Thursday 26 July 2012

Guinea pigs on trial for fuel subsidy fraud


Duro Onabule Today
It is quite some time the Federal Government amused Nigerians and perhaps the government itself with what is supposed to impress us with drastic action against known and exposed financial criminals/economic saboteurs. 

The purported list of firms and individuals so claimed to have been indicted in the fuel subsidy theft can only induce public ridicule. What an anti-climax!

After all the hype and drama on the celebrities allegedly involved, how did it happen that none of the big figures could be listed among the men of shame? Nigerians woke up on January 1, 2012 only to be welcomed into the new year by President Goodluck Jonathan with virtually one hundred percent increase in the price of petrol. 

The wild propaganda which led to the increase was that withdrawal of the subsidy was inevitable because the value  was not getting to those intended to benefit.

The first misleading impression from such untenable argument is that withdrawal of the subsidy (that is astronomical increase in the price of petrol) would then improve the lot of the poor in society. In fact, Jonathan went as far as that when he claimed that proceeds from the withdrawal of fuel subsidy would be spent to provide roads, hospitals, schools, drugs, possibly the free oxygen of life. It was as if fuel subsidy all along disabled federal and state governments from providing these amenities.

Owing to the unreasonableness of increase of fuel price, which in effect, worsened the hardship of every average family in the country, Nigerians (thanks to the critical sections of the media and civil rights groups) then had to counter Jonathan that culprits of the fuel subsidy abuse were mainly members and patrons of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, especially in the private sector, otherwise known as stakeholders in the oil industry. 

Their main pre-occupation is to ruin national economy by twisting rules and regulations. Since Goodluck Jonathan would not listen and his Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala arrogantly bluffed all criticisms by maintaining that whatever happened, the new fuel price would be maintained, public-spirited people and those in the civil right groups had to mobilize Nigerians for showdown.

Faced with the nationwide protests threatening the survival of his administration, Jonathan’s initial reaction was to blackmail leaders of the protests with the allegation of seeking regime change, as if that itself is a crime under the law. He must have forgotten that he could be impeached for running the economy aground to create undue hardship for the ordinary citizen.

Faced with the reality of a fast-deteriorating situation, Jonathan had to endorse a face-saving probe of the fuel subsidy scandal by an ad-hoc committee of the House of Representatives. And what revelations of not only the magnitude of the scandal but also of the personalities and oil companies involved! The report documented that even though National Assembly provided for less than three hundred billion naira as fuel subsidy, the oil importers colluded with government functionaries in Central Bank and NNPC to gazump the subsidy by almost one trillion naira, without National Assembly approval.

It was a return to the days of import licence scandal as everybody became oil importer and instantly qualified for refund of oil subsidy except that in this case, the criminals claimed subsidy for oil they did not even import. Such big names and oil companies?

Jonathan himself was so worried by the revelations that he expressed a scarcely-veiled helplessness in an interview with TELL Magazine (Feb. 27, 2012) on how the Central Bank of Nigeria and NNPC could have been paying such huge amount far in excess of budget provision as fuel subsidy and yet (the same CBN and NNPC) according to him failed to alert the government, specifically Federal Ministry of Finance.

Jonathan then promised to probe the CBN and NNPC on their parts in the fuel subsidy scandal. What happened to Jonathan’s voluntarily expressed determination to probe these two institutions? Even then, with the fuel subsidy scandal report of the House of Representatives adhoc committee, Jonathan prepared the minds of Nigeria for the trial of the century of these notorious criminals.

 Instead, vacillation was followed by poor communication in which the impression was wrongly created that  findings of the probe might not warrant automatic trial for the culprits. Following the setting up one committee to review another committee, the review of another committee, etc., big show was made of the fraud that there would not be sacred cows as anybody or company involved would be tried.

And then, suddenly, the list of the culprits (human beings and companies) released on Monday to go on trial. What a country. All those to go on trial are no more than guinea-pigs of a caustic gesture to be seen to be trying some culprits. All those being tried are completely unknown and are more Beninoise with the Yoruba and Hausa/Fulani names. Whereas, the trial is of Nigerians, not Beninoise. How did these unknown persons find their way into NNPC to be claiming staggering amount as refunds for oil not imported and subsidy for oil not imported?

Nigerians are too familiar with this deceit in governance. Former EFCC boss Nuhu Ribadu told Nigerians during his tenure that up to 34 serving state governors would face criminal charges for alleged corruption. Since  2007 after they all left office, some eight or ten of them in various parts at the country were arraigned in courts.

Where are they today after hyping the public for show trials? These ex-governors supposed to be facing trials are either in the Senate or heading one government agency or committee except only one who was fined five million naira for stealing billions of naira. From the Senate, the ex-governor suspects are even aiming at the presidency, all in the hope of distancing the minds of Nigerians from their criminal trials.

Again in 2010, to cover up the security lapses that resulted in the October 1st 2010 bombings at Eagle Square, Abuja, Nigeria’s secret police told us that prominent Nigerians had been named if not arrested as culprits. That was merely to wet the appetite of an angry nation. Who are those on trial today? Virtually unknown fellows.

It is therefore bad enough that those listed as culprits of the oil subsidy scandal are mere guinea pigs. It will be worse eventually that the pattern of their trial will be a rehash of the established standard. What value is it to Nigerians except a distraction that a particular accused is the son of this or son of that? Such identity is even unfair because it is prejudicial  to the judicial fate of those on trial.

Ironically, those not even mentioned in the list are the sons of those who should have been mentioned, if the probe report is anything to go by. The reasons are obvious. Such unnamed fellows are patrons of the government who donated hundreds if not billions of naira to the campaign fund of the Peoples Democratic Party.

And so, the looting will continue. But one day, the looting will end. Not a kobo will follow them to wherever they may head. As for the trial proper, we should not deceive ourselves into believing that any punitive action will come the way of the fuel subsidy fraud criminals, except the established pattern. Here we go. The suspects will be arraigned in court with EFCC bouncers playing to the gallery, to impress the public that in so doing, the EFCC chaps were guarding against any of the suspects trying to escape.

The media are ever-ready to be nose-led as if for the first or even the last time. Unfortunately for the media, there is not a single known figure on whom to focus. The same array of well-known high-ranking top lawyers will announce themselves as appearing for the suspects. Defenders of these accused are not unaware that it is another boom period in the range of scores if not hundreds of millions of naira. These are the same defenders posturing, at public functions like lectures against looting of public funds.

It is not as if these trials are anything serious or even of ground-breaking ventures. Recall past showdowns of the same magnitude? After the lawyers, the suspects will plead not guilty. Their lawyers will then argue for bail which will often be reflected with the offer of a substitute to be filed. The suspects will then be clamped into detention in prison or EFCC custody. The court will then adjourn till a specified return date for the bail application to be argued.

The bail will then be eventually granted with seeming impossible conditions attached. But trust the oil subsidy fraud cartel to gather somewhere and ensure the bail conditions. Suspects will be released on lack of jurisdiction of the court which will always be given preference to be determined first. If unsuccessful, the next argument may be that the accused has committed no crime known to law.

The onus shifts on the state to establish that in fact, a crime had been committed under particular various laws of the land. If the counter-argument succeeds, which happens in most cases, the next spanner thrown into the works will be that the accused had not been served with proof of evidence to be led by the state against him. For God’s sake, if not a conspiracy to take the public for a ride, why would a capable prosecutor fail in the first place to comply with such elementary procedure?

That is even, in the first place, if the prosecution was not faulted for not obtaining the authority of the Attorney-General to try the case. Argument will go on for weeks on whether such authority is necessary at all. Depending on what time of the year, the suspects might be unfortunate to be docked at a time the courts would be on recess, which may cause adjournment till September.

These initial preliminaries always delay cases into periods of two to three years. When did the cases of those rogue bankers on trial commence? What is the progress? Where are the cases of those on trial either as state governors or federal ministers on trial for theft of public funds since 2007? Are such cases still in court or already abandoned? Meanwhile, the public relations consultants of the accused have been restless projecting their clients for the presidency in 2015.

Mark it, nobody will be punished for the fuel subsidy fraud as public interest will be deliberately wearied and waned out. Nobody will even remember. Of course, there may be token fines of ten million naira for the billions of naira stolen in each case.

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