Corruption will persist unless… —Ex lawmaker

Honourable Odeneye Kehinde, a member of the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts, from 2011 to 2019, in this interview with KEHINDE AKINTOLA, assesses the anti-graft policy of the Federal Government, financial autonomy for office of the Auditor General of the Federation, and other issues. Excerpts:

You played a major role in the Public Accounts in the seventh and eighth Assembly with regards to the proposal for autonomy for the office of the Auditor General of the Federation. Unfortunately, the bill suffered major setback. What will be your advice for the present National Assembly?

That’s a very god question. I said so because I participated in that bill, where we submitted that the auditor general’s office should be financially autonomous to the extent that it will be able to report the way it ought to do. It is so sad that the auditor general’s office that should be monitoring Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) is so poorly funded to the extent that it has become almost impossible for them to cover the whole of the agencies, even the agencies within the country, not to talk of those outside. I wonder if the auditor general’s office has even audited our embassies for more than eight years. And these are parts of the agencies that government financed on a yearly basis from the national budget. As far as this government is concerned, one of the things we campaigned with is fighting corruption and I believe that the office of the auditor general is in the right position to fight corruption, provide documentation provide records that the office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent and Corrupt Practices and other Related Commission (ICPC) can depend on. Where the auditor general’s office is well-funded and functional, all the EFCC and ICPC will have to do is to just rely on the works done by the agencies.  it is because of the lack of proper documentation and information that EFCC has not been able to prosecute some cases the way it should have done. If auditor general’s office is well-funded and functional, they are the ones that would have provided all necessary information for the ICPC and EFCC. So, we’ve been on this issue for a very long time; that the office should be a stand-alone agency; that it should be well-funded to the extent that it should be able to carry out its activities as at when due. You will even see that most of the audit reports that we have are belated. When you are talking about audit reports of 2005 in 2021 or you are talking about audit report of 2007 in 2021, you would find out that even when pronouncements are made on such audit reports, you realise that actions are not necessarily taken to back such pronouncements because it’s either the people you are talking about are dead. It’s either they are no longer in the country, and a lot of events have overtaken those things. If we had blocked the loopholes during those periods, we won’t be having such gaps again. So, I implore the minister of finance to ensure that  he gives adequate support to the National Assembly in ensuring that the auditor general’s office is granted autonomy to be able to carry out its activities and  be a back-up to the campaign of government to eradicating corruption in the country.

Do you agree with some individuals that the scale of corruption has worsen in the last few years?

Before one can conclusively say whether corruption is deepened or not in this administration, one needs a report and probably, that report may not come out until the administration leaves office. However as at the time this government came on board, yes the fight against corruption was well-rooted and there was the clamour that if the fight was sustained, even if corruption is not eradicated, at least we would have gone a long way in reducing it to the extent that succeeding governments can also take off from there. Corruption is a culture and when nobody fights it, it becomes a disease. Over time, corruption in Nigeria became a culture to the extent that even from the family members and every other person, when you go to public office and you don’t steal, they tend to abuse you, because nothing was done in the past to fight it or nip it in the board. If you cannot eradicate, you should discourage it. When this government came to power, there was the zeal to really fight corruption. Unfortunately, a lot of cases bordering on corruption in the country have not been fought and won, and I think that has also contributed in discouraging the fight. You have a lot of people that were caught but have not been prosecuted. It has given a wrong signal to those that want to be corrupt. I think that is a particular area the government needs to look at and focus on. This government has about two years to go, so there’s still time to reinvigorate the fight.

Do you align with a postulation that the merger of the office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice is inimical to justice delivery and fight against corruption?

There were two bills on the separation of the two offices during the seventh and eighth Assembly. They would have also helped the government in fighting corruption. Why? Because the office of attorney general should not be political; the minister of justice can be a politician, but he should be someone that is focused; he should be someone that is well-grounded in law and be able to move the judiciary forward. In that case, nobody will be able to influence the determination of cases. The focus of the two will be totally different. The office of the minister of justice should be pure administrative to make the judiciary stable; so as to provide infrastructure for the judiciary, make it responsible and responsive to be able to fight corruption. B

Your colleagues have said that the 1999 Constitution, as it is, un-amendable, while others clamour for the suspension of the document to pave way for a new one. What do you think should be the way forward?

There shouldn’t be any confusion whatsoever as far as the Nigerian Constitution is concerned because it is a flexible constitution and that is why it iswritten, and whatever is written can be erased and be re-written. So, if my colleagues in the National Assembly are complaining that it not amendable then, they are confused because they are the ones that are supposed to champion the cause of the amendment of the constitution. So, if they are confused, it’s a big problem for the country. But going forward, I don’t think it’s a problem because overtime, there has been one amendment or the other in the constitution. What the society is looking for now is a total overhaul of the constitution. And I think it should be made easy now, sometime ago, we had a constitutional conference and there was a report submitted to the presidency even the All Progressives Congress (APC), as a party, also constituted a body that would look at our constitution and so many other things on how Nigeria as a country should be run.

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

We Have Not Had Water Supply In Months ― Abeokuta Residents

In spite of the huge investment in the water sector by the government and international organisations, water scarcity has grown to become a perennial nightmare for residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. This report x-rays the lives and experiences of residents in getting clean, potable and affordable water amidst the surge of COVID-19 cases in the state…

Selfies, video calls and Chinese documentaries: The things you’ll meet onboard Lagos-Ibadan train

The Lagos-Ibadan railway was inaugurated recently for a full paid operation by the Nigerian Railway Corporation after about a year of free test-run. Our reporter joined the train to and fro Lagos from Ibadan and tells his experience in this report…