As the culture of impunity diminishes

Without holding a stick or whip in hand; without enacting any new law or amending any aspect of the existing constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria; without wearing a military uniform; without begging or pleading with an person or group; without sending masquerades after anyone on the streets and at workplaces; and without any […]

Without holding a stick or whip in hand; without enacting any new law or amending any aspect of the existing constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria; without wearing a military uniform; without begging or pleading with an person or group; without sending masquerades after anyone on the streets and at workplaces; and without any media propaganda; the deepened culture of impunity is amazingly fading out from the public life of Nigerians. This is visibly due to the awe-inspiring body-language of President Muhammadu Buhari.
With a decline in the gross disrespect by some privileged persons (including but not limited to politicians and political office holders) for the laws that do not only guarantee equal rights but also govern and regulate our common interest as Nigerians, Nigerians are delighted to heave a huge sigh of relief. Gratitude is due to Allah (SWT) for this mercy and many thanks to President Buhari whose effect has become the beginning of wisdom for corrupt and unruly Nigerians.
Unlike what it used to be in the country’s recent past, the flagrant abuse of siren on Nigerian roads has noticeably reduced. This may be the result of the order issued by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Mr. Solomon Arase for the arrest of unauthorized users. The bullying of other road users, for instance, by siren-blaring convoys of government officials and notorious individuals on the Abuja-Lokoja highway has relatively lessened. Besides curtailing the excesses of unauthorized users, the Federal Road Safety Corpse must also assist IGP Arase to ensure that authorized users comply with the regulations that govern the use of siren.
The withdrawal of policemen and women as orderly from unauthorized persons is not only inhibiting impunity but equally improving the image of the police. Even Nigerians who are not members of the force find it disgustingly embarrassing to see policemen and women in their uniforms turned by their masters in to handbag-carriers or engaged in duties that are too strange to be part of their main brief as security officers. The power-drunk among VIPs sometimes use their police orderlies to brutalize ordinary Nigerians at public functions; the same people they have the responsibility to serve and protect. This wicked culture of impunity is gradually losing out. Officers and men of the police force are urged to support the efforts of the IGP Mr. Solomon Arase in the re-birth of a community-friendly police force.
Recently too, impunity was affronted by the presidential directive on the recovery of government property from past government officials. The list of government assets to be recovered from past public officers includes buildings, vehicles and generating sets. It is tantamount to a brazen display of impunity when a political appointee refuses to return the government property in his possession when he knew that, as a former official, the privileges that authorized him to possess such assets had ceased to exist.
Impunity was similarly hit by the anti-corruption hurricane when the federal government directed the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to retrieve all valid diplomatic and official passports from holders who are no longer entitled to carry them. This directive couldn’t have come at a better time given the abuses to which the red and blue passports have been subjected over the past 16 years. The impunity under which privileges of official and diplomatic passports were extended to even mistresses of holders dented the country’s image in the comity of nations.
The fiscal indiscipline of misappropriating public funds or looting government treasury is another brand of impunity among political official holders and civil servants which the administration of President Buhari has resolved to tackle through Treasury Single Account (TSA); an account that is domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria. Like the Smart Card Reader that hampered rigging during the 2015 general elections, the TSA policy shall hopefully, check misappropriation especially of Internally Generated Revenue by chief executives of government agencies and parastatals.
The Buhari effect on impunity has also had its impact on staff members of the Presidential Villa who have since discarded their cavalier attitude; reporting for duty promptly on every working day. Daily Trust exclusively reported in a cover story of its Sunday September 13, 2015 edition that staff members now resume work earlier than they did under former President Goodluck Jonathan. The story indicates that staff members at the villa resume at work as early as 7:30am for fears of sanctions by President Buhari who resumes at his office between 8am and 9am. It is reported in the same story that Fridays are no longer ‘work-free days’ as it used to be the case before President Buhari moved in to the villa on June 22, 2015.
It is heartwarming that the public distress caused by the wife of former President Jonathan, Patience, whose style of impunity turned the unconstitutional but celebrated Office of the First lady into a national embarrassment is now by-gone. Of course, the ‘official’ designation of Hajiya Aisha Buhari as wife of the president passes a message that the office is no longer a ‘multi-purpose’ hall or venue for worthless political congregations or social jamborees. Residents of Abuja have since May 29, 2015 been liberated from the agony of major roads being closed to traffic for long hours because a First Lady was going to the airport or attending a function in the city center.
May Allah (SWT) continue to guide President Buhari until impunity goes extinct from the public as well as private life of Nigerians so that, discipline in place of impunity; becomes the guiding principle in all that we do and say amin.