A clime where race for ill-gotten wealth has turn in to competition between privileged and ordinary class members of society, any living soul who, out of personal conviction and principle elects keeping off his fingers and cast his eyes off the treasury; even when fate at various times put nation’s purse at his custody; but chose to act saintly, such man would have angels haul laurels at him. Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s current president and onetime head of state, is a contemporary living Nigeria with rare attributes. In the military circle, his first professional calling while his contemporary Generals feathered their nests using their choice positions to enrich themselves, Buhari elected to keep his austerity posturing, living within the confines of his take home pay. In the course of his military sojourn, he manned some of the best lucrative formations. As a petroleum Minister during the tenure of Olusegun Obasanjo as military Head of state, Buhari bothered more about erecting multiple refineries, making refined products available for domestic consumption as against cornering for himself oil blocks. As Chairman of defunct Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) he lived above board, ensuring that dividends of PTF accrued to Nigerians through provisioning of drugs at hospitals, stocking institutions of learning with modern learning aid. Nigerians saw in President Buhari, the last man with a muscle chest to whittle down corruption. The starting point for waging his war against corruption was the famous $ 2.1 billion arms deal christened Dasuki gate, the arms procurement deal to combat Boko Haram menace in North East part of the country. It was spearhead by the former National Security Adviser to ex- President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, Col. Sambo Dasuki rtd. It turned out that, the larger portion of the funds earmarked arms supplies ended in private pockets of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) bigwigs. Mentioned as beneficiaries of Dasuki gate are PDP heavyweights like former PDP acting National Chairman, Dr. Halilu Bello, former governor of Sokoto state, Attahiru Bafarawa,former PDP Chairman and one time governor of Bauchi state, Adamu Mu’azu, former PDP board of trustees Chief Tony Anenih; Chairman of Daar Communications Chief Raymond Dokpesi, former governor of Rivers state Chief Peter Odilli among others. However, there are other numerous personalities facing other corruption related cases. Looking at some of the key persons facing other related corruption charges which include , the Senate President Bukola Saraki (North Central), former Comptroller General of Customs, Abdullahi Dikko Inde, former NNPC GMD, Andrew Yakubu (North West), former governor of Plateau state, Sen. Joshua Dariya (North Central), former governor of Jigawa state Sule Lamido (North West), former governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako, Sen. Abdul-Azeez Nyako, Babachir David Lawal, Mohammed Tsamiya amongst many others. While the North has a long list of its leaders both past and present facing corruption charges by the Buhari administration, the south has only handful of its people like Diezani Madueke (South South), Stella Odua (South East), Godsday Orubebe (South South) Patience Jonathan (South South) Olisa Metuh (South East) and Ayodele Oke (South West) facing corruption charges. It appears president Buhari is overwhelmed on this tough fight. Contrary to media reports and claims by people from the southern part of the country that Buhari is targeting only people from the South and members of the opposition People’s Democratic Party, it is obvious that the Northern leaders have been the biggest victims of Buhari anti-graft war. It’s sad to see that, about 90 percent of people either arrested, sacked or facing corruption charges are Northerners yet the people from the South continued to make wild allegations that President Buhari is playing tribal card in the war against corruption. The case of former governor of Sokoto state, Attahiru Bafarawa is a fitting example. The former governor admitted to collecting monies for onward delivery to some people as beneficiaries. Bank’s record at disposal of anti-graft agencies confirmed that, indeed the former Sokoto state governor transferred the x and z amount to them. The Buhari corruption dragnet looked the other way against the beneficiaries and tenaciously held tight to Bafarawa. Attahiru Bafarawa’s case is pathetic. The former governor applied to the court to grant him desperate trial from Dasuki in order to accelerate his trial. He was denied, apparently to ridicule and prosecute him. Here is a person (Bafarawa) , who willingly of his own volition submitted a list containing names, addresses, bank and account details of all the recipients of the money given to him by Dasuki but none was invited either by the trial court, or investigation agencies. Obviously, the trial of these eminent political elements from the North was either a vendetta against political opponents or deliberate attempt to prune down the political prowess of the North in favour of certain region preparatory to 2019. Essentially, most of the alleged culprits of the same crimes from other regions have been spared by same regime. Perhaps, with the few aforementioned examples, it is very clear that President Buhari anti-corruption crusade is targeting mostly on the Northerners and this may spell doom for the region where the President hails from. Southern political leaders under the aegis of Southern Nigeria Peoples Assembly (SNPA) have criticised President Muhammadu Buhari over what they described as selective appointments and war against corruption. The leaders, drawn from all the three geo-political zones in the Southern part of the country at a meeting, frowned at what they called politicisation of the war against corruption by the Federal Government. With the current slant glaringly manifest by President’s anti- corruption war with 75% victims as Northerners, Buhari chances of bulk vote from North come 2019 is dicey. Dr. Abdulmaleek wrote this piece from Kano.]]>
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