Locating the root of the myriad problems that have hobbled Nigeria may not have become the impossible challenge it has turned into, if only there ever was substantial sincerity in the search.
Nigeria, as led by its vocal political and professional elites, is entitled, to continue to lie to itself. It is also entitled to wear double standard as a preferred national garb.
What the tribe of Januses that parade themselves as leading lights of the political and professional class, can no longer successfully do, against the backdrop of their now discovered hypocrisies,is to easily deceive many with their pretentious claims to being faithful to ethical standards.As has become obvious, many among the noisy activists of the Nigerian society, believe in no ethical standard.
What, if it may be asked,is the abiding ethos of the contemporary Nigerian society, which the professional and political elite have not compromised? What does integrity mean in Nigeria at the moment? Where is the place of moral conduct in individuals and groups? What is the definition of honour m,in the context of Nigeria of this day? Or scruples? Or principle? Or probity? Or indeed, honesty? What, actually is corruption? How does the noisy tribe of activists in Nigeria react to extreme corruption when they see it? Does their reaction depend on who is involved? Does the strong and the powerful attract a reaction to their wrong conducts,different from what others receive?
Acquiescence by the professional and political elite to sundry wrongs,as acceptable acts in the society, have become part and parcel of the culture in the contemporary Nigeria. Any attempt to preach a different value, at a convenient juncture, cannot change the reality of the ugliness of their double standard and dishonesty.
It is important to lay this background as a prelude to the expression of irritation at the deluge of curious righteous indignation in the last few days,over the latest disaster at the hitherto appropriately named Ministry of Humanitarian and Disaster management.
Even as the key word, disaster, has been excised from that ministry, with the advent of the President Bola Tinubu government, it is obvious that disaster is still not far from that ministry.
The common refrain across most of the media, in the last few days, is that the Minister, Dr. Betta Edu should step aside or be suspended from office.President Tinubu eventually caved in to the uproar and suspended Dr.Edu.
The pertinent question becomes,what,is the basis for the suspension of the minister? Her conduct did not reflect intgrity and observation of the rules of public office,right? In the Nigerian environment or somewhere else?
Why will Dr. Edu be made suddenly, to be subject to some ethics and ethos that the Nigerian society; politicians and the public service,trample upon on regular basis? Integrity? As defined by who? From when? Excuse me!
Better Edu acted according to the prevailing template that guide tendencies and actions in the political space,in the last decade,at least.Impunity has been the word. She could have behaved otherwise,if she had met a system that functioned differently.
Interestingly, while xeroxed copies of the Minister’s approval for the huge sum of N585million to be paid into the account of the project director in her Ministry, Oniyelu Bridget Mojisola, have gone virile, the Accountant General of the Federation, Dr. Oluwatoyin Madein said, through a statement from her office, that the money was actually not paid out.
The AGF said her office did not honour the minister’s approval because they knew it ran counter to the policy on release of funds.
They could not have released the fund into personal account, she explained, because “allocations were released to self-accounting MDAs in line with the budget and such MDAs were responsible for the implementation of their projects and payments for such projects”.So was the money eventually paid into the account of Ms Mojisola Oniyelu or not?
Meanwhile new facts emerged,alleging that the Minister of the Interior Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo and various other known and unknown entities, partook in the bazaar at the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation,in the name of compiling a National Social Register for use in distributing billions of Naira to a hazy tribe of poor Nigerians.
The point here, is not a justification of the activities of Dr. Betta Edu or the disaster that has dogged the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation since it was created by President Muhammadu Buhari on August 24 2019.
The point that is being made here is that a country that has shot itself on the foot by roundly trumping integrity and moral rectitude at critical points, cannot turn round suddenly and begin to express righteous indignation or bay for blood at such acts, as occur at the ministry for disaster.Dr. Betta Edu has not acted outside the ethos of Nigeria,as is. Or has she?
Consider the other strange story out of the same Ministry, concerning Hajia Halima Shehu, until recently, Coordinator of the National Social Investment Programme Agency [NSIPA]. The lady from who the whooping sum of N44.8 billion was recovered by the Economic and Fiancial Crimes Commission ,( EFCC), had a very creative account of the movement of the money in her possession.
She reportedly explained that she moved the money out of the official account, into a private account, in a bid to forestall her Minister, Dr. Edu, accessing the money, seeing that she has already spent about N3billion within the very short time she has been in charge of the ministry. Can anyone beat that explanation? The N3 billion was obviously the sum spent by various contractors,not far from around the ruling party,in compiling register of 11 million poor families,within one month.
In all these indecent tales of bulk public money moving around the Ministry, the fact that has been established beyond doubt, is that the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation lives up to its name. Here, poverty is not just alleviated, it is banished, especially around the functionaries entrusted with the funds. But then who do you blame?
Certainly not the ladies, not even the founding and long-serving Minister, Sadiya Umar Farouq, who is still engaged in some game of wits with the EFCC.
Lay all blames on the doorsteps of Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Their introduction of multiple social programmes, purportedly aimed at alleviating poverty, which programmes entailed dispensing unreceipted cash to millions of not-easily identifiable citizens, is,without any equivocation, a recipe for sleaze.
In a country with history of snakes swallowing millions of public funds in the office of a public official, how, in this world, do you assign an individual or an agency, the task of distributing billions of cash across 37 states and 774 local governments and expect a tidy errand? Worse still, there was neither a known data base for the cash distribution,nor any clear criteria for who got what.
The story alleging that hundreds of millions of Naira was paid to the firm of the Minister of Interior and others to draw up a national social register within one month, is but one more dimension of the Naira rain at the Ministry of Poverty Alleviation.
As it was with the dubious distribution of cash to unidentified millions of the poor,during Buhari’s tenure, in the guise of alleviating poverty, so was there another cock and bull programme called feeding school children. Billions of Naira was also spent there, all through Buhari’s tenure, including during the COVID 19 lock down, when no school was not in session.
Interestingly, President Tinubu says he too wants to start feeding school children across Nigeria too.
It is well and good that President Tinubu has directed that the allegations and uproar over recent financial matters at the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation be thoroughly investigated. That is the way to go.
Minister of Information and national Orientation, Mohammed Idris who informed the public of the government’s decision to embark on the investigation, promised to provide timely update on the matter.
Whether the investigation will stretch to the report by Sahara Reporters, unconfirmed by Ministry officials, of course, that public funds were channelled by the government through the same Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty alleviation, to APC interests in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa States, in the last off circle elections on November 11 2023, is unknown here.
Until the thorough investigation is through, the attempt to make Dr. Betta Edu, the lone scapegoat of a system that was designed to run as it is duly running, will not work. She operated within the template she met on her appointment. The system begets whatvit gets.
The new promoters of a revived ethical society of their dual standard,have more work to do.A lot more suspensions may have to be issued.Betta Edu cannot be made a fall lady,for serving her party well.She did not act out of the prevailing order.Let no one deceive no one.