The setting up of probe panels has become a routine exercise in the country whenever something negative happens. But the panels do not achieve any result as their reports are either discarded or filled in the shelves.
When the House of Representatives set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate the nation’s subsidy regime, many Nigerians may have exclaimed in frustration ‘oh, another panel! Such hopelessness derived from past experiences where panels were set up, investigations conducted, reports written and nothing happens. But a kind of hope was ignited with the subsidy probe when the speaker of the House, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, admitted that the last House of Representatives made mistakes and promised to change all that. The speaker assured at the commencement of the subsidy probe that “we acknowledge that the dignity and integrity of this Honourable House have been called to question. We must possess the humility that commands introspection. We accept responsibility for our failures and ask Nigerians for their new era of forgiveness. Mindful of lessons of the past, we will open a new chapter. We will commence a new era of responsibility. This House will act responsibly in all its endeavours. We will be responsive, transparent and accountable in all we do.”
Again, the choice of Farouk Lawan popularly referred to as ‘Mr. Integrity’, the chairman of the fuel subsidy probe Adhoc Committee, further beefed up many people’s optimism. When revelations began to emerge from the subsidy probe panel and Lawan, displaying serious commitment in ensuring that the committee’s reports would be fully implemented, more people became hopeful. They thought that for once, all those who defrauded the country through the subsidy regime would face the full wrath of the law.
The revelations were strong enough to elicit such optimism. It was discovered that the Federal Government paid out N1.7trilion as subsidy on petrol and kerosene as at the end of 2011, fiscal year according to the Central Bank of Nigeria. The sum of N1.7 trillion posts an astronomical increase of N1.08 billion over and above the N620 billion subsidy figure in 2010. Also, from a total of 49 fuel contractors in 2010, the number almost tripled to 140 in 2011. The contractors claimed to have imported 59 million litres of fuel daily, whereas only 35 million litres are consumed in the country. It appears that 24 million litres were smuggled out after the importers had claimed their subsidy.
All these findings point to the fact that the petroleum industry transactions and records are riddled with errors and sharp practices. There is clear evidence of smuggling and diversion of products; round tripping; contractors collecting subsidy money but not delivering products; unregistered firms importing fuel; and government giving instructions to subvert due process. Lawan, while delivering his closing remarks after sitting, sounded tough, further raising our hopes. He explained “Our recommendations will have judicial implications. Some will require prosecution and so on.”
Done with the revelations, Nigerians awaited eagerly the results. Instead of result, a bribery scandal reporting how Lawan collected $620,000 from Chief Femi Otedola, one of those indicted in the report, took centre stage. This development quenched the little hope Nigerians have on probe panels in the country. At the moment, not much is being said about the report. All attention is being shifted to the bribery scandal. Even if the report is to be considered, how genuine are its recommendations now that a slur is cast on the author of the report?
The allegation of bribery and corruption against the man referred to as Mr. Integrity has cast a serious slur on the whole report.
Once again, Nigerians have been taken through another round of probes without genuine outcome despite the staggering and dumbfounding revelations. But if the revelations made at the subsidy probe are not shocking enough, the findings of the Senate on Nigeria’s pension administration are appalling. While thousands of pensioners die on a regular basis due to inability to access their pension entitlements, a few civil servants in the office of the Head of service of the Federation, keep siphoning pension funds totaling about N2 trillion, for their private use. For instance, the federal government releases N5 billion monthly as claims for its pensioners when only N1.7 billion was actually needed. In order words, every month, N3.3 billion was shared by the civil servants involved in the ‘deal’. Also, the Police Pension office collected N5 billion monthly as claims for pensioners, while it actually needed N500 million. There were revelations on how pensioners’ money was being looted. The Senate had adopted the report. How the executives will handle the report remains a matter of conjecture!!
But all the ovations heralding the revelations on the probes could be drowned when compared with the famous Ndudi Elumelu power probe of 2008. The Elumelu panel was able to establish that the Nigerian government spent $16 billion on power generation whereas the country virtually remained in total darkness after such whopping expenditure. It was revealed that dubious contractors took funds in the guise of executing power projects but diverted the money. Cases of over-invoicing and breach of “due-process” were equally established by the power probe committee. Elumelu was sure to his marrow that his committee report will send many people to jail with the country recovering some of the looted funds.
Sadly and shamefully too, more than four years after the probe, no contractor has refunded a kobo, nobody has been persecuted and none has gone to jail! Inspite of the merits of the report, on account of the allegations against Elumelu, the House of Representatives threw away the entire report. Worst still, Nigeria’s power supply has not improved. One wonders, what sense it makes to spend so much money and time conducting public hearings with the aim of addressing a problem only to throw the report away with a wave of the hand?
Despite the non implementation of previous probe results, new probe panels are continuously being set up. The House Committee on Capital Market has just concluded another jamboree of probe on why the Nigeria Stock Exchange crashed in 2008 and possible means of reviving the market. As usual, the probe has unearthed shocking revelations on the level of mismanagement, embezzlement, corporate irresponsibility and fraud that go on in the regulatory agencies of the stock market. On the outcome of the probe, Arunma Oteh, the Director General of the Stock Exchange Commission, SEC, has been sent on compulsory leave. One may be tempted to say at least, the probe has achieved some result. In as much as Oteh’s leadership style fell short of what is acceptable, the question many capital market operators want to ask is, was her mismanagement of SEC responsible for the market crash or did it stop the market from bouncing back to life? The answers are obvious. Instead of the revelations at the capital market probe encouraging investment in the market, it further eroded confidence. During the probe, the market shed over N49 billion. Market experts linked it to the fact that many investors were holding on to their investments while they watched the proceedings at the probe and what will come of it. Investors expected to see the probe panel discuss issues of market development; reasons why the market crashed to an all time low and the hindrances that had held the market down for so long. Sending Oteh on compulsory leave or even relieving her of her job, many may think, will not give the market the impetus it needs to bounce back. Many people have invested their life savings, sold their landed property and other assets to invest in the capital market and are disappointed that today, the best of the stocks is standing at less than one –third of its value before the crash.
Addressing these core market developments is to many, what the market needs. But that will only be possible if the report of the panel does not go the way of other reports.
One of the panel reports that Nigerians will not forget in a hurry, is the Mike Okiro’s panel report on the Halliburton bribery case. It was established that Halliburton paid $180 million as bribe to some government personalities so as to get favourable consideration in its bid for Nigeria’s Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) contract. The scandal was widely propagated. To show its seriousness in fighting corruption, the Federal Government under the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, set up an inter-agency panel to investigate the scam and bring the culprits to book. The panel, which included the police, the State Security Service (SSS), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA), was headed by the former Inspector-General of Police, Mike Okiro. At the heat of the investigation, the then United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Robin Sanders, said that necessary documents needed by the Nigerian authorities to prosecute the case had been made available. Yar’Adua also confirmed the receipt of such documents. But till date, no Nigerian has been prosecuted on account of that case. While their Nigerian accomplices are going scotfree, foreigners involved in the bribery scandal have been jailed in their home countries. Two Britons and an American were sentenced by a court in Texas, United States, to various terms of imprisonment and fined varying amounts of money for conspiring and giving $180m bribe to Nigerian politicians and officials. The givers of the bribes, who are foreigners, have been prosecuted but the receivers, who are Nigerians, are yet to be found. To many, this is very laughable.
The 1999 Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission, popularly called Oputa panel is another grim experience of Nigerians of ongoing regards probe panels and their outcome. Immediately General Olusegun Obasanjo became the president of Nigeria, he set up a committee to look into human rights abuses in the country later known as Oputa Panel. The public hearings began in Abuja around October 2000 and lasted nearly one year. Nigerians were to learn, to their utter shock and disbelief how the country was governed and how fellow citizens were tortured and detained without trial for very long periods. Nigerians were made to confront their past, eyeball to eyeball. It was after these public hearings that the commission retired and produced its report which covered its terms of reference and submitted the report to the federal government on May 28, 2002 at the International Conference Center, Abuja. President Obasanjo, in appreciation for the work done by the commission, hosted members of the panel to a dinner at the presidential Villa. On that occasion, to the delight of many Nigerians, Obasanjo announced the setting up of an Implementation Committee that included some of the Panel’s members. The reason according to him was to ensure that the report and its recommendations were implemented as soon as possible. This was the last that was heard of Oputa Panel and its report.
All these cause people to conclude that Nigeria is a country of absurdity. Whenever something negative happens, a probe panel will be set to investigate the cause and take action. It is either the federal government constitutes a probe panel or the national assembly sets up a probe panel. The level of seriousness that will be attached to the panel and the gravity of ills they will expose, will make casual observers conclude that all those indicted will be persecuted. But all the noise ends the very day the probe panel winds up its sitting.
Obviously, probes in Nigeria have never produced any meaningful result or served as deterrent to public office holders that loot the nation’s treasury. In the last count, the Nigerian government has instituted over 5o different probe panels. The results are either cooling off on the shelves or outrightly discarded. Other notable ones are the Bola Ajibola Panel on Jos disturbances, 2010, House of Representatives’ probe of Customs’ Scam, January 2009; Senate probe of Obasanjo and Yar’Adua on Solid Mineral Special Account, February 2009; NASS probe of World Bank Aviation Loans of 2006 in March 2009; Senate probe of FG sale of Houses in Lagos and Abuja and many others.
Prince Onyekwere, a lawyer and social analyst, endorsed the perception of many that “indeed there is palpable feeling among most Nigerians that panels of inquiry are veritable escape vehicles to either thwart requisite enforcement and application of the law, or to mute and divert attention from real and extant issues of legal and constitutional infractions by recidivists. To this set of people, all probe panels are blatant waste of time and scarce resources.”
At the moment, the joint Committee of the House of Representatives and Senate on Aviation is conducting a public hearing on the Dana plane crash of June 3. Already, emotions are high, over 300 families are grieving, and many peoples’ hope for a better future has been dashed as a result of the crash. The revelations at the Dana Air crash public hearing, so far, are further fuelling the anger and pain of the grieved families. Perhaps, the best the National Assembly could do to assuage the pains and anger of these people is to ensure that all those indicted at the public hearing are prosecuted. If not, the probe panel will pass again for another exercise in futility.
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