Should Buhari probe the Jonathan administration or not?

MY unequivocal answer to the question of whether President Muhammadu Buhari should investigate the Goodluck Jonathan administration for corruption is yes. This is not the first time I would be saying this. It won't be the last time either. At least for as long as some people continue to act as if they can blackmail everyone into silence on the matter by casting it as necessarily a witch hunt, for that long would people like me continue to insist we don't all necessarily have to pretend that the Jonathan administration was above board in spite of massive allegations and sometimes proof of corruption against certain members of the administration.

Muhammadu Buhari and Goodluck Jonathan

Although many supporters of that administration have tended to portray the issue of probing the administration as an attempt to get at Jonathan and possibly have him jailed, but that in my view is not the point at all. And it should not be except those making that claim, as the wife of the former president, Patience, had alleged once in the heat of the 2015 presidential campaign, are willing to accept the obvious implication of their allegation. Which is that the former president is corrupt. But I am sure that is neither their claim nor admission. Their opposition to the issue of probe might be connected to the possibility of the whole process being turned into a witch hunt of the president. This is what Nigerians must watch against. Otherwise, there is no reason in this world why Buhari should not look into the past.

There have been a lot of talks in the past about probing former office holders whether at the federal, state or local government level. But more often that not, nothing comes out of such talks. Also when such warnings of probe are issued, they are often done to scare and thereby silence opposition. Where probes are ever attempted, they are dropped as soon as the individuals or groups they are directed at read the writing on the wall correctly and give up any challenge to the authority of those who have succeeded them in office.

The possible exception in this case was the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission probe of some former office holders during the Obasanjo administration. Even that has been made controversial by claims that the investigations were selective. This might be true as those the Commission went for were often on the wrong side of the Obasanjo administration. But that is not the same thing as saying that those investigated had nothing to answer for. Very often they were as guilty as sin.

The point some of us made on the issue of so-called selective investigation of office holders levelled against Obasanjo was that whoever took over from him could continue from where he stopped, that is go after those Obasanjo allegedly ignored in his anti-corruption battles. But the fact that some people were not probed should not be sufficient ground for letting everyone off without question, or even rewarding them like is the case with a former aviation minister found culpable of corruption but who is now sitting pretty in the Nigeria's upper legislative chamber as a law maker.

If both Umar Yar'Adua and Goodluck Jonathan chose to forfeit their right to investigate the Obasanjo administration, it was simply their own failure. Only they know why they failed or refused to act. But that is hardly any reason why some people should expect Buhari not to probe the immediate past administration of Goodluck Jonathan. Probing the Jonathan administration should not be confused with probing Jonathan as a person, except something is found against him. Jonathan's major problem, his mistakes while in office, seems to me to be more of omission than commission. He lacked control over those who claimed to work for him. He allowed them free rein to operate as they deemed fit with neither caution nor control.

He was too indulgent, too accommodating of all kinds of nonsense to be an effective leader, much less one who commanded the respect of even his own subordinates except the fawning ones. My hunch therefore is that most of the rot that a possible probe would uncover about the Jonathan administration would be traceable mostly to his subordinates than to him personally. So far, the allegations making the round of massive looting and siphoning of funds abroad appear to justify my position. Although many of the potential culprits are beginning to feign ill health and are accusing agents of the present administration of harassment, we still must insist on their being probed while equally insisting on the protection of their rights as citizens of this country and as persons to be considered innocent until proven guilty. But it simply won't wash for them to continue to play the ostrich in the vain hope that they won't be held accountable for their misdeeds.

There are solid grounds why the probe of past office holders should start with the Jonathan administration. What happened under that administration, the level of criminal negligence, to say nothing of wilful destruction of the economy by corrupt office holders, is so stark and fresh for many Nigerians to see and feel. The trail is still very hot and can be followed up for possible discovery of unpardonable malfeasances. The president has said that much. It is true that what has so far been said reside in the realms of allegations, but we should all be patient until the proofs and facts are provided. Only when this present government or president is unable to do that should Nigerians start raising issues with them.

Up to this very moment Nigeria is still recovering stolen funds traced to the Abacha family alone. There are those who still don't believe that family has a case to answer to the Nigerian people. But when revelations of the looting spree Abacha instituted first started coming out in all its primitiveness, many doubted if one single person or family could take that much from a country without destroying the economy beyond repair. It is the same plea apologists of the Jonathan administration are making now. They can't believe allegations of massive corruption and looting being connected to some people who destroyed hundreds of millions of Nigerian lives in the name of serving Jonathan either as ministers, heads of agencies and parastatals, etc.

We dare not begin to say yet that we are home safe and dry with the new government in place, but many times I have sat down to wonder what would have become of Nigeria now had Jonathan remained in office with the same crop of so-called experts with chains of foreign degrees, who with their double designations and portfolios as ministers, have left us so miserably grounded. I still wonder.

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Culled out from buhari