President Muhammadu Buhari


By Yemi Adebowale; [email protected]; 07013940521 (text only)

I have spent quality time reading the Country Report on Human Rights released in Washington D.C last week, encompassing a damning assessment of Nigeria under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari. This 48-page report prepared and made public by the United States Department of State was unequivocal about persistent impunity at all levels of government in Nigeria, lack of transparency of the Buhari administration and massive corruption by government officials under Buhari’s watch. I was not shocked by the report. This handwriting has been on the Nigerian wall in the last 35 months.

In the 48-page report, the US was emphatic that the Buhari government is one big mess with corruption, lamenting thus: “Although the law provides criminal penalties for conviction of official corruption, the government did not implement the law effectively, and officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. Massive, widespread and pervasive corruption affected all levels of government and the security services.
“EFCC’s arrests and indictments of politicians continued throughout the year, implicating a significant number of opposition political figures and leading to allegations of partisan motivations on the part of the EFCC… In its pursuit of corruption, the EFCC often did not observe all pertinent due process safeguards. In November, the Economic Community of West African States Court of Justice declared unlawful the arrest and detention in 2015 of former national security adviser, Sambo Dasuki.
“A court ordered him released on bail in a case brought by the EFCC for the alleged diversion of N13.6 billion ($$443.2 million) intended to purchase military material during the Jonathan administration. Despite the court order, he remained in detention.”

The report further noted that government did not often take steps to prosecute officials who perpetuated impunity, whether in the security forces or elsewhere in government: “Authorities generally did not hold police, military, or other security force personnel accountable for the use of excessive or deadly force or for the deaths of persons in custody.”

The report stated that respect for human rights generally remained appalling in Nigeria and identified the following as the most significant human rights abuses: extrajudicial and arbitrary killings; disappearances and arbitrary detentions; torture, particularly in detention facilities, including sexual exploitation and abuse; use of children by some security elements, looting, and destruction of property; civilian detentions in military facilities, often based on flimsy evidence; denial of fair public trial; executive influence on the judiciary; infringement on citizens’ privacy rights; restrictions on freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and movement etc.

I am particularly interested in the part of this report that x-rayed corruption in Nigeria. For me, the US Department of State did not say anything new. However, it reinforced the expose of genuine patriots about sleaze in this government. Patriots have spent the last 35 months screaming to high heaven about the corruption and impunity of this government.

With the way the cabal has been running the show in the last 35 months, this administration may end up being the most corrupt in the history of this country. Corruption stories like Mainagate, Barugate, NEMAgate, Babachirgate, NHISgate, Abachalootgate and the rest of them are ineffaceable.

Let’s talk about subsidy payment. Before Buhari assumed office, Nigerians were told that the payment of petrol subsidy by the Jonathan government was one big fraud. Shockingly, this government has been spending more on petrol subsidy than its predecessor. Junior Minister for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, recently confirmed that petrol subsidy payment had risen to N1.4 trillion annually. The latest figure means that an average of N3.76 billion is paid daily to ghost petrol suppliers. This government has now given subsidy payment a fraudulent name i.e. “under-recovery” payment. Nigerians will love to know these suppliers and how much each gets as subsidy.

Spending a monstrous $5.8 billion on the importation of 9.8 million metric tons of petrol in four months – October 2017 to January 2018 – is outrageous. This means that this government spent about $17 billion on the importation of petrol last year. Which corruption is bigger than this? Selling petrol at N145 per litre after spending so much on subsidy is massive corruption. Nigerians outside Lagos and Abuja pay more? What about the sleaze in the NNPC that saw contracts running into billions of USD allegedly awarded exclusively by its GMD, Maikanti Baru, without due process.

Some of them include crude term contracts valued at over $10 billion; DSDP contracts valued at over $5 billion; the AKK pipeline contract valued at approximately $3 billion; various financing allocation-funding contracts with the NOCs valued at over $3 billion and various NPDC production service contracts valued at over $3 billion. Kachikwu further alleged that during the first year of Baru’s tenure, no contract was cleared by the NNPC board, despite legal and procedural requirements that all contracts above $20 million would need to be reviewed and approved by the board. The cabal in charge of this administration had to tighten the noose on Kachikwu, forcing him to recant.

Plunging Nigeria into unprecedented foreign debt within 35 months without tangible things to show for it is corruption. But for persistent protest by Nigerians, Babachir Lawal, the legendary grass cutter, would have remained as the SGF after mismanaging about N2.5 billion in the account of the Presidential Initiative on the North East, PINE. Our dear Buhari gave him a soft landing instead of prosecuting him. What about the sleaze allegations against the reinstated Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, Prof. Usman Yusuf? A public servant under investigation by anti-graft agencies is reinstated with fiat.
At the National Emergency Management Agency, its Director-General, Mustapha Maihaja, is struggling to explain how he expended about N23 billion in one year on emergency activities. Federal lawmakers are still interrogating him.

Maihaja is struggling to account for the N5.9 billion spent on food intervention in the North-east; another N3.1 billion for food intervention in the same North-east; N1.6 billion spent on Libya returnees; N1.6 billion spent on flood intervention for 16 states; the payment of about N800 million demurrage on the rice donated by the Chinese government and the N10 billion received from Ecological Funds.
What about the well-orchestrated plan to re-loot the recovered Abacha loot under Buhari’s watch? Despite outcry, attempts are still on to pay dubious fees amounting to $17 million to two lawyers for the recovery of $321 million, stolen by former military ruler, Sani Abacha. The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, allegedly engaged the two Nigerian lawyers to secure the release of the loot, after the job had been completed by Enrico Monfrini, a Swiss lawyer hired by the Nigerian government to work on the recovery.

It was no surprise when the 2017 Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International revealed that sleaze in Nigeria was more severe under the Buhari administration.

Nigeria was also downgraded by TI from 136 to 148 in the CPI. What a country!

Source

Let’s talk about subsidy payment. Before Buhari assumed office, Nigerians were told that the payment of petrol subsidy by the Jonathan government was one big fraud. Shockingly, this government has been spending more on petrol subsidy than its predecessor. Junior Minister for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, recently confirmed that petrol subsidy payment had risen to N1.4 trillion annually. The latest figure means that an average of N3.76 billion is paid daily to ghost petrol suppliers. This government has now given subsidy payment a fraudulent name i.e. “under-recovery” payment. Nigerians will love to know these suppliers and how much each gets as subsidy.

Spending a monstrous $5.8 billion on the importation of 9.8 million metric tons of petrol in four months – October 2017 to January 2018 – is outrageous. This means that this government spent about $17 billion on the importation of petrol last year. Which corruption is bigger than this?

When one reads things like this and remembers the thousands of Nigerian youths foraging for survival in and outside of Nigeria, real tears start to flow freely down ones cheeks.
I read a story about a Nigerian youth who was burnt to death in one of the African countries because the locals who are known as the worst xenophobes in the world couldn't understand that he ran a shop; the type of shops Igbo youths run inside Nigeria. His success baffled them, so, they accused him of dealing in drugs and set him ablaze. He was burnt to death. That boy should have been in Nigeria, but he had to leave to "hustle" outside Nigeria.  He died for his efforts. Meanwhile billions of dollars get tossed around in the country of his birth. And the people doing that gleefully declare for a second term in office.

Just imagine the wonders that these billions can do in the lives of Nigerian youths.
But apparently the people wasting these moneys spare no thoughts about Nigerian youths.

It is very easy to keep quiet and pretend that one doesn't care, but if one really cares about the country and her people, keeping quiet proves impossible.

For now, I pray that someone like Omoyele Sowore will somehow become Nigeria's president next year so that a lot of those responsible for this type of brigandage will face justice.