THIEVES, ALL! ~ By Ikechukwu Obi

On July 19 2016, Nigeria’s prime espionage outfit, the SSS (or DSS) arrested the Speaker of Zamfara State House of Assembly, his Deputy, the Majority Leader and the Chief Whip and other principal officers and flew them to Abuja.

What was their offence? Treason? No! Breach of state security? No! Terrorism? No! They were allegedly plotting to impeach Gov. Abdulaziz Yari by inviting him to explain the disappearance of certain funds, including the bailout funds! That was their offence. Other members of the House fled the state and took refuge in Kaduna.

For those who follow the news as closely as I do, they won’t be surprised hearing Gov. Yari swallowed his state’s $3m bailout funds while the state literally perishes. Who is surprised? I’m not!

Look, speaking plainly, if Gov Yari had the clout to get the leadership of his state legislature arrested FOR NOTHING, it means he’s very close to the powers-that-be in Aso Villa.

And for a govt headed by a so-called ‘man of integrity’ to allow its security agencies to be used to thwart lawful enquiry of a state House of Assembly into the activities of hopelessly corrupt governor, that shows you that the impunity in this APC govt knows no bounds.

And you see, when Sharia started in Zamfara state around 2000 or so, many (like me) saw it for what it was – a cheap charade to provide their thieving elite a pseudo-religious veneer to perpetrate their thieving whilst keeping a largely illiterate population under the bondage of deceit. And to entrench this hypocritical charade of ‘religiousity’, this Gov Yari shamelessly accused his own people of being the cause of the outbreak of meningitis which has killed hundreds, if not thousands, in his state because of their “sins of fornication”.

This is a governor who is not just close to Nigeria’s saintly President Buhari and is reportedly a regular visitor at the Presidential Villa, but also heads the dubious Nigeria Governors Forum.

Look, like I said so many times during the campaigns, the impunity in this country is too entrenched for a Buhari to scratch. It will take a holistic overhaul of the structural architecture of Nigeria to check it.

When APCists and Buharistas were bleating the now-discarded idea that the mere presence of Buhari in the Presidential Villa will deter looters, I laughed at them and they called me names. Now we see who ought to be called names…and even flogged for sheer stupidity.

From start to finish, Buhari and his band of desperate power-mongers in APC have turned out the biggest scam in Nigeria’s history. We should start looking for wholesale alternatives in 2019. These ones are worse than robbers.