7 Ways to Fight Corruption – Falana

Wednesday, July 12, 2023 9:51 am

Femi Falana, SAN

Mr Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who participated in the Webinar Series No 9 held by Rule of Law Development Foundation on July 10, 2023 set agenda for the new government in Nigeria on how to fight corruption. He advocated that the National Assembly should pass the the Whistle Blower Bill and Witness Protection Bill, the Office of the Accountant-General should resume the publication of the monthly statutory allocations to the federal, state, and local governments. assets declared by all public officers should be published, former governors in the Senate and those who may be in the Federal Executive Council should not be paid pension, the Federal Ministry of Justice should summarize and publish all anti-corruption laws and distribute them to members of the public.

Apart from a general salary review for all public officers and civil servants and direct cash transfer should be made to the 133 million who are extremely poor, Falana said the Peoples Bank should be reestablished and revitalised to afford indigent citizens the opportunity to apply for soft loans.

Below is Falana’s submission:

Anti-corruption Agenda Setting For Nigeria

Introduction

I thank the Rule of Law Development Foundation for convening this webinar to set an agenda for the Tinubu Administration to follow as a blueprint for the fight against corruption and fraud in Nigeria. Since the restoration of civil rule in 1999, civil society organizations have always set an anti-graft agenda for every government. But, the method has failed to achieve the desired objective due to lack of political will on the part of the government to confront corruption headlong. Instead of settling agenda for the new government, which may have developed its own anti-graft agenda, I am going to make a case for agenda setting for the people. Since the people are the victims of corruption, it is their duty to expose and fight official corruption.

Anti-Corruption Agenda of APC

In its manifesto, the All Progressive Congress claims to have “a zero-tolerance approach to corruption-rooting out dishonest public servants and imposing tough sanctions, including jail sentences.” The MohammaduBuhari administration made the fight against corruption one of its three cardinalprogrammes. The Nigerian people were made to believe that the Federal Government would frontally confront the menace of corruption. The people of Africa believed that Nigeria was prepared to lead the continent in the fight against corruption. Hence, the member states of the African Union unanimously appointed President Buhari as the Champion of Anti-Corruption in Africa

But shortly thereafter, Nigeria disappointed Africa as the war against corruption was defeated by the government itself. Many politically exposed persons who were charged for money laundering running to billions of Naira were either freed by the anti-graft agencies or on by the courts on technical grounds. It is on record that the President did not sanction many members of the cabal and the cabinet who were indicted for criminal diversion of huge public funds.

As if that was not enough, former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. AbubakarMalami SAN teamed up with highly corrupt elements to sabotage the anti- corruption campaign. On a regular basis, the Justice Minister filed nolleprosequi applications to terminate the trial of corrupt officials and thereby frustrated officials of the anti-graft agencies from fighting corruption. Thus, the rate of official corruption has increased phenomenally. While confirming Nigeria’s poor ranking in the corruption index, Mr. GarbaShehu, former presidential spokesman, says it is a reflection of Nigerians and not President MuhammaduBuhari. That is an official acknowledgement of the failure of the crusade against corruption.

Obviously dissatisfied with the manifesto of the APC, the candidate of the party in the 2023 presidential election, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu decided to prepare his own manifesto. In the 80-page document, the APC presidential candidate promised to support the “existing anti-corruption institutions” and address the underlying issues of corruption in the oil industry. Apart from planning to commend and protect bona fide hard-working members of the civil service, Asiwaju undertook to continue “the process of weeding out ghost workers, as well as ghost projects and expenditures from the system.”

In a recent public event in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Asiwaju explained how he hoped to fight corruption in the judiciary. According to him, “You don’t expect your judges to live in squalor, to operate in squalor and dispense justice in squalor. This is part of the changes that are necessary. We must fight corruption but we must definitely look at the other side of the coin. If you don’t want your judges to be corrupt, you got to pay attention to their welfare. You don’t want them to operate in hazardous conditions.”

Upon his inauguration as President of Nigeria, Asiwaju suspended the Governor of the Central Bank, Mr. Godwin Emefiele and the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. AbdulrasheedBawa. Both public officers have since been detained without trial by the SSS. Even though no reason has been adduced for the arrest of both suspects it is alleged that they have been linked with corruption and other economic crimes. President Tinubu removed fuel subsidy and approved the floating of the Naira by the Central Bank of Nigeria. According to the President, both policies are designed to curb high level corruption.

Frankly speaking, I am unable to join issues with the Tinubu administration over its anti-corruption policy since it has not been formulated. However, convinced that a neocolonial capitalist government cannot seriously fight corruption, I am compelled to challenge the Rule of Law Development Foundation and other progressive civil society organizations to mobilise the Nigerian people to take control of the war against corruption. More so, that the courts have upheld the right of concerned citizens to fight corruption in the interest of the society.

Duty Of Governments To Fight Corruption

It is submitted by virtue of section 15(5) of the Constitution, the Nigerian State is under a mandatory obligation to abolish corruption and abuse of power. Accordingly, the Federal Government established the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Commission and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission as well as the Code of Conduct Bureau. But out of the 36 States, only Kano and Oyo states have functional anti corruption agencies while the one established by the Lagos State Government is yet to take off.

In several fora, I had criticized State Attorneys-General for abdicating their constitutional duties by giving fiats to the federal anti-graft agencies to prosecute corruption cases relating to the criminal diversion of funds belonging to state governments. My position was anchored on the case of In A.G of Ondo State v. A.G Federation (2002) 9 NWLR (PT 779) 777 where the Supreme Court authoritatively declared that the federal and state governments are empowered to fight corruption by virtue of section 15(5) of the Constitution.

In justifying the removal of fuel subsidy, the federal government has asked the masses to tighten their belts. In justifying the removal of fuel subsidy, the federal government has asked the masses to tighten their belts. As the tightening of belts is one-sided, I was recently compelled to compile the subsidies regularly lavished on captains of industry and other members of the comprador bourgeoisie. Instead of unleashing undeserved excruciating economic pains on the people, I have tasked the federal government to recover not less than $200 billion withheld from the Federation Account by a few corporate bodies and individual public officers.

In addition to the recovery of public funds the federal government should jettison the dollarisation of the Nigerian economy. In GaniFawehinmi v President, Federal Republic of Nigeria (2007) 14 NWLR Pt (1054) 275 the Court of Appeal declared illegal and unconstitutional the payment of salaries and allowances of two ministers in the cabinet of former President OlusegunObasanjo.

Duty Of Citizens to Fight Corruption

Every citizen is legally obligated by virtue of section 24(e) of the Constitution to render assistance to appropriate and lawful agencies in the maintenance of law and order. In Dododo v EFCC (2013) 1 NWLR (Pt 1336) 468, the Court of Appeal rightly held that aggrieved citizens who submit petitions alleging corrupt practices against public officers are entitled to the report of the investigation carried out by the police and anti graft agencies. The Socio Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and other anti-graft NGOs have won many cases in the area of public accountability. As the judgments were ignored by the Federal Government, we call on President Tinubu to ensure that they are obeyed forthwith.

Apart from continuing to engage in public interest litigation to expose corruption, CSOs should encourage citizens to take advantage of the Freedom of Information Act to demand accountability.

The Way Forward

Even though the members of the APC have controlled the National Assembly since 2015, they did not pass the Whistle Blower Bill and Witness Protection Bill. The Federal Audit Bill was passed by the National Assembly in 2018 but it was not assented to by President Buhari. President Tinubu should ensure that these bills are represented and passed by both houses of the National Assembly. These laws would strengthen the fight against corruption;

2. In order to promote public accountability, the Office of the Accountant-General should resume the publication of the monthly statutory allocations to the federal, state, and local governments. The monthly disbursement of ecological funds should also be published;

Assets declared by all public officers should be published to enable citizens to report illegally acquired wealth;

Former governors in the Senate and those who may be in the Federal Executive Council should not be paid pension while receiving salaries and allowances from the Federal Government;

To empower citizens to fight corruption, the Federal Ministry of Justice should summarize and publish all anti-corruption laws and distribute them to members of the public;

There should a general salary review for all public officers and civil servants and direct cash transfer should be made to the 133 million who are extremely poor;