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Pulse Opinion: Lawmakers who demanded bribe from NAFDAC boss should face the music

In Mallam Nasir el-Rufai’s “The Accidental Public Servant”, the current Governor of Kaduna tells the story of how he refused to offer bribe money to the National Assembly before his appointment by then President Olusegun Obasanjo as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Prof Mojisola Adeyeye of NAFDAC says lawmakers demanded bribe money from her (Guardian)

The lawmakers demanded for the money as a precondition for clearing then ministerial nominee el-Rufai, the author shares in a sorry tale concerning the greed that has permeated the political class. El-rufai was never forgiven by the lawmakers who made life difficult for him whilst his tenure lasted, he says.

Two decades later, another public servant is sharing the story of how lawmakers asked her for “welfare money” even when they are aware that her agency is suffering from paucity of funds.

“When I came to NAFDAC, there were a lot of things that were wrong. Take oversight function that was done. I was shocked when I was told to give money. And I said, money for what? The money was demanded by the Healthcare services of the House of Representatives”, Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof Mojisola Christianah Adeyeye, disclosed on a recent ChannelsTV breakfast program.

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Prof Adeyeye says the monetary demand from lawmakers left her shell-shocked. “I was shocked because this is the same day I went through all presentations. We don’t have equipment. About 70 percent of our equipment need to be upgraded. We are ISO certified. That means if we use equipment that is not ISO certified, there’s a problem. We don’t have vehicles. And you need vehicles to go after the bad guys or to ensure compliance. Directors didn’t have computers, laptops, things like that.

“It was shortly after that that they then asked me: “we need welfare”. I couldn’t believe my ears. It saddens me. NAFDAC is an organization that is bleeding. Or that was bleeding. We are no longer bleeding. Thank God. It was the worst day of my professional life as the chief regulator. But it wasn’t taken well at all. I was threatened”, she adds. 

Adeyeye says the lawmakers reminded her of the fate that befell another public servant who was kicked out of office for refusing to play ball. “It saddens me because we don’t have another country”, she said agonizingly. 

According to the NAFDAC boss, the incident occurred in December of 2017, barely a month after she got the job.

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Adeyeye’s story should of course not come as a surprise to anyone who is familiar with how the National Assembly operates, but that doesn’t make what they do right.

In 2012, businessman Femi Otedola blew the lid on how Hon Farouk Lawan demanded for and received kickback from him to the tune of $620,000, in order to have his company delisted from a roll call of oil and gas firms making a killing off an illicit petrol subsidy regime. 

Otedola enlisted the services of security operatives who video-taped the lawmaker stashing wads of ‘blackmail’ money in his cap, while smiling sheepishly. “As far as I know, Lawan could not have been working alone in this extortionist plot. A tree does not make a forest,” Otedola said. “Actions of today by the house is laughable, a mere celebration of corruption and a further indictment on their honorable member.”

Recall also that in 2007, Obasanjo’s third term agenda reportedly cost Nigeria millions of dollars. It was said that bribe money found its way to the National Assembly from the presidency in ambulances during the Obasanjo era, according to a book by Dr Chidi Odinkalu and Ayisha Osori titled: ‘Too Good to Die: Third Term and the Myth of the Indispensable Man in Africa’.

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According to the co-authors, the claim that ambulances in the presidency “were used to transport cash during the tenure elongation process was not surprising”.

“It underscores the nature and role of money in President Obasanjo’s effort to ascend to a god-presidency and holds the key to understanding why President Obasanjo’s tenure elongation project became so damaging to the long-term prospects of democracy and its institution in Nigeria,” they wrote.

The third term agenda was said to have gulped about $500 million, according to the authors, before its eventual collapse on the floor of the senate.

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El-Rufai was quoted in the book as saying the constitutional amendment bill designed to hand Obasanjo another term in office “went before the National Assembly with hundreds of millions of dollars raised to procure its passage”.

Lawmaking in Nigeria has become an avenue to make illicit money, fleece private sector players and threaten the upright. Like most facets of the nation, the National Assembly reeks of corruption, greed and moral turpitude. And these are the same lawmakers who take home millions of Naira annually in what has become known as “jumbo pay”. 

The National Assembly stands as an embodiment of all that is wrong with us as a people. A lawmaking body that tramples on the law is a shame on the tenets underpinning democratic governance. 

Before writing this piece, I called and sent a text message to Hon Abdlurazak Namdas, spokesperson of the House of Representatives, for a reaction to Prof Adeyeye’s allegations. None has come after hours of waiting. 

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However, what we must not do is allow the 8th House of Representatives and the powers that be sweep Adeyeye's allegations under the carpet. How many persons have lost their lives because NAFDAC has been poorly equipped? Do we even sit down to think of the nexus between corruption and avoidable deaths of our compatriots? Only a heartless lawmaker should be trying to coerce money off NAFDAC.

Lawmakers often solicit bribes from heads of agencies, parastatals and ministries, most of whom say nothing afterwards. Adeyeye has spoken up where many have chosen to go quiet. Law enforcement must encourage others to speak up by investigating her allegations and punishing those found culpable. We can’t continue to encourage bribery and corruption on the grounds that “everybody is doing it”, otherwise, we'd be just as complicit as the light fingered lawmakers we often condemn.

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