Executive corruption with a human face
By Levi Obijiofor

CORRUPTION was on the menu this week and by midweek there were already high profile casualties lying comatose on the streets of Abuja, victims of a poisoned meal delivered to key leaders of the National Assembly from the Federal Ministry of Education and some other yet undisclosed federal ministries. When Pesident Olusegun Obasanjo made an impromptu broadcast to the nation on Tuesday night, he began with the language normally reserved for those who deliver elegy at funeral ceremonies. Obasanjo said: "It is with a heavy heart that I have to address the nation today."

Nigerians caught in the middle of their dinner suspended everything, in the expectation that Obasanjo was about to announce the death of a prominent citizen. There was no such death. That was Obasanjo's first surprise package of the night. Unbeknown to many, there was a second but delayed surprise. Families, whose dinner had been interrupted by the unexpected broadcast, resumed their late meal. Obasanjo continued: "As you know, the issue of transparency, accountability and eradication of corruption assumed a central place in the policies and programmes of this administration from its inception."
At the mention of corruption, everyone thought, okay, Obasanjo was about to announce a judicial commission to investigate endless allegations of corruption in the National Assembly. However, as the broadcast progressed, it became obvious there would be casualties that same night. It didn't take long before Obasanjo mentioned the name of the first casualty: "The Minister of Education is dismissed from office and he would be handed over to the ICPC for necessary follow-up action." For many weeks, allegations of bribery and corruption had been swishing in the corridors of the National Assembly and the offices of the Federal Ministry of Education.

Against the backdrop of the revelations made by Obasanjo on Tuesday night, one must express surprise at the speed with which the officials connected with the scandal and their assistants denied the rumours and allegations before the presidential anvil slammed on their heads. And yet someone whined the other day about how the Nigerian Television Authority denied him and his boss a right of reply. The human propensity to lie and mislead must be enormous.

There seems to be just one winner from this latest battle against corruption. For years Obasanjo had been praying and looking for evidence to prove wrong critics of his anti-corruption crusade. Now he can put names and faces - executive ones for that matter - to the hydra-headed monster known as corruption. National Assembly members and Federal Ministry of Education officials caught out in this scandal have given a boost to Obasanjo's image in the international community as an anti-corruption campaigner. What makes the scandal revolting is the high profile positions occupied by the officers involved. The federal legislators and officials of the Federal Ministry of Education have given Obasanjo cause to regale himself on his anti-corruption achievements.

However, as the nation has not yet heard their own side of the long-running soap opera, the victims of the corruption scandal deserve to be granted some benefit of the doubt. It is possible, just plain possible, that what Obasanjo told the nation on Tuesday night might not be the full story. In Nigeria, anything is possible. It is possible that officials of the Federal Ministry of Education were set up. It is also possible they were mere scapegoats who did not think twice before dipping their sticky fingers into this honeypot of corrupt money. It is also possible the officials were following a trend in the National Assembly. As for the National Assembly members, I have no reservoir of tears for any of them. Set up or no set up, scapegoats or no scapegoats, all the people implicated in this saga must take responsibility for their temerity. They ought to know better.

Corruption is a dragon fire. It consumes both the giver and the receiver. Unless and until all the evidence is presented to the nation, I would argue strongly that the names read out to the nation by Obasanjo on Tuesday night cannot be the complete list of names of alleged corrupt officers in the National Assembly and in the Federal Ministry of Education. Other federal ministries are still under investigation, as well as other members of the National Assembly. What puzzles me though is why politicians fail to learn directly from history. Since the return of democracy in Nigeria in 1999, all senate presidents, with the exception Pius Anyim, have fallen to one form of official misconduct or another. For all his credentials, Adolphous Wabara was simply na•ve in the manner he got involved into the corruption saga. Whether he acted as a peacemaker or a broker, Wabara has simply disappointed his constituency. The position of senate president is not something that comes easily to anybody.

As the nation digests the outcome of the scandal, there are questions that must be answered. Why would federal ministers routinely offer bribes to National Assembly members, particularly members of various House committees, in order to have their budget estimates jacked up and inflated? Why would renowned and reputable federal ministers sacrifice their professional track records, their image and reputation to engage in a one-off risky venture that could overturn their career and destroy their names forever?
Do National Assembly members regularly solicit bribes secretly and openly from federal ministers? Do National Assembly members expect to be bribed before they carry out the duties and responsibilities assigned to them? Why is money such a difficult temptation to resist by federal ministers and National Assembly members? Are National Assembly members elected to serve the nation or to be served by the nation? Is there a culture of bribery among federal ministers? Is bribery the chief lobbying strategy used by the Presidency to get specific bills and budgets passed by the National Assembly members?
Why do some key leaders of the National Assembly leave themselves open to allegations of corruption? Corruption is a big defiant stain that is hard to clean once it sticks on a political leader's clothes. Corruption allegations are also like bullets. Once they hit their human targets, the bullets set off a chain of reactions that could claim the careers and/or lives of the victims. Wabara has just lost an enviable political position in a silly manner. The nation has just witnessed the first case of executive corruption with a human face. How many more victims do we expect and how soon?
Incidentally at the ongoing national political reforms conference in Abuja, corruption was the theme of the discussion this week. Geoffrey Ejiga, retired army general, said it was time Nigeria tackled corruption head-on. He also said the fight against corruption must start with political leaders. He even suggested that public officers convicted of corruption should face capital punishment. Obasanjo has now cast the first stone with a commendable example. How many state governors would follow suit?
One of the issues that needs to be examined is the public perception of politics and federal appointments as the entry points of easy money in Nigeria. Politicians invest their lives and their financial savings to ensure victory at the polls. A pauper who manages to win election in the country is guaranteed overnight transformation into an affluent man or woman. In the same manner, ministerial nominees are subjected to pressure to offer bribe money to federal legislators so their appointments would be confirmed. Some of the ministerial appointees borrow money to bribe legislators on the belief they would recover the money as soon as they get into office.

This is the cycle of corruption. In Nigeria, the fastest path to financial enrichment is usually not through personal endeavour in business or through groundbreaking innovation in science and technology. It is through electoral victory or by appointment as a federal minister or state commissioner. Everyone wants to contest and win election. Similarly, everyone wants to be appointed a federal minister because the dividends are guaranteed to come in the form of huge sums of money, the sources of which no one really cares. There is something unwholesome about the corruption scandal that has bedeviled our politics.