Corruption And Political Party Funding In Nigeria?

 By Tonnie Iredia

With the recent decision of the Supreme Court granting financial autonomy to local governments in Nigeria,   the latter now presumably receive their share of the monthly federal allocation directly unlike the previous practice of such funds getting to them through their respective state governments.

Bearing in mind that most local government chairpersons in every state were greatly assisted if not handpicked into their positions, how easily achievable would the implementation of local autonomy be? 

Indeed, what degree of change has the decision brought into state and local government relations? Reports from different states suggest that sharp moves have been made by many governors to retain control over the funds. In some cases where a few local governments are managed by persons elected through the platform of an opposition party, some governors have tried to use the state legislatures to pass a few laws to aid a continuation of the old order.

Perhaps the situation influenced last week’s stern warning by Lateef Fagbemi, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to all concerned that any breach of the decision of the apex court would be regarded as an impeachable offence. Analysts are however aware that whereas local officials can be easily prosecuted, impeaching a governor can hardly happen because state legislators like local government officials are loyalists of state governors who are not likely to support any impeachment move.

Besides, local government bosses are reportedly often taken into confidence by governors who divert resources to private use making the frequency and enormity of funds diversion in Nigeria troubling. Budget padding during the passing of the appropriation bill as well as diversion of funds at the tail end of the budget year have become institutionalized and virtually unassailable.

Only two days ago, a report surfaced that between 2019 and 2020, efforts by various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the federal government to divert as much as N189 billion were blocked by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).  The ICPC’s intervention was reportedly made possible through the monitoring of a transparency initiative known as the Open Treasury Portal. 

The portal was designed to attain accountability in governance by compelling the MDAs to publish monthly reports of daily financial summaries of transactions which exceed N5million. One of the findings from the exercise was that some MDAs received allocations beyond their actual needs which became unspent surpluses that were then targeted for diversion. 

 

 There have been recent allegations that some of such funds were diverted to the ruling political parties for the day-to-day running of party activities. Only three days ago, a newspaper report had stated that a total of N325 million had been paid to the All-Progressives Congress, APC, in Adamawa State. According to the report, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) paid N25 million monthly to the party in the state to meet its day-to-day running cost from October 2023 to October 2024. 

The newspaper credited its report to a petition written by the woman leader of the party in the state, Mrs. Patricia Yakubu alleging that the monies had since been embezzled by some party leaders. Although TETFUND has already dismissed the allegation as false, the details in the petition are too weighty to be dismissed without a thorough investigation.

Luckily, a copy of the petition was reportedly sent to the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu a well-known anti-corruption czar who was said to have been described in the petition as ‘our leader’ in APC Adamawa state. He would certainly not allow the party executives that had been accused to be judges in the matter. As a result, steps already taken against the woman leader such as suspending her from office and asking her to face a disciplinary committee would not suffice. 

Otherwise, the hurried meeting by the working committee of the party presided over by the party’s Vice Chairman North, Mr. Wilfred Wiliam would no doubt end as a mockery of justice. The accusation of gross misconduct against the woman leader for allegedly “circulating unauthorized and unverified publicity that could bring the party and the Federal Government into disrepute” is rather bogus.

There is need for the petition written by the woman leader to be investigated by a neutral panel that would do justice to the case. It is important for instance to interrogate two background details in the petition. The first is the allegation that on one occasion, the party collected from TETFUND three months subvention at once totaling Seventy-Five Million naira (N75,000,000.00) through a personal account. 

The second is that the monies which were usually remitted through BDCs were kept secret by the Chairman, Secretary and Organizing Secretary who had removed the financial secretary as a signatory to the party’s account in breach of the party’s constitution while sidelining the Treasurer in all financial dealings. Government needs to take a harder look at the general perception that elected officials are under obligation to divert public funds to political parties – a trend that cuts across all political parties and at all levels of government. 

If this is not done, government should not expect any positive response to the warning by the Attorney General against tampering with public funds especially those of local governments whose officials can be intimidated to fall in line by governors and party officials. Instead, it would be business as usual because politicians who engage in huge expenditures have little regard for probity and accountability. 

After all, the Adamawa story is not the first report on how funds are channelled to political parties. For example, some years back, the Diaspora Commission raised concerns over several Nigerian students on scholarship in foreign universities who were unable to remain in class because their school fess remained unpaid. Fingers pointed to the allegation that such funds managed by intervention agencies such as the NDDC were released to ghost agencies. 

The disposition to funds by party executives in Nigeria suggests that our anti-corruption agencies need to prioritize their focus on party finances in the country. Events have shown that party executives collude with elected officials to embezzle funds which are well guarded secrets until factions emerge in the party. 

Just before the 2019 general elections, such in-fighting enabled the general public to hear that the Peoples Democratic Party PDP had paid about N28million each into the bank accounts of members of the National Working Committee of the party as housing allowances.  Some aggrieved members did not only raise the alarm that they knew nothing about the funds; they actually refunded the monies. They also loudly claimed that at no point was a decision made on housing allowances adding that they would not be party to the misuse of huge funds raised from sundry sources for elections.

The management of party funds is certainly an area to be specifically covered if the fight against corruption in the country is real. Apart from the opaque template for party finances in Nigeria since 1999, no Nigerian political party does anything lucid about membership dues, just as members think it is the parties that should pay them and not the other way round.  

As a matter of fact, no political party in Nigeria has a proper register of members. Just before the 2019 elections, different APC groups had organized a list of members that had been mobilized to vote for the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari.  Alas, the APC figure was higher than the INEC register of voters in the country. One reason why candidates of smaller parties often pledge to work for the bigger parties is because the smaller parties have no elected members in government at any level to help divert public funds to them. 

The fear that local government funds would be diverted to private use which the current federal government is bothered about is rather narrow. The truth is that all public funds are liable to be diverted because Nigeria’s zero-sum political party system cannot but encourage the diversion of public funds from every sector of the nation’s economy including the private sector prohibited by Section 38 of the Company and Allied Matters Act from making donations or gifts to any political party. 

The fight against corruption has been unable to yield sufficient dividends because of the undue concentration on the public sector. A new vista should quickly open to involve the private sector, religious organizations and indeed, political parties.

Dr. Iredia is a commentator on public issues