The three-man panel set up by President Muhammadu Buhari to investigate the suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Babachir Lawal and the Director General, NIA, Ambassador Ayodele Oke, is yet to submit its reports days after the deadline expired. BODE OLAGOKE analyses some of the causes of the delay and their implications
There were commendations from virtually all quarters, from the civil society organisations, to opposition parties and the Nigerian public in general, when President Muhammadu Buhari announced his deputy Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, (now Acting President) as the head of a three -man panel with task to unravel the truth behind the corruption allegations levelled against the suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Engr Babachir Lawal, and of course, the owner of the controversial $43 million discovered by the EFCC at a house in Ikoyi, Lagos. But, the delay in submitting the report of the investigations is causing suspense in all the quarters as well as casting doubts about the credibility of the report.
Nigerians are now left in the dark as to the date for the outcome of the investigations, a situation that has created a reign of speculations, yet nobody can tell when the report would be made public as President Buhari’s second medical trip abroad has no time frame for his return.
A member of the panel and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, had told Nigerians that Acting President Osinbajo, was expected to make the submission to President Buhari , last week Monday, but that was before the President embarked on the medical trip to London.
From inception of the Osinbajo’s panel some analysts had discredited it as being unconstitutional and an obstruction of justice in addition to being a waste of the time of the acting president holding forte during Buhari’s time off.
The critics argued that in size, three-members, is possibly the smallest panel for an issue of such importance in a democratic setting, especially for a government whose one of its cardinal points is to end corruption.
But beyond the arguments over the size of Osinbajo’s panel, Nigerians and international communities are eagerly waiting to know what the findings are and how the government will handle the issues.
Prominent among those calling for absolute silence on the findings of the panel is former Foreign Minister, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, who also went as far as discouraging the House of Representatives from probing the Ikoyi $43 million. He said that the public should not be made aware of the conclusions of the panel, explaining that only the Senate President, Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, should be told its findings.
Akinyemi also suggested that “Should any NIA officer be found culpable, he or she should be quietly eased out.”
In his own contribution, former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, agrees with Akinyemi, in discouraging revelations of “secrets” of the panel’s investigations.
However, the Senator Shehu Sani -led committee report recommended among others that: “the suspended SGF having contravened the provision of Part 1 of the Fifth Schedule of the 1999 Constitution (As amended); the Public Procurement Act 2007 and breach the Oaths of Office as Secretary to the Government of the Federation, should be prosecuted by the relevant authorities”.
Also, the committee recommended further investigation by relevant agencies of government on why contract-benefiting companies paid over N500,000,000.00 into Rholavision Engineering Limited.
Other recommendations of the committee’s report include; that the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) should undertake a revaluation of all such contracts to recover any proceeds from overinflated contracts; that the relevant agencies should ensure that contracts partially executed but fully paid for must be completed by the concerned contractors, or be asked to refund the equivalent money of outstanding jobs to the government treasury.
While reacting to the development in a statement signed on Sunday in Abuja, a chieftain of the ruling APC, Comrade Timi Frank, said that the fight against corruption by the present administration may be in jeopardy if the findings of the Presidential committee investigating the controversial $43M in Lagos house was not released to Nigerians on time.
Frank, deputy publicity secretary said “the continued delay in making public the outcome of Yemi Osinbajo’s three- man committee might begin to give room to rumours and speculations which Nigerians are not known with the Acting President”.
Frank declared that he has to speak out because when the committee was set up by President Buhari, he also commended the move.
Frank also cautioned that not only Nigerians are expecting the outcome of Professor Osinbajo’s panel but “the international community are also waiting on how Nigeria will handle the matter as this singular act could make or mar the war against corruption in Nigeria.
“It is high time this report is made public to proof to the world that our party mean it when we say we are fighting corruption, because do as said is the hallmark of integrity in governance.
“The reports of discovery of large amount of money as $43M without true identity of the owner in a country where government cannot pay salaries or increase the meager being paid the hard working Civil Servants, where poverty, hunger and massive unemployment are order of the day should not be delay or swept under the carpet.”
He said that “Nigerians actually believe in the integrity of Prof. Yemi Osinbajo the same way they trust President Muhammadu Buhari himself’, adding that “this is the time to proof that integrity because Nigerian masses are suffering for the sins they never committed.”
According to Frank, “nobody find guilty should be protected. The NIA and SGF’s reports should no longer be kept away from Nigerians. These reports should be released within the shortest possible time to allay the fears among a section of Nigerians”.
It is not however, out of place for some observers to hold that Osinbajo’s reports may go the way of others (Swept under the carpet), because a member of the three -man Presidential committee and the current NSA are fully aware of some of these concealed and illegally distributed monies, not only the controversial Ikoyi money.
Another reason being advanced is that the said NIA boss, Oke was allegedly engaged in distribution of hundreds of millions of dollars funds for the re-election campaign of former President Goodluck Jonathan, which could be an indictment of other eminent Nigerians also in the distribution channel who possibly received the largess, and have jumped into the ruling APC.
For now, the public is anxious about the outcome of the investigations, as media reports quoting the presidency said “although the panel has completed its assignment, the buck stops on President Buhari’s table”.
“Before he left, he rubbed minds with the Acting President on the recommendations. Some directions were obvious but he has to sit down or discuss with his team to finalize some issues.
“Many people were implicated, the recommendations are far-reaching and heads may roll.
“When you want to determine the fate of those in strategic positions as a leader, you have to look at all the facts. I think there is internal politics within the presidency with forces trying to outwit each other.”
