In The Web Of Conflict Of Interest

On January 14, 2019, there were indications that President Buhari may have appointed AIG Adamu Muhammed as a replacement for Ibrahim, asking the latter to proceed on retirement immediately. That’s a listening President! This is the type of magnanimity that will solve the Zakari imbroglio. Whichever way it goes, the President is at a loss – head, he loses; and tail he does not win. To drop Zakari at this point is defeatist; but to insist that she remains at the chair of the collation committee is a case of conflict of interest carried to absurdity – all in the eye of a watching world. But the matter must be resolved. In choosing the lesser of two evils, President Buhari must quickly demand the immediate resignation of Zakari’s appointment as chair of the Committee on Election Results and from the Commission itself!

By Hon. Josef Omorotionmwan

We have insisted, perhaps with monotonous regularity, that where people no longer know what to do, they begin to do everything. That is when the loss of one genuine purpose invariably leads to the pursuit of a dozen pseudo purposes, most often, with greater efforts, sans results.

President Muhammadu Buhari may not be totally aware of what he is doing to himself and his party. Those who insist on appropriate political education for entry into higher positions in government may not be missing the point entirely because ultimately, much as such education may not be the panacea or the be–it–all in governance, a good education would make a good person better.

What is all this flip-flop and policy equivocations at the giddy height of the presidency – a presidency that is apparently more inclined to petty issues like Trader –Moni and Market – Moni– in the name of social intervention – to the detriment of bold policy initiatives that would help the administration organize itself?

Today, the presidency has been diagnosed for a new ailment called Total Lack of Inertia, TLI, which is amenable more to preventive rather than curative medicine. It recognizes that the best time to nip a policy in the bud is before it goes public.

By the time it goes viral and located in the market place, it is uncontrollable. In that sense, policies are like the toothpaste, which once you press out of the tube, cannot be put back in the tube.

It is difficult to comprehend why a president whose party is in majority in both Houses of the National Assembly, NASS, is unable to get his acts together on policy issues. Of what use, then, is the fake majority?

Today, President Buhari holds the undisputed record of withholding assent on some 35 Bills in a single day. These were Bills that properly went through the legislative maze in both chambers of the NASS and their numerous Committees; properly passed at both Chambers; and properly authenticated by the Clerk of the NASS for onward transmission to the President for his assent.

If those majorities in the Houses were not fake, they had all the chances in the world to kill the Bills, possibly at embryo. But they did nothing. They will have a difficult time convincing some of us that they were not asleep. We still need to know.

Under separate cover, the Electoral Act Amendment Bill arrived at the National Assembly early enough to pass it for the regulation of the 2019 general elections.

Four times did the NASS pass that Bill; four times did the Clerk of the NASS authenticate the passed Bills for onward transmission to the President for his assent and they were properly so transmitted; and four times did the President return the Bills to the NASS, withholding his assent, giving one flimsy reason or the other!

In all this, how fake could any majorities be, if they could not bring such majorities to bear on the Bill at any stage? Rather, they chose to play smart on all sides. The same legislators who went along with their colleagues in the Houses; later turned round to ask the President to veto the Bill they passed.

But as we have often said, it is not always smart to be smart. The legislators will soon know. Meanwhile, President Buhari is at the receiving end of the blames game, no thanks to the President himself.

We saw it coming early enough. In most life situations, morning shows the day. Apparently, APC might have stumbled into a huge success that it was ill-prepared to manage.

At the inception of that huge success, President Buhari claimed that he was for everybody and for nobody. A splinter group that was better focused and that was for everybody within its own fold was lurking around.

The group quickly moved in and seized as much power as it needed. That group that knew its onions quickly constituted the committees and distributed its men into the plump leadership as well as the principal offices, thus leaving the seemingly empty leadership positions for the majority, so-called.

The effect of all the tardiness is what the Administration is struggling with today; and the struggle will persist far into May 2019 at the earliest.

This is where we are reminded that our late Sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, remains the best President this country never had. In his days, he meticulously kept files for the Order Papers, Votes and Proceedings as well as the Debates of both Houses of the National Assembly.

Even where he was not a member of the NASS, he thoroughly followed their debates; and he knew exactly when to order the UPN members to introduce the wrench into the works so as to defeat undesirable measures. That was an era!

ENTER MRS AMINA ZAKARI

Suddenly, Mrs. Amina Zakari, a Commissioner in the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, gets appointed as the Chairman of the Commission’s Committee on the collation of election results for the 2019 presidential election. Tongues began to wag – all pointing in the direction of her appointment to the very sensitive position where elections are normally rigged.

There were accusations and counter-accusations; and there were denials and courter-denials. Today, the question has been resolved beyond the level of whether she is President Buhari’s niece or not.

We are convinced that Buhari is her uncle and she, Buhari’s niece. Sociologically, people can change their underwear; they can change their school uniforms; they can change their books when they move to a new class; but in all this, they can’t change their ancestry. This is an area beyond man’s reach.

In the particular case of Mrs. Zakari, it is immaterial that the Katsina-born lady is now a citizen of faraway Jigawa State by marriage, she remains Buhari’s niece.

After all, some of us have daughters who are married to Europeans and Americans. Nevertheless, they remain our daughters. Whatever God has created let no man put asunder. 

It is also immaterial that Mrs. Zakari’s appointment into the Commission predates Buhari’s ascension to the presidency. The Administration people have argued, rather forcefully, that Mrs. Zakari was appointed by President Buhari’s predecessor, President Goodluck Jonathan. That also does not vitiate the fact that Buhari is her uncle and she, Buhari’s niece.

Given the degree of consanguinity, there is no escaping the inevitable conclusion that this is a classic case of Conflict of Interest, which is an important ingredient of legal existentialism in a democracy. It has cut down many world leaders and brought many more into public opprobrium.

In the telling paragraph of part 1 of the Fifth Schedule to the Nigerian Constitution, 1999, it is clearly provided, “A Public Officer shall not put himself in a position where his personal interest conflicts with his duties and responsibilities”.

That explains why a judge who knows his onions when approved with a murder case involving a member of his family would, as they say in the colloquial, “borrow leg” and run away from the case before he gets messed up.

And a member of the legislative assembly would decline sitting in a committee in a case of a company in which he has some share-holdings. That’s how important the legal issue of conflict of interest is viewed the world over.

President Buhari should know that conflict of interest also has its own psychology. If he insists that Mrs. Zakari stays on as Chairman of the Election Results Collation Committee; and peradventure Buhari goes ahead to win the election, even where the victory comes with Zakari not lifting a finger in furtherance of that victory, the world’s mind is already made up – that Buhari has been rigged in by his niece!

This ravaging TLI is injurious. This is one appointment too many in which our President is shooting himself on the foot. He should have stopped this appointment in embryo instead of allowing it into the public space. Now, we are already where we are. The fight is being taken to integrity, albeit unnecessarily.

Our President is awake. For some time now, the body language of the Presidency has leaned towards the extension of the tenure of the Inspector General of Police, Idris Ibrahim. This has been trailed by a storm of indignation from many quarters.

On January 14, 2019, there were indications that President Buhari may have appointed AIG Adamu Muhammed as a replacement for Ibrahim, asking the latter to proceed on retirement immediately. That’s a listening President! This is the type of magnanimity that will solve the Zakari imbroglio.

Whichever way it goes, the President is at a loss – head, he loses; and tail he does not win. To drop Zakari at this point is defeatist; but to insist that she remains at the chair of the collation committee is a case of conflict of interest carried to absurdity – all in the eye of a watching world.

But the matter must be resolved. In choosing the lesser of two evils, President Buhari must quickly demand the immediate resignation of Zakari’s appointment as chair of the Committee on Election Results and from the Commission itself!

This points at one scandal too many and Buhari must run away from it! This election must not only be free, fair, transparent and credible, it must be seen to be so! It can’t be done otherwise.

Hon. Josef Omorotionmwan is a public affairs analyst and former Chairman, Board of Directors, Edo Broadcasting Service. He can be reached at: joligien@yahoo.com