrow a leaf or more.
