The Nation Newspaper

Tag: TI

  • TI urges National Assembly to pass anti-corruption bills expeditiously

    •Strong institutions needed to fight corruption, say Reps

    TRANSPARENCY International (TI) has urged the National Assembly to expeditiously pass anti-corruption bills to allow for more transparency in governance.

    Its chairperson, Delia Ferreira Rubio, made the appeal at the weekend when she visited the Chairman, House Committee on Financial Crimes, Kayode Oladele.

    She visited Oladele in company of Executive Director of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Ibrahim Musa and the African Regional Adviser, Transparency International, Samuel Kalinda.

    Rubio said Nigeria is an important country in Africa, especially in the fight against corruption and hence, it was important to set the tone by visiting Nigeria first.

    She said she was aware that the committee and by extension, the National Assembly have been able to pass some legislations to fight corruption, but “there is need to do more to ensure a corruption-free system”.

    Oladele (APC Ogun) said the National Assembly has done a lot because of its commitment to fighting the menace of corruption.

    According to Oladele, the anti-corruption strategy approved by President Muhammadu Buhari last year encompasses: prevention of corruption- which he said resulted in the Treasury Single Account; enforcement and sanctions (which involves detection, investigation and prosecution); special divisions in courts (for speedy prosecutions of corruption cases.)

    Others, he said, were public engagement, which culminated in the Whistle Blower Policy and the raising of the ethical questions of how the public perceives corruption; and finally the recovery of the proceeds of crime.

    “In the area of the recovery of proceeds of crime, we have introduced Proceeds of Crime Bill,” he added.

    Other bills on anti-corruption in the National Assembly apart from the recently passed Whistle Blower Bill, include bills on Illicit Financial Flows, Mutual Legal Assistance, Special Crimes Courts, and Terrorism Prevention Provisions, which he said the legislature would soon pass.

    The Executive Director of CISLAC said: “Nigeria is the giant of Africa. We are just out here to ensure that the country and individuals behave responsibly by jettisoning corrupt tendencies.

    “And also try to see how the country can recover some assets that unpatriotic Nigerians have taken abroad…”

     

     

     

  • TI and the anti-graft war

    The Federal Government has deplored the country’s low ranking in the 2017 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) by Transparency International (TI). It is not backed by facts, the government says, citing its almost three years of anti-corruption war. Eric Ikhilae examines the anti-graft crusade, noting that it has recorded some success, but more still has to be done.

    The President Muhammadu Buhari-led ad-ministration’s anti-corruption war got a knock with the release of the 2017 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) by global watchdog, Transparency International (TI).

    It placed Nigeria 148th out of 180, despite almost three years of the administration’s anti-corruption war.

    According to TI, the CPI score relates to perceptions of the degree of corruption as experienced by business people and analysts and ranges between 100 (highly clean) and 0 (highly corrupt).

    Truly, the report dealt a blow to Buhari’s anti-corruption war, because it showed that, going by the nation’s rating in the last  five years, nothing really has changed.

    In the 2016 ranking, Nigeria scored 28. In 2015, it scored 26. In 2014, the country scored 27 and 25 in 2013.Nigeria was rated the 35th most corrupt nation on earth in 2012 when it scored 27.

    Expectedly, the government reacted angrily to the country’s ranking in the recently released corruption perception index, with government’s spokesman, Garba Shehhu, describing it as “misleading and unfair”.

    He argued that as against the impression created in the TI report, the government has recorded significant impact in its efforts to tame corruption and impunity in the management and application of public resources.

    According to him, the President has not only demonstrated the political will to fight corruption, but has also exhibited “the extraordinary courage to go after high profile looters, including former military service chiefs and Judges. It was once unthinkable to touch or prosecute the ‘big men’ for corruption in Nigeria, but President Buhari has ended impunity for corruption”.

    Shehu claimed that corruption was no longer fashionable in the country because it attracts consequences. He added that the rigid enforcement of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) has made life tougher for corrupt officials and about N738.9 billion was recovered in just two years of the Buhari administration.

    He added: “Anybody, who knows where Nigeria was coming from, would not believe that corruption is worse under the Buhari administration. We wonder where they (TI) got their facts from.

    “At a time, they are alleging increase in the incidence of corruption under this government, the whole of Africa is applauding by choosing President Buhari as the continental champion to lead the fight against it. Nothing can be more eloquent than this.”

    “In the end, this whole episode may turn out to be just a political distraction, given the strong views some of TI’s patrons have expressed against the Buhari Administration. This notwithstanding, facts are facts and those facts won’t cease to be facts even if you don’t care to pay attention to them,” Shehu said.

     

    Initiatives against corruption

    Indeed, this administration got to power on the strength of President Buhari’s pledge to fight corruption. Despite the initial lull experienced in the early days of this administration, it later got to business by taking some commendable steps aimed at tackling corruption.

    Some of such steps were the constitution of some investigating committees, including the one that probed the application of funds allocated by the President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration for the purchase of arms to fight insurgency. Another probed the finances of the armed forces, among others.

    The outcome of these various investigations formed the basis of the on-going prosecution of some politicians and former military chiefs across the country.

    The government equally created some institutions, formulated policies and initiated Bills for the enactment of laws to aid the anti-corruption fight.

    Some of such institutions included the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), which among others, advises the President on how to direct the various anti-corruption initiatives.

    There is also the National Prosecution Co-ordination Committee (NPCC), which was inaugurated by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on May 27, 2016 with the core responsibility of co-ordinating the prosecution of high profile cases.

    The NPCC is also required to scrutinise the proof of evidence and charges in high profile criminal cases in the country before arraignment. In addition, it will receive and analyse reports from the investigation and prosecution teams engaged to handle such cases.

    The committee is to guarantee prompt contact and synergy between investigators and the prosecutors of high profile criminal cases, manage information to the public on such cases as well as to ensure strict compliance to the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015.

    Also, the NPCC is to advise the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) on the exercise of his prosecutorial powers in Section 150 and 174 of the 1999 Constitution, prepare the policy strategy document for the co-ordination of investigation and prosecution of high profile criminal cases in Nigeria and to collate the list of such cases as well as assigning them to prosecution teams.

    The government also set up the Special Investigation Panel on the Recovery of Public Property, which is saddled with, aomg others, the responsibility of identifying and confisticating property unlawfully acquired by public officials.

    In April 2017, the government adopted a five-year strategy to combat corruption and corrupt tendencies in the country to the barest minimum.

    The AGF and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) explained that the five-year strategy would serve as the driving force across board in both private and public sectors.

    He said the plan will involve prevention of corruption, public engagement, campaign for ethical reorientation, enforcement and sanctions and recovery of proceeds of corruption.

    On August 10, 2017, the government adopted what it called the National Policy on Justice (NPJ, an instrument aimed primarily at addressing the perennial delay in criminal justice administration in the country. This was intended to also aid the anti-corruption drive by ensuring prompt prosecution of corruption cases.

    Some of the objectives of NPJ include: to engender synergy and cooperation across the justice sector nationally – both at the national and state levels; promote independence and impartiality of the judiciary and ensure  fair and speedy dispensation of  justice and effective enforcement of court decisions.

    The government, in November 2017 inaugurated the Audit Committee on Recovery and Management of Stolen Assets within and outside the country.

    While inaugurating the audit committee, President Buhari explained that it was intended to ensure that all returns filed by the various agencies were accurate and consistent with actual recoveries made.

    He said the committee was, therefore,  expected to judiciously undertake an audit of all recovery accounts established by government agencies from the date of opening such accounts up to April 10, 2017.

    In the area of legislation, the government initiated many Bills, some of which included Nigerian Financial Intelligence Bill; Proceeds of Crime Bill; Money Laundering Prevention and Prohibition Bill; Mutual Legal Assistance Bill and the Bill to establish Special Anti-Corruption Courts.

    Addressing a gathering recently in Abuja, Malami identified the several programmes initiated by this administration to aid the fight against corruption, which he said, included the Treasury Single Account (TSA); the Whistle Blower Programme; elimination of ghost workers from the payroll and aggressive investigation and prosecution of indicted persons.

    He said the government has also put in place a robust asset recovery programme; increased collaboration with foreign governments and partners; sanitised tax system, including the on-going Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) and greater transparency and scrutiny in the expenditure of public funds, among others.

     

    Big men and their children

    on trial on corruption allegations

    In furtherance of its anti-corruption fight, the government, through its various agencies, is prosecuting high profile individuals, including politicians and former military chiefs with some convictions already recorded.

    Some of such politicains include former Adamawa State governors, Murtala Nyako and Ahmadu Fintiri; ex-Benue Governor, Gabriel Suswam; former Sokoto State Governor, Attahiru Bafarawa; ex Finanace Minister, Bashir Yuguda; former Katsina State Governor, Ibrahim Shema and ex-Jigawa Governor, Sule Lamido.

    Others are the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki; former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Haliru Bello; former spokesman of the party, Olisa Metuh; former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Bala Mohammed; Ex-President Goodluck Jonatan’s Campaign Director, Femi Fani-Kayode and businessmen, Raymond Dokpesi and Jide Omokore.

    Also, some children of these influential individuals are equally on trial. They include Abdul-Aziz (a serving Senator and son of ex-Governor Nyako, being tried with his father for money laundering), Nanle (Dariye’s son also charged with laundering of N1.5b) and Sagir (son of ex-Governor Bafarawa).

    Others are Shamsudeen (son of Bala Mohammed being tried for money laundering), Abbah (son of Haliru Ballo being tried with his father on a N300m fraud charge) and Aminu and Mustapha (Lamido’s two sons being tried with their father for money laundering)

    The government is also prosecuting cases inherited from past administrations, which involve former governors Danjuma Goje, Rasheed Ladoja, Jolly Nyame, Joshua Dariye and Orji Kalu.

    Also, ex-military chiefs have been put on trial for corruption. Some of those on trial include former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh (rtd); former Chief of Air Staff, Umar Dikko; former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Usman Jibrin (rtd); former Chief of Air Staff, Adesola Amosu and Air Vice Marshal Alkali Mawu (rtd).

    Others are former member, Presidential Investigating Committee on Arms Procurement, Air Commodore Mohammed Umar Diko; National Security Adviser, Col  Sambo Dasuki (rtd) and his former aide, Col. Nicholas Ashinze (rtd).

    The Judiciary is not spared in the anti-corruption war of this administration as some judges and senior lawyers have been brought before the court on corruption related charges. Those still on trial include Supreme Court Justice Sylvester Ngwuta; Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia of the Federal High Court and Justice James Agbadu-Fishim of the National Industrial Court.

    The government has appealed the Court of Appeal judgment, which quashed the charges against Justice Hyeladzira Nganjiwa of Federal High Court.

    Some of the senior lawyers also on trial on allegation of corruption are Dele Belgore (SAN), Godwin Obla (SAN) and Joseph Nwobike (SAN).

     

    Some recorded success

    Although no accurate figures exist in relation to the actual amount of looted public funds recovered so far, government agencies and individuals involved in the efforts to recover such funds have given hints of the level of success recorded.

    While receiving members of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters in his office in 2017, Malami disclosed that government’s efforts had led to the recovery of over N15billion and $10.5m in 2016 alone.

    Acting Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, while speaking in Abuja recently, identified some instances of success in the anti-corruption fight to include the $43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,000 cash recovered in a private residence on Osborne Road, Ikoyi in 2017, which has since been forfeited to the Federal Government, following a June 6, 2017 order of forfeiture made by Justice Muslim Hassan of the Federal High Court, Lagos.

    He added: “Between January and August 30, 2017, the EFCC recovered N409,270,706,686.75; $69,501,156.67; £231,118.69; €610,816.20; Dirham 443,400.00 and 70,500.00 Saudi Riyal.”

    According to Magu, the EFCC recovered over N329 billion from a group of oil marketers in July 2017 for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), adding that the Commission recorded 137 convictions nationwide by August of 2017, rising from the 125 convictions recorded in 2016, and 103 secured in 2015.

    On February 28, this year, a Federal High Court in Lagos granted a permanent forfeiture order on two properties said to have been acquired for $3.6 million and $1.2 million by former Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke.

     

    Identified drawbacks

    Despite this impressive record of achievement, many believed there is enough basis to justify the ranking accorded the country on the TI corruption perception index for 2017.

    This, they argued, is because in recent time, there has been a shift in the general perception of this administration’s sincerity in the anti-corruption fight, particularly in cases involving individuals close to President Buhari.

    Some recent cases that lent credence to this perception of selectivity in the anti-corruption war include the government’s reluctance to bring charges against former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, indicted for corruption and former Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ambassador Ayo Oke, who allegedly admitted being behind the huge cash recovered by the EFCC in a private residence in Ikoyi, Lagos.

    Critics also cited the controversial reinstatement of former Chairman of the Presidential Task Team on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina, who has been declared wanted by the EFCC on corruption allegations.

    They also referred to the recent case of the Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme(NHIS) Prof Usman Yusuf, who was suspended by the Minister of Health Isaac Adewole, but was allegedly recalled by the Presidency without consulting the Health Minister.

    Yusuf was suspended in July, last year, following which an investigating panel was constituted by the NHIS’ parent ministry, Health Ministry, to investigate the allegations levelled against him

    The panel, in its report, described Yusuf as a public servant, who “portrayed a holier-than-thou attitude but in the background, milked the agency dry” by conniving with others to perpetrate fraud to the tune of over N919m.

    It said, as the head of NHIS, Yusuf was personally responsible for all administrative, procurement and financial lapses.

    Beside the public perception, there exists deep rooted contradictions in the government, which sees critical agencies and personnel of government working at cross purposes.

    Critics wondered what reasonable government will close its eyes to the open disagreement between the Malami and Magu on key issues relating to the handling of high profile corruption cases and the status of the NFIU, over which there is threat to expel the country from Egmont Group of financial intelligent units.

    They argued that the contradictions  in this government accounted for why the head of the Department of State Services (DSS), an appointee of the president, would issue a negative report, which the Senate relied on to refuse Magu’s appointment confirmation, notwithstanding being  another appointee of the same President Buhari.

    It has also been argued that these contradictions accounted for the raiding of the houses of some judges and the eventual arraignment of some in court, even when such judges were yet to conclude hearing on some corruption cases before them. That action by the DSS, no doubt, affected proceedings in some pending corruption cases.

    For instance, the trial of former Imo State Governor, Ikedi Ohakim, was nearing conclusion before Justice Adeniyi Ademola when the judge was arrested and arraigned before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on charges of corruption. Similar development delayed proceedings in the trial of Lamido, his children and others.

    Critics cited the seeming perpetual conflict between the National Assembly and the Executive, which has also impacted negatively on the anti-corruption fight. Many relevant anti-corruption related bills are left unpassed.

    Today, the Senate has refused to confirm the President’s nominees to key anti-corruption agencies such as the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), among others.

     

    Suggested way out

    Critics argued that the current general skepticism about this administration’s commitment to the anti-corruption fight requires deliberate efforts on the part of the President to address the identified drawbacks.

    To them, President Buhari needs to ensure proper co-ordination among his appointees and impress on them the need to buy into his agenda of non-discriminatory fight against corruption.

    The President, they contended, needs to convince the National Assembly, which incidentally is controlled by his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), to realise that its refusal to confirm the appointees and enact relevant anti-corruption related laws were hindering success in the fight against corruption.

    Critics also argued that there was the urgent need for Malami to realise that, as the AGF, it was his core responsibility to serve as the arrowhead of the anti-graft war by providing the needed leadership and co-ordination required among all the prosecuting agencies of the Federal Government to avoid incidents of conflicts

    The AGF, they added, should ensure adequate funding of the NPCC for effective performance of its various responsibilities.

     

     

     

     

     

  • TI and the anti-graft war

    Sir: the recent poor rating of Nigeria’s corruption war by Transparency International – TI, where she was ranked 148th out of the 180 countries on 2017 Corruption Perception Index has continued to elicit mixed reactions in some quarters. To those involved in the present administration, it was like a thunderbolt while many in the opposition welcomed it. Still others wonder why a government who rose to power  with a promise to fight corruption at all costs should score as low as 28 percent on a scale of 0- 100 Corruption Perception Index. That the current administration which  is headed by President Muhammadu Buhari, the acclaimed corruption fighter under whose watchful eyes this verdict is pronounced on Nigeria, is indeed surprising to many.

    Although no sincere observer would deny the fact that the fight against corruption has been heightened since the inception of the incumbent government, but the truth remains that the general perception of corruption has not abated. This writer had in the past expressed an opinion about the peripheral war against corrupt practices which failed to address its root cause. Of course the root cause is what gives the general perception about corruption.

    The current administration seems to be fighting this menace on its own terms without minding what the people feel about it. Yes, few people have been convicted, looted monies have been refunded, hitherto sacred cows have been touched, Treasury Single Account -TSA has blocked leakages of government revenues and this to some extent has checked public sector corruption. But the general impression businessmen have as they daily encounter public servants from the airports to various public offices does not suggest an impression of people who are in a hurry to do away with corruption. Transparency International usually collates information as data from residents and visitors to the country and analyzes them over a period of time before coming out with their findings.

    It would therefore be callous for government to dismiss or read other meanings to this stark reality. It should rather be more determined to rid the country of this monster. After all, the assessment that led to that rating was not done in a year. This rating certainly is not an indictment of the government’s anti-graft war but that of the entire country which has over the years been neck deep in corruption. Those who chose to make a political capital out of this should realize that, it is neither about the executive nor the president. It is about Nigeria, it is about greed, it is systemic, it is cultural and it is a matter of philosophy.

    The three arms of government would however not come out clean on this. The recent allegation of budget padding levelled against the National Assembly by one of their own and their subsequent response does not show a people who do not fraternize with corruption. Also, the stupendous enrichment of members of the bench and the quality of judgments emanating from courts does not absolve our lords of some sharp practices. What about business men who continue to dupe foreign partners in phantom business deals thus giving the country a bad name?  Even our places of worship, institutions of learning, financial institutions, electoral umpire and many others would certainly not come out with a clean bill of health as far as corruption is concerned.

    Since this is not a military regime, fighting the menace of corruption requires a lot of sensitization, ethical reorientation and collaboration with other arms of governments. It would therefore be presumptuous for executive to think that it can be a lone ranger on this fight, the legislature and the judiciary must be involved. It is not the executive that makes the laws and it cannot also jail those found to be corrupt.

    The president might have been disillusioned to find out that fighting corruption in a military regime is completely a different ball game in a democratic dispensation. Nigerian government should come to terms with the inevitable reality that no matter how serious it fights corruption, the perception of international community should also be taken into account. Most foreign businessmen always consult the Transparency International CPI before directing their investment to any country. This international body has over the years conducted its activities with utmost diligence and integrity, therefore the advice it gives is always respected by many globally.

    Government needs to do more in addressing issues of concern to many Nigerians, for instance they  have continued to complain about the way the recovered loots are handled  and  have equally demanded  to know how much has been recovered and the identities of the said  looters. These are issues in the public domain and should be treated in a transparent manner.

     

    • Etim, a public affairs analyst writes from Calabar.
  • Nigeria to TI: Your corruption rating is questionable

    Nigeria to TI: Your corruption rating is questionable

    The Presidency yesterday put a question mark over the criteria used by the Transparency International, the anti-corruption watchdog, to rank Nigeria the 148th least corrupt in the world.

    Aso Rock Villa dismissed as “very misleading and unfair” the conclusion reached by the TI in its assessment of the Federal Government’s anti-corruption crusade.

    Reacting to the TI annual report on corruption released on Wednesday,the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President,Mallam Garba Shehu,while government welcomes constructive criticisms from the anti-corruption watchdog, the organisation has a responsibility to reflect the larger picture of the concrete and verifiable achievements of the Buhari administration since it came into office in May 2015.

    “Political will is the first major component of fighting corruption in any country and President Buhari has made a huge difference by demonstrating not only the political will, but also the extraordinary courage to go after high profile looters, including former military service chiefs and judges,” Shehu said in a statement in Abuja.

    He added: “It was once unthinkable to touch or prosecute the ‘big men’ for corruption in Nigeria, but President Buhari has ended impunity for corruption.

    “Today, the Buhari administration has made accountability the bedrock of governance and corruption is no longer fashionable because it attracts consequences.

    “Blocking leakages for corruption through the rigid enforcement of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) had made life tougher for corrupt officials. He regretted that these efforts were not acknowledged by the corruption Watchdog.

    “Figures published by the EFCC, the anti-corruption agency, reveal that  N738.9 billion was recovered in just two years of the Buhari administration and this impressive and unprecedented record is worthy of mention and acknowledgement by anybody genuinely looking at the larger picture of the country’s progress in the war against corruption.

    “During the 7th session of the Conference of State Parties to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption in Vienna, Austria, the chairman of the agency, Ibrahim Magu, noted that the figure represents $2.9 billion dollars.

    “Besides these impressive recoveries of looted funds, the EFCC has recorded more than 140 successful prosecutions.

    “The Federal Government has also signed international agreements to recover the proceeds of corruption and to block the laundering of stolen assets abroad by public officials.

    “Anybody who knows where Nigeria was coming from would not believe that corruption is worse under the Buhari administration.”

  • Group asks TI to vacate Nigeria within 72 hours or 3 days ultimatum

    A human right group under the the aegis of Save Humanity Advocacy Centre has given the Transparency International 72 hours to leave the country over its recent report of corruption in the defence sector of Nigeria.

    According to a recent report jointly presented by the Executive Director of CISLAC, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani and a Senior Legal Researcher at TI, Eva Marie Anderson, “Nigeria’s corrupt elites have profited from conflict; with oil prices at a record low, defence has provided new and lucrative opportunities for the country’s corrupt kleptocrats.”

    Comrade Ibrahim Abubakar, the Executive Director, SHAC the report, “Weaponising Transparency: Defence Procurement Reform As a Counterterrorism Strategy in Nigeria” issued by Transparency International was totally wrong.
    Abubakar it was high time the TI vacated the country and stop lording over Nigerians.

    He said, “We have taken our time to look at the claims in the said report and our conclusion is that it contained more of recycled history than groundbreaking research that Nigerians are yearning for to take the ongoing anti-corruption efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari to the next level.

    “It is however disappointing that the report is rich in allegations and short on actionable revelations that could help to further plug loopholes in the system.
    The report therefore has all the elements of a contract awarded in pursuit of an agenda which is already well known to many Nigerians going by our experience with Amnesty International and those promoting falsehood in high places.

    “It wasted a lot of its focus on cases and incidents that the President Buhari led Federal Government has dealt with or that happened too long ago to have been brought up in the context Transparency International did.

    “The defence sectors of other countries regularly deal with issues that are not too different from what the Nigerian Armed Forces have had to contend with and at no time has Transparency International sought to make them the object of international ridicule once they being implementing actions to prevent recurrence.

    “It is therefore appalling that the massive reforms that have been introduced in Nigeria’s defence sector was not taken into consideration when the report was written rather they decided to present the past ugly trend under past administration, which is considered as a gross injustice to the current set of actors in the defence architecture of our country who make daily sacrifices to see to our peace and wellbeing as a nation. ”

    “We therefore condemn the Transparency International’s report in its entirety as an attempt to blackmail the Nigerian Armed Forces and the Federal Government into allowing terrorists to freely roam the Nigeria. For Transparency International to constitute itself into a sanction imposing entity that can block arms sales and place travel ban, as far as we are concerned, is a plot to decimate Nigeria’s population to allow dark influences inherit the land and its resources. No right thinking nation will accept such wicked evil and we reject it on behalf of all Nigerians.

    “In the interest of the preservation of Nigeria, we are giving Transparency International 72 hours to leave Nigeria.
    We by the same measure call on the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Ministry of Interior to act fast in expelling the saboteurs at the organization from Nigeria within the stated time failing which we shall bear no responsibility for the mass civil disobedience from Nigerians who are being mobilized across the country.

    “Transparency International shall receive a stiffer treatment than its co-saboteur, Amnesty International received at the hands of Nigerian protesters in the past. This ultimatum is to Transparency International and all its local collaborators in the agenda to destroy the Nigeria’s image both at home and abroad for their selfish interest.

    ” As the common street lingo will put it, “our mumu don do”, we have had enough of foreign occupiers that come here to lord it over Nigerians as if they represent God. The wickedness of Transparency International, while meant to particularly to dent the image of the current administration and its efforts in the war against insurgency, the plot will make life difficult for Nigerians given the humanitarian crisis that terrorism has caused in our country.”

  • Understanding AI, TI Conspiracy against multicultural, multiethnic Nigeria  

    A common thread runs through the world empires that rose to their prime and later collapsed, military decline. Not taken in isolation and not a sole factor, military decline or a gradual degradation and subsequent destruction of the military of these civilizations spelt their doom. In modern times foreign powers that are interested in destroying a targeted country simply set out about destroying its army and the collapse of other vital institutions and the country becomes a matter of domino effect.
    This process have been perfected to an extent that the population of the targeted country, who are most likely to suffer, are the deceived into applauding the destruction of their country. This is because the destruction of their military, contrary to being cataclysmic, is usually subtle; and where one would expect hostile entities driving the process, seemingly innocuous entities drive the process of destroying armies – hiding their destructive agenda behind the façade of being responsible international organizations.
    Nigeria has been under sustained attack, which it has remarkably weathered well. But there is a limit to which the resilience can last, which makes it crucial that citizens are enlightened to understand what their country is going through and how they should not be brainwashed into becoming facilitators for the destruction of their country with a concept that is locked on “destroy the military and the country is gone” principle.
    At the forefront of the war on Nigeria’s corporate integrity and future is Amnesty International (AI). On paper and on the storefront, AI is that respectable organization that polices the adherence to human rights of the world’s citizens. It mounts pressure on governments and corporate organizations to overhaul or reform their approach to human rights issues especially in the areas of free expression, incarceration, conduct during war and other crises. It has been at the forefront of the discontinuation of the death sentence even if the convict were a murderer; to AI death sentence is nothing short of state sanctioned murder.
    Given the unfettered access it has to the corporate media, the treatment its frequent scathing reports against certain countries get is the dream of every PR practitioner, AI is able to launder its image in a way that has left large swathes of the earth’s population swearing by its name each time they perceived they have been wronged or their rights trampled upon.
    Yet it is not all as it seems. Amnesty International has its ugly side. Its reports have proven to be more  subjective than objective and is influenced more by what fate has been decided for a country or its leader than by the genuine desire to improve on the quality of freedoms its citizens enjoy. In implementing this kind of brief, particularly in the middle, AI has been known to look away when its favoured side is involved in committing the atrocities. By the way, the atrocities are in most cases the product of its interference in the affairs of the countries that are in crisis.
    Often times Amnesty International issues slew of reports demonizing the country, its leader and army with the goal of securing forceful intervention from coalition countries. Once it gets the coalition countries the excuse they have been waiting for to invade a sovereign country it reverts to carrying on as if that country never existed. Libya is a testament to this modus operandi. The travesty is that the process of sacking the supposed leader who is killing his citizens often kill more of those same citizens; the aftermath of the misplaced interventions kill even more.
    In Nigeria, Amnesty International, possibly in reaction to client feedback, modified its approach. Its strategy, from the much that have been seen, is to continually issue reports aimed at forcing the army into a position where it is constrained in its operation against Boko Haram terrorists it is fighting in the northeast of the country. Each time the military make gains in the counter-terrorism operation AI issues reports that amount to threats and blackmail of human rights abuses charges against the troops, which leaves them demoralized and allowed Boko Haram fighters to recover and launch more deadly attacks.
    The same strategy applied to other insurgents and separatists that Nigeria’s security agencies are containing in the southeast and destructive militants in the south-south. There have been instances when it went to the extreme of harassing the Nigerian state on behalf of looters of the public tills that are in incarceration.
    Some Nigerians finally woke up to the reality of Amnesty International’s subversive activities in Nigeria, after finally realizing that the nation’s military was not lying in its previous refutals of that organization’s several reports of human rights violation. The citizens were taken by surprise when Amnesty international fought back when they demanded it leaves Nigeria in view of its activities. That episode seemed to have forced the human rights campaigning organization into hasty retreat even though it did not boot it out of Nigeria like protesters wanted.
    AI’s clients simply dusted up and introduced another respectable looking organization, Transparency International into the project against the military in Nigeria. The anti-corruption organization wasted no time in delivering a report that promptly accuse  accused the army of being rotten beyond measure even though the incidents upon which it based that conclusion have been overtaken by events. The military services of 2017 were accused of shady deals transacted two decades ago.
    The accusation, it turned out, was a preface . The real chorus to the chant to destroy Nigeria came as Transparency International whipped out the collective hymnal, more like a manual, and repeated demands that Amnesty International once made to immediate past US President, Barack Obama. The crux of the matter is to prevent the military in Nigeria from buying arms. It became a matter of finding just any excuse to keep the army away from fighting terrorists: human rights abuse, repression, corruption and they will likely at some point accuse the Nigerian Army as not being gender balance just so there will be something to justify why Islamic State affiliated terrorists will get weapons and the Nigerian Army could not get same.
    The foregoing may appear as something that calls for concern, which is rightly so. The greatest concern comes when one realizes that Amnesty International and Transparency International will soon be exploiting Nigeria’s multi-cultural and multi-ethnic configuration, according to details that were leaked from their collaboration. It is a phase of the assault on Nigeria that the two group’s operatives in Nigeria have promised their handlers would not fail to unravel the country. The argument is that their international credentials would make Nigerians easily believe any manipulated stories they are fed by either of the entities. Implementation of the agenda has reached an advanced stage as seen in the issuance of the military corruption report, on which Transparency International collaborated with Amnesty International’s staffers.
    The only thing left to stop this wrecking train is for Nigerians to abandon difference along religious and ethnic lines since it is the next stop on the route that Amnesty and Transparency International have chose to make Nigeria implode by first rendering its military inefficient​.

    Ainoko, a peace and conflict resolution expert writes from Barnawa, Kaduna.‎

  • TI report on Nigeria’s Military Spending A New Low For Global Anti Corruption War – Group

    The Centre for Social Justice, Equity and Transparency (CESJET) has said the Transparency International (TI) report on 2015 military spending in Nigeria has made rubbish the global effort to curb corruption and fight terrorism.

    The group raised concern that Transparency International once recognized as a global powerhouse in the global war against corruption has now decended so low by allowing low heads and those with “political interests” to doctor it’s reports.

    Addressing journalists at the weekend, CESJET Executive Secretary, Ikpa Isaac condemned in the strongest term the report, saying it lacked any sense of credibility

    He lamented that with TI now decending this low, stakeholders in the social justice and anti corruption war should be concerned.

    Ikpa said CESJET after due diligence and investigation has confirmed that the so called $15 billion as defence budget or expenditure in 2015 didn’t even exist in the whole of the 2015 defence spending under the President Jonathan administration.

    He wondered how possible a man can embezzle more than the nation’s annual budget, saying such could only have existed in the imagination of mischief makers who author fraudulent reports to please their clients.

    He said, “The true intent of that report is to be seen in its recommendation for arms sales to Nigeria to be blocked. The other demands that appear punitive, like travel ban are icing meant to disguise the call for ban on weapon sales,” he said.

    The CESJECT boss said Nigerians must rise up to resist this new plot just like it resisted the earlier plot by amnesty international.

    Speaking further, Ikpa said, “We therefore want Nigerians to be on alert. Nigerians must recognize that a new plot to destabilize Nigeria has been launched and is being driven by Transparency International as opposed to Amnesty International that we all know.

    “The plan involves starving the military of the needed equipment to fight the terrorists while creating other conditions that will allow Boko Haram bring back its fighters that are on the run while recruiting new ones. The same set of people that helped Amnesty International fabricate crooked reports are working on this project with Transparency International.

    “The group is banking on its credential in anti-corruption field as something that will give Nigerians a false sense of assurance that it cannot be deployed for subversive activities that it is presently engaged in. This is why we are encouraging Nigerians to ask TI and its Nigerians runners questions.
    Nigerians should take to the social media platforms of TI to demand that it explains how anti-corruption work translated into composing sanctions to be imposed on an institution that is crucial to stopping terrorists grown by its sister organization.

    “It should answer question as to if it is able to enforce a corresponding arms embargo on the terrorists for the duration it wants other nations to stop selling weapons to Nigeria since it would be confirmed that the goal is to put the Nigerian state at a disadvantage if it has no plans to stop Boko Haram from procuring weapons at the time it is limiting the ability of the government to do same.

    “It should let us know what it has been able to do about countries to which it has traced the money stolen from Nigeria since they are also culpable in the theft of public funds meant to buy weapons.

  • Corruption: The EU to the rescue

    Corruption: The EU to the rescue

    The Jonathan Administration must feel sorely disappointed, if not mightily frustrated, that despite all its ringing declamations against corruption in public life and the valiant measures it has taken to curb it, the pestilence has shown no sign of abating

    Well might the situation remind Dr Jonathan himself, a keen student of international literature, according to unimpeachable sources, of the Red Queen’s race in Wonderland, in which a participant has to run twice as hard just to stay in the same place. What makes it particularly galling here is that the place in question is not the head of the pack but the bottom of the league.

    And every December, Transparency International (TI) drives home the point with pitiless monotony. In its survey for 2013, it ranked Nigeria 144th out of 177 nations under review, a slippage of two percentage points below the 2012 mark, when it was bracketed with Cameroun and Central African Republic. Earlier TI surveys going back to 2006 had placed Nigeria alarmingly close to the bottom of the world’s most corrupt nations.

    Now, reprieve and redemption have come from the least expected source — the European Union, no less.

    Corruption in the 28 countries of the EU is costing European taxpayers about €120bn (£100bn) a year, the equivalent of the Union’s annual budget, its Commissioner for Home Affairs, Cecilia Malmström, revealed in Brussels last week.

    “There are no corruption-free zones in Europe,” Ms Malmström said. “We are not doing enough. That’s true for all member states.”

    To phrase the matter in a lexical context that the attentive Nigerian audience will understand, corruption is a cankerworm that has eaten deep into the fabric of the European Community.

    And what does the EU plan to do about it?

    Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

    Malmström noted that declared intentions to combat corruption in EU countries had not produced concrete results, and that the political will to eradicate it was lacking,” but added: “We do not propose any sanctions at all. Or laws.”

    So, there you have it. The EU is teetering under the weight of corruption, to the value of its entire budget for one year. But it cannot bestir itself to come up with the appropriate sanctions.

    And yet, its representatives in Abuja are forever lecturing Nigeria on good governance and accountability and transparency and all that. At the slightest provocation and often with no provocation at all, they are asking awkward questions about what Nigeria has done with financial and other kinds of aid from the EU and about how business is done in Nigeria, the object being to uncover evidence of corruption.

    When next EU officials go sniffing around Abuja or asking awkward questions, the Presidency’s most combative spokesperson – Prince Dr Doyin Okupe, where have you been? – should say again of the EU what U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said the other day while criticising the Union’s dilatoriness on the crisis in Ukraine.

    Ordinarily, this column would not counsel a resort to expletives, this being a newspaper for the entire family, enjoined to dwell only on whatsoever is of good report. But the EU has to be told clearly and unambiguously that Nigeria will no longer put up with its carping, especially in this year of our Glorious Centenary.

    Nobody denies that corruption is a problem in Nigeria. Yes, there are no reliable studies to go by. But not even the nation’s most unyielding critics have ever suggested, much less asserted as the official investigation into corruption in the EU has done, that the equivalent of the entire federal budget in Nigeria is lost to corruption. In fact, according to the best authorities, only a negligible slice of the federal budget is lost to corruption

    So, what can the EU teach Nigeria about transparency and accountability?

    Even in the much-maligned petroleum industry, the most jaundiced estimates put the volume of production lost to theft and other forms of corruption at no more than 40 percent of total output. That is a far cry from the equivalent of the EU’s budget for a whole year that is lost to sleaze.

    Consider, next, petroleum revenues, an issue that has been generating heated controversy lately. First, Central Bank governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, claimed that U.S. $49.8 billion in oil receipts was “missing,” presumably stolen. Through painstaking reconciliation by all parties concerned, that figure was whittled down to a mere U.S. $10.8 billion, roughly one-fourth of the original figure, nothing remotely close to the 100 percent of its annual budget that the EU loses to corruption.

    It turned out that even this smaller amount was never missing. It represents operational costs and is duly accounted for in records that anyone can inspect – anyone who can read a ledger, unlike Malam Sanusi and his fellow alarmists at the Central Bank.

    Even if the U.S. $49.8 billion he reported “missing” is actually missing, that would still not be justification for all the hectoring from the EU. For it amounts to only a piddling fraction of total revenue for the reporting period, not the totality of NNPC’s earnings, much less the entire federal budget for a year.

    And whereas the EU has decided to make peace with the corruption choking it, Nigeria has been tackling the problem frontally and with iron resolve. Wherever a hint of corruption has been uncovered, it has been thoroughly investigated; the findings have been subjected to further investigation, and the recommendations have been reviewed by panel after panel, to ensure the utmost transparency.

    If you do not follow the highest standards of transparency while investigating corruption, you merely perpetuate corruption. That is the error they fall into – those calling for the dismissal of the Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, on no firmer ground than the alleged purchase of two armoured limousines for her personal use, allegedly with public funds.

    Left to such people, the Minister should have been dismissed the moment the allegations surfaced more than four months ago. But a government sworn to transparency cannot do that. It chose the infinitely more transparent course of entrusting the preliminary investigation to one panel, the substantive investigation to another panel, and the definitive investigation to yet another panel.

    Right now, unknown to all the agitators, a panel is collating the results of these investigations, the findings of the National Assembly investigating panel, and the report of the anti-corruption watchdog EFCC. Thereafter, another panel will review the collated report and forward it to the panel that will ultimately send it up to the Presidency.

    That is just one example of the determined manner in which Nigeria is tackling official graft. The EU could learn a thing or two here if it were not so closed-minded.

    The same procedure is being followed in the investigation of the accounts of the NNPC, and of what some unimaginative reporters have called subsidy-gate, through which some misguided individuals and corporate bodies – the kind of persons that abound even in the EU — reportedly collected billions of Naira as payment for imported gasoline that was allegedly not supplied.

    These things take time. The important thing is that, unlike the EU, Nigeria is not folding its hands in abject surrender to corruption.