Clearing Babachir Lawal or self- indictment
This week, the big story is that President Muhammadu
Buhari has written to the Senate in response to the
lawmakers’ indictment of the Secretary to the
Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, and their
call for his removal and prosecution. The letter provided
an explanation, or rather, some excuses why the
President would not act. The letter depicts a very high
level of incompetence of whoever wrote it but above all
appears to make the argument that the presidential
team can engage in corruption without consequence,
which is the most direct route for the Buhari Presidency
to lose its credibility as a bastion of anti-corruption.
In the letter, the Presidency claims that the SGF was
not given fair hearing before the indictment. Those of
us who follow the media can all recall the invitation sent
to Mr. Babachir to come and defend himself and his
refusal to do so. How can the Presidency claim it was
not aware of the invitation and dare use its self-inflicted
amnesia as an excuse to refuse to consider the
substantive issue? Are they saying that people who are
invited to testify and respond to questions and they
refuse to do so, or run away, are innocent simply
because they run away.
The other excuse is even more pathetic. The letter
claims that the report was signed by three of the nine
members of the ad hoc committee and that therefore it
is a minority report that does not need to be
considered. I have never heard such a lame excuse in
my life. Is it for the Presidency to determine that a
Senate report is a minority or majority report? In any
case, the Senate had repeatedly affirmed that the
institution stands by the content of the report so I find
it incredible that the Presidency would seek to sweep
the matter under the carpet by such a claim.
The most disturbing element of the story is that the
President had himself asked his Attorney-General of the
Federation to look into the allegations and the letter did
not say anything about the findings given to the
President. My greatest professional concern is the sheer
incompetence displayed in the letter. The message I get
is that the Presidency lacks competent technicians to
craft excuses for the President. The issue here isn’t that
presidents should have teams that are capable of giving
good excuses. The concern is that whoever wrote such
an important letter so badly does not have the capacity
to do anything rational or sensible. More important,
there are no control mechanisms in the system for
filtering out arguments and reasoning that cannot
stand.
There is an even more important moral question
regarding the legitimacy of the President. Nigerians
elected him because they believed he would combat
corruption, whatever its source. Over the past year,
there have been disturbing signals and allegations that
some ministers and presidential staffers are corrupt.
There are no indications from the Presidency that
corruption from within is being fought. It might be that
the allegations circulating are frivolous. If that is the
case, the Presidency still has a responsibility to
investigate and report his findings to Nigerians. The
impression I am getting is that the President appears to
have forgotten his solemn promise that he would not
hesitate to deal with anyone in his team involved in
corruption. All we have seen the President do is refuse
to comment or properly investigate such allegations.
Mr. Babachir Lawal has not been found guilty by a
competent jurisdiction so it is unfair to assume that he
is guilty. Nonetheless, the allegations made against him
are very weighty. Different sources have fact-checked
and confirmed that some of the companies Babachir
gave contracts to indeed belong(ed) to Babachir. That
in itself is enough ground to at least suspend the
Secretary of the Government who has among his
responsibilities the mandate to ensure that no public
servant violates procurement code and procedures. On
the moral level, the monies involved were allocated to
alleviate the suffering and misery of the people of the
North East, 20,000 of whom have been killed by
insurgents and about four million displaced. It takes a
high level of lack of empathy to take such resources
and issue out useless grass-cutting contracts when
starvation is emerging as a major threat to the lives of
the survivors’ of the insurgency in the region.
We should not forget that the core issue is that the
Senate had in December last year asked President
Muhammadu Buhari to suspend Mr. Lawal and ensure
his prosecution over alleged breach of Nigerian laws in
handling contracts awarded by the Presidential Initiative
for the North East (PINE). The interim report had drawn
attention to the “mounting humanitarian crisis in the
North East” at a time in which Mr. Lawal appeared to
be giving himself N200 million contract to clear
“invasive plant species” in Yobe State through a
company, Rholavision Nigeria Limited, in which he was
a director at that time. If this allegation is not true, the
President should come out and say so. Seeking excuses
not to address the issue is simply unacceptable. The
excuses have also been very harmful to the reputation
of the President.
There is a report in yesterday’s Thisday newspaper that
the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has written
to the Senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial
District, Shehu Sani to come and explain his utterances
regarding the anti-corruption crusade of President
Muhammadu Buhari. The party’s National Chairman,
Chief John Odigie-Oyegun is said to have drafted the
letter addressed to the Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee.
If this report were true, the reputation of the President
and his Government would suffer additional damage.
The Senate is acting as a whistle-blower on public
corruption. If allegations against a public official are
swept under the carpet and the whistle-blower is
harassed, this would become additional evidence that
the regime is seeking to cover up corruption within its
ranks. I am aware that the Senate President is himself
being tried for corruption. Be that as it maybe, the onus
is on the Presidency to disprove the allegations against
the Secretary to the Government of the Federation
(SGF), Mr. Babachir David Lawal.
It is important for the President to realize that he
cannot run away from this issue. The allegations
against Mr. Lawal must be addressed frontally and
investigated. The Government must take the concerns
of Nigerians seriously that if it is correct to arrest and
try the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo
Dasuki, and his associates for corruption. It is also
correct to properly investigate members of the
Presidential team who are accused and if there is a
credible case against them, they must also be tried.
The President’s handlers owe him a duty, to protect his
reputation by not giving the impression that justice
applies only to selected members of the previous
regime. The President owes himself an even greater
duty - protecting his personal reputation as a fearless
anti-corruption crusader. He can only do so when he
takes allegations against his friends and staffers
seriously and acts. By appearing to refuse to act, the
President would be indicting himself in the court of
public opinion.
Buhari has written to the Senate in response to the
lawmakers’ indictment of the Secretary to the
Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, and their
call for his removal and prosecution. The letter provided
an explanation, or rather, some excuses why the
President would not act. The letter depicts a very high
level of incompetence of whoever wrote it but above all
appears to make the argument that the presidential
team can engage in corruption without consequence,
which is the most direct route for the Buhari Presidency
to lose its credibility as a bastion of anti-corruption.
In the letter, the Presidency claims that the SGF was
not given fair hearing before the indictment. Those of
us who follow the media can all recall the invitation sent
to Mr. Babachir to come and defend himself and his
refusal to do so. How can the Presidency claim it was
not aware of the invitation and dare use its self-inflicted
amnesia as an excuse to refuse to consider the
substantive issue? Are they saying that people who are
invited to testify and respond to questions and they
refuse to do so, or run away, are innocent simply
because they run away.
The other excuse is even more pathetic. The letter
claims that the report was signed by three of the nine
members of the ad hoc committee and that therefore it
is a minority report that does not need to be
considered. I have never heard such a lame excuse in
my life. Is it for the Presidency to determine that a
Senate report is a minority or majority report? In any
case, the Senate had repeatedly affirmed that the
institution stands by the content of the report so I find
it incredible that the Presidency would seek to sweep
the matter under the carpet by such a claim.
The most disturbing element of the story is that the
President had himself asked his Attorney-General of the
Federation to look into the allegations and the letter did
not say anything about the findings given to the
President. My greatest professional concern is the sheer
incompetence displayed in the letter. The message I get
is that the Presidency lacks competent technicians to
craft excuses for the President. The issue here isn’t that
presidents should have teams that are capable of giving
good excuses. The concern is that whoever wrote such
an important letter so badly does not have the capacity
to do anything rational or sensible. More important,
there are no control mechanisms in the system for
filtering out arguments and reasoning that cannot
stand.
There is an even more important moral question
regarding the legitimacy of the President. Nigerians
elected him because they believed he would combat
corruption, whatever its source. Over the past year,
there have been disturbing signals and allegations that
some ministers and presidential staffers are corrupt.
There are no indications from the Presidency that
corruption from within is being fought. It might be that
the allegations circulating are frivolous. If that is the
case, the Presidency still has a responsibility to
investigate and report his findings to Nigerians. The
impression I am getting is that the President appears to
have forgotten his solemn promise that he would not
hesitate to deal with anyone in his team involved in
corruption. All we have seen the President do is refuse
to comment or properly investigate such allegations.
Mr. Babachir Lawal has not been found guilty by a
competent jurisdiction so it is unfair to assume that he
is guilty. Nonetheless, the allegations made against him
are very weighty. Different sources have fact-checked
and confirmed that some of the companies Babachir
gave contracts to indeed belong(ed) to Babachir. That
in itself is enough ground to at least suspend the
Secretary of the Government who has among his
responsibilities the mandate to ensure that no public
servant violates procurement code and procedures. On
the moral level, the monies involved were allocated to
alleviate the suffering and misery of the people of the
North East, 20,000 of whom have been killed by
insurgents and about four million displaced. It takes a
high level of lack of empathy to take such resources
and issue out useless grass-cutting contracts when
starvation is emerging as a major threat to the lives of
the survivors’ of the insurgency in the region.
We should not forget that the core issue is that the
Senate had in December last year asked President
Muhammadu Buhari to suspend Mr. Lawal and ensure
his prosecution over alleged breach of Nigerian laws in
handling contracts awarded by the Presidential Initiative
for the North East (PINE). The interim report had drawn
attention to the “mounting humanitarian crisis in the
North East” at a time in which Mr. Lawal appeared to
be giving himself N200 million contract to clear
“invasive plant species” in Yobe State through a
company, Rholavision Nigeria Limited, in which he was
a director at that time. If this allegation is not true, the
President should come out and say so. Seeking excuses
not to address the issue is simply unacceptable. The
excuses have also been very harmful to the reputation
of the President.
There is a report in yesterday’s Thisday newspaper that
the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has written
to the Senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial
District, Shehu Sani to come and explain his utterances
regarding the anti-corruption crusade of President
Muhammadu Buhari. The party’s National Chairman,
Chief John Odigie-Oyegun is said to have drafted the
letter addressed to the Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee.
If this report were true, the reputation of the President
and his Government would suffer additional damage.
The Senate is acting as a whistle-blower on public
corruption. If allegations against a public official are
swept under the carpet and the whistle-blower is
harassed, this would become additional evidence that
the regime is seeking to cover up corruption within its
ranks. I am aware that the Senate President is himself
being tried for corruption. Be that as it maybe, the onus
is on the Presidency to disprove the allegations against
the Secretary to the Government of the Federation
(SGF), Mr. Babachir David Lawal.
It is important for the President to realize that he
cannot run away from this issue. The allegations
against Mr. Lawal must be addressed frontally and
investigated. The Government must take the concerns
of Nigerians seriously that if it is correct to arrest and
try the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo
Dasuki, and his associates for corruption. It is also
correct to properly investigate members of the
Presidential team who are accused and if there is a
credible case against them, they must also be tried.
The President’s handlers owe him a duty, to protect his
reputation by not giving the impression that justice
applies only to selected members of the previous
regime. The President owes himself an even greater
duty - protecting his personal reputation as a fearless
anti-corruption crusader. He can only do so when he
takes allegations against his friends and staffers
seriously and acts. By appearing to refuse to act, the
President would be indicting himself in the court of
public opinion.
Clearing Babachir Lawal or self-
ReplyDeleteindictment