As the reconstruction oscillates between the pursuit of individual private interests in the reconstruction process by those entrusted with the rebuilding of the region and the people who wanted their lives back, Nigeria’s international partners warned that Boko Haram could not be defeated on the battlefield alone without winning the hearts and minds of the people, who loathe the abuse and corruption that have crept into the process, denying them all the support they needed to survive. To win the hearts and minds of the people means changing how government interventions are conceived and delivered, and a strong commitment to anti-corruption, leading partners to advocate for a multidimensional response that would address the root drivers of insecurity, including poor service delivery, corrupt governance, and environmental degradation.

Yet, the official diagnosis of the conflict by government policy documents before the establishment of the NEDC failed to acknowledge the role of abuses and corruption in the emergence of Boko Haram. In the same manner, anti-corruption reforms were never contemplated as a central pillar in the conceptualisation and delivery of post-conflict reconstruction for the North-East during this period. But ten years on, and unlike before, the region’s reconstruction and recovery process has begun to gain traction, driven by anti-corruption efforts and intensified monitoring by anti-graft agencies. Write Abdulrahaman Abu Hamisu

Post-conflict reconstruction, which rests on the effective deployment of human and material resources to bring positive and lasting change to the lives of affected populations in post-conflict reconstruction, remains the central objective process that, ultimately, ought to guide and direct intervention planning and execution. However, human nature is complex. While human beings can feel empathy, altruism, and sacrifice, they are also driven by self-interest and greed. It is this duality that explains why self-seeking behaviour, abuse of office and corruption have become entrenched in public life. The Northeast has witnessed both sides of this nature: acts of profound generosity and solidarity, alongside brazen selfishness and exploitation in the past.

Whether this omission was because the framers of the previous reconstruction models themselves had a corrupt mindset, or because they were unwilling to abandon corrupt practices, or simply because they did not want to indict themselves and thereby validate the accusations made by the late Mohammed Yusuf against public officials, remains unclear. What is clear is that, as the African Union Policy on Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development (AU, 2006) argues, reconstruction is ultimately about human security. In Nigeria before now, however, there have been two versions of reconstruction: the one conceptualised on paper, and the one manifested during implementation. Corruption and abuse have ensured that both contradict each other.

As Brechenmacher (2019:16) observed, this reality is rooted in the self-seeking attitudes of both formal and informal actors in authority. Most government agencies saddled with reconstruction responsibilities have been accused of corruption (Brechenmacher, 2019).
On the ground, reports of government officials, traditional leaders, and local politicians diverting aid abound.

Several of these allegations have been substantiated by probe panels in the past. The institutions most frequently indicted include the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), the Nigerian Military, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the State Emergency Management Agencies (SEMAs), and the Presidential Initiative for the North East (PINE). PINE, the federal body responsible for Northeast reconstruction under former President Goodluck Jonathan, could not account for $7.9 million. Security votes, widely regarded as slush funds for corrupt purposes, reportedly increased tremendously between 2016 and 2018 (Brechenmacher, 2019).

But ten years on, and unlike before, as anti-corruption becomes a major priority, the Northeast region of Nigeria has seen relative progress in the recovery process because anti-corruption is being given the attention it deserves; things are changing for good, unlike in the past.

Seemingly, issues around protests by the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have receded. In the past, protests by Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Northeast Nigeria, predominantly across Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states, have been triggered by a combination of severe structural failures, life-threatening conditions, and controversial government policies guiding the delivery of interventions that targeted IDPs.

Historical demonstrations by IDPs in the region fundamentally stemmed from extreme food shortages and hunger. The most frequent catalyst for protests has been the acute shortage or sudden halt of food supplies or outright theft of foodstuffs and other items. Sometimes, occasional scale-down of donors’ interventions due to funding constraints has also repeatedly forced IDPs, especially women and youth, to take to the streets or block major highways to draw attention to starvation in the camps.

Also, in the past, IDPs have accused local administrators or government representatives of diverting relief materials, food, and medical supplies intended for the displaced population to open markets, and protests have occasionally targeted the institutional bodies responsible for camp welfare.

But since federal anti-corruption frameworks came into force, the Northeast region of Nigeria has gained significant, measurable successes specifically in securing humanitarian reconstruction funds, including consumables meant for IDPs, while increasing local accountability and tracking multi-billion Naira developmental projects.

Because the Boko Haram insurgency has historically plagued the region, accountability became difficult, thereby incentivizing corruption and abuse. With the mainstreaming of anti-corruption into the rebuilding process and its enforcement, which has become a vital tool for ensuring that not only resources are well managed, but other goods such as schools, hospitals, markets, roads, and food and non-food items are actually provided, while ensuring that the intended communities and beneficiaries are reached, rather than the old practices of diverting resources meant to provide these items for the benefit of the people of the region, the region has begun to witness a significant shift, leading to calm among IDPs and people of the region. The most critical gain in the Northeast presently is the shift to intense, people-centred intervention delivery, away from self-serving practices that characterised the rebuilding process in the past, as a result of the combined efforts of the people, EFCC, and the ICPC, the two bodies charged with the fight against corruption in Nigeria.
First, the people of the Northeast hate abuses and corruption, so they consistently raised the alarm, knowing fully well that the war against the insurgents cannot be won without winning the hearts and minds of the people who are completely disenchanted by the antics of civil servants, politicians, the military, and many foreign actors delivering interventions in the region, leading to various interventions by the anti-corruption agencies to complement the efforts of the people. This was not only a game changer, but it also marked the beginning of enhanced monitoring of the reconstruction process by the people in collaboration with the anti-graft agencies.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), for instance, has actively continued to police the distribution of massive socio-economic safety nets, including NG-CARES and agricultural support schemes, which heavily target vulnerable populations displaced by insurgency in the Northeast. This has significantly reduced large-scale diversion of military and security funds, vices that historically crippled early operations against insurgents. Following the landmark Supreme Court ruling granting financial autonomy to Nigeria’s 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs), which enabled anti-corruption agencies to decentralise their enforcement directly in all LGAs, Northeastern communities remain the greatest beneficiaries.

The establishment of strict oversight metrics for local governments in Northeast states added great impetus to the quest to ensure that only the intended beneficiaries actually benefit from planned interventions in the region, without any exception. For instance, at the Gombe State Local Government Summit, the EFCC issued stern directives to block council chairmen from treating federal allocations as personal “ATMs,” demanding transparency in the execution of projects like rural roads, healthcare facilities, and primary education, thereby increasing monitoring, which has forced local executives to spend less time in state capitals and remain accountable within their constituencies to ensure the remainder of funds paid after salaries are properly utilised.

The activities of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) are also another game changer in the fight against abuse and corruption. Through its Constituency and Executive Projects Tracking Initiative (CEPTI), the Commission continues to ensure accountability on the part of contractors saddled with the responsibility of delivering interventions across the nation, as joint teams of investigators and engineers have continued to go round the nation, forcing contractors back to site, or recovering billions in diverted funds across all states, particularly by tracking trillions in public funds that have not been utilized for the purposes they were meant for. In the Northeast, comprising Bauchi, Borno, and Yobe, this has led to the successful delivery of schools, hospitals, and water infrastructure that would have otherwise been abandoned.

To date, ICPC has continued to actively prosecute major contract scams and procurement fraud across the country, including in Bauchi State, even as Civil Society Mobilisation in places like Borno and Yobe states has helped the Commission to establish a robust partnership with the North-East Civil Society Organisation of Nigeria (NECSOB) to mainstream anti-corruption practices into governance. This initiative empowers locals as frontline whistleblowers who are to monitor government-funded projects and programmes directly. To underscore the importance of anti-corruption at the local level, the ICPC, through its Accountability and Corruption Prevention Programme for Local Governments (ACCP-LG), has trained media practitioners from the Northeast to independently investigate and report grassroots-level public service collapse and budget leakages as one of the anti-corruption measures.

Similarly, anti-corruption and defense sector reforms have yielded mixed results, helping the Nigerian military regain lost territory while systemic corruption and institutional challenges continue to hinder a complete victory over Boko Haram a decade later. Probes into past arms procurement, replacement of compromised leadership, and the relocation of the military command center helped the armed forces dislodge Boko Haram from major urban strongholds and conventional territorial control. Regional collaboration in terms of Increased transparency and cooperative frameworks, such as the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), improved tactical coordination and reduced the insurgents’ capacity to overrun military bases.

While effective coordination is the most potent tool for reducing corruption by eliminating duplication in the Northeast, the process should not be undermined by competition driven by self-interest. Evidence suggests that most actors were not committed to genuine anti-corruption or reconstruction in the past. Instead, there is an overwhelming focus on humanitarian assistance, with only token reconstruction and peacebuilding efforts to create an impression of progress. While it is also importance to checkmates factors that have before now triggered the insurgency now degraded through continuous efforts of government at all levels, it is important to continue to provide public goods which will help to win the hearts and minds of the people, further mobilizing the people for anti-corruption, the anti-corruption crusade should be intensify for the stabilization of the Northeast region of Nigeria.

Abdulrahman Abu Hamisu, a Researcher, Public Affairs Analyst, and Leader, Independent Researcher, writes from Abuja

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