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).
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