After years of what could best be described as political posturing in the name of fighting corruption, the Nigerian government’s vaunted anti-graft crusade is altogether grinding to a halt.
There is no better evidence of this than the parlous financial state of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the pervasive nature of corruption in the country.
Just recently, the EFCC cried out that it was being starved of funding, thus corroborating an earlier report a few months ago that the agency was broke, but which its officials vehemently denied. Appearing before the Senate Committee on Drugs, Narcotics, Financial Crimes and Anti-Corruption, the EFCC Secretary, Emmanuel Adegboyega, said the commission had less than N2 million in its account, adding, “If we can afford to pay salary this month (December), that is all.”
While the anti-graft agencies have had to live with allegations of being lukewarm towards their duties over the years, starving them of funding is surely going to worsen the situation. How is the EFCC expected to carry out its investigations, which sometimes require its agents travelling round the country and beyond? How is it expected to pay its lawyers? What excuse has the government for refusing to fund EFCC other than a lack of interest in its success?
It should therefore not come as a surprise that corruption has attained heights hitherto unheard of in the country. One of such bizarre cases is that of the Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, who was exposed for being entangled in the N255 million bulletproof vehicles scandal purchased with her approval. Not only is that sum outrageous – for just two vehicles – she was also indicted for spending over the limit of approval for a minister. But, after setting up a committee to investigate what appears to be self-evident, President Goodluck Jonathan still allows the minister to retain her seat in the Federal Executive Council. Those who felt that setting up a committee was diversionary, meant to delay action long enough for Nigerians to get the issue out of their consciousness, have been vindicated. Nothing could be more disgusting.
Even then, Oduah’s case, as glaring and despicable as it is, will pale by comparison to the fuel subsidy scandal that cost the government over N2 trillion instead of the N245 billion actually budgeted for the scheme. In a manner that is fast signposting the attitude of this administration, the government has managed to fish out a couple of individuals for mock trials that have yet to deliver justice, two years after. What then happens to the reports and recommendations of the various committees set up by the government to investigate the matter? Why have they not been implemented?
A direct spin-off from the subsidy probe was the bribery scandal involving a member of the House of Representatives, Farouk Lawan, and a businessman, Femi Otedola. The lawmaker had reportedly collected $620,000 to strike out the name of the businessman’s company from the list of those indicted in the probe. Even when he reportedly admitted collecting that money, he is still sitting and making laws for the rest of Nigerians at the National Assembly, while his trial, as usual, is taking eternity to complete.
There are also several cases of stolen money belonging to pensioners. Almost on a daily basis, reports are churned out of stolen hundreds of billions. In one of the few cases where judgement was delivered in corruption cases, a director in the Police Pensions Fund, John Yusuf, was fined N750,000 for conniving with others to defraud the office of about N27.2 billion.
In another case that attracted outrage from within and outside the country, a former governor of Bayelsa State, Diepriye Alamieyeseigha, who was convicted of corruption while in office, was given a state pardon, while another former governor, James Ibori, who could not be convicted in Nigeria, is now serving a jail term with his assets seized in Britain.
Any wonder then that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, had to openly accuse the President and the EFCC of encouraging corruption? His allegation that “the President’s body language seems to be encouraging corrupt practices in the country,” was very direct and explicit; it has been difficult to fault.
Yet, in a recent response to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s letter, accusing him of not acting decisively on issues bordering on corruption, Jonathan had cited the “strengthening of the anti-corruption agencies” as one of the steps taken by his administration to rid the country of corruption. It is rather ironic for the President to describe an agency that is being starved of funding and can hardly pay its staff’s salaries as being “strengthened.” What manner of strengthening was he referring to?
But while it may be convenient for the EFCC to complain about not being adequately funded, it should not be forgotten that, even before funding became an issue, the agency had abandoned the fight against corruption in preference for chasing small-time criminals and 419 (fraud) cases. Under the leadership of its former boss, Nuhu Ribadu, the EFCC was able to attract international funding, which made local funding almost irrelevant. But an assessment of the performance of EFCC over the past few years does not encourage foreign donors to come to its aid.
In its assessment of the EFCC under Farida Waziri, the Human Rights Watch said, “It (the EFCC) has arraigned 35 nationally prominent political figures on corruption charges, including 19 former state governors. But many of these cases have made little progress in the courts, and not a single politician is currently serving prison time for any of these alleged crimes.” Under its current chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde, big-time politicians are hardly targeted, let alone convicting them.
But it is within the power of the President to make the EFCC work by properly funding it and allowing it a free hand to do its job. Even though the President also said recently that it was not his making that the wheel of justice was grinding slowly, he can effect a reform of the judiciary to make the trial of corruption cases move faster. The best option is to allow the EFCC to draw its funding direct and statutorily, like the Judiciary, from the Federation Account.
Punch Editorial
