Candidates’ corruption cases puncture Buhari’s anti-graft war – Dons

Commenting on the candidatures of the trio, an associate Professor of Political Sociology, University of Abuja, Dr Abubakar Umar Kari, said the Buhari administration has for a long time lost the battle against corruption, in spite of occasional posturing and empty claims to the contrary.

Kari said, “It’s therefore, not surprising that those suspected of graft are the front runners in the race for the party’s national chairmanship. But then, this is really a sad commentary and speaks volumes about what the party stands for or has become since its ascension to power.

“In the beginning, APC had touted itself as an alternative anti-corruption platform, leveraging on the perception of Buhari as squeaky-clean and no-nonsense. But the prevailing public perception of the party and its government on corruption is quite poor, to put it mildly. There are just too many examples of how both party and government failed to rise to the occasion, or openly condoned, encouraged or even embraced graft. Yet, should any one of those leaders emerge as APC Chairman, the party would be hard put in convincing Nigerians that it is serious about fighting corruption.”

He said party members can do very little in influencing the outcome of the race.

“Already delegates to the National Convention have been elected or designated. As usual, only those anointed by the powerful blocs will be presented for ratification at the convention – though I cannot rule out resistance by some who will rightly feel aggrieved, and the consequences of this may not bode well for the party,” he said.

Corroborating Kari’s claims, Dr Abdulrasheed Alada Mohammed, the acting Head of Department, Political Science Department, University of Ilorin, expressed reservations with Buhari’s corruption war.

According to him, “We have seen people with corrupt cases in the past which have now been dropped or trivialized. Some of the cases have not been dropped, but kept in abeyance and eventually die a natural death. As regards the candidatures of the three former governors who have corruption cases hanging on them, I don’t see that as a challenge for them. But a lot depends on how they are able to play their cards within the party.“

On his part, Dr Isiaq Abdulwaheed, a political scientist at the University of Ilorin, said there is still a long way to go, “ if we really want to clean the Augean stable.

“The issue of fighting corruption in Nigeria as epitomized in the policy of the present government is now just about political permutation. In a situation where contestants aspiring for positions are presently having issues with the EFCC under the cloak of the present government, then what type of corruption are we fighting?

“Whether we like it or not, the political permutation will continue to remain like this because one will be adjudged has been corrupt-free in as much as you dance to the calculation on the ground,” he said.

Abdulwaheed said “If the three former governors in the race can do their permutations very well, it doesn’t matter whether they have issues with EFCC or not. The main issue is their relationship with the powers that be. People like Tinubu and others were tried, but want happened to them? That is the political situation in Nigeria. We have seen it all as far as the country is concerned because politics is a do or die affair here.

“For now, it is too early to prejudge what will happen because the political permutation will go all the way from the local government to state and the central authority,” he added.

(Daily Trust)