Maina: The triumph of corruption

The recent challenge by Obiageli Ezekwesili, former minister of education under former President Olusegun Obasajo, in which she accused President Jonathan of squandering a total of $67 billion ($45 billion in the country’s Foreign Reserve Account and $22 billion in Excess Crude Account) as well as the huge scam uncovered in the Police Pension Fund […]

The recent challenge by Obiageli Ezekwesili, former minister of education under former President Olusegun Obasajo, in which she accused President Jonathan of squandering a total of $67 billion ($45 billion in the country’s Foreign Reserve Account and $22 billion in Excess Crude Account) as well as the huge scam uncovered in the Police Pension Fund and the alleged pocketing of a total sum of N664 billion by Abdulrasheed Maina, Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reform are here uncommon corruption cases of treasury looting. However, Alhaji Abdulrasheed Maina’s case of financial rascality is loaded with several strange models of misconduct, ridiculous undertones, and an exceptional brand of superciliousness; making him the most notorious public servant in the history of contempt of constitutional authority in Nigeria .
The anger of the Senate against Abdulrasheed Maina, last week reached its climax when the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly asked President Goodluck Jonathan to sack the disloyal public officer from the civil service or face the consequences. This is the second time such a directive was served on Mr. President. Before Maina’s case, the Senate had passed a resolution directing President Jonathan to remove the Director-General of the Bureau for Public Enterprise Ms Arumah Oteh. While Oteh yet remains in charge at the BPE; Jonathan, probably out of the fear of impeachment, half-heartedly directed the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation Alhaji Isa Bello Sali to initiate disciplinary action against Maina for absenteeism. But was it necessary for Mr. President to choose the offence for which Maina is to be tried according to civil service rules? 
The senators were furious that Maina was invited six times to appear before two senate committees to answer questions on missing pension funds, but consistently refused to honour any of the invitations. The fact that the motion to dismiss Maina from public service was sponsored by Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba along with 107 other senators (out of a total of 109) shows how irritated the lawmakers felt by Maina’s highly embarrassing and extreme contempt of Senate. The legislators in the past had confrontations with some public officers but none took them to task as Maina did. Abdulrasheed Maina holds the record of being the first to push the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to a compelling level of issuing an arrest warrant on a public servant.
It would be recalled that the Senate Joint Committee on Public Service and Establishment and State and local Government Administration spent four months investigating the alleged mismanagement of N469bn pension funds. The committee’s report submitted on June 20, 2012 said N273.9billion was diverted between 2005 and 2011. In December last year, the panel of investigation also said it uncovered a fresh pension scam to the tune of N195billion. The chairman of the pension probe panel, Senator Aloysius Etok, said Maina was discovered to have spent N1billion screening 29 pensioners; another N8m on a weekly basis on 38 security officers guarding him; as he was also found to have forged his transfer letter from Borno state.
Speaking in an angry tone during the debate on Maina’s case, the Senate President David Mark asked President Jonathan to choose between Maina and the senate. “We have been pushed to the wall”, said David Mark. He further warned that “Nobody in this country is bigger than our democracy”. David Mark explained that Maina’s invitation and re-invitation by the senate was impelled by an un-signed petition in which Maina accused the investigation panel of demanding N3billion bribe.
There is perhaps, more than meet the eyes in Maina’s case as security agents have been availing him with the protection he morally does not deserve; purportedly shielding him from the arrest which warrant had long been issued by the Senate President David Mark. This, no doubt, was the more critical factor that obliged the senate to pass a resolution asking the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, to appear before the Senate Committee on Police Affairs to explain why Maina was never arrested in spite of the warrant issued to that effect. The police who had though declared Maina wanted claimed it could not locate his whereabouts.
The fact that it took President Jonathan so long to wait until the senate had read the riot act in Maina’s case before directing a disciplinary action against the public officer gives weight to the public suspicion that government is possibly an accomplice in the case. One illustration to reinforce this theory is Maina’s ridiculous presence at the Abuja airport to welcome and “shake hands” with President Jonathan on his arrival from a foreign trip. Maina who also refused to accompany members of the Senate Committee on tour of states to document pensioners’ complaints was amazingly part of President Jonathan’s entourage to some foreign nations! The rigmarole in Maina’s case is indeed an intriguing reflection of the pervasive corruption under President Jonathan.
The gravity of Maina’s misconduct and law-breaking is better imagined when the consequences of his actions or inactions on Nigerians are put in to context. It would be interesting to know how many pensioners have died as a result of non-payment of their entitlements arising from Maina’s high profile misappropriation of state resources. The colossal amount involved in the fraud could have been used by its rightful beneficiaries in the provision of quality education, healthcare and good living conditions for their dependants.
One of the ridiculous messages for Nigerians today is that President Jonathan has made corruption triumphant and celebrated in the country; a virtue instead of vice; and a instrument for becoming government’s ‘sacred cow’. All a public servant needs to do to become very powerful, untouchable and above the law is to steal so much a to be able to contribute substantially to a presidential political project to receive presidential blessings in the guise of immunity; and then soon after off-set the chicken-fee called plea bargain. There are indications that more ‘Mainas’ are already in the making. Sunday Trust edition of February 10, 2013 carries a story on page 8 in which it reports that coordinators of Jonathan’s 2011 Presidential campaign have taken over the Social Safety Net programmes of SURE-P across states in the country; allegedly as a structure for his 2015 presidential dream. It surprises me that the Economic and Financial crimes Commission (EFCC) has remained mute since Maina’s case became a public discourse.
Mr. President should know that leadership is not about doing that which pleases selected individuals; it is rather about doing that which is right no matter who is involved. Maina should be sanctioned according to civil service rules and thereafter prosecuted according to provisions of the law. May Allah (SWT) liberate us from the clutches of corruption and corrupt leaders, amin.