By Laraba MUREY
Three days to one month since President Bola Tinubu suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu, from office, it has been all motion and no movement.
Edu was suspended on January 8, 2023 in a press statement by Ajuri Ngelale, Special Adviser to the President, Media & Publicity.
Betta Edu had ran into trouble when she caused to be paid N585m into the private bank account of a project accountant in her ministry, Bridget Oniyelu.
The minister had claimed that the N585m payment was meant for vulnerable groups in Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Ogun, and Lagos states, describing the allegations against her as baseless.
Her media assistant, Rasheed Olarenwaju, said at that time in a statement that it was legal within the civil service for such payments to be made into private accounts of staff members, especially project accountants.
However, several groups including the Peoples Democratic Party, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, Femi Falana, SAN; the Yoruba Youth Assembly and other civil society groups demanded an unfettered probe.
In response, Edu was suspended in a statement by Ngelale that stated that, “in line with his avowed commitment to uphold the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and accountability in the management of the commonwealth of Nigerians, President Bola Tinubu suspends the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu, from office with immediate effect.
“The President further directs the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to conduct a thorough investigation into all aspects of the financial transactions involving the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, as well as one or more agencies thereunder.”
The statement further said that a panel headed by the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance “to, among other functions, conduct a comprehensive diagnostic on the financial architecture and framework of the social investment programmes with a view to conclusively reforming the relevant institutions and programmes in a determined bid to eliminate all institutional frailties for the exclusive benefit of disadvantaged households and win back lost public confidence in the initiative.”
Several weeks after, the EFCC that interrogated the embattled minister as well as the committee are yet to speak on their findings.
Efforts to get the anti-graft agency to speak on the matter was unsuccessful as the spokesperson of the commission, Dele Oyewale, did not respond to calls or text messages to his known mobile number.
Speaking on the development, Auwal Rafsanjani, Executive Director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, said it was not surprising given the membership of the committee, warning that the matter should not be allowed to die.
Rafsanjani in an exclusive interview with this newspaper, Sunday in Abuja, said “the committee that the president has set up, as far as I’m concerned, is a duplication of roles and responsibilities. Already, you have the EFCC and the ICPC, and they are both responsible for ensuring that offenses or misconduct are investigated and punished.
“This so-called presidential committee that the president has set up has a lot of people, I’m afraid to say, a calculated attempt to silence the issue and forget about the whole problem.
“However, that would be a very bad image for the nation if such monumental corruption or abuse of public office can happen and then the government will make efforts to cover it up. That would really be bad because a lot of these things are happening and there are no measures in place to prevent them.
“So far, the president has also not set up any measures to block these leakages which are happening everywhere. If somebody can do this and then the Presidency will now set up a committee that will undermine the ongoing investigation that will really not be good.”
Rafsanjani, who is also the head of Transparency International in Nigeria, stated that “many Nigerians are skeptical and worried about both the action and the body language of President Tinubu. He does not openly subscribe to anti-corruption, but does not seek to curb it. I think it will be tantamount to an abuse of trust and an abuse of due process. It will simply encourage more looters and more people in public office to engage in this kind of abuse of office. I think it is important that the government does not cover up this investigation.”
