Why Nigeria Does Not Need Anti-Corruption President Again

BY MAGNUS ONYIBE

The much-anticipated election 2023 is finally here with us as it would finally be held next Saturday, 25 February, which is just a few days.

And the redesigned Naira to be swapped with some of the old denominations that is now the rarest essential item to come by in Nigeria (second only to air) has become the number one (1) defining factor for the 2023 elections.

That is followed closely by the persistent and debilitating petrol scarcity crisis, which despite the 2022 national budget allocation of over N4 trillion naira towards subsidizing the pump price of the commodity (in some quarters it is believed that N6 trillion was actually sunk), the electorate has been pinning away in petrol stations for days and weeks in search of the commodity in the manner that Mungo Park, the Scottish explorer and his fellow adventurers, searched for the mouth of the River Niger until they found it in 1796, after two (2) expeditions.

The third (3rd) challenge, which is the registration and collection of Permanent Voters Cards, PVC, by voting-age Nigerians, especially the youth demographics, has been trounced by the more pressing maladies of demonetization and the attendant difficulties in sustaining livelihoods and petrol shortage with debilitating effects on the populace.

The new development highlighted above is contrary to the situation about a year ago when who is more corrupt among the front-running presidential candidates or the four (4) leading contenders for the office of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria had taken the center stage in Nigerian political theatre.

The switch from corruption and related issues to existential issues such as the catastrophic effects of lack of access to the redesigned currency notes and non-availability of petrol, both of which are essential for the survival of Nigerians, is so stunningly surprising that no pundit or soothsayer could have predicted it until it happened.

And that is in contrast with the view that l had canvased in an article published in the mass media, particularly in Daily lndependent newspaper of 13 September of last year, titled: “Presidency 2023: A Contest Between Three ‘Sinners’?”.

In that piece, I had drawn attention to the fact that the front liners for the 2023 presidential contest are ex-public servants and in light of the fact that Nigerians regard all public holders, especially of the political hue, as corrupt. While emphasising that having been public servants they are all ‘sinners’ in the eyes of the Nigerian masses, I then made the case that the presidential candidates are likely to “let the sleeping dog lie” by not anchoring their campaigns on who would fight corruption in government better.

In my view, making fighting corruption the number one objective in the agenda of the incumbent government is counterproductive, shallow and akin to shadow chasing as evidenced by the disappointing outcome of the outgoing regime that anchored the administration’s core goal on fighting graft. The assertion above is underscored by the fact that even before independence from British colonial rule, going as far back as 1943, successive regimes or government administrations have been wagging futile wars against corruption.

Instead of winning, the various successive governments even pre-independence, have been losing the war as corruption has gained more ground in our socioeconomic and political environment as demonstrated by the monumental level of corruption currently thriving in our society.

So, if our current leaders had bordered to test their hypothesis of making fighting corruption the centrepiece of their governance policy, it should not have been rocket science for them to learn or enlighten themselves about the fact that corruption in government has grown exponentially from the demand by public servants for a bribe of 10% of the value of a contract pre 1960 independence (which the military adventurers had often touted as the excuse for the coup de tat of 1966), to the current level of corruption in the new dispensation, where entire funds for contracts can be received with no work done and no consequences suffered for the embezzlement of public funds.

The pervasive culture of corruption prevailing in our clime, especially in the public sector today, extends beyond the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, where it is legendary that contracts worth billions of naira were awarded and never executed, but money was paid to the contractors.

The Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSTIF and similar government agencies where snakes either swallowed money that was supposed to be in government coffers or termites chewed up vouchers that would have evidenced money in the vaults as well as the recently sacked Accountant General of the Federation, AGF, Mr Ahmed Idris’s heist of one hundred and nine (N109) billion from workers payroll, reflect the hideous levels of graft suggesting that corruption has become unbridled in our country including the case of billions of naira also recently declared as unaccounted for by Mr Abdulrasheed Maina, Chairman of a Task Force on the recovery of pensions funds that got convicted and jailed for the fraud.

It is, therefore, not surprising that all of the acts of corruption in the course of the past eight (8) years would make a mockery of the much-vaunted anti-corruption mantra of the incumbent government.

And the current scenario or culture of corruption makes what the founding fathers of modern Nigeria – the trio of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Sir Ahmadu Bello – that were arraigned for corrupt practices during colonial rule, pale into nothing.

In light of the highlighted reality above, how long would corruption and the fight against it continue to define our political process?

Before answering the question, allow me to take you down memory lane by delving a bit into our historical archives to exhume some epic fights against corruption targeting our foremost and iconic leaders.

In the twilight of the colonial era, the great Africanist, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, when he was Premier of the Eastern Region and later Governor-General of Nigeria, got accused of corruption-ACB saga.

Dr Azikiwe was not only indicted but basically convicted by the Foster-Sutton Tribunal of Enquiry in 1956, for having a stake in African Continental Bank, ACB, which was in contravention of the law precluding public officers from having beneficial interests in private business and worse of all, promoting the business through government patronage while also obtaining loans from the bank.

Mr Peter’s Obi family’s interest in Fidelity Bank where he domiciled $50m Anambra state funds and his family’s investment in SABmiller, the brewery in Onitsha, in which the state had substantial investment echo the corrupt practice for which Azikiwe was found guilty in 1956/7 by the British colonialist.

• Onyibe sent this article from Lagos.

•Continues online at www.thewillnigeria.com