How FG Butchered its Anti-Graft War: Antidote From History

President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo

Paul AremoOluwa

Corruption is not a vice peculiar to the civilisation of modern man and his society. For all centuries it has been a thorn in the flesh of just persons. It strangles justice and systematically leads to the breakdown of law and order. The FG’s anti-corruption campaign suffered a lot of setbacks recently: anti-corruption agencies lost court cases, fisticuffs ensued between the executive and legislature, the presidency and the judiciary, blames were traded between the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) Professor Itse Sagay (SAN) and Attorney-General of the federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN). Where do we go from here?

The vice and current acting president of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo said, “While the wise learn from history, experience remains the best teacher for a fool.” One perhaps wonder if this quote is applicable to the FG in its anti-graft war. Also, in a 1948 speech to the House of Commons, Winston Churchill paraphrased George Santayana in these words, “Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” History is strategic to humans and societies for development. Ancient history can help Nigeria fight corruption decisively.

People know the Bible say many things; only few see it as an historical book. Fewer regard its historic lessons as a panacea to the many troubles of human societies. “The excessive scepticism shown toward the Bible by important historical schools of the 18th and 19th centuries, certain phases which still appear periodically, has been progressively discredited. Discovery after discovery has established the accuracy of innumerable details, and has brought increased recognition to the value of the Bible as a source of history.” William F. Albright (renowned archaeologist). Former director of the Australian Institute of Archaeology, Dr Clifford Wilson said, “The Bible is the most accurate history textbook the world has ever seen.” Which leads us to ask, what has the bible got to do with the FG’s anti-corruption war?

God began a campaign against corruption long before man recognised it as threat to human peace and coexistence. God instructed Jeremiah about the 620’s BCE to be the interface between him and Israel as he addressed corruption in the nation’s system of governance. The book of Jeremiah is yet to lose its relevance to us today because God said to Jeremiah, I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. He was to convey God’s stance on corruption to Israel, and all nations (and races) in prospect. How human governments adhere to Jeremiah’s written account will uproot, tear down, destroy, overthrow, or either build and plant their nations. Therefore if the FG must go back to its drawing board like Itse Sagay advised, it must take cues from the divine nuggets found in the book of Jeremiah seriously and act on it. I present three antidotes used by God Himself:

1. Restore the Pedestal of Truth

“Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and take notice! Seek in her broad squares to see if you can find a man, one who does justice, who seeks truth, sincerity, and faithfulness; and I will pardon [Jerusalem — for one uncompromisingly righteous person].” Jeremiah 5:1 AMP

As opposed to modern beliefs, the problem of ancient Israel is not as a result of under performing religious rites but the suppression of justice and truth. Truth and justice are internal cohesive force that binds a nation’s citizen (tribes) together like overlaying fabric, –tiny holes of differences are visible but not enough to cause a tear on their own. The current anti-corruption war would have altered the history of Nigeria if the presidency had used truth (evidences) as a weapon rather than a mere catalogue. When the presidency refused to publish the names of looters like it earlier promised, they poisoned their campaign. It was a betrayal of trust and an injustice to the good people of Nigeria. When the presidency offered looters immunity from public wrath by not disclosing the identities of all looters, the Nigerians masses lost faith in the zero tolerance stance of the presidency on corruption. We would never know all those who robbed us blind and abused public trust. But God worked the opposite way in his anti-corruption campaign:

"At that time," says the Lord, "They shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves. They shall spread them before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and which they have served and after which they have walked, which they have sought and which they have worshiped. They shall not be gathered nor buried; they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. Then death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of those who remain of this evil family, who remain in all the places where I have driven them," says the Lord of hosts.” Jeremiah 8:1-3 NKJV

Bones are evidence of decay, filth and corruption. God told Israel, He would dig out the hidden and buried scandals (graves) of corrupt Ex-presidents, Head of States, ministers (kings and princes), legislators (priests), judiciaries (prophets) and citizenry and he will spread their secrets before all eyes, never to be hidden (buried) again. God fulfilled His words in the days of King Josiah. The presidency squandered political capital by recanting on the publishing of looter’s names. Most Nigerians saw the president’s 360 degree turn around as a way to shield loyalists in the APC camp.

Though God loved the king David, a man after my heart, He called him. But when David abused power (as commander-in-chief of Israeli armed forces) by systematically plotting the murder of Uriah, God raised from the Judiciary Nathan, a prophet to give verdict of his misdemeanour. He never shielded David, the process of justice and truth wasn’t truncated. In Ukraine two corrupt government officials were handcuffed and arrested during a live interview on television broadcast, the whole nation was watching.

The duty of the presidency is never to decide the flow of the anti-corruption war but make the process transparent. I dare say we are where we are today because of this singular mistake of insincerity and not the recession as widely claimed. Nigerians would have endured hunger and sufferings if truth had prevailed in the anti-graft war. At least we would suffer in hope. “I’m for Truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it’s for or against.” -Malcolm X. Restoring the pedestal of truth builds the bridge of trust.

2. Unchain The Law

Not only did the presidency hide the identities of looters, but made a clause that allowed looters who refunded loots evade the wrath of the Law. By that exception the sharp blade of the Law was made blunt, useless and good for nothing. The body language of the presidency implied utter recklessness and insensitivity to the masses demands for true justice. The institution of the Law was rubbished to become a toothless bulldog with an aggressive look but couldn’t bite or bark at a thief. This led to the loss of confidence in the Buhari led administration and the feeling of hopelessness in the polity. Suicide death increased, kidnappings and ritual killings rose drastically as a result of the breach of trust. We can only capture our plight with these words, “Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in purpose they become dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.

If the Law had ran its course some corrupt politicians would choose to die than deal with shame. Looters would try fleeing the country to break for an escape and others would spend the remainder of their lives in jail. But now they are either holding on to some political appointments, public offices and others would jostle to hold public offices again. When they do, be rest assured it is not to mend the damages done but to recover what they looted before, if not more. Here is what God told Jeremiah when the Law is not applicable in all cases of corruption:

“How can you say, We are wise, and we have the written law of the Lord [and are learned in its language and teachings]? Behold, the truth is, the lying pen of the scribes has made of the law a falsehood (a mere code of ceremonial observances). The wise men shall be put to shame; they shall be dismayed and taken [captive]. Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord, and what wisdom and broad, full intelligence is in them?” Jeremiah 8:8-9 AMP

Therefore what the presidency had done had led to a double edge sword that will not spare its wielder. The foolishness of blunting the blades of the Law, as God warned, and the economic recession had sprinted back to hunt the presidency and the Apc. The agitations for secession, hatred, Fulani herdsmen conflict, distrust, ethnic tension and disunity are a practical result of the drivel the FG made of the Law, as Frederick Douglass said, “Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organised conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”

3. Establishing Local Connection and Orientation

The final reason why the Presidency is losing its anti-corruption campaign is because it fails to see that corruption is not a public office syndrome (POS) but a national problem. God had issues with the prophets (Judiciary), priests (legislators), king and princes (executive) and people (masses). God told Jeremiah that the streets of the nation of Israel reek of corruption too and not its public offices alone. Corruption had allies in every sector of the nation, it had become a culture. One thing with culture is the difficulty to part with it.

As a result, fighting corruption leads to fighting people in the system rather than the systems itself or just groups of individuals. This is what former Economic and Financial crimes commission, Nuhu Ribadu meant when he said, “When you fight corruption, corruption fights back.” Which President Buhari reiterated in Marrakech, Morocco saying, “Corruption fighting vigorously back.” These sayings are upon the premise of ancient wisdom, that’s why Jeremiah was locked up and almost killed for going against the culture of corruption (See Jeremiah 26:8-13). Therefore, Jeremiah had a tough time convincing the oppressed masses about national awakening against corruption. The nation of Israel was in the mess our nation is today. Corrupt politicians and public office holders are shielded not by armed personnel but by the same oppressed masses when they fail to act. If the masses will not join the fight against corruption the executive cannot succeed. Period!

“Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and take notice! Seek in her broad squares to see if you can find a man, one who does justice, who seeks truth, sincerity, and faithfulness; and I will pardon [Jerusalem — for one uncompromisingly righteous person].” Jeremiah 5:1 AMP

God told the prophet to take the anti-corruption campaign back to the streets where governance and politics muster its sheer strength. Globally, how anti-corruption campaign fare is a product of the level of awakening at the grassroots. At the grassroots who are those seeking truth and justice? If none exists the executive has to awaken the masses. Bring the message down to the marketplace, to the street, to religious places. Set propaganda against corruption and spread the word till the masses perceive the faintest whisper of corruption, till they can tell its form with their eyes closed and can feel it like the passing of the wind. That’s the job of the executive. The presidency was never to fight alone but rouse the masses to act.

At the local government level the common man has been incapacitated in his thoughts, hence he forfeits his rights to demand transparency and accountability in governance. Where accountability and transparency is lost, what you have is the breeding ground for all corrupt practices. This is the lesson the presidency is learning at the expense of justice. The NUJ recalled suspended judges and the legislative arm allegedly padded 2016 and 2017 budget because the masses don’t know how they fit into the anti-graft war. I say to the executive, go to the streets and public squares like the prophet and muster up a mob. It is when the people awake that they can get the justice they deserve. “Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you are a man, you take it.” Malcolm X

In conclusion, the previous and current administrations had made anti-graft war look like rocket science when it is not. We find ourselves asking, what do we do about corruption? Why does it grip this nation like the tentacles of an octopus? When God saw Israel abandoned his principles and refused to fight corruption, He graphically described their gradual collapse using the allegory of metals refining, “Jeremiah, I have made you a tester of metals, that you may determine the quality of my people. They are the worst kind of rebel, full of slander. They are as hard as bronze and iron, and they lead others into corruption. The bellows fiercely fan the flames to burn out the corruption. But it does not purify them, for the wickedness remains. I will label them 'Rejected Silver (dross without good metal),' for I, the Lord, am discarding them.” Jeremiah 6:27-30 NLT

Will the presidency stage a comeback? Are we really prepared to fight corruption? Do we have the guts to follow through no matter who gets axed? I leave you with this brilliant quote,

“Election days come and go. But the struggle of the people to create a government which represents all of us and not just one percent – a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice – that struggle continues.” -Bernie Sanders

Contact: aremoOluwapaul@gmail.com