Isah Dauda Malakai (not real name) a public affairs analyst and rights activist, from Bogoro, Tafawa Balewa local government area, Bauchi state, believes that the acting Auditor General of the Federation, Mr. Andrew Ogochukwu Onwudili FCNA, FCTI, MCFI, has the wherewithal to sanitise the Nigerian system, especially the public sector. However, his optimism is hamstrung by the fact that Onwudili and his staff at the Nigeria Audit House are constrained by operational inadequacies.
Thus, Malakai advises the federal government to hasten the passage of the current Audit Bill in the Senate into law. The Bill when assented by Mr President into law will ensure transparency and accountability for the smooth running of government such that the alarming rate of corruption being witnessed in the country will reduce to the barest minimum. The Nigerian case, especially the public sector, is like the more you look, the less you see.
We are operating a leadership system in Nigeria where people, especially those at the top echelon of government organisations, do whatever they want with impunity, while the poor masses they were employed to serve continue to live penury in the midst of abundance. Meanwhile, as the wanton looting of public funds continue with impunity with utter disregard for proper auditing, so also crime rate keeps skyrocketing, because the money earmarked for human and infrastructure development is being diverted into private pockets.
Well, one may be right to say that it will take eternity for official corruption to abate. In fact, no day passes in Nigeria without breaking news about people looting public funds with impunity. Meanwhile, the massive looting is happening right before the so called eagled eyes of anti-corruption bodies like ICPC, EFCC, Code of Conduct Bureau, etc. This is however not say the anti-corruption agencies are not working hard to curb corruption. They are trying, but they need to do more, else the peaceful, united and developed Nigeria we all are dreaming of, may take a long time to be actualised.
The truth however is that the solution or key to fraudulent activities in Nigeria’s public sector is not anti-corruption agencies. The solution is to give enormous powers to the Audit agency in Nigeria. This is because the anti-corruption agencies themselves, if they were to be audited by the Nigeria Audit House, will face severe penalty for either knowingly or unknowingly going beyond their bounds.
So, if the federal government is serious about fighting corruption, the best constitutionally established government organisation to use is Nigeria Audit House or, the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation, not the anti-corruption agencies. Some anti-corruption agencies staff don’t even have professional training to fish out fraudulent activities in government organisations unlike the well trained auditors that work in the Nigeria Audit House.
In this connection, public affairs analysts who on daily basis call on the National Assembly and the Presidency to strengthen the Nigeria Audit House, deserve all the support to enable them accomplish their mission. In all ramifications, the Nigeria Audit House or the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation needs to be given all the necessary support both financially and otherwise to enable them sanitise the system in Nigeria.
I call on civil society organisations, the media, elder-statesmen and Nigerians across board to rise up and lend their support to ensure that the Audit Bill before the red chamber of the National Assembly is quickly passed into law and sent for Mr. President’s assent. This will cure the lacuna in the constitution or the Act establishing the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation to give full fledged power to the president to appoint the auditor general of the federation from within or outside the organisation for a specific tenure of either four or five years, which is the global best practice and obtainable in other agencies, commissions and parastatals in Nigeria.
Presently, the Act establishing the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation doesn’t permit people with versatile knowledge and experience outside the organisation to preside over its affairs as auditor general. Instructively, Borno, Kano, Oyo and many other states have already enacted the Audit law which it gives the governors the right to appoint someone with versatile knowledge and experience outside the organisation for a specific tenure of five years, making the government structures resilient.
So, if the Audit Bill can be expeditiously passed and assented to by governors at the state level, I believe, the federal government that’s the umbrella in Nigeria should not only ensure that the Audit Bill is passed into law but also speedily assented to by Mr. President especially that he has less than six months to the end of his tenure. Assenting to the Audit Bill will be a great President Buhari legacy, renowned locally and internationally as an anti-corruption czar.
Dr. Yaradua, an academic and public affairs analysyt, writes from Federal College of Education, Batagarawa, Katsina state
