The Insight by Lateef Adewole
“He who comes to equity must come with clean hands”.
Any Nigerian who is so much as concerned about the happenings in this country as I am, will rarely have a breather concerning this country. You will hardly stop worrying about an issue before another is splashed in your face. These past weeks in particular could be dubbed as the “era of corruption exposé”. This is because the quantum of revelations coming out is overwhelming. The amounts of stolen money being reeled out in various corruption cases can make someone go deaf.
And to say this is happening in a country where more than half of the population (over 100 million people) is wallowing in one form of extreme poverty or another is incredible. Worse still, majority of this money being stolen by their custodians were borrowed funds, which have sunk Nigeria into a very deep pit of debt. That is currently at 33 trillion naira. Of note is that, the debt ballooned from 12 trillion naira in 2015 when this administration came to power to the current level. And we are still counting.
It is not that the cases of corruption which are being exposed are anything new, what makes them peculiar are the characters involved. It happened that those who were asked to catch the thieves ended up being accused of stealing even more themselves. Those saddled with the responsibilities of fighting corruption in an organisation or cleaning up the mess, are the ones messing up the place further, as alleged.
Last week, I wrote about the travail of Mr. Ibrahim Magu, the suspended acting chairman of EFCC. As at then, he was in custody without trial. Something I described as karma. He was later granted bail on Wednesday after ten days but the investigation continues.
However, the Magu camp did not take all his travails lying low. As a result, snippets of series of sleaze were released targeting the man believed to be behind Magu’s trial. It is no other than the Nigerian chief law officer, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister for Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN). Counter-accusations against him have been flying around.
In the last two weeks, series of allegations have been levied against him also. The situation is becoming a dog fight. It started with how he illegally approved the selling of some seized stolen crude oil and diesel vessels. He did not deny it but only said he had the constitutional authority to do so. Many began to wonder when does an AGF start to auction properties rather than facing legal matters by advising the EFCC on how to go about it.
Then came the revelations about how he bought and gifted his son, who might never have worked in his life, a 300 million naira mansion. While he was still denying this, the video of how money in local and foreign currencies was lavished at the wedding ceremony of the same boy. The viral video showed how money rained on the couple at their wedding party. It was as if the currencies were going out of fashion.
Let’s not even talk of the violations of several rules and protocols at the events. At the last count, the CBN act prohibits the spraying of naira notes. This was flagrantly disregarded. In this era of coronavirus, where the federal government is leading the efforts to curb the spread of the virus, reeling out series of precautionary measures and recommending sanctions for defaulters, that party held and observed all the cautions in breach. No physical distancing, no face masks by many, more guests than recommended crowd size in any occasion, and the rest. If there is one thing I am very sure of, it is that nothing, I mean absolutely nothing, will happen to those violators. I guess the laws were made for only the poor and ordinary citizens. “No be naija we dey again?”.
While no one should deny a father the joy of celebrating the marriage of his son, that is within his inalienable right. However, for the family of a public servant to be seen on extravagant spending spree, in a “supposedly” anti-corruption government, of a “supposedly” anti-corruption President, in a country full of wretched people, especially from their own part of the country? That’s immoral! And to breach laws in the process is heart breaking? He is the number one law officer “fah”!
While Malami was still lamenting about all these accusations, claiming they “traumatised” him, something many found laughable and asking when he became “oyinbo” (a white man), who gets traumatised by any small thing. Though, if it were the same “oyinbos”, such allegations would have seen them resigned even if they are innocent. But, Mr. Malami’s “oyinbo-ness” did not reach that stage (lol).
Rather, he has been threatening fire and brimstone. How ironic? This is the same person who has been on Magu’s case unwavering. In fact, he just ordered the suspension of another twelve directors in EFCC, those who were considered to be “Magu boys”. They were accused of culpability in the Magu saga being investigated by the retired Justice Ayo Salami-led panel. It was reported that Malami took that action to halt the EFCC investigation of himself. These directors were said to be involved in that.
One would ordinarily have expected that the Honourable Minister would be honorable enough to subject himself to similar investigation as well, but that was not to be. He would rather sue the people who made such allegations against him instead of being ready to simply clear himself. “Abenilori ki fe ki won mu ida koja lori oun” (The executioner who beheads others avoids sword from being moved over his head).
Unfortunately for him, rather than his own accusers to be cowed by his threats, they were more resolute to expose him the more. Few days ago, they released another bombshell. Another video has been released to circulation since. This time, it detailed more of suspicious sleaze.
The video showed the supposed 300 million naira house he bought for his newly married son. Beside it, is another mansion he was alleged to be building for another son. There was an ultra-modern school in Birnin Kebbi, another 600 million naira worth edifice and a new hotel in Kano. Then another massive business, Azbir Plaza, which was estimated to worth over 3 billion naira for his young son, Azbir Malami. And so on. All these are allegations by his accusers which remained to be proven.
But, as someone who claimed to be fighting Magu for “stealing and mismanagement” of public funds; the recovered loots from looters, he should have availed himself for scrutiny, even if it is just to clear his name, and be seen to be above board. Well, it is never too late for him to do so, instead of muscling his way out. He needs to recuse himself as well in the process. He needs to step aside like Magu. “Nemo judex in causa sua” (no one is judge in his own cause).
All these speak to many concerns some of us have been raising since the coming of this administration. Unfortunately, many did misread, misunderstand or misinterprete our intentions. In many of my writings, I did these to call the attention of the government, leaderships and the general public to what is happening in the government and the country every now and then. It is my civic responsibility.
It is easy to get carried away and get lost in the euphoria of media trials that have characterised the anti-corruption fights, while some of the culprits are sitting as the jury. This case between Magu and Malami is just one of many others in the country. We have been sordidly entrailed with how trillions of naira have been stolen within the NDDC all these years.
While some people were deployed to go and clean up the place, they ended up adding their own mess to it. Or, how do we explain the allegation of mismanagement of a whooping 81 billion naira by an Interim Management Committee (IMC) put in place to oversee a forensic audit of the agency, just within six months of their inauguration? We were even told they did palliatives of 1.5 billion naira for themselves within two months of the lockdown. What kind of people are we? What kind of country is this?
Both the supervising Minister of Niger Delta, Senator Godswill Akpabio and the former Managing Director of the NDDC, under the IMC, Dr. (Mrs.) Joi Nunieh (“the Port Harcourt girI”) have been entertaining Nigerians with their mud-slinging, accusations and counter accusations, and other dramas. It was a big shameful public display! This is a story for another day. The drama is still unfolding.
There are numerous other sectors of the government functionaries where similar heist of public funds is going on. The NSITF, recent story was another. Let us not go into NNPC, the headquarters of corruption in Nigeria, like forever!
“Eni ti o n de iho idi eniyan, ki o ranti wipe Edumare nbe l’oke ti o n de iho idi oun naa” (he who is spying on others should know that his own secret is not hidden too). While Mr. Malami also deserves fair hearing, be given the chance to defend himself and not condemned before he is even investigated or tried, just as I demanded for Magu last week, he should also be ready to subject himself to it, as long as he is certain not to have any skeleton in his cupboard.
In all of these, the presence of the President Buhari is important to be seen and felt. Many believed it is his aloofness about serious national issues that usually give room for impostors to high jack his government and exercise the powers they do not possess. In what capacity and on what authority did Malami sell national assets or sacked federal government employees in EFCC?
This has been the character of the president about his administration since 2015. It is high time the president took his government back and reign in all these straying members. Nigeria believed in him, that was why they chose him as their president. He must live up to their expectations. Enough is enough. Let us see the sincerity in the fight against corruption claims. There should be no sacred cow!
May God continue to protect us and guide us aright.
God Bless Nigeria.
Lateef Adewole is a political analyst and social commentator can be reached by email lateefadewole23@gmail.com or via WhatsApp +2348020989095 and @lateef_adewole on Twitter
