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During his campaign, President Muhammadu Buhari promised Nigerians that if voted into office, his administration would pursue the fight against corruption and would go all out to hunt looters of national treasury.
Buhari, throughout his first tenure, went on to say that the anti-corruption war of his administration was not negotiable, and that it was a must for him to fight graft because that was one of the reasons he was elected.
The promise to fight corruption became a sing-song throughout the first term of Buhari’s administration such that economic watchers accused the present government of abandoning pressing economic matters to ‘fight against corruption.’
BDSUNDAY can recall that it was on this premise that the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said earlier in May 13, 2019, that the Federal Government has resolved to deal ruthlessly with institutions and individuals indebted to Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).
Osinbajo, who noted that one of the measures to be deployed against the debtors was stopping them from doing business with government, also vowed that government would not fold its arms and allow AMCON debtors walk the streets free.
“I think the time has come for us (Federal Government) to set some examples with some of these top debtors of AMCON, which I believe will set a good example and serve as deterrent to others. The debtors are holding the entire nation to ransom with their bad behaviour,” Osinbajo said.
He further disclosed government plans to set up an inter-agency collaboration framework that would comprise relevant government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), to be supervised by the Office of the Vice President to ensure that institutions and individuals that were indebted to AMCON were not allowed to do business with government henceforth.
The big question is, has this government been able to set examples with these top debtors of AMCON as promised? And has it also been faithful with the war against corruption?
Keen observers see contradictions between government’s vaunted sing-song about corruption fight and the goings-on in the corridors of power.
At one of the campaign rallies of President Buhari in Benin, Edo State, which took place on Thursday, January 17, 2019, Adams Oshiomhole, the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) told politicians, who dumped the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to join the ruling party, that their sins were forgiven.
Oshiomhole promised that he would help Buhari to defeat their former party. “I’m told that there are a lot of very senior people from PDP who have decided to join forces with President Buhari to take the broom to sweep away PDP.”
After reading out the names of former PDP members, who joined APC, Oshiomhole said: “All sins are forgiven once they teamed up with the ruling party. In fact, once you have joined APC, all your sins are forgiven.”
This explains why President Buhari’s anti-corruption fight has been mired in controversy and allegations that Mr. President persecutes opposition candidates alone while shielding members of his party from the law. The PDP has claimed that the corruption war is being used mainly as a political weapon to intimidate and frustrate members of the opposition.
It has become very worrisome that despite the noise over the present administration’s determination to rid Nigeria’s political space of corrupt politicians, the opposite seems to now be the case.
Just like Oshiomhole promised, many politicians especially the members of PDP, main opposition party, who at one time, had one question or the other to answer with the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) over corrupt enrichment of selves, but defected to APC, had their cases closed or such files are still with the EFCC just gathering dust.
Surprisingly, some politicians, who were at a point found guilty of corrupt practices are presently dining and wining with the present government as lawmakers and members of the kitchen cabinets.
Confirming this, Ahmed Kuru, managing director/CEO of AMCON, as a guest speaker at the July 2019 edition of the breakfast meeting, organised by the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce, said that chronic debtors of the corporation were occupying top government positions.
He also said that the corporation was working with other agencies such as the EFCC, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) to produce a full-length television documentary of notorious and recalcitrant obligors of AMCON.
Kuru said the idea was to document in a permanent format for generations yet unborn, to know the so-called big men and women behind the over N5 trillion debt burden, which AMCON was battling to recover.
He lamented that unlike what happens in saner climes, these obligors still manipulated their way to emerge as members of the National Assembly, ministers, chairmen and women of big organisations and pro-chancellors of universities.
“Sadly, these are the calibre of people we respect in Nigeria but these people are not role models. How can you be a role model when you cannot honour a simple obligation? That is why I have been consistent in the call for the return of the Failed Bank Act. The way we are handling the issue in the country suggests that we are encouraging a lot of financial rascality. People have to be held accountable for their actions, which I believe would serve as deterrent to others,” Kuru said.
“All economies all over the world depend on the financial infrastructure for growth. If we allow or encourage the destruction of the basis of our financial structure, then the economy would not grow. These are men and women who go to banks, borrow monies with no intention to pay and in the process bring down banking institutions,” Kuru decried.
In Nigeria today, membership of Senate, which is the red chamber of the National Assembly, the nation’s highest lawmaking body, is filled with people who have pending court cases following the allegations of gross mismanagement of public funds while in their former offices.
Few days back, Nwambu Gabriel, director-general of the Global Centre for Conscious Living against Corruption, warned that the Senate should not be turned into what he described as “a retirement home for suspected looters.”
Speaking to newsmen in Abuja in a conference tagged, ‘Before our esteemed Senate becomes a safe haven for some corrupt ex-governors,’ Gabriel expressed concerns that the National Assembly, particularly the Senate, is “deteriorating to a safe haven” for former governors, who he said, are currently being prosecuted by the nation’s anti-corruption agencies.
He said the Senate has been confronted with lots of integrity questions because of the development.
Another serving senator and former Governor of Nasarawa State, is also one of the President’s allies in the Senate. He was also a member of the National Advisory Committee of the Buhari 2019 Presidential Support Committee.
He is being prosecuted alongside 18 others for allegedly stealing N15 billion from the treasury through contracts awarded when he was governor for eight years.
Another Senator, who was in charge of Buhari’s campaign in Sokoto State, and held massive rally on behalf of Buhari in order to prove to the President that Governor Aminu Tambuwal’s defection would be of no effect, is also in the Senate despite the allegations of financial rascality against him.
He served as governor from 2007 to 2015, and was under investigation over allegations of theft of public funds and money laundering totaling N15 billion, an allegation he has vehemently denied. But this was confirmed by EFCC in April that the commission was investigating allegations contained in a petition against the ex-Sokoto State governor.
It is doubtful if anything meaningful can come out from a corrupt ruling class that goes about grandstanding amid the stench of its malfeasance and hypocritical lifestyle that has collectively made Nigeria a laughing stock in the comity of nations.
AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
