How many of us remember that Abacha, yes this Abacha was an anticorruption warrior? He gave hell to owners of failed banks and set up a special tribunal to prosecute them. Most of us were happy with him as a fighter of corruption. Some even did not want those accused by Abacha

to have legal representation and just trial. Corruption was the anathema and the solution was unfair trial and harsh imprisonment. Just like Professor Sagay and the new tribalist are saying today: “prosecute them, jail them” so we said then. And the gap-toothed one fired on.

But that Abacha was also a thief as now confirmed even by his most ardent defenders. He probably stole more than any other Nigerian, dead or alive. (Some of you may think it is one of the living former heads of state. Well, we are yet to receive their alerts. Wait till they die).

How did the passionate anticorruption crusader turn out to be a passionate thief? What’s the lesson. Fighting corruption is not about jailing people. It’s about real commitment to respect the boundary between public and private. Anyone who does not respect that boundary is a

servant of corruption. It’s a matter of form and time. Serious anti corruption starts with changing institutions that enable corruption; it includes offering a new example of probity yourself and being transparent yourself.

One of the most devastating pictures of hypocrisy is Abacha boasting about how he personally approves every government expenditure and waivers so that there will be zero corruption. But he was also converting public finance into private finance with the help of his trusted and

very localized cabal and lackeys. Only few very close family members and close friends were let into the stealing kitchen cabinet. That’s how to be a maximum anti corruption leader. There is no match between looking stern and angry with being honest and accountable.

Anyone who is so arrogant or saintly that he or she as public officer cannot be accountable has not even grasped the rudiments of anti corruption fight. Abacha cared for no one, feared no one, and was restrained by no one and no rule, hence he could steal mindlessly.

personalized rule is by definition corruption. Whoever is passionate on anticorruption but does not appreciate that the height of corruption is personal rule and disregard of process and rule of law is a criminal. Soon you will start receiving that person’s alert like Abacha’s.