Mr. President, with sense of humility and believe that you will give this article a thorough and diligent consideration, I owe you this responsibility as one of those Nigerians that never voted for you in 2023 but, as you emerged victorious through divine intervention, the only option left is to wish you the best ofluck as you pilot the affairs of Nigeria While critically observing how you intend to transform Nigeria within your tenure. We had a bitter experience with your predecessor who had no listening earsto our cries. He projected himself to where he never belonged. He rated majority of Nigerians as criminals not for trust, Instead, he appointed hardened criminals as his trusted aides.
Godwin Emefiele and his co-travelers in the Central Bank, Sagivya Umar Farouk and her group in the Humanitarian and Disaster Management Ministry, Sapiu Yusufu Tunde and his co-travelers in the villa, Dr Yusufu Maina Bukar of the National Agency for Greater Green Wall (NAGGW), Bello Magail and his like minds in the National Lottery Trust Fund (NLTF), Habiba Muda Lawal formerly in the Ecological Fund Office (EFO) and her chain of contractors and accomplices waiting anxiously for probe, Boss Megida Mustapha as SGF and the $6million foreign election observers scandal, Abubakar Malami and his N112 billion scam, AbdulRashid Bawa formerly in the Efce, Mele Kvari and his gang in the NNPCL, Goni Alkali and his contractors in the Northeast Development Commission (NEDC) butchering resources with style and several other rogues that perfected corrupt practices under his watch with some reappointed by your government.
Your Excellency, you started your administration without a clear blueprint for the good of Nigeria. Your focus was on how to win the election not on how to govern a complex country like Nigeria.
Today, you are a fulfilled politician having wobbled your way to the hot seat courtesy of the Supreme Court and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and a cross section of security agencies excluding the electorates. Nigerians had waited patiently to scrutinize the list of your working team. When it surfaced, majority were disappointed by the calibre of nominees hurriedly confirmed by the Senate being your rubber stamp. We saw undertakers the likes of Betta Edu Halima Shehu, Femi Gbaiabiamila, George Akume. Tunji Oja, Ya’u Shehu Darazo, and in the Senate, Godswill Akpabio with lingering corruption cases and several others dining and winning with you as your team players. Your Excellency, we have carefully observed your style of fighting corruption and we are getting convinced that you mean to fight the cankerworm. But, you have to revisit the list of those enjoying appointments under vour watch. There are several known and hidden crooks on the corridor of power pretending to be saints. Mr. President, let me quickly draw your attention to a hidden time bomb that may explode if adequate measures are not put-in-place. The 2023 election cases were carefully and professionally settled by the Supreme Court and their negative implications on unity and peace considered in the spirit of Ibi Jus lbu Remedium (where there is wrong, there is remedy). There may be some wrongs, but the sleeping dogs were altowed to lie.
Nigeria needs peace at all cost and by all means. For the sake of satisfying the wishes of any one or group, we are presently nose diving into another crisis caused by poor economic management. We have enough of crisis to contend!
Your team players in both the executive and the legislature should be rescreened and the system be thoroughly overhauled to have the most credible. As an activist who had interactions with you then as member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), I want to draw your attention on how small nations were transformed into economic giants by their leaders and their productive youths- entrepreneurs. The case of the Asian Tigers is still fresh in our memory.
The four Asian Tigers or four Asian Dragons is a term used in reference to the highly free-marketand developed economies of Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan turned around overnight by young men and women playing in highly free market and level playing field, creating economic prosperity for themselves and for their nations. By the 21* century, all the four nations had developed and metamorphosed into advanced and high-income economies specializing in areas of competitive advantage. For example, Hong Kong and Singapore have become world-leading international financial centers, whereas South Korea and Taiwan are world leaders in manufacturing information technology and automobile. Their economic success stories served as role models to many developing countries on how young men and women with good intentions and through quality education and leadership turned deserts to arable lands for economic growth. The question here is what led those economies to suctess? The reason behind their-astonishing growth is that they have functional educational system and goof leadership with focus and found their comparative advantage using education, individual talents and energv/entrepreneurship-personal resources of their productive young men and women with strong entrepreneuria capabilities to transform their economies. All of these nations in one way or another are, now some of the leading exporters to the United States and other world powers and they definitely export more than they import. The key growth factor is that their youths entrepreneurs created true value, had their people at heart, created entrepreneurial activities in a sincere way with level playing fields provided by the government. These are true entrepreneurs that don’t lean on the octopus leader or government to jump up the queue of success, taking undue advantage to the misery of their people. Mr. President, you are now on the saddle of power. You inherited a corruption-ridden system with public servants in collaboration with the political class leading in corrupt practices that retards development, creates security challenges, unemployment and poverty.
The appointment of lim Obazee as special investigator for the CBN under embattled Godwin Emifiele is a step forward in the right direction to start the fight against corrupt practices. Mr. President, if wishes were horses, the same lim Obazee should be assigned to investigate the Federal Ministries for Environment, Water Resources, Health and Works and their subsidiaries. There are several hidden scandals swept under the carpet needing exposure in those federal establishments. Nigeria cannot and should not continue to go borrowing to fund its blueprint for development while same obtained loans and other donated aids are silently stolen by self-made crooks in public offices.
It may interest Mr. Presidentto know that within one year, the managing director, National Agency for Greater Green Wall (NAGGW) under the Federal Ministry for Environment, Dr Yusufy Maina Bukar, without a thought of any repercussion on his integrity as a former university lecturer, hurriedly squandered, over N81.2 billion on the procurement of 21 million trees (not even economic trees) and claimed to have supplied his imaginary trees to 11 states of the federation to fight desertification etc.
The 21 million trees are yet to be located anywhere within the claimed 11 states.
The man needs to be told that not all Nigerians are Zombies to believe his folktale. He had better be woken up from his dream to face reality and explain the where about of his 21 million trees if any.
Donor organizations to the Greater Green Wall Agency should be informed of the monumental scandal that dwarfed progress under Yusufü, Maina Bukar to at least save Nigeria from further humiliation and expose the malfeasance involved.
Mr. President, there are several unearthed scandals in the Ecological Fund Office begging for exposure and, subsequent action. Several efforts were made by those thieves that butchered the Fund along with their collaborators in the private sector and in the national assembly to cover the scandals including scuttling the efforts of the probe of the House of Representatives Committee on Environment under the chairmanship of Isma’ila, Haruna, Dabo Those who stole public funds under different guises within the ministries are now restless, sleepless and hypertensive, and so desperate to bury their crimes of theft against Nigerians. The fight and defeat of corruption is an easy task to accomplish but may be hard for encouragement even if authorized, by those who may be targets in government for fear of exposure, arrest and subsequent prosecution
You have started your administration with sincerity of purpose so it seem and for the good of Nigeria, butto sustain the style, tempo and introduce other mechanisms to fight corruption may be your albatross because of the presence of certain certified crooks surrounding you and within your government. Reference to the days of your predecessors (Goodluck Jonathan and Buhari) may be a guide to support your efforts to fruition if you are determined for the fight. They duo came to power with good intentions and sincerity of purpose for the good of Nigeria. Unfortunately, an error was committed from the onset by appointing wrong persons as aides. Kleptomaniacs and unrepentant crooks were appointed to key positions of authority. Remember the scandal of your friend Babacir David Lawal (sacked SGF)? You can recall how Piezani Alli-son Maqueke, Sambo Rasuki, Gen. Azubuike Iheruka, other service chiefs and several other crooks that misused and abused their privileged positions in government to steal Nigeria through the trust they enjoyed from the former presidents. Mr. President, the presentset of crooks in various government ministries, departments and agencies, are so desperate to overtake and control government affairs tailored to their selfish interest. You may not be aware of certain ongoing scandals in the various ministries, departments and agencies until you appoint a high-powered committee of honest and sincere Nigerians to investigate majority of federal ministries, departments and agencies to position your administration on the right pedestal for the fight against corruption.
In an ideal and honest setting, how can a civil servant earning a monthly salary own even a N2 million and above residence in Abuja or in any part of the country even if the land was for free? Today, we have even junior civil servants that own mansions and castles in choice cities in Nigeria. How comes? We have civil servants that own fleetof exotic limousines and other properties. How comes? We have to start somewhere and reach our dream destination one may suggest, your administration should reintroduce the Federal Tenders Board under a sincere management with additional responsibilities to handle all federal government contract awards including all supplies. The presentsystem aids and abates sharp corrupt practices where ministries, departments and agencies award contracts on paper without execution but paid. Most contracts awarded were not executed to specification if at all they were executed. A visit to most of the claimed projects awarded and claimed to have been executed by the Ecological Fund Office under Habiba Muda Lawal are mere imaginations. Most of the projects only exist in the imagination of Habiba Muda Lawal and those who facilitated the awards and the collaborating contractors who claimed to have executed the contracts. Constituency Projects are in most cases are not executed but paid as well. A visit to assess most constituençy projects captured in budgets may cause you hypertension. Another cesspool of corruption is the River Basin Authorities under the Federal Ministry for Water Resources. Corruption is the norm in the river basins. Conventional and honest system of governance, are missing in the river basins. Their procurement sections are the most corrupt. A thorough investigation shall reveal the truth. The health sector is another corruption breeding ground. How the ministry for health handled the Covid-19 disaster needs to be investigated. Ministry for Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management was butchered beyond comprehension under Sadiyya Umar. Farouk with a continuation under Dr Betta Edu and Halima Shehu. Mr. President, there is no federal ministry, department or agency including the judiciary and security agencies that abhors corruption. In some of them, it has been institutionalized as a working tool. For you to succeed and print your name in gold, you have to apply certain saving mechanisms to save your reputation and the credibility of your administration. There is a dire need for total overhaul of the system.
Lastly, what stops Mr. President from copying the Chinese policy of dealing with thieves of public funds and abuse of office? To fight corruption to standstill position, let death sentence be introduced in our system. Honestly, some of those thieves that stole our commonwealth budgeted for development strides deserve to be with their ancestors by now. Their continuous stay in circulation is corrupting the society the more because they are fast becoming role models to some frustrated citizens that erroneously believe that stealing of public funds is not corruption.
Regards and Best Wishes.
Muhammad is a commentator on national issues
