EREPORTER: Buhari's insincere anti-corruption fight means nothing has changed in 4 years

The president has made several efforts to curb corruption in the country, but due to some fault of his own making, not a lot has changed since 2015.

President Muhammadu Buhari's anti-corruption efforts have
not yielded significant results after four years [@ObiKingzBlog]

When he was elected president in 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari rode on three major campaign promises: curb insecurity, improve the economy, and fight corruption vigoriously.

With only four months left before the end of his tenure, the president has fallen short in the assessment of how much his administration has been able to achieve in regards to his promises.

With the jury still out on if he's commendably improved the economy or secured the country, the president's fight against corruption is more especially always under the spotlight because of all the political machinations involved.

The president has always anchored his commitment to fight corruption on his integrity as a public officer who doesn't have a corrupt bone in his body.

However, if four years of his administration has shown anything, it's that his personal integrity alone is not nearly enough to arrest an epidemic that has raged for decades, or it's not nearly as existent as the president has always claimed.

According to the 2018 corruption perceptions index (CPI) compiled by Transparency International, Nigeria moved up four places from 148th in 2017 to 144th position on a list of 180 countries.

Transparency International is an international non-governmental organisation whose purpose is to take action to combat global corruption. The 2018 CPI ranking drew on surveys and expert assessments to measure public sector corruption in 180 countries and territories, giving each a score from zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

While Nigeria's upward movement might be considered an improvement by the casual observer, the development isn't exactly a cause for celebration for the sole fact that the most important detail is that the nation has shown no improvement from the 2017 ranking when it was 144th.

Nigeria's CPI score in the 2018 report is 27, the exact same score it had last year, meaning that the country did not get better over the course of the year under review, other nations simply got worse and fell under.

Nigeria's position on the log improved even though its CPI score remained unchanged from the previous year [Transparency International]

For a more comprehensive check of the success of Buhari's anti-corruption campaign, you'd have to go all the way back to 2014 when Nigeria's CPI score stood at 27, the same score on the ranking four years later.

While Nigeria dipped to 26 points in the 2015 ranking, it rose to 28 in 2016 before dropping 12 places from 136th to 148th in the 2017 ranking.

If this proves anything, it's that the president has failed to significantly move the needle in combating corruption in the country.

While pro-government advocates would argue that TI's report is an inexact science, the president's anti-corruption efforts have always been derided due to the perceived partiality believed to be fueling them.

He has long been accused of shielding people in his inner circle from corruption probes while aggressively clamping down on perceived political opponents, making the anti-corruption campaign a deeply-politicised one.

During Buhari's campaign rally in Edo State two weeks ago, the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, told politicians who had just defected from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that all their sins were forgiven by joining the ruling party.

 

 President Muhammadu Buhari has been forced to deny allegations that he shields close associates, like Adams Oshiomhole (right), from the law

Even though he said it casually without much thought for the implications, it was widely-received as confirmation of the current administration playing favourites over who was a sinner and who was not, depending on party allegiances.

In President Buhari's defence, two former governors were convicted and jailed for corruption in 2018 despite switching from the PDP to the APC.

Former Taraba State governor, Jolly Nyame, was jailed for 14 years for receiving gratification, obtaining public funds without due consideration, criminal breach of trust, and gratification.

Former Plateau State governor, Joshua Dariye, was similarly jailed for 14 years for criminal breach of trust and diverting N1.162 billion state ecological funds while he was governor.

However, a great amount of people who are more closely-associated with the president have been flying under the radar of anti-graft agencies due to what many believe to be their association with him.

Examples abound from Orji Uzor Kalu whose corruption case has mysteriously stalled while leading the charge in campaigning for the president's re-election; to Oshiomhole whose alleged bribe-taking activities that warranted an invitation from the Department of State Services (DSS) has vanished into thin air, to Babachir Lawal whom the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) only just filed charges against 15 months after the president fired him for alleged corrupt acts.

Current Kano State governor, Umar Ganduje, a close Buhari associate, was caught on tape apparently receiving bribes from a contractor in several videos that were released to the public last year.

While no one seriously expects the president to overstep his constitutional boundary and personally remove the governor, he has twice publicly defended him and made excuses for why the videos are more likely doctored when the opposite appears to be the abundantly clear truth.

Other close associates of the president who have been mired in corruption allegations without any consequences include his Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, the APC national leader, Bola Tinubu, Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and a host of other ministers in his cabinet.

Senator Godswill Akpabio, a former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro and former senator, Iyiola Omisore are also noted to be some of those whose corruption probes stopped right around the time they joined the ruling party.

If Nigeria has not made much progress on the corruption perceptions index in four years of Buhari, it's because his anti-corruption fight has been lopsided.

Buhari has promised to be even tougher on corruption if re-elected for a second term, but question marks remain over what he has done in four years

According to Transparency International's report, countries with high rates of corruption are known to have weak democratic institutions and political rights. TI's managing director, Patricia Moreira, warned that corruption undermines democratic institutions and, in turn, weak institutions are less able to control corruption.

This is especially apt because President Buhari is believed to cast a large shadow over the operations of federal agencies in the fight against corruption, despite what the presidency claims.

For example, Ibrahim Magu, the chairman of the EFCC, Nigeria's premier anti-graft agency, once proudly sported a lapel pin supporting the president's re-election bid during a television interview.

Magu has been the EFCC's acting chairman since 2015, with his appointment rejected twice by the Senate due to a damaging DSS report about his unsuitability for the role. The president's stubborn stance to retain him against the wishes of the legislature has invited accusations that he's only there to do the president's bidding.

President Muhammadu Buhari has kept Ibrahim Magu as acting EFCC chairman for over three years despite the Senate's disapproval

Unlike Nigeria, two of Africa's top-scoring countries in the 2018 CPI, Seychelles (66) and Botswana (61), are recognised to have relatively well-functioning democratic and governance systems.

Cote d'Ivoire and Senegal were also noted to have made great leaps in points over the past six years due to positive legal, policy and institutional reforms as well as political will in the fight against corruption demonstrated by their leaders.

As with other aspects of his governance, Buhari's handling of the anti-corruption fight has been tagged by many as autocratic and without a faithful adherence to the letters of the law.

His constant reminiscing about his days as a military Head of State, when an accused was considered guilty until proven innocent, has raised concerns and believed to have informed the tactics of his government in fighting corruption.

This is even more stark in light of the president's recent controversial suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, who's on trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for assets declaration offences. The president's decision has created a constitutional headache and further raised the stakes for the forthcoming 2019 elections. A corruption of the system by itself.

With Transparency International's observation that internal conflict and unstable governance structures contribute to high rates of corruption, it's no surprise to see why Buhari has underperformed in curbing the scourge.

President Muhammadu Buhari needs to make his anti-corruption fight more transparent

Transparency International's report credits the president for taking positive steps in the past three years to ease the problem, including the establishment of a presidential advisory committee against corruption, the improvement of the anti-corruption legal and policy framework in areas like public procurement and asset declaration, and the development of a national anti-corruption strategy, among others.

However, his passive meddling in the proceedings means these efforts have yielded very little results, as reflected in Nigeria's CPI scores during his tenure.

The president loves to parrot how he isn't personally corrupt; but even if he's right, it's not nearly enough to kick corruption effectively to the curb as a nation serious about crippling it.

Almost four years after Buhari was inaugurated as president, corruption hasn't nearly been defeated, only the group of people allowed to do it has changed.