There may well be something rotten about the country’s 2022 budget. This is a familiar narrative.  The integrity of the country’s budget is usually in doubt, which has something to do with the integrity of the budgetary process.

Not surprisingly, there is public suspicion of this year’s budget, like several previous ones. In particular, recent information from BudgIT reinforces doubts about the budget. The civic-tech organisation is known for “advocacy for fiscal transparency and accountability in public finance.”

“Our preliminary analysis of the 21,108 capital projects in the 2022 approved budget revealed 460 duplicated projects amounting to N378.9bn,” the organisation said in a statement. This is alarming. It is worth mentioning that BudgIT had also observed 316 duplicated projects in the 2021 federal budget approved by the National Assembly.

Project duplication in last year’s budget was corroborated by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC). Its chairman, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, at the 3rd National Summit on Diminishing Corruption in the Public Sector, in Abuja, in November 2021, said the agency “found that 257 projects amounting to N20.138bn were duplicated in the 2021 budget.”

According to BudgIT, the Budget Office also “confirmed the existence of only 185 duplicated projects worth N20.13bn, after which it informed the public that funds were not released for the projects in 2021.”

It is striking that the civic organisation and the two agencies were on the same page on project duplication in last year’s budget, but only differed on the number and cost of the duplicated projects.

This showed how the country is shortchanged through the annual federal budgetary process, and how budget padding by some government establishments contribute to the high cost of governance.

The ICPC chief said the agency’s discovery had prompted “an advisory to the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning which promptly acted on it to prevent abuse.”

It is unclear whether those behind the possibly fraudulent duplication of projects were identified and punished.  The intervention of the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning to “prevent abuse” was only one of the necessary actions that should have been taken in dealing with the issue. If the perpetrators were not identified and sanctioned, the authorities failed to do what was necessary to discourage such improprieties.

Curiously, the office of the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Dr Zainab Ahmed, played down BudgIT’s observation regarding this year’s budget.  Her Special Adviser, Media and Communications, Yunusa Tanko Abdullahi, was reported saying: ”I am not sure of the ‘alleged’ duplications but if there were duplications, they are not intentional and not impossible to have some few cases. But, that is always sorted anyway in the course of reviews and implementation. It’s a big document so you can understand the pressure to put it together.”

This is the kind of thinking and attitude that encourages project duplication in the budget, and explains why the anomaly occurs again and again. It is unacceptable that the same irregularities are observable year after year, and those involved in the budgetary process mainly carry on as if nothing can be done to improve the process.

Another cause for concern is BudgIT’s information on allegedly inflated projects in the budget to the tune of billions of naira.

“Examples include the N20.8bn requested by the Presidency to construct a 14-bed presidential wing at the existing State House Medical Centre, N28.72m requested for the purchase of two units of 10kg washing machine and six units of LG televisions in the State House Lagos Liaison Office, among others,” the organisation said.

BudgIT  also highlighted the case of the National Agency for Great Green Wall, which was set up to prevent land degradation and desertification in 11 states in northern Nigeria and to boost food security in the country. It quoted the agency as saying N1.3bn or 64 per cent of its capital budget is for motorcycles, street lights and other projects unrelated to its primary role.

The organisation observed that four recreational parks under the Ministry of Environment have a total allocation of N67.8m to construct ‘gun armouries’ in Cross Rivers, Kaduna, Borno and Yobe states, “even though the Ministry of Environment is not a security agency.”

According to BudgIT, the River Basin Development Authorities under the Ministry of Water Resources, set up to manage water resources for agriculture, are curiously involved in supply of street lights and road construction.

“A cumulative total of N6.3bn was allocated to supplying street lights in 73 communities across the 36 states, while N14.8bn was allocated for the construction of 219 roads across 36 states; whereas the majority of the roads are the responsibilities of state and local governments and not the Federal Government,” it observed.

The relevant federal authorities have a lot of explaining to do concerning the observed irregularities, including duplicated projects, inflated projects, repetition of questionable items and inclusion of questionable items in the federal budget.

Such irregularities are too regular, which makes it difficult to avoid the conclusion that they are intentional.  A strong smell of corruption emanates from the budgetary process and the budget. Corruption thrives because there is room for it to thrive. It thrives because it is allowed to do so.

Essentially, there should be effective anti-corruption systems within the federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as strong and principled legislative oversight to ensure budget integrity. The yearly budget issues bordering on corruption are bad for the image of the proposers and approvers of the budget.

It is significant that BudgIT urged Nigerians, civil society organisations and the private sector to “urgently prevail on the National Assembly and Presidency to urgently amend and eliminate the loopholes in FG’s 2022 approved budget.” The organisation should be commended for its role.

A fraudulent budget escalates the cost of governance and denies Nigeria value for money. It also says a lot about why the country is progressing at a snail’s speed. The budget cannot bring about the desired development when it is inspired by agents of underdevelopment. It is lamentable that budgetary rot happens repeatedly.

This week, the detained leader of the proscribed separatist group, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, will continue the fight for his freedom in the face of terrorism-related charges at the Federal High Court in Abuja.

Ironically, IPOB continues to speak and act in a manner that reinforces the accusations against Kanu. It rejects categorisation as a terrorist organisation but continues to speak and act terroristically.

The group’s terroristic methods are not new and were promoted by Kanu himself before he got into trouble with the authorities. The controversial IPOB leader was facing trial for alleged “offences of conspiracy to commit acts of treasonable felony and other related offences” before he was granted bail on health grounds by the court in April 2017.

He was arrested in 2017 for leading a campaign for secession of the South East from Nigeria. He jumped bail in June 2018, and fled to the UK where he continued his anti-Nigeria activities.

Before he disappeared from Nigeria, for instance, Kanu was characteristically rebellious when he addressed a crowd in August 2017 at the Boys Technical College (BTC) on Faulks Road in Aba North Local Government Area of Abia State. He was on bail at the time. Among the conditions for his bail, which he flouted, was that he should not be seen in a crowd exceeding 10 people and he should not grant any interviews, hold or attend any rallies.

He was quoted as saying at the event: “I’m a Biafran and we are going to crumble the zoo. Some idiots who are not educated said that they’ll arrest me, and I ask them to come. I’m in Biafra land. If any of them leaves Biafra land alive, know that this is not IPOB.”

Kanu, 54, was rearrested in Kenya and brought back to Nigeria in controversial circumstances in June 2021.  His case has continued to generate intense public interest. There have been moves to get a “political solution,” with prominent individuals and groups from his Igbo ethnic group calling for his unconditional release.

It was uncertain whether the Federal Government would rethink his trial until President Muhammadu Buhari firmly rejected the idea. He said in a television interview on January 5: “There is one institution that I wouldn’t interfere with, that is the judiciary. Kanu’s case is with the judiciary…So, we are giving him an opportunity to defend himself in our system…But those who are saying that he should be released, no, we cannot release him.”

IPOB has continued with activities that don’t help Kanu’s case.  The group started the New Year combatively. Ahead of Kanu’s next court appearances scheduled for January 18, 19 and 20, the group demanded that the Federal Government should release him unconditionally.

”We want to declare that the Nigerian government and its security agencies will have no peace of mind unless they release our leader,” IPOB said in a statement issued by its media and publicity secretary, Emma Powerful, on January 5.

The group also unveiled a plan that is likely to cause trouble for people in the South East geopolitical zone, which it prefers to call “Biafra land.” The zone is made up of five states: Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states.

Read Also: Kanu begs supporters to be peaceful in court Tuesday

”Fulani cows are banned in Biafra land starting from April 2022,” the statement said.  ”Those in the animal husbandry business must switch over to our native cow without delay.”

Also, the group said: “Concerning stopping the Nigerian national anthem in our schools, we want every school to start reading the Biafra national anthem. Soon every school is going to receive a copy of the Biafra national anthem.”

In October 2021, IPOB had attracted attention with a statement that indicated its plan to regulate cattle business and cow meat consumption in the South East.

Its head of Directorate of State (DOS), Mazi Chika Edoziem, had announced a ban on the rearing and consumption of “Fulani cows” in the SouthEast states, saying the ban would take full effect six months after the announcement.

According to him, “from that date no more Fulani cows shall be allowed into Biafra land for any reason, not for burials, title taking, weddings, etc.” He added that only cows bred in the territory would from that time on “be consumed and used for all ceremonies in Biafra land.”

Now the group has shown that it meant what it said by saying the cow ban will take effect from April, which is about six months after the initial announcement.

It is unclear how the group intends to enforce the cow ban and the anthem ban in the five states. It already has a bad record when it comes to enforcing its bad ideas.

Perhaps IPOB’s ban would be enforced by the enforcers that disrupted the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in many parts of the South East in September 2021, based on the group’s unlawful sit-at-home order. The disruption was condemnable.

Another condemnable disruption based on another unlawful sit-at-home order will happen this week.   IPOB has declared sit-at-home in the South East on January 18 when Kanu is expected to appear in court again. It said in a statement:  ”In keeping with our avowed solidarity with our leader, the entire South East will be on lockdown only on January 18 for obvious reasons.”

The group has no business issuing any sit-at-home order. The group seems to forget it has been proscribed. It is operating unlawfully. Its activities are unlawful.

It is noteworthy that the group had disowned those who disrupted the WASSCE last year, saying they enforced a sit-at-home order that had been cancelled. It remains to be seen whether the same enthusiastic enforcers will obey the group’s leadership this time, and not extend the unlawful enforcement beyond January 18.

It is ironic that Kanu was reported saying his supporters should be peaceful when they come to witness his trial. The group is known for hostility. He wants such supporters “to conduct themselves with decorum, be civil in their conduct and comportment, shun violence and deviant behaviour in any manner or form, and exercise restraint in speech,” his lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, said in a statement after visiting him at the headquarters of the Department of State Services (DSS) in Abuja to discuss “final preparations” for the legal battle.

It is impossible to divorce Kanu’s trial from IPOB’s activities and image. He is the group’s leader and their terroristic campaign for secession should have consequences.

It is said that old habits die hard. Is this why the Department of State Services (DSS) has failed to reinvent itself despite continuous public condemnation of its repulsive style?

The security agency’s negative consistency was further exposed in two cases reported in December 2021: a herbalist’s six-month ordeal in the agency’s detention facility, and the invasion of an organisation’s office by the agency’s operatives.

Interestingly, in the first case, the DSS showed interest in supernatural matters. The DSS detained Dada Ifasooto, a 29-year-old man who described himself as “a herbal medical practitioner and traditionalist based in Ekiti,” for six months based on a ridiculous allegation that bordered on the supernatural.

Ifasooto, they said, empowered Yoruba nation agitator Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho by “preparing charms” for him. DSS operatives arrested the native doctor at his home in Ikere Ekiti, Ekiti State, on July 16, 2021.

This was about two weeks after Igboho was declared wanted following his escape during a midnight DSS raid on his residence in Ibadan, Oyo State, on July 1, 2021.  Two of his aides were killed during the operation, and 12 others were arrested.

How did Ifasooto become a person of interest to the DSS?  He said in an interview after his release: “There is a young man called Tajudeen (Irinloye) whom I have known for some time. He is a commercial motorcycle rider in Ibadan and he had come to me for treatment for an ailment.

“I called him thereafter to follow up on the treatment plan that I gave to him but unknown to me, he is an aide of Chief Igboho and the DSS had arrested him and some other aides during the widely reported night raid of July 1, 2021.”

The DSS located Ifasooto, and took him to Abuja where he was detained under harsh conditions.  ”I developed ulcer and high blood pressure in DSS custody after three months,” he said.

His experience in detention says a lot about the methods of the DSS. He recounted that a DSS official who questioned him introduced a supernatural dimension, saying “He mockingly told me to disappear then that I had been handcuffed and I told him I don’t know what he was talking about.”

He experienced further absurdity when, according to him, “The officers then accused me of making charms for IPOB (Indigenous People of Biafra).”  The secessionist group has something in common with Igboho’s campaign for a Yoruba nation. Both are inspired by separatist thinking.

The additional accusation also bordered on the supernatural. It is curious and ridiculous that the agency went to such lengths based on allegations that were clearly not actionable.

When he was eventually released on December 24, 2021, he said DSS officials told him “to be grateful to the lawyer and to their own investigation” which showed that he was innocent. They warned him to be cautious “so as not to return to their custody.”

Did all this really happen? DSS officials should hang their heads in shame.  Ifasooto said: “It is painful to be unjustly detained for six months but I thank God that I didn’t spend Christmas in DSS custody. The DSS should carry out proper investigation before arresting people.”  In addition, the DSS should make amends when they are wrong as in this pathetic case.

Some days later, the DSS was in the news again for negative reasons.  There was familiar information about the agency’s notorious crude methods.

On the receiving end this time was the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), a non- governmental organisation focused mainly on the National Assembly and its legislative role and activities.

CISLAC protested about the invasion of its office in Abuja by DSS operatives in a December 29, 2021 letter to the agency’s Director General, Yusuf Bichi, on “intimidation and profiling of civil society groups during Yuletide.”

According to the organisation’s executive director, Auwal Musa, DSS operatives, on December 27, 2021, “stormed” the office of CISLAC, the National Chapter of Transparency International, TI Nigeria, in Abuja.

“Laying siege,” he said, “the operatives demanded to see the Chief Security Officer of the building…our initial thought was that these were individuals masquerading as DSS agents…

“This thought was further reinforced by the fact that there was no prior notice, invitation or pending request from your office regarding any such visit.”

Any doubts about the identity of the invaders disappeared following a phone call from the organisation to a number provided by them. “An individual further confirmed that he was an agent of your agency providing details of his position,” the letter said.

CISLAC wants the agency’s boss to “investigate those who carried out this visit and for what purpose(s).” In addition, the organisation wants him to “call these operatives to order and charge them to be civil in their approach and not militarize our nascent democracy.”

The DSS has not responded to the issues raised in the letter. Are the allegations true? What explanations does the security agency have for the alleged incident and the conduct of its operatives?

The use of particular expressions in the CISLAC letter is of particular interest. The organisation described the said invasion as a “Gestapo approach.” It also called the action “unprofessional.” It further referred to the approach as “bad policing.”

It is unclear why the DSS regularly uses methods that are condemnable. The agency continues to act without a sense of the rule of law. It may not understand that lawlessness can never help its case.

Who knows what will happen next, to whom, or where? Which individual or organisation will experience the agency’s lawlessness next?

Moving from one crudity to another in a chain of unjustifiable assaults on democratic principles, the DSS acts like an oppressive bully in perpetual search of whom to oppress.

The “roles and functions” of the DSS include “Prevention, Detection and Investigation of threats of Espionage, Subversion, Sabotage, Terrorism, Separatist agitations, Inter-group conflicts, Economic crimes of National security dimension and threats to law and order.”

However, the agency is expected to do its work, particularly in a democracy, with a sense of the rule of law. Hopefully, it is not too far gone and beyond necessary reorientation.

It is said that there is no perfect murder. But an imperfect investigation can make a murder look like a perfect one. The unsolved murder of former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Chief Bola Ige grabbed the headlines for the umpteenth time on the 20th anniversary of the tragedy.

Tragically, the case had gone cold because those who should have pursued its resolution were ultimately cold in their approach to finding the killers and possibly the puppeteers behind the scenes.

Coincidentally, Ige’s protégé and former governor of Osun State, Chief Bisi Akande, helped to put the case on the front burner again in the anniversary month with the launch of his autobiography on December 9.

Akande’s book, My Participations, captured Ige’s murder on December 23, 2001, at the age of 71, under the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration.  He was shot dead at his home in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. Akande was governor of Osun State at the time.

”As was his custom, Ige was preparing to spend the Christmas with his people in Esa-Oke where he held the traditional title of Asiwaju (leader),” Akande says in the book.

“He would normally hold a feast on Boxing Day, December 26, and all of us his friends would join him to celebrate.

“That day would be an open house and all members of the Esa-Oke community would troop to Ige’s expansive compound.

“So, by the time Ige entered Ibadan, preparation for Christmas at Esa-Oke was in top gear.

“Most of his personal staff, especially those in the kitchen, had moved to Esa-Oke to await his arrival.

“Instead of going to Esa-Oke, Uncle Bola decided to spend the night in Ibadan.

“He went to his junior brother, Sir Dele Ige, to have dinner and then, retired home.

“His wife, Atinuke, was waiting for him. As soon as he got home, his security details and personal staff, learning that they would not be travelling to Esa-Oke again, went out to look for dinner at a nearby restaurant as soon as they dropped their boss.

“Shortly after they left, some gunmen invaded the Ige residence.

“The house was at the end of the street. Behind it was a swamp of an undeveloped bush that terminated in a dead-end.

“They overpowered the only gateman who had been working with Uncle Bola before he took up the ministerial appointment with Obasanjo and marched him upstairs.

“All the doors were opened and they soon accosted their quarry in his bedroom.

“There, they shot him and fled. His wife, who was with him, was locked up in the toilet.

“Muyiwa came in shortly and discovered the horror.”

Ige’s son, Muyiwa, lives with the memory of the horrific killing. Akande also recounts a telephone conversation with then President Obasanjo shortly after the murder.

“Now, you see the lapses in your security! Look at what happened to Bola lge,” Obasanjo was quoted as saying.

“How can you say lapses in my security when Bola lge was killed in lbadan?

“I rule in Osun State! I am not the Governor of Oyo State!

“When his (lge’s) cap was removed at the Ife Palace during your wife’s chieftaincy ceremony, what did you do about it?”

Akande says Obasanjo hung up. The conversation showed the tensions of the time. The background information on Ige’s humiliating experience at the Ife palace also conveyed a context of contention.

It was clear enough that the incident was an assassination. It happened in the middle of Obasanjo’s first four-year term as president. Obasanjo was reelected for a second term, and was president for eight years. This means that he had about six years to find Ige’s killers.

Ige was a significant figure in the Obasanjo presidency, not only because of the weight of his position but also because of his political weight.  Obasanjo  was expected to get the killers at all costs. He should have been sufficiently embarrassed that such a high-profile member of his administration was killed in such a manner that suggested contempt for the law. His failure to solve the murder remains a massive minus both for him and the government he headed.

Ige’s tragic murder resulted in another tragedy, the death of his wife following signs that the investigation was going nowhere. Justice Atinuke Ige died “within 16 months” of her husband’s assassination, their son observed, saying “She died of a broken heart.”

She must have sensed that the murder case had reached a dead end when a major prosecution witness, Andrew Olofu, who was Ige’s private security guard, suddenly changed his testimony. He was said to have previously identified one of the killers in an identification parade and had also signed a written statement regarding that.

Then the unexpected happened. The same witness was later reported saying in court that he could not recognise any of the three gunmen that invaded Ige’s residence “because at that time, I was in a state of confusion and fear had gripped me.”

Sadly, there is still public confusion about Ige’s murder, 20 years after the incident. The Bola Ige for Justice Centre organised a memorial symposium in Lagos on December 21, lamenting “two decades of injustice.”

It is noteworthy that Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka pointed out the danger of government inaction concerning unravelling the mysterious murder in a message to Ige’s family on the 20th anniversary of the murder. “Unsolved crimes only lead to a culture of impunity… This is a lesson that Nigerian leadership has yet to learn,” Soyinka said.

According to him, the nation “must never relent in demanding an explanation for his brutal murder, expose the perpetrators, identify the conspirators and reinstate the broken lines of justice.

“At the very least, we need a formal declaration regarding those who displayed an abnormal interest in the fates of those accused, to a level of proven, documented interference both in the investigative process and within the judiciary.”

Importantly, Soyinka challenged President Muhammadu Buhari to live up to his “robust pledge to open an enquiry into the spate of political murders that the nation has undergone in recent years,” and demonstrate that his pledge wasn’t “yet another instance of political bravado.”

It is unclear who murdered Ige, and why it was necessary to murder him. It is unclear why the Obasanjo administration failed to get to the bottom of his murder. It is unacceptable that there is still no clarification 20 years after his murder.

Which of the conflicting narratives about Nnamdi Kanu’s detention conditions presents the true picture? It is confusing that the detainee and the detaining authority have clashing accounts on the detention environment and life in detention.

The detained leader of the secessionist group Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), who is facing trial at the Federal High Court, Abuja, also faces a credibility challenge following the narrative from his camp that he is being persecuted in detention.

Kanu, 54, was rearrested in Kenya and brought back to Nigeria in controversial circumstances in June.  He was initially arrested in 2017 for leading a campaign for secession of the South-East from Nigeria. He jumped bail in June 2018, and fled to the UK where he continued his anti-Nigeria activities.

After his rearrest, his trial for terrorism-related charges has continued to generate intense public interest. There are moves to get a political solution, but there is no clarity on that yet.

Kanu’s trial is scheduled to continue on January 18, 2022. Justice Binta Nyako had ordered on December 2 that he should not be discriminated against in detention. She had also ordered that Kanu be given maximum comfort possible in detention, be allowed a change of clothing, be allowed free practice of his Jewish faith including access to his Jewish religious materials, allowed to receive any visitor of his choice, and allowed to mingle freely with others in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS).

But his lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, in a statement, said the DSS had “unrepentantly continued to treat the orders of the court with greatest disdain.” The statement was an update on Kanu’s situation following his legal team’s visit to him at DSS headquarters, Abuja, on December 6.

Ejiofor said Kanu had informed them that “none of the pronouncements made by the court on the 2nd of December 2021 has been obeyed by the lawless DSS.”

He also said Kanu “further informed us that he had not eaten anything since Sunday, apparently being punished because we dared to complain to the court about the harsh condition under which he is being held in custody.”

Does this claim mean that Kanu did not have any meal on the mentioned Sunday and up till his legal team’s visit on Monday?  Then the DSS has a lot of explaining to do.   Even convicts are entitled to their meals. And, importantly, Kanu has not been convicted

Kanu remains in detention, but he should not be treated in a way that shows disrespect for the law, and makes his prosecution seem like persecution.

Perhaps predictably, his legal team said it would immediately let Justice Nyako know about the alleged flouting of her orders by the detaining authority.  If it is true, it is inexcusable and condemnable.

On December 13, Kanu’s legal team took the matter to court, accusing the DSS of grossly violating his fundamental human rights. Kanu alleged that the DSS deprived him access to facility and material to practise his faith and ultimately prevented him from praying and/or practising his faith.

He also alleged that the security agency prevented him from having access to a medical practitioner and a legal practitioner of his choice.

He added that the DSS allegedly subjected him to solitary confinement which is a form of mental and physical torture, and subjected him to inhuman and degrading treatment.

In his application to the court for a redress, he sought orders directing the DSS to allow him access to facility and material for the practice of his religion, allow him to appoint an independent medical practitioner of his choice from a certified government hospital to review his medical files, allow him access to a medical practitioner of his choice and a legal practitioner of his choice, and remove him from solitary confinement.

On December 14, the Public Relations Officer of the DSS, Dr P.N. Afunanya, responded to the allegations, “for the sake of transparency and democratic accountability,” during a press briefing at its headquarters in Abuja.  He described the claims as “outright misinformation.”

The DSS said Kanu “is not, in any way, maltreated in custody,” and “enjoys full luxury in the holding facility incomparable to any of its type anywhere in the country. He is accorded full rights and privileges. He is never denied his right of worship or freedom from his select religious practice.”

The security agency also said Kanu “has unhindered access to the best medical care and doctors. Kanu, himself, has confirmed to his visitors that the Service has never, in any way, maltreated him. He even confirmed this to the quartet of Senators Ike Ekweremadu and Enyinnaya Abaribe; Bishop Sunday Onuoha of the Methodist Church, Nigeria and Co-Chair, Interfaith Dialogue Forum for Peace and Ambassador Okechukwu Emuchay, MFR, Secretary-General, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, who saw him on Wednesday, 8th December, 2021.”

The DSS also said the story of Kanu being starved “is fallacious,” adding that “he enjoys meals of his choice.”  In addition, it said: “That he is not allowed change of clothing is also false. He is regularly allowed change of clothing as against what is presented to the public by IPOB propagandists.” In conclusion, the agency said all the allegations of violation of Kanu’s rights as a suspect, victimisation and starvation among others “are not true.”

Both narratives cannot be true. It is expected that Kanu’s real detention conditions will be clearer to the public sooner than later, given that the matter has been taken to court.

If it turns out that Kanu’s narrative is false, it will further damage IPOB’s image. The group should not resort to misrepresentation possibly to win public sympathy.

If it turns out that the DSS narrative is unreliable, it will expose the agency as lawless.

It is striking that there is a collision of narratives concerning what is really happening inside Kanu’s cage. The prosecution of the IPOB leader was not expected to involve such sideshows.

The court should quickly intervene and settle the questions regarding Kanu’s detention conditions, if any. It is important that the authorities are seen to be conducting his trial lawfully in all aspects.

All things being equal, the National Assembly is expected to pass the 2022 Appropriation Bill this month.  After the budget has been passed, the public will wonder about the integrity of its shape and size. This question has something to do with the integrity of the proposers and approvers of the budget.

Interestingly, the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, recently gave an insight into how the country is shortchanged through the annual federal budgetary process.

The alarming revelations at the 3rd National Summit on Diminishing Corruption in Public Sector, in Abuja, show how budget padding by some government establishments contribute to the high cost of governance.

The ICPC chief said the agency “found that 257 projects amounting to N20.138bn were duplicated in the 2021 budget.”  This discovery prompted “an advisory to the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning which promptly acted on it to prevent abuse.”

It is unclear whether those behind the fraudulent duplication of projects were identified and punished.  The intervention of the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning to “prevent abuse” was only one of the necessary actions that should have been taken in dealing with the issue. If the perpetrators were not identified and sanctioned, the authorities failed to do what was necessary to discourage such improprieties.

Owasanoye also said the agency had “so far initiated enforcement actions against 67 contractors and forced them back to site and ensured completion of 966 projects worth N310bn some of which were hitherto abandoned.”

The information about the scale of the projects that needed the agency’s intervention for completion, and their value, says a lot about why the country is progressing at a snail’s pace, and also exposes some of the agents of underdevelopment.  The situation calls for more rigorous project monitoring as well as greater effort to ensure that contractors perform as expected.

The ICPC boss listed “poor needs assessment that disconnects projects from beneficiaries, false certification of uncompleted contracts as completed and deliberate underperformance of contracts”  among the “maladies”  that hinder the country’s development. According to him, “the same malady of corruption” escalates the cost of governance and denies Nigeria value for money.

This is a familiar malady. It is a long-term malady that has defied treatment. But it is a treatable malady. It certainly requires a focused and determined approach.

Corruption thrives because there is room for it to thrive. It thrives because it is allowed to do so. The truth is that to defeat corruption self-styled anti-corruption fighters need to do more than paying lip service to the anti-corruption fight.

The corruption-related findings based on the ICPC’s review of the 2021 budget should guide gatekeepers regarding the 2022 federal budget proposal.  That’s how to fight corruption.

It is unacceptable that every year, the same thing happens. The proposers and approvers mainly carry on as if it is an unchangeable ritual. Year in, year out, items are questionably repeated in the annual budget proposals of federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

In one instance, the Senate Committee on Environment said it had discovered about N16bn included in the 2022 budget proposal of the Ministry of Environment for servicing of debts by some state governments.

Chairman of the panel, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, revealed that about N6bn had been added to the ministry’s 2021 budget proposal, for which it was queried by the committee, saying “only for it to be brought back in next year’s budget, this time to the tune of N16bn.” He described it as a “grand plot to defraud the Federal Government.”

It is not enough to discover plots to defraud the government. Such discoveries should lead to sanctions for those implicated in the plots.

Budgetary repetitions come in various forms, but they usually have something negative in common.   ”It is a delicate issue. There have been some suggestions and lamentations from different quarters about the recurrence of items of expenditure every year,” the Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Barau Jibrin, was quoted as saying.

According to him, the heads of MDAs “argue that the said items are perishable as they can get worn out and written off. I think they don’t get written off at the same time in all the agencies. While it may become unusable in one agency or office, it could still be good in another office.”

Considering the senator’s sound reasoning, why do the federal lawmakers who are supposed to approve such proposals do so without applying this same thinking?

It is striking that the senator supplied the answer to the problem. “The best way to go about it is through proper oversight on the side of the National Assembly members as well as putting in place certain mechanisms within the MDAs to make sure that the items are not frivolous,” he said.

So the answer highlights another problem, which is the failure of the federal lawmakers, who have oversight responsibilities, to do “proper oversight” and ensure that the questionable repetition of items of expenditure in the yearly budget proposals of the MDAs becomes a thing of the past.

It is noteworthy that a civil society organisation, Centre for Social Justice, observed that the 2022 budget proposal submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly in October contained frivolous items to the tune of N227bn.

Every year, there are questionable items in the Federal Government’s budget proposal. Every year, the public condemns this practice. Every year, little or nothing happens to show that the National Assembly, which is supposed to play the role of gatekeeper, is alive to its responsibility.

For instance, a report said the Federal Government planned to spend N19bn on computer software in 2022. Another report said the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) planned to spend N2.04bn on computers alone, and another N1.3bn on “office stationery and computer consumables.”

The federal legislature’s oversight role is a serious and important function. The yearly repetition of questionable items and the yearly inclusion of questionable items in the federal budget proposal are encouraged by the failure of gatekeepers.

There will always be budget proposals and budgets, but there shouldn’t always be budgetary improprieties. When there are budgetary improprieties, there should be proper gatekeeping to ensure that what is proper prevails.