Massive Corruption During Buhari Years, Was Ex-President Unaware?

Even government studies show that the eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration were marked by rampant corruption and financial mismanagement. If in doubt, consult Transparency International (TI), whose corruption perception index recorded heinous wrongdoing during the Buhari administration’s eight years in office. Aside from TI reports, the findings of investigations into the Central Bank under Emefiele reveal unequivocally that the Buhari years were years of rampant corruption.

During those eight years, 34 trillion in Ways and Means borrowing, several trillions more in foreign borrowing, and trillions more in extra-budgetary borrowing all took off. We are currently suffering as a result of those unfettered 8 years of looting.

Transparency International’s Decision On Buhari To clarify, when TI released its 2021 corruption perception index for Nigeria, the country’s ranking had slipped. Nigeria had slipped 5 places, from 149th to 154th out of 180 countries. This revelation, made by Transparency International’s (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI 2021), is still available on their website today.

Transparency International, the main civil society organization striving to end corruption throughout the world, released its CPI, which showed that 25 nations improved their rankings while 23 worsened. Under Buhari, Nigeria was one of the countries where corruption worsened. The 2021 index rated Nigeria 24 out of 100 points.

Since President Muhammadu Buhari took office in 2015, Nigeria’s corruption score has significantly declined. In 2015, Nigeria placed 136th, 148th in 2017, 144th in 2018, 146th in 2019, and 149th in 2020. Since its introduction in 1995, Transparency International’s main research product, the Corruption Perceptions Index, has become the most reliable global barometer of public sector corruption. With this statistics from TI, it is undeniable that corruption was widespread under Buhari. Unfortunately, one of the biggest jokes of the Buhari period was the African Union (AU) naming him Africa’s Anti-corruption Champion.

Did Buhari fool the African Union? In 2017, African leaders unanimously approved President Muhammadu Buhari as the African Union’s anti-corruption champion. According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the endorsement occurred at the conclusion of the 29th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union in Addis Abeba. The African Union recognized President Muhammadu Buhari as Africa’s Anti-Corruption Champion once more in 2018. These obviously demonstrate that the AU was a huge joke on the topic of corruption throughout the continent as a whole, and Nigeria in particular.

While Buhari was acclaimed as Africa’s anti-corruption champion, his government officials had converted the national treasury into a personal fiefdom. Under him, N30 trillion ways and means could not be accounted for. The ill-advised printing of excess naira during his tenure is one of the reasons we are where we are today. Under his leadership, Nigeria received a $3.4 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to finance its budget and respond to COVID-19, which is still missing, misdirected, or unaccounted for today. The missing IMF’s $3.4 billion loan is why the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sued President Bola Tinubu for his ‘failure’ to probe the ‘lost’ cash, which the country must reimburse without knowing what the money was used for or where it is. Hadi Sirika, a strong Aviation Minister and Buhari nephew, was under his supervision when he sold a phantom Nigeria Air to the public at a high price. A deal that can only be described as 419 and Yahoo Pro Max!

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The sleaze in the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry was the laughingstock of the country, yet President Buhari did nothing. The humanitarians went on to say that they fed schoolchildren throughout the COVID shutdown. President Bubari did not act or speak. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) became a quagmire of corruption under the Buhari administration, and Africa’s anti-corruption champion remained unaware!

Disturbing discoveries By Jim Obaze. Over the weekend, I read a troubling investigative piece in the Vanguard Newspaper titled “Tinubu’s Headache: How multi-billion-dollar corruption under Buhari hit the economy—Introduction.” The study provided a glimpse into what was going on behind the scenes as Jim Obaze, President Tinubu’s Special Investigator, exposed massive corruption during the Buhari administration. The study detailed how several prominent and important figures close to President Buhari accumulated enormous wealth at the expense of Nigeria’s treasury.

Some of them were claimed to have accumulated billions of dollars. According to the report, the statistics were too high to be believed, prompting one of the sources contacted to ask, “Is it true that some of these people you’re talking about were paid funds from the sale of Nigeria’s crude oil?” Did they pay these guys directly for the sale of crude oil? According to the study, some people have $6 billion and others have $8 billion in Nigeria, where there aren’t enough dollars to keep the naira from collapsing completely.

According to the report, several permitted and illegal transactions, as well as outright cash withdrawals, were identified while following up with leads at the CBN and the president. “From over-invoicing to forgeries, unauthorized releases, influence-peddling, fund diversion, arms deals, forex deals, and other financial malfeasances, funds were traced and tracked to some influential operators in the last administration.”

What does former President Buhari know? How can so much corruption occur without the awareness of former President Buhari? How can a man on whom so many of us had placed our hopes turn out to be the polar opposite? Or can he genuinely claim to be uninformed of the corruption that is being exposed when the major alleged actors are members of his own personal circle? As Africa’s anti-corruption champion, as president, and as the guy we elected, does this imply that he won the election and then went to sleep? Many of us wrote articles, participated in TV discussion shows, and wrote direct letters to him, raising awareness about the obvious incidents of corruption that we discovered. He made no reaction.

Nobody can convince a thoughtful citizen that the former president was oblivious! He received briefs from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission (ICPC)! He was informed of the extent and manner in which corruption was prevalent during his government; thus, he cannot claim ignorance of the odorous rule of lootocracy that he presided over.

The buck stops with him, so he must be held accountable for the offenses that occurred during his administration. He was the one who requested Ways and Means for N30 trillion; why can’t he account for how it was spent?

We are all witnesses, at least for those of us who follow foreign politics, to former President Donald Trump being dragged from court to court over his actions and inactions as President of the United States. That is authentic democracy in action. There is no one above the law since the constitution is paramount. Unless and until previous leaders are held accountable, Nigeria’s development goals will remain elusive.

MAY NIGERIA REBOUND

Techrectory with Agency Report.