• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Muruako confirmed as Fiscal Responsibility Commission chair after 7yrs

Muruako confirmed as Fiscal Responsibility Commission chair after 7yrs

After seven years in acting capacity, the Senate on Thursday confirmed the nomination of Victor Muruako as chairman of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC).

An analyst told BusinessDay that the confirmation may not be unconnected with the Federal Government’s desire to strengthen its anti-corruption institutions and improve its corruption perception index in 2021 and 2022.

Though some senators expressed divergent views on why the president did not forward the names of others board members, the confirmation of Muruako without other board members means he will work as sole administrator, at least for now.

Muruako’s confirmation followed consideration of the report of the Senate Committee on Finance, chaired by Solomon Olamilekan Adeola (APC, Lagos-West).

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Senate Leader Yahaya Abdullahi objected to the confirmation of the nominee after the report was presented for consideration on the basis that full nominations to the commission’s board was yet to be forwarded to Senate by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Abdullahi said the chairman cannot be confirmed alone without the complement of full membership of the board.

He, therefore, moved a motion for the confirmation to be stepped down pending when the president constitutes the commission’s board and sends the nominations to the upper chamber for screening and confirmation.

In his response, Senate President Ahmad Lawan prevailed on his colleagues for the Senate to confirm the nominee pending when the full list of nominees was sent to the Senate by the president.

“If we don’t confirm, this person would still be acting, so it makes little or no difference really,” Lawan said.

“I suggest we do the confirmation and insist that the chairman does not constitute the board of the commission, because the commission is supposed to have the full complement of what the law says. So, we do the confirmation and write to the executive to nominate the remaining people to form the commission.

“But let me also remark here that the man has acted for over seven years, and yet this commission, I personally don’t know what they are doing. What are they doing?

“So, the chairman, when he is confirmed, has a huge responsibility to turn around this commission for it to perform efficiently and effectively.

“Otherwise, for him to be there seven years acting, and then fours years – that is eleven years – running that commission, probably he did it as a sole administrator over the years, and that is simply not acceptable because the Fiscal Responsibility Commission is such an important commission that we need to have everybody who is supposed to be there, and they have to sit up, especially the man who would lead this,” he said.

After listening to the views of a few other senators, including Deputy Senate President Ovie Omo-Agege (APC, Delta Central), James Manager (PDP, Delta South), and Ibn Na’Allah, the Senate confirmed Muruako as chairman of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission.

Jide Ojo, an Abuja-based analyst, told BusinessDay that the move towards strengthening the anti-corruption agencies was to improve Nigeria’s image in the corruption perception index of Transparency International.

Ojo said getting a substantive chairman for the Fiscal Responsibility Commission was one of the weapons the Federal Government could deploy in fighting corruption.

He said the appointment of Orji Ogbonnaya Orji as the executive secretary of Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) was also a pointer that the president was looking in the way of curbing corruption.

“The Federal Government wants to do better in the fight against corruption and improve its corruption perception index in 2021 and 2022. The president wants to strengthen the institutions fighting corruption. Few days back, the president forwarded the name of Abdulrasheed Bawa to be confirmed as the substantive chairman of EFCC,” Ojo said.

“So the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) is one weapon you deploy in fighting corruption and when you are in acting capacity, you are like an interim manager of that organisation, but when you are confirmed statutorily, you are self-assured, but the area where I am concerned is that other members were not confirmed. So he has to be running as a sole administrator pending when other members are confirmed. Nevertheless, it is a step in the right direction.

“Earlier today (Thursday), Orji Ogbonnaya Orji was nominated as executive secretary of Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI). This is another anti-corruption agency. So when you look at the nomination, you see that the president is actually heading somewhere in the fight against corruption,” he said.