By Cudjoe Kpor
It is unclear why the anti-corruption czar Ibrahim Magu, Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) would still grumble as he did recently about lack of support for the ongoing war he spearheads against graft.
Especially when he either pioneered or elevated the administrative bail option for the treasury thieves to refund the loot quietly to avoid costly and sometimes lengthy litigation. Should EFCC calculate the interest and add punitive sanction on the loot and forget about prosecuting the treasury looters in open court, the agency would get more refunds quietly even more than now. The preposterous combination of returning the loot and be prosectuted and jailed have become the deterrent to its quiet return.
Moreover, he got the unflinching support of the most enlightened collective community of clergymen in the Catholic Bishops Conference about four weeks ago.
And again, above all, President Muhammadu Buhari nearly two weeks ago in Saudi Arabia reiterated his government’s zero tolerance for corruption as a monumental task that he is determined to tackle successfully.
“We have zero tolerance for corruption and other unethical practices. We will deal decisively with anybody found wanting,” Buhari promised members of the Nigerian community in Riyadh.
“This government will do everything within the provisions of the Constitution to recover stolen funds and put an end to corrupt practices. This will be done by empowering relevant government agencies and institutions to carry out the task of nipping corruption in the bud and dealing decisively with anyone found wanting.’’
As a complement, Magu himself boasted that no agency of government follows the law and due process as EFCC does under his watch.
Indeed, he said, procedurally, EFCC’s single prosecutor won a case for which an accused treasury looter paid as many as 34 Senior Advocates as his team of defence counsels.
The fact remains that in a constitutional democracy, every action, including fighting corruption must follow the rule of law. Consequently, once EFCC chair says every action the agency’s officers take follows the rule of law, then everyone who accuses it of doing otherwise has to prove his assertion.
No wonder the initial strident objections to the war by especially the opposition figures have all melted away. Is the war one-sided? Not anymore. Is it targeted at only the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders? Not really. Only the corrupt members in the opposition party which ruled, and ruined, the country with its 16 years of mostly bad governance by a highly incompetent presidents Goodluck Jonathan and no better Olusegun Obasanjo.
The difference between them was one betwwen six and half a dozen. Jonathan was clueless about governance, or more especially, the desirable good governance. His predecessor Obasanjo pretends to be incorruptible know-all but got labelled as “Mr corruption personified” who knows next-to-nothing about anything important beyond sermonising about democracy.
Not surprisingly, Nigeria earned the highest revenue from its mono-product dependent crude oil export with its price rising to peak at $140 under Obasanjo before sliding back to $100 under Jonathan; yet Jonathan government had to borrow to pay Federal salaries while state governments owed salary arrears up to seven months before Buhari took over.
Needless to say, both were well-informed about treasury looting to build war chests for political battles, the one assumption which best explained the widespread filthy graft, so far. All the more reason critics argue that until EFCC under Magu could summon the guts to prosecute Jonathan and Obasanjo for the mindless treasury looting by their appointees, cronies and associates, the anti-corruption war is a failure from the start.
Of course the same thing is said about former Lagos State governors Ahmed Tinubu and Babatunde Fashola who are being shielded by the Buhari government even if their accusers are yet to expose where they hid their loot, if any.
Now, one of the strong EFCC support pillars, renowned Lagos lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) has chosen to widen and extend the dragnet for the successful war. The state governors are closer to their residents. They know the corrupt treasury looters personally among them, who enriched their private pockets beyond genuine income earned while in public office, and hence are worth investigating for treasury looting. But the 36 state governors have chosen to keep mute about the anti-graft war despite their collective support in Nigeria Governors Forum. Still, all are waiting quietly on the sidelines for EFCC to fight the war and they would share the booty from it without dirtying their fingers with the war effort.
Falana enjoined the 36 state governments to join hands with the Federal Government in its drive to recover the wealth stolen by treasury looters in the past governments.
In his criticism, Falana told participants in this year’s Leadership Industrialisation summit: “No state has an agency to work to recover the looted funds. They expect EFCC to do all the work. Yet, they want to benefit from the proceeds.”
The Catholic Bishop of Abuja Archdiocese, Cardinal John Onaiyekan made public the prelates’ support for the anti-graft war in Abuja at a press conference at the First 2016 Plenary of Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, describing the fight against corruption as a necessary step to put Nigeria back on the pathway of economic and political stability.
Cardinal Onaiyekan was certain: There is no going back on the war against corruption, a war that the church has been waging for many years with its own appropriate weapons of prayers, warnings and exhortations, long before any government started talking about it.
But he spelt out in detail the pre-conditions which Magu and EFCC must meet for the continued ecclesiastical support by the men in God’s robes.
“The government can count on us in this battle for the very soul of our nation. Government must continue the commendable legal efforts to thoroughly investigate the crimes of the past, transparently prosecute accused persons, and hold the guilty accountable to the law of the land. As we are now witnessing, this is not a smooth and easy process.
“To restore the nation to decent society, we need to go beyond the legal process, to a serious moral national spiritual rebirth. We need to explore alternative and parallel strategies based on the moral principles of the three Rs, namely Repentance, Reparation and Reconciliation. Repentance entails the recognition of wrongdoing, with a resolution to change ways in a right direction.’’
The Catholic Cardinal hoped that the criminal diversion of funds meant for arms into private pockets has now stopped due to the fact that there is now great progress in the military response to the insurgency.
‘‘Our nation is going through a critical condition requiring grave decisions, drastic change for the future. The government, with its victory at the last elections, has received the mandate of the people to lead this process of change. But, it has also the duty to try to bring the challenges before us. We cannot afford to allow our nation to be polarized along ethnic, religious or even political lines, thereby dissipating our energies,” Onaiyekan said.
In corroboration, the President of Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, Bishop Ignatius Kaigama, advised Christians to encourage the new administration by their patriotic conduct, which will be a great incentive for it in its efforts to promote attitudinal change and infrastructural development.
“We therefore call on officials to avoid corruptly sharing among themselves, resources meant for laudable projects that are always well conceived, but end up being badly executed or not done at all.
“We align with the efforts of President Buhari to clean the Augean stable through his attempt to purge our nation of moral dirt and to disinfect Nigerians from the quest for unhealthy material aggrandizement, which is largely responsible for the needless poverty in the land and poor infrastructural development,” he said.
Highlighting the anti-graft agency’s displeasure, Mr Magu, Chairman of EFCC accused corrupt senior lawyers and journalists of frustrating the war against corruption.
Magu told a coalition of civil society groups which staged a solidarity march to EFCC headquarters in Abuja that senior lawyers file frivolous applications in court to delay justice after receiving part of the stolen money as payments to defend the corrupt individuals on trial.
He said: “One of the big challenges we have in the effective prosecution of the war on corruption are very senior lawyers in this country. Nigeria has been very kind to these lawyers. They went to good schools here when the country was good; many of them, on government scholarship.
“But these same lawyers receive stolen money in payment for legal services to represent corrupt people who have stolen from the mouths of our children. They represent wicked people who have stolen money meant to build hospitals, buy drugs and equip our soldiers to fight Boko Haram.
“Corrupt people run to these same lawyers, give them part of the stolen money and mobilise them to fight us, to delay us in court and deny Nigerians justice. The other day, 34 Senior Advocates of Nigeria fought against only one small EFCC lawyer in court and he defeated all of them,’’ he bragged.
Then he turned on corrupt individuals who hire journalists to abuse the commission and accuse it of not following the rule of law in the anti-corruption war, an accusation which cannot be true if he is talking about self-respecting journalists.
“No agency operates within the ambit of the law like the EFCC; the commission does not take any action, including arrest, without consulting the law.
“That is why we are winning and defeating the (corrupt loiters) everyday. We want Nigerians to continue to support the commission and the general war on corruption. We are recovering stolen money, in billions of Naira and returning it to government’s coffers to be used to build hospitals, send our children to school, create employment and defend our country.
“We have no other country than Nigeria. This war is the war of the people,’’ he said.
Magu emphasised: The days of impunity are over in the country. The commission is being guided by no other rule than the rule of law.
Rather encouraging, but should there be any breach of even one suspect’s rights, that would be one breach too many which no responsible journalist will fail to report, highlight or even dramatise, depending on the predilection of his medium’s house style. And the presentation would not likely differ from the medium’s style whether or not Ibrahim Magu is in the chair or any of his predecessors.
And EFCC has itself to blame for trampling even in error over a suspect’s right when he is presumed innocent till proved guilty beyond all reasonable doubt before a competent judge in a constitutional democracy.
