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From Okwe Obi, Abuja
Chief Honourable Commissioner, Public Complaints Commission (PCC), Bashir Abubakar, in this exclusive interview, spoke on the most complaints the PCC has dealt with over the years and the tasks involved in resolving them. Abubakar also debunked any political interference in resolving disputes, adding that cases are handled on the basis of merit and professionalism. However, he complained about poor funding. According to him, it takes a lot for the commission to address crisis with little or no funding. As the commission clocks 50 years, he assured Nigerians that, under his watch, disputes would swiftly be addressed, regardless of those involved. Excepts:
You came on board after retiring from paramilitary service. What are your plans for this commission?
I have passed through regimentation. And regimentation, more or less, is more practically an issue of discipline. And before coming here, there were a lot of issues that made the then government to build the commission. Even though we still have a number of such issues, like policy or funds once you have a gathering of people, and they have mandate to deliver, and they do not have the supporting equipment, the supporting finances, there may be that possibility of having issues here and there. Although, by any context, it may be the same also if there is money.
So, but be it what may, we inherited a commission where a lot of things had happened. At one time, even the commission was closed for three weeks because of the industrial engagement between the management and the trade unions of the commission. So, we came at the heat of that situation. The seat was handed over to me by the secretary to the commission as my predecessor had to leave after the tenure of his office. So, we have designed a master piece of plan along with my federal commissioners. As you are aware, the organogram states that I am the chief commissioner. And in each state of the federation, 36 states including Abuja making 37, there is a substantive federal commissioner that is heading that state. And we have our administrative system there headed by a director and some other supporting, deputy directors, assistant directors and some other supporting staff. So, we have already made a plan on ground, but we just had to review it. I had to review the plan to go along with my own perception, to go along with the modern day, you know, developmental plans, especially of the government of the day. And mind you, we are aligning with other ombudsman institutions around the globe. So, we have the same concept.
What are these plans?
One, it is to instill discipline among ourselves, including all the staff. Number two is to ensure wide publicity of the commission, because we are virtually not known. And we thank God, in the last one year, the engagement of the citizens has increased by over 700%.The record we have so far in the last one year in terms of number of complaints and number treated is equivalent of more than that of 10 years so far. Because all the commissioners are doing a lot. Thirdly, we are embarking on massive training. With the scarcity of funds, we are still doing in-house training within our own capacity. And we have done a lot so far in the last one year. But as soon as our budgetary allocation starts spinning in, we intend to expand the scope of this training. We intend to engage experts within the country. We intend to engage other relevant institutions, administrative institutions, security organizations, that we can be sending our staff for training. And where necessary, we organize the training, both at the federal level and at state levels. And even at local government levels. Similarly, you have to understand in terms of hierarchy of population, the youths carry more in number. And the youths today do not go so much into print media, they go into the electronic media. So we have already opened and reorganized the already existing portals we have. We have activated all. And we are actively working through that. And already our staff are receiving a lot of complaints and they are treating them online. So these are just a few of the plans we have. Also, we intend to buy working materials, vehicles for our operations. All our services are free. So, if you bring a complaint that a staff member needs to go to any of the flashpoints, he cannot go with his vehicle, we have to provide him with vehicles. Otherwise, if he should use his vehicle or commercial vehicle, we would have to now pay for that. We also have scarcity of office accommodation, both at the headquarters and in all the states of the federation. So we intend to also see how we can fully accommodate our staff comfortably in their respective offices. These are some of the plans we have.
What has your collaboration been like with foreign bodies in resolving disputes?
Well, one, whatever we are going to do, we have to do it by the book. In Nigeria, we have our own constitution. Let me put it this way. We engage ourselves with local legislation. We engage ourselves with regional legislation as well as international legislation. The local legislation is we have to go do everything within the ambit of the law. And that is the beauty of our work. Because if everything is going to be conducted by what is in our respective legal framework, then there may not really be necessary for complaints. Under the regional dispensation, we have the African Ombudsman Mediators Association. Currently, the Ombudsman of Angola is the current African President for AOMA, Mrs. Florbela Rocha Araüjo. Mrs. Caroline Sokoni is the Secretary General of the same organization, African Ombudsman Mediators Association. We have our own regional legal framework also. We make sure that we partner with whatever that is enshrined in those frameworks. At the same time, Nigeria being one of the oldest Ombudsman in Africa, you are here, it is coinciding with our 50th year anniversary, Golden Jubilee. Public Complaints Commission, was established in 1975 under Decree 31 of 1975, popularly known as CAP 37. Now under the Nigerian Constitution, Section 315, Subsection 5B of the Nigerian Constitution. So we are signatory also to the International Ombudsman Institute. And as such, anything that has to do with Ombudsman legal framework, we try as much as possible to abide by it. For instance, you will be surprised, our cases here are being monitored by such regional and international sister agencies. And if anybody is indicted by Public Complaints Commission, there is that tendency that that person’s name will go everywhere. It will go into the records of all these bodies. In terms of the issue of pencilling him on a black book, it will not take much time provided there are adequate reasons for his name to be pencilled under the black book of the Ombudsman of the world.
In all the cases you have handled, what are the most profound cases that are always coming up?
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This question is very, very important. Perhaps it forms a part of the bedrock of what we do here. I am happy you asked this question, because as I said, we are engaged in regional and international Ombudsman associations. So the complaints and solutions varies from country to country, from region to region. So also, even in Nigeria, from state to state. But generally, if we are to come to pencil in in terms of profiling, we have a lot of cases on pensions. People who have worked tirelessly, and after their retirement, their stipend benefits has been very difficult for them to get. And that has been a very, very dicey issue with the Commission. We engage different MDAs, different agencies of government, ministries and so on and so forth. Similarly, I am sure you will be very happy if I mention that issue of electricity. In any of our companies you will find in the whole country, communities, community leaders, youth leaders, different groups complain about either supply or distribution, supply of electricity equipment, or the distribution of the electricity itself. And we are being compelled to be handling issues of, let me use the former name, NEPA. So it is very rampant. Similarly, we have a lot of complaints about banks and bank charges. Sometimes you will just be doing, maybe making a phone call, or your phone is on your hand, you will just see, maybe N100 has been removed, or N1,000 has been deducted. Those small, small, small, small money you see, by the time you count it in a month, or in a year, you will discover that your saving has gone. So people are complaining about that a lot. Another very strong complaint we have nationwide is with the telecommunication companies, where maybe you attempt to call somebody, he will answer you, you will neither hear him or him hearing you. But the charges will be met. The money will be deducted. So these are issues that we have been having also, and so many other complaints concerning the telecommunication companies. Of course, mostly with the civil servants, this issue of wrongful dismissal, wrongful suspension of appointment, and so on and so forth. We also have a lot of problems by road users, and even homeowners in some cases, an issue of extortion by various agencies. Some, of course, could be uniform in nature, some private in nature. A lot of states or local governments are using youths, using different companies or organizations to be collecting taxes for them. Similarly, security agencies, some are compelling people to pay one use or the other, which people are not happy with. So this is a very, very rampant issue of extortion on the roads, in various homes, and so on. Then when you come to the educational system, a lot of complaints about our institutions, issue of the lecturers, extortion, relationship, or compelling relationship between a lecturer and particularly female students. Admission racketeering, a lot of people are complaining. Some have been swindled, and they are taken to institutions, and they are given admission, and at the end of the day, a record will show that their admission is not correct. Now, issues like this, some of these issues are coming from swindlers outside. All this, according to Nigerian, what they say, Yahoo-yahoo boys. But quite a number also are coming internally. You understand, you will see, yes, there are traces of connivance in some cases by the workers of such institutions. Even the worst, even in some cases by some of the lecturers. So a lot of issues like that is going on. Then generally, again, there is an issue of public utility management, refuse disposal by a lot of communities, different groups, that some, especially during rainy season, apart from the smell, you will see refuse not being disposed of. They are not being evacuated by so many. It is the responsibility of quite a number of agencies, in some cases local governments, in some cases state governments, and so we are receiving a lot of such complaints. And of course, as you are aware, the financial situation of the country, which has been like that, I think, for many years. We could only say the only time we were satisfied with the road network, and then by our population, is probably, let me say, maybe 15-20% of what we have today. And the same thing with settlements. So it is an issue of road network. So many communities that have opened new settlements, no road network within the settlements, no linking road network between this community and that community. The roads, some are so bad, and people complain a lot. And because of the ineffectiveness of our rail system, well, let me say, ineffectiveness is where the rail system has covered everywhere. In Nigeria, in case, we are just trying to see a new dawn in terms of road networking, I mean rail networking. Otherwise, you know the rail system in Nigeria has been bad for over 40 years. So heavy-duty equipment, movement of heavy-duty equipment or goods can only be haulaged, can only be done through the road network. And that has made our road network, I don’t know, to decay, to become so bad, so virtually quite a number of areas in the country are complaining about road network. We also have issues on land and chieftaincy issues from various complainants. We are handling that virtually from all segments of the society all over the country. Things so far so good. These are the flash areas where we have so many, but I am trying to show you in terms of profiling, topmost maybe 10 or thereabouts.
You keep mentioning funds as an impediment. How much are you proposing to ensure that most of these issues are addressed?
I have a proposal and they make plans; short, medium and long-term plans. So if you said I should give you a projection of amount now, I cannot precisely tell you this is what should be adequate for me. But I think the generic question should be, am I sufficient in terms of funding by the government? If that is the question, I can tell you no. You also asked me what is the percentage of funding that I have so far in the commission. Probably I will tell you maybe 30-35%. So I will need probably like 65-70% increase in terms of funding. And that will go a long way. As I have told you before, we are gaining ground in terms of publicity. So the more people know about us, the more people know about our services being free, the more complaints come to us, the more we are engaged and the more we need money because of movements and other exigencies.
Has there been a situation where you sanctioned defaulters? Or you just to come in as a middle person to solve problems?
The Act establishing the PCC is overwhelming. When you are talking about sanctioning, I can tell you it is quantum. Why? Because we, as an agency, we are allowed to receive every complaint. The only complaint perhaps that we may not address is an issue that is already in the court of justice. It is within the judicial system already. We cannot say anything. But anything to do with before or even after the court case and you feel there is any administrative infringement or incapability, you report to us. We will certainly come to your aid. We will report every complaint that we see to the end. We also act as bridge between ourselves and sister agencies. For example, if we are dealing with an issue of corruption, you bring report to us or you have been corruptly dealt with, we will receive your complaint. We will do preliminary investigation and we will forward your case to the relevant agency like in this case EFCC. I hope you understand. If you are bringing issue of crime issue, there are other agencies like Nigerian police that their act shadows them with responsibility of dealing squarely on issue of crime. So the professionalism with them is apt. So if we are to collectively say these are the number of issues we have dealt with, we have to start looking at what we have done here, the number we have sent to EFCC, ICPC, Human Rights, maybe the Nigerian Army. Because the Nigerian Armed Forces, let me put it to you, they have their own ombudsman. You understand? But there is collaboration. Because the ombudsman they have, ombudsman that deals mostly with issues internally with their personnel. But you could have a naval officer who is a military man. He could even be retired. He is not a civilian. You understand? And you have an issue with him. It could be any rank and you bring it before us, we will handle that one. Where he is still serving, what we do is to do our preliminary investigation and forward the case to the military ombudsman to continue from there and take decision. The duty about us, whatever case we refer, we will request for the final decision or the action taken, the report should be sent to us after.
Have you had any political interference in the discharge of your duty since coming on board?
We have never received such. My view, we are operating independently and we are doing everything possible to ensure that all organs of government understand the importance of the ombudsman. It is a system that cleanses other systems. That is why perhaps even National Assembly considered giving us additional funding under the 2025 budget as approved by Mr. President. I think if that fund comes, it will go out to set a record that since the establishment of this commission, there has never been any government that has come to the head of Public Compliance Commission like the current government. So this is to address my point.
How long does it take to address a matter?
It depends. But I can tell you we are swift, very, very swift. I can tell you we are faster than any other agency. Take note, the mission of Ombudsman is settlement. In most cases, you will discover because of the professionalism in our staff, you will discover there are quick dispensation of justice. You will discover when we sit between this party and that party, a way will be paved so quickly for resolution. So that is what gives an advantage or an edge over quite a number of other agencies. In our own case, you don’t need to engage a legal practitioner to handle a matter with us. You can come and report to us directly. You can decide to use a lawyer to write on your behalf. Probably you are handicapped in terms of modern education or writing or technical ability. You feel your lawyer will be there. Or you are somebody who is regimented in terms of your activities. You always want your lawyer to handle issues. We receive letters from lawyers.
