The swift response of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the public discomfort following the uncovering of a fake agency floated by one Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew is commendable. The President had immediately commissioned the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to probe the incredible news and report to him within one month.
This has not only been done, but the chairman of ICPC, Dr. Musa Aliyu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, reported to the consternation of all, that the commission had discovered yet another fake agency, called National Brands Development and Made in Nigeria Special Projects Office.
President Tinubu also ordered that the brain behind the said agency, Mr. Buchi Nwabueze, should be arrested immediately and investigated as Adeyemi was.
This is quite embarrassing, especially in a country where there are many qualified candidates for any office, and one in which the size of the bureaucracy has been a subject of concern for so long. It is even more unfortunate that some officials of the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, including three permanent secretaries, are believed to be complicit in the fraud.
Dr. Aliyu and his team should expedite action and charge whoever is found guilty to court. The public deserves full and regular briefing on this national embarrassment. Nwabueze was even reported as saying his agency had been in operation since 2010. Why did it take so long for relevant government agencies to fish them out? During the period, they had departments to which they reported, and funds were appropriated.
What is the duty of the appropriation and finance committees of the National Assembly? What about the Public Accounts Committees? How did the agencies exist for so long without the notice of the Auditor-General of the Federation? What about the security agencies – the police, the Department of State Services, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA)?
It is time the President as the chief executive read the riot act to all federal bodies that have been asleep for so long. This is an opportunity to tell officials that people who draw from the public treasury must not fail in their duties. This is one instance when heads should be made to roll, if only to demonstrate that change must actually begin with every public officer.
Similarly, the report that about N24 billion has been recovered from ghost workers in the Federal Civil Service is a serious cause for concern, even as 900 accounts have been forfeited to the government. It is left to imagination how many accounts remain uncovered and how many ghost workers are still in the public service.
Many workers who were genuinely recruited are said to have relocated abroad while still drawing salaries from government, hence the various probes already raised for the various bodies. A speedy completion of the investigations and full public disclosures would go a long way in awakening confidence of citizens in government and its agencies.
The recent empanelling of finance minister Taiwo Oyedele to do a forensic audit of the bodies is welcome and if a thorough job is done, people will acknowledge the Tinubu administration for succeeding where others failed.
However, it must be noted that these reforms and probes must not be allowed to go the way of many others by the executive or the legislature. The minister, who was recruited from the private sector, should note that his reputation is on the line. He must live up to the billing as a new broom expected to sweep clean.
States should take a cue from the Federal Government and forensically audit the accounts and charge whoever has been illegally funneling out funds to court.