By SONALA OLUMHENSE
Strictly as a calendar issue, I would never have put the name Bola Ahmed Tinubu and combating corruption in the same sentence because I could identify nothing in his track record in that direction. I am speaking about April 23, 2023, the day he took office as president.
Two months later, however, Tinubu surprisingly authored a letter appointing one Jim Obazee to high office in his administration as a Special Investigator.
I was not sure if the president knew Obazee well, an Edo man and former chief executive officer of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria. That evening, I put on my “Edo Nor Be Lagos” T-shirt: the white one.
“By the fundamental objective outlined in Section 15(5) of the Constitution… this administration is, today, continuing the fight against corruption by appointing you as a Special Investigator,” the president said.
It was unclear what he meant: Muhammadu Buhari, his predecessor, had offered corruption a lot of tongue-lashing but had done corruption no harm at all in his full eight years.
Not only did he spurn the rule of law, he also let two Ministers disburse federal property to whomever they pleased, with no accountability required.
Of Obazee’s assignment, President Tinubu wrote: “You are to investigate the CBN and related entities using a suitably experienced, competent and capable team and work with relevant security and anti-corruption agencies to deliver on this assignment.”
He said he wanted a comprehensive report on public wealth currently in the hands of corrupt individuals and establishments (whether private or public), and that the Special Investigator would report directly to his office, but that he expected “a weekly briefing on the progress being made.”
For eight months, the Special Investigator was hard at work, gripping the tiger by its greased tail, with snippets of his endeavours leaking periodically.
In March 2024, he abruptly submitted his final report, following which Tinubu closed the investigation days later.
Obazee’s report showed a central bank that had rotted so much that it collapsed into the sewers.
Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele, who had been a close friend and confidante of President Muhammadu Buhari in his eight years in control, appeared to have treated the bank as a target to own, rape and loot.
Among others, the investigation found Emefiele and his cohorts had illegally and without authorisation set up in such places as the US, the UK and China, up to 593 bank accounts in which he stashed Nigerian funds as if they were just pockets in his private backpack.
A disgusted Special Investigator reported, finding:
- A “fraudulent cash withdrawal of $6.23 million” – about N2.9 billion at the then official exchange rate of N461 to a dollar;
- 543.4 million Pounds kept in fixed deposit accounts;
- Manipulation of the Naira exchange rate;
- Fraud in the CBN’s e-Naira project;
- The Naira redesign, which threw Nigeria into political and economic distress just before the 2023 had neither been recommended by the CBN Board nor approved by Buhari.
- Emefiele’s CBN printed the new bank notes at a cost of N61.5 billion, of which N31.8 billion had been paid.
- Emefiele and four deputies connived to steal and balance the books of the CBN.
- A fraudulent use of Ways & Means to the tune of N26.627 trillion.
In effect, Emefiele had not been running a bank; he had been running a criminal enterprise with the resources of the Nigerian people.