The fight against corruption is not new. It has been on for decades. How to curb corruption was among pressing national issues among public officials from the sixties. It has lingered till today for obvious reasons. It was a major reason the First and Second republics crumbled like cookies.
Corruption would not have survived and become a thorn in our national flesh if previous governments had tackled it with all seriousness. But, as a character says in Ola Rotimi’s play, The Gods Are Not To Blame, we have left our pot unwashed and our food now burns. Our so long has been too long.
The starting point now is the reform of the anti-graft bodies to purge them of the peculiar societal vices.
The revelation of the rot in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) by its chairman is mind-boggling. In lamentation, Ola Olukoyede, who recently visited President Bola Tinubu in Aso Villa, Abuja, disclosed that EFCC investigators are prone to gratification and bribery, thereby casting doubt on their capacity for thoroughness, probity and efficiency.
A bribe taker is not less vicious and dubious than a giver. They are both enveloped by greed. It is a paradox, an anathema. If those saddled with the investigation of financial crimes are fraudulent, the process and the outcome are laced with lies, prevarications, compromise, and hypocrisy.
A dishonest investigator has failed the test of integrity. The onus is on EFCC to examine itself. Olukoyede should try to identify the culprits, fish them out, and send them packing, thereby preventing the few bad eggs from damaging the time-tested reputation of the agency beyond panel-beating.
EFCC started having problems when it became a tool of oppression and witch-hunting in the hands of those who founded it. It momentarily paled into the government’s attack dog against the opposition. Anti-graft bodies were in the past used to threaten and subdue perceived foes for partisan reasons. Bribe-taking investigators also became tools for frustrating investigations.
The history of the EFCC shows that it has initially tackled corruption frontally. But, at least, two chairmen of the agency have left office under controversial circumstance. The implication was that its leadership was either not above board or the two helmsmen became victims of conspiracies in high corridors of power.
Olukoyede should try to maintain a clean break from the past to rekindle public confidence.
Corruption is the bane. It permeates all strata of society. There is a linkage between the cankerworm and poverty and underdevelopment. Having become the official culture, the unlawful behaviour is transmitted from one generation to another. It is more dangerous when the government becomes the greatest corruptor of society.
Corruption has made Nigeria a laughing stock in the comity of nations. The world no longer respects Nigeria on account of this. On page 305 of Femi Adesina’s book, titled: Working With Buhari, the perception of the world about Nigeria was revealed.
Adesina wrote: “London, May 2016. The Queen of Nigeria had just turned 90, and after a thanksgiving service, she was in conversation with the then Prime Minister, David Cameron, and Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. It was in the build-up to a summit on corruption that London was hosting, and unknown to Cameron, a microphone was picking up their conversation. He said: ‘Actually, we have got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain – Nigeria and Afghanistan – possibly two of the most corrupt countries in the world.”
Ironically, the proceeds of corruption are lodged in bank accounts in these Western countries.
Corruption manifests in various ways.From the culture of 10 per cent bribes in the sixties, the government has become a big contract for grabs. Contracts are awarded to undeserving, shadow companies that cannot be traced in the past. But perpetrators later graduated into outright embezzlement, money laundering, a guarantee of salaries for ghost workers, and pension fraud.
In high places, allegations of forex abuse, round-tripping, and dubious acquisition of banks are still being investigated.
More damaging is the growing humanitarian fraud. In Nigeria, it was being claimed that the school feeding programme was more effective during holidays when pupils were in their parents’ homes.
Reports of police corruption stare the public in the face. Policemen openly ask for bribes on highways, aid, and abet crime, and send their victims into agony.
In some states, governance has become business as usual, a peculiar tea party. Former governors, ministers, and top government functionaries are answering charges in court many years after leaving office. They are in a vantage position to use looted funds to undermine investigation, prosecution, and the entire judicial process. Trials of suspects last a decade and a re-trial is ordered. The prosecutor is fatigued. The case is abandoned; it is a waste of time, energy, and public resources.
The key driver of corruption is greed. The corollary is kleptocracy. They point to the collapse of indiscipline. It is the motivation for subversion and violation of the due process.
But, the culture of cutting corners by smart guys in government has come to hunt them. In discomfort, they now appeal to sentiments. Reality is now dawning on them that reliance on presidential approvals without going back to follow the fundamental due process can expose ministers of government to embarrassment or take them to jail.
If the corridor of power cannot be a moral zone, society is in peril. The calamity is postponed.
Many are those accumulating money for offspring who would most likely mismanage the stolen wealth in the future. Also, the children of the poor who bear the brunt of corruption are now taking their pounds of flesh as troublers of the same society. Their activities include armed robbery, banditry, kidnapping, and ritual murders. The corrupt gangs are not insulated from their threats.
There is a correlation between corruption and underdevelopment, particularly in Africa. After their reckless looting, the leaders later forfeit a blissful retirement and begin to attend courts, some of them at the twilight of life. Lack of contentment made them to steal while in office. In their old age, they do not have peace of mind. Their wealth becomes vanity.
Those who have passed on, leave behind a legacy their children cannot be proud of. Is a good name not better than wealth acquired in a dubious way at the expense of society?
If looted funds are still being recovered from a deceased military Head of State to the tune of billions, almost 30 years after his demise, it is an indication of how soldiers of fortune have silently ruined Nigeria.
A novel form of corruption between 2003 and 2007 was the election rigging. The sanctity of the ballot box was violated. It was a prelude to a legitimacy crisis in some states in the South west, the old Mid-west, and the Southeast. Those who conducted the flawed polls still battle with their ruptured conscience and sense of guilt, an internal version of punishment that inflicts permanent psychological pains on them. It might haunt them to their graves.
Foreign investors may also be wary of corrupt countries, which they may perceive as a threat to business. An atmosphere devoid of bribery, misappropriation, or embezzlement, to them, contributes to the ease of doing business.
Many years after the setting up of the EFCC and ICPC, corruption has continued to grow in leaps and bounds. Yet, observers have contended that the situation would have been worse without the anti-graft agencies.
But, beneficiaries of corruption are eager to jump at the opportunity provided by plea bargaining, which makes a thief who has stolen billions to redeem himself in court by paying pittance as a fine, thereby escaping jail to continue to enjoy his loot in freedom.
Apart from the challenges of the economy and security, President Bola Tinubu also has to reinvigorate the anti-graft war in the national interest. His administration has promised Nigerians many developmental and poverty-reducing programmes. He needs a lot of money to implement the programmes. And he cannot ask fellow citizens to continue to tighten their belts, like a deceitful former leader did, while he and his lieutenants fed fat. The recovery of looted public funds would enable him to implement his administration’s programmes without recourse to borrowing.
Instead of looking forward to the arrest of corrupt officials, institutional frameworks for preventing sleaze should be strengthened in the public service. Loopholes should be effectively plugged. Those who have stolen should not be allowed to go scot-free to mock Nigeria. What has been taken illegally should be retrieved from them.
Physical contact with cash should be discouraged in favour of automated processes and systems.
The step taken by the President in suspending his Humanitarian Affairs minister over allegations of corruption is laudable. The investigation is still on. The anti-corruption battle should not be a respecter of persons, big or small. It would serve as a deterrent to others to be more careful and imbibe the right values.
Ministers, special advisers, other aides, and top civil servants are likely to adjust to the body language of the President, particularly his inclination towards tough measures against corruption.
Speedy prosecution of suspects in special courts or tribunals, and adequate punitive measures, including recovery of the looted funds, long jail terms, and a ban from politics, may be more effective.
Nigeria should resolve to kill corruption so that corruption will not kill the country. There is a need to reduce it to the barest minimum. Our national survival and global reputation rests squarely on how far we can go collectively in the fight against graft.
