Nigeria is in trouble. The country is a joke. Call it most corrupt country in the world, you’re right. Refer to Nigeria under President Buhari as a poorest country in the world, eyes would winkle. Think of a place on earth with the highest percentage of poor people, the link drags you to Nigeria. And then the most insecure territory around the world? Sadly, it still shows Nigeria. Who would argue that the country is really not a joke?
Our hands are shaking because we’re exhausted. We’re drained and completely severed. Nothing else is left in us. Demoralized and disenchanted, we are humbled. The shaft is piercing through the moral soul of the country. Even President Muhammadu Buhari is ashamed. The icon of corruption fight is purely derided. His military ropes are loosen. The puritan is left alone in Aso-Rock. This betrayal is likened to that of Judas who sold the master with meaningless pieces of Silver. Buhari is stabbed and deeply so. Who will console this man in Aso-Rock?
The midnight of Thursday, July 9, 2020 was terrific. The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) office was bugled. The office is in Buhari’s seat of power, Aso-Rock. The inglorious incident is linked to the suspended acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu. At least seven computers containing sensitive financial information were reportedly stolen, while others were badly damaged. Of course, the NFIU had been an integral part of the EFCC but was severed from it, consequent to Nigeria’s suspension by the Egmont Group in 2017. Egmont Group sought NFIU’s independence to gain the backbone for monitoring international money laundering activities. The development, attained in 2018, also afforded Nigeria the pass to share the financial intelligence of 153 member countries, including the US and the UK and to recover stolen funds abroad.
Ibrahim Magu, the dethroned EFCC boss is standing trial before the Justice Ayo Salami-led presidential investigative panel on the allegations levelled against him. The discoveries made by officials of NFIU reveal Magu’s alleged link to a Kaduna-based Bureau de Change, found to have made transactions of N336 billion, $435 million and 14 million Euros. Magu, again was alleged to be relating with a little-known Lagos-based pastor who has been discovered to have N573 million in his account and a famous Lagos-based lawyer who took N28 million from the Bureau de Change.
Whether the allegations against him are true is yet to be ascertained. And like a fierce criminal who is hell bent on dying with his secrets, Magu has ferociously denied all allegations, writing and begging to be released on bail. Having dismissed the N4 billion bribe against Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Magu is crying in detention, especially of “how he is now being treated like a common criminal.” Nine days in detention by Tuesday, July 14, Magu is getting the treatment he gave others. President Jonathan’s National Security Advise, Rrt. Col. Sambo Dasuki and the former national publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Olisa Metuh were perfect actors. After sharing the spoils of the siphoned procurement funds for armed equipment, they perpetually crept in stretchers here and there. Their detention stretched longer without bail approvals. Magu should best be feeling the same way.
Like his predecessors, Ibrahim Magu might just be a misfortune, with a trusted, protected and well funded office. His case is most catastrophic, following the circumstances surrounding his retention. Rejected twice by the Senate for confirmation on grounds of corruption allegations, Magu would just have been a forgotten personality in national politics. But with a stubborn trust and confidence, President Buhari insisted on having him pilot the affairs of the antigraft agency. The president thought that with Magu, all would gladly end well. Frustrating though, Magu best matches the rank of a deficient war commander who lacks sincere transparency and integrity.
But Magu’s drastic descension can’t perturb most Nigerians. Citizens of the country are well informed about their leaders’ attitude. Nigerians know that their leaders are not to be trusted with money. They know how presidents steal the country dry. The country is replete with stories of betrayal when it connects with monetary issues. The people can’t feign ignorance regarding the ruthless kleptomania of their leaders. That can’t happen when former aviation minister, Alison Madueke’s loot is still on course. Nigerians are not myopic to start forgetting the yearly recoveries of Abacha-loot, running into millions of dollars. There are documents of ex governor’s looting the nation. There are current governors whose penchant for stealing of public funds have become a very common occurrence. In fact, what is uncommon to Nigerians would be stories of privileged Nigerians leaders who did not or are not using their offices to ferry the national cakes oversees. Therefore, it is expected that trusted leaders like Magu should fail.
There is something else that concerns Nigerians. If the corruption war of the president fails, it means Buhari would be ‘chased’ out of office. Self betrayal, it would be, if Buhari’s men fail to encourage the determined president to leave worthy legacies behind. No doubt, Magu’s scorecard is quite impressive. Three former governor’s have been convicted by the Ibrahim Magu’s led EFFC. The last was the former Abia State Governor, Orji Uzo Kalu who doubled as the Senate Chief Whip in the current dispensation. Although the Supreme Court has vetoed the conviction on grounds of inappropriate jurisdiction, it is recorded for Magu that his five-year old tenure has dealt a brutal blow with corrupt officials of government, current or former. But himself, the hunter being hunted and pinned with such grave, weighty and unimaginable allegations, it seems his success stories are withdrawn.
Looking at the situation as it is today, it is very easy to substantiate the fact that corruption has taken another dimension. With Magu joining the league of corrupt Nigerian leaders, it is indeed safe to admit that we Nigerians are intimately corrupt. The legislature is battling the minister of state for Education, Festus Keyamo on the extended presidential COVID-19 774, 000 job for poor Nigerians. Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio is sweating to get exonerated before the legislature over accusations of missing funds in NDDC. The erstwhile acting managing director of NDDC, Joi Nunieh is struggling to save her face from Akpabio’s seeming obfuscation.
The executive arm of government seems to be enmeshed in irredeemable web of perplexities, mostly bordering on corruption cases. The security architecture of the country is so porous that soldiers can now frontally accuse their army chiefs of compromise. The case of Lance Corporal Martins is very fresh and the notification by about 150 soldiers of their resignation from the Nigerian army is also very fresh. In all these, Nigerians would best be left to put their trust in God as their only true source of security. All these are happening when poor Nigerians are roaming the streets without food in their system. Question is, if the core pursuits of Buhari’s government is not achieved, what else has this administration accomplished in five years.
Undoubtedly, Buhari himself is a cool headed President. His tolerance for ineptitude is quite legendary. May be he believes that human frailty is a normal phenomenon. But can Buhari win the corruption war alone? Obviously, the president has suffered undue betrayal from his men who feel that he is on his own. The break into the NFIU office by unknown men is an indictment on the security reliability of the Aso Villa. If a place like the seat of power in Nigeria is unsafe, what else in safe in Nigeria? Is the presidency going to allow the burglary activities slip? Won’t there be immediate investigation and prosecution of those found to be involved in the act? Are there no CCTV in Aso Rock? How can we shamelessly believe that the Aso Villa is not safe enough to protect the life of President Buhari and the documents in its vicinity? Matter of factly, if President Buhari’s Aso-Rock is freely and evenly bungled without the perpetrators being immediately reprimanded, then Nigeria is a seat for all forms of frivolities. If as a giant Army General in the mould of President Buhari has his immediate duelling place unsafe, then Nigerians should not be doubtful when one day, they wake up to the news that unknown people have stolen President Buhari.
