It is becoming very difficult to follow the list of corruption charges by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Every government ministry, department or agency is ruined by corruption. Some figures mentioned in the news are incomprehensible to ordinary people like me. I have been priming my brain to understand what an individual will do with stolen N10 billion, and why he needs such large funds in a country with visible poverty.
There are those who feel the necessity to stop the exposure and concentrate on the outcome. Others are uninterested; while some feel this will bring the needed sanity to reduce the level of theft in government.
While the ongoing rigorous exercise of weed-dead-wood from the system may sound plausible and correct, I am more interested in the final verdict on each case. In ten months of this administration, more than 30 grave offences of looting of public funds have been discovered, with series of arraignments, yet no single offender has been sentenced to jail.
But one thing is certain: the more we investigate government institutions, the more we find all forms of financial crimes. Embezzlement, misappropriation, and outright theft of public funds by those entrusted to manage them are as routine as ever.
What Nigerians are tired of is the perennial activities of these crimes without repercussions. The magnitude of monies stolen by public servants through the various revelations is incomprehensible– yet no punishment.
If criminals are not reprimanded, crimes will wax higher. If stealing of public property is seen as a white-collar crime that should be treated with trivial consequences, then the system is simply encouraging more heist; more citizens of this country will aspire to lay hands on loose public funds for clemency.
It seems the routine exercise of investigating financial crimes and the obvious answers will never yield any positive result that will establish deterrence.
Hearing of billions of Naira stolen by an individual in government can only fuel more nostalgic feeling by the citizens. I have heard die-hards in this country craving indulgence. They are praying for opportunities to grab as much public resources as possible, and wait for greedy lawyers to arrange plea bargain or buy justice for them.
Justice is for sale to the highest bidder in Nigeria. All financial crimes in this country have benevolent antidotes.
Public outrage for huge theft in the system has waned. It’s mundane, uninteresting, with very little sensation to hear of a person accused of cheating the government of anything less than N100 billion these days. Nigerians have trivialised issues of corruption, no matter the magnitude. News of mega theft is mouth-watering for some, while others exhibit apathetical behaviour.
Nigeria’s fragile war against corruption, especially in this administration, will yield no result because every high profile perpetrator knows how to handle the EFCC. The trick is: get some senior lawyers who are in alliance with top judges, pay a negotiated fee, and secure an everlasting injunction against prosecution.
The reality of war against financial crime is that those with huge funds in their possession will always secure their freedom. And so, to date, culprits have safely gone home—unscratched; except the few that are awaiting steep bail bonds. Inevitably, they will secure the bond, and equally go home.
The discovery last week by the Auditor General of the Federation (AGF) that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) failed in 2014 to remit N3.2 trillion to the Federation Account is not only mind-boggling, but gross irresponsibility on part of government at the time. Should the ministers of Finance and Petroleum then be left unpunished, if the misappropriation is further proven to be true? I am sure ready-made legal loopholes have been planned by lawyers and judges to give those being accused some form of escape route.Kuje Prison is a temporary camp for those fingered by the EFCC. Once bail is granted, the rest remains a protracted legal tussle.
In my opinion, President Muhammadu Buhari is alone in the struggle to minimise corruption in Nigeria. If, despite the glaring effort of this administration to expose those who looted this country, some top officers of the Central Bank, would have the gumption to indulge in foreign currency racketeering this time, then, it is obvious that no one in government today is afraid enough of the repercussion. This is the crux of the matter. Without retribution, corruption will continue to thrive. In contrast with the rest of the world, this is the only country where corruption is celebrated.
Despite all his shortcomings, the former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, tackled corruption head on. He disgraced perpetrators in his government; with a strong backing for the EFCC to arrest, detain, and even publicly disgraced those in involved in financial crimes. Governors were stripped of their immunity, using the same law to dethrone them. The fear of “baba” was the beginning of wisdom for the majority of his political party members in his cabinet.
For Buhari to make any impact in this legal but subtle war against corruption, he cannot leave the courts to decide the fate of those arrested by the EFCC. Once their case gets to court, they will always buy their way out. We have witnessed instances where perpetual injunction has been granted to known thieves of public assets.
There are two major factors against the president in the war against corruption. One, he is not a main stream politician, who is conversant with the antics and manipulative behaviour of politicians. Second, he has never been a regular civil servant, and he understands very little of how deceptive and corrupt the system runs. As a former army general, decrees enforce the path of how discipline must guide governance. Punishment for an offence or crime is swift.
In a democratic establishment, the nation is guarded by the constitution, interpreted by the judiciary. Although this country is supposed to be a democracy, the judiciary is a major obstacle to effective combat against corruption, which has eroded the ingredient necessary to ensure a healthy economy.
In addition to the current war against corruption, Buhari must build a national infrastructure or upgrade the existing institutions to fight corruption beyond his administration.
The whole system of Nigeria’s government, all the institutions—ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) are infested with thieves. This country cannot grow if we do not curb the visible excesses of corruption in the polity.
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