President Muhammadu Buhari
Aso Rock, Abuja Nigeria
Dear President Buhari:
When you visited the United States Institute of Peace last
July, you pledged that you would be "fair, just and scrupulously follow
due process and the rule of law, as enshrined in [the Nigerian]
constitution" in prosecuting corruption.
But to be just, the law must be evenhanded. It cannot, in
the manner of Russian President Vladimir Putin, be something that is given to
punish your enemies and withheld to favor your friends. If so, the law becomes
an instrument of injustice bearing earmarks of the wicked rather than the good.
In the United States, you declared a policy of "zero
tolerance" against corruption. You solicited weapons and other assistance
from the United States government based on that avowal. But were you sincere?
During your election campaign, you promised widespread
amnesty, not zero tolerance. You elaborated: "Whoever that is indicted of
corruption between 1999 to the time of swearing-in would be pardoned. I am
going to draw a line, anybody who involved himself in corruption after I assume
office, will face the music."
After you were inaugurated, however, you disowned your
statement and declared you would prosecute past ministers or other officials
for corruption or fraud. And then again you immediately hedged. You were
reminded of your dubious past by former Major General and President Ibrahim
Badamasi Babangida, who succeeded your military dictatorship. He released this
statement:
"On General Buhari, it is not in IBB's tradition to
take up issues with his colleague former President. But for the purpose of
record, we are conversant with General Buhari's so-called holier-than-thou
attitude. He is a one-time Minister of Petroleum and we have good records of
his tenure as minister. Secondly, he presided over the Petroleum Trust Fund,
PTF, which records we also have.
We challenge him to come out with clean hands in those two
portfolios he headed. Or we will help him to expose his records of performance
during those periods. Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
General Buhari should be properly guided."
You then swiftly backed off your zero tolerance policy
because you would have been its first casualty.
You opportunistically announced that zero tolerance would be
narrowed to the predecessor administration of Goodluck Jonathan because to
probe further would be "a waste of time." That conclusion seems
preposterous. In 2012, the World Bank's ex-vice president for Africa, Oby
Ezekwesili, estimated that a stupendous $400 billion in Nigerian oil revenues
had been stolen or misspent since independence in 1960. The lion's share of
that corruption spans far beyond the Jonathan administration.
Your zero tolerance policy seems to come with a squint to
avoid seeing culpability in your political friends. A few examples are but the
tip of the iceberg.
A Rivers State judicial commission of inquiry found that N53
billion disappeared from the Rivers State Reserve Fund under former governor
Rotimi Amaechi. Former Lagos governor and head of your campaign finance team
Babatunde Fashola was accused ofsquandering N78 million of government money to
upgrade his personal website. The EFCC has ignored these corruption
allegations, and you have given both promotions: the Ministry of Transport to
Mr. Amaechi, and the Ministry of Power, Works, and Housing to Mr. Fashola.
In contrast, you have played judge, jury, and prosecutor in
the newspapers to convict former PDP Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke
of corruption.
Is this evenhanded justice?
United States Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson taught:
"[T]here is no more effective practical guaranty against arbitrary and
unreasonable government than to require that the principles of law which
officials would impose upon a minority must be imposed generally. Conversely,
nothing opens the door to arbitrary action so effectively as to allow those
officials to pick and choose only a few to whom they will apply legislation and
thus to escape the political retribution that might be visited upon them if
larger numbers were affected."
To investigate or prosecute based on political affiliation
or opinion also violates Articles 2 and 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. It is unworthy of a great nation like Nigeria.
Make the hallmark of your administration justice, not
retribution, and you may live for the ages.
I am a United States citizen and lawyer. I have no political
standing in Nigeria. Some might argue that my speaking about the administration
of justice in Nigeria bespeaks impertinece. But you chose to vist the United
States to solicit weapons and other assistance from my government--a government
of the people, by the people, for the people. The United States government
represents me. What the United States government does reflects on me. I thus
have an interest in addressing the actions of foreign governments that receive
United States government aid.
Sunshine is said to be the best of disinfectants.
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