It is a conversation mostly conducted in whispers, in hushed tones, that signal a submergence in secrecy.
Like a couple up in the middle of the night to quietly discuss a sensitive matter because they do not want the children to hear, the conversation about corruption in Nigeria is usually subdued because many of those who should coordinate it are also affected by it.
A cankerworm driving the cancer eating up Nigeria’s core, in the last two decades, corruption has come to be wedged into the Nigerian system as surely as Rivers Niger and Benue are etched into the Nigerian coat of arms.
Across the country, across almost every level of government, across many lives, corruption coats an entire system while at the same time extracting an enormous cost.
Its unusually ugly fingerprints are seen in the many cracks that cause the system to creak; in the public projects awarded, paid for from public funds but inexplicably abandoned, and in the ostentatious lifestyles of those who grew as rich as Croesus because they had cause to serve Nigeria, some of them only for painfully pedestrian period.
While corruption sings loudly in Nigeria, many are afraid to dance to its tune in the open specifically because the robes they wear are borrowed and could be demanded at anytime. In that way corruption continues to humiliate a giant country.
It is often not a question of whose hands are not soiled, almost every time, it is a question of whose hands have been left unsoiled.
Nigeria’s celebrated return to democracy was punctuated by a piercing concern which the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo immediately acknowledged.
The military administrations of Babangida and then Abacha had perpetuated an unprecedented heist against the commonwealth of Nigerians. Under the two men who worked hand in hand with the latter succeeding the former via a military coup after the abominable annulment of the 1993 general elections, Nigeria’s treasury had sundered by unprecedented avarice.
It tells a most poignant parable about the administration of Abacha that more than two decades after his mysterious demise, Nigeria continues to pick the pieces of its plundered treasury from countries as far as Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Historywill hold the feet of those countries over the fire someday for aiding the diabolic depredations visited on many generations of Nigerians.
Sensing the threat posed by corruption and in spite of the wobbly feet of his own administration on the perilous terrain of treacherous and traitorous corruption, President Olusegun Obasanjo had the courage to cast the foundations of Nigeria’s anti-corruption war.It was under him that the EFCC and the ICPC sprung to life.
Under President Obasanjo, the EFCC especially under the pugnacious Nuhu Ribadu had a bite that as was devastating as its bark was deafening.
In spite of the PDP’s many skeletons in those days, at least there was some clarity about the country’s anti-corruption campaign under the notably combative Nuhu Ribadu.
Things have since changed. When the PDP lost power in 2015, accusations of corruption formed some of the sticks that were used to beat it.
In fact, in the run-up to the 2015 presidential elections, President Buhari’s anti-corruption rhetoric was so fierce and unsparing that many Nigerians concluded that finally a soldier had come to prove that one of Nigeria’s more pressing problems was rather soluble. How shortsighted they were!
From the very first day in office of an administration which is now in its last days in office, the agencies of state responsible for fighting corruption have huffed and puffed with very little to show for it.
In a country where everyone seems to be involved to some degree in corruption, it was always going to prove forbiddingly difficult to square up to it.
The experience has always been that those who by their positions should lead the fight are often accused of corruption themselves or of weaponizing the vice.
When the battle has moved over to the courts, even judges have not been spared allegations of corruption.
In a country where a former Accountant-General has been accused of embezzling billions of naira while in office, there is no telling just how much has been lost to the hydra-headed monster.
It should frighten Nigerians then that two of the three frontrunners poised to clinch the presidency in next month’s general elections have credible allegations of corruption hanging around their necks.
Atiku Abubakar and Bola Ahmed Tinubu are political gladiators in their own right. While the former was vice president of Nigeria for eight eventful years,the later was a two-term governor of Lagos State and one of the country’s more prominent political kingmakers.
It would be miraculous to go so deep into the muck that is Nigerian politics for so long without being muddled in mud.It is why the relative cleanliness of Peter Obi the Labour Party Candidate in the elections is all the more impressive.
For Atiku Abubakar, the allegations of corruption date back to his days in office as Vice President, and have never really gone away. For Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Nigerians rightly question the source of his staggering wealth which mock his earnings as governor of Lagos State which remains criminally infested with crimes in spite of its enormous resources.
That was why it was such a relief and a surprise too to hear Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress recently speak of his plans to curb corruption in Nigeria if elected.
Whether it was just pure hot air from a man seemingly desperate to lead Nigeria, who would say anything to garner votes, or whether there was real intent behind the statement, it warmed the heart if only for a moment to hear that there is a plan at all to fight corruption by a man roundly accused of the vice.
Corruption has continued to wreak havoc in Nigeria. Combating the crisis which has wedged itself deep into the core of the country has always suffered a crisis of confidence which has often consumed those leading the fight.
It is always a case of fighting something everyone is involved in with the cold water that can pour on motivation.
However, in these days when the general election is in the air, Nigerians will do well to cast their vote only for those who not only talk about fighting corruption but are most prepared to walk the talk in confronting corruption and its many sacred cows.
Kene Obiezu,
Twitter:@kenobiezu
