‘Anti-Corruption Crusade Has Brought About Attitudinal Change’

What is your assessment of the President so far?

I think that so far, one can say that President Muhammadu Buhari has done well, to the extent that he is taking his time to look at the mirage of problems already there before he came into office.

We have a manifesto that whosever is voted under our party should adhere to, but when you come into a system, you have to understudy the system again, so that you do not make mistakes.

That is what the President has done so far and you can see that Nigerians are applauding his anti-corruption crusade, which is already yielding results, especially with a committee set up to study the entire crusade and proffer lasting solutions against corrupt tendencies.

What are the tangible results?

The results are very apparent; you read them in the media on a daily basis. People are being invited or tried by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on the daily basis.

Even in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), everybody is adjusting, because nobody wants to be on the wrong side of the law.

That was not the situation in the past, where people did things with impunity. Now, there is no more impunity, as people crosscheck things before they do anything.

The most important result of the anti-corruption crusade is attitudinal change, which is the first thing before talking about enforcement of law against corrupt practices.

You can see that things are no longer done the old ways. Those that have been appointed to public offices, if you check their credentials, are the right people to be appointed at this particular time.

Is this not a diversion of attention from the economy?

Nobody can say that the economy is grounded. To me, everything is going on well.

The Permanent Secretaries are giving account of the activities of the ministries on daily basis. In fact, things are gradually taking shape.

The bailout to pay salaries has been released. For states that are not owing, the banks have been given approval by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to grant short-term loans to those that require such.

So, things are moving gradually. You know that the rot the administration met was not something one could jump into without taking time to study. If not, you will mess up the entire system.

That is why we are taking time to study what is going on and as we make progress, we do things that would be in conformity with the discoveries already made.

Some opposition politicians allege that members of the ruling party are not being investigated for corruption?

But the President has said that the probe will cut across every segment of society, regardless of political affiliation.

So, the fact that you are in APC does not mean that you are clean. If you have wrong doings in the past and there is sufficient evidence to prove it, of course, you must face the wrath of the law.

But it is alleged that the EFCC appears not to be looking the side of APC members?

Has it arrested any member of PDP (Peoples Democratic Party)? We are talking about people who have done something wrong; it has nothing to do with politics.

Anybody that has done anything wrong and it can be proven, whether you are in APC or PDP or any other political party or even if you are not in any political party, the law will take its full course.

The fact that you are in APC does not make you a saint. That is not what we are saying. That is not even the change that we are preaching, but you know that people who struggle for power through opposition are normally clean, in the sense that most of them have not participated in governance before.