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Article Title:
When You Fight Corruption, Corruption Will Fight Back, Who Will Win the War: Reviewing President Buhari Administration's Anti-Corruption War In Nigeria
by Dr. Macaulay J. D. Akpan, Esq.

Abstract:
This paper reviewed the status and/or level of victories and challenges faced by President Muhammadu Buhari government?s anti-corruption war in Nigeria. In doing so, the paper examined the various anti-corruption policies, legal and regulatory frameworks that have been put in place by President Buhari?s administration, to fight against corruption-which phenomenon has been fighting back in various forms. The paper observes that Nigeria, no doubt, has adopted some of the provisions of the International Conventions Against Corruption. However, Nigeria has, regrettably and consistently, remained on the negative corruption perception index, regionally and internationally assessed. Nevertheless, the paper finds that the administration under President Buhari, has adopted and/or introduced home-grown laudable anti-corruption policies and legal frameworks. These include Treasury Single Account, Whistle-blowing, Code of Conduct Bureau and its Tribunal, and the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and good Governance Code provisions under CAMA 2020 (as amended) among others, to fight against corruption. This effort has brought about a modicum of victories in certain aspects of the corruption war and poor perception index. Also, the paper peruses the corruption perceptions of Nigeria based on numerous write-ups and commentaries about some corruption casualties and finds that opinions of Nigerians are tendentiously divided between and among ethnics, religious and political party lines. Therefore, the paper recommends among other things, that President Buhari, who the bulk stops at his table and not his cabinet members, should enthrone the rule of law and international best practices as his watchword and benchmark at fighting against corruption. Also, all policies formulation and enforcement in this direction should be non-selective, non-ethnic and/or political. Besides, the1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) should be reviewed to disallow persons under corruption investigation from decamping to other political parties until their cases are determined.

Keywords: Corruption, Anti-corruption, Non-selective, Casualties, Regulatory Framework

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