President Muhammadu Buhari told Nigerians: “If we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill us”. This, no doubt, highlights the obviously endemic nature of corruption in Nigeria. There is, perhaps, no other social ill that has made a mess of our nation than corruption. The several policies and programmes of previous administrations in the country have not achieved desired results due to the deep-rooted nature of corruption among the various classes and groups in the country. Almost every sector in the country has been destroyed by corruption. We have spent billions of dollars on the power and oil sectors with little noticeable improvement. Every direction one faces in the country, one is bound to see the evil hand of corruption.
Over the years, funds meant for the development of public infrastructure have been diverted by public officials and their cohorts for private use. The result is that a greater percentage of Nigerians has been consigned to a miserable life of incredible poverty while very few who are entrusted with the commonwealth have continued to live in inconceivable opulence and affluence.
With the monumental havoc that corruption has done to our nation and its people, it doesn’t, therefore, sound rational for anyone to affirm that fighting this evil would distract President Buhari from governance. If the issue of corruption is one of the major issues that President Buhari and his government are able to confront frontally, our county would, undoubtedly, be the better for it. Presently, considering the President’s body language in respect of corruption, many public institutions and government officials are beginning to sense the signal and are already falling in line. This is what we need at this point in time. Enough of the rot of the past!
One major way through which corruption could be tackled in the country is to sanction corrupt officials and individuals as prescribed by the law of the land. The only thing that evil requires to triumph in any society is for evil to constantly go unpunished. It is morally wrong to allow corrupt public officials to enjoy and flaunt their loot while many Nigerians continue to bear the pains of their acts. This is not how to build a sane society where fairness, probity and equity reign. Enough of the distractions- Let the probes begin!
