President Bola Tinubu’s extraordinary intervention in the freezing of an Osun State Government account by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has brought into sharp relief a question that has increasingly shadowed his presidency: who exactly acts in the President’s name, and how much of what is done around him carries his prior knowledge and approval?
The EFCC had secured a court order restricting withdrawals from an Osun State statutory allocation account as part of an investigation into the alleged fraudulent handling of about N11 billion in Ecology Funds, Intervention Funds and FAAC allocations. Coming barely days before the August 15 governorship election, however, the action inevitably acquired a political colour.
Tinubu apparently recognised the danger. In a personally signed statement, he directed the EFCC to return to court immediately to vacate the order. He said he was “deeply embarrassed”, not by the commission performing its statutory duty, but by the timing of the action, and stressed that no federal institution should create the impression that Abuja was trying to influence the Osun election.
That distinction is important. The President did not absolve Governor Ademola Adeleke’s administration of any allegation under investigation. Neither did he order the EFCC to abandon its statutory responsibilities. What he did was insist that law enforcement must not become indistinguishable from partisan warfare.
