Chris Okparaolu
The presidential jet, purchased and maintained by tax-payers money, was a few days ago or so, so easily and readily available for the private use and personal business of Buhari’s daughter. This much is no longer news.
The presidency has already sauntered into the Nigerian public space in a no-shame and no-manners manner (apologies to Naira Marley whom, by the way, I have been reliably informed is now referred to as the People’s President) to say there’s absolutely nothing illegal about the independent use of state property by a bonafide beautiful member of the first family for private business.
They[the presidency] didn’t also sound like such indiscriminate use and application of state property was unethical, incongruous, indecent, wasteful and disrespectful to the Nigerian people.
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They showed no remorse; they offered no apologies; they didn’t call it a mistake and enact a vow that that was never going to happen again; they didn’t condemn the ugly act of the beautiful daughter of the President, who, I hear, recently graduated with a first-class degree in photography from a UK University, and who, I think, should have known better.
It’s not the arrogance of all of this that I want to talk about, it’s the thoughts that came to my mind when I stumbled on the news item.
What if this was in, let’s say, 2014, and it was President Jonathan ’s son who applied state-owned asset to private use and personal business?
What would have been the response of the APC through Lai Mohammed (supposedly), who was at that time its publicity Secretary?
What would have been the reaction of Nigerians (especially those ones who went about shouting their voice hoarse against Jonathan like Jonathan started corruption and impunity in Nigeria)?
I thought they said Buhari would make a modest and honest President and that the APC was taking over from the PDP to purge Nigeria from this kind of insults, incongruities, abuses, presidential rascalities, executive insensitivities, and indecency?
Farooq Kperogri needs no introduction, so I will, in closing this intervention, move straight to supply some conclusions he reached, reacting to this disturbing development.
”No one in Nigeria’s history has personalized governance and murdered age-old expectations of basic decency in governance with as much impunity as Buhari has. Most members of his extended family not only hold key positions in his government, his children intrude on our national consciousness in the brashest and crudest ways imaginable.
The 1999 constitution says, “A public officer shall not put himself in a position where his personal interest conflicts with his duties and responsibilities.” Buhari violates this on a regular basis.”
Before I go, let me say that I have supplied these conclusions because I completely agree with Farooq.
It is sad.
