"Never mind that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was charged with exactly the same offense as Saraki in a similarly politically charged atmosphere and that over 70 lawyers invaded the courtroom to defend him and eventually succeeded in intimidating the judge into acquitting him."
The segment of the JTF's report involving Tinubu was as follows:
(15) BOLA TINUBU - GOVERNOR LAGOS STATE
Substance of Charges
(1) Operating and maintaining foreign accounts in his named and or his Company, compass Finance and Investment Ltd. with following particulars:
I. NAME OF BANK: FIRST HERITAGE BANK, COUNTRY CLUB HILLS, ILLINOIS
ACCOUNT NAME: BOLA TINUBU
ACCOUNT NO: 263226700
II. NAME OF BANK: CITIBANK N.A., NEW YORK
ACCOUNT NAME: BOLA TINUBU & COMPASS FINANCE AND INVESTMENT COMPANY LTD
ACCOUNT NOS: 39483134, 39483396, 4650279566, 00400220, 39936404, 39936383
III. NAME OF BANK: HSBC 177 Great Portland Street London WIW 6QJ ACCOUNT NAME: TINUBU ZAINAB ABISOLA (MISS)
ACCOUNT NOS: 1720447101
IV. NAME OF BANK: HSBC 177 Great Portland Street London WIW 6QJ
ACCOUNT NAME: (MRS) TINUBU OLUREMI SHADE
V. NAME OF BANK: HSBC 177 Great Portland Street London WIW 6QJ.
ACCOUNT NAME: OLUREMI SHADE TINUBU
ACCOUNT NOS: 41421522
SORT CODES: 40-03-15.
I'm not interested in what they are saying, but you cannot perpetually hang the hammer of investigation over my head. It's not fair. It all started from (Nuhu) Ribadu era, from the year 2002 when they attempted to stop me from re-contesting for a second term. They didn't succeed. Then, in the following years, they have been talking of Bola Tinubu being under investigation. Each time I aggressively pursue a goal that is anti-establishment position, you find an act of investigation by EFCC or the authority hanging over my head. That continued from 2002 up to year 2007.
They used immunity excuse and made all sorts of allegations which I challenged. Ribadu's claim to the media was that my corruption had international dimension. What is international dimension was not stated there. I went to EFCC. There was no immunity any longer. I provided answers to the questions. ***What is very annoying is that if they have evidence to prosecute me, this is an era of rule of law, just go to court and prosecute me. Don't hang the hammer of investigation perpetually on my head. If you have concrete facts, let's go to court. Let me move on with my life****
I have families. I have friends. I have business associates and my right to personal liberty is guaranteed under the constitution. As a result of this blackmail method of one being investigated, my family, my children, a lot of people have been calling me since yesterday. I have never done anything to stop them from investigating me. I have never disturbed their investigation.
We've seen several cases of even political murders where they said there was no need for further investigation, so many of those cases. Now, how long will you take and when will I be able to have my right back? Because two years after I left office, if you have not come up with concrete evidence that will let you prosecute me, please, keep quiet and let me move on with my life.
In a response, Tinubu noted that "after years of threats, political mudslinging and media trial on the impending allegations, a formal invitation to commence trial has finally come," and that he welcomed it in conformity with his respect for the rule of law calling on the judiciary to ensure that justice is done, he cautioned that at the CCB, "those who allege must prove."
The last appears not to have been heard on the operation of foreign accounts charges levelled against Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu while in office as Lagos State governor by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) as Tinubu is threatening to seek redress. The charges were last week dismissed by the Code of Conduct Tribunal on the grounds that the charges lacked substance. Tinubu, formally reacting to the acquittal, yesterday, said he would "seek further redress because of the injury caused by my reputation and inflicted on my businesses and family".
In a statement by the national leader of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), he maintained that his anger lingered over the non-full disclosure of the alleged bank accounts and other details relating to the charges by the government in an effort to portray and falsely classify him as a money launderer and looter of public funds. "Where and when are the transactions in these accounts operated? What are the balances in each of these accounts? What is the ageing analysis of those balances and their sources if any?, Tinubu queried. "The government prosecutors and some of their political leaders in their media campaign listed these accounts and made spurious allegations making it seem as if I looted public funds and stashed it away in these accounts. Yet they have failed to provide evidence to prove these weighty, yet unfounded allegations, which shows clearly at the tribunal that this was a political persecution from the very beginning", he said.
'Political vendetta'
He went on: "The government and its lawyers in their handling of this case have revealed a crass lack of knowledge of financial rules at home and abroad thus, embarrassing me as a citizen, their own government and the country". The ACN leader stated that wasting millions of public funds to prosecute a political vendetta is unjustifiable and failing to apply both the principle and doctrine of materiality; cost and benefit analysis in investigation and prosecution of the case questionable. "I feel ashamed that the government is using a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, and a costly team of attorneys to prosecute this case, thereby demonstrating lack of policy direction to develop and train hundreds of lawyers in the Ministry of Justice and office of the public prosecutor. I dare ask, what is the aim of outsourcing a case like this to outside lawyers with huge professional bills?. "The government equally failed to employ the FOI to disclose to Nigerians how much are in these accounts and how much the government was expending to prosecute. "I am still in consultation with my attorneys on the next plan of action. The long time of media trial and political persecution have had toll on my businesses, my political reputation and constituted an infringement of my rights and that of my family as Nigerian citizens".
It is only a wicked system that will list minors and portray them as looters for having in their accounts amounts in the hundreds meant for their upkeep and school runs".
Moses Ochonu:You have this tendency to set up a straw man, and then go ahead to beat up the straw man, and even burn the straw to ashes.Pray, tell me: who has set up Saraki as the "Single corruption story" in Nigeria? Who has?Even your own write-up below in which you mention Umaru Dikko and Ibori - and you fail to mention Tafa Balogun and Alamieyeseigha - but REALLY aim to have BAT included before you convinced the Saraki saga is not a witch-hunt - is a repudiation of a portion of your thesis. Each of these persons appear to be NEGATIVE-EXEMPLARS (there may be a better word for this) of Nigerian corruption in their own times, but certainly they were NOT the only one during their own times, and no Nigerian believes - and went to be believing - that once they were put away, corruption would cease in Nigeria.But there is something DIFFERENT about the Buhari Administration and its anti-corruption stance that we must encourage and take heart about rather than taking pot shots at it because of other possibly larger (and suppressed) political frustrations:(1) Buhari himself is quite un-impeachable in terms of corruption.That counts for much, because in Nigeria (as in most other places in the world) blackmail is the first and biggest "silencer" when it comes to taking action against corruption. Those who are corrupt in general fight back and want to show you up as a collaborator, which completely weakens your case. His character is such that he is prepared to sacrifice any impeachable person who serves under him - and they know it - and so that makes his anti-corruption work even more difficult. I put Saraki as one of that company, with a particular quirk unlike Dikko, Ibori or Alamieyeseigha: Saraki has bestrodden (?) Nigeria from his youth, as a business tycoon of a wealthy family, to executive state capacity, to floor Senator-hood - so far, following the footsteps of his father himself - and now to Senate President - and Number 3 man in Nigeria. To that extent, the corruption "halo" around him is "singular."(2) Buhari's presidential administration took over from GEJ's administration which was hobbled by thirty active months of presidential-election politicking, and which left in such tattered and hurried rag-tag array that it did not have enough time to hide its financial excesses. There are financial bodies buried all over the place, with their legs sticking out, un-deniable.That was why GEJ was confusing the words "prosecuting" and "persecution". In fact, I hesitate to state that the second-term politics of GEJ began the very first day he became substantive president following UMYA's death, with calculations by various minority groups (whose only hope was for a minority to remain President for as long as constitutionally allowed; I suspect that you belong to one of those minority groups, which color your positions), majority groups who felt that power should shift back to them - as promised - and individuals of various character and characteristics in ruling and opposition parties whose selfish calculations were geared towards staying on the side of who they felt would succeed GEJ - whether himself or anyone else. Transformation Agenda of Nigeria (TAN) was the early embodiment of such a GEJ succession campaign, while the Governors that were decamping - with Amaechi and Saraki the arrowheads - were the arrowhead of those looking for an alternative candidate from within their midst.I interacted closely a number of times with GEJ during my own "presidency" of the new university in his home-town, and I told those who would listen that to my mind his body language was NOT to run for a second term. However he was bullied into it by his minority compatriots (Edwin Clarke, Asari Dokubo, etc.) who considered it treachery if he did not offer himself up, and blundered into thinking that it could bully and threaten the rest of the mono-cultural country with an oil commodity that later became both cheap and even un-needed (in the main), and individuals who saw NO ONE PERSON in the horizon - certainly not Buhari at first - of sufficient stature to threaten a sitting President.After three times of trying, most politicians did not believe and could not conceive that there could be a coalescence around Buhari to be the credible candidate of a credible opposition party - which was what happened in a miraculous manner under the APC. The rest is surprising history, leaving quite a lot of politicians - including Saraki - still dazed and in a quandary for what they had wrought, and now belatedly seeking ways to put back toothpaste into its tube.(3) More than any other President before him - but maybe not Umaru Yar'Adua, whose tenure was unfortunately cut shut - Buhari correctly does not believe Nigeria is fine SIMPLY because he is at the helm of presidential affairs.Shagari was happy to preside over Nigeria, exceeding his own stated ambitions. Obasanjo felt that Nigeria as it is would be fine for ever if he was elected as many times as possible until he was tired of being President - and if Nigeria allowed him to choose his successors for ever. GEJ was too surprised to find himself at the helm of affairs to fully grow to take a position. But once-and-successive-candidate-and-present-President Buhari is fully aware that there is something SYSTEMICALLY wrong with Nigeria, and that is why I believe that he is taking his time to do certain things - political, economic, social, financial, legislative, judicial - time so long that many are impatient with him.In fact, all the disclosures that have been coming out under him - particularly financial, judicial and legislative - have been so astounding that I am sure that Buhari is completely perplexed as to how our country came to such an impasse. Dasuki, Oronsaye, Saraki, NIMASA, etc. - you name them. Tarfa, the judges, you name them. How Saraki, Dogara, Ekwerenmadu etc. deviously came to power in NASS without respect to party guidance or supremacy - you name them. The ongoing 2016 Budget fiasco featuring both bureaucratic and legislative pork - you name them.So ours is a really sick nation, and the only doctor in the House - at least the elected one - is Buhari, with his team of scrubbed-down lieutenants....Lord have mercy upon us, but we have a responsibility to pray for their success and work in any supportive way we can, rather than being obstructionist, far away or near, with pen, electrons or otherwise.And there you have it.Bolaji Aluko--On Mon, Apr 18, 2016 at 2:41 PM, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com> wrote:--
The Danger of a Single Corruption Story
By Moses E. Ochonu
There is a danger in equating corruption in Nigeria with the infractions of a single corrupt individual. At different moments of our national life, we tend to narrowly and naively unload our anti-corruption angst on one individual politician. We then pummel this individual like a piñata while seemingly forgetting that Nigeria's political corruption is a group act, an orgy of theft involving whole groups of politicians and bureaucrats.
We inculpate some politicians while inadvertently exculpating others. We do so to assuage our emotional exhaustion at corruption's stubborn persistence, and its devastating consequences.
In the second republic the individual stand-in for corruption was Umaru Dikko. In the PDP era, it was James Ibori. In the unfolding APC period, that personification of Nigeria's corruption is Bukola Saraki.
To hear some people talk about Bukola Saraki one would think that the Senate President is the very embodiment of Nigeria's corruption problem and that his removal from office and/or conviction would magically banish graft and restore probity in the polity.
Reading and listening to some of these folks one would think that Nigeria's corruption virus originated with Saraki and would end with his conviction. You'd think that Saraki's ongoing trial was some seminal event in a revolution against corruption and that the reclamation of Nigeria hangs on its outcome alone.
Never mind that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was charged with exactly the same offense as Saraki in a similarly politically charged atmosphere and that over 70 lawyers invaded the courtroom to defend him and eventually succeeded in intimidating the judge into acquitting him. Mr. Saraki is rightly berated for trying to wriggle out of an actual trial, for seeking to have the charges corruptly dismissed. But it's now a distant, rarely revisited memory that Tinubu, the architect and champion of change if you believe the hype, had used a mix of legal maneuvers, bully tactics, and other shady shenanigans to evade justice on multiple occasions when the late social crusader, Gani Fawehinmi, sought to subject him to an open court process. He, too, was afraid of a trial. Today, he issues periodic sermons about how corruption has hobbled Nigeria and needs to be defeated. Depressingly, many Nigerians cheer these sanctimonious pronouncements.
We are supposed to believe that Saraki is the only face of corruption in the APC, the lone compromised mole preventing President Buhari from articulating a coherent narrative of transparency, the internal APC saboteur of the president's battle against corruption.
Never mind that Tinubu allegedly did worse to/in Lagos State as governor than Saraki did in/to Kwara. Never mind that Saraki's reign of larceny was contained in one state while Tinubu has, as of this year, privatized and appropriated the resources and patrimony of five Southwestern states for at least five years (nine years in some cases).
Never mind that Saraki's current judicial predicament stems not from any genuine interest in frontally taking on corruption in the ruling party but from his stubborn rebellion against the wishes of the ruling party's power brokers.
Let's be clear; I stayed in Ilorin for about a month last July. I have a lot of friends from Kwara State. I know and saw what Saraki did in/to Kwara State — what he continues to do to Kwara state through his handpicked successor and protege. It is not pretty. And, although his current travails emanate from his stewardship (or lack thereof) as governor, the man's thievery actually has a longer life span, dating back to his looting of depositors' funds from the defunct Societe Generale Bank, a financial institution controlled by his family.
So the man deserves and should get his comeuppance, which unfortunately in this case is only going to be the loss of his position as senate president and not the deserved time in jail. I'd wager my meager savings on this outcome. As soon as he resigns or is forced out, his CCT trial will slowly wind down and fizzle out. That is a sad, familiar pattern. But I digress.
My point here is that Saraki deserves all he is getting and more but that we need to put things in perspective. There are many former governors in the senate who did worse to their states but who are today the darlings of the APC leadership. My former state governor, George Akume is one of them. He cleaned out Benue State and has installed his two successors, including the disastrous Gabriel Suswam and his borrow-and-spend successor, Samuel Ortom.
Yet Akume, with the enthusiastic blessing of APC elders, including Tinubu, aspired to the position of Senate Leader before his and others' ambitions were scuttled by Saraki's leadership coup. Not only has Akume's corruption case with the EFCC remained in limbo, dead for all intents and purposes for about eight years, today he is one of the revered APC godfathers in my area and in all of Nigeria. Unlike Saraki, his relationship with Tinubu and the party elders is peachy, and that confers immunity.
This is not to suggest that Saraki should be ignored or released from his ongoing trial unless other corrupt people join him in the dock. That would be a terrible logic. Rather, I am gesturing toward a certain strain of hypocrisy, a blind spot that allows us to glibly condemn Saraki's vices while remaining silent about similar and worse crimes committed by a large coterie of former and serving public officials. There is some cognitive dissonance at play here.
Saraki is an easy, filthy, universally reviled target. He is expendable. It is easy for the APC to use him "to shine." It is easy to sacrifice a rebellious and corrupt member of the family while protecting and making way for corrupt but compliant members.
The APC leadership has been talking in recent days about sacrificing Saraki and about their preparedness to lose the senate leadership to the opposition PDP in order to make a statement about their commitment to change. What a load of bullocks! Saraki defied the elders and he is a threat to their interests because he knows where the proverbial bodies are buried. Getting rid of him is a perverse partisan priority, not a nationalistic sacrifice for change.
My larger is this: we tend to be seduced into a faux populist hysteria by the power games of the political elite instead of keeping our focus on the systemic nature of our corruption problem. When the politicians ostracize a tainted, disavowed member of their fraternity, they project all of Nigeria's corruption problems onto that individual.
On our part, we sheepishly and unthinkingly follow them to pour all our anti-corruption outrage into this individual. We then pretend that this person alone is corrupt among the political class or that he is the most corrupt member of that collective. We do it over and over again.
There was a time when this individuated symbol of Nigerian corruption was James Ibori. We created the fiction that Nigeria's corruption malaise inheres only in the corrupt former governor. He became the avatar of corruption in Nigeria, and his name became interchangeable with graft. That obsession lasted for about five years.
Ibori was eventually nabbed by the British judicial system and put away. One expected corruption to end with the removal of the godfather of corruption. Logically, if our narrative was correct, Ibori's demise should have signaled the demise of our corruption monster. Instead corruption ballooned in his absence, reaching its stratospheric peak during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan. Corruption in the post-Ibori era threatened to beatify the former Delta State governor.
Then and now, the obsession with single corruption stories, with individual representative figures of corruption has the effect of shielding other equally corrupt and more corrupt members of the political class from scrutiny and recompense. The larger cult of corrupt officials obtains exculpation by cunningly redirecting our outrage from the entire corrupt political elite to a momentarily disfavored politician. We then soon discover that corruption does not begin and end with this individual. But we don't learn from this realization. We keep repeating the same error.
Saraki's "anointing" as a symbol of all that is wrong with Nigeria is shielding many of the corrupt people in the APC, including Tinubu, from justice. What's more, it is allowing them to position themselves hypocritically as champions of transparency and probity.
Earlier, our obsession with Ibori had the effect of displacing responsibility and culpability from the father of corruption in modern Nigeria, former president Olusegun Obasanjo.
We must be wary of single corruption stories that unwittingly give a pass to corrupt people and allow them to further afflict us with insultingly hypocritical and self-serving preachments about fighting corruption.
Novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie alerted us to the dangers of perpetuating single stories about Africa. As in that case, single, individuated corruption stories distort and oversimplify our national narrative on corruption. They also undermine the quest for a non-politicized, blind regime of accountability.
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