If
you want to make enemies, try to change something. Woodrow Wilson
President Buhari’s retort to Prime Minister David
Cameron’s gaffe on Nigeria’s reputation will rank among the best statesman-like
responses to provocations. It reminds one of many of Prime Minister Churchill’s
reactions to people he frequently offended. A lady was offended by his drunken behavior
at a social event, and told him how she would poison his drink if he were her
husband. ‘Madam’, he said, ‘if I were your husband, I will drink that poison’. When
the gloss is removed from the quick and matured response of President Buhari,
you will see a rather somber, if dignified layer that suggests that taking on
the label would have been futile. The President himself had been the chief
spokesman against the depth and damage of corruption in Nigeria. On a day the
New York Times published it editorial against selling highly advanced fighter
jets to Nigeria on grounds that our military cannot be trusted to use them in a
manner that satisfies US concerns over human rights abuses, the President
himself told a visiting dignitary that corruption was responsible for Nigeria’s
failure to defeat Boko Haram earlier. Just give us back our money was a good
way to say you have kept proceeds of corruption, but it does, as his subsequent
comments made clear, that he accepted that Nigeria is indeed a very corrupt
nation.
A year since he came to power on the back of promises to
rein-in corruption, fight insecurity and provide jobs, President Buhari’s
administration will not be inconsiderably concerned over the speed with which
the fight against it is yielding results. Certainly, the case has been made,
beyond even the most cynical mindsets, that past administrations have simply
plundered the nation’s resources. Nigerians are numb with revelations over huge
amounts which literally moved from government to private accounts. The fight
against corruption may have become a victim of its own successes, to the degree
that the daily parade of suspects and revelations of new discoveries have
suggested that massive resources will soon be recovered or have been recovered,
and many in the league of the powerful and the wealthy will soon be convicts.
Now the nation is being assured that President Buhari
will mention details of recoveries and their sources on May 29th,
and EFCC says it has recovered three trillion dollars. My gut instinct is to
believe that both are being mis-reported. I also hope I am right, because many Nigerians
will stay awake until May 29th to hear from the lips of our
President those who are in the league of grand looters. The impression that
EFCC is also sitting on three trillion (dollars or naira), will need to be
addressed, or hard-pressed citizens will believe that the 2016 budget will end
with a massive surplus.
Many Nigerians will be pained that a key strategic
partner like the US will be discouraged from selling military assets that should
hasten the end of Boko Haram. The reality, however, is that while those who
take decisions in many countries appreciate the major strides that President
Buhari’s administration had made against Boko Haram and deep-seated corruption
in Nigeria, they also know that President Buhari is not reinventing Nigeria. His
administration is just coming to terms with a problem that will take a lot of
effort and time to deal with. Operating within the challenging margins of the
rule of law ought to generate understanding from champions of human rights and
protectors of due process. There are no emergency routes to securing a nation,
or locating, retrieving unspent stolen wealth, or punishing those who looted
the treasury. The interests ranged against the anti-corruption battles are
vastly equipped and experienced in manipulating the judicial process. They will
exploit its limitations and weaknesses, and highlight them against the
expectations raised by an administration leading an impatient nation baying for
restitution and punishment.
The concern that the world will not cut President Buhari
much more slack than he already has should not discourage efforts to set and
meet standards that are indispensible if important doors will be opened
further. A few advanced fighter jets from the US will not entirely win the war
against Boko Haram. They are likely to tip the scales deeper in the direction
of success, and will serve a symbolic purpose of reinforcing the support of the
US in our fight against Boko Haram and the globalization of terror. If they
come in spite of attempts to generate domestic resistance in the over reported
abuses by our armed forces, they will most likely be used to nudge the
government towards looking into allegations recently made by Amnesty International
and improving the levels of institutional integrity of our armed forces. If they
are prevented from being sold, it should serve as an impetus to push on with
our own resolve and the equipment we can lay hands on. The war can still be won,
but we should not ignore voices that raise concerns over the manner we win it. The
jets represent a reminder that in many circles where opinions over Nigeria are
important, we are not out of the woods yet.
Then again, the fightback by corruption will have to be resisted
even as the President Buhari fights Boko Haram with what may appear as
liabilities in the form of views that resonate in key global centers. The damaging
resurgence of organized violence in the creeks which has taken a toll of
800,000 barrels a day of crude cannot be divorced from the spreading dragnets
of the anti-corruption war. At some point, the administration will have to
evaluate all options in dealing with this new threat, particularly in view of
its potential to stretch the nation’s defences even further. Will some form of
accommodation be required that may involve limiting the scope of investigations
and possible prosecution, if powerful interests are found behind both the
resurgence of violence in the Niger Delta and the plunder of our resources in
the last few years? Will nations that are in receipt of our stolen wealth
improve the processes of repatriating what is stolen, or assisting Nigeria with
intelligence, repatriating suspects and extending greater levels of
understanding in this battle for the soul and survival of Nigeria?
The fight against corruption will not be won easily, and
Nigerians should appreciate this and learn to live with a cynical world that we
have to relate with. Very high expectations have been raised that the war
against corruption will yield dividends in the short time in form of massive
amounts recovered and the increasingly longer list of suspects that daily
report to EFCC. The time it takes to process suspicion into conviction and
restitution will be exploited by interests hostile to the anti-corruption war
to raise questions about its fairness and integrity. Not all criticisms against
the war against corruption are informed by those whose hands are stained, any
more than the case being made for improving the professionalism of our armed
forces should be treated as hostile propaganda. We all have agreed that
corruption is a worse enemy than Boko Haram. We need to fight it with courage,
imagination and an awareness that it will be resisted every inch of the way.
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