This article, first published 2 December 2012 but now edited, here and there, looks to me, reminiscent of why some our otherwise resected generals have become restless since President Muhammad Buhari said some oil blocks are not renewable. Could they be thinking this is a pointer to a new Buhari at his second coming? Panic button!
Then in 2012, I wrote: President Goodluck Jonathan did not introduce virulent corruption to Nigeria . Nor did Babangida, whatever he might have done to socialise it. That honour should rightly belong to the late Major-General Yar’ Adua who, from his Katsina redoubt, corrupted the political process by sending huge sums of money to all constituencies in Nigeria as logistic support towards his presidential ambition in the early ‘90’s.
In the Awo days, nothing made an Action Group member, more proud than showing his party monthly contribution card. At that point in Nigerian history, members truly owned their political parties.
What is true today, however, is that under the current Jonathan presidency, corruption has multiplied a hundred fold largely because of his audacity in defying PDP’s zoning policy in 2011 and the concomitant necessity to outspend the Atiku campaign which, in itself, was by no means cheap. That humongous funding would come mostly from sources known and unknown, and the misguided attempt to remove oil subsidy in January this year was intended to allow those who funded it, recoup their ‘investment’, via fictitious oil subsidy claims which ran into trillions. This contributed, in no small measure, to what a recent PUNCH investigation showed as a total of N5 Trillion in stolen funds under the Jonathan government, but which former CBN governor, Professor Charles Soludo, later put at N30 Trillion in Jonathan’s six years.
The above notwithstanding, I am positive that President Goodluck Jonathan can still translate to a statesman, even, Father of the nation, if he would now go after the rogues, big and small. And he will not be re-inventing the wheel. Rather, he is being called upon to emulate his onetime GEORGIAN counterpart, Mikhail Saakashvili, in what has become known worldwide as: The History of Georgia. The Georgian miracle still holds so much lesson for Nigeria today, and can see President Muhammadu Buhari turn a Saakasvilli in his second term. I have a strong feeling some retired generals already see this possibility and are afraid.
After the demise of the USSR, Georgia was not only one of the most corrupt of the former-Soviet republics, it was one of the most corrupt countries in the entire world. Bribe-to-drive was the norm; police stopped cars at least twice an hour to extort money. The then Interior Minister infamously quipped: “Give me petrol only; my people will take care of their own salaries. “Being a traffic cop was so lucrative that you had to pay a bribe of between $2,000 and $20,000 to get the job in the first place. Graft was endemic. Georgians passed more envelopes to bent officials than the post office does letters. Meanwhile the economy crumbled and the state was left bankrupt and powerless.
The election of Mikhail Saakashvili changed everything. A bold reformer, he was swept to power in the “Rose Revolution” at the end of 2003 by the overwhelming desire for radical change (a similar change the corrupt, a compromised judiciary and a ‘sold’ legislature, do not want to see Buhari achieve through the Sagay committee which they frustrate at every turn).
Sakaasvilli’s closely-knit team was unified by a common vision and supported by both the parliament and the judiciary, a rarity in Nigeria. The new government was not just radical – it shocked and awed. Ministers, oligarchs and officials were sacked or arrested. Those who resisted were dealt with decisively, sometimes brutally. The state confiscated $1bn worth of property – in Nigeria it will be over 1trillion dollars. Custom officials bore collective responsibility; an entire shift would be punished if one officer was caught accepting bribe. Corrupt university professors were kicked out with a lifetime ban from academia. But the ‘piece de la resistance’ was Saakashvili’s order to sack the entire 16,000-strong police force on a single day and to replace them with some of the best and brightest university graduates. Today, Georgia ranks alongside Finland as having the least corrupt police force in the world.
The campaign expanded irresistibly. Tax offices were equipped with CCTV; university examination papers were printed in the UK and held in bank vaults until needed; and officials were constantly tested in sting operations, like the one we saw against some judges in Nigeria. The proactive assault on graft was accompanied by a Public Relations campaign to undermine respect for criminal groups and introduce respect for the law. The campaign then turned to the sectors.
First up was the power sector that was widely used as a cash cow. In less than a year, Georgia went from net importer to exporter of electricity and the sector became the target of long-term foreign investment.
Tax collection followed. Georgia’s tax base consisted of just 80,000 companies in 2003 and tax collection was a mere 12% of GDP. Saakashvili slashed red tape and introduced flat personal and corporate taxes. Eight years later over 250,000 companies are on the register, and pay the equivalent of 25% of GDP. Georgia now boasts one of the most liberal tax regimes in the world, at par with the Gulf States and Hong Kong.
Lastly came deregulation, with many rules and agencies simply abolished, removing channels of corruption in the process.
Georgia moved swiftly from the bottom of the World Bank’s Doing Business ranking (112) into the top 20 (16) by 2012. Foreign investment followed and fuelled a multi-year surge. But perhaps, the most lucrative Georgian export would be the fight against corruption itself – from which many states mired in graft could benefit – the reason it’s being recommended here. The Georgians patented a process whose steps are replicable: establish early reform credibility by radical action, launch a frontal assault which knows no sacred cows, attract new blood, limit the role of the state via privatisation and deregulation, use technology and communication to maximum effect, and above all, be bold and purposeful.
Without a doubt, time has come for Nigeria to embrace the spirit and letter of such radical reformation to avoid the needless, prevalent and sickening corruption and the resultant insecurity and bloodshed that now pervade our national life. I am not that naïve not to know that corruption, which has become systemic in Nigeria, and with strong acolytes like the judiciary, especially the senior bar and some judges, will fight back ferociously. So did corruption in Singapore when Lee Kuan Yew, and a group of Singaporean leaders frontally confronted corruption in its most virulent form and transformed a poor, multi-racial city state into an astonishingly successful and corruption-free nation. What is essential is for President Jonathan to know that he occupies the hottest part of the Nigerian kitchen. He must wake up and be counted. He could also kill off the dreaded Boko Haram with a successful crackdown on corruption. He needs to do this if he would like to see his name on the positive side of history.
The above is the 2012 article which I would like to recommend to President Buhari at his second coming about which some of our compromised retired generals are already afraid and already deploying a pinzer attack, to ensure does not happen but sure will, as the Lord liveth. I won’t blame them though for who in old age, would love to see his eye popping, Arabian – style hilltop mansions, aside huge assets located worldwide, forfeited to Nigerians who truly own them.
Of a truth, the fear of a Buhari second coming has become the beginning of wisdom.
