Inadequate funding is the greatest challenge facing the Code of Conduct Tribunal in its effort towards fighting corruption in the country to a standstill. In this interview, chairman of the tribunal, Justice Danladi Yakubu Umar told our senior reporter, DAVID ADUGE-ANI that the activities of the tribunal are seriously impeded by poor budgetary allocations.
What exactly are the mandates of the Code of Conduct Tribunal?
In a nutshell, the mandate of the Code of Conduct Tribunal is to ensure probity and accountability in the conduct of government business, among public officers.
The Code of Conduct Tribunal was established mainly to tackle issues relating to public officers who commit misconduct in the cause of their duties. Such misconduct could be in a form of collection of bribe, abuse of office, like using your office to influence certain things, among others offences.
The tribunal, which was established in 1989, under Decree 1 of 1989, came on board alongside the Code of Conduct Bureau during the era of former military president, Ibrahim Babangida.
Which categories of public officers are covered by the tribunal’s duties?
The categories of public officers covered for the purpose of the Code of Conduct Tribunal include the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the vice president, deputy president of the Senate, speaker and deputy speaker of the House of Representatives and speakers and deputy speakers of various states houses of assembly, and all members of the legislative houses, state governors and their deputies, Chief Justice of Nigeria, justices of the supreme court, and president and justices of courts of appeal, and all judicial officers and all staff members of courts of law.
Also, the attorney-general of the federation and those of each state, ministers of the federal government and commissioners of state governments, the chief of defence staff, chief of army staff, chief of naval staff, chief of air staff and all members of staff of the armed forces of the federation. The inspector-general of police, his deputy and all members of the Nigeria Police Force, including other government security agencies, as well as other public officers, are under the coverage of the tribunal.
How has the tribunal been able to live by these mandates in the face of widespread corruption we witness in the country today?
Thank God that the federal government has established other agencies to tackle corruption cases in the country, such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), the Nigeria Police Force and even the Code of Conduct Bureau. They are doing their best. When they finish their investigations and if they affect a public officer, they refer the cases to us to ensure the process of apprehending the person. Then we try him according to the law of the land.
It is true that we have about 4 million Nigerians who are working in the public service, but we only deal with issues brought before us. We don’t go out after everybody. It is when an investigation has shown that a public officer is living above board vis-à-vis his income from where he works, and after investigation they can forward the case to us.
Do you conduct your investigations?
No, we don’t investigate cases because we are like a regular court. It is the Code of Conduct Tribunal that investigates such person, and when they discover that their investigations are fair and justifiable enough, they refer the case to us for adjudication.
How do you separate your functions from other anti-graft agencies like the EFCC, ICPC and the Code of Conduct Tribunal?
They all have separate mandates. For instance, the EFCC investigates and arrests persons indicted for financial crimes. They don’t have the mandate to refer cases to us for adjudication; rather, they go through the bureau. The bureau will sanction it and forward it to the tribunal. The same thing applies to the ICPC.
How many cases are you handling at the moment?
The cases we are handling at the moment are so many. What we actually do is to bring justice to people. At the moment we handle five to six cases on a weekly basis. Most cases we entertain here bother on declaration of assets and non-declaration of assets by public officers.
What are the major challenges you face in the course of your duties?
Well, the major challenges we usually face, both here and in the ministry, is the lack of proper funding. Everywhere we go in the country with the entourage, we spend not less than N5million. And our budget unfortunately does not provide such money for us.
We have to travel because most of the accused persons live outside Abuja, and are not ready to come here to be tried.
Sometimes it is even difficult for us to serve summons to defaulters in the areas they live. This is because we do not have vehicles, neither do we have enough police escorts that should accompany such documents.
Why do you have to travel to the states from Abuja, don’t you have zonal offices to handle such matters?
This is what we have been suffering from. We hope that the present CJN, Justice Maryam Aloma Mukhtar will look into our problems and expand the scope of the tribunal.? For instance, I am the only chairman of this tribunal and the cases are enormous. We do appreciate if we are going to have zonal offices in the six geo-political zones of the country. The zonal offices could have court halls and other facilities where we could try cases.
Presently, we have few numbers of staff in the Abuja headquarters. The enormity of the job is worrisome because there are no judges to handle cases in the zones. That will limit us from travelling across the zones of the country. At the moment we traverse all the 36 states of the country and it is not easy.
In the face of these challenges, what are your achievements since you became the tribunal chairman last year?
I must confess that before I became the chairman of the tribunal, there have been loyalties here and there. I have established an open-door policy in the tribunal. We have equally trained some staff to improve on the job. Some have been sponsored outside the country for further training. I give high priority to capacity building in the tribunal; I believe that without capacity building there is no way we can move this place forward.
Recently, there was a report indicting the management of the tribunal for high- handedness in its relationship with its staff. What is your reaction to this?
It is not true. To be honest with you I have a very cordial relationship with every staff member of the tribunal. I take everybody here like a brother or sister. The report actually came from few individuals in the tribunal, but the matter has received adequate attention and the issues put behind.
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