An ex-aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Doyin Okupe, has backed President Muhammadu Buhari’s views on corruption in Nigeria but frowned at his approach in tackling the menace.
Okupe noted that corruption was the reason for the recent defection of the Peoples Democratic Party lawmakers to the All Progressives Congress, following the Supreme Court judgment that sacked the PDP government in Imo State.
Recall that the Speaker of Imo State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Chiji Collins, alongside seven other members from the PDP, had defected to the APC.
He also noted that what happened in Imo will likely happen in majority of the states of the federation, adding that churches and mosques are not left out in the issue of corruption.
The politician who shared his views on Facebook, said he was not surprised at the gale of defections of PDP lawmakers in Imo to the APC.
He said, in truth, those defectors were never members of the PDP, adding that they were only politicians who contested and won their elections on the platform of the PDP.
The ex-presidential aide pointed out that the reality of Nigeria’s political situation is that only “very few real politicians remain in the political space.”
He said that people shop around for political platforms which will sell party tickets to them to be elected into political offices from where, as businessmen and women, according to him, “they can do their trade and make huge returns.”
Okupe said, “All parties in Nigeria without exception are actively engaged in this new business. It also involves all levels of competition. “
He also insisted that perpetrators in the act range from presidential candidates to councilors, adding that it also involves the majority of the electorates, electoral and security officials, describing the situation as “a national craze.”
Okupe, a former Special Assistant to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo on Media and Publicity, “It is endemic, it is pervasive and it is generally accepted across the board as normal, though, like the issue of policemen collecting tolls from commercial drivers, we all pretend it does not exist.
“Buhari was right on corruption, but wrong in the execution of the war against it. Transparency international was also right about our falling rating of corruption perception index.
“Those who accuse others of corruption in Nigeria, are themselves corruption personified. Those who pursue corrupt people are themselves corrupt. The citizens who clap when corrupt officials are nabbed are themselves embroiled in corrupt activities.
“They bribe their ways to get all things done. They also receive bribes before they can do anything for anybody. They collect huge sums of money before they can vote for any candidate. They care less often, about who wins.
“People or electorates in every state collect N6B N7B N10B from gubernatorial candidates before giving’ massive’ support and victory is to the highest bidder.
“We are all liars, pretenders, and hypocrites. We have accepted money as the common social denominator. Even our religious institutions are not spared. Church leaders received bribes to promote church workers or post pastors to lucrative churches.
“Mosques are not different. We are not at the end yet but very close to it. Our politics like every other facet of our collective social endeavors have been completely destroyed.
“We all need to come together on a nonpartisan, nonethnic and nonreligious basis. Humbly accept where we truly are, and collectively take a bold decision to draw the line, retrace our steps and rearrange the operating machinery of this country. Kenya did it a few years ago and they are better for it.
“Rwanda also did a similar thing and today it’s all a different story. How many more of our people need to continue in this perilous state because we are all deeply entrenched in activities that benefit us individually but collectively destroy our country, its manifest destiny and the future of its children.”
Okupe cried out that Nigeria is going down as a nation, adding that, although we have not hit the bottom yet, “we are close. We can collectively avert the impending national catastrophe and calamity.”
However, he said that the problems facing the country cannot be solved, “by scapegoating, hate, unforgiveness, clannishness, dishonesty, injustice, insincerity, unreasonable partisanship and lack of leadership commitment.”