Bola A. Akinterinwa
In Nigeria, dishonesty and fraud always take precedence over honesty and forthrightness in political governance. The foundation of political governance in Nigeria was largely predicated on untruthfulness in attitude, self-denial in policy making, chicanery and fraud in nation-building. Even though the founding fathers of Nigeria, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, etc, are said to have been more forthright in their governance of the country and their regions, there is no disputing the fact that collaboration between and among them was more driven by mutual suspicions regional interests, than by any other factor. In fact, the issue of promotion of Hausa-Fulani interests to the detriment of the interests of others, was raised as far back as 1961 in the Parliament.
Dishonesty and lawlessness during bottlenecks in the current Lagos State is one good example. There are permissible and impermissible offences for Motorists: commercial vehicles and tricycles hardly respect any traffic rules. They jump queues and make traffic flows more difficult. By so doing, traffic wardens clear them first, rather than charging them for traffic offences. Why is this so? The offending commercial vehicles allegedly belong to security men and other law enforcement agents. This is institutional fraud and corruption.
Perhaps most disturbingly, how do we explain the fact that the Federal Government advertised in April 1994 the building of housing units in many parts of the country and Nigerians were required to apply and make financial deposits for their choice of houses. Alhaji Lateef Jakande, then Minister of Works and Housing, said the houses would be allocated to depositors for effective occupation in December 1994. I was one of the depositors for a possible allocation of a 3-bedroom detached bungalow in FESTAC, Lagos. Up till the time of writing this column, there has not been any allocation or any refund ofmy deposit of about N165,000. Government only adopted a policy of complete silence over the matter. Is Government not worse than an armed robbers and boko haramists in this case?
Even at the State Government levels, the situation is not different. In Lagos State, a building project, Isheri North, was put in place by the military governor of Lagos State, Brigadier-General Buba Marwa (1996-1999). A plot of land approved for applicants was 800m2. When Asiwaju Bola Tinubu succeeded Buba Marwa, he reduced the size of the plot to 700m2 without reducing the initial costs. As at today, it is only a story of paper allocation. No Certificate of Occupancy even though the charges were fully paid for. In fact, there is no information on the paper allocation of land. In all cases, the system requires engaging in sharp practices in order to cut special favours for what one is duly entitled to. This should not be. It is an institutional fraud and corruption that has been killing Nigeria softly.
Political Chicanery and Institutional Frauds
My experience as Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (2010-2015) is one manifestation of how Government and its agents kill Nigeria softly, not only through institutional corruption, particularly by public servants, but also by Government’s particular acquiescence of the misdeeds of its political appointees. Government kills patriotism and governs by camaraderie and ethnic chauvinism.
First, the then NIIA Director of Administration and Finance, Ms Agatha Ude, changed some promotion examination results to favour some members of staff. The distorted results were established by a joint promotion examination committee that included representatives from the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Office of the Public Service Commission, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ms. Ude also removed the various queries in her confidential files. I drew the attention of the then Governing Council of the Institute, chaired by Major-General Ike Omar Sanda Nwachukwu, to it. The matter was killed, not only at the level of the Institute, but particularly at the level of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Supervisory Authority. The Permanent Secretary then, Ambassador Bulus Lolo, apparently also covered it up. When the attention of the incumbent Foreign Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, was drawn to the various complaints, he turned off his face, and yet the PMB administration is purportedly fighting corruption. Noteworthy in this matter is the fact that the Council was comprised of well-respected people, including Ambassador Martin I. Uhomoibi, former Permanent Secretary of the Foreign Ministry; Mrs. Ammuna Lawan-Ali, a former independent Director of Skye Bank; Professor Akin Oyebode, an international publicist, of the University of Lagos; Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, an Officer of the Federal Republic, who did a 2-volume autobiography entitled ‘The Story of a Humble Life’; and Professor Sonni Gwanle Tyoden of Unijos. These were the more notables of the Ike Nwachukwu team. The nobility of these professionals did not prevent them from aiding and abetting institutional corruption, especially in linking up with assessors of professorial candidates and protecting staff that were prima facie guilty of serious misconduct as defined under the Public Service Rules. The Presidency was not unaware of this issue. Ms. Ude even threatened that, for not paying the sitting allowances of Council Members, General Nwachukwu would deal with me the military way. Whatever that means, I was not bothered, and did not pay them until there was money. Thus, political governance under President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) is that of reckless political chicanery and irredeemable institutional corruption.
If the bill on electoral reform has been fraught with fraudulent insertions and if the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) has also witnessed the same fate, there cannot but be problems with Nigeria. In fact, the mania of annulment of the 1993 presidential election results, as publicly revealed by Prof. Humphrey Nwosu, is much thought-provoking. This is why the current political chicanery surrounding the electoral reform bill and the PIB cannot but be a major dynamic, pushing Nigeria’s disintegration into a junction of desideratum.
Second, the insertion of twenty clauses into the electoral Bill by the Senate leadership without the express consent of the House of Representatives with which the two chambers agreed on a common report, clearly reflects the very dishonest character of Nigeria’s political leaders. It reflects their very poor quality of mind and their most unfortunate belief that adoption of fraudulent strategies constitute smartness, sagaciousness, and an art that can be sustained for a long time for purposes of supremacy or political domination. The belief, without any jot of doubt, is an expression of poverty of strategic ideas.
Institutional fraud and corruption in the making and passing of the Bill is manifested at two levels: removal of some critical provisions and insertion of new centrifugal clauses. As regards removal of critical clauses, the Bill initially provided for both electronic voting and electronic transmission of the results. Additionally, the Bill also raised presidential campaign funding from N1bn (one billion naira) to N15bn (fifteen billion naira), while campaign spending for gubernatorial, parliamentary and local government elections were increased by 1500%.
In the eyes of the general public, the removal of clauses and replacing them with new provisions is a conscious attempt to lay a foundation for future election rigging. It is an attempt to create rooms for election result manoeuvrings, especially come 2023. It is also to further institutionalise corruption by making access to electoral engineering and participation very difficult for the financially less-privileged candidates. In this regard, no one disputes the right of the Senate to make further improvements on a bill. However, why should the attempt to improve be fraudulent? Why should clauses not discussed or agreed to, be inserted? Why should what was agreed to be removed unilaterally?
Mark Gbillah, a representative of the Gwer East/Gwer West Constituency in Benue State, revealed on the platform of Arise News on Thursday, 8 July, 2021 that the Senate could not but be responsible for the insertion of 20 controversial clauses in the Electoral Amendment Bill. Honourable Gbillah noted that the current controversies are directly a resultant from the newly inserted clauses. As recorded by Chinelo Obogo, Honourable Gbilla said as follows: ‘on the issue of the Electoral Act…at a recent meeting, the Chairman of the House Committee told our colleagues that she is not aware of any change to the initial harmonised version from both chambers. But obviously, there is an insertion and I can confirm that about 20 clauses…, and it is alleged that it was inserted at the Senate version.’ More significantly, Honourable Gbillah is on record to have also observed that ‘we are at a point in our country where we should not be playing politics with this issue. I wonder why people think they are to stay in power perpetually.’ What really is politics playing i Nigeria if it is not about conscious engagement in the business of sharp practices, promoting institutional corruption in the name of governance? The position of enlightened Nigerians is that the initial harmonised clauses should be treated as sacrosanct. This is the current political lull that is begging for attention as at today.
The third manifestation of the imminence of national disintegration is the question of Petroleum Industry Bill. The Bill, not only provides for allocation of 30% of profits of oil proceeds to frontier states for purposes of oil exploration, but also reduced from 5% to 3% the equity for oil-hosting communities. Explained differently, initially, the host communities of crude oil, were those whose environment has regularly been degraded through pollution, by virtue of the location of oil in their region. In the thinking of many Nigerians, providing 30% of oil proceeds for fresh explorations, when it is being expected that the global community will be moving away from oil to gas, is an expression of self-deceit and fraud, aimed at only seeking to promote northernisation agenda to the detriment of other regional interests.
All these fraudulent manifestations are not only serving as catalytic dynamics of the imminent disintegration of Nigeria, but also explains why the agitations for self-determination have become more pronounced. PMB is undoubtedly cautiously mismanaging Nigeria’s diversity by promoting nepotism and Fulanisation, and subjecting the pre-eminence of the rule of law to national security interest. In all civilised countries of the world, protection of the national security interest is defined and guided by rule of law. Governance is always driven by rule of law. But since this has not been the practice with Buhariplomacy, which does not accept any negotiated compromise, the disintegration of Nigeria cannot but be taken for granted and the implications cannot be far-fetched.
Disintegration: Catalytic Dynamics and Implications
Disintegrationof Nigeria is undoubtedly imminent in light of PMB’s attitudinal disposition. It is a question of when, unless he rapidly accepts to change for the better. At the epicentre of the catalytic dynamics of Nigeria’s imminent disintegration is the wrong belief that imposition of use of force will not only enable national unity on the strength of non-dissolubility and indivisibility of Nigeria, but also the taking for granted of the people’s compliance. This is why the PMB administration has been wallowing in various strategic miscalculations.
In this regard, PMB publicly appreciates the goodness in Nigeria’s natural diversity, but simultaneously acts contrarily to it in action. One good illustration is the intended appointment of Ms. Lauretta Onochie, one of PMB’s aides, as a National Commissioner at the Independent National Electoral Commission. Lauretta Onochie as a nominee for the INEC Commissioner position points to the chicanery that largely characterises the governance of Nigeria under PMB. Nigeria’s Constitution requires that a nominee must not be politically partisan to be eligible for appointment as a commissioner. The truth is that Ms. Onochie is, indeed, very partisan for two obvious reasons. She wears campaign dresses on which the photograph of PMB is printed. The photograph of one dress has been posted in the social media and has gone viral.
Secondly, Ms. Onochie is currently the Senior Special Assistant to PMB on New Media. This current appointment cannot be said to be non-partisan in whichever way it is seen. And true enough, on Thursday, 8 July, 2021 she appeared before the Senate Committee on INEC, chaired by Senator Kabiru Gaya, a representative of Kano South, for screening in Room 211. There had been much public outcry since her nomination was made known in October 2020, to represent the Niger Delta State. Her publicly well-known partisanship is expected to be taken advantage of, if appointed a National Commissioner, and used to favour the APC ruling party to the detriment of other political parties and development of democracy.
In fact, the main opposition party leaders went to protest in front of the National Assembly against her nomination and screening. There were also the letters written by the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism and YIAGA, a non-profit group founded in 2007 to promote democracy good governance and development. The letters were written to the Senate to oppose her nomination in the strong belief that the nomination is not consistent with Section 14(2a) of the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution, according to which a member of the INEC ‘shall be non-partisan and a person of unquestionable integrity.’
The public outcries and calls for application of rules of law were to no avail. The constitutional clauses referred to above were set aside by the Senate. The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, simply directed on Wednesday, 9 June, 2021 that Ms. Onochie should be screened along with four others, even though there were questions on her integrity and partisanship.
True enough, at the screening session, Ms. Onochie argued that she had resigned her membership of the APC following the re-election of PMB in 2019. However, attention was drawn to the fact that she swore to an affidavit affirming membership of the APC and to which she responded that, that was done in the context of due process. But on the more critical issue of her posting a tweet, on 24 June, 2020 at 4.42 pm, giving a notice of an e-NEC Meeting of the APC, the Senate did not reckon with that. As Lauretta Onochie put it at @Laurestar, ‘there is definitely an e-NEC meeting tomorrow. We are going through a growth process. Thank you everyone.’ When the Senate is caught red handed, it changes to the use of manu militari to suppress opposition. No country can survive with this type of anachronism.
And true enough again, this reality of political intrigues is what offends public sensitivities. It is very irritating that the Senate can brazenly disregard truism while at the same time preaching the gospel of national unity, anti-corruption, and anti-insurrectionism. Agitators of self-determination do not feel comfortable with this apparent agenda to perpetuate election rigging using the instrumentalities of the INEC, which is constitutionally designed to be independent, but empirically meant to be very partisan. A country cannot survive with political mind sets of dishonesty and holier-than-thou attitudinal dispositions. The whole exercise reflects corruption and chicanery of political leadership in Nigeria, which has become a subject of mockery in various manners in the social media.
For examples, there are many questionable policies that have been raised in the social media: how do we explain the construction of oil refineries in the North, while the material oil for refinery is in the South? What about establishing cow ranches in the South for cows in the North? When Garba Shehu, a presidential spokesperson, said ‘Sunday Igboho is a militant who conducts acts of terror’, Pastor David @davidodediran responded that ‘… and Boko Haram, the terrorists and the bandits are faithful worshippers, preaching and propagating the peaceful aspects of their religion across Nigeria’ (vide ICYMI punchng.com).
Saleh Mohammed also noted in his own tweet that ‘you have four refineries with a refining capacity of 450,000 barrels per day. You abandoned them to rot… Niger Republic is a small country with a refining capacity of 20,000 barrels per day.You abandoned all your own and went to embrace Niger Republic. You signed an MOU of $2bn to transport your own crude from your country via pipelines, to refine in Niger Republic, so you can buy the refined products. You have the resources to run pipelines from Niger Delta to supply crude oil to Niger Republic, but you lack the resources to maintain the existing refineries. Yet you said you’re a government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. You haven’t disclosed your mission…’ This tweet is nothing more than a mockery of PMB and his administration.
In another different tweet, renoomokri said: ‘Buhari’s Defence Minister told us to defend ourselves from bandits and killer herdsmen. Sunday Igboho has done exactly that. Now they want to arrest Igboho for obeying their own directive to Nigerians. When Sunday Igboho went to the Seriki’s house, we saw guns there. Why hasn’t that Seriki been arrested? Why didn’t the policemen that escorted Gumi for his meeting with armed killer herdsmen arrest them? Why is arrest only reserved for Igboho? Is it because he is from the wrong region and religion?’ Many questions there are, but no answers have been given.
Without any whiff of doubt, the foregoing tweets are pointedly directed at PMB who swore on oath to defend national unity, to protect Nigeria’s diversities, but who, most unfortunately, has been described by his military superiors, Generals Olusegun Obasanjo and Theophilus Danjuma, as not only having an agenda for Fulanisation, but also directly aiding and abetting boko haramic insurgency through the military.
What is certain from the foregoing is that PMB’s lackadaisical attitude towards publicly-held beliefs that PMB has a Fulanisation agenda, is consciously supporting killer herdsmen, militarily supporting the Boko Haram, and preaching national unity, while simultaneously undermining same with policies of double standard and reckless nepotism, etc, only clearly points to the imminence of Nigeria’s break-up. PMB, since 2015, has been giving Nigerians wrong impressions that Nigeria is indivisible, indissoluble, and that the Boko Haram has been technically defeated. Most unfortunate, however, boko haramism, armed banditry, herdsmen terrorism, political and commercial kidnappings, societal degradation, institutional corruption and political chicanery have not only been increased, but have also become the hallmark of PMB’s administration. This is why the disintegration of Nigeria is imminent. Dr. Malaifa Obadiah, an astute nationalist, has pointed to the likelihood of a second civil war come 2022. If the likes of General Ike Nwachukwu, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, etc, could bastardise institutional discipline at the NIIA, if PMB can disregard public complaints of institutional frauds, why would there not be agitations for separation? If the governance of Nigeria is being driven by hegemonic policies, deceitfulness, chicanery and polluted minds, and if political chicanery and institutional frauds are deepening and, by so doing, strengthening agitations for self-determination, when will ‘’To Thy Tents, O Israel’’ not be a desideratum? Time will tell.
