“There can be no faith in government if our highest offices are excused from scrutiny-they should be setting the example of transparency.”
—Edward Snowden
It’s too incredible to be real. It’s the mother of all frauds to be witnessed in this geographical entity called Nigeria in recent times. It sounds more like a tale by the moonlight, but it is the tragedy of a nation bogged down by the impunity of office. At a time when the nation’s ivory tower is in distress and in absolute paralysis due to the inability of the Federal Government to pay the earned allowances of the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the man who is trusted with the responsibility of managing and controlling the treasury account, Alhaji Ahmed Idris, cannot explain how N80 billion suddenly developed wings and disappeared from the vault.
For letting the guard down, for fiddling with the hard-earned money belonging to 200 million Nigerians, the suspended Accountant General of the Federation, is now cooling his feet in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). It’s extremely poignant and heartrending to hear this happening in an economy that has already been rendered prostrate by the rising debt burden. The world can’t wait to see the outcome of the ongoing investigation by the anti-graft agency.
The EFCC had recently nabbed Idris for allegedly stealing N80 billion and also using proxies to obtain prime property located in Kano, Lagos, Abuja, United Arab Emirate and the United Kindgom at the expense of Nigerians. One of the consequences of his alleged misappropriation is the closure of public universities and the future of the teeming youths that is at stake.
While the closure of universities remains interminable, Idris allegedly and intriguingly raked a whopping sum of N80 million from salaries of the hapless lecturers through fraudulent manipulation of the controversial Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information (IPPIS) which was said to be a safeguard against fraud. According to media reports, the suspended Accountant General made a minimum of N16,000 every month from each of the university lecturer who enrolled in IPPIS through indiscriminate deductions from their salaries and allowances.
One of the reasons the ASUU rejected IPPIS, in the first instance, was that it violated university autonomy and subsequently opted for University Transparency and Accountability solution. The argument of the union is that IPPIS software is not robust enough to cater for the peculiarities of the university system which gives consideration to sabbatical staff, adjunct lecturers, contract staff, and other academic allowances for working in more than one institution. They insist that Nigerian university is backed by an Act giving it the freedom to run itself, and that the introduction of a central payroll system is an infringement on this right.
But nobody cared to give them a listening ear or the benefit of the doubt because the Ministry of Finance had put them on the defensive, stressing that the idea was to arrest the phenomenon of ghost workers in public service and ensure transparency and accountability in the management of public funds. Despite all cajoling and entreaties, the controversial system was forced down the throats of the lecturers. But they never failed to raise the alarm that their pay slips reflected new outrageous deductions that were not approved, resulting in drastic reduction in their take-home pay.
In February 2020, one of the concerned lecturers, Dr. Fred, was quoted as lamenting: “When ASUU was forced to get paid through IPPIS, salaries were cut because of malicious deductions most of which were not consented to. A professor who’d receive N460,000 through normal payment means hardly gets N416,000 now due to these deductions that can’t be explained.”
Instead of correcting the anomalies, the government came out with a rebuttal insisting that the complaint was to justify ASUU’s opposition to the new technology. Now, the union has been vindicated.
The Coordinator of Bauchi zonal branch of ASUU, Prof Lawan Abubakar, had last year called the attention of the public to Idris’ questionable source of wealth when no one cared.
While briefing journalists about the update on the ongoing strike, he said: “We would want gentlemen of the press to assist us in the conduct of two investigations. The first is to uncover who bought the version of the Sokoto Hotel in Kano with a whopping sum of N500 million cash down and demolished it the next day for ongoing development of a multi-billion naira shopping mall.
“How and where did he get money for such investment? The second assignment is to assist uncover who is hiding to invest multi-billion naira in the Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange. How and where did he get money for such investment?”
These are some of the issues the EFCC will be unraveling in its investigation into the mindless stealing of lecturers’ salaries through the fraudulent manipulation of IPPIS, which ironically bills itself as a safeguard against fraud.
For being partly responsible for the ongoing strike by ASUU, which has put the future of the teeming Nigerian youths on hold, Idris and his other accomplices have stripped the university system of its sacredness. And posterity may never forgive them if eventually they are found culpable in the collapse of our education system.
On the flipside, the heartrending revelation of how Idris has allegedly cornered the money belonging to Nigerians has also stripped President Muhammadu Buhari of his mantra of holiness and piety. He may be as clean and as white as a snow, the current level of impunity has cast a tragic pall over his administration’s fight against corruption.
On September 4, 2015 barely 100 days of President Buhari in office, the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, in a piece entitled: “A new sheriff is in Town,” had said: “When a new sheriff comes to town, disorder gives way to order. Chaos flees. Impunity is swept away. Laxity gives way to diligence and people change their old, unedifying ways. When you have a wild, wild West situation prevailing, the new Sheriff comes, stamps his authority. Old things then pass away, behold, everything becomes new.
“In a matter of months, you can ask those who had bled our treasury to the point of death. They’ll have stories to tell.” On the contrary, the reverse has been the case.
There are two conclusions that can be drawn from the startling revelations of corruption that have continued to rock the administration in recent times. It is either that Sheriff is tired of endless cleansing of the so-called Augean stable and has gone on sabbatical or he lacks the requisite capacity and will-power to implement his zero tolerance for corruption mantra. Either way, the result is the manifest failure of government which Nigerians are witnessing today in virtually all sectors of the economy. From the evolution of human societies, it is strong institutions as handed down by strong people that always make the difference between order and chaos. This is not the case with the Buhari administration.
To say the least, the allegation of corrupt enrichment leveled against the suspended Accountant General of the Federation speaks to the ineptitude of this government. However, there is one more year ahead to proof the critics wrong.
For the records, Ahmed Idris is a member of the Association of National Accountant of Nigeria (ANAN). He was appointed on June 25, 2015 to succeed Jonah Ogunniyi Otunla who was sacked on allegation of misappropriation of N2.5 billion of security agencies funds. He was reappointed after Buhari won his second term in 2019. Under his watch, mismanagement of public funds went a notch higher, suggesting that something fundamental is amiss in that crucial department of government. If so, who will bell the cat?