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If it takes a thief to catch a thief, Nigeria can teach Ghana how to fight corruption

Thursday March 15 2018
nana-buhari

Presidents Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria (left) and Ghanaian Nana Akufo-Ado during Ghana's 61st Independence Day in Accra. Corruption-rife Nigeria offered to help Ghana in its anti-graft drive. PHOTO | PRESIDENCY NIGERIA

By JENERALI ULIMWENGU

A few years ago, I was sitting with my host, Ayodele Aderinwale, in the cafeteria of Olusegun Obasanjo’s African Leadership Forum (ALF) in the president’s village of Ota, outside Lagos.

Over drinks, Ayo, as I call him, was recounting to me how the governor of one of Nigeria’s states had been apprehended in London on charges of money laundering, and how he was soon to be repatriated to Nigeria to face the music.

This, Ayo gloated, was proof that “Baba” (meaning Obasanjo) had zero tolerance for corruption and how the old general was setting Nigeria to rights.

Well, Ayo was my host, and I was there just to run a few classes on governance issues, and I did not necessarily want to argue too much about Obasanjo’s effectiveness in combating such a deep-rooted evil in Nigeria’s society. Since my university days I had been to Nigeria so often, and knew how colourful corruption could be there.

At daybreak the following day, all the Nigerian media were full of pictures of the said governor back in his home state, inspecting a guard of honour mounted by the federal police force.

Ayo was beside himself, ranting, yelling and swearing about his country being “impossible,” and “doomed,” the self-assuredness of the previous night all but gone.

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There are many more such stories about corruption in Nigeria and how the canker has eaten up the very core of the body-politic. The crooks in Nigeria have swagger, panache and oomph. They don’t just steal; they make it look like a work of art.

It is that perception that makes many people snigger at any suggestion that the Nigerian government intends to fight corruption. And we did indeed snigger a few days ago when we read news that the Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, was offering Ghana assistance in fighting corruption. It was like, look who’s talking!

Don’t go there

Can anything good come out of Nazareth? as the Jews in the Bible asked of Emmanuel. Lawyers say in their jargon, Nemo dat quod non habet. You cannot give what you do not have. So how can Nigeria, of all places, offer help in Ghana’s anti-corruption drive? Isn’t that simply preposterous?

I must admit that was my initial reaction when I read that piece of news. In fact I put it down to fake news, seeing as we are being bombarded daily by pranksters who feed us with all manner of hogwash masquerading as news.

After ascertaining that it was authentic, that Buhari was indeed in Accra attending Ghana’s Independence anniversary celebrations, and that he indeed had offered to co-operate with his host, President Nana Akufo-Ado in combating this evil that afflicts the two countries, though, of course, we will tend to say the ill is more acute in Nigeria than it is in Ghana.

Why not? I began asking myself. If you suffer from the same illness as your neighbour, and your case happens to be worse than his, that does not necessarily preclude you from advising him on how to deal with the illness.

In fact, because you have suffered worse effects of the infirmity, you may have more experience in dealing with it, and he will find your advice useful in terms of avoiding the mistakes you made along the way and which worsened your suffering.

I think Buhari meant to say: Look, Nana, we in Nigeria know how we got where we are. I personally know better how bad the situation is, and what may not work to remedy the situation, because, you will remember that I was in power in the 1980s as a military dictator, and everything I did then to stem corruption failed. Don’t go there.

I think that is what brothers and sisters should be doing, learning from each other.

Kenya wrote a beautiful Constitution some eight years ago. They could be grappling with its implementation but let’s accept that it is a healthy document that we can draw from, even if it was given to the wrong people for implementation. Last Friday, President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga agreed to work together in what they termed “building bridges to a new Kenyan nation.” I wish them success.

Rwanda is freer from corruption than the rest of us and they have the cleanest capital, Kigali. Can we not learn from them, even if we know they have other problems?

Brother and sister should teach and learn from each other.

Jenerali Ulimwengu is chairman of the board of the Raia Mwema newspaper and an advocate of the High Court in Dar es Salaam. E-mail: [email protected]

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