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Allegations of lack of transparency and accountability surround the management of billions of Naira raised by past and present first ladies to execute their charity programmes

Bisi Fayemi, the wife of Ekiti State governor, is not unaware of what her main responsibility is as the state’s first lady. According to her, “my main responsibility as the wife of a governor is to support my husband … and work with him and his team to help build our Ekiti State and to make good on all the promises he made to the voters who stood by us all through our legal battles to reclaim his mandate. That is the ‘home front’ support my husband needs from me right now.” However, she believes that it would be very boring limiting herself to the “home front” alone. “My husband will be very disappointed in me if I opt to spend most of my time at home and attending social functions to show off my latest lace and head-ties. He will consider it a terrible waste of my experience, skills and talents,” she said.

Fayemi is quite aware of the influence that goes with being a first lady, especially the ability to sway the powers that be into action towards a desired direction and to get things done. She explained that if, for instance, a person had been trying to see her husband for three months and he would not return his calls, she could intervene and “arrange for him to have breakfast with him tomorrow morning,” adding that “I work hard at ensuring that I exercise my informal powers and authority with utmost discretion, respect, sensitivity and integrity. I might not always get it right, but I try.”

 It is through the exercise of that informal power and authority that current and former first ladies in Nigeria have been able to establish pet projects with funds raised from public institutions, corporate organisations and international donor agencies. Unfortunately, none of them accounts for the millions of Naira they usually raise during the launching of such projects. Worse, there is no continuity for most of the programmes which die at the end of their tenure. This makes it possible for them to appropriate the funds for personal use. Some of the first ladies also use the pet projects to extort money from business people who need favour from their spouses.

 On her part, Fayemi is committed to national and international organisations like the Nigerian Women’s Trust Fund, where she is the chairperson, the African Women’s Development Fund and the African Grand Makers Network. She is also instrumental to the establishment of the Multi-Births Trust Fund that is managed by the Ministry of Women Affairs. She also launched the Ekiti Development Foundation in June 2011. She is using these foundations to support a range of women’s organisations across the state and to reach out to hundreds of women in remote places as well as giving support to several government projects with funds that came “from collaboration with various institutions, corporate sponsorship, wealthy philanthropists and support in kind.”

To Fayemi, the office of the first lady has come to stay because it has a vital role to play in the Nigerian society irrespective of what people feel and say about it. “The fact that it is not written in the constitution does not make the office (of the first lady) illegal. But one of the problems of the office of the first lady is that over the years, we have allowed our experiences with power hungry and unscrupulous women who were not properly advised to cloud our judgement.”

However, not all the pet projects instituted by the incumbent and former first ladies passed the test of public approval. Many of them ended as utter disappointment, without fulfilling the lofty ideals they were touted to serve.  Some never even saw the light of the day after millions, sometimes billions of Naira, had been raised for their execution.

One of such pet projects was the International Cancer Centre, ICC, which was the brain child of Turai Yar’Adua, wife of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who died in office in May 2010. The centre was conceived to be a state of the art medical centre for research, diagnosis and treatment of cancer diseases that have claimed the lives of thousands of Nigerians.

The fund raising ceremony for the proposed ICC in June 2009, was characterised by pomp and circumstance. The money bags in the country were at the launching. At the end of the day, more than N10 billion was pledged to the foundation by donors who wanted to protect their political and business interest in the administration of the late Yar’Adua. In addition, the centre was allocated 7.394 hectares of land along the Airport Road in Abuja.

Newswatch gathered that the execution of the project was militated by a number of factors. The Federal Capital Development Authority, FCDA, is yet to approve the building plan of the project even though it has received the payment of N26.824 million from the promoters of the ICC. Moreover, less than one third of the N10 billion pledged by donors was redeemed. In addition, the prolonged illness of the former late president did not allow the former first lady to concentrate on the project.

Consequently, three years after the fund raising and foundation laying ceremonies, nothing has been heard of the pet project. Besides, nobody has given account on how the billions that accrued to the centre were spent. Indeed, mum has been the word except for the report that the centre last year donated N45 million worth of drugs to some selected hospitals in the country. The drugs were meant to be distributed freely to patients.

But Turai was not the only first lady who has failed to account for how the billions she received for the execution of her pet projects were spent. She was merely following the path beaten by the late Maryam Babangida, wife of General Ibrahim Babangida, Nigeria’s former military president. She pioneered the concept of showy office of the first lady when she launched and ran the Better Life Programme, BLP, for rural women between 1985 and 1993 when her spouse held sway as the country’s military president.

Her successor, Maryam Abacha, widow of the late General Sani Abacha, Nigeria’s former head of state, told Newswatch in 1997 that she inherited an empty purse from the BLP when she stepped in as the country’s first lady in November 1993. “I was a member of the better life and I was a  very active member and up to the time I stopped coming  to Better Life, there was nothing like a blueprint and by the time I assumed office, there was no handing over note, no documents, there was no money, nothing being handed over. I don’t know the criteria they used,” she said.

But Sunny Okogwu, the elder brother of the late Maryam Babangida, has risen in defence of the former first lady. He claimed that the BLP was a private initiative of the former first lady that was funded by the collective contributions of her family and friends without any financial involvement of any agency of the government.   “It was a private enterprise for public benefit. All members of her family including me donated money for the kick off of the project,” he said. He also said that her sister continued with her philanthropic activities after she ceased to be first lady but in a more private manner by establishing the EL-Amin International Schools and a skill acquisition centre where many women were trained on how to make pot, sew clothes and acquire other skills that could make them self-sufficient.

Nevertheless, the management of the Maryam Babangida Centre for Women Development, which ran part of the BLP project, was taken over by the regime of the late General Abacha even though it was registered as a private trust. It is, today, known as the National Centre for Women Development.

In 1994, Abacha’ widow dumped the BLP initiated by her predecessor to commence her own pet project known as the Family Support Programme, FSP. A decree was enacted to give it legal backing so that it could outlive her tenure as the country’s first lady. She also said that running the project as at 1997 cost about a billion Naira , which was raised from donors. The government, she said, only assisted with equipping the hospitals established by the FSP.

The FSP was credited with the setting up of the National Hospital in Abuja and various medical centres in various states of the federation.  Some of the medical centres included the Vesicovaginal Fistula Center in Sokoto, Ebonyi, Zamfara and other states. She is also credited with the launching of the National Programme of Immunisation, NPI. One characteristic feature of her medical pet projects is that they outlived her tenure and are still operational today because they were designed in such a way that they could be inherited  either by the federal or state ministry of health.  She was also instrumental to the creation of the federal ministry of women affairs.

“We protected the FSP blueprint and it has a legal backing. It is backed by a decree. We have a blueprint for the NPI as well as a legal backing. We have people outside the office of the President controlling all these activities. So even if it should die, it should not just automatically die like that. And I do not see any government that will come in and say wipe out all these programmes, we do not need them any more,” she said.

It is of note that none of the first ladies after Abacha took the pain to protect their pet projects. This may be because of their desire to be in charge of the projects or to personalise both the projects and the benefits that flow from them. For instance, the late Stella Obasanjo’s Child Care Trust, which was established to take care of the less-privileged, physically challenged and motherless babies appears to have been abonomed despite the millions of Naira raised during its launching. The pet project probably died with its initiator.

The same might happen to the pet project of Patience Jonathan, the incumbent first lady of Nigeria and the wife of President Goodluck Jonathan. The Project is the Women for Change Initiative, W4CI, an NGO that promotes women’s participation in politics and the actualisation of 35 percent nomination of women for political appointment in the country. So far, the W4CI is not backed up with any legislation. She has equally not taken any concrete step that would make her projects outlive her days in the presidential villa in Asokoro, Abuja. The same fate has already befallen the Women Trafficking and Child Labour Eradication Foundation initiated by Titi Abubakar, wife of Atiku Abubakar, former vice-president. From all indications, the project seems to have been abandoned and the money raised to fund it gone down the drain.

The same applies to the pet projects of nearly all the former first ladies of the various states of the federation. Their abandoned projects litter several Nigerian cities without any benefit to the society. Investigation by Newswatch in Oyo State revealed that the pet projects of  wives of former state governors achieved little. They were merely  jamborees that  helped to boost the financial health of their respective promoters. Murtiat Olayinka Ladoja, wife of Rashidi Ladoja, had a project known as Idera De Foundation. But, today, the project has been abandoned. When Newswatch visited the Iddo area of Ibadan, the site of the large expanse of land acquired by Idera De Foundation for the purpose of training women and youth in skills development, was overgrown with weeds.   Also, the Community Link Advancement Programme, CLAP, the pet project of Oluwakemi Alao-Akala, is today a shadow of itself following the end of the tenure of Christopher Alao-Akala as Oyo State governeor.

In Kaduna State, Asma’u, wife of Ahmed Muhammed Makarfi, former governor of the state, initiated the Millennium Project that was functional between 1999 and 2007. More than N100 million was realised when it was launched to save the girl-child from street hawking and ‘almajiri and expose them to western education. Part of the money was used to acquire a large acre of land along Kinshasha Road, GRA, Kaduna. However, the premises of the Millennium Hope, which used to be a Mecca of sort is now a shadow of its past. It is now being used as a recreation centre and event place for hosting social events. 

The story is the same in Delta State where Nkoyo Ibori, wife of James Ibori, former governor of the state, ran the Shelter Initiative during her husband’s tenure between 1999 and 2007. The Nkoyo Ibori Children Referral Hospital she built in Oghara has been overgrown with weeds. The former Delta first lady who is today serving a jail term in London for money laundering, is said to have looted the funds raised for her pet project. The project was a failure because she failed to carry the community along.

One of the problems with pet projects initiated by first ladies is that sometimes, the wives of the state governors behave like Queen Jezebel, who coveted a plot of land and used her husband to acquire it. Recently, Chris Ngige, a senator and former governor of Anambra State, told the story of how Chinwoke Mbadinuju, former governor of the state, revoked a piece of land belonging to the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and allocated it to Nnebuogo Mbadinuju, his wife, to site her pet project called Daily Bread Organisation. The land was later taken from her by Ngige who returned it to the CBN. Today, the CBN has developed the site and would soon commence operation in the state.

However, there are few first ladies who continued with their pet projects even after the expiration of the tenure of their husbands. One of them is Eki, wife of Lucky Igbinedion, former governor of Edo State. The Idia Renaissance, IR, and Edo State Skills Acquisition Centre which she set up, are still functioning. Although she handed the skill acquisition centre to the state government, Eki still retains the IR, which was set up to combat the human traffic of young women in Edo for prostitution in Europe and also to reintegrate returnees with their families. Esshe Oyenwense, vice-president of IR, told Newswatch that the demand for the services of the IR often overwhelms its capacity. He claimed that IR has never relied on the state government for funds. Rather, it relies on the goodwill of “our friends, partners and international donors.”

Roland Nwoha, administrator and co-ordinator of IR attributed the ability of the initiative to outlive the tenure of Igbinedion to Eki’s passion to achieve her vision. Other activities of the IR include counselling HIV/AIDS carriers. Nosa Aladeselu, president, African Women Empowerment Guild, applauded the structures of IR that have enabled it to stay focused and attract funding from international organisations like the United Nations International Children Education Fund,UNICEF, and the International Organisation for Migration.

Another pet project that is still functional is that of Onari Duke, former first lady of Cross River State. During the tenure of her husband, Onari ran several pro-poor projects in collaboration with the state government, private organisations and international agencies for the eight years. Then, her husband used to dole out N18 million every month in support of her projects. Four years after Donald Duke, her husband’s tenure expired, she is still running the projects. Recently, she commissioned the Calabar Women and Children Hospital under the auspices of the Child Survival and Development Organisation, CS-DON.  “I don’t think there is any project I worked on that I would describe as a pet project. They were all things that were complementary to what I felt were my husband’s focus and were not independent programmes,’’ she said.  The hospital focuses much on HIV-AIDS, especially in reducing its impact on orphans and vulnerable children.  This has set her apart from other first ladies whose NGOs became comatose at the end of their spouses’ tenure. However, the Enterprise Nigeria Foundation, ENF, another project initiated by Duke became very controversial. She was questioned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for diverting N480 million allocated for poor rural communities

Even though Newswatch could not ascertain if the Youth Empowerment Scheme, YES, initiated by Zainab Kure, wife of Abdulkadir Kure, former governor of Niger State, is still running, there are reports that the scheme benefited the people when she was the state’s first lady. YES was into the provision of vocational skills training to the youths as a human development intervention organisation.  According to Emmanuel Ohize and Muhammed Jebba, lecturers in the Department of Industrial and Technology Education, Federal University of Technology, Minna, who published their study on YES in a journal in 2009, the scheme was targeted at training youths by way of empowering them economically and socially. It was also expected to intervene in their educational pursuit and also offer an opportunity for initiating behavioural changes in the youth through guidance and counselling programmes aimed at putting them in proper psychological frame of mind for many challenges ahead in life. “So far, over five thousand youths from the twenty-five local government areas of the state have graduated from various training programmes,” the lecturer said.

Ohize and Jebba investigated Project YES’s impact on poverty alleviation in the state and also to determine whether the scheme succeeded in empowering its beneficiaries in terms of skill acquisition for self-empowerment. Their findings revealed that it succeeded in empowering its beneficiaries by way of vocational skills acquisition and contributed to change their socio-economic status. They recommended the introduction of the scheme at the local government levels to cater for the poverty stricken rural dwellers. They also called the government at all levels to encourage individuals, philanthropists and philanthropic organisations to set up poverty alleviation related NGOs to supplement the effort in fighting the scourge of poverty in Nigeria.

The Youth Empowerment Scheme, popularly tagged Project YES, is a registered non-governmental organisation. It was introduced in April 2000 and registered as a non-profit making venture with the Corporate Affairs Commission of Nigeria, CAC, with registration number RC 13705. Funding the YES project was not a problem. Kure admitted that a lot of individuals supported the project, even though it took her a lot of shouting to get their goodwill.  She also said that the state government, which was headed by her husband, Abdulkadir Kure, supported the scheme with computers, tailoring and knitting machines.

Although most governors gave their wives free rein to go on with pet projects, there are others who would not allow their wives to join the bandwagon. One of such governors is Rubi’u Musa Kwankwaso, governor of Kano State. His wife has neither an NGO nor an office of the first lady. “The Kano first lady is a house wife who attends to her domestic engagements. In fact, I have seen the first lady only once since the present government came on board. That is to tell you that the woman is a typical house wife,” says Baba Halilu Dantiye, governor’s spokesman. Sule Lamido, governor of Jigawa State and Nigeria’s former minister for external affairs, is another governor that does not allow any of his wives to set up NGOs or parade herself as the state’s first lady. 

One factor that has cost the pet projects public support is lack of accountability. Emeka Odikpo, a Lagos-based lawyer, is concerned that no first lady in the history of Nigeria has given an account of  how the monies for the projects are raised, how they are expended and finally the amount left in their account. He described this as a deplorable situation because in law, a trustee has absolutely no right to tamper with trust’s funds as the funds must be used for the beneficiaries of the trust.  “Personally, I find nothing wrong with a first lady creating her favourite charity programme and appointing public spirited individuals to jointly manage the trust funds realised for the benefit of the less privileged members of the society. But this must be done in accordance with the law. So far in Nigeria, I do not believe that any of our previous first ladies has discharged her public spirited endeavour in accordance with the law relating to trusts,” Odikpo said. He however explained that he was not in support of any legislation on this issue. “The law relating to trusts is enough to deal with any aberrant conduct by any first lady if any government seriously wants to deal with such conduct.” Trusteeship, he said, arises when a group of people raise money together for a none profit purpose. The controlling officers are treated in law as trustees of the funds of the association.  The association may register as incorporated trustees with the CAC to have a life of its own that is different from the personality of the trustees. “Therefore, ideally, all first ladies’ pet projects must have incorporated trusts and should continue to discharge their set objectives until all the funds of the group are exhausted,” Odikpo told Newswatch.

For Joe Odumakin, convener of the Women Arise Initiative, the offices of the first ladies are not recognised by the Nigerian constitution. She believes that this renders the use of such offices to raise funds an act of corruption. “In most cases the pet projects are greed-driven and for personal aggrandisement, where pittance or nothing good would come out of the projects for which funds are raised,” she said. According to her, most of the first ladies’ projects are unsustainable because they are not “tied to any particular vision but only the glamorisation of the non existent office of the first ladies.”  She advised the first ladies to channel their development ideas through relevant agencies of government in order to achieve sustainability and accountability.

Reported by Obong Akpaekong, Godfrey Azubuike, Annette Ogeh, Chimezie Enyiocha and Yinka Adeniran