Port Harcourt — Barely 10 days to the gubernatorial election in Osun State, Governor Ademola Adeleke suddenly had no access to a key account of the state. This was serious if not perilous. In the political setting of Nigeria, a governor is alpha and omega in his state. His smile can plant you in a well-watered garden as a frown can sentence you to the desert. Adeleke was angry.
For once, since he came into office, his approvals and signature meant nothing when it came to this account with First Bank. According to the Osun State Government, the account is used to pay salaries and pensions and fund other obligations, and the failure of this aspect of governance would be damning in an election period.
You’ll understand their anxiety when you consider that the August 15 election is a tough one by many standards. Created in August 1991, Osun State has been ruled by 10 governors, military and civilian. The State has seen an eclectic mix of governors from the Alliance for Democracy and APC to PDP. Governor Adeleke was elected on the platform of the PDP in 2022 but decamped to Accord Party. If he wins, Accord Party will have produced its first state governor in Nigeria.
One man who wants to ensure he doesn’t win is his predecessor, Adegboyega Oyetola of the APC who lost his bid for re-election and was “compensated” with an appointment as Minister of Marine and Blue Economy. The freezing of the account was said to be his idea to strangulate the state government and probably deny them the use of state resources to finance the election.
But the EFCC said the freezing of the account was part of an investigation into misuse of public funds which began in March and it had to freeze the account to stem a sudden flow of funds from it. It said the action was temporary and in line with the Act setting it up. As you will expect, Accord Party condemned the move and demanded “the immediate resignation of the EFCC chairman” for bringing “the nation to ridicule and disrepute before the international community.”
Then, the State House waded in. President Bola Tinubu said he didn’t know about the EFCC action and was embarrassed by it just days before the state elections. He didn’t give details, but I imagine that the root of his disappointment would be the alarm of mounting political intolerance ahead of the 2027 elections raised by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria when they paid a courtesy call on him on July 28. The president directed the EFCC to withdraw the action. Many people have praised him for the quick intervention, but a conundrum has emerged and we’re poorer for it if we don’t confront certain truths.
First, is the EFCC empowered to freeze the accounts of a state? Ignore the noise, the short answer is “yes.” Senior lawyers say the EFCC can under the law setting it up, freeze the account of any state and back it up with a court application within three days. The EFCC chairman is a lawyer of many years’ experience so he should know what he is doing.
It is instructive that the president did not say the freezing of the Osun State account was illegal. He was rather against the timing. This leads us to the second aspect of the conundrum. Should the anti-graft body be stopped from doing its work simply because of elections? Human rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria Femi Falana alluded to this when he said: “We must be very careful that we don’t give a dangerous impression that when elections are 10 days away, 20 days away, 30 days away, the anti-graft agencies must turn the other eye—’Don’t look at the state or the federal government.’ And so, if funds are being moved to the tune of billions of naira, ‘Don’t look at them—I mean, don’t look at those funds because elections are coming.’ It’s a very dangerous impression that is being created.”
Falana has made a serious point. Indeed, while the president’s move may appear to preserve democratic norms, it reinforces the age-old suspicion that anti-corruption campaigns are conducted on the whims of the latest occupant of Aso Villa. Read my lips and you’ll get what I mean. Nigerians suffer from a debilitating inability to go below the surface and ask the hard questions to get the answers that will move our polity and nation forward.
If you ask me, the legal process would have been allowed to play out in the Osun matter. Nobody, including me, likes the tax man. It will be strange if a body that can send former ministers and governors to jail through its prosecution of corruption will be popular or acceptable by all. As Falana wondered, is it okay for the EFCC to look the other way simple because politicians are campaigning for office, when in fact, it is at such periods that state governors pillage the public purse to fund their campaigns?
My emphatic answer is “no.” Governor Adeleke may soon be able to access the state government accounts but the conundrum of enforcing public accountability in Nigeria remains unresolved.
