Grange’s Strange Story

Comfort Obi

After weeks of allegtions and denials, President Umaru Yar’Adua finally gave the Minister of Health, Professor Adenike Grange and the Minister of State, Health, Gabriel Aduku, red cards. The strange story by Grange and Aduku, however, is that they resigned. Grange in particular. “I am leaving this cabinet because I consider my dignity, reputation and legacy, values that I have worked hard for, and hold dearly.” So we say: Eh yaa.! Sorry o!! But perish the thought.
There were no resignations. Yar’Adua felt that the presence of the ministers in his cabinet had become an embarrassment. They had become a burden. If Yar’Adua had the temperament of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, he would have gone on television to disgrace them out of office publicly.
How did Grange, a respected Professor of paediatrics, come to this sorry state? How did she make history as the first Minister, under Yar’Adua, to be sacked? Her story is a tragedy. Her fate, even worse. Grange fell on the altar of ignorance, stupidity, and how do I put it again, incompetence – not professionally, but administratively. Now, she has entered in the history of Nigeria’s political story as a disgraced minister. And worse, she may face prosecution.
Her fall started gradually. It began with a story alleging that the sum of N300 million had been shared out by officials of the Health Ministry amongst themselves. It was what was remaining of the Ministry’s budget in 2007 which it did not spend. No one can confirm now whether its non-expenditure was deliberate or not. My take is that it was deliberately kept away by a couple of regular thieves at the ministry, just so the money would be shared at the end of the year. That has always been the case in some ministries. When money is allocated to them, they deliberately delay spending it till the end of the year when they would share it as Christmas bonus. Now, we know why inspite of their salaries which they say is paltry, some civil servants stick to their jobs like glue. The fringe benefits, known and unknown, are irresistible. That was Grange’s nemesis.
When President Yar’Adua directed that funds not utilized should be returned, top officials of the Health Ministry scoffed at the order, and convinced the JJC Grange that it was an order for her to sign away the millions of naira. But you wonder: Was Grange not aware of the order from the Presidency? Was she not aware that it is illegal to share out the money as if it came form her personal purse? Did she not know where the money came from? Was Grange not aware of the alleged fictitious and frivolous contracts? Who approved them?
In a bid to curry sympathy for Grange, and I guess pushed by tribal sentiments, I have read some commentators arguing that she did not partake of the loot; that she rejected her own share? They miss the point. If Grange rejected her share of the loot, it means that she knew it was fraudulent. She knew it was bad, that it was illegal. So, why did she not put a halt to the bazaar, including the alleged fictitious and frivolous contracts?
Some people are emphassing the point that she resigned. What choice did she have? She made efforts to stay on. Indeed, when the story first broke, and her presence at the EFCC reported, she issued a statement saying that she was not detained, that she was only invited by the Commission to make some clarifications. And I wondered what the difference was.
The statement which she made while resigning was courageous. But it was also self-serving. Grange: “… I am leaving this cabinet because I consider my dignity, reputation and legacy, values that I have worked hard for and hold dearly. I am returning to my unblemished career which I have assiduously laboured for over the years with resounding success nationally and internationally and to the business of which I am familiar with … saving the lives of mothers and children across Nigeria and the world in general.”
Nobody doubts Grange’s dignity, reputation, and legacy. But what did she do with them as a minister? That is the highest position she has held. What legacy did she leave behind? What she has left behind is the mockery of Nigerian women by some men who stupidly say: Grange, after Etteh, is another example that women cannot be trusted with high political positions. When they say such things, they forget the Okonjo-Iwealas, the Oby Ezekwesilis, the Dora Akunyilis, the Omoigui Ifuekos, the Irene Chigbues. And they forget the hundreds of Nigerian men in positions of leadership who have stolen this country blind?
While, mercifully, accepting responsibility (not guilt), Grange tells a strange story: “As a professional and a technocrat, I must admit that the level of decay and corruption within the ministry and the whole Nigerian system, as we all know, glaringly need to be decisively tackled and purged.” She has said nothing new, only the obvious.
Nobody doubts that Grange is a professional, and a technocrat. But what have those credentials got to do with the bazaar she presided over? She admitted that the level of decay and corruption in the ministry and Nigeria is high, and needed to be decisively tackled and purged. Yet, Grange had the opportunity to decisively tackle and purge corruption from the ministry of health, and squandered it.
The tragedy of Grange becomes very annoying when one remembers that while top officials of the Ministry were sharing hundreds of millions of naira, and given themselves phoney contracts, in most public hospitals, patients are asked to buy injection needles, injection water, cotton wool, bandages, plaster, etc. Our Teaching Hospitals are in decay. The poor, and especially children, die in hospitals and/or at home because they were not able to buy drugs. Cancer patients, especially women with breast cancer, roam the streets, begging and pleading for help. That N300 million would have made a lot of difference in their lives.
Finally, Grange needs to be told that when the history of the Yar’Adua government is written, she will not be remembered for her professionalism, or unblemished career. She will be remembered for the sleaze that was the health ministry under her watch. And it is sad.