“It is odd, strange and bizarre that while ordinary citizens can be called up to answer questions or be interrogated, the VIP cannot be questioned without the annoying insinuations of partisanship, persecution or outright politicisation,” presidential spokesperson Garba Shehu said in a statement Tuesday night.
The statement came hours after Senate President Bukola Saraki accused security agencies of plotting to prevent a mass defection of federal lawmakers from the ruling All Progressives Congress at Tuesday’s plenary.
The defection later played out almost as planned, but the conduct of security agencies in the hours preceding the exercise elicited suspicion from Nigerians who accused President Muhammadu Buhari’s as the instigator.
Mr Shehu’s message was apparently aimed at checking a widening narrative that cast Mr Buhari as a vindictive puppeteer of security agencies’ operations, especially as concerns political heavyweights whose loyalties are at variance with or lie outside the president’s interests.
Insinuations that Mr Buhari had converted law enforcement agencies to his personal attack dogs has simmered for the better part of his leadership, starting with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s crackdown on those perceived as corrupt.
The agency’s anti-corruption efforts, a crucial part of the administration’s larger campaign against graft, have seen scores of alleged corrupt politicians and their enablers taken into custody. The EFCC said it recovered billions from senior officials in the immediate-past administration, including ministers, security chiefs and shady contractors.
But at the peak of the campaign, independent anti-corruption experts said it became increasingly clear that opposition politicians were being specifically targeted. While corruption dossiers submitted against Mr Buhari’s appointees would be essentially ignored by anti-graft detectives, opposition politicians, especially those in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), were being locked up, sometimes for months amidst unsigned or suspiciously-procured remand warrants.
Earlier this year, Transparency International found that Mr Buhari’s anti-corruption tactics actually worsened rather than improving the country’s long-standing corruption perception. The administration’s response to the verdict was mixed, with officials like Mr Shehu dismissing it as politically-motivated while Vice President Yemi Osinbajo took it as a bracer to fine tune their approach.
Mr Buhari’s loyalists with specific and difficult-to-controvert allegations of corruption but whom security agencies have been reluctant to go after included Babachir Lawal, the former cabinet secretary who was caught apparently dipping his hands into funds earmarked for the victims of Boko Haram, and Kemi Adeosun, the finance minister who was recently exposed as forging a national youth service certificate.
Despite the signals pointing to possible presidential interference in the conduct of security agencies, Mr Shehu absolved his principal, saying Nigerians are judging him by the objectionable manner with which past presidents approach law enforcement.
Mr Shehu dismissed allegations of Mr Buhari’s involvement in the onslaught against political foes as an “orchestrated campaign,” insisting strongly that the president does not dictate the direction of activities for agencies.
