by Wale Adebayo
I do not believe there is any big deal about pay cuts by persons holding Executive positions in Nigeria. Even if the person spends only one term, he/she may not touch a dime of his/salary throughout the period in question.
President Muhammadu Buhari needs to do more than this PR stunt about cutting 50% of his salary and that of his deputy, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.
Right now, the security situation get as e be. That should be his number one priority. Secondly, impunity needs to be checked, not corruption. As Chief Obafemi Awolowo once told former President Shehu Shagari, we should treat the cause, not symptoms of a problem. If you treat the symptoms without attacking the cause, the same problem will still come back to haunt you.
Corruption is one of the symptoms of impunity. An official of government, whether elected or not, can do anything once he/she knows nobody can call him/her to order. The real cause of our underdevelopment remains impunity by the well-connected. Once impunity is tackled, corruption will almost disappear. Everything will work in Nigeria. But without tackling impunity, and Buhari continues with this mantra of anti-corruption, the man will just be wasting our precious time.
Tackle insecurity. Tackle impunity. And, see Nigeria take flight to the next level. Nobody should be too big to answer for their crimes. Nobody should be protected by the powers-that-be. Once you do the crime, you go in for the punishment, no matter how high you are in the society. That is tackling impunity.
Just my usual two cents.
Wale Adebayo is publisher and editor-in-chief at Uhuru Times. He is on Facebook.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
