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he chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, Justice Mustapha Adebayo Akanbi, shocked Nigerians a few days ago when he announced that his commission could not probe Nigeria's former president, General Ibrahim Babangida [Guardian, August 9, 2002]. He made the statement during a keynote address at a seminar organized by the commission for anti-corruption prosecutors from Ghana and Mali. According to him, his commission could not probe Babangida because, the anti graft law which came into effect in June of 2000, "had no retroactive or retrospective provisions". In essence, the Justice was telling Nigerians that if they were still expecting this government to ask the maradonic General to explain the source of his enormous and dizzying wealth, that they were wasting their time.

This type of scenario also played out during the Oputa Commission hearings. Justice Oputa whet the appetite of Nigerians when he summoned the past heads of State to give account of human rights abuses perpetrated during their regimes. Nigerians were jubilant and expectant. They thought that a courageous judge had finally emerged to force the powers that be to come before the nation and give accounts of their misdeeds and sadistic inclinations, but the heads of state refused to show up as requested by Justice Oputa. The Justice threatened them with jail terms if they failed to obey his orders but they still did not show up and what did Oputa do? Instead of carrying through with his threats, thereby sending an unmistakable message that would have resonated around the world, he sent "special invitations" to them, begging them to come and tell Nigerians how the country could move forward! They still snubbed him anyway and so in one swoop, the Justice made a mockery of a process that would have brought forth a lot of good for Nigeria. Justice Mustapha has now gone the same way and I am sure that Obasanjo loves the fact that he would no longer have to look for reasons to proffer for not probing Babangida. But my take is that the Corrupt Practices Commission was established by somebody, the mandate was established by somebody, therefore if we seriously and honestly desire to look into IBB's financial deals, the commission's mandate could be expanded and extended. Nigerians must not be fooled into believing that Obasanjo did not probe IBB because of the non-retroactive nature of the graft commission's mandate. That is far from the truth, he is simply protecting his old army buddy and others of his ilk.

This is not a surprise because for some time now, General Obasanjo has been looking for reasons to convince Nigerians that he could not probe his army buddy and political financier. It must be remembered however, that right after Obasanjo's inauguration, he went on a crusade, emphasizing zero tolerance for corruption. He told a hopeful nation, that there would be no sacred cows in his bid to rid Nigeria of those who ran it down economically. Nigerians welcomed this stance and wished him well. Before long, he descended on the Abacha family with the full might of the federal government. We felt that a messiah may have come afterall and we were all expecting that gradually, the probes would expand to also include his army friend.

	The million-dollar question now is, why is the commission's mandate not retroactive? One would think that the goal of the anti-graft panel would be to investigate and find out what put Nigeria into this financial mess and then find a way to avoid a repeat?

As time passed, it became clear to Nigerians that Babangida was not even being mentioned as a possible candidate for probe by the Obasanjo administration; as a result, citizens started speaking up. On the Nigeriaworld forum, yours truly and many more columnists, started reminding the administration that while the Abacha probe was welcome, he was leaving out IBB who also played a pivotal role in setting the nation on the wrong part. At first, Obasanjo ignored all these calls until pressure increased to an unprecedented level. In response to the calls, he told a disappointed nation that he would probe IBB "only if someone brought forth evidence" Many cried foul! The president's attention was directed to the fact that it was not the citizens that provided him with the evidence for the Abacha probe, so why would he want the citizens to bring forth evidence in the case of IBB? General Obasanjo was told that for starters, IBB should be asked to explain how he acquired the mansion in Minna, the private jet and the house in France. Obasanjo turned his back on all these and elected to do nothing. It is now clear that what he did was to send his lieutenants back to the drawing board with the instructions to come up with a stronger reason to proffer to the nation, why he could not probe Babangida. They eventually decided to tell Nigerians that the mandate of the anti-graft panel is not retroactive. All Nigerians of goodwill must reject this shenanigan in its entirety.

The million-dollar question now is, why is the commission's mandate not retroactive? One would think that the goal of the anti-graft panel would be to investigate and find out what put Nigeria into this financial mess and then find a way to avoid a repeat? If the country fails to find out how she got into this financial mess and what part our public officials played, how would we be able to establish a credible way and means to rectify the situation? Is it conceivable that making the work of the commission non -retroactive was a deliberate attempt to protect powerful people from being probed? General Obasanjo is setting a dangerous precedent that would make it difficult to check and prevent corruption in that country. Look at Jeremiah Useni, he practically owned properties all over Abuja even though he was a mere salaried soldier but he still walks around a free man! Only in Nigeria.

This line of action or inaction by Obasanjo buttresses the feeling of most Nigerians that the only reason Abacha was probed at all was because he died. Even Abacha's probe has been bungled and compromised. Obasanjo entered into a deal with the Abacha family to return some of the money they stole in exchange for dropping further prosecution. He said he was trying to save the country from expending a lot of legal fees. That is preposterous! Obasanjo could save us a lot of money by cutting down on his overseas travels where he goes with a multitude of entourage, racking up millions of naira in bills for the nation to shoulder. Simply put, the Abachas stole our money, period! They, and other corrupt public officials, must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law to serve as a deterrent to potential stealers. The deal that Obasanjo made with the Abacha family has created a terrible precedent; corrupt public officials would even become more brazen because they would hope to cut deals with the government if caught. Some of my readers even surmise that this administration was doing this to protect themselves, should they be probed after their own tenure. Whether this is true or not, this line of action is bad for the country.

As it stands now, Nigeria is being blacklisted financially overseas for various financial offenses ranging from corruption in the country to 419 activities. One would think that our president would be in the forefront aggressively condemning, controlling and checking these crimes. He talks the talk all right, but he has woefully failed to walk the walk. By telling Nigerians that probes are not retroactive, he is allowing all those who carried out the biggest crimes against Nigeria by moving our scarce foreign exchange out of the country, to go scot-free. So, how would Obasanjo be able to deal with 419ers who are destroying the country's image abroad when he has not dealt with those who committed even more heinous financial offenses?

When my commentary titled, MR. PRESIDENT, PLEASE SAVE DIASPORANS FROM THE SCOURGE OF NIGERIAN SCAM (419) ARTISTS! was published on Nigeriaworld, I got a dizzying number of emails from Nigerians all over the globe. In the emails, Nigerians overwhelmingly stated that 419 was a scourge that needed to be expunged to save our image. Many recounted the terrible embarrassments they had suffered as a result of the 419 activities in their various places of abode in the Diaspora. But some stated that there are 419ers in high places in Nigeria. They pointed to the fact that those who looted our treasury have practically gone scot-free and had become chiefs and kingmakers, living ostentatious lives. This ostentatious living they argue, has enticed the younger generation into going the way of 419 to see if they could live like their role models. 419ers they say, are simply emulating corrupt public officials even though they are targeting their crimes on the international community. They believe that if Obasanjo cannot bring corrupt public officials to book, then he has no moral right to even attempt to speak against 419ers and their horrendous crimes. The readers feel that only when we have cleaned house in high places, would we be able to start convincing the riffraffs writing 419 letters, to cut out the stupidity. In light of all this, I urge General Olusegun Obasanjo to immediately commence the probe of the maradonic General, Useni, Abubakar and others. Even Umaru Dikko has not told us how he made all his money, so he should be compelled to. If Obasanjo does not do this, shame on Nigerians if they go back to the polls and reelect him.

Sometimes I find myself wondering why it is that even though Obasanjo made morality the mantra of his administration, he has woefully failed to demonstrate this practically? For a president who had to commune with God before he decided to run again and for a president who invokes the name of God in every thing he does, why does he find it difficult to really call a spade a spade? Does Obasanjo not understand that there is such thing as guilt by association? Does he not know that by accepting campaign donations from people who unlawfully enriched themselves in Nigeria, he has become guilty? Does the president not understand that by looking the other way and not probing corrupt public officials he is equally guilty of their crimes? Does our president not know that by inviting IBB to chair his re-election announcement gathering, even when Nigerians are still asking questions about IBB's riches, he is equally guilty and may have lost his moral locus standi to question anyone else in Nigeria? How could Obasanjo in all honesty tell Nigerians that he is not stonewalling the process of fighting corruption?

I read with interest, the article written by Laolu Akande and published on Nigeriaworld on July 10, 2002. The article was titled, "How Obasanjo blocked the recovery of IBB's $25bn loot" The assertions in that singular article go to buttress the fact that Nigerians are right when they say that Obasanjo just does not want to probe Babangida because he is his buddy and political financier. Just take the paragraph below excerpted from the article for instance which says, "specifically and most significantly, investigations have now revealed that the Obasanjo administration refused offers by the experts, including those from UN sources, to trace monies looted from Nigeria during the Babangida regime, but encouraged the pursuit of Abacha stolen funds" If all this is true, then it means that Obasanjo was simply deceiving Nigerians when he said that he has no evidence to probe IBB. Another paragraph of great interest in the article goes thus, "According to the expert, Nigeria's wealth is just sitting down there primarily in UK and all efforts are not being tapped to fully recover them. There are ways and options that are not being pursued. Even the UN has offered to help. But Nigeria's president's message to the international community was that you can go after Abacha, but not IBB's money." All this is mind-boggling and I am not sure I know where the president is going with all these inconsistencies in his policies, certainly NOT a second term I hope.

I will end this piece with a quote from Obasanjo's message to the Commonwealth Parliament Association at Wilton Park, West Sussex, England on June 12, 2002. He said, "having realized that no meaningful progress could be achieved without curbing the scourge of corruption, my administration has initiated measures to stem its tide and punish perpetrators."

Well readers, judge for yourselves, who do you think is fooling who? Go figure.

HERE I STAND!