President Buhari departs Abuja to United Kingdom on a 10-day vacation on 19th January, 2017.Outspoken Nigerian Senator, Shehu Sani, on Tuesday, summarised President Muhammadu Buhari’s war against corruption with few words.
“Corruption in the Judiciary and others is treated with insecticide while corruption in the government is treated with deodorant,” Mr. Sani said after a letter written by President Buhari was read on the floor of the Senate.
Nigerian Senators last year asked the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, to resign after they indicted him of corruption and fraud.
The Senators in an interim report said a company linked to Mr. Lawal had received at least N200 million contracts to cut grass in internationally displaced persons’camps across the northeast where Boko Haram terrorists had rendered at least two million people homeless, but it did not use the money for the purpose. This happened, the Senators said, while many displaced persons were dying of hunger.
The interim report urged Mr. Lawal to resign or be sacked by President Buhari. He should also be prosecuted, the report added.
However, in a letter read at the Senate by Senate President Bukola Saraki on Tuesday, President Buhari rejected the Senators’ recommendations and absolved Mr. Lawal of fraud and corruption. Mr. Lawal’s office is in charge of the Presidential Initiative on North East, PINE.
President Buhari said he could not sack Mr. Lawal because the report of the Senate Ad hoc committee on “Mounting humanitarian crisis in the North East” was signed by three of nine members of the committee. He added that SGF was not given fair hearing to defend himself and was not invited by the committee before his indictment.
But Senator Sani who chaired the ad hoc committee erupted in anger immediately after the letter was read.
He disproved the President’s claims and said Mr. Buhari’s defense smacked of double standards. According to him, seven members, not three as claimed by the president, signed the report. He said Mr. Lawal was invited to appear before the hearing of the committee and SGF’s office secretary received and acknowledged the invitation.
Mr. Sani said advert was placed in three newspapers for Mr. Lawal and other parties involved to appear.
“Corruption in the Judiciary and others is treated with insecticide while corruption in the government is treated with deodorant,” he said, adding that he would provide evidence that Mr. Lawal was invited to the Senate through the clerk.
Mr. Buhari also asked the Senate to confirm Mr. Ibrahim Magu, the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, even though the secret police had indicted him last year.
According to the Department of State Services, Mr. Magu, had failed the integrity test and could not lead the anti-corruption war in the country.
Based on the DSS letter last year, the Senate rejected his nomination. But Mr. Buhari renominated him, asking Senators to wave aside allegations against him.
There have been many other allegations, including the ones against the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, that he used money from his office while Goodluck Jonathan was in power, to acquire property in Dubai.
Last week, policemen stormed the office of online newspaper, Premium Times and arrested its publisher and a reporter. Mr. Buratai had earlier asked the newspaper to retract the story. But instead of going to court, the journalists were arrested at gunpoint.
President Buhari’s chief of staff has also been alleged to be corrupt. The President has reacted by looking the other way, many say.
The Presidency had said that it is fair in its war against corruption but the opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP, has said, the President is just after his perceived political opponents like the former National Security Adviser, Mr. Sambo Dasuki.
He is being tried for corruption, but several courts had granted him bails but the administration of President Buhari has refused to obey any.
Those who listened to President Buhari on Tuesday talk about fairness and fair hearing might have been looking over their shoulders.