Nigerians in anxious wait for Buhari’s onslaught against corruption

One month to the inauguration of the new government billed for May 29, following the presidential election that marked a watershed in Nigeria’s political history when a sitting president was roundly defeated by an opposition candidate, Nigerians are more than anxious to welcome a new order in a country that is ridden with corruption and impunity.

During his campaign, Muhammadu Buhari, a former head of state and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), had claimed that every department of government was an Augean stable that desperately needed to be cleaned out.

Nigerians are not only asking Buhari to make good his promises, but are also urging him to erect institutions that would make it impossible for Nigeria to continue on the pathway of corruption that has brought her international opprobrium.

Olisa Agbakoba, a constitutional lawyer and senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said Buhari should not give impression of a witch-hunt or let off in his drive against corruption, but must erect workable institutional framework that can go after those found wanting.

“General Buhari must allow the structures to work and whatever such structures come up with, he must allow them to do their job without interference, so that nobody can accuse him of pursuing a personal agenda. Such structures must pursue those who run afoul with the law,” Agbakoba said.

According to him, “Section 5 of the Constitution gives the President executive powers to run the country. Don’t forget that he is the CEO of Nigeria. I don’t know how he would do it, but I think the bulk stops at his desk. I think Nigerians will back the president to book those who would want to prevent him from meeting the campaign promises.”

The former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) president also urged Buhari to tame the lifestyle of Nigerian politicians and also ensure that the National Assembly does not continue to be a drain pipe on the nation’s economy.

“Why do you think the politicians do everything to ensure they win elections? It is not for the love of country, but the love of the pocket. There must be accountability. This is a president that came to power on the basis of his promise to insist on public accountability and fight against corruption. All governments of Nigeria have paid a lip service to issue of corruption. The unconstitutional salaries of the National Assembly (they consume about 25 percent of the national budget) must be checked, and all the impunity that go on in government circles must be put a stop to,” he said.

Japheth Omojuwa, a socio-economic and political commentator, in his interview with BD SUNDAY said change became inevitable in the country going by the level to which Nigeria had sunken before the last elections. He urged Buhari to redeem the country from the brinks.

Describing the current government as excessively corrupt and the need for urgent intervention, Omojuwa said: “The Jonathan administration had unprecedented years of astronomic corruption against the highest ever returns from oil sales in a five-year period. They watched touts become thugs till they became an international terrorist organisation; they watched as women got killed, refused to believe girls had been abducted until a regular rescue effort became an international embarrassment. They were clannish, parochial and were obsessed with identifying enemies rather than looking to identify ways of making the country work. They were fulfilled to just have power; they forgot the essence of power which is service to the people.”

Ike Chioke, managing director, Afrinvest (West Africa) Limited, told BD SUNDAY that to wage a successful war against corruption, the incoming administration must “lead by example, punish offenders and carry out continuous values reorientation.”

According to him, “The character of the new government must be such that they are above board. Those who go contrary to the laws of the land must be punished. We are not lacking in laws but the will to punish offenders. It is only in Nigeria that someone can go to court to restrain everybody from prosecuting him for corrupt practices. Again, there is the need for proper and continuous values reorientation. A situation where people make money in dubious ways and they are given chieftaincy titles and respected in society without anybody asking the source of the wealth must be checked.”

“If you look at the APC manifesto, they talked about blocking leakages; they did speak about looking at the cost of governance; revisiting the issue of merger of overlapping government agencies, ministries, departments and other institutions. I think that’s a very prudent way to start because if you take for instance, N3.6trillion government says it is generating at the federal level, it can be N4trillion- that is N400billion increase; it could even be much more than that; it could even be N4.6trillion which means that a whole N1trillion is actually missing and that is either because the cost structure of government is bloated. So, you are either paying people who do not exist or that the revenue of government was diverted, what should have accrued to government did not get there.

“We heard what happened in 2012 when the then CBN governor raised the alarm that N1.7billion oil money was missing, and by the time government looked at everything, they came up with about N2.3trillion that was actually missing. When you look at the total cost of wages – payroll for that year which was N1.9trillion – so you are talking about more than total cost of employment of the entire civil service workforce. The huge amount went into a few hands; they are not more than 70 companies in the list of those in that scam,” Chioke further explained.

A Lagos-based legal practitioner who spoke on condition of anonymity said the Buhari government must also as a matter of urgency reform both the police and judicial system.

“The ineffectiveness of the police in tracking and prosecuting those who commit crime with impunity must be checked. Moreover, the judicial system is so convoluted that it is difficult to successfully punish evil doers. Once you are well-heeled and hire a couple of SAN, you are on your way home. The new government must ensure this does not continue. There must be crime and punishment. Criminals must not be given slaps on the wrist and allow to go home and enjoy their loots,” the legal practitioner said.

Oil sector experts believe one of the ways Buhari should ring his anti-corruption bell is to unbundle the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) which is a behemoth and an avenue through which politicians siphon funds.

But a source at NNPC told BD SUNDAY that much of the touted fraud in the NNPC are perpetrated by politicians as the corporation is often not allowed to sign off  cheques of above N100,000. The source said Buhari must hold his petroleum minister and other politicians around the oil and gas sector accountable while regular audits must be carried out by globally acceptable consulting firms every quarter.

However, another source, who preferred to remain anonymous, admitted that fighting corruption will have to start within the corporation that spearheads a sector that gives Nigeria over 85 percent of its revenue.

“You see, some of the staff in the corporation will also need to understand that you do not float a contracting firm and bid for contracts in the corporation while you are still a staff member of NNPC. This is contrary to the Due Process and must be discouraged,” said the source.

Tied to this is the need for Buhari to lobby the next National Assembly members to pass the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which players believe will open up the oil and gas sector and reduce the possibility of bribery and corruption.

Moreover, Buhari is expected to end import waivers which are seen by the Organised Private Sector as one-sided and sometimes fraudulent. The challenge of genuine businessmen and women in the country is that some importers often obtain import waivers and pay less than what they should as tariffs. The essence of this is to give the importer an undue advantage over local manufacturers.

“We tell government that anything they want to do should be sectoral. If it is sectoral, everybody will be able to survive. But someone will go back to the same government to get a letter for the Customs and pay less. It does not work that way. If you do that, you are killing others,” Oluyinka Kufile, chairman and managing director, Qualitec Industries Limited, told BD SUNDAY in an interview.

The Nigeria Customs Service is also seen as a money spinner for politicians and high-ranking staff members. Stakeholders believe Buhari’s stance on corruption will so much depend on how he is able to re-organise the behemoth.

“There are so many manipulations at the ports by the Nigeria Customs Service. It is either they do not actually understand government policy or they have a different harmonised system (HS) Code or something else. Sometimes, things we do not understand happen. When we are at our sectoral meeting in the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), there are so many issues that will come up and you ask yourself, can this be true? But after investigations, you discover they are absolutely true. Government will do theirs but some unscrupulous elements will be looking for loopholes in the government policy to short-change them,” Kufile added.

Zebulon Agomuo, ODINAKA ANUDU