Nigerian elections: Honesty tarnished by failure to fight corruption | News from the world

The Nigerian president, who came to power with the commitment to fight corruption, said he needed more time to solve the problem, but had not started any legal proceedings and that he seemed to tolerate colleagues stained by serious allegations.

Muhammadu Buhari was elected four years ago after a wave of disgust at the alleged greed of the Goodluck Jonathan government. However, as he fights for a second term in Saturday's election, his efforts to control corruption are widely perceived as a failure.

Thousands of government supporters wearing twig brooms stormed the streets of Surulere in Nigeria's southern mega-city of Lagos on Saturday, signaling their support for the president and his anti-corruption campaign.

"It's a broomstick revolution," said Bola Tinubu, a senior party official, in front of the crowd gathered for Buhari's "mega-rally." "Broom broom!" He continued, imitating a motorcycle as his fans swept the sky.

Mai Gaskiya – Mr. Honesty – Such has long been Buhari's ascendant nickname. His personal reputation for being a perfectly clean man in a sea of ​​corrupt Nigerian politicians has survived his first term.

"It's the only president that no British prime minister can call a thief," said Adams Oshiomhole, chairman of the APC party in Buhari, referring to the moment when David Cameron was filmed on camera at the Eve of the anti-corruption summit, telling the Queen that Nigeria "Fantastically corrupt".

At the summit, Buhari was asked if his country was really as corrupt as Cameron described it. "Yes," he said simply, after a pause.

But nearly three years later, rumors of corruption once again torment the president's men.

None of the many corruption cases initiated by the administration resulted in a conviction. A former secretary of the federation who allegedly embezzled 270 million naira (£ 578,000) from Boko Haram's displaced people to accounts linked to Boko Haram was only charged last month, two years after his indictment by the Senate. It took months of pressure from the press and parliament to fire him; He is currently one of the leaders of the President's campaign in his country, Adamaoua.

At least two ministers have received petitions for embezzlement as governors of Lagos and Rivers, the two largest state economies. Last October, Oshiomhole, also a former governor of the state, was seen serving a document by a federal high court for fraud committed in the performance of his duties. A month later, the secret police questioned him for collecting bribes to overthrow the party primaries across the country.

Transparency International said Nigeria had not made progress on its latest corruption perception index released last month.

Buhari implemented the Treasury single account initiative, making it more difficult for officials to steal money – something that his predecessors had failed to do. But in the meantime, it is unclear how the billion dollars he has released from the country's gross surplus account to finance the fight against Boko Haram have been spent.

Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, the governor of Kano, was filmed in secret. It was filmed in secret. It is a big bribe in exchange for lucrative government contracts. On the contrary, Buhari was pleased to appear in public in front of the governor and came in person to support his campaign for re-election in Kano, a traditional fortress of the APC – which, with a population greater than Belgium, is the largest state in the world. Nigeria.

"He is a responsible man," said the president about Ganduje, perhaps wistfully thinking of 2015. Then Ganduje's powerful predecessor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, gave 1.9% of the 2.1 million votes in Kano for Buhari – what Ganduje is supposed to do now. Kwankwaso rose to the opposition.

Buhari's lasting reputation as a "good man" of irreproachable character is not matched by his main opponent, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. Atiku, as his name indicates, has repeatedly denied multiple accusations of corruption, including embezzling $ 125 million of public funds for his own business interests and being helped by his American wife to transfer 40 millions of "suspicious funds" in the United States. which was the subject of a Senate report in 2010. Neither of the two allegations reached the court, but Atiku did little to convince the Nigerians that he had changed.

"I will not enrich my family members but my friends. Do not my friends have the right to get rich? He asked last month at a meeting of businessmen from Lagos.

Atiku is seen as a good businessman, able to manage the economy and deliver on his promises to create jobs and destroy an overworked government, offsetting the negative impact of corruption.

With vast fertile lands, enormous natural resources and a large youth population, Nigeria has enormous potential, but successive governments have failed to diversify the economy, so it almost entirely depends on sale of its crude oil. It's this money that is being hijacked by corrupt officials – for example, when selling an oil block of potential value of $ 6 billion to Shell and Eni, for which hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes were paid. The companies deny any illegality and the case is ongoing.

There is nothing intrinsically corrupt about Nigeria or Nigerians. Most express their exhaustion in the face of the constant theft of their resources.

The country was an invention of the British Empire, which decided to create a state composed of hundreds of ethnic groups to facilitate the administration. Partly for this reason, national unity is lacking and the country's bureaucracy has tended to become richer.

Today, Britain is a key destination for the ill-gotten gains of corrupt officials. In 2016, Buhari's anti-corruption chief had said that $ 37 billion of stolen money had been shipped by London in two years.

But the thousands of brooms – including a giant statue erected on Saturday at the gates of the city of Abuja – have not yet demolished corruption in Nigeria, despite the efforts of propagandists of the ruling party.

"President Buhari has once again secured all parts of the country and he has put an end to corruption," said a radio ad on Lagos before the rally.

"Share facts, not rumors," said an ad sent immediately after by WhatsApp.