A civil society organisation, Nigerians for Good Governance (NGG), has slammed a Ghanaian online news medium for running false, unfounded, mischievous, libelous report on the Permanent Secretary (PS), Health and Human Services, Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), Dr Babagana Adam.
NGG said the report was a slap on the face of Africa’s giant, Nigeria, and must not be allowed to go unpunished by the Federal Government, which appointed Dr Adam,on the recommendation of FCT Minister, Barrister Nyesom Wike.
NGG said its interest in the matter arose from its role of ensuring good governance and upholding integrity at all levels, stressing that it cannot sit idly by and watch a foreign body publish falsehood to rubbish any Nigerian government official, especially if the latter are performing great feats in their assigned tasks.
In a press statement signed by its coordinator, Mr Felix Durumbah, and secretary-general, Malam Hafiz Abdullahi, and issued to journalists in Abuja, NGG recalled that the medium, newsghana.com.gh, had in a report on December 3, 2024, headlined ‘FCT Minister appoints fraudulent veterinarian as health permanent secretary’, levelled some unsubstantiated allegations against Dr Adam.
NGG said it would not have wasted precious time, space, resources and energy responding to concocted, unprofessional, unethical publication by the unknown gutter media house, but had to stand up for truth because many within Nigeria and the international community could believe the obvious tissue of lies.
NGG debunked each of the allegations by the newspaper.
On the paper’s allegation that “Dr Adam deceived the FCT Minister by falsely claiming to be a medical doctor. His elaborate scheme involved bringing key officials within the Minister’s inner circle to endorse his fraudulent claims. Insiders suggest he spent over 400million Naira to secure these endorsements and smooth his path to the prestigious appointment”, NGG said there could be no filthier falsehood.
According to them, Dr Adam is a well-known and highly respected veterinary doctor from the far North of the country who has served in different capacities in FCTA before being appointed as Director, FCT Department of Outdoor Advertising and Signage (DOAS) and now as PS.
If not for sheer mischief and resort to unprofessional journalism, why did the Ghana news medium not care to fact-check, cross-check and verify simply by checking with Linked In and similar sites whatever information it got on the much-decorated Veterinary doctor?
It speaks of the very low quality of journalists –if indeed they are trained journalists at all –that run that paper, that they failed to employ a basic journalism principle in their news investigation and reportage. So sad.
For the avoidance of doubt, Dr Adam is, has been, and will continue to be a university-trained Veterinary doctor and has never in his garland-filled career assumed to be anything else.
His academic records are public knowledge and can easily to accessed from relevant Nigerian agencies.
Perhaps, the newspaper does not know that the FCT Minister is a thorough, diligent, meticulous man. He carefully went through the records of Dr Adam, and indeed all his appointees, in addition to getting the Department of State Services (DSS) fact-check the prospective appointees’ claims before submitting their names and CV to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for approval.
It’s possible that the newspaper thinks Nigeria is Ghana where, perhaps, public office appointments are made without a wealth of background scrutiny. Sorry, here in Nigeria it is done in accordance with global standards.
On the allegation of spending N400million to secure the position, NGG said Dr Adam has never seen nor owned such mind-boggling sum all his life, given that he has been a salary-earning civil servant all his adult working life.
On the allegation of unresolved legal disputes as DOAS Director, the group expressed shock that the news medium reported on a case or cases in court which background it did not bother to find out, due to its lack of investigative nous or sheer bias on account of its blatant unprofessionalism.
NGG stated that if there are any cases in court pertaining to outdoor advertising and signage, Dr Adam cannot be familiar with such because he was/is not personally a party and so cannot, in all common sense, be in a position to resolve same.
On illegal,backdated billboard approvals, NGG stated that its investigation showed that no such activity prevailed during Dr Adam’s tenure, adding that information from still-serving DOAS staff showed that the man was instead often accused of refusing to approve billboards that went against official regulations.
NGG also dwelt on the newspaper’s heinous allegation that Dr Adam’s tenure as PS has witnessed more deaths in FCTA-owned General Hospitals.
Describing this as purely libelous, NGG challenged the newspaper to show proof.
The group expressed shock that a media house could level allegations without proof. How many deaths? In what General Hospitals? Tabulate the alleged deaths from each hospital and let the world judge.
NGG stated that, to the contrary, after Minister Wike appointed Dr Adam, one of the first things the latter did was to resuscitate the long moribund Drug Revolving Fund (DRF) through the FCTA Mandate Secretary (equivalent of State Commissioner) for Health and Human Services with the approval of Minister Wike.
This patriotic act has seen the 14 General Hospitals in FCT suffused with sufficient drugs at any point in time,saving many more lives in the process.
In addition, NGG stated, Minister Wike is set to complete new General Hospitals in Gwarinpa, Gwagwalada and Utako to further cater to the life-saving needs of patients in FCT’s far-flung areas.
Aside this, the present FCTA, of which Dr Adam is a pivotal integral, offers free ante-natal and free Under-5 services to patients.
So, where did the relatively rising deaths the junk newspaper wrote about emanate from?
Another allegation by the newspaper was on alleged lack of salary payment to some staff of the Health and Human Services Secretariat.
However, investigation by NGG revealed that certain locum ‘staff’ were asked to quit following the FCT Minister’s recent bid to recruit hundreds of substantive staff. NGG found out from the FCT Treasury and Budget Secretariat that all such affected locum ‘staff’ were paid their stipends and none is being owed a dime. We discovered that the matter of locum staff arose,in the first place, because certain health personnel moved abroad to work.
In conclusion, NGG berated the newspaper for massive professional incompetence, saying it was obvious that its editors were clearly sponsored, unethical, biased and lack the basic knowledge of journalism practice.
