Jonathan’s penchant for probe panels

October 24, 2013 by Akeem Laisi


After much pressure from the media, critics and the public, the Federal Government, on Wednesday, announced that it has set up a panel of enquiry to probe the Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah, over the purchase of two BMW armoured vehicles worth N255m in her fleet.

Oduah was said to have instructed the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority to purchase the two bulletproof cars, in circumstances that, many believe, violated due process, accountability and the kind of financial sobriety that should define a leader sensitive to the socio-economic tone of the nation.

Although many had expected President Goodluck Jonathan to act faster than he seems to be doing now, observers would still feel a little consoled that the government is officially responding to what has now been termed the ‘Oduahgate’.

Such people would, at least, pretend not to remember that the same minister, who by now would have either been sacked or suspended from office in a sane society, is said to be currently in Isreal, believed to be a home of the type of humility, accountability and leadership-by-example style that Jesus Christ spent all His life preaching.

The fact finders are coming in the form of a three-man administrative panel of enquiry. With a former Head of Service of the Federation, Alhaji Sali Bello, as its chair, the panel has the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), and Air Vice Marshal Dick Iruenebere (retd.) as members. The three wise men have two weeks to submit their report.

Should Nigerians hope the FG’s move will yield any concrete result? For a student of experience, the answer, painfully, is likely to be ‘No’. The reason is that Nigerian governments, especially the FG – and the Jonathan administration in particular – have a record of bungling the work or findings of such administrative panels.

Experience has taught many Nigerians that the authorities often set up the panels to buy time, divert people’s attention or just give jobs to ‘the boys’.

The Jonathan example even seems to be more sophisticated. Pundits have noted that it appears that it likes to exploit administrative panels to either pre-empt or subvert the thinking of another government organ, such as the legislature, on controversial matters.

For instance, some people may want to ask: Why is it that the constitution of the Bello panel is coming about a day after the House of Representatives decided to probe the scandalous purchase of the two cars? The fact is that once-beaten-twice-shy observers would feel that now that the Presidency has set up its own panel, it has invented a reason for disregarding whatever recommendations the House may eventually make on the Oduahgate.

At least two incidents in the “Guinness Book of Records” of the Jonathan government justify this fear. First, in the wake of the widespread fuel subsidy fraud that rocked the country in the past few years – one can only hope that something has changed, really – the House set up a committee to probe oil marketers that were indicted. It is true that, like the proverbial cock that deserves praise for being the first to wake up, but soils the feat by leaving faeces in its cage, some of the legislators, including Farouk Lawan, ended up in a bribery mess.

But the exercise yielded major revelations which should have prompted the FG to deal with thieving oil merchants. But till today, no one has been punished accordingly. Rather, some of the people and organisations indicted are believed to still be the very best friends of the Presidency, further eating deep into other juicy sectors of the economy.

In the second instance, the Presidency broke another curious record when it, arguably, encouraged the truncating of the work of the Nuhu Ribadu Panel, which it set up to dig into the activities of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, regarded to be one of the most corrupt institutions in Nigeria – and probably the whole world. Of course, this exaggeration can be condoned, considering Nigeria’s rating on the scale of the corrupt nations.

Based on what may pass as orchestrated issues, a faction broke away from the same panel, conducted its own ‘investigation’ and submitted its own report at the same event where the original committee submitted its own. The government not only anointed the minority report, it eventually rejected Ribadu’s main one, arguing that it was leaked before it was turned in.

Among other points, the Nuhu Ribadu-led Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force detailed how the Nigerian government and the NNPC treat huge oil revenues accruing to the federation as a reserve of money that could be used for questionable purposes, and without accountability.

In its 178-page report, it revealed how oil money in the corporation’s custody was spent on extra-budgetary purposes, including the acquisition of a N2.23bn chopper for the President.

As if the corporation is a government unto itself, it also gave out N700.5m in loan to Sao Tome & Principe, based on instruction from the Presidency. It also allegedly made a curious payment of N2.421bn to a foreign company, Royal Swaziland Sugar Company, the reason for which was not established.

Now, in what looks like a prelude to the NCAA’s effrontery in providing the N255m for Oduah’s ministerial jamboree, the NNPC also reportedly claimed to have underwritten a N521m expenses incurred by the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources. This is in addition to the N250m the agency told the committee it spent on court cases involving the ministry.

Despite all the staggering facts, the Jonathan administration has not made any bold step in cutting the corrupt wings of the corporation. Rather, the President recently declared that there is no corruption in Nigeria – this same country where corruption walks on every street, North, South, East and West, in undisguised steps. This happened about a year after Jonathan shocked many people by granting his former boss, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, state pardon, two years after the ex-Bayelsa State governor served out his jail terms for stealing the state’s money .

While the constitution of the Bello panel should thus make Nigerians hopeful that truth will be established and justice done in the Oduah case, the freshness of such presidential contradictions in the people’s memory readily tempt them to say, ‘Let’s wait and see’.

Since the Jonathan administration is also known for setting up a committee to look at the report of another committee, observers will also hope that he will rather consider the findings of the Bello panel worthy enough to promptly act upon. If this happens, Nigerians will be pleasantly surprised. But if the Jonathan tradition plays out again, many of them will simply say, ‘We saw it coming’.

http://www.punchng.com/news/jonathans-penchant-for-probe-panels/