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Monday, November 27, 2017
OOCORP News: Wife Stabbed Her Husband To Death in Abuja
EXCLUSIVE:
AN ENCOUNTER WITH MARYAM SANDA IN HER EXECUTIVE CELL
By DESERT HERALD
Wonders shall indeed never end in Nigeria. When the sad story of the killer Maryam Sanda went virile online and across the nation, and considering the gravity of her alleged offense and the need to show strong example to others, Nigerians including DESERT HERALD are convinced that her case will not only be treated with sincerity and dispatch but will be transparent without the usual corrupt conduct that characterize the practice of a typical institution called the Nigerian Police Force. But DESERT HERALD was astonished when it received a very disturbing, credible and privileged information from a high ranking Police officer that did not authorised us to reveal his name.
Our female undercover reporter that luckily happens to know some family members of Maryam was promptly recruited to do the findings for us as well as try to get any useful evidence so that it will be a weapon in case should the police denied our claims. Her job was also to verify for us the disturbing information we earlier got from our police officer source. Our undercover reporter did an excellent investigative journalism including recording their interactions with the killer Maryam. She was lucky to be part of the family members of Maryam that visited her on Wednesday, 22nd November, 2019. What she discovered was so embarrassing to a nation under a government that promises change. In Nigeria and even in the case of murderers there is still different law and treatment for those that can offer huge gratification and those that cannot. The gravity of the offense one committed notwithstanding.
To the surprise of our undercover reporter, a suspected killer of her husband was the only one in her executive 'cell' while other suspects can be seen in a highly contaminated cell that one cannot even eat inside. Typical of Nigerian Police cells, that of Maryam is like a comfort of her home. Maryam was making phone calls throughout the period of their visit. Some of her conservation during her many phone call was recorded by our reporter. Maryam was so confident that she will soon be out and that her rich and morally bankrupt mother has gave her every assurances. As a young lady that spent such years with her husband, Maryam is not looking remorseful at all for losing and killing her supposed husband. She told her visitors which was also recorded that "just because they said i killed him they are writing nonsense about me", which suggest that despite being in so called detention she is active online and monitoring peoples comment. She also told her visitors that there is no evidence and that no evidence can be found that can be accepted in a law court to proof that she killed her husband. Our undercover reporter revealed that as long as visitors are from her family, close friends or from her rich mother, Maryam did not have restrictions or any limit to visitors per day. She is being treated as a VIP suspect.
From the so called cell, our reporter followed her colleagues to the residence of Maimuna Aliyu, the rich mother of Maryam supposedly to commensurate with her for what happened to her daughter NOT on a condolence visit to mourn Ibrahim. Some of their interactions with Maimuna was also on audio. Throughout the short visit, the rich Maimuna did not for once lament or mourn the murder of her daughter's husband, the poor Ibrahim. She is also not remorseful at all about her daughter's act nor did she condemned her daughter for daring to kill an innocent soul. In fact, Maimuna said repeatedly that even if it will require her hiring a lawyer from the United States to defend her killer daughter, she is ready to do so insisting at every interval that her daughter will never be prosecuted as long as she is alive. At a point, she even point to a wrist watch in her hand and said "don't you see this is a diamond watch? Whatever that is needed to defend my daughter it will be done. And so what if she kills him", she queried.
Our police officer source has confided in this paper that Maimuna has gave certain police officers that are influential in determining the case an initial N5million with a promised to give more depending on the conduct of the police and the prosecution team that will be assign to prosecute the case. The charges that will be brought by the Police against Maryam and how the police prosecution team will handle the case at the court that is if Maryam will at all be arraigned will determine the strength and veracity of this report while at the appropriate time and depending on how justice is being pursued by the authorities, DESERT HERALD will release the two recorded audios for Nigerians to judge.
But there are some nagging questions that are still unanswered and remains confusing to those that can read between the lines. Why is the family of the deceased precisely his influential father, Bello Halliru Mohammed silent despite being aware about the moves and intrigues by the likes of Maryam's mother to frustrate the case and to ensure that there is no justice? Why is Ibrahim's parent silent despite knowing very well that Maryam and including her mother are not remorseful at all nor are they mourning the demise of their child? All this information are open secret to all the family members of Halliru and Maimuna, the mother of the killer. Certainly, Dr. Bello Halliru should be learned enough Islamic wise to know that NOBODY not even him as the father of the deceased or his wife, the mother of Iate Ibrahim has the power to forgive a deliberate and well intended murder. Allah has already taken decision about those that engages in such acts in the holy Qur'an. The police should also beware that anybody that conspired deliberately to prevent justice in a clear case of murder because of money that will terminate in this temporary world will certainly meet the wrath of Allah in this world and hereafter. One wonders the type of excuse that will be given for a murderer that stabbed her husband three times and went ahead to inflict severe cuts on his private parts. Is the excuse of acting under the influence of drugs tenable in our corrupt justice system? In Nigeria everything is possible!
OOCORP News: Wife Stabbed Her Husband To Death in Abuja: The Federal Capital Territory Police Command has obtained CCTV footage showing the last moments of Bilyaminu Bello, the son of a former Peo...
Monday, November 20, 2017
Wife Stabbed Her Husband To Death in Abuja
The Federal Capital Territory Police Command has obtained CCTV footage showing the last moments of Bilyaminu Bello, the son of a former Peoples Democratic Party chairman who was allegedly killed by his wife, Maryam Sanda.
Our correspondent had reported that Bello was stabbed to death by his wife over allegations of infidelity after she read a text message on his phone.
It was learnt that Bello was rejected by two hospitals before he was finally pronounced dead.
An impeccable police source said the police recovered the CCTV footage of their residence.
“We have been able to obtain the footage and it shows the suspect and three private security guards conveying him unto a vehicle from where he was rushed to a hospital,” he said.
Our correspondent gathered that the security guards had been arrested by the police.
The Federal Capital Territory police spokesman, Anjuguri Manzah, said more suspects had been apprehended.
He said, “I know that some suspects have been arrested, but I don’t know their identity. I can’t confirm that the CCTV footage has been obtained, but it may be part of evidence gathering to assist in investigation.”
Meanwhile, a family friend of the victim, Habib Gajam, has alleged that Sanda threatened to cut off her husband’s private parts during a quarrel hours before she allegedly stabbed him to death.
The family friend said in a series of tweets on Twitter that he witnessed the violent quarrel during which the mother of one attempted to stab her husband while demanding a divorce.
Gajam explained that Bello’s friend, one Aliero, who was also present during the scuffle, prevented Sanda from stabbing the deceased.
He said, “At about 9 to 10pm on Saturday, tension started to build up between Bilyaminu (Bello) and his wife, Maryam (Sanda) at his residence.
“Maryam demanded a divorce with the threat of cutting off his manhood. Aliero, Bilyaminu’s friend in whose presence the drama started, intervened four times to stop Maryam from stabbing her husband.”
The witness explained that Ibrahim later called Bello’s uncle, identified as Auta and one Abba, the victim’s cousin, to prevail on her.
He said after some time, Sanda broke a bottle and attempted to stab her husband, but he reportedly struggled to take it from her, injuring himself in the process.
“After short calm, Maryam (Sanda) broke a bottle of groundnut and attempted to stab Bilyaminu (Bello) again, but this time, he held both her hands and struggled to take the bottle from her, injuring himself in the process….unrelenting and wild, she bit his finger.
“Uncle Auta had arrived at this time to calm the situation. They both committed to uncle Auta to let go of their grievances, at least for the night.
“After the situation had become calm, Bilyaminu and his friend went to a pharmacy to get his hand treated from the bite he sustained from Maryam,” he added.
Gajam explained that Bello and Ibrahim later went to withdraw money from an ATM for the repair of Sanda’s damaged car, noting that by the time they got back home around 11pm, everywhere was calm.
Abba and Ibrahim left for their homes around midnight, he said.
“When Bilyaminu (Bello) was seeing them off, he told Ibrahim that ‘I don’t want to go back until she’s asleep.’
“At around 2pm on Sunday, family members were summoned to Maitama Hospital, where Bilyaminu was lying in a pool of blood with multiple stabs on his chest, shoulder, a deep cut on his inner thigh, and many bite wounds on his stomach,” he added.
Gajam claimed that Sanda confessed to stabbing her husband to the hospital management, but added that she changed the story when she was directed to write a statement at the Maitama Police Station.
He said, “The police commissioner instructed that the crime scene should be visited. To the amasement of Abba and Ibrahim, who were key witnesses in the investigation, the bloodstains had been mopped up, murder weapon disappeared, but flower vases and pots were broken to corroborate Maryam’s earlier statement at the station.”
Gajam said Bello, who divorced his first wife to marry Sanda, did not deserve to be murdered.
Our correspondent had reported that Bello was stabbed to death by his wife over allegations of infidelity after she read a text message on his phone.
It was learnt that Bello was rejected by two hospitals before he was finally pronounced dead.
An impeccable police source said the police recovered the CCTV footage of their residence.
“We have been able to obtain the footage and it shows the suspect and three private security guards conveying him unto a vehicle from where he was rushed to a hospital,” he said.
Our correspondent gathered that the security guards had been arrested by the police.
The Federal Capital Territory police spokesman, Anjuguri Manzah, said more suspects had been apprehended.
He said, “I know that some suspects have been arrested, but I don’t know their identity. I can’t confirm that the CCTV footage has been obtained, but it may be part of evidence gathering to assist in investigation.”
Meanwhile, a family friend of the victim, Habib Gajam, has alleged that Sanda threatened to cut off her husband’s private parts during a quarrel hours before she allegedly stabbed him to death.
The family friend said in a series of tweets on Twitter that he witnessed the violent quarrel during which the mother of one attempted to stab her husband while demanding a divorce.
Gajam explained that Bello’s friend, one Aliero, who was also present during the scuffle, prevented Sanda from stabbing the deceased.
He said, “At about 9 to 10pm on Saturday, tension started to build up between Bilyaminu (Bello) and his wife, Maryam (Sanda) at his residence.
“Maryam demanded a divorce with the threat of cutting off his manhood. Aliero, Bilyaminu’s friend in whose presence the drama started, intervened four times to stop Maryam from stabbing her husband.”
The witness explained that Ibrahim later called Bello’s uncle, identified as Auta and one Abba, the victim’s cousin, to prevail on her.
He said after some time, Sanda broke a bottle and attempted to stab her husband, but he reportedly struggled to take it from her, injuring himself in the process.
“After short calm, Maryam (Sanda) broke a bottle of groundnut and attempted to stab Bilyaminu (Bello) again, but this time, he held both her hands and struggled to take the bottle from her, injuring himself in the process….unrelenting and wild, she bit his finger.
“Uncle Auta had arrived at this time to calm the situation. They both committed to uncle Auta to let go of their grievances, at least for the night.
“After the situation had become calm, Bilyaminu and his friend went to a pharmacy to get his hand treated from the bite he sustained from Maryam,” he added.
Gajam explained that Bello and Ibrahim later went to withdraw money from an ATM for the repair of Sanda’s damaged car, noting that by the time they got back home around 11pm, everywhere was calm.
Abba and Ibrahim left for their homes around midnight, he said.
“When Bilyaminu (Bello) was seeing them off, he told Ibrahim that ‘I don’t want to go back until she’s asleep.’
“At around 2pm on Sunday, family members were summoned to Maitama Hospital, where Bilyaminu was lying in a pool of blood with multiple stabs on his chest, shoulder, a deep cut on his inner thigh, and many bite wounds on his stomach,” he added.
Gajam claimed that Sanda confessed to stabbing her husband to the hospital management, but added that she changed the story when she was directed to write a statement at the Maitama Police Station.
He said, “The police commissioner instructed that the crime scene should be visited. To the amasement of Abba and Ibrahim, who were key witnesses in the investigation, the bloodstains had been mopped up, murder weapon disappeared, but flower vases and pots were broken to corroborate Maryam’s earlier statement at the station.”
Gajam said Bello, who divorced his first wife to marry Sanda, did not deserve to be murdered.
Thursday, November 9, 2017
NUC To Approve 15 More University Online Learning Centers
The National Universities Commission, NUC, on Tuesday in Abuja said it is in the process of allowing 15 more universities to embark on open distance/online learning as this will help solve inadequate access to university education. The Executive Secretary of NUC, Abubakar Rasheed, said this at a one day symposium on policy and practice in open and distance learning.
The event which was a collaboration between the NUC and the University of London is to promote open and distance learning in the country.He said Open and Distance Learning, ODL, is a system of teaching and learning which is characterized by using multiple media for delivering instruction and learning interaction.
Mr. Rasheed said the commission is concerned about the quality of education in the country noting that that the issue of quality cannot be ignored. “For NUC, quality is the main reason why we are existing not the quantity, we want to assure that every certificate obtained in Nigerian universities is worth it,” he said.
According to him, NUC cannot “order universities to double their intakes because of quantity because every programme in Nigerian universities is judged through quality assurance mechanism.”
“The physical infrastructure, quality of a staff, quality of laboratory and libraries are important.
“NUC is trying to advise government on the best way to tackle skills’ issue because the number we are talking about in secondary schools or those out of primary schools cannot just be tackled by simply enrolling them in the universities,” he said.
He said the issue of parity between ODL graduates and conventional ones would be resolved when “ODL programme is fully institutionalised in our country.” The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu who was represented by the director, tertiary education, Joel Ojo said the government iscommitted towards improving access to quality and lifelong learning through its open and distance learning initiative.
He said that globally, ODL has been embraced as a panacea to inadequate access to quality education as well as promoting lifelong learning. According to him, the government is putting in place adequate learning support that will facilitate equitable quality education by 2030. He urged the National Open University of Nigeria, NOUN, to comply with the guidelines of NUC to “internationalize world best global practices.”
Meanwhile, the president of Global University Network for Innovation GUNI-Africa, Peter Okebukola, said quality assurance should play a major role in the way education is tackled by the Nigerian government. “The concern of GUNI is how quality is delivered and how to access the quality being delivered, we want a mechanism that will guarantee that products from the regular system and product from the open and distance learning system are at par.
These product should be better in terms of knowledge, quality and attitude”, he said.
Mike Winter, the director of Global Engagement, University of London, said there are lots of opportunities for open and distance learning in Nigeria.
“The opportunities include sharing ideas on how to develop these initiatives around quality and education. One is around parallel degree which is a mechanism the universities have been running for more than 20 years whereby students can study online for degree; the other is the growth of provision for post-graduate online (study)”, he said.
The event which was a collaboration between the NUC and the University of London is to promote open and distance learning in the country.He said Open and Distance Learning, ODL, is a system of teaching and learning which is characterized by using multiple media for delivering instruction and learning interaction.
Mr. Rasheed said the commission is concerned about the quality of education in the country noting that that the issue of quality cannot be ignored. “For NUC, quality is the main reason why we are existing not the quantity, we want to assure that every certificate obtained in Nigerian universities is worth it,” he said.
According to him, NUC cannot “order universities to double their intakes because of quantity because every programme in Nigerian universities is judged through quality assurance mechanism.”
“The physical infrastructure, quality of a staff, quality of laboratory and libraries are important.
“NUC is trying to advise government on the best way to tackle skills’ issue because the number we are talking about in secondary schools or those out of primary schools cannot just be tackled by simply enrolling them in the universities,” he said.
He said the issue of parity between ODL graduates and conventional ones would be resolved when “ODL programme is fully institutionalised in our country.” The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu who was represented by the director, tertiary education, Joel Ojo said the government iscommitted towards improving access to quality and lifelong learning through its open and distance learning initiative.
He said that globally, ODL has been embraced as a panacea to inadequate access to quality education as well as promoting lifelong learning. According to him, the government is putting in place adequate learning support that will facilitate equitable quality education by 2030. He urged the National Open University of Nigeria, NOUN, to comply with the guidelines of NUC to “internationalize world best global practices.”
Meanwhile, the president of Global University Network for Innovation GUNI-Africa, Peter Okebukola, said quality assurance should play a major role in the way education is tackled by the Nigerian government. “The concern of GUNI is how quality is delivered and how to access the quality being delivered, we want a mechanism that will guarantee that products from the regular system and product from the open and distance learning system are at par.
These product should be better in terms of knowledge, quality and attitude”, he said.
Mike Winter, the director of Global Engagement, University of London, said there are lots of opportunities for open and distance learning in Nigeria.
“The opportunities include sharing ideas on how to develop these initiatives around quality and education. One is around parallel degree which is a mechanism the universities have been running for more than 20 years whereby students can study online for degree; the other is the growth of provision for post-graduate online (study)”, he said.
Thursday, November 2, 2017
Corruption: How Buhari is losing the war
President Muhammadu Buhari’s overhyped anti-corruption crusade has descended into chaos. On Tuesday, his integrity suffered a grave blow when the Head of Service, Winifred Oyo-Ita, disclosed via a memo that she verbally cautioned him about the dire implications of Abdulrasheed Maina’s illegal reinstatement. In addition to a frightening number of Buhari’s men already tainted by scandals, the fresh revelations from the HoS painted a Presidency entombed in a sea of mud. Neither the HoS nor the Presidency has denied the authenticity of the leaked memo.
Maina’s secret reinstatement has struck at the core of the culture of impunity and parochialism. The HoS disclosed in the memo that after a Federal Executive Council meeting, she had warned the President of the surreptitious moves by the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, and others to reinstate Maina, a notorious fugitive in a 2013 N2 billion pension scam, as a director in the public service, and its implications for the Buhari administration’s anti-graft war. With no firm action by Buhari, the cabal went ahead to reinstate Maina. Oyo-Ita said “the move to recall Maina was at the instance of a series of letters from the Attorney-General of the Federation to the Federal Civil Service Commission to give consequential effect to the judgement that voided the warrant of arrest issued against (Mr. A.A.) Maina, which formed the basis for his query and eventual dismissal.”
The HoS, thereafter, dissociated her office from Maina’s scandalous reinstatement and his subsequent redeployment to the Ministry of Interior. Though the President belatedly ordered Maina’s sacking on the heels of public fury, it appears the Presidency is abiding in, if not abetting, corruption when it touches some individuals. Maina’s family had claimed at a news conference that the Buhari government invited their son to come and clean up the mess and generate more revenue for government by blocking leakages. “He has been working with the DSS for quite some time and he was given necessary security,” the family said. The fugitive himself also declared that another £6m pension fund was in London accounts generating interests for top government functionaries.
It bears repeating that, by some accounts, Maina had allegedly stolen N195 billion of pension funds at a time pensioners were dying needlessly, waiting to be paid their entitlements. To be sure, the Maina saga is just one in a very long list of explosive allegations against Buhari’s close aides and top government functionaries. Indeed, as mentioned in our previous editorial, right from inception, corruption scandals have continued to routinely upend the Buhari government. Until this week when he finally sacked Babachir Lawal and Ayo Oke, the President appeared to be on the horns of a dilemma about how to handle the report of a committee headed by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo that indicted both officials. In spite of the glaring evidence of the complicity of the AGF in the Maina scandal, the President has still taken no action.
Buhari, from the outset, laid the foundations for the failing anti-graft war. Apart from not acting swiftly in appointing heads of strategic agencies seen to be relevant in the fight against corruption, Buhari utterly displayed poor judgement when he finally did. His style of leadership has created a sprawling number of doubters and worriers among his ardent supporters and admirers. The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, is one of them. In a September 2016 memo to Buhari, he assailed his Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, and the recently-sacked Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Lawal, as men bereft of the experience and capacity their offices demanded.
Even the President’s wife, Aisha, once criticised her husband for his languid style, penchant for alienation and making wrong choices in his appointments. She vowed on a BBC Hausa Service programme in October 2016 not to campaign for him again, if the ugly tide did not turn before 2019. Her worry: among 50 people appointed to positions of responsibility, Buhari did not know 45 of them. “Those who didn’t do anything, who don’t even have voter cards, are the ones in position doing everything,” she noted. “What I am afraid for them is the rebellion of 15 million people,” meaning the number of those who voted for him in the 2015 presidential election. The Comptroller-General of Customs, Hameed Ali, recently blamed those in the corridors of powers, widely seen as aliens to the core values that underpinned the birth of the administration and the coalition that brought it to power. Ali’s scathing line: “Every day when you wake up, there is a story that makes you shiver.”
Now, Buhari’s integrity is under siege, his zero tolerance policy on corruption questioned. He has demonstrated lack of political will to bring the tainted members of his inner circle to book or make an example of them. His penchant for making appointments that are lopsided and preponderantly from a section of the country is undermining the legitimacy of his government.
What will it take for Buhari to earn public trust again, recover his tarnished reputation and fulfil the historic mandate he won to tame corruption? In his second inaugural address, Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States, said, “We are to beware of all men who would turn the tasks and the necessities of the nation to their own private profit or use them for the building up of private power.” The firm basis of government is justice, not patronage. Mainagate has ensnarled Malami; he should go.
Buhari needs to adopt radical transparency in his anti-graft war, evict liabilities in his inner circle, appoint the right people to critical posts and personally drive the anti-graft crusade. Unless he drops key operators tainted by corruption scandals and replaces them with individuals that share his burning passion to crush corruption, the crusade will continue to flounder. He needs a clear strategy on the anti-graft war and a coordinator with full presidential backing. Singapore’s Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, recalled how the country’s founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, provided strong political will, “institutionalised a robust, comprehensive anti-corruption framework that spans laws, enforcement, the public service and public outreach.”
The four-point approach included reform and zero tolerance for graft in the public service and the judiciary, generous funding of the anti-graft agency, equal treatment before the law and appointing the right persons to law enforcement positions. It worked. The Inspector-General of Police, the heads of the State Security Service, Police Service Commission, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission and the judiciary should be vigorous anti-corruption enforcers. The AGF as the country’s chief law officer is too strategic to be filled by an individual with doubtful anti-graft credentials.
There should be a clearing house for swift prosecution of high profile suspects, while seamless cooperation that is signally lacking today, should be forged among EFCC, ICPC, AGF’s office, SSS, police, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, National Intelligence Agency and the Presidential Advisory Commission Against Corruption, with intelligence/information shared and prosecution strengthened.
He should transform himself to a truly national leader and become a president for all Nigerians. The President must, as he promised on inauguration day, “belong to nobody” and truly “belong to everybody.” He should stop alienating large sections of the polity through lopsided appointments. We repeat our earlier stance that corruption is not exclusive to financial malfeasance: sectionalism, nepotism and selective justice are definitive acts of corruption. He cannot effectively fight financial corruption against opponents when he continues to entrench an unprecedented level of sectionalism and nepotism.
EDITORIAL
Published November 2, 2017 THE PUNCH
Punch Editorial Board
Maina’s secret reinstatement has struck at the core of the culture of impunity and parochialism. The HoS disclosed in the memo that after a Federal Executive Council meeting, she had warned the President of the surreptitious moves by the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, and others to reinstate Maina, a notorious fugitive in a 2013 N2 billion pension scam, as a director in the public service, and its implications for the Buhari administration’s anti-graft war. With no firm action by Buhari, the cabal went ahead to reinstate Maina. Oyo-Ita said “the move to recall Maina was at the instance of a series of letters from the Attorney-General of the Federation to the Federal Civil Service Commission to give consequential effect to the judgement that voided the warrant of arrest issued against (Mr. A.A.) Maina, which formed the basis for his query and eventual dismissal.”
The HoS, thereafter, dissociated her office from Maina’s scandalous reinstatement and his subsequent redeployment to the Ministry of Interior. Though the President belatedly ordered Maina’s sacking on the heels of public fury, it appears the Presidency is abiding in, if not abetting, corruption when it touches some individuals. Maina’s family had claimed at a news conference that the Buhari government invited their son to come and clean up the mess and generate more revenue for government by blocking leakages. “He has been working with the DSS for quite some time and he was given necessary security,” the family said. The fugitive himself also declared that another £6m pension fund was in London accounts generating interests for top government functionaries.
It bears repeating that, by some accounts, Maina had allegedly stolen N195 billion of pension funds at a time pensioners were dying needlessly, waiting to be paid their entitlements. To be sure, the Maina saga is just one in a very long list of explosive allegations against Buhari’s close aides and top government functionaries. Indeed, as mentioned in our previous editorial, right from inception, corruption scandals have continued to routinely upend the Buhari government. Until this week when he finally sacked Babachir Lawal and Ayo Oke, the President appeared to be on the horns of a dilemma about how to handle the report of a committee headed by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo that indicted both officials. In spite of the glaring evidence of the complicity of the AGF in the Maina scandal, the President has still taken no action.
Buhari, from the outset, laid the foundations for the failing anti-graft war. Apart from not acting swiftly in appointing heads of strategic agencies seen to be relevant in the fight against corruption, Buhari utterly displayed poor judgement when he finally did. His style of leadership has created a sprawling number of doubters and worriers among his ardent supporters and admirers. The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, is one of them. In a September 2016 memo to Buhari, he assailed his Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, and the recently-sacked Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Lawal, as men bereft of the experience and capacity their offices demanded.
Even the President’s wife, Aisha, once criticised her husband for his languid style, penchant for alienation and making wrong choices in his appointments. She vowed on a BBC Hausa Service programme in October 2016 not to campaign for him again, if the ugly tide did not turn before 2019. Her worry: among 50 people appointed to positions of responsibility, Buhari did not know 45 of them. “Those who didn’t do anything, who don’t even have voter cards, are the ones in position doing everything,” she noted. “What I am afraid for them is the rebellion of 15 million people,” meaning the number of those who voted for him in the 2015 presidential election. The Comptroller-General of Customs, Hameed Ali, recently blamed those in the corridors of powers, widely seen as aliens to the core values that underpinned the birth of the administration and the coalition that brought it to power. Ali’s scathing line: “Every day when you wake up, there is a story that makes you shiver.”
Now, Buhari’s integrity is under siege, his zero tolerance policy on corruption questioned. He has demonstrated lack of political will to bring the tainted members of his inner circle to book or make an example of them. His penchant for making appointments that are lopsided and preponderantly from a section of the country is undermining the legitimacy of his government.
What will it take for Buhari to earn public trust again, recover his tarnished reputation and fulfil the historic mandate he won to tame corruption? In his second inaugural address, Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States, said, “We are to beware of all men who would turn the tasks and the necessities of the nation to their own private profit or use them for the building up of private power.” The firm basis of government is justice, not patronage. Mainagate has ensnarled Malami; he should go.
Buhari needs to adopt radical transparency in his anti-graft war, evict liabilities in his inner circle, appoint the right people to critical posts and personally drive the anti-graft crusade. Unless he drops key operators tainted by corruption scandals and replaces them with individuals that share his burning passion to crush corruption, the crusade will continue to flounder. He needs a clear strategy on the anti-graft war and a coordinator with full presidential backing. Singapore’s Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, recalled how the country’s founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, provided strong political will, “institutionalised a robust, comprehensive anti-corruption framework that spans laws, enforcement, the public service and public outreach.”
The four-point approach included reform and zero tolerance for graft in the public service and the judiciary, generous funding of the anti-graft agency, equal treatment before the law and appointing the right persons to law enforcement positions. It worked. The Inspector-General of Police, the heads of the State Security Service, Police Service Commission, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission and the judiciary should be vigorous anti-corruption enforcers. The AGF as the country’s chief law officer is too strategic to be filled by an individual with doubtful anti-graft credentials.
There should be a clearing house for swift prosecution of high profile suspects, while seamless cooperation that is signally lacking today, should be forged among EFCC, ICPC, AGF’s office, SSS, police, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, National Intelligence Agency and the Presidential Advisory Commission Against Corruption, with intelligence/information shared and prosecution strengthened.
He should transform himself to a truly national leader and become a president for all Nigerians. The President must, as he promised on inauguration day, “belong to nobody” and truly “belong to everybody.” He should stop alienating large sections of the polity through lopsided appointments. We repeat our earlier stance that corruption is not exclusive to financial malfeasance: sectionalism, nepotism and selective justice are definitive acts of corruption. He cannot effectively fight financial corruption against opponents when he continues to entrench an unprecedented level of sectionalism and nepotism.
EDITORIAL
Published November 2, 2017 THE PUNCH
Punch Editorial Board
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