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“Corruption Perceptions Index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople, uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.” - Transparency International
Meanwhile, New Zealand is the least corrupt country according to the 2017 index. The country scored 89/100. This shows that no country is 100% clean. Thus, there will always be fight against corruption.
But in civilised societies, presidents and prime ministers don’t fight corruption. Institutions (the system) fight corruption. Nobody is spared in the course of fighting corruption because the system’s modus operandi is; “Justice is blind”. In other words, nobody is above the law.
For instance, president Trump is fighting for his political life. The special counsel (Robert Muller) is tightening the noose around his neck. Trump’s former lawyer (Cohen) including his former campaign manager (Manafort) are on their way to jail.
If president Trump was the one fighting corruption in the US, could his people be heading to jail? Your answer is as good as mine. Trump is not above the law because the system says so. He can be investigated, impeached, tried and jailed if found guilty.
But in Africa, the situation reverses. There are no institutions that can fight corruption. Presidents fight corruption. Can any police question an African president like Muller questioned president Trump? NEVER! That’s why corruption can never be fought effectively in Africa. An African president, such as Mr Buhari, will always protect his cronies and party members from arrest and trial.
In Nigeria, president Buhari’s only programme is fighting corruption. He readily tells anyone who cares to listen how he’s going to jail looters as if he is a police man or the courts? He is the Nigerian president whose primary roles include, growing the economy and improving security etc. But his duties as a president is relegated in place of fighting corruption.
Even though president Trump is being investigated, American economy is booming. Unemployment keeps falling etc. Trump has claimed responsibility (and rightly so) for America’s booming economy. He has even tried to use the growing economy to blackmail the investigators. Trump asked, how can you impeach a president who has done so much good to the American economy?
Once more, in Nigeria, president Buhari only talks about fighting corruption. You rarely hear him talk about the economy. Except few days ago when he admitted before Nigerian state governors that Nigeria’s economy is in a bad shape. And he wants the governors to put heads together with him to save the economy from deteriorating to the “Next Level”.
How can governors who cannot pay workers’ salaries in their respective states put heads together with Buhari to save Nigeria from going burst? Some of these governors run bankrupt states. They don’t have ideas how to salvage their states from economic implosion. Yet, inept Buhari wants them to help him save Nigeria from already economic collapse.
And this clueless Nigerian president who has admitted failure is angling for re-election. The worst of all, able-bodied and supposedly educated young Nigerians are applauding Buhari as he takes them to the “Next Level”.
If Nigeria’s present level is bad economy, and the driver of the economy (Buhari) is clueless about how to grow the economy, what could the “Next Level” be? Economic Disaster!