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Usman Yusuf executive secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, no doubt demonstrates some level of impunity as he bluntly tells Isaac Adewole, minister of Health, that he will not respect Adewole’s suspension order to go on a three-month suspension, thereby creating political and ethnic tensions in a volatile country known for religious and ethnic intolerance
| By Olu Ojewale | Jul 31, 2017 @ 01:00 GMT |
GENERALLY speaking the act of impunity is not an alien in Nigeria; it happens almost on daily basis. It is not a strange thing to see a minister or governor with blaring siren pushing other road users from the street in order to beat the traffic. It is also common knowledge that some persons in position of power abuse their office by stealing Nigerian commonwealth with impunity.
On Friday, July 7, the act of impunity appeared to have been taken to a higher level when Usman Yusuf, a professor of Paediatrics, and executive secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, publicly and bluntly told Isaac Adewole, a professor of Gynaecology and Obstetrics and minister of Health, that he would not respect his suspension order to vacate his post for three months.
Similarly, Adewole, on Monday, July 17, announced the suspension of eight officials of the NHIS when the committee set up by the minister to investigate Yusuf uncovered more facts in the matter. It was discovered that some of the suspended officials also had some pending petitions written against them dating back to 2015. Hence, the ministry of health, in a statement by Boade Akinola, director of Media and Public Affairs, said Olufemi Akingbade, general manager and Zonal Coordinator (South-South) of the NHIS, was one of the suspended persons.
Akingbade, who was accused of fraud while he was in charge of the ICT Department, was indicted by security agencies who investigated the case, but was never charged.
Others suspended by the ministry are John Okon, general manager (Finance); Yusuf Fatika, general manager, Human Resources and Administration; Shehu Adamu, assistant general manager, Audit; and Vincent Mamdam, assistant general manager, Head Insurance. The rest are Safiyanu Attah, senior assistant officer, Marketing; Owen Udo-Udoma, senior manager, Contribution Management; and Innocent Abbah, who is the senior assistant officer, Planning Research and Monitoring, were also suspended.
The statement added: “In furtherance of the activities of the investigative panel of inquiry and the desire to have an uninterrupted and robust investigation of all petitions at the NHIS, including security reports on maladministration and mismanagement by officials of the agency, the minister of health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has approved the suspensions.”
The suspended civil servants seem to have accepted their faith with equanimity. But not Yusuf.
Adewole had, by a letter dated July 6, asked Yusuf to hand over his duties to a head of department and go on a three-month suspension to allow for unhindered investigations of alleged corrupt practices levelled against him. But Yusuf would not have any of sorts.
While acknowledging receipt of the suspension letter, Yusuf in a letter dated July 12, gave about five reasons why the minister could not suspend him or remove him from office. He said only President Muhammadu Buhari who appointed him to the post in July last year could order his removal from office.
He addressed the letter to the minister and copied the acting President Yemi Osinbajo; Bukola Saraki, Senate president; Yakubu Dogara, speaker of the House of Representatives and Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina, his home state.
“With utmost respect sir, I am unable to comply with your directive,” he said in his letter.
The NHIS boss said that by virtue of sections 4 and 8 of the NHIS Act, the approval and removal of the head of the parastatal is the sole prerogative of the president. Besides, Yusuf said: “My appointment is for a period of five years subject to further term of the same period at the discretion of the president.”
He said Section 47 of the NHIS Act empowers the minister to merely give directives of a general nature to the Governing Council of the NHIS and such directives do not include discipline, suspension or removal of the NHIS boss.
The suspended NHIS boss said it was wrong of Adewole to have suspended him when a prima facie case had not been established against him, adding that even some serving minister had pending petitions against them as well.
He argued further: “The letter of suspension is not in accordance with public service rules as no prima facie case has been established against me in respect of the petitions. The mere fact that there are pending petitions against a public officer which have yet to be substantiated does not constitute grounds for suspension.”
Nevertheless, Yusuf said the petitions referred to in the minister’s letter were currently being investigated by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, which was yet to submit its report. “In view of the criminal nature of most of the allegations in the petitions, security/investigative agencies like ICPC are the appropriate agencies for investigation contemplated in your letter; not a ministerial committee. I have cooperated fully with the investigations so far and will continue to do so,” the embattled NHIS boss said.
Acting President Yemi Osinbajo from whom Adewole sought his consent before sending Yusuf on suspension, asked that everyone should be given fair hearing in the matter. At least two of the petitions written against the suspended NHIS boss went to Osinbajo’s office, prompting him to direct the minister to investigate the allegations.
In a letter dated July 10, 2017, Ade Ipaye, chief of staff to the acting president, acknowledged receipt of two petitions against Yusuf, dated April 21, 2017, from one Solomon Agbo and another, dated May 12, 2017, from Tunde Ladele, a doctor. Ipaye wrote: “His Excellency, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Acting President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, is in receipt of the referred two petitions, in which allegations of fraud and abuse of office were levied against the executive secretary of NHIS and has directed that the petitions be forwarded to you for inquiries and necessary action.
Indeed, sources within the ministry of health alleged that more than 50 petitions had been received by the ministry, the Presidency, ICPC and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on various allegations against the suspended NHIS executive secretary. That notwithstanding, the suspension of Yusuf seems to have polarised the polity and arose ethnic sentiments in some quarters.
The House of Representatives which was already investigating the NHIS operations on Wednesday, July 12, asked Adewole to reinstate the suspended Yusuf as his suspension would prevent Yusuf from divulging more helpful information to them through the committee investigating the activities of the Health Management Organisations, HMOs, and other stakeholders.
Hence, the House committee headed by Chike Okafor, asked the minister to reinstate him immediately. Irked by the minister’s none compliance the House asked him (the minister) to appear before it on July 27.
As if that was not enough, the House alleged that the NHIS boss was suspended because he refused to be corrupted and give money to the minister. Hence, to the legislators, the suspension was a witch hunt and an act of intimidation to cow the professor from exposing corruption going on in the ministry. That is the position of a Northern based group under the aegis of Northern Youth Rights Protection, NYRP, which asked Osinbajo to immediately suspend the health minister over allegations of corruption.
The group also asked the acting president to reinstate Yusuf, saying he was neither queried nor given the opportunity to respond to the petitions written against him before being suspended.
According to the group, the NHIS boss was suspended by the minister because he refused the bidding of the minister and soil himself with corrupt practices.
Haruna Abdullahi Maikano, chairman of the NYRP, who addressed the press in Kaduna on Wednesday, July 12, queried: “Does Professor Adewole have the power to fire where he has no power to hire? The answer is assertive NO.”
Maiko alleged that Adewole acted in contradiction to extant laws and civil service rules, by suspending Yusuf. ”Where did the minister obtain his power to remove the president’s appointee? So, it is a systematic plan to paint northerners black, and get rid of them from this administration,” he said. He alleged that there were many petitions against the minister for corrupt practices, but nobody touched him.
Making a similar allegation, another northern group called the Northern Youth Development Association in 19 states, on Sunday, July 16, urged the minister of Health to with immediate effect reverse the suspension of Yusuf or face legal action. The youth described the suspension as illegal and, therefore, gave 48-hour ultimatum to the minister to change his decision or they will sue him.
Addressing newsmen in Kaduna, Imran Wada Nas, chairman of the group, said Nigeria would never progress if innocent hardworking individuals were punished for only doing their jobs as expected of them. Nas said since the minister did not hire Yusuf for the job, he had no right to fire or suspend him.
“The NHIS executive secretary position has a tenure which means that the minister ought to have known that he cannot just wake up and suspend the executive secretary because they had a disagreement… Because we as youth of this region we cannot fold our arms to watch our respective, incorruptible elder and a man of integrity being disgraced for refusing to be corrupt by given out returns to those in authority like the minister,” he said.
The youth leader also urged President Muhammadu Buhari and acting President Osinbajo to immediately call the minister to order and to equally investigate his action against the suspended executive secretary. “We are authoritatively aware that they suspended Professor Yusuf Usman is a man of due process. He is a man that always wants to see things done in the right away and manner in conformity with the present administration’s fight against corruption,” Nas said.
But that was not the kind of impression given by Lekan Ewenla, national publicity secretary, Health and Managed Care Association of Nigeria, HMCAN, who accused the suspended NHIS boss of running activities at the agency as if it was his private business.
Ewenla, who spoke in an interview, faulted the appointment of Yusuf as the executive secretary, saying he lacked the understating of operations and the regulatory functions of the NHIS.
He said: “Before now, a lot of petitions had been written about the attitude and conduct of the scheme since the executive secretary took over last year. He was going to distort the operations of the NHIS for the public sector.
“He ran NHIS like his private enterprise. He didn’t have the power to award contracts worth more than N2.5m but because there was no governing council, he went beyond that figure. Many of the issues were not clear to him. He was going to remove HMOs and focus on paying hospitals instead of regulating the scheme.”
Ewenla, who is also the chief executive officer, Ultimate Health Management Services Limited, said the fact that Yusuf was not the only executive secretary to be saddled with allegations of corruption at the agency showed that the NHIS was facing fundamental operational problems.
To correct the anomalies bedevilling the scheme, he suggested that the federal government should remove the NHIS as the managers of the scheme’s fund; establish a National Health Commission, create the National Health Fund while also making health insurance compulsory for all.
“Government needs to take health sector appointments off the political radar. Do interviews with experts on the field and listen to professional recommendations before you choose a head.
“Every executive secretary at the agency has been removed because of corruption. When they are appointed, they forget their regulatory role and want to take over the fund because it is a lot of money. In Yusuf’s case, he misinterpreted his role,” he said.
Reacting to corruption allegations of Yusuf against HMOs, Ewenla challenged the suspended executive secretary to expose any of the HMCAN members that was corrupt. He absolved members of the HMCAN, which is an umbrella body of health maintenance organisations, of corruption, saying: “There is no established case of corruption against any HMO by the suspended executive secretary. Now that he has been suspended for three months, he should come out with facts and figures of any HMO that is found corrupt.”
He said 90 percent of the N351billion, which Yusuf said was paid to the HMOs, went to hospitals, adding that if enrollees were treated shabbily, it was due to the failure of the regulator (the NHIS).
He said the NHIS had failed to embark on systematic redistribution of enrollees from teaching hospitals to primary facilities with lower volume of enrollees.
“Immediately the public fund was given to the NHIS to manage, it (the NHIS) jettisoned regulation and focus its intention on fund management. Whatever the challenge we have in this industry today, it is not the fault of anybody. It is the fault of the NHIS. It is the fault of regulation,” Ewenla stated.
The publicity secretary accused Yusuf of disrupting the health insurance scheme, adding that instead of being pre-paid, he made it post-paid.
He also accused the NHIS boss, who has not been allowed to return to office, of impunity saying he single handedly “appointed an insurance broker for all HMOs. We said no to that; that is not the practice. In addition, he negotiated premium to be paid by the HMOs. We said that it was an illegality.”
On its part, a coalition of civil society groups in the country said the resolution of the House of Representatives seeking reinstatement of suspended NHIS boss was uncalled for.
A statement signed by Bassey Williams, the coalition coordinator, on Tuesday, July 18, said the lawmakers’ intervention was “biased and sentimental.”
Bassey described the NHIS helmsman refusal to obey the suspension order as an act of insubordination and should not be encouraged because it could create unwarranted tension in the system.
The groups condemned the lawmakers’ conclusion and allegation that the suspension of the executive secretary of NHIS was due to his refusal to accede to series of demands for money by the minister of Health.
Similarly, the National Conscience Party, NCP, asked Osinbajo, to immediately order the arrest of Yusuf.
NCP said that it is unbecoming of Yusuf to continue to parade himself as the NHIS boss, more than one week after his suspension was conveyed to him by the minister.
Waheed Lawal, deputy national chairman of the NCP, made the call in a statement released in Abuja, on Sunday, July 16, saying: “My strong belief in the Nigeria democratic process enables me to speak against tyranny, wanton disregard for established authority and unrepentant rigidity for corrupt tendencies especially as the voice of the poor citizens of our country as regards the manipulative tactics at the NHIS office.”
He chided the House of Representatives for their involvement in the imbroglio which he described as the inconsistency and incoherence of a chamber of dual personalities. “The suspension of the NHIS executive secretary is following a precedence which remains one of the best approaches to fight the scourge of corruption, we, and even the green chamber all applauded the suspension of the secretary to the government of the federation, Babachir David Lawal.
“As such, why are the lawmakers perfecting a legislative coup against the conscience of Nigerians by pushing for the recall of Yusuf who should by now be answering questions from the constituted investigative panel on over 72 petitions received so far, bothering on financial impropriety, gross misconduct and flagrant disregard for the civil service rules and the procurement act?,” Lawal asked.
Gerald Okoduwa, a businessman and public commentator, accused the NASS of encouraging impunity. He said: “What’s the business of House of Representatives in ordering the recall of the suspended officer? This alone goes to confirm that the suspended officer must be corrupt. NASS does not support anyone who is not corrupt. How can the legislature order the recall of a civil servant in the executive branch of government? Tomorrow they will tell us they are proponents of separation of powers.”
Similarly, Pat Kolawole Awosan, a doctor, urged the health minister to continue with the current cleansing of endemic-corruption culture in his ministry. He asked Adewole not to be intimidated by Yusuf’s act of impunity, adding: “Any head of agency of federal ministry, that refuses to tow anti-corruption war path must be shown the way out of public service.”
But Adullahi Musa, a public commentator believes that some persons who “desperately want that the NHIS chair,” were behind Yusuf’s suspension. “If there is a petition against someone why not let him answer first? So anyone who wants someone out can write any spurious petition and get that person removed without proof of guilt,” he said.
Monday Ubani, second vice president, Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, said the minister acted within the law by suspending the NHIS boss. He said the NHIS, as a parastatal under the ministry of health fails under the supervision of the minister. “Yusuf has to wait for the outcome of the allegations levelled against him. If he is cleared by the ministerial panel investigating allegations against he can return to his job. But saying that he would not obey the minister’s order does not show discipline,” he said.
Mani Kay, a Lagos residence, said tribal sentiments and impunity demonstrated by Yusuf was typical of some Northerners. He asked: “Is health minister too young to remember what happened to Alabo Graham Douglas when he was IBB’S minister for aviation (1990 – 1992). How that Graham-Douglas’s suspension of some Northern Muslim Hausa-Fulani boys in Nigeria Airways was openly disobeyed by the Hausa-Fulani boys, and eventually IBB sacked Graham-Douglas as minister of aviation for having the boldness to issue query to some Northern Muslim Hausa-Fulani people in Nigeria Airways.
“Of course, we all remember that the Hausa-Fulani boys never replied the query that was issued to them rather they made public mockery of the query and nothing came out of it except that the Hausa-Fulani boys continued on their jobs at Nigeria Airways while Graham-Douglas was disgracefully sacked from his ministerial position.”
Would history repeat itself in this case? That may be or not be case. But if the professor is found guilty of corruption as being suggested by more than 50 petitions against him, who will give him cover?
Perhaps the corruption war is, indeed, for the outsider and not those within the circle of the president’s caucus, Nigerians will definitely like to see.
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