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Corruption
Has Won The Battle Against Corruption
By Chinedu Akuta
“The United Nations (UN) says Nigerian
kleptocrats have milked the nation to the tune of about
$100 billion dollars thorough various acts of grand
corruption,
the cost of which it lamented by far exceeded the damage caused by any other
single crime” (Daily Sun, Wednesday, December 3, 2008 page 9).
“ The greatest incitement to crime is the hope of escaping
punishment” (Marcus
Cicero).
As far as Nigeria is concerned, we should think not what we can do to corruption
but think of what corruption can do to Nigeria and Nigerians. I have made the
above statement because of the level of corruption and the sequential reports
of corrupt practises in Nigeria. On the average there are new cases of corruption
reported weekly on the Nigerian dailies. The rates are very alarming. I am also
99% sure that many cases of corruption do not make headlines mainly because the
go unnoticed by the press or the law enforcement agents. For the purposes of
space and time, I will examine few cases of corruption in last 12 months to buttress
my point. I will start with the power probe.
The National Assembly revelled that $16 billion dollars was invested in power
sector without anything to show for it. This investment was made without any
single megawatt being added to the national grid. To make matters worse was that
some contractors didn’t even know the sites. Talk less of doing any job.
Where is this money? Am sure $1 billion out of this amount can build about 3
new refineries. $1 billion should be enough to do a second Niger bridge across
River Niger. $1 billion can build a low cost housing estate in Lagos or elsewhere
in the country. $1 billion can build a well equipped hospital in Nigeria thereby
stopping our government officials from flying abroad all the time for medical
attention. $1 billion can be used to create jobs for at least 10,000 Nigerians.
$1 billion can provide maximum security prisons where corrupt people can be sent
to. The list of what the money can do is endless.
Towards the end of March 2009, the Nigerian dailies reported that the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested 2 comptrollers of Customs over
an alleged complicity in a 3 billion naira customs duty scam, involving the controversial
Vaswani brothers. The Vaswani brothers are the owners of Stallion Group. Their
head office is in Victoria Island Lagos.
Then came the Halliburton $150 million dollars bribe money traced to Zurich.
The total amount was $180 million dollars, which means that $30 million dollars
is yet to be traced or found. This bribe was paid to facilitate the award of
$6 billion dollars LNG contracts. My argument is that the $6 billion which was
the quoted contract sum would be about 20 times the initial costs of the project.
The federal government should conduct more enquiries and ascertain how much the
original cost of the contracts should have been. This is with the view to knowing
how much was actually stolen.
At the heat of the Halliburton bribe money discovery, President Yar’Adua
promised the nation that once he has a response, he will make public the names
of the culprits and take appropriate action. As part of taking his action, he
inaugurated the Okiro Panel. The committee has eight weeks to submit its report.
We are waiting and watching how it will go. To be fair and to achieve a balance,
the president should name every person involved in corruption henceforth. A good
starting point will be to name those behind $16 billion dollar unaccounted resources
invested in the power sector. Until he does this, many Nigerians will tend to
believe the accusations made by Mallam Nasir el-Rufai that the federal government
is insincere in the fight against corruption.
Guardian newspapers of Wednesday, 22nd April 2009 online version reported about
the African Petroleum (AP) Plc’s share price manipulation scam that made
AP to suffer over N240 billion losses. The culprit in this case was named as
Mr Eugene Anenih, the managing director of Nova Finance and Securities Limited.
As if there was a competition, the following day being Thursday, 23rd April 2009
, Thisday newspapers online version reported that the suspended chairman of the
National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) with six other commissioners
were being charged for fraud of N1.5 billion naira.
Thisday newspapers of 7th May 2009 online version reported that 3 house members
including a serving senator of the country are on the run over a N6 billion naira
rural electrification contract scam. The same paper reported about officials
of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) arrested over N1.7 billion
naira contract scam. Thisday newspaper of 8th May 2009 online version reported
the story of N250 million bribe scandal given over the Ekiti re-run elections.
Guardian newspapers of Wednesday 13th May 2009 online version reported an allegation
made by the special adviser on petroleum to President, (Dr Emmanuel Egbogah).
He alleged that some members of the national assembly have taken bribes from
some oil firms to truncate the federal government’s reforms in the petroleum
sector. The amount was not mentioned.
Just recently, Nigerian dailies reported about the arrest of one Mr. Ejike Onwosugbolu
who was carrying N250 million naira cash on three suit cases. On interrogation,
he confessed that the money belonged to the present Anambra State governor (Peter
Obi). Nigerians are waiting for what the EFCC will do about this case.
“
The greatest incitement to crime is the hope of escaping punishment” (Marcus
Cicero). Corruption has prospered in Nigeria mainly because corrupt government/private
officials have a way of escaping punishment. It also shows the mindset of these
evil people. Quoting former Justice Oputa, “Nothing will happen in our
nation, in our society which did not first happen in our minds. If wrong is rampant,
if indiscipline is rife, if corruption is the order of the day, we have to search
our individual minds for that is where it all starts”.
Prevention is better than cure. My simple advice to the authorities in Nigeria
should be to fashion out a preventive strategy against corruption. Secondly the
authorities should consider making corruption a capital offence. We can borrow
a leaf from China on the best way to fight corruption. The political parties
were the indicted national assembly members are from, should take disciplinary
actions against them. But before then let them refund their loot to the people
of Nigeria.
Corruption is everywhere in the world, but the difference is how various countries
approach it. When the expenses scandal involving British MP’s became open
in the United Kingdom , the Tory leader (David Cameron) ordered senior conservatives
to pay back thousands of pounds to the tax payers. The Tory leader humiliated
several members of the shadow cabinet by naming them one by one on the national
television. He ordered all the people involved to return the total amount claimed.
He apologised to the nation for the actions of his party members. In same way,
the Nigerian parties were the corrupt national assembly members are from should
apologize to Nigerians.
America is also another to place to look out for how to deal with corrupt people.
A good example should be Madoff who master minded one of the biggest fraud in
history. He was sentenced to 150 years in prison. Nigerian authorities can do
same at home if the federal government is true to its fight against corruption.
If no tough measures are taken, corruption will continue to win the battle against
corruption. May God bless Nigeria.
Chinedu
Vincent Akuta is an
activist and leader of “Support Option A4 Group” Leicester-UK |
