After Moro Haram, what next?

The error reminded me of the popular saying in Lagos-speak, “K’omo ma dapo ni Massey” (that is, newborns are tagged with their family names at Massey Children’s Hospital so that they don’t end up in the wrong homes). I have now confirmed that the editors were as embarrassed as I was. Within the last week, […]

The error reminded me of the popular saying in Lagos-speak, “K’omo ma dapo ni Massey” (that is, newborns are tagged with their family names at Massey Children’s Hospital so that they don’t end up in the wrong homes). I have now confirmed that the editors were as embarrassed as I was.
Within the last week, following the tragedy that attended the recruitment exercise of the Nigerian Immigration Service, Presi-dent Jonathan announced that families of the deceased would each be compensated with three employment slots for deserving family members while the injured would be offered automatic employment. The irony of having to die before attracting benefits to one’s family is not lost on me, but I support the president’s decision. We could make academic and philosophical arguments about the president’s gesture but we can never fault any attempt at giving the affected families succour.
Revelations have been made about the role of the minister of Interior, Mr. Abba Moro, as the puppeteer of the national dying competition which the exercise turned out to be. If the recruitment exercise had been hitch-free, the minister would have been beating his chest in self-congratulation and dispensing the spoils of the scam as he deemed fit. When the event turned bloody, a self-respecting man of conscience would have apologised to the nation, condoled with the bereaved families and tendered his resignation. But Moro chose to blame the dead. We will not allow him to get away with urinating on the graves of those who paid the ultimate price after paying Moro’s price.
Details of what actually transpired in the messy emp-loyment scam have unearthed by Sunday Trust in an insightful piece of investigative journalism. According to the medium, the Comptroller-General of Immigration (CGI), Mr. David Parradang, saw the tragedy coming and protested in writing against the plan to use a consultancy firm for the exercise. The entire planning, appointment of Drexel Technical Nigeria Limited as consultants and date fixing was done from the interior ministry and the CGI was only on February 19, 2014 that the Minister told him that the recruitment exercise would hold on March 15, 2014, in spite of the fact that there was no budget for the exercise.
Silvanus Tapgun, Director/Secretary of the Board that oversees the agencies under the Ministry of Interior and who is also a brother of former Plateau State governor, Fidelis Tapgun, chaired the meetings between the ministry and the consultants. Apparently his role was to push the files. The deal had been sealed by the minister himself. He had no control over the consultants.  
When it was suggested that lecture theatres of tertiary institutions be used in addition to stadia to cope with the expected massive turnout of candidates, the consultants objected to the release of funds from the pool generated by applicant’s fees because that was not part of the agreement the organisation reached with the Ministry of Interior. Not being privy to the details of the agreement reached between Moro and Drexel, Civil Servant Tapgun awaited the predictable tragedy to come.
Further disclosures revea-led that Drexel received over N500 million from the exercise. The committee on recruitment, headed by Tapgun, asked the ministry to pay N212 million to stagger the exercise because of the number expected; but the ministry did nothing. It was only on March 14, the eve of the recruitment exercise, that Drexel paid a paltry N45 million to the supervisory board for the conduct of the interview holding 24 hours later.
Everything considered, the miracle of March 15 2014 was that the number of the dead was not in hundreds or even thousands. Knowing what we now know, there was no way the exercise could have been conducted without loss of lives and limbs. What appeared to matter most to the minister and his consultants was the loot to be shared after the exercise. When what ought to be a routine recruitment exercise is obfuscated in opaque deals advertised as e-consultancy, you begin to wonder if what we are talking about is rocket science.
After what must now enter history books as Moro Haram, and without prejudice to the investigation ordered by the House of Representatives, President Jonathan must go a step further in reacting to the tragedy. He must fire Mr. Moro without further delay. The entrenched culture of sitting tight in office at all costs is one of the problems we must conquer in this country. What message would the president be sending by retaining Moro? That the immigration scam was consistent with the president’s Transformation Agenda? Nothing less!
 If the lives of the victims mean anything to the authorities at all, the arch-sponsor of the tragic script should not spend another day in office as interior minister. He should be shown the door. And the fees collected from the applicants should be refunded without further delay.
I urge the House of Repre-sentatives to restrict its inves-tigation to administrative issues and leave the criminal aspect of the case to the Police (because there is indeed criminal negligence involved, not to talk of the 419 fraud in the scam which generated N600 million (some say the total is as high as N2.5 billion if you factor in the sale of white shorts, t-shirts and canvas shoes). For once, let us be seen to disapprove of the kind of unthinking that led to the Moro-supervised tragedy. President Jonathan should disappoint those who have wagered that he would as usual sweep the matter under the carpet with the hope that the clamour for the minister’s removal will eventually go away.  
Moro is utterly dispensable. He has not added value to his ministry since he took office after serving as campaign coordinator for Senate President David Mark in 2011. He was gifted an empire without a junior minister as used to be the case. He interfered in the running of parastatals under his ministry as if they were his personal property. Now he has reduced the population of Nigeria just as Boko Haram routinely does, instead of protecting lives.
This is one Haram too many. We owe a duty to the dead. Moro is excess luggage for a president hoping to ask for our votes in 2015. Dr Jonathan should “do the needful” by separating Moro from his ministerial job now.