Two notable events hallmarked January 8, 2024, the very first Monday – post-yuletide – this new year. Nigeria’s President, Bola Tinubu, suspended Betta Chimao­bim Edu, the young medical doctor who hitherto served as Minister for Human­itarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation. She was fingered in inexcusable finan­cial infractions which ran counter to public service rules and procedures. In the second instance, the President disengaged from office Babatunde Ayokunle Irukera, the urbane attor­ney and executive vice chairman of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, (FCCPC). Al­exander Okoh, director-general of the Bureau for Public Enterprises, (BPE), was also relieved of his appointment, same day. In different ways and to dif­fering extents, I know Edu and Irukera, respectively.

I first met Edu late 2018 in Port Har­court, immediately after the Peoples’ Democratic Party, (PDP), national con­vention which produced Nigeria’s char­ismatic former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, as presidential flagbearer. The little-known Edu found her way to Intels Camp, an idyllic, oasis in the bedlam of the capital of the oil-bearing state, where Atiku’s delegates and po­litical strategists were quartered. An amiable extrovert, she spontaneously cultivated friendships with some of us on that occasion. She desired a role in the presidential campaign, so she clung to us literally, for inclusion as politick­ing gathered steam ahead of the 2019 elections.

I visited Calabar not too long after. I was detailed on a specific assignment to Cross River State by the headquarters of the PDP. Edu was Special Adviser on Community and Primary Health­care to Benedict Ayade, the professor governor of the state. She graciously assigned a car to me to move me around in the course of my visit. I had always longed to visit Tinapa resort, the baby of Donald Duke, the first democratically elected governor of Cross River State, this fourth republic, conceived to reca­librate trade and economic activity in the nation’s South South. That 2018 visit provided a perfect opportunity and in­spired a very despondent poem which features in my most recent volume of poetry, A Medley Of Echoes. Edu was quite helpful.

Edu and I were in touch from time to time thereafter. She excitedly shared video clips of her screening by the sen­ate for confirmation as minister last year. I acknowledged them and wished her every luck. In our previous engage­ments, she had always expressed prefer­ence for a health portfolio, ostensibly be­cause of her professional background. That was the last time I heard from Edu! One will need to interrogate the nexus between people’s previous personas, vis-a-vis the spontaneity of office-induced metamorphosis and heightened hubris. I’ve observed a trend over the years such that further scrutiny has become imper­ative. Like I always tell those who ask me why I don’t jump upon presumably well-entrenched friends when they are in high public office, the point is that I have a “bad habit.” I won’t be found lounging on the corridors or waiting rooms of any friend in public office at whatever level, if we cannot have a telephone conversation and firm up an appointment.

Irukera and I knew each other by reputation for decades before we final­ly met. We lived with our parents and siblings in Ilorin, the Kwara State cap­ital, over time, but never met. He was indeed at the Federal Government Col­lege, (FGC), at the same time with one of my siblings at some point, while I was at the University of Ilorin. On one of his visits to Abuja well before his appoint­ment to the headship of the erstwhile Consumer Protection Council, (CPC), he insisted on meeting “this elder broth­er with whom he shares so many attri­butes.” We were both born in Kaduna at different times and bear the same name, “Babatunde”, which in Yoruba lore pre­supposes that we are reincarnations of one of grandfathers, paternal or mater­nal. We are both Yagba from Okunland in Kogi State, and proud alumni of the University of Ilorin. We would further discover that we both got married same day, same month, same year! And so he visited first time and again, ever volun­teering to be the one who visits more in deference to his older brother. This was until I insisted on knowing his place, so as to mitigate the “scores” if we were playing a game of football.

Betta Edu is on a yellow card for now relative to the ongoing inquest into her role in a bouquet of financial malfea­sance, less than five months in office. While there is a broadsheet of untoward heist reportedly perpetrated under her watch, the fact of her approval to the effect that about N600 million be paid into the personal account is on the front burner. The internet has been throwing up records of Edu’s activities during her stint in office. Her “testimony to an­swered prayers” at the December 2023 of the mammoth Shiloh prayer conven­tion of Bishop David Oyedepo’s Living Faith Church is trending. Edu’s exhibi­tionist rocking and revelry alongside her “big girl” associates are also in the clouds. The irrepressible, dart-throwing Shehu Sani, former legislator and pub­lic engager, has indeed applauded Tinu­bu’s decisiveness in promptly taking out Edu. He doesn’t miss the chance to take a swipe at the president’s predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, who could only “ashuwa” Nigerians in every instance, never, ever able to act resolutely.

Last December, Leadership newspa­pers, one of Nigeria’s respected tabloids, named Irukera’s FCCPC “Government Agency of the Year.” The organisation was so recognised for “promoting fair­ness, regulatory stability and consum­er protection within the marketplace.” Irukera was applauded for pursuing “a transformative journey in reshaping and rebranding the CPC, into a pro­active and consumer-centric FCCPC.” Leadership posited further: “Irukera’s oversight of the commission’s transfor­mation and operationalisation begin­ning from January 30, 2019,” has been a game-changer. He was credited with his “unwavering dedication to fostering a dynamic and responsive regulatory environment and recorded numerous milestones across diverse sectors, in­cluding healthcare, digital finance and electricity.” The tabloid noted that “one standout accomplishment is the strate­gic development and implementation of the ‘Patient’s Bill of Rights,’” among a host of other plaudits.

Irukera hosted a media engagement on the eve of Christmas where he dis­closed that the FCCPC had weaned itself off from government funding and was now self-sustaining. Accord­ing to him, rather than draw from the federal till, the FCCPC indeed remitted N22 Billion to the federation account! Irukera volunteered at that encounter that 90 per cent of the Internally Gen­erated Revenue, (IGR) of FCCPC came by way of enforcement of payment of penalties by defaulting companies. In a milieu where many government funded establishments overdraw their allocations, expend their IGR and go cap-in-hand for supplementation, the FCCPC generated N56 Billion last year out of which N22 Billion was remitted to the federal treasury. Such has been the quantum transmogrification of the FCCPC under Irukera, who inherited an IGR of N154 million in his first year in office in 2017.

There are insinuations to the effect that Irukera has been so treated because of his relationship with former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, a professor of law and Senior Advocate of Nige­ria, (SAN), who was instrumental to his appointment in 2017. Osinbajo and Irukera were partners in a Lagos-based law firm. Osinbajo contested in the pres­idential primary of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), in June 2022, which was won by Tinubu. Even before both men met at the ballot at the Eagle Square, Abuja, Tinubu never disguised his disaffection towards Osinbajo, his own protege, who dared run against him. Osinbajo served as Attorney Gen­eral of Lagos State under Tinubu when the latter was governor from 1999 to 2007. Tinubu also threw Osinbajo up as running mate to Buhari after the APC presidential primary in December 2014.

Irukera is grateful for the opportu­nity to have served Nigeria’s “incredi­bly vibrant and loyal consumers.” He is glad to leave behind “a strong insti­tutional advocate in the FCCPC and an outstanding team of soldiers who work there daily for the cause of fair markets.” Irukera offered transparent leadership at the FCCPC, took bold and daring steps, made far-reaching decisions and achieved much in the Commission’s mandate to protect the consuming public from unfair prac­tices. He fearlessly brought to their knees, otherwise powerful local and international companies infringing on consumer rights and made them ac­countable. Such is the sterling legacy Irukera is leaving in FCCPC, a hitherto little-known government concern.

The period of Betta Edu’s suspen­sion should serve as one to holistically rethink the whole concept of the Hu­manitarian Affairs and Poverty Allevia­tion ministry, the National Social Invest­ment Programme Agency, (NSIPA), and their affiliates. Since their emergence under the Buhari administration, they have been fraught with allegations of mindless thievery and mammoth fraud. From Sadiya Umar-Farouk, who pioneered the ministry under Buhari through Halima Shehu, the NSIPA chief executive, who was recently dis­missed by Tinubu and now Betta Edu, the rancid smell of fiscal cannibalism, chokes. Nigeria’s commonwealth to the tune of N88 Billion is alleged to have been fleeced by these three.

Truth is that all the so-called pov­erty alleviation and empowerment archetypes have only provided for the colossal bleeding of the national wal­let. The “tradermoni,” “public works programme” and “conditional cash transfer”, among others, have been most dishonest in serving the interest of vul­nerable groups. Who authenticates the number of individuals or households provided with tokens for poverty mit­igation? The entire poverty temper­ing superstructure, under its various aliases and nomenclatures, amounts to a consolidated scam.

For his inimitable altruism and dil­igence in service to nation, for opening the eyes of government to the fact that state institutions can be transparently and profitably run, Irukera deserves proper recognition. People who apply themselves to service the way Irukera has should be invited for a handshake and photo opportunity with the Pres­ident. On such an occasion, Tinubu should ask him to name a particular government department he hopes to help his “renewed hope” agenda. The National Productivity Centre, (NPC), and the Ministry of Special Duties should immediately list Irukera for ap­plicable honours, as different from the Buhari “all comers” epoch.

*Dr Olusunle, a poet, journalist and au­thor, is a Fellow of the Association of Ni­gerian Authors, (ANA)