President will punish indisciplined Nigerians during 2nd term - Sagay

Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption (PACAC), Itse Sagay, has promised that President Muhammadu Buharis second term will focus on eliminating indiscipline in the country like the president did when he was a military ruler in the 1980s.

While speaking during an interview with Sunday INDEPENDENT published on Monday, April 16, 2018, the anti-corruption campaigner said the country has been overtaken by indisciplined people who operate with impunity and are putting the country in jeopardy.

According to him, when the president is re-elected for a second term, he'll be firmer against the indiscipline of the ruling elites. To drive home his point, he pointed at incidents of indiscipline over the past months, most notably pointing the finger at the National Assembly.

He said, "It is not that I have consulted him but I believe that his second coming will see a firmer, stronger type of leadership, a bit closer to what he was in 1984.

"I think that is what Nigerians should expect because this country is suffering from gross indiscipline of the ruling elites. We have seen a whole lot of impunity in the system.

"We have seen a whole Senate being closed down because one of them is going to a Tribunal before which he is charged. That to me is gross indiscipline. You do not stop the whole process of legislation just to show solidarity with a person charged to court and to intimidate the court. That is gross indiscipline and it is unacceptable.

"We have other things like that in other sectors. It is indiscipline for a group of judges to give a judgment that no matter what crime they commit, they cannot be tried unless the National Judicial Council (NJC) gives the go-ahead through the institutions created by the constitution to fight crime and prosecute those charged with crimes. That is indiscipline.

"So, we have a situation in this country where everybody is doing whatever he likes. Very soon, you will find the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) prescribing that if they commit any offence, they should be brought before the NBA Disciplinary panel before they can be charged by the police. Various professions that have disciplinary panels can bring that in.

"Even the policeman can say before you can charge me for bribery or any other offence, let the Police Service Commission (PSC) decide. That is chaos and anarchy. So, I think all these things will be brought under control in his second coming.

"Also by then, we would have started feeling the benefit of the groundwork they are doing now and life will be better for Nigerians. We will begin to appreciate the government more for how they have been able transform the country. Nigerians have short memory.

"They have forgotten that this country was wrecked and ran aground by the PDP. They have forgotten that the PDP government looted everything that was available and left an empty treasury at a time when money that was coming in was limited by cost of barrel of oil and reduction in production.

"So, this government has gone through extreme difficulty to keep Nigeria afloat. However, that era is coming to an end and an era of prosperity is coming. So, one is really looking forward to the second term of Buhari and Osinbajo."

Buhari's 2019 re-election

Sagay said he knew the president would seek re-election because a large number of relevant people in the All Progressives' Congress (APC) were determined to see him become the party's flag bearer again.

He said the president bowed to the pressure to contest again because the disappointment could have been devastating if he had declined to run.

The president ended months of speculation when he officially announced his intention to seek re-election in the 2019 presidential election during a meeting with the National Executive Committee of the APCon Monday, April 9, 2018.

Sagay said the president is the only candidate who has credibility to run and that he'll give Nigerians the hope to move forward as a nation.