Buhari’s war against corruption is dubious – Lawyer

Barrister Eze Eluche has carpeted President Muhammadu Buhari’s war against corruption saying it is dubious and deceptive.

The lawyer who spoke with ElombahNews said that what is going on right now between the suspended Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu and Attorney General of Federation (AGF) is a manifestation of fraud which has been in the DNA of this administration.

Eluchie said, ‘We are just seeing the manifestations of fraud which has been on, which is in entire DNA of this government. We now begin to realize what it is, the problem with this country is that we see these things every day.

“People tend to wait for their turn to steal and this is going in all facets of the economy, we can’t make any progress with this quagmire, which sector are you going to talk about, is it the health sector?

“As I am talking to you now, there is no single ventilator in the government hospital. Where are the billions budgeted for tackling covid-19 going?

“What about the transport sector?

“From day one, this government set out two things, mouthed war against insecurity, and war against corruption, but in reality, it was dubious, the security situation started getting worse from day one!

When asked; why it is difficult for Buhari to fight corruption, Eluchie said that President Buhari is both corrupt and incompetent.

He said, “Let me start with incompetence; Buhari will say he is not aware of what is going on in his government and we appreciate that this is an old man, an old who really has not had the best of education, he may not have the capacity to understand what is going on in government, and more so now that the government has gone IT, he is out if his depth!

“He does not understand what is going on, in that instance, he is incompetent.

“Now, with regards to fighting corruption, Buhari himself may not even understand how to handle money, if as a man you keep on benefiting from corrupt funds that your friends dole out some kind of privileges for you.

“Even as a retired General whenever Buhari travels abroad, he stays in the best of hotels, best of medical care, those Buhari empowers are the one footing these bills.

“He might have taken cash himself, but by being a beneficiary of corrupt practices, I think that is corruption, from the time Buhari left as head of state, to the time he became President, Buhari’s children attend most ethe xpensive schools in the United Kingdom.

“He was indirectly benefiting from those who he set up and that is very smart way to be corrupt.

“When they checked your back account, you can’t even buy a party form, but he benefits from the loots.

“Buhari has been benefiting from stolen money, you know that in law, if you benefit from stolen money your are also a criminal, if your children’s school fees are paid by those you helped through corruption while you look other way, you are also corrupt.”

When asked whether he agree with the assertion that Nigerians have accepted corruption as way of life, Eluchie said, ” I don’t agree with that assertion. Nigerians are very hardworking people. If you go to rural areas where most people reside, you will see that they are very hard working..

“The corrupt who have taken over the reign of power and government made it almost impossible for anybody to even eat without coming to bow to them, and that is what we are now suffering in Nigeria.

“When things are done on merit, Nigerians excel, they excel in what they are doing in abroad. But in our country, we have characters that have taken over the reign of the government and made it impossible for you to achieve anything meritoriously.

“You must be corrupt to eat, you wouldn’t be allowed to flourish without involving in corrupt practices that is why it appears as if Nigerians are corrupt, we have not accepted it.

” Buhari in one of his trip in UK said that Nigerians are lazy and corrupt. We are not lazy and we are not corrupt.

“We have rulers who are extremely corrupt and when they got to abroad they paint Nigeria black, make Nigeria terrible.

“Nigerians have been pushed to the wall by corrupt rulers for them to steal before they can eat. It should not be.

On corruption in Judiciary, Eluchie said, “it is in the character of any corrupt person to make others look corrupt the reality is this, I don’t think it is only the Judiciary, don’t forget that in the eight Senate the Executive went out to vilify the leadership of National Assembly.

“You sent Policemen to break into their (Judges) houses, it is just grandstanding, what the President wanted to do was to put the fear of DDS on the Judiciary so that he can have his way anytime he wants it, which is an act of corruption, though there is corruption in Judiciary, there are ways to deal with it.

“I am not saying there are not judges that are corrupt, but there are mechanisms, NJC, they there to checkmate corruption, but when you go out of your ways, you have molested the judiciary.

“The attack on Judiciary is not a war against corruption, but just to bolster the image of the Executive to make Nigerians think every other person is a devil except the President.

“In reality these executives headed by Buhari are the most corrupt ever.”

Buhari’s war against corruption

On the issue of Magu, he said, “What is happening now testify to that, the eight Assembly severally rejected the nomination of Ibrahim Magu because they felt he was not fit and he is corrupt, but Mr President, for reasons best known to him insisted on having this character as the chairman of EFCC ,

“We have seen that EFCC is a cesspool of corruption itself; who do we blame for that other than the man who refused the advice of National Assembly?

“You can’t separate the character of Magu from Buhari because had he listened to the National Assembly we would not be in this mess, we are in this mess because Mr. President has some interest in having Magu.

” Buhari should tell us exactly why he insisted on Magu

“The EFCC when it was set up by Obasanjo was set up as a gestapo outfit to basically attack political enemies and yahoo boys on the streets, right from the day of Ribadu, Farida , Larmode and Magu, that have been what EFCC is doing.

“EFCC has never addressed the issue of corruption and he has even not addressed the issue of corruption.

‘” I say this because EFCC is one those body where you have the chairman who is also the chief executive officer. It reports to other person other than himself. That itself is a structure for corruption.

‘”The structure of EFCC allows for corruption, there is no supervisory board that the CEO of EFCC reports to. He is the chief Executive officer, and so corruption is embedded in the structure of EFCC,

“Fast forward to Magu, the suspended EFCC chairman has the opportunity to show he was serious. When he was invited to come and explain the billions seized during Larmode, he declined.

“When Magu became the boss of EFCC and Larmode returned back to Police, nobody arrest him and asked him to account for the seized billions .

“When a man can’t probe his predecessor, from the onset, he also wants to do his stuff, that is common sense. Right from day one, I didn’t have any hope that things will change with this character.

“You have a vicious circle of characters who have used EFCC to just reloot the loot. Magu is not the first person to be accused of that.

“Larmode was accused eactly of the same thing. Farida was the same thing, Nuhu Ribadu, why are we making noise about these guys? They are doing what they are set up do.

“Unless there is a fundamental change in the structure of EFCC whoever gets appointed under this framework to become the EFCC chairman will also do what his predecessors have done.

“He will reloot the loot because nobody is checking them; you auction properties, nobody is accounting for it, you use the money as you like, they will start saying millions are missing when there is no accountability in the structure of EFCC.

“The Natiomal Assembly was ringing the bell, yet Buhari said he (Magu) should remain in office.

“The outcome of what Ibrahim Magu has done is obviously is what Mr. President wants him to do. Buhari kept on submitting Magu’s name, and making a mockery of our democratic experience.

“Regarding his relationship with AGF Malami, Malami is a very funny character, in several instances, there are things he has done and I wondered whether Malami is actually a Senior lawyer, several actions and you will wonder, is this a lawyer?

The relationship between Malami and Magu is about who has the ears of Mr. President. They are not even acting based on law, AGF is auctioning properties that were seized, Magu was also auctioning properties that were seized. It became a question of who will loot the more.

“Their quarrel is not about how to tackle corruption, it is rather about how can you loot more than me, and that is very very unfortunate.

“If the quarrel among these two officials was for the betterment of the country, then we can now discus, but as it now, look at the allegations they are throwing around; somebody sold 46 ships of crude, and so it is how are you looting more than I looting…it is a shame.

“Despite the evidences of the corruption against both Malami and Magu, it is a shame that they are still in office .”

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