HOW PRESIDENT BUHARI HAS TURNED ANTI-CORRUPTION WAR INTO A COMPLETE JOKE

The president has not satisfactorily lived up to his tough words on corruption during his election campaign.

Last week, while addressing representatives of several civil society organisations in Abuja, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo laid some of the blame for the government's fairly unsuccessful anti-graft war at the feet of Nigerians.

"I don't think that the people, especially the civil society have shown enough outrage that one expects in order to consistently beam searchlight on the perpetrators.

"People come and ask where are the convictions but I say where are the campaigns, we should be able to point out these persons so that they will not be able to spend these monies," the Vice President said.

Osinbajo's subtle dig at the Nigerian populace is completely divorced from the wave of populist sentiments that swept President Muhammadu Buhari to power just a little over two years ago.

The president's major selling point as the right candidate for the country was the promise that he could rid the government of the stench of corruption that has plagued it for as long as anyone can remember.

His campaign trumpeted his anti-corruption history as a military Head of State in the 80s and a man of incorruptible integrity that'll rein in the practice of financial mismanagement in the country's corridors of power.

With the results of the 2015 presidential elections, it is fair to say that the Nigerian people were clearly convinced.

However, more than two years down the line, maybe it's time to admit that we've been sold a dummy by the president.

Well before President Buhari's electoral victory, his opposition had long pointed to the hypocrisy of his anti-corruption mandate, especially in light of the political company that he keeps.

Political detractors and neutral sceptics, for their own reasons, indicated that the president's anti-corruption rhetoric was nothing but smoke and mirrors that'll lack the sort of depth that the Nigerian people were desperately hoping for to arrest a very disappointing slide into financial anarchy.

Since the president assumed his mandate, it's an understatement to say the war on corruption has been anything but underwhelming.

One of the most pronounced problems of the anti-corruption campaign is the absolute lack of any meaningful high profile conviction.

While Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, has maintained that the ministry recovers stolen funds, like, every day even though she won't account for exact figures, the number of high profile offenders going to jail for stealing in the first place is practically non-existent.

For example, former governor of Adamawa state, Bala Ngilari, was sentenced by the state's High Court to five years in prison on March 6, 2017, after he was accused by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of processing a N169 million contract without due process.

Not only was he sentenced to a prison of his own choosing, he was controversially granted bail only weeks later after citing medical concerns that included high blood pressure, diabetes and insomnia.

On July 20, a Court of Appeal in Yola dismissed all charges against Ngilari and set him free due to lack of merit and sufficient proof of the allegations against him.

Ngilari's case is representative of President Buhari's administration's anti-corruption campaign: disorderly and largely ineffective.

The government can make a case that it is recovering millions of stolen wealth all it wants, but without notable culprits to use as deterrents, it lacks required steam to front itself as a success.

The argument has been made several times by officials close to the presidency that corruption cases are very hard to prosecute especially in line with the dictates of the nation's laws, and this has some merit to it, so one might have a problem blaming the president for something that's so clearly out of his hands.

Except he isn't doing so well with what he actually has power over.

After months of mounting pressure, President Buhari suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal on April 19 due to allegations of his complicity in the misappropriation of funds earmarked for the welfare of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) through the Presidential Initiative on North East (PINE).