Nigerians went to the polls, not just to vote out President Goodluck Jonathan in anger, but to reject him and all that his government stood for. Soon after the election, agents that were hitherto in slumber woke up, prominent among which are the EFCC and PHCNs. Unfortunately, however, it’s been arraignments, arraignments and arraignments since. Nigerians are waiting to see something beyond this. Let’s, for once, send a strong message, to our youths that our law does not partition the citizenry into the rich and poor classes, with the former above and the latter below, as being erroneously and dangerously implied by most Nigerians.
Let’s see former ‘thief’ governors go to jail, if need be. What’s delaying the arrest of a former minister on allegation of withdrawing one million dollars of the public to finance the campaign of her boss? If she was authorised by someone, what’s stopping the arrest of that person, for God’s sake? If docking the former president, or any other person, becomes necessary, the security agents should not blink their eyes for a second before doing so. Here we are talking about the law, which, in every civilisation, is above anybody, except under the immediate past Jonathan’s administration. We need to send a message to the young ones, particularly, that everyone is under the law now and impunity has unpleasant consequences from now on.
I am becoming impatient and, am sure, so many Nigerians are. This much I can deduce from comments by Nigerians of all classes. Femi Orebe, in his column in The Nation on Sunday, July 19, 2015, said that “For Buhari’s anti-corruption war to succeed, he must do the unusual.” Erudite lawyer and academic, Itse Sagay, in the same paper wondered “if Nigeria has not gone too far down the depths of the abyss to be saved.” He too believes that things need be done differently to produce results. He further cited Professor Ben Nwabueze’s recent suggestion that only a bloody revolution could save Nigeria. All of these ideas are understandable and most appropriate to any watcher of events in Nigeria, especially under the Jonathan administration. I, totally, agree with and endorse them. I never stop to wonder whether a conventional constitutional apparatus, laden with this human rights rhetoric, has enough provisions to manage the culture of lawlessness foisted on our country by the Jonathan administration.
- By William Aborishade