A Commission of Inquiry was recently set up by the Taraba State Government to review financial dealings in the state Ministry for Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs between 2003 and 2007. CHUWANG DUNGS tries to unravel the salient reasons that led to the establishment of the commission.

On Monday 1st March 2010, Governor Danbaba Suntai of Taraba state set up a nine-man judicial commission of inquiry to be chaired by Justice Philibus Andetur to beam its searchlight into the affairs of the defunct state Ministry for Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs from May 2003 to May 2007. This was with a view to probing into the amount of money received on behalf of local government councils in the state from the federation account during the same period and how the money was utilised.

Other terms of reference of the commission were to ascertain the amount collected as loans on behalf of LGAS under the joint account, by whom and how such monies were disbursed to the councils; verify the mode of collection of value added withholding taxes, as well as ascertain whether such collections were properly remitted into the government coffers or not. It is also to identify individuals or groups of persons responsible for such collections, as well as consider whether there was embezzlement , mismanagement or diversion involved. The commission is also to recommend appropriate disciplinary measures that would lead to the recovery of such funds wrongly diverted or mismanaged as the case may be.

The panel is also to consider any other matter that is incidental to these issues and make further recommendations on measures to be taken. The panel was given four weeks to complete its assignment, effective from the date of its first public sitting.

Reasons advanced by government for setting up the commission were the public outcry on the abuse of public office, public trust and alleged mismanagement of the affairs of the ministry by some government functionaries during the period under review.

But, since the inauguration of the panel on Wednesday 3rd March by the state deputy governor, Sani Abubakar Danladi, the matter is generating serious questions among political analysts and observers in the state, as even those within the government circle are shocked by the development.

Some political analysts ask why will Governor Suntai not probe the whole of the past administration in which he served as Secretary, in place of just zeroing on only one ministry. They also queried the motive behind the setting up of the panel towards election period and who Suntai is targeting.

Speaking to LEADERSHIP, Ibrahim Hussaini, a former speaker in the state assembly said, in addressing the issue at stake, "we have to first look at the motive behind setting up of the panel at this period; we have to look at who is doing the investigation and who is being investigated and at whose instance."

Hussaini said other issues to be critically examined are the terms of reference of the committee and the law used in creating it. "On the other hand, we have to ask why investigating just a particular ministry in the state and within the period of 2003-2007 only," the former legislator queried.

According to him, in as much as there is nothing wrong in conducting investigations, it should be conducted with some sense of dignity, adding that there is a wider dimension to the setting up of the commission. In his view, it is not about public interest as claimed, as, "if it is to the interest of the public, I believe the investigation would have commenced long ago, let's say in the first year of the governor in office."

He went on that, the trial is all about politics and there are very important political considerations at stake, adding that "even though I am not a lawyer, it is time we shed light on how some people use the instrument of power and the law to intimidate political opponents, as this is an act of witch-hunting in the name of justice." He regretted that, Suntai is using the instrument of government to fight those that were instrumental to his success in life.

Similar feelings were expressed by Habu Isa Ajiya, also a former speaker in the state assembly. In his words, "I was baffled when I heard of the news that a panel of inquiry was set up by the governor, it beats my imagination to ask questions like, do people really have conscience at all?"

He said he expected the governor to act like Jang, his counterpart in Plateau, who, when asked to probe Dariye's administration, declined and said instead of wasting time, money, energy and other resources digging the past, he better uses same in developing the state and allow the people to assess and see which administration is better.

Ajiya said further that, although he is not trying to defend any individual, he wants to advise Suntai that, if he is sincere and sure there was mismanagement in the last administration which he served as SSG, then he should accept part of the blame and sweep the past under the carpet and map out ways of developing the state better. "He should please avoid issues that will divert his attention and save the state from controversies."

LEADERSHIP reliably gathered that, the setting of the panel was instigated by the state party chairman, Abdulmumuni Vaki, the deputy governor, Sani Abubakar and the SSG, Abubakar Tutare, as a political strategy to indict some persons and bury them politically, especially Danladi Baido and Mustapha Hamangabdo, who both served as commissioners in the ministry under probe within the period under review.

A key government official who was a top member of Nyame's administration, told our correspondent in anonymity that, he felt highly betrayed by what is going on. According to him, he had advised Suntai to allow a sleeping dogs lie and settle down to work instead of digging the past which may likely consume a lot of people. "I am afraid a lot of people will be consumed," he lamented.

According to him, the monies in question were used to finance the PDP campaign in the state, stressing that if Suntai will now come out in the name of investigating a development he was aware of, then he would look like someone who has no conscience. "Everybody in the state is aware that it was public funds that were used to finance PDP campaign in the state at all levels and he is now benefiting what was sown with public funds; if he claims that the system was bad, he should also know that he is a beneficiary of a bad system, so he should simply resign and apologize to the people of Taraba"

Just like what most members of the public are saying, this source also insisted that the investigation is politically-motivated and is targeted at Mustapha and Baido.

Danladi Baido, who won the PDP gubernatorial primaries, but was disqualified by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and immediately replaced by Suntai who was then the SSG, became the enemy of Suntai since he instituted a legal battle in an attempt to regain his mandate. He recently came out publicly lambasting Suntai of betrayal, which development according to those close to Suntai, has made the governor to vow to destroy Baido politically. This assertion may very well be true as the governor was quoted to have vowed to use all the power and resources at his disposal to cripple Baido and those behind him.

Mustapha, who is currently the special adviser to the Governor Suntai on political affairs, is said to  be haunted because of his senatorial ambition. LEADERSHIP gathered that he has vehemently refused to set-aside his ambition for the central senatorial seat to support the current SSG, who is also desperately gunning for the same position despite the intervention of some party stakeholders.

A source told our correspondent that a few weeks before the panel was set up, Mustapha was invited to a meeting and was asked to forget his ambition and throw his weight behind the SSG. But he stubbornly rejected the idea insisting that he cannot relinquish his ambition to Tutare, whom he termed as "unpopular". This and other factors have been advanced as some of the reasons why Tutare plotted the investigation as a way of nailing the Gashaka Prince.

Our source further said, Tutare is bent on dealing with any individual perceived as a threat to his senatorial dream, citing an example with the recent impeachment of the chairman of Gassol Local Government, his own locality. According to the source, Tutare, with the aid and support of the party and the deputy governor, spearheaded the "unjust" removal of Iliya Goje, because he was said to be a strong supporter of the incumbent senator. Another version of the story with regards to the setting of the panel is that, the act was hatched and masterminded by the state commissioner for justice, Ibrahim El-sudi also for political reasons and as vendetta against Mustapha’s family.

According to our source, the Attorney-General, who is from the same locality with the prince-Gashaka, is eyeing the House of Representatives and with Mustapha in the race for Senate, it will thwart his ambition knowing that the two seats cannot be zoned to the same local government.

Our source alleged further that, El-sudi is of the strong view that if the commission succeeds in indicting Mustapha, then he will have a smooth sail to the lower chamber of the National Assembly.

On the angle of vengeance, it will be recalled that at the advent of this administration, El-sudi was nominated as a ministerial candidate, but did not scale through the screening process and it was alleged that it was the Lamido of Gashaka, Mustapha's father, that used his influence to stop him from being a minister. Since then, he was said to have been nursing that grudge and waiting for an opportunity to pay back. Observers are of the view that this is likely one of the opportunities for the Barrister to administer vengeance on the royal family.

As analysts and political players await the panel to commence sitting, thousands of Tarabans are nursing suspicious feelings. Perhaps the only way Suntai will prove his sincerity is to investigate the entire Nyame administration including himself to prove to the public that he was not part of the corruption that was said to have characterized the former government.

Just as agitations for electoral reforms rage on, OBINNA OKORIE reviews the last Anambra gubernatorial election to argue that it is not really the laws that matter, but the will to adhere to them.

Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws - Plato

How time flies. It is already about a month since the much -hyped expected Anambra 2010 election was held. Yet, it just looks like yesterday. So much has been written and said, but the dominant opinion is that INEC, the security agencies, observers, the NYSC members who formed the ad hoc staff team, even the candidates, the politicians and the people of Anambra all emerged victorious. Peter Obi, only won the Governorship of the hitherto brigandage-prone State, but all the stakeholders, especially the INEC, all came out with their heads high.

That eventful day in the annals of the Nigerian electoral history is a clear proof that when there is the will, there will always be a way. We have one of the bulkiest Constitutions in the world and a sizeable Electoral Act, yet we crave for more laws we wouldn't obey. An average Nigerian expects the Constitution to go beyond the basic principles of power relations and our association as a common entity to spell out to him/her when to wake up, brush teeth, take breakfast, go to work, do laundry, etc. But laws are neither the end in themselves nor do laws obey themselves. And until Nigerians are ready to obey the available laws, and act in the common interest of the nation and their next-door neighbour, we would never get it right. Anambra election which has caught the fancy of a great majority of Nigerians and foreign missions and observers, was conducted without any amendments to the Constitution or the electoral laws. Yet it went so smoothly and credibly, irrespective of a few hitches.

Several reasons can be adduced for this. One was the obvious commitment of INEC and its leadership. It stamped its feet and authority to say that enough was enough. It brought so many anti-rigging innovations that sent the right signals to the politicians that it was not business as usual. Internal reforms and innovations, such as the doing away with the politicians and their agents who normally clothe themselves in the garb of ad-hoc staff with the sole motive of making money. Coupled with this was the innovative setting up of a respected Election Monitoring Board to be part of the processes leading up to the election. It is on record that the no-nonsense disposition of INEC in sacking some moles among its staffers found to have colluded with some political bad eggs to doctor the voter register, as well as the far-reaching mobilization campaign against violence, and the deployment of customised ballot papers sent the candidates campaigning from one nook and cranny of the State to another, scavenging for votes which they had realised were some of the other tickets to victory. In fact, one of the candidates had to adopt a baby born on his campaign ground, all in a bid to endear himself to the electorate who had regained their place as the kingmakers, once again. Yet, no single word of the Constitution or the Electoral Act changed to bring such brilliant internal reforms about. Somebody or should I say, the Commission, simply put its experience to bear. And that is one big advantage of continuity in such delicate jobs. If we must sack or call for the sack of handlers of such sensitive jobs like we do our football coaches, simply because mistakes were noticed or even because some selfish interests were disgruntled, then we would have lost everything. Afari Gyang, Chairman of Ghana's electoral commission said that much during one of his visits to Nigeria. We can never buy experience from Alaba Market.

But it is also very imperative to note without prejudice to INEC's efforts, that Anambra would have probably turned out to be a bad story, once again, had the Police and all the security agencies failed to leave up to their duties as in the past. The Inspector-General of Police was the first to blow the lead off the macabre agenda of some nefarious candidates and politicians. That was when he told the candidates and party chairpersons point blank at a meeting at the Force Headquarters that he was aware that they had recruited thugs and revamped outlawed groups, stockpiled arms and ammunitions, etc to be deployed in rigging the elections. Though he assured that would be over his dead body, the good thing was that he lived up to the vow, deploying over 23,000 police personnel in addition to security officers from other agencies. At the end of the day, Anambra 2010 became about the best policed elections in our recent history. Yet, no single line of the Constitution or the Electoral Act had changed.

The political class also behaved themselves in a most civilised manner. The do-or-die mentality was either voluntarily jettisoned or occasioned by the over-policing of the state or even for fear of the curses which the traditional institutions in the State had gathered before the election to put on the head, family and linage of anyone that would cause violence or resort to the usual electoral brigandage. Whatever it was, the important thing is that they were so wonderful that even some of the major candidates visited Peter Obi to congratulate him.

The electorate, even when many of them could not find their names in the voters register to enable them exercise their franchise, refused to resort to violence. They also queued patiently, even when the materials were yet to arrive in some polling booths. If any one had sold his or her ballot, it was not noticeable or brazen as it used to be. The youths refused to be used as cannon fodders too. Yet in all these, not a letter of the Constitution or Electoral Act had changed. For once in recent times, we saw Nigerians behaving in a most civilised manner.

Therefore, the major lesson we must take from the credible election we had in Anambra is that, it is not just about laws and reforms. It is not that I don't t consider them necessary, but not in the fashion some people are painting it. Does the extant law permit people to file fake documents or political parties to field people with forged certificates? But we have seen it happen over and over again. Even the AC, INEC's critic-in-chief, lost a House of Representatives seat in Lagos State last year when the Appeal Court nullified it over forged/fake certificates.

So, one can only agree with Plato that good people do not really need all the laws in the world to act responsibly and that irrespective of the magnitude of our reforms and the heap of our laws, we would never get free, fair, and credible elections unless there is sizable collective will by all electoral stakeholders to do the right thing. Fat will, not fat laws, does the magic.

It is good that the Nigerian Army has once again pledged absolute loyalty to the Constitution and all legitimately constituted authorities in the land. The latest pledge was made in reaction to an allegation that the Chief of the Army Staff stated that his loyalty was only to the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, who has in the last three months, been suffering from failing health and has consequently been confined to bed. In a strongly-worded and detailed statement, the Director of Army Public Relations challenged those who have been peddling the allegation to state where the statement was made, the time, to whom it was made or any person who witnessed it or any communication medium which carried it. The purported statement is one of the several dangerous rumours which frequently make the round in Nigeria.

In his latest book, "You Must Set Forth At Dawn," Wole Soyinka, the 1986 winner of Nobel Prize for literature, denounces the outrageous propensity of Nigerian people towards rumours. Still, as the aphorism goes, there is no smoke without fire. What gave rise to the allegation that the army chief vowed that he would take orders from no-one except the very president who appointed him to the high office?  Much as the claim was untrue, it will be wrong to dismiss it as being utterly baseless. One or two related major events in recent times seemed to provide the foundation for the suspicion in some quarters that the Chief of Army Staff might have said so.

One was the president's return to Nigeria at about 2 am on Wednesday, February 24, 2010, after 93 days at a hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The Acting President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, was not in the know that he was coming back. He got to know like most other citizens, that is, after Al Jazeera, the Arab news channel based in Doha, Qatar, broadcast it and other global broadcasters like the CNN International, took a cue from it. The president's arrival was heralded by a huge military presence at the airport, even though no ceremonies were scheduled to be performed. Soldiers and officers of the Brigade of Guards were drafted to the airport and even deployed to the streets in the Federal Capital Territory principally to shield the president from being seeing by his own people, including journalists. He was not a wonderful sight to behold.

Nigerians are very emotional and if they had caught a glimpse of their leader in such a pitiable condition they would have developed far greater sympathy for Yar'Adua as a fellow human being going through personal turmoil than most of his aides and family members could have possibly imagined. Yet, his family and kitchen cabinet blew off this opportunity for fear that it would be obvious to even the blind that the president has become too incapacitated to continue with his presidential duties. This would mean a quick and formal end to the Yar'Adua presidency and with it all the perks, authority and power of office.

The other reason the public believed the rumour that the Chief of Army Staff said that he was only loyal and answerable to Yar'Adua has to do with the conduct of presidential aides on the day the president was furtively brought back to Nigeria in the dead of the night. Both the president's aide de camp (ADC) and Chief Security Officer (CSO) were reported to have gone to the Executive Council of the Federation chambers a few hours after the president arrived and stood behind the president's regular seat, apparently to see if Dr Jonathan, as acting president, would dare sit there. Every step was taken by security operatives to intimidate the acting president. The next day, the president's Special Adviser on Communication Olusegun Adeniyi, issued a statement where Dr Jonathan was addressed throughout as the vice president, and not the acting president. Put succinctly, the Yar'Adua camp and family had refused to recognise Jonathan as Acting President, even though he was elevated to the office by the resolutions of both chambers of the National Assembly; to say nothing about the decision of the Nigeria Governors' Forum, or the position of Arewa, or that of Ohaneze or Afenifere or that of all elder statesmen in Nigeria or all Non-Governmental Organisations or the media.

The question every Nigerian has been asking since February 23, when Yar'Adua was smuggled into the country is: who deployed the troops to Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport and streets of Abuja without the acting president being aware? The official explanation was that it is within the competence of the Brigade of Guards to receive the president or see him off at the airport without reference to anyone. This explanation would have been persuasive if the situation were normal. But in a situation where the president was returning after being away for as long as three months on grave health grounds was very unusual. Could the commander of the Brigade of Guards have deployed the troops without the Chief of Army Staff knowing?  Unlikely. If it is argued that the army chief was bound to know because it was a purely military affair, how did civilians like the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Adamu Aliero, get to know that the President was coming back home and, therefore, went to the airport to welcome him?

Why was Dr Jonathan in the dark despite being not just the substantive vice president but also the acting president of the Federal Republic, and, ipso facto, the acting commander-in-chief? The president's Special Adviser on Communication has claimed that Yar'Adua's personal physician sent to Dr Jonathan the president's medical report through the Nigerian Embassy in Jeddah five days to his return We could give Adeniyi the benefit of the doubt. Now, if the president's personal physician was sensible enough to send a confidential medical report to the acting president in recognition of his office, why did Yar'Adua's ADC, a Colonel, find it unnecessary to intimate the acting president that his boss was returning home after three months? It is most likely that the ADC requested the commander of the Brigade of Guards to mobilise troops to the airport and streets, but keep the information absolutely secret. The ADC himself must have acted on the instructions of a powerful personality whose love of power and office is legendary.

Is political power worth more than Yar'Adua's life? In the effort to cling to power by all means, all manner of divisive and dangerous primordial cleavages are being played up. Yar'Adua's lackeys claim Dr Jonathan should be prevented from exercising full presidential powers because "it is the turn of the North to produce the president". This is crass opportunism. These lackeys are working for themselves, and not the North. In fact, they are working against the North. The North is as much a victim of Yar'Adua's poor health and consequent ineptitude as the rest of the country, if not a worse victim. None of the indicators of modern social and economic development favours the North. Virtually all the industries in Kano and Kaduna states have crumbled.  Yar'Adua has no concrete plan to rehabilitate them or even fix the poor infrastructural facilities like electricity and roads which contributed enormously to their collapse. All the same, the nation welcomes the statement by the Chief of Army Staff that it is loyal to not individuals but to the Constitution and legitimate authorities. We hope that the attempt to use the military to intimidate acting president should not repeat itself in any circumstance. Enough conflicting signals from the army.

• Umar Yakubu Aliyu Abuja

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