It's another edition of the International Anti-Corruption Day. This hardly means anything in the official circles in government in the country with otherwise infallible elements crashing serially. It's like we never knew what we perceived. President Buhari has worsened this with the unprecedented self-indulgence in tortuous and contemptuous indifference to some incidents of corruption perpetrated by government functionaries of high standing and indeed others. Is this the same Maigaskiya Muhammadu Buhari we used to know? I got overwhelmed by the incessant manifestations of APC parallels to those of PDP, led by the notorious Dasuki. As you're almost losing your sanity over PDP's Olisa Metuh, the Babachir Lawal element of the APC deepens your nausea at social degeneracy.
Perhaps more disturbing is the likelihood that an otherwise upright organisation like the Waziri Adio-led Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) is, according to media reports, reverting to the old regime of gross disregard for due process, transparency and accountability. NEITI's case is particularly pathetic because Waziri took the unusual pain of documenting, for generations, his management philosophy, in his book, The Arc of the Possible. Perhaps most commendable was Waziri's offer of personal example of turning in the status of his assets to the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) after serving out his term, even as he wasn't statutorily mandated to do so.
But even as the NEITI rating on transparency ranking may be dropping drastically, some other Nigerians are determined to make Nigeria function better, even as all hope may not be lost on NEITI.
More than any other non-governmental organisation today in Nigeria, the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) has relentless upped the raison detre for anti-corruption campaigns at the risk of everything. It has been serially scared and attacked, but it has decided to endure, committing the lives of its workers to the hands of the only giver and taker of lives, the Almighty. It is largely believed in anti-corruption circles that HEDA's focus on high profile cases oozes enormous discomfort to corrupt big men, especially those who had served in government at the centre. Silly souls, they resorted to alleged hired killers, who let the hell loose on the chair of HEDA and his family early in the year
You will be amazed: On 28 March, five men heavily armed with guns, knives, and other dangerous weapons invaded the home of Mr Olanrewaju Suraju and carted away valuables. Not without registering an enduring fear. They threatened to kill and physically hurt him and his wife, both of who were later hospitalised. The assailants carted away a 2014 edition of a Toyota Corolla car; five phones, including one Samsung phone; two iPhones; two iPads; two Macbook pro laptops; a Dell laptop; jewelry, bank ATM cards; car keys; bank tokens, as well as official documents. Although the matter, according to a report on the official website of the organisation, was immediately lodged with the police, since then, Mr Suraju and his family have been left to their fate, while the perpetrators remain at large.
The Nigeria Police have neither been able to track any of the assailants nor recovered any of the stolen items. Out of over 220 buildings in the estate he and his family live in, Suraju's house was the only one invaded on that day, with the perpetrators collecting valuable items in the house and coercing Suraju to provide all his security details, including phone passwords, bank log-in details, and passwords to laptops, after which they gained access to his email, phone numbers, including WhatsApp and other messaging platforms, as well as bank platforms. Till date, Suraju and family remain refugees in the homes of family friends.
But the Suraju-led HEDA is unwavering in its commitment, a major manifestation being the twin events conceptualised by the organisation to commemorate this year's edition of World Anti-Corruption Day, which HEDA has decidedly stretched into a whole week for the teeming but continually victimised people of Nigeria. For the organisation and the rest of us, it should not be bad news for Nigerians on transparency and accountability all the times
No fewer than three agencies well known to this writer - no full fledged Ministry yet - have elected to serve Nigerians with utmost commitment to accountability. These are the National Hajj Commission (NAHCON); Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIOMR); and the Is-haq Oloyede-led JAMB, which is well-known for continuously upscaling its transparency profile. The latest in the major transparency mechanism of JAMB is the recently activated VPN-enabled real-time notification system between JAMB and all relevant educational sector agencies of the Federal Government. As soon as there is any information for all such agencies from JAMB or from any of them, they get updated, leaving absolutely no room for false claims on developments and delayed action or total lack of it, that may serve as cover for the award of undeserved fortunes.
Springing a most pleasant surprise is the new leadership of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON, captained by Barrister Zikrullah Hassan, which claims and demonstrates its full subscription to optimal values for Nigerian Muslim prilgrims. In the face of a tumultuous forex regime, the new NAHCON leadership secured unprecedentedly cheaper accommodation rates for Nigerian pilgrims in Saudi Arabia, coupled with the patriotic commitment of not requesting any subvention to run the service for the citizens. But for the ingenious decongestion of the accommodation rates for pilgrims in Makkah and Medina, hajj would have been highly prohibitive for Nigerians as the naira has been depreciating most unimaginably in the currency exchange market.
NAHCON simply choses to keep its expenses within its means and also helps Nigerian pilgrims to benefit from commission'sresource management expertise. In spite of the cost saving practice and ambition, as stated in a press conference addressed by the Chair of NAHCON, the commission has since gone ahead with the establishment of the National Hajj Institute. The pioneer registrar has since assumed duty, signaling full readiness for business, which obviously will enhance the economic viability of the resource-efficient NAHCON.
Though with a rather conservative disposition to publicity, the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIOMR) under Professor Tunde Lawal Salako has earned itself an inimitable rating in the nation's health sector, enabling it to save many lives. How?
Unknown to Professor Salako, his efforts to restore efficiency, transparency and integrity, even at the expense of personal ego, had become a big talk of the town among those who had interfaced with NIOMR after he assumed duty there. As if provisions never existed for the maintenance of NIOMR before him, the entire compound suddenly transformed, coupled with the unprecedented devolution of powers, including the creation of the office of Deputy Director General, a most compelling necessity in a star-studded entity with an array of tested researchers and professors.
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As such, when COVID-19 broke out and philanthropic organisations were anxious to volunteer support to credible organisations that could judiciously manage resources, NIOMR topped the list. Assorted donors, including a bank, civil society organisations, as well as some other local and international donors, promptly rushed out resources to NIOMR to avail vulnerable Lagosians the opportunity to do COVID-19 tests for free. I was a beneficiary of this. But how many public officers are conscious of the need to be accountable if only to self-recommend for respectable reckoning by the general public?
Ingenious as ever, Professor Salako has since gone ahead to take maximum, yet altruistic, advantage of the huge trust the public has in him. The humble, yet foremost African nephrologist is breaking a new ground with the establishment of NIOMR Foundation to take medical and allied researches to inspiring heights in Nigeria. The Foundation's board is being chaired by the cerebral 14th Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and also includes other dignitaries such as the present Minister of Works, Babatunde Fashola.
Since only the good can attract the good, it's up to all Nigerians to consciously activate better reckoning for transparency to endear it to one another to make for desired development.
Tunde Akanni, associate professor of Journalism and pioneer director of the LASU Digital Media Research Centre, DMRC, is Team Lead for Campaign Against Corruption on the Campuses, CACOCA. He can be reached on Twitter via: @AkintundeAkanni
