By Steve Osuji
Two anti-graft agencies and the Finance Minister at work last week, revealed to Nigerians in bold relief, why the country is crashing down the hills.
The three men heading these agencies and institution have unbeknownst to them, given a sneak preview to Nigerians why they are starkly unworthy of the high offices they occupy and why their continued stay on the seats diminish the very seat they sit on. Not to mention the injury to the system and the nation.
It’s a sad day for Nigeria that she has deteriorated to the level where third-rate executives lead the country in crucial positions.
THE ICPC TRASHY REPORT
The Independent Corrupt Practices (and Other Related Offences) Commission, ICPC, under the chairmanship of a certain Mr Musa Aliyu, presented a most shoddy report on the messy bribe-for-appointment scandal oozing from Aso Rock. Known, as Gbaja-Gate for short, it has become a sordid signpost of the Tinubu administration.
President Bola Tinubu had charged the ICPC to investigate the Gbaja-Gate scandal even after he had cleared the man in the middle of the storm.
The crux of the matter is to find out how a certain Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi became the DG of a supposed fictitious agency: the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, PFIPC.
The ICPC was to find out who appointed Adeyemi and how the agency sprouted, grew roots and became a bona fide agency of the federal government of Nigeria with all the appurtenances of office.
The fully set up and well appointed office with a budget allocation suddenly ran into a storm.
It suddenly became a fake agency in the eyes of the Federal Government.
Mr DG, the sleek, slithering Adeyemi insisted he had his mandate emanating from the Presidency. Specifically, from the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President (CoS) Mr Femi Gbajabiamila.
Adeyemi also said on record that there was a go-between, a certain Mr Babajide Tanimola, stating on record that about N400m had already changed hands between him and Aso Rock. Specifically, the office of the CoS.
But CoS Gbajabiamila denied everything.
All of a sudden, Adeyemi, the respectable DG of a reputable agency, PFIPC, suddenly becomes a common criminal, a fugitive on the run.
From his exalted palatial office in Abuja where diplomats had paid him courtesy visits, he was plucked from a hole in Ogbomosho, like a rat.
Adeyemi was held incommunicado, barraged by the police, DSS, EFCC, ICPC and the presidency.
Then suddenly, he began to speak like an unhinged fellow.
Then ICPC was drafted to finish him off with what is now, obviously a kangaroo investigation.
In a jiffy, a report is ready.
Verdict: exactly as right-thinking Nigerians had feared: Gbajabiamila is exonerated of all accusations. Adeyemi is a fraud who single-handedly forged the signature of the CoS, and gamed the entire federal establishment comprising the Head of Service (HoS), the Accountant-General of the Federation and probably the people in the CBN and the Budget Office.
ICPC: WHO KILLED TANIMOLA?
But the ICPC in its seeming haste to run errands for its master, entirely forgot one crucial piece in the Gbaja-Gate puzzle: a certain TANIMOLA.
He had been mentioned explicitly in the Gbaja-Gate by Adeyemi. But on October 22nd, 2025, Tanimola died mysteriously in a hotel fire in Abuja; five days after Adeyemi was first arrested last year. Reports even claim that the entire site of the hotel has been obliterated!
But the memory of Tanimola cannot be wiped out. The digital memory is full of his photographs dining with the cream of the society. He was obviously representing a high level government official in Aso Rock in those functions.
You can’t sit at a table with dignitaries like Yakubu Gowon, Goodluck Jonathan, Tony Elumelu, Arthur Eze, Abdulsalam Rabiu and Femi Hamzat, to name a few, without having a link in Aso Rock. Tanimola was obviously representing a powerful Aso Rock chief; he was apparently an Aso Rock mole used for dirty bribe-for-presidential access jobs.
As far as ICPC is concerned, Tanimola had also become a phantom, a figment of Adeyemi’s very fertile imagination.
But Tanimola was obviously the missing link in the Gbaja-Gate. However, the presidency, the police, the DSS, the EFCC and most especially, the ICPC have all covered up Tanimola in cold blood.
But as many as are involved in the bloody cover up, there’s blood in their hands. They may cover up today, but the owner of blood will demand it of them. The blood of Tanimola will hound them unto their generations until there’s confession and resolution. That’s divine injunction.
EFCC’S SELECTIVE JUSTICE
It’s sad that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has never been blessed with the right leadership since inception.
The pioneer chairman, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, started well but eventually derailed when he became politically ambitious.
After him, up until the current occupier, none has managed to acquit himself honourably.
Sorry to say that none has presented to have been possessed of the requisite integrity, nobility and gravitas required for such complex and perhaps, the most sensitive office in the land.
The current chairman, Ola Olukoyede, came with immense promise: a certified clergy (RCCG Pastor) and strong professional background. Many were hopeful of a legacy of professional and ethical right standing which had been missing in the EFCC leadership since it was founded.
A job that called for an all round incorruptible character has remained bereft of that quality of leadership.
We have seen EFCC chairmen that were far worse than the thieves they pursued.
This is why the recent opprobrious behaviour by Mr Olukoyede may have damaged his tenure already.
With only a few days to the Osun state guber election, (August 15th), the EFCC honcho had moved against the incumbent, Governor Ademola Adeleke who happens to be in an opposing party to the President’s APC.
Olukoyede had frozen the statutory allocation account of the Osun state government, pasting a ‘post-no-debit’ on it claiming an investigation of money laundering.
But President Tinubu quickly did the unthinkable: he publicly countermanded EFCC Chairman Olukoyede. He directed him to unfreeze the account immediately.
It is remarkable that since its inception in 2003, this is the first time any president would openly reprimanded an EFCC chief.
While this brings relief to the good people of Osun state, it speaks ill of Tinubu himself, his government, the EFCC and the person of Olukoyede.
Tinubu’s intervention repudiates the independence of the graft agency, it removes the sheen from the chairman’s posturing as a man of integrity. The president virtually threw him under the bus.
This indiscretion supports the long-standing suggestion of selective justice in the operations of the EFCC. The agency under Olukoyede has been openly partisan, clamping down mainly on opposition politicians like Nasir El Rufai and Abubakar Malami while APC carpetbaggers like Abdullahi Ganduje, Yahaya Bello and Badaru Abubakar are being rewarded with appointments.
In the first place, why would Olukoyede elect to move for the jugular of a state government (its treasury) just a few days to an election? It could be said that he was intent on pleasing his master and helping him win the election at all costs. Particularly now that the Osun poll has become very contentious and hard to call.
Olukoyede didn’t expect the hullabaloo that would greet his misadventure. Many have wondered why he didn’t freeze accounts in recent elections in Ekiti, Edo and Anambra where the APC had the upper hand?
Besides, we have seen bullion vans being deployed in elections in Nigeria. EFCC never made a whimper.
By this singular act of obvious bias, Olukoyede has gravely perjured himself, and degraded the agency. Many Nigerians have concluded that he’s no longer deserving of the very office he occupies. Nigerians want him to resign.
TAIWO OYEDELE’S SERVILITY
This column had rejected the appointment of Mr TAIWO Oyedele as the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy. The argument then as now, is that though he’s a brilliant young man, he is not the right fit for the job.
It is a very high profile job that calls for a special kind of exposure, experience and leadership. It requires a big name, with broadbased knowledge of policy and socio-economic dynamics. Nigeria is among the biggest economies in Africa with a global outlook. It cannot afford a narrow executive running her economy.
A country that had Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Olusegun Aganga, Michael Ani and even Chu SP Okongwu, the office has become quite elevated and rarefied.
Appointing Oyedele after the debacle of a Wale Edun suggests that we haven’t learn much in the last three years.
Besides, in this age, countries head hunt for the best minds available anywhere to occupy this most crucial public office.
Recall too that Nigeria currently has no economic team. So who in the world is driving/ thinking through Nigeria’s economy today?
But President Tinubu cared little for merit and quality in constituting his cabinet.
He is content with calling up his old cashiers, tax collectors and foot soldiers for crucial national jobs.
Last weekend, Mr Oyedele had led a team of the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) to meet the president.
In the first instance, it seems odd that the finance minister would lead the team from the NGX to the president. If the board and management is not capable of paying a courtesy call on the president and making its case, then it’s not worthy of its name.
But we saw a viral video of Oyedele, Nigeria’s top ranking cabinet member making a presentation like a school prefect while board members nod like agama lizards.
Oyedele in the video tries strenuously to impress the president with humongous figures over the performance of the NGX in the last three years.
The minister is beside himself trying to make his case. Mr President is obviously impressed. But Oyedele missed the point. Both leading the team and making the outlandish presentation is a misadventure, to put it mildly. The optics is poor.
Oyedele needs to understand that his job goes beyond impressing the president with statistics most of which bears no relationship with the welfare of the people.
He says the capital market leaped-frogged from N30 trillion in 2023 to N160 trillion today.
But he couldn’t relate it to the prices of staple food and essential commodities. That indeed is his job, juxtapositioning burgeoning capital against welfare, productivity and growth of the overall economy.
Oyedele tells the president that CBN’s policy of recapitalisation of banks has made Nigerian banks heftier. But on the same day, a group known as CEOs of manufacturing companies reported tales of woes: FG’s infrastructure spending has made little impact on productivity; foreign exchange sourcing remains herculean while the size and cost of credit from commercial banks remain miserable, among other woes.
Speaking further, the real sector CEOs bemoaned the lingering gridlock at Lagos major ports as well as the uncertainty in the 2025 Tax Act, among other issues.
The point here is that Oyedele should be listening more to the manufacturers than the NGX board.
But a more important point is that Oyedele has presented himself as the handy man of the president seeking his face and approval instead of a top minister who is supposed to stand toe -to-toe and eye-to-eyeball with the president guiding and debating him on economic policies.
Bottom line: Oyedele eagerly seeks to impress his master. He doesn’t seem to care much about the people/economy.
LAST LINE: THE PRESIDENT, THE SHEIKH AND THE SENATOR: ‘All is fair in politics’
President Tinubu set the tone recently. He told the world that, “All is fair in politics.” Yes, he made this statement publicly a couple of weeks ago. He never retracted it. His people didn’t disambiguate it as they are wont. In fact many clapped for him as a great political strategist who knows how to win elections in Nigeria.
Perhaps emboldened by the president’s posture, last Saturday, a well-known cleric, Sheikh Sani Yahaya Jingir dropped a bombshell of his own.
He lambasted people condemning Tinubu’s Muslim-Muslim ticket. In a hate-filled charge, he said Muslims own Nigeria and that Christians are infidels, among other warped effusions.
Governors and APC leaders present hailed and clapped.
He still walks about free. Not a word of reprimand from any quarters.
ENTERS SENATOR FADAHUNSI
Speaking to APC members in Osun state last Tuesday, the sitting senator charged them to kill Accord party members wherever they are found. “I authorize you to kill them. They have wives and children too.”
One would expect that Sen. Francis Fadahunsi (Osun East Senatorial District) would be in detention now and straight on to jail from there.
But this column wagers that the Senator still roams the land inciting pogrom over a mere guber election.
This is hoping President Tinubu can manage the outcomes of his “all is fair” electoral strategy as they unfold in Osun and on to the forthcoming 2027 general election.
