New Telegraph

You can’t hide corruption

Since last week, when the damning report of the Transparency International rented the airwaves, the government and its attack dogs have taken umbrage at every direction trying to shoot down the poorest score of corruption rating in Nigeria’s 21 years of uninterrupted democracy.

 

They have called TI all manner of unprintable names in trying to pooh-pooh the ridiculous score in the corruption perception index that President Buhari has taken Nigeria. Amid the general cries of insecurity is the pervasive corruption that has rendered Nigeria prostrate and helpless with a motion-without-movement president, who presides through body language.

 

Thinking about Transparency International, my mind flashed back to 1999 when former President Obasanjo had just been elected and an elaborate conference was held at the Ladi Kwali hall, Sheraton Hotels, Abuja, to prepare the way for the new government.

 

Peter Eigen, the founder and former chairman of the Transparency International was part of those who spoke about the expectations from a Nigeria’s return to democracy, after the acquisitive and dictatorial rule of Late Sani Abacha.

 

I was detailed to provide protocol services to Peter Eigen, from the airport to his hotel and the conference venue. I could recollect how much of faith he had in our capacity to get things right and move away from the vestiges of military rule. He spoke so much about transparency in government and what the new government should do as a take-off in its anti-corruption crusade.

 

I am sure part of those early days discussion led to the establishment of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) by the Obasanjo administration in 2003.

 

I have recently elected to leave the Buhari government alone to wallow in its own indignation, but the ugly realities of a government that is running in circles won’t allow me. For me, ranking Nigeria 149th by TI is to me gratuitous. This government is massively corrupt in such a benign manner.

 

Corruption is bedecked in flowing gown and three piece suits, walking along the corridors of power in elegance and sartorial demeanour without qualms. From the Aso Villa to the streets in Nigeria, corruption has dangerously become a familiar dirge, with massive mismanagement of public funds.

 

When President Buhari’s handlers often speak about the president’s so-called integrity, I kept wondering if the optics truly fits into that description.

 

Too many factors are responsible for the poor rating by TI. Lack of transparency in government transaction is the chief reason. Till date, President Buhari had refused blatantly to publicly disclose and declare his assets to Nigerians.

 

There is too much of opaqueness in government transactions even when the Freedom of Information Act prescribes openness. A man who is ready to fight corruption shouldn’t be afraid of telling us his worth before becoming President. It is the irreducible minimum to stimulate public confidence in your readiness to fry the big fishes.

 

For five years, he kept Ibrahim Magu as Acting Chairman, against a security report which indicted Magu of complicity in certain matters. When he was fed up with Magu, the president set up a panel to investigate the suspended EFCC Chairman. Till date, the report of that investigation has started gathering dust.

A serious government that intends to fight corruption would go the extra mile to build institutions that would live by examples.

When the EFCC and ICPC cannot assume the model platform of how to combat corruption, it leaves the country in helpless awe. Have you asked yourself how the EFCC and ICPC recruits their staff?

 

All the lobbying, letters from high places, letters from Very Important Personalities, all meant to sway the leadership in favour of their potential applicants. Rather than employ merit, they will employ mediocrity buoyed by pressure from designated quarters.

 

Almost two decades of the ICPC and EFCC, they are yet to have offices in half of the states of the Federation. Stories are legion of underhand dealings within the fold of these anti-corruption agencies. When they talk about recoveries, you might wonder where is the much touted money?

 

So, if TI is talking about worsening situation in terms of corruption perception index, they know exactly what they are talking about. When a president does not have the capacity to superintend over the various departments of government, what you get is a secondhand value of what the actual situation is.

 

His aides would package their reports in eloquent prose to suit the ego of the president. That is often the end of story, but the real story is often left unsaid. It is a settled fact that this government has squandered all the enormous goodwill that heralded its entry into the leadership rostrum of the country.

 

All the promises that were made to stimulate the voters have been broken. Corruption, nepotism, favouritism, cronyism and selective amnesia have since assumed the driver’s seat in almost six years.

 

Life has become difficult. Insecurity has perpetually dominated public discourse while kidnapping and banditry have taken firm roots in our everyday lives. President Buhari has shown all the traces of a weak leader who is unable to decipher the enormity of the problems.

 

After many long months of pressure on him to change the service chiefs, he finally bowed to pressure last week and you could only imagine his spin doctors speaking as though they have just won a medal. We all saw the jubilation in the barracks over the exit of those fatigued and tired service chiefs.

 

 

That alone tells us something about the low morale of the soldiers in the fight against insurgency. We shouted to the roof top, but corruption in the system would not allow the powers-that-be to see sense in our submissions.

 

That is what you get when you have a president who cannot connect the dots. I truly sympathise with the president when he said that the elite are trying to run down his government by not taking stock of where the country was and where it is now, since his inception. I felt undone reading such bile from a president who is apparently not in tune with the happenings across Nigeria.

 

 

If Nigerians have their way, they would wish we go back to pre-2015 Nigeria when a tuber of yam was selling for N200, when a bag of rice sold for N8,000 and life was much more tolerable than this present cul-de-sac occasioned by poor rendition of economic prognosis and COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Even in the fullness of the negative impact of the pandemic, the Buhari presidency was still busy taxing Nigerians. If after eight solid years President Buhari is asked about his legacy in anti-corruption, his response might just be another corrupted statement as saying he is never nepotistic. As a military officer who is unable to see through Boko Haram insurgency, banditry and kidnapping,

 

Buhari’s legacy would be a chequered collections of incompetence, incapacity, underperformance, and outright disdain for the aspirations of an average Nigerian. He does not bother about the plight of the people. He’s unable to generate ideas through robust engagement and interaction.

 

Declaring that the government has nothing to hide, meant he has a lot to hide and aware that there are queries everywhere about the conduct of his appointees.

 

Talking seriously about corruption and the Buhari presidency, it does appear to me that the president is apparently unaware of the happenings around him. And to fight corruption is not just about mere sloganeering or mouthing some incoherent soundbites, it is simply about leading by example.

 

What has sustained this government are a combination of loans and grants, an exercise that has become the normative order of a government that is unthinking and unproductive.

 

In almost six years of the Buhari presidency, life has become more unbearable for the average Nigerian. Accepted that the government is doing well in sustaining the railway dream, but the costs of these projects are hardly known.

 

A government that prides itself as one of anti-corruption must be driven by transparency and accountability, not opaqueness and secrecy. Our road infrastructure are in shambles and the opportunity of this dry season would have given government the ample opportunity to invest heavily on our road infrastructure, but alas, we have death traps everywhere.

 

Our roads have become death traps and the activities of the kidnappers have further made road transport somewhat nightmarish. From the North to the South, insecurity is threatening the very foundation of the country. Instead of showing remorse, you still have a president who is busy playing party politics talking about endorsement or no endorsement from Abuja.

 

The All Progressives Congress (APC), short of ideas, is busy spending huge resources in membership registration to revalidate or perhaps deregister some of her members.

 

Rather than face Nigeria’s problem, and generate ideas that could help proffer solutions, the party is already swallowed by the trappings of 2023 presidential contest. Nigeria has become a huge estate with a rudderless leadership.

 

We are deeper in corruption, enmeshed in inter-ethnic squabbles, embellished in hunger and deprivation, roasted in insecurity, and agonising under the heavy weight of general insecurity.

 

Of course, the government has nothing to hide because it is obvious to all that there is insecurity, there is corruption, nepotism, favouritism, ethnic bigotry, and high cost of living. Yes, in the fullness of these setbacks, it will take more than a genius to pretend to hide anything.

 

You cannot hide incompetence, nepotism, yes, President Buhari, you cannot hide opportunism, cronyism and selective amnesia. They are the ingredients that make your government thick. You cannot hide them. They are obvious for all to see.

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