Why corruption, insurgency fight is difficult, By Gbemiga Olakunle

On the final day of his two-day visit to Kano state, President Muhammadu Buhari declared that it’s more difficult tackling the menace of corruption than insurgency. According to the President, “The power of corrupt Nigerians is so enormous, but we are determined to deal with the situation headlong. This has been adjudged by what is happening today on ground”. While responding to comments at the town-hall meeting, Buhari said, “Democratic environment has made the fight against corruption more difficult,” (Blueprint Friday, December 8, 2017, page 6).
To buttress that assertion, the President stated that “as Head of State, I arrested some corrupt politicians. But shortly after, I was arrested after my government had been truncated, all the houses that I confiscated were returned back to the owners”. He said this explains why the current fight against corruption is pretty difficult. He addedwent that “after confiscating properties from corrupt Nigerians, we ordered that they should be sold and the money be deposited at the treasury. To show our seriousness in the fight today, among those being investigated was a High Court Judge whose house was searched and several foreign currencies were found and some international passports’’. He noted that the fight against corruption requires zeal, courage and full determination to succeed, saying that his government has all these attributes to achieve this success. We cannot agree less with Mr. President on this matter that has remained one of the cardinal programmes of his administration.
However, if the President really wants to win the fight against corruption and not make it a continuous war on a vicious circle, he must have the necessary political will that will enable him to beam his corruption searchlight inwards. It is in the public domain that some high ranking members of his government are being accused of stealing. While some have been investigated and sacked without prosecution to recover the alleged loot or further determine the degree of their culpability, others are yet to be investigated and are still maintaining their status quo in government.
To lend some credence to this view, the Sun of Friday, December 15, 2017 quoted the embattled former Chairman of the dissolved Pension Reform Task Force Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina, asking those calling for his head to shift attention to Aso Rock where he alleged bigger names accused of stealing public money are still walking the corridors of power. “The unfortunate thing is that some people around him (President) whom he trusted are lying to him. I can attest to this with instances and documentary evidence. People portray themselves as saints. It is a lie; they are not…Why is nobody talking about the former SGF and other indicted big shots?” he queried.
Some “alarmists” or the so-called “wailing wailers” have even gone to the extent or alleging that the much flaunted recovered loots are yet to be properly accounted for or are in the process of being re-looted. It is the responsibility of the relevant government agencies to allay the fears of this set of people by showcasing the capital projects or the special programmes that these recovered monies have been used to finance or which part of the budget they have been channeled to in a particular fiscal year. It is not enough to reel out figures. It is in the government’s interests to let the people know how these recovered monies are being used to fight incidences of starvation, acute hunger, abject poverty and its related issues in their midst. The populace is the ultimate judge and not the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) or the National Orientation Agency (NOA). The facts can always be found on ground and not cookedup in any MDA’s books in order to make them palatable or suit the whims and caprices of the authorities; and so the President still holds the ace if he is really determined to win the fight against corruption. But if his interest lies in just exercising himself with the fight against corruption, he may continue to use the broom in his hand to sweep the raised issues under the carpet instead of using it (the broom – the symbol of his ruling APC) to remove and sweep out the cobwebs and dirt/debris that are alleged to be inside his government. In other words, to win the fight against corruption, the President must fight the monster inside-out and make sure there are no sacred cows within or outside his government, circles of friends/relations or political loyalists. This may be a tall order but it is achievable. For with God coupled with human determination/political will, nothing shall be impossible.
In the same vein, the Federal Government’s determination to win the war against insurgency and other security challenges is very obvious and commendable. Recently, the federal and state governments through the National Economic Council approved a whopping $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account to fight insurgency, (Blueprint, Friday December 15, 2017, page 6). This is not the first, second or even third time that such monies are being disbursed since the immediate past administration of Goodluck Jonathan. At a time during the tenure of the immediate President, a quarter of the nation’s annual budget was being allocated to security and related matters apart from seeking the approval of the Senate under Senator David Mark’s leadership to borrow $50 billion to fight this same Boko Haram insurgency. How that particular money was disbursed or allegedly misappropriated or diverted into private pockets is the main subject – matter of the celebrated Dasukigate which is still pending in the court. Already, a lone voice in the National Economic Council and Governor of Ekiti state Peter Ayodele Fayose has voiced his disapproval or opposition to the $1 billion to fight the insurgency in the North-east. The governor saidwas of the money might be diverted into the campaign funds of Mr. President who has reportedly indicated his interest to rerun in 2019.
It could be recalled that the Federal Government had claimed that it has won the fight against Boko Haram – a claim that in most cases infuriated the insurgents and made them to strike and launch deadly suicidal bomb attacks. In fact, there was a time in the life of this administration when the insurgency was downgraded almost to a zero level. But the sudden “resurrection” or resurgence of the Boko Haram ghost should be of interest to the Federal Government and the Nigerian public. We have no problem with the new approval. However, our fear is that the fund may not achieve its set goal due to the lack of collaboration among the security agencies. There are manifest cases of inter-agencies rivalries and even open confrontations among sister security agencies. It is an open secret that the Department of State Security (DSS) and the operatives of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) are at logger-heads with the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over the latter’s bid to execute warrant of arrest on the immediate former bosses of the DSS and NIA, respectively. This episode goes a long way to show that there may be lack of espirit de corps or inter-agency collaborations/cooperations among the intelligence community and the other security agencies. To win the war against insurgency is not just a matter of showcasing military strength or prowess that is not working in tandem/collaboration with other sister security agencies for the purposes of gathering and processing of actionable information/intelligence material for the use of the fighting force. There was another time that the rivalry or fight for supremacy between the Nigerian Army and the DSS over the protection of Mr. President and the Presidential Villa leaked to the public. All these squabbles are not good for smooth internal peace keeping of the country and the fight against insurgency.
In our own candid opinion, The Presidency should first of all settle all manner of quarrel or supremacy fights among that the nation’s security agencies- military, the DSS, Police, NIA, EFCC, among others, before it can really win its perennial war against Boko Haram other security challenges including herdsmen menace, cultism, armed robbery, human trafficking and cyber crime. If these seemingly fragmented security agencies are not cemented together to achieve a common purpose, putting additional $1 billion into the fight against insurgency may be tantamount to pouring water into baskets. And it is obvious what the result will be. This administration should therefore do the needful by encouraging inter – agency collaboration, otherwise its proposed action may create another Dasukigate syndrome. On this note, we are wishing Mr. President and our fellow Nigerians (home and abroad), a Merry Christmas and a very prosperous 2018 in advance.