Ngige, Kokori & NSITF: When two elephants fight...

The recent media campaign casting aspersions at the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, over the delay in inaugurating the board of the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF, is a very unfortunate development. Frank Kokori, chairman nominee of the NSITF who is spearheading this campaign, claims that Ngige is running a one man show; that the minister has been busy populating the Fund with members of his community before he was stopped; that the savings of Nigerian workers is domiciled in the Fund.

Kokori is not alone in criticizing the delay in inaugurating boards of federal establishments. Some critics have gone to the extent of insinuating that the delay is to afford the APCled federal government the leeway to siphon funds for the 2019 general elections. Others impute ethnic undertones; that President Buhari simply allowed his kinsmen a field day to run the parastatals according to their whims and caprices. When you hear this kind of allegation, you are left with the impression that all the MDAs are headed by the President’s kinsmen from Katsina. Pray, is Ngige one of his kinsmen?

That said, there are indeed genuine reasons to worry over allowing long and serious gaps in the structure of government. First, it is difficult to do so without committing serious constitutional breaches on infringing on the governance environment envisioned to guarantee transparency and accountability. Second, it is axiomatic that power corrupts and absolute power breeds absolute corruption. It therefore goes without saying that wherever it occurs, no matter the ministry, department or agency of government, such a scenario should not be allowed to fester indefinitely. Besides, boards usually add fresh insight into the running of organisations and as extensions of the social capital, can be quite useful in broadening the resource base of the MDAs as they implement Government polices of course with the ministry, having an over-arching eye on all her parastatals as their supervisor. It is in these contexts that Kokori’s discomfiture begins to gain some currency.

For the benefits of those who do not know, it is important to state that Comrade Kokori has been a dogged fighter for the rights of workers. He remains one of the most powerful General Secretaries (GS) produced by the National Union of Petroleum and Gas Workers, NUPENG. (Even though GS are paid staff) In his day, the fear of NUPENG was the beginning of wisdom for any government. You can ask the Abacha Government in 1993/1994. He is also a very smart political actor who, as he amply demonstrated during the June 12 debacle in Nigeria, can adopt the most invidious propaganda machinery to achieve his objectives. In other words, most times, the line between his patriotism and self-interest can, at best, be very tenuous indeed. From that standpoint, characterizing his present position could be tricky: where do you draw the line between habitual activism and the noble pursuit of the interest of workers? This becomes necessary because today staff/workers of NSITF are praising Ngige to High heavens, for being the first Minister to tour their establishments in Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Bauchi etc and making sure that all their outstanding allowances and contributions are straightened out.

To start with, it is rather unfair and smacks of laughable hypocrisy to single Ngige out, as Kokori had done, as far back as January 2018, as obstructing the inauguration of the NISTF Board. For it is common knowledge that inauguration of boards had been tacitly placed on hold before the recent directive by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF placing a deadline to start off the boards. To be sure, the delay in inaugurating the boards had raised concerns over the legitimacy of actions of the managements of these companies. For another, certain statutory approvals affecting staff welfare such as appointments and promotions, discipline and even infrastructural development had suffered undue delays. However, it will be misleading to place Kokori’s agitation just within this construal. For he knows and NLC also knows that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been investigating the place since 2016 and it was not until November/December that they charged about six persons from the last former Board to court for various financial malfeasance and even obtained temporary forfeitures on properties and accounts traced to members of the former Boards.

Something appears to be amiss about his agitation. Yes: agitation. For that is what he has turned his grouse into. In content, temperament and methodology, Kokori’s agitation smacks of a vicious effort to unsettle the minister by instigating a media crisis to the effect that he is disobeying the President. Such a strategy is designed to fit the present national narrative that the President is not in charge; that his aides have pulled the rug from under his feet and that his noblest intentions have been derailed by his aides.

But it will be entirely wrong to situate Nigige’s position within that context. On the contrary, the minister has made it clear that he sought and got the President’s nod to put an Administrative panel to look into the breakthrough of the Financial Regulations and Internal Audit Mechanism of the place and to stay action on the board’s inauguration, pending conclusion of the work of the committee investigating allegations of massive diversion of funds by the previous board. This runs into huge Billions of Naira! While it is debatable whether anything would be lost if the board was inaugurated, it does not seem that anything stands to be lost by allowing a little more time for the panel to conclude its work and for the Government to look at it, and, put in place the appropriate structures that will prevent future Board Members from doing “Business as usual” of the yesteryears.

If I have any worry about the face-off between the minister and the incoming board chairman, it is in the fact that both men are gladiators of no mean order. Kokori, as earlier said, is a dogged fighter. Play back Ngige’s day as Governor of Anambra State and you will see a human matador, a man who is ready to sacrifice all for any principle he stands for - fighting Godfathers backed by a sitting President Obasanjo without caring, all for the benefit of the people of Anambra State. So what gives, in the circumstance? We should be mindful of the saying that when two elephants fight, it is only the grass that suffers. By extension, this “fight” between two elephants is an unnecessary diversion from the serious challenges confronting the PMB Administration at this moment. It should not be allowed to fester. We take consolation in the knowledge that blessed with Mustapha Boss as Secretary to Government of the Federation, SGF; we have a man who looks every part a sober mind, an impartial arbiter and an honest player who can be trusted to get the machinery of government back on track when it derails. Working together with the Chief of Staff to the President, he should be able to rein in on these compatriots: not everything should be thrown into the media highway lest it be hijacked by detractors for selfserving purposes.

The NLC on its part should also give peace a chance, lest it be accused of having a sinister interest, and hidden agenda unknown to us.

Finally, the NSITF panel should conclude its task quickly, submit its report and the House of Reps Committee Panel which was also instituted following the petition by Comrade Kokori and his Comrade supporters in the House over what to me is an Executive function, should also conclude its work. The NSITF for sure needs some breath of fresh air!! That done, the nation can benefit from the Board which is supposed to be the next layer for implementation of the FG’s policy for that noble and well thought-out establishment. For now, can I say: Let there be peace in the Spirit of the Holy period of Lent!

Agu Abuja. wrote this piece from