There is a musical score that runs thus: “Some people/ Them be barbers/ They crape Naija [Nigeria] kwaryan mbollo [skin cut]. I don’t remember who the songster is. Not important but his succinct message is. There are thieves, like barbers who have robbed Nigeria so completely that it has nothing. There is a major difference though. The barber would ask you what style of a hair cut you would like. The thief doesn’t ask his victim how much he could offer. He wants every kobo of his money, jewelry, laptop and handsets. Complete de-robbing.
It was former President Muhammadu Buhari who, in his first term in office, warned that if Nigeria didn’t “kill” corruption, “corruption will kill Nigeria”. He duly made the fight on stealing from the treasury one of three cardinal platforms of his government. After two terms of eight years, it was clear, however, that he hadn’t destroyed the hydra. Cut off one tentacle, a new one immediately grows in its place. Buhari never secured any high convictions for corruption in his time but he scandalously released from prison two former state governors imprisoned by another government on health grounds. He himself had warned that corruption would fight back. That was it! To be fair, Nigeria did climb up one or two rungs from the corruption cesspool, according to Transparency International’s corruption index report but no further ever since.
The government’s Economic and other Crimes Commission [EFCC] crusading against and fighting corruption in high public political places has kept huge volumes of suspected former political office holders accused of abusing their positions. But it hasn’t been able to send a significant number to jail mainly because it lacks legal capacity to do so. For instance, the commission levelled almost 30 fraud charges against a former Delta state governor James Ibori [1999-2007], but was unable to prove a single point until the man jumped bail and escaped to the United Arab Emirates and eventually landed in the United Kingdom. There he was arrested on a money laundering charge, tried and jailed within a year. Two, it hasn’t managed itself to avoid the corruption tar, with several of its heads booted out of office for helping themselves to recovered stolen funds.
One thing, however, the Efcc is very good at. Its rollercoaster pursuit of corruption suspects, complete with sirens and media trains in tow, has become a sort of melodrama. Suspects’ homes are invaded at dawn by armed policemen and troops. These invasions are filmed and the clips are sent to TV stations to air. Take the case of former Kogi state governor Yahaya Bello. He is being chased by Efcc over a N80 billion fraud charge. Unable to serve him court papers and an arrest want, Efcc declared him wanted. On his own part, Bello has abandoned his many cars and resorted to taking rides on motorbikes to evade recognition and arrested. The chase through the streets of Abuja has made the commission’s drivers instant Formular 1 experts.
The new Tinubu administration, which will be one year in office next month, isn’t saying as much on corruption as was its immediate predecessor. However, the arrest and ongoing trial of Buhari’s CBN governor Godwin Emefiele and ex governor Bello strongly suggest the war on graft is very much on if only cosmetic. One thing though we know for sure. The Efcc’s inability to ‘land’ a really big fish in jail has led to a groundswell of cynicism among the nation’s youth. On the streets, their conversations centre only on how they want to make “lots of money” in no time. With this mindset, no wonder the insecurity curve is spiralling out of control. And the barber population sure to double too. Abdulkareem Idrees sang “Nigeria jaga jaga” and was pursued into exile by President Olusegun Obasanjo. Now we have “Them be barbers”. Both mirror the currency of the problem. What next?
