Today, in the heart of the Buhari administration, is the Buratai scandal that would not go away until the government summons the courage to address the issue to the satisfaction of the Nigerian people. If former service chiefs, like Amosun, Badeh and company have been quizzed vigorously and are being made to vomit what they allegedly misappropriated or stole while they were in active service, why is a guy like Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, a serving Chief of Army Staff under Buhari not being investigated for the alleged $1.5m Dubai properties which he and his cohorts said were paid for in instalments through his monthly salary?
Since May 29, 2015, the citizens of Nigeria have been bombarded with some kleptomania-related terms that were not there before.
Dasukigate is one of them, budget padding is another and all sorts of crude terms describing the ‘scientific’ methods which some public officers have employed over the years to swindle the nation and walk away undiscovered or unharassed in any way.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s war against corruption was unequivocally welcomed by the Nigerian masses that saw the intention as real, and a message to corrupt public offices that it would no longer be business as usual, and for those who already stole, that there would be no safe haven for them.
Except for unpatriotic elements and those who were remote and direct beneficiaries of the unprecedented looting gang of Nigeria’s commonwealth, every patriotic Nigerian has been happy that a government is now in place with the purpose of making those that have stolen from the nation’s treasury cough out the loots.
It is mind boggling to note that a very tiny group of individuals in Nigeria are richer than the federal government, because at one point or the other they had access to the public till and succeeded beyond their wildest imaginations to illegally amass stupendous wealth, and nobody has ever asked them to account.
Today, the nation is on its knees crawling economically while the ordinary citizens who had no access to the nation’s coffers are the ones bearing the heavy brunt.
It is really unfortunate that Nigeria seems to be starting life all over again! The once seemingly comatose and now rejuvenated Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been firing down on all fronts in an attempt to track all stolen public funds and recover them for the country.
By the way, where was the EFCC before the arrival of Buhari? That is a question to answer another day.
Indeed, more fascinating and amazing in its new life circle, is the way the anti-graft agency has penetrated private and corporate accounts of those that have allegedly swindled the people’s collective patrimony in one cunny way or the other.
In the past, it would be hard to imagine that such financial discoveries could be made in our in Nigeria; that private and corporate accounts of some big wigs, including a sitting governor (Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State) could be frozen just like that without much ado.
Yes! What is good for the goose is equally good for the gander. As the months go by, since assumption of the mantle of leadership of the nation by President Buhari, critics of his administration have begun to pick holes in the way and manner the war on corruption is being prosecuted.
There is no question about the fact that the administration’s war against corruption is lopsided – a semblance of the type prosecuted by the corrupt Olusegun Obasanjo administration.
It is common knowledge that some of those who bankrolled Buhari’s presidential election cannot pass corruption test.
For the purpose of maintaining credibility and public trust the Buhari government must look from inside and search its house very well.
This is not to discount the good job it has done so far to bring the thieves to book, but until the government begins to investigate and bring to book the corrupt people within its fold, either in the party or directly in the government, the war against corruption would just be seen as another child’s play.
And it will not be long before the maligned public begins to reject the APC-led government, especially when people are finding it extremely difficult to bear the excruciating pains of the nation’s jaundiced economy.
Today, in the heart of the Buhari administration, is the Buratai scandal that would not go away until the government summons the courage to address the issue to the satisfaction of the Nigerian people.
If former service chiefs, like Amosun, Badeh and company have been quizzed vigorously and are being made to vomit what they allegedly misappropriated or stole while they were in active service, why is a guy like Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, a serving Chief of Army Staff under Buhari not being investigated for the alleged $1.5m Dubai properties which he and his cohorts said were paid for in instalments through his monthly salary?
Have we asked if that money was stolen from the Nigerian Army accounts? What business does he have with real estate acquisitions in faraway Dubai?
Why didn’t he invest such money in Nigeria, if he is not hiding something? How much is his annual take home for him to have been able to invest in such mouth-watering venture?
The Army Procurement Panel should not overlook this matter. Investigation by a private media group has shown that the said instalments were done for Buratai by someone else.
Buratai ought to have resigned by now or be asked by the anti-corruption crusader-president to step aside while he is being investigated.
That is the way things should go in this unfortunate development, involving a man leading a gigantic military campaign against a deadly and inhuman terrorist group (Boko Haram) in the North-East of Nigeria.
The Muhammadu Buhari administration should never stain his war against corruption by treating some individuals as sacred cows or untouchables. General Buratai is certainly not above the law of the land.
As long as Buratai is left alone, the EFCC is leaving a very big hole in the over-loaded vehicle being used presently to bring all looters of the people’s commonwealth to the field of justice.
It will be most pathetic if the likes of Buratai are not given the benefit of going through an open, fair and uncompromised investigation, and subsequent trial if evidence genuinely suggests culpability.
Lagos lawyer and human rights activist, Femi Falana and all those that have contributed to bringing the Buratai affair to public knowledge should not abandon this peculiar struggle.
President Buhari and his anti-corruption attack-dogs (EFCC) must be kept on their toes. The present high flying balloon chasing corruption in the country must not be allowed to be punctured by the Buratai affair and deliberate attempts to shield other suspects because of their relationship with the president. Never!
That is the only way President Buhari can turn Nigerian situation around positively and achieve his professed agenda for the nation.
That way he will go down as the greatest President in Nigeria’s checkered history.
-Alltimepost.com editorial
