Buhari’s Anti-corruption Agenda Is Crumbling, By Kolawole Olaniyan
Buhari’s Anti-corruption Agenda Is
Crumbling, By Kolawole Olaniyan
If Buhari and Osinbajo are sincere about ‘rooting
out corruption and jailing top officials’, the time is now for them to show
courage and political will, and seize the initiative to revitalise the
government’s crumbing anti-corruption agenda.
It’s often said that one person
with a belief and courage is a social power equal to ninety-nine others who
have only interests. Nigeria would seem to have produced such person when
President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office on Friday, May 29, 2015, at least judging
by his perceived anti-corruption credentials during his stint as a military
head of state in the mid-80s.
But the famous dictum that Buhari is ‘Mr Integrity’
personified that could take on the corrupt system in the country may after all
not be wholly true, if the corruption crisis, and apparent lack of capacity or
will by his government to end the prevailing impunity of perpetrators are
anything to go by.
On assumption of office, Buhari
put fighting grand corruption, sending high-ranking officials and politicians
to jail and recovering stolen public funds at the top of his list of priorities
and political agenda, something the public overwhelmingly supported. But over
two years after, his supposed anti-corruption agenda would seem to be falling
apart.
The Nigerian democratic project still looks very
much like a system run on a basis of self-interest and profit. The simple truth
of the matter is that the Buhari/Professor Yemi Osinbajo government is neither
“frying big fish” (sending top officials and politicians to jail) nor promoting
the much-needed reform in the justice system that could hold corrupt leaders to
account, serve as a robust protection against systemic corruption and allow
access to effective remedies by those affected by corruption.
Corruption remains in full public
view. A handful of Buhari’s friends have come under criticism for their
apparent mixing of official position and business interests, but no charges
have been brought against them. Much of the noise has been on the opposition camp.
The outcry against the recent judgment of the Code
of Conduct Tribunal letting the Senate President Bukola Saraki off the hook by
discharging and acquitting him of all false asset declaration charges, brought
against him in September 2015, seems to suggest that the public is no longer
having any of the excuses by the government on why its professed anticorruption
agenda is tottering. The government has appealed the judgment but public
optimism of a positive outcome appears low.
The Saraki’s case is just the
latest in a series of major corruption cases that the Buhari/Osinbajo
government has lost in recent times. So, it has become so easy for public
officials and top politicians to steal with almost absolute impunity.
This increasing level of corruption in the public
sphere, and the abject failure of the criminal justice system and
anti-corruption agencies to secure convictions in clearly simple corruption
cases, have battered public trust and confidence, and strengthened the perception
that corruption is unavoidable.
The tragedy of the country’s criminal justice
system is that it’s quick to impose maximum punishment on petty criminals,
while curiously reluctant to get tough with top officials and politicians who
confuse their private accounts with the public treasury.
Apart from the cosmetic sacking of some officials
in the Budget Office, those leaders of the Senate and the House of
Representatives accused of ‘padding’ the 2016 budget or tampering with our
commonwealth are allowed to walk free; the president and acting president
couldn’t even respond to the letter of the whistle-blower Abdulmumin Jibrin
urging the government to do justice in the matter.
Several lawmakers and former
governors under corruption investigation are getting away with their alleged
crimes. Former first lady Patience Jonathan and some of the judges accused of
corruption have also been set free, due to a combination of factors, ranging
from incompetence of the criminal justice system to political expediency.
The leadership of the National Assembly and many of
their members, top politicians, and state governors (who have refused to pay
workers’ salaries for several months despite the so-called bailout funds they
got from Buhari) are taking full advantage of the president’s absence (away in
London for medical treatment) to exploit the system for financial and other
benefits, and position themselves for the 2019 general elections.
The government doesn’t seem to have the capacity or
will to end the growing evidence of intense inter-agency rivalry and conflicts
within the security and anti-corruption agencies.
The justice system and key anti-corruption agencies
like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Independent Corrupt
Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Code of Conduct Tribunal, you
name it—that are supposed to provide accountability—seem overwhelmed and
overpowered by Aso Rock power brokers, the leadership of the National Assembly,
state governors, and no match for a small but powerful group of politicians, a
coterie of elite bureaucrats, and those in their inner circle.
The tragedy of the country’s
criminal justice system is that it’s quick to impose maximum punishment on
petty criminals, while curiously reluctant to get tough with top officials and
politicians who confuse their private accounts with the public treasury.
A government’s role, especially in a democracy, is
first and foremost to uphold the rule of law but under Buhari/Osinbajo’s watch,
the judiciary and operation of the rule of law have weakened considerably, to
the point that orders of properly constituted courts are now routinely
disobeyed by the government.
A landmark judgment by Justice Idris of the Federal
High Court in Lagos ordering the government to publish and account for the
spending of recovered stolen public funds since the return of democracy in
1999, and another by Justice Kolawole of the Federal High Court in Abuja
ordering the release of the leader of Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Sheikh Ibraheem
Elzakzaky and his wife, Zeinab, remain ignored.
Yet, persistent disobedience of court orders is a
recipe for state tyranny and corruption to grow and take even deeper root.
Let there be no mistake: Nigerians won’t buy into
the Buhari and Osinbajo’s anti-corruption agenda if they can’t even challenge
corrupt behaviours within their own government.
The country is dropping deeper into a pattern of
corruption, impunity, insecurity, and instability, with Nigerians still feeling
a complete disconnect between what’s happening down in Aso Rock, and what’s
happening on their doorsteps.
This isn’t the ‘change’ that Nigerians apparently
voted for.
It’s rather unfortunate that
Nigerian politicians seem more concerned with their personal gratification than
the relief of poverty and suffering of their own people. The love for the
public treasury and personal aggrandisement has in effect dried up in them the
milk of human kindness. Systemic corruption has caused the majority of citizens
to fall below an unacceptable level of well-being, while corrupt officials are
taking care of their own families, relatives and associates.
Let there be no mistake: Nigerians won’t buy into
the Buhari and Osinbajo’s anti-corruption agenda if they can’t even challenge
corrupt behaviours within their own government.
It’s true that corruption cannot be eradicated
overnight but combating the problem requires a fundamental change of direction,
and not more of the same. Radical reforms of the anti-corruption laws and
institutions are overdue, and must begin to happen now, if the country’s
anti-corruption agencies are to become more independent and free from the whims
and caprices of the attorney general of the federation and minister of Justice.
The fight against corruption has
to be backed by firm and fair enforcement of the laws, and effective sanctions
if top officials and politicians are not to continue to get away with their
crimes. The judiciary and anti-corruption agencies themselves would need to
break free of the corrupt system to hold corrupt leaders to account, challenge
the political elites and spoil their efforts to protect themselves.
Until Buhari and Osinbajo restore public trust in
the criminal justice system and the credibility and legitimacy of
anti-corruption agencies, the corruption crisis would get even worst. If Buhari
and Osinbajo are sincere about ‘rooting out corruption and jailing top
officials’, the time is now for them to show courage and political will, and
seize the initiative to revitalise the government’s crumbing anti-corruption
agenda.
Kolawole
Olaniyan is the author of Corruption and Human Rights Law in Africa.
