Within its limited scope amidst vagaries of resistance and attempts by suspects to malign its chairman, the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property (SPIPRPP), has proven that it is capable of squaring up to its bidding. And there can be no more practical evidence to accentuate this claim than the impassioned, robust, unprejudiced and fearless approach it has adopted in the pursuit of its assignment. In the wake of a cynical attempt by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Imo State, Hope Uzodinma, to evade investigation for allegedly failing to execute a contract of $12m for the dredging of the Calabar Channel, its chairman, Barrister Okoi Obono-Obla poignantly told the press recently that despite being served court papers filed by the senator, nothing would stop the panel from investigating him. Claiming that Uzodinma was on the run, the fiery lawyer said that the APC governorship candidate had been paid by the Nigerian Ports Authority, which was said to have awarded the contract, but failed to execute it. “The law is that a suspect cannot stop a criminal investigation by running to a court to file an action. He should know that this type of delaying tactics is outdated in this era of change…”, the activist quipped.
Uzodinma is a member of President Buhari’s party, the APC. Nothing can be more salutary. One can cite many other instances where Obono-Obla has had to confront very corrupt politicians who have put their dirty hands into the public till to build empires over the painful anxieties of our suffering people. But it takes uncommon courage, dexterity and the highest degree of patriotism to tread where angels fear to step on. Honed in the late Gani Fawehinmi School of legal activism, only firm-minded and die-hard activists such as Obono-Obla can lead such a crusade against corruption. In fact, Uzodinma is not the only top APC chieftain who is being investigated by the Panel. The Panel is also investigating Alhaji Tijani Tumsah, the vice chairman of the Presidential Committee on the North East Initiative and the first National Secretary of the party for alleged corruption and administrative perfidy. Okoi’s approach to the war against corruption is therefore all encompassing, so much so that no one can accuse him of double standard of witch hunt.
Because of Okoi’s undaunted temerity in the execution of his assignment, the Panel has trudged into sectors of the anti-corruption war which were hitherto considered sacrilegious. For instance, the Panel is investigating Nigerians mentioned in the Panama and Paradise Papers to be involved in offshore shell companies in several tax havens around the world. The Panel is also investigating the $7billion bailout funds which the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, granted commercial banks in the country in 2006. The Panel is also investigating the failure of Mobil Oil Producing Limited to pay the outstanding amount of $1.9billion to the Federal Government in respect of its purchase of oil block in 2009. The Panel is investigating the failure of shipping companies to remit duties amounting to over $500million to NIMASA. Above all, the Panel is investigating various ranges of stupendous sleaze involving some members of the National Assembly who have looted our national patrimony into their private pockets and who have built empires of wealth in cash, stocks and properties all over the world over the painful anxieties of our poor and oppressed compatriots. You can now see why most of the suspects are hell-bent on hauling mud on him to either cow him or intimidate him out of his job. But the pertinent question is: why is corruption so pervasive and powerful in Nigeria?
For most dispassionate observers of the Nigerian political scene, the only thing which has destroyed the fabric of this country, after the Civil War, Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen killings, is corruption. In fact, it was even corruption that gave birth to other vices like the Civil War, Boko Haram and herdsmen killings, in the first place. This hydra-headed monster has become Nigeria’s middle name. Aside from the untoward image this menace has wrought on the country and the insult and embarrassment it has caused innocent Nigerians abroad, it has inflicted irreparable damage to the basic foundations that held the country together. Corruption has stunted our economic growth, our social and physical infrastructure, our technological and industrial advancement and has decapitated our institutions, which is why our over 40 research institutes are no longer functional because they are headless. Even our academic and military establishments and other security agencies cannot in all sincerity be exonerated from the deadly effects of unbridled corruption. The determination of President Muhammadu Buhari to combat corruption and to go after suspects irrespective of their ethnic or political leanings should enlist the sympathy of all well-meaning Nigerians. It is the more reason why even the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which controlled the central government and a greater number of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, until May 29, 2015, endorsed the anti-corruption war.
As Nigerians, we certainly do not need any soothsayer to tell us that ours is a corrupt country. We see corruption live every day. We see Mr. Corruption stalk the streets, the roads and the highways across the country. We see Mr. Corruption bid us goodbye at the airports and welcome us back into the country. We Nigerians greet Mr. Corruption at the seaports and border posts as we clear our cargoes into the country. We shake the juicy hands of Mr. Corruption as we savour the winning of a lucrative contract. Truly, Nigeria, which in 1996 was ranked by the Berlin-based anti-corruption agency, Transparency International, as the second most corrupt country in the world, achieved the utmost when in 1997, it was voted the most corrupt country on the face of the earth. Ever since, the country has had the misfortune of being grouped among the five most corrupt countries in the world. There can never be any stigma as heinous as this in the comity of nations across the world.
Since the current democratic political experiment started in May 1999, all successive governments have had to place anti-corruption war as part of their programmes of action, popularly known as manifestos or agendas. Yet, all had paid lip service to the fight against corruption except the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari which has shown serious signs of its determination to tackle the monster head on. As can be deduced from the body language and actions of the President himself, Nigerians are now confident that the battle has commenced with the resoluteness it deserves. Successive administrations, in spite of their much vaunted hoopla over corruption war, were ironically refuting the claims of the Berlin-based Transparency International (TI) that Nigeria was stinking with the evil stench of corruption. What is the difference between this government and past governments? Of course, there are reported cases of corruption in this administration. But while some are still being investigated, the government has been able to show some leadership in the fight against the menace by sacking some of the culprits.
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