Order 6 and anti-graft war

Evidently buoyed by the recent conviction of three former state governors, President Muhammadu Buhari declared a national emergency on corruption.
This will, to a large extent, help in the building and development of Nigeria’s anti-corruption institutions.
Former governors Jolly Nyame and Joshua Dariye of Taraba and Plateau states, respectively, were convicted by an Abuja high court to serve jail terms of 14 years each for diverting N1.64 billion and N1.16 billion.
Their Adamawa state counterpart, James Bala Ngilari, was sentenced to jail for 5 years without an option of fine for defrauding his state of N167million.
President Buhari said in this regard, the federal government, in line with its anti-corruption strategy, sought to ensure that the ends of justice is not defeated or compromised by persons involved in a case or complaint of corruption.
Buhari spoke at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja penultimate week while signing Executive Order No.
6 of 2018 on the Preservation of Assets Connected with Serious Corruption and Other Relevant Offences.
He said in order to preserve Nigeria’s political and economic systems as well as the continuous progress of the Nigerian State from the serious threat of corruption, all stakeholders and every Nigerian should give effect to the Executive Order.
He also urged all agencies of the federal government, in consultation with the Attorney General of the Federation, to identify and adopt best practices, and develop strategies for action.
“The fight against corruption is one that must be fought by everyone wherever corruption rears its head”, President Buhari said.
He described the signing of the Executive Order as another milestone in the fight against corruption, “a project that is very crucial to the viability and continuous well-being of this country.
Whilst there are many reasons why Nigeria has been struggling; regrettably, the most unfortunate cause of great disparity between Nigeria’s wealth and its poverty is endemic corruption.
“There is also a very strong link between corruption, peace and security.
Unfortunately, corruption is everywhere; at all levels of government, and every stratum of our society.
Without doubt, corruption constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the well-being, national security, and economy of Nigeria.” The president said as the “real battle” continues, government policies and institutions ought to be strengthened in order to successfully fight corruption.
He said while his administration recognised that there were more grounds to cover in the war against corruption, it was prepared to “go out to possess those lands by cutting off any means that facilitates corruption and supports its growth.” President Buhari said it had thus become necessary to re-kit and re-tool the government “arsenal” to be able to effectively tackle what he called corruption’s perilous counter-attack against the Nigerian State.
“It is in consequence of this that I have decided to issue the Executive Order No.
6 of 2018 to inter alia restrict dealings in suspicious assets subject to investigation or inquiry bordering on corruption in order to preserve such assets from dissipation, and to deprive alleged criminals of the proceeds of their illicit activities which can otherwise be employed to allure, pervert and/ or intimidate the investigative and judicial processes or for acts of terrorism, financing of terrorism, kidnapping, sponsorship of ethnic or religious violence, economic sabotage and cases of economic and financial crimes, including acts contributing to the economic adversity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and against the overall interest of justice and the welfare of the Nigerian State.” The president said available records showed that the aggregate value of funds involved in some on-going prosecution of high profile corruption related cases stood at N595,409,838,452.25k.
According to him, “This amount is in excess of the N500 billion approved for Social Investment Programme in the 2018 Budget, which sum would be applied to cater for home grown school feeding programme, government economic empowerment programme, N-Power Job Creation Programme, Conditional Cash Transfers, etc.
Cumulatively, scores of millions of Nigerian citizens would benefit from those programmes.” Blueprint lauds President Buhari over the signing of Order No.
6 which will, along other policies such as the Treasury Single Account (TSA), Bank Verification Number (BVN), signing of the Open Government Partnership, give the anti-corruption war the requisite filip.
These policy initiatives are also instrumental to the Buhari government’s breakthrough in the anti-graft war exemplified in the high profile convictions and the humongous amount of loot recovery.
While we urge the government not to rest on its oars until the nation is rid of every iota of corruption, it behooves on the citizenry to own the anti-corruption war in order to achieve its objective.