From Kemi Yesufu, Abuja
For a little over a week, Nigerians have closely watched a major scandal involving senior government officials, play out in the House of Representatives. Turn by turn, individuals holding high offices and who should be able to explain in details, every single action they take, have resorted to denials and finger-pointing.
Yes, the drama which many theatre enthusiasts, will agree can be categorized under the Theatre of the Absurd, was acted out at the public hearings conducted as part of the investigation by the House into how fugitive former chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina was recalled into the federal civil service and allegedly promoted a step higher. Maina was in 2013 recommended for dismissal by the Federal Civil Service Commission following a directive by the Office of the Head of Service. In 2012, Maina was accused of leading a massive pension fraud scheme amounting to more than N100 billion. President Buhari ordered the immediate disengagement of Maina, 24 hours after minister of Interior, Gen Abdulrahman Dambazau admitted that Maina, was posted to the ministry of Interior by the Office of the Head of Service on acting capacity to fill a vacancy created by the retirement of the director heading the Human Resources Department.
For the Head of Service of the Federation, Winifred Oyo-Ita, whose famous altercation with the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari over a leaked memo, stating that the president was aware of Maina’s reinstatement is still a hot topic, she arrived on time on Thursday November 23, the first day of the hearings conducted by the Aliyu Madaki-led adhoc committee.
Though she has made-up with Kyari, it soon became apparent, Oyo-Ita came to the investigative hearing, still not ready to take any blame. She also made it clear through her presentation and her answers to questions that she never supported Maina’s reinstatement, neither was she going to take a fall for it.
The Head of Service, didn’t break a sweat each time she spoke, even as she maintained that the move to reinstate Maina into the civil service started only in 2017, with a series of letters from the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malam. “As those letters came in the Federal Civil Service Commission, wrote to my office directing my office to request the ministry of Interior to set up a Senior Staff Committee to review the directives from the Attorney-General. The Attorney-General gave directives that Mr. Rasheed Maina be reinstated. I have all these documents, which I have submitted to you (committee). So the Federal Civil Service Commission directed the ministry of Interior to set up the committee to review the case and that directive was conveyed from my office to the ministry of Interior.
“The Federal Civil Service Commission issued a letter of reinstatement to Mr. Rasheed Maina and sent that letter to my office. When I got hold of that letter of reinstatement, I held unto the letter because I needed some more clarification on it,” she stated.
The testimony of the Acting chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), Joseph Akande, strengthened the belief in the crowded meeting room where the committee grilled all those summoned, that top civil servants were railroaded into reinstating Maina. After Akande’s detailed submission, only a few were left in doubt, that what was unfolding was another case of arbitrariness that makes mockery of due process in governance.
The head of the FCSC told the panel that sometime in 2014, Maina wrote to the commission, appealing that the it reconsiders the decision to dismiss him. His appeal was turned down. But again, letters from Malami changed the whole dynamics. “We turned his (Maina’s) request down because there were no new facts to warrant the commission reversing our decision on him. But in 2017, the commission received a letter from the Attorney-General of the Federation dated 19th January 2017, which was also copied to the office of the Head of Service, and the Permanent Secretary of the Interior ministry, demanding the update in the reinstatement of Mr. Maina. This we did and we confirmed to him that Mr. Maina was still dismissed.
“Again, the Attorney-General, sent another letter to us, dated 27th April 2017, we responded to it. He now sent the third letter to us, telling us that he is the chief legal officer of the country and that the basis of our dismissing Maina cannot stand because, the judge of a High Court in Nigeria has botched the warrant of arrest on Maina and he therefore directed, that since the case cannot stand, we should give consequential effect the judgment by reinstating Maina”. Following the explanations from Oyo-Ita and Akande, bewildered members of the panel took turns to ask if directives from the Attorney-General of the Federation, supersedes civil service rules, to which they were told that the legal opinion of the minister of Justice carries a lot of weight.
However, Malami, who revealed that he met with Maina in the United Arab Emirates with the permission of security agencies, simply blamed the Jonathan administration, the 7th Senate, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other defendants in three suits which Maina got favorable judgment for not challenging all three judgments.
Understanding the obviously beleaguered AGF has been difficult in this case that can be described as one of those that make the world describe Nigeria as fantastically corrupt. In the first and second hearing by the panel, he argued there was a legal basis for which Maina was reinstated. He cited three court judgments. Yet, he flatly denied writing a letter directing that Maina be re-absolved, even when Oyo-Ita and Akande said there were series of correspondence between them and the AGF on this same matter.
Malami who insisted that he inherited the current mess and didn’t create it, also painted to the lawmakers a vivid picture of how his meeting with Maina has been of great benefit to the country, with the Federal Government stopping a pension syndicate, which he amazingly admitted that the former chairman of Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms was also a member, from embezzling N3.7 billion monthly. He equally mentioned how the UAE meeting led to stopping other brazen acts of embezzlement carried out by the syndicate which also has as active members, top civil servants, the Nigerian Union of Pensioners, federal legislators and ex-government officials.
But just like many Nigerians, who are only interested in how Maina sneaked into the country and resumed work, lawmakers quickly responded to Malami, asking that he sticks to explaining his role in the saga. A member of the committee, Adams Jagaba raised a point on order, swiftly saying, “I raised this point of order because he is swaying us away from the issues. We are not talking figures here. So, we should not be taken away from the main thing, we are looking at his involvement in the re-appearance, reinstatement and subsequent promotion (of Maina) . So we shouldn’t be swayed away from these figures, he is presenting to look like the anti-corruption war is serious.”
For the interior ministry where Maina’s outspoken lawyer, Mohammed Katu, said he was treating files up until October, its minister exonerated himself, saying the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Abubakar Magaji, as the man in charge of administrative matters would be in a better position to explain exactly what happened.
But it took a shocking altercation between Oyo-Ita, who refused to be linked to Maina’s embarrassing reinstatement in any way for Magaji, one of the senior permanent secretaries in Federal Government’s employ to agree to take the blame. Magaji apologized to the Head of Service, saying, “The reference letter made to inform the head of civil service, that Maina has assumed duty was a letter sent to Federal Civil Service Commission and I erroneously acted on it. Whatever happened as the permanent secretary I take responsibility. I take responsibility for whatever the ministry of interior has done wrongly with regards administrative procedure in this matter,” he said. It wasn’t difficult believing Magaji because, Katu, Maina’s lawyer, proudly displayed a letter of reinstatement for his client, signed by one Dr. R.K Attahiru of the Department of Human Resources in the Interior ministry. Katu had also said during the first day of hearing that Maina was still being paid salaries. He later denied this during an interaction with newsmen.
It is safe to say Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun and Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, attended the hearing by the investigative committee not only in response to invitations sent them, but to stop the deluge of criticism over Katu’s claim that his client was paid salaries. Severally, committees have expressed anger over ministers and heads of MDAs sending representatives, but in a not so common happening, a minister and the relevant head of an A-grade agency appeared to answer one question. The question being if Maina’s name was returned to Federal Government’s payroll.
For Adeosun, she stressed that from the records of her ministry, there was no evidence of Maina being paid after he was disengaged from service in 2013. “We have looked very well and we have no biometrics of Maina, so there is no way he could have received salaries,” she said. According to Idris, from March 2013, Maina’s name was removed from the payroll.
On his part, the Acting Chairman, of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu dismissed assertions by Maina that the anti-graft commission is in custody of the funds and properties recovered by the pension task team. The EFCC chief who sat next to the Director-General of the Department of State Security Services, Mamman Daura and was all chummy with him during the committee hearing, despite recent spats between their men, queried the source of Maina’s wealth. He called on him to step out to defend his claims on the over N1.6 trillion worth of properties seized and handed over to the Commission.
“Look at the amount he’s quoting for EFCC. It’s not possible and if you know how difficult, you cannot tamper with exhibits, it is not possible. We have come out with all the details of the properties we have recovered in the cause of investigating this pension fraud,” Magu said. Malami had stated in a deposition to a Senate Committee, that among other discoveries, 270 properties recovered by Maina are under the care of the EFCC.”vs
Maina’s long shadow also hangs over the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), who many Nigerians have questioned their commitment, wondering how a man wanted by the EFCC, INTERPOL and the police could easily get into the country. However, the Comptroller-General of Immigration, Mohammed Babandede, told the panel that the former chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms has not entered the country since 2013.
Maina: Messy scandal of broken rules, conspiracy
Undoubtedly, there are more questions than answers around Maina’s reinstatement and the infamous former civil servant didn’t make an appearance, despite intense speculation that he would. His lawyer who had assured that he could produce him if given parliamentary protection, changed his position on the pledge. Katu, couldn’t categorically say where Maina was. “Let me say it with much strength that we are putting a lot of efforts to speak with him (Maina) directly, that he should come. There is no point hiding, even someone that killed his mother should make himself available for purpose of investigation. But maybe he is afraid of coming because an attempt has been made to kill him and if he wants to make a narration, he may be killed before he does that. We have been talking to his wife to tell him that we are here to give him cover. That he should come to tell the world what he knows,” he said.
Nigerians will definitely be watching out for the report from the Madaki-led committee, judging by the damning testimonies on how Maina was returned to service before public outcry led to his being sacked a second time. As mandated by the House, the committee would have to come up with a detailed report on how Maina beat the country’s security apparatus, how civil service rules were completely ignored just to get him back into office and why the AGF has been accused of pulling his weight to get Maina reinstated.
It would also be expected that the committee will do a thorough job by looking through the constitution and civil service rules in arriving at its recommendations on how those indicted are to be prosecuted or disciplined. Sunday Sun investigations show that the panel chaired by Madaki, who is known for his anti-corruption stance, has been given a free hand by the leadership of the House. Perhaps, Madaki, who gave Malami seven days to present the report of his investigation on the line staff of the Justice ministry, who authored the letter sent to Oyo-Ita’s office directing Maina’s reinstatement, can as well use his report to help repair the damaged image of the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government , which he often states his unalloyed loyalty to.