3rd December, 2015,
PRESS RELEASE:
ALLEGATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE AGAINST
BUHARI BASELESS, SPONSORED
President Muhammadu
Buhari’s war against corruption has faced numerous attacks in recent times. The
opposition party (People’s Democratic Party, PDP) has accused him of
persecuting key members of the opposition while a ‘human rights’ group appealed
to the international community to check Buhari’s ‘human rights abuses’.
The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) rejects these
allegations. They are baseless, unfounded and outrageous. They exist only in
the figment of the sponsors’ imagination. We strongly condemn attempts by
corrupt politicians and stomach infrastructure ‘human rights’ groups to
frustrate the war against corruption.
We remind Nigerians
that Buhari won the presidential election because he was a candidate of
uncompromised integrity. He was given a mandate to clean up the mess created by
16 years of PDP’s misrule, reckless extravagance, corruption nulli secundus
and impunity primus inter pareil whose crumbling edifice was capped by
the cluelessness of the last regime.
Nigeria was in such a
bad shape that Transparency International ranked her the most corrupt country
in year 2000, second most corrupt country in 2003 and third most corrupt in
2004. Just yesterday (2nd December, 2015) Nigeria came second behind
South Africa in corruption ranking.
The indices are not so
favourable at present to allow us to indulge corrupt politicians or nurse any
sympathy for them. In spite
of our massive oil wealth, 100 million Nigerians live below poverty line. The
average Nigerian lives on less than $1 per day. Per capita income is less than
$300. Nigeria was adjudged the 26th poorest country in 2002 and the
20th hungriest in the world in 2009.
Yet the bane of
Nigeria’s development is corruption. It is the raison d’etre for our
epilectic power supply, the death traps which we call roads, the public
mortuaries which we call hospitals and the roadside carpenters’ workshops which
we call laboratories in our universities!
The only way to get
our infrastructure working is to eliminate corruption or to reduce it to its
barest minimum. But to our greatest shock and disappointment, a so-called human
rights group recently started shedding crocodile tears and defending the
indefensible when the time came to seize corruption by the jugular.
Is it not a crime
against the innocent citizens of Nigeria for any public officer to divert money
intended for buying arms for our gallant soldiers who are fighting Boko Haram
to somewhere else? Is it not criminal to deny our soldiers the much needed arms
and ammunition thereby causing the death of many of them and allowing
insurgents to kill and maim innocent Nigerians? Was it fair to have allowed
Nigerians to label their own soldiers cowards on account of their fleeing from
insurgents?
Was it not because
they were not properly equipped that they were constrained to tactically
withdraw? Was it not on account of this ‘tactical withdrawal’ that some of our
soldiers were tried and sentenced to death? Should we then allow those behind
the diversion of military funds to go scot free? Why then is a ‘human rights’
group accusing Buhari of human rights violations just because the President
wants to ensure that those responsible for the massive fraud are accountable?
Can we now see the new
vigour in the military after the new Buhari regime ensured that the suitable
equipment was supplied? Only one local government remains in the hands of
insurgents as at today. The pendulum has also swung. Boko Haram is on the run
and our gallant soldiers are in pursuit.
The Boko Haram phenomenon would have become history long
before now if our soldiers had been properly armed and it was those who
diverted defence funds to private pockets who made it impossible to properly
equip our soldiers.
In other words,
corrupt politicians weakened our soldiers to the advantage of Boko Haram and
allowed the latter to perpetrate all those atrocities. What do we expect Buhari
to do with such corrupt individuals? Garland them with roses? Give them
national honours? No, criminals must be treated as criminals.
We can understand if
PDP treats them as heroes. The party is simply staying in character. But it is
shameful and despicable for any member of civil society to extenuate the
offence of those traitors. More
worrisome is the attempt to rewrite history by accusing Buhari of human rights
abuse over attempts to get thieves to render account. No genuine human rights
group will behave like an accomplice of kleptomaniacs. Corruption is fighting
back and it is a pity that some members of civil society have become willing
tools in the hands of this hydra-headed monster.
We appeal to members
of the judiciary, lawyers, the press and Nigerians in general to be wary of the
antics of corrupt politicians. Nigerians must be united in this struggle for
the war against corruption to succeed. For instance, Nigerian judges must be
ponder why those facing corruption charges always suddenly remember that they
need to travel abroad for medical attention? Why must those convicted for
corruption spend their jail terms in hospitals for ‘illnesses’ concocted after
the commencement of trials?
Granting permission
for such trips amount to frustration of the war against corruption. The bench
must be firm. Corrupt politicians seek to travel abroad in order to temporarily
escape justice, dig in deep, hide their loot properly and plot their big
comeback to continue their reign of financial terrorism.
Nigerians need the full support of the National Assembly at
this crucial period. Corrupt politicians are smart Alecs and our lawmakers must
seek to outsmart them. We need a bill that will make it virtually impossible
for anyone facing criminal charges, no matter how highly placed, to travel
outside the country under whatever guise.
We urge the international community to ignore the
rantings of agents of corrupt politicians. Western countries are advised to check the
credibility of those accusing President Buhari of human rights abuse through
their embassies in the country. Parasites and mushrooms must not be mistaken
for plants which bear good fruits.
We have a president
who has an unbeatable pedigree. We have full confidence in him and we call on the
international community to give him every necessary support in the war against
corruption and the fight against terrorism. We affirm that corrupt politicians
are also financial terrorists. In fact,
they are the root cause of the terrorism in form of Boko Haram.
We charge Nigerian
judges, lawyers and the National Assembly to plug all holes in the war against
corruption. We call on civil society to look beyond the smokescreen and the
sentiment so that they can appreciate the dilemma facing the country. We will
not have good roads, qualitative education, stable power supply, etc until
corruption is nipped in the bud.
In conclusion, we warn that corrupt politicians are out to
wreck the boat. All hands must therefore be on deck. It is not about violation
of human rights or persecution of members of the opposition. It is about
salvaging Nigeria. We should not allow anybody to hide under the canopy of
human rights abuse after stealing our common wealth. It is about Nigeria and
Nigeria is the dot in the com.
Professor Ishaq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)
08182119714
