Ages of material denials and nutritional lacks to which many Nigerians have been subjected might indeed have been factors in horribly diminished human emotional and psychological capacities. Such situation might also have worsened not quite a few into deeds that outright, equated them with feral beasts in the jungle! In and for Nigeria, perennial hatred foisted upon the ruled in the guise of corruption-enforced denials, have made serial unleashing of violent and destructive robberies, kidnapping, rituals, the Boko Haram insurgencies and herdsmen’s rages, a long due, eminently predictable certitude!
Tackling corruption menace must definitely be a necessary step towards easing livelihoods, as a precondition for reworking psychologies and revolutionising consciences to tally with ethos often presumed for modern beings. This must be more appealing against the subsisting sentencing which has worsted quite a number into sub-humans, vampires who today populate our terrains, foisting Attilan orgies with psychopathic glee. Can Nigeria logically escape making such move?
Despite crying needs for genuine war against ‘fantastic’ narratives on corruption, attempts at correcting the ill by previous regimes were so tepid that a president, in a moment when speech preceded reason, declared “stealing is not corruption”. This was a time when indices of development went to an all-time low, foreign reserves declined, and humongous cash of various sums vanished from the national till in quanta as could if emptied halt the flow of the Atlantic!
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who has been in the vanguard of anti-corruption advocacies, latching upon personal record of distinctions and probity, has mounted efforts on several fronts, seeking partnerships for synergies against a menace that has crippled so-labelled ‘Giant of Africa’ on all indices of growth.
In and outside the country, Osinbajo, who has met with diplomats/ambassadors, established and budding business community, ranking academics, journalists, professionals/technocrats, youth groups and foreign leaders, alongside every other conceivable clan, have maintained getting out of the bogey of corruption must be a cooperative effort.
Could he have been wrong to assert that economic recession which really “messed up our economy” and which Nigeria just came out of, had been consequent upon huge corruption of the past? Is the VP exaggerating the picture of corruption and seeking cheap sympathy for a needless cause? Evidences will not back such affirmations.
Should Nigeria, in all honesty and given available statistics, not be embarrassed by the narrative on corruption? A piece of message recently unleashed cannot but unsettle sanities. One report says Nigeria earned a total of N51 trillion from petroleum resources alone during the five-year presidency of Goodluck Jonathan which is part of entire N96.212trillion the country earned in 58 years of selling crude. Are these not justifying Osinbajo’s position that stealing during the Jonathan administration was indeed grand!
Despite the earnings, the Jonathan presidency foisted so much ills that infrastructure collapsed, power generation nosedived to as low as 2,800 megawatts, and recession, predictable end for initial record breaking financial haemorrhage, set in soon just as the Jonathan administration exited in 2015.
In a parley with non-career ambassadors-designate recently, Osinbajo explained “Corruption is an existential issue that will affect whether our country survives, and we must go beyond talking about it to acting,” urging them to help change “the embarrassing narrative on corruption and improve the nation’s image abroad.”
Of all, his assertion that Nigeria is poor not for lacking resources needed for growth, but because its resources are either stolen or mismanaged, encapsulates the very spirit engendering the rage against the error and needs to mount barricades against its flow. Justifying his ‘grand’ corruption thesis, VP said it is the type that would not make execution of major development projects possible.
At the 2017 graduation ceremony of the Nigerian Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Plateau State, he explained “for the first time in five years government was able to save $500million, and invested another $500million in the Sovereign Wealth Fund.”
Buhari’s accountability has done more for Nigeria, though. External reserves now stand at $35billion, highest in the past four years, and the country has been able to undertake far more projects with far less income. Capital funding has increased by 400% in Power, Works and Housing, Defence, Transportation and Agriculture.
Aside escaping recession, Nigeria is recovering on other fronts. When Nigeria was making $110 per barrel on crude oil, the Jonathan administration had little to show in terms of infrastructure. Today with the crude at the maximum of $64, performance has remained high. One evidence is power generation which now stands above 7,000 megawatts, a feat, the immediate implication of which is availability of more electricity for Nigerians and consequent improvements to lives!
From the accolades by the international community, especially Africa’s 100 leaders, to the Ease of Doing Business report by the World Bank which equally asserted that the economy has been growing, there are concrete pointers that the anti-corruption efforts, as championed by President Buhari and monitored by the vice president, have moved the country up the desirable scale. Through the National Economic Council, Osinbajo is crafting final resolution to herdsmen crisis.
The Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), inaugurated in 2016 by the president and chaired by his vice is equally set to present for approval specific reforms to be implemented over a 60-day time frame in the National Action Plan 2.0. The N-Power and School Feeding Programmes for primary school pupils are efforts to drive grassroots supports.
During his emissary to the Niger Delta, VP assured the community President Buhari would deliver on his promises on the implementation of the Niger Delta New Vision regarding clean-up of oil spillage and environmental degradation in the Ogoni enclave, funding and taking off of Maritime University, the modular refineries, implementation of presidential amnesty programme, employment of the youths, alongside other redemptive programmes. His emissary to the Northeast has equally been a success story.
But the achievements have not stopped anti-corruption critics. One of such, Senate President Bukola Saraki, lamented he was not convinced about the administration’s genuineness of purpose in the fight against corruption. He also believes the fight has failed essentially as the administration has preferred ‘punishment’ to ‘deterrence’.
Others claim the war has been selective and one-sided, focussing only perceived enemies of government. But the critics have never said those being alleged did not at all commit the crime! They could not have, as there are more than enough evidence linking crimes and perpetrators. Some of such elements have even accepted out of court settlement!
The stance of the National Assembly (NASS) is unsettling. If Osinbajo believes reversing corruption narrative requires cooperative efforts, NASS’ supports of which are crucial to driving critical institutional frameworks in the regard, seem unprepared yet to offer such. Aside the fact that the lawmakers have thrice rejected ratifying the nomination of Ibrahim Magu as head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), a House of Representatives member recently proposed a bill to give ‘soft landing’ to perpetrators of graft and beneficiaries of illegal money! EFCC’s allegations against Saraki have equally been a serious albatross upon Nigeria’s upper legislative chambers.
Saraki is also blameworthy in his one-sided, rather sweeping, dismissal of the anti-corruption fight. Buhari cannot prioritise deterrence; neither should he focus only punishment. The two must be simultaneously deployed in the logjam, and they have gained equal focus so far. But NASS has a role to play still in mounting solid institutional props to oppose and control corruption. Executive-legislature faceoff would hardly do. How President Buhari navigates the stormy waters to wean the lawmakers off their current posturing will recalibrate the tempo of progress and redefine successes in prosecuting the war on graft. Let’s make Nigeria free for all.