The horse on which President Muhammadu Buhari rode to power was called the fight against corruption. He had won the hearts of Nigerians on account of his past antecedents in his spirited fight against corruption. He had bagged the tag as the one who would not take or allow anyone to take public funds. He had sent politicians to long jail terms in his first coming as a military head of state. He mounted the saddle on the last day of December 1983, and six months after, several politicians at that time, many of whom had been in detention, were sent on long jail terms. The nation hailed him, but some of his colleagues thought he was too high-handed. In a palace coup, they removed him from office on August 27, 1985. They consequently released the politicians, many of whom passed away shortly after release. When civilians came back to power in 1999, Buhari also sought to return to the presidency as a civilian, given that he had retired from the army with his ouster from office. He was at it since the 2003 elections. At the fourth attempt, Nigerians gave him the opportunity to be their President.
Expectations were high, and it appeared the President knew. He said the judiciary constituted am obstacle to the progress of his fight against corruption. We saw the midnight raid on judges houses, in a bid to nail some of them as people who had soiled their hands. That move died the way it started. At a point, the President lamented that bureaucracy was impeding his fight. He trudged on in the fight. Former Governor Joshua Dariye was charged with a 23 counts of corruption in June 2018. He was jailed for 10 years for diverting N1.6 billion ecological fund when he was governor of Plateau State. He was first arraigned for the charges in 2007. It took over 10 years to get the conviction. The court gave no option of fine, which was why the former governor, who had secome a Senator, went to jail. If there was an option of fine, he could have paid off the fine and walked away. It was reported that over N300 million was expended in the prosecution. One witness, according to Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, was flown in from London at government expense more than six times. Falana discloed this at a public lecture at Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo, recently.
Former Governor Jolly Nyamme was jailed in 2018 for diverting N1.64 billion during his tenure as governor of Taraba State. He stood trial for 11 years on the matter. He was sentenced to a 14-year jail term. The high court that jailed Nyame noted that, but for constitutional restraint, it would give the former governor capital punishment. That was the level of indignation the offence elicited from the court.
It would be good to interrogate the recent presidential pardon for those aforementioned politicians from the point of view of the learned judges who handed down the verdict after over 10 years of trial, and government expenditure running in millions to prosecute the case. How would the court perceive the current pardon, which the President had granted the convicts in exercise of his powers? The pardon implies that the state has forgiven them. They have ceased to be ex-convicts, and can present themselves for elective office. There was, therefore, technically, no punishment for the offence. They can walk home as though nothing happened, except for the days they spent in detention. Note that that the court was so enraged that it did not give any option of fine. The Supreme Court held that the Appeal Court did not err in handing down the sentences. The court has wasted its time on the matter.
The greater injury is to the citizens of Taraba and Plateau. In spite of having the EFCC and the court on their side, their initial victory now tastes like ashes in the mouth. Those who took their money have been told to go home and sin no more. The fault seems to be with the people. Dariye had been elected senator in the same state the court said he looted. The development opens a wider perspective to the matter, namely, do the Nigerian people aid politicians to loot the treasury? This is a rather tricky question for which many a Nigerian may find that they aid corruption in ways they may not fathom. When a politician says he has the party structure his location at his beck and call, it is an indication that he dispenses patronage in that axis. Where does he get the means to pay for people to bury their dead, pay hospital bills, school fees for the scores of people who throng their residence with the assurance that the ‘leader’ would bail them out of precarious financial situations? That’s how we aid corruption. When the church invites the politician for fundraising events and puts the budget on him, that’s how it aids corruption.
But we must not throw up our hands in despair. President Buhari made a clear point of the matter in his electioneering days when he stated that, if Nigeria does not kill corruption, corruption would kill Nigeria. it was startling that a man who holds such strong views on the matter would give a pat on the back to convicted people in the name of presidential pardon. I am inclined to say that the action is corruption of sorts. It has been rumoured that the pardon has political undertones given that the freed politicians have the political capital that could shore up the fortunes of the ruling party in their areas. Buhari’s biggest and greatest credit is his avowed loathing for corruption, a credential he has carried all his public life. Whoever advised him to free convicted politicians has dented his image and detracted from his impeccable credibility in that area. If this is how we fight corruption, then Nigeria should, in the words of the president, prepare to die. By this action, we are feeding corruption fat, and it would get the required energy to kill the nation. This, certainly, is not how to fight corruption.