By Yinka Odumakin
“Our enemies are the political profiteers, the swindlers, the men in high and low places that seek bribes and demand 10 per cent; those that seek to keep the country divided permanently so that they can remain in office as ministers or VIPs at least, the tribalists, the nepotists, those that make the country look big for nothing before international circles, those that have corrupted our society and put the Nigerian political calendar back by their words and deeds”–Major Kaduna Nzeogwu, Jan 15,1966.

“N78m too little for Fashola to steal”- Ben Akabueze, Sept 18,2015.

BETWEEN the time Nzeogwu railed against corruption in high places during the first military putsch in Nigeria in 1966 and September 18,2015 when Ben Akabueze,a former commissioner in Lagos declared that it would be infra-dig of Mr. Raji Fashola to steal a little sum like N78m ( the amount Lagos government announced he spent on a website)when he was presiding over an average of N400b annually for eight years;Nigeria has sunk below,below.

The Nigerian situation is not only about corrupt officials but corruption itself being one of the officials of state. In 2009, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak had to resign his office as Sports Minister in Ghana for mis-applying $10,000 to sponsor Ms. Edith Zinayela, Secretary to the Majority Leader in Parliament, to embark on a trip to Germany in his official entourage.

Official entourage

That would not happen in Nigeria where corruption only wears the garb of corruption mostly when the accused are not properly aligned.

The cruel joke of anti-graft war in Nigeria can never be better illustrated than a story told by my good brother and friend,Olusegun Adeniyi in his column in THISDAY of January 9,2011. It is better served in his own words:

“On the night of December 16, 2006, I got a call from Alhaji Aliko Dangote who sought to know whether I was in Abuja.

When I answered in the affirmative, he requested that I joined him and a few other people he would not name at the residence of Senator Andy Uba, then a Senior Special Assistant on Domestic Affairs to President Olusegun Obasanjo. This was on the day the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was holding its National Convention to pick the presidential candidate for the April 2007 general elections.

When I arrived at Uba’s residence, I met Dangote and Uba as well as four others: then EFCC Chairman, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu; former Delta State governor, Chief James Ibori; his Kwara State counterpart, Dr. Bukola Saraki; and Zenon Oil Chairman, Mr. Femi Otedola. Since my arrival did not change the tone of discussion, it was easy for me to keep abreast of what the issue was: then Rivers State governor, Dr. Peter Odili, had been selected by President Olusegun Obasanjo as running mate to his anointed PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Odili’s name had even been written into the acceptance speech to be read by Yar’Adua after what would have been no more than a hollow ritual at the Eagle Square. The essence of the gathering was to stop Odili from becoming Yar’Adua’s running mate on grounds of alleged corruption.

When I asked why I was invited to the meeting, they said they had an “exclusive story” for THISDAY which would highlight allegations of corruption against Odili but with a caveat: it had to be published in next morning’s edition of the newspaper. The evidence was to be supplied by Ribadu who held a file containing the documents. While I considered the proposition somewhat ridiculous, I also wondered how a THISDAY publication could affect the decision to make Odili the running mate. It was then they explained what was going on”.

Anti-corruption caucus

Res ipsa loquitur. The composition of this anti- corruption caucus would make one bend double with laughter were it not for the monumental tragedy that is at play. It is not different from some poster boys of corruption who have been lately talking of clearing “the rots” of the past of which they are very active participants. A friend of mine quipped the other day that it is easier counting the number of houses that don’t belong to one of them in the state where he once governed than the ones he owns.

In the days of Obasanjo farcical fight against corruption, he ensured that some governors who were aligned with his arch-foe who was his also his Vice were bloodied in the nose. One of them was Joshua Dariye who was arrested in London for money laundering. But shortly after Obasanjo handed over Dariye wrote to his successor,Umaru  Yar’Adua that his loot had been re-looted. He said that the worth of his loot was N741, 056,000, while just N29.3 million was returned to Plateau state “where is the remaining N712 million?”

At one sordid point in our history, Sani Abacha decided to fight corruption by setting up Failed Banks Tribunals to recover loots from thieving bank officials. By the time the maximum ruler expired allegedly in the embrace of oriental beauties he had looted 1000% more than he ever recovered from the rogue bankers.

High drama over assets declaration: We have just been treated to high drama over the alleged false declaration of assets by Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki. While this column holds that anyone who runs foul of the law should face the music, and the allegations against him are weighty to warrant proper trial when we start a real anti- graft war- the fact remains that Saraki would not  have been prosecuted  for what ALL politicians do if not that he defied the party supremacists. Among the “supremacists” choreographing Saraki’s ordeals are people who need more than a lifetime in jail for all they had illegally acquired as public office holders.Those who prostrated out of the dock a few years ago on worse charges are now talking of how impossible it is to “overlook certain things in the past”. I thought they said the “past” was only six years of Jonathan! That giants of corruption are gloating over this shows it is not about fighting corruption.

They would have fooled at least the unwary that they are dealing with corruption if the “Lion of Bourdillon” has not been showing his fingers all over the place and causing nausea as the spokesman of the administration’s anti-graft crusade. A society where Lawrence Anini becomes the head of Special Anti-Robbery Squad should just legalise robbery!

Hate Saraki or like him,(I am certainly not his fan)we must insist that every due process of law should be followed in determining his guilt or otherwise. Hounding him out of his seat with what is known in Lagos as “jankara” would herald a fascist order in Nigeria.

Our fathers from the depth of their wisdom say when a man used a pestle to beat his full-blooded brother,his half-brother should know that the Amber light is on. Father Niemoller admonition in the days of Hitler still ring true:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak

The  comedy of it all is that the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Court trying Saraki and the Chairman of the Conduct Bureau are under investigations for allegations of corruption.The EFCC chairman himself is answering allegations of corruption from Saraki’s Senate.

Between 2003 when EFCC was established and now,hundreds of cases have been filed against corrupt officials with less than two dozens conviction.The Commission has succeeded more in dealing with plebeian rogues who deal in advance fee frauds than the captains in the corruption industry who are able to steal more than enough to perverse the entire system.

For people in the latter category ,the whole ordeal of corruption trial is not more than the one week of interrogation by the EFCC and media hype. Once they are charged to the courts and the Senior Advocates of Nigeria take over,that is the end of the story.

Anti-corruption on corruption foundation

The bottom line is that there is no way corruption can be fought successfully in a country that is built on a foundation of corruption and whose constitution mandates corruption. The 1999 constitution upon which entire governance machinery rests in Nigeria is the greatest enabler of corruption in the country.The process of accessing political power is also so expensive that it is easier for the camel to shuttle effortlessly through the eye of the needle than for clean money to take anyone to political office.

A government that therefore seeks to concentrate only  on “fighting corruption” within the present structures of Nigeria without creating alternative incentives would at the end of the day discover that it is wasting it’s time.That was what Ricardo meant by saying that throwing bad eggs into the sea on its own is not capable of making good eggs flow to the shores.

It would make more sense to fashion out an agenda of deliverables,build institutions that make it difficult for thieves to access the treasury and ultimately reconstitute Nigeria in a way that the architecture of corruption would be smashed so that it would no longer be fashionable for political office holders to be comfortable with the legacy of theft

Until then it would be what Yoruba call “ole gbe,ole gba”(thieves recovering from thieves)

Concluded.