THE Federal Government’s strenuous efforts to deny the poor marks Transparency International (TI) awarded Nigeria on corruption is laughable. TI, in its latest Corruption Perception Index, said corruption was worse in Nigeria. Nigeria scored 26 out of 100 points to rank 146 out of 180 countries, two places down compared to 2018 result. The global body provided evidence to support its report. They include, among others, selective implementation
of Nigeria’s rule of law, institutionalised corruption in political parties, nomination and promotion of senior government officials based on ethnic, religious and nepotistic criteria, questionable and dubious management of confiscated assets, illegal checkpoints, secretive defence procurement, and corrupt usage of security votes.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said the TI report was not
a true reflection of Nigeria’s anti-corruption agenda. Mohammed said the government had placed more emphasis on corruption prevention measures and building of integrity systems, including investigation and prosecution of high-profile corruption cases. While Mohammed & Co. try to deny the obvious, corruption stares you in the face everywhere you go in Nigeria.
The latest act of corruption is trying to decorate banditry with gold ornaments. Some North-West governors believe that we have to negotiate with bandits for us to have peace in the country. Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, said negotiating with bandits had significantly reduced the frequency of their bloody attacks in his state. According to him, rural markets are picking up and they had rescued dozens of kidnapped victims without firing a shot. He forgot that engaging in such negotiations would fuel more banditry. He forgot that there was a law against illegal possession of firearms.
Islamic scholar, Sheikh Mahmoud Gumi, has given his support. He visited some bandits in Zamfara forests, had good picture
pose with them and then came out to inform us that negotiating with bandits was the best thing that would happen to this country.
He said they were ready to lay down their arms, if they were provided with schools, hospitals and other amenities. He berated his critics and said similar negotiations were employed with Niger Delta militants to restore peace in that region. He wants us to act fast because the bandits plan to acquire anti-aircraft missiles with proceeds of their crime. I am beginning to wonder if we still have government in this country.
Look at how the Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed, tried to justify the use of AK-47 rifles by Fulani herdsmen. According to him, they always come under attack
by cattle rustlers in the forests. Hence,
they move about with AK-47 to defend themselves. I wonder why farmers have not been allowed to carry their own AK-47 to defend themselves against the herdsmen who often invade their farms and kill some of them in most cases. I also wonder why other Nigerians have not been allowed to carry their own weapons to defend themselves against incessant attacks by the same herdsmen and other bandits on many of our expressways. Is this not selective application of the rule of law? Is it not corruption?
For most Nigerians, each time their
loved ones embark on a trip, they enter into serious anxiety mode. They begin to pray not just against accident but also against bandits, kidnappers and all manner of criminals
on the road. And if the travellers come
back safely, there is this palpable relief and exclamations of ‘Thank God o!’
You don’t blame them, because the wound banditry has inflicted in their psyche is deep. Just imagine the recent incident where an America returnee was abducted in Edo State. He was already getting set to travel back after the Yuletide before the tragic incident. He did not survive it. There are many other incidents.
The kidnappers that did this type of thing are the type they want us to negotiate with.
It is understandable if the criminals are agitating for resource control as the Niger Delta militants did some years back. We can understand if they are militants asking for equity, justice and fairness in the scheme of things in the country. But they are not. These are pure criminals whose main job is to rob, kidnap and kill innocent members of the society.
It rankles when supposedly respected individuals make such suggestions as negotiating with criminals. The present government had promised to tackle corruption, insecurity and fix the economy. Is negotiating with bandits the best way
to tackle insecurity? Pray, what are the grievances of the bandits that warrant negotiating with them? If we have to negotiate with them, then we must apologise to Lawrence Anini and many other armed robbers who were killed by firing squad by the Nigerian state in the past.
We must also apologise to Transparency International for undue attacks by government agents whenever it releases its report. The group did not ask Nigerian youths to embark on #EndSARS protests last year. It did not ask the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) to terrorise
and extort money from people on the road. It did not ask Customs officers to stand
on the road and collect bribes from some motorists on the highways. It did not ask the Immigration to demand gratification from travellers in our international airports. It did not prompt the civil servant who wants his palms greased before he could push files to where they are supposed to be. It did not ask contractors to inflate contract sums or to stop work even when they have collected mobilisation fees. It did not urge the
powers that be to be nepotistic in their key appointments in the country. It did not ask us to be non-transparent in the distribution of the COVID-19 palliatives.
Any visitor to Nigeria sees these acts of corruption in the country. He goes home with the impression that we are too corrupt. Government has made some noises about convicting some people on corruption charges and recovering some money. It has introduced the bank verification number (BVN) and some other measures to curb corruption. These are good efforts. But
they are a drop in the ocean of corruption perception and reality in Nigeria.
What is required of us is sincerity of purpose. Nigeria is not the only country Amnesty International focuses its reports on. It’s a global thing. There is no reason why it should hate Nigeria specially. These people have agents in Nigeria. They move round and see what is happening. So, we should stop whining and face reality.
We have laws guiding us in Nigeria. The law did not say that we should dine and snap pictures with armed robbers. It stipulates maximum punishment for people who do so. Our laws frown seriously on kidnapping and similar crimes. It is corruption to hound traffic offenders and then grant amnesty to terrorists and bandits. When we do that, we are invariably telling the world that it pays to commit crimes in Nigeria. We should not then turn around to blame the international community when they brand us as a corrupt nation.
