By Emeka Oraetoka
There always are concrete human groupings which fight other concrete human groupings in the name of justice, humanity, order, or peace. When being reproached for immorality and cynicism, the spectator of political phenomena can always recognize in such reproaches a political weapon used in actual combat-Carl Schmitt (1888-1985)
When an online newspaper reported that a certain Senator scuttled Senate corruption hearing on CCB chairman, Isa Mohammed some weeks back, rational Nigerians started asking questions about the real problem in CCB. This writer even thought it was a mistaken identity because the case that I know about was the one involving the Chairman of Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) justice Danladi Umar, who it was alleged to have assaulted a security guard at Banex plaza sometimes back? However, the way and manner the corruption report on CCB Chairman, Professor Isa Mohameed was made public without concurrent hearing of the same petition by the Green Chamber, shows that there is more to the petition than ordinary eye can see.
According to report, five out of six federal commissioners of the Bureau, in a petition to President Muhammadu Buhari, through the Secretary of the Government of the Federation, on 29 August 2022, accused Professor Isah of running CCB as a sole administrator and alleged corruption. The same petition was signed as follows: Dr. Emmanuel E. Attah; Professor Samuel F. Ogundare; Ehiozuwa J. Agbonayinma; Dr. Olayinka Balogun, CP, Retd and Barrister Ben Umeano, addressed to the Chairman, Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, Senator Patrick Akinyelure, PDP, Ondo Central, and his House of Representatives counterpart, Ossa Ossai. Why was the spokesman? to the petitioners in a hurry to tell Nigerians about their petition when the House of Reps are yet to sit on the petition as well?
On Monday, October 3, 2022, daily Trust reported about one of the petitioners, probably the spokesman thus: —Addressing reporters, one of the commissioners, Ehiozuwa Agbonayinma, said they petitioned the Senate to save CCB from self-inflicted incapacitation. He said: “The N109bn loot linked to the suspended Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, was first reported to CCB through petitions, but prevented from being acted upon by the chairman. “Corruption must be killed in Nigeria before it kills us and anybody not ready to join in the fight or war against it should be shown the way out of public service, particularly those saddled with responsibilities of curbing corrupt practices in the country like CCB.” In the interest of report balancing, the newspaper has this to say: — When contacted a senior official of the CCB, told Daily Trust that the allegations were a figment of the commissioners’ imaginations. The official, who pleaded anonymity, said: “The house is not in order presently, but that is not a reason for them to go to the press to fight.”—. According to the petitioners, Board members do not know how many petitions received by the Bureau as well as number of cases under investigation and cases charged to Code of Conduct Tribunal. They equally alleged that high profile cases brought before the Bureau were suppressed by the chairman.
The big question remains who wants the Chairman of CCB out of office, and for what actual reason? No one can comprehensively provide answers to these two questions without taking a critical look at the surrounding information around the composition of CCB and the possible intentions of the members. The main allegation against the Chairman of CCB is corruption. What could have possibly informed the petitioner(s) choice of National Assembly as avenue for entertainment of the petition? If the real intention of the petitioner was fighting corruption, one would have thought that petition should have been routed to the ICPC. The choice of National Assembly (NASS) is a bit cumbersome because as we know, the constitutional function of NASS is to expose corruption, largely via oversight function; although, NASS is not forbidden from exposing corruption via the route of petition. If the real intention of the petitioners was genuine, they would have allowed OSGF to intervene in the case, after all, they sent the same petition to the President through SGF’s office. Another disturbing problem here is the petitioners’ lack of patience in also allowing the green chamber to sit on their case as well.
This writer thinks the petitioners preferred the option of NASS; the Senate in particular, is to generate mob media conviction of Professor Isa Mohammed, at the same time, give the impression that Presidency is slow at moving against “corrupt government officials”. The petitioner might have also reasoned that there won’t be media trial and conviction of the CCB Chairman, should the option of ICPC is explored, as due diligence will apply; and that may negate their real intention of media trial and conviction.
But who stands to gain from the fall of CCB’s Chairman? One dangerous problem here is the fact that almost all the commissioners involved in the petition are politically exposed. This means that they can use their privileged position in CCB to cause crisis in Nigeria, if they seek to encroach on the function of the CCB’s Chairman. And this is why OSGF is the fit and proper place to hear the petition. It is possible the inordinate ambition of some commissioner(s) to probably head CCB is responsible for the push to get Professor Isa Mohammed out, but if we are to go strictly by Carl Schmitt’s quote above, it will seem the real intention of some or all the five commissioners is to oversee or take charge of petitions written against public and political appointees for the purposes of making money via blackmail; which some of them might engineer in the first place. How else can one explain the apparent demand by the commissioners to be having access to petitions against public and political appointees in government when it is obvious that falls outside their function at CCB, according to experts? To this end, Nigerians can begin to understand the allegation that the CCB chairman was sitting on petitions against public officers with multi million and billion naira assets not stated in their assets’ declaration forms.
