CBN investigator’s past stalks Tinubu’s assignment

Several previous actions and decisions of Mr. Jim Obazee, the Special Investigator appointed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to probe activities of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under Mr. Godwin Emefiele, are threatening the credibility of the outcome of the assignment.

Obazee, a former executive secretary of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC), was in July 2023 appointed by President Tinubu to probe the apex bank. He submitted the report of his assignment to the Presidency in December 2023.

However, even before the report was submitted, so many interested persons criticised the appointment of such a “controversial” individual to handle a “sensitive” assignment.

Obazee was first appointed as head of the FRC by President Goodluck Jonathan in November, 2010. In February, 2014, he recommended the suspension of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as governor of the CBN.

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Also, in October, 2015, the Council, under Obazee, suspended the FRC number of Mr. Atedo Peterside, Chairman of Stanbic IBTC Bank. The Council cited infractions in the 2013-2014 financial statements of the bank as the reasons for its action.

Prior to the controversial actions above, Obazee was accused of sexual harassment by a lady called Abimbola Yakubu, who had worked with him as his personal assistant for three years. But he denied the allegation.

On January 9, 2017, however, the Muhammadu Buhari administration removed Obazee as the executive secretary of the FRC “with immediate effect”. That was about one year before the end of his second four-year tenure as helmsman of the Council. He was replaced with Mr. Adedotun Suleiman, a former Managing Partner/Director at Arthur Anderson, later Accenture.

His removal then was linked to his controversial enforcement of the code of corporate governance, and alleged insubordination. His relationship with then Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Okechukwu Enelama, was said to be frosty.

Similarly, the removal of Obazee in 2017 was allegedly linked to the disappearance of some CBN documents at the FRC.

Thus, since after he submitted the report of his investigation on the CBN, some stakeholders have criticised the report. Similarly, the embattled former CBN governor, Emefiele; the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha and some CBN board members also questioned some of the claims in the findings of the Obazee-led probe team.

“The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), wrote to him (Obazee) in 2017 and asked him to return the CBN documents he took after he was sacked from the FRC, but he never did. Those documents may cast doubt in the CBN investigation,” said a source from the FRC, which Obazee oversaw for six years.

Others questioned how a man who was fired by former President Buhari had found himself back in the corridors of power.

Link to CBN financial statements

Records made available to Daily Trust show that the many troubles of the country’s apex bank, which Obazee investigated, include controversial expenses under Emefiele. Daily Trust had access to the records that showed a jump in the CBN financial expenses under a section marked ‘Other Operational Expenses.’

The records show that in 2018, the section of the CBN financial report marked “Other Operating Expenses,” had an expenditure of N12 billion. The expenditure, however, suddenly grew exponentially to N800 billion. Sources say that the FRC had flagged that section from the CBN financial report, but the Buhari government failed to take action.

Records also show that investigations by the FRC on CBN financial statements from 2014-2015 as well as investigations on Bank of Industry financial statements from 2014-2015, and the Governing Board documents of the FRC from 2014 to 2015 had been conspicuously removed from the FRC records.

Those records got missing while Obazee was the helmsman of the FRC.

Daily Trust was privy to letters written to Obazee by the EFCC in 2017 demanding that he return the stated documents on CBN accounts, which the Commission was then investigating.

In one of the letters, the EFCC had asked Obazee to return “All council property in your custody including but not limited to investigations on CBN financial statement from 2014-2015, investigation on Bank of Industry financial statement from 2014-2015, governing board document from 2014 to 2015 and all other official properties and documents relating to the operations and activities of FRC.”

When asked of the outcome of the EFCC investigation and whether Obazee had presented the documents requested by the anti-graft agency, the EFCC’s spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, ignored phone calls, text and WhatsApp messages sent to his phone. He later asked our reporter for time to respond to the enquiry. However, more than a month later, there was no response from him.

Obazee had also ignored calls and a text message sent to him to respond to the allegations being leveled against him.

However, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said the allegations were unrelated to what Obazee was appointed by the president to do.

Onanuga said that because of the job Obazee was appointed to do, many Nigerians will try to use unrelated issues against him. He stressed that the people being investigated by Obazee will find ways to fight back.

“He was brought in because out of over 200 million Nigerians, he has the expertise to do forensic analysis and he has brought up a lot of issues, which is what people should focus on,” Mr. Onanuga said.

Financial crime investigators should have impeccable character – CeFTIW

The Executive Director, Centre for Fiscal Transparency and Integrity Watch, Umar Yakubu, explained that anyone whose reputation is not impeccable should not be appointed into sensitive positions, as it would not only affect the country’s integrity but equally damage its international reputation.

Yakubu said: “A government that is appointing someone to conduct an investigation on financial crime that has to do with the integrity of public institutions has to appoint somebody of impeccable character.”

He said any public officer facing allegations of sexual harassment or removal of sensitive documents, which amounts to abuse of office, and a violation of the Public Service Rules, should be investigated. “And if the person is found wanting, then you don’t even put such a person in office,” the CeFTIW boss added.

He urged the government to begin to subject public office holders to a well-defined integrity tests.

“We don’t have that, but we should have it either at the office of the SGF or Head of Service, because it is not an anti-corruption issue; it is an integrity issue. They should have a criterion for standard integrity tests for public and elected officers before they are given some positions, especially the sensitive ones,” he said.