Of Opposition Parties and Anti-Corruption

As we know, the EFCC recently arrested the former Sokoto state Governor Attahiru Bafarawa for allegedly misappropriating N15bn during his eight-year tenure as Governor. The former Governor, who is also one of the founding members of the ‘yet to be announced’ mega opposition party, was arrested shortly after emerging from the opposition party meeting.

And as I write this piece, the former Governor is being detained by the EFCC pending his arraignment in Court.

So what’s the case against Attahiru Bafarawa? It is alleged that the former Sokoto state Governor awarded contracts to his wife and brother in-law, flouting due process. He’s also been accused of converting his personal account to a state government account while remaining the sole signatory and converted several millions for his personal use.

As we may know, the former governor's first encounter with EFCC was in May 2008 when he was arrested on allegations of corruption and money laundering. Following his arrest, his international passport was deposited in the custody of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

As expected, his recent arrest and detention by the EFCC has not been short of hullabaloo. Whilst the EFCC has strongly defended its action claiming it had substantial evidence against the former governor, opposition parties have claimed that the ‘arrest’ was carried out to intimidate and suppress political opposition. It is worth noting that part of the evidence against Bafarawa are from the White Paper, issued by a commission of inquiry that was set up by the present Sokoto state administration, which indicted the former Governor and his aides of fraud.

The anti-corruption crusade in Nigeria has somewhat become a poisoned chalice. Regardless of who is arrested or prosecuted, it seems there is always an excuse to discredit the action of the EFCC and the judiciary. Even when Chief Bode George, who is a member of the ruling party, was jailed for corruption, I heard people say it was because he had fallen out with the current PDP leadership. But does that really matter? Is it the fact that he was jailed that is important or his supposed falling out with the powers that be?

Don’t get me wrong, I hold no brief for the EFCC. In fact, I quite agree 100 percent with the Senator Hilary Clinton’s comments, when she said “the EFCC has fallen off over the last two years”. There is no doubt that the nation’s anti-corruption vehicle has been locked in reverse gear since President Umar Yar’Adua assumed office. I also need not to remind you of how the nation’s chief law officer has actively undermined the anti-corruption campaign.

However, it’s now become a trend for the opposition parties to see any attempt to arrest or prosecute their members as an act of intimidation and oppression. It’s quite convenient for the opposition to label the EFCC as a government tool, whenever they are under the hammer.

On the recent arrest of ex-governor Bafarawa. I agree that the arrest of the former governor shortly after a political meeting sends a wrong signal. And yes, the EFCC should have exercised caution in carrying out the arrest due to its political sensitivity. But at the same time, that should not distract us from asking the critical questions, “Is the former Governor actually guilty of the alleged charges”. Did he flout due process while awarding contracts? Did he convert his person accounts into state accounts?

It is high time; we address issues with sense of objectivity. Each case should be judged on its own merit. The ineptitude and perceived ‘selective prosecution’ by the EFCC is not an excuse for not doing the right thing. The same sorts of arguments where used to discredit Nuhu Ribadu’s efforts. Those arrested and prosecuted claimed that it was because of their stance against Obasanjo’s ‘Third Term Agenda’. The allegation then was that Obasanjo was using the EFCC to deal with his enemies. Others alleged that plots were being hatched to pursue an aggressive campaign of selective prosecution. However, one incontrovertible fact remains, everyone Nuhu Ribadu prosecuted had a ‘skeleton’ in their cupboards.

Let’s not be fooled by the diversionary tactics used by politicians whenever they run into troubled waters. Some are always quick to say that the EFCC will only be taken seriously until when the likes of James Ibori and Co have been successfully prosecuted. For me such a statement is hypocritical. Are we saying that prosecution of corrupt persons should be put on hold until James Ibori and Co. have been sent to prison?

Instead of getting bogged down with arguments about EFCC sincerity of purpose, let’s focus on the allegations levelled against these individuals. Let anyone indicted for corruption, regardless of their political affiliation; defend him or herself in the court of law. Membership of opposition parties should not be used as an excuse to escape justice.

But having said that, the EFCC should make sure that, the basic rights of all prosecuted persons are respect. Irrespective of their charges, such persons remain innocent until proven guilty.

And as for the corrupt politicians who are allies of President Umar Yar’Adua and the PDP leadership, let them continue to enjoy ‘immunity’ from prosecution. But as the Yorubas say, ‘there is no season that last forever’. It is only a matter of time before justice catches up with them. Who would have thought that Bode George would spend his 64th birthday in prison?

Where is the 2009 EFCC Report - By Sonala Olumhense

ON September 28, 2008, I questioned the whereabouts of the annual report of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to the National Assembly.

In the words of the EFCC (ESTABLISHMENT) ACT of 2004: "The Commission shall, not later than 30th September in each year, submit to the National Assembly, a report of its activities during the immediately preceding year and shall include in such report the audited accounts of the Commission."

But by the 30th of September last year, it was clear the EFCC had ignored this critical responsibility. In subsequent comments, on October 11 and 18, 2008, I called on Mrs. Farida Waziri, the Commission Chairman, to resign, and then to be fired.

I argued that it made a joke of the claims of President Umaru Yar'Adua's so-called "rule of law" government for Waziri to continue in office. Upon review, I was wrong on that point: it did not really make a joke, it simply clarified that the government does not really believe in it.

As an institution, the EFCC always gave the impression it respected the law. With particular reference to the report, the Commission posted on its website (and I noted this last year), the following article of faith: "The Commission is under obligation by law to make a comprehensive report of its activities to the National Assembly, not later than the 30th of September every year.

The EFCC Annual Report presented yearly to the National Assembly, is a compendium of all activities of all units of the Commission including Operations, Administration, Legal & Prosecution, Media, Accounts, Training School, etc. The Commission is not under obligation to publish it, but having been presented to the National Assembly, members of the public may be apprised of its contents by their elected representatives or seek to obtain copies by laid down procedures of the Senate and House of Representatives."

Please note that I phrase that in the past tense; sometime in the past year-perhaps in connection with my questions-it was quietly excised. Following my first two articles, the Commission issued a rebuttal. Spokesman Femi Babafemi said I had erred in asking for the 2008 report, when it was only the 2007 report that had been due on September 30, 2008.

Of course that was nonsense. It was clear that what I was demanding, and what had been ignored by the EFCC, was the "comprehensive report of its activities" that was due on September 30, 2008. That provision was not met in law, let alone in substance.

But let us move forward by one year.

Early this month, I set out in chase of the 2009 report, which was due on Wednesday, September 30, 2009. After a lot of running around, the Office of the Senate President confirmed to reporters of this newspaper, on October 20, 2009, that the EFCC had not-repeat, NOT-submitted the report.

Last year, as it laboured to discredit my position, the EFCC asked the following questions: Was Olumhense "aware that some of the issues he raised in his first article were those that should have been taken care of in the 2006 report? Was there any effort to confirm from the Commission or the National Assembly whether the report he erroneously called 2008 report has been submitted before rushing to call for the head of the Chairman of the Commission?"

I said I was not aware of any "2006" issues, and urged the Commission to specify what those issues were, and what it meant by "should have been taken care of." It never did.

Instead, one year later, the Commission has neglected to submit the annual report. Instead, its Chairman elected to travel the world. In fact, on October 20, when we were confirming this fact, Waziri-fresh from attending the World Bank/International Monetary Fund annual meetings in Turkey-was on her way to the United States on tour.

In a meeting in Washington DC with supposedly gullible Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) listeners, she spoke of her faith in the rule of law. She noted, for good measure, "President Yar'Adua and I have zero-tolerance for corruption.

Nigerians the world over know that to be an insult, but of course she was speaking before her sponsors. She forgot to tell them she supports the law so much she is quite comfortable ignoring it. In comparison, her hosts knew that no federal body in the United States charged with submitting an annual report to Congress can ignore it and go bragging before a foreign agency.

But for the second year in a row, Waziri has accomplished this. For me, there are three levels of concern here.

The first is that the National Assembly does not seem to care. It took a lot of effort this month even to make the staff of the National Assembly to understand the report we were looking for. Even when that happened, the legislators did not seem to think it is strange that the EFCC is habitually failing to meet its legal obligation to file the annual report in order to enable the people of Nigeria obtain a comprehensive picture of what it is doing.

The second is the press. Why is the press not sufficiently interested in whether the EFCC reports or not, even in the face of the news value?

Finally, the Nigerian people. If Nigerians are truly concerned about the corruption that is ravaging the country, they should show greater interest in the annual report of the EFCC. It is the only way to monitor what the agency is doing from year to year. Accountability is the name of the game, and we must make the EFCC and other offices know we demand it. If we do not hold our officials to account, we will never amount to much.

The EFCC has bits and pieces of information scattered all over its website, but it is neither consistent nor complete. And it is not the official report demanded by law. Legally, the report is not a request, but a demand. It does not depend on the mood or ego of whomever is in office: the EFCC must ensure it is made available as and when due.

In my view, the EFCC is avoiding the preparation of this report because of the convoluted and complicated agenda of its leadership. This legal obligation is not seen as a responsibility to be executed in the interest of the Nigerian people, but as a burden that would hurt the interests of the EFCC leadership. The EFCC and Nigeria's political leadership fear that questions will be asked about its completeness and thoroughness, and the fakery of our anti-corruption posture exposed.

This is a tragedy. But fighting corruption cannot be done on the ad hoc basis with which it was done by Nuhu Ribadu's EFCC in its finest form, nor in Waziri's skeleton-and-bones version.

It is this selectivity that is at the heart of the EFCC to report to the nation. But if we are ever to move this nation forward, it is the patriotic responsibility of all who hold office to account, and of the citizen to ask questions.

That is why, on October 1, 2010, I invite Nigerians to ask the EFCC-irrespective of whoever heads it-to show us the annual report.

Everywhere else in the world where the national leadership values self-respect, Waziri would have since been fired. If she cannot respect the law that gave her a job, why should she insult anyone else by asking them to obey any law?

sonala.olumhense@gmail.com

Mrs Farida Waziri - Excuses! Excuses!! Excuses!!!

“Let us ask why the cases are still pending. I say often that the process of judiciary is slow. If a corrupt person pays you half of what he has stolen, what should you do? They take it and look for a way to keep on prolonging the case. ” (EFCC Chairman, Mrs Farida Waziri)

Anytime I read the comments of the EFCC Chairman, Mrs Farida Waziri my head pounds! Perhaps Madam Waziri should keep shut up if she has nothing encouraging to say about anti-corruption. As Nigerians, we are sick and tired of an anti-corruption czar who looks for every excuse not to perform her role diligently. She needs not to just her actions because we now know that, her mandate is not to rock the “corruption boat”.

Mrs Waziri’s excuse for failure is now because corrupt official bribe lawyers to help frustrate their prosecution. So the legal profession is to blame for the government ineptitude and apathy towards anti-corruption – come on! I find Mrs Waziri’s comments very insulting to the law profession. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying there are no bad eggs within the law profession, but for the head of anti-corruption agency to make such a generalised derogatory remark is not acceptable. In fact I’m waiting for the Nigerian Bar Association to pick her up on this statement.

Mrs Waziri need not to be reminded that she is also a lawyer, or maybe she has forgotten. However, she needs to be reminded that, she is guilty of the same offence, for which she is accusing lawyers. Is it not on record that prior to being EFCC Chairman, her law firm stood as surety for accused former governors? Do we not know that Mrs Waziri was retained by some former governors to help fight their corruption cases? If that is the case, perhaps Mrs Waziri needs to tell us, how much was she paid by these corrupt ex-governors for giving them “consultancy” advice? Also, based on her recent comments, we can assume that she cooperated with the court really well in making sure their cases were treated expediently. Which meant she did not help frustrate her client’s cases? I guess she was appointed EFCC Chairman because of how she diligently handled her briefs (!)

Mrs Waziri should recognise that the EFCC operates in a democratic society, where “rule of law” is paramount. Is Mrs Waziri suggesting that anyone charged with corruption should not be defended in court? Or we should start operating military-style tribunals in a democratic society? Even, Section 35(5) and (6) of the 1999 states that “every person who is charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed to be innocent until he is proved guilty” and also “every person who is charged with a criminal offence shall be entitled to defend himself in person or by legal practitioners of his own”. She needs to recognise that lawyers are out to do a job, which they have to be paid for.

So what am I saying? If this government and EFCC are really serious about fighting corruption, they should stop looking for excuses. Instead the judicial system should be purged of greedy, incompetent and lazy judges. If the judiciary is properly constituted with people of integrity, then tell me the lawyer that will succeed in frustrating the courts. We all know that there are problems with our judicial system. These problems do not only affect corruption-related cases. The Nigerian judiciary is one of the most pathetic in the world in terms of adjudication. Cases brought before a judge can take years before it is heard talk less of being decided. It is the loopholes that exist within our judicial system that are being exploited by lawyers. But really which lawyer wouldn’t exploit a legal system that is riddled with loop-holes?

For me, the call for a special court or tribunal for corruption cases by Mrs Waziri is nonsense! What will be achieved by these special courts and can’t be achieved by the existing courts if they are strengthened? As an example, has the creation of election tribunals helped in anyway facilitate swift legal proceedings? At the end of the day, it is this same corrupt and apathetic government that will appoint people into these special courts. So tell me what will be different?

So Mrs Waziri, you can keep making noise from now until kingdom come. But the bottom line remains that you and your paymasters are only paying lip service to the anti-corruption struggle and nothing more!

Letter to EFCC Chairman, Mrs Farida Waziri

Dear Mrs Waziri,

Firstly, I will like to wish you happy first year anniversary, as the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Madam, as you are aware, ‘corruption’ has been the bane of human and infrastructure development in Nigeria. I need not to educate you on how much of the nation’s wealth has been stolen and stashed overseas by many of our leaders since independence.

You will also agree with me that you were appointed as anti-corruption Czar at a very important time in the nation’s history. It was at a time, the nation lost one of its finest and passionate law enforcement officers in strange, but not unusual circumstances. This is in the person of Nuhu Ribadu. Whilst he had his flaws, your predecessor Nuhu Ribadu demonstrated that it was possible to fight the ‘beast’ called corruption. Up until 24 months ago, “the fear of Nuhu Ribadu was the beginning of wisdom”.

Although your apologists may say that you’ve only been in office for 12 months, but I think it is important that we start asking the right questions. As they say, “the signs of a good weekend should be obvious on Friday”. Firstly, should you have accepted the EFCC job? And secondly, what has been your achievement so far?

For me, your 12 months in office has been marred with nothing but sleaze. Your appointment in itself was controversial. The fact that you were appointed under controversial circumstances was enough to demonstrate that you were brought in to do your masters’ bidding. And so far, you have done perfectly well in protecting the interest of your lords and masters.

In a country with endemic corruption such as Nigeria, the position of EFCC Chairman is for people with unblemished moral integrity and financial accountability. However, it is on record that prior your appointment; you were retained as a consultant by many of the former Governors to help fight their corruption charges. This represents serious conflict of interest, and for this reason you should have been the last person to be appointed as the EFCC Chairman.

Madam - in the last 12 months - in concert with the Attorney-General you have successfully subverted the anti-corruption campaign. Under your leadership, the EFCC has now become an appendage of the Justice Ministry. You have colluded with Attorney-General to undo what Nuhu Ribadu achieved in five years, in less than 12 months! Only God knows what will happen by time you complete your tenure in four years time.

I also noted your recent comments, that 2010 will be hard for corrupt politicians. Madam, if I may ask, is there anything you will do differently in 2010? Because your track record at the EFCC is telling. Since your assumption of office, you have been unable to successful prosecute any of the former governors. All you do is to look for excuses and lay blames on the judiciary. If Nuhu Ribadu was able o secure court judgment against the likes of Tafa Balogun and Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, then what is your problem? Instead of getting on with your job, you keep asking for special courts to try corrupt individuals. For your information, Nuhu Ribadu did not ask for a ‘special court’ to prosecute corrupt individuals. For me, I can’t seem to understand the need for these special courts.

Madam, let the truth be told, you have failed in your role as the EFCC Chairman. You have failed to build on the foundation laid by your predecessor. Your ineptitude has only encouraged our leaders to continue to steal with impunity. Instead of concentrating on the task at hand, you look for every opportunity to launch scathing remarks against your predecessor. It is the likes of you and the Attorney-General that will continue to make Nuhu Ribadu a hero.

Madam, for how long will you and Attorney-General continue to destroy our nation? We have now become a ‘rogue’ state, thanks to your subversion of anti-corruption principles. We are now been perceived as a nation of time wasters when it comes to corruption, thanks to your ‘rule of law’ syndrome. Foreign countries will not even share intelligence with your agency due to lack of trust. You collude with Attorney-General to embark on wild goose-chase that is devoid of any sense of purpose. You even had the moral authority to criticise an organisation such as Human Rights Watch. Now that you have spent one year in office, can you point out any non-governmental organisation local or international that has commended you for job well done. The answer is NONE!

And by the way, whilst reading the transcripts of your one year anniversary media briefing, I noted that the name of the Ex-Governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori was ‘conspicuously’ missing from the list of former Governors under investigation. Can we assume that it was an oversight? Or can we simply take it as an indirect confirmation that James Ibori is no longer under EFCC investigation?

Madam, please consider these issues very seriously. I want to believe that there is still ample time for you to redeem your image.

Kind regards


Concerned Nigerian