Since our anti-graft agency, Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), beamed its search lights on the arms gate scandal, the revelations that have been coming out daily from the purported arms deal has been shocking even to the least hopeful.
The question no one is asking is how was it possible that such huge amount of money was withdrawn on several occasions from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) without being subjected to checks and balances? Why was there no follow up on such request of funds after approval by CBN monitoring unit to ascertain if such money was used for the purpose it was meant for?
I don’t need a prophet to prognosticate that more of the profiteers of the Dasukigate embezzlement mess including our financial insititutions would be exposed this year.
My advice to Nigerians is that we should all work on our shock absorbers because the revelations that will be coming from the arms procurement deal this year will shock even the least hopeful.
It is time for all those that murdered sleep for others under the umbrella of impunity to get a dose of what Nigerians passed through as a result of their acts of sabotage on the nation’s national security.
This is the year our financial watch dogs will prove to Nigerians if president Buhari’s disdain for corruption was just mere campaign rhetoric or guided by sincerity of purpose.
There’s an African proverb that says, “The noise of the frog does not stop an elephant from drinking water”. Those who turned public trust into gluttonous accumulation ventures should get ready to dance to the anti-corruption hit tune that has taken over our nation’s polity and space.
Our anti-graft agencies should not allow grass grow under their feet in ensuring all those arms cabal including our financial institutions that were directly involved in the $2.1bn arms deal are served a dose of justice.
Those enclaves of critics, mostly PDP disabled remnants accusing the federal government of head hunting those who raped our nation with unlubricated hot rods should come to terms with the present realities. It’s been difficult trying to comprehend their expression of frustrations. They have been insisting, the figures emanating daily from the alleged misappropriation of funds budgeted for arms procurement are false.
If the figures were quoted to witch-hunt the opposition as being peddled, are the daily confessions of those complicit in the organized looting of arms fund also false?
Our anti-graft agencies shouldn’t be distracted by anti-APC rockets that have ignominiously been firing bullets of unjust criticisms from all cylinders in the fight against corruption.
There’s another proverb that says, “The length of the rope determines the movement of the goat”.
If our apex bank, (CBN) and other financial institutions had not given some undesirable crooks the privilege of the proximity to the treasury, Dasuki and his co-conspirators wouldn’t have had access to the countless transfer of cash meant for arms procurement for personal aggrandizement.
The fight against corruption in the government of progressive credentials will be a pointless endeavour or better put an exercise in futility if our anti-graft agencies, while hunting the goats that ate our yams do not go after those who allowed the goats enter our national barns.
The pervasive organized corruption in our financial institutions has long had a history of connivance with those in authority.
One of the measures that must be taken in this administration to nip corruption in the bud is to call on the National Assembly to make laws that would strengthen the CBN to scrutinize/monitor every financial transactions before and after such funds are cleared, if not, this Dasukigate embezzlement mess maybe a learning process to other national thieves that may emerge after now.
“Don’t make a goat your friend if your clothes are made of leaves”.
Joe Onwukeme
Follow me on twitter @unjoerated