Laments fight against corruption is lopsided
Urge president to reshuffle his cabinet
PORT HARCOURT, Rivers, Nigeria – National Coordinator of the Yoruba Youth Alliance, YYA, and a Security expect, Jackson Lekan-Ojo, has said that President Mohammadu Buhari needs to do more in terms of combating internal insecurity in the country. The founder of Obokun-Oriade Solidarity Front, OSF, who spoke in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, on Thursday, while assessing Buhari’s three years in office, noted that the APC-led federal government has visibly routed Boko Haram, the Islamic terrorist insurgency group from Sambisa Forest, in the North East.
He, however, stressed that the APC-led federal government hasn’t shown enough resolve to checkmate the activities of rampaging Fulani herdsmen in different parts of country.
“President Buhari has not been decisive enough in dealing with the killings of innocent Nigerians, mostly in the North Central part of the country were farmers have been killed and their farmlands wantonly destroyed.”
He lamented: “The president has not spoken publicly to denounce the activities of the herdsmen. The body language of the president and the apparent lack of a decisive statement by the presidency in condemning the killings by the herdsmen is being viewed by Nigerians as a deliberate policy of double-standards.”
“President Buhari surely needs to do more in assuring Nigerians that the herdsmen like other Nigerians are not above the laws of the country. If he feels that any arm of the nation’s security agency is failing in its duties to protect lives and property, then, he should do the needful by ordering the re-organisation of that agency.”
On corruption, Lekan-Ojo, observed that the fight against corruption is lopsided, adding that the fight against corruption will not go far if some persons are being exonerated because they belong to his political party.
He asked: “Why is it that any prominent politician who is facing corruption charges brought forward by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFFC, is baptised and let off the hook of the ant-graft agency upon defection to the ruling APC?”
“For the fight against corruption to succeed, there must be no sacred cows. Every one who stole public funds should be made to face the law and bear the full consequences of his or her action,” he reasoned. Lekan-Ojo urged President Buhari to reshuffle his cabinet by dropping minister’s and top-flight political appointees who have clearly failed to perform in the past three years of his administration.
He emphasised: “President Buhari should be decisive enough to appoint round pegs in round holes. Government and governance should not be seen and regarded as a charitable organisation. Only men and women who are ready to work and have the requisite training and experience should be appointed.”
“The president is just one man. But the presidency and the executive is made up of other people working with the president. Most of those around the president appears not to share his vision and ideals for the growth and development of the country.”
He charged: “Politicians occupying ministerial and other sensitive positions in the federal government have had enough good time for three years. Nigeria and Nigerians cannot wait for the actualisation of the promises of the APC to move the country forward from the failures of the past for too long. It is time for president Buhari to appoint technocrats to supervise ministries, agencies and departments of government that have a direct bearing with their requisite training and experience so that they can be effective in the discharge of their duties and responsibilities.”
The security expert pointed out: “As it is, President Buhari appears to be the only clean man in a pool with so many dirty people. In such a situation, there is very little that the president can do on his own.”
Lekan-Ojo insisted: “This, indeed, is the time for President Buhari to identify and appoint men and women who share his vision and ideals to move the nation forward. Whatever decisions he makes in the electioneering year will be crucial to his chances of being re-elected for a second term of four years in the 2019 general elections.”
