Falana To Buhari: You’re Not Genuinely Fighting Corruption
BY AMOS DUNIA, ABUJA – Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana SAN has castigated President Muhammadu Buhari for not genuinely fighting corruption in the country stressing that mechanisms and measure to discourage people from embracing the act are completely lacking.
Falana said there is no way that people are paid starvation wages and impossible for retirees to receive their pensions and gratuities when they retire, and still expect them not to engage in corrupt practices.
This is just as he condemned the Federal Government and specifically the Attorney General’s attitude to herdsmen’s killings in the country and therefore tasked government to as a matter of urgency address the herdsmen’s killings as well as prosecute those involved on illegal possession of firearms.
He said; “The killer herdsmen have no licence to carry arms that they carry, hence they must be charged for culpable homicide, murder, kidnapping, and armed robbery. The Federal Government must be alert to its responsibilities. There is certainly the urgent need to tackle these mindless killings.”
Falana, who stated these at the Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin ‘Third Annual Registry’ Lecture Series with the theme; “University Autonomy in Nigeria: Prospects and Challenges,” noted that a committed public officer often has nowhere to lay his head after retirement just as he also has no money to educate his children.
According to him; “Under such setting, if the person has access to government funds, he might be tempted to steal.”
“I agree that since 1999, the Buhari’s regime has fought corruption more than previous regimes, but the anti-corruption war is merely a recovery attempt to recover some looted wealth.”
Falana therefore implored the Federal Government to provide social protection valves such as cheap and affordable housing scheme and education support fund for poor Nigerians as a demonstration of its commitment to corruption fight.
Falana announced that he and other human right activists have commenced moves towards ensuring that former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki, Sheik Ibrahim Zakzaky, his wife and a detained journalist are granted bail.
According to him; “Disobedience to court order is alien to democratic practice. It is more painful to me than most Nigerian lawyers, because I got court orders obeyed under the military regimes, including the Buhari-Idiagbon junta. The selective approach of the Federal Government with regards to which court order it should obey must be discouraged in totality.”
