A GOVERNMENT DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF
embarrassment for the government.
Even though the President is eager to blame the wobbling anti-corruption war on judges, defence lawyers and the accused persons, it had refused to see inter-agencies rivalry as a clog in the wheel of progress.
The Justice Ministry had openly accused the EFCC of frustrating the prosecution high-profile cases. It accused the commission of breaching the rules guiding prosecution of high level corruption cases being handled by the commission.
The minister’s office in a letter to Magu sought for the compliance with the regulation on the prosecution of “serious” cases, usually understood to mean high-profile investigations.
Malami accused Magu of breaching section 10(1) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Enforcement) Regulations 2010 which mandates the EFCC to forward the outcome of investigations along with its recommendations to the AGF in cases or complaints that are “serious or complex”.
A case is considered “serious or complex” if it has significant international dimension, involves money or assets of a value exceeding N50 million or requires specialised knowledge of financial, commercial, fiscal or regulatory matters such as the operations of the markets, banking systems, trusts or tax regimes.
It is also considered serious if it involves allegations of fraudulent activities against numerous victims, involves a significant loss of money by a ministry or department or public body, is likely to be of widespread public concern or involves an alleged misconduct which amounts to economic sabotage.
But the EFCC chairman allegedly ignored the Attorney General. The commission’s officials believe Malami is seeking to take over the prosecution of cases handled by the commission in order to water down the anti-graft war, an allegation which the minister denied.
At a point, the dispute between Malami and Magu degenerated further when the Special Assistant to the President on Prosecution, Mr Okoi Obono-Obla, said that Malami would report Magu and Ekpo Nta, chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to the Presidency for breaching the rules.
He accused the agencies of withholding the case files of more than 35 former governors and senators from the AGF.
Obono-Obla said the failure to forward the files to the AGF since July 2016 when the request was made had caused a setback to the anti-graft war, blaming the strings of losses recorded in high-profile cases on the “breach”. He also accused the EFCC and ICPC of failing to cooperate with Malami, which had led to the loss of some high-profile corruption cases.
But EFCC’s head of legal department, GK Latona, denied the allegation of not cooperating with the AGF, maintaining that “we are not working at cross purposes with the office of the Attorney General of the Federation; we are cooperating with them. We have a wide range of corruption cases in concert with state agencies.”
He also said the Attorney-General’s office has the right to initiate new high-profile corruption cases and investigate them without waiting for cases initiated by the EFCC.
The suspension of Nigeria from the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units has been another source of disagreement between the EFCC and the justice minister.
Since 2006 when the Nigerian Financial Intelligent Unit was established, it had been under the EFCC. Although it was expected to be independent of the EFCC, this however was not the case. While Malami is making effort to remove the unit from the EFCC in compliance with the Egmont Group’s standards, the leadership of the EFCC appeared to favour the present status quo.
Section 1(2)(C) of the EFCC Act stipulates that the commission is the designated Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in Nigeria, which is charged with the responsibility of coordinating the various institutions involved in the fight against money laundering and enforcement of all laws dealing with economic and financial crimes in Nigeria.
The spokesman for the justice minister, Mrs Salihu Isah once wrote a piece where he accused the EFCC of frustrating his boss’ efforts to make the NFIU an independent institution.
According to him EFCC is the NFIU. Without a clear legal framework, it is obvious that the NFIU, cannot function independent of the EFCC as required by the Egmont Group.
He said: “It is in line with the new trend and in consonance with international best practice, that the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN through a memo numbered HAGF/SH/2016/Vol.1/2 sent to President Muhammadu Buhari dated 5th January, 2016 and titled, ‘Request to Transmit Two (2) Bills to the National Assembly’ referred Mr. President to the bills.”
He then went ahead to accuse Magu of frustrating efforts to liberate the NFIU from EFCC’s claws.
He said: “However, it is sad tale to tell how the Acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu-led EFCC has frustrated these efforts and even had to resort to blackmail in some instances oftentimes, alleging that the AGF and the Ministry were all out to impede the government’s anti-corruption drive. Magu and other EFCC officials; and a times through online publications; had at one time or the other accused the minister of trying to compromise the war. They have always perceived the office of AGF as a threat instead of addressing the issues related to the best strategy to fight corruption advocated by the AGF.”
He noted that during the House of Representatives Committee review session on 18th April, 2017, Magu vehemently rejected the new Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition Bill 2016 submitted by the President.
He said that EFCC was in a state of paranoia, dreading the effort of the government to have an independent NFIU.
He said: “As it presently stands, the NFIU staff are all deployed by the EFCC to serve in the interest of whoever is its current Chairman. This has to stop if it must conform to the new thinking and global best practice. Nigeria cannot be an island of its own. It cannot fight corruption in isolation. The threat of expulsion from the Egmont Group calls for a thorough review of the NFIU and the manner in which the EFCC leadership has manipulated and mis-used intelligence to the detriment of the fight against corruption and financial crime in Nigeria.”
How did things get this nasty between the justice minister and the EFCC Acting Chairman? Why could the Presidency not stop the open war between the two?
A coalition of Civil Society Organizations decried the face-off between the minister and Magu, saying it was an embarrassment to the Federal Government. The coalition warned that the war against corruption must not be allowed to suffer over the face-off. equally urged Malami not to yield to fifth columnists in the war against corruption.
The statement, which appeared to side with the EFCC was signed by Chido Onumah (African Centre for Media & Information Literacy), Olanrewaju Suraju (Civil Society Network Against Corruption), Anwal Musa Rafsanjani (Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre), Mohamed Attah (Procurement Observation and Advocacy Initiative), George-Hill Anthony (Niger Delta Budget Monitoring Group) and Ibrahim Modibbo (Democrats of Conscience).
The statement, titled: “Civil society position on the relationship between the AGF and the EFCC,” reads: “The attention of the under listed civil society organisations has been drawn to the needless rift between the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) which further deteriorated with the recent ill-advised statement by Salihu Othman Isah, media aide to the AGF, pointing to the EFCC boss, Ibrahim Magu, as the one undermining the war against corruption of the current administration.
“We see the deepening disharmony between the two government institutions as an embarrassment to the federal government and it is capable of weakening its anti-corruption efforts. We are alarmed that someone in the office of the AGF could be making such sweeping and grievous allegation without an atom of proof. We want to believe that Mr. Isah did not speak the mind of his boss given that the AGF himself had dismissed any notion of quarrel or disagreement between him and Mr. Ibrahim Magu as widely reported in the media a couple of weeks ago.
“The story of what led to the suspension of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) from the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, an informal network of national financial intelligence units, is already well known and has nothing to do with the person of Ibrahim Magu or the EFCC. Since the government has set up a committee to address the issue, we urge that the committee be allowed to do its job without interference, though we believe the committee has already been infiltrated by fifth columnists who are using the committee’s name to push personal objectives.
“By calling for all case files of politically exposed persons, we see the desperation of the AGF to assert his position as Chief Law Officer of the Federation. That position is not in doubt and we don’t want to believe the EFCC as an institution has given any indication that it was unwilling to yield to the directive. We are reliably informed that a good number of cases have been sent by the agency to the AGF, including the controversial Malabu case which sources in the AGF office confirmed receiving in January this year. As at the time of this release, the AGF has done nothing about the case?
“We also want to draw the attention of the public to the fact that even in cases such as the ones involving judges arrested for alleged corruption by the Department of State Security (DSS), the AGF has not fared well in prosecuting them. We would like the AGF to tell Nigerians the successful convictions his office has secured in the fight against corruption in the last 2 years. On the other hand, this year alone, the EFCC going by records available to the public, secured 124 convictions as at the end of July.
“The challenges being faced by EFCC in the prosecution of high profile cases are well-known. They include blackmail, intimidation and petitions against some judges who are trying corruption cases by the defence counsel who are mostly SANs. “Once these counsels perceive that the odds are against their clients and the judges are not yielding to their delay tactics, they attack the judges.
“Instead of engaging in ‘petty shadow boxing,’ what the country needs at this moment, particularly in the war against corruption, is focused leadership. In our opinion, this is no time to give in to the wiles of inordinately ambitious fifth columnists.
“We can’t afford to allow emotions ruin the fight against corruption. We don’t think the action of the AGF is in tandem with the anti-corruption agenda of Mr. President!”
Back to Kachikwu, Baru Face-Off
Under normal circumstances, a nasty power struggle between a minister and a manager of a parastatal under him would have ended with the manager being humbled. But in the face-off between Kachikwu and Baru, it was the minister who ended with a bloodied face, the aura of his office demystified, his reputation hanging in the balance and his person, humbled.
Welcome to the world of President Muhammadu Buhari, the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Buhari began his government two years ago with an impassioned plea to Nigerians for understanding and that he wanted to clean the Augean Stable of corruption in the system that had almost made the country a pariah nation in the comity of nations.
In asserting his independence of mind and actions, he made it clears that he would be his own man belonging to everyone and belonging to no one. One of his first actions was to head hunt a seasoned oil industry executive, Kachikwu to head the NNPC which had been enmeshed in web of corruption.
To most Nigerians, this was the first sign that the promised change of the APC was truly serious. But two years down the line, no one is sure that is still the case.
Today everybody is complaining about the dysfunction in the system. A government divided against itself, a political party that is not coordinated, Nigerians as a people exasperated by a president that is totally distant from the state of affairs in his government and the reality of things in the country.
While Presidency officials were unwilling to react to the issue, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) saw the embarrassment as an opportunity to attack the ruling party. To PDP, this shows total confusion in APC says PDP’s spokesman, Prince Dayo Adeyeye.
While affirming the confusion in the ruling party and government, the PDP said: “This shows total confusion in the party, both in its officials and appointees in government. The government is in disarray, the party is in disarray, there is no common position between the party and the government and that is why nothing seems to be moving in the country.
“That is why their run has been that of dismal failure; whether in the area of the economy or any other sector. That is what happens when a party comes to power without a clear agenda, without a genuine interest in the affairs of the people.
“The APC desperately came to power just to take power for the sake of it, not to do anything and what is manifesting now is total confusion; because if there was a programme, all of them could have seen where they were headed. That is why everyone has his own different approach to issues.
“All these things are happening at the expense of the development and even the unity of the country which is unfortunate. The APC enlisted the likes of Itse Sagay because of his capacity for rabble rousing just to attack PDP. I see more of these coming ahead of 2019.”
While the president deserves commendation for stepping in quickly (some say he has no choice) to resolve the dispute between Kachikwu and Baru, he should immediately intervene in many other internal frictions within his government.
All these things are happening at the expense of the development and even the unity of the country which is unfortunate