The Nation Newspaper

Tag: corruption

  • President’s partial war on corruption

    SIR: The President, General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB), should not be misconstrued as fighting corruption. What he is doing is recovering looted funds, and much of it is shrouded in secrecy. He has created a single account for the federation, but while he has control over withdrawal, he has no control over what ministries and parastatals decide to deposit into the account, or how they actually spend what they withdraw. So, what measures has GMB put in place to check or fight corruption?

    Recovering looted funds is as crucial as ensuring that funds are not looted. GMB has not passed litmus test in either case. Sambo Dasuki has made a lot of revelations, and then? Equally crucial is to know how GMB is fighting or checking corruption beyond the effort to recover looted funds, or is it that all the ministers and chief executive officers are too holy to steal or misappropriate funds?

    The 2016 budget does not indicate that the administration is financially sacrosanct. Let’s start with the presidency. The office of the President is apportioned approximately N20 billion; the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation is allocated approximately N17 billion, separately. Ultimately, the presidency is controlling approximately N2 trillion.

    The National Assembly (NASS) is another drain pipe. Its basic allocation is N115 billion, followed by constituency, N60 billion; NASS clinic one billion naira, etc. What is the size of the NASS, in which you have less than 2000 elected persons, and a billion has as many as nine zeroes behind it?

    GMB’s budget deficit is predicated on those excesses, to the tune of over N2 trillion to be borrowed. Where is the indication that GMB is fighting corruption or social imbalance, beyond trying to recover stolen funds? What solid measures has GMB put in place for economic checks and balance, beyond the noble effort to recover looted funds?

    Rehabilitation of displaced people will be endless as long as the Boko Haram insurgency imbroglio is not resolved. Equipping the Army will not solve suicide bombing, even if it solves face to face combat. Meanwhile, Boko Haram appropriates three modes: suicide bombing, combat, and visible sacking of communities.

     

    • Pius Oyeniran Abioje, PhD,

    University of Ilorin.

  • ‘Corruption must die if Nigeria must live’

    The Senator representing Ogun East Senatorial District, Buruji Kashamu, has said corruption must die for Nigeria to live.

    Kashamu, in an advertorial published in this paper, said all Nigerians must support President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-graft war.

    The senator, who said he was not supporting the war because he planned to switch from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), added that “corruption by whatever colouration is bad and inimical to our growth as a nation”.

    He said successive governments had made feeble and largely showmanship attempts to contain corruption with little or no results and without a sustainable plan of action.

    “But right now, a more promising and visible attempt is being made to tackle it. Even my party, the PDP, supports the anti-corruption war in spite of some reservations about the way and manner it is being prosecuted. But that is to be expected. While the current government thinks it is normal for it to proceed from the immediate past, my party thinks it should be all-encompassing.

    “In a nutshell, they – my party, the PDP and the government – are in agreement on the need to fight corruption, but the point of divergence is: where does it start from and how to go about it. Even at that, I am reminded of a wise saying which states that ‘you do not tell a man how to eat his own food’. The APC are the ones in government. We just finished our run and it is now their turn. They should be allowed to decide how to run their show and call the shots. Whenever and wherever they want to abuse the process, we can point it out and also use constitutional provisions to checkmate them,” Kashamu said.

    He added: “Let me make it abundantly clear that I am not in any way romancing the APC. I do not have any plans to jump ship. My position is not borne out of my personal interest but the interest of the masses who are in the majority and the love for my country. Our people have suffered for too long because of a greedy few who amass our commonwealth for themselves and their families.

    “The probing of the last government is and must be seen as a warning signal to those who will serve in this present government as well as subsequent ones. The lesson to be learnt from the present scenario is that all public officers must learn not to live as if there is no tomorrow. They should know that nothing lasts forever.

    “My earnest expectation is that this current fight against corruption will be unprejudiced, truthful and transparent. There is indeed no country in the world that is not plagued by the menace of corruption but the difference between nations that are doing well in the fight against corruption and those that are not is the inviolability of their penal systems. One other factor that could fast track the fight against corruption is the political will of the leadership. No one doubts the fact that since we have been having Presidents, this is the first time we are having a President with the demonstrable political will to fight corruption.”

    He commended the president for depleting the ranks of insurgents.

    “In spite of the isolated attacks from the Boko Haram elements, their capacity to violate Nigeria’s sovereignty has been clearly depleted,” he said.

    Kashamu said despite its perceived slow start, the Federal Government has taken bold steps to fight corruption and revamp the economy. He described the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy as a step in the right direction that will plug a lot of leakages.

  • Corruption bigger than Nigeria?

    SIR: Corruption is perhaps the most widely discussed topic in Nigeria. It’s the sole reason why many sectors and institutions are in coma. On Wednesday, December 9, Nigeria joined the rest of the world to mark the 2015 edition of “International Anti-Corruption Day”. And the nation’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) vowed to recover all stolen funds. Whether or not their vows will yield tangible results is what we are yet to be sure of.

    In reality, corruption has single-handedly led to the death of countless number of Nigerians. In fact, it has bedeviled Africa’s largest economy and most populous nation so much that citizens are only hoping for a miracle to liberate the nation.

    It is not as if corruption originated in Nigeria, or that she is the only country where corruption is pervasive but it is worse here because it has been institutionalized. The country is even confused as to what the scope of corruption really is. Former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, now the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido lamented in a CBS Newshour’s ‘Nigeria: Pain and Promise’ documentary that “In Nigeria, there’s no accountability at all. And that’s why I think the Nigerian corruption is worse in many parts of the world, because it’s the worst type of corruption. It’s stealing.”

    While Emir Sanusi believes that stealing is corruption, the former President Goodluck Jonathan is of the view that “stealing is not corruption.” In his hilarious but troubling “parable of yams and goat,” he symbolized the commonwealth of all Nigerians as ‘yams’ and the looters as ‘goats’. According to him, no matter how much anyone tried, these goats would always steal our monies so far they have access to them. What a belief!

    Just a couple of months ago, a mother-of-four was murdered while her husband, Godwin Ekpo, a ‘keke Napep’ driver, was shot in the jaw by a trigger-happy policeman because he refused to part with N2000 bribe. That’s just one of many reported cases. You can hardly do transactions in many government offices without inducement. It has somewhat become a way of life in the country. Meanwhile Nigerians console themselves by saying the above instances only represent the “low profile” corruption cases.

    Then what about the high profile ones? Naturally, names like James Ibori, Bode George, Depriye Alamieyeseigha, and Tafa Balogun come to mind. The likes of Farouk Lawan, a former member of the House of Representatives; Madam Diezani Alison-Madueke, the former petroleum minister; and Stella Oduah, a serving Senator, have also been mentioned in corruption scandals.

    Senate President Bukola Saraki is also slugging it out with the Code of Conduct Tribunal over an alleged false declaration of assets. Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), ex-National Security Adviser, has opened a new chapter in Nigeria’s corruption history: #Armsgate. He’s allegedly mismanaged $2.1 billion that was meant to arm the Nigerian military. Day in day out, corruption is on the rise and Nigerian masses are fast getting drowned in the pool of poverty. Frequently, cases of corruption are shouted to the high heavens, especially on social media, only to fade away after some months. Looters use different tactics—sometimes application for bail or request to travel abroad on medical grounds—to drag their trial. Is corruption, therefore, not bigger than Nigeria, the giant of Africa?

    Without any doubt, this monster is seemingly bigger than Nigeria. And unless corrupt elements are prosecuted and convicted accordingly, corruption will surely continue to grow. But Nigerians can make a difference by holding themselves as well as President Buhari and every member of the ‘Change’ government accountable. That is how Nigeria can win.

    • Kofoworola Ayodeji,

    kennydamola@yahoo.com

  • Still on corruption and other matters

    The former president certainly sinned against God, and humanity when, knowing how he had allowed a complete misapplication of funds meant for properly kitting the soldiers, he still permitted the trial, and sentencing to death, of 54 soldiers who, without  requisite  arms, were sent to recapture Delwa, Bulabulin and Damboa from Boko Haram. 

    Nigerians have been traumatised to no end, listening to the unbelievable revelations emanating from the $2.1billion Armsgate. No thanks to an outrageously weak President Goodluck Jonathan who, believing that his re-election superseded everything else, failed miserably to exhibit the expected level of responsibility over his six-year rule even though nobody has said he profited a penny. The former president certainly sinned against God, and humanity when, knowing how he had allowed a complete misapplication of funds meant for properly kitting the soldiers, he still permitted the trial, and sentencing to death, of 54 soldiers who, without  requisite  arms, were sent to recapture Delwa, Bulabulin and Damboa from Boko Haram. Without a doubt, their commander, Lt.-Col. Opurum, would most probably have led them to a certain death; a death they finally escaped because the redoubtable Femi Falana SAN, agreed to represent them at the General Court Martial to which they were hounded even when the military high command knew that PDP bigwigs had shared the money meant for arms and ammunition. It is equally unforgivable that, for exposing this evil, then President Goodluck Jonathan masterminded the impeachment of Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State and caused that unfortunate state untold political upheavals which, however, happily saw to the unmasking of the true progressive credentials of a once highly regarded Nuhu Ribadu.

    Many of those named in this murderous Armsgate have since been hauled before the courts but missing from the charges is their core crime: that of mass murder of Nigerian soldiers and others, young and old. The onus to prove otherwise must now be placed squarely in their hands. From the depth of their deprivations, Nigerians are beginning to talk on this and a cocktail of other issues, particularly  via the social media; the same medium which rankles our senators so much they would rather banish or criminalise it.

    Here are samples of what Nigerians are talking about.

     CORRUPTION

    “Like I did say, you don’t need rocket science to fight corruption. What we need is political will. There is a saying that a tree does not make a forest. But if you remove some trees from the forest, the forest will feel it. I have said it times without number that we don’t need to treat the issue of corruption with kid gloves. Nigerian elite are very funny. Nigerian elite love their freedom. When you accuse him of corruption, if he is actually corrupt, he will play one of two cards. He will play ethnic or religious card: ‘O! I’m being persecuted because I’m this. Oh! I’m being persecuted because of my religion. Oh! I’m being persecuted because I don’t belong to the ruling party.’ But there is one thing Nigerian elite fear, they don’t want to die. If you get two or three public officers punished by tying them to the stake before shooting, I can assure you that corruption will stop. We have had that experience in this country. When two or three people were shot for drug pushing, throughout the 18-month period of General Buhari, no single case of drug pushing was reported in Nigeria again. People who are stealing us blind are not up to one per cent of the population. We can afford to do away with them. We can afford to lose them. What you need is a state of honest people”-Niyi Akintola SAN.

    “It is only the very naive that holds the opinion of corruption hanging its hands by the sides when its existence is being threatened. To the corrupt, nothing matters, not human lives or anything whatever besides money and power. It is not important how many millions of Nigerians are lost to Boko Haram. Nor do the tens of hundreds that are lost due to bad roads. Agents of corruption do not care about the shameful high maternal mortality and childhood mortality rates in Nigeria. The decline in our Health Care Delivery System is of no concern to them. After all, at tax payers’ expense, they and their families have access to high quality health care anywhere in the world.

    “Our education is in shambles. It continues its downward slide year after year. Agents of corruption are not interested in the least. Their children and wards have high quality education, paid for with proceeds of corruption. The war on corruption is a war that must be won. No one should be above the law. Anyone who acquires wealth through dubious means or by abusing people’s trust must be made to pay back and be punished. It is irrelevant how powerful they think they are. Nigeria is greater than all of us. It is a shame that these rogue politicians and their collaborators are allowed to continue to exploit our docility” -Mama (Dr) Adebimpe Okunade -Retired university teacher.

    We have to thank God for little mercies. But for his love for Nigeria that made a regime change possible, despite all the road blocks, these revelations would not have seen the light of day and we would have been no wiser. While innocent civilians together with hundreds of our hapless soldiers in the North East were ‘sharing blood’ (apologies Madam P.) under imminent strangulation by Boko Haram, the PDP people were busy SHARING the bounty:  money meant to defend them.  Honestly, l struggle to take in some of these things -wondering how people appointed to serve could, together with their crooked allies, descend to this level of debauchery! Someone should by DEED POLL change PDP name to Peoples Sharing Party of Nigeria.

    Rawlings on my mind! – Dr Biodun Adu, Consultant, O& G.

     

    ON THE KOGI ELECTION CONUNDRUM

    “The conclusion which I have reached is not that I have, by any stretch of the construction of any of the provisions of the laws cited by counsel, affirm the correctness of the decision of the first defendant (INEC) to declare the election as inconclusive and, or affirm the validity of the supplementary election scheduled for 5 December, 2015” – Mr Justice Gabriel Kolawole.

    ON THE ANTI PEOPLE SOCIAL MEDIA BILL

    “Because ISIS is recruiting massively through the internet, Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump, two of the aspirants in the forthcoming U.S Presidential election, want some parts of the internet shut down for security reasons. Our senators here in Nigeria, for outlandishly selfish reasons, are clamouring for the same thing just so they can prevent the disclosure of their wayward ways, among them their incredibly huge quarterly allowances. Even with oil prices now below $40.  However, despite the security-related reasons driving the suggestion in the U.S, it is still a non starter. Conversely, our senators, with a once-upon a one-time activist, Dino Melaye, as its chief  motivator,  even if as a bag man, are insisting on passing a law to criminalise the Social Media in Nigeria. We pray they go ahead (for) it will turn out to be their very nemesis.

    The link below provides an insight into the US proposal.

    http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/12/10/technology/shut-down-internet-donald-trump-hillary-clinton.html?emc=edit_ct_20151210

    &nl=personaltech&nlid=55524476&referer=

    We are getting to year end, and, just so I don’t burden my readers with all these truly depressing post- Goodluck Jonathan revelations and thereby spoil their weekend, please come with me as I serve you this wisecrack from the distinguished Professor Michael Omolewa: scholar, diplomat and education historian who served, between September 2003 and October 2005, as the 32nd President of the General Conference of the  UNESCO, Paris.

    Mike -as friends call him – regaled me with it at a marriage engagement at which we were both guests at the weekend.

    A monkey, he said, observing people dancing and spraying money at a party offered to give one of the merry makers N50, 000. She refused everybody until it was the turn of a Nigerian university professor. There was a caveat though. The would-be beneficiary would have to answer two questions and ask the monkey one.

     

    Dialogue:

    Monkey: What is your name?

    Professor: XYZ (omitting to mention Professor)

    Monkey, all smiles, agrees to give him the N50, 000.

    Everybody claps, congratulating the Professor.

    Second Round of Questions

    Monkey: What do you do?

    Professor: I am a Nigerian university Professor

    Monkey starts to weep

    Third Round of Questions and the Professor’s turn

    Professor: Would you join us in the university?

    Monkey: Weeping bucketfuls now, monkey, holding tight to her money, fled back into the bush.

    I am still laughing.

  • Silence and sound about corruption

    Nobody needs to be extraordinarily bright to know that the Senate has become a source of noise designed to silence citizens who are enthusiastic about the war against corruption. 

    Vice President Osinbajo chose this year’s Anti-Corruption Day to appeal to citizens to opt for sound over silence regarding matters of corruption in particular and change in general. The appeal is to ensure that the war on corruption is won by the society at large, rather than just by President Buhari and his team and to prevent noise makers opposed to the emphasis on identifying and punishing thieves of state from seizing the nation’s political narrative from those committed to fighting corruption. Making the war on corruption a national task may require a roadmap by the government that citizens can intellectually and emotionally identify with, apart from pre-election identification of voters with the manifesto to dismantle the culture of corruption and impunity that has almost impoverished majority of the population.

    Nobody needs to be extraordinarily bright to know that the Senate has become a source of noise designed to silence citizens who are enthusiastic about the war against corruption. For senators who got elected largely on account of Buhari and APC for change to suddenly become obsessed with legislating against citizens willing to carry the message of enough is enough to venal political office holders and public servants must worry lovers of good governance. As if by design, senators on a war path with advocates of freedom of speech seem to have distracted many citizens from the real job at hand. Instead of being encouraged to speak against corruption by members of the party elected to fight corruption, the country’s opinion leaders have been sucked into a struggle against senators who have sworn to kill free speech by labelling complaints against corruption as frivolous criticism. The noise by authors of anti-frivolity bill has increased what appears like silence on the part of warriors against corruption.

    The Vice President’s call for citizen democracy is appropriate. Citizen journalism, facilitated globally by social media and other advances in communication technology, is a major factor in the enhancement of participatory democracy in the modern world. The impression given by the chairman of the House of Representatives’ Media and Publicity Committee, just as the myopia of senators on the side of a new law to gag citizens, seems to have no tolerance for citizen journalism. Freedom of speech does not exist just for professional journalists; it is constitutionally guaranteed for all citizens.

    But to the mind of the house chairman of media and publicity, the legislature owns freedom of expression which it can give to whomsoever it wants whenever it finds it convenient to do so: As chairman House Committee on Media, I must say that we cannot close space for free speech. We would like to ensure that there is free speech. And the only thing we try to enjoin is that journalists, who are trained, who know the ethics of journalism, should also join the social media activity so that we can differentiate between the grains and the chaff. I think that is most essential, but we should not leave it for just those who think they can just post anything. Ideally, I think it is very important that we allow free speech. With time, we will get to the level that we can regulate. For now, I think Nigerians will rely on them. We came on the platter of change and it was this social media that brought us to power and we are making effective changes on that; I think we should live with that. Ideally, I think it is very important that we allow free speech. With time, we will get to the level that we can regulate.

    Like Bala Ibn Na’Allah, the mind behind the bill to gag the media and citizens, Abdulrazak Namdas is a member of APC. The signals emanating from the ruling party in Abuja are enough to silence the average citizen. With two leading members of President Buhari’s party of change–Na’Allah feeling compelled to end citizen’s participation in modern democratic governance through citizen journalism via the social media and Namdas’ readiness to wait for a more appropriate time to regulate basic human rights, it should not be surprising that citizens are not as vocal as they were during the pre-election campaign for change. Conflicting signals from the ruling party are capable of confusing well-meaning citizens. If a party that rode to power on the promise of change and with the support of the social media operated largely by citizens from all professions now feels emboldened to gag those who use the media to blow whistles about bad governance, appeals from those in charge of the levers of power should be made to members of the ruling party to show consistent commitment to democracy and desist from threatening vocal citizens with primitive laws.

    It is futile to set out to regulate citizens’ use of modern communication technology to make comments about how they are governed. Social media has added value to democratic spirit and culture all over the world. Indeed, social media has expanded citizens’ rights to hold and express opinions without hindrance and interference. Beyond the traditional role of the journalist as watchdog in democracies, social media has made it possible for citizens (ultimate owners of sovereignty) to also function as watchdogs. Na’Allah’s quick move to enact a law to muzzle the media and Namdas’ willingness to postpone creating a law to exclude non-journalists from exchanging ideas on the social media point to the same unease of APC lawmakers with democratisation of the process of signification. Reduction of the power of mediation between sender and receiver of messages characteristic of traditional media and increasing empowerment of citizens to contribute to political communication is an inevitable aspect of modern democracy. The research wing of the ruling party needs to re-educate lawmakers about the futility of any government opting to control or regulate the use of social media and the internet. What needs to be regulated or controlled is the propensity of rulers to use power to control citizens rather than to enrich them. With the internet and social media, there is no more hiding place for political or business leaders who operate or plan to act unethically. All politicians and citizens are already well protected by existing laws against treason, defamation, and libel.

    The president himself can also help to encourage citizens who want to support the anti-corruption drive and other projects that can bring positive change to the country. Citizens need to know more about the soft war against corruption. Citizens deserve to know more than mere presidential declaration that thieves of state are already returning money to the nation’s coffers. It is salutary that President Buhari had discussed openly with Nigerians in Iran the efforts of his government to make corrupt individuals return some of their loot. But there are many concerns on the minds of citizens at home. For example, citizens are eager to know how much the government has collected from corrupt men and women; percentage of what is returned to what is stolen; who are the individuals being given the special advantage of corruption amnesty (as opposed to those bound to face open trial); and what agency is in charge of warehousing of returned loot?

    There is no doubt that it is, in the final analysis, only citizens that can assist any party in power to succeed in bringing change to a polity, more so one that had been hobbled for decades by venality of people in power. But such citizens need to be convinced by those in the legislature and the executive that the party in power is ready ‘to play ball.’ APC lawmakers’ eagerness to regulate free speech and the executive’s preference to be general (rather than specific) in talking about proceeds from an informal corruption amnesty to selected persons are likely to create doubts in the minds of vocal pro-change citizens. Citizens who voted for President Buhari and his party in preference to the PDP that has been in power for sixteen years had shown that they are ready for the sacrifice needed to bring change. It is the people citizens had voted into power that have to reassure voters that they too are ready for the inconvenience that a Change Manifesto can create for lawmakers and those in other arms of government.

  • NOA D-G seeks joint effort to fight corruption

    Taking over reins of power on May 29, President Mohammadu Buhari identified corruption as an evil that must be tackled if Nigeria would develop as a nation.

    This is why the National Orientation Agency (NOA) embarked on the sensitisation of citizens on the need to entrench transparency and accountability in governance.

    At the Ebonyi leg of the event which held at the Staff Development Centre Abakaliki, the Director-General of NOA, Mr. Mike Omeri stressed the need for Nigerians to promote value reorientation as part of efforts to stamp out corruption in the country.

    Participants at the event were drawn from the academia, civil service, traditional and faith-based organisations.

    Mr Omeri said fighting corruption is a collective responsibility; urging all public office holders to reject corrupt practices in order to achieve national development.

    He said: “Corruption has been repeatedly emphasised to be the bane of our national development. This is a social vice that has greatly impeded our developmental process and security; and it is contributing immensely to our socio-economic backwardness; hence the need for all Nigerians to have an attitudinal change and shun corrupt practices in all ramifications and also to make conscious efforts to complement the present administration’s initiative in this regard.”

    Represented by the Director, Political and Civic Education of the Agency, Mrs. Ngozi Ekeoba Mr Omeri identified corruption as a threat to national unity and called on public servants to lead the fight against the menace.

    The Director, National Orientation Agency in the State, Dr Emma Abba explained that the change agenda of President Buhari had placed a huge responsibility on the agency and called on all field officers to rise up to the challenge.

    In a paper presentation, a Lecturer in the Department of Public Administration, Ebonyi State University, Dr. Onwe S. Onwe identified lack of patriotism as the major cause of corruption in Nigeria.

    He said: “The war against corruption in Nigeria started long ago. Several military and civilian governments promised to fight it and indeed tried by setting up different anti-corruption agencies, but the end seems to be far. It is hypothesised that the environment of any society provides the necessary institution or platform for corruption to thrive or not.

    “Perhaps, the public officials have the capacity to recreate a formidable environment and platform that is capable of checkmating corruption in Nigeria. Therefore, the need for the role of public officials in fighting corruption is a crusade that every well-meaning Nigerian should be part of, at least, by doing what is right in our immediate environment.

    “This is necessary because Nigerian- the giant of Africa-is ranked as one of the most corrupt nations in the world. If corruption war is won in Nigeria, the war against insurgency will be easier, unemployment will be reduced, hunger and crime will also be addressed and Nigeria can regain her pride of place among her contemporaries.”

    Some participants called on the Federal Government to review criminal justice system in the country for effective prosecution of corrupt politicians.

    Governor David Umahi, in a message to declare the event open, stated that his administration was replicating the anti-corruption policies of the Federal Government in the state.

  • Corruption of justice

    Corruption of justice

    •The CJN says lack of political will makes the judiciary lag in convicting corrupting officials, and we agree

    Which arm of government is to blame for the delays that attend high-profile cases of corruption in the country:  the executive or the judicial arm? Whilst President Muhammadu Buhari believes the judiciary is to blame, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mahmud Mohammed, blames it all on lack of political will on the part of the executive arm.

    President Buhari bared his mind on the issue on November 23 at the flag-off of the 2015 All Nigeria Judges’ Conference in Abuja, when he told his audience that more than ever before, “allegations of judicial corruption have become more strident and frequent.” The president, who was represented by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the occasion, accused corrupt lawyers and judges of sabotaging his efforts to recover stolen assets; by extension, they are the ones stalling the anti-corruption war.

    Justice Mohammed fought back about a week later, saying, instead, that lack of political will (on the part of the executive) is a major setback in the prosecution of high-profile corruption cases in the country. The CJN said in a statement by his media aide, Mr. Ahuraka Isah, during a meeting with the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), alongside other Justices of the Supreme Court and the heads of federal courts that: “Experience within the judiciary shows that there is an abject lack of political will to prosecute some of those cases pending before our various courts, almost a decade in some instances. It is not because there are no special courts, but mostly for reasons of political expedience and other ancillary considerations.”

    Both the president and the CJN are right. This is clear even from some of the president’s observations as to why corruption cases linger interminably, when he observed that delays and sometimes inaction on some of these cases are “consequences of shoddy investigation”; a function that falls under the purview of the executive. Indeed, we have seen instances of complicity on both sides in many of the cases of corruption involving highly placed Nigerians. There are many instances too where lawyers used delay tactics in the trial process such that many of such cases do not advance beyond the preliminary stages years after the cases started.

    However, rather than trade blames, both the president and the CJN have a duty to ensure that justice does not travel at a snail’s speed. It is heartwarming that both of them have made useful suggestions on how to make the country’s judicial arm much more effective and relevant. The judiciary must, on its part, look inward and deal with the scourge of corrupt practices, real or perceived, within the system. A situation where some judges allegedly became billionaires overnight merely by handling election cases cannot be allowed to continue if the impartiality and integrity of the judiciary is to be protected. The judiciary must, in essence, be prepared to sanitise itself, to rid it of the bad elements soiling its image.

    Judges, as the president said, should not hesitate to punish lawyers and litigants who deliberately delay trials, even as the judicial officers should revisit reports of previous reform panels on how to improve legal practice in the country. A good point that President Buhari also made is that the Supreme Court, as a very busy court, should focus on key constitutional issues and not be bogged down by interlocutory matters.

    The Federal Government too must be ready to invest heavily on its prosecutors to reduce the incidence of shoddy investigation and other unethical practices that make those handling high-profile cases lose the cases that they ordinarily should win. It should ensure financial independence for the judiciary like the legislature and the executive arms, so that judges and the wheel of justice generally would not be slowed down by lack of funds. The judiciary is too crucial to the democratic process and should therefore not be imperiled in any way.

  • Reps accuse PPMC of corruption

    Reps accuse PPMC of corruption

    The House of Representatives yesterday accused the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) of causing financial deficit in revenue to the country.

    The Green Chamber mandated its Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) to investigate the subversion of due process  by the management of PPMC.

    The lawmakers’ resolution was sequel to a motion brought under matters of urgent public importance, by Ndukwe Nkole (Abia-PDP).

    While arguing the motion, Nkole said: “Funds from oil products, which is the main source of the country’s revenue, are being diverted by the management of the PPMC through illegal transactions.”

    The lawmaker expressed concern that some companies had been upgraded to the status of “Major Marketers” by the management of PPMC without the approval of the group managing director of NNPC.

    “This is intended to subvert due process and divert revenue from our natural resources, because the companies are now entitled to lift products with N500 million on credit line, “he said.

    However, Leo Ogor,  Minority leader said the investigation should go a bit further.

    According to him, since petrol was selling above the official price, the Federal Government should investigate and ascertain the real beneficiaries of the subsidy regime.

  • Lalong to lawyers: tackle corruption

    Plateau State Governor Simon Bako Lalong has urged  lawyers to contribute to the fight against corruption.

    The governor, who vowed to improve the quality of life of Plateau people through a transparent administration, made the remarks while declaring open the 2015 Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Law week and Justice Dauda Azaki Memorial Lecture at Crest Hotel, Jos, with the theme: Law, Corruption and National Development.

      The topic was timely, Lalong said, as it keyed into the change mantra anchored on using the instrumentality of the rule of law to check corruption in public and private life.

    “I have said it repeatedly that the Plateau State Government will continue to support every laudable programme that will enhance good governance and by extension catalyse the delivery of the dividends of democracy to our people.

    “You will no doubt agree with me, that as we strengthen the law, and fight corruption with the instrument of the law, our development as a nation is guaranteed. It is in this, that I find a charge for you as ministers in the temple of justice,” he said.

    Lalong added that Justice Azaki lived a life of sacrifice and service to humanity.

    He said: “I am excited by the feeling that, year in – year out, we have used the character of courage, commitment, incorruptibility and the fear of God in the life of this Icon, to encourage the judiciary and legal practitioners to live by their oaths of service and call.

    “I challenge society to evolve a mechanism for acknowledging good works when somebody is alive, as Berton Bralley says, ‘now is the time to slip it to him for he cannot read his tombstone, when he is dead’.

    He continued: “As we celebrate the life and times of this legal titan and jurist, who was courageous and fearless in the dispensation of justice and contributed in no small measure to the growth of the judiciary in Plateau State, I urge all to emulate his virtues of truth, equity and justice which brought dignity to the Bench and Bar.”

    The governor said his administration is committed to enhancing the justice delivery system.

    By some stroke of providence, Lalong declared, the activities of government in the last one month have revolved around justice delivery.

    “We will do all within our means to complete the High Court Complex under construction. As a practitioner in the temple of justice, I am very conversant with the role of the judiciary in enhancing the practice of democracy.

    “Law as the fulcrum upon which democratic principles and practices are accentuated, requires a functional judiciary that gives interpretation to the law and justly dispenses justice according to the interpretation of that same law.”

    “We, therefore, will support and strengthen the pursuit of justice across the Bar and Bench.”

  • Nigeria: Corruption fights back

    Nigeria: Corruption fights back

    Knowing how mercilessly they had butchered the national treasury, they came prepared to meet President Buhari toe to toe,  deliberately mis-characterising his determined anti-corruption war as nothing more than  targeting  PDP  top shots. 

    No, far be it that I would ever try to be clever by half. But outsmarting one of  the three  distinguished Ekiti elders I speak with a minimum two or three times  a week  – they sometimes  even,  generously, initiate the calls –  is about the only way to properly background this week’s article. Going by age, I refer above to Chief Oladeji Fasuan (84), a retired but by no means, tiring economist, former top civil servant, and pivot of that inimitable team that mid-wifed Ekiti State, Chief Dele Falegan (82), top economist and banker, and a former Director of Research, Central Bank of Nigeria, and the polyglot Prince, Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi (75), pharmacist, lawyer and mentor extraordinaire. You do not have these griots, and that rare privilege of reach, and be foolish. In a conversation with Chief Falegan this past week, he told me about an article he should be writing pretty soon, which article, God willing, you would read on these pages, about  a general misconception many Nigerians have concerning President Muhammadu Buhari.  This, according to him, is describing the president as BABA GO SLOW, whereas, he should more appropriately be branded ADAKEJA. That word, in our native Ekiti dialect, means he, who acts, very deliberately and stealthily, to inflict maximum punishment on the enemy.  Chief talks here of the enemies of the Nigeria poor whose identities are now pouring out like a broken dam. Thanks to a head of state with a single-minded determination to drastically reduce, if not completely eliminate, corruption in Nigeria.

    Last  week’s  massive ‘name and shame’ of  those who must,  at best,  be  a mere tip of the iceberg  (Dasuki, after the long showboating, is believed to have started  talking) of those persons Nigerians must hold responsible for the country’s continuing pauperisation and who, if found guilty by the law courts, must equally be held vicariously responsible for the thousands of deaths and the unbelievable  ruination Boko Haram has continued to inflict on Nigerians by diverting funds intended to properly arm our soldiers, has copiously demonstrated the president’s determination. The president knows Nigeria better than to rush into things like appointing every Tom, Dick and Harry ministers just so to satisfy some naysayers, and like many presidents before him, further destroy the country. Rather, he decided to, first and foremost, very carefully  probe into the Augean stable he inherited, using that very odious institution that has, like forever,  scripted and underpinned  the country’s  shameful corruption history,  namely, the Civil Service. For months,  PMB  engaged,  almost solely,  with the top guns of the civil service;  a people now described, with considerable justification, as EVIL SERVANTS – to get to the very bottom  of why Nigeria has remained perpetually  rooted to the very nadir of  the Human Development Index in spite of its massive human and natural resources. Everywhere President Buhari went since his inauguration, he has not hidden his single minded determination to fight corruption which, in his words, would kill Nigeria if we do not first slay it. A former military head of state, he knows only too well, how the military, like locusts, devastated the country leaving us only with massive hilltop mansions overlooking sprawling shanties that have become the lot of a clear majority of Nigerians.  He has equally observed, ringside, how our ruinous politicians have not helped matters, either.  He must have concluded that things are today far worse than when, as military head of state, courts sentenced people to decades long jail sentences before others from his military constituency came to completely institutionalise corruption and  made it indistinguishable from our very way of life.  This sorry state of affairs must be the driving force of the president’s anti-corruption war which the PDP corrupt ensemble has never ceased to describe as witch-hunting.  It is the reason Nigerians are beginning to see a near-dead EFCC, suddenly resurrect, naming and shaming individuals whose names you dare not mention during the Goodluck Jonathan years.  A caveat here, for the EFCC, though. As we have  come to know from the former president’s one time godfather, the inimitable Chief Edwin Clark, there was very little EFCC could have done since President Jonathan hadn’t the liver for any anti-corruption war.

    Long before stories of  the former National Security Adviser, as cash dispenser, hit town, there had been an earful of  Diezani Alison Madueke’s exploits in the NNPC, the undying Malabu scam, the serial oil thefts, and, of course, the massive oil subsidy scam over which Nigerians had to engage in the fight of their lives, to attest to President Jonathan’s complete inability to lead a serious fight against corruption in spite of all the make belief – Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah’s armoured BMW car scandal was a case in point.

    However, if the PDP never thought a day would come when it would be disgraced out of office and, therefore, got witheringly slaughtered at the polls, their fight against President Buhari’s anti-corruption war is, obviously, more hard-headed.  Knowing how mercilessly they had butchered the national treasury, they came prepared to meet President Buhari toe to toe,  deliberately mis-characterising his determined anti-corruption war as nothing more than  targeting  PDP  top shots.  Although on the surface  it looks  like Metuh  fighting a one-man  war, there is no doubt he is the mouth piece of an apparently overworked, if not overstretched, rogue rapid response team set up by the PDP to pour scorn on the anti corruption war. And they are not relying only on his now proverbial verbal diarrhoea to counter every indication of their people having, again, been caught in the act.

    And how massively they succeeded at first!  Sitting on billions in every conceivable currency, they planned, together with their private sector co-conspirators, and made a mince meat of the APC in the National Assembly leadership elections. So successful were they that APC, the majority party, now plays second fiddle to the PDP, with the latter’s members holding down the chairmanship of the most critical committees in the House of Representatives. So bad is it, that a gloating Senator Ekeremadu, a minority senator but the senate’s Deputy President- a complete anathema – could announce, with a swagger, that Nigeria is the only country on the face of the earth, where such depravity exists. How true; we have since seen this minority senator preside over meetings of the senate.  How long a weak APC leadership will tolerate that hanging shame remains to be seen; a National Assembly doing everything to suppress audit reports, which will not pass the Audit Bill but is speedily working towards passing laws to criminalise the social media just so they can protect all manners of corrupt acts. This, the reader should remember, is a National Assembly which, in over six months, has not passed a single meaningful bill that can positively affect the lives of Nigerians. But we assure them, that Jankara effort will fail. Nigeria belongs to us all.

    Just as the president is determined to fight corruption to the hilt, so are these corrupt politicians ready, buoyed by huge funds, and a battalion of senior lawyers at the ready, hoping to make tonnes of money. It is these lawyers with sated consciences, who go out there, waging war against a cankerworm they should be out fighting with all their God-given skills but claiming to be apostles of human rights; fundamental human rights that deny Nigerians billions of naira that could have been spent to cut down on our atrocious maternal mortality ratio, ensure that more of the approximately three million Nigerians living with HIV and AIDS have access to medication and revive our moribund education.  With some PDP leaders now named and shamed by their public exposure as sharing the funds meant to properly kit our soldiers, many of who were being  slaughtered by a better armed Boko Haram (hundreds of them were actually sentenced to death for not standing up to the enemy until saved by the president on the advice of the military), it will be fascinating to see Olisa Metuh out again, blabbing about “exposing  the hypocrisy,  the double standard,  and the dictatorial proclivities of the Muhammadu Buhari-led APC government in its orchestrated anti-corruption fight in Nigeria.”