NOBODY WANTED BABACHIR TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS; NOT BUHARI,NOT MAGU

How can Buhari be really serious about fighting corruption?.The head of the country's foremost anti-graft agency is a man indicted for corruption by the DSS which is run by a towns man of the President brought back from retirement to extirpate his trust issues.

When the senate indicted former SGF, Babachir Lawal for corruption and breach of public service regulations in a contract awarded through his office,the President had the Attorney General probe Lawal and Magu in what appeared a dual purpose move to prevent Lawal from an EFCC probe and to let them both off without compromising integrity.President Buhari hurriedly wrote a letter to the senate exonerating the then SGF and another renominating Magu for confirmation as EFCC boss.

Babachir was probed again by the VP Osinbajo led committee only because of the massive calls to do right and the fact that the millions belonging to the NIA found in an Ikoyi apartment provided a convenient means to do that along with its DG,Ayo Oke.Technically,it meant the president was copping to the initial probe being a dubious one.

Even after Osinbajo submitted the report of his committee to the President upon return from treatment abroad,and it took another outcry to prompt him into acting on it 2 months later by sacking Babachir and not until we had all read Obasanjo's letter reminding him of how he was shielding corrupt persons did the EFCC swoop on Babachir.

It seemed the end of the road but no,it wasn't.Babachir fell in Magu's hands and his present status reads-out on administrative bail.Magu's handling of the EFCC has been shoddy to say the least but we wouldn't expect much from a man like him.He has seized Patience Jonathan's properties without as much as questioning her talk more prosecuting her and refused to question President Jonathan even after being named more than twice in the arms scandal involving former NSA,Sambo Dasuki,inevitably leading many to ponder over who the Jonathans have a deal with-Magu or Buhari himself.

The last note worthy administrative bailee of the EFCC was Pius Anyim,ex-president Jonathan's SGF.When it sought and got a court order to detain him for 30 more days, an EFCC source was quoted as saying it was to enable the commission verify his claims over the N520M he got from Dasuki and the N13bn he disbursed to companies he had interests in from the SGF ecological fund.The 30 days came,went and Anyim was set free on bail,not charged.

Babachir's,which very much appears an open and shut case didn't have to wait an extra 30 days.Having already been probed and indicted by the senate and the Vice-President's committee, the 'further investigation' fable wouldn't fly easily with Buhari's former SGF so they saved some time and released him on bail 48hrs later, allowing the President and his cronies to bask in the wondrous show they had put up for optics.

Anyim is also said to have falsely declared his assets upon assumption of office and like Lawal, committed a separate offence by contracting companies he had interests in but none was referred to the Code Of Conduct Bureau for investigation and prosecution.No government which takes corruption seriously overlooks such offences.Perhaps unlike Saraki,no one has a personal score to settle with them.

We have witnessed Buhari's anti-corruption war go from a guaranteed win to selective then hypocritical and finally, a failure.

The question isn't if the will power was lost,it is whether it was there in the first place.

MOVIE REVIEW:DEN OF THIEVES DOESN'T LIVE UP TO THE HYPE

Den of thieves had everyone buzzing since its trailer was released and it tops The Commuter as the first huge release of 2018.But you would be a little disappointed if you looked forward to a jaw-dropping,heart-wrenching action packed movie.

 It is at the very best a decent film.The most positive highlights were director,Chris Gudegast's splendid job in getting the best out of Gerard Butler who plays 'Big Nick', the lead character and Detective of the Los Angeles Sheriff Department and also Pablo Schreiber (Ray Merrimen),the menacing leader of the bank thieves.In a movie like this where virtually everyone roots for the bad guys even with the knowledge that they would eventually have to go down,it is important a good job is done of the chief protagonist who is almost always out to get them.

Butler (Big Nick) isn't your exemplary action hero,he has a body full of tattoos,cheats on his wife with strippers and gets physical with suspects.Like he says in that memorable scene in the trailer: "we are the bad guys" and not the bad guys.

But Pablo Schreiber (Ray Merrimen) is a real bad guy and he plays his role so well he covers up handsomely, the numerous flaws surrounding the gang.There is so little loose dialogue involving its members,Curtis '50 cent' Jackson (Levi) seemed a guest appearance with many scenes rather than a prominent supporting cast; Merrimen's number 2.

Perhaps a scene of 50 intimidating his daughter's visiting boy friend was an attempt to remedy that but the key is never to be caught in the act.We never saw Levi's family after that and it made it very obvious the producers themselves understood the need to digress from meets and plots.The scene was useless in the scheme of things.It only highlights the lack of creativity to do what they themselves recognize as the needful.

Its almost like crew members like Bosco (Evan Jones) go through the entire movie without uttering a word.

Then you have the gang member whom the plot revolves round; Donnie (O'shea Jackson jnr).Ok,at the ending we get to know he conceived the plan to rob the Los Angeles Bank of Reserves and sold it to Ray Merrimen while also hatching one to bolt with the loot while they take the fall but for the love of God why would an experienced and brilliant criminal mind like Merrimen go ahead to keep him on the team even after knowing he may be compromised?.We were meant to believe getting rail roaded by the cops was part of Donnie's plans.So he just hangs with some of his colleagues for a while at the bar where he works and he is sure to get kidnapped by Big Nick?.Thats excessively fictitious fiction.The shock of Donnie's overriding plan and the fact that the most likeable of the bad guys gets off ensures it ends on a pleasantly intriguing note.

Overall,its a good movie but it certainly doesn't live up to the hype

THIS TIME NEXT YEAR....

It would be just a matter of weeks before the general elections.That is if Buhari doesn't decide to postpone an inevitable tragedy like his predecessor did.Security was what GEJ cited and issues bordering round that have quadrupled since PMB took over.The Niger Delta militancy and the clamour for a Biafran state may have abated but he also has the fulani herdsmen to complement a resurgent boko haram.

He may make up with his wife after the scandalous anti-buhari videos she posted on her twitter page and Garba Shehu may even come out to tell us her account was hacked.Realistically speaking,nobody expects her to leave the man or at least before he vacates the villa and no one expects Buhari to refuse to run because of her 2nd act of war.But one thing is certain,this time next year,Buhari will be afraid.

His wife's recent photo in a keke napep tricycle went largely unnoticed and that indicates nigerians will no longer be deceived by photos of her helping a roadside food seller fry akara or Buhari himself ensuring we see the empty N50 milo sachet beside his tea cup.

The PDP would have a field day playing righteous and even if Femi Adesina does better than telling us to go and fight pipeline vandals ourselves instead of the man we voted to do so or saying that the herdsmen killings are a state matter and not a federal one,i doubt it will have any real effect on the scheme of things.

An increase in minimum wage despite the tough times will replace the obliteration of boko haram and corruption as his top achievements.For the first time in probably forever,our governors are listing payment of salaries as part of their dividends to the people.His number one supporter owes civil servants 8 months salary and has just completed a mansion in his village.Buhari has released bailout funds and Paris club refunds twice to state governments but he isn't asking anyone questions.If i was Gov.Yahaya Bello,i would love him too.Whatever happened to his promise to look into how the funds were utilized?.No one truly expects the man to keep a promise.

The APC worried itself more about ousting the PDP than having a solid structure in place and now the consequences have caught up with it.Unlike all other Presidents since 1999,Buhari will regret not seizing control of the party machinery.He will clinch the ticket alright but even he knows a lot of key people in the party are unenthusiastic about his 2019 presidential bid.Some are serving in his government.

Rotimi Amaechi,the Works Minister has openly lauded the Jonathan administration for its huge strides towards infrastructural development and Aisha Alhassan,the minister of women affairs,has also publicly adopted Atiku Abubakar as her 2019 Presidential candidate.All these will hurt him most when electioneering is in top gear.

Every nigerian with the true love of this country at heart will better appreciate the individuality and progressiveness of the South Western electorate.The vast majority will decline to vote Buhari against the perhaps 'fake' wishes of Asiwaju and the governors.They will decide it again this time,only for whoever squares up against Buhari.By January 2019,it will become very obvious to Buhari he is going back home.

Did i mention PDP will play righteous?.It would be most pleasant to watch them campaign to people about protecting their votes and ensuring they count.They will tell us how 'well' we lived during their 16 year reign and the patriot will focus on preaching how we should keep on 'changing' till we get the right one.Nothing will work for the President except his core northern fan base that have been programmed to see him as first,a good muslim man of integrity and then pro-masses irrespective of anything he has done or would do.But that won't really count much as he is guaranteed a win only in a handful of places in the north.

Every good thing he manages to do between now and next year will only appear a 911 campaign move and not for the betterment of nigerian lives.We will no longer be willing 'magas' to political fraudsters.

The goal of many nigerians for the most part of Buhari's term was staying alive and they will eagerly look forward to their chance to exact revenge the only way possible.They just have to make it to next year.