Edu, Faruk, et al: And Nigeria’s Deep State
Presently trending across the country’s media terrain and gossip circles, is the wave of scurrilous tales about unwholesome financial dealings, which are swirling around the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development (FMHDS). The scandals centre on two successive ministers - namely Sadiya Umar Farouk, the pioneer minister who served between 2019 and 2023, as well as Betta Edu who was just appointed in 2023 and left office in 2024. Without any doubt, the rumours around their respective tenures have thrown them up as ‘whipping boys’ for the despicable culture of guile and sleaze in the country’s public service.
Initially, the rap was on Sadiya Farouk over allegations surrounding unaccounted for sums of money totaling N37.1 billion, and which were intended for wiping away tears from the faces of under privileged Nigerians, but ended up in the wrong pockets. For such a development, she has been under investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Later, another scandal which originated from the same ministry, has claimed the ministerial office of newly appointed minister Betta Edu and successor to Sadiya Farouk, after the latter’s suspension from office by President Bola Tinubu. She is also under investigation by the EFCC for allegedly paying the sum of N585 million of public funds into a private bank account, and in contravention of extant rules governing the management of public funds. Both of them were still guests of the anti-graft agency, as at the time of writing this piece.
Placed on the time line of similar acts of questionable transactions by public officers across the country, these instances must be among the latest chapters in the public domain, of an endless stream of mindboggling hemorrhages of the common patrimony of Nigerians. Without referring to the immediate past government of Muhamadu Buhari, the complement of exposed questionable dealings in the public space within just seven months of the new Tinubu administration, remains disturbingly escalating, to say the least.
First was the case of questionable dealings at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), where the appointment of a special investigator by President Bola Tinubu has been rewarded with mind-boggling revelations that many Nigerians – including critics of the President would have thought were never possible. Then came the wave of sacks of top management of some MDAs and banks, in a manner which betrayed deep seated incongruities in the country’s public service, with the eventuality that more purges are on the way. Put in context, it conjures the concern that the more revelations become public, the more yet others come up. In effect the stream of malfeasances has benumbed many Nigerians into a state of ‘unshockableness’; that is making reference to a coinage by late Nigerian investigative journalist Dele Giwa, who first used it several decades ago.
Yet considering the various instances of sleaze, along with the sheer impunity with which they are executed, points to a more insidious factor that propels such nefarious assaults on the public till. And that is where nothing beyond the deep state factor comes into the bargain. The deep state exists in every country as the invisible hands of government who call all the shots backstage. They comprise a network of secretive power mongers and influence peddlers, who with their formidable sway in government circles, determine who gets and does what, how, when and where, in any matter of governance.
In more organized countries, the deep state works to move the society forward in order to reap from the enhanced fortunes of their respective nations. However, in contrast to the foregoing, the deep state in failing states prey on the common patrimony of their respective countries for their selfish ends. The problem with the deep state of such nations like Nigeria is that the components of the network only cater for their narrow interests and those of their sponsors who may be local or foreign.
As has been established severally, such a syndrome is spawned by a mindset that is infected by a deficit of altruism and patriotism in the components of the deep state, as they hardly see the country as their own in order to improve it. Rather it is nothing beyond a farm or fortune field, to be exploited and raped. That is why in most of the instances of graft, the factor of sponsorship by elements of the deep state is implicated, while the visible public officers who take the rap amount to nothing beyond mere pawns on a chess board.
A question to ask in the reported instances of Edu and Farouk a well as other co-travelers, is whether the alleged culprits were actually working alone or in collaboration with, or under sponsorship by unseen factors and interests. One pointer to this question is the usually humongous scope of the reported heists, which is often beyond the legitimate expectations of affluence of the perpetrators.
Putting it more succinctly, the loss of a sum of N37.1 billion is beyond the dream of any sane and regular kleptomaniac, just as such may not have been destined for a single beneficiary. It loss should be seem for what it is as - national fiscal disaster featuring an organised raid on the public till, considering the present state of affairs in the country. This is just as the diversion of N585 million into a private account qualifies as pure economic sabotage of the country. Yet such infractions and others remain regular features of the country’s public finance terrain, as the new realities of routine governance.
Come to think of it that in all of these instances of questionable financial dealings, the monies involved were not pulled out as pocket money, but escaped through regular administrative procedures as prescribed by extant rules governing the use of public funds. Not surprisingly, in all of these developments, respective ‘swindle sheets’ masquerading as memoranda and vouchers were raised which enjoyed official approval by the accounting authorities, pursuant to unlawful disbursement of the designated funds.
This is where President Bola Tinubu needs to see the burdens of his administration beyond the façade of the antics of alleged or proven individual fraudsters. He should rather predispose the efforts of his administration to interrogate more robustly, the prospects of deep seated collaborations that may be involved in any instance of theft of public funds.
Needless to state that given the President’s promise to renew hope of Nigerians in the country, a dependence on the present state of the country’s public service remains a acrobatic dance on a proverbial banana peel. Hence the evolution of a new public service under him remains a priority.
If public funds in the custody of the government, which derive from the tax payers’ blood and sweat, can be frittered away by seen and unseen individuals in positions of public trust, as dictated by their whims and caprices, what hope of the public can be renewed and sustained in such an administration?
This is the lesson from the Edu and Farouk saga, for not only President Bola Tinubu, but for all persons in office serving under the renewed hope for Nigerians agenda.