By Ayuba Ahmad
Most members of the public, were taken aback by the news of last Monday’s arrest of Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. There are a number of reasons why many would be shocked by the news.
To the few informed and active political actors, the incident did not come as a surprise because they would have seen it coming. If anything, they would only have been surprised with the timing. Almost two years to 2027, it would appear as rather coming too early.
Those who were taken aback by the fate of Aminu Waziri Tambuwal would have considered the track records of the man from his days as Speaker of the House of Representatives through to his stint as a two-term governor of Sokoto state, 2015-2023.
In all the two instances, the Rt Honourable Tambuwal was not known nor, even rumoured to have stained his integrity by way of sordid financial dealings. Such was his legacy of transparency and accountable leadership at the House of Reps, that he is still being venerated at the National Assembly and, in political circles in the entire country.
The EFCC has said that Tambuwal was invited for questioning over alleged questionable withdrawals from the public treasury amounting to the tune of 189 Billion Naira, at various times during his tenure as governor of Sokoto state, 2015 to 2023. He was detained in the custody of the agency before his admission on administrative bail the following day.
For multiple, plausible reasons, an overwhelming numbers of the public have dismissed the action of the EFCC as politically induced by the opposition ruling APC government.
In justifying the decision to arrest the former Sokoto state governor, an official of the agency was, anonymously quoted in the news media, to have rhetorically asked: ” Do you know what 189 billion Naira can do for Sokoto state and even the country?” True indeed, it is a hefty amount of money that can be used to accomplish a plethora of projects for the benefits of a huge numbers of citizens.
However, the timing of the EFCC action is patently, curious. Why is the action just coming, two clear years after Tambuwal’s exit from office? In other words, why does the EFCC seems to be just waking up from a deep slumber, to the facts of the alleged impropriety involving, as it is, such a staggering sums of money? It depicts a scenario of the agency inadvertently indicting itself of incompetence, or admitting to the more negative of perception of rendering itself as a willing, pliable tool for political witch-hunt, intimidation and vendetta.
Those familiar with political developments in Sokoto state, will note that the allegations against Tambuwal by the EFCC, were the same issues that had been repeatedly raised in the past by political opponents in the state, with the aim of setting the anti graft agency against him.
To its credit, the same EFCC in all the previous instances, had resisted the ploys to be dragged into the political intrigues as an instrument for enhancing narrow partisan goals. The principled and professional stance of the agency wound obviously have resulted from a diligent investigation and, the discovery that the allegations were baseless, frivolous and politically tainted.
The crass, absolute lack of logic and rationale to the allegation, is very glaring. The sum of 189 Billion Naira withdrawn over a period of eight years, translates to imply an average monthly withdrawal of 2 Billion Naira! Throughout the eight-year stint of tambuwal in officer, records reveal that, Sokoto state’s monthly revenue income hovered around 4 Billions on the average every month, and the monthly salary wage bills were at about 2.2 Billion.
If, as alleged by the EFCC, Tambuwal was syphoning about 2 billions each month, it impliedly, goes to mean that the state treasury was always left empty at the end of the day, every month of the eight years. Logically, such a scenario implies that, there were no capital projects initiated and executed, while other vital recurrent expenditures were also abandoned all through his tenure. This is inanity of the highest degree. Certainly, the inanity of the allegation was what informed the decision of the EFCC Sokoto zonal office to dismiss it as a heap of cheap machinations of blackmail and mudslinging.
What then, have changed to inform the recent decision of the EFCC to resurrect a case which, its operatives had examined and put to rest as dead, a couple of years ago? The only fathomable, logical and plausible explanation for the amazing volteface, are the transmutations unraveling on the nation’s political landscape. The political stakes are clearly very high and thus, the corresponding frenzied activities by the actors.
According to statements by the Sokoto state chapter of the PDP, the travails of Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, are not unrelated to his refusal to accept an offer made a few months earlier, by emissaries of the ruling party, the APC for him to switch over from the opposition camp. Recent events would tend to lend credence to this allegation.
Even as it is close to two years to the next election season, the political gladiators have become unusually, agitated, worked up and desperate. At daggers drawn so early in the day, the frightful speed the politicians are embarked on the race to year 2027, portends disturbing omens. One does not need a crystal ball to predict that, the “Night of the Long Knives”, could be coming sooner than later. We may therefore, be merely witnessing the dress rehearsals by the EFCC. Before the others join the fray!
Besides the experience of Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, the EFCC in its other recent actions, has further highlighted a picture of its gradual and, dangerously steady drift from being a statutory institution for fighting corruption and related financial crimes, to becoming a vicious attack dog of the reigning political authorities of the day.
The case of Chief Emeka Ihedioha, former governor of Imo state and that of Senator David Mark, former President of the senate, succinctly lend credence to the sad unwholesome commentary. The two who, like Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, are prominent leaders of the budding opposition political party, the African Democratic Congress, ADC, have been similarly targeted by the EFCC on what, perceptibly, appears to be frivolous and trumped-up allegations.
In the case of Ihedioha for example, the EFCC was reported to have been running helter skelter asking government officials in Imo state to assist with any information and evidences of corruption against him during his seven-month sojourn as governor. What then, is the agency investigating if, it is just presently, rummaging for reasons to nail him? Why the haste to “invite” Ihedioha before the conclusion of investigation? Clearly, the sums are not adding up.
The EFCC is “investigating” Senator David Mark’s eight-year tenure as Senate President, 2007 to 2015-+ten years after he left that office! For goodness sake, what image of itself is the EFCC projecting by this whimsical, blatant display of infantile chicanery? What is happening to what otherwise, ought to be a respectable and awe-inspiring institution? Surely, there is the need for an urgent and critical self appraisal by those presently at the helm in the EFCC in order to check the rapidly declining confidence of Nigerians and the rest of the world in the agency.
In response to the barrage of unflattering comments on its recent assaults on members of the opposition political parties, ADC in particular, the EFCC has, expectedly, dismissed such opinions as: “self-serving, diversionary and idle”
In the words of its chairman, Ola Olukoyode, “If I am not condemned for investigating both former and serving APC governors and Ministers, I should not be condemned for also investigating opposition figures. Fraud is fraud. Corruption is corruption.” Good talk even though, not a few would interpret Mr Olukoyode’s retort as the expected posturing of an ensnared Chief Executive in a tight corner.
Be that as it may, the EFCC does not appear to have achieved much in defending itself against the stacks of allegations of partisan and selective justice and of embarking on a course of “intimidating opposition leaders ahead of the 2027 elections.”
Surely, the EFCC needs to, and must do much more than it has done so far, to repudiate and acquit itself of the scathing accusation of the ADC that, the agency’s apparent interest in “long-concluded tenures of opposition politicians”, while ignoring, “fresher, well documented cases involving APC members, is indicative of selective justice.”
The “invitation” and the one day incarceration of Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, the invitation to Emeka Ihedioha and the frantic search for evidence of corruption against him from officials of Imo state as well as, the declared intention to “invite” Senator David Mark for questioning over his tenure as Senate President, ten years after leaving the Senate, all portray the EFCC as being more focussed on the leading lights of the opposition parties in the country.
One does not have to be a “self-serving, and idle” member of the opposition to align with the opinions that accuse the Olukoyode’s EFCC of brazen and palpable partisan disposition towards the APC. The grounds for the damning verdict are crystal clear.
For instance, not a few pundits believe that former Delta state governor Ifeanyi Okowa has been covered with the protective coat of immunity from further “investigation” and, “invitation” by the EFCC due to his jumping from the boat of the PDP to that of the APC.
Similarly seen to be now safe and free from the sins of corruption, are a coterie of the leadership and members of the National Assembly, who hitherto, were guests of the EFCC and are who are not known to have been cleared of the multiple weighty allegations of fraud and corruption against them.
At the end of the day, the inevitable verdict that its leadership will not find palatable is that, recent actions of the EFCC has portrayed it as fast veering off the tracks of an anti-corruption institution, into a pack of hounds, barking, harassing and threatening to pounce on individuals perceived as threats to their overlords.
However, while baring its intimidating fangs to threaten and browbeat members of the opposition to fall in line, by tacitly or, openly embracing the APC, the leadership of the EFCC and, the puppeteers pulling the strings from behind the scenes, must be alerted to the potential dangerous consequences of their actions.
First, those currently calling the shots at the EFCC must avoid playing too much to the gallery to the point of total ruination of the agency as a respectable body with the crucial responsibility of fighting the cancerous malady of corruption and fraud.
This demands that, Mr Ola Olukoyode must begin to walk his talk that: “Corruption is corruption and, fraud is fraud.” This, in other words, implies the admission that some of recent actions of the EFCC under his watch, fell off the mark of due diligence and transparency.
Very pertinently, both members of the ruling party and those of the opposition, should be conscious of their roles as strategic stakeholders in the peace and stability of the country and, significantly, in the historic voyage of nurturing and entrenching the culture of democracy in the country.
Intimidating opposition political parties into silence or, squeezing them out of existence altogether, tantamount to obliterating the defining spirit of multiparty democracy. At that stage, democracy gives way to dictatorship, autocracy and totalitarianism.
Alternatively, the society is overtaken by the whirlwind of anarchy which, inevitably is a path leading to the greater catastrophe of statelessness. Read, Sudan and Somalia. Thus translating to mean that, the transient benefits, would eventually turn out to be a phyrric victory. COUNTERPRODUCTIVE.
Ayuba Ahmad, a Kaduna based public commentator wrote in from Muhammed Yusuf lere street, Doctors Quarters, Kaduna.
