Where's The People's Revolt Against Corrupt Leadership in Nigeria? By Felix N.Jarikre

Fifty-five years -stretching from political independence from colonial rule - of visionless leadership fueled by selfish ambitions of cynical politicians and roguish military adventurers have left the Nigerian people pauperized,disenchanted,powerless and voiceless. Angling for political leadership has become the easiest way to defraud the people without getting caught and punished. Emergency billionaires have sprouted from a rash of thugs and paupers who manipulated their way into power, polluting the land with their stolen wealth. The conventional wisdom is that your lack of preparation, as a politician, to steal an election,at whatever level, from local government to presidency, makes you a fool. The secret trick is to get a pliable judge who would agree to trade court judgement in your favour at a suitable fee.  Get one celebrity pastor to host a Thanksgiving service to celebrate your dubious victory, or some Muslim leader to endorse you as a man or woman chosen by God to lead the people to El Dorado, and you are on your way to breaking and looting the treasure box!  As wasteful public spending takes precedence over infrastructural development, creativity suffers and atrophy sets in. The story today is that some state governors from Imo to Osun owed several months' salaries to their civil servants,and had to ask for Federal bailout without shame. Some states like Delta and Lagos groan under public debts that could not be accounted for, even as their citizens wallow in poverty and unemployment. The question is, can Nigeria ever develop under this depressing scenario? Can this blighted country ever take her pride of place among the developed nation of this planet earth, where economic growth is taken for granted, the welfare of citizens assumed, and justice and fair-play held at premium?

The truth is, surrendering to despair is not an option. But if there is one thing we must wean ourselves from fast is the notion of waiting for some self-styled messiah to come and rescue us from the evil clutches of official corruption. This untenable notion is a delusion of the most destructive kind; so it should be uprooted as quickly as possible. First, the people should learn to develop a healthy distrust of those elected to govern them. Instead of being deceived, the people  should guard rather than abdicate their responsibility of leading the fight against official corruption. From media pundits, political errand-boys to bar-room conversation, the cry, smacking of grovelling supplication, is that PMB (President Muhammadu Buhari) should not abandon his avowed fight against corruption, but to probe deeply and not spare anyone accused of stealing from the common purse. All well and good, even though his vaunted personal integrity is still open to speculations in that so far he has carefully shielded himself from public accountability and scrutiny of his financial dealings. And we are now left to wrestle a sneaky conspiracy by the ruling elite to install PMB as the flaming guardian of the 'holy' war against corruption. This misplaced trust in Buhari's moral capacity to fight corruption to a standstill is fostered by a rapacious elite across the political spectrum -from PDP to APC - bent on a collective resolve to despoil the people. So far, the rest of us have bought that ruse calculated to distract and deprive us of our responsibility as a people to tenaciously demand for accountability and transparency in democratic governance, no matter whose ox is gored.

From Bola Tinubu calling OBJ (Olusegun Obasanjo) the 'Navigator of the Nation' last year when they ganged-up to dethrone Goodluck Jonathan to OBJ preparing and handing over a blueprint for national economic revival to newly-elected PMB, these maneuvers were all aimed at protecting their flank, and avoid being probed and prosecuted by an unfriendly, vindictive ruler. When OBJ, in an orchestrated move to scapegoat Jonathan for the ills that plagued Nigeria, arrogantly announced with a judicial irrevocability that the South-South geographical region would be haunted for many years to come by GEJ's 'misrule', I knew it would not be long before Buhari's henchmen come calling for Jonathan's head to satisfy the people's blood crave for public spectacle and shaming of 'corruption.' This is the same OBJ whose 8-years rule from 1999 was a litany of bluster, incompetence and failed expectations, a cautionary tale of how not to lead a nation, a man who elevated political impunity to high art. Running NNPC as a potentate without accountability and transparency during his tenure as president, OBJ it was who said he was not a 'sadist to throw big men into jail,' a flip-flop from his doctrine of 'no sacred cows' in his self-imposed fight against corruption. To have this same OBJ cavorting with the new president was a signal that PMB could not, and should not be trusted to genuinely probe and prosecute corruption in Nigeria starting from 1999. Despite Femi Adesina's convoluted untenable justification of how PMB would restrict his probe to Jonathan's tenure, it's clear to discerning observers that Buhari is out to witch-hunt! That the president's self-righteous anger against public corruption is simply a tale of 'sound and fury, signifying nothing,' apology to Shakespeare.

That leads me to my point. President Buhari as a born-again democrat, and not a military despot, cannot be the guardian, but a subject of a renewed fight against official corruption. The people should seize the initiative, and appropriate the fight against corruption. Without sounding idealistic, it takes a vigilant, empowered people, not the head of any government, to checkmate the excesses of the judicial, legislative and executive arms of government. Despite immunity, even the government of President Buhari should not expire before the people start demanding for a probe and investigations into his deeds, apart from security issues, in office. That's why the Freedom of Information Act should be strengthened and domesticated across the length and breath of the country, no state or local government excluded.  Vigilance of the citizenry should be eternal, and not suspended. TO BE CONTINUED.