By Ovie Okpare
President Muhammadu Buhari has said fighting corruption under democratic system is difficult compare to the era of military junta owing to the legal process involved in prosecuting accused persons.
Buhari made the comment on Friday in an interview with the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) monitored by our correspondent.
The President, who recalled his days as Military Head of State where he had to arrest alleged corrupt persons and put them in prison, noted that such tactics are not permissible under a democratic system.
According to him, the legal processes involved in prosecuting those alleged to have enmass public resources make the fight against corruption difficult.
When asked on his administration’s achievement in the fight against corruption being one of his focus, Buhari said “, Well, under this system (democracy) it’s difficult.
“I’ll like to repeat what I used to say, when I was a bit younger in uniform, I arrested the President, Vice President, governors, ministers and senators. I put them under one detention and I told them they are guilty until they are able to prove themselves innocent.
“This is the opposite in a democracy system…”
Also confronted with the accusation that he has been lenient with bandits and terrorists in the north while he handed down the stern warning to hoodlums in the south, Buhari said his critics were being unfair to him.
He said, “They are being unfair, they should go and ask the governors of Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina and find out how I have been deploying the police and the military to deal with the bandits, we are not sparing anybody but Nigeria is vast and there are a lot of forests.”
The summary of all that His Excellency Buhari has said is THAT HE DOES NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO ABOUT CORRUPTION. He has no clue.
However there are so many other things he knows to do and he is doing them very well.