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“Self-redemption is the first step to exoneration from guilt.” —Dennis E. Adonis
By Omoniyi Salaudeen
The Minister of Interior, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, is inadvertently entangled in what some lawyers will describe as a media trial for his alleged involvement in a contract scandal rocking the National Social Investment Programme Agency and the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Poverty Alleviation.
The allegation followed the shocking tales of surreptitious transfer of public funds into private accounts by the suspended Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of NSIPA, Halima Shehu, and her counterpart in the Humanitarian Ministry, Dr Betta Edu.
Further probe into the activities of the two dramatis personae has since revealed that Tunji-Ojo might have also soiled his hands in the shoddy deal through an award of N438 million contract to the New Plant Projects Limited, a company in which he is believed to have a stake in. A leaked document showed that the firm received the fund as payment for “consultancy fees” from the Humanitarian Ministry, which has been enmeshed in several scandals.
However, in a swift reaction, the Interior Minister exonerated himself from any wrongdoing, saying that he had ceased to be a director of the company since 2019. Speaking in an interview on Channels Television, he said: “Did the company go through due process? If the answer is yes, fantastic. If it didn’t, let the government take charge of it. I’m not involved; I’ve not been involved in the affairs of the company in the last five years. To me, this issue is just a diversion; it’s a non-issue for me. I’m not a director in the company. If the company is found wanting, definitely the law will take its course.”
Expectedly, there has been an outburst of social media reactions with torrents of criticisms for the alleged impunity and abuse of office. While some critics advocate for the same treatment meted out to Shehu and Edu to Tunji-Ojo, others call for caution against hasty judgment for a matter that is rightly before the Code of Conduct Bureau for further interrogation.
Some commentators who are sympathetic to the plight of the embattled minister are often too quick to refer to section 030424(a) of the civil service rules, which says that “public officers are not prohibited from holding shares in both public and private companies operating in Nigeria or abroad, except that they must not be directors in private companies and may only be directors in public companies if nominated by the government.”
In the light of the above, they argued that Tunji-Ojo has not violated any law of the land by being a shareholder in the company which he has a link with since he resigned from the company as a beneficiary in 2019. This is even more so that there is no extant law mandating public officials to sell their shares when assuming public office. The opinion has continued to gain traction within the legal circle, maintaining that Tunji-Ojo cannot be legally held accountable in this matter, arguing that the company itself has the right to pursue business anywhere. Available reports further showed that the same company had carried out similar jobs for the Humanitarian Ministry in 2016 and 2018, which could be the reason for its qualification for the award of the new contract.
These are the two sides of the same coin. It is for the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to determine the propriety or otherwise of these arguments and unravel the circumstances of the award of the controversial contract.
In the eyes of the law, Tunji-Ojo is innocent until he is proven guilty by the court of competent jurisdiction.
With the CCB’s intervention, there is now an intricate interplay of law and morality. Based on moral persuasion, a simple suspension order could have quelled the public opprobrium that the matter had generated. But at the same time, the law permits an accused person to prove his innocence.
Already, there is widespread media report that an invitation letter for interrogation has been sent to the Minister by the CCB. Beyond the invitation, there is a high responsibility on the anti-graft agency to treat the matter with dispatch by conducting a thorough probe into the case to restore public confidence in the system. As earlier expected, Tunji-Ojo was to appear at CCB headquarters situated at the Federal Secretariat Complex, Abuja, to establish that he had duly resigned his directorship in New Plant Projects Limited, as he claimed in his public statement.
But for known reasons, the scheduled meeting could not be held.
That should not be the end of the matter, as people are keen on seeing that all those found culpable in the mindless looting of the money meant for the vulnerable are brought to justice regardless of how highly placed.
There is a litany of reasons people are interested in the case. Part of it is the insensitivity of those concerned with the plight of the ordinary Nigerians. With the programme, the government intended to use the funds as a safety net to provide palliatives to the vulnerable that have been at the receiving end of the current hardship of the economic policies of the present administration.
The public is indignant and outraged by the impunity exhibited by those in the custody of the money and how it has been frittered away with reckless abandon.
Much more intriguing, the scenario is playing out under women’s watch. Ordinarily, The womenfolks are supposed to be more humane, honest, and sincere in their dealings.
As events turned out, corruption has nothing to do with sex, age, tribe or creed, but it has everything to do with greed.
This only speaks to the depth of decadence and the erosion of values in our national life. Corruption, like a plague, is both infectious and destructive. The affliction of corruption as a cancer in Nigeria has metastasized into a huge purulent sore with its toxin now suffocating the growth of the economy. There is no gainsaying that every human is inherently corrupt and will do anything for personal enrichment if there is no institution to moderate people’s propensity to steal. What makes the scorch to be exceptionally severe in the country is the elite greed. So much greed has been infused into the system that those in positions of authority are no longer content with stealing public money, but also struggling with the vulnerable for the crumb.
In this current saga, the CCB has a huge work to do to dig deep into the alleged breach of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers regarding the scandal rocking the NSIPA and Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation. Before then, it must, however, be generally agreed that it is not only Tunji-Ojo who is presumed to be innocent in this circumstance, but also the suspended Shehu and Edu until otherwise proved by the court.
While the public deserves to know those who are culpable, the law should be allowed to take its course.
Whatever misgiving about his current travail, Tunji-Ojo is among the cabinet members of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu many people regard as square pegs in square holes for what he has achieved in his ministry within the short span of the life of the present administration. The recent reform of the operations of the Nigerian Immigration Service, especially the successful launch of the Automated Passport Registration System has earned him a great deal of goodwill and respectability for his competence and suitability for the job.
Among other things, the reform initiative will enhance security by timely identification of fraudulent passport applications, through smart document verification officers stationed nationwide. As some experts also noted, the system will ensure thorough scrutiny of passport applications across all local government areas, contributing to strengthening the national security. This represents a significant advancement in the country’s security and migration frameworks. Unlike before, passport application now takes a maximum of six weeks to be processed for new applications and three weeks for renewals after biometric enrollment.
In all, Minister Tunji-Ojo will be sweating it out to extricate himself from the allegations of mindless pilfering of the funds for the poor in the Humanitarian Ministry.
