The anti-corruption campaign of President Muhammadu Buhari suffered a huge blow recently with the sudden appearance of a Former Chairman of the Pension Reforms Task Team (PRTT) who is wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for his alleged complicity in the over N2billion Pension Biometric Scam.
Abdulrasheed Maina, before his appointment as Chair of the Pension Reform Task Team, was a Deputy Director in the Ministry of Interior. By February 2013, he was dismissed by the Head of Service for absconding from duty and evading arrest.
Since then, nothing has been heard from Maina until recently when news filtered that he has been secretly re-instated and subsequently promoted to a Director in the Ministry of Interior.
More worrisome is the fact that two of Buhari’s prominent Ministers (Abubakar Malami -The Attorney General of the Federation who is the Chief Law Officer, and his Interior Ministry counterpart, Abdulrahman Dambazau) were fingered in the shameful reinstatement.
How can President Buhari win the anti-corruption war when members of his cabinet colluded to re-instate a wanted man and against the doctrine of moral reasoning, promoted him?
Though President Buhari ordered his sack and demanded a full report on the issue, which has been submitted. But citizens are still curious of what will become of the report.
On May 29, 2015, President Buhari said and I quote ‘I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody‘, sending a strong warning to political jobbers and juggernauts that his anti-corruption war will be void of favouritism. 2 years after, the anti-corruption war leaves much to be desired.
It seems Buhari is not even in charge of his cabinet. One wonders how many memos eventually reach the desk of Mr President before being leaked to the press. Or how many people have been denied access to the president even when issues of National importance is at stake.
Until Buhari fix his faulty cabinet and put his house in order, the anti-corruption war is more or less a farce.