Right of Reply by Dr. (Mrs) Enape Victoria Ayishetu
My attention hasbeen drawn to the publication of 4th June, 2018 in an online medium, insidebusinessonline.com regarding
my role in promoting the Chartered Institute of Forensic and Investigative Auditors (CIFIA) Bill, 2018, currently under consideration by the National Assembly (Senate).
In what is obviously a hatchet job orchestrated by some disgruntled persons who would rather continue to take advantage of the dearth of forensic and investigative experts in Nigeria to perpetrate financial fraud, the authors of this malicious publication had two discernable objectives in mind firstly, to distract me from playing my role as a pro-tem President of CIFIA by maligning my reputation, discrediting my academic credentials and professional competence to promote the passage of the CIFIA Bill, and secondly dissuade the Senate from giving the Bill favorable consideration.
Writing under the headline “SeriousIntegrity Concerns as NASS Considers Chartered Institute of Forensic Auditors Bill” The authors of this spurious publication alleged in general terms that CIFIA began as a family business and the CIFIA Bill now being considered by the 8th Senate was drafted and sponsored to perpetuate the position of the Enape family in CIFIA for life. It is further alleged that I parade what they refer to as “opaque multiple certificates and a PhD from a non – existing University”.
As a thorough bred and accomplished professional with strong family and religious values who guard her reputation jealously, I deem it appropriate to defend my family name and professional passion by setting the records straight especially as its concerns my selfless and altruistic involvement with the promotion of the noble objectives of CIFIA as well as my academic and professional accomplishment which forms the basis for the former. It should be noted that while this malicious publication can be easily dismissed by every discerning mind considering the timing and the obvious lies conveyed in the publication, leaving such lies in the public domain without appropriate response may be interpreted by unsuspecting members of the public as conceding to the antics of those behind this publication. I therefore wish to set forth the following critical facts as my rejoinder to this mischievous and calumnious publication:
On the allegation that the CIFIA Bill is meant to perpetuate my family interest. With respect to the spurious allegation that CIFIA is a family affair and the CIFIA Bill when passed would pave way for the perpetuation of the interest of the Enapes, it is important to point out that there is no provision of the CIFIA Bill that makes the Enapes life members of the Board of Trustees of the Association of Forensic and Investigative Auditors (AFIA) or life members of the Governing Council of the CIFIA. Clause 4 of the CIFIA Bill under consideration by the Senate provides for the election, qualification and tenure of the President, Vice President, and other officials of the CIFIA and nowhere is it provided that the above offices are hereditary or based on blood ties to the Enape family. These offices are opened to all members who possess certain professional qualifications stipulated under clause 4(6) of the Bill and not dependent on members’ ties to the Enapes.
It should equally be recalled here for clarity that prior to the instant CIFIA Bill currently under consideration by the Senate, AFIA, Canada appointed me as its representative in Nigeria with a mandate to promote the training and certification of the much needed forensic and investigative auditors in the country. During this period , it became obvious to me that there is an urgent need for the establishment of an indigenous association of forensic and investigators of Nigeria to cater for the peculiar professional needs of such experts in the country hence AFIA was registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) Abuja on June 17, 2016. Like most professional associations, which are often started by family members or professional colleagues of like minds with a vision to promote the growth and development of a particular profession, AFIA started with me truly and Pastor Joseph Enape.
Between 2016 and 2018, however, AFIA has transformed its governing structure significantly admitting distinguished personalities of diverse academic and professional backgrounds into its governing council considering the multidisciplinary nature of its successor, Besides, I want to state that AFIA and CIFIA are two different ball games and that means that AFIA in CAC has no legal consequences for CIFIA. While AFIA in CAC was registered as a Non-profit making organization with the Trustees as reconstituted in April, 2018, CIFIA as of today, now under consideration by the Senate for the purposes of granting a legislative recognition has the following distinguished personalities as protem members of the Governing Council namely Enape Victoria Ayishetu, Prof. Bayero Muhammad Sabir, Mr Okoro Eddybrown, Prof. Aminu Makailu, Mrs Grace Iloba, Dr Gbegi Daniel, Dr Salawu Philips, Mr Obaka James, Ms Joseph Grace, Hajiya Kudirat Abdul-Hamid, Prof. Herbert Wilson.
Given the pedigree of the members of the Council as listed above, it smacks of malicious mischief for some anonymous authors under the pretext of investigative journalism to describe the proposed CIFIA and its enabling Bill as an attempt to perpetuate family interests. On the contrary, the Bill when passed will pave way for the professional development and certification of forensic and investigative auditors to boost Nigeria’s war against corruption. I need not to add here that several eminent professional bodies in Nigeria including the Chartered Institute of Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) as you rightly mentioned in your publication were started by private individuals as registered associations before their eventual legislative recognition. CIFIA has not departed from this long established approach.
The anonymous Investigative Journalist also said that both ANAN and ICAN are known to have formidable forensic audit schemes, the former with its Society for Forensic Accounting and Fraud Prevention and the later with its Audit, Investigations and Forensic Accounting Faculty. They have forensic Accounting which is fantastic, but ours is Forensic and Investigative Audit. I hereby state here that we at CIFIA are not seeing these two mentioned as threats; therefore CIFIA should not be seen as a threat to them as well, because the sky is too wide for two Birds to clash. After all, none of these two professional bodies have Forensic Accounting or Forensic Audit in their enabling Act neither any professional body in Nigeria have it in their enabling Act as at the moment. I do not know why it has become an evil for another professional body like CIFIA with a different mandates to exist in Nigeria. It should be noted, that any first child born into a family first who have decided to stop the mother from giving birth to another child is not a good member of that family. Finally on this, I want to bring your notice that nobody become CIFIA full member without first of all belong to ANAN, ICAN, etc, except our Associate membership.
Purported acid test on the academic and professional competence of principal actors of CIFIA. Another issue bandied about in that mischievous publication is that there is a need to “start by subjecting the principal actors and promoters of CIFIA to the acid test of qualification, practice and experience, as a basic consideration for granting legislative recognition to the proposed CIFIA. While admitting in one breadth that I am an Accountant in the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), in another breadth there is feeble attempt to discredit my academic and professional certificates by alleging that I “parade a number of membership certificates, and a Masters and PhD degrees which they claim could not be verified by their ‘team of investigative journalists.’
Let me state here without much ado that my academic degrees are easily verifiable by directly approaching the awarding institutions and not through a hatchet job of some faceless ‘investigative journalists ‘ who arrogate to themselves such a sensitive responsibility of authenticating my academic certificates after browsing the internet indiscriminately. If the so called investigative journalists were sincere in their motive, they would have written a letter duly signed by named investigators directly to my Alma matter. But I was not even contacted neither was any letter sent to my Alma matter. It was most convenient for them to browse the internet randomly, sip a cup of coffee and come up with a ‘damning verdict’ regarding my academic qualifications. This is most unfortunate and this type of infiltration of the noble profession of journalism by such faceless persons to tarnish the reputation of other people using the anonymity afforded by the internet further underscores the need for forensic investigators to unravel such charlatans.
At the risk of sounding repetitive, I wish to state that my academic qualifications are authentic, credible and verifiable. Any investigative journalist worthy of his certificate should know the appropriate methodology to authenticate my credentials.
Apart from my academic qualification, I wish to state that all my professional certifications including Fellow, ANAN, Fellow, CITN, Member, Nigeria Institute of Management, Member, CIPFA, are unimpeachable. It is strange that these faceless authors could not fathom how I was able to obtain more than two professional certifications in a particular year when it is a common knowledge that more than one professional examination/induction can be successfully undertaken by an individual in a year depending on one’s intellectual prowess and the wherewithal to withstand the rigors of such professional examination. I wonder why these faceless investigative journalists did not subject the promoters of the two professional bodies he referred to as the later and the former to acid text before their recognition if that has become the condition.
It is therefore my submission that my academic and professional certificates are not in doubt except to mischief makers. I also possess the practice experience needed to promote the establishment of a professional body like CIFIA. There is also no provision of the Public Service Rules or the Companies and Allied Matters Act that prohibit my participation in professional associations either as a trustee or principal promoter. There is no conflict of interest, rather my participation in such professional bodies would improve my skills as a civil servant and also create the desired platform for the professional development of other colleagues in service. This is an altruistic and patriotic undertaking not actions motivated by pecuniary benefits.
Alleged bizarre legislative process and collusion by the executive. In what appears to be no-holds-barred attacks, these anonymous authors apart from attempting to discredit my academic and professional credentials that qualifies me to promote the establishment of CIFIA, literary went on rampage attacking both the Senate and members of the Executive branch of the Federal Government over their respective roles in the passage of the CIFIA Bill, 2018.
With respect to the Senate, they alleged that following a “ tip off on a bizarre legislative process unfolding at both the House of Representatives and the Senate”, their team of ‘ investigative journalists ‘ investigated and reached a damning conclusion that the CIFIA Bill is receiving what they called “ unqualified support of the federal law makers who appear to have endorsed the family’s bill for a charter status that would empower” CIFIA to regulate the activities of forensic and investigative auditors in Nigeria. According to them the CIFIA Bill is relying on two Senate heavy weights; the Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan and Andy Uba , the former Chairmen, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, calling to question the National Assembly’s legislative procedures and due diligence in the making of laws.
They also directed another salvo on the offices of the Auditor – General of the Federation and the Attorney General of the Federation (HAGF), Alhaji Abubakar Malami, SAN. According to them, “the deafening silence from both federal institutions and the Office of the Auditor – General of the Federation is lending credence to some claims that the government may be tacitly behind the idea.’
They further alleged that “Victoria Ayishetu Enape … now seem to drawing a flock of people and followership in Abuja; and it appears has mesmerized the National Assembly. A few weeks ago, the charm offensive caught the minister of Justice and Attorney –General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, who was eager to offer presidential assent to the bill once it is passed by the National Assembly”.
It is obvious from the foregoing quotations that the authors of this mischievous publication are not only out to discredit individual promoters of the CIFIA Bill but even public institutions such as the Senate, the offices of the Auditor –General of the Federation and HAGF that have specific roles to play in the passage of this Bill. And once the relevant key persons, institutions and processes involved in the passage of the Bill are successfully discredited they imagined they must have succeeded in killing the Bill. This should not be allowed to happen because that would be tantamount to conceding victory to those who are behind this faceless campaign of calumny. It should be emphasized that the Senate has been very transparent in the handling of this Bill and even gave all stakeholders the opportunity to make their contributions to the final outlook of Bill at a public hearing recently organized by Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service held on 14th March, 2018.
Those who failed in their attempt to kill the Bill at this public hearing have now resorted to this pedestrian approach to malign the Senate and all other institutions involved in the Bill. It should however be pointed out here that it is the prerogative of the National Assembly pursuant to section 4(2) of th Constitution, item 49, part I of the Second Schedule to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, to establish and grant parliamentary charter to deserving professional disciplines. These powers cannot be influenced by blackmail from those who due to their selfish reasons are opposed to the passage of the Bill. Other institutions of government should also not give into the blackmail as published by Businessonline.com
An anonymous publication based on false assumptions and faulty investigative methodology. The major defects inherent in the offensive publication have already been identified above. What remains now is to insist that the entire report should be discountenanced by the National Assembly, the executive and members of the general public because it falls short of the minimum standards for investigative journalism. For instance, the identities of the authors of this report were not disclosed in the report. In addition to that, none of the persons or institutions that formed the subject of their purported investigation was contacted for firsthand response. One therefore wonders how the ‘team of investigators’ arrived at their ‘damning conclusion’. Is it by browsing the internet or just making certain faulty and false assumptions? Another faulty investigative technique which further casts doubt on this report is that even where they claimed to have had direct contacts with officials of CIFIA at their office address, the names of such officials were not disclosed and documents including receipts purportedly issued were so issued to anonymous persons. Those who published this report are not only mischief makers but hired character assassins.
On the allegations that the promoters of the CIFIA Bill have “appropriated and are already using the prefix “chartered” in their dealings with members of the public, I need to clarify that all the activities of the promoters of the CIFIA Bill are intended to project their image as supporters of the Bill and as those who subscribed to the principles of the Bill. Thus, stationeries, promotional souvenirs are deliberately designed to project this image. Participation and membership subscription remain voluntary and based on individual volition so the allegation that the promoters of the CIFIA Bill have appropriated the prefix “ chartered “ without legislative approval is based on a misunderstanding of the practice.
Similar precedents abound in Nigeria including the recent Nigeria Peace Corps which members were visible even collaborated with government MDAs while the enabling law for the corps was still under consideration by the National Assembly. The Nigeria Peace Corp is however bound to disband based on the decision of the President to withheld assent to the Bill except the National Assembly overrides the President’s veto or they revert to their former position as a registered association under part C of the Companies and Allied Matters Act. This is the practice, this is the trend, and this is the precedent. It is a precedent that is well within the right of individuals to associate and assemble, and plan for the passage of laws that would give legislative recognition to their proposed association.
Conclusion
From the foregoing, it is clear that the publication of 4th June, 2018 as it appeared in online medium, businessonline.com is a hatchet job by disgruntled members of certain groups who made a poor showing in their effort to oppose the passage of the CIFIA Bill, 2018 during the public hearing organized by the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service on the 14th March 2018.
It is rather an act of cowardice to publish such a spiteful report without disclosing the identities of the authors. This is pure mischief intended to frustrate the passage of the Bill. The antics of these disgruntled persons should however be ignored.
The CIFIA Bill should be supported by all and sundry because it will have direct benefit to the nation in several ways including the following – CIFIA will partner with relevant government agencies and help to train and certify their agents and staff on the use of forensic and investigative skills; It will help to strengthen the nation’s institutional capacity for preventing financial fraud thereby bringing us at par with other developed countries in line with global standards and competitiveness;
(3) It will stimulate public confidence in our financial fraud prevention mechanisms and enhance transparency and accountability in our economic system;
(4) It will also answer the question often posed by foreign investors as to the safety and guarantee of their foreign direct investments (FDIs) in our country;
(5) Having a home based forensic and Investigative Auditors will save the Nigerian government the cost of inviting Foreign Forensic Auditors for fraud investigation as it were in the case of NNPC regarding the missing Twenty billion Dollars ($20b) in the year 2014.
CIFIA is a patriotic Nigeria project that is on a rescue mission for our dear country, Nigeria. The CIFIA Bill is therefore patriotic course and no one should be dissuaded or blackmailed to abandon this noble cause.
Mrs. Enape Victoria Ayishetu, PhD, FFIA, FCNA, FCTI, CIPFA, MNIM is Pro-Tem President, Proposed CIFIA