By Soni Daniel, Editor, Northern Region

As the country edges closer to the 2027 election cycle, the central question surrounding Tinubu’s anti-corruption campaign increasingly revolves around whether the administration is building a genuinely institutional accountability framework or presiding over a politically selective enforcement system shaped by alliances, defections and elite power calculations.

Since taking office on May 29, 2023, the administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu has consistently flaunted anti-corruption enforcement as one of its defining governance priorities, leaning heavily on the activities of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, to demonstrate action against graft.

Official figures released by the presidency and the EFCC show that the anti-graft agency secured more than 7,000 convictions and recovered over N500 billion within the administration’s first two years, including a record 4,111 convictions in 2024 alone.

But behind the impressive statistics lies a more complicated national conversation.

While the Tinubu administration points to convictions, asset forfeitures and ongoing investigations as evidence of institutional progress, critics argue that many of the conviction numbers are driven by cybercrime and lower-level fraud cases rather than prosecutions involving politically influential figures.

As a result, the administration’s anti-corruption record is increasingly being judged by a different standard: whether it has genuinely confronted Nigeria’s “big men” corruption culture or merely expanded enforcement against politically weakened actors.

Many of the most prominent corruption investigations since 2023 have centred on former ministers, governors and appointees linked to the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

At the same time, critics continue to question the pace, consistency and neutrality of anti-graft enforcement, especially in cases involving politically strategic allies of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

Saleh Mamman Conviction Becomes Tinubu Era’s Biggest “Big Fish” Outcome

The clearest high-profile conviction secured during Tinubu’s administration remains that of former Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman.

In May 2026, the Federal High Court in Abuja convicted Mamman in absentia on 12 counts involving money laundering and diversion of approximately N33.8 billion linked to the Zungeru and Mambilla hydropower projects.

Justice James Omotosho sentenced the former minister to cumulative prison terms amounting to 75 years, ordered major asset forfeitures and directed repayment of N22 billion.