War Against Corruption, Insecurity: Buhari’s Albatross

As Nigeria commemorates her 58 years of nationhood, the question most Nigerians ask is: whether insecurity and corruption, twin national challenges facing the country which President Muhammadu Bhuari-led Federal Government promised to tackle headlong have been achieved more than three years since its inauguration on May 29, 2015.
Most observers and critics of the central government will quickly affirm that Nigeria, except for the Civil War has never witnessed the level of insecurity, ethnic agitations from various federating units, blood-letting, corruption in high and low places among other vices that threaten the peaceful co-existence and unity of the country.
It is being suggested in many quarters that the only option left for the Buhari’s government is the immediate re-structuring of Nigeria as recommended by the National Constitutional Conference.
“The way forward is for government to dust the report of the conference, fine-tune it and implement it accordingly”, Dr Uche Nweke, a public policy analyst posited.
Dr. Nweke said that Buhari’s government appears to have a hidden agenda going by his body language as one can not rationalise the spate of insecurity and corruption in the country.
For others, nothing short of a comprehensive overhaul of the nation’s security architecture will be acceptable, as they contended that the present security system has failed woefully. George Princewill, a student of University of Port Harcourt described the insecurity witnessed in various parts of the country as worse than the one some Middle East countries have witnessed.
For Princewill, the first step to take is for Buhari to immediately sack all the security chiefs and replace them with competent persons. “All the security chiefs have individually and collectively failed us and their continued stay in office is unacceptable”.
“Thousands of innocent Nigerians have been killed by Boko Haram insurgents in the North East region of the country. Several communities have been sacked while at one time or the other hoisted their flags in some local government areas as part of their territory.
Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, Bauchi and Katsina States are worst hit by insurgents that attack soft spots like churches, motor parks, markets, among other public places.
The Boko Haram Islamic fundamentalists have indeed stepped up their criminality as they now attack even military posts and police stations, killing officers and carting away weapons, arms and ammunition. It got to a point that no day passes without the bombing of one place or the other. Their activities surely undermine national security.
We recall how these fanatics invaded Government Girls Secondary School, Dapchi and another girls secondary school in Chibok in Borno State and in the process took hundreds of school girls (students) hostage.
Insecurity is not peculiar to the North East alone. South-South and South East regions, have also experienced one form of insecurity or the other. In South-South for instance, militancy, kidnapping, cultism and other criminal activities are on the increase, mainly due to the region’s agitation for more attention. The region is aggrieved that revenue from oil and gas which are main revenue sources of Nigeria is being diverted to other regions. The region feels marginalised and thus, the youths resort to all manner of criminality to register their grievances. Pipeline vandalism, sabotage, illegal refining of crude oil are on the increase in the region.
In the South-East, agitations from various groups mainly MASSOB, IPOB, Ohanaeze and other quasi-groups have indicated that the region wants a better deal. MASSOB and IPOB are clamouring for Biafra to be independent and sovereign and contend that policing the entire nation from Abuja is no longer fashionable and practicable. “The need to establish state police has indeed become inevitable and imperative”, he said.
The security expert who retired as an Assistant Commissioner of Police explained that those who are opposed to state and community police are doing so for myopic and selfish reasons. “State police is the key and answer to our insecurity challenges,” he intoned.
As if the insecurity challenges facing the country are not enough, corruption which is now endemic in the society seems to be another cankerworm bedevilling Nigeria from independence till date.
Buhari on assumption of office promised to fight corruption to its knees. However, till date, this appears to be a tall dream as corruption is fighting back and little or no success has been achieved in this regard.
With EFCC, ICPC, the police, judiciary, Directorate of State Services (DSS) and other relevant agencies, corruption is still thriving in low and high places. The judiciary, police, customs, immigration, public service, just to mention a few are all infested by the corruption cankerworm. Global watchdogs have at various times rated Nigeria as among the most corrupt country on planet earth.
Worst still, a former British Prime Minister, David Cameron once described Nigeria as “fantastically corrupt” while other world leaders positing that few privileged Nigerian leaders are by far richer than the entire country. Our leaders are known for their penchant in money laundering as they stack billions of the nation’s wealth in Britain, Switzerland, United States of America, United Arba Emirate (UAE), Saudi Arabia, France and other choice cities and countries of the world.
Besides, the fact that corruption has eaten deep into the fabrics of the Nigerian society, the anti-graft campaign championed by the Buhari-led administration seems not to be making any meaningful impact. This is largely because the war against corruption by the APC Federal Government is selective and targeted only on political opponents-real or imagined.
Little wonder that some proven corrupt public officers who were variously indicted by judicial and administrative panels of inquiry swiftly defected to the ruling party, APC, just to avoid arrest and prosecution by relevant bodies like EFCC, DSS, ICPC or police.
Furthermore, key officials of the Buhari’s regime have been found culpable in the last three years of this administration. None of them has been prosecuted despite overwhelming evidence of their involvement in financial mismanagement and money laundering offences.
As a Port Harcourt- based legal practitioner, Barrister Obinna Amadi succintly put it: “if Nigeria does not kill corruption, corruption will surely kill Nigeria”.
Amadi may be right. The country is going down everyday with majority of Nigerians living on one dollar per day despite her enormous human and natural resources. Regrettably, Nigeria is now ranked world’s headquarters of poverty where over 100 million citizens can not afford a square meal daily.
From all indications, Nigeria appears to be sitting on a time bomb or keg of gun-powder capable of exploding anytime.
Except the Buhari’s government changes its strategy on the anti-graft war and adopts a holistic and comprehensive overhaul of the nation’s security architecture, corruption and insecurity will remain his albatross as the nation’s approaches the 2019 general elections.

Goodluck Ukwe