One of the key events in 2015 is the anti-corruption war of Presi­dent Muhammadu Buhari and the arraignment of top govern­ment functionaries, who served in the immediate past administra­tion, headed by former president Goodluck Jonathan.
Buhari, on assumption of office in May 29 this year had vowed to probe the Jonathan administra­tion. He also vowed to tackle cor­ruption in the country headlong.
Recently, the nation has been in frenzy over the prosecution of the former National Security Ad­viser (NSA), Col Sambo Dasuki (retd) over a $2. 1 billion arms deal scandal.
Dasuki, who is being prosecut­ed by the Economic and Finan­cial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is standing trial alongside Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief­tain, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, former governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa, former Min­ister of State for Finance, Bashir Yuguda.
Apart from those implicated in the arms scandal, former Director General of Nigerian Maritime Ad­ministration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Patrick Akpoboloke­mi is also being prosecuted by the EFCC for alleged fraud.
Earlier in the year, Alhaji Sule Lamido, Murtala Nyako, Ga­briel Suswam, former governors of Jigawa, Adamawa and Benue states respectively were equally arraigned by the EFCC for alleg­edly enriching themselves fraudu­lently while they were in office. Nyako is standing trial alongside his son, Abdul-Aziz, in the Fed­eral High Court, Abuja, on a 37 count of criminal conspiracy, stealing, abuse of office and mon­ey laundering. Abdul-Aziz, an All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, currently represents Adawama central in the Senate.
Lamido and two of his sons, Aminu and Mustapha were ar­raigned before a federal high court in Kano for allegedly re­ceiving N1.35 billion kick-back from a government contractor.
Other top politicians who were quizzed by the EFCC in the outgoing year include former Imo State
 governor, Ikedi Oha­kim; Senate Minority leader and former governor of Akwa Ibom, Godswill 
Akpabio; former Min­ister of Interior, Abba Moro. The anti-graft agency had also quizzed the wife of the senate president, Toyin Saraki for alleged corrupt practices.
Besides, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and former Minis­ter of Niger Delta Affairs, Gods­day Orubebe were arraigned be­fore the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for false declaration of as­sets in the outgoing year.
However, in a twist, the 50-count charge the EFCC slammed against former Bayelsa State governor, Timipre Slyva was dismissed by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, for abuse of court process, in November. Sylva is the APC governorship candidate in Bayelsa.
Expectedly, the anti-corruption war of the Buhari administration generated diverse reactions in the polity, while some members of the public hailed the government, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said the trials are a witch-hunt targeted at its mem­bers.
The party is quick to add that there are equally top notches of the ruling party, who have grave allegations of corruption hanging on their neck and nothing has been done about it.
The Acting National Chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus, while receiving the party’s caucus in the Senate that visited him recently said it was only his party members that are being investigated and ar­raigned in court, while some per­sons who are alleged to be corrupt in the ruling APC are not investi­gated.
His words: “So far, statistics has shown that EFCC has only ar­rested members of our party, those who 

 have served in previous gov­ernments.
“But there are APC governors and members who have served various governments, they have been left alone.
“We believe that a government that is serious with anti-corruption crusade cannot be one sided or se­lective. It should be holistic.
“We have seen on the pages of newspapers, allegation from La­gos and Rivers states on the ex-governors. What is EFCC doing to those allegations? ”
Truly, the nomination of Ba­batunde Fashola and Chibuike Amaechi, immediate past gover­nors of Lagos and Rivers states respectively, as ministers, was trailed by protest in certain quar­ters. The protesters alleged that the two former governors, who are chieftains of the APC were corrupt and as such should not be made ministers.
Amaechi’s screening was stalled several times on account of the allegation of corruption lev­eled against him.
In the case of Fashola, a Lagos-based Non Governmental Organ­isation, Coalition Against Corrupt Leader(CACOL) had dragged the former governor before the EFCC for “questionable expenditure” during his tenure as governor.
However, the duo were cleared and sworn in as ministers. While Fashola was assigned the Power, 
Works and Housing portfolio, Amaechi emerged the minister of Transport.
Former National Publicity sec­retary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mo­hammed, who is now the Minister of Information and Culture says opposition PDP is crying wolf, where none exists. According to the Information and Culture, the PDP allegation that the anti-cor­ruption is selective is neither here nor there.
Speaking during a visit to the corporate headquarters of the Sun Publishing Limited in Lagos re­cently, Mohammed, said because the PDP held power for the16 years, it is natural that more of their members would be investi­gated by the anti-graft agency. He said this is against the backdrop that the PDP as the ruling party in for 16 years produced ministers, managing directors of govern­ment agencies and majority of the governors.
“For 16 years, the PDP was in power. They appointed minis­ters, heads of parastatals, MDs of NNPC, NPA and all that. Clearly, if they are going to investigate, their members will be more than APC people…so why are they say­ing it is selective.
“Our senator representing Ad­amawa Central, himself and his father, were invited by the EFCC and detained. But even a level playing field, by virtue of the fact that members of the PDP have been in power for longer, there would be more of them. It is clear.
“ When people say we are se­lective, I see it as corruption fight­ing back,” the minister noted. President Buhari has also assured that no corrupt person would go scot-free irrespective of the politi­cal party they belong to.
“If any of my associates or par­ty member is indicted of corrup­tion, they cannot escape justice. There is not going to be any APC member or any close personality found guilty that would escape justice,” the President told Chris­tiane Amanpour of the Cable News Network(CNN) in an inter­view during a four-day visit to the United States of America in July.
As soothing as the assurances of the President may be, pundits say the inability of the anti-graft agency to at least quiz top APC chieftains, who are alleged to be corrupt puts a question on the sin­cerity of the Buhari administration to fight corruption.
The PDP would want EFCC to beam its searchlight on how secu­rity votes of former presidents and heads of states from 1984 were spent. Besides, the party is calling for a probe of the sources of the fund used for both its presidential campaign and that of President Buhari in the last general election.
In a recent statement by its Na­tional Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, the opposition party stated: “We restate for empha­sis that a media and public war against corruption is good, but it should not be limited to only those opposed to the President and the ruling party. In fact, until top of­ficials of the former government open up on the exact source of the funding, it remains premature to be accusing our party members of corrupt practices.
“Nevertheless, if indeed the government’s investigation in­cludes the expenditure of Presi­dent Jonathan’s security votes from 2011, then it should be ex­tended to a public inquisition on the following: The security votes of all past Presidents and Heads of state from 1984; The award of contracts by the petroleum task force from 1993 to 1999; expendi­ture of our military purchases and 
expenditure during the Bakassi wars, the fight against militancy in the Niger Delta, military inter­ventions in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Somalia, Rwanda among others; the source of funding of the PDP and APC’s 2015 Presi­dential campaigns; the contribu­tions from APC controlled state governors for their Presidential campaign and the beneficiaries thereof as well as allegations that people were made ministers just to cover up the slush fund that they provided to finance the APC presidential campaign.
“In the light of the way and manner of this government’s se­lective prosecution of the war against corruption, the PDP chal­lenges the government to set up a National Truth Commission wherein politicians and other Ni­gerians publicly discuss the true meaning of corrupt practice in our land. This commission would also provide a platform for a proper public inquisition into the mind-boggling wealth of some Nigeri­ans in public office.”