Photograph — The Herald

On the 2nd of November, 2015, a report concerning fraudulent crude oil deals conducted during Ex-President Jonathan administration, by one of his campaign chiefs was published. The report alleged that Mr. Nimi Barigha-Amange, a director in Sarb Energy Corporation – a company created in 2008 for the sole purpose of this fraud – acted as the middleman between Nigeria and Zambia . The report also mentioned that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) got wind of the fraudulent deal and did nothing about it.

However, these corruption stories are becoming tedious. President Buhari and a number of officials in the new administration have incessantly made mention of how corrupt President Jonathan’s administration was. These consistent corruption stories and probes are already making some Nigerians angry, with many of them expressing their discontentment on social media. Nigerians have still not heard anything about some of the prosecuted government officials charged with corruption in the last administration. Is Buhari’s fight against corruption a smokescreen for incompetence?

Since his inauguration, President Buhari has been declaring Nigeria’s sorry state, which according to him is due to the rampant corruption in the last administration. “Nigeria is broke” he declared last week. Leaders should fill their followers with hope, not with dread and gloom. It is almost six months since his inauguration, so for him to keep saying these things to the press appears to be an indication that he has either run out of ideas or does not know what he is doing.

Corruption was not the only reason Buhari was elected. It is time he focused on what is important, like fixing paralysed sectors, and revamping the economy, amongst other things. He has barely said anything and done very little in achieving his other campaign promises and this is why some Nigerians are tired. There’s a looming fuel scarcity crisis, APC senators are ironically rejecting one of Buhari’s campaign promises at the Senate, electricity supply seems to be going back to the stone ages, Boko Haram attacks are on the ascent, Nigerians still do not know Buhari’s cabinet ministers, among other things, yet all we hear is the level of corruption in the past administration.

Yesterday, rumoured APC apologist, Japheth Omojuwa went on a twitter rant with the hashtag #Buharioptics. Soon, however, it became hijacked by Nigerians who had been looking for a way to express their displeasure with Buhari.

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