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

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

  By Femi Senu | @Femi_Senu | Monday 30 May 2016 | 00:00 GMT

The misuse of public office for private gain is common with numerous public officials often trading influence for money. It is a common characteristic of corruption exhibited across the African continent. The failure to bring alleged corrupted individuals to justice, the embarrassing fuel subsidy deception and depleting treasury funds are only a few of the many problems that have held back real progress for Nigeria.

The desire to stop the progress of corruption began in 2003 with Mr Nuhu Ribadu, who was then Chairman of the EFCC. During his tenure (2003-7), many individuals were arrested and prosecuted. Those investigated and convicted included the most senior police officers, governors and fraudsters.

In 2005, former governor of Nigeria’s oil-rich Bayelsa state, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, was arrested in the United Kingdom (UK). Police in London alleged that a 53 year old man was picked up by their special Economic Crimes Unit at Heathrow Airport, but was later jumped bail for a period of two months (BBC, 2005).

Alamieyeseigha was supposedly detained in connection with an investigation into allegations of money laundering according to the EFCC. Yet, he had jumped bail by allegedly disguising himself as a woman (BBC, 2005). Although Alamieyeseigha was later impeached and prosecuted, Goodluck Jonathan’s presidential pardon caused significant uproar and ultimately belittled the work of the EFCC in bringing Alamieyeseigha back to Nigeria to face charges.

In 2006, Nuhu Ribadu told the Nigerian senate that 31 of the 36 governors were being investigated and that 15 of them would be charged in the coming weeks; he explained that the world’s biggest thief was Nigerian, but was prevented from naming him (BBC, 2005).

According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) (2006), Nigeria’s governors enjoyed immunity from prosecution while in office, with the country regularly ranked as one of the world’s most corrupt countries. But there is little just one man can do in the midst of many, or in light of weak institutions, and it is of no surprise that Ribadu was discharged from office in 2007 for failing to declare his assets during his time in office (BBC, 2010). The fairness of this dismissal continues to be disputed by many.

Undoubtedly, only courageous and honest-hearted individuals can take bold steps in combatting corruption. In the early stages of Nigeria’s democracy, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obansanjo, enjoyed considerable support for his anti-corruption agenda. Yet, critics still say that his fight against corruption was only used as a political tool (BBC, 2006).

It has been suggested that Ribadu may be back, as a scoop from the Presidential Villa revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari is disposed to reappointing the tough talking anti-graft czar, who during his tenure fought corruption ‘with every zeal’, according to the Street Journal (2016).

Recently, plans were initiated by the Nigerian Federal government to extradite former government and public officials who ran away from Nigeria. Alleged corrupt individuals who fled the country in an attempt to prevent criminal investigation and prosecution include:  the former Petroleum Minister, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke; former Minister of State for Defence, Mr Musiliu Obanikoro; former National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, Adamu Mu’azu; former Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Force, Abdulrasheed Maina; former Comptroller-General of Customs, Abdullahi Dikko; former Senior Political Adviser to former-President and Coordinator of Goodluck Support Group, Profesor Rufai Alkali; and former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke.

When one observes the manner in which accused individuals rise in their own defence to negate the allegations brought against them, or individuals fleeing their host country in fear of investigation or the manner in which corruption is disclosed, explained and shielded in order to counter corruption accusations, then it is not difficult to understand how systemic corruption is within modern society.

This systematisation has caused several conundrums for the average citizen, as most times, people are confounded about who they can trust, what they can trust and to what extent they can trust them. Some may argue that if all those engaged in corruption are concurrently the individuals ostensibly leading the fight against it, then anti-corruption initiatives certainly become futile in a modern democracy.

To illustrate, James Onanefe Ibori, former governor of Delta state, who was charged and convicted for corruption, claimed in his tribute to Alamieyeseigha, that the former governor of Bayelsa state had built just one house and was never corrupt (The Cable, 2016).

When Alamieyeseigha died, he was honoured as a hero who brought stability and development to Bayelsa state. Palpably, this falls contrary to how many saw him outside the state, particularly when Alamieyeseigha pleaded guilty to six charges of corruption before a Nigerian court. This only serves to show how corruption can come to divide opinion and people.

The endemic nature of corruption poses uncertainty concerning the validity of anti-corruption initiatives and legislation. When ‘honest-hearted’ individuals who are truly concerned about the level of corruption become involved in this unsavoury battle, they are either corrupted themselves or hit a brick wall of powerful advisers!

Indeed, honest-hearted individuals are required in modern society to counter dishonest individuals and corrupt ideology in contemporary society. As individuals accused of corruption endeavour to clear their names, so also is there pressure for anti-corruption initiatives to succeed. Factors studied within the context of this analysis need to be extracted, understood, and effectively dealt with, in order not to confuse citizens and observers. These views are necessary for successful and effective future anti-corruption mechanisms.

Conclusion

Measuring the success and effects of future anti-corruption initiatives and legislation will result in considering how far African society has moved away from its denigrating historical context and whether uncertainty amongst the people has been mitigated.

Notably, future anti-corruption initiatives and legislation for Africa require an anti-corruption drive that will deter corruption, utilise the will of ‘honest individuals’ (i.e. individual motivations to act against corruption), employ ‘political will and action’ (i.e. politicians altruistically fighting to end corruption), and most importantly require independent institutions to become free from dishonest lobbying and corrupt political behaviours.

Anti-corruption drives require effective leaders and teams of committed individuals. It is time for Nigeria’s government to introduce honest and independent bodies in the fight against corruption; this includes independent prosecutors free from corrupt influences. It includes transparency, with good ethical principles.

Individuals in the fight against corruption should not be above the law. And in order to prevent the mixed messages the public receive once an individual is accused of corruption will require independent institutions, transparency, educational programmes and an honest political will to form an anti-corruption conglomerate.

With such a mechanism in place, the public will be adequately informed, and discard misconceptions about corruption investigations from when someone is charged and convicted to if or when they are acquitted of the charges brought against them.

We must allow the evidence of corruption to speak for itself. The public needs to be convinced concerning the legitimacy of its officials, without any influential figure manipulating events behind the scenes. Indeed, the lessons of corruption in Nigeria are historical – we can learn a lot from them!

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Have you enjoyed what you’ve read so far? Fantastic! You can look forward to reading my next article in the AfroLeaks series next Monday titled: ‘Understanding Africa’s Scale of Corruption – A Review of the Anti-Corruption Summit London 2016’

I value the opinions of my readers dearly so please feel free to provide me with any constructive feedback you have concerning this article or any others I have written. Your comments and thoughts are always appreciated. Thank you!

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References

British Broadcasting Corporation. (2005). ‘Nigerian Governor Arrested in the UK’, BBC News, 16 September, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4253362.stm (accessed 29/04/2016)

British Broadcasting Corporation. (2006). ‘Nigerian Governors in Graft Probe’, BBC News, 28 September, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/5387814.stm (accessed 29/04/2016)

British Broadcasting Corporation. (2010). ‘Nigeria drops corruption fighter Nuhu Ribadu charges’, BBC News, 5 May, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8663236.stm (accessed 29/04/2016)

The Cable. (2016). ‘Alamieyeseigha built just one house… he was never a corrupt man, says Ibori’, The Cable, 11 October, https://www.thecable.ng/alamieyeseigha-just-one-house-never-corrupt-says-ibori (accessed 30/04/2016)

The Street Journal. (2016). ‘Ribadu, Making a Return to EFCC as Chairman’, The Street Journal, 18 March, http://thestreetjournal.org/2016/03/ribadu-making-a-return-to-efcc-as-chairman/ (accessed 30/04/2016)

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)

International Forced Migration Awareness (IFMA): Project Update

On Monday 22 June 2015, Fola Daranijoh, Director of Strategic Planning at Reachout Empowerment Force (REF) and also Co-Founder of The Nigerian Association of Criminology, Terrorism and Political Violence Studies (NACT-PVS) and Femi Senu, Director of Research at REF (also Co-Founder of NACT-PVS) visited the embassies of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Nigeria on behalf of the project titled: International Forced Migration Awareness (IFMA).

These visits were continued on Tuesday 30 June 2015, with Daranijoh and Senu visiting the embassies of Eritrea, Italy, Cameroon and Greece.

To read more, please click here.