“Ministership for Sale: Up to N2.5b Per Slot.”

I declined to comment on the ministerial list Buhari sent to the Senate for two reasons: I was deeply distraught by what I heard about the process that produced it and I wanted to confirm the info from trustworthy people who should know.

Four different, dependable, and independent sources who don’t know each other but who’re close to the corridors of power were eerily united in telling me that except for a few ministerial nominations (notably those of Adamu Adamu, Ali Isa Pantami, Mohammed Musa Bello, Raji Fashola whom Buhari himself personally penciled— and those that were conceded to Tinubu) every other post was literally auctioned off to the highest bidder.

One Jeddy Agba from Cross River State, a Diezani protégé who defected to APC to avoid EFCC scrutiny, was said to have given Abba Kyari up to N2.5 billion for his nomination. I was told that, at a point, the incredibly rapacious Abba Kyari, in fact, removed Musa Bello’s name from the list and sold the spot to someone else. Buhari somehow found out and recalled the list. Bello is the son of Buhari’s very close friend. That was what inspired his saying that he’d only appoint people he “personally” knew. Of course, as usual, he lied.

If people are required to pay hundreds of millions of naira as a precondition to be appointed ministers, it means they’re being invited to a corruption bazaar. They’ll have to raid and pillage the national treasury to recoup their “investment.” My sources said Buhari knows that Abba Kyari and his boss, Mamman Daura, auctioned off ministerial slots to the highest bidders, and he is at peace with it. This didn’t surprise me because Buhari is himself an unmitigated but carefully managed fraud.

Nevertheless, Nigeria had never descended to this low watermark of shamelessly undisguised fraud. One of my sources said, “The rottenness is unprecedented and no society or country can survive this level of fraud, crime, and sleaze.” This confirms what I’ve always said: that Nigeria can’t survive a Buhari second term. There’s no way it can.

Apart from intractable insecurity and mass deaths, Buhari’s second term is also shaping up to be an unprecedentedly raucous celebration of corruption, injustice, depravity, and debauchery. It’s going to get ugly, really ugly. Get ready!

Faroog Kperogi