The former Chairman of the House Committee on
Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, tells JOHN ALECHENU
how lawmakers commit budget fraud, the reason he is
tackling principal officers of the House and his relationship
with Speaker Yakubu Dogara and Majority Leader, Femi
Gbajabiamila

Some have claimed that your anti-corruption crusade against
the House of Representatives is an attempt by you to settle a
score with Speaker Yakubu Dogara, who used to be your ally. Is
that correct?

If it was a quarrel that had led to the exposures of the
monumental ills going on in the House of Representatives –
theft of our collective wealth; abuse of office and trust; and
massive budget fraud – then, Nigerians should pray even
harder for this kind of personal fights to happen daily. I think
people are not being fair. Instead of them to concentrate on
the gravity of the allegations that I have made, somebody is
asking why I am exposing the ills in the House. Why I started
that is no longer relevant. Nigerians forget things easily. I
have been in this struggle for five years. I was Chairman,
House Committee on Finance – why are people not making
reference to what I said back then? All the problems that are
being discussed today were raised between 2011 and 2015.
Many people lose their jobs and keep quiet. I won’t keep
quiet. When you see somebody talking like this, then most
likely, this is what he has always wanted to do. But he hasn’t
had the opportunity to do it.
I have said a whistleblower is not necessarily a saint. But
people often support him (a whistleblower) because what he
reveals is usually beneficial to all. This issue is beyond
Jibrin. If someone has any issue against Jibrin, he should
write a petition and take it to the anti-corruption agencies. I
will go to the agencies and respond to the petition. Nobody
among the 359 members of the House has written a petition
against me to the anti-graft agencies. I had written a petition
against the Speaker and three other principal officers in the
House. I am talking about people who committed budget
fraud of N40bn, another budget fraud worth about N20bn
and there is another budget fraud with a cumulative sum of
N284bn. I am talking about a person who diverted Federal
Government projects to his farm; short-changed members in
the N10bn Sustainable Development Goal projects of 2015;
used subterranean means to create a new House rule that is
the subject of litigation; and a man who collects rent from
multiple sources. I have also exposed the fact that members
are collecting votes for running costs. I am not saying
money should not be voted for lawmakers’ running costs.
The point is that this money is (sometimes) diverted to
private pockets.

Are you saying your current anti-corruption campaign in the
House is not an expression of your bitterness for being removed
as Chairman of the House Appropriation Committee?

I will say Nigerians should continue to pray for this kind of
bitterness. It is a blessing to the country. More people should
become embittered and expose the ills of our country; and
look at somebody in the eye, no matter how highly placed he
is and tell him the truth. Like in my case, I am so convinced
that I can look at the Speaker, the number four citizen of the
country, and say, ‘You are a fraudster.’ That will teach
people a lesson that they cannot abuse their office.

Did you quit as the committee’s chairman or were you fired?

They are saying I was given the sack. But I need you to
understand that I resigned. Okay, let’s take it that I was
removed as the chairman. Even if I voluntarily resigned, I
would still do what I am doing. Let us understand that I came
into the parliament at a young age. They put a lot of fear in
me. They would say, ‘Oh, you can’t do this. It will affect your
career. Nobody will trust you again.’ But I have grown. I have
matured. I am 40 years old. I am strong internally and I don’t
care. If (what I’m doing) is going to affect my career and if it
is anything that has to do with illegality, I don’t want to get
involved. I know that someday, this country will look for
somebody who is honest and straightforward. On that day, I
will be called upon. Even though such opportunities do not
come often, the legacy I want to leave for my children is a
good name. I don’t want to be part of the ills of the past. I
didn’t say I am a saint. I said I had made a U-turn and would
never go back to the past. I will fight all the ills. I am
equipped to fight them. And, with the support of Nigerians,
we will win. Even though I have repented and become an
activist, I am not immune to investigations.
Is running cost not something a lawmaker is entitled to?
Those who have capacity for the work in the House of
Representatives today are no more than 20 per cent. So, 80
per cent of the lawmakers do not have (the) capacity (to do
the work). They sit in the House of Representatives because
of jumbo allowances. These allowances, which are actually
meant to run our offices, are diverted into personal pockets.
It is certain that if the allowances are taken away, those who
go to their constituencies to sell their property to fund
elections will not do it again. This is because they know there
is no way they will recoup their money. Even the voters will
be forced to vote (based on) their conscience. It will have a
multiplier effect. It (removing jumbo allowances) will clean up
our electoral system. We will have in the House, people who
are willing to serve their people. Let’s invest all our energy in
cleaning up the system. Some say, ‘Oh, Jibrin was part of
them.’ So what? People need to focus on what I am saying.
If anyone has a case against me, he should write a petition
against me. I will defend myself.

Why did you say President Muhammadu Buhari’s silence since
the scandal broke is a blessing in disguise?

What do you want Mr. President to say? If he comes out to
make a statement (about the crisis in the House) today, so
what? I have tried to make people understand why they
should not force the President to talk. I am an insider in the
House. All they (lawmakers in the House) want is for the
President to show the public that he is behind Jibrin and that
will dilute my allegations. They will then say, ‘Oh, the
Presidency is sponsoring Jibrin to fight the House of
Representatives. After all, the Presidency did not support
Dogara in the first place.’ They will not remember the fact
that it was Jibrin that was at the forefront in the fight to make
(Yakubu) Dogara (the speaker). I know that the anti-
corruption agencies are working day and night. The Chairman
of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Ibrahim
Magu) set up a crack team led by a smart, young detective.
If you see the discovery that they’ve made so far, you will be
shocked. I don’t want to dilute their work. The President’s
silence is good for this crisis. It has allowed it to mature on
its own and Nigerians are now convinced that nobody is
using Jibrin. When the crisis started, they said (Bola) Tinubu
was the one sponsoring me. Later, they said Femi
(Gbajabiamila) was using me. The one they would have held
on to – and it would have made sense – was if the President
had come out to say anything to support me. If I was not a
part of the past, I would not have insider information I have
to fight the system (the House). Let’s look beyond the issue
of the past. I am willing to go to jail if I am found wanting.
Today, if I am arrested, prosecuted and convicted, while on
my way to jail, I will still be exposing the crimes in the House
of Representatives. The corruption in the House of
Representatives is massive. I have not exposed more than 10
per cent of the corruption going on in the House of
Representatives. It is that bad.

You’ve served as chairman of the committees on finance and
appropriation. At what point would you say corruption crept into
the budget process?

Two points: One is at the standing committee level. What
usually happens is – like in the case of the 2016 Budget –
the Speaker connived with some committee chairmen. These
chairmen were about 10. We have 96 committees. We are
not accusing 86 standing committees. We are talking about
10 committees. Usually, the budget fraud is perpetuated by a
few strategic committees. What the Speaker usually does is
to have a (private) discussion with them in a bid to insert
some items in the committees’ reports. That is done behind
the back of members of the committees. That normally
happens on the last day the standing committees meet to
discuss the budget. Somewhere along the line, when the
secretariat of the standing committees finishes the report and
forwards it to the appropriation committee chairman, the
speaker and some principal officers will sit down with the
chairmen of the standing committees to insert some items
into the budget. More often than not, these insertions are
fraudulent.
I should say, however, that some insertions can be legal.
When they make these illegal insertions, they take it to the
appropriation committee. At the appropriation committee
level, the chairman will decide whether or not to tolerate
these illegal insertions while discussing with the principal
officers. In my own case, I pointed out that the insertions
were too much. That was the beginning of my problem. To
make matters worse, apart from the fact that they (the
insertions) were too much – there were over 2,000 insertions
which amounted to about N284bn – the insertions were
essentially fraudulent. I told the Speaker, ‘Look, you can’t go
to the public with this budget.’ But, did I have a choice? I was
the appropriation committee chairman. Anything that
happened, they would tell me to speak to the media. So,
Nigerians were asking me questions that I could not answer.
They said, ‘But you defended this budget.’ I said, ‘Yes, I did.’
It is because I was made to defend it. How many times do
you defend things that you do not believe in, in government? I
defended it in my usual passionate way – just like I am using
all my energy now to expose them. That is the first stage
where the budget gets messed up. If the appropriation
committee chairman is compromised, everything goes on
quietly. But because I refused to compromise, there was a
fight. The Speaker, along with Leo Ogor, Yusuf Lasun and
Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, fought against me.

What is the second point?

The second phase is the period when the appropriation
committee puts the report together and then takes it to the
Clerk of the National Assembly. At that point, the Speaker
took the appropriation committee chairman’s secretariat
away from me twice. That had never happened in the history
of the parliament. Why are people not asking questions
about why he took the secretariat away from me? By the time
the budget came back, I didn’t know what to say and we
continued to fight. They hurriedly said they had fired me. I
had told them earlier that I didn’t want to be the committee
chairman any longer. They suspected that if I stepped down
as the chairman, I would expose them. For days, I spoke with
the Speaker about my intention to leave that office. There
was nothing they didn’t do on earth to keep me within that
system. They said, ‘Okay, if you go, you are not supposed to
talk.’ I told them I would not talk. Then, they asked me,
‘Which committee do you want?’ I replied that I didn’t want
any. I told the Speaker, ‘If you don’t announce it today, I am
going.’ He got scared. He requested to have a meeting with
me at 10 pm. I went (back) to my office and (and the next
thing I heard was) an announcement that I had been fired as
the appropriation committee chairman.
The House of Representatives is trying to blackmail the
country by saying we have powers of appropriation. I,
Abdulmumin Jibrin, believe that the power of appropriation
resides in the National Assembly. It empowers the Assembly
to add, reduce, expand and extend (items in the budget). The
makers of the Nigerian constitution did not envisage that
such power would be abused. There is no law that is meant
to protect fraud. For example, the executive brings a
proposal to construct a building for N1m – and everybody
knows the building can’t cost more than that amount of
money. It goes to the House, then to the chairman of the
House committee in charge. The chairman then uses his
power of appropriation to make it N4m. Will you tell me that
is not an offence? Or, for example, the chairman knows that
the project cannot cost less than N1m and he reduces it to
N500,000; it is sabotage against the country. I want
Nigerians to stop calling what had happened ‘padding.’ It is
budget fraud. The rightful way of using the power of
appropriation is, for example, in a local government, where
there is need for an electrification project. The council has
solar boreholes and irrigation schemes. Another solar
borehole and an irrigation scheme are inserted into the
budget, but what the area needs is electricity. The chairman
and members of the committee realise that solar boreholes
were provided for in the previous budget and the projects
were executed with a proof. They can use the power of
appropriation to take away the solar borehole project and
bring in the rural electrification project. They have not
committed an offence.

What is the quality you saw in Dogara that made you to support
his emergence as Speaker?

What happened to me was an error of judgment. I had written
and apologised to my party for that. It is one of the (most)
bitter and, at the same time, one of the best experiences I’ve
had in life. The human being is the most interesting thing to
study. What happened was that we came out of the 7th
Assembly with bitter experiences and we were determined to
get the best person as the Speaker. We have a lot of new
members in the current House and those of us that returned
are few – and even a fewer number of us held sensitive
positions in the 7th Assembly. The best qualities I think a
Speaker should possess are capacity, being temperate and
cool-headed, and the ability to bring people together. Femi
(Gbajabiamila), my good friend, with whom I get along well –
a brilliant lawyer, intelligent and smart – understands the
rules of the House. You cannot beat him when it comes to
the House rules. But Femi is a bit hyper. I have had that
conversation with him to say, ‘Look Femi, you will shout at
your colleagues and there will be a shouting match while
sitting on that seat (of speaker). Dogara, on the other hand,
was Chairman of the House Services. I didn’t know him that
much. But he came across as quiet. You will hear people
say, ‘Oh, he is a man of God.’ I have come to realise that is a
dummy he has been selling to the public. You see him come
to the chamber looking quiet. He is a brilliant guy; he looks
calm and organised. (But) we were deceived by his looks and
the surface psychoanalysis of his personality. We felt we
should give him the chance (to become the speaker). It was a
risk that I took.

At what point did things start to fall apart between the two of
you?

That was four weeks after he assumed power (as the
speaker). His personality changed completely. Traditionally,
when a member loses someone, the speaker pays him a
condolence visit. We lost a member but Dogara didn’t bother
to visit the family. He is that arrogant. We agreed that he
should reduce the number of committees to reduce the cost
of running the House. Rather than do what we agreed on, he
increased the number and refused to talk to anyone. He was
to use the appointment of committee chairmen to unite the
House. He, however, chose to do it his own way. Members
could not talk to him. (But now) this crisis has humbled him.
Have you enjoyed any form of support from Nigerians?
A lot of Nigerians have been supportive. I want to specially
thank former President Olusegun Obasanjo. He’s been
encouraging me to hold on. But you know, in his usual way,
he would say, ‘All of you people are the same. But I am
happy that you’ve pulled out of them and you are exposing
them. We will continue to give you support.’ That occasional
intervention has helped me to stay on track. I believe that a
lot of members of the House of Representatives are corrupt
– but, not all. There are still a few that are honest. They
have integrity. They are pained by what is happening in the
institution. They are overpowered. I remember there was a
statement Obasanjo made some time ago that there were
lawmakers who came to Abuja in trailers and are now driving
cars worth between N20m and N40m. He is right. That is the
problem we have in the House of Representatives. We need
to do background checks on people before they find their
way into the House.

Do you think your 180-day suspension will stand?

Legally, it cannot. There was precedence. The constitution is
clear: you can only get a member out of the House through
recall and the constitution is supreme. The Legislative
Privileges Act only allows the House to suspend a member
for one sitting day. The House rules stipulate that you can
only suspend a member for only 14 days. Therefore, legally,
there is no way this can stand. They only suspended me
because they wanted to save face. I raised allegations but
they have not responded.



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