The hangman's noose being wrapped around the fat neck of the Evil Genius, General Ibrrahim Babangida, has been further tightened by a new petition to the Independent Corrupt Practise Commission (ICPC) to compel the former dictator to declare his assets ahead of the 2011 elections. Osita Mba, a member of the Anti-Corruption Committee and the Public and Professional Interest Division of the International Bar Association, sent his open petition to the ICPC on April 19, 2010, asking for the probe of the former head of state's "unexplained wealth" that threatens Nigeria's democracy.
According to the petitioner, section 44 of The Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Act 2000 of the ICPC Act, which is designed to combat corruption and promote good governance, must now be instigated as, according to the law, Mr. Babangida is required to "justify his wealth or forfeit it to the state".
The Act empowers the anti-graft agency to subject any past or present government official to criminal penalties and forfeiture if, in the course of an investigation, they are found to have committed fraud.Mr. Mba said that his primary objective is to persuade the ICPC to enforce a very important piece of legislation against a very important citizen at a very important time in our country's history.
"You will agree that corruption is the biggest problem facing our country and if there is one person that can be described justifiably as the personification of corruption in Nigeria, it is IBB," he said. "Therefore, it makes sense to start the enforcement of section 44 of the ICPC Act with IBB, especially now that he is preparing to contest the most important office in the land. If the ICPC can achieve this, then I will expect them to enforce the same law against other corrupt past and present public officials and their associates in the private sector."
The petition reminded the ICPC that the former leader had already been outed by the Pius Okigbo panel, which in its report submitted in September 1994, stated that Mr. Babangida's regime conspired with officials of the Central Bank to squander the $12b earned in 1991 on dubious projects, adding that $12.2 billion out of the fund was spent through "Dedicated Accounts" that were not available to auditors.
Making mockery of democracy
The petition also alleges that the cost of Mr. Babangida's Hilltop mansion in Minna exceeds his legitimate emoluments for his military and public service careers, therefore claiming that the structure stands as "an obscene and poignant testament to this fact." It also pointed at the failure of the ICPC to invoke the act, despite the relentless distortion of Nigeria's social, economic, legal and political systems by past and present corrupt leaders.
Mr. Mba, therefore, suggested enforcing this legislation now to redeem the fight against corruption by starting with the former head of state.
Mr. Mba, however, said that if the ICPC does not live up to expectations, he will work with other like-minded Nigerians in the civil society to make the question of illicit or unexplained wealth a critical issue at the forthcoming elections.
"The use of illicit wealth to subvert the will of the people in recent elections has created a vicious circle in which unbridled looting of public funds, rather than providing the dividends of democracy, has come to be the safest way to retain political power in our country," he said.
"This makes a mockery of our pretensions to democracy and perpetuates high level corruption and all the evils that it creates."
