Dr. Oluwatoyin Sakirat Madein
By Dr. Israel Olugbemga Balogun
The unwholesome practice of celebration of mediocrity, placing charlatans and clowns in positions of national relevance and importance has filtered away humongous national resources in terms of socio-political economic attainments and development; pathetically this is a festering wound and pyrexia that we must all find the right elixir to cure, before it would extinct public trust and public bureaucracy which is the engine room for public administration and government.
Applying and employing primordial sentiments other than verifiable merit and character in the appointment of officers and individuals into sensitive and prime offices have been taken too far and brought the nation to its kneels comatose, most often than not these mediocres lacking the pre-requisite merit and character gained entry into exalted places of public trust only to: pilfer, plunder, loot and destroy institutions which result in poverty, misery and anguish; example of these national embarrassments glaringly abound, and if in doubt the national graft agencies dossier on the MDA’s will convince you.
Dr. Oluwatoyin Sakirat Madein was appointed meritoriously as a substantive Accountant General of the Federation following a due-diligence selection process which ultimately culminated in her effective appointment as the first female Accountant General of the Federation 18th May, 2023, signed and sealed by President Muhammadu Buhari. The new AGF, is a stern, affirmative, result oriented and quintessential public servant,, she insisted on assumption of office that “operations in the OAGF must conform with the extant laws and resolutions that henceforth treasury house will be in the news for good”. She articulated and amplified her blueprint which she has begun earnestly to actualize in: training, staff welfare, capacity building automation and digitalisation of treasury activities, The Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), efficiency, probity and accountability.
The new Accountant General of the Federation is instituting reforms that are quite pervasive giving zero tolerance to corruption and infractions in all ramifications hence is no longer “business as usual”, which doesn’t give undue advantages to the hawks, who now begin to throw darts and spanners at the works by mudslinging and crying wolf to distract this woman of distinction from delivering on this important statutory mandate of the OAGF.Furthermore, in this clime its unimaginable for cabals, highly connected and power brokers and their beneficiaries in the public service to settle to the reality of a woman at the helm of national treasury in Nigeria and moreso one that knows her onion. To be candid, some of the disgruntled Directors parted with large chucks of money and pledges, lobbying to be appointed the substantive Accountant General of the Federation which fell flat in futility following the appointment of Toyin Madein.
In the Directors unwarranted vituperations and petitions to the Attorney General, Head of the Civil Service, National Security Adviser, Minister of Finance, they alleged age falsification, bribe (bribery) her way to be appointed Accountant General, that she was not the best in the qualifying examinations council, came behind Olakunle Oladipupo, the DFA, Federal Ministry of Works, she was further alleged of receiving cash gratification before posting Accountants to the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (her statutory function).
These allegations lack substance, and nothing but a figment of the imagination of skeptics, cynics and traducers who are repulsive to ongoing reforms and change that the new dispensation of Oluwatoyin Madein has inaugurated.
Verifiably, her appointment went exhaustively through the public service extant laws due process which was so rigorous, with screening from intelligence units and anti-graft agencies apart from the aptitude tests and interviews, what stood her out to an advantage was her antecedents of integrity, resourcefulness, transparency and untainted public service records. Many of the ranting Directors, anonymous contenders, and hirelings see the office of the Accountant General of the Federation as a “fat Cow which must be milked at all cost”, they don’t want a paradigm shift towards the government of the day “Renewed Hope”, Who is afraid of the new Accountant General of the Federation Dr. Oluwatoyin Sakirat Madein? she is in the saddle to sanitise and deliver, cleaning the augean stable in the sustainability of the mission and vision of the new dispensation of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Dr. Israel Olugbemga Balogun a Policy Analyst/ Director External Program,Esfam-Benin Varsity, Porto-Novo wrote in from Abuja
