[caption id="attachment_29031" align="alignleft" width="320"] Muhammadu Buhari, former Nigerian military ruler and presidential candidate for the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) speaks during an interview with Reuters at a private residence in Lagos February 19, 2011. Buhari, the main opposition candidate in Nigeria's presidential election, said he was optimistic it would be a more credible race than in the past but warned events in north Africa showed people would no longer accept a rigged vote. Picture taken February 19, 2011. To match Interview NIGERIA-BUHARI/ REUTERS/Akintunde Akinleye (NIGERIA - Tags: POLITICS HEADSHOT)[/caption] By Osuolale Alalade. It’s a long time trudging on this route to what is undoubtedly one of Nigeria’s most desired public good. This is the goal to found a relatively corrupt free nation. The threat of Buhari’s fight against corruption was the main substantive contention of the presidential campaign. In the aftermath of his victory at the polls, the main challenge as he begins to concretize his vision has been sustaining the integrity of his mantra of raising up, or even resuscitating, a nation rendered prostrate by powerful and corrupt forces from the dust as a requisite of laying solid foundations for a more secured future for all. Unable to challenge the legitimacy of Buhari’s change charge, the option of reactionary forces arrayed against his progressive vision has been intense probings to blunt the potency of the instruments or the mechanics of the planned change. Given the emerged dynamic between the forces of change and deeply entrenched reactionary status quo elements, the challenge is to design modalities of a nationally validated struggle for change. At the same time and more importantly, the real struggle is to secure the buy in of status quo forces on how to prosecute the war against their very entrenched regimes. In other words, how do you build a national consensus, including the approval of the same key forces of the ancien regime on the process to sanitize the dirty and odious Augean stable? As Hercules knew, the job of cleaning an Augean stable inevitably entails getting dirty and smelly. This unflattering attribute of leading radical change or shifting tectonic plates has to be read literally. For Buhari, this presents a paradox in that a democratic Buhari must somehow draw from the steely character of the old Buhari, if he is to outsmart and out last the many disingenuous shackles placed in the path of sanitizing Nigeria. These impediments include the much vaunted call for respect for due process and nuanced instigations to be mindful of ethno-regional sensibilities in his approach to unearthing the mountains of stinking accretions of national rot. These are the key distillations one may make out from recent controversial goodwill representations to the President by important extra constitutional structures and from publically issued communiques by highly respected spokespersons of key constituencies and stakeholders in relation to the important social re-engineering of the ethical and moral underpinnings of a reformed Nigeria assured of a more worthy future. [caption id="attachment_29032" align="alignleft" width="550"] Babangida: Largely accredited with introducing parcel bombs to neutralize political opponents well before Boko Haram improved on that technique[/caption] In the current circumstances, there is nothing new in the intense jousting of special elite interests, notwithstanding the attendant confusing contortions that only forge additional dilemmas for Nigeria’s contemporary change impulses. They come in the wake of one and half decade of systemic rot that was validated only by recourse to the mindless exploitation of the universally acknowledged intrinsic legitimacy of every democratic order. Yet, in light of the characteristics infused in Nigerian democracy, some would say that that brand of democracy was more of a nationally ordained orderly systemic rot-a la Chabaz. The pervasive pus from the open national abscess has defined Nigeria’s national life, with few periodic interregnums of short lived potential goodness in the Nigerian historic placements. These interregnums in the final analysis also constitute another layer of paradoxes as exceptional moments of hope in the tortuous history of Nigeria. The interruptions here do not refer to the opportunistic interventions of the military that have been self serving and now have created a new political class of heavily loaded status quo forces. Essentially then, the social construction of the Nigerian state and the constitution of its elites allude to its badly compromised military, a decadent political class, a false and exploitative salvation peddling pastoral mercantilists. These ubiquitous tormentors of the nation are complemented and underwritten by a circle of comprador barons of an oppressive economic realm that emanate from their rank. In the context of Buhari’s proposed change the interests of all these forces converge to pose significant threats to any radical regime change of the type that is required to unlock the chains that bound to earth the future of Nigeria’s ultimate public good. In meeting this historic challenge of radical realignments of the foundations of Nigeria’s national process and its overall moral coordinates, President Buhari has company across time and space. These experiences in other climes offer stark options and lessons in building a compass to navigate the unfolding elite contrived impasse. One lesson of history, one thing for certain, is that Buhari cannot come to this historic equity for Nigeria’s future aspiring to emerge in sparkling clean hands. It is a dirty and smelly business to dislodge entrenched conservative forces anywhere. Buhari’s change omelet has to break eggs!! As the saying goes, he must also do it knowing that it cannot be done. Meanwhile, Buhari must change the protocols of the Nigerian time space for all. Some pray to live in interesting times like this. It is definitely interesting to watch the disparate elite interest jousting from a distance. But it also helps to seek to explore the deeper ramifications of the many sudden interventions by emerging ostensible goodwill forces to provide remedial courses to a born again democrat in the person of the President on the technicalities of the rule of law and due process in the prosecution of the change mantra, specifically on how to structure and tailor the modalities of what is intended as a robust counter offensive against an entrenched force forever poised for the eternal ruination of the Nigeria project. The visit of the General Abdulsalami Abubakar and his auto mandated National Peace Committee curious creation to President Muhammadu Buhari is very notable. The decision of their Peace Committee to become a permanent feature on the national landscape raises a number of issues that recall questions dogging Nigeria’s history so far. Why is a peace committee needed at this juncture in the nation’s life? Yes, there are security challenges that pre date the Buhari administration. As far as is known, the peace committee has not infused in itself the role of bringing an end to the bloody assaults of the mad men in the North East. As Nigeria gradually gets the handle over this curse, we are able to face other more sinister and devastating but less dramatic forces with destructive impact on the very integrity of the Nigerian project that is today responsible for the total denudation of the ethical foundations of state and society. The crisis that Nigeria faces today relates to the containment of this deep systemic sore that has infected all facets of national life and dangerously compromised the future of the nation. Some quantifiable impact of this national decadence may be cited here. By latest reports, Nigeria’s debt profile stands at United States 60 billion dollars. US 150 billion dollars was stolen in the last ten years. Included in this vast unimaginable sum are funds meant to build a formidable army, provide services in hospitals and clinics, generate power to power business developments and provide jobs for many unemployed youths, establish the basis for development of the rural communities, build strong national infrastructure to integrate social and economic life across the nation. The opportunity cost of the stolen billions is actually unfathomable. Yet, beyond the stolen billions are monies appropriated through legalized looting of the treasury. This has been possible through manipulated contract awards and unjustifiable earnings of gargantuan sums from the President, governors to chairman of local councils. It was a long season of fleecing the Nigerian people without and moral compunction. All these unfolded with near impunity. Yes, there were pockets of radical minds that saw everything wrong in this system of legalized looting. This established constituency of conscientious defectors from the prevailing insanity is the one that has acquired the moral rights and leverage to advise the administration how best to proceed in the onerous task of excavating Nigeria’s odious accretions in the difficult effort of instituting a new compass for national rejuvenation. [caption id="attachment_28242" align="alignright" width="300"] Obasanjo: He continues to bestride the public domain with contemptuous arrogance, while seeking to obliterate history with his long and vain self odyssey. This is a man under whose military terror over 300 Nigerian students were massacred in 1978[/caption] In Jerry Rawlings Ghana, Generals Acheampong, Afrifa and company did not have such ahistoric advocacy. In comparison to the unimaginable loot hauled into personal accounts by Nigerian public thieves, the executed former Ghanaian looters in high public office were mere petty thieves. On a scale of 1 to 10, they can be scored a mere critical nuisance value of 0.1 as against a ruinous and devastating magnitude 9.9 by the conspiratorial Nigerian elite. Against this background, General Abdulsallami and his group of well intentioned nationalists come across as emissaries of the ancien regime pleading for a soft landing for a privileged class determined to ruin the future of Nigeria. From this perspective, the intervention of the peace committee offends the sensibilities of the victims across the nation of the continuing expression of illustration of this perceived elite conspiracy. Now, reminding President Muhamadu Buhari that the current dispensation is positively a democratic one and not a military regime is distasteful. To express concern for and reminding of President of due process, one wonders who would advocate on behalf of the real victims of this elite conspiracy. Again what mandate has the Peace Committee setting up extra constitutional parallel structures to hear out everybody? Would they hear out the mass victimized who are truly doubly jeopardized by the planned intervention that is obviously driven by fear of the coming justice in the form punishment for Nigeria’s perpetually sinning elite caught in the act. To state, in the current context, that we need to reaffirm that this is our country and to state that the only thing we can collectively be opposed to is injustice, iniquity, corruption is a marvelous double speak that contemptuously spit in the face of Nigerian masses. The Committee in turn need be reminded that it is the licensed rogues in high places who have been unjust to their compatriots and are the clan of the iniquitous in the nation. Those who seek to bring them to justice are gallant and unpretentious Nigerians that do not need the unfortunate reminders being peddled by the Peace Committee. [caption id="attachment_28909" align="alignright" width="300"] General Abubakar: His group of well intentioned nationalists come across as emissaries of the ancient regime pleading for a soft landing for a privileged class determined to ruin the future of Nigeria[/caption] Meanwhile, while the Committee proceeds in defense of the sinful elite, the consequences of the sixteen years of deliberate systemic decay are haunting this nation. One poignant reminder is the condemnation to death of hitherto gallant soldiers who were forced to retreat from battle against heavily armed Boko Haram as they could not fight with their bare hands. Has the constituency of high profile do-gooders mumbled a word about real due process for these victims of a degenerate system and the need to set aside the kangaroo court marshals assaulting the sensibilities of Nigerian masses to save the lives of victims of the rot? It is blatantly unfair to the nation to begin by defending the interests of those whose brigandage has brought Nigerian to its knees. And there is a history to this. General Sani Abacha’s crimes are unambiguously legion. Yet, for all his crimes against Nigeria, including the incarceration, and ultimate death, of the first truly democratically elected president whose mandate was uniquely approved across all Nigeria’s historic divides, Moshood Abiola, and the broad daylight killing of his wife Kudirat Abiola and many other pro democracy activists, Gen Abacha’s family, like many of his colleagues still alive, has built on his wealth stolen from Nigerians to create a dynasty that in less than one generation has remorselessly launched itself into the mainstream of Nigeria’s politics. A national hospital is named after him. General Ibrahim Babaginda, the man largely accredited with introducing parcel bombs to neutralize political opponents well before Boko Haram improved on that technique, is ensconced in his palatial mansion in Minna. Meanwhile, his equally treasury looting Baby General accomplices of his time now dominate the public sphere. Under Babaginda, decent soldiers and gentlemen like Ebito Ukiwe were shunted aside in preference for the likes of Abacha and other certified dunces. General Olusegun Obasanjo belongs to a peculiar class of his own as he continues to bestride the public domain with vacuous arrogance, while seeking to obliterate history with his long and vain self odyssey. This is a man under whose military terror over 300 Nigerian students were massacred in 1978. As a democratically elected President, the wiping out of Odi and Zaki Biam communities by the Nigerian military would remain indelible stain not only on the Nigerian military but also on the conscience of all who were in a position to speak up or do something but refused to do so. Obasanjo has come, more than anyone else, to personify the tragedy of this prostrate land. The incriminating and treacherous silence and all these compromises for the peace of the graveyard have eroded the moral foundations of the Nigerian state and society. The Abdulsalami initiative as good intentioned as it may be has a danger to perpetuate the ugly underpinnings to Nigeria’s rot. Again, what true compensations has the Nigerian state offered the victims of the crimes committed by the aforementioned self serving and dangerous ogres of Nigeria’s sad national historicity? Yet, as is often said, good intentions are not enough. Beyond the demands from Nigeria’s traditional ugly constituencies are also difficult legitimate demands on the scope and breadth of Buhari’s national sanitation project. [caption id="attachment_28910" align="alignright" width="300"] Professor Nwabueze: Demands that such a probe must not be limited to the Jonathan administration and must cover all the previous administrations that had not been examined in the past, including the Obasanjo presidency[/caption] Ben Nwabueze, an iconic and very revered statesman, in a highly cerebral and logical treatise representing the voice of Igbo elders, affirms critical conditionality that are required to validate any probe to be instituted by President Muhammadu Buhari. It demands that such a probe must not be limited to the Jonathan administration and must cover all the previous administrations that had not been examined in the past, including Obasanjo presidency. No one can deny the rightness of the demand, because the Ebele Azikiwe Goodluck Jonathan administration in many respects is equated as a proxy Igbo presidency. Any probe of that administration it is feared may disproportionately impact the Igbo elite in the political class than any other ethno-regional interest group. Ethno-regional perspectives or not, one cannot fault the logic behind the call for a non selective and comprehensive forensic audit of the national ledger. Yet the probe must begin from the Jonathan administration for a number of practical reasons. The first is the immediate benefit to the nation of recuperating the most recently stolen monies that reports indicate is the single largest hemorrhage of the national treasury into private hands in the entirety of the nation’s lifespan. Secondly, the trail of the stolen loot and evidence are relatively hot. Finally, there is expressed international will to facilitate the repatriation of these recently stolen monies from abroad. The international climate is thus conducive to the probe of the most recent administration. Meanwhile, the Senate decision to probe of the Obasanjo administration’s failed power project is most welcome. Perhaps, the Senate would also include the failed huge multi-billion naira identification project under his administration that came to nothing in its brief. Mr. Osuolale Alalade is an author and a Nigerian diplomat