The protracted failure in fighting corruption, By Uche Igwe

With a few months to the end of his tenure, Nigerians have come to the sad conclusion that their president has got nothing to offer the country anymore, and everyone is now starting to look beyond him. President Buhari continues to dwell in his own delusional bubble of performance, believing that he may still leave a legacy of fighting corruption. However, scholars like Jibrin Ibrahim insist that the president’s footprint will be that of a leader who ran the most corrupt regime in the history of Nigeria.

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He was said to be a no-nonsense retired general who did not condone corruption. His slim and Spartan physical looks and infrequent smiles helped reinforce the perception. Therefore, in 2015, Muhammadu Buhari emerged as the presidential candidate of the newly formed opposition coalition, the All Progressives Congress (APC), and many ordinary Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief. These citizens were hopeful that if elected, the Katsina-born politician would be able to effectively fight the scourge of corruption in the country.

The idea of his coming back was generally perceived as a much-needed opportunity to get the country back on track. As a military head of state many years ago, he led a widespread campaign known as War Against Indiscipline (WAI), which mandated citizens to comply with law and order across the country. Predictably, his presidential campaign was anchored on three issues: corruption, security and rebuilding the economy. In his famous inaugural speech in 2015, the newly elected president promised neutrality in office, as he told a crowd of enthusiastic citizens that he belonged to everybody and belonged to nobody.

Nigerian Corruption Seems To Have Worsened Under His Watch

However, according to many observers, the Nigerian problem of corruption has grown from bad to worse in all the over seven years of the reign of Buhari, so far, and  many governance indicators have regressed rapidly. His tenure has turned out to be full of rhetoric and devoid of action. In practice, his government has been characterised by a virulent form of nepotism, with the machinery of government captured and controlled by a few individuals whose agenda favour only sectional interests and alienate others. The verdict is that although the president himself may not be corrupt as an individual, he is compromised in deliberately allowing members of his family and close friends to accumulate public resources, as he conveniently looked elsewhere. Among others, his personal assistant and relative, Yusuf Sabiu, who was unemployed in 2015, is noted as having suddenly become stupendously rich.

On Buhari’s resumption of office, many people had expected a new vigour in the fight against corruption, but this did not happen. Instead, a few individuals who served under the former administration of President Goodluck Jonathan were arrested and sent into detention for corruption, including former National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki, former Principal Private Secretary Hassan Tukur, former Minister of State for Finance Bashir Yuguda and other aides. Many observers saw these actions as the weaponisation of the anticorruption war for political objectives.

Weaponisation of Anticorruption War Worsened Public Perception

On Buhari’s resumption of office, many people had expected a new vigour in the fight against corruption, but this did not happen. Instead, a few individuals who served under the former administration of President Goodluck Jonathan were arrested and sent into detention for corruption, including former National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki, former Principal Private Secretary Hassan Tukur, former Minister of State for Finance Bashir Yuguda and other aides. Many observers saw these actions as the weaponisation of the anticorruption war for political objectives. Also, there seems to be very little coordination across the anticorruption agencies, despite the launch of the National Anticorruption Strategy in 2017. In a related manner, certain intrigues led to the arrest and subsequent removal of the former head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu from office. Many months have passed after the submission of the report of the panel that probed the former EFCC Chairman, yet their findings have not been made public. President Buhari’s ally and former Secretary to Government, David Babachir Lawal, was equally caught in a corruption scandal but he was never diligently prosecuted.

Preventive Approaches Yielded Results That Did Not Appear Enough

Although inter-agency friction among anticorruption institutions had not disappeared, the National Anti-corruption Strategy (NACS) introduced some improvements. Coordination mechanisms like the Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) became more effective. An agency like the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has gone ahead to align its strategic plan with the NACS. The combined efforts of the civil society and government culminated in tracking the expenditure of Constituency Development Funds (CDF) allocated to parliamentarians across the country. Although some progress has been recorded in this regard, yet the perception of the parliament as a rubber stamp institution, rather than an effectively independent arm of government, has been a stumbling block to the effectiveness of these efforts. Thus far some recoveries were made through efforts channelled at preventive approaches, rather than the usual traditional prosecution of offenders. A few highly placed military officers were also apprehended in what looks like a systemic scourge in the security sector.

The Absence of Political Will Continues To Hamper Policy Implementation  

Furthermore, other policies have been introduced by the administration. However, many of them were either disorganised or muddled up due to the absence of political will from the top. For instance, the Whistle Blower Policy in 2016 was meant to enable the government to recover stolen or concealed assets through information voluntarily provided by whistleblowers. Official sources indicate that as of 2020, between N594.09 billion and N700 billion naira might have been recovered through the implementation of the policy. Yet, this did not stop the harassment of whistleblowers within the same government a few months after the introduction of the policy. One Ntia Thompson with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was initially suspended but was later recalled after civil society groups mounted pressure for his reinstatement. Amidst the twists and tales of withholding rewards due to whistleblowers, one of them, Olarenwaju Suraju, has been harassed and even prosecuted for alleged cyberstalking, due to his provision of  information on the dealings of a former Attorney General and Justice Minister, Mohammed Adoke. To date, enabling legislation for the protection of whistleblowers is still lacking. However, legislation known as the Public Interest Disclosure and Complaints Bill for the regulation of public interest disclosure and management of whistleblowers was recently passed by the Nigerian Senate. No one is sure whether this would be signed into law before the termination of the current administration.

Civil society organisations like the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) believe that the scale of the country’s corruption has remained massive, systematic and utterly overwhelming. Other commentators insist that the regression in the country’s scores on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) indicates that Buhari might have lost the anticorruption war. Similarly, others see what is left of it as hopeless. 

Tales of Diversion, Bloated Consultancy Contracts and Misappropriation of Recovered Assets Abound

Several allegations have hindered the ongoing fight against corruption. One of the most embarrassing ones is that the Attorney General and Minister of Justice allegedly used his office to dispose off assets recovered from corrupt persons worth N4 trillion ($9 billion) in a manner shrouded in opaqueness.

Lawyers and anticorruption campaigners have frowned at how Mr Malami reportedly inserted confidentiality clauses into the multi-billion naira contracts he awarded to firms for the recovery of looted assets on behalf of the Nigerian government. He was also said to have demanded kickbacks from one of the contractors. Malami once engaged a set of Nigerian lawyers and paid them $17 million to help recover some funds looted by the late military ruler Sani Abacha after the work had been reportedly completed by a Swiss lawyer, Enrico Monfrini. A development that led to dissent and resulted in calls for his dismissal. The Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) once accused him of fraud and working against the public interest for insisting on paying $418 million to private consultants as a percentage of Paris Club refunds from funds belonging to the states. On 24 October, 2019, the Attorney General signed a new regulation on asset tracking and management, which empowers his office to take charge of the custody, management and disposal of all assets finally forfeited to the Federal Government. He later inaugurated a committee for the disposal of such forfeited assets. The courts  annulled the committee, while the regulation was declared invalid. Ladidi Mohammed, head of the Asset Recovery and Management Unit in Mr Malami’s office, was later arrested and detained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for charges bordering on fraud and misappropriation.

Well-known Verdict that Buhari Is Inept and Particularistic Is One that Everyone Has Come To Accept

With a few months to the end of his tenure, Nigerians have come to the sad conclusion that their president has got nothing to offer the country anymore, and everyone is now starting to look beyond him. President Buhari continues to dwell in his own delusional bubble of performance, believing that he may still leave a legacy of fighting corruption. However, scholars like Jibrin Ibrahim insist that the president’s footprint will be that of a leader who ran the most corrupt regime in the history of Nigeria. Civil society organisations like the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) believe that the scale of the country’s corruption has remained massive, systematic and utterly overwhelming. Other commentators insist that the regression in the country’s scores on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) indicates that Buhari might have lost the anticorruption war. Similarly, others see what is left of it as hopeless. The verdict of The Economist, a London-based newspaper, is that Nigeria’s president is an inept leader that has utterly failed to tackle corruption. For now it is a waiting game for everyone to see him go.

Uche Igwe is a Visiting Fellow at Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He can be reached on [email protected]