Touching the untouchables by Usman Alabi

President Buhari sometime ago stated that “if we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria.” This reminds me of Professor Achebe’s book, the trouble with Nigeria where he also made a similar statement that, ” corruption in Nigeria has passed the alarming and entered the fatal stage; and Nigeria will die if we keep pretending that she is only slightly indisposed.”


There is no doubting the fact that corruption in Nigeria is prodigious. Yet irrespective of what the books say, corruption in Nigeria has become a norm, a culture, something that is necessary to be done, in fact, it had become a parameter for measuring achievement. The tentacles and tendrils of corruption does not only run deep but it is at the same time intricate and complex.

Corruption in Nigeria is systemic, a factor that makes it more difficult to fight, perhaps that is why they say that in Nigeria, when you fight corruption, corruption fights back. Every nooks and crannies of government have been perforated by corruption, every parastatal, institution including the ones that are considered to be hallowed and sacred is culpable. This systemic character of corruption in Nigeria depicts that the whole state edifice in Nigeria is corrupt, the state in Nigeria steals from itself, thus one would begin to understand why the Former Prime Minister of Britain, David Cameron described Nigeria as fantastically corrupt.
The recent revelations concerning corruption in Nigeria is just callous, unimaginable, and alarming, alleged to be perpetrated by insensitive, selfish politicians, professionals and even top notch military officers both serving and retired, if this is not checked, then my conclusion is as good as that of Buhari and Achebe, Nigeria would die. Virtually all the top officers in the last administration are in one way or the other linked to the Dasuki arms deal scandal, which is about 2billion naira.

Governor Fayose has recently been accused of allegedly receiving #1.219 billion through the office of the NSA for his 2014 campaign, an amount said to be part of the #4.7billion allegedly directed from the ONSA under Colonel Sambo Dasuki. Also, a panel investigating military equipment procurement between 2007 and 2015 has uncovered massive fraud, the committee submitted its report and recommended further investigation.

The former Chiefs of Army Staff, Lt Gen Ihejirika and Lt Gen Minimah are to be investigated alongside 52 other persons. Those to be investigated includes 18 serving and retired military personnel, 12 serving and retired public officials and 24 executive officers of companies involved in arms procurement deal that runs into several billions of Naira. The enormity of this revelation has taken a tectonic effect on the military and dispels the old notion that they could not be touched.

Fighting corruption in Nigeria is like waging a war on all fronts and the peculiarity of this phenomenon in Nigeria qualifies this war on corruption by the state as a war against itself. When the state wage a war against itself, it means that it is beginning to address institutions and persons that are considered untouchable.
When we begin to jail high profile citizens for defying the constitution, when institutions like the military are brought under public scrutiny, when ex presidents are brought forward to account for their time in office, then we can say that we are ready for the serious business of development.

This serious business of development requires that we to go beyond the level of investigation to prosecution and to jailing anyone found guilty irrespective of highly placed they may be, at this point other arms of government such as the judiciary must wake up to their responsibilities if we must effectively put an end to corruption.
Secondly, the government must make the fight all inclusive and unbias. Being bias in the fight against corruption is in two ways, the government could actually be bias by failing to investigate personalities with questionable characters who are in its own administrative structure or loyal to it, or its actions and dispositions in the fight against corruption could be interpreted as bias by the people.

The latter could be addressed through proper communication and immediate verification and investigation of those accused of corruption. The Buhari government must come out plainly as regards its Minister of defence, Dambazau and the chief of Army staff, Buratai to dispel any notion of bias or insincerity, thus putting an end to the controversies that surrounds their culpability in the arms deal scandal.

No country in the world has ever attained greatness through corruption, corruption brings a country backward and stunts its growth process. It is not a coincidence that underdeveloped countries are the most corrupt, hence if we must begin to climb our way on the ladder of economic and political maturity, we must tackle corruption in all ramifications and manifestation, and to effectively do this, we must begin to touch the so called untouchables.