By Ikechukwu Nnochiri
ABUJA– A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Mr. Mohammed Ndarani, on Wednesday, urged the Federal Government to bar civil servants from contesting for any elective position for at least one year after their retirement.
According to him, the period would give the anti-corruption agencies the opportunity to conduct a forensic examination of their assets vis-a-vis what they declared before the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB.
“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 lamented.
Therefore, he 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 senior, in a statement he made available to newsmen, said: “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 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 foul 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 the work their way into office, they plunder the treasury and divert money meant for constituency projects and other development projects into their personal accounts.
“This has to stop if Nigeria must make progress,” he added.
As part of his recommendations, Mr. Ndarani, SAN, said there was need to put measures in place “to ensure that all public servants are investigated on retirement, political office holders should be investigated too whether they are coming back for second tenure or not to learn the sources of their current assets and incomes.”
“This is especially necessary when they are found to have inexplicably amassed unusually huge amounts of funds and assets which could not possibly have accrued from gainful, legitimate endeavours.
“Even in the best of climes, politics is an expensive undertaking, and Nigeria cannot be an exception, so any one who retires from public service and almost right away jumps unto into partisan politics, deserves forensic examination.
“This is particularly necessary given the nature of our society where people in privileged positions often contrive to escape culpability, in spite of the long arms of the law.
“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.
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