State capture by Nigerian politicians and elites

By Usman Okai Austin

Nigeria and indeed Nigerians are currently facing perilous times and uncertain future owing to the debilitating socio-economic conditions being faced by majority of the populace currently.

This is compounded by pervasive insecurity that seems to have become intractable to successive governments in Nigeria. I once wrote about the emergence of Nigeria’s version of South Africa’s ‘State Capture’ phenomenon in which the Chief Executives of Nigeria’s political enterprise with active cooperation of the elites have usurped power and misappropriated our commonwealth for their personal gains and benefits of their families with cronies at the expense of vast majority of Nigerians.

Beginning from Office of the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria that has now been transformed into a seat of democratic despots, our Emperor State Governors to the servile Local Government Chairmen that have become willing political thugs and hired assassins of our Emperor State Governors, Nigeria’s political governance landscape has evolved dangerously into a dungeon that is besieged by a blood-thirsty band of ‘kleptomanic’, conscienceless and gluttonous politicians.

I doubt if Nigerians have ever seen the type of dangerous and evil minded political class with their supportive clan of entitled elites that exist currently in our dear nation. Currently, both the Legislature and Judiciary have become appendages and tools of the Executive Arm of Government contrary to established democratic norms and principles.

Who becomes what in the hierarchy and composition of the Legislature and Judiciary in Nigeria both at the national and State levels today depends on the whims and caprices of Mr President and our State Emperors. The Local Government system that was created to cater for grassroots development has been completely emasculated by Nigeria’s Emperor State Governors, albeit for their personal pecuniary and political gains. Furthermore, Local Government Administrators that ought to be closest to the peoples and who are expected to apply the resources accruing to the third tier of government in the country for the welfare of common Nigerians and development of rural areas have turned themselves into errand boys, political thugs and hired assassins of State Emperors.

Meanwhile, the State Emperors without exception, have succeeded in converting the resources of Local Governments in Nigeria into their personal properties; expending such to acquire private properties, compromise electoral processes and pursue individual frivolies at the expense of majority of Nigerians. Thus, while the political class and a few privileged elites are reveling in mindless opulence, a vast majority of Nigerians are currently wallowing in abject poverty, despair and hopelessness. There is hunger and suffering in the land but this seems not to bother Nigerian politicians and elites.

I visited my village somewhere in the Eastern Senatorial Zone of Kogi State in North Central Nigeria during the 2023 Yuletide Season. The socio-economic conditions of most Nigerians that I saw right from the time that my feet touched the soil of my beloved country at Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos all through the noisome and corruption infested local flight to Abuja that dovetailed into another dangerous and harrowing journey by road to my village, told tales of despair and hopelessness in a nation. Never in my close to six decades of existence on earth have I seen the level of suffering and despondency that I witnessed among Nigerians during my recent visit to my beloved land of birth.

Yet, I could not but shudder at the shameless and conscienceless profligacy and opulence by many Nigerian politicians and a few privileged elites amidst abject poverty, hunger, disease and despair at every turn of my traversing expedition. I now know why many Nigerian professionals and our teeming youths are fleeing the shores of Nigeria in droves despite the hazards and humiliation that go with it. I wept bitterly at the sight of my famished and aged mother with her relatives who came to welcome me happily when I arrived in my village despite the hopelessness and despair in their eyes. What has befallen Nigeria I asked myself. ‘Who do us so?’, to borrow the popular pidgin parlance of Nigerians. The visit afforded me an opportunity to witness first hand, the destruction and national calamity that the eight inglorious years of President Muhammad Buhari and his APC led government bequeathed on the nation. Before now I used to talk of PDP’s cankerworm years; especially under former President Goodluck Jonathan and his Deziani led gang of thieving ministers and aides.

I loathed the PDP under President Goodluck Jonathan based on the rapid erosion of most of the achievements and gains of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and late Umar Yar’adua’s successive administrations. Like many Nigerians, I now know better that not all that glitter is gold.

As it were, most of us were duped into believing a spurious ‘change’ mantra of former President Muhammad Buhari and Asiwaju’s APC to vote for the retired General with avowed reputation for abhorring and fighting corruption with vigor. This turned out to be a fluke as in return for the gullibility of the Nigerian electorate, the old soldier rewarded us with undisguised nepotism, crass cronyism as well as lack of governance and direction that enabled most of his visionless and corrupt ministers, aides and public officials to steal the country dry. At the end of his tenure, former President Muhammad Buhari in his stoic and emotionless demure, simply boarded a Presidential Aircraft for the last time with his family in tow and vamoosed to Daura; the once dusty but re-invented home town of the former President that now competes favourably with Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory in terms of modernity and federal presence.

A huge achievement one may say by all accounts, especially in the eyes of the retired General and his people; notwithstanding that he left behind a despoiled and bankrupt nation.

The rankling aspect of the fraud called Buhari and APC’s government is that the former President remained nonplused and unapologetic for mismanaging our country and betraying the trust of Nigerians, especially that of the gullible electorate that voted him into power against a groundswell of morbid opposition and hatred for former President Goodluck Jonathan and his PDP government.

From all indications, former President Muhammad Buhari’s senile heart and mind are now more with Maradi or Agadez or wherever his reported Nigerien roots lie, than in Nigeria where he spent unsavory and dangerous years hunkered down in dinghy trenches fighting to uphold Nigeria’s sovereignty. What an irony?

Nevertheless, the exit of former President Muhammad Buhari offered many Nigerians, yet a fresh opportunity to elect a new set of more reasonable and perhaps more patriotic politicians to govern us; so we thought. It turned out a mere wishful thinking as the long incubated and convoluted ambitions, greed and insensitivity of Nigeria’s political class did not allow the electorate to have their way. The insensitive and patently corrupt political godfathers, State Emperors and our budget padding Legislators, all of whom have amassed illegitimate wealth that they stole from the public purse used those illegitimate financial resources to buy their ways back into power.

As far as most Nigerians are concerned, nothing has changed since the APC succeeded itself and if anything, a string of policy and political blunders or missteps of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu since assumption of office as Nigeria’s President have all combined to compound the parlous state of affairs left behind by former President Muhammad Buhari. Again, rather than settle into the onerous task of governance, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu from all indications, has been expended too much energies in the past seven or so months to populate our national political and governance spaces with his relatives, loyalists and cronies; especially the ever loquacious, contentious and genuflecting Lagos crowd. He seemingly has also been expending too much energies unduly since assuming office to pursue political vendetta with his sight set ambitiously on 2027. As we discovered later with his predecessor, there are reports currently of some of his political appointees, aides and lackeys frantically lining their private pockets with public funds and proceeds of corruption in ways that suggest Nigeria may soon give way to the long dreamed of ‘Oduduwa’, ‘Arewa’ and ‘Biafra’ Republics.

The notorious Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs that was created by APC under former President Muhammad Buhari and retained by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a conduit for political corruption is once again in the news over sleaze and official corruption. Most Nigerians know that the Ministry is APC’s vehicle for stealing of public funds, vote buying and for all manners of electoral malpractices during elections.

A recent report in the social media had it that there had been more corruption in public offices in Nigeria in the seven or so months of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration than there was under former President Muhammad Buhari’s eight wasteful years. Although the report sounded hyperbolic, it nonetheless reflects the lack of governance and utter abandonment that common Nigerians are facing perpetually in the hands of Nigerian politicians; irrespective of party or ideological affiliations.

Pertinently, nothing depicts Nigeria’s current sorry State of affairs than what I witnessed in my home State of Kogi. I saw practically nothing on ground in the part of the State where I come from to justify Alhaji Yahaya Adoza Bello’s almost eight empty and wasteful years as a Governor, or to show that there is governance in the State at all. I cannot speak for other Senatorial Zones of Kogi State, especially the Zone from where the petulant Governor comes from as I was told that he parochially concentrated majority of the few developmental projects that he managed to execute in the State in the Central Senatorial zone at the expense of other zones. Workers of the State Civil Service, especially Teachers and Local Government Workers, told me that they have been receiving percentile salaries for most part of Emperor Yahaya Bello’s tenure in office according to the whims and caprices of the State Governor. Politics and political activities in Kogi State are more warlike than what they ought to be as the State Governor was said to have constituted bands of political thugs and militias that are well armed, equipped and supported by the State Government to rig elections, suppress opposition and assassinate real or perceived political opponents or enemies of the emperor Governor.

According to accounts that I heard, the band of thugs and local militias are aided in their criminal and nefarious activities by Nigerian Security agencies with the Nigerian Navy being the most notorious of the lot. At least, Nigerians have not yet forgotten the inglorious role played by the Nigerian Navy through one of its rogue officer and Yahaya Bello’s notorious hangman that is reportedly on trial at the Defence Headquarters currently in the assassination and cold-blood murder of some innocent Nigerians; including serving policemen that were performing their legitimate duties in the house of the Director-General of the campaign organization of opposition SDP, at Anyigba in Dekina Local Government of Kogi State during preparations for the 11 November, 2023 off-cycle gubernatorial election in Kogi State. Similarly, the roles the Kogi State Police high Command and hierarchy of the Department of State Service in the State in the saga did not go unnoticed. Aside the prompt intervention of incumbent IGP to avert further cold-blooded and extra-judicial murder of other innocent persons, again including serving Policemen that were illegally detained by Kogi State Commissioner of Police and Emperor Yahaya Bello’s marauding death gang in the course of the State sponsored crime, nothing has been heard again as the Nigerian State has since acquiesced over it and other numerous politically motivated murders and assassinations in Kogi State that were allegedly sponsored by Governor Yahaya Bello.

The people of Kogi State, especially those living in the eastern senatorial zone said that they have been living under perpetual fear and siege of the State Governor and his murderous state and non-state agents. The Governor of Kogi State therefore personifies the unfortunate phenomenon of State capture in Nigeria where the resources and apparatuses of State power now belong to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, State Emperors and Chief Executives of Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). I deliberately excluded Chief Executives of State MDAs as this category of State functionaries with Local Government Chairmen or Sole Administrators, as the case may be, are mere errand boys of State Emperors in Nigeria.

They do not have any control over ministerial or Local Government resources other than their routine salaries and occasional largesses from the Emperor Governors mostly as rewards for promoting the Emperors’ political agenda by whatever means. Armed with their constitutional immunity from all forms of prosecution while in office, State Governors or Emperors more like, misappropriate most of the resources of the State for themselves and use same to promote their individual and political agendas while suppressing or eliminating any form of opposition using the instrumentality of our corrupt and greedy State security apparatus.

Clearly, from what I saw and heard, all is not well with the Nigerian State and indeed Nigerians currently. The socio-economic conditions of the country keep deteriorating daily, with inflation shooting through the roof while the exchange rate of the Naira against major world currencies keeps plummeting dangerously on daily basis. The current exchange rate imbroglio with its attendant negative effects on Nigeria’s economy stems largely from the corrupt, unprofessional and criminal activities of the hierarchy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under former President Muhammad Buhari.

The deliberate politicization of FOREX management by the Apex Bank for political reasons and pecuniary interests of the CBN’s immediate past Governor and his cohorts, coupled with the opaque activities of Nigeria’s oil behemoth, (former NNPC) in relation to remittance of the FOREX accruing to the nation from sale of crude oil to national coffers, are responsible for Nigeria’s current socio-economic malady and mess. As it obtains currently, Nigerian politicians like some military dictators that held sway in the country before them, have found a goldmine in the CBN through preferential and differential allocation of FOREX to people in power, their families and cronies.

I doubt if the current forensic audit of the CBN will serve any useful purpose other than driving the last nail into the coffin of political vendetta. Extracts of the wishy-washy report of the forensic audit of the CBN by a purported once accuser of Mr President that were seen in the public domain belies the ostensible altruism of the whole exercise, if they are authentic. Again, were this not the case, why was the NNPC spared a similar forensic audit amidst allegations of huge and sustained corruption in the oil behemoth over the years?

I feel sorry for myself and majority of Nigerians each time I ponder the activities of Nigerian politicians and their unsurpassed capacities for absurdism and kleptomania. As it is, unless patriotic and well-meaning Nigerians begin to engage the current administration by drawing its attention to the neglected task of governance, Mr President and his APC crowd may use the entire tenure of the administration sharing the spoils of their electoral victory while expending needless energies on 2027 Presidential election.

Similarly, let the administration humble itself and listen to sound socio-economic advices outside the cacophony and jostlings of the APC crowd to alleviate hunger, want, diseases and despair among majority of Nigerians. Rather than concentrating on populating the Nigerian political and governance spaces with party loyalists and his clans people, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu could spice his administration with more experienced and renowned Nigerian professionals that abound both at home and in diaspora to help the country re-align its ailing economy on path of growth and development to achieve improvements in general living conditions of Nigerians. Luckily, many of the renowned Nigerian Professionals are from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Yoruba stock and are equally among the most educated professionals holding sway across the globe.

Former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, late Umar Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan, to some extent, shopped for capable hands outside their political party (PDP) and clans to help them manage the national economy while they played putrid politics with other issues. Conversely, former President Muhammad Buhari chose to fill all political and governance spaces in Nigeria with his clansmen and women as well as with people of his faith mostly. The result of such myopic leadership and is the depressed economy and parlous nation that the current administration inherited from him on 29 May, 2023.

I do not pity President Bola Ahmed Tinubu though because he midwifed former President Muhammad Buhari and all that he means to Nigeria. Meanwhile, majority of Nigerians are the worst for the former President’s parochial style of governance currently. Another major area of focus for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration is the national budget which has become more or less an annual ritual of ‘resource sharing’ between members of the National Assembly and their counterparts in the executive arm of government, instead of a process of allocating resources to productive sectors of the national economy for welfare of all citizens and national development.

Resource sharing gives individual legislators and Accounting Officers with Chief Executives of MDAs in Nigeria unfettered access to public resources which most often are misappropriated by them at the expense of majority of Nigerians in furtherance of their personal pecuniary and political interests and agendas. We are witnessing these in the current uneven and sometimes, ludicrous distribution of constituency projects (whoever invented that budgetary contraption) across the country where the former Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives and incumbent Chief of Staff to Mr President used his position to allocate humungous amount of budgetary resources to his constituency. He has used such to execute different costly constituency projects in Lagos State only. Ranking and ordinary members of the national legislature are not left out of the legislative heist in the name of constituency projects; although to a lesser extent compared to the former speaker and other principal officers of the national legislature. That is why most of them could only distribute ‘Keke NAPEP, entrepreneurial tools, motor cycles, cars and foodstuffs to their constituents where others are building hospitals, gigantic students accommodation, Luxurious Town Halls and modern Police Stations.

Curiously, all the legislators execute their various constituency projects either directly or through shell companies such that chunks of the illegally appropriated resources remain in their private pockets for pursuit of their individual political ambitions. Conversely, Accounting Officers and Chief Executives of MDAs, aided by senior public officials corner substantial part of the national budget to themselves through bogus and inflated contracts that are hardly executed. These are the major reasons why Nigeria’s successive national budgets remain ineffective since the era of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Therefore, there is a need for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to as a matter of urgency, commission a comprehensive review of the national budgetary system just as he did on tax reforms in order to make it more functional and supportive of governmental programmes and activities that will promote effective and equitable national development in the country.

If Mr President wants to be taken seriously by all and sundry, he must also up the ante in the fight against corruption in Nigeria as most of the people working for and with him currently, including ministers, Chief Executives of MDAs and the hierarchy of the civil service and the security agencies are all jostling for opportunity to steal humungous amounts of public funds without blinking an eyelid. Ultimately, it is the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that will fail and perhaps cost him his much desired second term ambition that his aides and cronies are trying to make everyone loose sleep over, even before his first tenure takes root.

I believe that if our President settles down to the onerous task of governance and repositioning the country while paying less attention to politics and sharing of spoils of electoral victory, he will be able to alleviate the suffering of the vast majority of Nigerians who will in turn reward him with a second term effortlessly. Other than that, no depth of conspiracy by the so called northern progressive governors and, or amount of manipulation of the electoral process this time around can guarantee his second term in office. The armour plated and sound proof features of the Presidential Limousine may have prevented Mr President from hearing the ‘èbi kpàwà’ cry of his constituents on behalf of majority of Nigerians as his Presidential Motorcade glided forcefully and gracefully through Lagos Island penultimate Christmas Friday when the President was heading to his private residence. This notwithstanding, I am sure some of his aides may have relayed the people’s cry to him or that, both Mr President and the First Lady may have seen video clips and reportage of the encounter on social media or television. Whatever the case, that cry of ‘èbi kpàwà’ is real and instructive. Please begin to govern Nigeria properly Sir Mr President, because the nation as a whole is indeed hungry!

USMAN OKAI AUSTIN IS A PUBLIC AFFAIRS ANALYST AND A SOCIAL CRITIC. HE CONTRIBUTED THIS PIECE FROM ABUJA.