Agencies under me always get approvals from Buhari – TheNigerialawyer

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo says all agencies under him always
followed due process in the award of contracts and other critical
matters.

Reacting to TheCable’s report that President Muhammadu Buhari
has directed Osinbajo to henceforth seek approvals for agencies
under his supervision, Laolu Akande, the VP’s spokesman, described
as “false” insinuations that due process was not strictly being
followed before now.

He, however, did not deny that a memo was sent to the
vice-president on Monday directing him to get presidential
approvals for the agencies he chairs, as exclusively reported by
TheCable.

Akande was also silent on why a memo was being sent to the
vice-president on the need for president’s approvals.

Currently, Osinbajo is the chairman of the governing boards of
the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the National
Boundary Commission (NBC) and the Border Communities Development
Agency (BCDA).

He is also the chairman of the board of directors of the Niger
Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), a limited liability company
owned by the three tiers of government.

In addition, the vice-president chairs the National Economic
Council (NEC), a constitutional body made up of state governors and
key federal government officials, as well as the National Council
on Privatisation (NCP).

THE FULL STATEMENT:
REPORT INSINUATING VICE PRESIDENT DIDN’T FOLLOW DUE PROCESS IN
SUPERVISION OF AGENCIES UNDER HIM IS FALSE

Our attention has been drawn to a sensational report by The
Cable which claims that His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari,
has directed Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, to seek approvals
for agencies under him.

The report suggests, falsely, that agencies under the
supervision of the Vice President do not normally comply with
established rules where presidential approvals are
required.

This is obviously misleading and aims only to plant seeds of
discord in the Presidency while attempting to create unnecessary
national hysteria.

The agencies in question are established by law and the Vice
President has always insisted on due compliance with the enabling
statutes and other established regulations.

Depending on the particular scope of activity in question,
agencies may require management approval only, at the level of the
Director General or Chief Executive Officer. In this category falls
the great majority of their day-to-day activities.

However, other activities, or procurements, with value
exceeding a certain threshold, require Board approval. These may
get to the agency Board chaired by the Vice President. In a few
cases where Presidential approval is required, the Director-General
must seek such approval from the President, through the Vice
President. These rules have always guided the activities of
statutory agencies and the ones under the Vice President’s
supervision have always been so guided.

To claim that in the first term of the Buhari
administration, agencies of government have not been complying with
the provisions (of getting final approvals from the President) is
false, and the attempt to suggest the Vice President’s complicity
in such irregularities is simply mischievous and
reprehensible.

The effective and mutually respecting relationship between
the President and the Vice President is well known to Nigerians and
it is futile to insinuate otherwise.

Even though the Vice President has a statutory role as Board
Chairman of some government agencies under his office, with
appropriate approval limits, which often do not include contract
approvals; it is ludicrous to even insinuate that a Board Chairman
approves contracts.

Evidently, the Federal Executive Council, which oversees
Federal Ministries and agencies of government, is chaired by the
President, and it is in its purview to approve or ratify award of
contracts within the prescribed threshold.

The Vice President remains committed to the service of his
fatherland and will continue to do so despite the purveyors of fake
news. We urge
media organizations, as gatekeepers to uphold truth, balance,
fairness and objectivity in their reports.

LAOLU AKANDE
Senior Special Assistant to the President
Office of the Vice President
Sept 17, 2019

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Anti-Corruption Academy Graduates 49 ICPC
Investigators

The Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria (ACAN), Keffi, Nasarawa
State, the training arm of the Independent Corrupt Practices and
Other Related Offences Commission, (ICPC) has graduated a pool of
forty-nine staff from its Basic Investigation and System Study
Course Number 4.

The graduands who are staff of the Commission were drawn from
its various departments and units to undergo the 4-week course
which contents were designed to equip participants with basic
investigation skills and the capacity to conduct system study which
is one of ICPC’s flagship corruption-prevention tools for
ministries, departments and agencies of government.

The graduation ceremony organised for the participants had in
attendance the Chairman of ICPC, Prof Bolaji Owasanoye, represented
by one of the Commission’s Board Members, Hon. Oluwabukola Balogun.
Present also were two other Members of the Board, Hon. Titus Okolo
and Hon. Obiora Igwedibia; the Provost of ACAN, Prof Sola
Akinrinade; as well as Heads of Departments and Units of ICPC.

Delivering her speech, the representative of the ICPC Chairman
congratulated the participants on their successful completion of
the course, and urged them to ensure that the knowledge gained
would be applied effectively to their assignments whenever they
were called upon to do so. She also urged them to be grateful to
God as it would not have been possible for them to succeed without
His grace. “God has brought you this far; you must thank Him for
this important achievement of yours”, she said.

Also throwing in a few words of advice for the graduands, Hon.
Okolo said as investigators, the graduands should bear in mind
three important guiding principles: “…look with your eyes, listen
with your ears but keep your mouth shut, because if you say more
than you are required to say that’s when problems will arise”.

On his own part, Hon. Igwedibia commended the graduands for
their steadfastness and hard work that had made them to complete
the course successfully. He added that their future in the
Commission would remain bright if they continued to bring these
same attributes to bear on their work.

The Provost of ACAN, in his remarks, said he was pleased that
the graduands had shown great commitment and seriousness all
through the course, and reiterated the Academy’s resolve to improve
the capacity of ICPC staff for the Commission to achieve its
mandate.

Earlier, while speaking on contents of the Basic Investigation
and System Study Course, the Course Co-ordinator, Mr. Richard
Bello, had explained that the course also had components on ethics
and integrity-building as well as a physical fitness regime. He
said the participants, who started out as fifty in number but had
one of them excused from the course on health grounds, were taken
through individual and group theoretical and practical exercises in
addition to fieldwork on investigations and information
analysis.

One of the graduands, Mr. Yilzem Hyacienth Hoomkwap, a lawyer of
the Commission’s Chairman’s Special Unit, gave the vote of thanks
on behalf of his colleagues. He expressed their appreciation for
the opportunity offered them to acquire fresh knowledge and hone
their skills, while promising to always perform their assigned
tasks with diligence and dedication.

The highpoint of the event was the presentation of certificates
to the graduands by Hon. Balogun and the two Board Members present.
It was a spectacular sight to behold as the graduands smartly
marched up to collect their certificates.

Signed:
Mrs. Rasheedat A. Okoduwa, mni
Spokesperson for the Commission