By Lateef Adewole
“If we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill us!” – President Muhammadu Buhari.
When this statement was made some years ago, at the inception of the current administration, it became an instant sound bite and it went viral. It became an all encompassing statement that encapsulates what we must do, as a people and as a country, if we ever want to survive. This was not just so but for a few reasons. One, the personality of the man who made the statement, that is; President Muhammadu Buhari.
This was a highly respected, highly trusted man, whose highest selling point “is/was” his “personal” integrity. I put the two words in quotes for emphasis. I shall get back to that later. The second reason for the virality of that statement was because, one of the three cardinal points of campaign that brought the president and his APC party to power was that they will fight corruption. This point rested on the earlier point since without a Buhari in that equation of 2015 APC presidential campaign, I doubt if there were few who could have genuinely stood on any podium then and told Nigerians they would fight corruption.
Many of them, past and present political actors, as of then, were enmeshed in one corruption scandal/allegation or another, even if not convicted yet. Many had corruption cases with either EFCC or ICPC. So, it would have been unconscionable to campaign about fighting corruption, but Buhari was there as the “poster boy”, with sufficient saintly cloacks to cover all of them. Many Nigerians loved him so much they were ready to overlook any potential corruption blight on his campaign train, so long it was not him, personally.
So, for a person who made that statement, one would have thought that once he hits the ground as the new president, corruption will take flight and the same space will not contain both of them. But alas, this was completely not so. Before him, the previous administrations, especially that of immediate past of President Goodluck Jonathan, was seen as epitome of corruption. And rightly so substantially, when the monumental corruption allegations all over the place were considered.
The ways and manners by which huge public funds were squandered by the appointees of that administration were disheartening. I usually called what happened during Jonathan’s era as “democratised corruption”. If I can borrow the definition of democracy and modify to suit me, it can be defined as “corruption of the people, by the people, and for the people”. It was a time anyone and everyone who found himself or herself in any position, took it as their own slot to steal. Stealing was democratised.
It was on this that Buhari and APC capitalised and rode to power. The propaganda was extremely loud that Nigerians were not ready to give Jonathan government any chance of fair hearing. They were convicted and condemned before trial. And the only task at hand to make the stealing stop was to remove Jonathan and install Buhari. Shikena! But, has that been so? Has stealing stopped? Did corruption take flight? The “no” now is a strong one.
Let me narrate a short story that gave me a hint of what was to come later. This happened immediately after President Buhari was sworn in for the first time in 2015. I was living in Kano then. I knew many people who worked with the Federal Government MDAs in Abuja. Before 2015, many of these people hardly go to work in Abuja. They were around with us in Kano where they reside, most days of the month. This was part of corruption in the previous administration.
As Buhari was elected and after swearing him in on May 29, 2015, we suddenly did not see them in Kano again. After some times, I called some of them and asked why we have not been seeing them any longer in Kano. The answer I got was that; “didn’t you know Buhari is now the president?”. I was shocked and happy, because, that was the expectation of many Nigerians who voted for Buhari and believed he would sanitise the system. There was a new Sheriff in town!
After like two to three months, we started seeing the same people regularly again in Kano. I was surprised. I asked what happened that they were not at work in Abuja. A bigger shock awaited me. The answer was that; “this is not the Buhari we thought was coming back as president”. On further probing what that meant, they said the Buhari that was elected and who was now the president was not the same “iron-steel, no-nonsense,” military head of state, with zero tolerance for corruption, who they knew in 1983-85. I was sad. However, I wanted to give the president a benefit of doubt.
As the administration proceeded, I was unimpressed, to put it mildly. As we went deeper and events were unfolding and the way they were handled by the president, I was disappointed. As at today, I no longer have any word to describe how I feel about the allegations of stealing and corruption going on within the government, perpetrated by the appointees and officials of President Buhari.
In the past few years, after what I learnt from the people and the things that were going wrong but not properly dealt with, I wrote in many articles how the anti-corruption fight was a faux, largely, driven by witch-hunting and vendetta. I opined that any fight against corruption hinged on such pillars would fail. I said this when I observed that it was only people in the opposition that the antigraft agencies were focused on while turning blind eyes to the infractions of the members of the current administration.
I was literally crucified by the “Buharists”, who were still boisterous, full of pride and arrogance for winning the presidential election and coming to power. I was called names. I was viciously criticised. The common slogan then was “corruption is fighting back”. Once any concern about the wrongdoings by this government was raised then, such person would be tagged corrupt or sore election loser, as if everyone was in PDP. They will say that it was corruption that was fighting back with the questioning of any anomaly.
Fortunately, the same people are still alive today. Many of them are my friends and family members. Others are readers of my weekly articles. I doubt if any of them is still proud of what the same government has become today. Many are now so ashamed they withdrew from public commentary and discussions about the country and government again, on social media. Those who are courageous are now bigger critics of the president and his government than some of us who saw these earlier. Who wouldn’t be disappointed with all that are happening now?
Going back to the words I put in quotes earlier, “is/was and personally”. How do I mean? In all honesty, even today, I doubt if President Buhari would ever sit somewhere with anyone and plan to or actually steal public funds. That was what he was revered for. There may never be any stealing directly associated with him, “personally”.
However, there is a Yoruba saying that “agbepolaja nikan ko ni ole, eni to gba lowo re na, ole ni” (he who steals palm oil from the storage isn’t the only thief, he who helps him conceal it is also a thief). It is saddening that despite the sterling anti-corruption quality that the president was known for, he has condoned the corrupt activities of many of his associates who were elected, appointed or just freelancing within the corridors of power.
This is something that President Obasanjo, warts and all, never condoned. Although, the reverse of who Buhari is seems to be who Obasanjo is. We all knew how he dealt with many very close associates of his who were accused of corruption, one of who was the former Inspector General of Police Tafa Balogun. He was among the first set of “big and powerful” men to go to jail. This is not the case with President Buhari.
For past six years, there were allegations after allegations against many of his appointees who were never queried, or sacked, not to talk of prosecution or punishment. In fact, many did get reappointed despite such corruption allegations against them. Why the president does this can only be explained by him. But for whatever reason, it is bad for him and his image. Such actions have demystified him. Many don’t actually take any talk about fighting corruption by him serious any longer. It is like a joke now.
We saw how he brought back the NHIS DG, who was sacked in his absence for corruption allegations of N10 billion. It took the public pressure for the man to be removed later. He was never arrested, investigated, prosecuted or punished for it if found guilty. In fact, the same man has been going around the country like some sort of hero, speaking on behalf of bandits.
The Maina case is still fresh in our memories. But for public outcry and civil society pressure, that man could have still been working in the government today, getting promoted and continue to perpetrate his fraudulent acts. We did not see many people involved in that saga sacked and punished. Many of them still work with the president. The NDDC case was a public shame. Nothing has been heard after the nollywood-like fainting drama of Professor Daniel Pondei at the public hearing in the national assembly. He is still free despite mismanaging N82 billion naira of Niger Delta money. Same with his “uncommon” mentor and others involved.
Nigerians have almost given up on such fight and are only counting days until we get another president and government, before another scandalous news broke within the week. The Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris, was accused of stealing and mismanaging public funds to the tune of N80 billion. He has just been suspended while the investigation is on. This was a man overdue for retirement but the president kept him. This was despite earlier allegations against him in 2020 by the ASUU, Bauchi branch. Nothing was ever done about the allegations raised.
I saw two infographs that analysed what N80 billion could do. In one of them, it showed that the money is enough to do any of these; 80,000 modern boreholes to provide portable water; 336.13km of road; 47m of rail line; buy 2091 number of 50 seater buses; or N5 million naira seed capital for 16,000 SMEs. The other showed that in 2020 budget, the total capital budget performance of three ministries combined; education, humanitarian and police affairs, was less than N80 billion. Precisely N71.37 billion. Isn’t that incredible? This is an amount that one person stole. What’s with human mind and greed?
An old video just resurfaced. It is about some allegations against some important senior officials of this government in some ministries and NNPC, about how they illegally sold off some stolen crude oil which was recovered with the help of a whistle blower, worth 2.5 billion dollars, but the money was never remitted to Nigerian government. In today’s value, that is about N1.6 trillion naira (at N600/$). Where is the money? I remember this allegation first came out during Magu’s trial. It was revealed as a counter-move by Magu’s supporters to fight those against him.
That issue was never investigated and was swept under the carpet. The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister for Justice, the GMD of NNPC and some others, were prominently mentioned. What happened to these officers? Nothing ofcourse. They are still superintending over their MDAs. Such is the condonement by the president. Mr. Magu himself who was investigated or still under investigation, was just promoted to AIG of Police and retired within week. The report of the panel that investigated him is yet to be made public.
I have always said that if by any chance, another party wins the next presidential election apart from the ruling party APC, that is when the monumental frauds and corruption that have been perpetrated in this government will come out. It will shock Nigerians. All these coming out might just be snippets, because stealing is “exclusive” under this government. Only people very close to power carry out the big heists. It is not “all-commers” affairs like the time of Jonathan.
I do wonder what will come out if a more comprehensive audit is carried out about many so-called interventions in the past six years by the CBN and some MDAs. The many money unaccounted-for that went into agricultural loans, anchor borrowers loans, farmermoni, tradermoni, school feeding programmes, Covid palliatives, and many more. It will be messy!
President Buhari has promised to leave a legacy. The worry of some of us is that, let not such legacy be one that would have destroyed the one he had before his second coming as civilian president, for which he was adored, “worshipped” and he commanded cult following. Right now, it’s not looking good. Worsened by the abysmal performances of his admnistration in the other two cardinal points of his campaign tripod; economy and insecurities. Can anyone be proud of the state of insecurities in Nigeria today? Can the state of our economy, with the negative indices, be something one can called good legacy? The president has much work to do but I doubt if he still has the time.
In all, it might be better late than never. President Buhari can still begin to assert himself for his known anti-corruption champion status. He can start by making the latest scandalous revelations as examples. He can start by ordering all abandoned or carpeted investigations to be revisited and proper investigations carried out. All culprits should never go unpunished to serve as deterrent to others. Corruption is not only about stealing money. There are other non-financial corruption matters too. They should all be addressed.
May God continue to protect us and guide us aright.
God Bless Nigeria.
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