Umar Abba Gana
By Sanya Ademiluyi, editor
One of the country’s most infamous corporate con artists is back. Shockingly, this time, he is at the head of the country’s critical revenue agency, the Federal Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC. He is Shettima Abba Gana, currently the acting Executive Chairman of RMAFC. Then, he was known as Umar Abba Gana. Now, he has added Shettima as his first name, relegating the Umar, by which he was popularly known ,up to a few years ago.
The commission usually decides or recommends to government who should get what among the various arms of government and the three tiers of government. And even has a great influence in determining the emoluments of public officials including the President.
Circa 2000,Umar Abba Gana was the managing director of then Federal government owned oil marketing company, then known as African Petroleum ,AP. Then, the privatization of government companies was going on. Abba Gana as chief executive of AP was said to have concealed the company’s indebtedness of slightly over N7billion to the state-owned oil company,the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation ,NNPC.
The privatization deal done, the new owners of AP,which was Sadiq Petroleum discovered that the erstwhile management led by Abba Gana had concealed a N7billion debt to NNPC. The new owners were left with a potentially disastrous investment.That was a devastating blow to the entire privatisation exercise under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration. Yet Abba Gana could walk around freely and even shortly became the president of the Institute of Directors of Nigeria, IOD Nigeria!
But things did not all end in his favour. Several changes of management at NNPC had left him without the power base that supported his crass dubiousness. For almost two decades, Abba Gana was out in the corporate cold. No respectable private company would touch him with a long pole.
Then several years ago he joined politics and started worming his way into the good books of the political power brokers. He hit pay dirt when General Muhammadu Buhari was elected president last year. The President has quietly appointed Abba Gana as chairman of the very important revenue commission, howbeit in an acting capacity. The President is yet to present Abba Gana’s name to the Senate for confirmation.
Perhaps, given his sordid past record, the President is wary of Abba Gana facing scrutiny by the Senate. It is interesting that a government that has anti-corruption and transparency in governance as its cardinal philosophy would appoint such a character as Abba Gana to head a key public agency as RMAFC. Text sent to presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina asking why the President would appoint such a questionable character to such an exalted position was yet to be responded to as at press time.
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