Begging Buhari to excuse evil?

Now I know that Corruption has many lives; it doesn’t sleep; its tentacles reach far and wide; it perpetually seeks empathy and sympathy; it is transgender, trans-cultural, ubiquitous and irresistible in the fact of a movable object. Corruption doesn’t die easy, but die it must, if we are to regain our collective sanity after these […]

Now I know that Corruption has many lives; it doesn’t sleep; its tentacles reach far and wide; it perpetually seeks empathy and sympathy; it is transgender, trans-cultural, ubiquitous and irresistible in the fact of a movable object. Corruption doesn’t die easy, but die it must, if we are to regain our collective sanity after these many years of lootocracy.
Muhammadu Buhari would probably not have been president today if Nigerians had not achieved a rare national consensus that he was the man to rid Nigeria of the vermin of corruption. In spite of the spirited attempts by the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to tar him with their trademark brush of sleaze, Nigerians know that Buhari is squeaky clean, all things considered. And because he came to equity with clean hands, his countrymen and women are backing him to the hilt to ensure that all our looted funds are recovered from the horde of eminent thieves and ploughed back into developing the country.
Those who nicknamed Buhari “Baba Go-Slow” because they wanted him to rush into appointing ministers without doing serious background checks so that they could have malleable people to negotiate with – are now screaming “Baba-too-Fast” on account of the president’s multi-pronged approach to identifying skinning eminent thieves. When the president named Itse Sagay, eminent professor of Law and outspoken crusader for the rule of law, the wheelers and dealers went into overdrive reaching out to whoever could persuade President Buhari to take things easy.
I understand – even if I despise – their irrational fear. Sagay is the alter ego of the legendary Gani Fawehinmi, famous ‘husband’ of many a military despot. Like Sagay, Gani picked his battles and demonstrated absolute independence in choosing his friends. When Ibrahim Babangida rode into town on the crest of a pseudo-populist gale, Gani saw through the mask and stuck to his preference for the ousted government of General Buhari. Till he died, Gani always reiterated his belief that we missed the boat of development when we welcomed the band of thugs who ousted Buhari from power in 1984.
Now, let’s look at the situation from the viewpoint of those who have dipped their hands into our collective cookie jar. Because of his anti-corruption stance, Buhari is bad news to all thieves. Sagay is worse news because as a Senior Advocate he knows how to use the law to nail the guilty. The only way that appears open is advocacy – pleading with eminent and credible members of the National Peace Committee to encourage the president to tread ‘softly-softly’.
Several close friends phoned me to ask what I thought about Bishop Kukah’s preachment after the Peace Committee had seen the president. Was the cerebral cleric now compromised? I replied that Kukah and most of the members of the Peace Committee were not bribe-able. But there was one gentleman among them that I couldn’t vouch for, a man from whom I would never purchase a fairly used sermon.
That is how angry Nigerians are. They don’t want anyone to beg Buhari on behalf of those who have stolen Nigeria’s money. Mind you, it is not Buhari’s money we are talking about. If you steal Buhari’s goat and he decides to forgive you, which is his prerogative. But he cannot do that with OUR money. We elected him to recover the loot, not play Santa Claus with the looters. And, as we have seen in the last couple of days, anyone who is seen as pleading for soft landing for looters is bound to incur the wrath of the people.
Nigerians are not interested in who goes to jail and who doesn’t. What they want is full restitution of all funds looted. Nigerians don’t want the kind of plea bargain that allows a thief to keep the bulk of his loot while returning a tiny fraction as a tribute to plea bargaining. No; refund everything or the system chases you down the rat hole.
Sagay has assured the nation that he will give the assignment his best shot. Not having ever been a man of half measures he should be believed. One commentator reacted as follows to the significance of the Sagay-led committee: “There’s no doubt that we have people of integrity in the country. I think, what appears to have infected many is this rat race of a thing. People are madly chasing after wealth, no matter how illicit. We are seriously discovering that some are politicians while pretending to be saints. We see people we thought were incorruptible, shedding that toga, losing ground and embracing graft… Professor Sagay is a credible personality who has remained his humble and forthright self over the years. I should think that he will creditably acquit himself.”
Already the PDP and beneficiaries of the free-for-all that characterised the last six years have been crying blue murder, alleging bias. Sagay counters, “As for the question of selectivity, let me put it this way: any person, who has not been guilty of corruption, who has not looted the funds of Nigeria has no cause for alarm. So, all this escapist attitude of talking of selectivity and victimisation cannot arise, you cannot victimise an innocent man… And anyone who knows that his hands are dirty should come out and confess. I am sure, certain lenient terms can be obtained by him, but let them not hide under the cloak of selectivity ignoring that their hands are deep red with guilt.
“For me, there is no selectivity; it is plain and straightforward. Those who have looted the country’s funds are going to be requested to return them and in fact, prosecuted if necessary. It has nothing to do with selectivity… If we resolve corruption, we have resolved a major problem holding this country back. It is an honour and all of us in the committee are glad to put hands together with this government to try and solve that problem for the liberty of Nigeria.”
I think the beauty of the Buhari style is that there are hardly any surprises. You don’t need anybody to tell you that Buhari will not play ball with looters. Many Nigerians are waiting with bated breath for the trials to begin. Yes, let there be due process. But no, let there not be any mercy shown to the unrepentant. You either hand back our money or roast!