Edu: Tinubu breaks his anti-corruption stance with minimalist straddle

SPECIAL thanks are due to Daniel Bwala, a former, ex-Atiku Abubakar aide, who told us in November 2022 that we needed series of brain re-sets to manage being Nigerians under an APC government. As an exemplar of what he preached, Bwala, was with the All Progressives Congress, APC, then swung to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. He is back to APC.

Whatever Bwala thinks of our politics, we have in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu a consummate politician who knows what to say, and sometimes murmurs it to leave us wondering if the lack of emphasis meant that the matter was unimportant. Tinubu is in mute mode.

Few noticed he broke his own rule number one which was that he would continue with policies of his predecessor Maj-Gen Muhammadu Buhari. Did Buhari sack any Minister in eight years? He made no pretence about his aversement to governance. The few opposition politicians arrested were forgiven once they joined APC.

Is Tinubu simply being anti-Buhari? Is there more to it?

“The human brain is unique and miraculous. It works and functions optically (optimally) for 24 hrs, 365 days a year, UNTIL YOU JOIN APC, THEN IT STOPS WORKING,” Bwala tweeted on 25 November 2022. Please pause, ponder that.

Days ago, Bwala was back to President Tinubu’s side, praising Tinubu’s management of Nigeria, his anti-corruption stance and the inimitable prudence of the administration.

Charming Dr. Betty Edu was suspended from her plum seat at the notorious Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development over the transfer of N585 million into a private account. Bwala joined the choruses that have trailed an otherwise shallow presidential order.

A minor scandal to the Edu affair is the dubious award of an international airport, without location, to Kogi State by the Ministry’s staff who claim air tickets for official duties to the State that has no airport. Nobody has asked them to refund the money and for the many occasions they have gone to Kogi by air.

Applauses are renting the air. Only N585 million seems to have been found. Dr. Sadiya Umar Farouq, a Buhari Minister, is accounting for N37.1 billion that she allegedly laundered. She is famously remembered for feeding millions of school children at their different homes during the COVID-19 lockdown. Her miracle, like all such occurences, remains a mystery.

Experts in corruption studies believe that Edu was quickly fired to stop further discoveries that could be too many disasters for one Ministry abd even the administration. The position is implicated in the lack of urgency in the other investigations.

At the Social Investment Programme Agency, NSIPA, its National Coordinator/Chief Executive Officer, CEO, Halima Shehu is being interrogated for dispersing N44 billion of the agency’s funds to different bank accounts that reportedly belonged to individuals. Anyone who understands why there is more buzz over N585 million than N44 billion can explain it to Nigerians. NSIPA is an agency of the Disaster Management Ministry.

At least queries are lined up over N88 billion taken from the Ministry’s accounts. More arrests are being made. Obviously, N585 million is less than one percent of N88 billion but the government rates importance differently.

The post-haste television appearance of Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, Minister of Interior, who Daily Times had identified as the President’s son-in-law, to detach himself from his family, and a family business that got contracts from Edu was another damage control. People are shouting conflict of interest. Hon. Tunji-Ojo does not see any. Will investigations spread to other Ministers or was Edu the only Minister who misread the prudential manual?

Prudence in management of resources could be treated as an aspect of fighting corruption. After our humongous delegation to COP-28 events in Dubai last December, Tinubu has cut the numbers allowed to be on presidential hops at home and abroad. Signs are that it is a cost saving measure that would have no meaningful impact.

Did those cheering the cut in size of delegations notice that the First Lady surfaced on the list with her own delegation which on foreign trips would be the same size as the Vice President’s? What informed this decision that shows no respect for the Office of Vice President? With money to splash, the Vice-President’s wife was not awarded a single trip. Fairness is not a virtue in allocating resources.

The President cut delegation sizes but there are no indications that there is a ceiling on the number of trips to be made. Frequency of trips is a bigger drain on national purses.

Back to Bwala. He left APC in 2022, “based on principles and conviction that I hold so dear. At this time of our national existence, our efforts and energy should gravitate towards uniting our people.” His grouse was APC’s Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket.

Bwala was spokesman of Atiki Abubakar’s presidential election for 2023. Technically, he was in PDP. We can make that assumption.

“APC is a party. President Bola Tinubu is my motivation; if supporting him will take me to APC, so be it,” Bwala said after what we should not consider a surprise visit to Tinubu. Identified variously as an author and lawyer, Bwala is majorly a politician.

The human brain may not stop working as Bwala rightly posited. Can the brain become inhuman? Better still, not humane? Let us not debate our being human without being humane. We have seen growing inhumaneness over time.

Bwala puts the blames back to us. Tinubu is doing well. If we do not agree with him, it could be that we are operating with different brains.

How pathetic can Bwala be? He is getting chummy with the President who is APC and he has not apologised for that brain cessation tweet? Of course, politicians say worse things about themselves. They are politicians. Abuses are banters to them.

Perhaps, they mean some of the things they say.

Some hold that with Edu out of the way, Tinubu has done enough. What is left is to find her replacement.

Ministers have learnt from this family affair to count the costs of their actions. If they can recover their ministership investment, with something put aside for sack day, when it comes, they would not seek a meeting with the President as Edu did.

What testimony will Edu give when she returns to her church in December? She has 11 months to decide.

Nigeria has no luxury of time to be pulled back from its dedication to descent to decay, disaster, as the Ministry of Disaster has confirmed.

Finally…
THE folks at BBC in the documentary on TB Joshua failed a fundamental journalism test – getting the other side of the story. The failure is more grave as the principal “other side” is gone. I sympathise with the victims. It is possible that they have just found the courage or recovered well enough to deal with their trauma. Of course, there are many such stories of which the chief characters are still living.

BANKS are powerful institutions, especially where they operate without proper regulation. The authorities are not doing enough. “The CBN assures the public of the safety and security of depositors’ funds and remains resolute in fulfilling its mandate to uphold a safe, sound, and robust financial system in Nigeria. Our banking system remains strong and resilient,” said Hakama Sidi-Ali, Acting Director, Corporate Communication, on the sack of the boards of three banks. Most bank customers, today, would not use banks if there are alternatives to what banks are meant to do.

.Isiguzo is a major commentator on minor issues