Is there still a war against corruption?
As many Nigerians trooped out onto the streets of Lagos, Abuja and other cities on Monday February 6, 2016 protesting poor governance, worsening economy, increasing poverty and degenerating standards of living in Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesmen had late the previous evening informed Nigerians that the holidaying leader, who they had till then insisted was “hale and hearty” would no longer be returning on Monday due to “some tests” which results he would have to await. As I wrote a week earlier in “State of the Nation” Nigerians’ justifiable feelings of dejavu were in the circumstances not surprising!
My thoughts however centre today on the president’s erstwhile anticorruption campaign which some might argue came to an formal end with his letters to the National Assembly exonerating his Secretary to the Government of the Federation, David BabachirLawal and re-nominating Acting EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Magu. These were the final case studies in a series of actions that had seriously undermined the credibility of the anti-corruption message of Buhari.
The first case study was the matter involving current Chief of Army Staff General T. Y Buratai’s alleged purchase of two homes in Dubai. This matter occurred at a time the regime was complaining loudly about others who had done the same thing and who were the subject of negative regime propaganda. Rather than conduct a rigorous enquiry into how a military officer whose entire career had been in the army, could afford those purchases, the Minister of Defense in a statement published in Vanguard Newspapers on June 27, 2016 dismissed the issue as “the allegations was part (sic) of attempts by unpatriotic elements to distract the leadership of the armed forces from the successes of the war against terrorism…”. The value of purchases purported to have been made by the general were $419,000.00 and at least N42.2million and some of the payments for the second purchase were made by an army finance professional days after Buratai became army chief!
Another case study related to former army chief, General Abdulrahman Dambazau, also a former army chief, but who currently serves as Interior Minister under the Buhari government. In 2016 when President Buhari gave instructions for the investigation of two former Chiefs of Army Staff, Azubike Ihejirika and Kenneth Minimah and 52 other serving and retired military officers, the investigations excluded General Dambazau who had served as army chief under late President Yar’adua. The probe curiously did not also include General Buratai, current army chief who was in charge of army procurement at relevant periods in the investigation.
The third case study was less clearer than the two others, though also seemingly characterized by a summary exoneration of the official involved rather than a clear, transparent and impartial investigation as may be expected of a government that was determined to preserve its anti-corruption credentials. Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari was accused in the media of purportedly receiving a large bribe from telecommunications multinational, MTN. The accusation has been denied by both MTN and the official, and the allegation remains unproven yet rumours persist thereon precisely because there was no visible process by which the veracity or otherwise of the allegation was determined.
A fourth case study involved several ministers in the cabinet appointed by the president over several allegations, in some cases serious and severe that pre-dated their appointment into President Buhari’s much-delayed cabinet. In some cases serious allegations have subsequently been made by persons in the judiciary against members of the president’s cabinet. While the Presidency and several stakeholders insisted on indicted judges stepping down from their positions until their innocence or otherwise was determined, a different standard was applied to members of the president’s own cabinet.
A fifth case study is a policy position which as several persons, including former CBN Governor and current Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi have pointed out deliberately facilitates corruption. It is easy to compute the scale of possible arbitrage on official dollars being sold by the central bank at around N305/$ while a N200 margin prevails relative to the parallel market. The margin with other official markets may be as high as N150 or more to the Dollar. As Sanusi pointed out, this policy creates potential large scale rent and all anecdotal and industry evidence suggests this potential is being realized by well-connected persons and insiders!
The sixth case study is political and many people are/were willing to overlook this particular one, in the national interest-the fact that it appears that persons who are members of the ruling party have a defacto immunity against prosecution for corruption, while the arrests and trails appear directed against members of the opposition PDP. The result is a visible incentive for corrupt politicians to decamp to the APC in order to escape prosecution. While this situation is also unedifying for a serious anti-corruption effort, many of our compatriots are willing to accept the deficiency in the hope that others may have their time in court in future!
However I suspect that the anti-corruption fight ended in the eyes of most objective Nigerians with the president’s letter to the National Assembly attempting in vain, to clear the SGF of serious and seeming clear allegations that he might have misappropriated funds meant for internally displaced persons in the North-East. The evidence placed before the parliament appears strong and Buhari mortally wounded himself by his attempt at exoneration.
Opeyemi Agbaje