We have often heard about the legislative arm inviting heads and management members of government establishments as part of the legislative business. They call it oversight function. Unfortunately, oversight has risen to the status of the most tenacious, persistent catchphrase in our democratic lexicon, having effectively discharged other coinages (nascent, fledgling, learning process, truncate) with which we dubbed the misadventures of the legislative arm in Nigeria’s democracy.
Oversight has two broad meanings that seem parallel. On the one hand it implies supervision, control, superintendence, etc. The other meaning suggests a failure (perhaps in our context, a deliberate refusal) to notice, or to overlook. When appropriately employed, oversight is a constitutional design put in place to strengthen the tenets of democratic policing known as checks and balances, a veritable means to eschew the arbitrariness of the executive by allowing the legislature supervise the former’s implementation of the appropriation bill. The second meaning is often intended whenever an invitation is extended to any MDA of government and there’s murmuring among us, ordinary Nigerians, that the house wants its share of the loot. It connotes an abuse of that important mechanism which results in the sleaze that mars our democratic efforts.
In the not distant past, legislative oversight brought to public attention the enormous opprobrious acts that had bedeviled some government agencies. Nigerians will eternally remain grateful to the National Assembly for erupting the malfeasance that rocked the Independent Power Project, the scam that gulped billions of common wealth in the name of fuel subsidy and many similar sleazy activities of government agencies. The citizenry will continue to applaud the legislature if its conduct in overseeing is aboveboard, forthright and veracious. But where the oversight function opens a can of worms which the legislators themselves find edible, they clamber for mouthfuls and befuddle their will to supervise. They lose their voice to speak against the impropriety and subsequently their reputation before the people they represent. The Farouk Lawal and Patricia Ette legislative oversight calamities should have taught our “honourable” lawmakers to thread more carefully so that the arm-twisting of government agencies for bribes or contracts does not backfire.
The point of this article is to forewarn the Enugu State House of Assembly and its Committee on Education about the inherent risk they have undertaken by inviting the Rector of the Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu, Prof. Mike Iloeje, for questioning. It is a daunting task given the personality of Prof. Iloeje.
Enugu State citizens are praying fervently that this exercise does not culminate in the kind of dramatic twist that occurred when their predecessors, in 2013, invited Prof. Iloeje to admonish him for not admitting all the candidates whose names they had sent to him for ND or HND admissions. Iloeje vanquished the lawmakers by confronting them with details of the candidates they sponsored to show that majority of them were neither their constituents nor indigenes of Enugu State. He did not stop there. He produced copies of his detailed telephone call and SMS log as well as documents to show how he had obliged most members with requests for employment, supply, contracts, etc. Honourable members apologized profusely for their misadventure. And like frightened rats, scurried back to their chambers and kept a dignified distance from Iloeje’s IMT.
The scenario today is, however, markedly different because the assembly members have become more experienced. The conduct and demeanour of this house seems to portray a saner and more purposeful leadership, having on more than one occasion averted internal rife and bickering, the biggest undoing of Nigeria’s legislature that depict them as pawns in the board game of the executive arm. Today’s assembly members seem more poised and responsive. Their complimentary cards are no longer being bandied around to officers for favours to often underserving mistresses and arms wielding thugs . That is an undeniable plus.
The news has also filtered back on campus that the several square bags of Ghana-must-go “roger” money dispatched to key functionaries and members of the House could have been turned down. This is likely to have deflated the confidence of some of the top officers of the school. Their swagger has become less expansive and there is palpable apprehension among principal officers and their collaborators. The rumour that circulates wildly in the institution is that the documents being demanded by the house contain damning information about the financial impurity that has characterised successive administrations in IMT. Chances are that this may not be one of such probes that is a victim of stillbirth; dead on arrival.
Since the legislators have not compromised their exalted office or tainted their hands with the crumbs of executive feasting, this invitation is truly welcome having been long overdue. The IMT stinks and the stench reeks up to high heavens. It is rather strange that the House of Assembly has not been choked to death by the pungent odour oozing from the school. Suffice it to say that they have endured all these years, having once been beaten. Now that they have meticulously gathered their facts, is this going to be a mere barking of a toothless house or will it have the required bite to make the oversight function worthy of its name?
The colossal influence that Prof. Iloeje wields in Enugu State is such that going against him may be an uphill task. His connections reach deeply into government circles, the political class and the clergy. That is how he has been able to get away with the most heinous administrative and financial misconduct. But if the House has the courage to take him up let them remember to inquire into some of the following:
Why the IMT maintains 43 (or more) different bank accounts even when most governments and institutions now run single accounts. The Rector had lied to the governor that there were only 18 bank accounts during the visitor’s unscheduled visit to the school. Even that number is unwieldy.
Why the Rector illegally employed and backdated the dates of employment and confirmation of the appointments dates of senior staff even after the governor had placed embargo on employment. These persons were not interviewed as they were hoisted on the institution without regard to their ability or suitability. Only the council is empowered to employ senior staff and the IMT has not had a council since 2011. These actions border on arbitrariness.
What is Rector’s interest in an agreement with Afrihub in which IMT borrowed N300 million from First Bank, paid back the loan and still pays its so-called partner N20 million monthly?
How come money accruing from the fees of IMT’s three hostels is paid into the account of a so-called partner who renovated only two hostels? It was meant to be a BOT (Build Operate and Transfer) arrangement in which the partner renovated (not built) only two hostels. The question that begs for an answer is in whose pocket the fees for the third (female) is paid.
Why IMT collects hostel fees over and above the number of spaces it has? They did that two years ago and were forced by the ICPC to refund the money to affected students. They did it last year and made no refund. This time they have employed the services of cult groups to intimidate and harrass agitating students to shut up.
Why does the Rector award contracts that run into millions of naira, far above his threshold?
Why does the Rector engage in contract splitting?
What tender’s board sits to determine and approve those contracts?
Why does the Rector publicly admit knowledge of the highest levels of academic fraud (students contributing money to have a lecturer overlook their cheating in exam hall) yet would allow such to continue? The House Committee chairman on Education heard him directly at the opening of an international conference on March 7, 2016.
Why does the Rector has allowed all structures in the IMT except those he built to rot away? In particularly pitiable states are Golan Heights, Engineering Block, SHH, former Igwe J. U. Nwodo Mass Comm Complex, Onyisi Halls, ETF Block, Science Tech Block, Computer Science Dept, etc.
If the House succeeds, this effort will go down in history as a feat that will rescue a once great institution from the clutches of a ruthless mercantile group parading as academic administrators. If it fails IMT will continue be an academic poultry for churning out tissue-bone broilers, only fit for the dinner table.
. Onwumelu, a public affairs commentator, writes from Enugu.
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