Corruption allegations: MDAs don’t respond to enquiries – Olatunde

Comrade Daniel Seun Olatunde is the Executive Secretary of Citizens of Impact Foundation (CIF), a social justice organisation with the primary purpose of promoting the interest of ordinary Nigerians. In this interview with BODE OLAGOKE, he says the anti-corruption fight under the APC government is failing.
May we get to know what your organisation is all about?
Citizens of impact foundation is a social justice organisation that promotes the interest of ordinary hardworking Nigerian without name or face recognition and looking at it, we are a social justice organisation.
We look at how citizens will live better lives in their own country and when you talk about living better life in their own country, you talk about citizens. We are out to see genuine smile on the faces of citizens. This is what citizens of impact is all about.
We look at patriotism and for citizens to be patriotic, there must be a balance, they must get something in return while they are being patriots for the nation because there must be reward for good behaviour and there must be reward for bad behaviour. So, for us to have good citizens, there must be reward for both.

What impact has your organisation made since it came into being?
Firstly, when citizens of impacts started in 2016, we were able to look at the issue of secret and nepotic recruitments that goes on in MDAs and federal government agencies. We picketed the SGF’s office on the 27th of July, 2016 but it is a shame that government agencies don’t respond to queries, when you write to them, the best they will do is that, “we are looking into it” just to stall you.
If you write to the likes of FIRS that are known for secret recruitments, it was after our protests last year that, for the first time FIRS came up to announce vacancies, vacancies which they have sold out. These are vacancies that the people that applied genuinely never got these jobs. So, you know, we have been looking into this, we have been doing citizens orientation on patriotism and there is something we are working on presently that is called “I am Nigeria”.
Talking about “I am Nigeria”, is a lifetime project because you see yourself as a Nigerian but now we are saying “I am Nigeria”, it is relative, Nigeria we know to be a woman, a woman that is blind, dumb and deaf but have all the resources but this woman has been raped, has been maltreated but what do we do with things that we treasure, we hold them dear to our heart, we take care of them. Even our mobile phones that we use, you don’t want your phone to drop on the floor.
So, if you look at it critically, Nigeria should be cared for, we Nigerians are the ones that will fix the problems of Nigeria, that is why I am Nigeria and I see everybody to take that challenge that I am Nigeria, you are Nigeria, if you see it that I am Nigeria, you don’t want to do something that is wrong, you want to look out for the person that is writing in front of you, the person at your back, people that you don’t even know, you want to help them, you want Nigeria to succeed. These are the projects we have been handling.

How would you gauge the war against corruption by the APC govt?
Well, it is funny and it is not funny, why I said that is this, with all sense of responsibility, the corruption in the APC government can be compared to when initially people were using straw to suck the corruption but right now, they are using cup to dole it out and drink it. That is how terrible corruption had been in this government.
Now, you see the Ministers, the appointees of government, they are looking for every avenue to grab, they are not there to fend for the people, to fight for the nation, to do the needful. One, it is a fundamental error that the President made, because the people that campaigned for him, that fought for him to get there, he never gave them a place, so, the people that carried your vision are the people that should have been there to work for you and drive to your destination. But you appointed people that are not carrying your vision, it is like I am going to Kaduna, and you are going to go with me but you are driving a different vehicle and your mindset is Lagos, you will face Lokoja and you will enter through Kogi, go straight to Ekiti State. You are no where near Kaduna state because you are not carrying my vision, so, the people that are carrying your vision are those that will drive your vision but it is unfortunate that the people that are there are not carriers of his vision. So, they are carriers of their own vision and they are looking for every means to enrich themselves. The minsters are disappointment to someone like me that wants to see that Nigerians are better off.

Can you site example of what you are talking about?
Now, when we talk about corruption, presently in the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment headed by Minister Okechukwu Enelemah, he met corruption in his ministry and he is encouraging the corruption to continue. This is a case of you having a revenue generating source in your organisation like the Trademarks, Patent and Design.
This is a department that generates revenue for the nation and it is unfortunate that, as we speak, that department was handed over to consultant, the contract was a N200m contract which should go through the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) and should get FEC approval. They got there in 2010, no FEC approval, no Bureau of Public Procurement, so, the contract is illegal.
The illegal contract expired in 2014 and we are in 2017 and Okechukwu Enelemah is allowing these people in the ministry. They have a department in the ministry, they took over the department of Trademark, Patent and Design which they call commercial law I think, they call it commercial law department and this is a department that generates revenue, but you gave it to contractor which initially, you were not the one that gave it to them. It is just like the case that happened in NPA, that Intels was taking revenue for the government and you do whatever you like with the money and you say government you take peanuts but the new management in NPA saw that Intels was getting revenue for the government and giving them what they like, those people taking revenue for you can never declare the total they are getting. Now, they said they don’t want to do TSA, it is the same thing that is happening right in ministry of Trade and Investment.
Now, this NL solution that is the contractor taking money from Nigerians, foreigners, all the people that come to do patents, designs and trademarks. Now, they have a website, from this website, you cannot pay to them by hand, they use interswitch and every government agency presently, every money you spend should go through remita.net where you generate your RRR code and you know that this money supposed to go straight to government acvout but this one goes to interswitch. If you go and check their website, it is called iponigeria.com, you will see it there.
By the time you fill all the forms, you check in, whatever you want to pay, you pay through interswitch, you pay through your and thats all. It is what these people now tell the ministry that they generated that the ministry has to take ‘hookline and sinker’ because we spoke to them and we asked them, ‘Can we come and get information?’ They asked us to write to them, and I was like write letter to you to get information? Because the information that you know we want to get will indict you, you will never give to us.

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