By Abdul Rahman Aliagan
Until lately, Nigeria used to be at the receiving end of snide remarks in international circles with regards to its corruption indices.
Of 168 countries surveyed by Transparency International, an anti-corruption group in Germany in its annual Corruption Perception Index, Nigeria ranked 32nd from the bottom.
Tragically, it is even difficult to estimate how much money has been stolen from the public till.. When in 2014, the then Central Bank governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, had cried out that $20 billion had been stolen from the public purse, he was harangued out of office.
But the report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), a leading accounting firm, provide an insight into the extent of stealing being carried out by public officers.
The firm, in its report, stated that Nigeria’s’s economy, which was worth $513 billion in 2014, might have been 22% bigger if its level of corruption were closer to Ghana’s, a nearby smaller West African country.
Despite the country’s wealth remarkable wealth, there is a rising share of Nigerians who are classified as below the poverty line. A survey of living standards in 2010 claimed that 61.2% of the population lives in absolute poverty, an increase of over six percentage points on the previous figures from 2004.
Even more depressing, the more than 25million people who should have been lifted into low- or middle-income still live in grinding poverty due to massive corruption, an expert at Price Water house, Andrew S. Nevin, said.
Last year, President Muhammadu Buhari rode to the power on the steed of integrity based on a previous standard of spartan lifestyle.
To be sure, the question of integrity is at the heart of the curriculum vitae of the ordinary politician.
“Because rulers have power they will be tempted to use it for personal gain. It is important that politicians withstand this temptation and that requires integrity,’’ the great sage, Aristotle, had declared in a moment of profound reflection.
With the return of democracy in 1999, President Olusegun Obasanjo created the two anti-graft agencies, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC) and Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
However, the agencies, had successively suffered from an image problem being often perceived as being used to witch hunt political enemies. As at 2012, Nigeria was estimated to have lost over $400 billion to corruption since independence. But act of corruption was never a new development as it was ushered in even at independence.
Incidentally, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe was the first major political figure investigated for questionable practices. In 1944, a firm belonging to Azikiwes bought a bank in Lagos. The bank was procured to strengthen local control of the financial industry. A report about transactions carried out by the bank showed though, Azikiwe had resigned as chairman of the bank, and current chairman was an agent of his.
The report indicated that most of the paid-up capital of the then African Continental Bank were from the Eastern Regional Finance Corporation.
In western Nigeria, the stormy petrel of Western Nigeria politics, Adegoke Adelabu, was investigated following charges of political corruption levelled against him by the opposition.
The report led to demand for his resignation as district council head. In the Northern region and against the backdrop of corruption allegations levelled against some native authority officials in Borno, the Northern Government enacted the Customary Presents order to forestall any further breach of regulations.
Pre-Independence and the First Republic, corruption, though prevalent, but was kept at the controllable levels. However, the cases of corruption during the periods were sometimes shrouded in obscurity.
Between 1966 and 1975 a very few corrupt cases was reported involving a Federal Commissioner, Joseph Tarka and Gomwalk.
The administration of Gen. Murtala Ramat Muhammed could be regarded as reformist one which came to power through a coup d’état alleging corrupt practice against the Yakubu Gowon regime.
Other corruption scandals were to follow with historic rhythm-International Telecommunication involving Chief MKO Abiola, the Operation Feed the Nation Program, and the associated land grab under the Land Use Decree, Nigeria Airlines and refineries as well as the hosting of FESTAC.
Between 1979 and 1983, the Shehu Shagari administration promoted corruption to a lofty pedestal, with many buildings set ablaze to cover up acts of sleaze.
Although the military regime of Buhari and the late Tunde Idiagbon spiritedly fought to stamp out corruption, it was also not squeaky clean.
The 53 suitcases saga arose in 1984 during the currency change exercise ordered by the Buhari junta when it ordered that every case arriving the country should be inspected irrespective of status of those involved.
The 53 suitcases were, however, ferried through the Murtala Muhammed Airport without Customs check by soldiers allegedly at the behest of Major Mustapha Jokolo, the then Aide-de-Camp to Gen. Buhari. Atiku was at that time the Area Comptroller of Customs in charge of the Murtala Muhammed Airport.
The regime of Niger-state born General, Ibrahim Babangida has been adjudged to be the administration that institutionalised corruption. His administration refused to give account of the Gulf War windfall which was estimated to be $12.4 billion.
This public record is insightful: “During IBB’s tenure, corruption was elevated to the policy of state. Vehicles and cash gifts were routinely disbursed by the presidents regularly to the rank and file to earn loyalty, and the discipline of the military force eroded.’’
From 1993 to 1998 was the reign of late General San Abacha and his death revealed the global nature of graft. French investigation of bribes paid to government officials to ease the award of a gas plant construction in Nigeria revealed the global level of official graft in the country. The investigations led to the freezing of accounts containing about $100 million United States Dollars.
In 2000, two years after his death, Swiss banking commission report indicted Swiss banks for failing to follow compliance process in allowing family and friends of Abacha access to accounts and depositing amounts totalling $600 million US dollars into the accounts. The same year, a total of more than $1 billion US dollars were found in various accounts throughout Europe. Up till date the Abacha loots are yet to be totally recovered as revelation to uncover the loots keep coming.
Between 1998 and 1999, the government of Gen. Abdusalami was short and focused on transiting the country quickly to democracy. Suspicion remains that quite a huge of the wealth was acquired by him and his inner circle in such short period, with the major being the Halliburton scandal which implicated his administration.
Series of scandals unfolded under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, including one of international dimension and involving deputy and a U.S Congressman.
“While Nigeria dithered, the United States Department of Justice had on January 18, 2012 announced that a Japanese construction firm, Marubeni Corporation, agreed to pay a $54.6 million criminal penalty for allegedly bribing officials of the Nigerian government to facilitate the award of the $6 billion Liquefied Natural Gas contract in Bonny, Nigeria, to a multinational consortium, TSKJ,’’ a report said.
It involved the payment of bribes to Nigerian government officials between 1995 and 2004, in violation of the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Some other acts of corruption tied to Olusegun Obasanjo included the Transcorp shares scandal that violated the code of conduct standards for public officers and the presidential library donations on the eve of his exit from power.
Though, the late Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s stay in power was short, May 2007 –May 2010, but he had his fair share of corruption scandals. Yar ‘Adua various acts of political corruption included the use of his Attorney General to frustrate ongoing local and international investigations of his powerful friends like Governors Ibori, Igbinnedion and Odili. Indeed, AG Aondakaa was legendary in his inability to obtain conviction in Nigeria even as UK and foreign courts successfully tried Nigeria’s deeply corrupt governors.
WIkileaks also revealed that some Supreme Court Justices were bribed to legitimize the corrupt elections that saw to his emergence as president through massive rigging.
Wikileaks documents also revealed the staying power of corruption under Yar’Adua that saw illegal payments from NNPC.
Under the Goodluck Jonathan administration, corruption walked on four legs.
There was the $250 million plus security contracts to militants in the Niger Delta, massive corruption and kick backs in the Ministry of Petroleum, Malibu Oil International Scandal, the Aviation Ministry car purchase scam among others sweetheart deals with select fronts and business people to divert public wealth.
In the dying days of Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, the Central Bank Scandal of cash tripping of mutilated notes also broke out, where it was revealed that in a four-day period,N8 billion was stolen directly by low level workers in the CBN.
This revelation excluded a crime that is suspected to have gone on for years and went undetected until revealed by a whistleblower. The Central Bank claim the heist undermined its monetary policy.
According to a report, new allegations of corruption have since began to emerge since the departure of Jonathan on May 29, 2015 including:
- N2.2 billion illegally withdrawn from Excess Crude Oil Accounts of which $1bn was supposedly approved by Jonathan to fund his re-election campaign without the knowledge of the National Economic Council made up of governors and the President and Vice President
- NEITI discovered $11.6bn was missing from Nigeria LNG Company Dividend Payments
- 60 million barrels of oil valued at $13.7bn was stolen under the watch of the national oil giant, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, from 2009 to 2012.
- NEITI indicates losses due to crude swaps. While $11.63bn had been paid to the NNPC “there is no evidence of the money being remitted to the federation account.”
- Diversion of 60% of $1bn foreign loans obtained from the Chinese by the Ministry of Finance
- Massive scam in weapons and defense procurements, and misuse of N3 trillion defense budget since 2011 under the guise of fighting Boko Haram.
- Diversion of $2.2 million vaccination medicine fund by Ministry of Health
- Diversion of Ebola fight fund up to N1.9billion.
- NIMASA Fraud under investigation by EFCC, inclusive of accusation of funding PDP and buying a small piece of land for 13 billion naira.
- Ministry of Finance hurried payment of $2.2 million to health ministry contractor in disputed invoices.
- NDDC scams and multifarious scams including 2.7 billion naira worth of contracts that does not confirm to Public Procurement Act.
- Police Service Commission Scam investigated by ICPC that revealed misappropriation of over 150 million naira related to election related trainings. ICPC made refund recommendations, but many analysts indicated prosecution was more appropriate.
This was the setting in the build up to the landmark victory of Buhari and which was expected to usher in the much awaited change..
At his swearing in ceremony, the president had made his remarkable “I am for Nobody, I am for Everybody”. Quote. Whether this would hold sway remains to be seen in the coming years.
Already, Nigerians are apprehensive about the less than clean antecedents of those described as the president’s men.
