JUST IN: Institutional failure led to phantom DG, Adeniyi’s PFIPC operations says Ex-Aviation Minister, Osita Chidoka 

 

 

The former Minister of Aviation and Director General of Federal Road Safety Corps, FSRC, Osita Chidoka has said the reason the phantom DG of PFIPC was able to secure entrance to government’s institutions was due to institutional failure of people saddle with sensitive government responsibilities. He said the alleged Adeniyi the DG could not have penetrated as he did if he didn’t have people who have compromised their responsibilities to the Nigerian government. He reiterated that these failures calls for attention to government operations as he could have been a huge slap if he had succeeded in his mission. He stated that the culture of asking questions should not be misconstrued as opposition. He was on Channels Television Politics Today Programme. OGB Joseph monitors the interview. 

 

 

 

We know a lot, as much as the social media has fed us. This man was on this program just about this time.I was speaking with him yesterday, but he’s now in custody, as we understand. But let’s break it down. You have looked at the whole matter.What is the fundamental question you began to ask yourself. You imagine if this was your time when you were in the FRSC. How did you get your letter of appointment, for example? Who gives letter of appointment? We have seen a fake letter. If there was a fake letter, how does it look like? What were the fundamental questions you asked yourself?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well,  thank you very much.Many years ago, I would have bothered with those questions. But now, I’m more bothered with institutional failure and institutional oppression. So, the number one thing I would say about this is that, this is a learning moment for Nigeria.And this is a learning opportunity for the government. So, the government must not be defensive. They must not think of this as people attacking them.They must not see it as politics. They must see it as something very serious happening. Because all over the world, systems failures have occurred.I can give you multiple examples, but I’ll give you two. A company called Wirecard in Germany, for many years, had Ernst & Young as their auditors. And they were submitting fake accounts, including $1.8 billion that did not exist.It was until Ernst & Young refused to sign the 2019 account, that’s when the world realized that Wirecard has been a fraud. Now, ask me, the Central Bank of Germany failed. The Securities and Exchange Commission failed.The regulators, the board, everybody failed in this. Another popular case is the case of Madoff in America. He was an investment Ponzi scheme.People complained to the Securities and Exchange Commission. But guess what? The Securities and Exchange Commission did not do anything. They didn’t do anything.They just continued until the Ponzi scheme collapsed. So, really, every time these things happen, what happened in Germany and what happened in America is an example we must take here. They openly investigated the process.They found out how did these various systems fail. How did the board fail? How did Ernst & Young fail? How did the regulators fail? Who failed? 

 

 

 

So, the question is, letter of appointment, does it exist? 

 

 

 

 

Yes. Where did he get it from? When he sent it to the Secretary to Government’s office, did you accept it without verification? When he wrote to the head of civil service office saying we need an office, did you check back to see whether this is procedural? So, the point is that a culture has come into Nigeria.The culture that when you say no to something going on, you become a bad person. The culture that we now find that you go to the National Assembly, you want to pass a bill, it goes first and second reading the same day, anybody that says one minute is seen as an enemy. Skepticism is an important ingredient of government.The ability to ask questions should not be seen as enemy action. It should be seen as an opportunity for improvement. So, that failure that led us up to the budget line, we need to have a map of that.I hear the President has asked ICPC to investigate. So, ICPC should be open, should be clear. 

 

 

 

Is it right for the President to have asked ICPC? Because the gentleman had raised fundamental questions?

 

 

 

Yes. That ICPC will not indict the Chief of Staff. That ICPC.And those who say the matter is already in court, why are you asking an investigative agency to. No, no, no.This is a systems investigation. I don’t think it’s about indicting people like ICPC. It’s not about the arrest.It’s not the issue in court. It’s not about the criminal or non-criminal case. The government reported him, the government arrested him.They tried him to court. 

 

 

 

So, let’s assume that somebody gave him a letter of appointment.Is it fake or original?  How do you know? 

 

 

 

How do you, forensically. Now,  we go back to the office of the Chief of Staff or whoever the letter emanated from.Check their file for that day. Is there such a letter leaving this office? Okay. So, when you pass that, how did all the other agencies accept an inappropriate letter? Because letters of appointment are issued by the Secretary of Government.Secretary to government, did you issue a letter? 

 

 

 

Structurally, sir. SGF is the engine room of government?

 

 

 

Yes.At the federal level. Yes. And so it is also at the state level.Yes. All appointment letters, minister and even those who work in the presidency get their letter from the SGF. 

 

 

Is that right? 

 

 

 

Correct.

 

 

 

Does the chief of staff to the president have the right or power to appoint or employ anybody in civil service? 

 

 

 

 

No way. This chief of staff business is getting out of hand in Nigeria. He is a staff of the president.He is the chief organizer of the president’s office. He has no business with the government machinery. He attends the federal executive council ex-officio just by virtue of that office to, at the end of the day, just to keep tab of the president.Now, the secretary to the government of the federation is the person that has the bureaucracy. He has seven permanent secretaries. He interacts with the government agencies.So if the president creates a council most times, the budget of that council is under the SGF’s office and the SGF will be able to have a permanent secretary serve as the accounting officer. There is no way that the chief of staff office can write a letter. So meaning that if the letter of appointment in question that has been going on says from chief of staff’s office and the head of service office accepted it and all the other agencies accepted it, then something is fundamentally wrong with Nigeria.So that’s what ICPC.

 

 

 

 So either original or fake, the letter shouldn’t have ever emanated from the chief of staff office?

 

 

 

 

 

Absolutely. 

 

 

 

And naturally, let me take this personally.When you were appointed the head of FRSC, the letter came to you by mail or by hand or how did it come to you?

 

 

 

 

 

 It was delivered by an officer of the secretary to government’s office. Came with a motorbike. Came with two letters.I took one. I signed the original. Acknowledged.By me. I acknowledged it and it went back. 

 

 

 

So what did you then do after you received that letter? 

 

 

 

 

I went to FRSC.I called the deputy commercial who was in charge. Said, I have been appointed. It’s my letter of appointment.He said, okay, I’ll prepare a handover day. Handover to you. And the SGF’s copy of the letter went to him.The copy of that letter went to the chief of staff. The copy of that letter because the approval was granted by the president. By a memo by the SGF asking the president to approve the appointment of Osita Chidoka.As the president approved, the principal secretary to the president copied chief of staff. Copied ADC. Copied CSO.And said, forwarded to SGF and said, see, vied, paragraph this, presidential approval to convey. The SGF took it. Based on that letter, the SGF now wrote me a letter.And conveyed to the FRSC acting head, deputy commercial. 

 

 

 

 

So your force, did you have to communicate with the SGF office afterwards? 

 

 

 

 

 

No. 

 

 

 

For any reason? 

 

 

 

No.Your business was with the agency. But the challenge was that I reported to the SGF’s office. The FRSC is based in the SGF’s office.So he was my reporting officer. So I need to engage with them. But if it was like a ministry, I would have just gone to the ministry, given the minister my letter of appointment, and then go take over the organization.So for a non-existent organization which has been formed, you need to see the presidential instrument that created that agency.

 

 So this is a culture of whatvrrslly?

 

 

 

 

Oh, that is what they said. And everybody is accepting.Oh, it’s from chief of staff’s office. Everybody is accepting. What it means is that our institutional capacity has weakened over time.And it has nothing to do with this government. So they don’t have to take in personnel. They need to figure out whether the chief of staff wrote a letter or did not write a letter.A letter that is not written by the secretary to government ought not to instigate all this action, the consequential action that happened.

 

 

 

 Because part of what Mr. Adeyemi is facing charges over, part of the charges is forgery?

 

 

 

 

Yes.That letter was forged. The ACF internal communication had denied any or. The police is also coming forward to say this is a forged letter.That is the position of the federal government. But there are fundamental questions, sir. Yes.Your office is within the federal government infrastructure. Yes. And that was because he existed.

 

 

 

A critical question would be, can any agency exist without being created by law? 

 

 

 

No. But a council can. Like this.A council. For example. Yes.If this was, if the federal government had not disowned this. Yes. There could be a council.A presidential foreign investment council can exist. In terms of reference, it will have a time lag. It is for this purpose.And it will either reside in the office of the secretary to government. So all their budgets. So whenever we set up things like the conference, national conference, national council on this, they are all residents in the SGS office.There is an office in the SGS office. The political affairs office that handles all these organizations, ad hoc committees. You know, like the panel.It existed. It was in the office of the secretary to government. The conference committee.Office of the secretary to government. So there is a political affairs office which handles these ad hoc committees and councils. But if it is a statutory agency, when an agency moves away from council to become a statutory agency, then it has to be backed by law.

 

 

 

 

So because there are also those who say that fundamentally in this country, there are a long list of organizations that exist that are not created by law?

 

 

 

 

 

 

And they have staff. They run.And in fact, and I know that there are.Any example? Some example? Any example? Yeah, there are a litany of them. Let me give an example of.There are some agencies that now have new ew laws that have been made. 

 

 

For example, the data protection law?

 

 

 

Yes. 

 

 

 

When it was… The establishment act which created the National Data Protection Commission. You know? 

 

 

 

Before it was existing, before the law now came, and it became… There was an establishment act to create.And there are those who say this kind of agency sometimes operates in silos under some other established agency. 

 

 

 

Could this have been one of it? 

 

 

 

 

Because there is the inclination that the professor doing salami planning, as set up by the Buhari government, if you look at the building where this office was situated in the federal sector, you will see professor doing salami’s picture on the wall. And there are those who say that was the same office occupied by this man and his team.Which in one of the documents show that this office is supposed to have about 300 staff in the 36th state of the federation. So, it goes back to my point. The president can create a council.A council can exist under the office of the secretary to government of the federation in the presidency. Government after government. And it normally should have a time gap.But this is what happens in Nigeria. That we have lost the capacity. And that’s a major capacity.To be skeptical and to ask questions. Asking questions has now become an anathema. If you go to court now, you will see unanimous decisions.Anytime you see minority decisions, it’s almost like the person is a bad person. If you go to the civil service, the president said, you can see a memo. Nobody will ask the question to say, can you show me the presidential instrument by which this body was created.Please, attach it to this letter when you are communicating with me. So, because the attitude has now become like, if you say no, then you are a bad person. So, this country must use this opportunity to restate that questioning is not an act of opposition.The presidency coming out in public and explaining how the system failed is a learning moment. We all saw the world when September 11 happened. America investigated itself.Our system failed us. So, we are now having a homeland security organization. We’ve seen that happen in many places.So, now is an opportunity.

 

 

 

Can we have a register of government agencies in Nigeria, maintained by the office of the secretary of government, kept in a database? Can we now have a process of adding an agency into it, either by statute or by creation of the office of the president? 

 

 

 

 

 

Can we now have a system that says, for you to go to the budget line, National Assembly, every agency that you put in the budget line is not enough that the budget office sent you the budget. It’s also important that, ah, we didn’t budget last year for this.This year, provide us with the documentation of why this agency exists. So, these are the lessons. This is what we learned, America learned from Madoff.This is what was learned from Wirecard. This is how the government now said you cannot be an auditor for more than a certain number of years because, you know, at some point you get into the company. So, another person comes to look at the company accounts.So, I’m saying that this is an institutional problem. It is not a, it is not a find the criminal problem.

 

 

 

 So, you have identified a fundamental crack?

 

 

 

Yes. 

 

 

 

For whatever, and I’m going to pose a few questions because, ah, not only in law do you pose questions, because the law and the court is supposed to help answer the mystery around those questions, but it also will help our nation to, for a moment, redress and say, wait a minute, this is a shame and embarrassment to us as a people. And this is not about one government.Because, if anything, this has been existing for quite some time, right? 

 

 

 

Yes. 

 

 

 

Like you said, we need a long list of those agencies of government, and we need to start scrutinizing.How did you get set up? And you know that there was something that was very rampant. You were one, when you were in service, you were one of those who were screaming about Yahoo Mail, Gmail, being used by, for government agencies. And that’s why you see a lot of leaks.The memos that are being leaked and all of that. I’ve got a lot of questions which I’m hoping that you will help us answer. Mr. Atuku Abubakar is asking, Mr. Abubakar may have been like, to recuse himself or the president to tell him to step aside.Politically speaking, does the president, I mean, there are those who say the president has done a satisfactory, or whatever he needed to do, in the face of the matter. 

 

 

 

Do you think Atuku’s call is needed?

 

 

 

 

 

 Well, that’s what the opposition does in any political environment. Their call is to put the government on the spot.Yes, but a government will have to investigate. You will have to ask agencies of government to advise. Because you can’t say, people can’t wake up in the morning and say, the chief of staff stole a chicken, so step aside.They will end up in a perpetual step-aside business. But what happens first is an immediate investigation. The case they cited of the former SGF, there was actually money.It was actually paid. So the SGF has to step aside. And there was a draft to be cut.Yes. 

 

 

The issue now is, is there a letter? Did you get mandates from the office of the chief of staff? 

 

 

 

Yes. So if at any point we see a letter that emanated from the office of the chief of staff, then that introduces a new dimension to the conversation.But if at the end of the day, this man forged the letter himself, or somebody in the office of the SGF, because I’ve seen people come around and say, you know, that they are working for such and such, we have access to this information or that, and they can give you this. So it is important that we go back to the institutional failure. 

 

 

 

My own major issue is, from the point that letter came out, how did he traverse all these agencies without anybody seeking to know? Who is this? Where is the letter of appointment? 

 

 

 

 

SGF confirmed that this government agency exists.How did the office of the SGF themselves allocate an office? Because the question should have been, we didn’t issue this letter.

 

 

 

 

 

 The president has said the PFIPC does not exist. ICPC has been directed by the president to investigate the wider allegations.Charges include forgery and impersonation. Arraignment has been now fixed for September 13th. Now, what are the charges before the court as we know it today? 

 

 

 

 

The alleged offenses include conspiracy, forgery, impersonation, fake presidential appointment letter, forged state house document, false representation as DG of PFIPC, alleged fraudulent official correspondence.

 

 

 

 How was the organization able to operate?

 

 

 

 Because these are institutional faults and gaps where internal verification system bypassed, where public officials deceived or complicit, who authorized access to government facilities. Will investigations extend beyond one suspect? What reforms are needed to prevent a recurrence? Do we begin with the first one? So let’s start with how was the organization able to operate? That’s a very big issue, how the organization was able to operate.Because multiple agency failure is something that can happen. And like I’ve told you, it’s happened with Wirecard, it happened with Madoff in the US. Big organizations, SEC, American Securities Exchange, failed in ascertaining that Madoff was just a Ponzi scheme.

 

 

 

So it is possible for an organization to beat this. And why does it happen?

 

 

 

 It happens when people let go of skepticism, when questioning becomes enemy action. So because of Madoff’s reputation, because Wirecard was seen as a great German innovative company, nobody wanted to ask it a difficult question.So this is what happens when people come into public spaces. You have a vehicle, you close the number plate, and you drive into the presidential villa. Nobody at the gate says, hey, not here.Can you open this number plate? Because you need to run a verification, whether this car is the same with the person with the car. So the question of how it was to operate is a systems failure in Nigeria, where institutions are no more allowing dissent within the organization. That’s why it was able to operate.Because once you say, chief of staff said, president said, well, everybody knows that the chief of staff has no permanent secretary. The permanent secretary in the villa is the state house permanent secretary. He is the custodian of the state house.Now, but the secretary to government has six, seven permanent secretaries, because the government made him the engine house of government. So if the organization was able to operate, it was able to operate because over the years, we have degraded our public institutions, that asking questions is now viewed as enemy action. So operation included being housed in the federal secretariat.So that brings us to the secretary to government’s office that has ceded its own function. If it is the SGM office that allocates offices, the federal secretariat, at least as much as I know, is the secretary to government’s office. So they run the federal secretariat.As a new agency, it would have gotten to the facility controllers and managers. So a fake letter from the NGF office. A fake letter from the chief of staff’s office.That’s why I’m saying I’m interested in seeing the letter. Because the letter is at the heart of this matter.

 

 

 

 Is the letter from the chief of staff, or from the SGF? So I’m here to ask, if the SGF receives a letter appointing somebody DG from the chief of staff’s office, what did he do? Did he say, oh, the president has appointed?

 

 

 No.If the president has appointed somebody, it will minute it to the SGF. This man has been appointed. So this is what the ICPC investigation will unravel.

 

 

 

What was the reaction of the office of the secretary to government to a letter informing it? 

 

 

Until I see that letter, I do not believe. I personally don’t believe. So if he issues such a letter, that means that our system is so degraded that the whole secretary to government of the federation would then take a letter from the chief of staff, who is an appointee, a presidential appointee.He’s not a member of council. More or less like a private staff of the president. That is meant to operate in the shadow of the president.Yes. The secretary to the federal government of Nigeria is in our constitution. Well, make us understand.So let’s assume without concealing that this man got a fake letter from the chief of staff.

 

 

 

 He could have used the same letter to penetrate the SGF. Is that right?

 

 

 

 Yes, that’s right.Just like you are saying that. He just gave a gaping hole into the system and everybody will say, yes sir, yes sir. I’ll tell you this story.One of my friends used to come and visit me when I was a staff of the FCDA. At that time, General Oseni, he was under the military, he was a minister. So to cross the office some time of day, you needed to be a government worker.Non-staff were allowed after two. But this guy comes in by 10 in the morning. And I said, how do you do it? You’re always coming in here.He said, oh, that when he gets to the security man, he will say, tax force. He will open his ID, say tax force. Then they will salute him.Tax force, welcome. He will pass. Nobody stopped to say, tax force on what? So I said to him, if they ask you, tax force on what are you? He will say, oh, tax force on environmental sanitation in my village.He will say, I never claimed I was. So this tells you about verification. If you want to enter any Western organization, where internal verification system bypassed.It wasn’t bypassed. It failed. It failed.He’s gone to the ESEC, Mr. Chidoka. He has gone to the nationals. At least the pictures that we see.By the time you get an office in the secretariat, that has conferred legitimacy on you. You can be writing another agency, and they will be asking you for your letter of appointment. Because the moment the secretary to government has granted you an office, every other agency assumes that the whole process has been followed.We understand that. It’s like when you see an account signed by the auditors. You already assume that an audit has happened.We understand that he has a diplomatic passport. 

 

 

 

When you were FRSC  head, did you have a diplomatic passport?

 

 

 No, I never asked for. 

 

 

Okay, but you could have asked?

 

Yes, I could have asked. Even as minister, I didn’t bother asking for a diplomatic passport. And I thought that that process is usually very rigorous.It comes from the minister of interior, right? It is direct to the minister of interior. Then they will send you a letter of appointment and all of that. 

 

 

So, he has all that now?

 

 

 

 See, his office is international, foreign, investment. So, he will need… The council. Yeah.So, it’s not a statutory agency. So, verification failed. 

 

 

Were public officials deceived or complicit? Both. And that is.That investigation by the ICPC. Complicity. Because the complicity is not that they wanted him to be chief.The complicity is that people are now afraid to challenge higher order. So, even if some civil servants suspected something failed, they refused to speak. 

 

 

How did he got three CBN accounts?

 

 

Yes. Three CBN accounts. Yes.Verification, deceit or complicity, those are issues. 

 

 

Who authorized access to government facilities? 

 

 

The letter would have allowed it. Also, the system failed.

 

 

 

Will investigation extend beyond one suspect?

 

 

No. This is an institutional investigation. This is the lessons we need to learn.This is how we can say to ourselves, Do you know what this means? If this man came and said he is a council, Let’s assume that a Nigerian enemy sets up an institution. And we’ve seen it happen. When Israel sold pages through a company to Hezbollah. So, let’s assume that an enemy of Nigeria created a council, Passed it through offices, Faked all these letters, Gave it to the ACF, And they accepted it. And he went to budget office, And he passed. And this man gets proximity to the president, By virtue of being a member of council.So, the security man in the villa, He has, This is my ID card, This is my passport. Oh, okay. So, who are you? Oh, I’m in charge of DGPFIC.Oh, okay. Welcome. This man gets access to the president of Nigeria.This man can then sit inside And access sensitive government records. Because here, we are thinking corruption in terms of money. We are thinking that this was done to extort money.What if this was a major nefarious article by a state agent? A coordinated attack? To bring somebody close within the proximity of the president. To bring documents about Nigeria’s infrastructure or anything To the public awareness.