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Unresolved cases of corruption allegations against some government officials in the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration may in the long run be an albatross in his fight against corruption

 

• Olu Ojewale

 

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has a reputation as a no nonsense military head of state with zero tolerance for corruption. On that reputation he got elected as Nigerian president on the promise to deal with corrupt elements in the country frontally.

More than two years down the line as the Nigerian president, it appears the Buhari of the military era has given birth to a more reflective one with less zeal to fight the corruption monster. The point seems to have been given credence since he was sworn in as president, the status quo ante seems to have been maintained as there has not been any high profile conviction of any of the cases in court.

Rather, Nigerians are bombarded with news of new cases of corruption, seizure of huge amount of money from undisclosed persons and seizure of properties suspected to belong to certain persons being investigated for corruption.

What appears to irk a good number of Nigerians is that the war on corruption looks suspiciously selective.

Indeed, Nigerians have Aisha Buhari, wife of President Buhari, to thank for raising the alarm on the deplorable condition of the State House Medical Centre in Abuja. Aisha voiced out her displeasure on Monday, October 9, on the unacceptable condition of the health facility which was meant to take care of the president, vice-president, their families as well as families of members of staff of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

At the opening of a two-day stakeholders’ meeting on Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent Health and Nutrition, RMNCAH+N, organised by Future Assured, her pet project, held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Aisha came hard on the management of the Aso Rock clinic, asking the authorities to give account of the huge budgetary allocation to the hospital.

The development came as the presidency announced plans to commercialise the State House Medical Centre, SHMC, for better health delivery system amidst mounting allegations of misappropriation and withholding of funds meant for medical supplies.

Nevertheless, Aisha also took a swipe at the managers of the clinic, insisting that there was the need for them to tell Nigerians how the N3.89billion budget for the clinic last year was expended before it was reduced to N331.7millon this year.

“If the budget is N100million, we need to know ‎how the budget is spent,” she said.

She recalled that she was sick recently and was advised to travel abroad because of the poor state of the clinic.

Eventually, the President’s wife said that she had to go to a private hospital owned by foreigners when she was told that the x-ray machine in the State House Medical Centre was not working.

She told Hussain Munir, chief medical director of the SHMC, who was present at the event, that the budget allocated to the clinic must be accounted for. She said: “I am happy the MD of Aso Rock Clinic is here. Dr. Munir, I am happy you are here. As you are all aware, for the last six months, Nigeria wasn’t stable because of my husband’s ill-health. We thank God he has fully recovered now.

“If somebody like Mr. President can spend several months outside Nigeria, then you wonder what will happen to a man in the street.”

She added: “I am sure Dr. Munir will not like me saying this but I have to say it out. As the chief medical director, there are a lot of constructions going on in this hospital but there is no single syringe there. What does that mean? Who will use the building? We have to be good in reasoning. You are building new building and there is no equipment, no consumables in the hospital and the construction is still going on.”

The development further lent credence to the reason why the president has been going to the United Kingdom for medical treatment despite the availability of free services at the clinic.

Besides, could the scenario painted by the president’s wife suggest corruption or misplaced priority? No one in the management of the Aso Rock Clinic has been able to explain to the Nigerian public. But the thinking in the public is that corruption has been playing a major role in that it is more profitable to get cuts from infrastructural contract awards than that of medicaments.

Whatever be the case, Nigerians have expressed surprise that a situation like that could happen right there in the president’s domain.

Reacting to the development, the House of Representatives on Thursday, October 12, decided that the alleged deplorable state of the clinic should be investigated by the Committee on Health Services and report back within three weeks.

Perhaps, what is even more worrisome for Nigerians is the number of unresolved cases of corruption under the Buhari administration, which claims to be fighting corruption. Perhaps, the most prominent among them are those involving Babachir Lawal, suspended secretary to the government of federation, SSG, and Ayo Oke, suspended director general of the National Intelligence Agency, NIA.

A three-man presidential panel led by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo was constituted in April to investigate alleged infractions against the duo within two weeks. Others members of the investigation panel are: Babagana Monguno, a retired major-general and the National Security Adviser, NSA, and Abubakar Malami, SAN, the attorney-general of the Federation and minister of Justice. Buhari suspended Babachir and Oke on April 19.

The committee was billed to submit its report to Buhari on May 8, but could not do so because the president left the country on May 7, for medical follow-up in London.

The panel investigated allegations of violations of law and due process made against Lawal in the award of contracts under the Presidential Initiative on the North East, PINE, while it probed Oke on the discovery of N13billion cash by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in a residential apartment at Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, for which the NIA laid claim.

A Senate Committee on Humanitarian Crisis in the North-East, which had earlier found the suspended SGF culpable of alleged complicity in a N200 million grass-cutting contract to clear “invasive plant species” in Yobe State, had demanded his resignation and prosecution.

In any case, Osinbajo on Wednesday, August 23, submitted the report of the committee to President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.

After submitting the report, the vice-president refused to divulge the details of the report to state house correspondent, saying the ball was now in the president’s court to study the report and take decisions based on the recommendations. He said members of the committee were fair-minded and the approach adopted was to ensure that justice was done in all cases. He said it was in the interest of the government and the nation that things were done properly with the due process followed.

Sadly, nearly two months after, Nigerians are still kept in the dark on the findings of panel. The suggestion in many places is that the president does not seem to have the political will to sanction those close to him in his fight against corruption.

This prompted the likes of Monday Ubani, a second vice president of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, and human rights lawyer, to criticise the government and threatening to protest if the president should fail to take action in two weeks. He did not disclose the form of protest he would embark on.

Similarly feeling unease about the delay, Itse Sagay, SAN, a professor of Law and the chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption, PACAC, faulted the delay of the president in deciding the fate Lawal and Oke.

In an interview on Channels Television on Sunday, October 8, Sagay said that action had been “much too slow” and called for definitive steps. He said: “I have no doubt in my mind that the present government is actually fighting corruption in accordance with its mandate and promises. There is no question about that. But on the specific issue of the suspended secretary to the federal government and the director of the NIA, I would agree that action has been much too slow and there should be immediate decision on this matter so that we can put it to rest and move on. I agree with that.

On his part, Sonala Olumhense, a Nigerian journalist based in the United States, saw double-standard in the matter. In an article titled: “Hypocrisy, The Recipe for Chaos,” published September 30, Olumhense wrote: “Buhari’s silence confirms what critics and attentive persons already knew by April 19, when the Osinbajo Panel was announced: corruption was bidding its time, holding things in place, trying to outsmart the Nigerian. And now, over five months later, with Buhari back in London last week, the report under his pillow and the world still laughing at Nigeria over Mr. Oke’s Ikoyi forex hideout, still not one word.

“He has now taken over another 30 days to ignore it, reminding the world that the problem with the anti-corruption offensive in Nigeria has always been its lack of a soul.”

Unconfirmed report said that the Osinbajo committee recommended the sacking and prosecution of the two government officials. True of false, Buhari has continued to keep the world guessing.

Even then, Nigerians have not been spared the drama of accusation and counter-accusation of corruption between Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for Petroleum Resources and Maikanti Baru, group managing director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, on contracts worth about $25 billion.

Kachikwu, who is the chairman of the NNPC board, in a leaked memo to President Buhari, alleged that against the rules, Baru awarded major contracts worth $25bn without reviewing or discussing them with him or the corporation’s board.

“The legal and procedural requirements are that all contracts above $20 million would need to be reviewed and approved by the board of NNPC. Mr. President, in over one year of Mr. Baru’s tenure, no contract has been run through the board. As in many cases of things that happen in NNPC these days, I learn of transactions only through publications in the media,” Kachikwu wrote.

But in an official response issued by Ndu Ughamadu, the NNPC’s group general manager, Group Public Affairs Division, in Abuja,  on Monday, October 9, the corporation faulted the assertions of the minister, adding that his (Kachikwu’s) recommendations with respect to the Crude Oil Term Contracts were taken by the NNPC management.

It stated it was “important to note from the outset that the law and the rules do not require a review or discussion with the Minister of State or the NNPC board on contractual matters.” It added, “What is required is the processing and approval of contracts by the NNPC Tenders Board, the President, in his executive capacity or as Minister of Petroleum, or the Federal Executive Council, as the case may be.”

The corporation accused the minister of exaggerating the contract figures he mentioned in his petition to the president.

In any case, the NNPC said due process had been fully followed in the shortlist of the off-takers of the Nigerian crude oil for the current term 2017/2018.

As expected, the controversy caused tongues wagging and the old allegation of corruption against the corporation was placed on the front burner of national discuss.

Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, former national president of the NBA, faulted the argument by the NNPC that there was no law requiring recourse to the minister of state for Petroleum Resources in the award of contracts. He argued that being the chairman of the NNPC Board, Kachikwu, who supervises the corporation, must be carried along.

Agbakoba reasoned: “It is true that the president is the chairman of the Board of Governors but if the president himself has appointed the minister of state to be the chairman, then my conclusion is that the president is deemed to have delegated his powers to the minister of state.

“So, the minister of state is the proper, legally-appointed chairman because that power has been delegated to him by the president, just the same way that when the president was not well, his powers were delegated to the vice-president.

“So, the GMD is not correct at all; he’s not correct.”

But Yusuf Ali, SAN, and a Lagos-based lawyer, disagreed with Agbakoba, saying the NNPC’s position was in order.

Ali said Buhari’s portfolio as the minister of petroleum resources made it legal for him to directly supervise the NNPC. He insisted that the NNPC boss was in order to report directly to Buhari.

He said: “We should not forget that the president is also the minister of Petroleum Resources. This means that the NNPC is answerable to him and he can directly be in charge. Whether it is right for the president to double as a minister and supervise the NNPC is another line of argument.”

That notwithstanding, Bala Zaka, an energy expert and technical director at Template Design Limited, appealed to Buhari to resolve the crisis between Kachikwu and Baru so that it would not have negative effect on the country.

Zaka said: “Such friction between the two of them will definitely have a negative effect on the public and private persona of the Nigerian oil and gas sector. “You must also understand that if NNPC were to be traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange or international stock exchange, because of this friction, the share price of NNPC would have collapsed.”

As the debate continued to fester, on Thursday, October 12, Osinbajo disclosed that he approved the NNPC joint venture financing loans and not the contentious contracts.

“So I did grant two of them and those were presidential approvals, but they are specifically for financing joint ventures and they are loans not contracts,” Osinbajo said this while speaking to reporters at Bonny Island in Rivers State, where he kicked off the Bodo-Bonny Road project, on Thursday.

Earlier, Laolu Akande, the senior special assistant to the VP, added: “Earlier today, I had tweeted on the same matter thus: “In response to media inquiries on the NNPC Joint Venture financing arrangements, VP Osinbajo, as acting president, approved the recommendations after due diligence and adherence to established procedures.”

Ironically, the NNPC did not say who gave approval to the contracts in question and there has been no response from the Presidency to suggest whether the president, while on sickbed in London signed the contracts papers.

Nevertheless, what has made the controversy more intriguing is the fact that the Presidency has refused to meddle or clear the air on the contentious issues ranging between the minister and Baru.

Similarly, the nation is equally waiting for the Presidency on the outcome of the probe instigated by Isaac Adewole, minister of Health against Usman Yusuf, executive secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS.

Adewole on July 6, suspended Yusuf for three months over allegations of “procurement of a N58 million SUV” and “corrupt expenditure of N292 million” on health care training “without recourse to any appropriate approving authority,” but the NHIS boss has denied any wrongdoing.

The minister extended the suspension indefinitely last week after the ministerial committee he set up completed its work and allegedly found the NHIS chief culpable of the allegations.

Notwithstanding, the indictment of Yusuf was contained in the panel report submitted to the Presidency during last weekend.

In the report, Adewole said the investigative committee found Yusuf culpable in the discharge of his responsibilities.

The minister said while the report of the committee had been forwarded to the president, Yusuf’s suspension had been extended “pending the decision of Mr President.”

The investigative panel allegedly claimed that Yusuf “portrayed a holier-than-thou attitude but in the background, milked the agency dry” by conniving with others to perpetrate fraud to the tune of over N919million. It said the sum of N919million  was dubiously given as payment to consultants for staff training.

The committee report added that as the head of the agency, Yusuf was personally responsible for all administrative, procurement and financial lapses.

“His (Yusuf) deceitful attitude coupled with ‘name-dropping’ of Mr. President as having sent him to sanitise the NHIS caused more harm than good to the scheme,” the report read.

Hence, the committee recommended that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission probe the agency for diversion of funds and contravention of the Procurement Act of 2007.

But Yusuf had denied all the allegations, maintaining that he was victimised for fighting corruption in NHIS.

Indeed, the suspension of NHIS boss coincided with an ongoing probe at the House of Representatives wherein Yusuf accused Health Management Organisations, HMOs, of perpetrating monumental fraud.

The lawmakers, therefore, saw the suspension as an attempt to intimidate the NHIS boss and stifle its probe.

Besides, allegations abound that Yusuf might have been suspended for his refusal to grant the ministry’s dozens of requests for sponsorship of its officials to foreign events, execution of alleged phoney contracts, chartering aircraft for the minister – all running into hundreds of millions of naira, among others.

With the number of corruption cases being investigated in the government, it is evident that Buhari is not likely to see all these as funs.

In any case, Femi Fani-Kayode, a former minister of Aviation, sees the Buhari administration anti-corruption war as a ruse. He alleged that in the history of Nigeria, had any government official stole more than in his government.

Fani-Kayode in a series of tweets on Sunday, October 8, alleged that about $30 billion had gone missing under President Buhari. He did not substantiate his allegation.

Sagay, on his part would like to blame the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, for the number of corruption cases being recorded in recent times. In a television interview, the lawyer said: “If you have a big party which has a specific mandate to fight corruption or at least reduce it drastically to a level that it will not stop the nation’s development, then the members of such party must be seen also fighting corruption…

“My view is that the party hierarchy and party leadership and not the government, the party are condoning corruption and they are hobnobbing with those corrupt party members and therefore setting a stage for the government to have serious problem when there is need to convince the public that Buhari  is entitled to have another term in government.”

That notwithstanding, Abubakar Tsav, a former police commissioner, believes that the Buhari corruption war is going on fine.

“Unlike before, fear of Buhari has now made Nigerians wary of corrupt practices. They know that if they get caught, they will face the music. But my worry is that this war against corruption seems to be selective. So far what we have been seeing is the arraignment of more PDP people while APC members are hardly touched. Corruption involves everybody. It should not be seen as if members of President Buhari’s party, APC, are being spared. What we are witnessing now is that when some politicians are put on trial for corruption, it would look as if the trial is going to be pursued to a logical conclusion but the moment such politicians defect or decamp to APC, that’s the end of the trial,” Tsav said.

Indeed, it appears that the president himself is giving room to the belief that his anti-corruption war is selective by keeping mute on some of the cases making headlines in recent times. Until, perhaps, he decisively deals with the files of some of the high profile cases pending on his table, Nigerians are likely to harbour the impression that his corruption war is only tailor-made for the opposition.

 

– Oct 12, 2017 @ 17:36 GMT

 

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