Andy Ezeani
Tuesday, September 8, 2026
It has been two years and eight months since President Bola Tinubu suspended Dr. Beta Edu from her plum job as Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation. The key word there is “suspended”.
The purported reason for which the glamorous former National Women leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was relieved of her prime appointment was indiscretion. She was accused of a breach of the regulations guiding administration of public funds. The former minister was said to have approved the release of a whopping sum of N585.2 million working fund of the ministry to a private bank account for the execution of some approved programmes. That was imprudent. The fact that the ministry had been operating that way before Dr. Edu arrived there, is immaterial.
There was already plenty of hoopla over financial indiscretion in the management of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation before Beta Edu was appointed minister. Unfortunately, it appeared she went to the ministry with airs of a national women leader of a ruling party, a bearing that bothered on sassiness and obviously, piqued a number of people in her party and beyond.
The matter of her approving the release of public funds to a private bank account, no matter the reason, became her undoing. The act was enough confirmation before the public that the leadership of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs did not quite appreciate the distinction between the rules of engagement in the public sector and in private businesses.
On January 8,2024, with the bickering inside the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation spilling over, President Tinubu waded in and suspended the minister from her duties. The president then directed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the transactions at the ministry, establish wrongdoings, and report back to him.
Two years and eight down the line, the EFCC is still investigating the matter. There are no indications anywhere that the agency has submitted even an interim report on the matter. As they say it, investigation continues!
Beta Edu has stayed off the limelight since her suspension. She has minded her business. A fortnight ago, the APC disrupted her peace by appointing her into its Presidential Campaign Committee. The appointment did not only return Beta to renewed public attention, it also served to remind Nigerians of what APC is.
On Thursday, September 4,2026, in a national television appearance, the APC, through its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka,doubled down on the appointment of Dr. Edu into APC’s Presidential Campaign Committee.
The public umbrage at the appointment had rested essentially on the propriety, or lack of it, of the government that suspended Beta Edu and is purportedly investigating her for acts of imprudence in administering public funds, turning round to call her up for a fresh public assignment without first bringing a closure to the charges against her. That, under normal circumstances, borders on moral insolvency in a ruling party and its government.
Not so, said the APC. According to Mr. Morka, who reminded the public that he is a lawyer, Dr. Beta Edu is under investigation. She has not been indicted or convicted anywhere and at any point. As the APC National Publicity secretary asked; if everyone who is under investigation is disqualified from participating in matters of governance and public affairs, how many people will remain? That, and matters incidental to it, are issues worth deeper interrogation, especially in an APC era.
In truth, there is nothing that Beta Edu did for which she lost her job, which has not been done and exceeded many times over in the last twenty-four months under the Tinubu-APC government.
Tough luck to Beta Edu. She appears to be a victim of the uncertainty and lack of confidence, or is it audaciousness, in the Tinubu presidency in its early days in office.
In those days, the Tinubu government was not quite sure of what to make of itself. It coveted popular perception as a government that was out to be tough on corruption and abuse of the commons. It romanticised being an activist government. It also hankered after public validation of its early policies, more so against the backdrop of the tenuous mandate on which it came into being.
All that grandstanding has since been discarded, as was bound to happen. It was only a matter of time. As the Tinubu government gained its footing, it became itself. It quit trying to be what it was not and could never really be.
Out of the window went the unrealistic desire to romance a certain version of asceticism, which it struggled to embrace just to win public applause. All has become fair in the jungle.
The National Assembly has also acquired the nerves to do whatever has to be done. If Beta’s case were to occur today, the National Assembly, possibly the Green Chamber, would rise promptly to the occasion and clear the minister.
Back to the legal ground that the APC National Publicity Secretary referenced. Indeed, Beta Edu has not been indicted or convicted anywhere. That now raises the question, why has President Tinubu failed to restore her to her portfolio?
It is not as if the Tinubu government is a stranger to contradictions. In fact, it wears that as a toga.
Governments err. That confirms them to be human institutions. When a government errs, it takes steps at the earliest opportunity to rectify what was done wrong. That is not weakness. What is neither noble nor justifiable, by any stretch of respectability, is a government engaging in a sleight of hand in the administration of the affairs of state, such that citizens are befuddled about its principles and ethical bearing.
A government that firmly believes that it erred in an action has a clear path of honour before it; undo that which was wrongly done. That speaks to conviction. A government must have the courage to define whatever it believes in.
Beta Edu has not been indicated or convicted. It is high time President Tinubu recalled her as a minister. Trying to smuggle her back to the public domain through the contraption of a presidential campaign council does no justice to the lady.
Beta Edu did not, by any moral or administrative assessment, do anything that deviated from the threshold of governance standard in the Tinubu administration. So why is she still out? It is high time she returned to her seat. That would not foreclose the EFCC continuing with its indeterminate investigation. Neither will it mean that President Tinubu is not fighting or struggling with corruption.
