ELDER statesman, Tanko Yakassai has waded into the crisis rocking the House of Representatives over budget padding allegations, described the former Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Hon Abdulmumin Jibrin as a blackmailer who was only out to rubbish his colleagues because he lost out.
Jibrin has been accusing the leadership of the House of padding the 2016 budget with billions of naira, an allegation that has already been denied. Talking with BRUCE MALOGO on the development, Yakassai turned the heat on Jibrin.
How do you appraise the allegation of budget padding by members of the House of Representatives?
In my opinion, I’m blaming the media more on the issue because the norm in this society and also in the society of our former colonial masters is that the onus of proof is on the person who made the allegation. You can’t just accuse a person. You are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Somebody was with his colleagues all these days, serving at least more than a year, all was quiet, and all of a sudden something happened, he was said to have resigned from his position, and the next we heard was allegations.
If the allegations were correct, the natural thing he was supposed to do was to go to the EFCC or ICPC to lodge a complaint, and it is up for the accused persons to go and defend themselves.
But because we are so turned upside down, the moment somebody made allegation you automatically believe it’s correct, which is wrong. Allegation is allegation until it is proven to be correct.
My opinion is that, the man who is alleging should go to proper authority and complain, then the authority should investigate. In this case, either the police, EFCC or the ICPC, the people who are accused will have the opportunity to state their own side of the story.
What is worrying me in this society is that anytime somebody made an allegation, the accused person is automatically regarded as guilty. It is very terrible in this society. It destroys the fabric of the society, I can go and make any wild allegation against anybody, against the president, against the Chief Justice etc and automatically they would be presumed guilty without any investigation, which is wrong.
What do you think is responsible for this that when an allegation is made against somebody the Nigerian society presumes such person guilty?
This culture has been there but it has been more pronounced in the last two years. The EFCC is responsible by and large for the introduction of this culture in this society because this thrives in the media. This is a story of people committing this and that without taking them to court.
EFCC is an institution, not an extension of propaganda machinery of any political party. It is a national institution funded by the people’s money, so it should not use its position to side one party or the other.
But the way things are going, I happened to be a journalist some 60 something years ago, what we were told is that the moment you heard an allegation against somebody, that you should try to get that person and to hear his own side before going to the press, and when you are going to the press, present the two sides of the story and allow the people to make judgment. This is not what is happening now. Tomorrow you would read in the newspaper that a source from EFCC said that so so and so person has committed fraud, and without getting the person accused or maligned to say his own side and that is the end of it.
Does such shock you?
I’m not shocked. I worked with the National Assembly during the Second Republic. So, I’m not shocked.
Why are you not shocked?
I happened to be the Commissioner of Finance for three years in Kano State, when Kano was the next richest state to Lagos; the second richest state in Nigeria. I worked with the National Assembly as the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly. I know that when the Executive proposes a budget, it is the responsibility of the Legislature to go through it, and modify it the way they think is appropriate – add or reduce it. When they finish, they hand it back to the Executive who assent it. If the president assent it, then it becomes law, but it is the Executive that is operating the budget and not the National Assembly.
The money that is coming, that is accruing to the government is coming in bits and pieces, it is the Executive that is keeping the money , and releasing it bit by bit according to the priority areas.
So, if a budget is padded, the money is with the Executive, it is not with the National Assembly, and so they can’t spend that money. It is the Executive that has the responsibility of implementing the budget, releasing money for projects and responsible for implementation of other projects included in the budget.
Even the Judiciary that is given special consideration in the budget doesn’t get the money direct; it is the Executive that gets the money through the ministry to the Judiciary.
If they understand it this way, that it is the Executive that implements the budget, then what is now causing this ripple in the House that somebody woke up to say that somebody was padding something and there is uproar in the country?
Yes, why didn’t he say so before he was made to resign his position? Common sense dictates that people should ask this question. Why was it that the allegation was not there just two weeks ago; why was it not there last month? If you know that a crime is being committed and you keep quiet, you are an accomplice; you are a guilty person for aiding and abetting crime. If somebody says that in the last 12 months I happen to know that somebody was stealing money and you kept quiet, then you should not take that person as an innocent person. That is my take.
How do you think that the issue is going to be resolved now?
There are two ways. One, it is up to the man making the allegation to go straight to the police, EFCC or ICPC and lodge a formal complaint, then they will make their own investigation and invite the people.
On the other hand, he didn’t do that, the Speaker has asked him to apologise or else he will take him to court. He said he was not going to apologise, then we wait for the Speaker to carry out his threat by going to court to clear his name and that of his colleagues because all the principal officers were accused. The Speaker is not the only person accused – the Deputy Speaker was accused, the Majority Leader was accused, the Minority Leader was accused, the Chief Whips of both the Majority Leader and Minority Leader were also accused, at the same time when the Speaker was accused, but people are paying attention to the Speaker.
Are you impressed by the conduct of the present National Assembly as at now?
You are extending the matter now. Let’s leave that for another interview. We are now talking about the allegation made specifically against the principal officers.
The reason I asked the question is that attention has been shifted from the primary assignment they are there for to another issue, and in the past one year they have been moving from one issue to the other leaving their core responsibility to the people?
The leadership in the two chambers of the National Assembly emerged not in accordance of the wishes of the party in power, that is why they are now being persecuted. Yes, whether they are guilty or not. This sycophancy mantra in the society is now driving out, and it is a pain to the authority because they are not happy the way Dogara emerged. We should lend our support to them, not to Buhari. But if you want me to assess the performance of the NASS, leave that to another interview.
How do you summarize this issue now?
It is blackmail.
Who is blackmailing the other?
Jibrin is blackmailing his colleagues, it is obvious, because when the going was fine, he didn’t accuse them. By this time last year, he didn’t accuse them; by this time last month, he didn’t accuse them.
He took advantage and I’m sure there must be something that prompted him to resign. I happened to be a victim of a situation like this. Some 29 years ago, I was the acting secretary of my party, and also the national publicity secretary; there was problem with some members of the party, we went to convention in Ibadan and the matter was presented before the convention against the four persons who were accused of anti-party activities.
When they were suspended, the leader of the gang came to me in the hotel where I was lodging to beg me that the decision taken should not be publicised because his wife was already pregnant and he didn’t want her to get a shock that will make her loose the baby that she was carrying and I was sympathetic, and so, I decided not to issue a statement to convey the decision of the party.
What did the man do, he left Ibadan by plane and came straight to Abuja and went to Radio Nigeria at that time and he announced that he is resigning from the party, giving one bad reason or the other.
This is a man who begged me not to release the information because his wife was pregnant so that she does not loose the baby. Out of sympathy I didn’t announce it.
So, I suspect that Dogara and his colleagues were in the same shoes as I was years ago, that they wanted to sack the chairman of Appropriation Committee, but out of the normal Nigerian psyche, they felt that they should go softly and they said, ok, resign. Do you know anybody who resigned from his position willingly, particularly if that position is juicy? When the going was fine he kept quiet, we didn’t hear any noise.