Against the backdrop of some analysts and Nigerians who had reacted that governance goes beyond the ongoing probe of corrupt public officials by the Buhari’s administration, the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders has asserted that the probe is in order.

The group emphasized that the Nation should be serious about making a difference and it advised that we must understand that we cannot accomplish anything significant on our own because meeting the great challenges of our time requires cooperative efforts.

CACOL had initially agreed with the President when he said, “At home we face enormous challenges. Insecurity, pervasive corruption, the hitherto unending and seemingly impossible fuel and power shortages are the immediate concerns. We are going to tackle them head on. Nigerians will not regret that they have entrusted national responsibility to us. We must not succumb to hopelessness and defeatism. We can fix our problems.”

The Coalition of anti-corruption organisations considered that Buhari’s speeches and powerful agenda have reflected seriousness and passion for the responsibilities of his new office but had yet to spell out practical blueprint that would make the nation’s economy one of the fastest growing emerging ones in the world for the purpose of engaging youths for productive activities, which they described as one of the pillars of his campaign promises. Nigerians believed the economy, infrastructure, youth employment and other critical sectors should also be given equal attention by the President.

The group asserted that its hope was rekindled because President Buhari had maintained that he would not waste his administration’s precious time on probing every past administration before his as doing so would only amount to sheer distraction which, at the end of the day, would have left the very core of governance unattended to. This implies that he is not ready to stop at anything until he has been able to achieve his promises within the limit of what is achievable during his tenor.

In his reaction, Debo Adeniran, the Executive Chairman of CACOL said that the only mission or agenda under which Nigerians voted Gen. Muhammadu Buhari into power was to explore the possibility of putting to an end an era that cannot sustain Nigeria and replace it with an era of new hope and new initiatives. For the first time we have a President we can fully describe as being progressive despite all the political shortcomings.

“Even if probe is going to take the four years of Buhari’s tenure, he needs to clear the mess. Even at that, Buhari has been working because there are areas of improvement in the power sector, the oil sector is been re-engineered, Nigerian’s integrity has been restored in many countries, foreign relations has been strengthened, prosecuting in the war against corruption and war against insurgency, etc. The probing is worth it because the nation has been soiled for so long and the dust table needs to be cleared. President Muhammadu Buhari didn’t stop at anything.” Adeniran said.

Debo Adeniran concluded by imploring President Buhari not allow himself to be distracted in any way, in his quest to fight corruption nor get carried away in his probe crusade. Nigerians want to operate in an economy that will reward their effort, not the one that will further frustrate them so, as he concentrate on pursuing his anti-corruption crusade he should also ensure that other sectors of the economy get the same attention he gave insecurity and corruption.

Source: Universal Reporters.

Well-meaning Nigerians were taken aback as they watch on their TV set the large entourage of Mrs. Toyin Saraki, wife of the senate president, which comprised mainly of the nation’s ‘honourable’ law-makers from both the higher and lower chambers.

These national law-makers and supposed representatives of the Nigerian people, reportedly accompanied Mrs. Saraki, who had been invited by the anti-corruption agency to come and answer to an allegation of corrupt practice, in a show of solidarity with the accused.

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, CACOL is particularly disturbed and miffed at what it terms not only a show of shame and gross irresponsibility but a clear anti-thesis of what their primary constitutional duty is.

One cannot but wonder how far President Buhari would be able to go in his avowed war against corruption in this country, if the very law-makers who are expected to give him the needed support through the provision of enabling legal frame-work with which to successfully prosecute the war, are openly, though tacitly, fraternizing with corruption by turning themselves into bodyguards of a suspected corruption criminal”.

Press reports have it that a total of twenty-five legislators abandoned their statutory duties to  follow Mrs. Saraki to the office of the EFCC and most of who waited for over the six hours that the exercise lasted. “They are doing the jobs Nigerians didn’t elect them to do.

Although they have the right to presume that she is not guilty until convicted but do not have the right to portray her innocent of the allegations made against her, even before being interrogated.

The lawmakers’ conduct presupposed that they are determined to intimidate the EFCC in its task of tackling corruption. It’s sad that they choose to abandon their statutory role of law-making while playing the meddlesome interloper, thereby diminishing the exalted chambers they represent.

Their case could be likened the incident to that witnessed during Obasanjo’s days, when Bode George was being accompanied by shameless praise-singers who had to roll out drums, clad in ‘Aso Ebi’ and danced in and around the court premises in solidarity with the accused each time he appeared in court to answer to corruption charges.

CACOL  observes that, this singular act by these legislators, is a clear indication that certain members of this very important arm of government, if not called to order, are out to make the job of eradicating corruption or at least, stemming it to the barest minimum, by Buhari’s administration, more complex and difficult than ever envisaged.

The Coalition of anti-corruption organisations therefore calls on Nigerians to get ready and be set to confront anybody, group or institution, that is out to frustrate President Buhari’s efforts at wrestling to submission this gargantuan, seemingly untameable monster, called corruption and save Nigeria from its destructive tendencies. We should share President Buhari’s assertion that “if we fail to kill corruption, corruption will kill us”. It must be seen as a collective responsibility; Buhari can’t do it alone.

We are asking Nigerians not to spare corrupt characters, whoever they may be, but adopt CACOL’s slogan to “name, nail, shame and shun corrupt leaders, anywhere, everywhere”.

Source: Universal Reporters.

President Buhari, we must recall, has been consistent in his declaration to limit his probe of activities of past government to that of his immediate predecessor. Even before being sworn into power, President Buhari had maintained that, he would not waste his administration’s precious time on probing every past administration before his as doing so would only amount to sheer distraction which, at the end of the day, would have left the very core of governance unattended to.

Former President Jonathan, on the eve of his leaving office had once stated that limiting such probe to his administration would be a witch-hunting exercise; a position his party, the PDP, has also taken. The PDP, through its spokesman, Olisa Metuh, though expressed its support for the anti-corruption stance of the president, has urged him not to limit the probe to only the immediate past president but to all others before his.

CACOL, in its own contribution to series of reactions that had so far greeted President Buhari’s stand on this issue, lends support to the president’s position. Commenting through its executive chairman, Debo Adeniran, sees the stance of those calling for the extension of the probe to other past administrations as self-defeatist, self-condemning and an obvious product of a guilty conscience. According to him, “these people seemed to now being haunted by their past and it’s like the case of a drowning man looking for others to drag along”. He questioned the rationale behind such call and asked, “from where and how does he begin; from Balewa’s government or that of Shagari? He then went ahead to enumerate the following factors to counter such postulations which he described as unreasonable and shallow:

1. Since President Buhari has just taken over directly from Jonathan, all facts, be it documented, oral or circumstantial, could be more easily accessible than having to begin to dissipate energy into digging into the far past which would no doubt be so time-consuming that little or no time at all would be left for actual governance, all through his tenure.
2. There is certainly the possibility that many of the sources of probe may have either been deliberately altered or obliterated outright to cover the tracks of perpetrators of many corrupt acts in time past.
3. Indisputably, a good number of the very relevant actors in corrupt cases and whose evidences would prove to be vital to the exercise may have died thus truncating its progression in the process.
4. And worse-still, such process, obviously, would prove to be so complex and cumbersome that, at a point, members of the public, quite naturally, would begin to lose interest and consequently render the entire exercise unpopular.

Debo Adeniran concluded by imploring President Buhari to disregard such distractions and concentrate on pursuing his anti-corruption crusade with all his vigor and ensuring that the thieves of our common wealth are exposed and punished. “Nigerians expect no less from him”, he stressed. He reminded the president that the generality of Nigerians, having identified the monster called corruption as the arch-enemy that has overtime being warring against the progress of this nation, are impatiently waiting for him to wrestle it to submission as promised by him. He expressed his confidence in the common people of this nation giving their unalloyed support in every way they can, to the president, in the onerous task of sanitizing the polity through this crusade. “He just must deliver; no excuse will be good enough”, he concluded.