Category: Femi Macaulay

Imagine someone trapped in an elevator in free fall from the 10th floor of a building! Imagine the person’s indescribable horror! Imagine the horrific consequences when the elevator hits the ground!

It can be said that Vwaere Diaso, a medical doctor, experienced death before she died on August 1, following what Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in a statement, described as “a mechanical failure within the elevator at the Doctors’ quarters of the General Hospital, Odan, Lagos Island.”  A graduate of Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State, she died two weeks before the completion of her one-year housemanship.  

What happened? How? Why?  Was the tragedy preventable? Who is to blame? These are major questions that demand answers.

Diaso’s colleague at the hospital, identified as Moye, painted a chilling picture of the incident in a social media post.  The victim was said to have been on her way to the ground floor to collect food delivered by a dispatch rider that evening. A frightening bang drew attention to the elevator.

The eyewitness described the initial rescue efforts and the victim’s pathetic situation. Her account: “They tried to use rods to open it, to be sure it wasn’t a joke. They finally opened it and the sight was gruesome. Muffled sounds of excruciating pain and agony became apparent.

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“Her forehead had a horizontal cut; her mouth had another one and she had raccoon eyes. She was lying in between the base of the elevator and the ground floor, with the engine hanging over her head, which meant any miscalculation in movement, she’ll be crushed to instant death.

“She was literally sandwiched in between the hanging engine and below the ground floor with blood on broken glasses and fractured limbs. It’s not a sight to describe.”

A precious period of about 40 minutes passed before rescuers called to the scene arrived, according to the eyewitness. “I remember telling her to relax and that help was coming,” she said.  The narrative continued: ‘Don’t tell me to relax, tell them to get me out of here.’ We eventually got her out and she kept saying she thinks she’ll die.”

Eventually she died in the hospital’s emergency ward.  Was the alleged wasted rescue time a critical factor?   The eyewitness said: “Emergency care was almost zero and inside a hospital for that matter. There was no blood in the hospital.” Would she have died if she had received prompt and proper care?

The Chairman, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Lagos State zone, Benjamin Olowojebutu, blamed the Lagos State Infrastructure Maintenance and Regulatory Agency (LASIMRA) for the tragedy.  He lamented: “In that same building, there is no water, there is no light.” He added that the agency had failed to respond to multiple complaints on defects and inadequacies regarding the doctors’ quarters, including the allegedly faulty elevator.

Reassuringly, Governor Sanwo-Olu immediately initiated “a thorough investigation into the cause of the mechanical failure,” promising that the investigation “will be conducted with utmost transparency and fairness, leaving no room for any biases or favouritism.”  That is the right thing to do.  

The spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Command, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, was reported to have confirmed the arrest of three persons, whom he did not name, in connection with the incident. It’s unclear how the suspects were involved.  

Ironically, during his inspection tour of ongoing medical infrastructure projects in the state, in August 2022, Governor Sanwo-Olu said his administration had begun the construction of doctors’ quarters in new medical facilities to improve the conditions of service for doctors and other healthcare professionals.

His words: “In the new hospitals we are building, we have included the construction of doctors’ quarters just as we have in Lagos Island General Hospital. We are currently building quarters for doctors in Gbagada General Hospital and another one in General Hospital, Isolo. This is to improve the conditions of service for our doctors and other health professionals supporting them.”

At the General Hospital, Odan, Lagos Island, where the doctors’ quarters in question are located, and where Diaso died, he inspected the first, second and third phases of the work done at the facility, which included the redesigned and upgraded hospital’s Accident and Emergency section, Surgical Emergency wards, and Training rooms. Others were the Pharmacy department, Catering section, Eye Clinic, Administrative Building, Ambulance Bay, Relative Waiting Area and Children’s Surgical Wards. He said the final phase would ensure a full upgrade of the Pathology Department and construction of new wards to accommodate more patients on referral.

That was a year ago. It’s unclear whether the issue of the problematic doctors’ quarters at the hospital came up at the time, considering claims that the killer elevator had been faulty for some years, among other alleged negatives at the place.    

Diaso’s tragic death was preventable. It further highlights the issue of escalating exodus of healthcare professionals from Nigeria, which has been blamed on poor leadership, corruption, poor remuneration and toxic work environment, among others.  

Indeed, the exit figures relating to healthcare professionals in the country are alarming. More than 9,000 medical doctors were reported to have left the country to work in the UK, Canada and America, from 2016 to 2018. Also, more than 700 medical doctors trained in Nigeria were said to have relocated to the UK from December 2021 to May 2022, a period of six months.

 The President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr Uche Ojinmah, observed at an event in October 2022: “Nigeria-trained doctors are leaving in droves for Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.” The situation has not changed. Healthcare professionals are leaving the country as if escaping from a hopeless situation.

There are consequences. The country’s doctor-patient ratio is alarmingly low, and is nowhere near the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) standard doctor-patient ratio of one doctor per 600 people.

With only about four doctors available per 10,000 people in Nigeria, it is unsurprising that there are issues regarding availability of, and access to, quality primary healthcare services in the country. There is no doubt that the problem is compounded by the flight of healthcare professionals.

When a doctor dies the way Diaso did, connected with a neglected malfunctioning elevator at the doctors’ quarters of a state-owned hospital, it’s bad for the image of health authorities in the state.  

It’s an inevitable question that urgently demands a reassuring answer: How will the Tinubu administration fight corruption? Last week, the question came up indirectly at two different events. It was indirect, but direct in its implication.

At an event in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, on July 10, to mark the 60th anniversary of the Call to Bar of Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), activist lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) observed that “The level of corruption in Nigeria has assumed a very dangerous dimension.”  He said: “We have a situation whereby highly placed public officers steal money meant for building hospitals, people are dying on our roads, money for ecology meant to fight erosion are also being stolen.”

Falana added: “President Bola Tinubu must show leadership and lead an anti- corruption crusade.

“Some of those who are going in and out of the villa are standing trial for looting the treasury of this country. So, wrong signals must not be sent to our people and the international community.”

This event was followed by a two-day national anti-corruption conference in Abuja, July 11-12, organised by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) and the Centre for Fiscal Transparency and Integrity Watch (CEFTIW). The theme was “Nigeria and the Fight Against Corruption – Reviewing the Buhari Regime and Setting Agenda for the Tinubu Administration.”

HEDA chairman, Olanrewaju Suraju, in his assessment of the Tinubu administration’s first steps towards fighting corruption, said: “If we want to go by what has been happening so far in terms of the fight against corruption, we can’t for now, say that we have any good reason to believe that there is going to be any serious fight against corruption.”

President Bola Tinubu’s inauguration took place on May 29, less than two months ago. About two weeks after he came to power, he sent a strong anti-corruption signal by approving the “indefinite suspension” of the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, “to allow for proper investigation into his conduct while in office.” The move, according to the federal government, was prompted by “weighty allegations of abuse of office levelled against him.” What are these allegations? Are they old accusations or fresh ones?

Just before Tinubu’s inauguration, there had been corruption-related allegations against Bawa that dented the agency’s credibility. For instance, the then governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle, had dropped a bombshell, alleging that Bawa “requested a bribe of $2 million from me and I have evidence of this.”

 Also, anti-corruption crusaders in the country, led by the chairman, Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), Debo Adeniran, had called for an in-depth investigation of the anti-graft agency under Bawa by “a technical Commission of Inquiry,” which would “dig into the modus operandi of EFCC investigations in the last three years by thoroughly analysing records of arrests, investigations, outcomes and final closure of each incident and individual suspects and how the matters were eventually dispensed with.”

The anti-corruption activists alleged that “Some of the commission’s officials simply negotiate with suspects, get assets and cash retrieved and do plea bargains. This opens limitless opportunities for corrupt bargaining and self-enrichment by the operatives of EFCC.”

On the performance of the EFCC under Bawa, they faulted his claims that the agency had secured 98.93 percent of convictions in 2022, losing only 1.07 percent, and noted that most of the convictions involved online fraudsters, and that high-profile political players were treated as sacred cows.

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It’s been more than a month since Bawa’s suspension. He was later arrested. But there has been no further news about him. The authorities need to say and do more beyond his suspension and arrest.   

The EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) are symbolic of the country’s fight against corruption. Fighting corruption is serious business, and these anti-corruption agencies must not give the impression that they are mere anti-corruption symbols.

Nigeria’s immediate past president, Muhammadu Buhari, made a lot of noise about fighting corruption, but positive results were hardly visible.  “We must work tirelessly to get rid of corruption by fighting it 24/7,” he said enthusiastically at an anti-corruption event, in September 2022, in New York, USA. “This fight is a necessity and not a choice to give our citizens a better life through economic prosperity, social peace and security.”

Contradictorily, five months earlier, in April 2022, the Buhari administration had made a move that was widely seen as a corruption-friendly action.

The Buhari presidency had controversially listed a former governor of Taraba State, Rev. Jolly Nyame, and a former governor of Plateau State, Senator Joshua Dariye, among 159 people granted pardon and clemency based on the approval of the Council of State following recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Prerogative of Mercy (PACPM).

 They were two-term governors from 1999 to 2007.   Nyame was serving a 12-year jail term, and Dariye was serving a 10-year jail term. “Both men were jailed for criminal misappropriation, diversion of public funds, and criminal breach of public trust and misappropriation of public funds,” the EFCC had said in a statement. 

They were not expected to be set loose without completing their prison terms. Their indefensible pardon was ultimately counter-productive. It sent the wrong message to those who occupy high office in the country that corruption-related imprisonment is not to be taken seriously, and can always be cancelled by the powers that be. 

It is noteworthy that as EFCC boss Bawa had said that there were certain provisions in the EFCC establishment Act that gave the agency powers similar to those under the UK’s “Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO).”

He explained: “Section 7, subsection 1b of the Act says the ‘commission has the power to cause investigation to be conducted into the properties of any person that appears to the commission that the person’s lifestyle and the extent of the properties are not justified by his source of income.’

“This means without any complaint, if it comes to our knowledge that you have amassed so many properties that are not justified by your source of income, the EFCC can ask questions. That is the simple explanation regarding the Unexplained Wealth Order .”

 Unexplained wealth can be inexplicable. The EFCC should use its power to demand explanations concerning unexplained wealth.  It is useful to have such power. It should be used effectively.

It remains to be seen how President Tinubu will tackle corruption. But there is no question that Nigeria needs to fight corruption, and win the anti-corruption war.  The people are tired of the monotonous song about fighting corruption.  They want to see anti-corruption results.

It was striking and thought-provoking that a journalist’s daughter positively hit the headlines and attributed her success story largely to her father’s human guidance. She understandably acknowledged the God factor too, and gave an insight into her father’s role in attracting divine intervention.    

“I remember when my dad embarked on a holy pilgrimage to Mecca some years ago. When he arrived at Mount Arafat, he called me to tell him a prayer request so that he could intercede on my behalf,” she recalled in a published interview.

”I told him he should ask God to make me excel in my studies and career. He did pray for me. But then I matched that with a lot of hard work on my part and the universe came through for me. So, in essence, prayers without work can’t give you success. They both go together.”

This combination worked for Aminat Imoitsemeh Yusuf, 23, who recently graduated in Law from Lagos State University (LASU) with a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 5.0 (First Class Honours).

The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, announced that Aminat “is LASU’s Best Graduating Student in history,” which she described as a “laudable feat.” The university is 40 years old.

The record setter got N500, 000 from LASU, N2m and a promise of sponsorship through Law School from a traditional ruler, the Oniba of Iba Kingdom, Oba Sulaimon Adeshina Raji, and N10m from Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and the state government.  These are sweet fruits of success.

She is from Edo State, and Governor Godwin Obaseki, in a congratulatory statement, said she “serves as an example for millions of Edo children needing role models as they journey through life.” He added: “She embodies the indefatigable Edo spirit and represents the best of us.” Sometimes words are not enough. Obaseki should follow the example of others who gave her a reward for her significant performance. 

Her dad, The Nation award-winning journalist Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf, deserves commendation for his contribution to her accomplishment. She said: “His consistent drive toward my academics made me so meticulous with my education, and eventually, I developed the habit of excellence.”

Her story has an unmistakable inspirational quality, and further demonstrates that females can excel academically.  In a country where girl-child education is not exactly on the front burner in several areas, the feat is a picture of possibilities.  It cannot be overemphasised that the country should do more to promote the importance of equal education, increase the available educational resources for females and reduce dropout rates among female students.

“In my own case,” Aminat observed, “I had dutiful parents who considered education a top priority and went the whole length to support me. It’s not the case for a lot of people out there. That said, I think society at large can help to change this narrative through the kind of attention, value, and reward system it places on education.”

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 Last year, on the International Day of the Girl Child, October 11, the United Nations noted that “Girls around the world continue to face unprecedented challenges to their education.” The situation is grave in Nigeria, which is said to account for more than one in five out-of-school children anywhere in the world.

The international body advocates engagement with government officials, policymakers and stakeholders ”to make more targeted investments that tackle inequalities experienced by girls.” It also calls for engagement with “key female influencers across industries to be the face of change we want girls to see as possible.”

Aminat can be described as a face of change. “I do intend to go into academics after my PhD, God willing,” she said. That would be a way of giving back to society. But she is already contributing to social development through a YouTube channel called LLA (Learning Law with Aminat) “The goal is to make available valuable lessons in all compulsory law courses, as a supplementary tool to all Law students across the federation,” she explained.

She is in the limelight now. According to her, “It wasn’t a smooth journey.”  She painted a picture that reflected the poor socio-economic realities in the country.  Her words: “My major obstacle during the undergrad days was basically financial. Legal studies come at a considerable cost. As the first child of my parents and considering our financial situation, I called home only when it was absolutely necessary, after having exhausted all alternatives.

“Thus, I had for the most part fed on very cheap meals, slept and studied in a not so conducive environment. But I wasn’t alone in this. I had friends with similar challenges.”

She lauded the Students Loan Scheme recently introduced under the President Bola Tinubu administration, saying it is “one of many steps the government can take.” She added: “There is still a whole lot the government can do to address the state of the education sector.”

I thought about her father, a journalist, and her mother, a businesswoman. I thought about a journalist’s life in Nigeria. I recalled a notable December 2017 report.  When the State House Press Corps invited then Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to a seminar with the theme, “Journalists and Retirement Plans,” he didn’t mince words during the event at the old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa in Abuja.  

A report said: “The Vice President recalled his brief encounters working with media houses as legal adviser, and how in all the months he worked he was not paid despite the irregular hours he put in.” He reached a conclusion based on this discouraging experience.  He was quoted as saying: “I realised first of all that this is not a profession from which one could make a decent living in the first place unless you find a really good way of doing so.”

It was a depressing assessment of journalism and journalists. Osinbajo went on to say why things are the way they are.  According to him, “There are a few reasons in my view why remuneration is poor. The first is that it is just simply cheating. There are owners of media that are just cheats. They just want to get something for nothing and that is not uncommon, it is a general malaise, it is not necessarily restricted to the media.”

He lamented that professional associations formed to protect the interest of journalists don’t do enough to tackle media organisations that don’t pay journalists enough or not at all.

This recollection underlined Aminat’s amazing accomplishment. She deserves a medal.   

Whatever Godwin Emefiele did right or wrong as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was done on Muhammadu Buhari’s watch as President of Nigeria.  If his suspension from office “with immediate effect,” on June 9, by President Bola Tinubu, is seen in this context, it would suggest that he is a scapegoat.

A statement from the presidency attributed the move against him to “the ongoing investigation of his office and the planned reforms in the financial sector of the economy.”

 A day after his suspension was announced, the Department of State Services (DSS) said he “is now in its custody for some investigative reasons,” adding that “The public, particularly the media, is enjoined to apply utmost caution in the reportage and narratives concerning this.”

Interestingly, the DSS has been in pursuit of Emefiele since December 2022, and had unsuccessfully sought an arrest warrant from the federal high court, which ruled that the security agency lacked evidence to support its allegations against him. 

The agency had alleged “various acts of terrorism financing, fraudulent activities and his involvement in economic crimes of national security dimension.” It also claimed that he was involved in “fraud, mismanagement of interventionist funds, round tripping and conferment of financial benefit to self and others.” The federal high court later issued an order restraining the DSS from arresting Emefiele.

It was curious that he faced such troubles as the boss of the apex bank in the final months of the Buhari administration; and it was striking that the court described the allegations against him as “trumped-up.”  It is unclear if the DSS is still on the old track.  Does the agency have a stronger case against him now?  Does it have the necessary evidence? 

This legal battle between him and the DSS notably happened in the middle of the CBN’s controversial naira redesign and naira swap programme, which the bank said was introduced to control the currency in circulation, manage inflation, tackle counterfeiting, and curtail terrorism and kidnapping.

 The introduction of the policy coincided with the political campaign period ahead of the 2023 general elections, and there were claims that it was targeted at certain politicians to ruin their political aspirations.       

At the time, President Buhari’s then Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, in a statement, said he backed the CBN in a Hausa radio interview to be aired on Tambari TV on Nilesat. The statement was titled ‘CBN has my backing in replacing Naira notes, says President Buhari.’

There was strong evidence of an untidy implementation, causing chaos, crisis and widespread anger in the land.  The scale of the problem prompted calls for a review from several quarters, including the National Assembly, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Governors Forum, the Bank Customers Association of Nigeria and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). 

 When the Supreme Court, on March 3, ordered the authorities to allow the old N200, N500 and N1000 notes remain as legal tender and co-exist with the new notes until December 31, it nullified the CBN’s position that the existing notes would cease to be regarded as legal tender by January 31, 2023.

The apex court had faulted the federal government’s failure to obey its interim injunction, issued on February 8, that the old notes should remain legal tender until the conclusion of the case instituted by some states to challenge the naira swap policy.

The court noted that rather than comply with the order, President Buhari, on February 16, made a national broadcast during which he directed that only the old N200 notes should remain in circulation.

This was a violation of the separation of powers and the rule of law, the court said, stressing that under the country’s democratic system of government the President or any other person could not vary an order of court.

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As CBN boss, Emefiele was understandably the visible face of the problematic policy. But as president, Buhari was the masked face, the powerful puppeteer pulling the strings. The banker was condemned, but he had a boss who deserved greater condemnation.  It is unclear if the naira crisis under Buhari is part of the reasons for Emefiele’s suspension, arrest and detention. But Buhari was clearly part of the problem.  

It’s easy to blame Emefiele for alleged corruption-related wrongdoing under the Buhari administration as the DSS did unsuccessfully last year. But it is puzzling that he served as CBN boss for eight years under a self-labelled anti-corruption government without getting into trouble.

He headed the apex bank from June 2014, a year before Buhari became president, to June 2023 when he got into trouble in the Tinubu era, which began in May 2023. He was a constant presence during Buhari’s two terms as president. The Buhari government inherited him from the previous Jonathan administration, kept him in office, and reappointed him to the position.  He got a second five-year term as CBN boss in 2019, the first person to be appointed to the position for another term since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999.

Curiously, at some point the banker had a dream, and saw himself in the presidential villa playing the role of president. Contrary to the Central Bank Act, he made moves, openly and clandestinely, to succeed Buhari in 2023. It was an unprecedented manoeuvre. The ambition could not fly while he remained CBN chief. By law, the occupant of the office must be apolitical and independent to preserve the neutrality of the apex bank.  In the face of intense public opposition, he was forced to drop the idea.

Indeed, when the CBN introduced the new naira policy later in 2022, there were claims in some quarters that the idea was Emiefele’s way of seeking revenge for his ruined political ambition by targeting certain politicians who were in the presidential race.  

Given his troubles in the new era, he is unlikely to remain in the position till the end of his term in 2024. Observers have noted that the move to suspend him strategically avoided the legislative approval that would have been needed to remove him.

 The outcome of the said investigation of his office remains to be seen. Also, it remains to be seen whether the leader who kept him in office will be investigated too.  

Dramatically, the Department of State Services (DSS) yet again demonstrated lawlessness when its agents prevented personnel of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from entering their Lagos office on May 30.

The incident, which happened a day after the inauguration of President Bola Tinubu, suggested that the security agency may well continue to exhibit habitual lawlessness under the new administration. It took the intervention of the new president to normalise the situation.

Tinubu’s spokesman, Tunde Rahman, said he had directed the DSS to “immediately vacate” the office of the EFCC, after reports of the incident were brought to his attention. According to him, “The President said if there were issues between the two important agencies of government, they would be resolved amicably.”

It was abnormal that a government agency acted like a bully against another government agency. But that’s what the DSS did in this case. EFCC spokesperson Wilson Uwujaren said in a statement that its operatives arrived at their office, No. 15 Awolowo Road, Ikoyi on the morning of May 30, and were “denied entry by agents of the Department of State Services, DSS, who had barricaded the entrance with armoured personnel carriers.”

 He added that the action was “strange to the commission given that we have cohabited with the DSS in that facility for 20 years without incident.”  He also said “By denying operatives access to their offices, the commission’s operations at its largest hub with over 500 personnel, hundreds of exhibits, and many suspects in detention” were disrupted.  

The alleged disruption affected cases scheduled for court hearings, and suspects who had been invited for questioning, he explained, noting that the incident had “wider implications for the nation’s fight against economic and financial crimes.”

The two agencies should be partners, but the incident suggests the contrary. The “roles and functions” of the DSS include “Prevention, Detection and Investigation of threats of Espionage, Subversion, Sabotage, Terrorism, Separatist agitations, Inter-group conflicts, Economic crimes of national security dimension and threats to law and order.” The EFCC was established “to prevent, investigate, prosecute and penalise economic and financial crimes.”

It’s unclear why the DSS acted with hostility on that day.  It’s confusing that the security agency’s spokesperson, Peter Afunanya, issued a statement that said: “It is not correct that the DSS barricaded EFCC from entering its office. No, it is not true. The service is only occupying its own facility where it is carrying out its official and statutory responsibility.” Perhaps the DSS found it embarrassing to admit the truth.

 Afunanya then, perhaps unwittingly, introduced a matter that may well explain the abnormal behaviour of the security agents on the day. “By the way, there is no controversy over No 15A Awolowo Road as being insinuated by the media,” he said.  ”Did the EFCC tell you it is contesting the ownership of the building? I will be surprised if it is contesting the ownership.

“Awolowo Road was NSO headquarters. SSS/DSS started from there. It is common knowledge. It is a historical fact.

“There is no rivalry between the Service and the EFCC over and about anything. Please do not create any imaginary one. They are great partners working for the good of the nation. Dismiss any falsehood of a fight.”

If there was no “fight,” why did he also say that the anti-graft agency had “reached out to” the DSS “for a final resolution of issues surrounding the property under reference”?

He added: “While the service has accepted the commission’s entreaties and certain concessions, sections of the media are advised to apply restraint in their reportage of the matter in order to avoid instigating any rancours between the two agencies.”

Whatever triggered the incident, the point is that the situation could have been better managed, particularly on the part of the DSS, which was the aggressor.

It’s a cause for concern that the DSS has failed to reinvent itself despite continuous public condemnation of its repulsive style and notorious crude methods. An instance of institutional aggression involving its agents in December 2021 illustrates the agency’s negative consistency.

 On the receiving end was the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), a non- governmental organisation focused on the National Assembly and its legislative role and activities.

  CISLAC protested about the invasion of its office in Abuja by DSS operatives in a December 29, 2021 letter to the agency’s Director General, Yusuf Bichi, on “intimidation and profiling of civil society groups during Yuletide.”   

According to the organisation’s executive director, Auwal Musa, DSS operatives, on December 27, 2021, “stormed” the office of CISLAC, the National Chapter of Transparency International, TI Nigeria, in Abuja.

 ”Laying siege,” he said, “the operatives demanded to see the Chief Security Officer of the building…our initial thought was that these were individuals masquerading as DSS agents…

 ”This thought was further reinforced by the fact that there was no prior notice, invitation or pending request from your office regarding any such visit.”

Any doubts about the identity of the invaders disappeared following a phone call from the organisation to a number provided by them. “An individual further confirmed that he was an agent of your agency providing details of his position,” the letter said.

CISLAC wanted the agency’s boss to “investigate those who carried out this visit and for what purpose(s).” In addition, the organisation wanted him to “call these operatives to order and charge them to be civil in their approach and not militarise our nascent democracy.”

The use of particular expressions in the CISLAC letter was of particular interest. The organisation described the said invasion as a “Gestapo approach.” It also called the action “unprofessional.” It further referred to the approach as “bad policing.”  

It’s curious that the DSS regularly uses methods that are condemnable. The agency should not continue to act without a sense of the rule of law, and should understand that lawlessness can never help its case. It should stop acting like an oppressive bully in perpetual search of whom to oppress.

After the latest DSS show of dominance, who knows what will happen next, to whom, or where? Which individual or organisation will fall victim to the agency’s domineering character next?  

It shouldn’t be business as usual at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) after the embattled governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle, dropped a bombshell that shattered the agency’s credibility. He not only made damning allegations against EFCC chairman Abdulrasheed Bawa but also claimed to have damaging evidence.  

Hear Matawalle: “If he exits office, people will surely know he is not an honest person. I have evidence against him. Let him vacate office, I am telling you within 10 seconds probably more than 200 people will bring evidence of bribes he collected from them. He knows what he requested from me but I declined.

“He requested a bribe of $2 million from me and I have evidence of this. He knows the house we met, he invited me and told me the conditions. He told me governors were going to his office but I did not. If I don’t have evidence, I won’t say this.”

Given his status, the gravity of the allegations, and the sureness with which he spoke about them, the governor deserves attention. It is understandable that Matawalle, who is facing a probe by the anti-graft agency, is fighting back. But that does not detract from the seriousness of his allegations in an interview with the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which should be taken seriously.

Understandably, the EFCC, in a statement issued by its spokesperson, described the bribery allegations against Bawa as “wild,” saying “Matawalle’s recourse to mudslinging is symptomatic of a drowning man clutching at straws.”

 The agency said: “But despite the irritation of his phantom claims, the commission will not be drawn into a mud fight with a suspect under its investigation for corruption and unconscionable pillage of the resources of his state.

“If Matawalle will be taken seriously, he should go beyond sabre-rattling by spilling the beans – provide concrete evidence as proof of his allegations.”

The governor should respond to the challenge. But the authorities should also respond to the governor’s accusations by launching an investigation.  When the leader of an anti-corruption agency is accused of mind-blowing corruption, the matter is not only about the supply of evidence by the accuser but also the pursuit of truth by the authorities.   

It is a measure of the weight of Matawalle’s allegations that anti-corruption crusaders in the country led by the chairman, Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), Debo Adeniran, argued that “Bawa cannot remain in office with direct corruption allegations against him, he must step aside to be investigated.”

They pointed out that Bawa’s predecessor, Ibrahim Magu, was “told to step aside” in the face of corruption allegations, and eventually faced a probe and had to leave the position.

The anti-corruption activists also made allegations that should be investigated. According to them, “about 80 per cent of cases under EFCC investigation are not taken to court. EFCC offices now literally serve as courtrooms.

“Some of the commission’s officials simply negotiate with suspects, get assets and cash retrieved and do plea bargains. This opens limitless opportunities for corrupt bargaining and self-enrichment by the operatives of EFCC.”

They added: “We are also aware that in December 2022, the Bawa-led EFCC announced its plan to sell forfeited properties. It also announced later in January that about 12 bids were made for those properties and, later, that six of those bids were successful.

“No details of this were made public, either to know successful bids or rejected ones. This was a ploy, in our opinion, to make the processes less transparent and, therefore, facilitate corrupt mismanagement of the proceeds or ensure that only their corrupt allies got the opportunity to purchase the assets at giveaway prices. The processes were rendered opaque and that’s very suspicious.”

They called for a thorough investigation by “a technical Commission of Inquiry,” which would “dig into the modus operandi of EFCC investigations in the last three years by thoroughly analysing records of arrests, investigations, outcomes and final closure of each incident and individual suspects and how the matters were eventually dispensed with.”

The anti-corruption crusaders also said “all seized assets need to be forensically audited with a view to recovering all assets re-looted or auctioned in suspicious circumstances.”

On the performance of the EFCC under Bawa, they faulted his claims that the agency had secured 98.93 per cent of convictions in 2022, losing only 1.07 per cent, and noted that most of the convictions involved online fraudsters, and that high-profile political players were treated as sacred cows.

The agency has not responded to the activists’ allegations. It is disturbing that there were more allegations against Bawa after the governor publicised his accusations.      

Matawalle’s accusations led to further allegations. So, the matter is beyond the governor’s accusations. This is why the authorities should look into the matter.

Interestingly, the EFCC is carrying on with its business as usual.  It alerted the public about “plans by some of the alleged corrupt politically exposed persons to flee the country ahead of May 29” when a new president will be inaugurated.  The agency added that it “is working in close collaboration with its international partners to frustrate these escape plans and bring those involved to justice.”

Is the agency believable? This question is triggered by the unresolved issue of Matawalle’s allegations, and other allegations that resulted from them. These allegations discredit the agency’s role, as well as its operations and methods, under Bawa.   

The outgoing president, Muhammadu Buhari, made a lot of noise about fighting corruption, but positive results are hardly visible.  It is unclear how the incoming president, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, will approach the question of corruption. But there is no question that Nigeria needs to fight corruption.  

It is counter-productive for the country to have an anti-corruption agency that lacks credibility. This is why the authorities need to address the EFCC’s credibility problem.

The anti-corruption war cannot be won with corrupt fighters. The war demands credible combatants. Without credibility, the EFCC is clearly a   caricature of an anti-corruption agency.  That isn’t what Nigeria needs to fight corruption, and win the anti-corruption war.