As Madueke Walks On Tight Rope…

Taiwo Adisa, Abuja

Allinson-MaduekeThe Minister of Transports, youth ful-looking Mrs. Diezani Allinson-Madueke, appears to be walking on a tight rope with the revelation coming out of the Senate ad hoc committee probing into the management of resources budgetted for the transport sector between 1999 and 2007.

Madueke unwittingly roped herself into trouble on Thursday, June 26 when she appeared before the Senate committee to answer questions relating to her Ministry. The revelation that she spent N30.9 billion around the last Christmas holiday, in clear contravention of the presidential directive that unspent funds must be returned to the treasury has placed her job and reputation on the line.

There appears to be only the difference between six and half a dozen between her matter and that of the sacked Ministers of Health, Prof. (Mrs.) Adenike Grange, and Mr. Gabriel Adukwu whose fate is still being determined by an Abuja High Court following their unceremonious departure from power.

To be kind to the woman, she never shied away from appearing before the Senate each time she was called and this time she had no reason to be afraid of an antagonistic committee. She even appeared before the Committee the very day it started sitting on June 23, only for the Chairman, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri to turn her back as the documents she was to present were just delivered to the committee that same day.

On June 26, however, the woman roped herself in a puzzle when she admitted that the sum of N30.9 billion was paid out by the ministry between December 26 and 31, 2007. The revelation came in the course of her interaction when Senator Patricia Akwashiki raised a question as to the propriety of the ministry paying out the sum as contained in the report.
The Senator had observed: “I can see nine withdrawals from 26 December to 31; you paid out N30.9 billion. It is unbelievable for you to make that type of payment.

“I think everybody is clear about the instruction of the president. I know that we returned our own money in the National Assembly to the consolidated account that December. So, Madam, withdrawing N30.9 billion was wrong. “Because I know that you people are making payment up till March. I put it to you that you are making payment up till March. Here they are warehousing N30.9 billion; I don’t think that was the instruction given to them by the president.”

A shocked Madueke raised her head up in amazement as she attempted to give responses to Senator Akwashiki. She said that the money in question was warehoused because of the nature of the ministry, which she said was capital-intensive. The minister said in her defence: “As you know, we are going through a complete change in the psychology and understanding of how we are going to move forward. As we have been directed that we are no longer going to warehouse funds, we had also approved a number of projects that had gone through due process certification up till that time. Those withdrawals were to try and ensure that those projects were implemented.”

She was to further clarify that the ministry had a letter from the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation which stated that funds for all projects that had been duly certified by the due process office as at December 31 could be accessed till March 31 of the following year.

The woman was to further arouse the anger of the Senate Committee on Monday, June 30, when she caused the media to publish clarifications to her submissions of June 26. The publication painted the Senate committee as fishing in troubled waters and apparently concocting evidence. To worsen the situation, the minister did not turn up before the Senate committee that day. A threat to order her arrest was imminent when the Committee members calmed a bit and decided to allow her another chance by issuing her a summons to appear on Tuesday, July 1, 2008.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Transport, Ammuna Lawal Ali, who signed the press statement on behalf of the minister, said that the allegations by the Senate Committee that the ministry withdrew N30.9 billion in four days were incorrect. The Permanent Secretary said that the ministry did not even have up to the said sum in its account with the Central Bank and that only N17.3 billion was in the account.

As the Permanent Secretary presented the case as if the Senate Committee had fished out the allegations, the Committee was angry remembering that the information it put to the minister, which she did not deny, were obtained from the report the ministry submitted to the ad hoc Committee.

A member of the Committee told the Saturday Tribune that the minister was hiding under technicalities to shift the blame to the committee, when she, on her own, admitted that the funds were paid out. The source said that the minister might have realised that the statement could see her out of office, thus the rush to panel-beat the story.

“I do not see much difference from what happened in the Ministry of Health and what we are seeing here, the minister took out money and warehoused them so as to beat the December rush. They were paying out money as late as December 31, when we in the Assembly had returned our funds well before Christmas, it is difficult to explain,” a source in the Assembly said.

But the travail of Mrs. Madueke is already showing a trend. Public office is fast becoming the Achilles’ heels of technocrats from the private sector. Madueke, a respected manager at the oil giant, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), is gradually following the path of Professor Grange and Gabriel Adukwu except she could more properly explain herself . This goes to show that the private sector technocrats need a lot to learn when they get entrusted into public office(s). The ways of the civil servants they are to work with are contradictory to what obtains in the private sector. While performance and competence are major determinants for holding positions of responsibility in the private sector, eye-service, lip-service and the likes form the basis for action in the public service. Some public service officials may deliberately give a minister a wrong advice, as far as they are not to bear the consequences of wrong decisions.

Just like Madueke, many had applauded President Umaru Yar’Adua when he named Prof. Adenike Grange as the Minister of Health shortly after her confirmation by the Senate last year. It was apparent the president had placed a round peg in a round hole with the appointment. The world acclaimed physician was also the oldest in the cabinet, and she discharged herself creditably during the screening session by the Senate.

Another acclaimed professor of medicine, Senator Jubril Aminu, would rather allow the Senate to tap from the woman’s wealth of experience during the screening, when she asked that she should not be allowed to take a bow and go, in the name of reference. And other doctors on the Senate floor agreed with that. The woman did not disappoint at the end of the ‘question and answer’ session and the Senate went ahead to confirm her.

Architect Gabriel Adukwu, a Kogi-born professional is also reputed to have managed a successful firm before his call to serve at the federal level. His screening, which initially generated rancour, went smoothly eventually, when the politics of marginalisation which would have blighted his chances were resolved.

Senator Smart Adeyemi had raised the issue of marginalisation against his people of Kogi West with the appointment of Adukwu, saying that the nomination contravenes section 14(3) of the 1999 Constitution. He did not question Adukwu’s integrity, even as he declared that the man was eminently qualified to hold a ministerial portfolio.

The intervention of the President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, was needed to douse the fire spitting from the Kogi senators, as Adeyemi was joined by the Senator from Kogi Central, Senator Otaru Ohize to roundly condemn the marginalisation of the two senatorial districts through the nomination.

With that fire doused, it was clear that the duo of Adukwu and Grange were settling down to work and they were also said to have enjoyed a cordial working relationship, notwithstanding the difference in age, when the bubble burst.

The duo was forced to resign their appointments following the revelation of the N300 million unspent budgetary fund scam. The fund was said to have been set aside by the ministry and shared among officials in contravention of the presidential directive that unspent funds at the end of December should be returned to the treasury.

While Grange and Adukwu claimed the responsibility for what happened in the ministry during their tenure, they have not accepted the guilt, even as the Abuja High Court is looking into the matter.

The combined effect of that scam also rocked the Senate, when it was revealed that the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, partook of the N300 million scam as she got N10 million from the money to fund the committee’s retreat that took place in Ghana.

Already, the presidency is said to be alarmed at the revelation that Madueke withdrew the large sum in contravention of the presidential order. As it is usual with President Yar’Adua, he will await the report of his agencies before taking the next step; but whatever happens, notwithstanding the attempts by some regulatory bodies to defend her, Diezani Allinson-Madueke has a lot of lessons to learn from this.