I am a founding director ofFront Foot Media Initiative, a civil society organisation pursuing, among others, public accountability. One of those issues: Auditor-General reporting in the states, for which, in three years, we engaged or trained hundreds of journalists and managers.Recently, FFMI concluded an in-depth study of the non-compliance reports of theAuditor-General of the Federationfor four years: 2019-2022.Two of the things I can now say are: first, that as bad as any living Nigerian might think things are in public finance management, they are infinitely worse. The numbers don’t lie.The second is that Nigerian governments appear determined to keep it that way. How?In January 2019, the National Assembly transmitted the Federal Audit Bill to President Muhammadu Buhari, who had spent all his political life portraying himself as loathing corruption.It would have replaced the Audit Ordinance of 1956, a law written before Nigeria existed as an independent country, with a modern framework giving the Auditor-General real enforcement powers.Buhari never signedand never explained why. The 8th Assembly’s term expired. The bill died with it.Seven years later, a new, more powerful version, the Federal Audit Service Bill, 2025, cleared the National Assembly and arrived at President Bola Tinubu’s desk.It has been sitting there since. ByThe Guardian’scount, five months of silence had passed as of early July; by The Punch’s, seven months.On July 10, PDP chieftain Atiku Abubakarissueda public ultimatum. Earlier, a coalition of seven civil society organisationsdemandedassent. Tinubu has ignored them all.Let me be precise about what the Constitution, around which both administrations have quietly stepped around, says. Section 58(4) gives a president 30 days from the transmission of a bill to either assent to it or communicate, in writing, his reasons for withholding assent.It is worth noting that Tinubu is entirely capable of using this provision when he wants to: hewithheld assentfrom two other bills in 2025, citing “fundamental defects.” That confirms he knows how to say no. On the audit bill, he has said nothing at all.So why would two presidents of different temperaments, governing under the same party’s parliamentary majority, arrive at this identical non-decision?The uncomfortable answer may be that this bill’s teeth point inward. Strip away the press release language about “closing avenues of revenue leakage,” and what the new law would do is give the Auditor-General the power to finally hold public officials accountable. He would be able to surcharge violators, withhold the salaries of anyone who ignores an audit query for 30 days, and seek arrest warrants for officials who refuse to appear and account for the public money in their care.Those are not powers a president uses against political opponents. They are powers that would be turned, inevitably, on the ministries, departments and agencies serving under whoever is president.And the truth is that, when you come to learn the truth about how Nigerian offices have been run in the Fourth Republic, as captured in the Auditor-General’s annual time capsules, you know that the president’s signature on that bill would signal a dramatic departure from the past.Related NewsUS condemns Kaduna attack, urges FG to tackle Middle Belt violenceTinubu inherited significant economic challenges – MinisterI’d have entered the bush to free Oyo pupils, says ObiFor instance, the FFMI four-year review reveals:The same finding, back-to-back, at a trillion-naira scale: “Failure to Recover Outstanding Revenues/Debts.” This is the single largest line item in the 2021 report, a scandalous finding of a standing account that nobody is collecting.The same practices of powerful government agencies ignoring the Auditor-General.The Auditor-General labouring through resistance and rudimentary records to produce years of meticulous, specific, individually sourced findings, naming specific agencies, the amounts involved, the regulations breached, as well as recommendations for recovery and sanctions.Despite this, no consequences ever appear.There are neither published, agency-by-agency accounts of how many of these findings led to actual recoveries nor of criminal referrals, prosecutions, or convictions arising from them.Agencies flagged in one year’s report reappear, often for the identical finding, in the next year’s report.To be clear: the totals in question, annually, are in the trillions of naira. Given that the Auditor-General’s reports often arrive late, the individuals responsible are often long gone: retired, dead, marrying a fourth wife somewhere, or stretched out on a beach in some foreign country.The irony is that most of these problems would be corrected once a president signs the new law.Think about it: under Buhari, the number of federal agenciesfailing even to submit their accounts for auditrose to 324 in a single year: more than double the worst year of any previous administration since 1999.A 2021 audit report flagged N323.5 billion in unsupported federal payments across 27 ministries and agencies. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was found to have deducted N426 billion from federation revenue without authorisation while Buhari himself served as petroleum minister.The IMF’s 2026 Article IV report on Nigeria also found that capital expenditure worth roughly N8.8 trillion, about two per cent of GDP, was executed entirely outside the formal 2025 budget.A newly empowered Auditor-General, with subpoena powers and the ability to withhold emoluments, would therefore be a live wire running directly into the heart of whoever is occupying Aso Rock.None of this has been stated by either presidency as a reason for the delay. Silence, rather than a stated objection, appears to be the actual governing choice, suggesting a clear understanding that there is no political upside to acting either way.There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. Recently, FFMI concluded an in-depth study of the non-compliance reports of theAuditor-General of the Federationfor four years: 2019-2022.Two of the things I can now say are: first, that as bad as any living Nigerian might think things are in public finance management, they are infinitely worse. The numbers don’t lie.The second is that Nigerian governments appear determined to keep it that way. How?In January 2019, the National Assembly transmitted the Federal Audit Bill to President Muhammadu Buhari, who had spent all his political life portraying himself as loathing corruption.It would have replaced the Audit Ordinance of 1956, a law written before Nigeria existed as an independent country, with a modern framework giving the Auditor-General real enforcement powers.Buhari never signedand never explained why. The 8th Assembly’s term expired. The bill died with it.Seven years later, a new, more powerful version, the Federal Audit Service Bill, 2025, cleared the National Assembly and arrived at President Bola Tinubu’s desk.It has been sitting there since. ByThe Guardian’scount, five months of silence had passed as of early July; by The Punch’s, seven months.On July 10, PDP chieftain Atiku Abubakarissueda public ultimatum. Earlier, a coalition of seven civil society organisationsdemandedassent. Tinubu has ignored them all.Let me be precise about what the Constitution, around which both administrations have quietly stepped around, says. Section 58(4) gives a president 30 days from the transmission of a bill to either assent to it or communicate, in writing, his reasons for withholding assent.It is worth noting that Tinubu is entirely capable of using this provision when he wants to: hewithheld assentfrom two other bills in 2025, citing “fundamental defects.” That confirms he knows how to say no. On the audit bill, he has said nothing at all.So why would two presidents of different temperaments, governing under the same party’s parliamentary majority, arrive at this identical non-decision?The uncomfortable answer may be that this bill’s teeth point inward. Strip away the press release language about “closing avenues of revenue leakage,” and what the new law would do is give the Auditor-General the power to finally hold public officials accountable. He would be able to surcharge violators, withhold the salaries of anyone who ignores an audit query for 30 days, and seek arrest warrants for officials who refuse to appear and account for the public money in their care.Those are not powers a president uses against political opponents. They are powers that would be turned, inevitably, on the ministries, departments and agencies serving under whoever is president.And the truth is that, when you come to learn the truth about how Nigerian offices have been run in the Fourth Republic, as captured in the Auditor-General’s annual time capsules, you know that the president’s signature on that bill would signal a dramatic departure from the past.Related NewsUS condemns Kaduna attack, urges FG to tackle Middle Belt violenceTinubu inherited significant economic challenges – MinisterI’d have entered the bush to free Oyo pupils, says ObiFor instance, the FFMI four-year review reveals:The same finding, back-to-back, at a trillion-naira scale: “Failure to Recover Outstanding Revenues/Debts.” This is the single largest line item in the 2021 report, a scandalous finding of a standing account that nobody is collecting.The same practices of powerful government agencies ignoring the Auditor-General.The Auditor-General labouring through resistance and rudimentary records to produce years of meticulous, specific, individually sourced findings, naming specific agencies, the amounts involved, the regulations breached, as well as recommendations for recovery and sanctions.Despite this, no consequences ever appear.There are neither published, agency-by-agency accounts of how many of these findings led to actual recoveries nor of criminal referrals, prosecutions, or convictions arising from them.Agencies flagged in one year’s report reappear, often for the identical finding, in the next year’s report.To be clear: the totals in question, annually, are in the trillions of naira. Given that the Auditor-General’s reports often arrive late, the individuals responsible are often long gone: retired, dead, marrying a fourth wife somewhere, or stretched out on a beach in some foreign country.The irony is that most of these problems would be corrected once a president signs the new law.Think about it: under Buhari, the number of federal agenciesfailing even to submit their accounts for auditrose to 324 in a single year: more than double the worst year of any previous administration since 1999.A 2021 audit report flagged N323.5 billion in unsupported federal payments across 27 ministries and agencies. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was found to have deducted N426 billion from federation revenue without authorisation while Buhari himself served as petroleum minister.The IMF’s 2026 Article IV report on Nigeria also found that capital expenditure worth roughly N8.8 trillion, about two per cent of GDP, was executed entirely outside the formal 2025 budget.A newly empowered Auditor-General, with subpoena powers and the ability to withhold emoluments, would therefore be a live wire running directly into the heart of whoever is occupying Aso Rock.None of this has been stated by either presidency as a reason for the delay. Silence, rather than a stated objection, appears to be the actual governing choice, suggesting a clear understanding that there is no political upside to acting either way.There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. Two of the things I can now say are: first, that as bad as any living Nigerian might think things are in public finance management, they are infinitely worse. The numbers don’t lie.The second is that Nigerian governments appear determined to keep it that way. How?In January 2019, the National Assembly transmitted the Federal Audit Bill to President Muhammadu Buhari, who had spent all his political life portraying himself as loathing corruption.It would have replaced the Audit Ordinance of 1956, a law written before Nigeria existed as an independent country, with a modern framework giving the Auditor-General real enforcement powers.Buhari never signedand never explained why. The 8th Assembly’s term expired. The bill died with it.Seven years later, a new, more powerful version, the Federal Audit Service Bill, 2025, cleared the National Assembly and arrived at President Bola Tinubu’s desk.It has been sitting there since. ByThe Guardian’scount, five months of silence had passed as of early July; by The Punch’s, seven months.On July 10, PDP chieftain Atiku Abubakarissueda public ultimatum. Earlier, a coalition of seven civil society organisationsdemandedassent. Tinubu has ignored them all.Let me be precise about what the Constitution, around which both administrations have quietly stepped around, says. Section 58(4) gives a president 30 days from the transmission of a bill to either assent to it or communicate, in writing, his reasons for withholding assent.It is worth noting that Tinubu is entirely capable of using this provision when he wants to: hewithheld assentfrom two other bills in 2025, citing “fundamental defects.” That confirms he knows how to say no. On the audit bill, he has said nothing at all.So why would two presidents of different temperaments, governing under the same party’s parliamentary majority, arrive at this identical non-decision?The uncomfortable answer may be that this bill’s teeth point inward. Strip away the press release language about “closing avenues of revenue leakage,” and what the new law would do is give the Auditor-General the power to finally hold public officials accountable. He would be able to surcharge violators, withhold the salaries of anyone who ignores an audit query for 30 days, and seek arrest warrants for officials who refuse to appear and account for the public money in their care.Those are not powers a president uses against political opponents. They are powers that would be turned, inevitably, on the ministries, departments and agencies serving under whoever is president.And the truth is that, when you come to learn the truth about how Nigerian offices have been run in the Fourth Republic, as captured in the Auditor-General’s annual time capsules, you know that the president’s signature on that bill would signal a dramatic departure from the past.Related NewsUS condemns Kaduna attack, urges FG to tackle Middle Belt violenceTinubu inherited significant economic challenges – MinisterI’d have entered the bush to free Oyo pupils, says ObiFor instance, the FFMI four-year review reveals:The same finding, back-to-back, at a trillion-naira scale: “Failure to Recover Outstanding Revenues/Debts.” This is the single largest line item in the 2021 report, a scandalous finding of a standing account that nobody is collecting.The same practices of powerful government agencies ignoring the Auditor-General.The Auditor-General labouring through resistance and rudimentary records to produce years of meticulous, specific, individually sourced findings, naming specific agencies, the amounts involved, the regulations breached, as well as recommendations for recovery and sanctions.Despite this, no consequences ever appear.There are neither published, agency-by-agency accounts of how many of these findings led to actual recoveries nor of criminal referrals, prosecutions, or convictions arising from them.Agencies flagged in one year’s report reappear, often for the identical finding, in the next year’s report.To be clear: the totals in question, annually, are in the trillions of naira. Given that the Auditor-General’s reports often arrive late, the individuals responsible are often long gone: retired, dead, marrying a fourth wife somewhere, or stretched out on a beach in some foreign country.The irony is that most of these problems would be corrected once a president signs the new law.Think about it: under Buhari, the number of federal agenciesfailing even to submit their accounts for auditrose to 324 in a single year: more than double the worst year of any previous administration since 1999.A 2021 audit report flagged N323.5 billion in unsupported federal payments across 27 ministries and agencies. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was found to have deducted N426 billion from federation revenue without authorisation while Buhari himself served as petroleum minister.The IMF’s 2026 Article IV report on Nigeria also found that capital expenditure worth roughly N8.8 trillion, about two per cent of GDP, was executed entirely outside the formal 2025 budget.A newly empowered Auditor-General, with subpoena powers and the ability to withhold emoluments, would therefore be a live wire running directly into the heart of whoever is occupying Aso Rock.None of this has been stated by either presidency as a reason for the delay. Silence, rather than a stated objection, appears to be the actual governing choice, suggesting a clear understanding that there is no political upside to acting either way.There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. The second is that Nigerian governments appear determined to keep it that way. How?In January 2019, the National Assembly transmitted the Federal Audit Bill to President Muhammadu Buhari, who had spent all his political life portraying himself as loathing corruption.It would have replaced the Audit Ordinance of 1956, a law written before Nigeria existed as an independent country, with a modern framework giving the Auditor-General real enforcement powers.Buhari never signedand never explained why. The 8th Assembly’s term expired. The bill died with it.Seven years later, a new, more powerful version, the Federal Audit Service Bill, 2025, cleared the National Assembly and arrived at President Bola Tinubu’s desk.It has been sitting there since. ByThe Guardian’scount, five months of silence had passed as of early July; by The Punch’s, seven months.On July 10, PDP chieftain Atiku Abubakarissueda public ultimatum. Earlier, a coalition of seven civil society organisationsdemandedassent. Tinubu has ignored them all.Let me be precise about what the Constitution, around which both administrations have quietly stepped around, says. Section 58(4) gives a president 30 days from the transmission of a bill to either assent to it or communicate, in writing, his reasons for withholding assent.It is worth noting that Tinubu is entirely capable of using this provision when he wants to: hewithheld assentfrom two other bills in 2025, citing “fundamental defects.” That confirms he knows how to say no. On the audit bill, he has said nothing at all.So why would two presidents of different temperaments, governing under the same party’s parliamentary majority, arrive at this identical non-decision?The uncomfortable answer may be that this bill’s teeth point inward. Strip away the press release language about “closing avenues of revenue leakage,” and what the new law would do is give the Auditor-General the power to finally hold public officials accountable. He would be able to surcharge violators, withhold the salaries of anyone who ignores an audit query for 30 days, and seek arrest warrants for officials who refuse to appear and account for the public money in their care.Those are not powers a president uses against political opponents. They are powers that would be turned, inevitably, on the ministries, departments and agencies serving under whoever is president.And the truth is that, when you come to learn the truth about how Nigerian offices have been run in the Fourth Republic, as captured in the Auditor-General’s annual time capsules, you know that the president’s signature on that bill would signal a dramatic departure from the past.Related NewsUS condemns Kaduna attack, urges FG to tackle Middle Belt violenceTinubu inherited significant economic challenges – MinisterI’d have entered the bush to free Oyo pupils, says ObiFor instance, the FFMI four-year review reveals:The same finding, back-to-back, at a trillion-naira scale: “Failure to Recover Outstanding Revenues/Debts.” This is the single largest line item in the 2021 report, a scandalous finding of a standing account that nobody is collecting.The same practices of powerful government agencies ignoring the Auditor-General.The Auditor-General labouring through resistance and rudimentary records to produce years of meticulous, specific, individually sourced findings, naming specific agencies, the amounts involved, the regulations breached, as well as recommendations for recovery and sanctions.Despite this, no consequences ever appear.There are neither published, agency-by-agency accounts of how many of these findings led to actual recoveries nor of criminal referrals, prosecutions, or convictions arising from them.Agencies flagged in one year’s report reappear, often for the identical finding, in the next year’s report.To be clear: the totals in question, annually, are in the trillions of naira. Given that the Auditor-General’s reports often arrive late, the individuals responsible are often long gone: retired, dead, marrying a fourth wife somewhere, or stretched out on a beach in some foreign country.The irony is that most of these problems would be corrected once a president signs the new law.Think about it: under Buhari, the number of federal agenciesfailing even to submit their accounts for auditrose to 324 in a single year: more than double the worst year of any previous administration since 1999.A 2021 audit report flagged N323.5 billion in unsupported federal payments across 27 ministries and agencies. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was found to have deducted N426 billion from federation revenue without authorisation while Buhari himself served as petroleum minister.The IMF’s 2026 Article IV report on Nigeria also found that capital expenditure worth roughly N8.8 trillion, about two per cent of GDP, was executed entirely outside the formal 2025 budget.A newly empowered Auditor-General, with subpoena powers and the ability to withhold emoluments, would therefore be a live wire running directly into the heart of whoever is occupying Aso Rock.None of this has been stated by either presidency as a reason for the delay. Silence, rather than a stated objection, appears to be the actual governing choice, suggesting a clear understanding that there is no political upside to acting either way.There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. In January 2019, the National Assembly transmitted the Federal Audit Bill to President Muhammadu Buhari, who had spent all his political life portraying himself as loathing corruption.It would have replaced the Audit Ordinance of 1956, a law written before Nigeria existed as an independent country, with a modern framework giving the Auditor-General real enforcement powers.Buhari never signedand never explained why. The 8th Assembly’s term expired. The bill died with it.Seven years later, a new, more powerful version, the Federal Audit Service Bill, 2025, cleared the National Assembly and arrived at President Bola Tinubu’s desk.It has been sitting there since. ByThe Guardian’scount, five months of silence had passed as of early July; by The Punch’s, seven months.On July 10, PDP chieftain Atiku Abubakarissueda public ultimatum. Earlier, a coalition of seven civil society organisationsdemandedassent. Tinubu has ignored them all.Let me be precise about what the Constitution, around which both administrations have quietly stepped around, says. Section 58(4) gives a president 30 days from the transmission of a bill to either assent to it or communicate, in writing, his reasons for withholding assent.It is worth noting that Tinubu is entirely capable of using this provision when he wants to: hewithheld assentfrom two other bills in 2025, citing “fundamental defects.” That confirms he knows how to say no. On the audit bill, he has said nothing at all.So why would two presidents of different temperaments, governing under the same party’s parliamentary majority, arrive at this identical non-decision?The uncomfortable answer may be that this bill’s teeth point inward. Strip away the press release language about “closing avenues of revenue leakage,” and what the new law would do is give the Auditor-General the power to finally hold public officials accountable. He would be able to surcharge violators, withhold the salaries of anyone who ignores an audit query for 30 days, and seek arrest warrants for officials who refuse to appear and account for the public money in their care.Those are not powers a president uses against political opponents. They are powers that would be turned, inevitably, on the ministries, departments and agencies serving under whoever is president.And the truth is that, when you come to learn the truth about how Nigerian offices have been run in the Fourth Republic, as captured in the Auditor-General’s annual time capsules, you know that the president’s signature on that bill would signal a dramatic departure from the past.Related NewsUS condemns Kaduna attack, urges FG to tackle Middle Belt violenceTinubu inherited significant economic challenges – MinisterI’d have entered the bush to free Oyo pupils, says ObiFor instance, the FFMI four-year review reveals:The same finding, back-to-back, at a trillion-naira scale: “Failure to Recover Outstanding Revenues/Debts.” This is the single largest line item in the 2021 report, a scandalous finding of a standing account that nobody is collecting.The same practices of powerful government agencies ignoring the Auditor-General.The Auditor-General labouring through resistance and rudimentary records to produce years of meticulous, specific, individually sourced findings, naming specific agencies, the amounts involved, the regulations breached, as well as recommendations for recovery and sanctions.Despite this, no consequences ever appear.There are neither published, agency-by-agency accounts of how many of these findings led to actual recoveries nor of criminal referrals, prosecutions, or convictions arising from them.Agencies flagged in one year’s report reappear, often for the identical finding, in the next year’s report.To be clear: the totals in question, annually, are in the trillions of naira. Given that the Auditor-General’s reports often arrive late, the individuals responsible are often long gone: retired, dead, marrying a fourth wife somewhere, or stretched out on a beach in some foreign country.The irony is that most of these problems would be corrected once a president signs the new law.Think about it: under Buhari, the number of federal agenciesfailing even to submit their accounts for auditrose to 324 in a single year: more than double the worst year of any previous administration since 1999.A 2021 audit report flagged N323.5 billion in unsupported federal payments across 27 ministries and agencies. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was found to have deducted N426 billion from federation revenue without authorisation while Buhari himself served as petroleum minister.The IMF’s 2026 Article IV report on Nigeria also found that capital expenditure worth roughly N8.8 trillion, about two per cent of GDP, was executed entirely outside the formal 2025 budget.A newly empowered Auditor-General, with subpoena powers and the ability to withhold emoluments, would therefore be a live wire running directly into the heart of whoever is occupying Aso Rock.None of this has been stated by either presidency as a reason for the delay. Silence, rather than a stated objection, appears to be the actual governing choice, suggesting a clear understanding that there is no political upside to acting either way.There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. It would have replaced the Audit Ordinance of 1956, a law written before Nigeria existed as an independent country, with a modern framework giving the Auditor-General real enforcement powers.Buhari never signedand never explained why. The 8th Assembly’s term expired. The bill died with it.Seven years later, a new, more powerful version, the Federal Audit Service Bill, 2025, cleared the National Assembly and arrived at President Bola Tinubu’s desk.It has been sitting there since. ByThe Guardian’scount, five months of silence had passed as of early July; by The Punch’s, seven months.On July 10, PDP chieftain Atiku Abubakarissueda public ultimatum. Earlier, a coalition of seven civil society organisationsdemandedassent. Tinubu has ignored them all.Let me be precise about what the Constitution, around which both administrations have quietly stepped around, says. Section 58(4) gives a president 30 days from the transmission of a bill to either assent to it or communicate, in writing, his reasons for withholding assent.It is worth noting that Tinubu is entirely capable of using this provision when he wants to: hewithheld assentfrom two other bills in 2025, citing “fundamental defects.” That confirms he knows how to say no. On the audit bill, he has said nothing at all.So why would two presidents of different temperaments, governing under the same party’s parliamentary majority, arrive at this identical non-decision?The uncomfortable answer may be that this bill’s teeth point inward. Strip away the press release language about “closing avenues of revenue leakage,” and what the new law would do is give the Auditor-General the power to finally hold public officials accountable. He would be able to surcharge violators, withhold the salaries of anyone who ignores an audit query for 30 days, and seek arrest warrants for officials who refuse to appear and account for the public money in their care.Those are not powers a president uses against political opponents. They are powers that would be turned, inevitably, on the ministries, departments and agencies serving under whoever is president.And the truth is that, when you come to learn the truth about how Nigerian offices have been run in the Fourth Republic, as captured in the Auditor-General’s annual time capsules, you know that the president’s signature on that bill would signal a dramatic departure from the past.Related NewsUS condemns Kaduna attack, urges FG to tackle Middle Belt violenceTinubu inherited significant economic challenges – MinisterI’d have entered the bush to free Oyo pupils, says ObiFor instance, the FFMI four-year review reveals:The same finding, back-to-back, at a trillion-naira scale: “Failure to Recover Outstanding Revenues/Debts.” This is the single largest line item in the 2021 report, a scandalous finding of a standing account that nobody is collecting.The same practices of powerful government agencies ignoring the Auditor-General.The Auditor-General labouring through resistance and rudimentary records to produce years of meticulous, specific, individually sourced findings, naming specific agencies, the amounts involved, the regulations breached, as well as recommendations for recovery and sanctions.Despite this, no consequences ever appear.There are neither published, agency-by-agency accounts of how many of these findings led to actual recoveries nor of criminal referrals, prosecutions, or convictions arising from them.Agencies flagged in one year’s report reappear, often for the identical finding, in the next year’s report.To be clear: the totals in question, annually, are in the trillions of naira. Given that the Auditor-General’s reports often arrive late, the individuals responsible are often long gone: retired, dead, marrying a fourth wife somewhere, or stretched out on a beach in some foreign country.The irony is that most of these problems would be corrected once a president signs the new law.Think about it: under Buhari, the number of federal agenciesfailing even to submit their accounts for auditrose to 324 in a single year: more than double the worst year of any previous administration since 1999.A 2021 audit report flagged N323.5 billion in unsupported federal payments across 27 ministries and agencies. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was found to have deducted N426 billion from federation revenue without authorisation while Buhari himself served as petroleum minister.The IMF’s 2026 Article IV report on Nigeria also found that capital expenditure worth roughly N8.8 trillion, about two per cent of GDP, was executed entirely outside the formal 2025 budget.A newly empowered Auditor-General, with subpoena powers and the ability to withhold emoluments, would therefore be a live wire running directly into the heart of whoever is occupying Aso Rock.None of this has been stated by either presidency as a reason for the delay. Silence, rather than a stated objection, appears to be the actual governing choice, suggesting a clear understanding that there is no political upside to acting either way.There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. Buhari never signedand never explained why. The 8th Assembly’s term expired. The bill died with it.Seven years later, a new, more powerful version, the Federal Audit Service Bill, 2025, cleared the National Assembly and arrived at President Bola Tinubu’s desk.It has been sitting there since. ByThe Guardian’scount, five months of silence had passed as of early July; by The Punch’s, seven months.On July 10, PDP chieftain Atiku Abubakarissueda public ultimatum. Earlier, a coalition of seven civil society organisationsdemandedassent. Tinubu has ignored them all.Let me be precise about what the Constitution, around which both administrations have quietly stepped around, says. Section 58(4) gives a president 30 days from the transmission of a bill to either assent to it or communicate, in writing, his reasons for withholding assent.It is worth noting that Tinubu is entirely capable of using this provision when he wants to: hewithheld assentfrom two other bills in 2025, citing “fundamental defects.” That confirms he knows how to say no. On the audit bill, he has said nothing at all.So why would two presidents of different temperaments, governing under the same party’s parliamentary majority, arrive at this identical non-decision?The uncomfortable answer may be that this bill’s teeth point inward. Strip away the press release language about “closing avenues of revenue leakage,” and what the new law would do is give the Auditor-General the power to finally hold public officials accountable. He would be able to surcharge violators, withhold the salaries of anyone who ignores an audit query for 30 days, and seek arrest warrants for officials who refuse to appear and account for the public money in their care.Those are not powers a president uses against political opponents. They are powers that would be turned, inevitably, on the ministries, departments and agencies serving under whoever is president.And the truth is that, when you come to learn the truth about how Nigerian offices have been run in the Fourth Republic, as captured in the Auditor-General’s annual time capsules, you know that the president’s signature on that bill would signal a dramatic departure from the past.Related NewsUS condemns Kaduna attack, urges FG to tackle Middle Belt violenceTinubu inherited significant economic challenges – MinisterI’d have entered the bush to free Oyo pupils, says ObiFor instance, the FFMI four-year review reveals:The same finding, back-to-back, at a trillion-naira scale: “Failure to Recover Outstanding Revenues/Debts.” This is the single largest line item in the 2021 report, a scandalous finding of a standing account that nobody is collecting.The same practices of powerful government agencies ignoring the Auditor-General.The Auditor-General labouring through resistance and rudimentary records to produce years of meticulous, specific, individually sourced findings, naming specific agencies, the amounts involved, the regulations breached, as well as recommendations for recovery and sanctions.Despite this, no consequences ever appear.There are neither published, agency-by-agency accounts of how many of these findings led to actual recoveries nor of criminal referrals, prosecutions, or convictions arising from them.Agencies flagged in one year’s report reappear, often for the identical finding, in the next year’s report.To be clear: the totals in question, annually, are in the trillions of naira. Given that the Auditor-General’s reports often arrive late, the individuals responsible are often long gone: retired, dead, marrying a fourth wife somewhere, or stretched out on a beach in some foreign country.The irony is that most of these problems would be corrected once a president signs the new law.Think about it: under Buhari, the number of federal agenciesfailing even to submit their accounts for auditrose to 324 in a single year: more than double the worst year of any previous administration since 1999.A 2021 audit report flagged N323.5 billion in unsupported federal payments across 27 ministries and agencies. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was found to have deducted N426 billion from federation revenue without authorisation while Buhari himself served as petroleum minister.The IMF’s 2026 Article IV report on Nigeria also found that capital expenditure worth roughly N8.8 trillion, about two per cent of GDP, was executed entirely outside the formal 2025 budget.A newly empowered Auditor-General, with subpoena powers and the ability to withhold emoluments, would therefore be a live wire running directly into the heart of whoever is occupying Aso Rock.None of this has been stated by either presidency as a reason for the delay. Silence, rather than a stated objection, appears to be the actual governing choice, suggesting a clear understanding that there is no political upside to acting either way.There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. Seven years later, a new, more powerful version, the Federal Audit Service Bill, 2025, cleared the National Assembly and arrived at President Bola Tinubu’s desk.It has been sitting there since. ByThe Guardian’scount, five months of silence had passed as of early July; by The Punch’s, seven months.On July 10, PDP chieftain Atiku Abubakarissueda public ultimatum. Earlier, a coalition of seven civil society organisationsdemandedassent. Tinubu has ignored them all.Let me be precise about what the Constitution, around which both administrations have quietly stepped around, says. Section 58(4) gives a president 30 days from the transmission of a bill to either assent to it or communicate, in writing, his reasons for withholding assent.It is worth noting that Tinubu is entirely capable of using this provision when he wants to: hewithheld assentfrom two other bills in 2025, citing “fundamental defects.” That confirms he knows how to say no. On the audit bill, he has said nothing at all.So why would two presidents of different temperaments, governing under the same party’s parliamentary majority, arrive at this identical non-decision?The uncomfortable answer may be that this bill’s teeth point inward. Strip away the press release language about “closing avenues of revenue leakage,” and what the new law would do is give the Auditor-General the power to finally hold public officials accountable. He would be able to surcharge violators, withhold the salaries of anyone who ignores an audit query for 30 days, and seek arrest warrants for officials who refuse to appear and account for the public money in their care.Those are not powers a president uses against political opponents. They are powers that would be turned, inevitably, on the ministries, departments and agencies serving under whoever is president.And the truth is that, when you come to learn the truth about how Nigerian offices have been run in the Fourth Republic, as captured in the Auditor-General’s annual time capsules, you know that the president’s signature on that bill would signal a dramatic departure from the past.Related NewsUS condemns Kaduna attack, urges FG to tackle Middle Belt violenceTinubu inherited significant economic challenges – MinisterI’d have entered the bush to free Oyo pupils, says ObiFor instance, the FFMI four-year review reveals:The same finding, back-to-back, at a trillion-naira scale: “Failure to Recover Outstanding Revenues/Debts.” This is the single largest line item in the 2021 report, a scandalous finding of a standing account that nobody is collecting.The same practices of powerful government agencies ignoring the Auditor-General.The Auditor-General labouring through resistance and rudimentary records to produce years of meticulous, specific, individually sourced findings, naming specific agencies, the amounts involved, the regulations breached, as well as recommendations for recovery and sanctions.Despite this, no consequences ever appear.There are neither published, agency-by-agency accounts of how many of these findings led to actual recoveries nor of criminal referrals, prosecutions, or convictions arising from them.Agencies flagged in one year’s report reappear, often for the identical finding, in the next year’s report.To be clear: the totals in question, annually, are in the trillions of naira. Given that the Auditor-General’s reports often arrive late, the individuals responsible are often long gone: retired, dead, marrying a fourth wife somewhere, or stretched out on a beach in some foreign country.The irony is that most of these problems would be corrected once a president signs the new law.Think about it: under Buhari, the number of federal agenciesfailing even to submit their accounts for auditrose to 324 in a single year: more than double the worst year of any previous administration since 1999.A 2021 audit report flagged N323.5 billion in unsupported federal payments across 27 ministries and agencies. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was found to have deducted N426 billion from federation revenue without authorisation while Buhari himself served as petroleum minister.The IMF’s 2026 Article IV report on Nigeria also found that capital expenditure worth roughly N8.8 trillion, about two per cent of GDP, was executed entirely outside the formal 2025 budget.A newly empowered Auditor-General, with subpoena powers and the ability to withhold emoluments, would therefore be a live wire running directly into the heart of whoever is occupying Aso Rock.None of this has been stated by either presidency as a reason for the delay. Silence, rather than a stated objection, appears to be the actual governing choice, suggesting a clear understanding that there is no political upside to acting either way.There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. It has been sitting there since. ByThe Guardian’scount, five months of silence had passed as of early July; by The Punch’s, seven months.On July 10, PDP chieftain Atiku Abubakarissueda public ultimatum. Earlier, a coalition of seven civil society organisationsdemandedassent. Tinubu has ignored them all.Let me be precise about what the Constitution, around which both administrations have quietly stepped around, says. Section 58(4) gives a president 30 days from the transmission of a bill to either assent to it or communicate, in writing, his reasons for withholding assent.It is worth noting that Tinubu is entirely capable of using this provision when he wants to: hewithheld assentfrom two other bills in 2025, citing “fundamental defects.” That confirms he knows how to say no. On the audit bill, he has said nothing at all.So why would two presidents of different temperaments, governing under the same party’s parliamentary majority, arrive at this identical non-decision?The uncomfortable answer may be that this bill’s teeth point inward. Strip away the press release language about “closing avenues of revenue leakage,” and what the new law would do is give the Auditor-General the power to finally hold public officials accountable. He would be able to surcharge violators, withhold the salaries of anyone who ignores an audit query for 30 days, and seek arrest warrants for officials who refuse to appear and account for the public money in their care.Those are not powers a president uses against political opponents. They are powers that would be turned, inevitably, on the ministries, departments and agencies serving under whoever is president.And the truth is that, when you come to learn the truth about how Nigerian offices have been run in the Fourth Republic, as captured in the Auditor-General’s annual time capsules, you know that the president’s signature on that bill would signal a dramatic departure from the past.Related NewsUS condemns Kaduna attack, urges FG to tackle Middle Belt violenceTinubu inherited significant economic challenges – MinisterI’d have entered the bush to free Oyo pupils, says ObiFor instance, the FFMI four-year review reveals:The same finding, back-to-back, at a trillion-naira scale: “Failure to Recover Outstanding Revenues/Debts.” This is the single largest line item in the 2021 report, a scandalous finding of a standing account that nobody is collecting.The same practices of powerful government agencies ignoring the Auditor-General.The Auditor-General labouring through resistance and rudimentary records to produce years of meticulous, specific, individually sourced findings, naming specific agencies, the amounts involved, the regulations breached, as well as recommendations for recovery and sanctions.Despite this, no consequences ever appear.There are neither published, agency-by-agency accounts of how many of these findings led to actual recoveries nor of criminal referrals, prosecutions, or convictions arising from them.Agencies flagged in one year’s report reappear, often for the identical finding, in the next year’s report.To be clear: the totals in question, annually, are in the trillions of naira. Given that the Auditor-General’s reports often arrive late, the individuals responsible are often long gone: retired, dead, marrying a fourth wife somewhere, or stretched out on a beach in some foreign country.The irony is that most of these problems would be corrected once a president signs the new law.Think about it: under Buhari, the number of federal agenciesfailing even to submit their accounts for auditrose to 324 in a single year: more than double the worst year of any previous administration since 1999.A 2021 audit report flagged N323.5 billion in unsupported federal payments across 27 ministries and agencies. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was found to have deducted N426 billion from federation revenue without authorisation while Buhari himself served as petroleum minister.The IMF’s 2026 Article IV report on Nigeria also found that capital expenditure worth roughly N8.8 trillion, about two per cent of GDP, was executed entirely outside the formal 2025 budget.A newly empowered Auditor-General, with subpoena powers and the ability to withhold emoluments, would therefore be a live wire running directly into the heart of whoever is occupying Aso Rock.None of this has been stated by either presidency as a reason for the delay. Silence, rather than a stated objection, appears to be the actual governing choice, suggesting a clear understanding that there is no political upside to acting either way.There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. On July 10, PDP chieftain Atiku Abubakarissueda public ultimatum. Earlier, a coalition of seven civil society organisationsdemandedassent. Tinubu has ignored them all.Let me be precise about what the Constitution, around which both administrations have quietly stepped around, says. Section 58(4) gives a president 30 days from the transmission of a bill to either assent to it or communicate, in writing, his reasons for withholding assent.It is worth noting that Tinubu is entirely capable of using this provision when he wants to: hewithheld assentfrom two other bills in 2025, citing “fundamental defects.” That confirms he knows how to say no. On the audit bill, he has said nothing at all.So why would two presidents of different temperaments, governing under the same party’s parliamentary majority, arrive at this identical non-decision?The uncomfortable answer may be that this bill’s teeth point inward. Strip away the press release language about “closing avenues of revenue leakage,” and what the new law would do is give the Auditor-General the power to finally hold public officials accountable. He would be able to surcharge violators, withhold the salaries of anyone who ignores an audit query for 30 days, and seek arrest warrants for officials who refuse to appear and account for the public money in their care.Those are not powers a president uses against political opponents. They are powers that would be turned, inevitably, on the ministries, departments and agencies serving under whoever is president.And the truth is that, when you come to learn the truth about how Nigerian offices have been run in the Fourth Republic, as captured in the Auditor-General’s annual time capsules, you know that the president’s signature on that bill would signal a dramatic departure from the past.Related NewsUS condemns Kaduna attack, urges FG to tackle Middle Belt violenceTinubu inherited significant economic challenges – MinisterI’d have entered the bush to free Oyo pupils, says ObiFor instance, the FFMI four-year review reveals:The same finding, back-to-back, at a trillion-naira scale: “Failure to Recover Outstanding Revenues/Debts.” This is the single largest line item in the 2021 report, a scandalous finding of a standing account that nobody is collecting.The same practices of powerful government agencies ignoring the Auditor-General.The Auditor-General labouring through resistance and rudimentary records to produce years of meticulous, specific, individually sourced findings, naming specific agencies, the amounts involved, the regulations breached, as well as recommendations for recovery and sanctions.Despite this, no consequences ever appear.There are neither published, agency-by-agency accounts of how many of these findings led to actual recoveries nor of criminal referrals, prosecutions, or convictions arising from them.Agencies flagged in one year’s report reappear, often for the identical finding, in the next year’s report.To be clear: the totals in question, annually, are in the trillions of naira. Given that the Auditor-General’s reports often arrive late, the individuals responsible are often long gone: retired, dead, marrying a fourth wife somewhere, or stretched out on a beach in some foreign country.The irony is that most of these problems would be corrected once a president signs the new law.Think about it: under Buhari, the number of federal agenciesfailing even to submit their accounts for auditrose to 324 in a single year: more than double the worst year of any previous administration since 1999.A 2021 audit report flagged N323.5 billion in unsupported federal payments across 27 ministries and agencies. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was found to have deducted N426 billion from federation revenue without authorisation while Buhari himself served as petroleum minister.The IMF’s 2026 Article IV report on Nigeria also found that capital expenditure worth roughly N8.8 trillion, about two per cent of GDP, was executed entirely outside the formal 2025 budget.A newly empowered Auditor-General, with subpoena powers and the ability to withhold emoluments, would therefore be a live wire running directly into the heart of whoever is occupying Aso Rock.None of this has been stated by either presidency as a reason for the delay. Silence, rather than a stated objection, appears to be the actual governing choice, suggesting a clear understanding that there is no political upside to acting either way.There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. Let me be precise about what the Constitution, around which both administrations have quietly stepped around, says. Section 58(4) gives a president 30 days from the transmission of a bill to either assent to it or communicate, in writing, his reasons for withholding assent.It is worth noting that Tinubu is entirely capable of using this provision when he wants to: hewithheld assentfrom two other bills in 2025, citing “fundamental defects.” That confirms he knows how to say no. On the audit bill, he has said nothing at all.So why would two presidents of different temperaments, governing under the same party’s parliamentary majority, arrive at this identical non-decision?The uncomfortable answer may be that this bill’s teeth point inward. Strip away the press release language about “closing avenues of revenue leakage,” and what the new law would do is give the Auditor-General the power to finally hold public officials accountable. He would be able to surcharge violators, withhold the salaries of anyone who ignores an audit query for 30 days, and seek arrest warrants for officials who refuse to appear and account for the public money in their care.Those are not powers a president uses against political opponents. They are powers that would be turned, inevitably, on the ministries, departments and agencies serving under whoever is president.And the truth is that, when you come to learn the truth about how Nigerian offices have been run in the Fourth Republic, as captured in the Auditor-General’s annual time capsules, you know that the president’s signature on that bill would signal a dramatic departure from the past.Related NewsUS condemns Kaduna attack, urges FG to tackle Middle Belt violenceTinubu inherited significant economic challenges – MinisterI’d have entered the bush to free Oyo pupils, says ObiFor instance, the FFMI four-year review reveals:The same finding, back-to-back, at a trillion-naira scale: “Failure to Recover Outstanding Revenues/Debts.” This is the single largest line item in the 2021 report, a scandalous finding of a standing account that nobody is collecting.The same practices of powerful government agencies ignoring the Auditor-General.The Auditor-General labouring through resistance and rudimentary records to produce years of meticulous, specific, individually sourced findings, naming specific agencies, the amounts involved, the regulations breached, as well as recommendations for recovery and sanctions.Despite this, no consequences ever appear.There are neither published, agency-by-agency accounts of how many of these findings led to actual recoveries nor of criminal referrals, prosecutions, or convictions arising from them.Agencies flagged in one year’s report reappear, often for the identical finding, in the next year’s report.To be clear: the totals in question, annually, are in the trillions of naira. Given that the Auditor-General’s reports often arrive late, the individuals responsible are often long gone: retired, dead, marrying a fourth wife somewhere, or stretched out on a beach in some foreign country.The irony is that most of these problems would be corrected once a president signs the new law.Think about it: under Buhari, the number of federal agenciesfailing even to submit their accounts for auditrose to 324 in a single year: more than double the worst year of any previous administration since 1999.A 2021 audit report flagged N323.5 billion in unsupported federal payments across 27 ministries and agencies. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was found to have deducted N426 billion from federation revenue without authorisation while Buhari himself served as petroleum minister.The IMF’s 2026 Article IV report on Nigeria also found that capital expenditure worth roughly N8.8 trillion, about two per cent of GDP, was executed entirely outside the formal 2025 budget.A newly empowered Auditor-General, with subpoena powers and the ability to withhold emoluments, would therefore be a live wire running directly into the heart of whoever is occupying Aso Rock.None of this has been stated by either presidency as a reason for the delay. Silence, rather than a stated objection, appears to be the actual governing choice, suggesting a clear understanding that there is no political upside to acting either way.There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. It is worth noting that Tinubu is entirely capable of using this provision when he wants to: hewithheld assentfrom two other bills in 2025, citing “fundamental defects.” That confirms he knows how to say no. On the audit bill, he has said nothing at all.So why would two presidents of different temperaments, governing under the same party’s parliamentary majority, arrive at this identical non-decision?The uncomfortable answer may be that this bill’s teeth point inward. Strip away the press release language about “closing avenues of revenue leakage,” and what the new law would do is give the Auditor-General the power to finally hold public officials accountable. He would be able to surcharge violators, withhold the salaries of anyone who ignores an audit query for 30 days, and seek arrest warrants for officials who refuse to appear and account for the public money in their care.Those are not powers a president uses against political opponents. They are powers that would be turned, inevitably, on the ministries, departments and agencies serving under whoever is president.And the truth is that, when you come to learn the truth about how Nigerian offices have been run in the Fourth Republic, as captured in the Auditor-General’s annual time capsules, you know that the president’s signature on that bill would signal a dramatic departure from the past.Related NewsUS condemns Kaduna attack, urges FG to tackle Middle Belt violenceTinubu inherited significant economic challenges – MinisterI’d have entered the bush to free Oyo pupils, says ObiFor instance, the FFMI four-year review reveals:The same finding, back-to-back, at a trillion-naira scale: “Failure to Recover Outstanding Revenues/Debts.” This is the single largest line item in the 2021 report, a scandalous finding of a standing account that nobody is collecting.The same practices of powerful government agencies ignoring the Auditor-General.The Auditor-General labouring through resistance and rudimentary records to produce years of meticulous, specific, individually sourced findings, naming specific agencies, the amounts involved, the regulations breached, as well as recommendations for recovery and sanctions.Despite this, no consequences ever appear.There are neither published, agency-by-agency accounts of how many of these findings led to actual recoveries nor of criminal referrals, prosecutions, or convictions arising from them.Agencies flagged in one year’s report reappear, often for the identical finding, in the next year’s report.To be clear: the totals in question, annually, are in the trillions of naira. Given that the Auditor-General’s reports often arrive late, the individuals responsible are often long gone: retired, dead, marrying a fourth wife somewhere, or stretched out on a beach in some foreign country.The irony is that most of these problems would be corrected once a president signs the new law.Think about it: under Buhari, the number of federal agenciesfailing even to submit their accounts for auditrose to 324 in a single year: more than double the worst year of any previous administration since 1999.A 2021 audit report flagged N323.5 billion in unsupported federal payments across 27 ministries and agencies. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was found to have deducted N426 billion from federation revenue without authorisation while Buhari himself served as petroleum minister.The IMF’s 2026 Article IV report on Nigeria also found that capital expenditure worth roughly N8.8 trillion, about two per cent of GDP, was executed entirely outside the formal 2025 budget.A newly empowered Auditor-General, with subpoena powers and the ability to withhold emoluments, would therefore be a live wire running directly into the heart of whoever is occupying Aso Rock.None of this has been stated by either presidency as a reason for the delay. Silence, rather than a stated objection, appears to be the actual governing choice, suggesting a clear understanding that there is no political upside to acting either way.There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. So why would two presidents of different temperaments, governing under the same party’s parliamentary majority, arrive at this identical non-decision?The uncomfortable answer may be that this bill’s teeth point inward. Strip away the press release language about “closing avenues of revenue leakage,” and what the new law would do is give the Auditor-General the power to finally hold public officials accountable. He would be able to surcharge violators, withhold the salaries of anyone who ignores an audit query for 30 days, and seek arrest warrants for officials who refuse to appear and account for the public money in their care.Those are not powers a president uses against political opponents. They are powers that would be turned, inevitably, on the ministries, departments and agencies serving under whoever is president.And the truth is that, when you come to learn the truth about how Nigerian offices have been run in the Fourth Republic, as captured in the Auditor-General’s annual time capsules, you know that the president’s signature on that bill would signal a dramatic departure from the past.Related NewsUS condemns Kaduna attack, urges FG to tackle Middle Belt violenceTinubu inherited significant economic challenges – MinisterI’d have entered the bush to free Oyo pupils, says ObiFor instance, the FFMI four-year review reveals:The same finding, back-to-back, at a trillion-naira scale: “Failure to Recover Outstanding Revenues/Debts.” This is the single largest line item in the 2021 report, a scandalous finding of a standing account that nobody is collecting.The same practices of powerful government agencies ignoring the Auditor-General.The Auditor-General labouring through resistance and rudimentary records to produce years of meticulous, specific, individually sourced findings, naming specific agencies, the amounts involved, the regulations breached, as well as recommendations for recovery and sanctions.Despite this, no consequences ever appear.There are neither published, agency-by-agency accounts of how many of these findings led to actual recoveries nor of criminal referrals, prosecutions, or convictions arising from them.Agencies flagged in one year’s report reappear, often for the identical finding, in the next year’s report.To be clear: the totals in question, annually, are in the trillions of naira. Given that the Auditor-General’s reports often arrive late, the individuals responsible are often long gone: retired, dead, marrying a fourth wife somewhere, or stretched out on a beach in some foreign country.The irony is that most of these problems would be corrected once a president signs the new law.Think about it: under Buhari, the number of federal agenciesfailing even to submit their accounts for auditrose to 324 in a single year: more than double the worst year of any previous administration since 1999.A 2021 audit report flagged N323.5 billion in unsupported federal payments across 27 ministries and agencies. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was found to have deducted N426 billion from federation revenue without authorisation while Buhari himself served as petroleum minister.The IMF’s 2026 Article IV report on Nigeria also found that capital expenditure worth roughly N8.8 trillion, about two per cent of GDP, was executed entirely outside the formal 2025 budget.A newly empowered Auditor-General, with subpoena powers and the ability to withhold emoluments, would therefore be a live wire running directly into the heart of whoever is occupying Aso Rock.None of this has been stated by either presidency as a reason for the delay. Silence, rather than a stated objection, appears to be the actual governing choice, suggesting a clear understanding that there is no political upside to acting either way.There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. The uncomfortable answer may be that this bill’s teeth point inward. Strip away the press release language about “closing avenues of revenue leakage,” and what the new law would do is give the Auditor-General the power to finally hold public officials accountable. He would be able to surcharge violators, withhold the salaries of anyone who ignores an audit query for 30 days, and seek arrest warrants for officials who refuse to appear and account for the public money in their care.Those are not powers a president uses against political opponents. They are powers that would be turned, inevitably, on the ministries, departments and agencies serving under whoever is president.And the truth is that, when you come to learn the truth about how Nigerian offices have been run in the Fourth Republic, as captured in the Auditor-General’s annual time capsules, you know that the president’s signature on that bill would signal a dramatic departure from the past.Related NewsUS condemns Kaduna attack, urges FG to tackle Middle Belt violenceTinubu inherited significant economic challenges – MinisterI’d have entered the bush to free Oyo pupils, says ObiFor instance, the FFMI four-year review reveals:The same finding, back-to-back, at a trillion-naira scale: “Failure to Recover Outstanding Revenues/Debts.” This is the single largest line item in the 2021 report, a scandalous finding of a standing account that nobody is collecting.The same practices of powerful government agencies ignoring the Auditor-General.The Auditor-General labouring through resistance and rudimentary records to produce years of meticulous, specific, individually sourced findings, naming specific agencies, the amounts involved, the regulations breached, as well as recommendations for recovery and sanctions.Despite this, no consequences ever appear.There are neither published, agency-by-agency accounts of how many of these findings led to actual recoveries nor of criminal referrals, prosecutions, or convictions arising from them.Agencies flagged in one year’s report reappear, often for the identical finding, in the next year’s report.To be clear: the totals in question, annually, are in the trillions of naira. Given that the Auditor-General’s reports often arrive late, the individuals responsible are often long gone: retired, dead, marrying a fourth wife somewhere, or stretched out on a beach in some foreign country.The irony is that most of these problems would be corrected once a president signs the new law.Think about it: under Buhari, the number of federal agenciesfailing even to submit their accounts for auditrose to 324 in a single year: more than double the worst year of any previous administration since 1999.A 2021 audit report flagged N323.5 billion in unsupported federal payments across 27 ministries and agencies. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was found to have deducted N426 billion from federation revenue without authorisation while Buhari himself served as petroleum minister.The IMF’s 2026 Article IV report on Nigeria also found that capital expenditure worth roughly N8.8 trillion, about two per cent of GDP, was executed entirely outside the formal 2025 budget.A newly empowered Auditor-General, with subpoena powers and the ability to withhold emoluments, would therefore be a live wire running directly into the heart of whoever is occupying Aso Rock.None of this has been stated by either presidency as a reason for the delay. Silence, rather than a stated objection, appears to be the actual governing choice, suggesting a clear understanding that there is no political upside to acting either way.There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. Those are not powers a president uses against political opponents. They are powers that would be turned, inevitably, on the ministries, departments and agencies serving under whoever is president.And the truth is that, when you come to learn the truth about how Nigerian offices have been run in the Fourth Republic, as captured in the Auditor-General’s annual time capsules, you know that the president’s signature on that bill would signal a dramatic departure from the past.Related NewsUS condemns Kaduna attack, urges FG to tackle Middle Belt violenceTinubu inherited significant economic challenges – MinisterI’d have entered the bush to free Oyo pupils, says ObiFor instance, the FFMI four-year review reveals:The same finding, back-to-back, at a trillion-naira scale: “Failure to Recover Outstanding Revenues/Debts.” This is the single largest line item in the 2021 report, a scandalous finding of a standing account that nobody is collecting.The same practices of powerful government agencies ignoring the Auditor-General.The Auditor-General labouring through resistance and rudimentary records to produce years of meticulous, specific, individually sourced findings, naming specific agencies, the amounts involved, the regulations breached, as well as recommendations for recovery and sanctions.Despite this, no consequences ever appear.There are neither published, agency-by-agency accounts of how many of these findings led to actual recoveries nor of criminal referrals, prosecutions, or convictions arising from them.Agencies flagged in one year’s report reappear, often for the identical finding, in the next year’s report.To be clear: the totals in question, annually, are in the trillions of naira. Given that the Auditor-General’s reports often arrive late, the individuals responsible are often long gone: retired, dead, marrying a fourth wife somewhere, or stretched out on a beach in some foreign country.The irony is that most of these problems would be corrected once a president signs the new law.Think about it: under Buhari, the number of federal agenciesfailing even to submit their accounts for auditrose to 324 in a single year: more than double the worst year of any previous administration since 1999.A 2021 audit report flagged N323.5 billion in unsupported federal payments across 27 ministries and agencies. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was found to have deducted N426 billion from federation revenue without authorisation while Buhari himself served as petroleum minister.The IMF’s 2026 Article IV report on Nigeria also found that capital expenditure worth roughly N8.8 trillion, about two per cent of GDP, was executed entirely outside the formal 2025 budget.A newly empowered Auditor-General, with subpoena powers and the ability to withhold emoluments, would therefore be a live wire running directly into the heart of whoever is occupying Aso Rock.None of this has been stated by either presidency as a reason for the delay. Silence, rather than a stated objection, appears to be the actual governing choice, suggesting a clear understanding that there is no political upside to acting either way.There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. And the truth is that, when you come to learn the truth about how Nigerian offices have been run in the Fourth Republic, as captured in the Auditor-General’s annual time capsules, you know that the president’s signature on that bill would signal a dramatic departure from the past.Related NewsUS condemns Kaduna attack, urges FG to tackle Middle Belt violenceTinubu inherited significant economic challenges – MinisterI’d have entered the bush to free Oyo pupils, says ObiFor instance, the FFMI four-year review reveals:The same finding, back-to-back, at a trillion-naira scale: “Failure to Recover Outstanding Revenues/Debts.” This is the single largest line item in the 2021 report, a scandalous finding of a standing account that nobody is collecting.The same practices of powerful government agencies ignoring the Auditor-General.The Auditor-General labouring through resistance and rudimentary records to produce years of meticulous, specific, individually sourced findings, naming specific agencies, the amounts involved, the regulations breached, as well as recommendations for recovery and sanctions.Despite this, no consequences ever appear.There are neither published, agency-by-agency accounts of how many of these findings led to actual recoveries nor of criminal referrals, prosecutions, or convictions arising from them.Agencies flagged in one year’s report reappear, often for the identical finding, in the next year’s report.To be clear: the totals in question, annually, are in the trillions of naira. Given that the Auditor-General’s reports often arrive late, the individuals responsible are often long gone: retired, dead, marrying a fourth wife somewhere, or stretched out on a beach in some foreign country.The irony is that most of these problems would be corrected once a president signs the new law.Think about it: under Buhari, the number of federal agenciesfailing even to submit their accounts for auditrose to 324 in a single year: more than double the worst year of any previous administration since 1999.A 2021 audit report flagged N323.5 billion in unsupported federal payments across 27 ministries and agencies. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was found to have deducted N426 billion from federation revenue without authorisation while Buhari himself served as petroleum minister.The IMF’s 2026 Article IV report on Nigeria also found that capital expenditure worth roughly N8.8 trillion, about two per cent of GDP, was executed entirely outside the formal 2025 budget.A newly empowered Auditor-General, with subpoena powers and the ability to withhold emoluments, would therefore be a live wire running directly into the heart of whoever is occupying Aso Rock.None of this has been stated by either presidency as a reason for the delay. Silence, rather than a stated objection, appears to be the actual governing choice, suggesting a clear understanding that there is no political upside to acting either way.There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. For instance, the FFMI four-year review reveals:The same finding, back-to-back, at a trillion-naira scale: “Failure to Recover Outstanding Revenues/Debts.” This is the single largest line item in the 2021 report, a scandalous finding of a standing account that nobody is collecting.The same practices of powerful government agencies ignoring the Auditor-General.The Auditor-General labouring through resistance and rudimentary records to produce years of meticulous, specific, individually sourced findings, naming specific agencies, the amounts involved, the regulations breached, as well as recommendations for recovery and sanctions.Despite this, no consequences ever appear.There are neither published, agency-by-agency accounts of how many of these findings led to actual recoveries nor of criminal referrals, prosecutions, or convictions arising from them.Agencies flagged in one year’s report reappear, often for the identical finding, in the next year’s report.To be clear: the totals in question, annually, are in the trillions of naira. Given that the Auditor-General’s reports often arrive late, the individuals responsible are often long gone: retired, dead, marrying a fourth wife somewhere, or stretched out on a beach in some foreign country.The irony is that most of these problems would be corrected once a president signs the new law.Think about it: under Buhari, the number of federal agenciesfailing even to submit their accounts for auditrose to 324 in a single year: more than double the worst year of any previous administration since 1999.A 2021 audit report flagged N323.5 billion in unsupported federal payments across 27 ministries and agencies. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was found to have deducted N426 billion from federation revenue without authorisation while Buhari himself served as petroleum minister.The IMF’s 2026 Article IV report on Nigeria also found that capital expenditure worth roughly N8.8 trillion, about two per cent of GDP, was executed entirely outside the formal 2025 budget.A newly empowered Auditor-General, with subpoena powers and the ability to withhold emoluments, would therefore be a live wire running directly into the heart of whoever is occupying Aso Rock.None of this has been stated by either presidency as a reason for the delay. Silence, rather than a stated objection, appears to be the actual governing choice, suggesting a clear understanding that there is no political upside to acting either way.There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. Despite this, no consequences ever appear.There are neither published, agency-by-agency accounts of how many of these findings led to actual recoveries nor of criminal referrals, prosecutions, or convictions arising from them.Agencies flagged in one year’s report reappear, often for the identical finding, in the next year’s report.To be clear: the totals in question, annually, are in the trillions of naira. Given that the Auditor-General’s reports often arrive late, the individuals responsible are often long gone: retired, dead, marrying a fourth wife somewhere, or stretched out on a beach in some foreign country.The irony is that most of these problems would be corrected once a president signs the new law.Think about it: under Buhari, the number of federal agenciesfailing even to submit their accounts for auditrose to 324 in a single year: more than double the worst year of any previous administration since 1999.A 2021 audit report flagged N323.5 billion in unsupported federal payments across 27 ministries and agencies. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was found to have deducted N426 billion from federation revenue without authorisation while Buhari himself served as petroleum minister.The IMF’s 2026 Article IV report on Nigeria also found that capital expenditure worth roughly N8.8 trillion, about two per cent of GDP, was executed entirely outside the formal 2025 budget.A newly empowered Auditor-General, with subpoena powers and the ability to withhold emoluments, would therefore be a live wire running directly into the heart of whoever is occupying Aso Rock.None of this has been stated by either presidency as a reason for the delay. Silence, rather than a stated objection, appears to be the actual governing choice, suggesting a clear understanding that there is no political upside to acting either way.There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. To be clear: the totals in question, annually, are in the trillions of naira. Given that the Auditor-General’s reports often arrive late, the individuals responsible are often long gone: retired, dead, marrying a fourth wife somewhere, or stretched out on a beach in some foreign country.The irony is that most of these problems would be corrected once a president signs the new law.Think about it: under Buhari, the number of federal agenciesfailing even to submit their accounts for auditrose to 324 in a single year: more than double the worst year of any previous administration since 1999.A 2021 audit report flagged N323.5 billion in unsupported federal payments across 27 ministries and agencies. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was found to have deducted N426 billion from federation revenue without authorisation while Buhari himself served as petroleum minister.The IMF’s 2026 Article IV report on Nigeria also found that capital expenditure worth roughly N8.8 trillion, about two per cent of GDP, was executed entirely outside the formal 2025 budget.A newly empowered Auditor-General, with subpoena powers and the ability to withhold emoluments, would therefore be a live wire running directly into the heart of whoever is occupying Aso Rock.None of this has been stated by either presidency as a reason for the delay. Silence, rather than a stated objection, appears to be the actual governing choice, suggesting a clear understanding that there is no political upside to acting either way.There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. The irony is that most of these problems would be corrected once a president signs the new law.Think about it: under Buhari, the number of federal agenciesfailing even to submit their accounts for auditrose to 324 in a single year: more than double the worst year of any previous administration since 1999.A 2021 audit report flagged N323.5 billion in unsupported federal payments across 27 ministries and agencies. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was found to have deducted N426 billion from federation revenue without authorisation while Buhari himself served as petroleum minister.The IMF’s 2026 Article IV report on Nigeria also found that capital expenditure worth roughly N8.8 trillion, about two per cent of GDP, was executed entirely outside the formal 2025 budget.A newly empowered Auditor-General, with subpoena powers and the ability to withhold emoluments, would therefore be a live wire running directly into the heart of whoever is occupying Aso Rock.None of this has been stated by either presidency as a reason for the delay. Silence, rather than a stated objection, appears to be the actual governing choice, suggesting a clear understanding that there is no political upside to acting either way.There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. Think about it: under Buhari, the number of federal agenciesfailing even to submit their accounts for auditrose to 324 in a single year: more than double the worst year of any previous administration since 1999.A 2021 audit report flagged N323.5 billion in unsupported federal payments across 27 ministries and agencies. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was found to have deducted N426 billion from federation revenue without authorisation while Buhari himself served as petroleum minister.The IMF’s 2026 Article IV report on Nigeria also found that capital expenditure worth roughly N8.8 trillion, about two per cent of GDP, was executed entirely outside the formal 2025 budget.A newly empowered Auditor-General, with subpoena powers and the ability to withhold emoluments, would therefore be a live wire running directly into the heart of whoever is occupying Aso Rock.None of this has been stated by either presidency as a reason for the delay. Silence, rather than a stated objection, appears to be the actual governing choice, suggesting a clear understanding that there is no political upside to acting either way.There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. A 2021 audit report flagged N323.5 billion in unsupported federal payments across 27 ministries and agencies. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was found to have deducted N426 billion from federation revenue without authorisation while Buhari himself served as petroleum minister.The IMF’s 2026 Article IV report on Nigeria also found that capital expenditure worth roughly N8.8 trillion, about two per cent of GDP, was executed entirely outside the formal 2025 budget.A newly empowered Auditor-General, with subpoena powers and the ability to withhold emoluments, would therefore be a live wire running directly into the heart of whoever is occupying Aso Rock.None of this has been stated by either presidency as a reason for the delay. Silence, rather than a stated objection, appears to be the actual governing choice, suggesting a clear understanding that there is no political upside to acting either way.There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. The IMF’s 2026 Article IV report on Nigeria also found that capital expenditure worth roughly N8.8 trillion, about two per cent of GDP, was executed entirely outside the formal 2025 budget.A newly empowered Auditor-General, with subpoena powers and the ability to withhold emoluments, would therefore be a live wire running directly into the heart of whoever is occupying Aso Rock.None of this has been stated by either presidency as a reason for the delay. Silence, rather than a stated objection, appears to be the actual governing choice, suggesting a clear understanding that there is no political upside to acting either way.There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. A newly empowered Auditor-General, with subpoena powers and the ability to withhold emoluments, would therefore be a live wire running directly into the heart of whoever is occupying Aso Rock.None of this has been stated by either presidency as a reason for the delay. Silence, rather than a stated objection, appears to be the actual governing choice, suggesting a clear understanding that there is no political upside to acting either way.There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. None of this has been stated by either presidency as a reason for the delay. Silence, rather than a stated objection, appears to be the actual governing choice, suggesting a clear understanding that there is no political upside to acting either way.There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. There is also a structural reason the National Assembly has not forced the issue: Section 58(5) presumes a president who has withheld assent and stated why. It is remarkable that, in both 2019 and 2025–26, the APC has held the numbers to attempt an override but has not moved. And now, beyond the numbers, the APC controls and commands not just every arm of government, but every organ as well. Especially the heart and the soul.But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. But the truth is that this one law would move Nigeria, as a nation, forward and upward.But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. But what would move this forward now? Civil society’s instinct, especially as Nigeria enters the 2027 election season, is to launch a campaign to compel the Senate and House leadership, and every prominent politician running for office, to go on the record on this.Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. Writers and editorialists should move from asking Mr Tinubu, “When will you sign?” to asking, formally and repeatedly, “What is your stated reason for withholding assent?” thereby making the case for an override far harder to ignore. His continued silence would alert the IMF and the World Bank that Nigeria’s fiscal reforms rest on announcements, not institutions—a reputational risk to the presidency.But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. But the deeper story here is not about Buhari or Tinubu. It is about what happens when reform legislation requires the executive branch to arm an office to police itself within a system where the ruling party controls both ends of the transaction.The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper. The question is: How long will Nigeria remain buried in that integrity hole between “me” and “us,” or “mine” and “ours”? Every time a public official chooses the first, we sink deeper.