[A FIGHT NOT A HIDE AN SEEK MOONLIGHT GAME]
…in this new age, the role of the president in the fight against corruption
will be to provide the enabling environment for the relevant authorities [ICPC and EFCC] for an effective
fight against corruption else, the fight against corruption becomes his administration's
distraction.
J.F Dabo May30 2015
INTRODUCTION
True enough the ruling party (APC) gained success at the polls largely on the presumption that she has all it takes to fight against corruption. Basically this is bone up on a confidence in the personality of the then presidential flag bearer and now President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari. This claim, as controversial as it may seem suggest an objective stand of Nigerians on the fact that corruption is one foe we must fight hence, any thing and everything we would do or fell to do, say or be silent about from this moment should be in total disagreement to corruption. Indeed it is not a new known fact that other administrations did attempt a fight against corruption. But the bone of contention here is the fact that despite the numerous attempts, and despite the time, energy, and resources put in place to this regard, corruption is still a living reality and the only ‘fast growing thing’ in our life as a nation. The million dollar question then will be to ask what is left undone. And where we are lacking?
In this study, we shall attempt to prove that a successful fight against corruption is attainable only when we aim at building a genuine sense of patriotism and moral conscience in Nigerians than the traditional base on instilling fear. Secondly, bearing in mind the fact that President Buhari once fought against corruption in Nigeria and in the same capacity as Nigerian’s pilot, we shall assess his mode of fighting Corruption then and today’s with an aim at understanding the possible fate of this venture (the fight against corruption).
BUHARI AS MILITARY HEAD OF STATE 1983-85
It is worth while to note that President Muhammadu Buhari was a military head of state in Nigeria from December 31, 1983 to August 27, 1985. The then civilian government of President Shehu Shagari was overthrown in an efficiently executed military coup d'état that brought the Second Republic to an early close. This development was greeted with an outpouring of relief and joy all around the country and was welcomed by the nation's often contentious press. Reasons being the disastrous deterioration of the Nigerian economy, corruption, arrogance and the ineptitude of the Shagari led government as oil revenues declined from about $24 billion in 1980 to roughly $10 billion in 1983, external debt more than tripled, to an estimated $12-15 billion. The gross domestic production declined an estimated at 4.4 percent in 1983, following a 2 percent decline in 1982. Crippled by the country's inability to import raw materials and spare parts, industrial production plunged to less than half of capacity, while prices of many basic commodities more than doubled. Basic services collapsed as state governments fell months behind in salary payments to teachers and civil servants, who went out on strike in a number of states. The short-down of school systems, layoffs of workers, hoarding of commodities, and charges of extensive irregularities during the various 1983 elections also constitute reasons for the boo! Shagari’s government received.
One beautiful aspect of the Buhari led military regime was the reputation for honesty, dedication to the fight against corruption and strong stand against offending officials.
BUHARI’S FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION 1983-1985
At the take off Buhari the Military head of state, pledged to eliminate corruption and indiscipline, punish previous wrongdoing, prune public expenditures, and revive the economy. To achieve this, Hundreds of senior civilian officials and military officers were forced into retirement, transferred, or dismissed, as were thousands of civil servants. Hundreds of politicians and public servants were arrested and detained, including the former president and vice-president and former ministers, governors, and legislative leaders. Huge sums of cash were seized from the homes of prominent politicians and millions more were later uncovered in personal and party bank accounts. Several leading figures of Shagari's party, including Umaru Dikko, former transport minister and presidential campaign chairman, fled the country.
To further strengthen the fight was the establishment of six new decrees in March, two of which provoked considerable controversy. Decree 3 provided for trials of former public officials suspected of corrupt practices or other misconduct. Other decrees relevant to this study provided for the dissolution of political parties and movements and the creation of special tribunals, some for trying violators of currency exchange control laws, others for armed robbery and firearms cases. The corruption trials began in May with Victor Masi (former Finance Minister) jailed for 23 years in October and was the first official of the Shagari government to be convicted of corruption. Several other former state governors were convicted and sentenced to prison terms of 21 to 25 years for corruption and 10 to 15 years for illegal currency transactions. A number of officials were acquitted and released. Buhari’s short lived regime imprisoned roughly 500 elite politicians and businessmen on corruption charges.
The Gains of the 1983-1985 Fight against Corruption
Need I reiterate here that the dream of Buhari was to eliminate corruption; the question then will be was this achieved? The only achievement I see in the 83/85 fight is the fact that the government successfully instilled fear in Nigerians, a fear that will die off with the coming of the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida’s regime. During Buhari’s reign, no one dared indulge in corrupt practices, and no one guilty of corruption found a place to stay in Nigeria. May be the other gain will be that the fight helped in building the reputation that will make Buhari stand trust worth among his equals today, a reputation that will later bring him back to Aso Villa as president in 2015. But the result had no strong positive impact on Nigeria. This is because the fight did not eliminate corruption from the minds of Nigerians, it became simply a case of no suitable environment for the corrupt to carry out what they know how to do best hence, a pose and wait since the sun will still shine after the rain. Instead of building a mindset that detests corruption in the corrupt and all, the fight rather nursed a collection of hungry lions waiting to strike at any given opportunity. Sadly, the case is more devastating than of old despite the fact that a lot of the corrupt officials faced the law and were brought down.
The Problem of Definition
One problem we can rightly point out here is with the definition of corruption on the one hand and the fight against corruption as should be the case with Nigeria’s on the other hand. In the Buhari led administration of old, corruption was probably seen as damaging a part of Nigeria, when in fact it should be seen as damaging Nigeria. This explains why the fight dwelled more on fighting financial crime that is only a part of the whole, if in fact they gave robbery, kickback, exploitation, drug pushing, election misconduct and other abuse of public offices a place in their definition of corruption, they never noticed, or show they were aware that corruption do exist beyond the public offices. This is what we still see prevailing today in the current fight against corruption, and if this should push through I fear we will only succeed in cutting the twigs, and may be branches of corruption but certainly not its limbs let alone the trunk. I only wonder if then we can hold our heads high to say we fought to a successful finish.
THE GENERAL PROBLEM
The Problem of Underestimation
In my most recent publication, An open letter to the Executive Governor of Kaduna State titled ‘Come To the Aid of a Promising but Dying Nation…’ published in Vol. 6 No. 02 February 2016 edition of the Splendour of Truth News paper, pg. 4-5. I stated that
Our problem … is not fighting corruption in the context it is so reduced. It is more than arresting and prosecuting if in fact we know how deep corruption has eaten into us. Fighting corruption as is the case with Nigeria is far more than rebranding and something more closely to regeneration.
We have to a large extend reduced the fight against corruption to merely a fight against crime, crime and corruption may be related but they are not the same. We may think we are fighting corruption when in fact we are only fighting what I call the ‘crime of corruption.’ We must constantly bear in mind the fact that corruption is not only an abuse of public office in perticular nor of a good social order in general but largely the dead of a society's conscience. We may feel corruption is stealing from public treasury and what not, but I have an entirely different approach to the understanding of corruption. Fraud, Laundering, Election Offences, and all those abuse of official powers are merely products of the fruits of corruption. This will bring to bare the fact that corruption is like the concept evil to good. Simply put, corruption is a privation or lack of conscience. Again we could see corruption as an ill of the mind or an evil mind to mean it is not in the mind, it is another mind all together, a bad one at that. Hence, fighting it will mean uprooting the dirt, replacing, implanting and re-installing a new conscience.This will mean also replacing the vises with virtus. I am sure here we are able to understand corruption not as crime that is punishable through a criminal process guided by the criminal code of conduct but a moral ill that is curable through rebuilding an entirely new moral mindset. Few individuals (relevant authorities) could fight crime but the fight against corruption directly involves everyone.
Now, you may be asking, how it is possible to fight corruption using this defination. We must begin to think this way that corruption has two fruits, ‘selfishness’ and ‘greed’. We must see them not as the factors that breed corruption but fruits of corruption, the fruits of selfishness and greed on the other hand will be what we call crime, to include among others, theft, fraud, money laundering, electoral offences, use of ghost workers, diversion of projects, and other violent related issues. Hence, fighting crime in this context will be a useless misplacement of priority, this is because it will amount to an attempt to kill a teak tree by cutting it down or setting fire on it which certainly will turn out a fruitless effort since it will still grow again and this time more fresh, stronger and better. Note the difference here, while crime could be involuntarily or unwillingly carried out corruption is always a willful abuse or betrayal of one’s conscience.
Resting on a Shack
From of old we have always based our fight against corruption on a deadly fruitless surface. For instance, during Obasanjo’s regime it was a campaign by the then minister of information (Dora Akunyele) to promote deceit. By ‘rebranding’ we were encouraged to present Nigeria as a great nation and Nigerian’s as good people (self acclaim). Note: we were not call to make Nigeria a great nation, but to present Nigeria as a great nation. This suggested we should package damaged bread in an entirely new bag. Or give evil a good name. On the other hand, with the Yar’adua Administration’s anti corruption campaign, was the desire to start the fight from the top (Federal Government) level. He like Buhari took this war pattern on the background that ‘the resources in the hands of the FG far outweighs those of the entire 36 states and 774 Local Government put together. Hence finds it charitable enough to begin plugging the requisite loopholes at the federal level believing it would be easier that way.’ That was absolutely a wrong asumption and approach from my point of view. In Yar’adua’s case, plugging the loopholes meant allowing officials of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BBP) to be rigorous in their oversight functions. This may sound excellent except for the fact that since corruption is not an ill of the political system rather is a kind of individual’s mind, the excellent thought brought nothing but same corruption as it only succeeded in shifting enormous powers (that will later be abused) to the then Director General of the Bureau of Public Procurement, Engr. Emeka Eze. The result was that only projects that pleased him gained certification and ‘any project that fell to secure his certification was as good as dead’ as reported by O. Adeniyi.
It is this mindset of fighting corruption from the top that has so far made the whole effort look like a witch hunt or retaliation venture if there is a cause for that. Little wonder we find especially people from the opposition parties constantly accusing the president as only fighting against them.
THE NEW FIGHT
We can hardly make out a distinction between the past and the present fight against corruption as it is still the same pledge to eliminate corruption by punishing previous wrongdoing, for the prune of public expenditures, we now have cutting down cost of governance, and in place of the degrees we are likely to have new laws from bills past at the 7th Senate (this will be discussed in detail soon). It seem Nigerians have a placement for the current fight that seem to say it will be simply a temporal raising of dust as in the days past. This may explain why shortly after the swearing in of President Muhammadu Buhari, in May, the Ex-Borno State Governor now People Democratic Party (PDP)’ acting national Chairman on June 3, 2015 submitted himself to the authorities for onward processing on corruption matters, as well some other officials of the Goodluck administration also turned themselves in and returned stolen loots they carted away while serving in government. Which do not really mean repentance but to buy a resting place or a pay to rid the fear since by experience and through history we know (they would say) it is not going to last long. As if to say Buhari is already achieving his dream of a corrupt free Nigeria but this largely examplifies a moonlight hide and seek game. If my judgement is right, a many Nigerians would be seeing the recovery of stolen funds from Oil marketers, the Diezani Alison –Maueke case, detention of six Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) officials involved in N8 billion scam on June 2, 20015, reopening of investigations into the $182 million Halliburton bribery scandal among others as achievements recorded in the fight, to such people I say sorry for you are doom to walk the night as that is far from the reality.
New Laws Soon to Come
Of recent, there are indications that the Presidency is likely to employ five laws (proposed) to support the fight against corruption. These laws are to be drawn from the over forty six bills swiftly passed by the 7th Senate of the Federal Republic. These include:
Whistle Blowers Protection Bill.
The Electronic Transaction Bill.
The Nigerian International Financial Centre Bill.
The Office of the Nigerian Financial Ombudsman.
The Convict and Criminal Records Bill.
This is aim at protecting individuals who will give out information on alleged malfeasances in government, provision of a legal framework to electronic transactions with a view to promote transparency in governance, provide separate agencies to include: Nigerian International Financial Centre Authority, Nigerian Internal Financial Centre Regulatory Authority, and Nigerian International Financial Centre Judicial Authority. Other aims include to build an independent body that will resolve financial and related disputes in the Financial Services Sector, and to ensure a proper documentation of convicts and criminals for the purpose of keeping a record of criminal cases in the country.
The question is what difference this will make. Everything seems to dwell on fighting financial crimes and is centered only within the political circle. Yes, corruption largely deals on that but it is not all there is to corruption and corruption exist in every aspect of our life as a people. What about exams malpractice, exploitation students suffer in public tertiary institutions, prostitution, drug pushing, boundary related issues, arm robbery, bribery, election malpractices, illegal migration, among others, are these not corruption matters? What about the mode of the fight, is there any shift from the past? It dwells basically on prosecution and detention, need I ask, how long would they stay in the prisons before they are granted presidential pardon by future presidents who may likely train and make them their successors? How long would the present administration stay in office to keep this fear long enough to form the good tradition we long for? This are answers Nigerians and Government need answer. Until we learn to begin from the drawing board we will always find ourselves running round a fruitless circle.
THAT CORRUPTION MAY TRULY GO DOWN
There is one fact I hold so dear at heart, the fact that under normal circumstances, no one was ever successful over an enemy he did not know nor understand his strategies. Which is why I call for a redefination of the foe and fight since it appears we still have not gotten it right. Success of the present administration in the fight against corruption lies solely on the level of her understanding how deep corruption has eaten into the Nigerian soul. For with a better understanding she would realize that the fight should take a revolutionary form. Which is what we assump the APC was promising us. This explains partially why I for one choose to support the APC in the last elections. My belief was that upholding ‘Change’ for a slogan and ‘fight against corruption’ as an objective; the right thought is now home. By revolution I mean ‘a great or complete change in conditions, ways, belief, thought pattern, etc. that should affects all of us.’
To achieve this, there is need for government to involve other stakeholders in the fight against corruption. These stakeholders will include, Religious, and Traditional institutions, the media, Institutions of learning and possibly relevant groups and individuals. Everything; worship, traditional and cultural practices, education and other social activities should be geared toward producing virtues men and women for the future Nigeria. We should know we can only fight to better the future and not the present since fighting corruption entails changing the Nigerian soul from an immoral selfish soul to a moral, selfless soul. It is not what prosecution and detention will give us, no, a successful fight against corruption is something only a reformation of culture, belief, and thought pattern can bring us. It is safer to have a Nigeria where Nigerians do not see the need to indulge in corrupt practices than a Nigeria where Nigerians are afraid of being detained on corrupt charges. To achieve this, refer to the recommendations bellow.
RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
After all said and done, we would see at the end that the problem that followed the last fight against corruption lay largely on the fact that Buhari only succeeded in instilling fear than developing a sense of patriotism and moral consciousness in Nigerians. This study is by no way a means to discredit the Federal Government effort in the fight but a way of redirecting our thoughts for a fruitful fight since we all have agreed we must be victorious in the fight if Nigeria must regain her rightful place. Hence;
Government should learn from the past. Governance in Nigeria should be seen from now as a continual process. We should duel more on building a common sense that will aim at a single goal for the development of Nigeria. This government stands the chance of making this particular change. We should see uncompleted projects that are serving the purpose of hide outs to criminals completed and put to us, the implementation of the last administration’s National Conference Proceedings will greatly be of help in building a Nigeria where everyone feels a sense of belonging.
There should be a total elimination of such laws and programmes that breed corruption.
Respecting boundaries among the various tiers of the government is yet another way we can drastically reduce corruption. When legislators turn semi executive, judiciary turn legislators and the executive turn jack of all, what we will end with is a dysfunctional system. Also even within the executive, the various departments and agencies should stick to their limits. In the fight against corruption for instance, EFCC should do her work ICPC same, the Judiciary should do the prosecution ... no one should suffer interference from another.
There is also an urgent need for judicial cum legislative reforms and the establishment of a truly trust worthy and reliable independent justice delivery system.
There will be need to review the educational curriculum to include a study on curruption from the pre-primary through post-primary levels. This will help build virtues men and women for the future Nigeria.
Parent also have a great role to play in building a corrupt free Nigeria by impacting morals in young minds from a tender age that they may grow with a high sense of morals.
Government should redefined her fight against corruption and take it to its proper place where the aim of education for instance would be to produce virtues men and women.
Our religious Institutions should preach, practice, and promote high sense of morals.
The traditional Leaders should be encouraged to rekindle the fast dying cultural values of old.
Groups and individuals should be encouraged to establish good and healthy relationships through social activities as sports, tourism and a lot more.
Unemployment is one enemy we must fight to its possible end. I vehemently refuse to agree that there is no room for employment in Nigeria. We so claim there is unemployment because of the presence of a lot of ghost workers, many tired but not retired individuals among others. Little wonder when we apply for employment we are told to include such information as ‘working experience.’ The next time someone asks you working experience tell them rewriting CVs, walking from office to office seeking employments, cooking, farming, are all working experiences.
Problems as of the refusal to retire by the tiered workers are largely because of poor welfare of workers and the deteriorating system for the retirees. Government should work out a good welfare package for civil servants in that they are able to meet their needs and possibly invest for their future. Salaries also should be paid in good time to help the civil servants manage properly what they work and gain.
Then the implementation of the five proposed bills as originally passed by the 7th senate in the last days of her existence.
These and any other relevant move that will aim at building a new mindset that will sincerely embrace morality, love and respect for others and rid selfishness and greed should be welcomed. The fight against corruption is not to serve a distraction to government, it is one out of many espectations from the government which is why the president should let the media do the campaign, ICPC, EFCC and the Judiciary do the investigations and prosecutions, Legislators should make the laws, while the president go about doing his lawful duties. The fight will be better achieved when each and all do what we should do and avoid what we should not do. The role of the president in the fight should be more of guiding than the seeming high involvement. Let it not be Buhari Fighting corruption but the government fighting corruption.
My huble submission.
#God bless Nigeria
Jubal Free-man Dabo B.
@FreemanJubal, 08074962224
JubalFreeman@gmail.com
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