Aisha Alhassan alleged misappropriation tale: an indictment on President Buhari By J.B Nwachukwu

Ever since Mama Taraba (Aisha Alhassan) the current Minister for Women Affairs declared publicly her support for Atiku’s 2019 Presidential bid. Hell got a little more loosened.

• Some have accused her of being disloyal
• Several have called for her sack or for her resignation.
• Some have annoyingly said that her behavior exemplifies why women shouldn’t be involved in politics (I wonder if this group of persons can say this in front of their mothers).

The last straw that has broken the back of the whole situation is the report from the Auditor- General’s office that Mama Taraba and officials from her ministry misappropriated #11,700,000, part of which was spent on the same day she was sworn in as a Minister. The monies were made available to enable her and her team, embark on “familiarization visits” to unnamed skill acquisition centers in 2015. According to the report, an “audit investigation established that the purported appraisal visits were never undertaken”

If this accusation is true, obviously she would have to face the law, before that, the relevant officers in the Auditor-General’s Office charged with the task of auditing the accounts and books of the ministries also have to be investigated and possibly disciplined for negligence in carrying out their duties.

This accusation raises several questions:

• How often are the accounts of the Ministries audited? In the alternative, are the accounts ever audited?
• What actions are taken as regards the different findings and conclusions gotten from each audit?
• Why is the alleged misappropriation of Aisha Alhassan just coming to light after almost 2 years?
• Why should we not believe that this accusation is tied to her recent support for Atiku’s 2019 Presidential bid? (meaning that if she hadn’t publicly shown her support for Atiku, this accusation would never have come to light)
• Is there a possibility that other Ministers who may have also misappropriated funds wouldn’t be accused by the Auditor –General’s Office because they haven’t publicly denounced their support for the President?
• Lastly, how independent is the office of the Auditor-General?

It is not in doubt that this accusation was targeted at smearing and discrediting the image and person of Aisha Alhassan, unfortunately it has been a colossal failure.

What the report has achieved successfully is to smear both the image of the President and the Auditor-General’s Office. It has also proven once more that the anti-corruption war is primarily a war against the President’s opponents and supposed disloyalist’s. It has also proven once more that the supposed saints aka Ministers which took the President’s 6 months to appoint are not who the President portrayed them to be. If a minister is alleged to have started looting from the same day of her inauguration then clearly the anti-corruption “odor” or “swell” doesn’t exude from the President at all.

Lastly, I do not think Aisha Alhassan can be accused of disloyalty merely because she said she would support and vote for Atiku in 2019. Rather, she has portrayed herself as a loyal and sincere politician, who would say what she believes; in her I see unity of life. If we are uncomfortable with the attempt of Aisha Alhassan to say things that she believes, then we are not encouraging our leaders to have a unity of life. The mere fact that other ministers and political appointee of Buhari have not publicly endorsed anyone for 2019 does not make them loyal indeed they must just be sycophants.  Buhari needs more persons like her at his side. Those with a contrary view may be guilty of not appreciating what the word “Loyalty” means, loyalty doesn’t mean that one cannot have a contrary view or position with the person he/she is working with, and neither does it demand a blind and timid followership devoid of intelligence and initiative. Someone (like Aisha Alhassan) can be loyal to President Buhari and at the same time, have different opinions or views on issues.

It must be recognized that her decision wasn’t made arbitrarily, according to her; it was predicated on the decision of Buhari in 2015 to only occupy the office for one tenure (a statement which till date hasn’t been contradicted by Buhari). As such she has a right to support anyone in 2019.

More importantly, all those campaigning for her resignation or sack have not established how her support for Atiku in 2019 will prevent her for effectively carrying out her duties as a minister under Buhari’s government. There is clearly no conflict, more so Atiku and Buhari are even in the same party.  Our politicking has to leave the shallow terrains of sentimentality and irrationality and rise to the heights of intellectualism and objectivism for our Nation to develop.

This report from the Auditor- General’s office is most likely a politically motivated one. These kinds of politically motivated reports aren’t new in Nigeria; they are intended to gag objectivism and to distract people from the issues raised. Just some week ago, we had a similar experience, after Senator Isah Misau accused the Inspector General of Police and the Police force of corruption, rather than investigate the issue; the Police accused him of forgery and of being a deserter. Rather than discuss whether the allegations of corruption were true, we have been distracted to fixate ourselves with whether Senator Misau is a deserter or not.

For our democracy to grow, we have to rise above politically motivated reports which greatly undermine not only the impendence and strength of the public institutions but also their efficiency.

Nwachukwu is a Legal Practitioner and a writer.