AFROLEAKS: Do Anti-Corruption Initiatives Pose a Success or Challenge to Nigeria’s Modern Democracy? [Part I]

NIGERIA: Do Anti-Corruption Initiatives Pose a Success or Challenge to Nigeria’s Modern Democracy? [Part I]

  By Femi Senu | @Femi_Senu | Monday 23 May 2016 | 00:00 GMT

The causes of corruption are often blamed on government institutions or individuals in places of authority. When someone is accused of corruption, it is blamed on another, with those taking up the fight against corruption caught up in a never-ending chase.

Sadly, corruption has led to extraordinarily high levels of insecurity, poverty, conflicts, environmental degradation and health hazards. Across the African continent and globally, the everyday citizen is angered by the lack of solutions to mitigate corruption and its effects.

In the aftermaths of corruption on the socio-economic development of a state, many corruption-combatting mechanisms introduced nationally and internationally have faced limited positive outcomes.

In consequence, to illustrate how pervasive this phenomena has become, this analysis explores specific cases of corruption in Nigeria, with the aim to provide insight into the challenges of corrupt behaviour and what this means for the success of anti-corruption initiatives.

At least 100,000 barrels or 4% of Nigeria oil exports is stolen each day and despite Nigeria being oil-rich and the world’s eighth biggest exporter of oil, 70% of its population live below the poverty line as a result of corruption and economic mismanagement (Reuters, 2004).

In December 2004, corruption and mismanagement swallowed over 40% of Nigeria’s $20 billion yearly oil income. Likewise, the effects of corruption are felt throughout the globe, mostly in the poorest and least developed nations (Transparency International, 2015). Despite years of anti-corruption regulation, corruption is one of the biggest risks and challenges faced by contemporary society worldwide (Boorman, 2001).

In recent times, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) developed an Anti-corruption eLearning Course as an online training programme (UNODC, 2016). Despite several mechanisms being developed over the years to combat corruption, corruption has become a virus that has attacked every sphere of society and eaten up the very fabric of the contemporary world, with those accused of corruption often finding a way to manoeuvre their way out of alleged accusations.

In some cases, phenomena are constructed tactfully, leaving many aloof. As the following cases of corruption reveal, it is important that these factors are understood, extracted and handled with care if future anti-corruption initiatives are to be improved.

Maina’s Curious Case of Corruption

A number of corruption accusations have been brought up against Nigeria’s former Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), Mr Abdulrasheed Maina, with respects to N195 billion being misappropriated in one of Nigeria’s biggest pension scams. The funds were claimed to have been recovered from pension looters.

While many Nigerians are of the view that billions of naira went missing under Maina’s administration, in an interview with Premium Times, Maina lamented that he fought corruption in his pension fund administration.

In reply to questions posited concerning Maina’s alleged corruption, he explained that his ‘previous office was rated as the best in terms of transparency and accountability’ (Maina was the Acting Director of the Customs Immigration and Prisons Pension Office prior to his new found job). So ‘it was purely on merit that Steve Oronsaye recommended [his] appointment to the President’ (Tukur, 2015). Stephen Osagiede Oronsaye is a Nigerian accountant and civil servant, who was appointed Head of the Civil Service of the Federation in June 2009 and began an energetic program of reform immediately after his appointment.

Maina’s comments were in defence of his appointment as the Chairman of the PRTT. He claimed that the notion that billions of money went missing under his custody ‘was a game played by the Chairman of the Senate Pension Committee to divert the attention of Nigerians while he went home with a massive bribe he received from pension thieves’ (Tukur, 2015).

Maina articulated:

“How could I have stolen monies that never came through my office?…I challenged Nigerians especially the Senate Committee several times on live television to show where my office or I ever came into contact with such monies, but for two years now, no one has taken up that challenge. We worked under the Head of Service of the Federation. We never had spending power, and so we always went to the Head of Service for stationeries and other office equipment and even our normal allowances were being approved by the Head of Service, so, how could I have possibly seen such funds.” (Tukur, 2015)

In addition to the aforementioned comments, Maina claimed:

“Those very few Nigerians that still hold the view that billions of naira went missing under my custody as the PRTT Chairman are either the few ignorant ones, or those who know the truth but, due to their kith and kin involvement in the stealing, decide to ride on the false assumptions. The enlightened public and the media all know that it was just a melodrama by some Senators who are used to oversight extortion, bribe-for-big-budget, contracts scavenging, and bogus budget inflation. These are things we stood against.” (Tukur, 2015)

Trying to clarify the notion of stolen funds attached to Maina’s Pension Team, Maina said:

“Let me ask you: is it possible for you to steal what has not been given to you? If the National Assembly has not appropriated anything to the Maina Pension Team, then how could it be possible to misappropriate what has not been appropriated? The “Pension Reform Task Team misappropriation of pension funds” is baseless and untrue. These spurious allegations are the product of Etok – Gaya led Senate Pension Probe Committee who bitterly hates the Pension Task Team with a passion. There has never been any established fact to support these spurious allegations.”(Tukur, 2015)

When Maina was asked his thoughts on the fight against corruption under former President Goodluck Jonathan, he explained:

Let me tell you that during my stewardship as Chairman of the Pension Task Force, we caused the arrest of top civil servants – permanent secretaries, directors, company chief executives, bank personnel etc, but the president never interfered. He has never demanded the release of anybody. In fact, he encouraged us on the issue of blocking leakages and loopholes susceptible to corrupt practices in the pension system. He actually directed that we instil fiscal discipline and prudence in the pension sector. (Tukur, 2015)

From Maina’s comments, it would seem fair to applaud his efforts in preventing corrupt practices. And following from his endeavours, he adds:

“Arising from that, we initiated the electronic pension management system and blocked stealing- the first of its kind in the history of governance in Nigeria. I want to specifically tell you that the President has tried and fought corruption in the pension system, but some powerful advisers and personalities that made sure we were stopped. Assuming we were able to go round the other 98 such pension offices as we did these two, where we restructured and recovered N1.6 trillion in cash and assets, how much would we have recovered? I will say trillions, which could have been channelled to take care of developmental projects. We have the Technical knowhow on finding where “engineered” (stolen) funds are hidden and how the cartel operates. We studied these things when we came across over 77 accounts unknown to Government in 2011 (Tukur, 2015).”

In Maina’s view, the challenges of fighting corruption meant facing powerful advisers and personalities that do all they can to prevent any success in anti-corruption initiatives. Ultimately, this serves to illustrate how corruption is a serious issue in Nigeria, but also across the continent.

Individuals are finding it increasingly difficult to fight against a system where doing favours and conducting bribes has become second nature to the very makeup of society. However, cases such as that presented by Maina, often confuse the public, with many questioning the evidence and validity of the charges brought against the accused. Could it be that Maina was being framed by others who just ‘hated’ him or could it be that Maina’s dodgy behaviour had finally been revealed?

In April 2015, the accused pension’s reform team led by Abdulrasheed Maina offered to work with the administration of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in the fight against pension theft, claiming that its work and operations have had an impact.

One of Maina’s team members claimed that the pension task reform team created in June 2010 under the leadership of Maina was a great achievement. According to the team, it claimed to recover at least N280 billion during Maina’s time in office. According to Ngozika Ihuoma, a member of Maina’s team.

“As we welcome the Buhari-led government come 29th May, we wish to state that we will be available to brief the government on our stewardship and our readiness to assist his administration in ensuring that corruption in the pension sector becomes history. It is regrettable, that rather than commendation, the ex-chairman of the team, Mr Maina is being vilified by many Nigerians…Nigerians should rather celebrate Maina and seek for his expertise to continue with the good job he was doing and block all leakage.” (Tukur, 2015)

In October 2015, revelations emerged that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had arrested two bankers who claimed to have helped Maina launder stolen funds, with evidence suggesting that these bankers were managing proxy accounts for Maina. The EFCC also claimed that N2.8 billion had been traced to many bank accounts used by Maina:

“The first individual account opened in the name of Abdullahi Faizer, had a turnover of N1.5 billion while the other operated in the name of Nafisatu Aliyu recorded a turnover of over N100,000. The corporate accounts of Cluster Logistics had a turnover of N500 million and $400,000 USD. Drew Investment and Construction and Kongolo Dynamics Cleaning Limited recorded turnovers of N54million and N509million respectively.” (Ezeamalu, 2015) 

The investigations conducted demonstrated how money was being organised and transferred using bogus companies (Aiyetan, 2015). Superficially, it appeared that Maina’s fight against pension theft was understandably a significant achievement considering the historical context of corruption, but as these proxy accounts show, the challenges of corruption are more intricate.

An enormous journey still lies ahead should we wish to combat corruption successfully. Yet, perhaps what is most striking is that each case bodes its own individual problem and deserves attention on its own merit.

If anti-corruption initiatives do work, they should theoretically act as a deterrent and aid in future legislation aimed at tougher sentencing. The only problem with this is that there is a historical context which suggests it will be difficult for any anti-corruption initiative to: first, work and second, to be trusted.

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Have you enjoyed reading so far? Fantastic! You can read my final thoughts on the impact of corruption on Nigeria’s democracy in next week’s continuation. I’m looking forward to it as much as you are!

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References

Aiyetan, D. (2015). ‘Shocking details of how Oronsaye, Maina, others allegedly stole N1 Billion from pension funds’, Premium Times, August 26, http://www.premiumtimesng.com/investigationspecial-reports/189022-shocking-details-of-how-oronsaye-maina-others-allegedly-stole-n1-billion-from-pension-funds.html (accessed 02/05/2016)

Boorman, J. (2001). OECD Convention on Combatting Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. Washington DC: International Monetary Fund.

Ezeamalu, B. (2015). ‘EFCC arrests bankers who allegedly helped former Pension boss, Maina, steal billions’, Premium Times, 23 October, http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/191984-efcc-arrests-bankers-who-allegedly-helped-former-pension-boss-maina-steal-billions.html (accessed 02/05/2016)

Reuters. (2004). ‘Corruption Costs Nigeria 40 Percent of Oil Wealth, Official Says: 100,000 barrels said to be stolen each day’, The Boston Globe, 17 December, http://goo.gl/h0ucb9 (accessed 02/05/2016)

Transparency International. (2015). ‘Corruption by Country/Territory’, Transparency International, https://www.transparency.org/country#NGA (accessed 03/05/2016)

Tukur, S. (2015). ‘Interview: I’m not a thief; a civil servant can’t steal N195 billion — Maina’, Premium Times, 23 February, http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/177357-interview-im-not-a-thief-a-civil-servant-cant-steal-n195-billion-maina-2.html (accessed 02/05/2016)

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. (2016). ‘UNODC’s Action against Corruption and Economic Crime’, UNODC, http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/corruption/index.html (accessed 02/05/2016)