Betta Edu: When Obasanjo, Yar'adua Were Presidents - TonyeBarcanista

Chief Sunday Afolabi was the minister of internal affairs (interior) and the director-general of President Olusegun Obasanjo reelection campaign in the Southwest. He was alleged to be involved in receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from an agent of French company SAGEM S.A. to facilitate the US $214 million contract given the firm in 2001 to execute a national identity card project. He was fired by President Olusegun Obasanjo.

President Obasanjo also fired Alhaji Hussaini Zannuwa Akwanga from office as Labour and Productivity Minister for his ialleged involvement in the SAGEM S.A bribery scandal in December 2003. Alhaji Akwanga was the permanent secretary of the internal affairs Minister when Chief Afolabi was minister, he was also appointed minister in the interior ministry. Obasanjo fired him still!

Obasanjo government went further to prosecute Chief Afolabi, Alhaji Akwanga, Mahmud Shata (who served as the immediate successor to Chief Afolabi as minister of internal affairs), Turrie Akerele (another former permanent secretary in the ministry of internal affairs under Shata), and a former national secretary of the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (his own party), Okwesilieze Nwodo, for their involvement in the crime.

Chief Fabian Osuji was appointed minister of education by President Olusegun Obasanjo after his 2003 reelection. In 2005, EFCC indicted Prof. Osuji of giving N55 million (then $400,000) in bribes to the Senate President Adolphus Wabara and some members of the National Assembly to pass an overbloated budget of education ministry. Obasanjo announced his sack almost immediately through national broadcast. Adolphus Wabara the Senate President was forced to resign. The indicted were charged to court by the Obasanjo administration.

In late 2004, newspapers published reports of over 2.7 billion naira (US $20 million) diverted by Tafa Adebayo Balogun, a sitting Inspector General of Police. President Obasanjo immediately ordered his arrest and resignation from office. Balogun subsequently faced trial.

Prof. Adenike Grange and Mr Gabriel Aduku were appointed minister of health and minister of state for health in 2007 respectively by President Umaru Musa Yar'adua in August 2007. In March 2008 they were unceremoniously fired for their inability to to return N300 million unspent money in the ministry meant for the 2007 budget. Yar'adua even went further to order the suspension and probe of key staff of the health ministry that were involved in the mess. He had zero tolerance for corrupt practices!

One of the reasons the President Obasanjo and President Yar'adua administrations enjoyed public trust was their approach to address concerns against officers of their government indicted for graft, diversion of public funds or misappropriation. They were imperfect, yet displayed a no-nonsense approach to addressing issues of gross misconduct by officers of their respective administrations.

The audacity of humanitarian minister, Dr. Betta Edu, to insist on remaining in office in the face of suspected misappropriation scandal involving her and money laundering through her alleged proxy, Bridget Oniyelu, is a direct confrontation to the people of Nigeria.

Moreover, the refusal of President Bola Tinubu to take decisive action on her by firing her like President Obasanjo did or ordering her suspension from office, is an indication that Dr. Edu is a 'sacred cow' and the administration is in bed with corrupt practices and gross misconduct. A serious government would have done the needful without much prompting.