Eleven months of President Bola Tinubu’s administration have been, in every aspect of it, from the economy to politics, social, and security, an eventful one. Right before he moved into the Presidential Villa, Tinubu, at the inauguration ground in Eagles Square, declared the end of an exceedingly flawed and corrupt fuel subsidy regime.
After eight years of Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, and despite a seemingly expression of dissatisfaction in the February 25 Presidential election by many Nigerians, the country was in dire need of revival.
Despite the hardship the fuel subsidy removal was beginning to bring to Nigerians, many, including detractors of Tinubu, sensed wit and vigour in the new administration. Another apparent blow to corruption in Tinubu’s few weeks in power was the collapse of the multiple exchange rate regime, which many experts believe became an avenue for rich and powerful Nigerians to amass wealth by leveraging the arbitrage between the official exchange and the parallel or black market. Before Tinubu’s monetary policy took off, the Commander In Chief suspended indefinitely the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, who has since been replaced with Olayemi Cardoso.
While supporters could say Emefiele’s suspension marked the beginning of Tinubu’s anti-corruption campaign, some critics of the President have alleged that the continuous detention and investigation of Emefiele since June 9, 2023, is more or less a vendetta for the ex-CBN Chief’s action of cash crunch, which Tinubu claimed was meant to stop him from winning the election.
Going into the 2023 Presidential election, Godwin Emefiele, with the approval of then President, Muhammadu Buhari, introduced a naira redesign policy for the country’s high denominations – N200, N500, and N1000. The policy, expected to mop up excessive cash in circulation and reduce inflation, was also believed to be a strategy by the Buhari administration to prevent vote buying. Although this was being implemented by the APC-led administration, Tinubu’s party, the former Governor of Lagos, faulted and claimed it was being introduced to sabotage his victory.
“They hoarded money, they hoarded naira; we will go and vote and we will win. Even if they changed the ink on naira notes. Whatever their plans, it will come to naught. We are going to win,” Tinubu said during a campaign rally in Abeokuta.
Not surprising to some, Tinubu suspended Emefiele just days after he was sworn in. But is Emefiele’s continued detention and investigation justified? Is Tinubu dedicated to fighting corruption or is it a feud?
The allegations levelled against Emefiele are weighty, and the discoveries of the special investigative panel set up by President Tinubu should not be dismissed as political revenge.
First, among other startling discoveries, was that Emefiele, without approval, held billions in at least 593 foreign bank accounts. According to the special investigation panel, “Emefiele invested Nigeria’s money without authorisation,” with one UK bank account alone hoarding 543 million pounds, equivalent to ₦658 billion. The panel also claimed that Emefiele used proxies to acquire Union Bank of Nigeria, as well as Keystone Bank, without any evidence of payment. In a recent fresh charge, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) accused Emefiele of approving the printing of N684,590,000 at the rate of N18.96 billion.
Another high-profile case under Olá Olukoyede, who was appointed as Chairman of EFCC by Tinubu, is Yahaya Bello. Bello, who was the Governor of Kogi State, is being accused by the anti-graft agency of being involved in a financial scandal of about N80.2 billion.
Olukoyede, during a media briefing on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, said that Bello withdrew $720,000 from the State account to pay for his child’s school fees in advance.
“Yahaya Bello moved money directly from the government to a Bureau de Change and used it to pay for his child’s school fees in advance,” Olukoyede said. The commission has also had Hadi Sirika, the former Minister of Aviation, on its radar and arrested him on Tuesday over an ongoing N8 billion money laundering probe.
As commendable as these corruption pursuits are, it is not new. For instance, since Orji Uzor Kalu left office as Governor of Abia State in 2007, the EFCC has been on his tail. Yet his case has not been completed as he continues to serve as a lawmaker in the Senate.
Godswill Akpabio, Nigeria’s Senate President and a former governor of the oil-rich Niger Delta state of Akwa Ibom, came under investigation by the EFCC and was arrested less than six months after he handed over power in 2015 for diverting over ₦100 billion from the state treasury. Although he was arrested again in 2021 and grilled by the commission, Akpabio’s corruption scandal remains unresolved as he continues to occupy his seat as Nigeria’s third-highest-ranking official.
The list of active politicians with corruption scandals, some of whom have close ties with the President, like Atiku Bagudu, who the US accused of helping a former dictator Sani Abacha loot the country of billions of dollars in the 1990s, but now serves as Minister of Budget, is long.
If Tinubu’s statement, “Nigeria will be impartially governed according to the constitution and the rule of law,” which he made during his inaugural speech, is to be taken into account, then his corruption fight should be holistic, not selective.
More importantly, the logical conclusion of even the ‘selected cases’ within a reasonable time, and the eventual prosecution of those found guilty of corruption, is what matters to many Nigerians more than the media attention their cases generate.