Ex-President Buhari’s sentiment that “if Nigeria does not kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria,” is widely shared yet Africa’s economic giant is still among the leading countries where corruption is the norm, where vulnerable people have restricted access to justice while the rich and powerful capture whole justice systems, at the expense of the common good.
After the media got wind of Betta Edu’s crime and put it out for public consumption, Nigerians went berserk. The Humanitarian Affairs Minister turned a national bete noire in a twinkle of an eye. The moral dust the news raised culminated in the demand for her resignation.
Poor Edu! Unlike the biblical unnamed strumpet, the Saviour was not in sight to save her as she was hauled over the coals. After days of intense media and public outrage, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu bowed to the pressure and made her jobless even after she denied any wrongdoing.
It is shocking to think that a minister charged with helping the neediest by intervening in dire humanitarian issues affecting vulnerable Nigerians would be found helping themselves instead. It is even more distressing that such happened at a time when Nigeria was passing through a period of economic turmoil, and the masses needed some relief from the misery.
But this is Nigeria, after all. Outrageous crimes such as Edu’s are not uncommon. The media is rife with stories of a bandwagon of political officeholders, past and present, accused of swooping on public funds and cornering a good chunk for themselves.
Edu’s predecessor, Sadiya Umar Faruk and the former national coordinator of the National Social Investment Programs Agency, NSIPA, Halima Shehu, who was suspended after just two months in office, are still under probe for corruption totalling not less than N54.1 billion.
Faruk and Shehu’s case is dwarfed by the allegation of financial crime charges against the immediate past governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele. Emefiele’s crime was so brazen that he allegedly moved millions from the treasury with a fake document bearing forged signatures of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari and former Secretary General of the Federation Boss Mustapha.
Edu and her partners in crime, all leading politicians of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, have raised red flags at the party’s incorruptible posture. It is on record that the APC rode into power in 2015 after promising to free the country from the shackles of corruption. I still recall Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was as of then the national leader of the APC, waving a broom and screaming “It’s a broom, broom revolution” at one of the party’s outings to market its candidate, Muhammadu Buhari.
Yet, nearly nine years later, it has become clear that the thousands of brooms — including the controversial giant one that was put up at Abuja’s city gate in 2019 — are incapable of sweeping the widespread corruption in the world’s most populous black nation away. Immediate past president Buhari lost the battle to corruption after concurring with British Prime Minister David Cameron that Nigeria is “fantastically corrupt”.
By suspending Edu, Present Tinubu said it was proof of his “avowed commitment to uphold the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and accountability in the management of the commonwealth of Nigerians.” And, of course, a lot of Nigerians share Tinubu’s sentiment: corruption should be completely stamped out and anyone found with as little as a kobo belonging to the Nigerian people should not be let off the hook.
But there is a spin. The majority of Nigerians are staunch anti-corruption campaigners because the opportunity to match words with actions has not fallen on their laps. Until the opportunity arrives, they would write lengthy posts on social media denouncing corruption, and they would not hesitate to run down anyone with a smeared record. All are but lip service.
Every Nigerian is a “corruption suspect.” The only non-corrupt Nigerian is the one who has not had the opportunity to choose between being corrupt and not being corrupt. As the general philosophy in Nigeria goes, public money belongs to no one and any person who has access to it should use it judiciously — stash it away in safe havens overseas.
Little wonder then that public officials, who are entrusted with the responsibility of serving the public interest, often exploit their positions for personal gain, embezzling and misappropriating public funds intended for development projects. To these men with power and authority, the “national” in “national cake” is inconsequential; so they loot as much as they can, without batting an eye.
Politics, for them, is a private gamble and not a service for the nation, a theatre for competing selfish interests where the common good is often carted away as private property. Their stealing and fraudulent exploits are further perpetuated by the recruitment of family members, friends, and political allies to key government positions regardless of their qualifications or merit.
Ex-President Buhari’s sentiment that “if Nigeria does not kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria,” is widely shared yet Africa’s economic giant is still among the leading countries where corruption is the norm, where vulnerable people have restricted access to justice while the rich and powerful capture whole justice systems, at the expense of the common good.
It is as if the fight against the canker has lost its steam. For a country mired in all shades of corruption, including petty bribery, money laundering, embezzlement, and electoral fraud, there is no gainsaying that the prevailing standard is: the government pretends to fight corruption while Nigerians pretend to support the fight.
Ezinwanne may be reached at [email protected].