From DOMINIC UZU
Regional Editor, North West
SENATOR Shehu Sani, representing Kaduna Central, Federal Constituency has advocated that President Mohammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade should be holistic in nature, adding that no corrupt persons should be spared in the war.
According to him, the war against corruption should begin by leaders setting a personal example, noting that over the last 16 years, politicians, after winning elections, have been making claims of hundreds of houses and billions of naira.
“What we need to understand is that Nigerians deserve to know how rich are their leaders or how saintly they are. It is not enough to declare your asset to the Code of Conduct Bureau, there is need to speak to the public and present their asset to the public,” he said.
He wondered why people would want to flaunt their CVs showing where they attended primary school and secondary schools, and how much they have served the country and how many first-class honours they have gotten, from their first degree, second degree and third degree, but would be scared of disclosing the number of houses and the amount of money they have in their accounts.
“Whoever refuses to declare his asset is not fit to speak on issues of public accountability, credibility or on corruption,” he said.
“The public declaration by the president and his vice president has set a moral standard for public office holders,” he said, adding that the next step for the government to take is to protect the Code of Conduct Bureau, to protect the staff and to protect the institution.
According to him, by the public declaration of asset by the presidency there could be a rush by public office holders to go and change or alter or tamper with the documents of what they have presented before the Code of Conduct Bureau simply to wave off the moral burden.
Sani said that everything that happened has a link to what has happened before, and that if we are actually going to probe what has happened in the past we should be holistic.
“If he refuses to probe from 1999 to date, there is every likelihood that he will be accused of shielding the government of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, and if he does he has to be conscious of the time because he has four years and not 40 years to spend. So, it is left for him as a leader to do the work while taking cognizance of time before him,” he said.
According to him, Nigerians will not judge Buhari by what he intends to do but they will judge him by what he has been able to archive. “If you have a paradise to construct you have four years, and if you have an Eldorado to build you have four years. Nobody will take the excuse after four years you now say if it was six or five years you would have archived. In the political sphere uncompleted project is not counted as an achievement, it is a finished project that is counted as an achievement,” he said.
He advised Buhari toprobe all corrupt leaders and those found guilty should be prosecuted, saying what has happened in the last 16years is that you have bundles and volumes of probe report in the power sector, probe in the energy sector, probe in land allocation, probe in transport sector, probe in the housing sector, probe in the health sector now all those book have become doctoral thesis.
“So he has an option to start from 1999 and if he doesn’t he will continuously be accused,” he added.