A PUZZLE OF A PEOPLE – by Frank Ofili

I am still finding it difficult to believe that Nigerians are still largely divided over President Buhari’s war on corruption. A fight that every Nigerian ought to participate in individually and collectively is left to the President and his team alone to shoulder. Against the backdrop of mind-boggling revelations of sleaze in the last administration, it is sad to note that a section of Nigerians still sees the President as being on a witch-hunt. This is even as evidence points to the contrary and the looters themselves having not exactly denied the allegations against them. It is sadder that the National Assembly is not showing enough commitment to the fight against corruption.

It ought to be instructive that some of the looters have actually returned some of the stolen wealth. Yet some persist in alleging that the President is on a witch-hunt.

It is understandable if the opposition party, the PDP, and its sympathizers see things from this perspective. Having been in power for 16 years on account of which it is naturally the greater recipient of the ongoing corruption searchlight, one will in all fairness not deny them the right to wail. But it is not so understandable to see the ordinary Nigerians who are the ultimate losers of the hitherto prevailing and pervading regime of politico-economic corruption display such open disinterest in the fight against the hydra-headed monster.

But if the ordinary Nigerians can be excused for their disinterest (they never were in consideration in the political scheme of things in this country anyway), the body language emanating from notable members of Buhari’s own party is not the least encouraging. The signs are ominous and they seem to suggest a disposition towards forgetting the past and getting on with things as they were.  In other words, business as usual.

Which leaves one with the worrisome question, if corruption, which we all admit is killing the country and has been the bane of our politico-economic development, is to be treated with such disinterest, what then should we as a people fight for collectively? Nigerians are indeed a paradox beyond compare!

And we seem to be a failed people too. The same people, who booted the last administration out for incompetence and looting the country dry, are now crying wolf over the effort of the present administration to recover our stolen wealth. Are we saying that it is more important to forget the past, let the looters keep their loot, than to beam searchlight on where we got things wrong and who and who played what role in bringing us to this sorry pass? How then do we avoid the mistakes of the past? Honestly, I cannot understand us Nigerians

In the life of a man, as in that of a nation, a time comes to ask hard questions about the past so as to be able to confront the present and avoid pitfalls to the future. To suggest that we should let bygones be bygones is to give an open cheque to the current men and women of power to toe the line of our ignoble past?

I say let the probes continue even if it is lopsided. When this government leaves, let the one that will come after it also witch-hunt current players. With that we would, in our present positions, individually begin to think of posterity, our place in it and the consequences of our current actions in office.   

Witch hunting (if really that is what President Buhari  is doing) is not such a bad idea. A witch has to exist first before it can be hunted. And where a witch exists, a skeleton exists in someone’s cupboard. After 16 years in power, and producing largely profligate and (permit the word) lootocratic governments, the PDP is paying for its sins. Sometimes in the future, when it leaves the stage, APC will also pay for its present wrong-doing.

I rise