Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire: The Politician Whose Scrunity On Funds Mismanagement Persists

A public building project is a service performed for the benefit of the public, especially by a governmental organization. Still, the former Lagos State Deputy Governor, Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, who also serves as Senior Adviser to the Buhari Administration, would make taxpayers think differently about the idea of civil service function when two weeks before the end of Buhari’s tenure diverted the funds of N147.1m meant to build a block of six classrooms and a skill acquisition centre in Lagos to a restaurant in Karshi, Abuja.

Findings show that EnsenoGV is a company in the food chain business, not a construction company with the capacity to build four walls of classroom settings, yet the public funds meant to provide adequate facilities for potential leaders of tomorrow were used to bankroll a high-end restaurant.

The inquiry into Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire has led to looking into similar cases of public funds mismanagement in the amount of N23 billion and N26.9 billion is SDGs funds from the office she held, which somehow was cleared by the National Assembly through the House Committee on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in June 2020 of financial impropriety.

Misappropriation amid scarcity is becoming a relative norm the public is forced to get by with, considering the hardship economy provided by the continuous ruling party. Be that as it is, with the increasingly low public trust in government and its policies, it is now clear more than ever before that the breaking point of corruption and negligence to transparency in public concerns will push Nigerians to the wall of mass resistance to ending bad governance when the poor can’t breathe in a frivolous government spending without accountability.

Corruption is the leading cause of retrogression in every oil-producing nation. And it is the sheer responsibilities of active citizens and civil society organizations whose commonwealth funds anyhow-ness in government that can outrightly end corruption.

The students whose rights to education and provisions of adequate facilities enable ease in acquiring knowledge are not blind nor deaf to the effects of corruption, as they are firsthand victims in case of public funds meant for education being misappropriated.

Read: Gov.Yahaya Bello Establishes Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, 51 days to end of his Tenure

About The Author

Mayowa Durosinmi

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M. Durosinmi is a West Africa Weekly investigative reporter covering Politics, Human Rights, Health, and Security in West Africa and the Sahel Region

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