Presidency: Buhari Won’t be Cowed by Resistance to Anti-corruption War

The Presidency said at the weekend that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari would not be cowed by mounting resistance against its anti-graft war.

Speaking at a radio Programme tagged: “Hannu Da Yawa” on FRCN Kaduna, the president’s spokesman, Mallam Garba Shehu, said Buhari would fight the war against corruption to the end.

According to him, the President’s commitment to uproot corruption as one of the cardinal policies of his election campaign is non-negotiable.

“Let me say one thing. Those whose illicit ways of accumulating money have been stopped will criticise this government but all that will not derail the unfaltering commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to the war against corruption.

“He is aware that this was one of the main reasons why Nigerians in their millions put their trust in him - the main reason they voted him into power in 2015. To keep that trust of ordinary Nigerians who voted him into the office, he has vowed to give corruption a good fight. He will not let them down,” Shehu stated.

Garba said though the war had been tough so far, Nigeria would never slide back to the dark days of the past when corruption was a norm. He insisted that though corruption had been fighting back, the war would continue non-stop.

“Corruption has been fighting back vehemently, finding accomplices in various forms and guises. Nevertheless, the Buhari administration will not relent. Nothing will return our country to those sad, old days of wanton thievery that have plunged us into the economic mess from which Nigeria is currently recovering. The war against corruption in Nigeria is one of those clashes between good and evil, where good is determined to triumph,” he added.

He dismissed insinuations of selective war against corruption by the administration, arguing that it is not true that members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) are treated as sacred cows. Instead, he said all were equal before the law.

He highlighted various measures which he said the administration had introduced to promote transparency by the present administration, disclosing that the National Hajj Commission, for instance, carried out an audit of accommodation agents in both Makkah and Madina in Saudi Arabia following the president’s directive.

He said the output of the directive helped to save $16.7 million in a year.