Ibrahim Dankwambo

Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo (born 4 April, 1962) is a Nigerian accountant and politician who has served as senator for Gombe North since 2023. He previously served as governor of Gombe State from 2011 to 2019. He is a former Accountant-General of the Federation.

Quotes

• When there are calls for restructuring for any kind of community anywhere in the world, that you have agitation, the leadership needs to look at themselves. When there are agitations, it means people are not happy, people are not satisfied. So, this is a good time for leaders to look at the mirror, see themselves, look at the country and see why there are agitations. And from there, whatever they feel is the cause of agitation should be corrected. If restructuring is the solution, restructuring doesn’t mean A go, B go and C go, no, may be to restructure is some other ways of being a better federating country, I mean units in the country, meaning a better way of balancing things, meaning re-negotiating certain terms of living together, meaning creating more confidence and being more comfortable with the units that are together.
  • Interview response to the question 'Do you think calls for restructuring have anything to do with the defeat of PDP in 2015 as some members of the ruling party insinuate?'

• Well, I don’t know what is happening in CBN, but as part of the restructuring, I know there have been agitations to separate office of Accountant General of the Federation, as distinct from the Accountant General of the Federal Republic. When you have this kind of issue, like you said, then the issue of refund of whether Paris Club or first line charge will never occur again, because the Federal Government will also be looking for its share from the Accountant General of the Federation, as distinct from the Accountant General of the Federal Government.
  • Interview response to the question 'As erstwhile number one Accountant in the country, do you see any mirror of opportunity in the calls for restructuring in the accounting processes and economic management, especially in terms of what happens in CBN?'

• So, they cannot hold my money and dictate to me how I will spend it. So part of restructuring of public finance has already started, with what the National Assembly is doing now, they have also done that by separating the local government. I don’t know what they intend to do to the joint account going forward, but what we use to have before, was an account where you have jointly, all the local governments together, and ten percent share of the IGR (Internally Generated Revenue) of the state, that is why it is joint. All the Local Governments joined together, because people do mistake, they thought joint account is an account where the state money and local government money are kept, no, it is all the state and local government like in Gombe State all the 11 local governments joined together and Gombe State will pay ten percent share of it, and from Abuja, what is due to each of the local government is stated, I don’t state it.
  • Interview response to the question 'As erstwhile number one Accountant in the country, do you see any mirror of opportunity in the calls for restructuring in the accounting processes and economic management, especially in terms of what happens in CBN?'

• And it became joint account, because it is easier to monitor, at levels because of sensitivity of money. Instead of paying local government per local government, from Abuja and you will start crediting seven hundred and seventy four local government, it is better you credit it in one account, then from that account it goes to other accounts. If some other people have abused it, people should not have capitalized on the abuse alone; they should also have to look at the disadvantages or the advantages of not having that. And also, there are some other things that are jointly owned or funded, all those issues and subsequent issues, but once decisions are taken, as politicians, we all follow that decision, whether it will be good, am not sure, whether it will be bad, only time will tell.
  • Interview response to the question 'As erstwhile number one Accountant in the country, do you see any mirror of opportunity in the calls for restructuring in the accounting processes and economic management, especially in terms of what happens in CBN?'

• The refund of Paris club, co-incidentally for somebody like me, I was the Accountant General of the Federation, I was the person that worked with other people, to ensure that we exited the Paris and London Clubs and other multi-lateral loans, and we know exactly what happened. We had done a lot of reconciliation and a lot of work, but what we have done today, what the states are receiving today are deductions as a result of first line charge, which was done before the exit of the Paris club, and these deductions were refunded back to states.
  • Interview response to the question 'On the issue of Paris Club refund, as an accountant do you justify the Federal Government’s decision to release the funds without asking governors to bring along their expenditure plans as pre-condition?'

• Expectedly, as a federation, Federal Government is supposed to refund or to pay each of our obligations, what is due to any tier government. What is very important is that, as stated in the constitution, all revenues received or all revenues that are going out by virtue of the provisions of the constitution must be into the consolidated revenue fund. The consolidated revenue fund is a mixed grill account.
  • Interview response to the question 'On the issue of Paris Club refund, as an accountant do you justify the Federal Government’s decision to release the funds without asking governors to bring along their expenditure plans as pre-condition?'

• And I must quickly add, that to the extent that I have been elected as governor, to the extent that my people agreed that I can derive some other benefits or other monetary things that they receive as a state for me to drive, I think asking me, by a minister, special assistant, by supervisor, or by somebody in the ministry, to say that, that particular officer is more responsible than me, I think it is a look down on legitimate elected officials of government.
  • Interview response to the question 'On the issue of Paris Club refund, as an accountant do you justify the Federal Government’s decision to release the funds without asking governors to bring along their expenditure plans as pre-condition?'

• And I must say going forward, it will be by moral suasion, it will not be mandatory thing. You will have to go by your way and ask your House of Assembly to legislate in that order. So, going forward, while I thank the Federal Government for what they have done, there should be more dialogue and interaction in the way they think the resources can be channeled.
  • Interview response to the question 'On the issue of Paris Club refund, as an accountant do you justify the Federal Government’s decision to release the funds without asking governors to bring along their expenditure plans as pre-condition?'

• The economy slowed down like any other economy, when they are changes like this, people would not be sure which kind of direction the government is going and which kind of investment or policies that the government will support, so people were skeptical, some tended to do seat down and look from the beginning, which is temporary. But when government becomes in-effective, people now go to the next stage of being scared, when they become scared, they now refuse to do anything. And that refusing to do anything may lead to shut down, to downturn and may lead to anything.
  • Interview response to the question 'At the inception of this administration in 2015, the country’s economy was slowed down for six months, leaving the people in suspense; as an accountant, is there no way of auditing to make government more effective?'

• That was the direction that the country was going at a time, and what was needed to do was for the government to rekindle in the minds of the people, through formulating good policies. Policies that will ginger the economy, policies that will stimulate consumption, policies that will bring back confidence into the system and limit risk, because like we always say, money is a coward. Money doesn’t go to where there is risk, money likes to play safe. So, the moment all those are removed, money will go there and the economy will grow, sectors will be stimulated, life will be going on very well, citizens will be happy, more multiplier effect of so many things will be going on and growth and development will happen in that country.
  • Interview response to the question 'At the inception of this administration in 2015, the country’s economy was slowed down for six months, leaving the people in suspense; as an accountant, is there no way of auditing to make government more effective?'

• When we came to government, we came in as a team with focus, because we prepared, we didn’t come to government by accident or by Tsunami or by act of God, We planned to be in government and we prepared. So we came with a deliberate plan to develop our people, and in doing that, we carried all the people, because for me to be very useful to you, like Taozu said, I must know you and you must know me, if I know you, and you know me, we will work together. But if I know you and you do not know me, the chances that I can do something for you are fifty percent.
  • Interview response to the question 'When you came on board in 2011, were you overwhelmed?'

• If I don’t know you and you do not know me, we will not succeed. So, we know our people and for us to carry it forward, we brought everybody together, sat down, got the best of our people, irrespective of our political affiliations, irrespective of our religions, irrespective of our tribe, irrespective of anything, the binding thing then was Gombe State. We planned; we got into eleven, twelve sectors, formulated policies of those sectors, education, health, environment, youths. All those stuffs formulated policies, policies that are meant to be for continuity, attached some financial values to some of them, do programme of implementation, strategized and we commenced work, and this is what is happening today in Gombe.
  • Interview response to the question 'When you came on board in 2011, were you overwhelmed?'

• It has been a bit difficult really, I must say. It has been difficult, because from 2013 to 2014, the earnings in terms of federation account allocation came low. And I must tell you, nobody should deceive himself, if earnings fall from oil, any other revenue in Nigeria, from whichever state would go down. All the revenues are linked around oil revenue, VAT, royalty, taxes, custom duties, all revolves around oil revenue.
  • Interview response to the question 'Development partners always raise the issue of asset depreciation in Nigeria; how did you ward off asset depreciation by meeting project timelines and specifications?'

• So there was a challenge, but what we do is that we operate a fund accounting system, fund that when we want to do project, A, we set aside money for project A and for funding of project A. And the most important thing also is that we are disciplined. We try as much as possible to follow to the letter and we do these projections with timelines and plans, and disbursement plans and CV, in terms of value from the contractor that we will get the plan. So, with that we recorded little depreciation, and we agree, because of all those little fluctuations and little losses in the value of the contract that we have awarded or the one that we are paying.
  • Interview response to the question 'Development partners always raise the issue of asset depreciation in Nigeria; how did you ward off asset depreciation by meeting project timelines and specifications?'