I rarely join issues with religious leaders (call me anything) on national issues. I see them as a set of  people with a calling higher than most of us and should be answerable to God who they serve. I will only join the national discussion on the interview of Rev Ft. Kukah on Channels Television because the issue at hand is not a religious matter and I believe we should learn some lessons from the interview and the reactions to it.

 

The National Peace Committee (a very useful committee during the elections) had visited the president at Aso Rock Villa earlier in the week and most media outfit reported the meeting sole agenda to be a plea to the president to back down from the ongoing probe of the immediate past administration of Goodluck Jonathan. The committee and the presidency denied that but as Nigerians we know when our leaders are not telling us the absolute truth. The president told the committee that prosecution will start soon and Nigerians will know those that ate up the national yams (going by the parable of the yams and the goat) . It was on the president statement that Father Kukah reactions during interview was based. I will try to pick some point from the respect father reaction and polity react to them. 

 

The respected father said“President Obasanjo fought corruption with making noise about it”.

I will strongly disagree with the father on this statement. A lot of Nigerians don’t see Obasanjo as a model for integrity. Most of the corrupt practices and acts of indiscipline that we have in our society today started during his government. Truly he did a lot by establishing the EFCC and ICPC but those loyal to him were shielded from prosecution. The National Identity Card, National Integrated Power Project, All African Games, Halliburton and the much talked about National Road Repair are some of the monumental scams that dotted Obasanjo eight years. By the end of his tenure, we were just too happy to see him go back home after spending billions of a third term agenda. The Uba brothers became untouchable and even chased out a governor from his office. I hope the father will remember that Yaradua said "I am aware the system that brought me into power is not perfect".  That was former President Obasanjo system. Is this the kind of government the father wants Buhari to run again?

 

The father also said “we want the president to focus on the future”

The foundation for tomorrow is today and the foundation on which today is standing is yesterday. We cannot remove the effects of our yesterday living from our today. A Yoruba adage says “if a young man falls down, he looks forward but when an elder is down, he will look at his back”.  We are poor with history in this country and statement like this won't help us. For sixteen year, we have let go of the past for a better tomorrow but yet the tomorrow has always been a repeat of the past. When we don’t have light in our homes, our leaders will tell us that they cannot fix a sixteen years problem in a year. But when we ask them to help recovery the money from the past leaders, they will quickly tell us to forget the past. That again is the effect of yesterday on today. Our poor health facilities were creations of our yesterday leaders who now visit hospitals in "India" for medical treatments. Should president Buhari fail to look backward, he might fall into the same pit of corruption? 

 

The Father Said that “Even if Jonathan stole all the money in Nigeria, the fact that he allowed a peaceful transition of power should be enough to pardon him”

This is a very good point and I totally accept the fact that credit must be given to the President Jonathan for doing what is widely expected of him. By the time he was leaving the office of the president, more than half of the state government in Nigeria cannot pay salaries of civil servants. It is believed that President Jonathan government is the most wasteful in modern Nigeria history. Billions of Naira was given to militia groups, royal fathers, religious groups and party faithful without due process. If Jonathan stole all the money being mentioned in the media, it is apology and restitution that can set him free. There are some many allegations of reckless spending against the last government for a serious leader to just overlook them. What will stop others from stealing when our national life is based on letting corrupt leaders walk away from justice?

 

The president shouldn’t be selective in the fight against corruption. He should investigate members of his political family as well (the governors are not saints too). Above all, he should remember also that soon, Nigerians will want jobs over probe, good roads over probes, security over probes and in short they won’t care for his anti-corruption campaign if it cannot improve their life.