Nigeria: Ex-Health Minister has a case to answer

That Ministry of Health scam is back in the news

Even I had forgotten that this case was in the docket somewhere about to have a pronouncement from a judge and ready to move to the next stage of deliberations or resignation.

In March 2008, the then Minster of Health, the highly respected Professor Adenike Grange resigned along with her deputy and a host of senior management staff in the Ministry of Health.

It transpired that the President had given a directive to all ministries to return to the federation account all unallocated funds to the end of the last year.

In any setup that understands the line of command, executive authority and the appreciation of responsibilities conferred when asked to serve in public office, this should not have been a tough thing to do.

Scheming for a Christmas bonus

Unfortunately, it is alleged that the management team of the Ministry of Health cooked up an elaborate scheme of fraudulent agencies to siphon away N300 million (Naira) where the management were paid millions and the rank and file staff got a pittance that was further depleted by top-brass greed and passed off as a Christmas bonus.

Then, I laughed off the idea that a ministry in Nigeria could have the structures and monitoring models typical of a merchant bank in place as to have set goals and met objectives to be deserving of a bonus.

The underhand of oversight

However, this all was unique in its consequences but benign in relation to the events that followed, this bonus scheme included dishing out N10 million to the Senate Committee on Health whose chairman apparently squandered it on some capacity building trip to Ghana.

This capacity building trip which was supposed to help in presenting a bill to deal with the serious health crisis in Nigeria hit the road blocks on its first outing, it was completely castigated by the Senate that it had to be withdrawn then.

Anyway, after the Minister resigned, the EFCC waded into the case and basically pointed fingers at all in authority who could have mishandled the cash that should have been returned to the federation account.

The drama that ensued involved weeks of speculation about the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health who vaulted her security wall to evade capture by law enforcement agents from the EFCC and went into hiding that it became a bizarre news story until she showed up and ended up setting up an opulent chamber in the offices of the chief of police when remanded in custody.

The Chairman would have us believe that there is no conflict of interest in taking moneys from an arm of the executive to do legislative business with a department over which she is supposed to have legislative oversight – it is a muddled democracy out there, the question of ethical conduct is as alien as a visitor from Mars having supper with you tonight.

A case to answer

Meanwhile, all these suspects have been challenging the case that has been made against them by the EFCC, which for all that we have heard and read about this scam looks like a really decent case that should have its run in court with all the legal scrutiny and advocacy that such issues entertain.

In a ruling yesterday at an Abuja High Court, that judge ruled that they all have a case to answer [1], at least for any layman, somebody has to answer questions satisfactorily about why a welfare committee was set up to disburse funds that should have been remitted elsewhere.

As for the case of the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, the judge opined that she does have to answer questions relating to the N10 million that was paid to her committee out of the N300 million [2] – which anyone should find just plainly reasonable.

Justice will prevail

However, we can trust that these people would want to frustrate due legal process to serve their own ends such that no more light can be shone on why people who held responsibility for making decisions for Nigerians on health and healthcare felt they had a greater cause to fill their pockets and go on fanciful jaunts.

It would go to appeal according to their lawyers and hopefully, the higher up they go, the judges would be more convinced of the fair and just need to lift the lid off this rotten scam and its perpetrators; so we can get to the substance of the charges and test those charges before a fair and balanced judicial process.

The people with their agitation do not help us maintain the presumption of innocence about them, it is like they have something to hide and human nature does have a tenacity that pits against tenacity till one gives – the one being, we need to know the truth about how a presidential directive failed to exact the power and authority it should have had in any honest, reliable, ethical and responsible setting.

They should bring on their battalions of legal luminaries paid for by unaudited sources of wealth and we stand sure that justice would prevail, those who are innocent would be set at liberty and their honour restored, those who are guilty, for all that we have already been dragged through to get to the end of this matter – woe betide you.

Sources

[1] allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Iyabo, Grange, Others Have Cases to Answer – Court

[2] The Punch: N300m scam: ‘Obasanjo-Bello, Grange, others have cases to answer’

EFCC - Economic and Financial Crimes Commission - Wikipedia

Nigeria: Ministries banned from funding National Assembly

Don’t give

Once again, one does not see tectonic shifts in reform but the small steps one sees are significant.

The Secretary to the Federal Government (SFG) has sent letters to Ministries, Departments and Agents (MDAs), advising them that every arm of government has its own budgetary allocations to fund their activities and so they should not be sponsoring activities for other organs of government especially those of the National Assembly.

This came about after the illegal disbursement of funds from the Ministry of Health to both the House of Representatives Health Committee and the Senate Committee on Health.

Bad gifts

These funds were part of the N300 million excess that the President had ordered the Ministry of Health to return to the treasury but lead to an elaborate scheme to embezzle the funds disguised as Christmas bonuses, this lead to the resignation of the Ministers and the indictment of administrators of the Ministry.

Offering N10 million each to the committees in the National Assembly would have compromised the oversight and lawmaking functions they have over the Ministry of Health; the House of Representatives committee returned their share whilst the Senate committee went on a jaunt in Ghana.

Obvious conflicts of interest

Though, the Senate did not see anything untoward in accepting funds and cleared the chairman of the committee of wrong-doing, better sense has prevailed upon others in the Executive that there is a clear and attributable conflict of interest in that kind of transaction.

The letter of the SFG clearly addresses the responsibility of chief executives of government organs in the stewardship of their resources and conformance to existing financial laws whilst warning that their prudence should ensure they are not caught in criminal conduct.

It also seeks to address avenues of patronage that might lead to corrupt practices.

Clear separation of powers

In general, a clear separation of powers is being advocated by removing inducements; without saying it in words; whilst hoping to promote a transparent and professional relationship between the Executive and the Legislature.

The fallout from the Ministry of Health embezzlement is no all bad; I think it strengthens democratic structures in a progressive and positive manner.

Once again – Good Job, Yardy!

Nigeria: Beyond Due Process

The dues of process

With a number of cases of supposed impropriety leading to the ousting of political officers, the resignation of ministers, the indictment of politicians or the accusation of public office holders, the revelation of each developing speculation might make us lose focus of the pertinent issues.

One phrase that has been bandied around the most on most of these matters is that of “due process”. It makes one ask, how much process is due process and when does due process become a bureaucratic ordeal that requires the vultures of the law to nitpick the minutiae?

Beyond due process

However, beyond the façade of due process maybe we should review the issues of perception, appearance and transparency.

Some holders of public office would like to be considered honest, trustworthy and able; in return they expect to be respected and treated with some dignity whilst their authority and office is not impugned.

In those seemingly exceptional cases, it should not just be the letter of the law or guiding principles of rules of procedure that they should adhere to, they should endeavour to go the extra mile to ensure that nothing they do by commission or omission is construed to be suspect.

Separation from the detail

In the case of the threatened impeachment of the Speaker of the House Representative which lead to her resignation; there might have been reason to renovate the premises of those officers and the acquisition of vehicles for official duties, however, the Speaker should never have gotten directly involved in any of the contractual negotiations to the extent that she got implicated.

If there were rules about tendering, allocation of funds and execution of contracts, she should have ensured that her subordinates were aware of all that would make the activities transparent and above board whilst keeping her distance from matters that could create clamour about conflicts of interest, talk less of the whiff of corruption.

Obeying simple orders

The matter of the resignation of the ministers in the Ministry of Health is simple; the President gave an executive order to return unspent moneys to the treasury; it was disobeyed and then an elaborate scheme was hatched to distribute the said funds to senior staff whilst cheating the junior staff of their share of the loot.

I have no sympathy for the senior officials of that ministry; what they did was unforgivably corrupt and it should be punished after the necessary legal issues have ascertained guilt or innocence of the parties concerned.

Part of that distribution ended up in the Senate Committee for Health which has legislative oversight of the Ministry of Health and this was used to sponsor a retreat in Ghana.

Avoiding the conflict of interest

There are commentators who suggest that the Chairman of that committee, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello is a victim of a witch-hunt by reason of the fact that she is the daughter of the erstwhile President who is having his whole tenure discredited for all sorts of matters of due process.

I do not however subscribe to this idea of a witch-hunt; whilst a Senate committee is allowed to solicit funds for activities to help them fulfil their functions; it surely cannot be right for an oversight committee to solicit and accept funds from organisations over which it exercises the obligation of oversight.

Here, the chairman should have done the prudent thing, return the money to the ministry citing the possibility of conflict of interest and the perception that their clear and objective assessment of issues concerning the Ministry of Health could be compromised.

Asking for good character

Obviously, this is asking for a higher level of probity from participants in the governance of Nigeria, this kind of thinking has to start from the top for it to permeate through the fabric of our political system.

In the end, there is the matter of the spirit and letter of the law and procedures with the additional but unwritten aspects of perception that stems from the character and virtues of the people who hold high public office.

We should have in mind that this does not pertain to any religious affiliation of the people concerned, if they are not in and of themselves honest and trustworthy, no religious adherence would make them any better than they are – do not be badgered with the false witness of swearing to some potentate when you are seeking the truth about any matter.