By Cudjoe Kpor
Hardly did many in the profession believe a word the Information Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said about 55 Nigerians looting a staggering N1.34 trillion in eight years. Even with Google Search, it would take more than two hours to find out whether or not the minister was sweetening a bitter truth. But when ex-president Goodluck Jonathan directed, no, ordered his national security adviser to squander $2.1 billion arms purchases fund to political associates with shocking recklessness, as the scandal unfolds, I came to believe every word Alhaji Mohammed said.
The mind-boggling $2.1 billion is very shameful to dash to so-called national leaders in the name of party politics. Very shamelessly, they pocketed it like common street beggars, their share of the national loot. The source of the loot, whether from God or Satan is irrelevant. That is the moral pedestal on which I fault all of them, whichever way the law places any. Now, wahala don burst.
But some supporters argue that Jonathan government did no wrong. He followed the tradition of bad governance. Unfortunately, he lost the election, unprecedentedly, to the opposition which is broke, crude oil price has run aground and the successor government would not cover up his looting. Hypothetically, if he were re-elected, “all would have been well with Nigeria” even when nothing is well. Meanwhile, 2.6 million Nigerians eke out a miserable existence in IDP camps in the Northeast because of the unspeakable harm caused them by Boko Haram insurgents.
In fact, all the corrupt beneficiaries would have been hailing Jonathan’s administration sky-high. The cycle of bad governance would have continued. The up to 90 percent of the national budget would continue to be wasted on recurrent expenditure for barely 2 million profligate public servants and political officeholders. All the big men would still be “briefcase contract businessmen” parading the corridors of the Presidency, state government houses and the local governments for contracts they would not execute, but be paid their share of the national loot. That leaves the country’s only wealthy man as the outstanding productive businessman and almost all the other so-called businessmen off the land are spongers living off the government at the three tiers as unproductive parasites.
Besides, the police sit atop at least 22 security and quasi-security agencies, in uniform and in mufti. Where were all of them when all the crass looting was going on? Surely, the anti-graft agencies are using the same laws to charge the corrupt leaders to court now. Or the security and intelligence agencies’ looters will have their day in court too? Contrarily, were the security agencies asleep, snoring through it all like the three monkeys who saw no evil, spoke no evil and heard none still? Or, they got their share, “chopped” and cleaned mouth – and later caught others with their hands in the treasury vault? The clueless government doled out the loot, gratis, till the finance minister had to borrow money to pay salaries along the line, its capital projects were abandoned. How bad could bad governance get?
No wonder the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) National Secretary Mai Mala Buni scoffed as “comical” the opposition Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) call for President Muhammadu Buhari’s impeachment over the recent budget correction confusion in the Senate. PDP’s mind-boggling corruption scandal is still a shocker without absorbers, Buni said: “Nigerians are still shocked and recovering from the wanton looting perpetuated in the past 16 years under PDP.”
So far, a range of self-preserving leaders have emerged on the national anti-corruption war radar. So far, 21 individuals and companies benefited up to N55bn. All, including one “incorruptible” APC general are on trial. With them is former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki. All got some of the $2.1 billion earmarked for arms procurement to fight Boko Haram. But the Jonathan Presidency diverted it into his re-election campaign bribes.
The incorruptible APC chieftain, General Jafaru Isa; Chief Tony Anehih, a close confidant of Jonathan; Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, Chiefs Olisa Metuh, Olu Falae, Raymond Dokpesi, Nduka Obaigbena, Dr Haliru Bello and his son and ex-Governor of Sokoto State Attahiru Bafarawa, among and his son, among others.
Some, like Isah, Anenih, Yakassai and Obaigbena admitted collecting the sums the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) accused them of receiving. Isah refunded N100 million of the N170m he got, promised to refund the rest and got EFCC’s administrative bail. Contrary to general belief, he was not deterred by the threat of being prosecuted for betrayal of public trust even after refund.
But others have not given any indication that they would refund a kobo voluntarily. For, some plead ignorance that the money they got came from the arms procurement fund. One wonders what they would plead in court since ignorance is no excuse in law. Others said specific national assignments were tied to their expenditure. Once they completed the assignments, they had fulfilled their side of the bargain. So they owe nothing to refund.
Of course the initial dichotomy between payments by Chief Anenih as clean money and those by Col Dasuki as the dirty arms money have fused into one since the revelation that Anenih got refund from Dasuki. In fact, Anenih paid N400 million to four prominent politicians with his personal money to fulfil the presidential order. But Dasuki did not refund all, underpaying him by as high as N140 million to date. So, the single presidential order authorised the payment by either Dasuki or Chief Anenih.
No wonder the initial denials that they did not accept payment from the arms purchase fund are hardly credible. But now that they know the loot they collected came from the arms money, do they still need the arrest and prosecution to refund it? Or their reluctance to refund it implies they would still have collected it if they were told.
Suddenly, PDP made a faux pas and disowned its executives before the courts. It is not clear yet whether it is mere power struggle. The party’s Deputy National Publicity Secretary Abdullahi Jalo wants PDP to sideline all those in court. That way, public perception would not misconstrue the mega-corruption of individual PDP executives as party corruption. To Jalo, the top executives in the corruption mess got their loot with their private companies without PDP’s awareness or connivance. Its BOT chairman, Dr. Haliru Bello, got N600m through Pam Proper and Property Ltd; Chief Olisa Metuh got N400m through Destral Investment Ltd for a contract with the ex-president.
Jalo said: “We want anyone among these people who have been accused, whether in PDP, APGA or APC to come out and tell us that the money he collected, was given to PDP or (any other) party. Whoever was given this money should know that this money was not meant for parties, it was meant for arms purchase.”
In other words, every arraigned party member was strictly on his own since none reported collecting any money to the PDP chairman. Legally, Jalo is right. But politically, Jalo’s position is obtuse. That is why it made more sense when PDP’s acting National Chairman Uche Secondus disowned him as speaking his private opinion. PDP gave them the platform and they exploited it to get access to the fraudulent money. Washing them down the sewers without expelling them would still flush the party’s image along with them.
Until the PDP spokesman Metuh was clamped into detention with a N400 million accusation, he spearheaded as the party’s cheerleader opposed to the process of the anti-graft war, highlighting its shortcomings at every turn. Without PDP’s criticisms, sometimes mordant and sarcastic to keep the anti-graft hounds in check, they might have gone off the leash of rule of law. Power is the aphrodisiac, so sweet it corrupts all whom it touches. Still, Metuh showed sympathy for President Muhammadu Buhari and APC over “their inability to accept with equanimity, constructive criticisms of their administration” to keep the ruling government in check.
Metuh castigated the war, saying PDP accepts it in principle, but its insidious abuse is one-sided, ignoring corrupt APC members, but selectively targeted the opposition PDP leaders surreptitiously to get rid of them to establish one-party dictatorship.
Worse, he argued, “The real trait of the President was unravelled during the media chat. He has repeatedly shown his scorn for the Legislature, while sanctioning security agencies’ disrespect for court orders and the impunity of continuous incarceration of people who have been granted bail by the courts.
“Also from his responses, the President has even pronounced a guilty verdict on Col. Sambo Dasuki and Nnamdi Kanu of Radio Biafra even before the hearings by the courts. Sadly, even the international community has noted this brazen scorn and disdain for the independence of the judiciary.”
Metuh is not done yet: “The PDP is conversant with the sinister plan by APC-led Federal Government to completely decimate our party by raking up all manner of allegations of corruption against the Jonathan administration and leaders of the PDP with a view to taking them to court on orchestrated charges.
“Nigerians do not need PDP or anyone else to make them decide if President Buhari’s APC government fits the definition of a tyrant.
In corroboration, PDP’s highest-ranking public officeholder, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu warned the executive against “the corruption of the anti-graft war” by the spearheads who trample illegally and unconstitutionally on the opposition in total disregard of the rule of law.
Ekweremadu reaffirmed PDP’s support for a genuine anti-graft crusade, but denounces a crusade calculated to decimate the opposition, while APC members with serious corruption allegations hanging around their necks go about their businesses uninvestigated. By detaining Olisa Metuh, the opposition mouthpiece, is a gag which is unhealthy for democracy, he concluded, Nigeria is fast descending into dictatorship.
Ekweremadu warned: An anti-graft trap that catches only members of the opposition and those with axes to grind against the government of the day is already corrupted. Consequently, Nigerians must denounce and resist the contempt of courts by the government when people are held in custody against the orders of the courts which granted them bail and laws of the land, because there would be no justice without rule of law.
Contrarily, on the support side, Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka sees success at the end of cleaning up the filthy corruption rot which pervades the entire system. Provided the government and its anti-graft agencies do not cow to desperate counter-attacks by corrupt, treasury looters now fighting back to frustrate the anti-graft war.
Soyinka advised the Federal Government not to relent in its effort at bringing to justice all those who looted the nation’s treasury. For, the level of corruption exposed so far by the Buhari administration shows that the government was finally tackling the vice frontally.
In the Nobel laureate’s words, “We have not had a case where it had been alleged and increasingly proved that money supposed to be spent on defending ourselves, our nation, our neighbourhoods, has been shared among individuals. Never had there been a situation where we are helpless and our soldiers are sent to the front to defend our very existence and we are not backing them up with conduct that shows integrity and commitment. Because of these reasons, corruption is really desperate and has chosen to fight back; but I am confident that corruption will be resolved.’’
Former APGA chairman, Chief Victor Umeh chose Onueke Township stadium in Anambra State to announce his support for the war. To Umeh, the war is an indispensable in-house cleansing to pave way for national restoration across all sectors of the economy. As such, anybody or group frustrating the war against corruption is not being honest and sincere about moving the nation forward.
Umeh said: “Nigerians should allow the vices in the country to be removed and healed; when someone steals and you say the person should not be prosecuted, we are not being honest to ourselves. Corruption must be dealt with in this country; there is nothing like selective justice in Buhari’s war against corruption.”
Finally, APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun said the party is not apologetic about EFCC stepping on big toes with its arrest and interrogation of some politicians and bigwigs across the country in the process of cleaning up the corrupt rot which choked the system. “We promised change and there is a lot of rot in the system. We must get used to the fact that in the process of cleaning this nation, there is going to be a lot of bullets to bite.
“APC has not been in office at national level for the last 10 to 16 years. So, the issue of whether somebody is PDP or not PDP does not arise. We have a nation to cleanse. The President has committed himself to that and we should fight it whatever way it comes. It has nothing to do with witch-hunting. It just happens that the dramatis personae of the period all happened to be on one side of the political divide.’’
Tangentially, the popular, fiery preacher Pastor Tunde Bakare of Latter Rain Assembly chose to blame Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for paying out the huge sums to the corrupt. However, it is better to keep the apex bank out of the blame game. As the legend goes, if Alhaji Aliko Dangote uses tissue paper in a restaurant to write a note as a cheque leaf to his banker, the bank would honour it.
What next?
There is consensus that the thieves must vomit all “they stole and chopped.” Some say the name and shame media buzz is enough, others believe that they must be prosecuted and jailed to teach them sense never to betray public trust.
Starting the clean-up with the all-powerful Office of the NSA is still the tip of the iceberg. Some said it is barely one percent of the hideous corruption the Jonathan government left behind.
Certainly, the Finance Ministry never truly explained how fuel subsidy for which NASS appropriated N256 billion, ballooned to N2.8 trillion overnight without increase in number of cars or volume of fuel they consumed. Then the NNPC and its abstruse fuel swaps and abracadabra revenue repatriation, among others. But by all means, governance must continue while EFCC does its job.
It is comforting that EFCC boss Ibrahim Magu came out publicly Wednesday that national interest and rule of law are the guiding principles of the agency under his watch. No disobedience of court orders, no trampling on the rights of suspects who are free till they are proved guilty. One hopes his deeds match his talk since rule of law and fighting corruption are not mutually exclusive.
Obviously, as consensus builds in support of the war, arguments of one-sided, biased and selective anti-opposition war has run out of steam. Very likely because Olisa Metuh, PDP’s vocal, loud, sometimes with untargeted firing on all sides, was clamped into EFCC dungeon and handcuffed to court ostensibly to humiliate him publicly.
Metuh’s shrill denunciations of the shortcomings of the cleanup of the national shame obviously drew the anger of the government. The earlier PDP supports his family to get him released, the better for the party and its leadership. Otherwise, if abandoned in the lurch, PDP must carry its own can if EFCC goes haywire as unchallenged dictatorships invariably do.
As the popular Jewish perpetual vigilance saying goes, if dictators pick up A illegally in the morning and nobody talks, they will pick B in the afternoon and if nobody talks, by midnight, all the targets will be picked and no PDP leader will be left, confirming their worst fears.
Whether PDP leaders like it or not, the corrupt untrustworthy leaders who grounded the economy after 16 years of bad governance and very high crude oil prices are in PDP. Needless to conclude, it has the higher numbers of the corrupt in its ranks than the number of corrupt leaders in APC now in power.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed said in conclusion: The government is aware that when one fights corruption, corruption also fights back. We know that those who stole us dry are powerful. They have newspapers, radio and television stations and an army of supporters to continuously deride the government’s war against corruption. But we are undaunted and will not relent until corruption is also decimated.
