Revolutionizing ANA Nigeria Plc (1): Probing Brazen Fiscal Recklessness!

By Amusa Tajudeen Lasisi

A question of a writer's moral responsibility...!

“While writers don't hold the baton to correct ills,
they owe the society a debt of honest documentation
of events. And... future generation is definitely bound
to a certain doom when writers are no longer socially
relevant, when they've sold their dignity for material
gains, when they're seen as a unit of the nation's failure,
when their voices no longer din through the conscience
of the society.... National Philosophies are evidently
dead in the absence of ideologically sound literatures!”

Gimba Kakanda – Dec., 2012.

In my piece titled - ANA Nigeria Plc: The incorporation of Sycophancy; earlier published by Sunday Trust Newspapers of December 16, 2012. Page 34 alongside several Newspapers, blogs and websites; I detailed emphatically how the Association of Nigeria Authors (ANA) had now shamelessly establish itself as a Public Liability Company despite that it fraudulently misled the Corporate Affairs Commission of Nigeria (CAC) into incorporating it as an authors’ association; A trend now commonplace in Nigeria as observed by the former economic and financial crimes commission (EFCC) kingpin Ms. Farida Waziri.

This pathetic anomie and hydra-headed nosedive from status-quo had therefore necessitated a fraught revolution in this epileptic authors’ association (ANA) as well-meaning stakeholders within the literary industry in Nigeria will never even under the attempt and circumstance of any possible compromise, victimization, cajole and intimidation accept this horrible, sickening and nauseating trend. Leading United State’s Civil Rights Hero Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) asserts that “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.” An assertion that pricks the very pillar of my conscience and blatantly presents me as nothing other than a literary sell-out and traitor devoid of spirit of statesmanship if by any means whatsoever I’m found wanting of violation or better still a felon guilty of very high and humanly unimaginable felony.

Probing the wretched and brazen fiscal recklessness of ragged-association (ANA) of this nature would be fragmentary without peeping discreetly into Law-books of the Nigerian Legislatures; therefore by power conferred on my humble self as a federal scholar and law-abiding citizen of this great country Nigeria cite sections 1 (1-3), 7 (1-5) and 10 of the Freedom of Information Act (FoI), 2011 gracefully passed by the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and graciously Assented by Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan GCFR; President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as follows:

Section 1 (1-3): Rights of access to records.

1. (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in any other Act, law or regulation,
the right of any person to access or request information, whether or not contained in any written form, which is in the custody or possession of any public official, agency or institution howsoever described, is established.
(2) An applicant under this Act needs not demonstrate any specific interest in the information being applied for.
(3) Any person entitled to the right to information under this Act, shall have the right to institute proceedings in the Court to compel any public institution to comply with the provisions of this Act.

Section 7 (1-5): Where access is refused.

7. (1) Where the government or public institution refuses to give access to a
record or information applied for under this Act, or a part thereof, the institution shall state in the notice given to the applicant the grounds for the refusal, the specific provision of this Act that it relates to and that the applicant has a right to challenge the decision refusing access and have it reviewed by a Court.
(2) A notification of denial of any application for information or records shall state the names, designation and signature, of each person responsible for the denial of such application.
(3) The government or public institution shall be required to indicate under subsection (1) of this Section whether the information or record exists.
(4) Where the government or public institution fails to give access to information or record applied for under this Act or part thereof within the time limit set out in this Act, the institution shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to have refused to give access.
(5) Where a case of wrongful denial of access is established, the defaulting officer or institution commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of N 500, 000.

Section 10: Destruction or falsification of records.

10. It is a criminal offence punishable on conviction by the Court with a minimum of 1 year imprisonment for any officer or head of any government or public institution to which this Act applies to willfully destroy any records kept in his custody or attempt to doctor or otherwise alter same before they are released to any person, entity or community applying for it.

It is evident therefore from the foregoing (citations) that well-meaning stakeholders in Nigeria’s literary industry would in no way violate or infringe on the rights of the association (ANA) as established by this law if it requests for the records of all its transactions, dealings, and general operations for the last ten years being 2002-2012 as per the period under review.

In line with corporate traditions all over the world associated with all publicly quoted corporate institutions; it is vital that leading and credible audit firms in Nigeria notably Ernst & Young and KPMG request for the general operations records of the association (ANA) and exercise a thorough forensic audit of its books for the last ten years being 2002-2012 as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) owed this great country Nigeria as an association (ANA) that knows how well to trade on the floor of Legbo-Kutigi International Stock Exchange (LKISE) to tune of 10 Million Naira should considerably also have no problem declaring its operations records for thorough forensic audit and scrutiny.

Another thing that comes to mind with this ragged-association (ANA) are issues of tax remittances to the statutory tax-collection authorities in Nigeria notably the Federal Inland Revenue Services of Nigeria (FIRS); has this ragged-association (ANA) been faithful in remitting the taxes due to the Federal Inland Revenue Services of Nigeria (FIRS)? - seeing that it is now a fully functional publicly quoted corporate association. Is its tax clearance certification intact and current or has this ragged-association (ANA) been fraudulently evading tax remittances to the Federal Inland Revenue Services of Nigeria (FIRS) and therefore short-changing the people and government of this great nation Nigeria like the oil-cabals did? – Is this ragged-association (ANA) now part of the Nigerian oil-subsidy cabal? Seeing that it became toothless and lame during January 2012 Oil Subsidy Protest in Nigeria; or has the Federal Government of Nigeria also removed literary subsidy regardless of the fact it is also non-existent in the first place? These and other issues the National Executive Committees (NEC) of this ragged-association (ANA) put to consideration in its annual sham brazenly mistaken for conventions rather than being an unsolicited errant-gang.

Does Corporate Affairs Commission of Nigeria (CAC) know about the wanton metamorphosis of a body registered as an association now operating as a fully functional public liability company? Is it reviewing its laws to accommodate this unwarranted drift? Is it also alongside the Federal Inland Revenue Services of Nigeria (FIRS) being short-changed of its dues? Does it now know that this ragged-association (ANA) shouldn’t be categorized anymore as an association but rather as a public liability company feeding greedily fat on hard-earned tax-payers money? Is this ragged-association (ANA) remittance current in its register? These issues we shall pend till outcome of yet another seemingly periodic scam bleakly erred for summit by National Executive Committees (NEC) of this ragged-association (ANA) alongside inquiries that well-meaning stakeholder in Nigeria’s literary scene puzzles-out in event that the audit firms fails in exercising their corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Does this ragged-association (ANA) operate a functional and active internet website? – seeing that it is now composed mainly of super-headed authors with nothing to show other than fraudulent proceeds of its stock trading. Does this website contain information about its fiscal objectives and budgets? Has also this ragged-association; ANA Nigeria Plc been faithful to its social corporate responsibility by publishing its annual budgets in Nigeria’s Tabloids for the reading audience which it claims authority for to scrutinize and vet? - If Yes! – where and when? - If No! – why? Does it have proper accounting and risk mechanisms to ensure thorough fiscal discipline and monetary prudence? Does this ragged-association (ANA) consult with other sister-body like the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) for its account and audit needs or literally employs the services of account-quacks and audit-crooks? Does it even streamline its annual literary activities to tally with the fund at its disposal or bloat its activities to parasite unsuspecting tax-payers’ money? This and other issues shall be elaborately discussed in the next publication as we settle in our respective cocoon to soliloquize and ponder soberly on the likely outcome of the forensic audit and how well the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission and other related offences (ICPC) will get distracted from their respective businesses pursuant to the brazen fiscal and reckless activities of some lazy literary-bigots parading their gluttonous selves as authors.


Amusa Tajudeen Lasisi is of Federal University of Technology, Minna and can be reached via tajudeen4ac@yahoo.com