Alwan Hassan, a spokesperson for the All Progressives Congress, APC, Presidential Campaign Council, has alleged that some ministers pay billions of naira to secure appointments and subsequently seek to recover the money while in office.
Mr Hassan made the allegation during an interview on Arise TV on Thursday while defending President Bola Tinubu’s direct involvement in the management of government revenue and expenditure.
He argued that the huge sums allegedly spent to secure ministerial appointments could undermine effective governance, as some appointees would prioritise recovering their investments over delivering public services.
“The way Asiwaju is hands-on on the expenditure of our revenue is fantastic and I love it. A lot of ministers pay billions and billions, and, you know, to get themselves appointed. The first thing they think of is how to recoup that money,” he said.
Mr Hassan, however, said the alleged practice predated the Tinubu administration and was not peculiar to the APC.
“But this is the truth I’m telling you about our country. Not just APC. Before APC, the biggest fraudulent people you arrest after every government are ministers,” he added.
He made the remarks while responding to questions about the government’s inability to fully fund its budgets despite its financial commitments.
Mr Hassan praised Mr Tinubu’s direct oversight of public spending, arguing that the president’s personal involvement had helped the administration manage government resources.
He also questioned the need to leave budget implementation entirely to ministers, suggesting that the president had taken personal responsibility for delivering on budgetary commitments.
“Whatever it is a budget is supposed to do in this country in the last three and a half years, Asiwaju has done it by himself. Why do we need ministers? Why do we need budget to be given to ministers?” he said.
The APC campaign council spokesman also defended the administration’s record on pension payments, claiming that the government had released funds to settle outstanding entitlements owed to retired federal civil servants.
He said the administration had introduced an exit benefit scheme for retiring civil servants, which he described as a measure to ensure that workers received their retirement entitlements without delay.
However, Mr Hassan did not provide details of the alleged payments by ministers to secure appointments or identify any of the officials involved in the alleged practice.