SUBSIDY PAYMENT TRAP: A messy arrangement gets messier.

By Jide Ajani
Emblematising the essence of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration’s struggle to keep pace with the speed of service delivery to Nigerians, the scatter-head arrangement in managing the subsidy funds, an arrangement that has suffered so much abuse in recent times, the aborted strike action of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, is no more than a stockpiling of wood for tomorrow’s bonfire. 
This is because the reality on ground does not support a continued sustenance of subsidy payments in an economy that is already crumbling.  Yet, there are debts to be paid to importers of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS; not withstanding the alleged sharp practices allegedly committed by them.  All these with a president that is not ready to bite the bullet by doing what is just and right regarding how best to handle the mounting economic woes of Nigerians.

Between penultimate Wednesday and Thursday, the simmering power tussle between Madams Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Finance Minister and Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy, and Diezani Allison-Madueke of the Petroleum Resources Ministry, blew into the open.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Diezani Allison-Madueke

It was urgent and the latter had to have a session with Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the Ijaw son who occupies Aso Rock Presidential Villa as Nigeria’s President and Commander-in-Chief.  The meeting was about the impending industrial action by members of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG.
Sunday Vanguard was informed by a Presidency source that the “situation is so critical that the Petroleum Resources Minister  met with President Jonathan mid-last week to give him a clearer picture of the situation, as against the assurances being given by the Finance Minister.
“The President was told that whereas he should not be seen to be negotiating with those that have been indicted and would be facing prosecution, the fact remains that people are being owed huge sums of money and they would need to be paid.
“The pressure on government was brought to laid bare last week when the seat of power, Abuja, witnessed serious scarcity”, the source said.
This development is already creating a frosty relationship between the Finance Minister and her Petroleum Resources counterpart.
Indeed, the Petroleum Resources Minister who was said to be involved, in high level consultations at the weekend, “was practically begging operators in the industry to save the nation from the crisis created by the Finance Ministry’s handling of the matter”.
Sunday Vanguard discovered that the leadership of the tanker drivers group mounted surveillance in major entry points of the federal capital last  week and ensured that no products were delivered into Abuja.
On the conflicting claims about the payments and debts owed, as well as the claims and counter claims of blackmail and intimidation, information  suggests that the quartet of the Jetty and Petroleum Tank Farm Owners, JEPTFON, Depot and Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, DAPPMAN, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, and the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN, have decided to cease further importation and distribution once the stock they have is depleted.
Curiously, whereas the Finance Ministry claims to be settling subsidy payments, the figures being thrown around by marketers and importers as well as depot owners are not the same.
Whereas the Finance Ministry claims to have facilitated the issuance of N42.666 Sovereign Debt Notes between April and August this year, “this is just a paltry amount when placed side by side the hundreds of billions being owed MOMAN”, a source said.
In addition, a DAPPMAN source claimed  that members of the group are being owed claims in excess of one hundred billion naira.
Part of the issues raised by the threatening NUPENG workers is the non-payment of the money owed importers who have in turn threatened to lay off staff.
The shambling approach of government in the matter remains that an agreement was entered into that importers should bring in fuel; some alleged corrupt practices have been uncovered; government is attempting to prosecute; no competent court of law has pronounced importers guilty; yet, government says it will not pay.
In other more civilized climes, some ministers would have been forced to resign or resign in honour.
At the crux of the matter, Sunday Vanguard has been made to understand, is “that the nation’s purse can not sustain the payment of subsidy in any form”.
But lack of service delivery can not make government come out to add to the burden of Nigerians via fuel price hike.
THE ISSUES
The power play, the ruse, the cover-ups, the complicity;
every where in the world, cash-based subsidy is fraught with corruption.
In Nigeria, it should be clear by now that the outcome of the endless probes in the industry has shown that the whole essence of the probes is either for interest protection or an attempt to benefit from the decadence that subsidy implementation in Nigeria has represented. At the moment, the Federal Ministry of Finance, FMF, appears to have won the battle for control of the implementation of the fuel subsidy regime over the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, MPR.
In effect, this signifies a substitution of old beneficiaries for new ones.  This fact is brought closer home by the shambling work of the Aigboje Aig-imoukhuede Presidential Committee which had to re-conduct its investigation a second time on the orders of President Goodluck Jonathan. In any case, in a country not short of industry experts,the technical competence required not to muddle figures or carry out a clear-headed audit of the subsidy regime, how did President Jonathan arrive at his choice?  That Mr. President could order another audit with a seven-day ultimatum exposes the underbelly of the first committee to untidiness.  One of the marketers who has been handed the armour of sainthood had earlier been frowned at by the Senator Magnus Abe Committee over subsidy funds collected. Yet, some interests are meant to be protected and are being protected.
In truth, government is at cross roads with fuel subsidy implementation because it is one scheme that can easily cripple the national economy given the huge funds being disbursed from the Excess Crude Account, ECA, and the lack of capacity to enthrone transparency under the scheme. While nothing has changed drastically with all the hype about plugging the abuses in the industry except the ministerial rivalries and power show created by the Federal Ministry of Finance’s hijacking the scheme from Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the beneficiaries have merely improved on the act of cheating under the scheme.
The role of the industry unions is also noteworthy. The unions have for long been beneficiaries; been used to work against removal of subsidy by some vested interests; and also being used to resist due verification of the subsidies, they are now crying wolf.
In the final analysis, the masses are the losers. Those referred to as constituting the cabal have been so empowered that they control more than 50% of the effective logistics for supply and distribution of petroleum products in Nigeria today. At the moment, the NNPC with the unparalleled corruption pervading the corporation, with its SWAP arrangement on crude, can not boast of handling up to 55% of the cargos consumed in Nigeria at an average of one cargo per day. Hence, the cabal, working effectively together, can bring the economy down on its knees if it chooses to.
Perhaps it is in realisation of this development that, oddly enough, it was the government of Olusegun Obasanjo, working with more sober individuals like Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi, began early in 2003 to pursue a policy of phased industry liberalisation with the ultimate vision to deregulate the industry. Unfortunately, Obasanjo left without achieving the dream.  His successor, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, died while perfecting strategies for deregulation.  Unfortunately; presently, the looting in the name of subsidy has continued.
At the moment, it would appear the government has no  choice than to deregulate. The braggadocio to sanitize the industry of corruption is a sing-song that portrays naivety of the enormity of the issues and challenges in the downstream sub-sector.
When fuel subsidy was introduced, it was meant to be an interventionist mechanism and not an institutionalised programme of government. At the inception of subsidy regime, there were very few depots.  Government literarily cajoled marketers to participate in the scheme. They entered the scheme and took advantage of it with government demonstrating lack of capacity to curb their criminal antics on the sea and at the jetties. They seized the subsidy opportunity to empower themselves and expand the scope of their business.
To demonstrate the veracity of this, a call for the balance sheet and business strength of most of the big players, pre and post 2006 would reveal the quantum, mega lift in volume and profit.
Similarly, the benefiting banks used the opportunity to post huge, stupendous profits into corporate and personal accounts. The balance sheet of most of the sponsoring banks and the massive capital inflow attest to the juicy nature of PMS importation per subsidy.
The fact remains that government needs to handle the issue tactically to ameliorate the suffering of the people. The implications of the cabal being at loggerheads with government could have serious multiplier effects such as reversing the gains of industry liberalisation, job and capacity collapse in the oil and banking industry.
The ultimate solution is deregulation because the rot in subsidy implementation is as sad as the fake and fraudulent claims that had been a tradition in the Petroleum Equalisation Fund, PEF, a scheme that had remained without a legally constituted board – might it be added, deliberately, for years.

Nigeria: Non-Indigenes Who Stay Seven Years Earns Bauchi Citizenship – Gov. Isa Yuguda.

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Nigeria: Non-Indigenes – Seven Years Stay Earns Bauchi Citizenship – Yuguda

By Chika Otuchikere, Gabriel Ewepu, and Sa’adatu Shuaibu, 24 August 2012

Any Nigerian who stays in Bauchi State for seven years or more becomes an indigene of the state with all attendant rights and privileges, Governor Isa Yuguda assured yesterday as he vowed to uphold the provision of the Nigerian Constitution which confers such rights on non-indigenous inhabitants of states in the country.
Speaking during a courtesy visit to LEADERSHIP headquarters in Abuja yesterday, the Governor boldly declared that there are no non-indigenes or settlers in Bauchi State because even those who have not stayed for up to seven years in the state are regarded as being “in transition” to indigenous status.
Governor Yuguda, who emphasised the sanctity of the oath of office, vows to protect and uphold the import and contents of the Constitution while also citing his administration’s accommodation of up to 2 million refugees – almost half of the state’s 4.6 million population- displaced from troubled areas of neighbouring states who are not herded into makeshift camps in mosques or schools but provided with land where they can put up shelter and carry on with their lives.
He said the national emergency service officials were highly impressed with his unique approach to resettlement of displaced persons from outside the state compared to the practice in other states.
The orphans and vulnerable children in the state were also catered for under a law enacted by the state legislature which raises a special fund from 2% deductions from the salaries of all workers in the state the proceeds of which are spent on meeting the needs of the disadvantaged children.
All these developments were in furtherance of his constitutional responsibility for the welfare of all inhabitants of the state as well as his dogged pursuit of the enthronement of harmony and peaceful co-existence among the diverse people who inhabit the state.
Laments sabotage of Kafin Zaki Dam project
Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State yesterday lamented the undue politicization and systematic sabotage of the realization of the Kafin Zaki Dam project which has the potential to create more than two million jobs from various agro-allied ventures that would thrive on 120,000 hectares of arable land for production of wheat, sugar, rice and vegetables.
The governor narrated how the project which was conceived in the aftermath of the1972-1974 drought had been intermittently stalled by vested interests including environmentalists protesting its negative impact on the migratory birds’ sanctuary in the Nguru wetlands in Yobe State and others claiming the dam would drain the Lake Chad and deny them irrigation for their farmlands.
“Now that the dam has not been constructed see the disaster it has caused by flooding and destroying vast areas of farmlands and numerous settlements creating poverty and spreading misery instead of the food sufficiency, employment and prosperity envisaged”, Governor Yuguda stated.
He pointed out that the Nguru wetlands have since been heavily silted and overgrown by grasses and shrubs thereby reducing the presence of the migratory birds apart from the fact that it the wetlands last only four months annually before drying up.
Lake Chad too had shrunk from about 25,000 square miles to a meager 5,000 square miles most of which is no longer within Nigerian territory even though only 1% of water from the Jama’are River flows into the lake.
Governor Yuguda who said if he had the N60 billion required for the project he would execute the project described the situation as an example of how we allow trivial sentiments to becloud our vision and divert attention from important issues of general economic progress while the people in advanced countries of the world exhibit unwavering commitment to the sensible utilization of their God-given resources to develop and progress.
He urged journalists to rise to the challenge of guiding and motivating our people in the direction of economic progress and political enlightenment rather than fanning embers of parochialism and sectarian intolerance.
The proposed dam would be of zoned earthfill construction and would be 11 kilometres-long. It would be designed with the potential to install a hydroelectric plant. The reservoir would have a storage capacity of 2,700 million cubic meters, and would be the second largest in Nigeria after the Kainji Dam.
It would irrigate 120,000 hectares of arable land on which cash crops could be grown. Potentially the project would support production of one million tonnes of sugarcane annually and provide over one million jobs in industries related to agriculture.
Project history
In 1984 the contract was terminated, but it was reinstated in 1992 by the Ibrahim Babangida regime. In 1994 the Sani Abacha regime terminated the contract again, and set up a judicial committee of inquiry into all aspects of the project. In 2002, funding was allocated for the project, but then abruptly withdrawn.
In 2008 Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State awarded a contract to the Dangote Group to restart the abandoned dam project, a move that was supported by Abdul Ahmed Ningi, a Bauchi state representative who was House Leader in the National Assembly when the project was cancelled in 2002.

Abati : The Jonathan They Don’t Know .

By Reuben Abati.

“THEY” in this piece refers to all the cynics, the pestle-wielding critics, the unrelenting, self-appointed activists, the idle and idling, twittering, collective children of anger, the distracted crowd of Facebook addicts, the BBM-pinging soap opera gossips of Nigeria, who seem to be in competition among themselves to pull down President Goodluck Jonathan. This army of sponsored and self-appointed anarchists is so diverse; many of them don’t even know why or how they should attack the President.
The clear danger to public affairs commentary is that we have a lot of unintelligent people repeating stupid clichés and too many intelligent persons wasting their talents lending relevance to thoughtless conclusions.  Hold on. I don’t want to be misunderstood. I am not saying nobody should criticize the Nigerian President. I spent some time learning that legal maxim: “volenti non fit injuria”. Public position comes with its own share of risks and exposure. But the twittering, pinging, Facebook crowd of the new age must be guided by facts.
Hold your stone. Don’t haul it yet.  Shhh. Wait, Mr. Alaseju! I have spent the last 14 months working with President Jonathan. I have followed him everywhere. I can write a whole book on his Presidency so far, but you won’t get to read that until much later.  I have heard that some people are protesting that they will not buy the book if it gets written. Well, your choice. What I can report, for now is that he is a grossly misunderstood President. Too many people are unfair to him. They criticise him out of ignorance. They abuse him out of mischief. And the opposition doesn’t make things easy at all. Can we look at a number of issues?
You say he is a clueless President. You are wrong. He is not clueless.  Nobody is more committed to the Nigerian Project than President Jonathan. In spite of unforeseen challenges, which his administration has had to contend with, President Jonathan is doing his utmost best to positively transform Nigeria. Ordinary Nigerians know and appreciate this. Those parading themselves as leaders of the opposition, who claim that the President has lost the support of Nigerians, represent only themselves and their selfish interests.
President Jonathan is a clever, methodical and intelligent man, who is very adept at wrong footing all the persons who make an effort to second-guess or under-estimate him. He understands the complexity of Nigeria. He is acutely conscious of the historicity of his emergence as Nigeria’s No. 1. He knows that he is here as the leader of all Nigerians. He knows that he is a representative of all common persons, particularly the children of all blue collar workers who never wore shoes or got a chance to eat three-square meals, and whose mothers and aunties could never be part of policy-making processes.
When he spoke about not wearing shoes as a child, he meant that as a metaphor for the disparities in the Nigerian system, and the urgent need to redress inequalities. But I have heard some persons responding literally that Nigerians should never vote for a man who never wore shoes. How simplistic. Attention needs to be drawn to the fact that a rooted, people-sourced President, who seeks to transform Nigeria, and who campaigns on a platform of transformation, will necessarily be opposed by those who consider themselves the children of Empire builders, those who think that their ancestors built Nigeria. Wrong.
The Ijaws, the fourth largest ethnic nationality in Nigeria, have as much right to have their son as President as every other Nigerian group. But Jonathan doesn’t even dwell on this. I have never heard him utter an ethnic statement. He sees himself as the President of all Nigerians. He is at home with every group. He is focused on the challenges of nation-building. He wants to transform Nigeria. He wants to unite the country. He is determined to promote the country. And he is doing so already. He knows Nigerians want regular power supply. He is working at it. That is why we have crossed 4,400 MW.
He knows Nigerians want infrastructure. That is why he is telling Bi-Courtney to fix Lagos-Ibadan Expressway or get out. That is why he is telling a particular Minister to fix the East-West road and get it fixed quickly. That is why he has directed the relevant agencies to get corrupt persons to answer for their misdeeds. That is why he is strengthening Nigeria’s foreign relations. That is why he is transforming the agriculture sector, from a contract-awarding, fertilizer distribution enterprise into big business. And more… The reason President Jonathan does not go into a song and dance routine is because he knows that true rebranding of a nation is a projection of positive things that are already happening.
They say he is “tribalistic”. Not true. How many Ijaws are in President Jonathan’s inner circle? Very few, I can tell you. There are, of course, all kinds of persons who go about telling people that they have the President’s ears and eyes. They would even tell you that they think for the President! I used to have nightmares whenever I heard that, but it no longer bothers me. I have since learnt that some Nigerians consider it fashionable to wear false garments.
The Presidency qua Presidency is staffed by key officials from all parts of the country. The Secretary to the Government of the Federation is from Ebonyi State. The Chief of Staff and the Head of the President’s Secretariat are both from Edo; the Protocol Liaison Officer and Principal Private Secretary are from Adamawa; the Chief Detail is from Borno; the Aide De Camp (ADC) is from Kogi; the Perm Sec, State House is from Benue; the State Chief of Protocol is from Kwara; the Special Adviser, Media and Publicity is from Ogun; the Chief Physician to the President is from Rivers. Only the Chief Security Officer, the Special Assistant, Domestic and the Special Adviser, Research and Strategy are from Bayelsa.
When he is in the office, and he gets there early every day, and works till very late, he is exposed to all categories of Nigerians.  He runs a modern and open Presidency. He is on Facebook, Twitter, email, SMS, BB, and he reads. And he writes. This is not a provincial President. The intelligentsia, his immediate community, should support him to do his work.
President Jonathan was the first Nigerian leader to appoint a woman as his Chief Economic Adviser as well as the Nigerian leader who opened up the Nigerian Defence Academy to women. And he took affirmative action in political appointments to a higher level by reserving 35 per cent of all appointive positions in government for our women folk.
The facts in this regard are incontrovertible. Under President Jonathan, women occupy very strategic positions (Petroleum Resources, Education, Co-ordinating Minister/Minister of Finance, Water Resources, Minister of State, FCT, Minister of State, Defence, Minister of State, Foreign Affairs 1, Minister of State, Niger Delta, and the headship of many of the MDAs. The President’s  commitment to Nigeria is total. All his children school in Nigeria. Even his dress code promotes Nigeria.
They say Mr. President drinks. My friend and colleague, Etim Etim, called the other day to say that whatever may be the challenges on this job, he could affirm that I am at least enjoying. “What with all the choice drinks on every trip,” he said. I told him, “No, we don’t drink.” He protested. He thought I was lying. He had heard that kain-kain is a staple fare on presidential flights. I told him No. We are not allowed to touch alcohol. Alcohol is not served during official duties. Yes, when there is an international function, wine is served, but nobody gets drunk around here. That will amount to an act of indiscipline. The President himself does not allow alcohol to be served at his table. But when you go to social media, they tell you something else. Lies. Lies. Lies.
I have even heard that the President spends billions on feeding. Well, I have enjoyed the privilege of eating at the President’s table. What does he eat? Fish pepper soup. Cassava Bread. Slices of yam. Rice. Boiled plantain. Fruits and vegetables. He fasts when he chooses, and fasts all month during Ramadan and Lent. And because he takes his exercises and keep fit regime seriously, he eats very little. Okay, he drinks coffee.  And yet there are people out there who keep claiming that there is a feast in the Villa every day. They say at every meal, the table is decorated with roasted turkey, and every delicacy under the sun. Lies. Lies.  This President is not a glutton. We have a disciplined, hardworking President who enjoys his privacy, and the company of intelligent people.
Here is a man who is an epitome of loyalty and simplicity. The thing about the President’s critics is that they just cannot accept that someone with his simplicity can be their President. This is the Saul Complex. Saul could not accept the fact that somebody as simple as David could be favoured by God. And just like Saul threw the spear at David out of uncontrollable jealousy, these critics are out to throw any kind of spear to see which hits the target, hence all their lies about the President.
Let me end by saying that the President is a simple man but simplicity is not naivety. If simplicity were to be naivety, then the world would not be where it is today because it is simple men like Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Kwame Nkrumah, who have shaped the world that we live in by simplifying what others have complicated.
Dr. Abati is Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to President Jonathan

What Is The Joint Task Force, And On Whose Side Is It? By Sonala Olumhense.

Half a lifetime ago, I grumbled to a friend of mine about a Lagos realtor who had simply vanished with my money.  The property was ready for me to move into, but the landlord was still waiting to be paid, one month after I parted with my cash.
My friend was a police officer, and he offered his help with the investigation.  And so it was that a few days later, I travelled to the real estate agency with three of his men.
I knew the area well.  I had been there many times.  As I parked my car, the policemen jumped out of their pickup truck.  It felt like a good day to complete an investigation.
I led them to ground zero: a ground floor street-facing office where there were three people: a female secretary and two realtor assistants.  At that point, all three knew me well: I was in the office everyday, and they told me the same thing: they had not seen their employer for weeks.
As we crowded into the small office, the policemen asked only one question of the staff: “Where is he?”
The staff responded to my show of force with the same answer they had given me for weeks: “We don’t know.”
The officers immediately switched tactics, moving into divide-and-rule mode.  “Where is he?” they began to ask the staff individually.
The answer did not change: “I don’t know,” they each answered.
And then, without warning, the tone of our visit changed irretrievably as the “lead” officer snapped forward towards the secretary, and, to my horror, grabbed her.  By grabbing her, I mean he reached into her waist and seized her by her skirt buckle.
It was not at all what I had expected. The first officer, completely oblivious of the young lady’s protestations and efforts to protect her dignity, was already lifting her up by her skirt, which was falling apart, buttons popping, a zipper ripping.
The office was soon empty, the staff taken away, their families unaware of their location.
“They will talk,” the policemen assured me.
I did not think so, if by “talk” they meant that they would disclose the location of their boss.  I did not believe they knew.
It was curious that not once did I hear any of the policemen ask about the home address of the man they sought; whether he had any other businesses; who his friends or mistresses were, or any information that might actually have helped to locate him.
It took me two days of pleading for the realty staff to be let out of the cells into which they had been thrown in various shades of undress.  There was still no information about their boss.
The morale of this story is that, while I was in a position to benefit from the intervention of the police in my case, there was no true police intervention.  If anything was achieved, it was extensive damage to the image of the police for me, the staff of the realty, and everyone through the ages who heard the story from any of us.
Actually, this is a story every Nigerian knows: with our so-called security or defence agencies, the emphasis is on “force.”  The police never seem to be trained to police for law and order, and the public, often fleeced for cash and favours, and brutalized at every provocation, has never had much reason to trust the force.
Is this imbalance of forces different when there is crisis?  I do not think so.
Nigeria’s Joint Task Force (JTF), now fashionably cobbled together in Nigeria for any security challenge short of war, aggregates and elevates the menace of the police, the Mobile Police, the military, and whatever shady body the government can throw into the mix along with tons of money to provide the illusion of response.
In theory, in the present, it is difficult to disagree with the idea of the JTF, especially with Boko Haram exposing our so-called security apparatus as weak, incompetent and amateurish.
That has yielded a division of the country into two: one to be feared, the other to be tolerated.
The element of fear is critical in assessing the government and its JTF, and the dark of fear feeds the JTF without necessarily resolving any problem.  When you think about it, the truth is that in order for the JTF to appear to be effective, an area often has to be reduced to dangerous and deserted, as in considerable swathes of Northern Nigeria at the moment.
But think about it: wherever JTF operates, it is often accused of brutality and human rights violations.  Examples abound: In May 2009 in the Niger Delta, the JTF, claiming to be hunting for militants and oil thieves, laid siege on towns and villages in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State.  The locals, some of whom had merely gathered for for a cultural activity, accused the force of bombing and mowing down the area.
In July 2011, after Boko Haram set off a bomb in Maiduguri’s Budum market which led to three soldiers being injured, JTF went on a rampage, shooting and killing at random, and then they set fire to the market.  Even the state governor admitted their recklessness.
In Jos last March, JTF soldiers killed 10 young protesters as they approached Mai Adiko village near Jos with the aim of “avenging” the death of five people killed earlier in a suicide car bomb attack on a church in the city.
Only this month in Maiduguri JTF claimed it killed 20 members of Boko Haram who had been holding a meeting, only to be immediately challenged by a Boko Haram spokesman who alleged that the Nigerian forces had only killed innocent people.   “There is no way our sect members up to 20 will gather in such environment and hold a council sitting,” the group said, again raising the question of JTF’s credibility
Sometimes, JTF is so feared and so resented that communities risk life and limb to beg for them to be disbanded.  In July 2010, Deltans accused JTF of extortion, blackmail, intimidation, and undermining legitimate businesses, and asked the federal government remove Major General Sarkin Yarkin Bello, its commanding officer.
In July 2011 in Borno State, a Committee of Elders and Leaders of Thought asked the government to withdraw JTF from the streets of Maiduguri and environs, accusing them of arson, murder, looting and raping of young girls.
In Kano State a group of religious, professional and civil society bodies also lamented the onslaught of the JTF on innocent civilians in Kano State.
Last week, a JTF spokesman, Lt. Colonel Sagir Musa bragged that in Maiduguri, members of Boko Haram are on the run and “will soon be defeated.”
The question is whether the government worries about the character and credibility of the JTF, which seems to work as if it is doing a favour rather than a job, and as if it makes up its own rules of engagement as it pleases.
Who is supervising the JTF, especially in areas of conflict that have become increasingly impossible for observers and journalists to visit?
Does JTF care when civilians are killed?  If JTF is the best protection that desperate civilians can get in areas where they are looting, raping and brutalizing, what does that portend for the future?  When members of JTF act outside the law, who evaluates them, the JTF?  When they brutalize and kill the innocent, who sanctions them, the JTF?
When the JTF, smarting from criticism and monumental failures, announces it has arrested militants or discovered huge caches of arms or will soon end the war, is it strange that nobody seems to believe them?
I believe the time has come for such an important body as the JTF to be recognized for what it really is: a sharp weapon that, poorly-handled, can cut in any direction.
A true JTF is an alliance between well-trained forces and the people, each complimenting the other.   A true JTF acts within, not beyond the law.
In the long run, an undisciplined force, joint or otherwise, turns the people into the enemy.

Missing N300bn pension fund: PHCN workers call for probe •They diverted the money through secret firm – Nnaji.

 by Fidelis Soriwei.

| credits:

The recent alarm raised by the Minister of Power, Prof. Bath Nnaji, that about N300bn, which should be in the account of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria Pension Scheme, could not be traced, has continued to generate a serious controversy.
Vice-President of the National Union of Electricity Workers Employees, Mr. Etete Ntukuben, on Friday, called for a probe, not just of the PHCN superannuation account, but the entire account of the PHCN.
Ntukuben said that investigators should be brought in to take a critical look at the withdrawals by the Minister of Power from the account of the PHCN. 
“Let us have a holistic look at the PHCN account apart from the pension account; we should take a look at the minister’s withdrawals. A lot of millions of naira have been withdrawn and given to soldiers and policemen in the guise of security maintenance.
“They must pay us according to the conditions of service of the industry, according to the terms of the contract we have with the government,” Ntukuben said.
The minister had invited the Civil Society Movement to conduct a probe into the superannuation account of the PHCN as a result of the fact that only N3bn was found in the account.
The minister said that the amount was too small compared to the claim by the electricity workers that an equivalent of 25 per cent of the salaries of 250,000 workers were paid into the account by the government, which should add up to N300bn.
But Ntukuben faulted the minister’s claim, describing it as a ploy to evade the payment of the PHCN workers.
The union leader explained that the Federal Government had not been remitting 25 per cent of the salaries of workers into the superannuation account “for quite some time now.”
According to him, the government stopped remitting the money into the account when power generation dropped sharply in the country with the management of the PHCN struggling to pay the salaries of workers.
He argued that if the management of the PHCN breached the terms of service of the workers by failing to remit the said amount into the superannuation account, the FG, which is considered to be the principal of the PHCN management, must be held liable.
Ntukuben said that the FG had a responsibility to ensure the payment of the gratuity and pension of the workers and indeed the exit packages of all PHCN workers, who were being disengaged from service into firms owned by private individuals.
He said the issue of the funds was being brought to the fore because of the decision of the FG to send away the entire workforce of the PHCN at the same time.
He insisted that it was the responsibility of the FG to implement its terms of agreement with the PHCN workers, which provided for the payment of gratuity to a worker who had put in five years and gratuity and pension to those with 10 years of service and above.
He said, “We had a superannuation fund that is supposed to be funded by the FG; it was arranged to take care of 25 per cent of our salaries.
“Management is supposed to remit the money into the fund. For some time, when they stopped funding the sector, power generation dropped and management was struggling to pay salaries and they were not remitting pension.
“Look, management of PHCN are agents of the FG; so, if they breached the superannuation funds, their principal would be held liable.
“It is the responsibility of the government to provide our exit package. Up till June 30 this year, those who retired and were qualified for gratuity and pension had not been paid their entitlements.
Nnaji had written the leading civil society organisations in the country to investigate the disappearance of the superannuation fund contributed from the internally-generated revenue of the PHCN.
“If the PHCN’s 50,000 employees have over the years been contributing 25 per cent of their salaries to the pension fund as alleged by the National Union of Electricity Employees, they should have over N300bn in their bank account.
“What we have rather found is a paltry N3bn, which cannot cover the terminal benefits of up to 30 per cent of the workforce,” Nnaji was quoted to have said in his letter to the civil society organisations on Monday.
The civil society groups invited to scrutinise the PHCN pension funds include the Save Nigeria Group under the leadership of Pastor Tunde Bakare, the Transition Monitoring Group of Moshood Erubayi and Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin’s Institute of Human Rights and Democratic Studies.
It was, however, gathered on Friday that even the N3bn which the minister referred to as the total sum in the pension account was actually a deficit.
An investigation showed that the FG was said to be making moves to ensure that the PHCN workers got their severance benefits.
However, the government has plans to pay the workers the equivalent of 25 per cent of their salaries to 2004 after which the stipulation of the 2004 Pensions Act would be applied.
It was gathered that the FG would not pay the full 15 per cent as the workers did not meet their required contribution to the contributory pension fund.
A look at the Pension Fund Trust Deed showed that the non-contributory fund was managed by a seven-man committee of trustees comprising members of the management of the PHCN and the leadership of the electricity unions.
The members, as stated in the Trustee Deed, are the Executive Director Finance and Administration, GM, Human Resources Management, GM, Sec/Legal Adviser, Assistant GM Industrial Relations, representatives of Senior Staff Association of Electricity Workers, representatives of the National Union of Electricity Employees, representatives of pensioners of the National Electric Power Authority (now PHCN).
According to the Deed, the committee has the powers to administer and manage the fund.
However, when our correspondent contacted the Special Adviser to the Minister of Power on Media, Mr. C-Don Adinuba, he described the union’s allegations as baseless and lacking in truth and morality.
He said that the workers were coming up with allegations against the minister because of their quest to prevent the FG from looking into the administration of the PHCN Staff Pension Fund.
He accused the leadership of the electricity workers of complicity in the diversion of huge amount of the pension funds meant for PHCN workers.
Adinuba said that the committee set up by the minister to look into the issue of the PHCN pension under the leadership of a former Auditor-General of the Federation, Mr. Joseph Ajiboye, was expected to come up with revelations that would shock Nigerians especially the workforce of the PHCN, who he said was being fed with lies by the unionists.
The minister’s aide said that leaders of unions in the electricity sector opened a secret account in 2005, which they used in diverting huge amount of funds through a secretly registered firm.
He said that if the workers were acting in consonance with the principle of accountability, probity and morality, they wouldn’t have expressed concern about the invitation to civil society bodies with personalities like Bakare, Sani, Pat Utomi and others who could not be described as loyalists of the government.
Adinuba accused the union leaders in the electricity sector of deliberately deceiving the workers and the public through misinformation.
He said, “Of course we shall be glad for investigators to look into the PHCN account. I think they are making these allegations because they want to stop the government from getting to the root of the administration of the PHCN pension scheme.
“These people secretly registered a company in 2005 and diverted PHCN pension fund to the account of the company.
“Well, the minister has set up a panel headed by a former Auditor-General of the Federation, Mr. Joseph Ajiboye.
“I believe that this panel will open a can of worms including the secret registration of this firm and the operations of the secret account.”
According to him, the management of the PHCN is setting aside the sum of N3.5bn in the pension fund to pay the entitlements of those leaving the firm every year.
He said the surplus, running into hundreds of millions of naira after the annual payment of about 100 retiring workers, was diverted into the secret account operated by the union leaders.
On the issue of the withdrawals made by the minister from the PHCN account for the purpose of security maintenance, Adenuba said that it was only irrational and unpatriotic people that would call on the FG to withdraw soldiers from multi-billion naira facilities of the PHCN amid the insecurity in the society.
He said that the arrangement where N3.5bn was set aside for the payment of exit benefits could not work in view of the privatisation of 17 out of the 18 PHCN subsidiary companies with a total of 40,000 workers.
He added that N43bn set aside for the payment of the exit package of the workers was inadequate.

Jega may sue Oshiomhole over gov poll allegation.

 by Friday Olokor.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega

There are indications that the Independent National Electoral Commission may take legal action against Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, following his remarks about its chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, and a National Commissioner, Dr. Ishmail Igbani, during the July 14 governorship election in the state.

The governor was reported to have, among other things, described Jega as a “national embarrassment” who in his view, “cannot preside over elections in a single state.”

Apart from accusing Jega of “disenfranchising the Edo people”, Oshiomhole reportedly described Igbani as a man who is “hopelessly corrupt” and “has been involved in many elections that have been rigged in many states, including Edo.”

But INEC’s Secretary, Alhaji Abdullahi Kaugama, in a letter dated August 8 addressed to Oshiomhole and obtained by our correspondent on Wednesday in Abuja, warned the governor to desist from making allegations for which he could not provide any proof.

He said, “Considering the esteemed nature of the high office you hold, it will not be asking too much that, in the future, you should be statesmanly and avoid careless and disparaging remarks unbecoming of that office.

“Please take notice that this is without prejudice to any legal action the defamed persons may wish to take. While INEC recognises the tension and anxiety that could be generated by momentary hitches in election day processes, the commission believes that these do not confer the licence to savagely attack the integrity of other persons without any proof.

“If however, there is any concrete evidence of corrupt acts by any official of INEC, no matter how highly placed, you will do well to come forward with such evidence rather than make speculative but highly damaging allegations.”

Tunde Idiagbon.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Babatunde Idiagbon
President	Muhammadu Buhari
Governor of Borno State
In office July 1978 – October 1979
Preceded by	Mustapha Amin
Succeeded by	Mohammed Goni
6th Vice President of Nigeria
In office December 31, 1983 – August 27, 1985
Preceded by	Alex Ekwueme
Succeeded by	Ebitu Ukiwe
Personal details
Nationality	Nigerian
Political party	None (military)
Spouse(s)	Biodun Idiagbon
Religion	Islam

Babatunde "Tunde" Idiagbon (14 September 1942 - 24 March 1999) was a Nigerian army officer and a one-time member of the Nigerian military juntas of 1966–1979 and 1983-1998 Nigerian military junta which ruled that country. He served as a military administrator of Borno State in the 1970s in the military administration of Olusegun Obasanjo. Following the ouster of the civilian administration of Shehu Shagari at the end of 1983, he rose to become the Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters and defacto Vice President in the military administration of Muhammadu Buhari.

Buhari Administration

In this role, he was the de-facto second-in-command and was responsible for implementing many of the government's policies. Chief amongst these was the War Against Indiscipline (WAI), which was a campaign to eradicate corruption and disorderliness in Nigerian life.

Life after the Buhari Administration

After 20 months in power, the government of Buhari was overthrown by Ibrahim Babangida. Idiagbon was removed from his position in this coup, and he was placed under house arrest for 3 years. After his release, he returned to civilian life in his hometown of Ilorin, Nigeria, where he died in 1999 of an unknown illness after returning from a conference. Rumors have circulated about Idiagon dying from poisoning, however these rumors remain unsubstantiated.