By Louis Odion, FNGE
Though isolated, the recent budget-padding comedy inAbuja and
lately the Ese scandal in Kano invariably
underscore one acute elite affliction in contemporary Nigeria : an
obsession to exercise power and the unwillingness to bear its responsibility.
Though isolated, the recent budget-padding comedy in
The pathology is what manifests today whenever
President Buhari goes about issuing threat to deal ruthlessly with the
"budget mafia" believed to have sexed up figures in the 2016
appropriation bill in view of the dust raised at the National Assembly. But a
more honest response should have been an acceptance of responsibility ab initio
by Mr. president on whose desk the buck stops.
Apparently
following their principal's odd footsteps, ministers have, in turn, made a huge
theatre of publicly disowning the numbers ascribed to their respective
ministries, departments and agencies as if vetting the figures was not part of
their briefs as CEOs of the MDAs to begin with. Health minister, for instance,
swore "budget rats" ate up the documents he originally submitted. No
one is ready to defend the allocation of N3.87b for capital projects at the
Abuja State House Clinic while all the nation's teaching hospitals individually
got peanuts. Or why a whopping N576m was earmarked for the construction of the
residences of the Vice President's ADC and CSO among other outlandish entries.
*Ese Oruru |
Taken together,
the impression thus created is that whereas the government is exhorting the
citizens with evangelical fervor to tighten their belts for an exceedingly lean
year ahead, its own hierarchs are ironically busy loosening theirs to take more
fat in their mid-sections. Not surprising, various conspiracy theories have
since been mushrooming around the budget fiasco. Perhaps the most outlandish is
the suggestion that the whistle was blown at the Senate by forces sympathetic
to the embattled Bukola Saraki as a fight-back over his unfinished business at
the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
If true, that
only begs the issue. In case the Buhari handlers don't know, they should be
enlightened that the signature the president appended to the document before
its presentation to the National Assembly on December 22, 2015 is tantamount to
a proof of ownership and, therefore, a provisional claim of responsibility.
Much more compelling is the obligation to admit that the seed of the present
scandal was inadvertently sown with the inexplicable delay in constituting the
federal cabinet last year.
Hence, the
initiative was inadvertently ceded to bureaucrats who, from experience, are
hardly any different from buccaneers. In fact, Buhari unwittingly handed them
the rope to hang him the very moment he announced in faraway France that civil
servants were "the ones doing the real work" while ministers were
mere "noise-makers", in response to then growing public apprehension
over the delay in raising the federal cabinet.
This writer had
his own fair share of funny experiences as a Commissioner in Edo State
whenever it was time to draw budget for the coming year. I recall that one
fixture that kept resurrecting like a bad coin was the proposal to set up a
"processing studio" for the printing of "official
photographs". But in my own humble judgement, that's quite anachronistic
at this age of digital photography. So, each time I had to pore over the draft
drawn up by my directors before the proposal was sent to the budget office, I
never hesitated before spiking it.
*Emir of Kano, Sanusi |
But that would
not stop the same item from returning surreptitiously in the draft for the next
year. Ask the relevant director "Why did you put the studio again this
year?", the standard defense was "Oh, sorry, it was an
oversight". Clearly, the guys were already fixated on the formula
inherited from their "ancestors" in the system who invented the
"envelope-based" template. So, once directed to prepare the framework
for the next budget, they would start panting all over the place, as if it was
one hell of a job. Meanwhile, by the time the report was submitted, you would
discover the task that had taken eternity to accomplish was not more than the
triviality of merely adding or subtracting from the figures allocated to a few
sub-heads in the subsisting budget.
To be fair, the
incidence of some expenditures recurring year-in year-out should not be blamed
on the bureaucrats. When this happens, the tendency is for the casual observer
to quickly conclude that the money allocated was embezzled. Often, cash would
not be released to execute such proposals throughout the year. Since budget is
backed by law, the civil servants then assume the items must be repeated in the
next budget until money is provided for them.
From what is now
known, it is safe to assume that the 2016 budget estimate is already
irredeemably trapped in the discredited "envelope". With its promise
to change the budgeting model to "zero-based" (or need-based), the
Buhari administration should ideally devote the next executive retreat to
re-evaluating its priorities which will, in turn, shape or reshape its policies
and programmes in view of current economic realities. As for the 2017 budget,
it then becomes the responsibility of the ministers to ensure it truly reflects
Buhari's character and values.
But more
fundamental of all the historic responsibilities before Buhari today is the
urgent need to overhaul entirely the bankrupting assumptions that have defined
the budgeting process in Nigeria ,
particularly in the last decade. Oil boom witnessed in the era under reference
invariably foisted a false sense of prosperity not only on the federal but also
the state and local governments.
As budget
figures soared from billions to trillions, so did recurrent spend, particularly
personnel costs. Conspicuous consumption characterized by senseless
globe-trotting disguised as "looking for foreign investors" and the
insensate addiction for private jets and helicopters for even routine shuttles
became the new norm in government circles. With the return of hard times, the
capital side of public expenditure has naturally become the first casualty. Those
accustomed to private jets (even when the more economical commercial flights
are readily available) are naturally unwilling to give up their addiction.
Given his reputation for frugality, it is part of Buhari's moral obligations today to help rid the land of such prodigalities.
Given his reputation for frugality, it is part of Buhari's moral obligations today to help rid the land of such prodigalities.
After Abuja , we proceed to Kano
where the story of Miss Ese Oruru freed Monday after seven months in captivity
and sexual enslavement has continued to prick the conscience of an
irresponsible nation. After the national outcry was spear-headed by The Punch
newspaper last Sunday, how pathetic that the Kano Emir, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi
II, would resort to plumbing deep into the cesspool of illogic in an attempt to
evade responsibility for the seven-months-long atrocity that transpired at
least to his knowledge, if not under his watch.
To be sure,
Sanusi is not just another monarch in Nigeria today. His reign as CBN
governor would perhaps be remembered by future historians more for its muscular
activism on issues that transcended the boardroom than policy-formulation and
execution that should ordinarily define it. A crusading temper he seems to have
transposed to the Kano
stool with his progressively radical posturing on cultural to civic
engagements.
This precisely
is what then makes Sanusi's implied complicity in the Ese infamy and his
tenuous denial of responsibility very unacceptable indeed. The nation's worst
fears were confirmed Wednesday following reports that the abducted girl is now
5-month pregnant after being examined by a medical team at the police
headquarters in Abuja .
That perhaps explains why the under-age girl had to be mummified with a white
hijab before being presented to the public for the first time Tuesday.
Perhaps, we
should have sensed this when those hiding Ese started the argument earlier in
the day that she was 18-years-old. It explains why her abductor(s) hoarded her
against commonsense and why they won't let her parents see her all this while
even after a tortuous road journey from Bayelsa. It also explains the
conspiracy of silence, the buck-passing, in high places: from the Kano emir's palace to the
Inspector General of Police's office.
The shock-waves that the discovery of Ese's pregnancy triggered Wednesday had not simmered when a report came that another under-age girl named Patience Paul, a Christian, was similarly abducted from her parents' home same time last year and, more sensationally, now allegedly "warehoused" in the palace of Sultan of Sokoto. If true, I would be surprised if the Sultan's own excuse would be different from theKano emir's. God, what is
Nigeria
turning into?!! A hell-hole of pedophiles, depraved sex predators?
The shock-waves that the discovery of Ese's pregnancy triggered Wednesday had not simmered when a report came that another under-age girl named Patience Paul, a Christian, was similarly abducted from her parents' home same time last year and, more sensationally, now allegedly "warehoused" in the palace of Sultan of Sokoto. If true, I would be surprised if the Sultan's own excuse would be different from the
From the Kano 's sordid narrative, two critical facts can easily be
distilled: the Kano
emir became aware of Ese's case as far back as August and, in one instance, the
little girl was whisked to a palace court over which he presided. In fact, in
an interview published in yesterday's The Sun, Ese recalled she was brought to
the emir's council.
In his own
statement Monday, the emir admitted that once he became aware he, in turn,
directed the Sharia council to treat the case with a view to "repatriating
and reconciling" Ese with her parents. Sadly, Sanusi thereafter chose to
blame the police authorities - the Inspector General of Police to be precise -
for his own historic dereliction. Assuming (without conceding) that the matter
is for the Sharia council to handle as the emir suggested, how then do the
Nigerian Police come in? When did the police of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
become the enforcer of the Sharia council's resolutions or rulings?
So, is Sanusi
telling us he, as a father himself, was not sufficiently outraged enough at the
sight of little Ese in forced betrothal shawl at the palace forecourt way back
in September 2015 to summarily order the arrest of Inuwa Dahiru Bala, the
abductor, and his prosecution for a clear case of abduction and sexual
exploitation? That precisely is what this case is.
Responsibility to right a wrong is never a favour, but a duty. What should have compelled the emir to action urgently the more is partly the ethno-religious identity of the victim. The least expected of theKano
emir in the circumstance is assume the responsibility of personally ensuring
Ese's liberation from captivity in September and reunion with her parents
without further delay. That is how true statesmen behave. The true test of
integrity is, let it be said, not mouthing thunderously sanctimonious words on
the national stage before media klieglights; but quietly doing the right thing
when no one is watching. Had Sanusi acted timeously, perhaps Ese would not
today be bearing this unwanted pregnancy.
Responsibility to right a wrong is never a favour, but a duty. What should have compelled the emir to action urgently the more is partly the ethno-religious identity of the victim. The least expected of the
Referring the
matter to the Sharia council, as the Emir lamely explained Monday, is shirking
his responsibility not only as the cultural head of Kano but also its ultimate moral authority.
Even dragging the Sharia council into the matter is no less reprehensible. On
what legal or moral basis was that body being mandated to entertain Ese, a
Christian? According to her family, Ese, until her abduction, was a staunch
member of Scripture Union (SU) - that species of Christianity distinguished by
its own intensity of worship. So, bringing Ese in hijab to Abuja , to say the least, religiously
provocative and culturally offensive on its own.
Overall,
stripped of all semantics, there is a clear similarity between what Yinusa
committed in broad-day light in Yenagoa in August 2015 and what those beasts
addressed as Boko Haram did on a certain night in April 2014. Perhaps the only
difference is the number.
To add insult to injury, we were later inundated with side stories that Ese would have preferred to stay inKano . How more bestial and foolishly
unimaginative can these manipulators be! Before Yinusa and his enablers unleash
their next stunt, perhaps they should be reminded that the tactic is not new.
That precisely was what Boko Haram did in view of the international outcry that
followed the kidnap of the 270 Chibok girls. The next thing we saw on the
YouTube was a crisp video recording of a cross section of girls cynically
reciting Koranic verses, obviously to create the false impression that they
were happy and fulfilled in their new station. But has that stopped us or the
rest of the world from demanding the girls be rescued and reunited with their
parents?
To add insult to injury, we were later inundated with side stories that Ese would have preferred to stay in
It is still not
too late for the Emir to say sorry for his own monumental indiscretion in this
scandal. Contrition can, in fact, be initiated by agreeing to underwrite a
comprehensive welfare/rehabilitation to support not only Ese but also his
traumatized parents. Beside this, every other actor connected directly or
remotely should be apprehended and brought to justice as a guarantee we won't
walk this crooked path again tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Ese
urgently needs the best medicare and moral support at this trying moment.
*Mr. Odion was former Commissioner for
Information, Edo State .
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