Ijaw leader and former Minister of Information, Chief Edwin Clark, said on Friday that having compromised his stance on corruption by promising not to punish corrupt officials between 1999 and 2015, Gen Muhammadu Buhari has lost his unique selling point – fight against corruption – and as such has lost the major plank of his campaign.
It is widely believed that Buhari’s new stance on anti-corruption fight was to avoid dealing with one of the key leaders of his party, the All Progressives Congress, Sen. Bola Tinubu, who is perceived to have corruptly enriched himself while in office as Lagos State governor between 1999 and 2007.
Clark, while addressing a press conference on Friday in Abuja, said that with the renewed offensive against the Boko Haram insurgency by President Goodluck Jonathan, Buhari has nothing more to offer as his campaign promise is hinged primarily on fighting the insurgents and corruption.
He however called on President Goodluck Jonathan to reorganise the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to give the anti-graft agency more powers to fight corruption and other related financial crimes in the country.
According to Clark, ”Given that nothing substantial is being done to fight corruption, one is primed to advise Mr. President to immediately reorganise the EFCC to effectively discharge of its mandate.
“In all advanced democracies, anti graft agencies would swing into action following the kind of revelations and allegations against most people walking free on our streets today. Unfortunately, our own anti-graft agencies have simply adopted a siddon-look position. What a shame.”
Clark who lampooned the APC presidential candidate for his compromise in his campaign promises, said, “General Muhammadu Buhari has always anchored his campaign promises on two cardinal planks: to wipe out insecurity and corruption. With the renewed offensive against the terrorists leading to the killing and dislodgement of the Boko Haram anarchists, the first campaign plank of Buhari has been given a technical knockout by President Goodluck Jonathan and the whole world is witnessing the reclaiming of all territories hitherto held by Boko Haram.
“This leaves him on a one legged platform. Again, on the remaining – corruption – General Buhari himself got jittery and gave himself another technical knockout when he said that he will not probe past leaders.
“With this development, Buhari has conceded that he has nothing more to offer the good people’s of this country. In fact, I make bold to say that he is now standing for nothing and like they say he can fall for anything.” (Thisday).