President Buhari’s Fight Against Corruption Is Not Selective – Setonji David

A lawmaker in the Lagos State House of Assembly, who is representing Badagry Constituency 2, Hon. Setonji David has countered those who are criticising President Muhammadu Buhari of being selective in his war against corruption.

Speaking in an interview recently, the chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) enjoined all Nigerians to support PMB in his plan to re-build Nigeria, while stating that democracy is the best form of government.

“Those, who accuse President Buhari of being selective in his probe against former public office holders are absolutely wrong, those people that have been arraigned before the court, are they guilty or not, if they are guilty, forget the party they belong to, it does not matter if they are in the APC or PDP.

“Nigerians always find a way to rationalise our ineptitude. We find a way for excuses. Is the man guilty or not, forget about whether he belongs to the PDP or the APC or not. There are many people, who have stolen public funds, they should account for it. APC is not discriminatory, we are not against anybody. What we want is that people, who have stolen public funds should account for them,” he said.

The lawmaker submitted that the recent sack of eight directors of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is a good development, adding that everybody knows President Buhari, who he said is a man of impeccable character.

He called on all Nigerians to encourage the president in whatever he is doing to sanitise the system, and emphasised that Buhari shouldn’t mind whose ox is gored as long as he gets things done.

According to him, “it is for the best interest of the country. How can a country be so rich and people would be suffering, it is mismanagement and those, who mismanaged it should account for their actions.

” If President Buhari has beamed his searchlight on NNPC and he has discovered some things, let us support him in whatever he is doing.”

Hon. Setonji disagreed with the call by the Director General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier-General Johnson Olawumi that the service year should be made optional for graduates.

He said that people should go into the history of how NYSC started, and that they would discover that it was started to make Nigerians have a feel of all parts of the country.

He recalled that he served in a secondary school in Bauchi State in 1983, where he also taught the students physics, chemistry and mathematics.

“It is a national service and it is not compulsory that you must serve in your area of discipline. I am a civil engineer, and I taught physics, chemistry and mathematics. Any area they think you could assist, make yourself available, it is just for one year. If you are a medical doctor, you could work in a community health centre,” he said.

The politician stated further that making corps members to teach  cannot affect the schools negatively because, according to him, the corps members don’t form the bulk of the workers in the schools, and that the schools usually have many other teachers, while he said that corps members are not usually more than two or three in a particular school.

When asked if politicians are part of the problems of the country, Hon. Setonji said that democracy remains the best form of government despite the fact that it could be slow based on the principle of checks and balances.

“There is bureaucracy and red tapism in democracy, it is not where one man can just say this is how it should be done. If he says it, someone would say ‘no’ and another person would say ‘yes.’

“People have looked at other forms of government and discovered that it is the best. In democracy, it is believed that nobody has monopoly of ideas despite its shortcomings.

“We all come together, discuss, rationalise and reach a compromise. I cannot have my way all the time, you cannot have your way all the time, we all have to come together and move forward. It could be slow, but it is the best system of government,” he stated.