That a tree on its own cannot make a forest is not my saying or ascribes to me because the dictum is a general known adage even to a child born today. What a metaphor and a beautiful one for that matter! But there again, a superfluous trees in a place could result in an unproductive dense waste land. President Buhari has a fight in his hand to bring the most valuable changes that would usher Nigeria in respect, and development that could yield the intended poverty alleviation in Nigerian society because the political mind-set of most bureaucratic apparatuses are grouse and fugacious. One of the most sharply depressing scenes in African Literature comes in AyiKeweiArmah’s. “The Beautiful Ones Are not yet Born, when a policeman manning a road block immediately after the army and police overthrow of the so called corrupt Nkrumah regime, points his finger to his mouth in a gesture to indicate that a bribe would be acceptable. While most of us who care about corruption and Nigeria state of affair overwhelmingly lauded and supported a change that was deemed necessary but it is also a fact that deep-seated structural conditions cannot be altered by a simple change in government. Buhari needs the whole nation’s support to succeed in his quest to return Nigeria to glory; it does not mean there should be room to accommodate the crappies of Nigerian society but an opportunity to assemble the able minded crispy members of the Nigerian society. Remember the Phrase, Nigeria call obey! That Buhari has done it before is in the past and as a military man. As a military man he took on the calabules, compradors and cabals and attempted fearlessly to sanitize the caddish society, a move that saw his reign short lived. There is no quick fix to the problem of Nigeria as corruption is only one element in the whole mix of problems facing the country.
Buhari has started well but he seems to be whistling that corruption is his number one enemy that must be tackled and 1 cannot agree the more but no politics is played in vacuum of the other economics reformation. Buhari inherits a corrupt but mildly robust economy from Jonathan, if only on face value of 6.1% annual growth. He must consolidate and build on this to be seen as successful. If the expected retrieved money is judiciously ploughed into the economy and does not become a case of looted money looted, the injected money (looted money) would yield a multiplier effect for the economy.
The world as a global village is thorny. Therefore how would Buhari hold the Nigerian society accountable without facing external criticism for his good intention? Remember that Nigeria under ex-president Jonathan was marred by the so-called high inhuman treatment of the loathed Boko Haram and was one of the reasons given for President Obama of the USA abstinence from Nigeria during his first Africa official tour and can someone tell me which African country is more politically, socially, and economically more important than Nigeria! Politics is known to be a dirty game, it is not just politics that is dirty but the way it is played that is dirty. The president performance so far is indicative of a man on a mission to succeed. But would he be given the opportunity and indeed the needed support to succeed? The answer may be no because of the grouse and fugacious local politicians who are lurking to derail the mantle of leadership at any given time if given the chance. Also the world cybernetic order demands adherence to International order, rules and moral conducts which are now essential political exigencies today and anyone who plays it otherwise stands to be at variance with the world order and could become a prey to bodies such as International Criminal Court of Justice, Amnesty international, United Nations and other Ombudsman and watchdogs. Man does not live by bread alone, although corruption is a major issue facing Nigeria, but insurgents and insurgency is becoming coarsened and combustive phenomenon for Nigeria to handle. There is the threat of illegal Biafra movement, by the nefarious and fatuous claque of persons both in the diaspora and home whose interest is to destabilise Nigeria further. They claimed to be enthymeme by other Nigerians. Buhari must not overlook these people drumming for secession and every attempt must be made to obliterate their threats before it becomes a cancer that will grow.
Boko Haram has intensified their lunatic’s brutality against Nigeria. Their indiscriminate and inhumane brutality is expected of fallen embattled terrorists. They have lost the battle at losing the eighteen local governments area (The size of Belgium) which they once controlled. They will do anything and everything to ferment war of attrition, which is normally associated with fallen terrorists. Boko Haram already infiltrated the North Eastern Nigeria, they mingle with the innocent free conscience Nigeria’s citizenry as if they are carrying out their day to day normal activities, whereas they are enemies within, waiting and ready to strike at any time, and anywhere to further foster their unpopularity. They would work as taxi drivers, butchers, market men and women, traders, beggars, and most importantly as bike riders for surveillance advantage. May be President Buhari would like to minimise the damage these vagrant elements are doing to our country by banning the bike riders in the North Eastern Nigeria major towns and cities, if the governors of those areas would cooperate with him but could use his presidential powers to surmount any would be obstacles. With their economic livelihood and economic mainstay taken away from them, it wouldbe a race against time and they could be subdued and the war of attrition would be drastically minimised.
Buhari has promised the nation that he would defeat insurgents and Boko Haram name will soon be a thing of the past. Let’s give him a year and six months to bring his promise home. Let it be known that it was not the advent of insurgency in Nigeria under Jonathan that people like me were angry with because that could be incidental but the way ex-ante Jonathan administration allowed some eighteen local governments to fall in the hands of Boko Haram. The cry for Biafra is more or less in its embryonic stage, and Buhari must act sooner. The consequence of the past administration ineptness and military hocus pocus is what we are now ripping and in the process creating unnecessary burden on Buhari. There is no doubt that Buhari will eventually bring Nigeria to a more dignified territorial acclaim but the war of attrition by Boko Haram is going to remain with us for a long time to come because Boko Haram are already in our midst as friends of the people.
On economic front, as posited earlier, Jonathan and his cohorts were not too bad but at the expense of compromising corruption and corrupt practices, which became cancerous and glaring enough for even a blind man and it was only Jonathan and perhaps his henchmen and women who did not see it. Nobody is a thaumaturgist; therefore we do not expect Buhari to be perfect in his quest to put our country in the right sphere of things. He needs the cooperation of every Nigerian, home and abroad. Once the aching corruption is put to rest Nigeria will be on it way forward to claim its rightful place in the world. Let’s browse hypothetically a bit into the Nigeria’s society: Robbers went to rob a Christian bank manager at gun point in his house and in the process took away some of his possession, among the items stolen was a blackberry mobile telephone. Many months after the robbery the mobile telephone was eventually traced and found with a university student of 18 years old and was promptly accused and arrested but the student protested his innocence and claimed to have bought the phone in good faith from a bona fide seller. He was not however given a receipt of purchase (second hand or used item) does not always attract receipt in Nigeria. The unfortunate l8 years old student was remanded in police custody and was to spend eight weeks in the police cell, missing his lectures and exams in the process. The alleged seller, when police accosted, him denied he ever met the boy talk less of selling him the mobile phone. The family of the unfortunate boy, piled pressure on the bank manager, saying the boy was a victim of circumstance. The Bank manager agrees but demanded the only way he would allow a bail is if he was paid to the tune of N700, 000.00k (seven hundred thousand naira) which he claimed represents the value of items taken away from his house by the robbers. The family of the student afraid of what the unbridle police could do and also the student continually languishing in the cell, facing an uncertain human existence and missing his studies decided to pay the Bank manager. The bank manager after collecting the money withdrew his case against the student, paving the way for police bail with substantial bail amount even though it is boldly written out at the police station that “bail is free”.
Note:
The law says that no suspect should be detained for more than twenty four hours or in the case of a suspected terrorist three days without being charged to court. Only the court has the power to remand a suspect in custody.
At the police station, it is written that bail is free which is compatible with the Nigerian constitution.
In this scenario, who is guilty, the boy who was jailed, the family, the trader, the Bank manager or the police? A look at the hypothetical scenario shows a situation where:
The Bank manager capitalises on the misfortune of the student to make maximum gain- He stands out as a crook.
The family of the boy- who would not allow their boy to languish in jail, though could be excused of being a bit overbearing, who would not in that circumstance?
The police were carrying out their duty by arresting the student but dutifully transgressed the law, exceeding their prerogative powers by keeping the student unnecessarily and at the same time indulging in corrupt practices by accepting money for bail.
The boy bought the phone in good faith but paid the ultimate price for not asking for receipt. He is a victim of circumstance.
The trader or seller, who sold the item although,  may not know the item was a stolen phone when he purchased it from a third party to be resold. He definitely knew he sold the phone to the student but choose to save his neck and in the process debauchery sacrificed the unfortunate innocent student to save his own head.
This hypothetical scenario is the sort of society President Buhari has inherited and he needs to take on all the cankerworms of Nigerian society from the child born today to the oldest person, institutions, organisations and most especially the law enforcement agents, if Nigeria is going to be liberated from the web of progressive stagnation. This scenario built above shows a society that is corrupt from head to toe. Corruption is not only attributed to the government of the day but could be both institutional and societal. The dangers of corruption are at their greatest when the distinction itself is scarcely recognised, and when the public office consequently becomes acceptable as a route to personal wealth and power. Buhari is salient in his indefatigable quest to fight corruption which has somehow blighted other areas of economic ramification. But how does he deal with political behaviour of cultural values inherited from a patrimonial past?
The practice of gift-giving, for example, is almost universal in patrimonial societies and also for example a situation where a member of the community who has made good in the modern world is placed under most intense social pressure to use his position for the benefit of those who feel they have a valid moral claim to his/her services. For me these traditional excuses for corruption readily degenerate into self- justifying excuses and Buhari must tackle all the maladies of progress in that country. It is unreasonable to expect a set of rational-legal values to develop among public officials and Nigerian society without any effective mechanism for their enforcement, and the basic .problem here is the weakness of accountability by the governors to the governed. This fudged wedge was recognised by Edo in the diaspora, precisely Birmingham, UK, when they formed a movement named: Edo Vision for Growth (EVG) which hopefully they think could help to enhance moral value and good governance in Edo state. There is no doubt that the elites of Nigerian society must indulge themselves in accountability by leading by example, not just Buhari, you and me.
Effective control over corruption is difficult to maintain. No purpose is served by the abusive moral condemnation of those who succumb to this temptation by those who have not yet had the chance to. The fight against corruption is Mr. President priority because corruption is the spider web that holds other forms of development in the country, it is not just how much taken from the government coffers but progress is heavily clouded by the negative mind-set of the society. I cannot be calaboose by saying that for now Nigeria is in safe hands of President Buhari but Nigeria call must be obeyed by all Nigerians to realise our dream where pain is substituted for comfort, anxiety is replaced by hope, despair and discord replaced by unity, sadness is replaced by happiness, and where poverty is replaced by prosperity, stagnation by progress, corruption replaced by sincerity, failure replaced by success, nonchalance by commitment and disdain replaced by respect. Long live President Buhari and God bless Nigeria- Amen.