Some names in the list of the 45 ministers recently sworn in by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu reeks of corruption which suggests that some of them are just there to continue from where they stopped pillaging the common patrimony of the nation
By Joshua Chiemerie
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is aptly profiled if you refer to him as a cat with nine lives. He is touted in many political quarters as a democrat but his roughshod on the political fabrics of Lagos State since 1999 to date has dented whatever democratic values he might have claimed to possess. He is reputed as one politician who thinks that their words are a law and any dissenting voice in this regard should be crushed politically. His certificate scandal nearly caused him his second tenure as the governor of Lagos State but the intervention of the almighty immunity.
Tinubu’s identity has defied even a prolific historian. One minute he has Primary and Secondary certificate the next minute his handlers tells you that he attended one school that is not in existence. Till date, according to investigation orchestrated by this medium, President Tinubu has not been able to tell Nigerians which Primary and Secondary schools he attended, and who is his classmate live or dead. His root has been in the realm of conjecture. Some could swear with whatever he believes that he is from the famous Tinubu family in Lagos State while others would bet their valuables that he is a native of Iragbiji, a rustic town in Osun State, and ready to prove that his ancestral home in the state is still there for anybody to see.
His uncertain identity may have reflected on the assemblage of men who had hitherto had corruption question to provide answers to form his cabinet. From the Senate President to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation alleged financial infractions against them abound.
Festus Keyamo
Festus Keyamo, SAN is paradox. He is believed to be a an ardent student of the ideals of late legal luminary Gani Fawehinmi, he was one of the devout of the teachings of the late legal luminary which borders on zero tolerance for corruption, who was an advocate of the downtrodden and avatar of justice no matter who is involved. But unlike his late mentor, who believed that corrupt leaders should be avoided like plague, Keyamo believed that hobnobbing with corrupt leaders and attempt to imitate them is a way of life. Fawehinmi is not known to renege in his resolve to stand against the clan of corrupt leaders; Keyamo is the opposite of that stand which stood the late legal luminary out in the crowd as a freedom fighter.
Keyamo was reputed for instituting case against President Tinubu for certificate forgery when he was governor of Lagos State. He was a regular face on many television stations calling for the probe of Tinubu, insisting that he had no qualification to contest for the governorship of Lagos State.
In 2023 many years after he was a regular face in the corridors of courts challenging the authenticity of the certificate Tinubu parades; he was in the front seat selling his candidature as the best candidate for the president of the country. His appointment as a minister in the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari as the Minister of State for Niger Delta Ministry was brief because the man who was then the substantive Minister, Senator Godswill Akpabio had case with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, which Keyamo represents the commission. Today, that case has died a natural death because Akpabio embraced corruption, though allegedly, as a way of life.
Today Keyamo is rewarded with the position of the Minister of Aviation and the 10th National Assembly cleared him even when his tenure as Minister of State of Labour was marred with controversies that borders on corruption and highhandedness.
Akpabio
Senator Godswill Akpabio a two-time governor of Akwa Ibom state, former Minister of Niger Delta Ministry and currently Senate President of the 10th National Assembly have a date with the probing eyes of the EFCC as his case is still pending in the court. Keyamo was touted as the lawyer prosecuting him in the court on behalf of the anti-graft agency before his unhealthy marriage with those he hitherto tarred with brush of financial infractions. Investigation revealed that Akpabio had a hot romance with sleaze in any position of responsibility he had held in the country. When he was the governor for eight years, he left the office with a bad record in the archives of EFCC. Even as the Minister of the Niger Delta Ministry, financial sleaze allegedly dogged the number of years he held sway as the Minister. His spat with the then Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC was legendary, and it borders on financial infractions.
Now he is henchman of Tinubu at the National Assembly as the President of the Senate, and is ever ready to do the bidding of the man who made his ascendancy possible.
Nuhu Ribadu
For Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Adviser, NSA, surviving the corruption infested Political milieu in the country seemed easier than chasing corrupt politicians. His transition from antagonist of corrupt politicians to their yeoman as evidenced in the way and manner he has hobnobbed with the corrupt politicians in the country is legendary.
During the twilight of the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Ribadu, then the czar of the anti-corruption agency, made public the damning report the former governors; Tinubu, Akpabio, Orji Uzor Kalu, James Ibori, Chimaroke Nnamani and Abudulhi Adamu, the immediate National Chairman of the ruling APC. In that report, according investigation, Ribadu said that Tinubu is extremely corrupt.
The cost of living in badly damaged economy, according to investigation orchestrated by this medium, spurred the former anti-graft czar surge in his frantic effort at hobnobbing with the same man he hitherto tarred with the brush of corruption. The surge may have yielded fruits as he has been compensated with the sensitive position of the NSA in the country.
Abudullahi Ganduje
On the corruption front, the former governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje has achieved a relative stability in warding off any probe of financial infractions. He survived the alleged dollar bribe which he was neck deep in its execution when he held sway as the governor of the State. As an avatar of corruption, allegedly though, he has earned himself the plum job of the National Chairman of the ruling APC against all odds.
His few weeks as the National Chairman of APC has caused bad blood among the members of the National Working Committee, NWC of his party as some members have been barred from entering the National Secretariat of the party. The consequences of such action are capable of imploding the party that is already wobbling. Grapevine is agog with the report that Ganduje is not perturbed that some of the NWC are grumblings because he had the ears of presidency that foisted him on the party as the new National Chairman of the ruling party.
George Akume
George Akume, the current Secretary to the Government of the Federation and former two term governor of Benue State, according to reports oozing from the stable of the anti-graft agency, revealed that the file indictive of financial sleaze as the governor of the state is gathering dust in the EFCC’s cupboard. His tenure as the Minister of Special Duties was not less controversial.
His alleged permanent member of the clan of corruption is rumoured to be responsible for steady political patronage he had enjoyed in the ruling party for the past eight years and still counting.
