Author: The Nation

•This is necessary to pave way for unfettered investigation

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s suspension of the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Abdulrasheed Bawa, in order to pave way for unfettered investigation of the allegations of abuse of office levelled against him is quite in order. A statement from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), signed by the Director, Information, Willie Bassey, on the night of June 14 said the suspension was to allow for “proper investigation into his conduct while in office. “This (suspension) follows weighty allegations of abuse of office levelled against him,” the statement said adding that “Mr Bawa has been directed to immediately hand over the affairs of his office to the Director, Operations in the commission, who will oversee the affairs of the Office of the Chairman of the Commission pending the conclusion of the investigation.”

Bawa’s suspension came barely a week after the suspension of the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele.

Indeed, this coincidence gave room to speculations in some quarters that he was suspended because President Tinubu and those around him were unhappy over the role played by Bawa in the naira redesign policy of the former President Muhammadu Buhari’s government. The naira redesign and cashless policy were ostensibly touted as a means to address monetary and fiscal issues, but some politicians believed it was targeted at them and Tinubu in particular, so as to deny them access to the money they had allegedly stashed outside of the banking system for the purpose of bribing voters during the elections.

But not a few questioned the sincerity of the exercise considering its timing, and especially the government’s refusal to reverse the policy weeks after it was glaring that it had failed, and in spite of the pains it inflicted on Nigerians and the destructive disruptions to the economy. Bawa himself had a few months ago lent credence to the story of some governors making attempts to pay salaries in cash to defeat the purpose of the exercise.

Such insinuation of a vendetta suspension can only make sense in the context of the banana peels that had dogged several of Bawa’s predecessors. True, it is not easy to fight corruption in a corruption-ridden country like ours without corruption fighting back. It may also be true that successive governments had found it convenient to remove the EFCC boss they met on ground and replacing them with their own candidates.

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But that cannot entirely explain Bawa’s case.

The clamour for his removal predates the Bola Tinubu administration. Several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) had been protesting against the continued retention of Mr Bawa in office based especially on alleged disregard of court orders. Indeed, as recently as February, this year, some of the NGOs protested in Lagos over this issue as well as an alleged politicisation of the commission’s activities. Both Bawa and the former Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, were notorious for such disobedience to court orders. That the country’s chief law enforcer was disregarding court orders with impunity was bad. It was equally bad that a commission whose motto is “No one is above the law” was trampling on the same law with impunity. Unfortunately, rather than take action against them, the government that they were serving continued to condone their illegality.

Perhaps the last straw in Bawa’s case was the allegation by former Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State who accused him of demanding $2m bribe. Although Bawa has denied the allegation and had instead accused Matawalle of brazen looting of Zamfara State treasury; the former governor insisted he had enough evidence to nail the EFCC boss.

There is no doubt that these are weighty allegations on the parts of the two parties. Did Bawa actually demand  $2million bribe from the former governor? If it was true, then what would the former governor want to conceal that would have warranted the demand for such a hefty bribe? These are matters of public concern that should not be swept under the carpet. The public has the right to know the truth and nothing but the truth in a matter as grievous as this, especially where the country’s anti-corruption czar is involved. The office of EFCC boss is such a delicate one and whoever is occupying that office must, like Caesar’s wife, be above board. It becomes problematic when that office is being tarred with mud.

We have nothing against the call for reforms in the appointment and removal of the EFCC boss to remove him from the apron strings of those he is supposed to check their excesses. Indeed, the instability in the leadership of the commission since inception calls for nothing less.

But this does not preclude the fact that only an unfettered investigation can unravel the truth in Bawa’s case, and this cannot be done with him sitting pretty in office.

•Govt must heed advice of Concerned APC members on project monitoring if it wants to succeed

The Concerned All Progressives Congress (APC) members that urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to set up a task force on his government’s policies and programmes must have taken some lessons, albeit informally, from the Nigerian democratic practices, at least in the last 24 years.  The practice has been a situation where elections are won by political parties and they go ahead to give appointments to individuals who are expected to work to actualise the programmes and policies of such governments but who often fail to deliver.

However, the closest that any administration came to any attempt to coordinate the duties of some ministries was during the Goodluck Jonathan administration that the now Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who was then Nigeria’s finance minister also acted as the coordinating minister of the economy. Despite her efforts, she met stiff opposition, especially from some governors most of who were equally of the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

In some weird way, democracy in Nigeria has not achieved a very coordinated performance level where the party members or any political party and those appointed to offices appreciate that their political parties would be judged by their fidelity to their campaign manifestoes. It has been largely cases of discordant notes and some people in governments behaving like there is nothing at stake.

This attitude has not augured well for either the political parties or the nation’s economy. It is therefore commendable that the Concerned Members of the APC under the aegis of Patriotic and Concerned APC Members are pushing for a team that can assist President Tinubu to diligently monitor the team he would choose to help his administration actualise the policies and programmes that can improve the economy.

The group believes that the task force will have its work cut out for it as its focus would be to make sure that there is a departure from the past style where appointees did not work hard enough to assist the president to deliver on his party’s promises. We agree with the group that only people of integrity should be appointed into the monitoring team. It believes that the Buhari administration fell short of expectations  because the team seemed to have worked at cross-purposes.

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Such a task force would add value if well planned. Its duties should be clearly spelt out and  offices well-funded. Moreover, there must be synergy in all its operations. It must be ready to hit the ground running and be alert to project implementation and supervisory roles to maintain standard and work with time.

The President’s appointment of Hadiza Bala Usman as Special Adviser on Policy Coordination is in line with the appeal from Concerned Group and we want to believe that she is up to the task. However, the President should set up an independent body to assist her because one person might not be in a position to coordinate every sector effectively, given the scale of work to be done.

The last eight years of the Buhari administration left the economy in a very precarious state. The new administration must take the road less travelled for better result on policy implementation.  Political and economic experts believe that Nigeria has never lacked sound policies, the basic problem has always been in implementation. Even beyond implementation would be the question of strategies, cost and processes. All these steps need diligent and consistent monitoring and periodic reports and evaluation for success to be achieved.

The President would be in a position to enforce compliance based on reports by those charged with monitoring. These can form the bases of evaluation of those appointed to head ministries and agencies. If well-coordinated, there might be an end to the lethargic attitude of many public officers who hitherto derailed government’s policies and programmes over the years. We recommend that APC governments at the state level and other political parties should adopt these measures even at all levels because it would aid national economic development and accountability.