“There is nothing more touching than the sight of a nation in search of its great men, nothing more beautiful than its readiness to accept a hero on trust” -James Russel Lowell(1819-1891)

FROM independence in 1960 till today, Nigeria has turned out 99.9% corruptionists and psychotically corrupt leadership at all levels, so much so that corruption has become the domineering mantra and ingrained culture of Nigerians. Nobody is free, no, not one is free.

We are not short of ideas on how to wipe away corruption hook, line and sinker from Nigeria in all its ramifications, but we lack men and women of integrity and courage to take the bull of corruption by the horn and drive it out of our socio-economic, religious, educational and political china shop.

The eradication of corruption in Nigeria has always constituted the gravamen and kernel of the Mission Statement of our leaders and all coups in Nigeria, from Abubaka Tafawa Balewa, Dr. Nnmadi Azikiwe, Chukwuma Kaduna Nzogu, Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Mohammed, Buka Suka Dimka, Gen. Olusegun Obansanjo, Shehu Shagari, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, Earnest Shonekan, Gen.Sani Abacha, Gen.Abudusalami Abubakar, President Olusegun Obasanjo, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and now President Muhammadu Buhari.

Their Mission Statements have never been fraught with flaws. It has always been a patriotic call to serve and total submission to the principles of commitment to building a virile, vibrant and corruption-free nation. In Gen. Murtala Mohammed’s glowing speech titled “Africa has Come of Age and Nigeria Must Move Forward” and many others including the Retreat at Kuru, Jos which came out with the Kuru Declaration and many other evocational speeches, it has always been the same story of so much motion but no movement. Buhari has now in his second coming made the fight against corruption the fundamental objective and directive principles of Nigeria’s policy.

Can he succeed in this weirdest of fight against the tyrannosaurus monster of corruption that has become a tradition, custom and culture that has not only permeated Nigeria not only from grassroots level, but from root hair base to tree top heights. Corruption has become deified, mummified, institutionalised, exhaustively glorified, consummately idolised and placed in the sacred Pantheon of revered untouchability. Agreed, relatively speaking, Buhari is a man of integrity and has the disarming credentials to fight corruption. But will the democratic process, rule of law and serpentine legal manipulations allow him?

Will Nigerians at all levels join him in this macabre St. Vitus dance of death? Can he unbundle and sanitise NNPC, NDLEA, ICPC, EFCC, CCB, DPR, PPMC, Federal and State agencies, Parastatals, Ministries, Corporations, the Judiciary, the Nigerian Press, the Governors, Local Government Chairmen, Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress, NUPENG, PENGASSAN, NURTW, NANS, JOHESU, Market Women, Captains of Industries, Traditional Rulers and RATTAWU, etc. Are Nigerians ready?

The answer is a clear NO. To make the fight against corruption work, Buhari must be trusted and furnished with power through the amendment of the constitution and the frivolous use of the Law Courts through judicial processes of hiding under court adjournments, Machiavellian manipulations through the Press, rent-a-crowd phenomena, excuses of  I’m being blackmailed, oppressed, lampooned, persecuted, etc must be checkmated. We must be prepared to sacrifice some scintilla of our freedoms.

In the Dictionary of Criminal Justice, Fifth Edition by George E. Rush, corruption is defined as evil, depraved, debased and a dishonest act, like taking of bribes, cheating etc. In the broadest legal sense, it is any illegal act by a sworn peace officer, including all violations of fiduciary trust and the professional Code of Conduct and Ethics- specific examples include, taking bribes, selling favours, accepting gifts and committing, aiding or abetting criminal behaviour.

In his dissertation on corruption in Africa, Professor Benard Ikeguoha of Imo State University (Department of Political Science) defined corruption as the total reprobate act of systemic and structural debasement, desecration and decomposition. At a personal level, it is a perverted character, depraved and putrescent in integrity and honesty and given to bribery. But, indeed a functional definition with regard to corruption in Nigeria is that, corruption is the systematic manipulation of socio-economic, political, legal, religious and traditional rules for parochial personal, tribal and pietistic interest like taking of bribes, inflation of contracts and championing family, personal or tribal myopic interest to the detriment of national interest.

To forestall the tentacles of communication blackout in the light of our current domestic chaos and corruption, the Buhari government must dialogue with International Agencies, Institutions and Governments and act through the instrumentality of the United Nations Convention against corruption, United Nations convention against Transnational organized crimes, United Nations Global Compact Tenth Principle, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Convention on the Bribery of Foreign Public officials in International Business transaction, Revised Recommendations of the Council of the OECD on combating Bribery in International Business Transactions. At the African regional level, there are the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption, Southern African Development Community Protocol against Corruption and ECOWAS Protocol on the Fight against Corruption, amongst others.

In Nigeria, there is the prevalence of unbridled acquisition of filthy lucre, assets, deification of materialism and institutionalisation of unexplained wealth. At a Retreat held at the instance of the then President Olusegun Obasanjo at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, kuru Jos between February 23rd and 25th, 2001 for Ministers and Permanent Secretaries. At the end of the retreat, a 12-point declaration was adopted which Buhari must use as an ideological format and Bible for strategic repositioning of the fight against corruption in Nigeria.

Mr. Bobson Gbinije, a social critic, wrote from Warri, Delta State.