Buhari’s way forward and his legacy (II)

So far PMB can be said to have his priorities right in selecting to solve two serious problems facing the nation before all others namely the insurgency and corruption. However, there is only one way to fight insurgency to a standstill and that is by ensuring the state monopoly of violence.  This is best exemplified […]

So far PMB can be said to have his priorities right in selecting to solve two serious problems facing the nation before all others namely the insurgency and corruption.
However, there is only one way to fight insurgency to a standstill and that is by ensuring the state monopoly of violence.  This is best exemplified by today’s China or yesteryears’ Soviet Union. How do we achieve this in Nigeria? This will be the topic for another day.
Fighting corruption is akin to the situation where someone finds one’s sitting room flooded with water. One can start removing the water from the sitting room but that would be a losing battle. The smart thing to do is to trace the source of the leakage and stop any further flooding before embarking on the removal of the water in the sitting room.
So similarly, one can safely say the fight against corruption has not really started in Nigeria since we have not traced and blocked the source of corruption in government and until we do that, the flood of corruption will continue unabated. There are two sources of corruption namely impunity and money politics and unless these twin evils are eliminated we can never hope to defeat it.     
We should also realise that totally eliminating corruption is a tall order. What is more feasible is to remove the conditions that make corruption possible. Impunity is one of the root causes of corruption and can be described as the oxygen for corruption; without it corruption cannot thrive. Impunity has also been described as a situation where actions have no consequences. As long as there is impunity corruption will be pervasive and almost impossible to eliminate but definitely difficult to fight. The other root cause of corruption is money politics. As long as there is money politics, corruption will thrive and become impossible to eliminate. Money politics will be pervasive only in the presence of impunity. Many aspects of money politics are actually illegal and so with sincerity of purpose it can be more easily eliminated. Since the preconditions for corruption, impunity and money politics, are easier to tackle, the war against corruption should be changed to the war against impunity and money politics. Both impunity and money politics have one panacea and that is assets declaration by public officials both appointed and elected.
We all know that most of the elected officials in government today from State Assembly members. House of Representatives, Senators right up to State Governors got elected through money politics and are hoping to recoup the money they spent in their campaigns as if politics were a business venture. The aims of such officials have nothing to do with selfless service to the nation; they see elective office as an opportunity to ‘invest’ (i.e. buy a position) where they can ‘recoup their investment’ (i.e. steal from the Government). The only way to stop such businessmen-politicians is for them to routinely declare their assets publicly. Once they know that their assets are being monitored they will have no incentive of running for public office. In fact, many current office holders would resign if PMB were to insist on complying with the policy of assets declaration as happened recently in the Department of Customs and Excise. This way only people with the genuine desire to selflessly serve the people will be attracted to political office.
In view of the crucial role the asset declaration policy (PAD) is expected to play in the effort to eliminate impunity and money politics, PMB is advised to set up an office in the Presidency (to be named Asset Declaration Monitoring Office) to keep track of the compliance of the PAD policy. This will reinforce the work of both the CCB and CCT. Also these two bodies should be rejuvenated with tougher leadership and strengthened and expanded to cover the whole country right down to Local Government levels.
Let us look at what a corruption-free Nigeria can achieve: in the absence of corruption, all policies will be geared towards the growth of the economy and development of the nation, all financial regulations and administrative procedures will be strictly observed and all accounting procedures, auditing functions (both internal and external), oversight duties and regulatory supervision will be strictly adhered to.
Offices of the Auditor-General, the Accountant-General, DPR, Attorney-General, EFCC, CCB, CCT, NDLEA, ICPC, the Judiciary, NIMASA, CPC, SON, NAFDAC, etc. will be seen to fully perform their statutory functions because every Naira will count in the absence of corruption, we will get full value of  whatever we buy.
 In projects and with the application of the local content policy,   we will be in a position to design and build our own roads, bridges, power plants, refineries, cement plants, tractors, cars, trucks, dams, locomotives, rail wagons, rail roads, ships, etc.;  this is the fastest way to acquire technology and technical know-how because we will be producing what we consume and export whatever surplus we have to plan for, our Naira will be strong enough to be convertible currency.
This is the fastest way to create an export-oriented economy leading to huge trade surpluses thereby doing away with the need for borrowing because the economy will be highly productive, we can achieve full employment for all we will have enough resources to upgrade our educational facilities to attain 100% literacy rate.
 We will have enough resources to upgrade our health facilities to ensure health for all thereby eliminating the costly health tourism trend. This will pave way for the enthronement of inclusive political institutions and inclusive economic institutions – the real pillars for true, pluralistic and liberal democracy that can lead to …  “the government of the people, by the people and of the people.”
The opportunities that zero corruption will open up are truly endless. We should have the courage to pursue this route that will eventually lead to true economic and political independence for this great country.
Concluded 
Engr. Sodangi  can be reached at: [email protected]