The recent comments by Senator Shehu Sani of Kaduna Central have raised eyebrows within the ruling APC party and keen followers of the present administration. While responding to President Buhari’s reply to the report of the committee set up to investigate the alleged mismanagement of funds meant for the IDPs, Shehu Sani said, “When it comes to fighting corruption in the National Assembly and the Judiciary and in the larger Nigerian sectors, the president uses insecticide, but when it comes to fighting corruption within the presidency, they use deodorants.”
Some members have called for Sani to be sanctioned by the party over his public antagonism of the federal government as well as the Kaduna state governor, Mallam Nasir El Rufai. It has also been rumored that Sani’s motive for his continuous tirade is a probable launch for the Kaduna governorship come 2019. While we cannot independently confirm or condemn these allegations, we can, to a large extent, ratify the appropriateness of his subtle jab at the federal government, especially over President Buhari’s apparent disappointingly bipolar anti-corruption showboating. Perhaps a recap of the events that led to his latest comment would help put things in better perspective.
Reports came out in October 2016 of alleged mismanagement of 270 million naira appropriated for the welfare of internally displaced persons in the northwest by officials within the present government. The money appropriated through the Presidential Initiative on the North-East (PINE) saw a certain 270 million naira allocated for clearing of grass and another 188.685 million naira for Nigerian refugees living in Minawao, the Republic of Cameroon. Investigations later revealed the secretary general of the federation, Babachir Lawal, behind the weed clearing contract which he awarded to his own company Global Vision Engineering Services Limited.
The Senate, acting on the uproar of the public, especially on social media, set up a committee headed by Senator Shehu Sani to look into allegations of misappropriation of funds meant for the IDPs and report to the house. The lower chamber almost at the same time tasked a committee on Internally Displaced Persons with the investigation. After four weeks of investigation, the Shehu Sani-led committee presented a report indicting the Secretary General of the Federation, Babachir Lawal and subsequently calling for his resignation and prosecution. The report stated that Mr Lawal was the Director of his company while also functioning as the secretary general of the federation, an act which contravenes the code of conduct for public officials. The senate adopted the motion and forwarded the recommendations to the president. But on January 24th, in a letter to the senate, the president announced it would not be adopting the recommendations because the SGF was denied his rights to fair hearing among other things. The letter added that the report was only an “interim” one; therefore, the content could not be adopted yet. The letter drew the now popular “deodorants and insecticide” comment from Senator Shehu Sani who called out the distortion of facts in the letter, as well as the apparent bipolar anti-corruption drive of the president. He stated that the SGF was invited to a public hearing in a letter that was acknowledged by his personal assistant. Going through the letter again, the disgraceful attempt by the president to cover one of his own permeates the length of the letter.
INSECTICIDES
At the inception of the administration, the president promised to fight corruption without fear and favour, among other things he highlighted as the problem of the country. The president has since gone after persons alleged to have diverted and looted public funds, among which are Ali Badeh, Sambo Dasuki of the Dasukigate, and Mrs Alison-Madueke, the erstwhile minister of petroleum resources. Sambo Dasuki has been in detention for about a year with the president waving off a number of court rulings. A number of ex-government officials within the last administration have at some point been summoned for interrogation and detained. Femi Fani-Kayode, Reuben Abatti, and Raymond Dokpesi are most notable, with their prosecutions based on the recommendations contained in the interim report of the committee set up to investigate the misappropriation of the procurement of arms deal. The senate president is also currently facing trial at the Code of Conduct of Bureau for false declaration of assets while governing Kwara state. The anti-corruption drive has led to the recovery of over 1 trillion naira in cash, as well as houses and other materials. The president, through those cases, demonstrated his readiness to tackle corruption, to much praise from the public. He showed his readiness to spray the weeds to death.
However, when the names of some of the people working close to the government came up in scandals, the presidency has either turned a blind eye or waved them off as unsubstantiated.
DEODORANTS
Before the confirmation of the former governor of Lagos state, Babatunde Fasola, a report surfaced that he spent over 70 million naira of tax payers money on his personal website. At his confirmation, when asked, Fasola cheekily replied that as the Lagos state governor, he did not fix contract prizes. He did not deny it. If that was not something for the government to act upon, I would not know what it was. Not just Fasola, but Rotimi Amaechi and Kayode Fayemi were accused of misappropriating funds meant for their states, but till date, the best the president did was show Nigerians he would support his people no matter what.
In 2016, the Chief of Army staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai was revealed to own landed properties in Dubai, to which he replied were bought from his savings. Not an investigation was ordered by the president who sworn to belong to nobody. Buhari’s Chief of Staff Abba Kyari has been accused of many things including making the Nigeria High Commission in the UK pay for his medicals bills. A statement from Buhari’s top media aide was all it took to sweep it all under carpet. The president’s wife was also reported to have made the high commission organise a grand welcome for her in the UK. In reply, the first lady, yes first lady for that is what she is, said all that was spent on her was her due. Yes her due, despite the fact that her husband announced the abolishment of the office of the first lady.
None of these people were subjected to any form of investigation, because the president has passed his vote of confidence on them, and it matters not what people say. Most recently, the president rejected the Senate’s recommendation on the ground that it was an interim report among other things. But the president forgot that it took an interim report for him to arrest, prosecute and detain Sambo Dasuki and a number of other persons indicted in the report submitted by the presidential committee on the investigation of the procurement of arms funds. So why can the president not use the same ‘interim report’? Is it because the investigative committee is not headed by Babachir Lawal himself? Or is it because it is not a presidential committee? For a president who famously declared his non-allegiance to all but none, this bipolar anti-corruption drive is at best disappointing.
From the foregoing, one could conclude that if Babachir Lawal were to be in the opposition, he would be in detention by now, and a number of his assets seized. But having deprived an already deprived people of life, condemning them to double jeopardy, the SGF and other people indicted in the misappropriation are still living large.
Shehu Sani might not be a saint, but on the anti-corruption drive of the president, he is not wrong. The president cannot be shielding people close to him from investigation yet claiming to be fighting corruption. If until now, no one has suffered any serious injury from his hard tackles, then all he is doing is showboating. President Buhari should get his acts together and allow for the investigation of corrupt officials within his government. Since the report, being an interim one, holds no water according to the presidency, we await his comment when the substantive report is submitted.
