Lessons I learnt as top public servant —Lagos Auditor General

Muhammed Mubashiru Hassan, a former Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Lekki Concession Company Limited (LCC), is a man with rich professional background in multi-disciplines such as accounting, taxation, finance, management and administration in both public and private sectors. In this interview, he speaks with BOLA BADMUS on his days in service, the challenges, footprints and lessons learnt, among others. Excerpts:

Tell us your experience as the Auditor for Local Government in Lagos State?

I started working in Local Government in 1990 as Internal Auditor, and then I moved round some local governments. Before my appointment as Auditor General of Local Government in the state, when we were placed on the Oracle, they placed the permanent secretary above me; I did not accept the arrangement, and wrote several letters, until Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who was governor then, approved my request. He said: “Who is this boy writing to me all the time? Give him what he wants.” So, I became the first Permanent Secretary/Auditor General for Local Government.

The first day I resumed, they were not willing to corporate with me, but with my experience here and there, I called management meeting immediately I resumed. You know, I believe in decentralisation, it will develop others to grow, and they will know what is actually happening in the office, and then the capacity growth of the staff was fantastic. When I got there, I saw that report review was centralised with one person, I asked was this the reason why audit reports are always late? They said it was a major reason. So, I created eight coordinators, they will go to the field, write reports, proofread the reports and then forward all to me as the ‘commander- in- chief.’ When I saw that the system was still slow, I divided it to 16 again; that covers about four local governments assigned to a group of people each.

Invariably, after the break up to sixteen, the work was faster, I was going to office Saturdays and Sunday to read the reports. There was a time they ganged up against me, maybe it was a coincident anyway, all of them submitted their reports on Friday. When I saw it, I was like saying this is work, and there is no problem. I went to office on Saturday and Sunday, and by Sunday evening I cleared all the files. When they saw it, they were saying this man is difficult to work with; he wants to kill us with works. If you are tired of the work approach, you can resign, you cannot tie down what we are doing here.

I have to read back all the files, from page one to the last page, to remove partiality, and witch-hunting. So, that forms the foundation or timely release of audit reports. I think I met about six or seven year’s areas, so I cleared all, up to the date I resumed in that office.

You worked in government ministry, but will you say things are quite different in the government from private sector, and we saw the dedication you put into the job, what gave you that motivation?

One, I had no other job than the one I was doing, and I wanted to lay a very good foundation for that office, because that office was never respected by anybody, and I wanted to make sure that that respect is earned.

How was your experience as a council treasurer and when you worked as a staff in the Local Government Ministry, beneficial to your reign as Auditor- General of Local Government?

Well, it helped, because I was initially an Internal Auditor before I was appointed Treasurer of Local Government, so it has been very easy for me. I have been auditing, I have seen the weaknesses, so when I became a treasurer, I just tried to block all the holes. Any time I catch a thief, I will call him or her, ask him or her to give me the money, and then say, ‘Go ye and sin no more’.

At a time you had problems with auditing Local Government Education Authority Secretary, over the issue of ghost workers?

I did not have any problem; I was only doing my job, no problem at all.

But you discovered some ghost workers then?

Yes, that is not new, I was doing my job. The then governor called me, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. “Hassan, I learnt there are so many ghosts in all the primary schools in Lagos State, we want to move them into the Oracle system, and don’t want to know the Oracle with ghost. So, write report on how we will carry out the exercise.” I said “Oga, we will go and deal with them face to face. It’s not a matter of come to my office, I want to see you (the workers)”. How many LGAs do we have? We have 20, and I divided the 20 into two (2) in 10 places for efficiency, making it 10 groups. And I loaded the group with about five (5) or six (6) members in every team. In course of the job, I realised that they were preparing two pay rolls, one which is the correct salary that they should pay, and the other one loaded, that one is used in collecting the money. So, I told them I wanted to see the pay rolls. We are going to use the pay rolls to do this assignment. I asked them to queue and call their names one after the other for proper verification. In short, when we saw the two pay rolls, there was a wide gap. We were reporting to the governor every week then, I told Oga that this is where we were every week and asked him, can we continue? He would ask us to continue.

So far sir, the legacy you left in the service, compare to where it is now, because people are complaining that local governments are not functioning well anymore, will you say that the legacy is still there or has changed?

When I was there, I put up succession plans that when someone goes, we now know the next person that will take over. When I was about leaving, I had written my letter, and was just waiting for approval. I now heard something that they were going to send somebody from the state to my office, I said they wanted to disorganise what I had put in place. No, so I went to see the governor and told him, Your Excellency sir, I want to retire. He asked: ‘Why?’ I replied, I am tired of the job.

He asked: ‘Where are you going?’ I said I wanted to go and contest election, and went further to say I wanted to ask for a favour that I would like to nominate my successor. And Governor Tinubu said ‘no problems,’ and said I should go and write it, but include all other directors that are qualified to occupy the seat. He said I should not give the letter to anyone but himself directly. I wrote the letter, did everything and took it to him. So, I think the legacy of succession and infrastructure development is still there. Capital projects inspection that puts local government on their toes that we are coming to see the projects they have done, is still there. Then, the financial audits that we do quarterly are still on. They cannot abandon any, because it will lead to arrears of reporting, old system of reporting late.

Since you left service, what have you been doing sir?

Busy doing nothing, I am just collecting my pensions.

What do you miss as a former Auditor- General, as a retired man now?

That respect, I missed that. Because I later realise that it is when you are in office that you are respected, when you leave that office, they will not even say good morning, talk less of asking where you are going boss. We have some permanent secretaries that are retired and cannot go back to their former office today.

What lesson has that taught you sir?

Be humble, honest and be focused, because when another opportunity comes, this people that are not talking to you will turn again and start greeting you.

The excuse you gave while preparing to retire was that you wanted to go into politics, so far, are you still interested in becoming a politician?

I am already a politician, as long as I can contest election, I am a politician already. I attend their meetings, we discuss issues, and I am part of the leaders of political party in my area.

During the period you were in service, were you not afraid with the ways and level you talk and react to some people, even though you were right and they are wrong, what gave you the courage, not thinking that they might hurt you in any ways?

You know what; I am not Peter Rufai, Oga, Noooooo! Anything that goes, small or big, he keeps it, I am Mikel Obi who distributes. That is a better approach to leadership. So, gone are the days where somebody will sit down, you will bring money, he will now say that drop the money here, thank you and go. No, for me, bring it out, where is it from and who are those involved in it? Maybe that’s why I am not rich. Okay go and divide it and bring my own. And that’s the reason why I am so much loved in that office till today. If I go there, everybody comes out. If we go to the field, if they were given something, I don’t participate in sharing of the nonsense, I will not descend so low, I even give to them out of my own pocket. With this, why should I be hurt? They know me for that. But what I am after was quality reports. If that report is not good by my own standard, another team will go there and do the exercise.

You went into politics, what was your experience sir; do you still plan to run for any office?

I don’t intend to run for any office for now. I am stepping aside for the reason best known to me.

Maybe, being a very plane person, with your record in service that is why you are not interested because you think it’s a dirty game?

It’s not dirty, politic is not dirty, because if you say its dirty and you leave it for the dirty players, they will continue to rule us, and they will continue to make it dirty.

What will be your comment on the present government in the country?

They are trying; there was one Senate president that spent N2billion on Ileya rams. I said that guy did not make any mistake, because look at the sharing system to local governments. And we have774 LGs and we have 37 states, including Abuja and then Federal Governments’ agencies. Now distributes whether it will not run into billions. It is social responsibilities that he must do. They are trying now, it is when you are outside that you will say what they are doing is wrong, but when you now enter and see the challenges, the philosophies behind certain actions, you will now know that these people were like this when they were here. The challenges are different; it depends on who you are and what you want to do. But if you are focused on what you want to achieve, it will be better for you. Well, I will not say the man did not steal part of the money; I am just trying to see it from another angle.

When I was doing my Phd, my impression about creative accounting was challenged, and they won. What is creative accounting? It is manipulation of figures to achieve a goal. And then we looked at the other good side of creative accounting. It’s when you are not there that you will be complaining. It’s difficult managing people.

You are former MD of Lekki Concession Company, what were the challenges, and impression?

LCC is a multinational company and a multi-billion naira establishment. I have never managed a billion naira establishment before, so when I got there I had to adjust. When that place was being setup, the indigenes of that area were not really carried along, so I had to bring them closer, make them happy and own that project. When those brought here, they don’t give us anything, why should we be coming here. But it’s like you are from us and for us. And I said to them that I am a bonafideOjo majority, son of the soil, and I will not disappoint Lagos. That was how I brought all the indigenes, Baales, and the Obas closer to that project. When there is any problem coming, they will call me. If they have any problems and they don’t tell me, they will bring it up at our next meeting. We were meeting quarterly, which was not so before.

And then I employed one tactic, every management meeting, I tell my management staff to bring one pastor and imam to pray. Maybe, that was what saved me; otherwise I would have experienced #EndSARS earlier. Because before we start our meeting, the pastor and imam will pray for us. I just believe that’s another way of carrying along the citizens of that area. So, it’s another dimension entirely. There are so many villages in that area, unheard villages. Thank God for Jakande who opened that area, who linked Lekki, Epe to Lagos by road.  Before 1983, you can only link Lekki by land rover, or by water. I went for a local government election in1983 when Dejowo contested. I went with the ballot box on my head, entered a canoe, and when we got to a point, we were not seeing anything other than water again. I couldn’t remember the name of the place, invariably I went there, only one person voted, and I brought the vote back through water. So, I was able to carry everybody along. If I had not done that, it could have been a serious challenge. When I got to Lekki, I made private visits, when we were at meetings, they will now tell me why that place was not progressing. They will say, sir, this spots were meant for our small gods ‘Orisa,’ I just realise that the more we repaired the road, the more it collapses. I think it’s opposite Idado gate, that roundabout. If we do that place today, by night, it will collapse again. I called the Baale and asked: What is happening here? Ha! No wonder. He gave us what to do as sacrifice to the ‘Oosa,’ and that place became stable.  So, if I had not made personal visits that place would have remained a danger spot and there was no way accident will not occur, especially to those speeding without knowing there is a deep porthole there. Really, there were no challenges; I was able to cope with the challenges.

How did you cope with the long stretch traffic of cars when they want to pay at the tollgate?

Normally what we do is that we boom up, yes, we boom up.

What is the meaning of that sir?

It means we allow them to go for free, they will not pay, and when the traffic reduced, they start paying.

The electronic tickets, exact fare, non-cash etc., how did you improve on those series of payment?

I can’t remember, I left that place about three or four years ago, so why should I be carrying that on my head again? In the two tollgates, we have vehicle classification unit in every of the tollgates. What the software does is to classify the vehicles that pass through the tollgate and the amount that you must collect, so it was difficult to commit fraud because we will get comprehensive reports.

Due to the #EndSARS saga, some people are of the opinion that the tollgates should be scrapped, what’s your take on this sir?

No, they can’t scrap the two tollgates, because the state government signed an agreement with some companies and individuals both within and outside Nigeria. It was a typical example of Public Private Sector Partnership (PPP), they can’t scrap it. Because the project obtained so many loans to construct the roads to put up the tolls, and they have not paid the loans. And it is the money collected from the tolls used for paying the loans.

We heard information that Lagos State government has acquired the Tollgates, that they now belong to the state.

I don’t, know, I was not there then. I can’t say what I don’t know.

Even if you were not there then sir, now that the information says that they have been acquire by the state, and the people still insist that they should be scrapped after #EndSARS, what will you say sir?

That project is a role model in Nigeria, that other state was coming to understudy what we did, so it cannot go. Because the revenue coming from that area is serving some purpose, and that purpose must be met. Until that purpose is met, it will remain there. Meanwhile, the social aspect of the project, if it is scrapped, those employed there, working morning, afternoon, and night will be jobless, and they are citizen of Nigeria.

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