The scale
of fraud, corruption and graft has been unprecedented in the annuals of
the country since 1999. Although there has been so much hoopla and
razzmatazz about the fight against corruption but in the final analysis,
it is no more than mere posturing, indeed a lot sound and fury signifying
nothing. The conduct of the federal government of recent has shown that it
has scant regard for transparency and the due process. It is in this
regard that the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC)
accused President Olusegun Obasanjo of running three illegal accounts and
operating, since 2003, a revenue formula unknown to the constitution. The
three accounts, namely, export crude oil, excess petroleum profit tax,
and excess royalty accounts are illegally maintained exclusively by
the presidency, out of which $13.2billion has so far been withdrawn.
Similarly, RMAFC stated that N16.8billion was paid as one per cent
commission on the Paris Club debt, with the identity of the beneficiary
shrouded in secrecy. However, investigations have revealed that the
commission was actually paid to the junior brother of the immediate past
minister of finance. Since the bubble has burst, in a swift face saving
move, the finance minister was hurriedly moved from to the foreign affairs
ministry, and the government has continue to keep sealed lips as if
nothing is amiss, but in actual fact the is no way such a staggering
amount will be paid without the express notification and permission of the
president. Yet the government has not deemed it fit to call on the EFCC to
investigate the financial scam. But for how long will government continue
to play politics with the lives of millions of Nigerians? Is it not even
curious that the foreign affairs minister will remain the chairperson of
the Economic Management Team and would continue to carry out oversight
responsibilities for the nation’s external institutions and transactions.
According to the revenue commission the three accounts are not only
illegal, they have no status in law and are unknown to section 162(1) (2)
(3) and (10) of the constitution, which provide that, “the Federation
Account into which shall be paid all revenues collected by the Government
of the Federation and shared among the three tiers of government on a
formula approved by the National Assembly”. Hence the president is guilty
of gross violation of the constitution by withdrawing money from the
Federation Account which has a zero account status in law. This implies
that all accruals to it must be shared in such a manner that no funds
remains in the account after each month’s sharing. As if this is not bad
enough, the presidency unilaterally adopted a revenue sharing formula that
is unknown to the constitution.
It is
imperative to underscore the fact that, the benchmark should be for the
Federal Government and should not be imposed on the other beneficiaries of
the federation account. The payment of the Paris Club debts was made
directly from the excess crude oil account as against a Supreme Court
judgment of April 5, 2002 which ruled that each debtor state should pay
its own debt. The arbitrary manner in which these debts were paid, where
states such as kaduna, katsina and Nassarawa that do not owe the Paris
club any debts had their own portions of the excess proceeds that is
federation account not disbursed to them. Also, the sum of $2.4billion
disbursable to the 774 local governments who do not owe the Paris club
anything was arbitrarily used to settle debts not owed by the local
governments. The revenue commission equally stated that there was the
curious one percent commission totaling $121,022,881.89 from the excess
crude account. It does not seem logical for a debtor to increase his
burden by paying incentives in form of commission to the beneficiary. So,
why was the commission paid to the ministers’ junior brother? Is the
commission not another name for gratification? Who actually authorized
that the palm of this unknown character be greased? Is this how to follow
the due process and fight? Certainly, this is what Fela calls
Paddy-Paddy government.
Apart from
the impropriety as well as total lack of transparency and honesty in
financial matters, there is also the nagging defence contract scandal. The
controversy trailing the award of a $250million contract to Israel’s
Aeronautics Defence Systems is yet to settle as the various dramatis
personae are running for cover. The key players in the deal allegedly
inflated the contract by at least $100million, from all checks on the cost
of the contract; the cost should not have been more than $150million.
Apart from the high cost, there was the 10 per cent down payment as
instructed by the presidency. The secret manner of tendering for the
contract is also causing anguish among the officials that facilitated it.
Companies that were excluded from participating in the tendering of bids
for the contract have expressed grave misgivings over the matter. In
fact, the USA Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, met with top officials
of the Nigerian Defense Ministry and complained over the secrecy
associated with the contract tendering process from which American
companies were blocked. The complaint by the ambassador came shortly after
the US director of National Intelligence, Mr. John Negroponte, had
expressed concern about the third agenda. Yet this is a government that
pride itself as corrective administration that is bent on correcting the
wrongs of the past, it has not shown any transparency, probity,
accountability and has deliberately refused to follow the due process. And
this is the same government that has repeatedly used both the ICPC and
EFCC to hound perceived political enemies because of political vendetta to
score a political point. These shady deals have demonstrated evidently
that the Obasanjo led government is not serious about the whole issue of
tackling the menace of corruption in the country. And instead of the
government to speak up on the matter, it merely kept quiet to expressly
show that it is business as usual. This is certainly not how to run a
government. Apart from this the present administration has spent a
whopping N310billion as fuel subsidy for 18 months and another N27million
on tax collection without the approval of the National Assembly, this is
indeed a government of anything is possible. We are suppose to be in a
democracy, a government of the people, by the people and for the people
but what we have in Nigeria today is government of few people at the
corridors of power who are falling over themselves to milk the country
dry. This government is not concerned about the plight of the masses; to
them it is every man to himself, God for us all. It is as a result of this
that the UNDP report says that over 70 per cent of the entire Nigerian
population live on less than $1 per day. Or how else does one explain a
situation where Nigeria which is the sixth largest oil producing country
in the world is ranked amongst the 20 poorest countries in the whole
world.
The
so-called fight against corruption since 1999 has been selective,
vindictive and counter-productive. There are so many cases of corruption
that are either swept under the carpet or conveniently glossed over
because corruption has more or less become the official policy of the
state. For instance, what happened to the case of Mr. Makanjuola the
former permanent secretary of the defense ministry that was relieved of
his post as a result proven case of financial misappropriation of public
funds? Investigations into the National Identity card scam were
inconclusive and abruptly truncated for no known reason. The government of
the day has also deliberately refused to implement recommendations
contained in the Pius Okigbo report which indicted a former military
president of misappropriating about $12.4billion oil windfall from the
first Gulf war. The now famous trail of the former Inspector General of
Police, Tafa Balogun for financial impropriety shows that the way and
manner the case was handled was a mockery of justice and travesty of the
rule of law. The case of the N84billion fraud in NPA involving a chieftain
of the PDP Chief Olabode George was left unattended to. The manner in
which both the governors of Oyo and Bayelsa states were removed from
office did not follow the due process and the rule of law. What about
870million financial scam in INEC? What about the 320billion that was to
Chief Anienh to construct roads between 1999 and 2003? What about funds
that were released to FERMA under the headship of Adeseye Ogunlewe? What
about shoddy handling of the Anambra state ill-fated political saga under
Dr Chris Ngige? Again, the lid was blown of open as an un-usual request by
the president from the FEC, when he brought loads of Ghana-Must-Go filled
to the brim with documents, where he sought and got retroactive approval
for all NNPC contracts that has been awarded and approved by him since
1999. What about the money that have paid to a prominent local contractor
and well known member of the Ali-led faction of the PDP for the
construction of roads in the south-eastern part of the country. Why has
the government refused to probe the TAM of the refineries for which
contractors were paid but the refineries failed to function, yet this
contractors donated million of Naira to the president campaign funds both
in 1999 and 2003?
Furthermore, a lot of questions need to be asked like, who has the largest
share in Transcorp? Who has the largest in Virgin Nigeria? Who owns the
N25billion Obajana cement factory? Who owns the Bells University of
technology? Who really owns the NICON group of companies? Who is the
greatest financier of corporate Nigeria? What will happen to the billions
of naira that was collected during the presidential library fund raising
exercise? Who supplied the electronic voting machine and who are the
beneficiaries? Until these questions are properly answered, all the noise
about the fight against corruption is nothing but a wild-goose-chase.