Gimba Kakanda |
Abdulmumin Jibrin’s travail isn’t just a bad precedent, it contradicts the governing party’s commitment to fighting corruption as it promised. Any public servant intending to tread this path, to show Nigerians how they are being scammed, has already changed his or her mind, afraid of being similarly ostracised by the Establishment.
The worst twist since the House of Representatives corruption scandal beganwas APC’s letter to the whistleblowing lawmaker, asking him to stop revealing that abuse of public trust. That was an evidence of one thing, that the governing party sees corruption as an “abuse, misuse or disuse” of public funds or power by anyone other than those that represent its interests.
Perhaps this is why the same APC-led government trying former government officials – and recording successes on the pages of newspapers – condones corruption by its people at CBN, FIRS and now the House of Reps.
Our politicians may have shown the public they are different, but the truth is they are all united in protection of their corrupt practices and roles in permitting them.
Nothing was done about Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s revelations of corrupt practices in the Jonathan-led government, just the way nothing is being done about Jibrin’s.
And whether Jibrin too is guilty is a distraction too me. My interest is whether his revelations are true, and why they are being swept under the rug by a change-advocating government and political party.
Kakanda wrote this piece from Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.