The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been accused of being absolutely corrupt beyond redemption, with the latest coming from Vice-President Yemi Osibanjo and one of the National Leader of the All Progressive Congress, Bola Tinubu, but these claims come with some concern for its correctness.
According to Osinbajo who spoke at the colloquium organized to commemorate the 66th Birthday of Tinubu, the corruption of the previous administration had weighed down the effectiveness of the Country’s economy.
“As for our fight against corruption, as our president said, if we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill us. Let me reiterate that from all I have seen in government in the past three years, the corruption of the previous five years is what destroyed the Nigerian economy.
“Every time we talk about corruption, our opponents say don’t talk about it just do your own. Don’t talk about it.
We would talk about it. And the reason why we would talk about it is because we must let our people know that we cannot afford to go this way again. Never again should we allow a system where people take the resources and steal the resources of this country, use the resources against the people and at the same time they want to continue in rulership.”
He also said the current administration is determined to change the narrative and ensure that corrupt officials are brought to book.
Bola Tinubu, former Governor of Lagos State, also speaking at the colloquium, said Nigerians should not accept the apologies offered by PDP for their mistake when in power.
The National Chairman of the party, Uche Secondus recently asked Nigerians to forgive the party for its mistake during its rule.
“I hereby, as the National Chairman, do admit that the PDP made a lot of mistakes; we are humans, not spirits and the ability to admit is key in moving forward.
“We apologise to Nigerians that we have made mistakes, we have learnt our lessons and we are ready to begin on a new agenda; experience is the best teacher, no other party has it.”
While reacting to the statement, Tinubu said the party does not deserve forgiveness having lied to the Country and it citizens for 16 years.
“Nigerians should not accept PDP’s apologies, they are corrupt, they lied, they falsified, and they changed figures.
“For 16years, they made fake promises, gave us fake figures, and they tell us ‘Don’t talk about it’.”
The former Governor further said corruption thrived under PDP so much so that it could not make a meaningful impact on the governance of the Country.
He added that the APC led Government would deliver the change needed by the Country and more democratic dividends to Nigerians.
Was PDP massively corrupt?
Before the APC came to power, PDP had ruled for 16 years; the first 8 years with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.
Yar’adua was elected in 2007 but died in 2010 and his Vice-President, Goodluck Jonathan took over.
Jonathan later contested and won the 2011 elections before the 2015 polls, when the APC wrestle power from the PDP.
Before being ousted from power, the PDP achieved the following in terms of the fight against corruption:
Anti-Graft Agencies
In 1999, Transparency International Corruption Perception Index rated Nigeria the second most corrupt nation in the world.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) was established in 2000, to checkmate corrupt, probe and prosecute corrupt bodies in the public sector and Justice Mustapha Akanbi – a retired president of the Federal Appeal Court – was named to head the new Commission.
The mandate was to receive and investigate reports of corruption and, in appropriate cases, prosecute the offender(s)
It took the National Assembly nearly one year to pass the ICPC Bill into law, even though it was the first bill forwarded to the lawmakers by President Obasanjo.
After the Bill was passed, Ondo and Abia States challenged its constitutionality, arguing before the Supreme Court that the new Law could only be applied at the federal level and not in the States.
The Supreme Court eventually revalidated the constitutionality of the Act in July 2002, meaning that between 2000 and 2002 when the law was being challenged before the apex court, the Commission’s work was reduced to the barest minimum.
Probes
In the first three years of its existence, the ICPC received a total of 942 petitions. In August 2003 about 400 of the petitions were under investigation, and about 60 were at various stages of prosecution.
In 2002, ICPC announced that it was launching a full probe of charges of “gross and unjust enrichment, illegal withdrawals of public funds, extra-budgetary spending and official corruption” against Speaker of House of Representatives Umar Ghali Na’Abba.
The Commission said the charges were contained in a 50-page petition filed before it by a Member of the House of Representatives, Mr Samuel Onazi Obande.
“From the evidence so far collected by the Commission in the course of its preliminary investigations into the petition, there exist sufficient reasons to interrogate the Speaker to clarify some issues out-standing to him. Grounds exist for him to be confronted with the issues.”
The commission also charged three former ministers of Obasanjo’s own government, several senior government officials and a key figure in the President’s PDP with receiving bribes totalling over US$1 million.
The defendants were alleged to have received the funds from an agent of the French electronics company, SAGEM, to enable it obtain a US $214 million contract in 2001 to execute Nigeria’s national identity card project.
However, the trail which led to the prosecution of former Internal Affairs Ministers Sunday Afolabi and Mahmud Shata, former Labour Minister Husseini Akwanga, former PDP National Secretary Okwesilieze Nwodo and former Internal Affairs Ministry Permanent Secretary, Turrie Akerele, started from abroad.
In 2005, the President of the Senate, Chief Adolphus Wabara, and six other members of the National Assembly were reported to the ICPC for their roles in the N50million bribe to the National Assembly.
This was after the then Minister of Education, Prof. Fabian Osuji, was dismissed by President Obasanjo for offering of bribe.
Obasanjo announced the dismissal of Osuji and said he would be handed over to ICPC for prosecution.
In 2009, A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja refused an invitation by a Kebbi native, Alhaji Sani Dododo, to issue a mandamus order compelling the ICPC and the EFCC to investigate and prosecute the FCT Minister, Senator Adamu Aliero, over alleged diversion of N10.2 billion public funds while he held office as Kebbi State Governor.
In some cases, the judiciary stood in the way of the fight against corruption. Wrongly or rightly so is subject to another analysis.
Challenges
It was reported that the ICPC could not make significant impact in the fight against corruption due to low funding. According to a columnist; Nkem Jika, ICPC was denied funding and resources it needed to fight corruption.
“The first tragedy of the commission is that those who set it up are definitely not interested in a comprehensive and credible campaign against corruption in Nigeria.
“The second tragedy is that in contrast to the lofty mandate it was charged to execute, the commission has been deliberately denied the resources it needs to mount a credible assault against corruption.”
The head of the commission said that his organisation had only been able to investigate 608 of the 1,270 petitions it had received over the past four years – less than half – due to lack of funds.
Akanbi explained that another reason why the ICPC had fallen short of public expectations was that the law forbade it from investigating any corrupt practices perpetrated before its creation in June 2000.
This restriction effectively lets off the hook all those who served in successive regimes since the oil boom of the 1970s – especially the military governments of Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha, which ruled Nigeria from 1985 to 1998.
“The law does not permit me to investigate Babangida and other past Heads of State, Governors or military administrators.
“The truth of the matter is that even if the commission receives complaints about these people, there is little or nothing the commission could do because it cannot investigate any corrupt practices that occurred before the commission was established,” Akanbi lamented.
In 2015, ICPC made public the status of criminal cases within its precinct as at March 2015.
The list contained 267 criminal cases between 2001 and 2015, and 142 civil cases between 2007 and 2015.
EFCC
Unlike the ICPC, the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), established in 2002 as a law enforcement agency to investigate financial crimes such as advance fee fraud (419) and money laundering, did much better.
While the ICPC targets corruption in the public sector, especially bribery, gratification, graft, and abuse or misuse of office, the EFCC investigates people in all sectors who appear to be living above their means and is empowered to investigate and prosecute money laundering and other financial crimes.
The EFCC tracks illicit wealth accruing from abuse of office, especially attempts to integrate such wealth into the financial system.
Chaired by Nuhu Ribadu, the EFCC recovered more than 100 billion naira (US$757 million) over two years and arrested more than 500 people for money laundering.
One notable case is the trial of five people who, over a period of six years, persuaded a Brazilian bank to stump up US$242 million for the construction of a non-existent second airport for the Federal Capital Abuja.
The defendants, who include a housewife, a lawyer and a businessman, were accused of conspiring with a senior employee of Brazil’s Banco Noroeste to defraud the bank of this huge sum 1995 and 2001.
In 2005, it arrested Diepreye Alamieyeseigha on the charges that he laundered £1.8m ($3.2m) found in cash and bank accounts.
Alamieyeseigha had earlier been arrested in United Kingdom (UK), which led to his impeachment as the Governor of Bayelsa.
Seventeen out of the State Assembly’s 24 members voted in favour of impeachment after considering the report of a panel that has been investigating the Governor.
Ribadu prosecuted and secured the conviction of the former Inspector General of Police, Mr Tafa Balogun, who pleaded guilty to eight counts of money laundering charges to the tune of N16 billion in 2005. He was sentenced to six months imprisonment.
In April 2008, it investigated Obasanjo’s daughter, Senator Iyabo Bello, for allegedly receiving N10 million ($100,000) from the Ministry of Health.
The former Health Minister Prof. Nike Grange and her deputy, Chief Gabriel Duku, were tried for stealing over N30,000,000 ($300,000) from the ministry’s unspent funds. The court later exonerated them.
According to Ribadu in 2006, 31 of the 36 governors were being investigated for corruption.
“If we all live in the US, all of us will be in prison by now, because the things we do here cannot be tolerated there.”
However, many opined that Obasanjo used the EFCC to haunt political enemies and rivals. An opinion which is, an opinion, and thus debatable.
Former Abia State Governor Orji Uzor Kalu was arraigned on July 27, 2007, before an Abuja High Court on a 107 count charge of money laundering, official corruption and criminal diversion of public funds in excess of N5 billion.
He approached the Court of Appeal to set aside the ruling of the Federal High Court that he had a case to answer.
In March 2011, ten suspects from the office of the Civil Service of the Federation were arraigned by the EFCC alongside 30 companies on 134-count charges for allegedly defrauding the Pensions Account, Office of the Head of Service of the Federation, over N30 billion.
In December 2013, the EFCC said it discovered that Steve Oronsaye, a former Head of Service, and other top directors of the civil service allegedly conspired to defraud the country of N6.2 billion pension fund.
Governors like Ayo Fayose, James Ibori, Jolly Nyame, Saminu Turaki, Joshua Dariye, Chimaroke Nnamani, Murtala Nyako were arrested and prosecuted for the mismanagement of public funds.
Another notable case is the trial of PDP Chieftain, Bode George charged by the EFCC for inflation of contracts to the tune of N84 billion with five other board members in 2008.
The offence was said to be committed during his tenure as the Chairman of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) board between 2000 and 2003.
Bode George was convicted by Justice Olubunmi Oyewole of the Lagos High Court alongside four other former board members of the NPA to two years each on a seven-count charge and another six months each on a 28-count charge.
In 2011, EFCC also entered a 16-count criminal charge against the embattled former speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, before a Federal High Court in Abuja.
Bankole was charged with inflation of contract, procurement fraud and bid rigging, offences contrary to section 58 (4) (a), (b) and (e) of the Public Procurement Act (PPA). The offences attract a minimum of five years and maximum of 10 years imprisonment.
The Commission acted on a petition by former House of Representatives member, Dino Melaye.
He was also exonerated in 2014.
As at the end of 2013, EFCC had charged 368 cases to court and recorded 80 convictions and within the same period, the commission made recoveries of N6,583,108,350; $19,251,519; 20,520 Euros and 19,000 Pound Sterling.
