Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto and spokesperson of the General Abdulsalami Abubakar (Rtd) led National Peace Committee, spoke on Wednesday while addressing journalists after a closed-door meeting between the Committee and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara in Abuja.
Kukah advised President Buhari to concentrate his efforts on providing good governance, rather than expending his energies on probing deeds of past government office holders.
He said it was better for the government of the day to avoid getting distracted from the core business of governance on account of too much talk about probe.
Kukah’s statement followed an earlier call to President Buhari on Tuesday after the National Peace Committee met with him at the Presidential Villa, Abuja where it advised him against heating up the polity in a bid to tackle the cases of abuse of office and corruption that had characterised the country since the past administrations.
He said that, although, official corruption had set the nation backward, it was also necessary that Nigerians, including those in power, do not get distracted from the core mandate of governance.
Bishop Kukah also noted that the contribution of former President Jonathan should not be discountenanced, even as he expressed belief that the probe agenda of the Buhari government was not targeted at any individual or specific group of persons.
The cleric said he has never believed that the way forward for Nigeria is an all-out probe and prosecution of former public officials.
According to him, previous experiences have shown that taking such route had yielded little or nothing while distracting the government from facing its core duty of providing good governance for the country.
Bishop Kukah had at various forums before and after the March 28, 2015 Presidential election stated that the way forward in the new dispensation is to pay little attention to the ills of the past and concentrate more energies on putting Nigeria back on track.
While Kukah related that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had during interactions with the peace committee at the villa cleared the air on government’s direction on the probe, adding that the exercise would not be done in a manner that could bring the country down.
His words: “There is no such thing as probe in a democratic setting like ours. What obtains is investigation, and once people lead and things are not right, investigation becomes necessary.
“However, in doing that we must never be distracted from the spectacular actions undertaken by former President Jonathan.
He is an individual. I think this whole thing about probe can be ascertained once investigations are concluded. But we are saying that a lot of talks and speculation about this probe are distractions nobody need.
“So the most important thing is that we need a stable country first before we can talk about these things. And they will have happened down the line”, he said.
Restore Public Confidence
Kukah had noted after the Buhari’s victory at the general election that the major task after May 29, 2015 was to restore public confidence in governance, rather than spending so much of his time pursuing perceived thieves.
In April, while delivering a convocation lecture at the Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, he said: “This will be determined by the nature of the choices he makes in assembling a team that would help him in achieving his set goals and moving the country forward.”
Kukah also called on Buhari to embark on the policy of reconstruction, reconciliation and rehabilitation, adding that the country had failed in its past bids to achieve these objectives.
Fighting corruption might sound fantastic, he continued, “but it is a great challenge because the cankerworm is written over all facets of the country.
“I will advise that rather than chasing the ‘thieves’, the president-elect (as he then was) should address the issues of the misery and squalor that have become Nigeria’s lot, as development will raise the best army to fight corruption,” he said.
“His challenge lies in how he responds to the perceived interpretations of his victory, especially within the various institutions, networks and interest groups especially, in the northern part of the country,’’ Kukah said.
He called on Nigerians to see Buhari’s election as an avenue to foster coalition and consensus building, as no group could achieve development alone.
Obasanjo’s Model
Kukah had recommended the method adopted by former President Olusegun Obasanjo when he quietly went after persons believed to have corruptly enriched themselves and recovered much of the looted funds without making a public show of it.
According to him, using officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to hound former government officials over alleged corruption would create more of theatrics and drama than achieve concrete results.
The Catholic bishop had given the narratives in an interview with the Vanguard, a national daily, in April before Buhari assumed office.
For him also, “what does going after thieves in Nigeria mean? Between 1999 and 2007 how many governors passed the anti-corruption test? How many did we see on the EFCC list?
How many convictions have been secured? So, if Nigerians want theatre and drama that is fine. But we are thinking about bread on the table.
I am sure the lawyers in Nigeria will be very happy if Buhari says he is going after the criminals.
“We can appreciate the fact that the success of these elections is not something that the lawyers like to celebrate especially the most senior of them.
If Nigerians want him to prosecute the thieves, that is fine but Nigerians did not elect the President to prosecute thieves.
“There are different ways of doing that. We elected a President not to look for scapegoats. We elected the President to get a job done and I am convinced that if Buhari wants to prosecute thieves he will do it because as the President there is no kind of information that he cannot access.
Prosecution of corrupt people does not necessarily have to be done through theatre and drama. Obasanjo did it quite efficiently. He got back a lot of money without shouting.
There were a few theatricals, but Obasanjo himself did say to my hearing that there were people who returned money even through pastors.
So what is the use of wasting money trying to prosecute somebody? Doing that quietly without noise will be better because the business of governance will go on.
“The institutions responsible for prosecution should be made to do that effectively. All I am saying is that getting information about the transactions of corrupt people is easy.
It does not have to be Buhari who will be championing it. The institutions are there. There are various arms of government that can point a moral gun at these people.
“This is the only country where you can go to the Senate from the EFCC and become a minister even while having a case with the EFCC. We are on a moral free fall. It is such that after some have been on the television their people will come out to say that their children are being witch-hunted.
“I am not against prosecution, what I am saying is that the business of governance should not be abandoned. I said it during Oputa Panel (hearing) that the unfortunate thing about prosecution in Nigeria is that the criminals have the money to get the lawyers.
Since these things can be resolved institutionally, why going on a wild goose chase? Nigerians don’t even have to know who the criminals are. Obasanjo, who has a very retentive memory, can tell Nigerians the people who brought back money without making noise.
He only told them to go and sin no more.
“Only a foolish man will appreciate that going after the biggest thieves in Nigeria, is the biggest solution to our problems.
“God has his way of getting things work. Given the enormity of the issues we are dealing with, creating distraction should not be encouraged, because once that route is taken, there would be distraction.
All I am saying is that Buhari has come to do a job and I think he was moderate about his expectations about corruption.
We should understand that corruption is pretty well equipped in Nigeria. I am not saying that it should not be tackled, but if it must be done it is important to have the wisdom of David and Goliath. “Corruption is everywhere in this country, it is in the judiciary, police, the church and everywhere. Indeed, it is the only thing that works.
“The question we will ask ourselves is how other nations tackled corruption and I think we can actually come to a point where unearned wealth becomes unfashionable.
These corrupt people are sick. There is nowhere in the world that people do the kind of things they do in Nigeria. It does not make sense that after stealing from your mother and father, the money will be taken outside the country.
The morality of the stealing is another thing.
“A lot of people who do all these don’t know anything about modernity. What is responsible for our crisis in Nigeria is the crisis of development.
I hear some of these governors saying that they cannot develop in an environment of insecurity whereas it is their criminal activities that brought about insecurity. It is their inability to govern that brought insecurity.
That is why I consider dictatorship a far worse crime than colonialism. If Buhari is lucky it will take him six months before they start abusing him because he has to earn trust.
I know the honeymoon is not going to last. But he should be supported to do the job”.
Notorious Fact
Also lamenting on whether all is well between the executive and legislature, given the succession of the committee’s visit to both the Presidency and the National Assembly, Kukah admitted that things are not the way they ought to be in the polity.
“I think what is going on is what the lawyers call notorious fact, everybody knows that things are not the way they ought to be. We are just trying to encourage people that let’s get on with this business of fixing this country.
“Let’s get to the business of realising the change that we dreamt of. And also most importantly, let’s get down with the business of co-operating with God so that Nigeria can move forward.
“I think that is what ordinary Nigerians are expecting, this is what they voted for. The truth of the matter is that time is not on our side. Our responsibility is to encourage politicians to do what they were elected to do”, he said.
He added that the visit as led by the Committee chairman, General Abdulsalami, was in conclusion of their consultations aimed at getting a feel from the stakeholders about their perception of the National Peace Committee and its role.
“We were set up to deal with the issues of the national elections, and we successfully concluded. And the consultation are to help us redefine the role of the committee in order to sustain our democracy”, Bishop Kukah stressed.
Daily independent
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