When in 2015, the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) was making a bid to wrestle power from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it promised Nigerians that it would tackle corruption head on. As the year 2017 draws to an end our Correspondent, CHINWE MADUAGWU, spoke to some people on how far the ruling party has made good its promise.
The relationship between Nigeria and corruption can be likened to a mosquito perching on a man’s scrotum. Should he squash it or leave it? If he must squash it, he has to thread with caution else he squashes more than the mosquito. If he lets the mosquito be, it is to his own peril and pain; a big dilemma you may say.
Corruption has become a big parasite sucking Nigeria dry. Governments come and go with promises to fight corruption and clean the system, yet at the expiration of their terms in office, the problem of corruption remains, sometimes getting worse than that administration met.
Corruption has become endemic in the country, it seems to have become a way of life and in the process it is killing the country, reducing most of the populace to the poorest of the poor.
A country blessed with abundant human and natural resources, corruption would not permit the country to make a head way. If only we can get a leader that will decisively deal with the issue of corruption in the country, Nigeria would indeed be great.
It is perhaps this sentiment that drew a lot of people in 2015 to support the APC and its Presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari. He had been perceived as a no-nonsense man who would face the fight against corruption head on irrespective of who is involved. The party had also made the fight against corruption its main objective. A few weeks from now, the year 2017 would come to an end and the present administration would have done two years plus in office. How well, and how far has it gone in the fight against corruption?
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Mr. Emenike Esike, believes that the government has shown enough political will to fight corruption even as he insists that the issue of corruption in Nigeria can not be dealt with in a short space of time. His words: “The issue of corruption is not a one-off thing because of the kind of system we operate in Nigeria. This present government actually has shown determination, the zeal and the political will to tackle corruption in the nation. We know the depth of corruption in this country is not something you can wish away or something that can go away in one, two or three years.”
According to him, what the government is doing is to show that a government that wants to serve the people can fight corruption.
“We all know the implications of corruption to good governance. There is nothing you can do without tackling corruption. The government is trying to show the political will which it has done with a couple of cases at hand,” Mr. Esike maintained.
He expressed the opinion that the judicial system should take the blame for the slow pace of fight against corruption in the country. “The real issue is the judicial system that we are operating. You know President Muhammadu Buhari commented on the judiciary, that it was hampering his move towards fighting corruption. I think that’s the major thing that has held the government down in moving ahead. You may have noticed that he has slowed down in the fight unlike when he started initially and this can be attributed to the judicial system we are operating which doesn’t give the president the latitude to operate the way he wants to.”
Narrowing the fight against corruption to the Maina issue, Mr. Esike insisted again that the government has shown the political will to handle it though they are threading cautiously. “It is not everything we see or hear in the news that we should take hook, line and sinker. There are many angles to the case and I think they are trying to explore all these angles before they can take a stand on the matter. That’s the way I see it.”
Mr. Esike argued that “except our judicial system is reformed to meet the present day democratic demands, these kind of bottlenecks like we have in the Maina issue will continue. By and large, the problem is a ‘system’ problem not a political problem.
For Mrs Stella Olagunju, a retired director from the Ministry of Education, the fight against corruption is being done on surface level. ” The way I see it, they didn’t go to the root of corruption and we should have started there. Corruption has eaten deep into the Nigerian centre. The government should have begun from the Civil Service, uprooting it from there rather than fighting it from the top, catching only the ‘big’ ones whereas in the Civil Service they are perpetuating their evil and corrupt activities with stealing of all types going on.”
Speaking specifically on the Maina case, Mrs Olagunju said the way it has been handled does not speak well for the anti-corruption fight. Her words, “to me, it looked like they wanted to cover him up for reasons best known to them regardless of all their talk of not knowing and all. From what we’ve heard, the Civil Service didn’t want to take him back when he returned to the country because of his status as a wanted person. But he went to higher authorities who instructed that he should return to work. It’s a pity, but I think he’s highly connected. If not for the journalist that brought his presence in the country to limelight Nigerians would not have known.”
She expressed the view that the President means well for the country but noted that “our leaders should have listening ears. Many a time they get deceived by the people working for them, they don’t know what is actually happening. I think the President means well for the country but he doesn’t have the true position of things. Even his wife’s statement that his government has been hijacked seem to support that, still he didn’t listen to her. Maybe it’s his age that’s disturbing him so we pray we have younger leaders.”
When all is said and done though, she scored the government 50% for the effort in fighting corruption.
Mr. Pascal Nworgu, a businessman said the government made some efforts at fighting corruption but without much to show for it. “For this year a lot happened in the corruption beat or fight. There were some efforts they tried to make but it appears to me that the government will fight corruption on one hand and on the other hand try to truncate it through their institutions. Also from what we see and hear in the news the fight seems one sided. It looks like if you belong to or join the ruling party, your sins are forgiven.
“We have seen a situation where those who join the ruling party, they no longer go after them while those in the opposition, if I may call the name, PDP are being chased up and down. It’s not like I’m standing or speaking for them; bad is bad wherever it’s done but the zeal this government used in the beginning, remember they came in on the platform that this man Buhari is a no-nonsense man, but we have seen that his hands have been tied down,” he said.
Mr. Nworgu pointed out that the fact that Mrs. Aisha Buhari had complained that her husband’s government had been hijacked pointed to the fact that there were a lot of compromises there.
Commenting on Mainagate, he had a lot to say; “let’s remember that Maina came to fight corruption in Pension Funds. In the process, it was discovered that under his watch, money also got missing. That was under the PDP; he left the country and was put under Interpol watch which means anywhere he was seen, he should be arrested. But nobody heard anything about him. All of a sudden, he surfaced. If not for a reporter who brought the issue to the attention we wouldn’t have known that Maina was in the country.
“Fine, Buhari reacted by saying he should be sacked but that’s not enough. We need to take a step further. Maina didn’t come back to this country on his own. The family insists that Buhari helped him to come back, that tells you something. I really don’t know where the anti-corruption fight is headed.”
He further pointed to the alleged meeting between the Attorney-General and Maina outside the country as a pointer to government’s complicity in the whole saga describing it as a minus for the corruption fight.
Mr. Nworgu said “in the fight against corruption, government has not done well. I wonder if it’s because they are incompetent or they lack the machineries to fight corruption.”
Reacting also to a view that the judiciary is responsible for the unsatisfactory results in the fight against corruption, he said, “From our little knowledge of government in secondary school, there are three arms of government, all of them are to act as checks and balances. The Attorney-General is the Chief law officer of the country and he falls under the judiciary, which is supposed to be close to the executive while the legislature is on the one hand. If Buhari has the will to fight corruption and they say the judiciary is tying him down, I don’t think that’s right.
“There’s what they call veto power and body language is also another thing. When we were growing up, we didn’t know what was called body language in politics but they’ve made us to know that now. The body language of the President does not show he is serious with the fight. Rather it shows that he has soft-pedalled on the anti-corruption fight. I don’t think the issue is the judiciary alone. The Presidency is soft pedalling,” he added.
He acknowledged that they have fought some cases almost to conviction but insisted that the masses would want to see some ‘big’ cases fought to conclusion to truly convince “us that indeed this government is a no-nonsense government; such as the Diezani Allison – Madueke, past governors, Maina, and the NNPC cases. There have been some movement towards the fight but we have not got anything to show for it. They’ve made some arrests but that’s not enough.”
Mr. Nworgu scored government 30% for it’s efforts at fighting corruption.
Ms Eucharia Ogugua, a senior staff at the Federal Secretariat, Abuja said, “Simply put, this government has subtly legalized corruption among the touch not or sacred cows in the society. Therefore, corruption thrives among them with impunity, without any punitive measures taken against anyone of them while the governed has joined the press as toothless bulldogs who can only bark without biting.
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“Whenever someone is caught for corruption, the government behaves as if heaven will fall the very minute the public criticises it, but the next second it is swept under the carpet. Who is deceiving who? Is it possible for any man born of a woman to recall Maina to work without the order coming from the topmost top in the first place? He still moves about with police as security; the same police that should have arrested him. Who gave him the security? What has happened since then or to the head of service who warned against his reinstatement if she was telling lies? Who initiated Maina’s reinstatement in the first place and why? These and many more unanswered questions are a clear indication that he is among the sacred cows and his case has been swept under the carpet as usual because the people who are supposed to punish him are the master minds of his return themselves and they also control the judiciary, if not is he supposed to be walking as a freeman not to talk of holding a public office again? It shows that some animals are indeed more equal than others. They are not fighting corruption or should I say they are fighting perceived enemies of the government,” she said.
As an aside, she said, “let me intimate you that the Federal Secretariat in Abuja has been without water for close to two months because of a burst pipe, which floods the whole place with toilet water any time water is turned on, yet people work in that stinking environment. Can’t the pipe be repaired or replaced? Or is there no money earmarked for maintenance. Yet we are fighting corruption.”
Mr. Ifeanyi Uhuegbu, who spoke with the Next Edition from his UK base said, “fighting corruption in Nigeria is a very good idea. But the Corruption Czars lack the will to do it. The government launched the campaign that tells us fighting corruption begins with me. Truly it begins with me. But who is me? Government is you and I we’re made to understand. It logically means the fight should start with the father of the house, the institution established to do so. Alas! This is not happening. One would have thought with government’s claim, her officials in ministries and parastatals would’ve been thinking twice before accepting gratification. But instead of workers hiding to do it, they’re doing it with impunity. Which means the fight is not felt. You remember in 1984 when War Against Indiscipline (WAI) was launched, people thought twice before dropping litters or urinating on the street or even accepting bribe in the office because you didn’t know who was watching.
“The irony of it all is that when the people complain through the social media or the traditional ones, the same government refuses to follow their lead. For instance, at the airport, immigration and customs officials still collect bribes from travellers. This is made into videos. The government isn’t doing anything. There are videos on Nigeria High Commissions abroad collecting bribes to issue passports to Nigerians and visa to foreigners. Nothing is being done by the government, rather, those who complain and refuse to patronise corruption are vilified and made laughing stocks,” Mr. Uhuegbu said.
He said government must start the fight from within its rank and file for it to be effective. “I think the government must be honest with the people in this fight. Let the government start with herself by putting in place new rules of engagement. Let the process of doing business be transparent. Similarly, let the government educate the citizens on their rights. Let them create citizens enlightenment bureau where people can pop in and get first hand information on any government policies. Let the police force be reformed. The whole corruption war cannot be effective with an ineffective police force. You don’t send a poor man to arrest a rich man or an ignorant man to tackle a very informed man. It wouldn’t fly. The courts must be strengthened too. The judges and magistrates must be taken care of so that they can’t be easily lured into corruption,” he said.
On the Maina issue, Mr. Uhuegbu noted that it was an indication that the corruption war was not effective. His words, “all the buck passing shows the presidency is not in charge or it’s running a buffet government where matters that are of interest are chosen and others left out. When evil is not punished people will think it’s right to do it. Suspending or sacking Maina is not enough. The government should find out how he got back to his office without due process being followed. Those who breached that should be brought to book no matter how close they are to the president. I think there are some untouchables in the system. Those, the government must fish out and deal with first. If what’s eating the vegetables is in the inside. They can’t live healthily.”
Speaking further, he said, “this also leads me to the SGF’s and the former NIA bosses’ cases. Government can’t just suspend or sack them. The people will interpret it as mere cover up. They must be prosecuted. The truth is that most Nigerians in top position know nothing will happen to them when found to have been involved in corruption. Hence they’re not afraid of getting involved. I tell you, if the government gets it right internally, it will be easy for the public to follow.
“Corruption is a two-way traffic. If the person you’re offering bribe or trying to corrupt will not take it kindly with you, you have to sit up. But when you know what the gods eat, ‘sacrifice’ becomes very easy.
I think the government must go back to the drawing board and come out with a new proactive and effective way of fighting this monster called corruption. It’s really destroying the country. It increases the cost of doing business. I know some companies in UK that would want to expand abroad into Nigeria but are worried with the way we do business which is corruption ridden. It means the much needed employment will continue to be elusive to the people. When more companies invest in the country, more jobs are created and local ones expand and employ more also. The government must be honest with the people. The corruption fight mantra brought her into power. When she loses that good will there’s nothing for her to showcase because the economy is still comatose. Exchange rate very bad and infrastructure very bad. Crime is still very high. In fact, feel good factor of governance is not felt by the people,” added.