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Three weeks to the 2019 general elections, the gloves
are off for the two leading presidential candidates. To
President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives
Congress, APC, his main rival and candidate of the
Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar,
should be rejected by the electorate because,
according to his handlers, a vote for the PDP means a
return to Biblical Egypt where the people toiled and
laboured in anguish.
Following his defection from the APC to the PDP on
which platform he was Vice President for eight years,
the ruling party has serially accused Atiku of corruption,
a claim he consistently denies, challenging anyone with
evidence to present same to the anti-graft agencies for
action.
Atiku and Buhari
In what appeared to be an ace in its pack of cards,
however, officials of the ruling party always reminded
Atiku of the long years it had taken him to visit the
United States, US, daring him to set his foot on the US
soil as a proof of his innocence in a case of corruption
in which he was allegedly involved there.
For more than 13 years, Atiku had kept away from the
US.
Meanwhile nine years ago, there was a US Senate
Committee report alleging money laundering activities
against him, including being a recipient of a bribe by
Siemens. The Committee, known as the Senate
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, was
chaired by Senator Carl Levin.
The probe was motivated by the US government
concern about corruption in the Third World and its
corrosive effects on the development of honest
government, democratic principles and the rule of law.
“It is also blamed for distorting markets, deterring
investment, deepening poverty, undermining
international aid efforts, and fostering crime. Some
have drawn connections between corruption, failed
states, and terrorism. Corruption also continues to be a
massive problem. The World Bank has estimated that
$1 trillion in bribes alone exchange hands worldwide
each year,” the committee noted in its bulky report.
Onnoghen: It’s unfortunate FG has no regard for rule of
law- Ohanaeze
Atiku was not the only foreign Politically Exposed
Person (PEP) probed by the committee. He had
company in Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, now the
48-year-old son of Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mbasogo,
the President of Equatorial Guinea (EG), the late
President of Gabon, Omar Bongo, and three Angolan
PEP accounts, involving an Angolan arms dealer, an
Angolan government official and a small Angolan
private bank.
The committee submitted its report on February 4,
2010, three years after Atiku left office as Nigeria’s vice
president.
The report alleged violations of the US laws by Atiku
and his fourth wife, Jennifer Douglas, and is said to
have provided the basis for the former VP’s being
barred from entering the US since then.
Safe arrival
But penultimate week, Atiku stunned not just Buhari’s
camp but many Nigerians as well when he tweeted his
safe arrival in Washington DC, the capital of the US,
alongside members of his campaign team, including
the Director General, Senator Bukola Saraki, and a
former Aviation Minister, Osita Chidoka.
A statement by his media adviser, Paul Ibe, quickly
followed, detailing the itinerary of his principal in the
US.
The Federal Government, through Information and
Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, immediately
responded, saying it was not bothered by the trip,
warning, however, that upon the PDP presidential
candidate’s return to Nigeria, he would answer
questions on his alleged complicity in the N156 million
slush funds belonging to the defunct Habib Platinum
Bank, Bank PHB.
After spending two days in the US, Atiku returned
home.
Two days later, Atiku, who had earlier pledged to
reveal “the corruption” in the APC government, listed,
in a statement, prominent leaders of the APC facing
corruption allegations, daring the President to do the
needful.
In a statement by his Special Assistant on Public
Communications, Phrank Shaibu, the PDP presidential
candidate said the alleged corrupt associates of Buhari
should be investigated without further delay.
He noted that so long as those listed were walking the
streets free, the President war against corruption was
nothing but a ruse.
Atiku premised his argument for listing the APC leaders
on corruption allegations levelled against them, saying
there had not been full – scale investigation not to talk
of prosecution.
This reasoning may have prompted some eminent
Nigerians to argue that the war against corruption, as
waged by the incumbent administration, is a selective
one, with little chances of rooting out the vice in the
nearest future.
Speaking exclusively to Sunday Vanguard, human
rights activist and constitutional lawyer, Mike
Ozekhome, SAN, maintained that what is described as
an anti-graft crusade is nothing but a move
orchestrated to cut opposition figures to size.
According to him, ratings by international agencies
since the assumption of office by the APC-led
government are a testimony that not much has been
achieved.
He said, “Buhari has never been serious with fighting
corruption. He has merely been using it to browbeat
and terrorize the opposition and critical voices over his
massive failure in governance, heightened corruption
cases and worsening insurgency that have all
combined to bring Nigeria to her knees.
“With Nigeria now the world capital of poverty, one of
the 168 most corrupt nations, coming second as the
most corrupt nation in West Africa and moving 16 steps
back in the rating of the anti-corruption perception index
of Transparency International, TI, it is clear that the
Buhari government has woefully failed on all indices of
governance.”
In veiled reference to the remark made by the National
Chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole,
last week, that “once you defect to the APC, your sins
are forgiven”, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria said thus
far, members of the ruling party alleged to have
perpetrated one form of corruption or the other are
enjoying patronage from government, without
demonstrable eagerness on the part of government to
do the needful.
“The so-called fight against corruption is stimulated in
favour of the APC, the Presidency and their cabalistic
clique. Once you defect from another party and join the
APC, your sins of corruption are immediately forgiven
and you are heralded into the party with encomiums,
applause and celebration. You are immediately given
the front pew of the APC, inducted into the hall of fame
and put in the presidential electioneering council to
campaign for ‘Mr. Integrity,’” he added.
While listing what he called the flaws of the Buhari
government to include “favouritism, cluelessness and
mediocrity”, Ozekhome stressed that the past three and
a half years would be remembered for gates such as
“Babachirgate, Adeosungate, Mainagate, NNPCgate,
NHISgate among others.”
Also speaking on the issue, a former Education Minister
and chieftain of the Social Democratic Party, SDP,
Professor Tunde Adeniran, called for seriousness on
the part of government, saying, “The fight against
corruption is an agenda that, if properly pursued, would
change Nigeria for the better. It should not be pursued
based on partisan motivation or selectively on the basis
of unpatriotic considerations.”
U-turn
However, it appears that the Buhari-government may
prosecute, after all, some of those associated with the
President but have corruption allegations hanging on
their necks, following the statement by Vice President
Yemi Osinbajo that Buhari had ordered the trial of a
former Secretary to the Government of the Federation,
Mr Babachir Lawal, and a former Director General of
the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ayo Oke.
Osinbajo said Lawal would be prosecuted for allegedly
stealing money earmarked for displaced victims of Boko
Haram insurgency.
According to the vice-president, Buhari had prevailed
on anti-corruption agencies to prepare criminal charges
against Lawal, who served as SGF from 2015 until he
was disgraced out of office on October 31, 2017, after
being accused of stealing millions of emergency funds.
On Oke, Osinbajo said the former NIA chief was also
recommended for prosecution.
Oke was the NIA head when a large vault of money
was found in an apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos in April
2017.
“The President has directed that the SGF and former
DG of NIA should be prosecuted,” the VP was quoted
as saying at a Lagos dialogue organised by Christian
youth affiliated to the GRILL, Ikeja Branch.
The government had faced criticism for its snail
progress in bringing charges against Lawal, who was
first alleged to have diverted millions of IDP funds using
firms linked to him in a December 2016 Senate
investigation.
Buhari initially argued that there was no substance in
the Senate investigation only to succumb to public
pressure to remove him and ward off any political
garbage that the administration could suffer from the
scandal.
Even though he was removed from office, the disgraced
SGF continued to associate with Buhari.
Lawal is said to be the President’s point man in
Adamawa State where he hails from, as well as a major
player in the re-election campaign team.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) invited him for questioning at least twice,
although it was unclear whether any charges were
filed.
Nevertheless, Osinbajo said, “We are expecting that
prosecution will take place.”
“The next of course is that criminal allegations will be
filed against them and the prosecution process will be
completed,” he added.
But while the opposition is quick to dismiss this as a
belated move, Nigerians will no doubt heave a sigh of
relief if government can go the whole hog to prove that,
indeed, there are no sacred cows in the crusade to rid
the nation of graft.
Source:
www.vanguardngr.com/2019/01/buhari-vs-
atiku-the-politics-of-the-anti-corruption-fight/