SORRY, BUT BUHARI IS NOT FIGHTING CORRUPTION | By Ayo Sogunro

Nigerians have an understandable—if somewhat childish and sometimes nasty—habit of singling out a trait in one of their rulers and examining critical arguments from the perspective of that trait every time. Take the Jonathan administration, for example: when critics raised an issue, Jonathan apologists would direct the argument to “But he is a nice (or good, meek, humble) person” or worse: “You are saying this because he is from an ethnic minority”. Or in Lagos, when Fashola’s spending was criticised: “But he is working, compared to others.”

This social behaviour is generally amusing, but it becomes dangerous when it starts to repress the space for critical thought.

And now, with the budding sycophancy of the Buhari regime, this attitude continues. Buhari apologists tend to review every criticism of current Nigerian politics and government from the perspective of: “But he is fighting corruption”.

Hey, Buhari is disregarding the rule of law. “But…