NIGHT AFTER THE PARTY

President Muhammadu Buhari 

I read all sorts of stories alleging that President Muhammadu Buhari is probing campaign funds of PDP. The peddlers of this falsehood insist that the President is on a political witch-hunt, otherwise he should also be probing campaign funds of APC.

One must sympathize with wailers. It is difficult not to feel frustrated after losing a contest you had done everything, hook and crook, to emerge victorious. In your frustration, you are not unlikely to go into desperation, clawing at straws and cooking up stories in a bid to divert attention from the real issues and thus curry sympathy.

The post-election shenanigans of PDP have simply proven that PDP chieftains never contemplated the possibility of defeat in the last election. Hence they partied with our collective patrimony well before the contest itself. So now, the night after the party, reality has hit them hard on the face.

Now, here is the truth and you can take it to the bank. President Buhari is only probing how $15 billion voted for the prosecution of the war against Boko Haram insurgents was used during the Jonathan years. Recall that in a post-retirement interview, Jonathan's Chief of Defense Staff, Alexander Badeh, had revealed that he headed a military that was ill-equipped to fight a ragtag insurgent army like Boko Haram.  

Recall also that over 100 military personnel were court-marshalled and sentenced to death for refusing the order of their Commanding Officers. The soldiers were ordered to proceed to war front without adequate arms and munitions. They refused and mutinied against their bosses – something that is unheard-of in the military. For that, they were court-martialed.

Recall also that a number of our otherwise gallant soldiers deserted war front and fled to neighbouring Cameroun when they could not withstand the superior fire power of Boko Haram insurgents.  Yet we all knew that billions of dollars were voted for the military to fight Boko Haram. The country even had to borrow $1 billion dollars extra in 2014 for that purpose.

It is how this $15 billion was used that PMB is probing. The $2.1 billion arms purchase scam is just one of the several scams associated with the $15 billion fund.  Leads from that probe trace the money to various PDP members and supporters and their family members, friends and cronies’ accounts. The former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, was the man who oversaw the disbursement of the funds. He was more or less the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Needless to say that the money was not used for the purpose it was meant.

Now, should we close our eyes to this? This is our money. Regardless of our political divides, this money belonged to you and I; it belonged to all of us. It was meant for purchase of arms and other logistics to fight Boko Haram. But much of it was not used for that purpose, thus not only enabling Boko Haram to wantonly kill and maim thousands of fellow Nigerians, but also  overrun a part of the country, impose its authority and cause untold human catastrophe that is today called internally displaced people (IDP). That singular act led to the unjust court-martial of innocent soldiers, and if not for Providence, those soldiers would have been executed by now.

When I hear some people talk about political witch-hunt or selective justice I wonder what their wish is for Nigeria. I ask again: should we close our eyes to this kind of atrocity committed by those we voted to protect us; those we entrusted our collective treasury to; those we asked to manage our affairs since it is not possible for all of us to be managers and leaders? 

It is quite natural for people with links to PDP and the Jonathan administration to be mostly at the receiving end of EFCC searchlight because they were mostly, too, at the receiving end of the slush funds. They mismanaged the affairs of the country during their watch.

So nobody should tell me about witch-hunt. If there is no witch there won’t be need to hunt for it. And this is also a warning to President Buhari that while he is looking into the past, he must also keep a watchful eye on the men and women working for him today. Not all the atrocities committed under President Jonathan had the approval of Jonathan. Some of these people simply capitalized on the country-club managerial style of President Jonathan

We must begin to institutionalize probing where our money went. We must entrench the culture of probing as part of handing over from one administration to another at Federal, State and even local government level.

Does anyone know what $15 billion could have done for our country? And that is even only one aspect of our polity. Imagine what will happen if we probe NNPC. If President Jonathan had allowed EFCC to work, even if on selective witch-hunt basis, we will not have been witnessing what we are witnessing today. Only in Nigeria do you hear of billions of dollars of public fund disappearing and no one flinches.

There ought to be a time we should put politics aside. Regardless of our political affiliations, this country belongs to all of us and what becomes of it lies in our hands. 

I stand with Buhari on the probes whether selective or not. We must rescue our country.