Adeyemi Gate: When governance becomes racketeering

Sometime at the onset of this administration, I was approached by two gentlemen to discuss what they said were ‘’urgent matters’’.  The suave looking gentlemen introduced themselves as agents of the new government and that they were collecting views from Nigerians to be forwarded as input to guide the policy direction for the in-coming administration.  […]

Sometime at the onset of this administration, I was approached by two gentlemen to discuss what they said were ‘’urgent matters’’.  The suave looking gentlemen introduced themselves as agents of the new government and that they were collecting views from Nigerians to be forwarded as input to guide the policy direction for the in-coming administration.  At some point the burly one of the two, who had not said much during the discussion, asked if I would be interested in taking up appointment with the new administration. I said that I needed time to think and consult about the offer and would revert in about a week’s time.

Then they dropped the clinger. There were thousands of positions available to be filled, they said and that if I was interested they would forward my CV to ‘’appropriate’’ quarters along with a strong note of recommendation for three positions. Upon payment of a certain fee promptly within the week which will be used as ‘’facilitation’’, they assured me that in no distant time my name will be announced.

Of course I did not have the sum they were requesting and even if I did, I was not going to part with in order to secure the appointment if at all.

My reasons were simple and clear; I did not know if the fellows were genuine or not as I was aware of the experience of many who had fallen for such gags and regretted their indiscretion.  And as I strongly suspected that the gentlemen were conmen and not agents of the new government or anybody for that matter but themselves, I deadpanned them.

I recalled the above incident when the issue of the Chief of Staff (CoS)to President Tinubu Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila and a certain Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Mathew the Director-General of the controversial Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) surfaced last week and has been trending since then.

In summary, the sordid details of the shenanigans from revelations so far has not been limited to the two gentlemen alone. It is not an issue of money-for-appointment deal that has gone awry which we all initially thought. From what we have come to know following further revelations that have surfaced in quick succession, the issue pertains to a putrefying racketeering of institutions of governance that cuts through several agencies of government which exist to prevent such malfeasance.

All the details we now know about the PFIIPC would probably have remained out of the public domain had not Presidential Spokesman Bayo Onanuga made a rather clumsy and ill-advised statement intended as it were, to demonise Prince Adeyemi alone on this saga. In the first place the statement was clumsy because it intended to defend and exonerate the Presidency on the activities of an agency that has been operating on the imprimatur of the Presidency, even bearing the name ‘’Presidential’’. Furthermore Onanuga’s unprofessional statement (more of a long winded drivel really) appeared to have been more for the benefit of CoS Gbajabiamila than a nuanced account of the facts of the case which was expected of him under the circumstances. For by the time Onanuga came with his ‘’fire-brigade’’ statement the matter had morphed beyond Prince Adeyemi and the CoS and extended to a whole slew of government agencies that either by ommission or commission, appear to have abetted and aided the very infractions that Onanuga accused Prince Adeyemi of committing. These included in addition to the CoS Office, Office of the Secretary to the Government (OSGF), the National Assembly, Office of the National Security Adviser, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Accountant General’s Office and Auditor-General’s office, Department of State Security, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nigeria Intelligence Agency, Nigeria Financial Intelligence Commission etc. As it transpired all these agencies have at one point or the other assisted the operations of the PFIIC which Onanuga whimsically and without due diligence described as ‘’fake agency’’.

Nigerians are right to carpet the presidency on this very messy affair. Bayo Onanuga in his oafish attempt to throw Prince Adeyemi under the bus in defence of the presidency and the CoS ended up unwittingly in hanging the same presidency to dry.

The Nigerian public knows that such money-for-appointment schemes have been with us for some time. It did not start with the Tinubu adminstration. But over the years it has gone from the one that is kept under the cover of official protocols and proceedure.

This current one involving Prince Adeyemi, which has roped in the entire gamut of the guardrails of government, has sunk to a frightening level. If the institutions of governance with responsibility to exercise oversight, diligence and vigilance have failed to do what is required of them on such matters, then it points to a very dangerous systemic malaise in the entire governance structure. If Nigerian institutions from the presidency right through the agencies can be so lax and even complicit on issues under their constitutional and legal purview, this is an invitation to foreign interests to compromise the entire governance system to the ultimate detriment of the country.

That is why the calls for the Tinubu administration to consider this issue with all the seriousness it deserves. An independent judicial enquiry is certainly needed to unravel this issue. There should be no attempt to cover up anybody for negligence of their duty under any guise. The Tinubu administration should consider this as a potential indictment on itself and move to restore the fast-dwindling confidence of Nigerians on the way it handles issues of this nature. Nigerians are watching and waiting