Nigeria ranks as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Sitting at 140 out of 190 countries in the global corruption index, Nigeria needs detoxification. The country needs a leader who will have the moral badge to cleanse the nation of corruption. Meaning, such a leader must not be corrupt and shall muster the will to deal with the tribe of the corrupt in the country.
A nation said to lose $18 billion annually to corruption and financial crimes related to procurement alone cannot have a healthy economy. And Nigeria is economically unhealthy. Tear-away inflation, a weakened local currency, growing poverty and unemployment, shuttering companies, decaying infrastructure, inefficient public utilities, high cost of living, growing domestic and external debt. All of this amount to hunger and anger. At the root of these national misfortunes is corruption. It’s the elephant in the room that nobody in leadership talks about. None acts decisively to deal with it.
Former military leader, General Sani Abacha, was made the face of corruption in Nigeria. And that was because the man died. A sudden death that did not prepare his men, family and acolytes for the implosion that would come rushing like fluvial flood. And soon after his death, tales of Abacha loot started streaming across multiple media platforms, in the barracks, inside Aso Rock, marketplaces and everywhere that is somewhere. You would think that only Abacha ravaged the national till. Other leaders did, military and civilians. Governors stole and are still stealing. Ministers, Senators, civil servants, and just about anybody that is somebody in the public service. For all have stolen, are stealing and will yet steal from the public till. It’s the unwritten creed. Oga (the boss) is stealing. His subordinates know that Oga is a crook. They, too, try to help themselves. Oga sees them steal but looks away because he knows that they know he’s not clean. Oga is too tainted to shout, or even enforce the law. So, the party continues. You steal, they steal. And the nation bleeds.
Let’s make a list of some corruption cases that were never resolved or were frustrated by those who should have enforced the relevant laws and punished the culprits. The Abdulrasheed Maina pension scam; fuel subsidy scam that witnessed a new generation of emergency oil billionaires; the looting of the external reserves by the exiting military bigwigs referenced by Obasanjo in 1999 during his maiden Presidential Media Chat (Obasanjo referred to General Abdulsalami Abubakar and his colleagues as reckless in the manner they stripped the external reserves of billions of dollars); Halliburton scandal; Siemens bribery scam, PTDF dogfight between Obasanjo and his deputy Atiku Abubakar; Willbros scandal; Ajaokuta Steel fraud; missing $20 billion non-remittance by NNPC as alleged by ex-CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (PWC Forensic Audit of 2015); CBN heist under Emefiele in cohort with acquiescing President Buhari and his cabal; the Buhari social security disbursement that saw billions of naira shared to imaginary Nigerians in a manner far beyond the speed of a computer. It’s a long list.
Back to Abacha and the 40 thieves. Truth is, Abacha was never the only looter. Other leaders, governors, military administrators, Generals, Presidents also looted. But it’s the stench of Abacha loot that is stinking up the whole bus. Recoveries were made. A good $5 billion dollars was said to have been recovered and repatriated from different countries where Nigerian kleptomaniacs usually hide their looted cash. But what happened to the money?
It took a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja in 2023 to order the Federal Government to disclose the details of the $5 billion loot recovered from Abacha. Why should that be? For about 25 years when the loot repatriation broke, no government has given an account on how the loot was being spent. None. News of repatriation was always elaborately reported but expenditure of the repatriated funds was always top secret. That is the behaviour of a crook. The real reason armed robbers always run into a dead end after a successful operation is their disagreement over sharing formula. The leadership of the robbery gang panders to a criminal proclivity of wrapping the actual looted money in secrecy to the anger of other gang members. This lack of transparency among thieves brews trouble that often burst their bubble and exposes them to security authorities.
On the Abacha loot, successive Nigerian governments have behaved like armed robbers. They have no reason to keep a lid, any lid, over the money and how it was spent. This has given room, justifiably so, to Nigerians and international bodies to allege that the ‘famous’ Abacha loot has been re-looted. It is certainly not a good report, neither a good testimonial on the character of Nigerian governments, from Obasanjo to Buhari. The incumbent President Tinubu government must summon the courage to open the book once again. All the repatriated funds were wired through banks from Switzerland, United Kingdom, Jersey (British Island), United States, and Liechtenstein. They are not hidden. What is hidden is how the past Nigerian governments spent the money. Any claim that the money or any part of it was shared to the poor is a fraud.
Now is the time for President Tinubu to open the books for public scrutiny in the spirit of democracy. The pillars of democracy are the rule of law, accountability, openness, and respect for citizens’ rights. Tinubu should play the hero here. Tell Nigerians how your predecessors spent Abacha loot. It is their right to know. This matter should not be swept away in the cloud of esprit de corps. It is a matter of international concern. It is one of the reasons the Green passport of Nigerian travellers is no longer respected. The opacity of successive Nigerian governments and the criminal silence over matters of corruption are key reasons every Nigerian is treated as a suspect even among notoriously crime-infested nations. Tinubu must raise the bar and end this contagion of corruption.
