THE moral decadence of Nigeria’s political class is playing
out in the ongoing mass defections from the ruling People’s Democratic Party to
the victorious opposition All Progressives Congress. No sooner had Muhammadu
Buhari of the APC triumphed over President Goodluck Jonathan than the
floodgates opened for prominent PDP stalwarts looking perpetually to the spoils
of office to jump ship. Buhari and the APC now have a historic mission to break
with the prevailing predatory system that has foisted parasitic political elite
on the country.
Perhaps unwittingly, the APC’s campaign slogan of “change”
has ignited high hopes in many Nigerians that its presidential flagbearer,
Buhari, who has, in over four decades in the public glare, built a reputation
for honesty and discipline will lead a paradigm shift for accountability in
public office. The mass migration of the flotsam and jetsam of the tainted
political class to his corner presents the first challenge for the
President-elect and his party to stamp their identity as change agents.
There should be no safe haven for thieves in the in-coming
government. Unlike what has prevailed in the past few years when a section of
the federal cabinet and presidential entourage sometimes looked like a rogues’
gallery, Buhari should clean up our public service by scrupulously keeping
tainted politicians and businessmen away from public office and his inner
circle.
We have had 16 unbroken years of democratic governance and
reject the self-defeatist, self-serving mantra of undergoing a “learning
process.” Much smaller African countries like Ghana, Rwanda and Botswana have
left us behind in democratic protocol. Some South-Eastern countries like South
Korea, Singapore and Taiwan quickly adapted to democracy after years of
authoritarian military dictatorship.
The task will not be easy. Some of the personality’s quickly
switching sides have ongoing cases of corruption in the courts; others have
terrible track records in public office, while others are battling damaging
accusations of looting that have not been properly investigated due to the
prevailing reign of impunity. Yet others are unashamedly fair weather birds
hoping the new government will continue the culture of patronage and impunity.
Among the defectors are former state governors, ex-ministers, legislators and
the large tribe of rent-seekers and influence-peddlers referred to derisively
as “Any Government in Power,” who stalk the corridors of power for influence
and appointments. Many want protection from prosecution for their past
misdeeds.
Buhari should not bend his stated resolve to keep defectors
and looters at bay. He should go further and bring all treasury looters to
justice. These include private businessmen and women, local and foreign, civil
servants and former and current public office holders who, with their
collaborators, have made Nigeria one of the world’s most corrupt countries,
ranking 136 out of 175 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption
Perceptions Index 2014.
A new estimate by the Business Council for Africa surmises that
up to $1 trillion has been stolen from the public from 1960 to 2005, higher
than the $400 billion estimated by the World Bank to have been stolen between
1960 and 1999. The clean-up will have to start from the President-elect’s
party, which was born as an amalgam of opposition parties and defectors – led
by five state governors – from the ruling PDP. A significant number among its
leadership are also tainted by graft accusations, including un-concluded cases
against them by the anti-graft agencies. Buhari should keep them and their
nominees out of his cabinet. The rule should apply to private persons.
Breaking from the culture of impunity will put Buhari’s
personal integrity to the maximum test. Among his predecessor’s many
indiscretions was his unashamed public hobnobbing with persons accused of one
misdeed or the other. When, for instance, news of the N2.53 trillion petrol
subsidy scandal broke in 2012, Jonathan saw nothing wrong in being seen in
rapturous camaraderie with some businessmen whose companies were proved by a
parliamentary probe to have defrauded the country. Public morality demands that
a leader with honour should keep controversial persons at bay. But many tainted
persons regularly featured on Jonathan’s official entourage at home and on foreign
trips.
While the law says everyone is presumed innocent until proven
guilty by a competent court, we insist that Nigeria should align with global
best practices and allow the due process of the law to establish an
individual’s innocence before he or she is given public office. A mere
allegation that she hired an illegal immigrant as a nanny was enough to deny
Zoe Baird the post of the United States Attorney-General under President Bill
Clinton in 1993. Once regarded as shoo-in for the French presidency, Dominque
Strauss-Khan’s political career crashed after he was accused of sexually
assaulting a hotel maid in New York, US in 2011. German Defence Minister,
Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, was forced to resign after he was accused of
plagiarising his doctoral thesis. In Ghana, Victoria Hammah was sacked as
deputy minister for communications for merely voicing her ambition to make a
“million dollars in politics.”
In Nigeria, despite facing prosecution for corruption, James
Ibori, a former governor of Delta State, became a kingmaker under President
Umaru Yar’Adua but was eventually jailed in the United Kingdom. The APC, as a
ruling party, should also break with the sordid past and clean up its own
house. Its leaders, “godfathers” and state governors should stop pushing
misfits, looters and dubious persons for public office. Service, not patronage
or the notorious “spoils system,” should henceforth be the overriding motive
for seeking public office and politics.
Buhari’s election is supposed to sweep aside the old order
and form a government fit for the change Nigeria needs. If Buhari fails to
distance himself from looters, hustlers and parasites, his government will be a
non-starter and his failure will be remembered when he and his party return for
votes in four years’ time. Nigerians are watching.
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