CEOs and development (2)

In the quest for a society of high probity, Nigerians have either turned a blind eye or have fallen prey to institutional ignorance about the connection between the political elite, the business class and government bureaucracies on the one hand, and the banking elite on the other.

Unless we x-ray this maggoty part of our national narrative on corruption and attack it, we shall remain a nation of hypocrites. Since the dawn of this republic in 1999, the Federal Government has lofted as priority the significance of installing the rule of law. The idea is to trim our excesses as a people of impunity and establish discipline as a national habit.

The establishment of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) became the signpost of this grand ambition. But since then, we have seen appearances of gravity in this battle. Many big names among the political elite have been charged with fraud, whether as governors or as ministers. The news initially generates a lot of excitement, but after a few months, the story fizzles into stagnation in the courts. They crawl through several adjournments. Eventually they die in public either on the altar of technicalities or over the frivolity of plea bargains.

We are also not unaware that some of the cases thrived on political blackmail as the government of the day deployed the war on corruption as revenge or intimidation. We still have that today.

In the early days of the EFCC when the war on corruption swung about in a berth of innocence, the anti-corruption czar, Nuhu Ribadu, swaggered on the image akin to a rock star. He had a messianic glow, even dwarfing any other national figure, including clerics, in moral grandeur. The arrest and conviction of an inspector-general of police helped to seal the public perception. We were ready to abide the contradiction that a supposedly thieving elite had institutionalised a mole in their midst to expose and root them out. It appeared in the form of a classic class suicide.

In spite of all that, the Ribadu regime enjoyed declining, though acceptable, levels of public praise that ached with doubts and scrutiny. It was a measure of the political elite coming to terms with its own moral perfidy. It coalesced forces in the early days of the regime of former President Umaru Yar’Adua to oust Ribadu. The result has been a craven warfare with battles that came across less as blows than as handshakes between government institutions and the accused.

We have had a few of such narratives in the country, but the glue between the political elite and the business class and bureaucracies has been the chief executive officers of the banks. As we noted in the first part of this editorial, tons of money are moved in the bank vaults from one place to the other, and such heavy lifting is not possible without the knowledge and – or connivance – of the bank executives.

We know the case of now pardoned former governor of Bayelsa State, Chief D.S.P Alamieyeseigha, who was not only convicted but served a term in prison. We know of the case of former Delta State Governor James Ibori who is now serving his term in a British jail. We know of the plea bargain that former Edo State Governor, Lucky Igbinedion, secured after a sustained hullaballoo died as though it never sounded in the first place. We have had smaller “sins” belonging to less decorated or flamboyant men of that class.

Hardly were the complicities of the banks delineated in these heinous endeavours. The charges against the chief executives involved billions of Naira and we can only lie to ourselves as a people if we deny that such tremendous money flows transpire out of the ken of the bank elite. If the banks know about this, why do the bank officers involved not come up for questioning? Why are they not prosecuted?

We do not want to accept that the bank officers were used as informers. The offenders do not have the capacities to move money in the banks because they are not bankers. They need co-conspirators, partners in felony.

We have also had many former governors that have been prosecuted, like in Ogun State with Gbenga Daniel, or Oyo State with Adebayo Alao-Akala, but the bank CEOs were not named in the suits.

The bureaucracy suffers the same fate. The pension scandal still rankles the nation’s skin today. Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina, who is now at large, could not have tinkered with the money of the lifetime perspirations of hardworking Nigerians without the role of the bank management.

There are many of such stories. If we say we want to follow due process, we must apply the same logic in investigating fraud and malfeasance in government. The EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) cannot dig out the scum of financial crimes without encountering the bank officers and their roles along the way. Again, such monies cannot move without catching the eyes of the CEOs unless they are incompetent and they lack requisite vigilance for their offices.

News reports have swarmed the media about the cosy relationships between the political elite and the business elite. Reports also have it about how governors, ministers, even local government chairmen connive with banks to stay payments, including contract money and salaries in order to generate interest. The relationship between politicians and banks is inevitable, but it ought to be regulated. The story is also rife that the business elite serve as fronts for political elite, and it is in that context that we must locate the invisibility of the bank CEOs in the story of political fraud.

We have not reached the stage where we can hold political operatives to account on the money spent on elections and other campaigns. But if we take seriously the war on corruption, we must unleash our searchlights not only on the obvious suspects but also their subterranean backers.

Unless we do that, we make trifle the war on corruption. We will continue to clutch at straws. We will accuse and not convict and that becomes a vicious cycle that hardly addresses the issue.

It is an irony that an anti-democratic regime under General Sani Abacha hounded down errant bank chiefs. Also ironic is that the democratic dispensation under Obasanjo pruned the banks for their inefficiencies and corruption. Yet the bank chiefs enjoyed immunity while he hunted corrupt politicians over billions of Naira.

The political elite govern this country, and if they are not above board, we need to create a rubric to hold them in check. If we fail in that regard, we mock ourselves when we yell to the world about the war on corruption.

The consequence is immeasurable. We shall have contracts awarded but siphoned away with the help of the CEOs. Roads will not be constructed, school supplies will suffer neglect, hospitals will churn out the dead and not the living, etc. We shall run a country for ruin. If politicians are the source, the banks and their CEOs are the glue. We need to initiate the divorce and free taxpayers ‘money to lift the lives of our people.