War on corruption and lack of convictions

I F there is one area where President Muhammadu Buhari has performed excellently well, it is in the area of the anti-corruption war. It is so unfortunate that over the years, the funds meant to develop this country have been stolen by those we put in positions of authority to apply such for our benefits.

Isn’t it funny that these same government officials will be driving costly vehicles on poor roads which they refused to rehabilitate, as they prefer to divert the funds for the upgrade of the roads for personal uses? These politicians who also refuse to provide jobs for the youth will now have their houses nestled in high fences because of the fear of armed robbers, who are the same youths they refused to provide jobs for.

I am happy with the current anti-corruption war of President Buhari, and he should be supported to achieve success in this assignment. Corruption has cost us a lot in this country. However, it is not only the politicians who are corrupt; recent events in the country have revealed that those we even look up to in the society are also not clean.

However, having commended President Buhari, the lack of convictions for those who have stolen our commonwealth should also be giving every Nigerian cause for concern. This is the major reason special courts should be established to tackle corruption in public offices.

I hope President Buhari can send the bill to the National Assembly to establish this special court to tackle corruption among public office holders.

Every Nigerian knows that President Buhari is someone who hates corruption, and that is why we are seeing the war on corruption being tackled on all fronts. However, if President Buhari fails in this assignment, then what hope do we have that the president coming after him will also tackle this evil monster the way we are seeing now?

Corruption is our major problem, and when tackled, Nigeria will emerge as one of the most developed countries in the world. However, we will not be able to confront this dreaded evil if Nigerians are not determined to fight it themselves.

Nigerians should be interested in the budgets of the Federal, State and local governments, studying all the contracts awarded and monitoring them to ascertain if they are actually executed. We should also start monitoring the quality of roads done by contractors; I don’t understand why roads constructed in less than five years should begin to dilapidate. Such contractors should be placed in government’s black book, thereby being prevented from getting future contracts, as this is another form of corruption itself. There are some roads constructed in pre-colonial times in this country that are still standing strong, but despite the improvement in engineering technology, why are the roads being constructed today collapsing in less than five years?

• Olumide Adesanmi,

Lagos.