The government of Goodluck Jonathan is the most vivid example we have of the virus of lost standard. Under his watch, the country has gone to the dogs. Government officials are massively squandering our patrimony and looting the treasury with impunity. It is so hard to work up any optimism because the president is simply not interested in fighting corruption.
Hence, the choice of General Muhammadu Buhari by the All Progressive Congress (APC) is historic, courageous and potentially transformative. This man is about the most honest Nigerian of all time. He is a man who hates greed and corruption with a passion. Our prayer that God should help us to fight this evil called corruption has been answered. We are set to see the restoration of honour and integrity to the Aso Rock. No fair minded person will ever accuse Buhari of being involved in corruption or dubiously enriching himself.
In one of his articles, Adeyemi Omotunde painted a pretty accurate fix on how General Buhari values moral rectitude and frugality. Quoting him will do justice to the point I have been laboring to bring to the fore. “Some months ago, an former member of the Federal House of Representatives, Dino Melaye, decided to investigate why Muhammadu Buhari could not afford APC nomination form because he read online the question a lady asked. He went to the Ministry of Finance where he discovered that all former presidents and heads of state actually get N23 million monthly. Melaye said ‘I read online the question a lady asked. The question is how can Buhari who earns over N300 million annually claim that he cannot afford to pay N27 million for APC presidential nomination form? I became interested and decided to investigate. I went to the Ministry of Finance where I discovered that it’s true that all former presidents and heads of state actually get N23 million monthly. But I found out that General Buhari actually wrote the Minister of Finance to reject the N23 million monthly pay. He said in his letter that he will only accept 10 percent of that amount which is N2.3 million and that is what he has been taking. This is just as clear as the air.’ This is a man that says in his speech at the APC convention in Lagos that he has no foreign account and he owns no company profiting from government contracts.”
This man of moral masculinity is what this country needs at the moment. Buhari is a mixture of great calm and boundless energy; he is all about compassion, tolerance and inclusiveness. His religious values will shape the way he will function as a president.
But his faith in his God is something commendable. It tells people that there is something in life more important to him than politics—a message Nigerian politicians need to get.
*Orji is a media and journalist