Sunday, 14 August 2016
Kogi APC chief, four others kidnapped
A chieftain of the All Progressive Congress in Kogi State,
Idris Ozi Shaibu, and four others have been kidnapped at
Osara along Okene-Lokoja-Abuja Highway in Adavi Local
Government Area of Kogi State.
According to a source, the party leader was on his way
from Abuja on Friday night when seven gunmen stopped
his vehicle and kidnapped him.
His driver who was also said to have been kidnapped and
later released after his phone was taken.
The source told our correspondent that another vehicle
riding behind the APC chieftain was stopped and all three
passengers were also kidnapped.
Close relatives of the APC chieftain told SUNDAY PUNCH on
condition of anonymity that they were in contact with the
kidnappers but that they had refused to comply with
demands for a ransom to secure his release.
Efforts to confirm the abduction by the Police Public
Relation Officer, Mr. William Ayah, proved abortive as he
could not be reached when calls were made to him.
EFCC should probe Obasanjo’s third term bribery allegations — Shittu
A legal practitioner, Mr. Wahab Shittu, in this interview
with TOBI AWORINDE, argues that former President
Olusegun Obasanjo should be investigated for allegations
of bribery levelled against him while trying to push his
third-term agenda through at the N’Assembly
*-Do you think the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission should investigate the third-term bribery allegations against former President Olusegun Obasanjo?-*
I want to preface my comments by emphasising the need for us to maintain an open mind and to also recognise the presumption of innocence on the part of those who are to be investigated, particularly on the part of former President Obasanjo. The rationale is that he remains an elder statesman, a national and iconic figure who has made some significant contributions to nation-building and who was also very instrumental to the quelling of the Civil War. He has consistently been praised for his crusade for unity and cohesiveness in the country. Although he remains controversial, he is perceived as a cat with nine lives. But that does not mean he is above the law. So, my take would be yes, the EFCC should reopen investigations into that allegations. But they should not be limited to the third- term allegation alone. It should cover other bribery allegations against that administration and subsequent administrations. For instance, it should cover the murders and other alleged atrocities of the Obasanjo era, including alleged atrocities of the (Goodluck) Jonathan years, like the allegations raised by (former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido) Sanusi on the money that was not remitted to the Federation Account, the Halliburton scandal, the Siemens scandal and other scandals of that nature, in order to put the past into proper perspective so that we can draw useful lessons. But beyond the allegations, what I would emphasise is that in undertaking such, a premium should be placed on effective and efficient investigation. *-What should such an investigation entail?-* A fair criminal justice system is an integral part of crime investigation. It is built on public confidence and encourages respect for law and order. In essence, crime investigation is the process by which the perpetrators of a crime are identified through the gathering of facts and evidences. It may involve an assessment of whether a crime has been committed in the first place. Investigations can be reactive, i.e. applies to crimes that have already taken place, or proactive, that is, targeting a particular criminal or forestalling a criminal atrocity. Whatever is the motive, what I would emphasise is that investigators, who are going to be involved in such investigations, are aware of the need to conduct an efficient and effective investigation; they must recognise the fact that the presumption of those involved must be guaranteed. The investigators need to be certain that their suspicions are based on an objective evaluation of facts and that they have not twisted the facts to suit their suspicions. If we can conduct these investigations effectively and efficiently, investigators will need to be given considerable powers. So, what I am saying in essence is that I am in favour of reopening such an investigation, provided we deploy effective and efficient measures. But that should not be limited to the third-term agenda alone, because there are allegations of similar reports. *-What is your response to those that think that a probe would be demeaning for the ex-President, given his contributions to nation-building?-* We should acknowledge the fact that certain positive roles were carried out by certain individuals and for playing such roles, their respective names should be on the positive side of history. But without prejudice to such roles, it is also important for the state to ensure a crime- free society and to also make the point that when allegations are made, they are not swept under the carpet, no matter the persons involved. There is also the perspective in the public space; Obasanjo and those who believe in him would say that there was no third-term (agenda), whereas there are others who would say the third-term agenda was in place and that it was heavily funded. You will recall that Bala Na’Allah, a member of the Senate, came out recently (to say) he was offered N50m and that he rejected it. Someone like that should be summoned to establish the veracity of the allegation because reputation, character and credibility are involved here. Where such are involved, whatever positive achievements may be ascribed to these people may be rubbished on the pages of history, if these allegations are not cleared. It is even in the interest of those who are accused, no matter their standing. Let prior investigation be carried out and their names cleared, if necessary, so that whatever legacy they want to leave behind will not be rubbished. I think what is important is for us to find out whether they are indeed innocent or guilty. Then it is also important to find out if such actions were actually carried out. Also, we need to know what the motivation is. Was it carried out in spite of the motivation? We have to find out why it (the third term agenda) was not successful and whether some people derived any benefit from those actions. *-Why do you think Na’Allah should be quizzed over the issue?-* For instance, if Na’Allah is saying he was offered N50m and, according to him, he rejected it, we need to find out whether some people benefited from the process and the identities of those involved. Former President (Obasanjo) has allegations against the National Assembly. We need to know what happened during the era. We need to know what proof the former President has by searching the archives. What is important in both processes is the quality of investigation. We must ensure that we have adequate information; we have to ensure that sufficient response is deployed in evidence and to identify those who are involved. We need to know if there are victims or witnesses who need to be interrogated to form his particulars.
*-Do you think the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission should investigate the third-term bribery allegations against former President Olusegun Obasanjo?-*
I want to preface my comments by emphasising the need for us to maintain an open mind and to also recognise the presumption of innocence on the part of those who are to be investigated, particularly on the part of former President Obasanjo. The rationale is that he remains an elder statesman, a national and iconic figure who has made some significant contributions to nation-building and who was also very instrumental to the quelling of the Civil War. He has consistently been praised for his crusade for unity and cohesiveness in the country. Although he remains controversial, he is perceived as a cat with nine lives. But that does not mean he is above the law. So, my take would be yes, the EFCC should reopen investigations into that allegations. But they should not be limited to the third- term allegation alone. It should cover other bribery allegations against that administration and subsequent administrations. For instance, it should cover the murders and other alleged atrocities of the Obasanjo era, including alleged atrocities of the (Goodluck) Jonathan years, like the allegations raised by (former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido) Sanusi on the money that was not remitted to the Federation Account, the Halliburton scandal, the Siemens scandal and other scandals of that nature, in order to put the past into proper perspective so that we can draw useful lessons. But beyond the allegations, what I would emphasise is that in undertaking such, a premium should be placed on effective and efficient investigation. *-What should such an investigation entail?-* A fair criminal justice system is an integral part of crime investigation. It is built on public confidence and encourages respect for law and order. In essence, crime investigation is the process by which the perpetrators of a crime are identified through the gathering of facts and evidences. It may involve an assessment of whether a crime has been committed in the first place. Investigations can be reactive, i.e. applies to crimes that have already taken place, or proactive, that is, targeting a particular criminal or forestalling a criminal atrocity. Whatever is the motive, what I would emphasise is that investigators, who are going to be involved in such investigations, are aware of the need to conduct an efficient and effective investigation; they must recognise the fact that the presumption of those involved must be guaranteed. The investigators need to be certain that their suspicions are based on an objective evaluation of facts and that they have not twisted the facts to suit their suspicions. If we can conduct these investigations effectively and efficiently, investigators will need to be given considerable powers. So, what I am saying in essence is that I am in favour of reopening such an investigation, provided we deploy effective and efficient measures. But that should not be limited to the third-term agenda alone, because there are allegations of similar reports. *-What is your response to those that think that a probe would be demeaning for the ex-President, given his contributions to nation-building?-* We should acknowledge the fact that certain positive roles were carried out by certain individuals and for playing such roles, their respective names should be on the positive side of history. But without prejudice to such roles, it is also important for the state to ensure a crime- free society and to also make the point that when allegations are made, they are not swept under the carpet, no matter the persons involved. There is also the perspective in the public space; Obasanjo and those who believe in him would say that there was no third-term (agenda), whereas there are others who would say the third-term agenda was in place and that it was heavily funded. You will recall that Bala Na’Allah, a member of the Senate, came out recently (to say) he was offered N50m and that he rejected it. Someone like that should be summoned to establish the veracity of the allegation because reputation, character and credibility are involved here. Where such are involved, whatever positive achievements may be ascribed to these people may be rubbished on the pages of history, if these allegations are not cleared. It is even in the interest of those who are accused, no matter their standing. Let prior investigation be carried out and their names cleared, if necessary, so that whatever legacy they want to leave behind will not be rubbished. I think what is important is for us to find out whether they are indeed innocent or guilty. Then it is also important to find out if such actions were actually carried out. Also, we need to know what the motivation is. Was it carried out in spite of the motivation? We have to find out why it (the third term agenda) was not successful and whether some people derived any benefit from those actions. *-Why do you think Na’Allah should be quizzed over the issue?-* For instance, if Na’Allah is saying he was offered N50m and, according to him, he rejected it, we need to find out whether some people benefited from the process and the identities of those involved. Former President (Obasanjo) has allegations against the National Assembly. We need to know what happened during the era. We need to know what proof the former President has by searching the archives. What is important in both processes is the quality of investigation. We must ensure that we have adequate information; we have to ensure that sufficient response is deployed in evidence and to identify those who are involved. We need to know if there are victims or witnesses who need to be interrogated to form his particulars.
Reps speaker says no money was misappropriated in 2016 budget
The statement insisted that there was no act of
corruption by the speaker during and after the
preparation of the 2016 budget.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Yakubu Dogara, on Saturday restated that no money was misappropriated, stolen or lost in the 2016 budget. This is contained in a statement issued in Abuja by his Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Mr Turaki Hassan. It quoted Dogara as urging Nigerians to be vigilant with respect to the execution of the budget ``to ensure that they are not short-changed’’. It said that the speaker had denied the allegations against him by Rep. Abdulmumin Jibrin, describing them as false and baseless. ``They are fictional and scandalous, untruths and falsehoods which will be dealt with at the appropriate time. ``I wish to appeal to the public for patience as the truth which will vindicate the innocent in this unfortunate saga will unfold sooner than later,’’ the statement further quoted him as saying. The statement insisted that there was no act of corruption by the speaker during and after the preparation of the 2016 budget.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Yakubu Dogara, on Saturday restated that no money was misappropriated, stolen or lost in the 2016 budget. This is contained in a statement issued in Abuja by his Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Mr Turaki Hassan. It quoted Dogara as urging Nigerians to be vigilant with respect to the execution of the budget ``to ensure that they are not short-changed’’. It said that the speaker had denied the allegations against him by Rep. Abdulmumin Jibrin, describing them as false and baseless. ``They are fictional and scandalous, untruths and falsehoods which will be dealt with at the appropriate time. ``I wish to appeal to the public for patience as the truth which will vindicate the innocent in this unfortunate saga will unfold sooner than later,’’ the statement further quoted him as saying. The statement insisted that there was no act of corruption by the speaker during and after the preparation of the 2016 budget.
Saturday, 13 August 2016
I don’t know what Buhari should do, I’ve stopped advising people –Pat Utomi
Professor of Political Economy and Management expert,
Pat Utomi, shares his thoughts on the state of the country’s
economy, politics and other issues in this interview with
JESUSEGUN ALAGBE
*-There were speculations that you were going to be a Minister or at least be on the economic team of President Muhammadu Buhari. Were you not reached out to or you were simply uninterested?-*
First of all, I think there is too much emphasis on form rather than content in our context as a people. I think what is always important is our ability to work together as a people to change the society. There are different roles we can play as a people and it doesn’t matter when other people tend to criticise you as long as the right things are done. I was very uncomfortable with the whole rush of speculations leading up to that whole thing. What we wanted to do was change the direction of our country. We saw our country going in a set of wrong direction. Many of us said, ‘No, we can’t continue like this. This has great consequences.’ So we made our time, energy and every other thing available for the push. However, the only thing I can say is that the party (All Progressives Congress) did a terrible job at transition. They didn’t manage it well. Now we don’t see where the country is going; this is very obvious to me. But it is not a matter of who is where or not; that is not important. *-Now, with the current situation of things, several Nigerians have been bashing this administration for not having a tight economic team. Do you share a similar view?-* I think what matters is do we have a set of cohesive ideas that are implemented by people who are very passionate about what they are doing, people who are trusted by those they are trying to lead? That is very important for any turnaround, because why you need a turnaround is because of loss of faith in the system. To get the system to run in a particular way, you need to have people who people have faith in. You could even have geniuses in the system who people don’t have faith in. They won’t get you anywhere. In that sense, therefore, I think we could have done a better job of trying to find passionate people who people have faith in and who also have clear faith in something. Perhaps because the communication programme is also very poor, we don’t get a sense of where things are supposed to be heading, which may be there, but somehow it’s poorly communicated. So in that sense, there is a general loss of confidence in whether we as a party know where we are going or where the party is leading Nigeria to. Anybody who is sincere will tell you that. This feeling is pervasive to the extent that people like us who put everything on the line talking about change and all of that have been at the receiving end. People now ask us, ‘Where is that your change?’ I deal with this question every day. I can’t pretend that the change is there. So there’s no change anywhere… Well, there are some important things being done. There is a tendency to be a bit bashful about things in our context. Unless you have made a deep effort to understand why Nigeria’s circumstances are flawed, you won’t realise how terrible corruption is. In this country, aren’t you shocked when you hear all these revelations every day? I think no country should survive this level of graft. That this aspect is being focussed on is an important achievement on its own and nobody should take it away. I don’t even think we have gone as far as we should go. The style should be different. I have been singing this song of how corruption has crippled Nigeria for decades. Suddenly, Nigerians are beginning to ask, ‘Is it that bad?’ Yes, it’s that bad; it’s even worse than has been revealed. It’s much worse because there is a total lack of how much corruption has plagued the system. I mean some people are so bifurcated of their dispositions that they don’t realise what they are doing and the consequences for everybody. That’s why the guy in the National Assembly would say to himself, ‘What’s padding? Is it not just to put small things here and there and add everything up?’ To them in their conscience, what’s the big deal? For me, my argument for a long time has been that part of our problem is the structure. We don’t need this National Assembly at all as it is. I have been saying this since 1999. Nigeria does not need a full- time National Assembly. We need a citizen legislature, a unicameral citizen legislature. For instance, if you are busy on your farm at Ile-Oluji (Ondo State) and you just go to the National Assembly for a few days to make laws, you won’t be padding. You won’t be looking for Ministers to blackmail to get money and all of that. So the structure of the country is wrong, the structure of the government is wrong. It assumes we are a rich country, which is not the case because of the way “oil thinking” damaged us. We are running a system that is way out of line with our resources. This is a major problem. Another issue about where and the way things are that I think people don’t give enough credit to is that just a change of government was a huge achievement. About a year and a half ago, a foreign journalist was asking me about my disposition. I said, ‘Look, I have consistently spoken on the subject of institutions and human development.’ One of the biggest reasons Nigeria is not reaching its potential is because there is a community both within and outside the country that believes that the democratic ethos has not settled in Nigeria. If you look at how Nigeria and Ghana were being compared globally two years ago, if you looked at the Index of Economic Freedom, if you looked at the so-called Failed State Index, you would see Ghana way ahead of Nigeria. The gap has been wide. The question is why is Ghana so far ahead of Nigeria in the perception of people? Of course, everything is about perception. It is because Ghana had a change of government from an incumbent regime to another and then to another, in two cycles. Ghana is now seen as a more serious democracy. So for me, changing the government was an end in itself. It didn’t matter if we got a worse government. Just achieving that change was critical to institutional building in Nigeria. In the work that I did to ensure that change took place, that was, in fact, my top priority, before other issues that we’ve been battling with. Let us not feel as a people that because things are not going well right now, we should throw the baby out with the bathwater. I think we’ve achieved a significant thing by having a change of government. I think we are doing well by making people see how terrible corruption really is. But there is still a lot more to be done in that area. Then we can look at other areas which are not working down the line. But could there be a real change when a government is changed but the people inside it and the system are not changed? Are we not stuck in the same cycle of having people with same old ideologies and principles just changing parties? You know things are progressive. At least people now know that if they do certain things which are wrong, they will be caught, if not today, but tomorrow. So they will be more careful. If you took everybody out, then you would get what we got at the beginning of the budget process. They took out the people who used to make budget and then they didn’t have anybody who has the capacity to make it, so the budget was a mess. Change is not about taking everybody out like that. In fact, part of my worry was that the people that we needed to retain were removed so fast. Look, this is part of the damage that the military did to Nigeria. A consistent unchanging public service that will change direction with some political leadership change is always better for the system because we need institutional memory. No organisation, whether it’s a business or government, can fare well if it lacks institutional memory — what the Germans call “veta shuuen.” We need that. So I even think we changed people much faster. Yes, many people argue that many of the politicians in the APC came from the Peoples Democratic Party, but let me tell you why that is not the end of the world. If the core leaders of the APC have been able to firmly establish their ideologies of what the APC stands for, those people coming in, wherever they come from, will have to re-orientate themselves. In human history, in the history of political parties, people have always changed their orientations, parties have always changed their orientations. Now, would you believe that the Republican Party in the United States used to be the party of the Black people? Abraham Lincoln, who fought the civil war to emancipate the Blacks from slavery, was a Republican. But at a point in time, the nature of the leadership of the party changed; they changed their ideological dispositions and so the Blacks shifted over. So, saying people came from the PDP to APC is not really the issue. The question is that is the core leadership of the APC able to define its ideologies, the way it governs, thereby affecting the newcomers? My biggest concern in this regard was the electoral and the political party process. As a strong member of the APC, I think the political process has not been effective as it should be and I have never hidden this. I have said this to the Chairman of the party (Chief John Odie-Oyegun). Every time I see him, I ask him, ‘What’s the party doing?’ because the party should be the foundation. However, there is this tendency in Nigeria, and Africa as a whole, for political parties to be just about power. Once power is grabbed, everybody abandons the party and runs into government. Before the last elections, I was talking with the Director of the International Republican Institute in Abuja (Robina Namusisi) and she raised this point about one of the problems in many African countries. She gave the example of an African country that after the party won the election, almost everybody from the party became government official — from Ministers, to advisers, and so on — until there was nobody in the party again. Then when another election was approaching, they discovered they didn’t have a party direction. I think the same thing happened to the APC. We had a number of strong people at the party secretariat, but everybody focussed on the government and forgot the party and so we have a problem because of it. I have been raising this issue. Anytime I run into Chief Oyegun, I ask him, ‘Where is the party? Where are the policies? Where is your orientation?’ Anybody who runs into the APC must be schooled in what the party believes in so that nobody will just come and use the party as an electoral machine to get power. How do you expect them to behave in a particular manner? They cannot because they’ve not been told what the party represents and believes in. Maybe I should run for the chairmanship of the party. *-Are you considering doing that?-* Well, I don’t know, but it is a very important subject that we need to deal with. It has been part of the failure in Africa. In July, President Buhari said he was averse to including the private sector players in his economic team because they were used to exploiting government policies for their selfish interests. What’s your view on the President’s statement? I agree completely with the President. You cannot have a former government’s economic team making policies that are going to affect your play. That is not proper. It almost amounted to insider trading. It’s wrong both morally and in terms of decision processing for the former economic team to include private sector actors. It’s like an actor making policies for and regulating himself. I think that’s what the President meant in that sense. But that doesn’t mean there should not be structures in place for consulting with the private sector. Their input is important. I keep reverting to one of Africa’s best examples. It’s a country called Mauritius. The discussions at their Chamber of Commerce are even more important than the discussions at their Parliament because once the Chamber of Commerce takes a position on something; the government almost automatically takes a position with them. That is why Mauritius is prospering. Consulting with the private sector is important, but having economic players in the economic team is like self-regulation and that is not proper. However, I think the conversation is missing the real point. The whole thing that (former President Goodluck) Jonathan did with some private sector players like Aliko Dangote and others; that was unacceptable, that was wrong. However, we need people with private sector knowledge (but who are no longer in the private sector) to be in the policy team. For instance, the US Treasurer is usually somebody who once worked in Wall Street and then goes back to Wall Street after spending about two years in the position because their time is so valuable. I think we are not getting the proper conversation going on in Nigeria. Due to high interest rate, inflation, scarcity of forex and other factors, many Small and Medium Enterprises have been pushed out of the system. Do you think the present administration is getting its economic policies right? But you see, if SMEs are really SMEs, their transactions should not be dollar-based. Why many of them are out is because we don’t have an economy that produces and so what we have is a chain of rent-seeking behaviour. This guy seeks rent from doing government’s contracts and then sets up a supply company to extract the rent from him; that is the kind of economy we have. Our model, sadly, is exactly like that of Venezuela. …which is in deep economic crisis now Venezuela has always been in crisis. This is the country that has the biggest deposit of crude oil in the world but cannot provide basic services and Nigeria has been imitating Venezuela continuously. I have been saying this for years. Let’s look at other countries with bigger problems that have struggled better. Look at Indonesia, an oil-producing country like us. Let me tell two stories about Indonesia, hoping we can learn lessons. Some years ago, Peter Lewis, a friend of mine who is a professor at the School of Advanced International Studies at John Hopkins University, U.S. (where I also have a permanent seat), wrote an interesting book called “Growing Apart.” The book is a comparison of Nigeria and Indonesia. In the early 60s, people used to say to Indonesia, ‘We wish you could be like Nigeria.’ But in the early 90s, people used to say to Nigeria, ‘We wish you could be like Indonesia.’ These two countries have always been referred to as “development twins.” I used to talk about these things such that when Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi was appointed by the Abdulsalami Abubakar regime as the Minister of National Planning and Development, he was the head of the Nigerian delegation to the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. He once went to an OPEC meeting in 1998 and when he came back, he couldn’t wait to get hold of me. He said, ‘Pat, now I understand what you’ve been talking about.’ I asked him what that was all about. He said when they got to the meeting (it was during one of those periods of economic crisis when oil price was low like we have now, but much worse, around $9 per barrel), every member country was talking and shouting that their quota must increase. He told me that as the meeting was going on and everybody was shouting, he noticed that the Indonesian oil minister was just quiet and feeling like, ‘Why are these people shouting and disturbing me? Can we get to more serious conversations?’ Chief Gbadamosi said the Indonesian minister just wasn’t engaging in the conversation. He then went to the man and asked, ‘Are you people not bothered? Don’t you want better quota?’ He said the man just laughed at him and said, ‘It’s you Nigerians who don’t know what you are doing. We don’t depend on oil money. We are making more money from gas than from crude oil and you Nigerians started before us in that direction.’ Another story I want to tell about Indonesia is from one of my visits to the country in 1997. It is a country that is said to have a terrible history of corruption. My host was a former oil minister of the country, Prof. Mohammed Sadli. He’s dead now. This man was living in a bungalow without air-conditioner; meanwhile, Jakarta, their capital, is hotter than Lagos. As we sat in his living room and fans were blowing, this man’s favourite subject matter was ethics. I thought to myself, ‘Imagine a former oil minister of Nigeria living in a bungalow without air-conditioner, just imagine what people will be saying about him.’ But you see, in the middle of the big corruption in Indonesia, President (Mohammad) Suharto was able to put together a team of PhDs in Economics, who were mainly graduates of the University of California, Berkeley, U.S. — who were widely known as “The Berkeley Mafia.” Many of the people in the team offered themselves selflessly to redeem their country, which is why now a country that was used to be asked, ‘Can’t you be like Nigeria?’ has done far better than Nigeria. Nigeria is now being asked, ‘Can’t you be like Indonesia?’ There is a pool of such talented Nigerians who are given to selfless service, knowing that just out of the quality of their mind and education, there are more important things in life than the size of their bank accounts. It’s not because they are stupid or anything, but they just want to see things become better. If we are sensible enough, we should have seen it by now. Look at all the guys splashing money like 10 years ago, I know where many of them are now. The failure of leadership in Nigeria is the failure to do what Indonesia did. We should find the kind of people that Indonesia found and let them redeem this country. Even though President Suharto was busy making money for himself, he knew where his country had to go and he found the people who took his country there. *-And that’s what President Buhari should do right now?-* I don’t know what he should do. I have given up on advising people. I just want to become a farmer and see if I can produce something. Recently, the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, said Nigeria was technically in recession. As an entrepreneur, how do we navigate through this period As they say, when you look at a cup, it can either be half- full or half-empty. A recession is an opportunity. I have a favourite story in this regard of the Great Depression in the U.S. (1929-39). During the course of that depression, there was a gentleman called (John Richard) Simplot. He observed that when things were bad — when people who had skyscrapers were jumping to their death — most people wouldn’t be eating what they used to eat because they wouldn’t be able to afford it any longer. Instead of eating expensive meals, they would probably be looking for cheaper food. So he asked himself, ‘What is the inferior food that can now be turned into an attractive one?’ Back then, many people hated potatoes, they considered it a poor people’s food. They used to say it was a trashy food. Meanwhile, potatoes were growing in the wild in the Idaho area of the country. Literally, you could buy a truckload of potatoes for just $1. So Simplot said to himself that potatoes would be the kind of food many would come to embrace because they didn’t have money again. But then, potatoes had such a bad reputation for being cheap that people were ashamed of being seen eating them. What did he do? The first thing he did was to think that if he was going to start marketing potatoes to people, he needed to find out how to store them because they were just rotten everywhere, just like in Nigeria where many farm produce end up in the trash. He then made some researches on how to preserve potatoes and he found out that they were one of the easiest foods to preserve. All he had to do was remove the water from them — that is, dehydrate them — and they would still retain their properties. If six months later you want to fry them, just put them back in water, and they will come up again. Simplot then began to slice them up and since potatoes had such a bad image, he wanted to change the image. He then fried all the slices and didn’t call them potatoes. He called them “French fries.” People fell in love with the French fries instantly. Afterward, fortunes smiled on him because he ran into a guy called Ray Kroc who founded a company called McDonald’s. They came into partnership and every time customers bought hamburgers, they would also buy French fries and Simplot became a billionaire in the process (worth $3.6bn before his death in 2008) — in the middle of a recession. So we shouldn’t see our recession as a frightening moment, but as an opportunity to get Nigeria to begin to produce again. That is why I’m passionate about agriculture now because that is the future. There are other areas we can begin to look into to sell. We can sell culture, which is one area we have been excelling. Our films and music are selling. We can sell our culture much better than we sell crude oil. We have talked a lot about our agricultural value chain. My favourite example always is rubber. Why would you manufacture a car in Nigeria where you won’t be competitive? Take rubber for example where Nigeria once had the best yield per hectare. This was a presentation I made at the Nigeria Economic Summit in 1993. Take the rubber and become its best producer in the world and export it, knowing that it is one of the most important components of manufacturing a car. We will probably be making more money from it than from crude oil. *-As an entrepreneur, how many books do you read in a year?-* I don’t count them on an annual basis, but I read as many as I can. On average, I read a book per week. Anytime I’m in the car, I pick up a book and read. I could read two books simultaneously. *-You were once a presidential candidate. Have you given up on your ambition?-* I’ve never had an ambition. In fact, I dislike the word. Ambition is like you are pursuing something by all means. I have no interest in any ambition. But I am a citizen and I have a duty to my children and to my fellow citizens to be part of showing a direction. If that involves having to run for office, fine. If being a farmer makes me deliver better, it’s also good. If being a teacher makes me deliver better, that’s also good. Whatever works, I will do.SOURCE: PUNCH.
*-There were speculations that you were going to be a Minister or at least be on the economic team of President Muhammadu Buhari. Were you not reached out to or you were simply uninterested?-*
First of all, I think there is too much emphasis on form rather than content in our context as a people. I think what is always important is our ability to work together as a people to change the society. There are different roles we can play as a people and it doesn’t matter when other people tend to criticise you as long as the right things are done. I was very uncomfortable with the whole rush of speculations leading up to that whole thing. What we wanted to do was change the direction of our country. We saw our country going in a set of wrong direction. Many of us said, ‘No, we can’t continue like this. This has great consequences.’ So we made our time, energy and every other thing available for the push. However, the only thing I can say is that the party (All Progressives Congress) did a terrible job at transition. They didn’t manage it well. Now we don’t see where the country is going; this is very obvious to me. But it is not a matter of who is where or not; that is not important. *-Now, with the current situation of things, several Nigerians have been bashing this administration for not having a tight economic team. Do you share a similar view?-* I think what matters is do we have a set of cohesive ideas that are implemented by people who are very passionate about what they are doing, people who are trusted by those they are trying to lead? That is very important for any turnaround, because why you need a turnaround is because of loss of faith in the system. To get the system to run in a particular way, you need to have people who people have faith in. You could even have geniuses in the system who people don’t have faith in. They won’t get you anywhere. In that sense, therefore, I think we could have done a better job of trying to find passionate people who people have faith in and who also have clear faith in something. Perhaps because the communication programme is also very poor, we don’t get a sense of where things are supposed to be heading, which may be there, but somehow it’s poorly communicated. So in that sense, there is a general loss of confidence in whether we as a party know where we are going or where the party is leading Nigeria to. Anybody who is sincere will tell you that. This feeling is pervasive to the extent that people like us who put everything on the line talking about change and all of that have been at the receiving end. People now ask us, ‘Where is that your change?’ I deal with this question every day. I can’t pretend that the change is there. So there’s no change anywhere… Well, there are some important things being done. There is a tendency to be a bit bashful about things in our context. Unless you have made a deep effort to understand why Nigeria’s circumstances are flawed, you won’t realise how terrible corruption is. In this country, aren’t you shocked when you hear all these revelations every day? I think no country should survive this level of graft. That this aspect is being focussed on is an important achievement on its own and nobody should take it away. I don’t even think we have gone as far as we should go. The style should be different. I have been singing this song of how corruption has crippled Nigeria for decades. Suddenly, Nigerians are beginning to ask, ‘Is it that bad?’ Yes, it’s that bad; it’s even worse than has been revealed. It’s much worse because there is a total lack of how much corruption has plagued the system. I mean some people are so bifurcated of their dispositions that they don’t realise what they are doing and the consequences for everybody. That’s why the guy in the National Assembly would say to himself, ‘What’s padding? Is it not just to put small things here and there and add everything up?’ To them in their conscience, what’s the big deal? For me, my argument for a long time has been that part of our problem is the structure. We don’t need this National Assembly at all as it is. I have been saying this since 1999. Nigeria does not need a full- time National Assembly. We need a citizen legislature, a unicameral citizen legislature. For instance, if you are busy on your farm at Ile-Oluji (Ondo State) and you just go to the National Assembly for a few days to make laws, you won’t be padding. You won’t be looking for Ministers to blackmail to get money and all of that. So the structure of the country is wrong, the structure of the government is wrong. It assumes we are a rich country, which is not the case because of the way “oil thinking” damaged us. We are running a system that is way out of line with our resources. This is a major problem. Another issue about where and the way things are that I think people don’t give enough credit to is that just a change of government was a huge achievement. About a year and a half ago, a foreign journalist was asking me about my disposition. I said, ‘Look, I have consistently spoken on the subject of institutions and human development.’ One of the biggest reasons Nigeria is not reaching its potential is because there is a community both within and outside the country that believes that the democratic ethos has not settled in Nigeria. If you look at how Nigeria and Ghana were being compared globally two years ago, if you looked at the Index of Economic Freedom, if you looked at the so-called Failed State Index, you would see Ghana way ahead of Nigeria. The gap has been wide. The question is why is Ghana so far ahead of Nigeria in the perception of people? Of course, everything is about perception. It is because Ghana had a change of government from an incumbent regime to another and then to another, in two cycles. Ghana is now seen as a more serious democracy. So for me, changing the government was an end in itself. It didn’t matter if we got a worse government. Just achieving that change was critical to institutional building in Nigeria. In the work that I did to ensure that change took place, that was, in fact, my top priority, before other issues that we’ve been battling with. Let us not feel as a people that because things are not going well right now, we should throw the baby out with the bathwater. I think we’ve achieved a significant thing by having a change of government. I think we are doing well by making people see how terrible corruption really is. But there is still a lot more to be done in that area. Then we can look at other areas which are not working down the line. But could there be a real change when a government is changed but the people inside it and the system are not changed? Are we not stuck in the same cycle of having people with same old ideologies and principles just changing parties? You know things are progressive. At least people now know that if they do certain things which are wrong, they will be caught, if not today, but tomorrow. So they will be more careful. If you took everybody out, then you would get what we got at the beginning of the budget process. They took out the people who used to make budget and then they didn’t have anybody who has the capacity to make it, so the budget was a mess. Change is not about taking everybody out like that. In fact, part of my worry was that the people that we needed to retain were removed so fast. Look, this is part of the damage that the military did to Nigeria. A consistent unchanging public service that will change direction with some political leadership change is always better for the system because we need institutional memory. No organisation, whether it’s a business or government, can fare well if it lacks institutional memory — what the Germans call “veta shuuen.” We need that. So I even think we changed people much faster. Yes, many people argue that many of the politicians in the APC came from the Peoples Democratic Party, but let me tell you why that is not the end of the world. If the core leaders of the APC have been able to firmly establish their ideologies of what the APC stands for, those people coming in, wherever they come from, will have to re-orientate themselves. In human history, in the history of political parties, people have always changed their orientations, parties have always changed their orientations. Now, would you believe that the Republican Party in the United States used to be the party of the Black people? Abraham Lincoln, who fought the civil war to emancipate the Blacks from slavery, was a Republican. But at a point in time, the nature of the leadership of the party changed; they changed their ideological dispositions and so the Blacks shifted over. So, saying people came from the PDP to APC is not really the issue. The question is that is the core leadership of the APC able to define its ideologies, the way it governs, thereby affecting the newcomers? My biggest concern in this regard was the electoral and the political party process. As a strong member of the APC, I think the political process has not been effective as it should be and I have never hidden this. I have said this to the Chairman of the party (Chief John Odie-Oyegun). Every time I see him, I ask him, ‘What’s the party doing?’ because the party should be the foundation. However, there is this tendency in Nigeria, and Africa as a whole, for political parties to be just about power. Once power is grabbed, everybody abandons the party and runs into government. Before the last elections, I was talking with the Director of the International Republican Institute in Abuja (Robina Namusisi) and she raised this point about one of the problems in many African countries. She gave the example of an African country that after the party won the election, almost everybody from the party became government official — from Ministers, to advisers, and so on — until there was nobody in the party again. Then when another election was approaching, they discovered they didn’t have a party direction. I think the same thing happened to the APC. We had a number of strong people at the party secretariat, but everybody focussed on the government and forgot the party and so we have a problem because of it. I have been raising this issue. Anytime I run into Chief Oyegun, I ask him, ‘Where is the party? Where are the policies? Where is your orientation?’ Anybody who runs into the APC must be schooled in what the party believes in so that nobody will just come and use the party as an electoral machine to get power. How do you expect them to behave in a particular manner? They cannot because they’ve not been told what the party represents and believes in. Maybe I should run for the chairmanship of the party. *-Are you considering doing that?-* Well, I don’t know, but it is a very important subject that we need to deal with. It has been part of the failure in Africa. In July, President Buhari said he was averse to including the private sector players in his economic team because they were used to exploiting government policies for their selfish interests. What’s your view on the President’s statement? I agree completely with the President. You cannot have a former government’s economic team making policies that are going to affect your play. That is not proper. It almost amounted to insider trading. It’s wrong both morally and in terms of decision processing for the former economic team to include private sector actors. It’s like an actor making policies for and regulating himself. I think that’s what the President meant in that sense. But that doesn’t mean there should not be structures in place for consulting with the private sector. Their input is important. I keep reverting to one of Africa’s best examples. It’s a country called Mauritius. The discussions at their Chamber of Commerce are even more important than the discussions at their Parliament because once the Chamber of Commerce takes a position on something; the government almost automatically takes a position with them. That is why Mauritius is prospering. Consulting with the private sector is important, but having economic players in the economic team is like self-regulation and that is not proper. However, I think the conversation is missing the real point. The whole thing that (former President Goodluck) Jonathan did with some private sector players like Aliko Dangote and others; that was unacceptable, that was wrong. However, we need people with private sector knowledge (but who are no longer in the private sector) to be in the policy team. For instance, the US Treasurer is usually somebody who once worked in Wall Street and then goes back to Wall Street after spending about two years in the position because their time is so valuable. I think we are not getting the proper conversation going on in Nigeria. Due to high interest rate, inflation, scarcity of forex and other factors, many Small and Medium Enterprises have been pushed out of the system. Do you think the present administration is getting its economic policies right? But you see, if SMEs are really SMEs, their transactions should not be dollar-based. Why many of them are out is because we don’t have an economy that produces and so what we have is a chain of rent-seeking behaviour. This guy seeks rent from doing government’s contracts and then sets up a supply company to extract the rent from him; that is the kind of economy we have. Our model, sadly, is exactly like that of Venezuela. …which is in deep economic crisis now Venezuela has always been in crisis. This is the country that has the biggest deposit of crude oil in the world but cannot provide basic services and Nigeria has been imitating Venezuela continuously. I have been saying this for years. Let’s look at other countries with bigger problems that have struggled better. Look at Indonesia, an oil-producing country like us. Let me tell two stories about Indonesia, hoping we can learn lessons. Some years ago, Peter Lewis, a friend of mine who is a professor at the School of Advanced International Studies at John Hopkins University, U.S. (where I also have a permanent seat), wrote an interesting book called “Growing Apart.” The book is a comparison of Nigeria and Indonesia. In the early 60s, people used to say to Indonesia, ‘We wish you could be like Nigeria.’ But in the early 90s, people used to say to Nigeria, ‘We wish you could be like Indonesia.’ These two countries have always been referred to as “development twins.” I used to talk about these things such that when Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi was appointed by the Abdulsalami Abubakar regime as the Minister of National Planning and Development, he was the head of the Nigerian delegation to the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. He once went to an OPEC meeting in 1998 and when he came back, he couldn’t wait to get hold of me. He said, ‘Pat, now I understand what you’ve been talking about.’ I asked him what that was all about. He said when they got to the meeting (it was during one of those periods of economic crisis when oil price was low like we have now, but much worse, around $9 per barrel), every member country was talking and shouting that their quota must increase. He told me that as the meeting was going on and everybody was shouting, he noticed that the Indonesian oil minister was just quiet and feeling like, ‘Why are these people shouting and disturbing me? Can we get to more serious conversations?’ Chief Gbadamosi said the Indonesian minister just wasn’t engaging in the conversation. He then went to the man and asked, ‘Are you people not bothered? Don’t you want better quota?’ He said the man just laughed at him and said, ‘It’s you Nigerians who don’t know what you are doing. We don’t depend on oil money. We are making more money from gas than from crude oil and you Nigerians started before us in that direction.’ Another story I want to tell about Indonesia is from one of my visits to the country in 1997. It is a country that is said to have a terrible history of corruption. My host was a former oil minister of the country, Prof. Mohammed Sadli. He’s dead now. This man was living in a bungalow without air-conditioner; meanwhile, Jakarta, their capital, is hotter than Lagos. As we sat in his living room and fans were blowing, this man’s favourite subject matter was ethics. I thought to myself, ‘Imagine a former oil minister of Nigeria living in a bungalow without air-conditioner, just imagine what people will be saying about him.’ But you see, in the middle of the big corruption in Indonesia, President (Mohammad) Suharto was able to put together a team of PhDs in Economics, who were mainly graduates of the University of California, Berkeley, U.S. — who were widely known as “The Berkeley Mafia.” Many of the people in the team offered themselves selflessly to redeem their country, which is why now a country that was used to be asked, ‘Can’t you be like Nigeria?’ has done far better than Nigeria. Nigeria is now being asked, ‘Can’t you be like Indonesia?’ There is a pool of such talented Nigerians who are given to selfless service, knowing that just out of the quality of their mind and education, there are more important things in life than the size of their bank accounts. It’s not because they are stupid or anything, but they just want to see things become better. If we are sensible enough, we should have seen it by now. Look at all the guys splashing money like 10 years ago, I know where many of them are now. The failure of leadership in Nigeria is the failure to do what Indonesia did. We should find the kind of people that Indonesia found and let them redeem this country. Even though President Suharto was busy making money for himself, he knew where his country had to go and he found the people who took his country there. *-And that’s what President Buhari should do right now?-* I don’t know what he should do. I have given up on advising people. I just want to become a farmer and see if I can produce something. Recently, the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, said Nigeria was technically in recession. As an entrepreneur, how do we navigate through this period As they say, when you look at a cup, it can either be half- full or half-empty. A recession is an opportunity. I have a favourite story in this regard of the Great Depression in the U.S. (1929-39). During the course of that depression, there was a gentleman called (John Richard) Simplot. He observed that when things were bad — when people who had skyscrapers were jumping to their death — most people wouldn’t be eating what they used to eat because they wouldn’t be able to afford it any longer. Instead of eating expensive meals, they would probably be looking for cheaper food. So he asked himself, ‘What is the inferior food that can now be turned into an attractive one?’ Back then, many people hated potatoes, they considered it a poor people’s food. They used to say it was a trashy food. Meanwhile, potatoes were growing in the wild in the Idaho area of the country. Literally, you could buy a truckload of potatoes for just $1. So Simplot said to himself that potatoes would be the kind of food many would come to embrace because they didn’t have money again. But then, potatoes had such a bad reputation for being cheap that people were ashamed of being seen eating them. What did he do? The first thing he did was to think that if he was going to start marketing potatoes to people, he needed to find out how to store them because they were just rotten everywhere, just like in Nigeria where many farm produce end up in the trash. He then made some researches on how to preserve potatoes and he found out that they were one of the easiest foods to preserve. All he had to do was remove the water from them — that is, dehydrate them — and they would still retain their properties. If six months later you want to fry them, just put them back in water, and they will come up again. Simplot then began to slice them up and since potatoes had such a bad image, he wanted to change the image. He then fried all the slices and didn’t call them potatoes. He called them “French fries.” People fell in love with the French fries instantly. Afterward, fortunes smiled on him because he ran into a guy called Ray Kroc who founded a company called McDonald’s. They came into partnership and every time customers bought hamburgers, they would also buy French fries and Simplot became a billionaire in the process (worth $3.6bn before his death in 2008) — in the middle of a recession. So we shouldn’t see our recession as a frightening moment, but as an opportunity to get Nigeria to begin to produce again. That is why I’m passionate about agriculture now because that is the future. There are other areas we can begin to look into to sell. We can sell culture, which is one area we have been excelling. Our films and music are selling. We can sell our culture much better than we sell crude oil. We have talked a lot about our agricultural value chain. My favourite example always is rubber. Why would you manufacture a car in Nigeria where you won’t be competitive? Take rubber for example where Nigeria once had the best yield per hectare. This was a presentation I made at the Nigeria Economic Summit in 1993. Take the rubber and become its best producer in the world and export it, knowing that it is one of the most important components of manufacturing a car. We will probably be making more money from it than from crude oil. *-As an entrepreneur, how many books do you read in a year?-* I don’t count them on an annual basis, but I read as many as I can. On average, I read a book per week. Anytime I’m in the car, I pick up a book and read. I could read two books simultaneously. *-You were once a presidential candidate. Have you given up on your ambition?-* I’ve never had an ambition. In fact, I dislike the word. Ambition is like you are pursuing something by all means. I have no interest in any ambition. But I am a citizen and I have a duty to my children and to my fellow citizens to be part of showing a direction. If that involves having to run for office, fine. If being a farmer makes me deliver better, it’s also good. If being a teacher makes me deliver better, that’s also good. Whatever works, I will do.SOURCE: PUNCH.
Friday, 12 August 2016
PDP convention: Governors, BoT, others beg Sheriff
Governors of the Peoples Democratic Party and members
of its Board of Trustees on Friday in Abuja, renewed their
appeal to the factional National Chairman of the party,
Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, to allow the PDP hold its national
convention without legal bottlenecks.
Three governors, Ayodele Fayose (Ekiti), Nyesom Wike
(Rivers) and Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe), met with
Sheriff at Gombe Governor’s Lodge in Abuja on Friday,
pleading with him to withdraw all his cases against the
party.
However, sources at the meeting said Sheriff remained
adamant, insisting that his conditions be met before he
could yield to their demand.
At the meeting with the governors, it was gathered that
Sheriff insisted that Wike must not head the party’s
National Convention Planning Committee, the convention
be brought to Abuja and that he must be allowed to head
the party that would midwife the convention.
Besides, Sheriff also insisted that the National Caretaker
Committee of the party headed by Sen. Ahmed Makarfi be
disbanded immediately and people be appointed into the
National Working Committee.
Before meeting with the governors, Sheriff and his team
had met with the Reconciliatory Panel of the BoT led by a
former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana.
Among those who accompanied Gana to the meeting were
Senator Ibrahim Ida, former governors of Jigawa and
Niger States, Alhaji Sule Lamido and Abdulkadiri Kure
respectively, Senator Stella Omu, Senator Olujimi, Chief
Shuiabu Oladokun, Mrs. Ina Ciroma, Senator Buruji
Kashamu and many others.
Among those in the team of Sheriff were his faction’s
National Secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo; Mrs. Mariam Ali,
Ahmed Gulak, Bernard Mikko, E. J. Agbonhinyima, Chief
Chris Uba, Okay Nnadozie, Dennis Alonge, Dr. Patrick
Okomiso, Ibrahim Shehu and Shettima Dhabi etc.
However, it was gathered that when the governors told
him that his conditions would be difficult to meet because
the party was already planning the convention for
Wednesday, August 17 in Port Harcourt, Sheriff replied that
there was nothing he could do about it.
“Sheriff is not ready for peace with the conditions he set.
We may have to move on and leave him with his
conditions because we have to continue with our
preparations for the convention. We can’t be dragged out
again,” one of the governors told our correspondent on
condition of anonymity.
The governors were said to have expressed frustrations at
Sheriff’s rigid stance on his demand.
At the meeting he had with the Gana-led BoT panel, it was
gathered that a seven point undisclosed recommendations
in response to the conditions given by Sheriff were
presented again to Sheriff’s committee.
Details of the recommendations were not known as of
press time, but it was gathered that the Sheriff camp would
meet on Saturday to respond to the recommendations by
the Gana-led reconciliation committee.
While presenting the recommendations, Gana said his
committee “is here to present a set of recommendations
that we believe if well considered and accepted and
effectively implemented will promote reconciliation in our
party.
“We presented the recommendations and of course being
weighty recommendations. Sheriff and his team have
accepted to receive this document, study it and then we
will resume our study tomorrow (today) to get the
responses to these recommendations and then by the
grace of God reach a concussion that will give a new lease
of life to the PDP. “
In his response, Sheriff said the “BoT sat and made this set
of recommendations that in their views are way forward to
have a resolution of the impasse that is going on in our
party.
“Having seen and received the recommendations, it is
natural that myself and the members of the working
committee will study and also we will make the
recommendations that we feel will be the way forward.
“At last, we have started talking. After due consultations
with the members of the working committee, I will get
back to them (the committee) so that we will continue
from where we stopped.
He, however, told the members of the committee that any
building without sound foundation would collapse.
In another development, Sheriff has blamed former
President Goodluck Jonathan for the inability of the PDP to
win the last governorship elections in both Yobe and
Borno States.
He spoke when he received some members of the party
from the two states at his office in Abuja on Friday.
He said if the former President had listened to him, the
party would not have lost the two states.
Sheriff said, “If the then president had listened properly
and did what we had intended him to do, by now we
would have had the two states of Borno and Yobe but
unfortunately whatever God decides, we will accept and
we cannot do otherwise.”
He said that in all the meetings he had, he would not
“agree on anything that will affect our integrity,
followership and our political interests.
“As some of you rightly said, some of them were ashamed
to identify with the party. Now the PDP has become a
strong party, everybody is looking up to PDP and we will
not be distracted.
“This party, as I rightly said, must be returned to the
owners. Anything short of that is a non-starter. What are
our problems; how do we improve our standing? Now is
the time to put the party in proper shape ahead of the
election period.”
N17bn fraud charges: Jibrin in fresh trouble
There were indications on Friday that former Chairman,
House Committee on Appropriation, Mr. Abdulmumin
Jibrin, was already seeking cover from possible arrest by
the police and the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission in a fresh twist to his budget ‘padding’
allegations against the Speaker, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, and
three other principal officers of the House of
Representatives.
The other three are the Deputy Speaker, Mr. Yussuff Lasun;
the Chief Whip, Mr. Alhassan; and the Minority Leader, Mr.
Leo Ogor.
Saturday PUNCH investigation showed that contrary to
claims by Jibrin that he was invited by the EFCC to shed
light on his petitions on budget padding against Dogara
and three others, he was actually being grilled by the anti-
graft agency over his past financial transactions and
several petitions against him.
It was further learnt that the lawmaker might be arrested
and charged to court by the anti-graft commission anytime
from now.
In 2012, the EFCC was said to have investigated and
charged Jibrin to court over money laundering allegations
and contract abuses in his Bebeji/Kiru Federal
Constituency in Kano State.
There was also a money laundering charge of N15bn
against him and a former Governor of Nasarawa State, Mr.
Aliyu Akwe-Doma, wherein the two were arraigned by the
EFCC.
Another case involved N2bn, which he reportedly
laundered in the name of Green Forest Investment
Limited, a firm he owned. However, the charges were later
abandoned.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that when Jibrin appeared before
the police and the EFCC over the budget padding
allegations, his money laundering charges were revisited,
as he was reportedly asked more questions on his 2012
case.
On leaving the premises of the agencies, Jibrin proceeded
to an Abuja Federal High Court to seek injunctions against
possible arrest.
He filed two suits, one against the Inspector-General of
Police, and the second, against Dogara and 13 other
respondents.
In the suit he filed against the IGP, he also joined Dogara;
the House of Representatives; the Federal Capital
Territory Police Commissioner; Lasun; Ado-Doguwa; Ogor
and 10 other lawmakers.
The suit had reference number, FHC/ABJ/CS/539 and was
filed on August 9.
A source told Saturday PUNCH that, “Upon receiving
signals that he (Jibrin) may soon be charged to court by
the EFCC, he rushed to court on Thursday August 9, 2016,
seeking injunction restraining the police and other anti-
graft agencies from arresting or charging him to court.”
Findings also showed that, while before the public, Jibrin
stepped up campaigns for the reconvening of the House so
that Dogara and others would be probed, behind the
scenes, he filed a second suit seeking to stop his likely
suspension, should the House reconvene.
In the said suit number, FHC/ABJ/CS/539, Jibrin prayed the
court not to allow a plan by Dogara and 13 other members
of the House to “suspend” him.
He claimed that the 14 members met on August 3,
following which they agreed to reconvene the House with
the plan to suspend him.
But, in the open, Jibrin stepped up campaigns, saying that
Dogara and the 13 others were not ready to reconvene the
House over the fear of the allegations he levelled against
them.
In his sworn affidavit, Jibrin actually expressed concern
that Dogara and the 16 others were not stopped, he
(Jibrin) “would be suspended as a member of the House
and this will greatly prejudice him and thousands of his
constituents who rely on him to afford them their due
representations in the Federal legislature.”
Saturday PUNCH made efforts to get Jibrin’s reactions but
he could not be reached as of 8.30pm on Friday.
He also did not reply to a text message one of our
correspondents sent to his mobile phone.
Jibrin had alleged that Dogara and three other principal
officers requested the inclusion of N40bn projects in the
2016 budget, besides sundry projects in sums ranging
from N20bn to N30bn.
He claimed that his refusal to oblige the four principal
officers and his opposition to several financial infractions,
were responsible for his sacking by Dogara on July 20.
Jibrin later said he petitioned the EFCC, ICPC, the police
and the Department of State Services.
In his reaction to the development, a Senior Advocate of
Nigeria, Robert Clarke, said the appropriate thing any
lawmaker facing investigation should do is to resign from
his office.
He said, “Any lawmaker, including the Speaker of the
House, Yakubu Dogara, only enjoys immunity within the
Chamber, but does not enjoy such outside of the
Chamber. The immunity they enjoy is different from the
one governors enjoy.
“Therefore, if any lawmaker has committed an offence
outside of the Chamber, they can be grilled by the EFCC
and if found guilty, should be charged to court.
“So, there is nothing wrong for the EFCC to investigate
Jibrin and Dogara for any financial-related offences
committed outside of the Chamber. They should be
investigated.”
The Coordinator of the Socio-Economic Rights and
Accountability Project, Mr. Adetokunbo Mumuni, asked
Jibrin to resign his seat following the alleged money
laundering offence and probe by the EFCC.
He said, “He should face investigation. That is how it
should be. Any public office holder under investigation
should step down. It is only in Nigeria that public office
holders want to cling to their office even when investigated
for an offence.
“Let Jibrin resign from the House and face the corruption
charges by either the EFCC or the Independent Corrupt
Practices and Other Related Offences Commission.”
Also, the Executive Chairman, Coalition Against Corrupt
Leaders, Mr. Debo Adeniran, said Jibrin deserves to be
punished if the allegations against him are found to be
true.
He accused Jibrin of using the budget padding allegations
against Dogara as a distraction.
He said, “If indeed Jibrin was accused of N17bn fraud, the
EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other
Related Offences Commission have the rights to
investigate the veracity of the allegation and if he is found
culpable, then he should be thoroughly punished.
“It is like he wants to cover up the crime he had committed
and remain the chairman of the appropriation committee
at all cost. The reason why he is orchestrating the padding
shenanigan is because he has something to hide.
“If the allegation that Jibrin is involved in N17bn fraud is
correct, he should be diligently investigated to establish
the authenticity or otherwise of the allegation.”
On the move by Jibrin to stop his planned suspension,
Adeniran said, “Jibrin is just wasting his time. I have said it
before that Jibrin did not have any good ground to raise
any allegation because he raised it at a wrong time. He
raised it when the appropriation bill had already become a
law. Jibrin is an opportunistic whistle blower who is not
supposed to be supported.”
SOURCE: PUNCH
10 illegal oil wells discovered in Lagos
There was pandemonium on Ibadan and Abeokuta streets
in the Ilasamaja area of Lagos State on Friday after the
police discovered about 10 houses which dug wells linked
to oil pipelines through which diesel was siphoned.
Our correspondent learnt that residents and police
operatives, including the state Commissioner of Police,
Fatai Owoseni, stormed the houses and saw jerrycans
filled with diesel extracted from the wells.
When our correspondent got to the area, occupants of the
houses were asked to evacuate to prevent fire disaster.
Officials of the Lagos State Emergency Management
Agency, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, and
policemen from the Ilasamaja division were observed
trying to cordon off the houses.
A policeman told our correspondent that operatives
discovered the illegal oil wells after going undercover to
buy diesel.
He said, “The Divisional Police Officer and her men were
patrolling the area about 4am and saw some residents
coming out with jerrycans of diesel from those houses.
The policemen pretended they also wanted to buy diesel
and that was how the suspects were arrested.
“So far, four landlords have been arrested. Others are on
the run but the tenants in those houses are being quizzed
to show their level of complicity.”
Some of the suspects arrested are identified as Moji
Adesina, 45, Chinyere Nnaji, 27, and Tayo Agboola, 40.
Nnaji said she had not been fetching from the well since
diesel was diverted there, adding that she was just a
tenant.
I've your best interest at heart,' President tells Nigerian youths
President Muhammadu Buhari has restated his
administration's commitment to improve the quality of
life and create opportunities for Nigerian youths.
In his message on Friday, August 12, to mark the 2016 International Youth Day, Buhari said he will not forget the roles played by the Nigerian youths in his election as President. "Those young people are immensely energetic and talented, consistently blazing the trail in the arts, sports, business and technology," he said. "We are proud of what you have done and what you are able to do.’’ According to the president, his administration belongs to the Nigerian youths. He stated that it was in view of this that the Federal Government launched a number of initiatives, targeted at expanding the economic opportunities available to young Nigerians. Buhari said: "N-Power, our job creation scheme, for which applications are ongoing, will employ 500,000 of you in agriculture, education, healthcare and technology. "The Aso Villa Demo Day will soon bring 30 of the most innovative young Nigerians to the State House to showcase their talent in providing technology-based solutions to some of our most challenging problems. "The Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), part of our N500 billion Social Investment Programme, will provide soft loans to thousands of young entrepreneurs across the country.’’ The president added that these are just some of the many initiatives his administration has designed and being implemented for the youths across the country. He assured that his administration will create an enabling environment for them to realise their potentials.
In his message on Friday, August 12, to mark the 2016 International Youth Day, Buhari said he will not forget the roles played by the Nigerian youths in his election as President. "Those young people are immensely energetic and talented, consistently blazing the trail in the arts, sports, business and technology," he said. "We are proud of what you have done and what you are able to do.’’ According to the president, his administration belongs to the Nigerian youths. He stated that it was in view of this that the Federal Government launched a number of initiatives, targeted at expanding the economic opportunities available to young Nigerians. Buhari said: "N-Power, our job creation scheme, for which applications are ongoing, will employ 500,000 of you in agriculture, education, healthcare and technology. "The Aso Villa Demo Day will soon bring 30 of the most innovative young Nigerians to the State House to showcase their talent in providing technology-based solutions to some of our most challenging problems. "The Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), part of our N500 billion Social Investment Programme, will provide soft loans to thousands of young entrepreneurs across the country.’’ The president added that these are just some of the many initiatives his administration has designed and being implemented for the youths across the country. He assured that his administration will create an enabling environment for them to realise their potentials.
Budget Padding Scandal: Why APC won’t sanction Dogara, Jibrin
Earlier reports had it that the APC would sanction Jibrin
for embarrassing the party with his accusations against
Dogara. Both men are members of the ruling party.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) will not sanction House of Representatives Speaker, Yakubu Dogara over the budget padding scandal » or the verbal war between him and former Appropriations Committee Chairman, Abdulmuminin Jibrin, a chieftain of the party has said. Earlier reports had it that the APC would sanction Jibrin for embarrassing the party with his accusations against Dogara. Both men are members of the ruling party. However, according to the APC’s Deputy National Chairman (North), Senator Lawal Shuaibu, the party will not intervene in the matter because it doesn’t want to tamper with the functions of law enforcement agencies. “Article 7 (5) of the APC constitution gives us the power to do certain things. So, you see, what we are doing is the right thing. But only we don’t want that in the public gallery,” Shuaibu said. “What is padding? What is of concern to us is where any member contravenes the party constitution in his conduct. That is why I referred you to Article 7 (5) of our party constitution. We are not a law enforcement organisation. We don’t enforce law. We only ensure that the constitution is complied with. All members of the party are answerable to the party and answerable to their constituencies. “The two members that are subjected to this are elected or appointed members of the party including those that are holding public office. So, you expect the party to sit down and watch. No. We have to do our work. So, the question of sweeping anything under the carpet does not arise at all. But we don’t want to do it in the market place, in the party secretariat,” he added. The APC had earlier warned both Dogara and Jibrin to stop making statements to the press in order to salvage the situation. The silence however didn’t last long due to Dogara saying that budget padding is not an offence.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) will not sanction House of Representatives Speaker, Yakubu Dogara over the budget padding scandal » or the verbal war between him and former Appropriations Committee Chairman, Abdulmuminin Jibrin, a chieftain of the party has said. Earlier reports had it that the APC would sanction Jibrin for embarrassing the party with his accusations against Dogara. Both men are members of the ruling party. However, according to the APC’s Deputy National Chairman (North), Senator Lawal Shuaibu, the party will not intervene in the matter because it doesn’t want to tamper with the functions of law enforcement agencies. “Article 7 (5) of the APC constitution gives us the power to do certain things. So, you see, what we are doing is the right thing. But only we don’t want that in the public gallery,” Shuaibu said. “What is padding? What is of concern to us is where any member contravenes the party constitution in his conduct. That is why I referred you to Article 7 (5) of our party constitution. We are not a law enforcement organisation. We don’t enforce law. We only ensure that the constitution is complied with. All members of the party are answerable to the party and answerable to their constituencies. “The two members that are subjected to this are elected or appointed members of the party including those that are holding public office. So, you expect the party to sit down and watch. No. We have to do our work. So, the question of sweeping anything under the carpet does not arise at all. But we don’t want to do it in the market place, in the party secretariat,” he added. The APC had earlier warned both Dogara and Jibrin to stop making statements to the press in order to salvage the situation. The silence however didn’t last long due to Dogara saying that budget padding is not an offence.
Fani Kayode: ‘Buhari government is a plague,’ Ex-minister says
Former aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode has
described the Muhammadu Buhari administration as a
plague.
Fani-Kayode also accused Buhari of promoting an ungodly ethnic and religious agenda. The former minister made the comments via his Twitter handle today, August 12, 2016. He said: “Polio back, Nigeria no longer the largest economy in Africa: this gov. is a plague. They bring nothing but sickness, poverty and hardship." “They are an affliction that thrive on the suffering of the people. They are the incubus and succubus spirits that feed on the nation’s glory and that suck the life out of the people. “Their motivation is pure and unadulterated hate and their objective is to impoverish Nigeria, to silence the opposition, to intimidate and enslave the people, to satisfy their insatiable lust for power and to impose a hideous and ungodly ethnic and religious agenda. “Wickedness is their forte, the abuse of power is their modus, brute force is their language and lies, deceit and propaganda are their weapons of warfare. They are nothing but bullies and fascists and like all bullies and fascists their end will come.” Fani-Kayode had earlier accused Buhari of supporting only Northern interests. Nigeria witnessed a resurgence of Polio after the World Health Organization (WHO) announced, on August 11, that it had identified new cases of the disease in Borno State. The country had been polio-free for two years before the new outbreak was discovered.
Fani-Kayode also accused Buhari of promoting an ungodly ethnic and religious agenda. The former minister made the comments via his Twitter handle today, August 12, 2016. He said: “Polio back, Nigeria no longer the largest economy in Africa: this gov. is a plague. They bring nothing but sickness, poverty and hardship." “They are an affliction that thrive on the suffering of the people. They are the incubus and succubus spirits that feed on the nation’s glory and that suck the life out of the people. “Their motivation is pure and unadulterated hate and their objective is to impoverish Nigeria, to silence the opposition, to intimidate and enslave the people, to satisfy their insatiable lust for power and to impose a hideous and ungodly ethnic and religious agenda. “Wickedness is their forte, the abuse of power is their modus, brute force is their language and lies, deceit and propaganda are their weapons of warfare. They are nothing but bullies and fascists and like all bullies and fascists their end will come.” Fani-Kayode had earlier accused Buhari of supporting only Northern interests. Nigeria witnessed a resurgence of Polio after the World Health Organization (WHO) announced, on August 11, that it had identified new cases of the disease in Borno State. The country had been polio-free for two years before the new outbreak was discovered.
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