Babachir Lawal: A corrupt, arrogant and unproductive SGF

“If in the wisdom of the President, he decided that he needed someone who would have unfettered access to him to advise him on national issues and governance and he decided to appoint me and [I am] therefore regarded as a cabal, I have no apology” These were the words of Babachir Lawal while reacting to the interview granted by Aisha Buhari, the wife of the President. This is truly a manifestation of arrogance by Babachir Lawal, the suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation. One was not whatsoever surprised when he asked ‘who is the presidency’ when he was confronted by Aso Rock Villa reporters on his suspension by the presidency. Even though Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to the President on Publicity has come out to regard the question as rhetoric in nature, which only Babachir Lawal could provide answer to, it goes to show the extent to which an appointee of the President can go to make caricature of an institution like the presidency.

 

Babachir Lawal has been in the news recently for the wrong reasons. He was accused of corruption by the Senate after an adhoc committee on mounting humanitarian concern in the North East found him guilty of corrupt practices. As the supervising office over the Presidential Initiative on the North East, PINE, Babachir Lawal was found to have awarded contracts to his cronies, notable among which was Rholavision, a firm in which he was a director. The Senate also discovered many of the firms which benefited from the contracts award did not to have verifiable addresses, while procedure for award of such contracts were found to have violated the procurement act of 2007. When he was invited to throw more light on these allegations, he called the bluff of the Senate and refused to attend, sending representative to the committee for such presentation. When the committee found him guilty and demanded for his sack, he called their action balderdash, another smack of arrogance.
However, the President could not act on the report submitted to him by the Senate on Babachir Lawal, citing reasons of; lack of quorum in the signatories to the report, the nature of the report, which was an interim report and that Babachir Lawal was not given a fair hearing by the Senate. This generated a loud outcry front the general public who believed that the reasons cited by the President were at variance with the facts of the case against Babachir Lawal. The corrupt conducts demonstrated by him, which include a conflict of interest in the award of contract, were not given attention by the President and the Attorney General of the Federation who reviewed the Senate report.
When another opportunity was given to Babachir Lawal to appear before the Senate committee, he evaded the invitation with various excuses ranging from sending representative and rescheduling of date. He later went to court to challenge his probe by the Senate. This is outright demonstration of corrupt tendencies. In the almost two years of this administration, there has been no cohesion between the legislature and the executive arm of government. Many do not realise that ensuring a healthy relationship between the two arms of government also form part of the duties of the SGF. Babachir Lawal has failed woefully in this aspect. He was suppose to ensure the smooth running of government in Nigeria, where there is harmony between the legislature and the executive arm of government on one hand and to assume a virile liaison between the government and the ruling party on the other hand. All these have been absent since he assume the office of the SGF. What we have had is a rancourous relationship, fuelled by his corrupt, inept and arrogant conducts. No wonder, his name features prominently in the letter written by Elrufai, the Governor of Kaduna State to the President, which was leaked to the press recently by persons in the presidency. According Elrufai, in his letter, Babachir Lawal is one of those forming a clog on the wheel of this administration.
One of the issues causing disaffection today in the ruling party is the inability of the government to appoint party faithful to board of government parastatals and agencies. These appointments have been outstanding since his appointment as SGF and getting those to fill these positions is one of the functions of his office. Now that this function has been taken away from him to the office of the Vice President, board appointments are being made and party faithfuls are being appointed to fill these vacancies.
Babachir Lawal has been so unproductive with absolute lack of creativity and initiatives to drive the President’s concept of governance, especially in the areas of appointments, anti corruption and the rebuilding of the North East. As the SGF, one would have expected him to develop a clear direction for PMB anti corruption fight, with some socio-economic campaigns, to educate Nigerians on what corruption really means, especially with the launch of the “change begin with me” initiative of the government. Instead he was more enmeshed in corrupt conduct.
Again, as the supervising office over the Presidential Initiative on the North East, PINE, one would have expected some new inputs in the structure and function of the body, different from what was inherited from the previous government. One would have also expected him to give a bite to the body, so as to ensure the redemption of all pledges made during the launch of the body during the previous administration. But no, he preferred to steal from what others have laboured hard to put in place, to help the displaced people of the north east. No new input was made to the re constitution of the body from what it was during GEJ government, with TY Danjuma as the Chairman. According to TY Danjuma, at the re launch of PINE last year, over N50Bn was pledged to the Initiative during the previous government out of which about N25Bn was redeemed, leaving a balance of about N25Bn. The big question is what effort did Babachir Lawal make to ensure the redemption of the balance of all the pledges? None! Rather he stole from cash collected through other people effort.
One of the biggest shortcomings of this government is lack of personality with cut edge experience in governance and politics around the President. And one of them and the biggest is the suspended SGF. He has never been creative and has shown no initiative to drive governance.
Though Babachir Lawal had conspired with the AGF in the past to mislead the President into keeping him in office since the discovering of his monumental corrupt conducts, his suspension is a welcome development for this government. For me I see this suspension as an exit route for his final departure from government corridor. The presence of the AGF in the committee to investigate him is suspicious though. I expect the integrity of the Vice President to have an overriding influence on the AGF funny conduct.