"Today Nigeria presents a distorted but legalised distribution of power brought about by a warped social system, backed by strong-willed and corrupt political class. Yet, we stand at a moment of great challenge and opportunity. All around Nigeria and its diaspora are voices being reclaimed, breaking out in rhythms, chorusing in high decibels with one sound, that of change. Nigerian people want simple things: An economy that serves the efforts of those who work hard, a national security policy that addresses the threat of Boko Haram and makes our cities, towns and villages safer, a politics that is centered on bringing people together across the various divides to work for our common good. This is the minimum we demand, the basic request we make for it is the change that the Nigerian people are entitled to.
The reality, however, is that our nation is at war with a confounding enemy whose name is corruption, our economy is in turmoil from the excesses of the recurrent expenditure and the abuses prevalent in our governance. The healthcare system is broken and only accessible to those who can travel abroad. On healthcare I am struck by how almost all our elected and ‘selected’ leaders fly abroad every year for treatment. Government schools fail to provide opportunities to many of our children. Across the land, families are paying record prices to fill up their shopping baskets and many Nigerians worry whether they will be able to raise their offspring in safety and security.
But these challenges were not bound to happen, they are the consequence of flawed policies and failing leadership. As the world has transformed, the thinking of our leaders has remained ossified in time with the absence of new thinking. The first few years of this new century should have been our moment, the time when our leaders turned adversity into opportunity, launching us to the next phrase of our development. This should have been the time when bold and visionary thinking challenged conventional wisdom and took us down a pathway of development and innovation.
Instead, our history is cluttered with white elephants and corruption on a monumental scale. I imagine what Nigeria could have achieved if we were united and worked together. The last half-century of our independence has been a failure of our leadership rather than that of Nigerian people. I believe that we can change course and that we must, and I project into the future an optimism that seems foolhardy but comes from the hope that after darkness emerges light – ‘Post tenebras spero lucem’. This is certainly not the first time our nation has faced grave crises of confidence but each time, our people have found the strength to call out together and address our challenges. This moment cannot be different, and this time demands more urgency. Working together we can restore some sanity to our body politic, we can perfect our federation and work towards a more worthwhile union by asking unthinkable questions of ourselves. But to bring about profound change we must be prepared to countenance some of the ideas I am expounding in the chapters to come."
……..facilitate granting of amnesty in exchange for full disclosure of truth for acts with a political objective within guidelines of the Act and on condition in the cases of corruption that appropriate restitution is made to their respective local government areas;…."
Buhari government will utilize the TRC model of South African to fight corruption, rather than allow it to overwhelm it, it will use amnesty provisions to deal with offenders utilizing an alternative approach. those that confess and repent will be let go with reparations encouraged but the stubborn and intractable crooks, repeat offenders will be prosecuted. The alternative is to bring governance to a complete halt. I assure you Buhari will not pay visits to Ibori in the prison yard. My book delves into this further.
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