Although performing oversight on other arms of government forms part of the basic functions of the National Assembly, the plethora of investigations set up by legislators has called to question the justification and real significance of probes. The warning other day, by the Senate Committee on Works, threatening to arrest anyone who fails to respond to its summons is certainly incongruous. This is unacceptable in a country ravaged by impunity, and is underscored by the fact that, it impugns directly on democracy. The Committee Chairman, Senator Kabiru Gaya, issued the threat following the failure of Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Power, Works and Housing and other directors in the ministry to attend an investigative public hearing on alleged fraudulent award of contracts in some parts of the country. This messianic approach to governance ought to have gone with the inglorious past of official rascality and lack of direction, and the nation needs to break this cycle of perfidious leadership if Buhari really wants Nigerians to take him seriously on his much-touted promise of change.
The contracts in questioned were the LOT B2 construction of Mararaba – Mubi-Madagali-Michika Road in Adamawa and Borno States and LOT C3 – rehabilitation of the Zaria-Hunkuyi-Kafur-Gidan Mutundaya Road in Kaduna and Kano States. “Most of the clients are the ministry’s staff and even the petitioners blamed the ministry’s staff, and none of them is here, not even a representation,” Gaya said in disappointment. It is highly unlikely that a National Assembly that feels the pulse of the nation would see the investigation of contracts in one ministerial department as important at a time when the economy is in free-fall. In fact, every critical sector of the country needs a lifeline; an obligation government has found difficult to discharge. Regrettably, lawmakers are interested only in their own unwarranted indulgences, whereas projects that will impact on the lives of Nigerians are begging for attention. It is indeed unfortunate that Nigerian lawmakers have specialized in flaunting with eternal relish, the provisions of Section 88 (1) of the constitution which it often deploys to arm-twist the executive and its agencies in the name of oversight functions. This is not a good image for lawmakers, who continue to demonstrate that they can hardly be trusted as representatives of the people.
By their sheer number, frequency and obtuse routines, these probes have become generally superfluous and labyrinthine, and therefore, gravely inconsequential to any intended reforms, since nothing is ever heard of them. The unenlightened public is left to wonder whether the investigations are still ongoing. Prominent among such investigations include the Abuja land swap scheme involving alleged land racketeering and irregularities in the allocation of land by the previous Federal Capital Territory Administration. There is also the N22.2 billion aviation contracts being scrutinized over allegations that the aviation ministry under Stella Oduah, in collaboration with the Bureau for Public Procurement, abused the rule of selective tendering and awarded several contracts without following due process. The same searchlight is directed at the Bank of Industry for alleged complicity in the disbursement of N300 billion intervention funds.
Moreover, nothing has been heard about the Senate investigation into allegations of round-tripping involving the Federal Government and two international oil companies – Shell and Eni (Agip) – over the sale of a contentious OPL 245 oil bloc. It was alleged Shell and Eni paid $1.1 billion (about N175 billion) into Nigeria’s foreign account for the allocated oil bloc, only for the said amount to be transferred, at the instance of then Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke, to Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd, an indigenous oil company, whose account was controlled by former oil minister, Chief Dan Etete.
With over 500 probe panels instituted by the Federal Government from 1999 to date, it is reasonable to ask, even if irreverently, what really is the main objective of the many probes so far embarked upon by the National Assembly? Do they aim at paving the way for transparent and corruption-free leadership by exposing the mismanagement of public institutions and compelling government to impose appropriate sanctions on anyone incriminated by the probes? Or is it the case that the federal legislators are just feigning activity by inundating the political space with their unending probes?
True, legislators would argue that from the many probes, revelations about agencies short-changing the Federal Government, corruption in high places, and the executive’s complicity in the corrupt management of projects are laid bare. But the question is: At what cost? If probes merely intimate Nigerians with the incidents of lawlessness, fiscal impropriety, and other violations of the laws of the land, what end have they served? Besides the fact that the National Assembly lacks internal mechanism to check erring members, no person has yet faced the law over results of legislative panels investigating cases of corruption. Often, when the hunter ends up becoming the hunted as the cases of Farouk Lawan in the fuel subsidy probe and Herman Hembe in the capital market probe, the matter is hushed up or conveniently thrown into a cul-de-sac of half-hearted prosecution. Consequently, the moral weight of a probe is deflated by the absence of diligent prosecution of those incriminated.
In the light of this failure of the investigating committees to pursue allegations of corruption to their logical conclusion as law and morality demand, probe panels become exercises in futility and an insult to Nigerians. In connivance with the impotent anti-corruption agencies, this basic legislative function of investigating corruption also ends up becoming enmeshed in corruption. It is doubly insulting to the intelligence of Nigerians that even the Federal Government institutes probe panels every now and then over funds that are purportedly in its care. As moral devices for accountability and transparency, these exercises are seldom successful and have lost their efficacy because they are laced with parochial interests and are ad hoc measures to address issues that demand long-term solutions.
As it obtains in other climes, probe panels into scandalous financial impropriety or corrupt practices are celebrated events for the rule of law, and they encourage citizens to consciously monitor the law in action. They are instruments of checks in government, safeguarding the law, and entrenching good governance. Comparatively, in Nigeria, investigations have become so routine and corrupted they have lost their moral significance. The argument here is that if there is any integrity in, or tangible results to the probes carried out by the legislature, or any other institution, there would be fewer such probes.
It is of course, appropriate to challenge President Buhari to lead the way, seriously and truly, in the fight against corruption. No leader desirous of being morally above board would tolerate the charade going on in the name of probes. A proliferation of probes without appropriate sanctions on culprits amounts to corruption. And this, every true leader must fight head-on. The test of a leader’s passion to fight corruption is demonstrated by his frontal position in leading the campaign, and at delegating such a duty. Therefore, to convince Nigerians about the sincerity of the probe panels so far instituted, the National Assembly should consider enacting a law to compel the Federal Government to execute the findings of all the panels so far instituted and cause the culprits to be brought to book. This synergy between the legislature and the executive is necessary to build confidence in the government’s sincerity of purpose in fighting corruption. Nothing else will do.
