By voicing so much his aversion for corruption and by seemingly intimidating political foes with his ant-graft horsewhip, President Muhammadu Buhari has insidiously stirred a fear factor in the public space in a negative sense. In case Buhari does not realise it, nothing is working at the moment in the public service. There is a Buhari fear factor which has in itself become counterproductive. I was at a critical federal agency the other day, and the silence was deafening. The usually vibrant office was a solemn assembly. The look on the faces of the hitherto boisterous workers was that of a mourner steeped in deep cogitation. Yet, nobody died. It was down to the Buhari fear factor.

Men have suddenly lost their manliness. The Permanent Secretaries that ought to drive the affairs of ministries and parastatals have gone blunt. They have lost their capacity for initiatives, they latch on to the routine; and routines do not beget change; routines are the direct antithesis of productivity. They simply do not know what to do that would not be counted as corruption or a tendency to corrupt a process. Their directors are even more vegetative. They say it is the fear of Buhari; who knows what next the President would do, they wonder.

As you read this, there is palpable stasis everywhere in the public sector. And if anyone is in doubt as to the negativity of the Buhari inductive effect of fear and intimidation, take a proposal, no matter its merit and ingenuity, to any parastatal at this moment, be sure it would end up in the ‘keep-in-view’ file where it would gather dust for God knows how long.

Without a doubt, Nigerians welcome the fight against corruption. They wager that this government gets it right and repatriate most of the stolen funds. They want leakages blocked and culprits punished but all of this will not happen if Buhari continues with his anti-corruption platitudes without as much as making the first recovery or catching the first thief. Day by day, he sings the anti-corruption anthem; he says he knows where the looted funds are, he says he knows the looters; he holds court in Aso Rock to tell any visitor that he is gunning after the looters; he even says the civil service is a nest of corruption. I believe him. I also concur with Mr. President that the fight against corruption should be total but I disagree with his style.

Mr. Buhari is simply talkative about this corruption thing. Talking effusively about fighting corruption has sent the wrong message to the public sector. The operators of this sector have all gone the way of the jelly fish, cringing at every instance. They have lost the spunk to even look at the President in the face and tell him where he is going wrong. They do not want to take the initiative because they fear any action taken now may displease the King. And like serfs of the medieval age, they have retreated into their self-contrived cocoons. In the public sector the prevailing attitude is do nothing, say nothing, don’t incense the King.

Those who even dare to take any action are overzealously doing it, trampling the fundamental human rights of citizens in the process just so the President would notice they are working hard. Has Mr. President noticed the resurgent zeal of Ibrahim Lamorde and his anti-graft agency called EFCC? Lamorde is suddenly up and about as though under the influence of a jab. He has cleaned the files of many ‘suspects’ including those that allegedly committed crime when he was still in police diapers. And like a nervy athlete, he is committing many unforced errors. He is bungling cases with his team because they were too impatient to do a thorough legal-proof investigation just to please the anti-corruption King. The manner security personnel invaded the home of former National Security Adviser, Dasuki Sambo, lend further credence to this sudden lust to please the President. Let’s not even recall the siege to the home of Buruji Kashamu, a suspected drug baron, by officials of the NDLEA. Kashamu’s drug story has been of old but the usually efficient NDLEA pretended it was never there until Buhari arrived at Aso Rock. Again, to please the King, they over-stepped the bounds of decency and due process of the law.

Mr. President, you cannot fight corruption with corruption and you can never tame this ugly bogey by merely voicing your preparedness to deal with it. You will be shocked at the high level of corruption and criminality going on at the various anti-crime and anti-corruption agencies which you intend to use to clean up the mess of graft. The truth is that the Nigerian public service is weak in functionality and processes. You need to strengthen the various institutions and automate their processes. It is not so much in sacking heads of agencies when the dirtier lower layers of personnel are left untouched. Your predecessors made the same mistakes and ended with more corrupted system than they met it.

Has anybody ever wondered why in spite of the glut of anti-crime and due process agencies namely EFCC, ICPC, Due Process Office et al, the nation still flounders in the gutter of corruption? Obasanjo sang the anti-corruption song, created the EFCC and ICPC but ended up running one of the most corrupt governments in the nation’s annals. Buhari should have known that chanting ‘I will fight corruption’ will only make the looters get creative and scientific in their operations. He should talk less and act more by punishing crime. People are motivated to commit crime in a community when they know there is no punishment for criminality.

Buhari should move straight to action: expose the offenders and punish them. He should clear the halo of fear by issuing less threat. The nation does not need threat, for threat creates fear even in the mind of the innocent.

Author: KEN UGBECHIE