No Hidding Place For Looters Of Our Money – Buhari

The moral decadence of Nigeria’s political class is playing out in the ongoing mass defections from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party to the victorious opposition All Progressives Congress. No sooner had Muhammadu Buhari of the APC triumphed over President Goodluck Jonathan than the floodgates opened for prominent PDP stalwarts looking perpetually to the spoils of office to jump ship. Buhari and the APC now have a historic mission to break with the prevailing predatory system that has foisted parasitic political elite on the country.

Perhaps unwittingly, the APC’s campaign slogan of “change” has ignited high hopes in many Nigerians that its presidential flagbearer, Buhari, who has, in over four decades in the public glare, built a reputation for honesty and discipline will lead a paradigm shift for accountability in public office. The mass migration of the flotsam and jetsam of the tainted political class to his corner presents the first challenge for the President-elect and his party to stamp their identity as change agents.
There should be no safe haven for thieves…
Unlike what has prevailed in the past few years when a section of the federal cabinet and presidential entourage sometimes looked like a rogues’ gallery, Buhari should clean up our public service by scrupulously keeping tainted politicians and businessmen away from public office and his inner circle.
We have had 16 unbroken years of democratic governance and reject the self-defeatist, self-serving mantra of undergoing a “learning process.” Much smaller African countries like Ghana, Rwanda and Botswana have left us behind in democratic protocol. Some South-Eastern countries like South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan quickly adapted to democracy after years of authoritarian military dictatorship.