Why EFCC, CBN are being condemned

General Aliyu Gusau, the National Security Adviser is a recluse who is not known for making public his views on national matters. But recently, he discarded his usual reserve and came down hard on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), two government organs at the centre of […]

General Aliyu Gusau, the National Security Adviser is a recluse who is not known for making public his views on national matters. But recently, he discarded his usual reserve and came down hard on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), two government organs at the centre of policies to curb corruption and graft in the nation and to set up an effective monetary system that will support the growth of the economy.

Gusau accused the EFCC of having credibility problems and the CBN of damaging “economic activity in the banking sector to the detriment of the larger society.”

Gusau’s statement has not been helpful to the cause of EFCC chairperson, Farida Waziri and the CBN governor, Sanusi Lamido, both of whom have been under intense fire lately by opponents not comfortable with the way their actions in their respective agencies have affected them. At the centre of the actions taken by both Waziri and Lamido are the arrests of some influential Nigerians. But unlike in the past where both the EFCC and the CBN were treated with deference and are looked like untouchables who have the might of the government behind them, both agencies have been suffering backlash from those uncomfortable with their actions. The administration under which they are serving seems to be leaving them in the lurch.

One after the other, the EFCC had its former officers who were foremost in the arrests and prosecution of corrupt and fraudulent kingpins in the past killed in what appear to be attacks meant to send a message. The CBN governor on the other hand has been the subject of a long sustained campaign in the media by different groups who have been carrying out paid advertisements to question the credibility of the reforms he introduced at the apex bank since he took over from his predecessor, Chukwuma Soludo in June, 2009.

Lamido’s ascension to the CBN immediately broke the long romance that has been going on between the apex bank and some of the nation’s top bankers who the CBN now accuse of various shady deals and questionable granting of loans without collateral to selves, family members and cronies, exposing the banks to collapse and the potential loss of customers’ savings. Already, the banks have left themselves vulnerable by involving in margin trading at the Nigerian Stock Exchange where they incurred losses in trillions of naira. It was a crisis which echoes the larger crisis of bad governance in the political and public sector, where politicians are fighting a running battle with the EFCC over money laundering, embezzlement of public funds and fraud, all with the intention of self-enrichment.  Suddenly, corporate Nigeria too was exposed and in its underbelly too was found embezzlement, money laundering, corruption and other forms of fraud.

There is a connection between the two: corporate Nigeria acted as a cover for the impunity of public Nigeria, giving its impunity a semblance of respectability. The EFCC got invited by the CBN to help clean up the mess. And one after the other, top public figures were asked to return the money they owed the banks and the managing directors of some top banks were asked to explain how they acquired their stupendous wealth. The bank chiefs got some of their assets confiscated and while some of them were arraigned and later released on bail.

Fighting from the Diaspora

Nuhu Ribadu, the immediate predecessor of Waziri, who rather controversially recently got the corruption case against him by the federal government dropped and Nasir el-Rufai, the former Minister of the FCT, once a rising political star, who is wanted by the EFCC to answer for charges of corruption leveled against him. From the Diaspora, Ribadu and el-Rufai have become vocal critics of the Yar’adua administration and have been sponsoring campaigns to discredit the administration, promising to set up a mass movement that would ensure the administration does not come back in 2011. Their prayers were answered somewhat when Yar’adua’s illness rendered him powerless and ushered in an acting president, Goodluck Jonathan with whom Ribadu and el-Rufai seem to have found favour. One of the decisions Jonathan took was to sack the National Security Adviser under Yar’adua, Sarki Mukhtar and bring in Aliyu Gusau who was National Security Adviser when former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the benefactor of both Ribadu and el-Rufai, was in power.

Ribadu appears set to return to the country as a senior adviser on anti-corruption to Jonathan, effectively putting him back in charge of the EFCC. That would also be bringing his former tormentors in the EFCC and the Code of Conduct Tribunal under his supervision.

But the statement by the national security adviser had added substance to widely held belief that Jonathan’s administration is uncomfortable with Farida’s EFCC. In fact, while Jonathan was a guest of President Obama in the U.S he had said in his discussion with the American Council for Foreign Affairs that the EFCC had lost its vibrancy since Ribadu left. What is not so clear is Gusau’s role in the politics of the anti-corruption war. Unconfirmed sources have said either he or Ribadu would be playing very important roles should Jonathan decide to contest for the Presidency. Various sources had fingered him while others had touted Ribadu as a potential running mate to Jonathan.

When contacted for her comments on the criticisms of selectivity leveled against her in the running of the EFCC by the national security adviser, Waziri told Weekly Trust: “When an offence is committed no matter who is responsible, we pick him up. There is no issue of selectivity. Definitely, we are not being selective. Nobody has sued the EFCC for unlawful arrest. We get our facts before we invite the suspect.”

Lamido and CBN in the crossfire

The EFCC is not alone in going after some big names who have now found favour with the Jonathan administration. Some of the big bankers and important Nigerians who were indebted to the banks were members of the famous corporate Nigeria that bankrolled the elections of the ruling PDP and former President Obasanjo in the past.

As Obasanjo has assumed a new importance under the Jonathan administration and another election looms closer in 2011, the politicians are naturally seeking money to fortify their war chests for the elections. Corporate Nigeria has the money. And Lamido’s CBN with its sabre rattling is a real inconvenience.

Lamido speaks less and less often since a new Minister of Finance, Olusegun Aganga was appointed to replace Mansur Mukhtar who is from his home state of Kano. The speculation now is he has been caged. There have also been various speculations that he could be removed too, just as Waziri’s removal is been speculated. When Weekly Trust contacted the CBN to get Lamido’s response on the criticism by the national security adviser, the answer was simply “no comment”.

The intrigues get intriguing

A glimpse of how the EFCC cannot escape being politicized is the recent saga involving the agency and the former Delta State governor, Chief James Ibori. While Yar’adua still held sway, his attorney general, Michael Aondokaa employed all the tricks he could to quash the corruption case against Ibori who was one of the chief financiers of Yar’adua’s election as president. Later, Ibori got the courts to clear him of all corruption charges. He got a reprieve from the EFCC. But now suddenly with the emergence of Jonathan on the scene, the EFCC have found a new reason to make Ibori answer for the corruption charges against him.

But the bigger issue is the Nigerian state which keeps losing out to the antics of the politicians who have been blocking the entrenchment of genuine reforms in the country by the personal interest they bring in their supervision of important agencies like the EFCC and the CBN, dragging them into the mud of politics.