12 April 2009

This Day -- Penultimate week, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, as guest on a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) programme declared that he remained the only Nigerian leader investigated by Nigeria's anti-graft agencies and given a clean bill of health. But on Monday, EFCC's spokesman, Mr. Femi Babafemi, during an Africa Independent Television (AIT) programme, "Focus Nigeria," said Obasanjo still has questions to answer on corruption charges brought against him.

Recently, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in far away London, United Kingdom, where he was guest on a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) programme, HARDTALK, anchored by Stephen Sackur, boastfully declared that he remains the only Nigerian leader investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and given a clean bill of health. Obasanjo also claimed that since he left office on the 29th of May, 2007, he could hold his head high as no one had come up with corruption charges against him.

But when reminded by Sackur that various National Assembly committees indicted him for corruption, Obasanjo took exception to the remarks. "What you are doing now is that you are accusing me of corruption. And no one has accused me of corruption and I'm not going to take that from you. Why are you accusing me of corruption? Do you have evidence to back your claims up? Let anybody with corruption allegations against my name come out to present it," Obasanjo said.

Apart from saying that his regime created the two anti-corruption agencies to tackle the problem of corruption in Nigeria, Obasanjo also acknowledged that today he is a happy person partly due to the achievements of the anti-graft agencies so far which he said were applauded by the Scotland Yard.

But Obasanjo's claims were punctured on Monday, when EFCC's spokesman, Mr. Femi Babafemi, while answering questions on an Africa Independent Television (AIT) programme: "Focus Nigeria" said that the former president still has questions to answer in view of the petitions brought against him by the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), a Lagos-based organization. Babafemi said the anti-graft agency's team of investigators had commenced investigations into the allegations preferred against Obasanjo by CACOL. Asked by a caller on the programmee whether Obasanjo had been cleared by the EFCC, Babafemi said: "The former president made the statement and not EFCC and I cannot confirm the statement he made."

The charges of corruption against Obasanjo, according to Babafemi, became an issue when the EFCC's Chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri, came on board to meet a petition submitted by CACOL to the commission, which was then unattended to.

"The EFCC chairman then asked the coalition to come forward with the petition. I came to Lagos to personally receive the petition. The chairman then assigned the petition to a team of investigators and they are still working on it," he disclosed.

It would be recalled that in 2008, CACOL's Chairman, Mr. Debo Adeniran led a protest march to the Ikoyi office of the EFCC, to register the group's displeasure with the commission's delay in investigating former President Obasanjo's tenure from 1999 to 2007. The protest, according to Adeniran was prompted by EFCC's delay in acting on the petition submitted to it since November 14, 2007, including a reminder sent to it in February 2008.

The Commission's Head of General Investigations, Mr. Umaru Sanda, who received the protesters then said that the Commission was handling CACOL's petition along with those submitted by other people. He also said that the issues raised by CACOL in their petition were highly technical and as such, they needed more time to do their findings.

Adeniran then told Nigerian media that the plank of the petition which he submitted to EFCC was anchored on alleged five grounds, notably Obasanjo's Presidential Library, Obasanjo's N200 million shares in Transcorp, the astronomical development of Obasanjo's farm, Obasanjo's N40 billion investment in the Bells University and other things he allegedly appropriated during his tenure.

In the same vein, CACOL has written the Senate President, Senator David Mark and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole, to intimate them on the alleged corruption charges against Obasanjo and sought the intervention of the National Assembly on the matter.

Obasanjo was also mentioned in the Halliburton scandal where some top government officials were alleged to have received bribes from the company to secure Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contracts in the country,

According to Babafemi, the anti-graft agency had quizzed some Nigerian suspects adding that the commission had written a letter requesting the Attorney-General and Justice Minister, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa to write to the US Department of Justice for details of the court judgment which indicted some Nigerian public officers and officials of the Halliburton Group.

Still on issues bothering on corruption, in 2007, Otunba Johnson Fasawe made some disclosures to the National Assembly committee which investigated the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF). Fasawe, while testifying on the controversial MOFAS account, owned by him and allegedly used for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) election fund, revealed that Obasanjo personally gave him the sum of N700 million so that he could resolve problems with the bank. Fasawe denied ever giving former Vice President Atiku Abubakar any verbal approval to disburse additional $20 million for PTDF projects to which $125 million had already been approved by the Federal Government. Nothing has been heard of the matter till date, which many believe was politically motivated.

Ironically, the same EFCC that said that there was no petition against Obasanjo on corruption, is now singing a different song. It would be recalled that the EFCC boss, Farida Waziri, when she appeared before the Senate Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Anti-Corruption, declared that there was no petition against Obasanjo on any case of fraud and therefore the anti-corruption agency cannot initiate a probe into the his tenure from 1999 to 2007.

The EFCC, if it wants to be taken seriously in its fight against corruption should do its homework properly by properly conducting its findings before making comments on issues that border on corruption. Issues on corruption are taken seriously in other climes and ours cannot be different from the internationally accepted standards of doing things. The question on the lips of many now is when will EFCC conclude its investigation in the corruption charges brought against Obasanjo by CACOL and others? -- Charles Ajunwa