The fight against corruption is not only about bribery and corruption. It is not only about arresting people that have looted the national treasury and so on. It is also about fighting against reckless spending by government and government officials, which is also a form of corruption in itself.
Patricia Etteh Scandal
Remember Patricia Etteh, a hairdresser cum beautician (later studied law and was called to the Bar), who became the Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2007? Her fellow legislators accused her of approving a contract of N628 million (rough equivalent of about N2.2 billion today) for the renovation of her official residence and that of her Deputy, Babangida Nguroje, plus the purchase of 12 vehicles, without due process. I am sure that the vehicles that they planned to purchase were certainly not all budget cars. There would probably have been some SUVs etc. They both resigned to avoid impeachment.
Patricia Etteh was subsequently cleared from the allegations by her colleagues.
Take for example, President Trump. Some of his personal residences are said to be more luxurious than the White House. He is accustomed to luxury. He is a very successful businessman. However, in our own case, government officials use their elevation to official positions, to live in a lap of luxury, which they have never been accustomed to! This is not to say that it is acceptable for you to spend government money lavishly on frivolities, because you were rich before you took an official position, and are used to certain standards. In that situation, you can use your own money for that, not Nigeria’s.
Government Officials Use of ‘Exotic’ Cars
Sadly, today, there has not been much ‘change’. Last week, I told you about Professor Itse Sagay, SAN, the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption accusing NDDC officials of purchasing 70 vehicles, 18 of which cost N1.2 billion, using funds meant for infrastructure for the Niger Delta, for that frivolous expenditure. If the allegation is true, then it is certainly an example of reckless government expenditure. This is not only corruption of the highest order, it is also fraudulent conversion of funds.
What is wrong with a Peugeot 504 type car, KIA or some other budget car? Are they not cars? Why does NDDC require up to 70 vehicles? Did they not have any vehicles before? In the old days, government officials used Peugeot 504. It was only maybe the Head of State that used the Mercedes Benz S Class type of vehicle. But today, most government cars that you see on the road are SUVs or some other ‘exotic’ car.
Appeal to the President
Why all this needless expenditure? President Buhari, please, put your foot down and stop this extravagance by government officials. The country is ‘tight on cash’ and in a recession.
People are hungry. They cannot pay their children’s school fees, they cannot afford three square meals a day, they cannot meet up with their financial obligations, yet Government officials ‘dey do fine boy, no pimples’, buying flashy vehicles with our country’s money. Money meant for the development of our nation and the betterment of our people.
Education
The other day, Senator Utazi Chukwuka From Enugu North complained on the floor of the Senate, that the 2017 budget only allocated a meagre N50 billion for Education for the whole of Nigeria! It is no surprise that you have many Nigerian graduates that can hardly string 2 words together in English, while NDDC spends N1.2 billion on a mere 18 fancy cars! Can the benefit derived from educating our children be quantified? Can the benefit to be reaped from giving our children a sound education be compared with the fun that 18 NDDC individuals may derive from driving state-of-the-art cars? Our Children are the future of this nation.
Health
In 2016, even though the total budget of the Federal Government increased to about N6 trillion, the allocation for the health sector decreased to about 4.68% of the budget. In 2017, the budget for the healthcare sector is set to decrease further to a meagre 4.17% of the increased national budget of over N7 trillion. What is the justification for Government wasting money on frivolities like flashy cars, while key sectors that are of benefit to all Nigerians, are starved of funds?
Cost of Governance
Again, the cost of running our government is way too high. If Government is serious about ‘Change’, I think it should show good example by reducing the cost of governance. Yes, President Buhari did try to be prudent about Ministers’ salaries. But much more still needs to be done.
For one, the salaries of the members of the National Assembly should be reduced. Their salaries should also be made public, instead of being shrouded in secrecy. Those ex- Government officials that are now serving again, should be made to choose one salary while they are serving, either their pensions or their new salaries, especially people like former Governors, since they already have their hefty pensions. I know that Section 4(2) of the Fifth Schedule to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended in 2010)(1999 Constitution), that is, the Code of Conduct for Public Officers, permits them to receive one more remuneration from public funds, in addition to their pensions; but if Change really begins with them, they should be sensitive to the pathetic plight and suffering of Nigerians, and make some sacrifices too.
Dr Sota Omoigui complained in his video clip that a former Governor of Edo State, on leaving office, was given the sum of N200 million by the State Government to acquire a house of his choice, the Deputy was also given a N100 million housing allowance, while University of Benin Teaching Hospital did not have running water.
I do know that Sections 147, 148 and 151 of the 1999 Constitution provide for the appointment and functions of Ministers and the appointment of Special Advisers respectively, but it seems to me that the functions of Special Advisers have not been spelt out as clearly as that of the Ministers in the 1999 Constitution. What is the role of Special Advisers? Why are their services required, especially when there are Ministers and in some cases, also Ministers of State, Permanent Secretaries and so on? For instance, there is a Minister of Information, a Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, a Special Adviser on Media and Publicity and a Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity. What for? Does this not amount to duplication and quadriplication of efforts? And they all have to be paid salaries, no matter how small.
Security Vote
What is this Security Vote that is given to Governors? The Governors have no powers over even the Police, talk less of the other forces, so who are they securing with the money and how? Recently, was it not Governor Wike of Rivers State that complained that some of his police details had been withdrawn, further buttressing my point that Governors have no control over security? So why give them such a huge amount of money for a purpose that is beyond their control? It seems that there is even no law providing for this particular payment. The Governors also do not have to account for this Security Vote which is about N500 million per month per Governor, N6 billion per annum, over N200 billion per annum for all the Governors in Nigeria, for doing nothing, while only N50 billion is allocated to something as important as Education.
If the President wants to intensify this fight against corruption, this issue should be high on the priority list. For example, if the Security Vote was ploughed into the education and healthcare sector, or distributed amongst Nigerians to set them up in various small scale businesses, it would go an extremely long way, instead of that type of money being wasted on things that no one but the Governors, have any knowledge of. The bottom line is that I can do whatever I like with money that I do not have to account for, including buying houses for myself in London and Miami, instead of using it for any state-related needs, like paying salaries that may have been owed to workers.
Set up an Agency
Should Government not be trying to curtail expenditure in these austere times? Maybe President Buhari should set up an agency, with the sole purpose of effectively monitoring the expenditure of government agencies, parastatals and so on, to prevent wastage of the country’s resources.
Credit: Onikepo Braithwaite, Thisday
This Nigeria…… I was having a customary Friday dinner with my friends last week. Our rendezvous was a Nigerian restaurant somewhere south-east of London, when the matter of Nigeria came up after we’ve all debriefed on our working week. We’re all ‘boys’ from varied professional fields: Doctors, lawyers, Q/Surveyors, Lecturers, Geologist, etc. Our non-professional conversation started with the Ooni of Ife’s visit to the UK and how Yoruba tradition was widely promoted within and outside London. Undeniably, a map has been carved to elevate the Yoruba tradition across the oceans, subsequently, Nigeria’s recognition in a different and more positive posture. Nevertheless, some of that attended the Dorchester hotel banquet for his royal highness were displeased with what we agreed to be ‘Nigeria mentality’ – over-booking and lack of expected organisation. Grumble is how to get a refund from the organisers as attendees and their wives and even families got no seats for equivalent of tens of thousands Naira.
I knew it was a matter of time before we found the skeptics amongst us coming up with the reality of Nigeria’s position in its international identity. We all. reluctantly that we (Nigerians) still have a very long way to go towards becoming independent and that, presently, we are not shifting towards the degree of redefined perception needed to keep sailing towards such goals of parity to make us what we want to be and where we want to be.
Some highlights featured a protracted discourse on how successive governments and current one all seem inept, incompetent and complacent. One would have wanted a single point of untarnished credit to anyone among successive administrations but unfortunately, there is none. The highlights looked at Colonel Ali (rtd) of Customs Service and the NASS – a matter that leaves a bitter taste in anyone’s mouth. Then, Magu of EFCC And the wrangle with NASS. Later came the recent Ife crises and subsequent interventions which made a lot of people, in a lot of countries, to take a puzzled interest of construct of public sensitivity in the development. Such development as the Inspector General of Nigeria’s Police justification for forming and opinionating such insensitive justification for arresting, detaining without bail, and labelling of one side of the conflict as criminals. In a country striving towards change (or is it just word?) and working towards unification and pacifism, the lead person in civil law and order enforcement just made an error of judgement, or, as it is, a blatant denial of equitable justice, or, at worst, a show of incompetence and abject lack of diplomacy. We are either still living in a ‘police’ state, or we are under ‘military’ dictates, where decision-makers don’t have to justify their decisions.
As we are an ‘all nation -type’ of Nigerians, I was humoured to receive the first criticism from a brother from the Northern part of the country. This, indeed, without playing lip-service to our friends from the Yoruba Council of Elders (we’re all over 50 years), it became an issue we needed to re-examine as our dear brother rationalised, not just intellectually, but holistically, analysed the depth implications of such pronouncement and interalia, the conduct or directives of the police, without inhibition, and without any right-thinking executive to halt such action. While we felt that ‘criminality does not have a face’, sensibility also rules to differentiate between making personal opinion and an official comment born out of constitution and human rights.
We all agreed that there is a huge ‘impasse’ to harmonising various diversities in Nigeria in this context as poor leadership continues to ‘muddy the waters’ towards peace and unification.
Giving our orientation, level of professional discipline and dedication and compassion for our native country, we all agreed that Nigeria is not ready for people like us to want to live. We will continue to support our country from the diaspora because over there, it’s very unpredictable, ambiguous and vulnerable state of affairs. All the persuasion to ‘come home’ is just words to show our host nations that Nigeria has a conducive space for her professional diasporeans. One thing that stands out is the number of those who have been offered public service positions but couldn’t last a 3rd of the estimated duration of service, except of course, if they decided to join ‘political cronyism’ and the usual feedback on this has always been that ‘nothing doing but looking at money and how to spend it’. How does this move a people forward if what is dedicate for all became designated for a few?
Coming now to ostentation and lavishness, Nigeria is among those countries where a set of people tend to labour for next-to-nothing remuneration and a’minority’ set of people earn ‘free money’ because they found themselves in privileged positions. The mere mockery of it all is that what has been/is happening in Nigeria is not unusual and not novel to other countries, except that we continue to ‘just talk’ about it and do ‘nothing about it’. For instance, how can a senate president under varied alleged corrupt practices continue to be a sitting president, or members of a panel to appraise the presented chairperson of EFCC who are complicit in questionable corrupt practices, with some having pending inquisition in court, and no one has thought through initial reasoning of bias, prejudice or impartiality? The Comptroller General of Customs services was ‘smeared’ at the initial stage of the conflict with NASS but what unravelled put a stop to ‘distant’ speculations and preclusion that he must demonstrate compliance by wearing his Agency’s uniform – we now know that there was a personal vendetta orchestrated by the senate president – again?, and his cronies.
So how can Nigeria rationalise the desired movement towards change: in direction, momentum, focus, character, integrity, attitude, humanism, integration, and many other humanistic qualities?
We are certainly a long way from rights, liberty and freedom.
A table next to us was listening in to our conversation, a young man (30-ish in age) felt that: A majority in the country are already mad, ( No, people are not mad but inescapably docile and oppressed); nobody above 45 years should be enlisted as a qualified political representative at both houses (it’s a no,no, because we have those within that age-range currently serving and they are no-do-gooders); True Federalism should be a priority for Nigeria to wake up (YES, BUT this has been going on for decades and it’s a train to nowhere, Nigeria couldn’t even differentiate the functions and benefits between centralised and regionalised policing; such self determination and unique aspiration and healthy competition has been deemed divisive and inappropriate by part of the nation); And he concluded: there must be radicalist activism by the people, to remove existing political leaders ( what people; those who are so hungry they can not even express or defend their rights), or, those whose reliance and dependence will be based on modelling after ‘one-of-those’ with privileges, or those whose only positive mindfulness is to be like ‘the privileged’?
As we were starting to think about the Missus at home, we decided to conclude that ‘it will take a bold and generalised assertiveness, such as re-engineering Nigeria’s constitution, particularly, reviewing the criteria for political aspirants, right from grass-root level, for them to be qualified to represent even ‘animals’.
Jocularly, and as a ‘free-thinker’, I suggested that people swear by culture-based deities that the Bible or Koran because of how trivial and un-serious people are at swearing by their ‘Holiness’. I’m sure that Sango or Ogun and any other deities will incur wrath with immediacy on any breach, probably, it will lessen the degree of betrayal and greed we continue to encounter with an en-masse delinquent leadership.
A businessman amongst us, against the suggested ‘indefinitely imprisoning all members of the Houses’ felt that ‘bombing’ both houses in session would be an ideal action because Nigerians are being taken for a ‘dangerous’ ride into ‘stupidity’ — A prolonged laughter.
This Nigeria….. we have some ways to go. We can only hope (with consistent perseverance and continuous hard work) that the centre can hold, people can start to see diversity as God-given, inextricable and indispensable virtue to national harmony, growth and sanity.