Babachir and the Senate Proxy War

As the nation awaits the outcome of the presidential enquiry into the allegation of corruption against the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. David Babachir, it is necessary to review once again the underlining issues to led to the indictment and determine whether the Senate’s conclusion was not in public interest or in aid of some vested interests.

It is suffice to say that the Presidency obviously never really saw any merit in the legislative conclusions on its top official but felt sufficiently challenged by the indictment so as not to be seen to be condoning corruption, the allegations coming as it were from another arm of government. Were this position to be different, it is obvious that President Muhammadu Buhari would have come out smoking moments after Abubakar Malami, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minster of Justice, submitted its report more two weeks ago. Given the take-no-prisoner approach of the president to the war against corruption, if something odious was found, Babachir would have since lost his job.

While we need not speculate for now and await the findings of Malami and the presidential reaction, it will not be an exercise in futility to review the issues at stake.

We recall that since the resolution of the Senate calling on the Babachir to resign or get sacked by Buhari, arguments had been made back and forth on the proprietary of the legislative demand.

Whilst some hailed it as a step in furtherance of the Buhari administration’s onslaught on corruption, many others dismissed it as a self-serving ambush that was aimed at the jugular of President Buhari.

A review of preceding events on the nation’s political tuff would show that the Senate’s purported indictment of the SGF was actuated by the desire to protect the interest of some corrupt senators and their political allies who themselves are subject of several corruption enquiries by the nation’s anti-graft agencies – the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC).

First, we must admit that corruption is a social malaise that is threatening the very existence of the nation. Arising from massive corrupt practices, the nation’s development has been grievously retarded as public officials convert monies meant for provision of infrastructures for the public good into personal uses. It got so bad that in recent times, allocations for purchase of military hardware and equipment for our troops fighting insurgents in the North-east were simply shared among politicians to prosecute the last presidential election. The result was regrettable loss of lives of many of our soldiers as they lacked the tools to engage the vicious Boko Haram elements who ravaged a substantial part of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States.

It is against this background that the Buhari administration’s fight against corruption must be supported. But as many have noted, for the fight to succeed it must be transparent and not be used as a tool to witch-hunt perceived political opponents. The Senate resolution purportedly indicting Babachir would have been recommended for public commendation but for its hidden agenda, a calculated move to avenge the refusal of the SGF to help frustrate the trial of a certain senator by the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

Following the retirement of one of the three-member tribunal, the senator had proposed to force a stalemate and frustrate his trial, requesting the SGF, under whose purview the tribunal is, to declare the tribunal inchoate and unable to seat for lack of quorum. Babachir thought this was incongruous and refused to so declare. Next the senator procured several petitions against the chairman of the tribunal and sorts the cooperation of the SGF to help indict the chairman. Again the senator met a brick wall as the tribunal not only sat but commenced the trial of the senator.

Since then the senator became belligerent, using his principal position in the Senate to incite his colleagues against the SGF. At a time, the SGF was invited to defend the inability of the executive to execute the constituency projects the legislators had injected into the 2016 budget. Upon telling them frankly that the federal government did not have the money for the projects, they became livid, calling on President Buhari to remove him from office. If the FG is unable to implement projects, how did that become the fault of its secretary?

The latest request based on a purported indictment by a report of a Senate Committee on the worsening conditions of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North-east must be seen as part of the efforts of the said senator to embarrass the SGF. What were the issues? That the Presidential Initiative on the North-east (PINE) under the watch of the SGF could not account for N2.5 billion allocated to it; and that he awarded a N273 million contract to a company in which he had interest. The contract, it claimed was for cutting grass at the IDPs camp, which it alleged was never done. The first allegation is at best hasty as the office of the Auditor-General of Federation is yet to audit the account as required by law. So how did the Senate come to that conclusion? On the second issue of award of contact, Babachir had said he had resigned his directorship of the company as required by law. In its haste to nail him, the Senate neglected to invite the SGF to face the allegations against him. Had that been done he would have put the records straight and the indictment would obviously have been unnecessary. But since they were working to the answer the senators did what they had to do.

In any case, since the Senate’s purported indictment, more facts had come into the public domain to show that the upper chamber acted in bad faith. The Senate clearly underestimated the work of PINE and gave the impression that it was just a grass cutter that did nothing. Yet, the initiative in fulfillment of its implementation strategy of providing emergency assistance, intervened massively in the provision of relief assistance, including food and non-food materials to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the peak of the crisis till the Senate intervention. Specifically, the initiative procured relief materials comprising 960 tons of food items, 450 tons of non-food items, including 17,500 bundles of roofing sheets (zinc), 300 tons of cement for IDPs across the region and 360 tons of food items for IDPs in Niger Republic. It also provided 2,005 tents for IDP families in Borno State.

Trying to restore lost livelihood, PINE began the process of rehabilitation of destroyed infrastructure, including schools and hospitals. It was hoped that this would not only help to begin to resettle the displaced but would also provide some jobs as the rehabilitation works begin. The initiative rehabilitated or renovated 28 schools burnt down by the insurgents. It also renovated 32 police stations and two police barracks that were burnt down by Boko Haram in Adamawa and Yobe States. It upgraded and equipped the Burn Centers at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital and the Federal Medical Center, Yola. PINE also provided two ambulances to the Federal Medical Center, Yola and the State Specialist Hospital, also in Yola.

As part of its core mandate of restoring economic activity to the ravaged communities, it removed invasive plant species on River Kumadugu and channeled the river in order to provide irrigation for communities along its banks.

Interestingly it was the award of the contract for the removal of the invasive plants and the channelisation of the river that created the uproar at Senate. Yet the contact was not only awarded in compliance with the procurement law, but was also duly executed. The people have since started enjoying the fruits of the project as farmers returned to their farms using water from the irrigation scheme of PINE. Fishing had also returned as the invasive plants had been cleared. It is worthy of note that there is already a large scale production of onions along the banks of the river, so much so that an international market has been created with traders coming from far and wide, including Ghana and Niger to trade.

But by far the most important work that PINE did was the development of a Marshall Plan for the resettlement and reintegration of the communities ravaged by the insurgents. The plan contained the assessment of needs of the affected part of the region, the specific strategies to address these needs, the framework for monitoring and evaluation and cost estimates for specific interventions. The plan, which estimated that about 282, 422 IDP households would return to their communities within one year, itemised the areas of need as cleaning, clearing and sanitation; restoration of sanitized water and hygiene; provision of food and non-food relief; cash transfers and housing refurbishment materials and support.

Other areas identified are trauma counseling; education and safe schools; healthcare delivery; agriculture and food security; critical infrastructure and productive works; empowering people; community leadership support and post conflict security.

The plan, which has since been submitted to the Gen. Theophilus Danjuma-led PCNEI estimated that a whooping N286billion would be needed to meet these needs.

It is rather disappointing that the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Worsening Conditions of the IDPs in the North-east led by erstwhile human rights activist, Senator Shehu Sani, neglected to recognise these monumental works of PINE and decided to scandalise the initiative in its desire to nail Babachir.

Ajimobi wrote in from Ibadan