Will Buhari bring progress to Nigeria?

Sir: Rev Fr Michael Abayọmi Adeniji of the Catholic diocese of Oshogbo, visited me in Ilorin (2002?). I told him about one brilliant Abayọmi Adeniji in Kwara TV.

He said he never heard about him. The Reverend Father came to see me because he was perplexed about how two most unlikely persons quit the Catholic celibacy at the same time: his elder sister, Rev Sister Antonia Adeniji and me as Rev Father. I told him sincerely that I did not know that Antonia, an extremely brilliant and quiet person, resigned; as strange to me as he never heard about Abayọmi Adeniji, Kwara TV.

When Jide Allen, Abayọmi, and the Omotoshos were talking on Kwara FM on March 5, 2019, that Nigeria’s civil service is stinking with corruption, it amounted to saying that Nigeria’s President, General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB) is not fighting corruption in any meaningful sense.

They said there should be transparency in the petroleum sector, in recovery of looted funds and that the legislators should stop colluding with state and local governments to embezzle funds that are meant for infrastructure. They said it was wrong for government to rely solely on military struggle against the insurgent Boko Haram and that dialogue should not have been excluded.

The four wise men did not consider the fact that governmental terrorism against Boko Haram is based on Islamic and Christian imperialisms.

Yet there would be no social equilibrium and sanity until Nigeria rulers judiciously respect the nation’s secularity, freedom of religion and association.

What the Boko Haram Muslim sect is saying is imperative: stop committing Boko Haram (misappropriation and embezzlement of public funds, responsible for the gross underdevelopment of Nigeria and mass abject poverty).

The point about the endemic corruption in the civil service is acute. When I took my Code of Conduct document to the Kwara High Court, Ilorin, for the stamp (attestation?), the gate man accosted me, “Hello, Sir!” I showed him the document. He directed me to an office and told me to ask for “Mama Offa,” a fairly fat woman. She stamped the document and asked me to go and pay at the revenue office and bring back the document.

The charge was N50 with receipt. But Mama Offa asked for N300 without explaining the purpose. I gave her N500 expecting a change of N200. She kept my N500 in her bag and said she had no change. I gave her N300 and took back my N500.

Conclusively, the receipted pay was N50; plus no receipt, N300, and I was asked to come back to collect the document second day.

I am used to saying that it is foolish of anybody to believe that GMB is fighting corruption when he doubles himself as the petroleum minister and is recovering looted funds without accountability for anything to anybody. And where are his accomplices; Ayọ Òkè and wife, Folashade? A daring thief (barawo bansa; jàgùdà páálí; oyiochi-oyiara) claiming to be a crusader against corruption! The prophets who predicted Atiku’s victory are genuine men and women of God, if only because GMB’s presidency is synonymous with violence and economic annihilation of Nigeria and God should not be associated with political and economic corruption being perpetrated by GMB, Ahmed Tinubu, et al. If GMB truly won the election, why is he jittery? Rain of shame is in the cloud for GMB and co. I pray God to support Atiku to win at the tribunal to end carnage and economic destruction of Nigeria, 2009 till date.

• Prof. Oyeniran Abioje wrote from University of Ilorin.