Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has announced ongoing investigation of 18 governors for various financial malpractices. Olukoyede repeated the notorious fact that the EFCC can only investigate sitting governors, but may not prosecute them until their tenure expires.
He said: “We don’t wait until governors complete their tenure before we begin our work. Right now, the EFCC is actively investigatingn 18 sitting governors. Once their tenure is over, we will proceed accordingly.” That message was delivered at a recent public awareness programme, perhaps to serve as warning.
The Commission has as part of its functions, the mandate to prevent financial crimes. But taking into account EFCC’s experience in the hands of former governors, how helpful is it to only investigate while crime is being perpetuated? Sounds like closing the stable after the horse has bolted. That renders the anti-corruption fight tricky, particularly when dealing with Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs). For that, some have asked for adjustments to the constitutional immunity clause.
At the close of 2007 political season, the EFCC under its first chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, told Nigerians that he had concluded investigations on some governors. He said he was waiting for them to leave office, by which time they would be eligible for prosecution. Close to two decades after the suspects had left office as governors, the Commission has not successfully prosecuted a greater percentage of the cases.
Some of the cases EFCC investigated according to Ribadu then, bordered on money laundering, diversion of local government allocation and contract inflation. Wives of governors were found to be involved in money laundering. In one case in the South-east, the governor was reported to have used his mother, daughter, wife and brother to divert N35 billion to float an airline, media company and pharmaceutical business.
Another governor and four officials were arraigned on a 16-count charge of stealing public funds to the tune of N60.85 billion. Others colluded with local government councils to defraud their states. In the oil producing states of the South-south, governors were reported to have diverted their states’ 13 per cent derivation money into foreign accounts. In the North-west, one governor who presided over one of the poorest states was alleged to have diverted a N1 billion loan procuredto execute projects.
The journey for the EFCC has been one of, the more you look, the less you see. Many Nigerians have moderated the enthusiasm they invested in the Commission. Some of the cases are still dragging and others have been concluded in questionable plea bargaining. Many are shrouded in legal mystery.
Two former governors, Joshua Dariye and Jolly Nyame were convicted and later granted pardon by former President Muhammadu Buhari. Former governor of Delta State, James Ibori had been jailed in London for financial crimes. The one who managed Bayelsa State from 1999 to 2005, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, was convicted of fraud and jailed for two years. He was arrested in London on suspicion of money laundering in 2005. His London home was stashed with $1.5 million as well as $2.7 million held in a foreign bank account. His foreign and local assets were stupendous, deftly spread across jurisdictions.
Apart from the Ibori and Alamieyeseigha cases, which foreign support assisted to unravel and prosecute, other governors may have secured for themselvessome soft-landing after the government of Olusegun Obasanjo had left office; and the country’s anti-corruption drive had lost verve. Ribadu himself had also left and was on the run from political persecution.
It took the combined energiesof Obasanjo and Ribadu to give the EFCC the initial impetus. Obasanjo demonstrated a personal commitment to tackle corruption. When he won election in 1999, the chairman of global anti-corruption movement Transparency International (TI), Dr Peter Eigen, had this to say of OBJ and the victory: “The victory of Olusegun Obasanjo, a courageous and highly-principled anti-corruption fighter, on winning what has clearly been a difficult and fraught election, bodes well for the future of all Nigerians.”
At TI’s inauguration conference in May, 1993, Obasanjo was in attendance, where he lamented that “young people now have as their role models the leaders who have made money as a result of corruption. Corruption destroys the future of our society.” Poignant!
Eigen then recommended that the international community should support and encourage Obasanjo to introduce transparent and effective governance, whose pillars should include rule of law, independent judiciary, an honest police and freedom of information.
That was the background to the anti-corruption and transparency policies Obasanjo’s government initiated, including founding the EFCC. He found a soulmate in Ribadu, an officer who demonstrated equal commitment. Ribadu didn’t need a lot of public lectures to persuade governors or anybody not to steal. He had the law and the backing of Mr president, who was the number one anti-corruption czar.
Ribadu was a lowly Assistant Commissioner of Police when he brought down Tafa Balogun, a former Inspector General of Police, who was found to have mishandled N5.7 billion and was sent to jail. On that occasion, Ribadu enthused that justice was blind to rank or personality. The only fear he had was of God, not man. And the people he dealt with most were those closest to Obasanjo and their party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Doesn’t that speak to the policy objective of a government that was determined to fight corruption?
The anti-corruption policy lost vibrancy in the intervening years between 2007 and 2015. Under Yar’Adua, attention was not paid to details because of the man’s health challenge. Yar’Adua’s avowed commitment to social justice could have plugged the diversion of public resources into private pockets. He would have channeled the resources to improve citizens’ wellbeing. But that was not to be.
Under Goodluck Johanthan, there was less commitment to confront the corruption monster. It was under him that funds earmarked to fight insurgency in the North-east were shared to party loyalists for campaigns. Not to forget the legendary leeway a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Deziani Maduekwe, had into the public funds.
Jonathan’s poor tackling of corruption provided the opposition with the literature to market itself. The mantra then was that if Nigeria did not kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria. Apart from hounding Goodluck Jonathan’s National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, and forcing him and others to expel stolen cash they had stored up for themselves, fighting corruption in the Muhammadu Buhari years was watered down by politics.
Those smart governors and politicians who abandoned the PDP to join Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) escaped the anti-corruption searchlight. They made huge contributions to fund APC campaigns and were not put under any rigorous investigations.
That trend continued all through the Buhari years. They even invited politicians from other parties to join the APC and their sins will be forgiven. The author of that canon, Adams Oshiomhole, has of late attempted to disown it, but he cannot be smarter than millions of Nigerians who are good keepers of record.
There is a list of politicians who heeded that call and are today sitting pretty over national institutions. Before the current Senate President, Godswill Akpabio enrolled in APC, the EFCC had arrested him over an alleged theft of N108.1 billion during the years he was governor of Akwa Ibom State, from 2007 to 2015.
As minister of the Niger Delta Affairs, there were allegations of contract scam in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), of over N86 billion, under Akpabio’s watch. In 2020, the National Assembly embarked on a probe of N40 billion financial recklessness in NDDC. It was all a messy drama, which prompted Buhari to order a so-called forensic investigation. In May 2023, when the EFCC invited Akpabio for questioning, his lawyer said he couldn’t make it because he allegedly suffered from pneumonia and cardiac arrhythmia. Case closed.
So, one is able to empathise with the EFCC and the chair, in respect of the Sisyphean task they have imposed on themselves, to investigate 18 sitting governors, whereas previous investigations have not yielded conclusive convictions. It is not the sincerity of the Commission that is in doubt, but the climate of political merchandising that is at play.
When the former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, decided to play truancy regarding corruption allegations against him, Olukoyede was flummoxed. Bello’s script was to sufficiently douse the tension and come out of hiding at a most convenient time to him. And the authorities looked the other way.
Of the 18 governors under investigation, those that do not belong to the ruling APC could see it as a veiled invitation to join the party where sins are forgiven. As the PDP passes through more tribulation, members who have not left will consider doing so. Any governor remaining behind in the party and has political ambition for 2027 has to plan well. However, if they deliver quality governance and are not corrupt, they may have little fear of the desolation that is yet to come. But such men are rare.
Fighting corruption in any setting has a lot to do with the man at the head of the table. If he is serious, the anti-corruption agencies will have no choice but be serious. It begins with running a transparent government, where all contracts are processed according to global standards.
A federal government that is reluctant to apply procurement protocols on road contracts is not ready to fight corruption. A National Assembly led by persons who have anti-corruption cases against them has no moral high-ground to fight corruption.
If the authorities want the EFCC to work, it will work. Apart from a few convictions, cases with former governors are bogged by endless litigation and rigmarole. In the time being, let the Commission concentrate on states’ procurement systems at the concept stage.
The big contracts – unprofitable airports, overhead bridges to nowhere, importation of tractors and over-inflated road contracts. If EFCC can intervene before the monies are stolen that would be fine. But to chase governors after they are retired could be daunting, as experience has shown.
