•HammanTukur (1942-2018), former chairman, Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission
Before 1999, HammanTukur (1942-2018), was probably known in his professional, bureaucratic and academic circles — in the tin mining industry where he was an engineering professional; at the defunct National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) where he was top dog, aside from stints as director-general in two federal ministries; at The Polytechnic, Kaduna, where he was rector.
But all that changed in 1999, when President OlusegunObasanjo appointed him as the first 4th Republic chairman of the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), a key arbiter, created by the Constitution, to allocate revenue, from the Federation Account, between the all-mighty and often bully Federal Government, and the states; ultimately weakened by decades of military rule and its centralist command ethos.
Enter then, Tukur, the policy activist and champion of robust state institutions, particularly on the all-vital fiscal front, where the Federal Government had all along reserved the right to bully the states into submission, when the issue was the common purse.
Tukur stood firmly and proudly for the fiscal and revenue right of states and local governments, though not a few felt the local government leg was something of a constitutional aberration, since the federating units were the states and the central government. Still, Mr. Tukur gave no quarters; and sought to follow constitutional dictates to the letter, no matter the odds.
The classic of his constitutional duelling with the Obasanjo Presidency came with the advent of the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP), when the president with patriotic fervour wanted cash, wherever it came from, with the ardour of a patriotic soul, anxious to finish off a pressing national assignment.
But Tukur told the president point blank if he wanted cash, he should restrict himself to the Federal Government purse. To access the Federation Account, the president must put, on notice, other co-owners of that account — states and local governments.
That crusade, in Tukur’s own words, as recorded by Premium Times: “Yes, it was only when Obasanjo asked for US$ 5.3 billion to finance NIPP that the Commission said he cannot take it from the Federation Account, without recourse to the other tiers of government”
“We told him,” he continued, “that if he wanted money, he should take it from the Federal Government’s share of the money, and then go to the National Assembly for approval.” That was a big blow for the sanctity of state institutions, when the widespread temper was to cower before the executive, mouthing patriotic cant.
Though Tukur was no more RMAFC chairman at the advent of the Buhari Presidency, it was with the same puritanical temper, of building state institutions, that he attacked the president’s bailout to states, even if it was clear that infusion of cash could make or mar the states, most of them already in financial coma.
“Buhari gave out a lot of money to states recently in the name of bail out,” Tukur roared from retirement. ”Who gave him the money? How did he get access to the Federation Account, or the authority to release that money? Did he go through appropriation for approval? If he released the money before it was approved, then it is illegal.”
Even if not a few wouldn’t agree with Tukur’s formalistic approach to such a national emergency, no one could question the logic of his telling query.
HammanTukur would pass down in history as one of the personages that tried, so hard, to birth financial discipline, prudence and transparency with the 4th Republic, very early in the day from May 1999. But lack of the political will, by a selfish and rapacious political elite, made nonsense of those efforts. Had those early efforts succeeded, perhaps sleaze and graft would not have assumed the national epidemic that they now are.
Tukur was also linked with the monetization policy, which his RMAFC recommended and the Obasanjo Presidency implemented. But the poor result of the policy’s implementation just shows how out of tune that policy was with the political environment. But you seldom can blame people who try to think out of the box.
Over all, HammanTukur was a force for good in Nigeria’s public policy. So, many of his likes are needed, to make a definitive difference in Nigeria’s public life.