How I was told to inflate leadership training invoice – Fela Durotoye

Fela Durotoye, the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN) 2019 presidential candidate, recently shared a revealing personal story, highlighting how his unwavering commitment to integrity helped him sidestep a potential scandal.

In a powerful reflection, Durotoye described an offer he received to provide ethical leadership training across Nigeria. The contract, which was financially promising, came with a request to inflate the invoice—a proposition that would have compromised his principles.

Despite the temptation of a lucrative deal, Durotoye remained resolute, refusing to compromise on his ethical values. His decision proved to be a wise one, as just three months later, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested four individuals involved in embezzling 425 million Naira allocated for the very same leadership initiative.

In a video seen online, Durotoye said: “A few years ago, I’ll not say how long, but it’s not this administration, it’s not last administration it’s a while ago let me leave it like that. I got a phone call and it happened to be a Man of God from Abuja who called me to say Fela, there’s an opportunity that I want you to explore, infact let me be clear with you, you have already gotten it.

“So I said okay, what is it about? He said we want to run a program called Unethical leadership and when we did some kind of vetting, we said we were looking for three things, number one we are looking for someone who has experience and expertise on ethical leadership, number two we were looking for someone who had the reputation of experience and expertise on ethical leadership, and the third one we were looking for somebody who had the capacity to run ethical leadership training across 774 local governments in 8 weeks.

“So the person must have an army of trainers that can train in 50 local governments at the same time on Monday and Tuesday, and those people will now move to another local government and train 50 so therefore in one week they would have trained 700 local governments.

“He said we know what you’ve been doing raising speakers, you have speakers corner, you have speakers connect we know all of these things, we know what you’ve been doing in the banking sector, we know you’re the only one that has all three, so please give us your invoice. So we went and I called my team together and said make sure everything is at cost, the pencil must be at cost, the bag the paper, everything.

“So they said what do we do as management team, I said No, this is for Nigeria, I’m not charging the management fee on it, so we put in a bill of 1.3 Billion at that time, three days later I get a call, congratulations Fela, you have been given the task but we looked at this costing and it’s most likely you did not put anything for yourself, I said No, I didn’t put anything for myself.

“He said ‘I told them in that meeting, Fela won’t put anything for himself’ so we decided to put something for you. So we’re going to put 700 million so you’d get 2 billion, but send us an invoice for 5 billion, and we need that invoice in the next three days before they close the account for the year. He said ‘what is it you don’t understand, send it in so we can quickly process it for you don’t worry it’s already allocated to you.’

Read Also: NLC condemns petrol price hike, blames marketers, govt for economic strain

“I said, but Sir I thought you said this thing is ethical leadership, and I said if we’re doing ethical leadership and we’re already inflating price then what are we teaching? He said ‘ Ahhh Fela please please, you know if you don’t do this thing, you know these people, they’ll just give it to one of their people who would not do any job but will still deliver, so it’s better it’s you that get it, I said No, the gift and the calling of the Lord is without repentance, but the gift of the Lord maketh rich and added no sorrow, he said there’s no sorrow to this. He said you have been doing well for Nigeria, it’s time for Nigeria to do well for You, I said No Sir, I’m sorry.

“Long story cut short, I had to turn of my phone for 3 days at one point, he was calling me every 30 minutes, at one point I turned off my phone. Pastor Poju what I didn’t realise was that three months later into the New Year, I saw on page four of a newspaper ‘ Four people in the Presidency arrested by EFCC for stealing 425 million Naira for ethical leadership program, now please listen to this ,none of you remember the names of those people even tho you saw the newspaper, do you know what they would have written ‘Durotoye and four others’, and if they had written that, I promise you I would not have been sitting on this chair several years later.

“What’s the point that I’m making, you have to get to the point where you value your values to the point when nobody can offer you anything. Only your values can make you turn down what looks like an opportunity to be corrupt”.

Durotoye also shared his experience serving as Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Values and Social Justice.

According to him, he declined all benefits, including a salary, official house, and car, to maintain his independence and integrity.

“I served for 6 months in the government of this current administration as Senior Special Assistant to president of Nigeria on National values and social justice. We developed a national plan, I did not charge one kobo, I did not collect one Naira as payment, I did not accept official house, I did not accept official car, and when they called me for that opportunity, the gentleman said to me, it’s been very difficult to get your letter out, I said why,he said because there’s no way they can hold you.

” You’re not collecting a salary, you’re not collecting official house, you’re not collecting official car, so there’s nothing to threaten you with. I want you to know Sir that in those six months I met people like me, I’m not special , I’m not holier than thou, there are many people that are making this country work, they are called Heroes, they are people who have values, they have left their nation their families to serve Nigeria,but it’s their values that are at work. Sir when we have the right values, Sir when we have the right values, there won’t be corruption in this Land”, he said.