Fight against corruption can only be unbiased if president is not from any political party-Kayode Salako

Olukayode Salako is the National Coordinator, Change Agents of Nigeria Network (CANN), he is also the founder of Fasholamania Movement. In this interview with Prestige International Magazine, the social commentator opens up on various issues including Nigeria at 56, assessment of President Buhari’s administration. According to him fight against corruption can only be unbiased if president is not from any political party. Excerpts.

What is your view on Nigeria at 56?

Nigeria at 56 is like 56 years old man who is confused about the way to go and meet up with some of his colleagues that have gone far ahead of him. It is also like a 56 years old man who is not lucky to have good parental upbringing that is in term of leadership in Nigeria. Leadership has been the bane of development and growth of Nigeria. Leadership has taken Nigeria for granted. Largely, what is bad with Nigerians is about bad orientation. If Nigeria had been governed well in the past, we will not be where we are today. There are some fundamental problems of Nigeria that ought to have been solved before now. Leadership in Nigeria has not been responsible. Nigeria is like a 56 years old man who is now looking up to his peers and parents to help him out before he gets to 70 years, that is the reason Buhari was invited to come and salvage the situation. Nobody can blame Nigeria because Nigeria is just like a territorial space bounded by sovereign reality, looking for someone to run it. If nobody runs Nigeria, Nigeria would have just been a space full of trees and forest. Nigeria needs people to run it and drive it to growth and development. In my own opinion, leadership needs to help Nigerians; Nigeria deserves to grow the way other countries are growing. People get the type of leadership they deserve, that is why I am with President Muhammadu Buhari 100%. During the course of change Nigerians are facing some hardship, but Nigerian like me understands that during the course of change is either you break some things down; destroy some things before you can bring out what is good. You cannot renovate a house without first of all moving out things you don’t want. What has been happening since about 15 months ago is all about necessary breakage. What Buhari is doing is like renovating the house while the owner of the house is still inside, there is no way it will not bring discomfort. You cannot renovate the house without discomfort. You cannot accuse Buhari of indiscipline, you cannot accuse him of profligacy, you cannot accuse him of been reckless with our money, you cannot accuse Buhari of corruption, you cannot accuse him of impunity, and you cannot accuse him of political gangsterism. The only impunity on his side is about his keeping those enemies of State. Buhari is keeping those people in our own benefit. After God the next is federal government. Why is federal government not keeping Dokpesi? Why is federal government not keeping Femi Fani-Kayode? Why is federal government not keeping other people that have been arrested? Nnamdi Kanu needs to be kept because he is a leader of rebellious group, a leader that is threatening another guerilla war in Nigeria. If the leader of Boko-Haram has been kept about 8 years ago, we might not get to Boko-Haram war. Dansuki too has been found to be a threat to Nigeria State. It is not Buhari that is keeping these two people; it is the judicial system that is still keeping them. You cannot accuse Buhari of impunity. Buhari has been concentrating on how to rescue Nigeria. Nigeria is on a new pedestal of that opportunity to grow. This is the best government Nigeria has never had. I did not vote or worked for Buhari to go and govern Nigeria first; I voted for Buhari to go and rescue Nigeria first, after rescuing Nigeria for sanity and proper administration, for the fight against corruption, for restoring our economy, block drain pipes then we talk of governance. We should not forget that one of the things Buhari campaigned for is that he was coming to fight corruption. Progressive politicians inside APC told us then that they went to look for Buhari to come and rescue Nigeria.

Some stakeholders are of the opinion that Buhari’s fight against corruption is one sided, what is your take on this?

Well, a lot of people see it like that, I’m also supposed to see it like that but for some reasons I will not see it like that. The fight against corruption can only be holistic and error free if we can have a leader that will not come from any political party. But a leader come out of partisan politics such a leader cannot come and sack everybody. For instance, for a leader to emerge he needs people to rally round him for support and finance, just like Tinubu, Fashola, Amaechi rallied round Buhari to emerge president. After emerging president it is not possible for such president to turn round and start hunting for people that made him president. The best Buhari can do is to probe the government that handed over power to him, the government that handed over power to him is not APC government., it was the government which ran Nigeria down before they invited Buhari to come and rescue Nigeria. APC was not in government at the federal level. It was PDP that was in government at the federal level. Buhari went into the records of government of PDP that handed over to him to see how he can recover some stolen money for the country. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu never held appointment at the federal level. If Buhari should be looking for people who stole Nigeria money from all the administrations in the past, he will not achieve anything because 4 years will not be enough to do that. Nobody is a saint, Babangida is not a saint, Obasanjo is not a saint, Tinubu is not a saint, even Buhari is not a saint, we all know. There is no saint in the politics of Nigeria. What Buhari is doing is recovery; he is only recovering the loots. Buhari knows that it is not angels, saints who contributed to how he became president. All of them has skeleton in their cupboard, including former governor kayoed Fayemi of Ekiti State. Where is that political saint in Nigeria? The fight against corruption can only be unbiased if the president is not going to come from any political party. What Buhari is doing is that he is checking corruption and recovering loots from the government that handed over power to him. It is not wrong to recover looted funds because government needs money to carry out its activities. Even one man that was convicted for corruption is a member of APC; despite the views of some stakeholders that fight against corruption is one sided. What I think Buhari is doing is focusing on governance and being neutral on who to probe or not. He is working so hard to rescue Nigeria and recover our economy.

What do you think is the way out of security challenges in the country?

The way out is that approach the federal government has taken. I have never seen it anywhere where the force of guerilla war force overtaken the state. No gorilla war force can win the federal government that is why Boko-Haram cannot win the federal government. Why it took time for Boko-Haram to be decimated is because there was no genuine political will from the former government to decimate and destroy it. The political will and the sincerity behind it are what will win all these wars. Buhari has the will because he knows that it is upon this that the performance of the government will be evaluated. Once Chibok girls are out, that is the end of Boko-Haram. Niger Delta Avengers are not spirits; they are human beings like us. Niger Delta leaders know who the Avengers are, they know them.

You are the National Coordinator of Change Agents of Nigeria Network (CANN), what is the state of things with the organisation?

We are still growing with changing Nigeria. We have been there, talking, contributing and embarking on crusades to let people know that the process of getting true change is not what most people think about. Change is something is not good you want to change it to what is good. Also, change is something is good you want to change it to what is bad. We voted against PDP because the party did not give us the type of change we wanted. That is the party that loves corruption. We are working but government is yet to recognize and identify with us the way government refused to identify with Fasholamania Movement when we were running it. But I careless, because I believe that I don’t have to force government to recognize what I’m doing. I see what I’m doing as my contribution to the survival of my country.

You are a fan of former Lagos Governor Babatunde fashola to the extent that you floated a movement, Fasholamania. Do you think Governor Akinwunmi Ambode is sustaining legacies of Fashola?

Ambode does not have a choice than to govern Lagos very well. The standard of governance that Fashola handed over to him is so high that he has no choice than to sustain it or surpass it. I see Ambode making those efforts to surpass it. Many of his infrastructural development projects are huge; he is also giving the local government development attention. I see Ambode after 8 years doing very good like fashola. Ambode is running western kind of government; he should come down to the level of the people. He should connect with the people that worked for his victory.