HOUSE OFFSIDE RULE ON FOREIGN FUNDS

 By Kayode Akinmade

The House of Representatives has left no one in doubt that accountability tops the table of its list of priorities. This mindset of the lawmakers in the House is coming against the backdrop of the fact that those in government and managing public funds are mere custodians of the funds, and that being so; the government officials are merely helping to disburse the monies. Unfortunately, for several years and under successive administrations in the country, the reverse has been the case. Under the successive governments in question, officials, whether elected or appointed, saw themselves as the bosses of the people to such an extent that carrying out their statutory responsibilities to Nigerians was seen as a favour. Added to this, government officials became irresponsible with public funds. There was no accountability in government. In fact, the main reason, for many, in going to government was to amass illicit wealth. While dictatorship under military regimes became the licence for corrupt enrichment, the whole essence of democracy under civilian administrations was defeated as elected officials were equally corrupt with no regard for accountability. The sum total of this ugly scenario must have compelled President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua while assuming office way back on May 29, 2007 to say that he would be the peoples “servant-leader”.

 The President also announced a seven-point agenda to take the nation out of the doldrums.  Yar’Adua appears to be doing something in actualizing the agenda. Tackling corruption is also no less high on the agenda of the President. Relevant government agencies, especially the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, are in the forefront of the campaign to clean the Augean stable. Agreed that Yar’Adua is confronting the monster called corruption headlong and attempting to instill accountability into our body polity, his efforts would simply have come to naught had conscious efforts not been made by the lawmakers at the federal level to complement them. The House of Representatives has demonstrated in unmistakable terms, at least since the leadership of Rt.Hon. Dimeji Sabur Bankole came on stream, that corruption must be battled to a standstill. At every opportunity, the House members have always preached accountability and transparency.

 Bankole appears to be very much at home with what has become the lawmaker’s catch phrase: Appropriate money for projects and follow up the money! They are not only interested in following up the money voted for projects in the exercise of their oversight function so that the people, the masses, who are the legitimate owners, get the best out of it. They are also interested in investigating the past with a view to finding out why the nation seemed not to be working despite the huge financial resources available to her. Lessons drawn there- from would at least guide in charting the way forward. The lawmakers are on the verge of concluding inquiry into why Nigeria remains in darkness inspite of the huge funds that had been spent on the power sector especially under the immediate past administration. The House is equally interested in the activities of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to such an extent that allegations of fraud in high places had been made in the oil sector. An investigation instituted into the sector is in progress. Mentioning the unspent funds running into billions of Naira recovered by the lawmakers may sound like flogging the issue .Yet, treating an issue like the contribution of the House to the quest to instill accountability in the way government spends the peoples money will be grossly incomplete without bringing to the front burner the funds recovered.

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While the lawmakers have said it loud and clear that they would not rest on their oars in making government officials accountable to the people, their latest efforts , aimed at tracking what is obviously the money of the people of Nigeria, will see them going offshore. After all, Nigerians money is Nigerians money wherever it may be. The money this time is not the one stashed abroad by corrupt politicians who held sway in government and pauperized the people over the years, and has been recovered and being repatriated in tranches by foreign governments in collaboration with our home government. The money is the foreign grants coming into Nigeria . The money comes into Nigeria from the rich, developed countries, multilateral and philanthropic organizations desirous of helping us overcome our problems, particularly in the area of stemming poverty and alleviating natural disasters. In other words, the grants are designed to help cope with the problem of underdevelopment. Many people have argued that we would not have needed the grants so badly had our leaders in the past managed our oil wealth properly. But the suggestion appears neither here nor there.

The issue on the front burner now is, how do we manage the funds, whether onshore or offshore, such that Nigerians can get maximum benefits from them? Foreign grants enter Nigeria through two main sources. One, through counterpart funding with any of the three tiers of government at home. Two, through the non-governmental organizations, NGOs. Only recently, the Federal Government announced that foreign grants to the tune of N370 billion had been received by it in the last one year. But, in the case of the grants received by the NGOs, determining what it amounted to during the period may be difficult unless the donor agencies provide the figures. Not being able to determine what goes into the NGOs as grants, as it are now clear, is only a small part of the problem. Whereas the grants are Nigerians funds because they are released to tackle projects that are of public interest, the bigger problem is that the NGOs have demonstrated outright lack of accountability in the disbursement.

Yet, these are grants in the hands of the NGOs that may amount to hundreds of billions of Naira. If N370 billion went to government as foreign grants in the last one year, no less than half of the monies would have also gone to the NGOs. Arising there from therefore is the question begging for answer: What happened to the foreign grants that came in through the NGOs? It is safe to conclude that there is not much on the ground to justify the grants to the NGOs. A story was once told of how NGOs in the country presumably set up to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic had been collecting huge funds from foreign donors without meeting up with the challenges. The funds simply disappeared into the pockets of those running the NGOs while the pandemic blossomed. This case study must have been replicated in virtually all other sectors of the nation. Worse still, some of these NGOs are said to be collecting funds from the foreign donors to execute projects adequately captured in the budget. In this case, the operators smile to the banks with the funds while government executes the projects. Nothing can be more fraudulent.

The situation must be reversed if the nation must get the best out of the foreign grants especially now that Nigeria needs all the funds she could muster to address her multifarious problems. The European Union, EU, one of the major foreign donors, said lately, specifically during a visit to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Bankole, that the EU has earmarked 550 million Euros (about N148 billion) more as grants to Nigeria this year. That amount coming from the EU alone means that Nigeria may have more in the kitty as more funds will, as it is always, come from the individual European counties, North America, especially the United States, the United Nations, the multilateral and philanthropic organizations. Some of these funds, as usual, will find their ways into the NGOs, which, as highlighted earlier, have become notorious for lack of accountability.

 It is against the backdrop of this notoriety that the decision of the House to monitor foreign grants coming into the country through the NGOs to ensure their judicious use should be applauded, Bankole had said during the EU delegation visit: “We can begin to track these funds (from foreign donors) by asking pertinent questions that will show desired outcome that will come to Nigeria”. The scenario can be likened to a football match in whom the foreign donors are the team in the offensive and about to score a goal, and in the goal scoring bid, pass the ball to the NGOs. The lawmakers say they want to be part of the goal scoring so that the desired outcome is served otherwise the goal will be ruled offside. Some of the NGOs have over the years ripped off the nation by collecting the foreign grants and spending as they liked, that is, without recourse to the purpose for which they were released. The House is saying the trend must stop. The committee to be inaugurated will track how the grants are spent, and the new dispensation will be to the benefit of all.

.Akinmade is special adviser on media to the Speaker House of Reps