The current anti-corruption war effort of President Muhammadu Buhari requires the support of all patriotic Nigerians. To say that the invidious crime that impoverishes the masses is killing the Giant of Africa is an understatement. In August 2012, I did a two-part piece in this space entitled: “A lost anti-corruption war is a lost future.” I had cause to reproduce the material in September last year, in order to instigate the president, so to speak, into resuming the unfinished business he started when he was military head of state for close to two years.
What happened to Buhari the day his regime was overthrown in August 1985 should be viewed in the context of a two-legged football championship. Buhari lost the first leg played on his home soil as a military head of state, defeated by his fellow army men. This time around, he is playing the second leg on the road… and it is not always easy to win away matches. However, the president should count on the total support from the capacity-filled stadium. Imagine about 170m throats singing this familiar soccer song for him: “Winner oooh, winner! Winner oooh, winner! Buhari you don win o, winner! Patapata you go win forevaa, winner!”
Many had expected that Buhari would hit the ground running immediately he took over the mantle of leadership from his predecessor. It was when nothing to that effect was happening that I was prompted to recall the piece in September.
Today, the story is different. The much anticipated anti-corruption war is not only on but also gathering momentum. Suddenly, the anti-graft agencies – EFCC or Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and ICPC or Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission – have woken up from their deep slumber. They no longer bark without biting. They now bark and bite. They are no longer the shadoofs that irrigated corruption.
Presently, the $2.1bn arms deal is the main origin of the mess Nigeria has found itself in. The diversion and/or misuse of the fund had brought avoidable hardship to millions of hapless Nigerians especially those in the North-east axis. It is a demonstration of how callous our leaders can be.
However, many Nigerians are apprehensive about how deep Buhari can dig into the rot. It is the belief in some quarters that he may hit the brick wall especially when the net catches some sacred fishes. Others are persuaded to believe that he will be guided by his popular declaration made at his inauguration as the president that “I belong to everyone and I belong to no one”.
Judging by the calibre of men that has so far been netted including some ex-service chiefs and political juggernauts, it is obvious that this critical war net is no respecter of anyone even if the catch is as massive as a shark!
Aside arms gate and other related crimes is the issue of ghost workers. Corruption impedes the development of a nation. Corrupt elements are worse than armed robbers. Armed robbers steal from individuals but corrupt folks steal our collective wealth. Those who are into ghost tendering are as wicked as corrupt elements. They keep jobseekers perpetually waiting in the wings. Only recently, the federal government gleefully announced that a total of 23, 000 ghost workers have been exposed and thanked the BVN (Biometric Verification Number) for it.
Making the exposure while appearing before the Senate Committee of Finance, the minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, gave the assurance that all the ghost workers so netted would be handed over to the EFCC for prosecution. I really don’t know how she is going to do that. You cannot catch a ghost employee. You can only catch the ghost tender… that is the one that fed the payroll with non-existing workers. I also want to believe that the figure given by the finance minister is a tip of the iceberg. Just as President Buhari disclosed to a London audience last week that his government had so far raked in over two trillion naira from the introduction of Treasury Single Account (TSA), an innovation he inherited from the Jonathan administration which it had no courage to implement, saying that the said amount was a tip of the iceberg.
I once said in this space that one way of tackling the unemployment scourge in this country is to wage a total war on ghost workers and their tenders at all levels of government. Before the recent exposure by the BVN, hundreds of thousands of them have been discovered at the Ministries, Departments and Agencies all over the country. There exist ghost policemen and women as well as ghost pensioners. These are folks that come from their graves every month to collect their entitlements. Imagine that the positions occupied by these ghosts are vacant for occupation.
Wouldn’t it make some serious impact on the unemployment situation in this country?
There is also the age factor in the public service where many workers have hugged longevity. Their age is renewed yearly. And as long as they are not on walking sticks as a result of disability, you can hardly fish them out. Those in the record offices are their accomplices. Government should go after them in order to free the system of deadwoods and create vacancies.
Corruption has many faces. This administration should not relent in this war. Those who argue that giving 100 per cent attention to the war is at the expense of his mandate have missed the point. In the face of dwindling oil revenue, what other ready source can he tap to raise money to run his government? Recovery of looted funds is like another form of crude oil which must be tapped, and desperately too.