Is this a country or a game?

The Buhari government said it had only received a $209 million signature bonus in relation to the deal, but that it estimated the value of the oilfield involved to have been “at least $3.5 billion” and that it would seek to calculate damages on that basis.

Again, that was in 2019.  Buhari went on to serve out his second term, completing his tenure last year.  He never spoke about the matter in Nigeria, and neither Jonathan nor Madueke, who lives in London,ever had to answer questions let alone testify in court.

Are we a country, or a game?

As early as October 2016, it had become clear that in his hunger for power, Buhari had all along lied about his anti-corruption profile.  BiographerJohn Paden, author of “Muhammadu Buhari: The Challenges of Leadership in Nigeria,” wrote that Buhari’s anti-corruption objective was not justice, such as apprehending and jailing those who had looted Nigeria blind, but only to retrieve such funds.

Buhari told Paden that Mr. Jonathanhad obtained“off-budget funds” during his tenure and that he had in his possessionletters implicating the former president in that regard.

Remember that it was in the same year that the then-British Prime Minister David Cameron, with Buhari on his way to a so-called anti-corruption conference in London,described Buhari’s Nigeria as “fantastically corrupt.”

Buhari was not angry. He did not challenge Cameron.  He said what he wanted was not an apology but all the Nigerian loot in Britain. That was always Buhari’s safe zone as he sought to avoid having to embarrass his corrupt friends and supporters.  And so, he never made any specific demands on the British government, never named anyone, and never advanced Nigeria beyond his own limitations.

Wrote Paden, falsely: “The fact that Buhari was enlisting the help of the international community in the probes lent weight to the seriousness of his effort – and also meant that alleged offenders had nowhere to hide.”

“Would the trail lead to former President Jonathan himself? As of the early months of 2016, it appeared that the EFCC was not going after Jonathan. Nor was it going after former President Obasanjo…”

Was there ever a “trail”?  No:Buhari left office with corruption far more Nigerian and far more ‘honourable’ than before he arrived.  With days left of his tenure, he finally explained the joke: it was ego—not the patriotism he had marketed—which really pushed him: “I got what I wanted,” he said.  He wanted power.

Whom do we ask as to why a self-proclaimed anti-corruption hunter spent eight years enriching corruption, including lying for months at a time in its beds?  Did Buhari take his case out of British courts, for instance?  Did he burn Jonathan’s letters, or did he hand them over to Jagaban Tinubu, who has said he will continue the work of his predecessor?

Is this a country, or a game?

In April 2019, Bolaji Owasanoye, chairing the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, shook Nigeria when he asserted thatcorruption in the executive arm of government was more than the legislature and judiciary combined.

“This is because the executive spends a far bigger chunk of the money appropriated,” he explained.  “This gives room for allegations of abuse and misappropriation of the funds.”

This year, thanks to BudgIt’s GovSpend, Nigerians are finally getting to see for themselves just how unconscionable and reckless the federal executive is.  You don’t have to believe anyone: search the database for yourself.

I number among those who have, lately,reporting last weekseveral curious patterns and expenditures.

In the past week, SaharaReportershas also reported how the government, inexplicably spent:

• N244 million, in different payments, on motor vehicle tires, just a few days before Tinubu’s first anniversary;
• N473 millionin February and Marchon trips of First Lady Oluremi Tinubu to the United Kingdom, Mozambique and Ethiopia;
• 77 billion for the repair and maintenance of Nigeria’s presidential air fleet over an 11-month period;
• Over $4.4 million and over one million Euros within four months in 2023 for foreign trips for the President and Vice President.

In January 2024, The Punch reportedhad reported that Tinubu spent no less than N3.4bn—36 per cent more than the N2.49bn available to him in the 2023 budget—on local and foreign travel within six months.Although Tinubu inherited the budget halfway, the report said,“he spent more than what was apportioned for the whole year” in those six months.

Note that together, according to The Punch last Friday,Tinubu, MrShettima, and Mrs. Tinubu spent not less than N5.24bn on local and foreign travel in just three months this year.

In other words, in addition to Professor Owasanoye’s explanationof the depth of the decay in the executive, it seems also to have taken to heartTinubu’s scorched-earth power philosophy, in which you “grab-it, snatch it, run with it.” There is no other explanation of why it is squandering so much on excess and luxury in the middle of so much suffering nationwide.

Is ours a game, or a country?  If it is a country, have we told the children of Nigerian diplomats pulled out of school in countries near and far because their parent was retrenched overnight?