NNPC Crisis: The Corrupt Side of Buhari's Anti-graft War (Part 2)

 

 

 

A Tori News political correspondent has dropped the concluding part of the grey areas of the popularized anti-graft war under President Muhammadu Buhari. Click here for the initial part.

 

The Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau, a retired Nigerian Army Lieutenant General  who served as Chief of Army Staff between 2008 and 2010 owns (alongside his wife) properties in the United States of America worth $3 million.

 

According to Sahara Reporters, the minister’s properties in Nigeria include Hajjar Plaza, an impressive building along Ahmadu Bello Way that contains numerous offices, and Lebrex Plaza, located in Utako, along Ajose Adeogun Street, which also has many shops and businesses. It was also found that the Interior Minister owns a huge real estate at 15 Dodoma Street, in Wuse Zone 6 in Abuja. These massive acquisitions are not in agreement with his earnings as a military officer. He was overlooked by an arms probe investigate panel set up by Buhari in June, 2016 despite the public outrage.

 

Tukur Yusuf Buratai, a lieutenant general and the current Chief of Army Staff of Nigeria suspiciously owns two Dubai mansions worth $1.5m which he falsely declared at the Code of Conduct Bureau. The properties defy his legitimate earnings as a military man.

 

The controversial Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has also exposed when a leaked internal memo indicated he was requesting a loan of of N13,120,470 from a parastatal under him - National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) for a trip to China to carry out "an assignment".

 

The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Aisha Jummai Alhassan (Mama Taraba) has been accused of spending N12m on ‘familiarisation visits’ to unnamed skill acquisition centres in 2015. This was revealed in a 656-page audit report which emanated from the office of the Auditor General of the Federation.

 

Buhari's party mate and northern brother, Governor Abdul’aziz Abubakar Yari of Zamfara State has been linked by the EFCC with the construction of a 100-room hotel in Lekki, Lagos costing $3 million as allegedly diverted from the Paris Club loan refund. Overall, the governor is said to have embezzled the sum of N2.2 billion from the N19billion set aside illegally to pay "consultants."

 

Senate President Bukola Saraki and his cronies are also linked with the embezzlement of N3.5b from the Paris Club loan through the slush fund placed at the Access Bank by the Nigeria Governors Forum, who claimed it was meant for consultants.

 

Under Buhari, the House of Representatives' budget padding debacle involving Speaker Yakubu Dogara and the former Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin which involved the manipulation of the 2016 national budget to allocate N40 billion worth of projects to the principal officers of the green chamber is yet to be unraveled.

 

A former governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva and All Progressives Congress member recovered the 48 houses initially seized from him by the EFCC on January 3, 2013 when he was on trial for allegedly laundering close to N19.2 billion of funds belonging to Bayelsa state. His soiled hands didn't deter Buhari from appointing him as a member of the inauguration committee to usher in his new government on May 29, 2015.

 

Recently, this administration has tolerated repulsive accusations directed at the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris who has been accused by one Senator Isah Hamma Misau of impregnating a junior officer and marrying her secretly against the Code of Conduct guiding the Nigeria Police Force.

 

Misau also alleged that the Inspector-General of Police was extorting money ranging from N10m to N15m, from Commissioners of Police, State Mobile Commanders and Special Protection Units (SPU) Commanders, for favourable postings.

 

IGP Idris also allegedly makes N10bn monthly from oil companies and other private individuals who enjoy special protection from the security agency.

 

A fatal blow was dealt on Buhari's anti-corruption drive by an August 17, 2017 report by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS on the level of societal decadence in Nigeria.

 

According to the NBS, over N400 billion was paid out to public officials as bribes in Nigeria between June 2015 and May 2016.

The report stated that the highest incidents of bribery occurred during encounters with the police, though the bribe received by policemen was often below the average bribe taken by public officials. This is a clear toxic mix of petty and systemic corruption eating up Nigeria towards an imminent total collapse.

 

The existence of all these key corruption cases is a mockery of Buhari's anti-corruption stand which has been used generously in victimising opposition members.

 

Kaduna Central Senator Shehu Sani once made a damning comment on Buhari's anti-graft war which he described as partial.

 

“When it comes to fighting corruption in the National Assembly and the Judiciary and in the larger Nigerian sectors, the President uses insecticide, but when it comes to fighting corruption within the Presidency, they use deodorants,” Sani said.

 

 

Under the Third Schedule of the Constitution, the government must ensure “the principles of proportional sharing of all bureaucratic, economic, media and political posts at all levels of government”. It appears President Buhari has never encountered this part of the law as regards making political appointments and this later encouraged divisive tendencies like the Biafra agitations in the South-east.

 

An August, 2015 report by Premium Times showed that only 25 per cent of the president’s appointments were from the south while an overwhelming 75 per cent were from the north. Also, Mr. Buhari’s North West geopolitical zone, had the largest share of 43 per cent, while the South East for instance, had no appointee. 

Today, northerners are presently heading 14 out of the 17 security agencies in Nigeria while southerners hold 3. This has further aggravated the level of disaffection in the polity considering the fragile national unity of Nigeria which is a heterogeneous entity.

 

Foremost legal luminary, Olisa Agbakoba, SAN has also challenged Buhari in court over the non-inclusion of the South East of the country in appointments to the NNPC Board. He stated that the appointments made by the Federal Government contravened the provisions of Section 14 of the Constitution, as well as the Federal Character Commission Act.

 

Another confirmation of the tribal bigotry of Buhari is his handling of the recalcitrant Fulani herdsmen tagged a ‘criminal gang’ while the Biafra agitators have been regarded as terrorists. His failure to prosecute the coalition of Arewa youth behind the infamous Kaduna Declaration which issued an October 1st quit notice to the Igbos living in the northern part of Nigeria reeks of impartiality. There seems to be special laws for some sets of people in Nigeria.

 

 

One anomaly which has blossomed under Buhari is the secret recruitment of job applicants into government establishments with the President turning a blind eye to it thereby giving it some sort of legitimacy. This is a blatant violation of Nigeria's rules of public advertisement of jobs and creation of a level playing ground for all.

 

The Central Bank of Nigeria employed 909 children of the privileged and connected individuals on a covert note in 2016. Another government agency - Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), headed by Mr. Babatunde Fowler followed suit months after by employing 349 new staff.

 

The Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) also embarked on secret recruitment of staff to fill observed vacancies in the organisation. The Nigeria Prisons Service (NPS), recruited 3,800 people on an underground note between October 2016 and March, 2017. The leadership of the NPS allegedly collected as much as N650,000 each from intakes to gain employment into the service.

 

The Public Complaint Commission (PCC), an agency of Federal Government directly accountable to President Muhamadu Buhari surreptitiously recruited 149 Nigerians without following fundamental civil service rules for public engagement.

Of the 149 new employees, 124 were reportedly from the Northern part of the country while the remaining 25 hailed from the southern part of Nigeria.

 

Other indicted government institutions are the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

 

It appears Buhari only sees corruption from the angle of fraud alone, hence his silence on the odious secret recruitment exercises which have further pauperized the despondent people who don't belong to the upper class in the society.

 

In conclusion, these are just a few highlights of open corruption under the Buhari administration which has accused of only changing the formation of questionable individuals at the corridors of power.

 

The NNPC crisis is another litmus test of the potency of Buhari's anti-graft war and what is left of his perceived integrity. The gist around town is that Baru was appointed in 2016 to isolate Kachikwu and that the machinery which enabled corruption has not being switched off. The only thing that has changed is the networks of influence. How Buhari will attend to the quagmire might improve his image or further dent the trust given to his purported choreographed 'Change' agenda.

Osayimwen Osahon George is a Political Scientist and a journalist. He writes from Lagos State.