The deep stains of corruption

If you want to make enemies, try to change something – Woodrow Wilson President Buhari’s retort to Prime Minister David Cameron’s gaffe on Nigeria’s reputation will rank among the best statesman-like responses to provocations. It reminds one of many of Prime Minister Churchill’s reactions to people he frequently offended. A lady was offended by his […]

If you want to make enemies, try to change something – Woodrow Wilson

President Buhari’s retort to Prime Minister David Cameron’s gaffe on Nigeria’s reputation will rank among the best statesman-like responses to provocations. It reminds one of many of Prime Minister Churchill’s reactions to people he frequently offended. A lady was offended by his drunken behavior at a social event, and told him how she would poison his drink if he were her husband. ‘Madam’, he said, ‘if I were your husband, I will drink that poison’. When the gloss is removed from the quick and matured response of President Buhari, you will see a rather somber, if dignified layer that suggests that taking on the label would have been futile. The President himself had been the chief spokesman against the depth and damage of corruption in Nigeria. On a day the New York Times published its editorial against selling highly advanced fighter jets to Nigeria on grounds that our military cannot be trusted to use them in a manner that satisfies US concerns over human rights abuses, the President himself told a visiting dignitary that corruption was responsible for Nigeria’s failure to defeat Boko Haram earlier. Just give us back our money was a good way to say you have kept proceeds of corruption, but it does, as his subsequent comments made clear, suggest an acceptance that Nigeria is indeed a very corrupt nation.
A year since he came to power on the back of promises to rein-in corruption, fight insecurity and provide jobs, President Buhari’s administration will not be inconsiderably concerned over the speed with which the fight against corruption is yielding results. Certainly, the case has been made, beyond even the most cynical mindsets, that past administrations have simply plundered the nation’s resources. Nigerians are numb with revelations over huge amounts which literally moved from government to private accounts. The fight against corruption may have become a victim of its own successes, to the degree that the daily parade of suspects and revelations of new discoveries have suggested that massive resources will soon be recovered or have been recovered, and many in the league of the powerful and the wealthy will soon be convicts.
Now the nation is being assured that President Buhari will mention details of recoveries and their sources on May 29th, and EFCC says it has recovered three trillion dollars. My gut instinct is to believe that both are being mis-reported. I also hope I am right, because many Nigerians will stay awake until May 29th to hear from the lips of our President, those who are in the league of grand looters. The impression that EFCC is also sitting on three trillion (dollars or naira), will need to be addressed, or hard-pressed citizens will believe that the 2016 budget will end with a massive surplus.
Many Nigerians will be pained that a key strategic partner like the US will be discouraged from selling military assets that should hasten the end of Boko Haram. The reality, however, is that while those who take decisions in many countries appreciate the major strides that President Buhari’s administration had made against Boko Haram and deep-seated corruption in Nigeria, they also know that President Buhari is not reinventing Nigeria. His administration is just coming to terms with a problem that will take a lot of effort and time to deal with. Operating within the challenging margins of the rule of law ought to generate understanding from champions of human rights and protectors of due process. There are no emergency routes to securing a nation, or locating, retrieving unspent stolen wealth, or punishing those who looted the treasury. The interests ranged against the anti-corruption battles are vastly equipped and experienced in manipulating the judicial process. They will exploit its limitations and weaknesses, and highlight them against the expectations raised by an administration leading an impatient nation baying for restitution and punishment.
The concern that the world will not cut President Buhari much more slack than he already has should not discourage efforts to set and meet standards that are indispensible if important doors will be opened further. A few advanced fighter jets from the US will not entirely win the war against Boko Haram. They are likely to tip the scales deeper in the direction of success, and will serve a symbolic purpose of reinforcing the support of the US in our fight against Boko Haram and the globalization of terror. If they come in spite of attempts to generate domestic resistance in the US  over reported abuses by our armed forces, they will most likely be used to nudge the government towards looking into allegations recently made by Amnesty International and improving the levels of institutional integrity of our armed forces. If they are prevented from being sold, it should serve as an impetus to push on with our own resolve and the equipment we can lay hands on. The war can still be won, but we should not ignore voices that raise concerns over the manner we win it. The jets represent a reminder that in many circles where opinions over Nigeria are important, we are not out of the woods yet.
Then again, the fightback by corruption will have to be resisted even as  President Buhari fights Boko Haram with what may appear as liabilities in the form of views that resonate in key global centers. The damaging resurgence of organized violence in the creeks which has taken a toll of 800,000 barrels a day of crude cannot be divorced from the spreading dragnets of the anti-corruption war. At some point, the administration will have to evaluate all options in dealing with this new threat, particularly in view of its potential to stretch the nation’s defences even further. Will some form of accommodation be required that may involve limiting the scope of investigations and possible prosecution, if powerful interests are found behind both the resurgence of violence in the Niger Delta and the plunder of our resources in the last few years? Will nations that are in receipt of our stolen wealth improve the processes of repatriating what is stolen, or assisting Nigeria with intelligence, repatriating suspects and extending greater levels of understanding in this battle for the soul and survival of Nigeria?
The fight against corruption will not be won easily, and Nigerians should appreciate this and learn to live with a cynical world that we have to relate with. Very high expectations have been raised that the war against corruption will yield dividends in the short time in form of massive amounts recovered and the increasingly longer list of suspects that daily report to EFCC. The time it takes to process suspicion into conviction and restitution will be exploited by interests hostile to the anti-corruption war to raise questions about its fairness and integrity. Not all criticisms against the war against corruption are informed by those whose hands are stained, any more than the case being made for improving the professionalism of our armed forces should be treated as hostile propaganda. We all have agreed that corruption is a worse enemy than Boko Haram. We need to fight it with courage, imagination and an awareness that it will be resisted every inch of the way.