Should Buhari Probe Jonathan’s Govt?

In the past few weeks, President Mohammadu Buhari
has left nobody in doubt about his determination to probe former ministers and other officials who served in the immediate past administration of President Goodluck Jonathan who allegedly stole Nigeria’s oil and diverted government’s money to personal accounts.
What do Nigerians think about this development, especially in view of the fact that before leaving office, Jonathan had reportedly said any probe of the current government would be seen as “witch hunt” if it fails to go beyond his administration?
Our Chief Correspondent, Calista Ezeaku got the views of some members of the public on the burning issue. Our photographer, Ken Donatus captured their images.

Mr. Igwe Kelvin – Unemployed graduate
I don’t see any reason why President Buhari will probe Jonathan’s administration. There were many administrations before Jonathan’s and even some of the people that served under Jonathan were part of previous administrations, yet there was nothing like probe at the end of the administrations.

So I don’t know why those public servants that served under Jonathan should be probed. If  Buhari has any indictment on any of Jonathan’s ministers, he should come up with it and let the public know. If he has any true evidence against them, he should make it public and may be people will support him. But since he started talking about this probing, we have not been made to know their “sins”. So it’s like Buhari has something against Jonathan’s government. I’m not saying that if there are people that stole public fund they should not be punished but you must have concrete evidence against them before going after them so that everybody will see that what they did was bad and your action is justified. Let the probe not be a kind of witch hunting.
Again, if Buhari wants to probe Jonathan’s administration he should be ready to probe other administrations before Jonathan’s because we are aware that most of the people that occupied public offices in the past stole peoples’ money. This corruption they are talking about now is not a new thing. We have been hearing of our leaders looting our treasury long before Jonathan’s government.
So, I will advise President Buhari to be careful the way he goes about the probe so that he does not cause more problem in the country.

Arch Bishop Harry Nelson Miracle, A Cleric
Well, probing is good but then he has to start from the beginning. If President Buhari wants to probe past government officials, he must start from previous governments before Jonathan’s administration. But if he wants to restrict the probe to Jonathan’s administration then indirectly he is witch hunting that administration and that is not a proper procedure to take.
So, I am not against the probe but all previous administrations before Jonathan’s should be probed before Jonathan’s administration or else it makes no sense. If he insists on starting from Jonathan’s government then the truth is that he is deceiving himself. You start counting from seven without first counting zero? If as he claims that he is transparent, let him start from the beginning. Whatever you do must be from the foundation. There is no structure without a foundation. So let him go back to the status quo. If he wants to probe let him start from the first administration then we will all accept it. But if he cannot do that then he shouldn’t even try it because it will simply mean he has a hidden agenda and he is looking for trouble.
Jonathan’s administration as far as I know and they also know is the very best Nigeria has ever had because what Goodluck did, He, Buhari cannot even do that. So let him be sincere to himself. They should just let the sleeping dog lie. If they do not want to start from the beginning they should forget about the probe. The truth is that they don’t have anything to probe about Jonathan’s administration. He is just trying to make a name for himself and then raise dust where there should be none. This is not the first time we are hearing that money was looted from the treasury. So the probe should start from the beginning to this point. They should go back to the root.
If you don’t kill anything from its root you are wasting your time. If he can kill the root then the branches will die but if you don’t kill the root you are wasting your time.
Mr. Kingsley Timothy
The truth is that if Buhari wants to probe past public servants, let him start from the governments before Jonathan’s regime. This is democracy. You don’t jump from one government to another one. Not because you have the people that served in past regimes as your followers then you decide to probe the people that served in another government that are not your followers. It doesn’t work that way. He should go back to when he himself headed the petroleum sector. He should probe them.
Yes he should go ahead and probe but he should start from the beginning. He has once been in the system. He knew what was in the system. Look, the truth is that if you are looking at what another man did because you want to score a point, it will make you to be so angry about what the last person before you did.
But if you think of when you started fighting to come into position, then you will know that you will start from that time that you started fighting to check mate everybody, not check-mating the last person that left the office before you.
We all know everything that happened before he came into power. So if you want to check-mate, start from the beginning. Yes, we all know that the level of corruption in the country is very high but then we have to deal with it from the root. If probing will stop corruption they the past leaders before Jonathan.
In any case, I even doubt it because when you go into the probing very well, you will see that so many people will be apprehended. There are many corrupt people in Nigeria. Every sector in the country is corrupt, we all know it. But the truth is, if you want to deal with it, start from the root. That is the only way corruption will stop.

Mr. Sunday Dumle – An Economist
I think the probe is a welcome development. Our leaders do not want us to benefit from the country’s resources. Whenever they occupy leadership positions, they loot money here and there. So they should be probed. But the probing should start from Obasanjo’s administration because if they start from Jonathan’s administration it will cause more problems. They should be probed and if found guilty they should face the law because the money is not meant for them. It is for the entire Nigerians. If the money looted by our leaders was used in developing this country we will not be suffering as we do today.

Msgr Cyprain Onwuli-Cleryman
Really, how can he probe some individuals without probing the whole administration and if he is probing the whole administration it has to start with him. The probing has to start from the time the military took over because that was when Nigeria started to decay. Right from the military coup in the 60s till now, he should probe everybody who had administered this country. That should be justice and not selective punity, you punish some people and leave others.
Look, people are also accusing him and the past governments he served under, let him clear the air. That will give him a stronger backing to probe others. There is nobody who is an administrator who will say he was hundred percent good in handling the affairs of any segment of the society-church, school or what have you. So to clear the air, let him start from himself.
But I will prefer he starts  from the first military coup till today, because they are the ones that destroyed this country. The civilians who ruled this country are saints.  The destruction of wealth, stealing, killing came more with the military. So let them probe themselves first, then they can probe others. Looting did not start today and it will not end tomorrow. Let us start cleaning from the beginning so that those who will rule tomorrow will become conscious of themselves.
Let us really rule and be conscious that we are in a fragile country. If he probes some people and leaves others, that will divide this country more. That will bring disunity and I can assure you, if expose more people you teach others how to steal in different ways will learn different ways, will learn different methods of destroying and stealing and then insecurity will grow, security situation will be worse. So let us be careful.
I think the gospel message of forgiveness should be there and the law makers  should insist that anybody who does any nonsense from now should either be removed or punished. It should enter into law because they are the ones that open the doors to all the nonesense people are doing. So let us forgive the past and focus on the future so as to make the future better.
Fighting corruption, stealing, looting and other vices will not be easy but then it has to start with the highest ruler and those who work with him. Once he is a disciplinarian and is able to carry that out, live a clean life and not be ready to tolerate any nonsense, Nigeria will change. He will make sure that those he will appoint as ministers, ambassadors, those heading different departments are guided. Really, they should send in their resignation letters before they are sworn-in so that if there is any nonesense, all he need do is to call the person, hand him over his resignation and send the police and others to go and take over until a new person is appointed, to make sure he doesn’t go back there to loot more.

Miss Chinenye Nwangwu-Self Employed
In the first pace I don’t know why President Buhari should choose to probe Jonathan’s administration or even some of his officials. What about those that served in pervious administrations before Jonathan’s, did they not steal our money? What has happened to them? I think if Buhari must probe, let him start from the first civilian government. Let me also remind our President that during his inaugural speech, he told Nigerians and the whole world that he would not go after any past government official, that he would start on a clean slate. Why is he no longer keeping to his words?
So for me, I don’t think probing only one particular past administration is right and just. If he must probe, he should probe all past leaders, including past governors irrespective of their political affiliation or their relationship with the current administration.