President Muhammadu Buhari has failed in his fight against corruption, according to Mr. Daniel Bwala, the spokesperson for the Peoples Democratic Party’s Presidential Campaign Council.
According to Mr. Bwala, the corruption problem has gotten worse under the Buhari administration rather than getting better.
President Buhari ran for office in 2015 on a platform that boasted of fighting corruption, reducing insecurity, and boosting the economy.
Mr. Bwala acknowledges that the President got his administration off to a good start but lost his way.
He said, “I recall at the time he (Buhari) started, the corruption was purely prosecuted on the basis of professionalism and there was no colouration of politics in it.
“This was why the president got some accolades and awards over a period of time.
“But the corruption level has assumed a proportion at this moment that can only be said to be historic because I do not think that since the commencement of this Republic, there is corruption that has gone as far as this.”
Bishop Mathew Kukah attacked the Buhari administration harshly in his Christmas message, accusing it of breaking promises made to Nigerians and leaving the nation more defenseless than it was before it took office. Mr. Bwala was replying to Bishop Kukah.
“It is sad that despite your lofty promises, you are leaving us far more vulnerable than when you came, that the corruption we thought would be fought has become a leviathan and sadly, a consequence of a government marked by nepotism,” Bishop Kukah wrote in his message.
For Bwala, there is no shortage of proof of Federal Government corruption.
“You don’t need to go far,” he said before pointing to the Central Bank of Nigeria and the petroleum industry.
“If you look at the Central Bank, the revelation that has come out through Kazaure, a House of Reps member, is quite instructive,” he said, referencing claims by Mr Muhammed Gudaji Kazaure that stamp duty proceeds running into trillions had been embezzled.
The Presidency has rejected Kazaure’s claim that N89 trillion in Stamp Duty Proceeds were stolen. Kazaure is an APC member and representative from Jigawa State.
Mr. Bwala thinks the assertion is accurate.
He said, “I am telling you that by the time that can of worms, that pandora box, is opened, it will probably bring down the entire government. Because if you hear his (Kazaure’s) confessional statement, he has practically indicted the entire cabinet of the President. And he was bringing letters to the Brekete Family where they were reading them.”
According to Mr. Bwala, things are considerably worse in the energy sector.
He claimed that if the petroleum industry were subjected to the same rules after the horrific discovery of oil theft, the nation would perish.
“In terms of corruption, the President is going to leave a historic, sad memory,” he added.