BUHARI CORRUPTION FIGHT: SHOULD WE BE CONFIDENT?

In a message delivered on his behalf by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, to the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Nigeria on Sunday September 12, 2015, in Port Harcourt, President Muhammadu Buhari declared that “corruption in our country is so endemic that it constitutes a parallel system. It is the primary reason for poor policy choices, waste and of course bare- faced theft of public resources.”

While further clarifying his administration’s commitment to the war against corruption, the President said “our fight against corruption is not just a moral battle for virtue and righteousness in our land, it is a fight for the soul and substance of our nation.” Giving an insight into the way corruption destroys the nation, the President told the Second Plenary of the Conference that “it is the main reason why a potentially prosperous country struggles to feed itself and provide jobs for millions.”

The President further posited that “the hundreds of thousands of deaths in the infant, maternal mortality statistics, the hundreds of thousands of annual deaths from preventable diseases are traceable to the greed and corruption of a few. This is why we must see it as an existential threat, if we don’t kill it, it will kill us.” (Premium Times, September 14, 2015)

Messages of this nature and a promise to do something about corruption in the country, aided his winning the 2015 presidential election. He promised during the campaigns to strengthen the anti-corruption agencies: EFCC and ICPC to be more effective in carrying out their roles.

A year into his administration, the government has clamped down on some of those it says have stolen money from the government treasury during the previous administration. Some of the probes have taken the government to investigating campaign funds of the other political party, because they say the funds were from the government treasury, thereby constituting a criminal offence.

Other actions that are targeted at checking corruption include the implementation of Treasury Single Account (TSA) to check proliferation of accounts belonging to various agencies of government. There have also been some changes in the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Besides these efforts, corruption continues at various levels of government as government officials and the Police still demand and receive bribe to influence issues or even in some cases, demand gratifications to do the job they were hired to do.

Though it is being said that people are afraid of the President because of his anti-corruption stance, does that mean that the President is not corrupt? Having been a head of state, through coup d’état, and a one-time chairman of Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) is he free from any trace of corrupt practice? If his actions on these two positions were free of corruption, is he conducting his family life in such a way that no one would fault his actions?

 

A development Historian, Bekeh Utietiang writing on ‘President Muhammadu Buhari’s Anti-Corruption Sham In Nigeria’ believes that Buhari’s corruption fight is a distraction. This is because he has not cleaned up his own house, the All Progressives Congress (APC), which most of its members were in PDP where they had enriched themselves from public funds in the past 16 years. “It is impossible to advance yourself as an anti-corruption crusader when the major benefactors of your campaign are among the most corrupt Nigerians. After his election, Buhari gave voice to these people by appointing them to his cabinet and other governmental parastatals” Utietiang says (Huffington Post, March 3, 2016). Indeed this aspect has been an issue in this government. However the decision to appoint these people does not entirely depend on the President, but on his party also. Is it possible to that he would have wanted somethings done differently if he was an independent candidate? Now, does having such people with corruption allegation in his cabinet make him corrupt?

During an interview with Aljazeera Television, in March 2016, President Buhari said his children are schooling abroad because he can afford it. He implied from his response that parents who are not able to source forex and send their children abroad should not expect the government to sell forex to them for that purpose. Some people have said that this position shows how insensitive the President is towards the plight of other Nigerians and therefore classified it as corruption. They believe he showed a posture of modesty and therefore sending the children abroad when most parents who would have loved to do so in Nigeria are not able because of forex restriction, was being extravagant. Again, does this qualify as a reason to label him corrupt?

 

Now if there is no allegation of corruption on the person of the President, and no one has petitioned the anti-corruption agencies concerning him personally; should that give us confidence that his government would pursue the anti-corruption fight to an end? It has been said that he who comes to equity must come with clean hands. So if no known corrupt practice can be traced to Muhammadu Buhari, we should be confident that he is prepared to work till the corruption cases are fully dispensed with.

 

Other things that should be done to increase our confidence include:

 

a.    Speedy judicial process to avoid unnecessary delays: This ought to have been taken care of with the application of the provisions of the criminal justice act.

b.   Proper investigation by the security agencies to have enough evidence to nail the suspects

c.    Lawyers hired by the accused to allow the cases flow in court instead of filing for frivolous injunctions.

d.   National Assembly to pass bills that would strengthen the anti-corruption agencies.

e.    National Assembly to review laws that punish convicted corrupt persons to make them more punitive.  

f.     Check corruption among police officials and improve their welfare

g.    Improve the welfare of public and civil servants

h.   Set up a monitoring framework to ensure that State governments spend according to plan, since the higher percentages of their funds come from the federal government.

i.     Anti-corruption agencies should be better organised and strategic in their actions

j.     Their actions should be like media trial and appear lopsided to a particular section of the society.

These should be done to create more confidence in this fight against corruption. It is not only the president that should do it. It is all arms of the government and at all levels of government.