Buhari vs Atiku {fight of corruption}
By Dirisu Yakubu
Three weeks to the 2019 general elections, the gloves are off for the two leading presidential candidates. To President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress, APC, his main rival and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, should be rejected by the electorate because, according to his handlers, a vote for the PDP means a return to Biblical Egypt where the people toiled and laboured in anguish.
Following his defection from the APC to the PDP on which platform he was Vice President for 8 years, the ruling party has serially accused Atiku of corruption, a claim he consistently denies, challenging anyone with evidence to present same to the anti-graft agencies for action.
Atiku and Buhari
In what appeared to be an ace in its pack of cards, however, officials of the ruling party always reminded Atiku of the long years it had taken him to visit the United States, US, daring him to set his foot on the US soil as a proof of his innocence in a case of corruption in which he was allegedly involved there.
For more than thirteen years, Atiku Abubakar had kept away from the United State.
Meanwhile nine years ago, there was a US Senate
A report by the committee reported he alleging money laundering activities against him, including being a recipient of a bribe by Siemens. The Committee, known as the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, was chaired by Senator Carl Levin.
The probe was motivated by the US government concern about corruption in the Third World and its corrosive effects on the development of honest government, democratic principles and the rule of law.
“It is also blamed for distorting markets, deterring investment, deepening poverty, undermining international aid efforts, and fostering crime. Some have drawn connections between corruption, failed states, and terrorism. Corruption also continues to be a massive problem. The World Bank has estimated that $1 trillion in bribes alone exchange hands worldwide each year,” the committee noted in its bulky report.
Atiku was not the only foreign Politically Exposed Person (PEP) probed by the committee. He had company in Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, now the 48-year-old son of Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mbasogo, the President of Equatorial Guinea (EG), the late President of Gabon, Omar Bongo, and three Angolan PEP accounts, involving an Angolan arms dealer, an Angolan government official and a small Angolan private bank.
The committee submitted its report on 4th of February 2010, 3 years after Atiku left office as Nigeria’s vice president.
The report alleged violations of the US laws by Atiku and his fourth wife, Jennifer Douglas, and is said to have provided the basis for the former VP’s being barred from entering the US since then.
Safe arrival
But penultimate week, Atiku stunned not just Buhari’s camp but many Nigerians as well when he tweeted his safe arrival in Washington DC, the capital of the US, alongside members of his campaign team, including the Director General, Senator Bukola Saraki, and a former Aviation Minister, Osita Chidoka.
A statement by his media adviser, Paul Ibe, quickly followed, detailing the itinerary of his principal in the US.
The Federal Government, through Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, immediately responded, saying it was not bothered by the trip, warning, however, that upon the PDP presidential candidate’s return to Nigeria, he would answer questions on his alleged complicity in the N156 million slush funds belonging to the defunct Habib Platinum Bank, Bank PHB.
After spending two days in the US, Atiku returned home.
Two days later, Atiku, who had earlier pledged to reveal “the corruption” in the APC government, listed, in a statement, prominent leaders of the APC facing corruption allegations, daring the President to do the needful.
In a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communications, Phrank Shaibu, the PDP presidential candidate said the alleged corrupt associates of Buhari should be investigated without further delay.
He noted that so long as those listed were walking the streets free, the President war against corruption was nothing but a ruse.
Atiku premised his argument for listing the APC leaders on corruption allegations levelled against them, saying there had not been full – scale investigation not to talk of prosecution.
This reasoning may have prompted some eminent Nigerians to argue that the war against corruption, as waged by the incumbent administration, is a selective one, with little chances of rooting out the vice in the nearest future.
Speaking exclusively to Sunday Vanguard, human rights activist and constitutional lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, SAN, maintained that what is described as an anti-graft crusade is nothing but a move orchestrated to cut opposition figures to size.
According to him, ratings by international agencies since the assumption of office by the APC-led government are a testimony that not much has been achieved.
He said, “Buhari has never been serious with fighting corruption. He has merely been using it to browbeat and terrorize the opposition and critical voices over his massive failure in governance, heightened corruption cases and worsening insurgency that have all combined to bring Nigeria to her knees.
“With Nigeria now the world capital of poverty, one of the 168 most corrupt nations, coming second as the most corrupt nation in West Africa and moving 16 steps back in the rating of the anti-corruption perception index of Transparency International, TI, it is clear that the Buhari government has woefully failed on all indices of governance.”
In veiled reference to the remark made by the National Chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, last week, that “once you defect to the APC, your sins are forgiven”, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria said thus far, members of the ruling party alleged to have perpetrated one form of corruption or the other are enjoying patronage from government, without demonstrable eagerness on the part of government to do the needful.
“The so-called fight against corruption is stimulated in favour of the APC, the Presidency and their cabalistic clique. Once you defect from another party and join the APC, your sins of corruption are immediately forgiven and you are heralded into the party with encomiums, applause and celebration. You are immediately given the front pew of the APC, inducted into the hall of fame and put in the presidential electioneering council to campaign for ‘Mr. Integrity,’” he added.
While listing what he called the flaws of the Buhari government to include “favouritism, cluelessness and mediocrity”, Ozekhome stressed that the past three and a half years would be remembered for gates such as “Babachirgate, Adeosungate, Mainagate, NNPCgate, NHISgate among others.”
Also speaking on the issue, a former Education Minister and chieftain of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Professor Tunde Adeniran, called for seriousness on the part of government, saying, “The fight against corruption is an agenda that, if properly pursued, would change Nigeria for the better. It should not be pursued based on partisan motivation or selectively on the basis of unpatriotic considerations.”
U-turn
However, it appears that the Buhari-government may prosecute, after all, some of those associated with the President but have corruption allegations hanging on their necks, following the statement by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo that Buhari had ordered the trial of a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Babachir Lawal, and a former Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ayo Oke.
Osinbajo said Lawal would be prosecuted for allegedly stealing money earmarked for displaced victims of Boko Haram insurgency.
According to the vice-president, Buhari had prevailed on anti-corruption agencies to prepare criminal charges against Lawal, who served as SGF from 2015 until he was disgraced out of office on October 31, 2017, after being accused of stealing millions of emergency funds.
On Oke, Osinbajo said the former NIA chief was also recommended for prosecution.
Oke was the NIA head when a large vault of money was found in an apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos in April 2017.
“The President has directed that the SGF and former DG of NIA should be prosecuted,” the VP was quoted as saying at a Lagos dialogue organised by Christian youth affiliated to the GRILL, Ikeja Branch.
The government had faced criticism for its snail progress in bringing charges against Lawal, who was first alleged to have diverted millions of IDP funds using firms linked to him in a December 2016 Senate investigation.
Buhari initially argued that there was no substance in the Senate investigation only to succumb to public pressure to remove him and ward off any political garbage that the administration could suffer from the scandal.
Even though he was removed from office, the disgraced SGF continued to associate with Buhari.
Lawal is said to be the President’s point man in Adamawa State where he hails from, as well as a major player in the re-election campaign team.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) invited him for questioning at least twice, although it was unclear whether any charges were filed.
Nevertheless, Osinbajo said, “We are expecting that prosecution will take place.”
“The next of course is that criminal allegations will be filed against them and the prosecution process will be completed,” he added.
But while the opposition is quick to dismiss this as a belated move, Nigerians will no doubt heave a sigh of relief if government can go the whole hog to prove that, indeed, there are no sacred cows in the crusade to rid the nation of graft.
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