BEHIND THE FIGURES by Ijeoma Nwogwugwu; ijeoma.nwogwugwu@thisdaylive.com
Readers will have to excuse the liberties I have taken with the title of my article today, but I can’t think of a better expression to describe Nigerian government officials who don’t understand the important role transparency and full disclosure play in improving governance and eradication of graft in our public (and by extension private) institutions.
Last week, I got hopping mad when all efforts by my colleague, Festus Akanbi, to get the Central Bank of Nigeria and the two of the three nationalised banks – Keystone Bank Limited (defunct BankPHB Plc) and Mainstreet Bank Limited (defunct Afribank Plc) – to disclose the severance package paid to the CEOs and executive directors of the extinct banks, met a brick wall.
The former bank executives had been appointed by the CBN in an interim capacity to run the banks for two years before their licenses were withdrawn and their assets and liabilities taken over by the Asset Management Company of Nigeria. However, owing to the stiff resistance they encountered from defiant shareholders, among other issues, they were unable to reach an agreement with prospective investors to recapitalise the banks before the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation stepped in last month.
Since their nationalisation, the three banks have effectively become government-owned institutions run with taxpayers’ money, at least, until they are sold to private investors in the foreseeable future. Yet, it was the responsibility of these banks that the public own to part with undisclosed amounts to the interim CEOs and executive directors appointed by the CBN as their ‘golden handshake’ having kept Afribank, BankPHB and Spring Bank Plc afloat with a negative capital for two years. Not only were these former bank executives paid handsome exit packages, they were allowed to depart with the official luxury sedans and SUVs that belong to you and I.
Personally, I have no issues with what the former bank executives might have been paid and whether they were allowed to keep the officials cars of the banks or not. However, I do have a problem with the fact that CBN and the nationalised banks believe they do not owe the public a duty to disclose how much these executives were paid, what deductions might have been made from their severance package (if any) for loans and advances they took while they managed the institutions, and what the residual value on the vehicles they were allowed to take away was. The money being paid to these ex-bank officials, after all, was raised through the issuance of bonds that will cost billions to redeem in seven years time. Accordingly, the public has the right to know.
What is more is that the officials at CBN and the three banks don’t seem to comprehend the implication of non-disclosure of information when requested by any member of the public. The Freedom of Information Act, 2011, guarantees the “right of any person to access or request for information from a federal government institution (or institution in which the government has controlling interest), whether or not contained in any written form, which is in the custody or possession of any public official, agency or institution howsoever described.” The same law also gives a public institution the right to deny an application for information that contains personal information pertaining to “personnel files and personal information maintained with respect to employees, appointees, or elected officials of any public institution or applicants for such positions.”
Still, if the salaries, allowances, severance package, and what have you, of elected and unelected officials are there for the world to see on the website of the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission, those appointed by the CBN and paid for by the nationalised banks should be no exception. After all, it is public sector money that was used to pay them.
It is not just the CBN, Mainstreet, Enterprise and Spring Banks that are eschewing transparency in governance. The problem cuts across the entire federal public sector and other tiers of government. What they are hiding, only God knows. For instance, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke is one of the most opaque and inaccessible public officials I have ever had the privilege to encounter. She habitually refuses to respond to official enquiries, no matter the number of times the requests are made.
Journalists and other interested parties often have to resort to subterfuge and secondary sources to get information on the sector that contributes about 90 percent of the country’s foreign exchange earnings and 85 percent of government revenue. This style of management is defective because when custodians of public information make themselves unavailable and conceal what should ordinarily be made public, they leave room for speculation and ultimately dissemination of the wrong information. The bigger problem is that with the insularity and lack of transparency in the oil and gas sector the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, which she claims she is trying to transform, will never, ever attain the world class standard of similar state-run oil and gas companies in other parts of the world.
I can imagine that I am not the only one that is increasingly frustrated with public sector officials who think that they can continue in office without being accountable. They need to understand that the public institutions they head are being managed in trust on behalf of the Nigerian public. They are not private fiefdoms into which trespassers are barred.
The Nigerian press and civil society groups will therefore have to begin to challenge unaccountable officials and brow beating them to force compliance with the FOI Act. The Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria, Nigerian Guild of Editors, Nigerian Union of Journalists and other civil society groups may have to join forces to raise money by possibly charging their members check off dues targeted at instituting law suits against public sector officials that fail to comply with the FOI Act. The objective is to get the courts to pronounce recalcitrant officials liable and get convictions that will pave the way for their removal from office, since the constitution bars convicted individuals from holding public office. By using some officials as scapegoats to get the message across, others will begin to learn the importance of accountability.
Having fought for 12 years to get the FOI Act passed into law, we cannot stand by and watch public office holders carry on like it is business as usual. We must begin to test the validity of the Act. Otherwise, all our efforts would have been in vain.
I Want to Become Lagos Speaker
Having consulted widely with my constituents and by popular demand, I am today declaring my intention to contest for a seat into the Lagos State House of Assembly and then will aspire to become the speaker of the state assembly. My aspiration is premised on the news reaching my desk last Saturday that the assembly’s current speaker, Hon. Ikuforiji Adeyemi, travels to the United States of America every other month. If that is what it will take for me to go on overseas junkets six or more times a year, then I want Ikuforiji’s job.
By his own admission, the embattled speaker, who is being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, says he has been sojourning to the country at least once every two months for the past few years. He made the revelation while dismissing allegations that he was once convicted in the US and had absconded from the country in 2003 and 2005 respectively. If he travels this frequently to the US, only heaven know how often he takes off to the United Kingdom, which is just six hours away and is a second home to several Nigerians.
Well, I believe that Ikuforiji has enjoyed those overseas trips a bit too much, if not, he would have been a lot more circumspect about what he blurts out. But seeing that these sort of things don’t seem to matter in the Nigerian context, I have decided that it is my turn to eat. So Ikuforiji, move over. I too want to enjoy the largesse and perks of the speaker’s office.