Theatrics of The Trial of Brother Joe and NGA directors

By Gregory Austin Nwakunor and Bridget Chiedu Onochie (Abuja)

WHEN Chief Joe Musa, Director General, National Gallery of Art got a call to appear at before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), he had imagined that it was going to be business as usual. In the past months, he had appeared in the office for the umpteenth time and had been investigated several times.

In fact, from the third month when he was appointed DG in August 2006, petitions had started to fly around, which had necessitated a constant visit to the anti-fraud commission. The visit last Monday, July 20, 2009 presented, however, a different scenario entirely. It marked the beginning of what could be mused as "The trial of Brother Joe and the NGA 4".

Perhaps, Musa did not know it at the time. Maybe he underrated the level at which his adversaries had operated, but like 'thieves' in the night, they had crawled in quietly to the scene, hiding in different cloaks, even as colleagues, until they eventually wreaked damage.

The anti-Musa campaign had begun their move as a body of 'Concerned Senior Staff', drawing support from some discontented staff and slipping in by the backdoor as witnesses to Musa's alleged financial 'misappropriation' in newspaper write-ups and at the EFCC.

And the end result? The trial that the arts community has said is another chapter in 'culture persecution' in the country.

A section of the artists' community had observed that ever since the administration of ex-president Obasanjo broke the jinx of not appointing professional artists to head culture agencies, the civil servants who had always occupied headships of such organisations had been uncomfortable. And they've never hidden their disdain for these artistes whom they often called 'interlopers' that had come to invade their exclusive kingdom.

Only recently, Mr. Afolabi Adesanya, Managing Director, Nigeria Film Corporation, was arraigned in court by EFCC, for the same alleged 'misappropriation'.

Picked up a few days to his 50th birthday anniversary and few weeks to the end of his first tenure, it was later discovered that the action was the machination of certain civil servants in his office, who had wanted to stop him from vying for a renewal of his appointment.

They got support of a state government to convince the EFCC to harass him for alleged misappropriation, which eventually led to his being docked. Similar scenario is playing out in Musa's case.

What has raised suspicion about the nature of this particular case are the cheeky actions surrounding the arraignment of Musa and his fellow directors at NGA.

For instance, The Guardian learnt the court had been billed to sit on Thursday, July 23. But the date was curiously brought forward to Monday, July 20. No explanation was provided even when The Guardian sought it last weekend.

According to Musa's Counsel, Valentine Offia, "without any prior notice, copies of the charges were not given to them until they were already in court. They saw the charges for the first time when they were asked to plead. They were not given time to contact a lawyer to represent them.

"Their (EFCC) plan was to conduct or start a trial without affording them (the accused) opportunity to have legal representation. That would have forced the judge to postpone the trial, as the accused persons would remain in detention. And EFCC knew that the whole of August is vacation for the judiciary, the implication is that the accused would remain in detention for over a month, at least, till the end of September. All because EFCC rigged due process to deny them legal representation, which suggested that it was more of persecution than prosecution. It was a staff of the NGA that called me, knowing that I am a lawyer to one of the accused."

According to sources in the parastatal, the criminal charges were filed without any investigation. "The charges are based on unproven rumours by a staff, who was under disciplinary action; whose misconduct is being investigated by the management," a source in the NGA said.

A director from the middle belt of the region is said to be the arrow-head of the plot to unseat the DG, especially because he thinks he can benefit from the crisis. It was gathered that with the support of his state governor, a lot of underground tactics had been perfected to oust the director general, Musa. In fact, the director is suspected to have orchestrated the appearance of a series of articles in a newspaper based in one of the middle belt states.

It was learnt that the director knowing that there were some other aggrieved staff members had suggested the idea of raising a petition against the DG. Inside sources said that everything was planned to ensure the absence of key management staff for the meeting that was scheduled for July 22, 2009; two days after the arraignment.

According to sources, in the absence of the DG of NGA, a high ranking member of board illegally took over the administration and started issuing administrative queries to staff, locking out staff from the offices and assigning schedules to staff at his pleasure. Any staff, who challenged his authority, was queried and threatened with suspension.

"A few people want to use the opportunity to install their lackey as DG," said an inside source in the parastatal.

Another curious twist is the fact that Messrs Bayo Kazeem, Orji Chidi and the others, who authored the petition against Musa were the same people who had gone to EFCC to give statements as witnesses to a petition written by the DG in relation to the series of articles that had appeared in Newsstand Newspapers; and to alert possibility of arson in the place. It was their evidences that formed the charges presented by EFCC, The Guardian learnt.

The grievance of some of the petitioners, as contained in their submission to the EFCC is that the DG not being a civil servant ought not to head a government agency and is "not competent and not a technocrat." However, the arts community, especially the visual artists in calling for fair trial, noted that when a technocrat was in charge of affairs from 1993 to 2006, the NGA did not experience the kind of revival that has been seen from 2006 till date.

Another curious note was that in the petition by Bayo Kazeem, an Assistant Chief Administrative Officer at the National Gallery of Art, Umuahia, given on May 19, 2005, written in long hand and witnessed by Ibrahim Galadima, there was no evidence suggesting that Musa and his directors had misappropriated any fund.

The kernel of Kazeem's statement reads: "The little time I worked with the Director General and having worked (tirelessly) intimately with three director generals in the past, I discovered that the present DG lacks experience to cope with such position. This is because he has never worked in the public service before his appointment.

"He sees his position as that of Almighty God that is infallible. All what he needs to do is to be conversant with the public service rules and the financial regulations so that civil servants will not hoodwink him into committing avoidable crimes."

Another witness, Orji Chidi F., in his own statement, said, "he should be cautioned on issues concerning management and implementation of self rules imposed on the staff. I know he has committed a lot, but since I don't have any document to back myself, I would not say anything on that. He is aggressive, he is like a tin God and does not take advice from anybody."

A statement by the management of NGA signed by the PRO, Ngozi Adamu-Ibrahim said: "Documents presented before the court have revealed that the petition was written by staff members, who are facing disciplinary action for various acts as well as those, who are displaced by their transfer to National Gallery outstations to boost operations there. They are being supported by elements desirous of displacing the DG in order to gain control of NGA for their selfish reasons; a trend that seems prevalent in our polity, especially when an appointee is nearing the end of his tenure. Reports reaching management of NGA indicate that this is targeted at rubbishing all that Chief Joe Musa has accomplished since his appointment as Director General in August 2006 and forestalling his being re-appointed for second term in office."

Lending credence to the views of the arts community is the fact that Musa's trial was hurriedly started to incapacitate activities in the parastatal. For instance, the second edition of the yearly Art Expo launched last year is only a few days away; while preparation for the African Regional Summit and Exhibition of the Visual Arts (ARESUVA) is nearing pick period.

The culture activist organisation, Committee For Relevant Art (CORA) had noted in its reaction that the development is instructive, as the cultural sector has never been, until now, a target of the anti-corruption crusade.

In the statement signed by its Secretary General, Toyin Akinosho, the arts foundation appealed to the EFCC to investigate this case carefully and be sure it is doing what is fair and just.

The statement said, "CORA appreciates the work that EFCC has to do in cleaning the cobweb of corruption in our national life and requests that the organisation prosecutes this particular case with a high sense of probity and fair-mindedness."

The Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA), while expressing its belief and commitment to the protection of the rule of law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, said the current tide of progress and projection of Nigerian visual arts, which is gradually gaining local and international ground that have made the country's Visual Artists begin to develop genuine interest and accord with the government not be truncated.

However, in the words of CORA, "the National Gallery of Art has delivered high quality work on empowerment of the visual artists in the last three years and has vigorously prosecuted visual arts programmes that call attention of the international culture community to Nigeria. For once, in more than 40 years of growing culture sector parastatals in the country, the artist and his development has been the centre-piece of the work of the National Gallery. Capacity development of Nigerian artists and their competitiveness in the global marketplace of creative ideas have been enhanced, through interactions at international art exhibitions facilitated by the National Gallery of Art and a host of seminal workshops and exhibitions that are taking place in the country.

"Through the work of NGA, Abuja is being seen as a site of Pan African cultural activities, for visual arts, in the way that Bamako (Mali) is considered the site for biannual assembly of African photographers and Ougadougou (Burkina Faso) is cited as the venue for African cineastes to assemble every other year.

"As an organisation committed to the flowering of all the contemporary arts of Nigeria, CORA fervently supports the work that the current executive of the NGA is doing."

In the statement signed by its president, Uwa Usen, and secretary, Best Ochigbo, the Society of Nigerian Artists noted specific programmes such as the First African Regional Summit and Exhibition of the Visual Arts (ARESUVA) 2008 and the approaching ARESUVA 2009; the current trend of exhibition of Nigerian visual arts across the globe as represented in the just ended Pan African Festival of Arts in Algiers, Algeria, the Dakar Biennale of Contemporary African Arts (2006 and 2008), the Art of the Main New York (in which Nigeria participated to the envy of the world), the Las Vegas Art Expo 2008; and the First Lagos Art Expo 2008 (which the NGA has undertaken to host again this year); the on-going work on the Nigerian Artists Registration Council as well as the plan (now in advance stage) for a National Gallery of Art display monument in Abuja among other current developments, which we identify wholly with.

"We also re-emphasise the art community's resolve in several SNA national art roundtable conferences and colloquia - the most recent being the Colloquium in the just ended 'Life in My City' Art Festival Enugu (June 22-27, 2009) and the SNA National Executive-organised Roundtable Conference in Olive Hotel, Enugu, March 22, 2009 - that we will not support any development that puts a person who is not an artist at the helm of the NGA. This is the practice everywhere in the world."

Meanwhile, The Guardian learnt that as at Monday, there were frantic but clandestine moves by some forces in Abuja backed by the government from the middle belt to quickly appoint acting Director General; a move that is contrary to the legal community's position on such a matter.

The Chairman, Board of NGA, Barr. Peter Nwabunike Eze, when contacted, said he was not aware of who the minister is appointing.

According to him, the board had written to the minister, suggesting that the most senior staff in the parastatal, Mr. Abdulahi, who the D.G. had just promoted for being a team player, should be appointed. But the minister is said to have declined based on competency and need to have a neutral person as acting D.G.

He also said that the Civil Service law stipulates that when the head of any office is charged for a criminal office, he should go on suspension pending the outcome of the case. "As such, appointing acting DG for NGA is not illegal."

According to comments from the legal community: "In a situation such as this, once a matter is charged to court, all further actions is stayed until the court decides the issues. The government had a choice to set up an administrative panel or to go to court. Since the government chose the court option, it cannot go back to the administrative panel option."