•Says suspended minister not looking in the mirror

•‘There is a deliberate empowerment of individuals    who violate processes’

By Omobola Dickson

Adeniyi Kunnu, a researcher and public affairs analyst, was a lecturer at Lagos State University, LASU. In this interview, Kunnu is of the view that there is no way the suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu, would have paid N585 million government money into a private account without the paperwork carrying the signatures of at least five other top officials of the ministry, saying they too have questions to answer on the scandal roiling the ministry. Excerpts:  

 Don’t you think fundamental questions should be asked about what goes on in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs given all the noise that it keeps generating?

 The President’s response stands out for me as something we find difficult to see in the over 20-year period of the current dispensation – the Fourth Republic. I am happy that the President took that strong position to let her go while investigation is on. I need to say that this is not just about Betta Edu, it has to do with the cracks on the walls before Betta Edu assumed her position. Let us understand that the last person who served in her position did not account to Nigerians how certain money was spent during COVID. Quite frankly, on different platforms, I have spoken strongly that the former minister took Nigerians for those who do not know what they are doing because they are never gauged. That should have been enough sign that the ministry needs attention and the leadership of the country should ensure that whoever occupies that office blocks every hole. It is something that has come to be and I don’t want people to take it along the lines of what a man can do, a woman has done it better.

It is really illogical and those who say such things are being disrespectful to both sexes. Now, the reality is about the system. Respective Acts, particularly those that deal with fiscal financial responsibility, talks about not putting personal money into government accounts and not putting government money into personal accounts. Betta Edu may not be able to explain herself properly because the N585 million belongs to Akwa Ibom, Calabar, Lagos and Ogun states. How did that eventually find itself in the account of a supposed Project Accountant? That itself is questionable. At times, people do not quite understand the implications of their actions. I do not want to go with the social media cult, but the reality is that many persons that occupy such exalted offices oftentimes forget that even as a minister, there are limitations. And that is why we found out that certain predecessors in different offices, particularly ministerial positions, are bad. Under the former President, the Minister of Agriculture was sent packing. The person who also took charge of power was sent packing. Why? Certain things happened. These ministers felt that assuming that position meant they could do anything. Let us also understand that Betta Edu came to that position first as a former Commissioner for Health. She perhaps understood that field. She came as the leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and now she has assumed a greater position. At times when ministers come to certain positions, one thing that remains fundamental is to give them crash courses to be able to understand the dynamics of their offices. I think that this happening, obviously a national embarrassment, has brought to the fore the need for every minister to go on at least two to three weeks retreat after they have been appointed so that they can understand the expectations, the demands, the guidelines of the new office they occupy. While I am not making excuses for Betta Edu, the reality is that even if you err, the law is there. What you don’t know, you make enquiries about. It is quite sad an experience that this particular woman has actually found herself in the net. Again, I need to say that it is not just about that ministry, it is about every ministry that actually falls under the auspices of the President of this country. It’s sad that we are having such thing happen at the moment.

 You spoke about crash courses. Do you think crash courses or the usual ministerial retreats will help ministerial appointees settle into their position within the first few weeks?

Let me make certain things clear by virtue of my proximity to media activity. With every sense of fact, I can say that some of those retreats have its formalities but the realities are less of getting the new ministers acquainted with the nitty-gritty of the things they are supposed to do when they eventually get into their offices. I need to also let us understand that, oftentimes, the majority of those who assume new ministerial positions belong to a political party, so it is more or less a consolidation of the power that has been attained. Painfully, I have to say this: It is less about making them understand that they cannot fail Nigerians on the job.

They talk more about how it is their time to be there. That itself reflects. Let me do retrospection; such retreats do not have effect. At the last Assembly, I remember that Sadiya Umar-Farouq was with the lawmakers to account for certain spending and the former minister didn’t understand what the word ‘imprest’ meant and that is somebody who occupied a ministerial position in Nigeria, the most populous black nation that has produced great minds calling shots across the country. It seems as if it is a reflection of the incompetence of us bearing leadership over the rest of us that have certain leadership capacities. In the first place, let us understand this, while the processing has been bungled, this retreat we are talking about should even have the persons who should be leading such sessions as the Permanent Secretaries of every ministry. For instance, the Bridget Oniyelu that has the money paid into her account has shown us too that she is equally accountable to the person that she is under her auspices. She should have actually informed the minister that, ‘madam, according to the processes in this ministry, you can’t pay this money into my account.’ There is a very deliberate empowerment of individuals who violate processes rather than giving regards to the processes of institutions. With every sense of humility, I have been to certain parts of the world and I can tell you here that when you see a stop sign, you cannot drive past a stop sign. It means that the rule is binding on the high and mighty and the low. In America for instance, the only time you have to park your vehicle is maybe when you hear that the police are after somebody or the fire service is trying to do something in an emergency. Lawmakers don’t jump traffic. In this country, a lawmaker almost got himself killed for not respecting traffic rules. Why? Because individuals in Nigeria are more powerful than institutions and there is no respect for such dictates or guidelines. That is exactly the thing happening to Betta Edu, who should have been advised by the Permanent Secretary. The paperwork for that amount of money would never have gone to any individual account without the knowledge of the Permanent Secretary in the ministry. There are at least four other principal officers – deputy director administration, deputy director audit, deputy director accounting, deputy director logistics and procurement – this list of persons always has their signature. I have worked in the civil service before and back then, even when we went on training, we would also have paper for as little as N100,000 signed by these respective persons that I have called. We should ask them all whether they didn’t see the paperwork that they appended their signatures to have allowed Betta Edu to violate the responsibility provisions as available since 2009. Quite frankly, that is why this country must be deliberate about the change we talk about. What are we going to say if ministers who should be exemplary are violating the rules? It has

happened consecutively. How for instance can over 30 billion under Halima Shehu be unaccounted for? There is a nexus here and if there is a nexus, the person appointed into a position must take caution. The reason Betta Edu had to do this without the needful circumspection or without caution was because she felt it was a party affair. On the headlines, what is written is that Betta Edu wasn’t granted access to see the President because it is believed that as a former women leader of the APC anything goes and perhaps she felt even “if I am suspended, I can go and explain myself personally to the President”. I am happy they didn’t allow her to have access.

 What if that was the template Betta Edu met on the ground? And don’t you think she was right to have acted in that manner if that was how things were done in the ministry before her appointment?

 Let me share an experiential thing. When I joined the Nigerian academia, I enjoyed a lot of independence before I became a lecturer and I could actually do lots of things by virtue of media experience. When I joined, I found it easy to move from one person to the other and just make certain requests, even official ones. Later, I was told that as much as you could speak with people, there are certain things you have to do. The reality is some processes are not known to law and that is why we have to talk about this disregard for processes. The reality is: Processes actually account for orderliness everywhere. If you come to certain places, they tell you in five days, 10 days, two weeks, three months, especially if you have done quite a number of things, you have to follow that process. I think that even if they had told Betta Edu that it is “how we do it”; she, having served as a commissioner in a state, there is a certain amount of money that commissioners cannot even sign and it has to go for the signature of the governor. If Betta Edu understands the basics that there are certain amounts of money that shouldn’t go, I think she was in a better position to have said, “if this particular thing comes from my office to another person’s account, I hope there won’t be a problem?” I think she also understands that there are two sides to this coin. “Na so we dey do am’ isn’t proper. Let me send this money to the right person or perhaps, I could give the authorization”. Part of what has caused this problem for her was that she was not even authorised.

One thing is sending the money into somebody’s personal account and the next thing is not being the individual who should even send the money. Perhaps if she had spoken to the Minister of Finance or the person who accounts for such disbursements even in that ministry, we won’t have Betta Edu at the guillotine. It is very key for the people who head ministries to violate certain processes such as we saw in the past administration where the President without consent or resort to the Senate approved over $1billion to buy ammunition without approval from the Senate. While we knew back then that it was important for him to secure the lives of Nigerians, he bungled the process and he did that because he felt he had the power. If you look at that, that is the macrocosm of what happens in the country where people who hold power suddenly forget that there are processes and until we understand that this country is not a banana republic and the founding fathers and mothers understood processes, we wouldn’t have had anything to build upon. This is a lesson and a case in point. Betta Edu must understand that if at all she gets out unscathed, it is going to be a point to others. If you look at it also, Betta Edu’s experience has become an instructive position for anybody who holds ministerial positions or heads any agency under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu.  Whereas people felt he is a jolly good man with whom we stood, he has actually sent a message to detractors that he would use the carrot and stick approach if it violates the process. I am happy that he was able to do that because it shows that people’s reactions matter to the President and I hope that he keeps it up. 

There are a lot of other things that must also happen retroactively. First, I am happy that Sadiya Umar-Farouq is there. I think that Hadi Sirika has spent too much time without coming to explain lots of things. Many other persons who headed ministries must also be able to speak to issues that have become something that Nigerians are vehemently opposed to. Do not forget that one of the things that enable the fluidity of leadership, particularly this administration, would be to consistently take the pulse of Nigerians and be able to listen. This is because the dynamics of information have actually changed. The ways people react to issues have changed. The presence of social capacities with every level of data has changed everything. Therefore, we need a saner society so that the dividends of leadership and of course representative governance can be fully optimised.

 You have faulted the process of onboarding ministers. What have we missed and what should be done going forward?

 I think that the civil service of the Federal Republic of Nigeria where I worked has a lot of hands that can indeed guide anybody that assumes any position in virtually all ministries. One of the things that I had found out is every minister who assumes a new position immediately appoints any other person from outside to work closely with him or her, but the people that had been there for 15 to 20 years are often operating from outside the circle. The first solution would be that for everybody who assumes a ministerial position, you have at least five new directors that must be appointed as Special Advisers to that Minister – the head of admin, account, procurement, audit and logistics in the ministries. You need about five directors that have to be seconded for the period that the ministerial position actually lasts.

With all these capable hands as the Special Adviser to the minister, that means the minister has at least salvaged that ministry by at least 60 per cent. The minister can then decide to take maybe four of five others to work directly with these respective persons that I have mentioned. There is a guarantee of absolute success in the deliverables of such ministers. You can quote me anywhere because I have been in that system before. Keenly, I observed how certain things were done appropriately or inappropriately and I realised that some of these things could be addressed. Also, some of these directors may want to undermine, for instance, any minister that is maybe younger than them or somebody that has another area of expertise. It is not only that they should replace the person, it should be made a compulsory decision by the President who appoints the ministers that immediately these ministers assume office, you cannot act in any way or show insubordination. Setting things right by Executive Order will cause sanctions that must not be disregarded by people. We have not seen the President properly make use of this power to get the best out of the people that can deliver. I did well over 10, 20 years in the ministry and the things I know today were because I actually listened and made friends with people who understood there better. For instance, I can tell you that if the President can make this order and second these respective persons that I have mentioned to go straight to these respective ministries and make things happen, I can tell you that that it is very possible.

Would you say that this issue is political, governmental or bureaucratic?

 If the minister had not disregarded bureaucracy, she wouldn’t be in this mess. Before we begin to talk about politics and competence, what is a bureaucracy? The civil service of every country has bureaucratic processes. It could be cumbersome, it could be complex but because it is a fact of the matter of such a ministry, you cannot actually turn down such bureaucracy. I read Betta Edu’s comments and I think that one thing that helps us heal quickly in individual relationships and such corporate brouhaha is actually to ensure that we take responsibility for the things we don’t do right. Mrs Betta Edu is not remorseful for having violated the process. We have always been told that anytime something happens, we look in the mirror. Mrs Betta Edu is not looking in the mirror.

The person who erred happens to be Mrs Betta Edu, so the first thing I expected her to have done was to say, ‘I gave room for this, for this entrapment.’ And even if this were to be a certain pitfall set for her by maybe political enemies or the fact that people she took over from didn’t feel too good that they are being investigated, I guess that it is completely wrong of her to have even made the statement. I think it is important for her to have said, ‘oh, this is the process I met on ground.’ That is why when people appoint Special Advisers into offices, people have those that think out of the box. I have left jobs because when we agreed on certain things and when I began the job and certain things were being changed, I respectfully maintained my relationship with you, but I take a walk because after all said and done, the responsibility of incompetence or not falls on my shoulder and I don’t want to be held as somebody who doesn’t know what he is doing. We have to try as much to tell the minister that she should take responsibility for what she did not do right. Madam Betta Edu had served as a commissioner. In fact, she served at the height of COVID where she went around Cross Rivers State meeting people. She was a very active person that I commended when she worked with Governor Ben Ayade. However, the reality is she cannot be talking like that because she understands the expectations and the demands of her office. In the first place, she doesn’t understand bureaucracy. She perhaps felt she was the minister and she could never be questioned. The reality is that politics is a game of dog eats dog. You will always have enemies that are within close quarters and they will be expecting you to err so that they can be closer to the person who gave you that position. You should have a level of intellection to be able to practice politics. Street sense, book sense and area boy sense have to be balanced to play politics with the kind of people we have in this country.

 There are those who think that the issue of the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs is an attempt to distract from the investigation of the previous minister, Sadiya Umar-Farouq. Do you share a similar view?

 I want to say that for us, let’s get the optics right and everything has to be on its merit. The previous minister already has her name in public domain as somebody who suddenly fell ill when she was told to account for the money given to her by the country. The reality again was if you look at how the former minister of the same office has been acting, she has been acting in such a way that you cannot ask her questions about an agency subordinated under me as it were. Nobody perhaps would have thought this would become a distraction. Some other persons have said that, but my own is there are possibilities also that the former minister felt she probably dug the hole that has resulted in my being investigated, let me also use those that are still loyal to me in that ministry to dig another hole for her. Perhaps Betta Edu might not even have gone ahead to send that money into Bridget Oniyelu’s account. Maybe what she would have done was to have followed due process, but we do not know what happened before the money was transferred on her instruction.

The point is that one major event always distracts from the previous one. If you look at it, the decibel produced from the invitation of the last person appears to have gone low and the decibel of Betta Edu is resonating in far and near quarters. I would say that this has achieved one thing, which is to distract us even if we cannot maybe ascertain if that was the intent at the outset. It is very obvious now that Betta Edu is right on the guillotine and I hope that her neck doesn’t get severed. Right now, what we need to have on an equal scale is to look at the connection between the former minister and the current minister, which is that both persons could not account for money properly approved for their ministry. Let me remind the world here that the Social Economic Rights Accountability Project, SERAP, had gone to court requesting that Sadiya Umar-Farouq has not been able to tell us the people she went to give money to when the entire country was on lockdown. We cannot allow this kind of malfeasance in our country. We want Nigeria to thrive and we have decided to be patriots because that is where we can claim our patrimony as those that are common stakeholders. However, the people who have taken positions of leadership are taking us for granted. I think that this has achieved one aim – distracting us. It has also brought in the gender capacity narrative that many of us are always quick to talk about when it comes to relationships. If you look at the affirmative action that has moved from about 10, 15 and 25 per cent such that we have more women participating in politics, it appears as if this is not a gender problem or incapacity, it is about a human problem and the lack of values to be able to deliver. Before this time, women have always had issues. Of course, we support women as we are fathers to daughters and sons.

Therefore, we cannot allow women to be left out because we don’t know where our children will find themselves in the near future. When we talk about Betta Edu as a woman in this kind of problem, we talked about Halima Shehu and Sadiya Umar-Farouq. In this country, we have never seen such a case where three women are in a certain financial quagmire because of the alleged sleaze that has been associated with them. I think it is not even good for the female gender and the prospect of having more female representation in high level politics. Their chances in this country have perhaps been jeopardised by them because people will refer to their actions. They have become a point of reference to what we do not want. Again, let’s look at this: How much do we bring the issue of male malfeasance to the front burner? I have been saying this before now that the level of speed with which they are asking Sadiya Umar-Farouq to come and answer for what she couldn’t account for they have not done that for Hadi Sirika, who went to rent an Ethiopian airline as a national carrier. I guess that these issues are fundamental, but for now, let’s look at the people who are at the front burner so that we can have the issues dealt with properly.