Political activist and former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Timi Frank says that President Muhammadu Buhari has lost the moral right to continue his administration’s anti-corruption fight, describing the campaign as fake.
Frank said the Buhari administration should stop deceiving the people and the international community over the anti-corruption programme, which, according to the activist, is largely a failure.
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He urged President Buhari to learn from the example of the Tanzanian President about how to credibly take on corruption, decrying what he observed as a greater degree of corruption in all government institutions and sectors.
The President, speaking at a Democracy Day anti-corruption summit titled ‘Curbing electoral spending: A panacea for public corruption’, which was organised by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), is quoted as saying: “The outcome of the interaction, among others, shall serve as the basis for a more concerted effort by this administration to close existing legislative loopholes, facilitate collaboration with the judiciary and strengthen the criminal justice system, enforce effective asset declaration by public office holders, ensure sanctions by professional bodies against lawyers, bankers, brokers, public officials, and other individuals facilitating corrupt practices and ensure comprehensive support and protection to whistle-blowers, witnesses and victims of corruption.”
But reacting to the President’s comments through a statement on Wednesday, Frank said the Buhari administration was only fighting corruption on the pages of newspapers while its officials are the most corrupt set of people in the history of Nigeria.
The outspoken activist said the President should allow the courts to do their work and determine who is corrupt, “because, as it is now, anyone not aligned with APC is a corrupt Nigerian under the current administration.”
He challenged President Buhari to tell the world what has become of the NNPC scandal, fuel subsidy, and “Ikoyi-gate”, where huge sums of stashed monies were discovered; and for the President to account for some of his own acquaintances alleged to be corrupt.
“General Buhari for his selfish reason is using corrupt means to get political support as it is seen in the case of Sennator Goje, whose alleged corruption case, running into billions of naira, was forgiven because he agreed not to contest Senate principal position against APC’s preferred candidate,” Frank alleges.
“Buhari is the biggest beneficiary of corruption in Nigeria. He should account for the TradersMoni, and also tell the world where all the money used to buy votes during the just concluded general elections he did not win came from.”
According to Frank, “It is corruption when you support a mace thief (apologies to Sen. Dino Melaye) to be a Senate principal officer. It is corruption when your party allegedly shared millions of naira to lawmakers to elect National Assembly leaders. It is corruption when you ordered a stop in the trial of a senator because he agreed not to contest Senate principal position because of your preferred candidate.
“It is corruption and impunity when some of your former cabinet members who were supposed to be in jail by now are walking free in the street.”
He said the current institutions established to fight corruption have been politicised and are being used against Nigerians seen as opposed the APC-led administration.
