THE MINISTRY OF IMPOVERISHMENT AND FRAUDULENT ACTIVITIES.

It was a windy harmattan Monday morning, when I was woken up by the unpleasant news coming out of my neighbour's television loudspeakers.

What exactly was the news about I queried, since I didn't get a vivid understanding of the news due to the incoherence and interference, affecting the loudspeakers, coupled with the noise pollution occassioned by mosques and churches. 

It was really difficult to make sense of what I was hearing, so, I quickly put on the computer in my bedroom to read the daily news.

The first headline hits me like a thunderstorm to the extent of speechlessness, considering the magnitude of fraudulent activities and financial malfeasance reported to have taken place within a short period of seven months of the present administration.

My bewilderment was not predicated on any positive expectation from the ministry, since the antecedents of that ministry has never been something to take to the bank, for it has been characterised by misappropriation, ineffectiveness, cabalistic state capture and grand theft.

What is more disturbing with this incident as reported, are the people involved in the heist of resources meant to be for the poor and 

vulnerable citizens of Nigeria.

These people are product of the actualization of the need to bring young people into key positions in government for the purpose of rejuvenating policies, procedures and programmes for good governance. 

However, the outcome of the misadventure as consequence of practicalization of the slogan "not too young to run" has left us with the continuation of the old misbehaviours as emblematic in the fradulent action reported to have been perpetrated by Betta Edu in concert with Tunji Ojo as an accomplice. 

This is not a good report card for the young citizens aspiring to leadership and management positions within Nigeria's political architecture. 

I have read various arguments trying surreptitiously to give a positive spinning around the justification given by Tunji Ojo that he has resigned as a director of the the company that was awarded consultancy services. 

I must say here that such positive spins might not be enough to exonerate him from the charges of influence peddling and insider knowledge being a friend of Betta Edu and a major shareholder of the company awarded consultancy services. 

I appreciate Tunji's performance as interior minister. However, he has failed to show good judgement in this case. I have warned him about conflict of interest in one of my tweets. He is not only guilty of such infraction, he failed woefully on moral ground. 

In the case of #Bettagate, her

demeanour and justifications concerning her roles are typically arrogance, contemptuous impunity, and lack of respect for the citizens of Nigeria. 

This is a young woman entrusted with the commonwealth, huge enough to change the lives of poor and vulnerable Nigerians, but instead of making positive impaction that such position offered her, she decided to transfer people's money into private account, despite contrary advice given to her that such action is against extant regulations. 

Betta Edu is not a novice in respect of financial regulations as a former commissioner in Cross River State. She and other ministers had a retreat on most of these issues recently. 

She doesn't need a mentor to know what is right, and as a minister she should have relevant statute books for consultation on subject matters relevant to the ministry. 

My view on Betta's misbehaviour, is that on assumption of office she realised how easy it is to divert funds with impunity without an eye blinked, so she adjusted quickly by setting forth the usual fraudulent practices commonplace in the ministry. Her justification reflected such shenanigans.

It is baffling to read that a female former deputy governor of Lagos State was suggesting forgiveness of  Betta Edu's infraction concerning financial irregularities. 

Another nonsense.... How can you forgive an attempt to defraud the nation. This kind of reasoning contributed to the malaise of corruption in Nigeria. They steal and later ask the people to forgive them. Only rigorous death penalty can cure fraudulent corruption in Nigeria.

Let us hope that the panel constituted by the president would come up with significant reform agenda for the ministry. However, I am not optimistic.