Okonjo-Iweala- Sense and common sense

Unlike the self-centred eminently forgettable lyrics of today’s musical artistes, Afro-beat King Fela Anikulapo Kuti sang about social issues such as “jeun ko ku”(chop and quench); “authority stealing”; “original suffer head”; “colonial mentality”; and “animals in human skin” –  insightful issues which remain relevant years after his death. Revelations of stupendous financial mismanagement in the […]

Unlike the self-centred eminently forgettable lyrics of today’s musical artistes, Afro-beat King Fela Anikulapo Kuti sang about social issues such as “jeun ko ku”(chop and quench); “authority stealing”; “original suffer head”; “colonial mentality”; and “animals in human skin” –  insightful issues which remain relevant years after his death. Revelations of stupendous financial mismanagement in the office of former National Security Adviser (NSA) Sambo Dasuki dubbed the “Armsgate Scandal”, have opened a can of worms which once again brings Fela into focus.
Battling to absolve herself of culpability, former Minister for Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy (CME) Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala allegedly leaked the approval through which President Jonathan facilitated the whole sordid mess. Rather than cast her in a good light, the document only goes to show, (as Fela would say), that “she get sense and common sense but she no wise at all!”
During her reign as CME she contemptuously dismissed all allegations of “missing” monies. Former Central Bank Governor now Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, alleged $20 Billion oil sales money couldn’t be traced, and an $18.5 Billion shortfall existed in remittances expected from Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
For his patriotism he was removed from office. International Auditors Price Water-House Coopers put the figure at $1.48 Billion, but former Central Bank Governor Chukwuma Soludo insisted approximately N30 Trillion was unaccounted for. Edo State Governor Comrade Adams Oshiomhole alleged $2.1 Billion was “missing” from the Excess Crude Account.
After initially falsely claiming that the money was disbursed with the authority of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), Okonjo-Iweala later recanted admitting she acted upon non-existent Presidential authority. Under pressure to provide explanations for these and the “missing” Abacha loot, President Jonathan famously said corruption isn’t stealing.
In retrospect it’s now clear he knew the funds weren’t missing simply because he had quite unconstitutionally authorised them to be disbursed corruptly! The application for release of the Abacha loot titled “Re: Request By NSA For Transfer Of Funds” which Okonjo-Iweala signed as CME exuded sense and common sense but lacked wisdom.
Attempting to justify plundering the funds she wrote “This letter is to seek your approval to borrow these funds for now…” – thus unconstitutionally initiating a virement with no mention of repayment. To defend the humongous amounts of $300 million and £5.5 million she wrote “the NSA has explained that this is to enable purchase of ammunitions, security and other intelligence equipment for the security agencies…”. This is an absurdity because the NSA isn’t a government procurement officer.
As Daily Trust pointed out in an Editorial entitled “Delineating role of NSA”, published on Tuesday December 8th 2015, the NSA is supposed to “serve as an honest broker of policy options for the President in the field of national security, rather than as an advocate for his own policy agenda”.
Acknowledging that all government expenditures must be reconciled, Okonjo-Iweala quite incredulously resolved that “… for accountability, given the peculiar nature of security and intelligence transactions, we would expect the NSA to account to Your Excellency for the utilization of these funds”. This is sheer bunkum. As Daily Trust pointed out in the above mentioned Editorial “..arms purchases outside of appropriation are inexcusable. It is of utmost importance that military and security expenditure follows budgetary processes”. In local parlance using sense to bypass correct processes is referred to as “wayo”.
Okonjo-Iweala’s letter was a “wayo document”, used to initiate a “wayo process” under which Nigeria’s money was misappropriated, misapplied, misspent and eventually embezzled. For a supposedly highly-intelligent man, in personally approving the request Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan Ph.D acted idiotically and betrayed national trust by overriding the checks and balances inherent within constitutional democracy.
Nonetheless Okonjo-Iweala’s attempt to absolve herself from blame is disingenuous. Knowingly full well that such dubious transactions can never be approved legitimately, she processed a fraudulent application and single-handedly initiated the release of colossal sums, completely disregarding budgetary appropriation and the constitutional roles of both the Accountant-General and the Auditor-General.
Predictably the ever expanding list of identified beneficiaries confirms that the bulk of the money was subsequently funnelled into matters totally unrelated to arms and equipment procurement.
In addition to the CME’s “wayo” the Armsgate Scandal also reveals her sheer hypocrisy. While publicly promoting and enforcing a cashless policy denying honest citizens’ unrestricted access to their money, behind the scenes she was facilitating surreptitious movements of hundreds of millions of dollars in cash.
In spite of her much touted Word Bank resume Okonjo-iweala disgracefully superintended serial unconstitutionalities and was deficient in requisite ethical and moral standards. Madam CME has once again left these shores for greener pastures where she should remain. Her disastrous visits to run our economy have only caused economic stagnation, mass unemployment, and social upheaval.