Buhari’s Executive Order 6: Another Political Witch Hunt?

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday signed an Executive Order to improve his administration’s fight against corruption. Since President Muhammad Buhari signed the Executive Order 6 which primarily seeks to bar some politically exposed persons undergoing trial for one corruption case or the other, from travelling outside the country which in the seeming wisdom of the presidency ensures such people do not have access to their properties outside the country suspected to be proceeds of corruption and use same to frustrate their cases in court, Nigerians have been sharply divided over the matter. Just like many Nigerians have said, the Executive Order even though affirmed by a judge is needless and an unnecessary waste of time and resources of State because even the judge in affirming the order reiterated the need for it to operate within the ambit of the constitution. It is also unnecessary because some corruption related cases have been successfully concluded one way or the other without any executive order “giving bite” to the fight against corruption as Buhari’s government would want us to believe. For example, Senator Joshua Dariye, former governor of Plateau State, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison over corruption issues. It is the same with Jolly Nyame, former governor of Taraba State. In the same vein, some other cases have also been decided against the government and in favour of suspects. (It is instructive to quickly point out here that these two high profile cases that have led to convictions were initiated by PDP governments contrary to the current administration’s sing song that PDP never fought corruption). What this means is that rather than release an executive order which infringes on the fundamental human rights of Nigerians in order to fight corruption, government and its agencies should be humble enough to admit that the gross failure of fight against corruption is caused by its overzealousness, indiscretion, media trial of suspects, avoidable drama, insincerity, undue harassment, severe and several gross abuses of suspects’ rights, one-sided nature of the fight, improper and inconclusive investigations, injudicious prosecution, flagrant disobedience of court orders among others. It is not enough for government to dismissively ask those affected by an executive order that is considered poorly thought out and draconian to go to court and challenge it when Buhari’s government is well known for its penchant to disobey the courts, disrespect the judiciary and undermine its powers. A government that has had six court orders including one from ECOWAS Court asking it to release former National Security Adviser, NSA, Col Sambo Dasuki, rtd, on bail even with very stringent conditions including seizure of his international passport that would have enabled him to travel outside the country, cannot be trusted with the issuance of arbitrary orders. Although the case of Sheikh El Zakzaky is not corruption related, it nevertheless serves as a mirror into the mindset of those who execute the law and policies of government. After having also been granted bail several times by courts of competent jurisdiction, Zakzaky and his wife have remained in illegal detention of government for close to three years now. This is despite the fact that agents of government are suspected to have killed his sons in a military operation against the Shiites in December of 2015, in Zaria, that also saw to the suspected murder of hundreds of innocent Nigerians, a brutal crime for which no one has been brought to justice up till now! The discriminatory and indiscriminate prosecution of suspects by the Buhari administration is exemplified by its prosecution of Elder Godsday Orubebe, the former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, which eventually turned out to be nothing but an exercise in vengeful persecution. After several months of media trial and maligning the PDP chieftain, dragging him to court like a common criminal in the name of fight against corruption, Abubakar Malami, SAN, the minister of justice and attorney-general of the federation, wrote to the court on December 16, 2016, through a letter to the Chairman of the ICPC, with Ref No. DPPA/MNDA/345/16, confirming that the N1,965,576,153.46 for which Orubebe was being prosecuted “had not been expended, but awaiting further contract decisions and directives from the Ministry of Niger-Delta Affairs.” That is how vindictive this government is. How could you have charged a man to court in the first place on the allegation that he diverted the whopping sum of N1.97bn only for the same government to turn around to say that the sum was still at the Ministry of Niger-Delta Affairs unexpended? If this is not sheer wickedness fuelled by hate and persecution of opposition personalities including dissenting voices, then one wonders what else it could be.