By Denja Yaqub
NO doubt, the dawn
of the Muhammadu Buhari Presidency has changed the corruption surge in Nigeria , even
as anti-corruption laws and institutions are still very weak and lacking in both
capacity and will to curb the spate.
Corruption is
unarguably Nigeria ’s
worst problem, every other problems including unemployment, sit on the trivet
of corruption and all we urgently need is a serious government that is
committed, beyond words, to the battle against the plague.
*Amaechi, Buhari and Fashola
President Muhammadu
Buhari’s promise to fight corruption during his campaigns and his
anti-corruption pedigree certainly gave him majority of the votes that shot him
to power as most Nigerians are eager to clear the global dent on our collective
image and he needs to ensure he goes beyond mere declarations by strengthening
all structures and institutions that can effectively wipe off corruption or at
least reduce it.
Since his emergence
as President, the only weapon that has been fighting corruption is simply his
name. His name has become anti-corruption law, agency and court. Individuals,
organisations and government agencies have adopted a culture of self-control;
some people who had diverted public funds to their private vaults have been
reported to have quietly returned the funds to government. Indeed, the Governor
of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai publicly said a former public officer, whom he
didn’t name, had contacted him to facilitate the return of money he stole while
in government during Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency.
The Peoples
Democratic Party, a party that ruled this country to economic ruins for sixteen
years but now in the opposition is swamped with hallucinating fright as most of
those being questioned for corruption are members of the party. The party
believed the anti-corruption battle is directed at its members. It would be
strange if majority of those being investigated or facing prosecution are
members of any other political party, anyway.
For instance,
according to a report by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC,
between 1999 and 2012, a
total sum of One Trillion, three hundred and fifty billion, one hundred and
thirty two million and four hundred thousand naira (N1, 354,132,400,000.00) was
swiped off our collective treasury. Nigeria was under PDP’s leadership
during this period.
One of the party’s
key national leaders was indeed jailed for stealing funds be- longing to the
maritime industry. Former ministers who were flying around in private jets with
public funds are members of the party.
If the present
administration is serious about fighting corruption, majority of those
ultimately heading for the prisons would be members of Africa’s “largest”
political party who had promised to rule Nigeria for sixty years.
And for this
reason, when a public office holder is accused of corruption related offences,
his tribesmen or recruited adherents drizzle into the streets with claims of
ethnic persecution. A major ethnic group in the Niger Delta has already
publicly accused the Buhari administration of pursuing an anti Ijaw agenda in
the anti-corruption steps the administration has taken so far. Possibly
referring to alleged ongoing probes of former ministers who served under
President Jonathan. It is not important to them how corruption has unleashed
mass poverty in the oil-producing region.
Indeed, according
to the National Bureau of Statistic, as at 2004, 32.77 per cent of the
South-South population live in extreme poverty. The figure could be higher,
even now. In decent climes, the region should be leading anti-corruption struggles
since most of our national wealth, which has been massively plundered and
diverted to private vaults, is dependent on oil produced from the region.
The Jonathan
administration may have come under public focus as being most corrupt, only
because corruption reigned more with open latitude under his administration,
but administrations before his, including the Obasanjo regime cannot be
exonerated. And in any case, corruption assumed governance in Nigeria from
independence and became more ubiquitous under unaccountable military regimes.
The battle against
corruption will be unsuccessful if limited to the immediate past; it has to be
all encompassing and in all sectors. Institutions such as the judiciary and law
enforcement agencies are evidently too compromised for any anti-corruption
efforts to succeed. For the “war” to succeed, the starting point should be
these institutions.
Law enforcement
officers, especially the police, still openly guard those accused of stealing
public funds. In fact, some even have siren blaring escort vehicles filled with
armed policemen; while accused persons confidently challenge the state to
arraign them before the judiciary where they are sure of being exonerated,
until they get caught in foreign countries where the rule of law cannot be
manipulated.
Apart from urgent
interrogation of the judiciary and law enforcement agencies, the duplicated
anti-corruption commissions should be merged into one, strong and independent
agency with incorruptible operatives.
Corruption is not
just a scourge but an overbearing octopus with its tentacles in nearly every
facet of our lives, despite the beauty of individual and societal cultural foundations,
it has invaded our physiological psyche and permeated all arms of our society
such that fighting it will require not just an overhaul but an upturn of the
entire society. But, there can be mollifying steps that may get us closer to a
more decent society if we don’t have legislators who still believe in being
above the law, with mastery in the manipulation of the judiciary and law
enforcement.
The National
Assembly should show commitment to the anti-corruption re- solve of majority of
our people, the 90% others who bear the brunt of the cramps resulting from
societal flop, which corruption, the unregulated money machine of the powerful
10% of our population, have unleashed on us all. The above-the-law attitude and
politicisation of corruption by legislators at all levels is a key obstacle to
the battle against corruption.
The battle against
corruption must not be partisan and culprits must be seized without class,
ethnic or political consideration.
So far, the battle
seems corrupted with partisan and other considerations soaked in obvious
vengeance. Such selective approaches can only make the battle a mere flash in
the pan.
•Yaqub is an
Assistant Secretary at the headquarters of Nigeria
Labour Congress, Abuja .
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