There is so much chaos in Nigeria’s public service. This congenital defect has cropped up at the National Health Insurance Scheme, where the pronouncements of the Executive Secretary, Usman Yusuf, against the Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, have triggered a national uproar. Adewole had suspended the ES from office over allegations of corruption, but the NHIS boss has continued to defy the minister. This public sparring is disturbing. In the interest of the subscribers and the public service, the sanctity of the scheme should be preserved through law and order.
Inundated with petitions against the ES, Adewole, early this month, approved the suspension of Yusuf, which is to last for three months. According to the minister, who also set up a committee to probe the allegations, the suspension is to pave the way for “uninterrupted investigation.” This action, instead of dousing tension, elicited the opposite. Yusuf, in open defiance, replied that he was not answerable to the minister. “With utmost respect, sir, I am unable to comply with your directive,” Yusuf allegedly replied, adding that by virtue of sections 4 and 8 of the NHIS Act, the approval and removal of the NHIS boss “is the sole prerogative of the President.”
The ES, who was appointed in 2016, was alleged to have been involved in fraud to the tune of N960 million, buying an SUV for N58 million and awarding contracts worth about N1 billion without the approval of the NHIS board. As the ES, he is said to be entitled to a spending limit of N2.5 million. Yusuf reportedly injected divisions into the scheme by hiring those close to him. Apart from this, the ES was accused of paying the Health Management Organisations one month in advance instead of the extant rule of paying three months in advance. Operators alleged that this threw the NHIS into a major crisis.
From the foregoing, the minister took the right decision to suspend the ES. While it is in the power of the President to appoint and fire, the minister has the right to suspend the head of an agency under the ministry he oversees in a case like this, according to extant public service rules. The crux of the matter is that Adewole has not fired Yusuf; it is only the investigative report that will determine the next course of action by the minister or the President. Today’s NHIS, established in 2004, is targeted at making health services accessible and affordable to a majority of Nigerians. But it has been beset with a myriad of problems. Some previous heads of the organisation bowed out in a hail of corruption scandals. The NHIS administers humongous funds pooled from the contributions of subscribers, who are mainly federal civil servants and private sector employees. So, it is possible that it is seen as a financial honeypot by crooked public servants. The NHIS says it paid out N351 billion to the HMOs in the 12 years to 2016, though other estimates are far higher than this.
Strangely, Yusuf has found an ally in the House of Representatives. The House Committee on Health Services, chaired by Chike Okafor, which is also probing allegations of widespread sleaze in the scheme, has bizarrely “ordered” the health minister to recall Yusuf to his duty post. The committee has summoned Adewole a couple of times to appear before it, while adamantly reiterating that the ES must be recalled.
This is naïve. The legislature under our constitution has no such power. The lawmakers are, as usual, overstepping their bounds. It appears our legislators are taking the issue of checks and balances and oversight functions too far. Yusuf’s suspension by the minister is a simple civil service administrative procedure, which is not within the remit of the lawmakers. Again, the directive undermines the office of the minister.
The trenchant recourse of the parliament to “make orders and directives” to intimidate the executive is a noticeable trend in the Eighth National Assembly. But the resolution to recall Yusuf is a blatant abuse of legislative powers. At every opportunity, members of the National Assembly portray their immaturity; it is a sign of enlightenment to allow the executive to do its job without unnecessary legislative interference.
Holding the executive to ransom is a spoke in the wheel of governance. It is distressing that filibustering has assumed a dark art in the Eighth NASS. They summon both public servants and top citizens at a reckless rate and refuse to pass critical bills on time. Weirdly, the NASS said early in July that it would not screen nominees sent to it by the executive again over its face-off with the executive, which has refused to do the parliament’s bidding to replace Ibrahim Magu, the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The hostility of the legislature to the executive was earlier manifested in the passage of the 2017 budget. The executive submitted the proposals to the NASS in December 2016; it was passed only in May, in a season of recession. Annoyingly, the final document was mutilated, leading to a war of words between the two arms of government.
Our democratic experiment should move from strong men to strong institutions for effective governance. The legislative arm of government must drop opportunistic behaviour, embrace best practices and put such critical lessons to use. Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, should intervene today to end Yusuf’s insubordination.
