There Is No War Against Corruption In Nigeria (1)

By Femi Aribisala

I was invited to a Roundtable on Corruption by the Law Faculty of the University of Lagos, only to discover that some “Buharideens” had highjacked the occasion and were inclined to use it as a platform to promote the onslaught of “democratic dictatorship” in Nigeria.

*President Buhari 

The topic was on corruption in Nigeria, but the mast-head in the hall was more specific. It read: “Winning the War against Corruption”. This was easily seized on by government agents to imply that President Muhammadu Buhari was well on the way to dealing a mortal blow to corruption in Nigeria.

The composition of the invited discussants was biased. Most of those on the panel with me were dyed-in-the-wool government apologists. The Chairman was Professor Itse Sagay, currently the Chairman of Buhari’s Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption. As it turned out, he was not prepared to entertain any meaningful discussion about corruption in Nigeria. His agenda was to showcase ostensible government achievements in the anti-corruption campaign and to proclaim new promissory notes grandiloquently for public consumption.

Also there was Oby Ezekwesili of #BringBackOurGirls fame. She used to pitch her tent with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). But now that the All Progressives Congress (APC) is in power, she has been romancing the new government. It was even speculated at one time that Buhari would reward her with a ministerial portfolio. Not surprising, she is no longer as strident in demanding government rescue of the kidnapped Chibok girls as she had been under Jonathan.

The kingpin of the government apologists on the panel was Femi Falani, a lawyer and human rights activist. He was chosen to give the keynote address. Falana had been heavily touted as Buhari’s attorney general. In fact, on the eve of the ministerial appointments, a list was widely publicised in the press that had his name penciled in for the post. But someone apparently put an eraser to it. Nevertheless, in order to remain in the good books of the government, Falana seems to have jettisoned his earlier dedication to the defence of human rights.

*Femi Aribasala

It was also not lost on me that if Falana’s proposal of “guilty until proven innocent” had been the norm, President Buhari himself would have been jailed when $2.8 billion of government money went missing under his watch as Commissioner for Petroleum in the 1980s. How soon they forget! At the time, Vera Ifudu, an NTA reporter, revealed to Nigerians that Senate Leader, Olusola Saraki, told her in an interview that the missing money was moved from the NNPC’s Midland Bank account to a private account.

It is amazing that, in spite of our nasty experience at the hands of General Buhari and his kangaroo courts in 1984, a civil rights lawyer would propose today that similar kangaroo courts should again be established under the same Buhari in the bogus name of democratic justice. But I guess we deserve that in Nigeria for being foolish as to elect as president under a democratic dispensation the very man who truncated our earlier experiment with democracy through a military coup.

In Buhari’s first coming, the Femi Falanas were few and far between to whitewash his authoritarianism. The special courts of that era, now being proposed under a different disguise, were military tribunals established to try civilians instead of regular courts of law, in clear violation of internationally accepted legal norms. Buhari created a secret police (NSO) under the infamous Lawal Rafindadi to harass and imprison Nigerians without trial. It is this same injustice that Falana was hired to re-table.

It is unconscionable that a so-called human rights activist would be used to champion this revanchist authoritarianism. As a military dictator, Buhari ran so rough-shod over our judicial system that the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) proscribed Nigerian lawyers from appearing in any of his kangaroo courts.

*Prof Sagay

Buhari sent both corrupt and non-corrupt politicians to jail, sometimes for up to 300 years. He tried octogenarian, Michael Ajasin before his military tribunal. When he was discharged and acquitted; he tried him again. When he was discharged and acquitted again, he tried him a third time. When he was discharged and acquitted yet again, Buhari nevertheless continued to keep him in detention and refused to release him.

A judge claimed Buhari pressured him to jail Fela Anikulapo Kuti for failing to declare the foreign exchange he had legitimately procured for the up-keep of his band on a foreign trip; while the same Buhari sent his aide-de-camp to Murtala Muhammed airport in Lagos to facilitate the smuggling into the country of 53 suitcases by the Emir of Gwandu during the currency-change exercise.

Therefore, the onus fell on me at the Roundtable to warn our student audience that it would be madness to entertain proposals that seek to bring back Buhari’s sharp practices of the past under another guise. It is necessary to point out that, as Nigerians were deceived through vain promises promptly jettisoned after the election, so are government agents trying to deceive us again today. There is actually no real war against corruption going on today. There is not even a fight against corruption, how much more a war. What we have is a government attempt to decimate the opposition and create a de facto one-party state under the guise of fighting against corruption.

*Oby Ezekwesili 

Once I started making these points, the students started cheering. It became apparent that they were not fooled by the government’s praise-singers and were glad that I was there to expose their duplicity. Before I proceed to elaborate on why I insist there is no real fight against corruption in Nigeria today, let me point out at this juncture the reaction of my fellow-panelists.

I only spoke for ten minutes, but the chairman, Itse Sagay, became enraged. He not only abused me, he also abused UNILAG students. He called them all “ignorant” for applauding my positions. He shouted: “We are here on a very serious business. And students, don’t behave like American electorates who are ignorant. The appreciation of unserious people shows ignorance.”

“How can someone come here and say there’s no war against corruption and there is clapping? This is a very serious discussion and I want us to be serious about it. If you are anti-government, please go and campaign against government and let your party win in 2019. This is not a venue for PDP campaign. We are here on serious business. Let’s maintain that seriousness.”

#BringBackOurGirls icon, Oby Ezekwesili, also asked for the microphone a second time to contribute to this berating of UNILAG students for applauding my presentation. She said, among other things: “I wasn’t surprised that some of you were clapping. The reason you were clapping is that you are a page in your own level of corruption. There are many whose exam malpractice is the basis upon which ‎they have come to school. So when you are talking about the need to wage a war against corruption, they are completely disconnected from it. There is a complete dissonance from it.” (TO BE CONTINUED).

*Dr. Aribasala is a syndicated columnist