How Nigerian Corrupt Politicians Get Away with Fraud
Nigerian corrupt Politicians Have become the key issue of Nigeria growth, Three years ago, Nigeria ranked the 149th most corrupt countries in the world. And as bad as it
sounds, it appears there’s nothing the Nigerian populace can do to eradicate this stigma of corruption Politicians and fraud that follows the name of our country. Why? Because those who make the
laws are the ones who break it for their selfish agendas.
It’s been proven that Nigeria is the safest place for Nigerian corrupt politicians to commit fraud and get away with
it. But how did we get here? How did we groom leaders who have no desire whatsoever to take
care of the people they are leading in order to make the country conducive for everyone? How
did we raise leaders who only stuff their international bank accounts with government funds
meant for the people with no reason other than the sole purpose of greed? How did we raise
leaders who act and accuse those in power when they weren’t in office yet, but as soon as they
got into that office, they carried out worse fraudulent activities than their predecessors?
Take for instance, in 2014, former President Buhari lied about borrowing money to buy the APC
Presidential Ticket for 27.5 million naira and pretended that it was costly.
In 2018, he was the party leader while the ticket sold for 45 million naira.
Fast forward to 2022, the same man who said 27.5 million naira was costly in 2014 led the party
to increase the ticket to 100 million naira.
Is that fraud or evolution?
In case you’re wondering how things like this actually happens, then I’d say welcome to Nigeria
where the Presidential and Gubernatorial elections are rigged to favor illiterates who are the
highest bidders. People who dodge interviews, presidential and gubernatorial debates held to
see what they have in store for the masses. Illiterates who failed WAEC, had no history of ever
attending university, forfeited 460 thousand dollars to the United States court over drug related
cases and has a bulk of criminal files with the FBI, yet, like magic, sits as the President of
Nigeria today.
Before we get to the stage where a common man on the streets of Lagos would hijack power by
paying off INEC, I want us to tackle this issue from the root in order to know who to point fingers
at when that time comes. Because with the way Nigerian corrupt politicians have reduced what seems
to be the bar of leadership in the country, it is imminent that the common man with no
qualification would one day find his way to the Presidential office just because he had bribes to
hand out.
How can a country thrive when we have 36 states but over 48 ministers? And 41 out of these 48
ministers have corruption cases. 9 out of 11 Governors who lost elections are now ministers.
Even a former Governor who was caught stealing on camera is now the chairman of the Ruling
Party. And to crown it all, a known drug lord is leading the country?
Sounds more like we’re watching a Netflix TV show titled,
“Nigeria Is A Joke”
.
But hold up, we aren’t just speaking out of frustration, no, there is clear evidence to back up
what we are saying.
Let’s begin from the National Assembly, or should we say “the lawmakers”?
We all know their role, given that they hold the Senate and House of Representatives, is to be
responsible for law making. Laws which are supposed to oppose corruption and uphold
anti-corruption. But I hate to break it to you that some Nigerian corrupt politicians who have been caught in
fraudulent activities are members of this very law-making body. Crazy right?
Let us start with the current Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
Here’s how the story goes:
In 2021, a professor rigged an election for a politician. The professor was jailed while the
politician walked away free. Fast forward to April 30th, 2025, an appeal court still upheld the jail
sentence of the professor.
Meanwhile, the politician is today the Senate President of Nigeria. The 3rd highest-ranking office
in the country.
But before Akpabio found his way to the Senate, he was linked to the mismanagement of
billions of naira during his time as Minister of Niger Affairs while he controlled the Niger Delta
Development Commission (NDDC).
In 2020, his questioning went viral on TV after the Nigerian government through the National
Assembly conducted an investigation (also known as probe) into how the NDDC money was
spent. One would think that it was spent for the right course such as building roads, schools,
hospitals, and so on, but 81 billion naira was spent in just a few months with nothing to show for
it.
And not only did Akpabio get away with it, today he is the sitting President of the Senate like we
said earlier.
Now the question is, if a man like that who has committed such a fraudulent act as a Minister
and got away with it, what then will he do now that he is the head of Nigeria’s law-making body?
Another politician who was a former Abia State governor was also convicted and sentenced to
twelve years in prison for stealing 7.6 billion naira while in office. This happened in 2019 by Orji
Uzor Kalu.
But here’s what’s funny, the judge who sentenced him earlier got promoted during the case and
it was argued that he no longer had the jurisdiction to finish what he started (which was
continuing the trial). This happened five years ago, and despite the noise from the EFCC to
have the case reopened, nothing was done to him till today.
In fact, the same Orji Uzor Kalu is back in the Senate and even contested for Senate President
in 2023.
The list goes on and on.
We all witnessed the peak of it all during the 2023 Presidential elections. While everyone got
their voter’s card ahead of the election with the mindset of changing things for the better in the
country, INEC on the other hand told Nigerians that they would use this new tech system called
BVAS to confirm votes, and also a website called IReV to upload election results from each
polling unit immediately so everyone could see them.
But as usual, Nigeria happened.
After the election, it was discovered that thousands of result sheets weren’t officially signed or
stamped. And how come the website failed all of a sudden when it was time to upload the result
for the Presidential elections, whereas the gubernatorial election results were uploaded?
Instead, the results were called at midnight, when citizens were asleep.
The case was taken to court and even though the court was presented with clear evidence that
depicted the manipulation of the election, the case was eventually dismissed and a well known
drug lord who clearly rigged the election was introduced again as the President of Nigeria.
No more questions, no more investigations.
Nothing.
Truth is corruption or fraud isn’t just about stealing money. No, it’s about these powerful
politicians breaking the law over and over again without fear and getting away with it. We hardly
find cases of their arrest or their conviction after a court trial. But who can we blame when the
agencies designed to help tackle fraud and corrupt activities in the country are controlled by
these same fraudulent politicians?
Well, maybe one day we will fight to remove these thieves from office rather than choose to go
with the flow. Maybe one day we still choose not to accept our fate of inflation and hardship. But
until that day comes, I’m afraid more fraudulent activities will be carried out, and like always, the
ones who indulge in them will get away with it.
No questions asked.
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