CACOL exposes his dishonesty, says direct primary is more democratic
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Muhammadu Buhari’s invented excuses for failing to assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill have been tagged by the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL) as further evidence of his dishonesty and lies.
The bill contains, among other provisions, direct primaries in choosing election candidates and electronic transmission of election results from polling units.
All major stakeholders, including civil society groups and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), canvass for direct primaries and electronic transmission saying they will help reduce election rigging, violence, deaths.
Governors want indirect primaries to continue handpicking delegates to a party’s national convention where election candidates are chosen. It enables moneybags to bribe delegates and prevents the electorate from choosing their representatives.
However, both Senate President Ahmed Lawan and House Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila say they support direct primaries both to protect lawmakers from the grip of Governors and to give youths wider participation in the electoral process.
Buhari argued in his rejection letter to the National Assembly (NASS) that the bill “has serious adverse legal, financial, economic and security consequences, which cannot be accommodated at the moment considering our nation’s peculiarities.”
He said it “also has implications on the rights of citizens to participate in the government as constitutionally ensured.”
CACOL Chairman Debo Adeniran countered that Buhari is not being sincere.
“If he had given a hint [before it was passed by lawmakers], a lot of consultations and further clarifications would have been made to him by the sponsors of the bill and concerned public during the grace period that he had to assent to the passed bill.
“Unfortunately, he didn’t do that and that is not a good democratic practice,” Adeniran said in Lagos.
He insisted that direct primary, through which the All Progressives Alliance (APC) elected Buhari its presidential candidate in 2015 – but which he has now rejected in the bill – is more democratic.
“We don’t believe that hand-picked delegates should impose their will on the generality of membership of a political party. The principle of equality of membership should hold sway at the level of political parties.
“It is unnecessary for the President to take it upon himself to canvass on behalf of smaller parties knowing fully well that by virtue of the law that guides formation and registration of political parties in Nigeria, no political party is expected to be small as far as the existing law is concerned.”
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Gaps in the bill
CACOL, however, noted some gaps in the bill, including that it does not make ideological leanings compulsory for political parties, per reporting by The Nation.
“There ought to be ideological leanings for all political parties so that whoever is voting knows the kind of government that will be formed at the end of the election.”
The group also noted that the bill does not provide for anti-corruption safeguards and social inclusion.
“What we expected is that the new amended law would include safeguards that will make it compulsory for political parties to ensure that anti-corruption agenda will be prioritised.
“An anti-corruption policy has to be clearly stated on how the party feels that anti-corruption war should be fought, and if they form government, how they are going to wage the war against corruption.”
Moral vetting of election candidates
CACOL sought more grassroots sensitisation on anti-corruption and accountability in elections.
“The anti-graft body, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), should be involved in electoral process for screening of candidates who want to contest for an electoral office to ensure his integrity and incorruptibility.
“The media need to increase their reportage and investigations on corruption and accountability issues before, during and after elections period.
“Civil society groups should embark on massive civic awareness of the electorate on the dangers of corruption in electoral process and its impacts on their future.
“Political parties must be engaged to mainstream anti-corruption and accountability into their manifestos and activities.
“There is an urgent need to amplify the voices of the people at the grassroots because most of them do not even have access to their elected representatives once they are sworn in.
“We call on all the political parties to redress this anomaly and try as much as possible to incorporate these marginalised set of people into the scheme of things in their various political parties.
Buhari causing confusion
“We urge Mr. President to assent to the new electoral reform bill which consists of the e-transmission of results and direct primary.
“We are afraid that the controversy and cacophony of voices over direct primary may wittingly or unwittingly scuttle the entire Electoral Bill, and thus throw away the baby with the bath water.”
History of Buhari’s dishonesty and lies
To cite just three examples, Buhari has lied to Nigerians about medical tourism abroad, fighting corruption, and insecurity.
Medical tourism abroad
Buhari lied during the presidential hustings in 2015 that he would upgrade medical facilities and end foreign medical tourism of public officials, including himself.
Logging by PREMIUM TIMES shows that since he assumed office on May 29, 2015, he has spent 200 days in the United Kingdom for medical treatment in seven trips, the last of which he returned from on August 13, 2021
His ailment has never been made public, even though his treatment has chalked up millions of pounds sterling – counting in his official entourage, family members, presidential jet maintenance and fuel cost, hotel bills – footed by tax payers.
He has failed to deliver on the promise and characteristically refused to give account to the public.
Fighting corruption
Buhari lied during the campaign in 2015 that he would fight corruption, especially financial corruption, Nigeria’s deadly disease that permeates all layers of government and all facets of society and cripples social and economic development.
Under his watch, corruption has exploded into greater pernicious tentacles. Below are a few examples in the cesspit supervised by Buhari.
Up to 257 projects worth N20.138 billion are duplicated in the 2021 budget alone, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) Chairman, Bolaji Owasanoye, disclosed in Abuja in November.
Such sums are siphoned into private pockets through various forms and layers of financial corruption in the public service.
The ICPC is also probing heads of ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) and other officials who engage in project racketeering, budget, and payroll padding and keep “ghost workers” whose salaries they collect.
Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) Director Modibbo Tukur said in November that Nigeria owes so much debt partly because firms failed to remit N7 trillion in Value Added Tax (VAT) and Withholding Tax between 2010 and 2020.
He reiterated that tax avoidance limits government’s revenue and helps fuel borrowing.
But what Tukur left unsaid, and a fact Buhari himself also ignores, is that
- Buhari encourages tax evasion by willingly neglecting to prosecute big or influential tax dodgers – rooted in the culture of criminals bribing public officials to break the law and escape punishment.
- Buhari willingly fails to prosecute public officials, including his Ministers, who steal public funds indirectly by inflating contracts, collecting bribe; or directly by grabbing hard cash from the treasury.
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) wrote to Buhari on December 24 to probe N3.14 billion officially declared missing in the Finance Ministry headed by Zainab Ahmed, his tax enforcer.
The missing billions is documented in the 2018 and 2019 annual audited reports by federal Auditor General Adolphus Aghughu.
The latest revelation comes after the first set of the reports earlier in the year had shown that N105,662,350,077.46 of public funds is missing, misappropriated or unaccounted for across 149 MDAs.
Economic and Finance Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, announced on December 12 that a Governor in one of the North Central states – of Nasarawa, Niger, Kwara, Kogi, Benue, Plateau – withdrew over N60 billion in cash from state coffers in the past six years.
That is, one single Governor has been stealing over N10 billion each year for six years from the treasury of a state in one of the poorest regions of Nigeria.
Bawa did not name the thieving Governor he fingered in EFCC Alert, the in-house magazine of the agency.
Five of the six states in the North Central are ruled by Buhari’s APC. Only Benue is ruled by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
There are yet more Nigerian treasury looters named in the Pandora Papers published by PREMIUM TIMES this year in collaboration with global media outlets.
The EFCC has not prosecuted these criminals and most others before them.
Tackling insecurity
Daily news from the North reel out terrorist acts by Almajiri graduates in the ranks of the Talakawas who kidnap, collect ransom, kill some, and terrify others they have not laid hands on.
Over 3,125 people were killed and 2,703 abducted in the North between January and November alone.
Nowhere is safe in the North any more. Youths in the region have resorted to protests against Buhari under the hashtags #SecureNorth and #NorthisBleeding.
Kunle Olawunmi, a former intelligence top notch, had exposed Buhari’s hypocrisy about Islamist terrorists on Channels Television on August 25, saying the President and all national security agencies know all those behind terrorism in Nigeria.
“We are currently in the worst security situation in Nigeria today, some Governors, ministers and Senators are sponsors of Boko Haram and the government knows them,” he told Channels Television.
“I can’t come on air and start mentioning names of people that are presently in government that I know that the boys that we arrested mentioned. Some of them are Governors now, some of them are in the Senate, some of them are in Aso Rock.
“In April this year, the government said they had arrested 400 Bureau De Change (BDCs)-related people that were sponsoring Boko Haram. They told us.
“Why is it that the Buhari government has refused to try them? Why can’t this government bring them to trial if not that they are partisan and part of the charade that is going on?”