President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday said the forthcoming
general elections in the country were being threatened by corruption.
It was gathered that the presidential and National Assembly
elections will hold on Saturday, to be followed by governorship and state
assembly polls two weeks later.
The president expressed this fear in an article titled,
“Corruption threatens Nigeria – and its election.”
“As president, I have tried to judiciously exercise the
trust vested in me to combat the problems of corruption, insecurity and an
inequitable economy. All are important. But amongst them, one stands above the
others as both a cause and aggravator of the rest. It is, of course,
corruption.
“A policy programme
that does not have fighting corruption at its core is destined to fail. The
battle against graft must be the base on which we secure the country, build our
economy, provide decent infrastructure and educate the next generation.
“This is the challenge of our generation: the variable on
which our success as a nation shall be determined. But the vested interests at
play can make this fight difficult. By way of their looting, the corrupt have
powerful resources at their disposal. And they will use them. For when you
fight corruption, you can be sure it will fight back.
“It even threatens to undermine February’s poll and – by
extension – our democracy. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)
has raised concerns over laundered money being funnelled into vote buying. This
is the problem of corruption writ large. It illustrates how it lurks in all and
every crevice of public life, manipulating due process in pursuit of
self-preservation and perpetuation; protecting personal political and economic
interests at the expense of the common good,” the president said.
Buhari said those who have criticised his administration’s
anti-corruption drive are those who opposed its mission.
“And though their lawyers may craft expensive alibis, they
cannot escape that which binds them together: a raft of documents and barely
legal (some clearly illegal) mechanisms – whether that be the Panama Papers, US
Congress reports, shell companies or offshore bank accounts.
“Corruption corrodes the trust on which the idea of
community is founded, because one rule for the few and another for everyone
else is unacceptable to anyone working honestly.
“But as we have intensified our war on corruption, so we
have found that corruption innovates to resist the law. This is not the sole
domain of those Nigerians, but the international corruption industry: the
unsavoury fellow-traveller of globalisation.
“Once the enablers are let in – as they have been in the
past – the greed of those they collude with grows. We have closed the door on
them, but unfortunately there still remain individuals who are willing to open
windows,” he said.
The president, who is seeking a second term, said even
though concrete progress had been made,
there was still much to do.
“We have repatriated hundreds of millions of dollars stowed
away in foreign banks. These funds have been transparently deployed on
infrastructural projects and used to directly empower the poorest in society.
More is still to come from our international partners in France, the United
Kingdom and the United States of America. Yet the hundreds of billions sifted
out of the country for the best part of this century promise more.
“We have secured high profile convictions, but greater cases
remain. Lawyers table endless objections to obstruct court proceedings, whilst
their clients hope it lasts until a ‘friendly’ president is voted into office.
We must continue to tighten the legal framework and ensure the authorities have
the investigative powers at their disposal to secure sentences. Only then will
we begin to neutralise the advantages the corrupt have,” he said.
According to him, the country has saved about $550m from the
removal of ghost workers from government payroll.
“More can be recovered through our whistle-blower policy
($370 million has been returned since its launch in 2016). More is still to
come. But, together, we shall prevail over corruption.
“A Yoruba proverb states that only the patient one can milk
a lion. Likewise, victory over corruption is difficult, but not impossible. We
must not flounder in our resolve. I know many Nigerians would like to see
faster action. So do I. But so too must we follow due process and exercise
restraint, ensuring allegation never takes the place of evidence. For that is
not the Nigeria we should wish to build.
“There is no doubt that this Administration has changed the
way we tackle corruption. The choice before voters is this: Do we continue
forward on this testing path against corruption? Or do revert to the past,
resigned to the falsehood that it is just the-way-things-are-done? Or that it
is just too difficult – too pervasive – to fix? I know which one I would
choose. It is why I am asking Nigerians for another four years to serve them,”
he said.
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