Corrupt officials, against the background of the recent elevation of Senator Abdullahi Adamu, former Governor of Nasarawa State to the position of National Chairman of the ruling APC on the recommendation of His Excellency President Mohammadu Buhari, it is apposite to interrogate how the incumbent government has dealt with the issue of official corruption in government.
Senator Adamu is currently facing a charge of N15 billion fraud brought against him by the EFCC at the Federal High Court, Lafia. His son, Nuraini Adamu is also facing charges for contract infractions and money laundering. Shehu Garba, a spokesperson of the presidency once magisterially declared that Senator Adamu has since repented when he joined the APC, The Trumpet gathered.
What does this portend in the fight against corruption? How does the President want to be remembered knowing that he was elected on the anti-corruption mantra? What message does this singular action along with others send to the public and other public officials?
How does the government see itself in the dismal rating given the country by Transparency International? When President Muhammadu Buhari was democratically elected in 2015 for his first tenure, it was believed then that “his body language” was enough to send chills into the spines of all corrupt elements in Nigeria,
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But experience has proved otherwise. In a most uncanny and brutally truthful manner, Governor Adams Oshiomhole, the then incumbent Chairman of APC, prophetically announced during Buhari’s 2019 second bid campaign that: “I am told that there are a lot of very senior people from PDP who have decided to join forces with President Buhari to take the broom to sweep away PDP and to continue to ensure that APC continues to preside all over Nigeria.
We have quite a number of other leaders, who have come… in fact, once you have joined APC, all your sins are forgiven.” Given the result of the last APC’s leadership election, the ruling party is now entirely controlled by former PDP politicians, the once upon a time corrupt Nigerians.
Their conversion from PDP to APC has cleansed and transformed them to saints in the imagination of the APC. Consequently, the list of those who have adopted the Adam’s Oshiomhole’s “Canon of Reprieve” is ever-growing. They include former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, former Governor, Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi who defected from the PDP with his entire cabinet.
The EFCC allegation against Umahi of diverting over N400 million during the 2015 presidential election is now put on hold. Former Akwa Ibom Governor Godswill Akpabio and current Niger Delta Affairs Minister who defected to the APC in 2018 was accused by the EFCC of plundering over N100bn from the oil-rich state between 2007 and 2015. This accusation may become history.
As the current Chief Executive of the Niger Delta Development Commission, an allegation of over N40 billion fraud is linked to his name. Another high-profile PDP ‘decampee’ to APC Stella Oduah was Minister of Aviation. She joined APC on August 27, 2021, with a baggage of over N9.4 billion fraud allegation.
The same allegation follows former Governor of Abia State, Orji Kalu, (N3.2 billion). Former Governor of Oyo State, Adebayo Alao-Akala reportedly defected to the APC from the Action Democratic Party (ADP) while facing an N11.5 billion fraud case.
We need to demonstrate that it is possible for us to bring the corrupt to book. The fact that persons who are addressed as “Your Excellency,” “Right Honourable,” can be corrupt without any tinge prick of conscience that our society is indeed in a bigger trouble than we may ever imagined.
The leaders of the 1966 coup d’état in Nigeria were aggrieved about the corrupt politicians and tagged them as ‘ten percenters.’ It is worse these days. We now have buccaneers, economic mercenaries and land pirates disguising as politicians and statesmen.
The country is not only being senselessly plundered to death, but also being sunk into an irredeemable abyss of loans.
We must interrogate the system that makes it easy, convenient, and possible for an individual to steal billions of Naira from the coffers of a State or country. What is the role of the Legislative arm of government?
Where – we may ask – are the Bursars, Accountants-General, Auditors, and other approving officers of our institutions? Is it that the country is controlled by strong individuals under a structure of very weak and impotent institutions?
How come only chief executives like President, Governor, Vice Chancellor, Minister, Managing Director, remain the target of the EFCC and other anti-corruption agencies? Where are the other accounting officers? Why would a normal person steal the monies they and their immediate family members would not possibly need in their entire existence?
Clearly, our institutions make corruption thrive unabated! Some traditional and religious rulers benefit from official corruption. They are placated with gifts of cars and cash. In communities where workers and retirees are owed and unfairly remunerated, we see these so-called traditional rulers live in splendour, glamour, and profligacy. The fight against corruption is almost an uphill task.
Those who ought to make laws against it are now running the affairs of the State.
The captain and crewmen of the Nigerian ship are held in the jugular by pirates! Nevertheless, today, more than ever before, there is the urgent need to fight corruption in Nigeria.
Awarding titles to officials and serving civil servants must be stopped in the country. Religious organisations and charities should be barred from receiving donations from questionable sources. Given the devastating consequences of corruption on us, only life imprisonment, with no option of a fine would serve as a deterrent to official corruption.
The law of ‘negation of negation’ is one of Karl Marx’s principles of development. Corruption is a major negation that must be negated from Nigeria if we must join the league of developed countries.
Finally, corrupt persons should be barred from office. Except we do this, the country will sink into the abyss of social disintegration.
