Are Nigerian Women Beginning to Soil their Hands in Filth?

 

By Ozumi Abdul

Until very recently, especially before the turn of the current fourth republic, Nigerians had been stereotypically wired up to believe that anything financial corruption is exclusively synonymous with the masculine public office holders.

To them, women being caring mothers of the nation are morally harmless, and cannot loot the country’s treasury, because they abhor the attendant pain it may likely cause to the larger majority of Nigerians.

However, recent high-profile and headline-grabbing corruption scandals, involving the former minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke; former ministers of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Sadiya Umar-Farouq and Edu Betta, and then, former National Coordinator and Chief Executive Officer of the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), Halima Shehu, would leave one with no choice but to be reinforced with the belief that truly “what a man can do, women can do better”.

Alison Madueke

On January 24, 2022, the Federal High Court Abuja, issued an arrest warrant against a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, over corruption charges pending against her.

It is the second arrest warrant to be issued against the ex-minister, who fled to the United Kingdom after leaving office in 2015.

On December 4, 2018, a judge of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Valentine Ashi (now deceased), ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Nigerian Police Force, the States Security Service (SSS), and all other security agencies to arrest her within 72 hours.

The matter was later taken to the Federal High Court in Abuja where the EFCC filed 13 counts of money laundering against Ms Alison-Madueke in anticipation of her extradition to Nigeria.

On July 24, 2020, Ijeoma Ojukwu, the judge of the Federal High Court, Abuja, handling the matter, issued a summons for the former minister to appear to answer to the charges preferred against her.

Ms Alison-Madueke ignored the summons which, anyway, could not be confirmed was served on her.

EFCC subsequently requested the judge to issue a warrant of arrest against the former minister.

But the judge turned down the request, insisting that the summons she issued was sufficient to process her extradition to Nigeria to face her trial, adding that she would not issue another order in vain.

The commission was still struggling with the extradition process which largely depends on the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), when it sought a fresh warrant of arrest from the new judge handling the case as on January 24, 2022.

Bolaji Olajuwon of the Federal High Court in Abuja, who took over the case from Mrs Ojukwu, issued the fresh warrant of arrest against the former minister following an oral application by EFCC’s lawyer, Farouk Abdullah.

Mr Abdullah told the court that all efforts by the agency to get the ex-minister extradited proved abortive while the matter was being handled by the former judge.

He said the summons issued by Mrs Ojukwu had not been able to achieve the intended goal of extraditing the defendant.

He explained in his oral application that an arrest warrant is a mandatory requirement needed by the AGF office to process the extradition of the former minister.

The prosecutor added that the arrest warrant needed to be given to the International Police (INTERPOL) which would affect the arrest.

He urged the court, “to issue an arrest warrant against Alison-Madueke, who is believed to be in the UK to enable all law enforcement agencies and the INTERPOL to arrest her anywhere she is sighted and be brought before the court to answer to the allegation made against her before the court.”

Sadiya Umar-Farouq

Also, just last week, Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission invited the former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, Sadiya Umar-Farouq over alleged fraud.

Umar-Farouq, who was appointed Minister by former President Muhammadu Buhari is currently under probe over the N37,170,855,753.44 reportedly laundered under her watch through a contractor, James Okwete.

The former minister was asked to appear before interrogators at the EFCC headquarters, Jabbi, Abuja on Wednesday, January 3, 2024, to explain the alleged fraud.

The document read in part, “The commission is investigating a case of money laundering involving the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development during your time as minister.

“In view of the above, you are requested to kindly report for an interview with the undersigned. Scheduled as follows: Wednesday, 3rd of January, 2024. Time: 10am. This request is made pursuant to Section 38 (I) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, 2004 & Section 21 of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011.”

Halima Shehu

Similarly, on January 4, 2024, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested and detained the suspended National Coordinator of the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), Halima Shehu.

Shehu is detained over the ongoing probe of N37.1 billion allegedly laundered in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development under former Minister Sadiya Umar-Farouk.

On January 3, Shehu was in custody at the commission’s headquarters in Jabi, Abuja, where she faced interrogation. She was indicted in the alleged 37.1bn fraud as the ministry’s former national coordinator of the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme. In fact, she was specifically accused of diverting over N40 billion from the coffers of NSIPA.

Betta Edu

Completing the list of the ‘humanitarian disaster’, in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, is its recently suspended minister, Edu Betta who was grilled by the anti- graft investigator last Tuesday, over alleged N585m disbursement fraud.

Betta Edu was accused of paying a whopping sum of N585.2 million into the account of one Bridget Oniyelu Mojisola, said to be an accountant in charge of the federal government projects, to disburse funds meant to ameliorate the condition of the poor people in Ogun, Lagos, Cross River and Akwa Ibom states.

This was after she allegedly spent about N3 billion on some questionable pro-poor projects that is yet to be duly accounted for.

Being the youngest of President Tinubu’s ministers at just 37, many Nigerians upon her appointment were upbeat that Betta would better the antecedents of her immediate predecessor, Sadiya Umar-Farouq in the young ministry created by the immediate administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari to cushion the excruciating pains of poor Nigerians suffering from humanitarian crisis.
Rather, Edu was caught in a N585m disbursement scandal involving the humanitarian affairs ministry, attracting widespread criticisms from rights groups and activists.

The predicament of the 37-year-old was worsened when the Accountant General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, confirmed that although her office received a request from the humanitarian ministry to make certain payments, her office did not act on it.

This endeared President Tinubu to wielding his big stick and suspended the 37-year-old with immediate effect, making his party’s ex-national women leader the first to be removed from his 48-man cabinet.

The President also ordered EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, “to conduct a thorough investigation into all aspects of the financial transactions” involving the ministry and “one or more agencies thereunder”.

Edu, 37, before her suspension, was a fast-rising Amazon in the political space having occupied state and national offices at a young age.

To avoid the Allison Madueke kind of scenario, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has seized the passports of the suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, and her predecessor, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, over the ongoing investigations into scandals in the ministry.

There has been an avalanche of corruption allegations from the humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation ministry, much to the chagrin of millions of suffering Nigerians.

In fact, The stench of corruption emanating from the ministry has become too overpowering to ignore.

The cycle of the putrid corruption and the personalization of public funds have stirred public resentment and the anger in the country is understandable, because the huge sums being diverted are meant to ameliorate the deplorable conditions of the poor in the country.

For instance, Farouk once told a stupefied nation that she spent over N500 million to feed school children in over 124,000 households who were at home at the peak of the national lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But she could not even provide a discernible template used in disbursing the funds.

After all these bogus spending, there is no record that the poverty situation in the country has improved.

Rather, more Nigerians have been plunged into deplorable poverty in the last three years.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), about 133 million Nigerians are suffering from multidimensional poverty in Nigeria, which represents 63% of the country’s nearly 220 million estimated population even as the situation is predicted to get worse according to the World Bank due to the excruciating impact of the petrol subsidy removal.

Sadly enough, this is coincidentally coming at the time the advocacy for women’s direct engagement in public decision-making and gender-sensitive governance are rife.

It is not a good omen for other women out there now that several women who have had the chances to serve in successive administrations had become enamored with filthy cases of corruption and sharp practices. It dampens the confidence of the public about their capacity, as well as those crusading for Nigerian women’s adequate involvement in governance.