It is no more news in the country that the ultimate mission of Buhari is to combat and eradicate the Kilimanjaro height of corruption. The issue of corruption has being a serious challenge faced by the nation for years back.

This same corruption is the strong rope that has kept drawing the nation backwards. Now, a political party with the notion of “change” has come on board to sweep away the corrupt floor with the political broom. This change mission is led by Buhari.

All nooks and crannies of the nation have entrusted all hope in Buhari by casting him their vote as the president. Even the kids outside there have memorized “Buhari’s change” rhyme which is an indication that the “Buhari’s change” rhyme is the song of the season. The International Communities also hope in the man; A man of the people (not that of Chinua Achebe o) it then suffices to say that Buhari is the Messiah of Nigeria.

It is a truism that change is inevitable to Nigeria as a nation. That corruption is a disease which should be cured lest it kills the country. President Buhari as we know is the chief fighter of corruption. Can he succeed in combating corruption? Can he, after the fight, win corruption and restore transparency?

Before giving answer to these salient questions it is noteworthy that appearance differs from reality. In the real fact the APC and Buhari, so to speak, appears to be an ”angelic” political party and personality respectively but we cannot conclude so quick that they are corruption free.

It is also important to know that action speaks louder than voice; one should not take mere verbal expression as the fact rather one should have great believe in actions. So, it will be dangerous to believe in the flowery of the APC/Buhari’s words rather their deeds and actions.

Microscopically looking at the APC, it is crystal clear that it is a political party comprising past and present looters who are now professing to be “born-again”. APC then, can be said to be an association of past and present political criminals hiding under the shed of “change“.

With this, one can see that the APC is only showing to be sanctimonious and cajoling the good people of Nigeria at the expense of national development. Having known that the APC is formed and sponsored by past and present leaders of the country that are not with ”clean hands” (though, there are transparent ones also, but are very scanty) we can then continue with Buhari and ”his” corruption crusade.

Without much imagination, it is apparent that Buhari is a product of the APC. He is the choice of the polluted party. If the same man from the midst of looters is the one battling corruption, he should first of all, fight the ones in his party. It is an indisputable fact that APC has some members that have swallowed the public funds, leaving the citizen wallow in abject poverty. Buhari should ”jail” them quickly before ” jailing” others.

If he decides not to probe them, in the name of party loyalty, he is not fighting corruption, he is only promoting corruption. Charity, they say, begins at home. So probing should also begin at Buhari’s political home.

Frankly speaking, it will not be easy for Buhari to fight his corrupt fellow in APC because many of them were his backbone during electioneering period. They have sponsored and supported the party so that their “sins” would be pardoned ; NO WAY! No sinner would go unpunished.

If Buhari is then ready to fight those that have embezzled public funds from his party, it will be a leadership by example (APC, the ruling party).But it won’t be easy-peasy for him if and only if he is not ready to bite the fingers of those that fed him.

Fulfilling electoral promise is also an issue to be taken serious. “eni to ba paro ma jale; one who lies will surely steal”. Buhari made a thousand and one electoral promises which he may or can’t fulfill. If he has made the promise to do something and he won’t be able to fulfill it, which he knows, then he may not be able to fight corruption.

If a promise is made to lure people into voting, knowing that you can’t fulfill It, definitely such a person that made the promise is a barefaced liar. Denial of promises made during election and some statement of relevance, will amount to becoming a pathological liar.

If the truth of these lies are getting exposed, lies will be used to cover lies to protect integrity. And a liar is not worth combating corruption. A lying mouth will surely result to a stealing finger. Or is stealing not corruption?

So, if buhari is to successfully fight corruption, he should avoid unnecessary lies. Biblically, A sinful person(s) can never cast away demons. So, a team of corrupt men cannot cast away political demons. He can only successfully fight corruption if the above are well taken care of. Looking forward to seeing Buhari cutting off the kleptomaniac fingers. I pray for his success.

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

Festus Ogun writes from OOU, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun state.