Not Amusing

A newly-committed crime awakens sleeping ones.

African proverb.

If we were not talking of almost N600b ($2.1b) of public funds that is being chased around Nigeria by the Economic and Finance Crimes Commission, (EFCC), the reaction of some of those accused of collecting from this largess will be amusing. It is even less amusing that these were funds reportedly meant for purchasing weapons to fight Boko Haram by the last administration. The stories of this and quite possibly similar audacious pillaging are not entirely told yet, but it already promises to be major issue from a past that will very much be a part of the future. 

            If not for the tragedy involved in this outrage, the image of a Falae, Yakasai or a number of those on the list of beneficiaries sitting smug with indignation over suggestions that they collected illegal funds and should now pay back will be amusing. Of the range of reactions to E.F.C.C’s flat demand to pay in full without equivocation (and still quite probably face prosecution), Brigadier-General Lawal Jafaru Isa’s will rank among the more dignified, even if he paid only in part. Olisa Metuh’s hunger strike and other antics will represent the other extreme. Most of the others specifically mentioned owned up to collecting, perhaps more because of the solid nature of the evidence than any altruistic reason. People like Fani-Kayode are putting a brave face, saying the N1.7b he received was properly allocated to his committee to improve Jonathan’s sellability through media and publicity. Baba Yakasai and Falae say they were merely conduits,and  no one will accept that they received blood money to get Jonathan re-elected.

            It will be amusing, if not for the need to retrieve every kobo literally stolen, to ask how E.F.C.C plans to ask people who say they received campaign funds to refund the amount in full. Obviously Mr Magu has never been exposed to election campaign or the manner campaign funds are used. Virtually everyone on his list of recipients will swear on the Bible or the Qur’an that the funds were duly distributed as intended. Alhaji Tanko Yakasai has already reeled out an expenditure outlay mentioning some very influential persons whose visit was facilitated by the money he received. He did not exactly say the eminent Nigerians he visited and requested to support peaceful elections received any of the money. So we should assume it was all spent by him and his committee on logistics and accommodation. How do you retrieve that? It will also be impossible to get Fani-Kayode to give  a full, accurate and defensible breakdown of the N1.7b his committee received and expended. No matter how much you press Bafarawa, how do you get him to account for the millions he received to seek spiritual help in getting Jonathan re-elected? Just ask him to refund or go to jail, unless you want him to say that even the spirits were against a Jonathan re-election, in spite of being lavishly fetted. Perhaps EFCC knows that most of those funds were not spent by people who knew Jonathan was un-electable.

            The mind boggles over just how much the PDP and the Jonathan administration spent towards losing the last election. It will take a long time for Nigerians to forget the elaborate billboards and posters, slick advertisements, targetted inducements and thousands of groups falling over each other and tons of money to sell Jonathan. Now we know, that campaign was substantially paid for with lives and limbs and the tragic destruction of whole communities in the fight against Boko Haram. Dulled by the pervasive nature of corruption in our lives, many Nigerians would have shrugged off allegation that companies, media organizations, prominent Nigerians with mixed personal records have received large sums from government to sell a sitting president. It is not new, only the  scale differs. But this blood money may be where Nigerians draw the line.

            The unfolding saga around the $2.1b (N600b) will swallow more and more people. If the president sticks to his position that he will not interfere in the investigation and possibility of prosecution, and E.F.C.C. stays within its rigid stance  that all recipients must refund in full, it will be safe to assume that E.F.C.C will require new or additional holding cells, and the courts will be inundated by the sheer numbers of cases that will be presented to them. From the opening skirmishes, a few of the recipients such as newspaper organizations have been willing and able to make refunds. Will E.F.C.C believe their stories that they did not know they were given blood money as compensation for losses suffered when president Jonathan's administration jackbooted their circulation for days on end? Why would the E.F.C.C believe the newspaper owners, and refuse to believe   Yakasai, Isa, Falae and Anenih, Mohammed and others when they claim that they did not believe they were receiving stolen funds?

            The trails following the N600b arms funds will lead this administration to mixed fortunes. It now has the best evidence that the Jonathan administration was bleeding the nation dry, literally. Funds meant for purchase of weapons for a military that was being pressed to confront a better -armed and motivated insurgency were being diverted in the same manner that billions were stolen through oil subsidy frauds, power-sector swindles, oil theft and all manner of scams that make sense only if you believe you were being governed by people who were confident that they will never be held to account. Now the fight against corruption will tap that popular nerve that is vital to its effectiveness and sustenance.

            But how far will it go and at what cost? At this stage, even the PDP leadership is attempting to put as much distance between it and the scandal. It says everyone who collected blood money is on his own. In fact it is asking President Jonathan to clarify his role in the processes involved in the release and distribution of  the funds. If you want to be uncharitable, you will smell a whiff of sour grapes from leaders of a party in disarray which saw a large chunk of its job taken away and handed over to a man and an office whose job was to advice on national security. If INEC bothers, it could ask them to account for the other billions they spent.

            There have to be answers around the process by which these funds ended up in a hundred hands, pockets and accounts. Since $2.1b did not just up and walk out of the vaults of the CBN, we have to ask who had responsibility for custody, approval for release and accountability from President Jonathan, Coordinating Minister for the Economy, CBN Governor, Accountant-General of the Federation, Auditor-General of the Federation, civil servants and security officials. How much is the administration of President Buhari willing to go in creating access to investigation around President Jonathan and other senior officials of his administration? How much of its attention and political capital  will be taken up by pursuit of corruption cases, in a context where it has to defend its action to friendly and hostile interests alike, as well as deliver on basic governance commitments? How much will the issues arising from the arms funds and other large-scale corruption cases test President Buhari’s commitment to the rule of law? How will the administration respond to the severe limitations of the judiciary? How strong is the commitment of the legislature to the fight against corruption?

            The arms funds diversions will engage the nation’s attention for quite a while. There will be people who received huge amounts that will be tried and quite possibly go to jail if government can prove that they broke laws in receiving and spending the funds. President Buhari should brace himself for corruption's fight-back, complete with parallels with 1983-1985. He may be forced to extend the battle to fronts he may not have envisaged. There is plenty of drama ahead, and the nation would be amused by some of it, if it is not so vital to our future.