Slapdash Revenge
Going by this rebuttal in the Daily Post edition of July 15, 2020 (https://dailypost.ng/2020/07/15/nddc-akpabio-opens-up-on-sexual-harassment-allegation-by-joy-nunieh/?fbclid=IwAR0Ctf5Sd75BrgQDu8fD8GJc6wxnPINgr81VHdEgYWmvR98-orp9lcwcVaI), the sexual harrassment affair between the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs Senator Godswill Akpabio (ex-Governor of Akwa-Ibom State) and his ex-subordinate and former interim Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Gbene Joy Nunieh, has evolved or devolved depending on your viewpoint, into a case of 'he said, she said.'
Only God knows who between the two is telling the truth.
For sure, someone or even both are lying.
In the final analysis, the sexual harassment affair is irrelevant and academic since the alleged victim insists she exacted a slapdash revenge, on the spot.
What is relevant to Nigerians is that the purported War against Corruption by the Buhari Administration has been exposed as a purely propaganda effort, a ruse, a scam and a sham.
The great takeaway is that corruption is as endemic now, probably even more so, than it was when President Muhammadu Buhari took over the reins of power.
Which leads us to the final conclusion that President Buhari has failed in all ramifications particular, including his flagship agenda of fighting corruption.
Recall that President Buhari once admonished Nigerians that ‘if we don't kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria.’
The truth is that corruption in Nigeria under President Buhari has not only killed, it has successfully buried Nigeria, under a mountain of debt, arising from his reckless borrowing and unparalleled administrative illiteracy.
His alleged war against corruption was waged solely and exclusively against his political and tribal enemies and purely for his selfish, political, and tribal benefit.
His signature RUGA settlements for Fulani herdsmen and Fulani bandit-terrorists is a case in point.
There are ample indications that State Governors were being blackmailed using the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to sign-off on RUGA, or else.
What stopped many of the corrupt State Governors from taking the plunge and signing-off their state patrimonies for RUGA in exchange of their individual political ambitions or freedom from potential EFCC prosecution, was the overwhelming rejection of the scheme by non-Fulani Nigerians.
It is fitting that for purely presidential succession political reasons, the boss of the EFCC Ibrahim Magu is now on the receiving end of his own medicine, with his alleged mind-boggling sins exposed for the whole world to see.
Who will forget so quickly how Barrister Olisa Metuh of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen, former Chief Justice of Nigeria, and many others, were harangued, humiliated or hounded out of office on charges which in hindsight look relatively minor compared to the alleged infractions Nigerians are being regaled with presently.
The greatest tragedy in the whole debacle is that diehard non-Fulani, Buhari supporters a.k.a. Nigeria's 'prisoners of ego,' have been so deluded, so jazzed up, and so blindfolded by their egos that they cannot read the handwriting on the wall and recant their support, even though the font is getting larger and larger with each passing day.
Believe me, this is just the tip of the iceberg of malfeasance going on right now. The rest will be revealed almost in its entirety, one way or the other.
We wait and watch.
Anthony Chuka Konwea, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, MNSE, FNIStructE, MNICE.