CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Beginning from May 29, when he officially assumed duty as the nation’s new president, Muhammadu Buhari will be confronted by the challenge of how to tackle the menace of corruption. Perhaps his first litmus test will be how his government will fast track the trial of some politically exposed persons accused of embezzling public funds while in office. For Buhari, this assignment is self-imposed. The four times he has asked Nigerians to elect him as president, fighting corruption has been a major thurst of his campaign. He promised Nigerians that if voted into office, he would tackle corruption with vigour.
While delivering a speech at Chatham House, London, United Kingdom, in the heat of the campaigns in February, Buhari posited that recovered loot would be used to fund his party’s programmes on education, health, social infrastructure, youth employment and pensions for the elderly. Today, Nigerians and members of the international community alike are waiting on the president-elect with great expectations to translate his words into action by taming corruption and stabilizing the economy. Buhari cannot afford to disappoint on this promise, as the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and those who doubted his ability to fulfill his promises in this regard are already reminding him of his words even when he is still weeks away from being sworn in as a substantive president.
But this is a season that some former and serving governors and other public officers linked with corruption may not wish to come. With bated breath, they are now waiting on Buhari to see how he would handle their cases, some of which have been in courts for some years. The general perception is that some, if not all, of these people have worked through their lawyers, mostly Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SANs, to ensure that the cases against them go on almost indefinitely. Certainly, some of the suspects may have to pay direly for their acts if found guilty and if Buhari would match his words with action. Buhari’s resolve to deal with corruption is hinged on the wide belief that corruption and other related vices have hampered economic development in the country and also robbed it of its rightful place among the comity of nations. But even more disturbing is that most of the people alleged to have contributed in moving the country backward through corrupt practices are still active in government, and have constituted a clog in the wheel of efforts to fight corrupt.
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