Buhari’s dilemma and its solution

Also published in Daily Trust

Though Nigerians can now rest assured that their new president, Muhammadu Buhari will never condone corruption, let alone engage in it, yet his ability to deliver depends, to a large extent, on the quality of his team of political appointees, which is gradually emerging. 

President Buhari’s dilemma lies in the process of identifying and appointing the calibre of people he necessarily needs around him, because it is the individual and collective performance of the people he appoints as ministers, advisers, heads of various government agencies etc that will eventually determine his success or failure as President.

Obviously, for President Buhari to deliver in his mission to stop the persistent misappropriation of public funds by elected political office holders, political appointees, career civil servants and their cronies in the private sector, he needs to be extremely cautious in appointing the people who will make up his team since not all those around him are actually morally and professionally qualified to be entrusted with public affairs. In fact, those with verifiable records of integrity among them are not many, after all. 

Besides, even though there are other suitable candidates from other political parties and some others who are non-partisan, identifying the right candidates for the jobs is perhaps still quite challenging. By the way, even though President Buhari presumably realizes the need to do whatever it takes to enable him to deliver even if it takes cooperating with the opposition, the absence of reliable opposition in the country simply renders that possibility impossible. Because, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which represents the opposition, lacks moral rights to be a reliable partner in President Buhari’s mission, in view of its accumulated notoriety and involvement in corrupt practices involving unprecedented amounts of public funds in the country all through its just-ended sixteen-year reign.

Moreover, while President Buhari also needs a transparent and vibrant civil service sector to meet Nigerians’ high expectations, the vast majority of Nigerian civil servants are, frankly speaking, not morally and professionally prepared enough to cooperate with President Buhari in his mission to deliver. The sector is simply too obsolete and too inefficient to reflect the reforms President Buhari is expected to deliver. It is after all where political appointees heading various ministries and government agencies collaborate with bureaucrats to systematically misappropriate and embezzle staggering amounts of public funds.

Interestingly enough, the notoriety of the political appointees heading various ministries and government agencies, which is due to their obvious involvement in corrupt practices, probably outweighs the actual amounts of illicit money they make in such corrupt practices, because they are probably shortchanged by the bureaucrats they collaborate with to perpetrate the frauds in their respective ministries and government agencies. In many cases, the bureaucrats take advantage of their experience in handling the intricate and opaque bureaucracy of the country’s civil service sector to shortchange such political appointees in sharing the proceeds of such fraudulent deals.

Unfortunately also, even in the event of a corruption scandal involving some of such civil servants and politicians, they induce some law enforcement agents and even some judges to temper with the investigation and prosecution processes to eventually frustrate the processes, or simply forfeit some peanuts from their ill-gotten wealth to escape prosecution or punishment.

Though Nigerians consistently lament the persistent misappropriation of public resources in the country, and often castigate the culprits, not many Nigerians admit that, only a very few individuals among political office holders and civil servants are actually innocent in this regard. The persistence of this practice and the sheer severity and extent of its impact on the country’s economy confirm its overwhelming pervasiveness in the country. 

Anyway, the foregoing obviously highlights the difficulty of President Buhari’s dilemma and underscores the imperatives of exploring avenues within the existing legal and constitutional framework to address it, lest it undermine and frustrate whatever efforts he makes to turn things around in the country, because Nigerians expect him to change the situation in the country, and will definitely hold him responsible if they feel disappointed. 

President Buhari can solve this dilemma by actively encouraging individuals and organizations in the country, especially media firms, to take advantage of the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) and constantly demand access to information from all government entities and even some organizations in the private sector that provide public services, on, for instance, how the entities are run, their budgets, generated revenues, operational expenditure, processes of contract award,  project quality monitoring and evaluation processes etc, as provided by the law.

Besides, as the same law also stipulates keeping the whistleblowers’ identities confidential and also protects their rights and interests, President Buhari should also encourage government and private sector employees to actively engage in whistle-blowing, which is the act of disclosure by an employee of a government entity or private sector organization, of corrupt practices, mismanagement, impunity, fraud, breach of due process or any act of illegality he discovers in his workplace.

While promoting and raising public awareness on the merits of the FOI, President Buhari should, in the meantime, keep an eye on all government entities and private sector organizations to ensure their compliance with any request of such nature addressed to them. Courts should also be encouraged to compel any government or private sector entity that refuses to grant such requests, to comply.

This will not only enable President Buhari to succeed in his determination to eradicate corruption in the county, but it will also entrench the culture of transparency in governance, which will in turn establish the rule of law, guarantee adequate supply and efficient delivery of public services and ensure sustainable socio-economic growth and political stability.