by Dan Agbese
President Muhammadu Buhari now knows that the only item on the people’s agenda for his administration is to make corruption history in our country. He knows it is a tall order. But not to worry; he is a tall man.
A new social pressure group, Nigerians Against Corruption, led by Aisha Yusufu, a leading Bring Back Our Girls campaigner made the people’s wish clear to the president on August 17. They staged a surprise protest at the presidential gate in Abuja to register their disenchantment with those who appear, in good conscience, to be cautioning the president to wage the anti-graft war within the limits of the rule of law. My good friend, Bishop Hassan Kukah, now knows there is a strong public emotion and sentiment surrounding the anti-corruption war. The people instantly suspect that anyone advocating respect for the rule of law is advocating presidential reprieve for the treasury looters.
ALSO READ: Prominent #BringBackOurGirls Campaigner Stages Anti-corruption March To Aso Rock (PHOTOS)
This, of course, is miles away from the truth. Kukah has a good record in championing the ideals of the clean society. He has written reams on corruption and its corrosive effect on the giant of Africa. I am prepared to wager he would be the last person to find some accommodation in his heart for those who have made themselves stupendously wealthy and the rest of us stupendously poor and wretched and forced to live with the paradox of the rich but poor country. No, I am not saying this to make the bishop look kindly on me, a sinner.
But we cannot blame Nigerians Against Corruption for feeling the way they do. Like the rest of the silent majority, they are frustrated with the longest-running anti-graft war in the world. Men in khaki and agbada have had a go at it; still the war has gone nowhere. I have repeatedly pointed out that the anti-graft agencies make period public shows of some big fish in their net to only humour the society. Their scrappy records are reasons for despair.
Our country still looks like the vulture and smells like an Ajegunle sewer – despite or perhaps because of the anti-corruption war. Neither EFCC nor ICPC is a poster child for integrity. The public invariably sees them as attack dogs of the powers that be rather than genuine prosecutors of the anti-graft war. We may all be wrong about them. It is possible that they have done more to arrest corruption than we would ever know. I can only hope, with the best will in the world, that this is, indeed, the case.
I see the August 17 protest as a desperate plea to the president on behalf of the silent majority who have had the misfortune of bearing the burden of corruption – uncompleted development projects, insane rising cost of living, rising insecurity and other social vices. I can hear their urgent and sincere plea to Buhari. They seem to be saying, Mr President, your credibility rides on what you make of the anti-corruption war. They seem to be saying, Mr President, we believe only you can wage and win this war and bring about the change we are yearning for to our country. They seem to be saying, Mr President, we are tired of cosmetics; we want to see results because the good book says the guilty shall not go unpunished.
I believe Buhari is not unmindful of this basket of silent demands and expectations. I believe the president has his strategy or he is working on one for the prosecution of the war. It is worse than shame and scandal that 110 million out of the total national population of 170 million are not just poor but are truly, truly wretched. It is worse than shame and scandal that a few Nigerians have cornered and still corner our common wealth into their own pockets and are laughing in our faces. It makes you want to wring someone’s scrawny neck.
The people see the unnatural geometric rise of the wealthy Nigerians and they know their wealth does not come from hard work or their contributions to national development but from outright stealing of public funds with impunity.
The people see the loutish children of these thieves in the lap of luxury and their despair increases. With Buhari leading the charge, the people are no longer prepared to see these enemies of the people continue to cheat the people and get away with it. That is why they are suspicious of those that advocate the rule of law in dealing with those who, in the first place, broke the law to become what they are in our country today. Yes, the leap from riding okada in the morning to riding the latest jeep in the evening is hardly the natural progression in an honest human endeavour.
The people are baying for the blood of their cheaters. The flood of the people’s sentiment is washing over the president. Caution: sentiment is an unreliable ally in solving a complex and complicated problem such as this.
It is clear that given a choice, the silent majority would rather not hear anything about the rule of law. I think they look forward to the day the president’s men would off load the treasury looters at Eagle Square, Abuja, and have children flog them and spit in their faces before they are taken to the firing range. It is not the way of civilised rule, sadly. The tortuous and slow pace of the law is not meant to primarily protect wealthy thieves but to ensure the full protection of human rights. Without the protection of those rights, things could be positively worse.
The rule of law is one of the strong pillars of democracy. The president cannot do without it, no matter how desperate the situation we face here in this corruption business. We cannot pretend he can successfully wage the anti-graft war, armed with public emotion and sentiment. The success of the war depends on how it is waged and how it is waged depends on its integrity. We ignore that at the peril of the war itself.
We had, indeed, been through that path before. Nuhu Ribadu, the pioneer chairman of EFCC, tried to do without the rule of law and ruined his good record of courage, commitment and determination. Had he pressed the rule of law into service he would have done more than anyone to tame the monster and firmly planted a culture of doing things correctly at the commission. He wasted his time listening to the applause of the uninformed and earned the unfortunate sobriquet of Obasanjo’s attack dog.
The effect of Ribadu’s style and strategy has been the confusion and the cowing of his successors as chairmen of the commission. Mrs. Farida Waziri chose not to adopt Ribadu’s razzmatazz. Her own style and strategy must have served her well. It is possible that she was as effective as Ribadu but when she left office the public was only too glad to see her go.
Her successor, Ibrahim Lamorde, could neither be Ribadu nor Waziri. He may be a silent performer but we have problems knowing his performance. He was not quite Jonathan’s attack dog but I am sure some of his high-profile arrests would not be counted among the former president’s friends. It worries me that Lamorde routinely slaps ex-governors with charges of between 50 and 192 for alleged corrupt practices. He invites public ridicule to his fishing expedition in the temple of justice.
All these make a strong case for a new strategy in prosecuting the anti-graft war.
Dan Agbese is a columnist with the Daily Trust, where this article was first published.
The opinions in this article are solely those of the author.
