Pardon for treasury looters?

One of the cardinal promises of President Muhammadu Buhari during his campaign toursas presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC)in the 2015 elections was the fight against the evil called corruption. On assumption of office as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on May 29, 2015 MuhammaduBuhari in his inaugural speech again emphasized the readiness of his administration to use all available legal means to tackle corruption that was almost replacing decency in most facets of our national life.
More than one and half years in to the President MuhammaduBuhari-led APC administration, it is obvious that the incorruptible leader is not only keeping to his words on the fight against corruption but has remained committedto the promise. Revelations that emerged from the probe of the funds meant for arms purchase in the office of the erstwhile National Security Adviser Col. SamboDasuki (Rtd) are too inconceivable to be believed. The probe of the Nigerian Air Force accounts similarly revealed another incrediblepattern of corruption among public officers in Nigeria.
One bewildering irony is that while the lootings were taking place, most Nigerians stood in dire need of every looted kobo. That was when Nigerian troops complained of inadequate fighting equipment to counter terrorists’ activities in north-east Nigeria. That was also when some troops protested and shot at their GOC for non-payment of the allowances due to them for being on the battle field. That was the time schools in many states of the federation were closed due to unpaid salaries of teachers for several months. That was when some patients who could have survived but died due to prolonged national industrial action by doctors and health workers. That was when government activities and all businesses nearly came to a standstill because of the indefinite strike inthe oil sectorowing to government inability to settle subsidy claims owed marketers. This was howfinancialradicalismpadded with supercilious recklessness through colossal looting of public fundscharacterizedgovernment business for6 years in a manner that was unprecedented in Nigeria’s political and economic history.
The cumulative effect of all these unfortunate aberrations whichwereoccasioned by a depleted treasury(or a nearly-crippled economy) largely plungedthe country in to the mess we find ourselves today. Nigeria, in spite of otherunforseen and unforvourable fiscal factorsthat ledto thecurrent recession, should not have suddenly become poor ifpublic funds were prudently managed and not stolen.Some businesses collapsed leading to several employed people losing their jobs. The economy was deprived of the cash that should have beenthe driving force tohelpgoods and services to thrive.
Nigerians are grateful to Allah (SWT) for making President MuhammaduBuhari victorious in the 2015 polls and for inspiring him with the desired zeal and courage to stamp out corruption by investigating corrupt public officers, retrieving looted funds from them and prosecuting offenders to deter others from engaging in similar corrupt practices. The fear of President Buhari’s anti-corruption war has tamed the hitherto’fantastically’worsening tide of corruption. The news of corrupt allegations emerging daily from one government agency or the other illustrates the ruinous level to which corruption has surreptitiously permeated every structure or arm of government; leaving out no system or ideology.    
At a time when Nigerians are cheering President MuhammaduBuhari to remain committed in the fight against abuse of public office even when it involved judges who by convention shouldbe the custodians and enforcers of law, it sounds too strange that inspite of the havoc orchestrated on Nigerians by treasury looters, a serving senator will be so bold to, against common sense,ask for pardon for those who brought the country to itscurrent sorry state.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on FCT, Senator Dino Melaye(APC, Kogi State), recently urged President MuhammaduBuhari to grant presidential pardon and amnesty to treasury looters, Subhana-llah! Melaye pleaded that the looters should be given six months to return public funds stolen by them. ‘This’, Melaye argued, ‘will encourage the voluntary return of looted funds, empower government financially to immediately commence the implementation of projects, raise people’s standard of living, and save the judiciary and law enforcement agencies from the agony of fruitlessly pursuing looters in and out of courtrooms’. Senator Melaye added that it is only at the expiration of the six months grace that looters who failed to comply ‘should be made to face aggressive prosecution’ These remarks from Melaye are no less agonizing than the afflictions brought upon Nigerians by treasury looters. This would be elaborated further shortly.
Nonetheless, Senator Jeremiah Useni’s comments on the same subject matter have served as a consolation to Nigerians including this writer who believe that Melaye’s submissions are inexcusable and ostensibly ridiculous. Senator Jeremiah Useni (Plateau, PDP) has called on President MuhammaduBuhari tointroduce further radical measures in his anti-corruption fight if he must recover looted funds; insisting thatapplying strict democratic principles on looters will onlyallow and see them walking free and rich.‘Public officers stole a lot of money’, Senator Useni said, and that ‘such people’ he added, ‘need to be dealt with the very wayJerry Rawlings did in Ghana’. Jerry who made these remarks at his Jos residence during the country’s 56th Independence Day celebration emhasised that key members of his political party found to have looted the treasury ‘must be given the Rawlings treatment to serve as deterrent to other Nigerian public officers’.