In the buck passing in regard to the public
concern about the growing spate of
corruption in the country and failure of the
dispensation to battle the scourge, Speaker
of the House of Representatives, Honourable
Aminu Tambuwal, blame the Jonathan
administration for the irredeemable turn
corruption has taken. He thinks that the fight
against official graft has lost momentum due
largely to the fact that President Goodluck
Jonathan would rather set up committees to
investigate corruption cases than refer them
to the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission—EFCC— for prompt action.He
forgets to mention that there are several
cases of corruption allegations referred to
the Lamorde-led EFCC that have not seen
the light of day. He forgets also to mention
that the EFCC lawyers were whacking up
cases referred to the commission, until some
of them were found out and sacked. All the
corruption cases investigated by the House
Committees including those involving Hon.
Farouk Lawan and Herman Hembe, to
mention a few, that are yet to be
satisfactorily and effectively disposed off are
presumed to be Jonathan’s fault. Former
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr.
Dimeji Bankole, was chased about like a
common criminal right from the day he left
office by the EFCC. What has become of the
corruption case involving him? Perhaps,
President Jonathan prevailed on the EFCC
and the courts to drop all charges against
Mr. Bankole. What about the rot in the
judiciary—about allegations that some
multi-million naira assets and fat bank
accounts have been traced to some judges
of the courts? What about allegations that
members of the House do collect bribes
from agencies of state to pass legislations,
such as police budget and the Securities
Exchange Commission’s Act, for instance?
Are all these episodes of unresolved
corruption issues to be blamed on the
Executive arm of government headed by the
Presidency?What about issues of criminal
legislations initiated by the House of Reps
under the leadership of Hon. Tambuwal,
such as the ongoing attempt by the House
to pass a bill authorizing members to
operate foreign bank accounts; a move that
has been described as a legislative strategy
to legitimize money laundering? Is this also
the fault of President Jonathan? Where and
to whom will Aminu Tambuwal pass the
buck of the corruption episodes in the
legislature?What discerning minds have
come to appreciate is not that Jonathan as
President should usurp the powers and
functions of agencies and organs of
government in the bid to stamp out
corruption from the body politic, but that
incremental wrong doings overtime with an
entrenched culture of impunity nurtured and
nourished by the military has made
corruption, in our time, to spiral out of
control.
The Jonathan dispensation, it has been
contended, merely created the libertine
ambience for corrupt practices to be fully
exposed, as never before when Heads of
State used to cover up for their cronies and
protégés and allow only enemies who fall
foul of the law to face the full wrath of the
anti-graft agencies. What can be stated
unambiguously is that the Jonathan
government allowed corrupt practices to be
fully exposed.Nigerians, today, have a long
list of corrupt people in the corridor of
power including the legislature and the
judiciary as well as the financial services
sector. Let Tambuwal and the defecting
governors not be deceived that they can
escape the wrath of the people when the
bubble burst on the strength of their
capacity to pass the buck to Goodluck
Jonathan. Everybody, including past heads
of state, is blaming the President for all the
woes and corruption problems inundating
the country. People who should know better,
who are themselves part of the network of
corruption, are creating the wrong
impression that if all the blames for failure
of the anti-graft war were heaped upon the
President, they would be spared the anger of
the people in the likely event of civil
rebellion.Governor Adams Oshiomhole of
Edo State once warned that the way the
political class is running the affairs of the
country, they may not receive the support of
the people if democracy in the country
comes under threat. When Oshiomhole
spoke, he never made excuses for himself.
He was lamenting the deficit of credible
political practice by the state actors—their
lack of integrity, their corruption and
profligacy, and their general inability to
deliver service to the people.My point is not
that the President should be spared where
and when he errs. My point is that the buck
passing going on now, as if the affairs of
state are the sole responsibility of Goodluck
Jonathan, is in bad faith. Aminu Tambuwal
should not delude himself that Nigerians
have a high opinion of the House of Reps
which he superintends. Corruption issues
are glossed over in the legislature as it is
treated with a dignified nonchalance by the
other arms of government.Tambuwal should
be honest and tell the world the truth about
corruption episodes in the country—that
corruption is defended and protected on the
platform of ethnicity. That is why no head of
state has been able to deal with it frontally.
General Murtala Mohammed who tried to
deal with corruption issues in the military
and the civil service constructively, did not
quite understand the trajectory and
networking of corruption, and did not know
what hit him in the process.Corruption
issues can be uprooted in the country
mainly by taking the battle away from the
centre to the federating units through
devolution of power and fiscal federalism,
the way it was at the birth and early days of
nationhood. Smash the centre and give
economic power to the zonal or regional
power blocks and corruption battle will shift
from the centre to the component units,
where the dead would have to bury the dead
until kinsmen can shout “enough is enough”
and tell themselves to stop killing one
another and use the commonwealth for the
development of the fatherland for the benefit
and happiness of all.Tambuwal should work
for a decentralized Nigeria, a fiscal federal
structure, a country where the people and
their sensibilities, rather than the whims and
narrow self-interest of the few who happen
to be in control, dictate and drive state
affairs. That is the time any head of state
can launch a serious offensive against
corruption.

What you fail to say is, where is checks and balances. His duty is to make sure the executive is going on the right way. Do we need the military to do that for us ?