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From Godwin Tsa Abuja
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mohammed Ndarani (SAN), has called on the Federal Government to bar civil servants from contesting for any elective position for, at least, one year after their retirement.
Ndarani said the one year ban would provide the anti-corruption agencies enough time to conduct a forensic examination of their assets vis-a-vis what they declared before the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB.
The senior lawyer, in a statement, yesterday, in Abuja, lamented that “although the Code of Conduct was put in place to checkmate the tendency for public office holders to loot the public treasury while in office, sadly, that doesn’t seem to have been effective enough”.
He, therefore, asked President Bola Tinubu to apply the provision of Section 315 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, “to save Nigeria from electing bad and corrupt leaders into political offices come 2027.”
The statement reads: “Another set of elections and the accompanying electioneering campaigning are practically upon us already. Consequently, people with political ambitions are already beginning to throw their hats into the ring all the way from the local government tier to the presidency.
“These will be exciting times, indeed, but Nigerians generally seem to be losing sight of a fundamental flaw in the whole process. Among those expected to emerge as political gladiators will be, as is always the case, retired civil servants, or those who resigned from public service or political appointments.
“In Nigeria, it is mandatory for public servants to declare their assets under the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB). A most instructive question here, however, is after they leave the service, what happens? Do they routinely get investigated with their post-service assets by the anti-corruption agencies juxtaposed with what they had when they joined public service? Sadly, this is hardly the case, except there is reason to investigate the individual.
“The tendency for public servants in Nigeria to plunder the nation’s treasury with shocking impunity during their employment is alarming, and this is because they want to contest for political offices after retirement. This gets progressively worse as the date of their disengagement approaches.
“Most of them do this to amass vast amounts of money with which to fund their election campaigns.
These elections usually see them work their way into lofty political positions that would further enhance their ability to further milk the nation, often with little or no accountability.
“This is especially so because Nigerian politicians see electoral offices as situations of winner-takes-all, and this is with no regard for the extant laws. In the first instance, there are laws under the Electoral Act 2022 guiding the financing of election campaigns. Section 88(2-7) stipulates the limits allowed for election expenses. Everybody just pays lip service to this veritable check and potential block to the activities of corrupt officials.
“The reluctance and, at times, outright refusal by public officials to publicly declare and submit their Asset declaration Forms and other documents and comply with other provisions of the Code of Conduct, is responsible for the high level of corruption in the public service of Nigeria.
“Sadly though, our politicians have been known to flout these laws with total impunity. Many of them spend humongous amounts of money and, in the process, stand the rest of the electoral laws on their heads. This explains the main reason why many of them, while in public service, line their pockets by every possible means, in anticipation of their making a foray into politics.
“It is cause for great concern that we hardly ever hear of politicians being sanctioned for running afoul of the provisions of the said section 88(2-7), even when we know that they are routinely flouted.
“Also, political office holders do the same; they go into the political office with little or nothing to their names, but they come out with huge assets and monstrous amounts of money stashed away.
“And when they work their way into office, they plunder the treasury and divert money meant for constituency projects and other development projects into their personal accounts. Retired civil servants should be barred from contesting for any elective positions for, at least, one year, to give the anti-corruption agencies the opportunity to investigate them.
“All heads of MDAs that are retired, or have been relieved of their jobs should also be investigated whether they are contesting or not. Corruption remains one of the greatest obstacles to Nigeria’s development. It calls for stronger accountability measures to ensure that public resources are not wasted or diverted into a few private pockets.
“Nigerians deserve leaders who live modestly, account for every naira spent, and put the nation’s welfare above personal gain,” he stated.
