A former Nigerian Ambassador to Switzerland and ex-Administrative Officer representing the Queen of England, Yahaya Kwande, has described the corruption fight of President Muhammadu Buhari as ‘nonsense.’
The 90-year-old Northern elder told Sun that even before Buhari formed his cabinet in 2015, he (Kwande) told the world that the President cannot fight corruption.
He said that people thought Buhari would cut off his neck for speaking the truth, adding that the current method of war against graft will not work in Nigeria system.
According to him, “I said something on the fight against corruption and they kept on repeating it on the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) because they thought Buhari will cut my neck.
“They interviewed me at the time he was yet to constitute his cabinet and I said he can’t even do it (fight corruption).
“They asked again, and I said Buhari cannot and I said but he will try. Now one of the policemen in Aso Rock (Presidential Villa) rang me and sent me a text again to say that they have started talking about it.
“I told them you leave here to go to Abuja and the ordinary man, poor man, 20 of them in a small bus, you are shouting that you are the leader of anti-corruption crusade in the world and in your country, the driver that is sitting driving you; for every police checkpoint he would bribe the police and somebody will take the bribe, he gives the bribe all through from Jos to Abuja; and you say you want to stop bribery in your country, every day you are lying.
“It’s nonsense, what result is it yielding if the ordinary man will not feel happy that his money is his money, and the taxi driver that manages to get some money to buy an old vehicle so that he will pick, N20, N20 on the road, only to share with somebody that is being paid and you are still shouting that you are stopping bribery and corruption because you recovered N10 billion from somebody that has kept it somewhere? Does the poor man care; does he know what is a billion?
“We heard about the billions but every day a clerk now…. I wouldn’t mention that. What bribery are you talking about that you are stopping?”
