A the government battles to rid the country of graft, corruption is fighting back furiously. Ample evidence is provided at the Senate, where a presidential request to screen and confirm Ibrahim Magu as the substantive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has been put in abeyance. President Muhammadu Buhari should give the anti-graft agencies full backing to prosecute the war on sleaze.
It was in mid-June that Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, who was standing in for the President, sent a letter to the Senate requesting Magu’s confirmation. Senate President, Bukola Saraki, inexplicably sat on it and did not read it on the Senate floor until July 14. As 2016 grinds to a close, Magu has spent 13 months as “acting” chairman of the premier anti-graft agency. The Senate is obviously in no hurry to do its duty of screening and confirming the tough detective as required by law.
Without a doubt, this is another gambit in the formidable push-back against the anti-corruption war that has pitted a few patriots against the massed ranks of well-heeled elite in all segments of the polity. It is a dangerous ploy that deserves the full attention of Buhari, whose election and presidency are anchored on the single issue of stamping out corruption. It represents what Itse Sagay, chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, calls a “psychological attack” against Magu, who has become the scourge of the corrupt elite.
Buhari is careless. His penchant for tripping himself up is playing out again. Since fighting corruption is his major policy plank, it is inexcusable that he did not push for early confirmation of his EFCC pick early in the life of the Eighth National Assembly, leaving Magu adrift until Osinbajo acted in his absence. The result has been to leave the crusader vulnerable to the pettiness and ruthless selfishness of our legislators and their allies at a crucial juncture in the onslaught on graft.
In a scorecard he released in October, Magu cited 145 convictions and recovery of more looted funds in his first year in the saddle than in the preceding first 12 years of the agency’s founding. More importantly, no fewer than 10 sitting senators, who are mostly ex-governors, are undergoing EFCC investigation and trial for corrupt practices. The biggest catch is Saraki himself, who is facing at least two prosecutions, while his wife, Toyin, has also been questioned in connection with ongoing investigations. For Senators, it is now pay-back time.
Nigerians need to be rescued from the unbridled selfishness of the Senate. In response to the ongoing trial of Saraki at the Code of Conduct Tribunal for alleged false declaration of assets, both the Senate and the equally grasping House of Representatives have moved with alacrity to amend the Code of Conduct Bureau/CCT Act to whittle down executive supervision and place them under the control of the parliament.
The situation is made worse by the reported internal dissension within Buhari’s inner circle that allegedly has key Presidency operatives in cahoots with the vested interests seeking to frustrate Magu and hobble the anti-corruption war. Buhari has to move fast to save Magu: his vaunted assault on corruption is in jeopardy if he allows scheming senators and moles within his inner circle to neutralise this vibrant detective or weaken his official and moral authority. Unconfirmed reports are already suggesting that Magu may now need to lobby senators. Any such move will cripple the war irreparably as lobbying in Nigeria necessarily translates to striking corrupt deals and allowing felons to escape justice.
For the first time in our recent history, we have a President with the critical political will to confront corruption. But he lacks the other critical factor of providing hands-on, attentive management. Fighting corruption of the magnitude Nigeria has on its hands requires the full attention of the President. He can count on the full commitment of only a few; he would be making a fatal error by assuming that all his aides are on the same page with him.
The anti-corruption war needs a coordinator vested with full presidential backing to avoid the current bickering exposed by testimonies given by the EFCC and the State Security Service at the House of Representatives recently. The United States revised its entire intelligence system after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, bringing 16 intelligence agencies under the coordination of the Department of Homeland Security.
Corruption, according to a World Bank report in 2004, is particularly injurious to developing economies, preventing institution-building, distorting the economy and entrenching poverty. It recommended strong, centralised agencies to combat corruption. Countries that have tamed corruption coupled strong management to political will. Singapore’s founding father, Lee Yuan Kew, realised that controlling corruption was essential to creating an enabling environment for economic growth, adopting it as “a strategic tenet of our system of governance.” It is today the third least corrupt country. Indonesia moved from 133 on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index in 2004 to 111 in 2009 after it adopted an anti-corruption action plan, flushed out corrupt officials and strengthened its Corruption Education Commission. To reverse the two per cent loss to GDP due to corruption, Malaysia upgraded the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
Corruption has, however, devastated Nigeria. It has denied 170 million people of honest, responsible representation; drained over $300 billion from the treasury between 2010 and 2015 alone, according to the IMF; destroyed or prevented growth of institutions, and deprived the country of savings and fiscal buffers in the midst of recession.
Strong civic action is needed by Nigerians to end the tyranny of the National Assembly. Buhari should pull out all the stops to get Magu confirmed. Magu should never lobby or succumb to the blackmail of senators or cabals lurking within the presidential precincts.
