Monday, 24 February 2014

Thieves At Work, Don’t Disturb


With President Goodluck Jonathan, many things we once thought were impossible have become very possible. It’s only under Jonathan that we started spending N2 trillion on fuel subsidy without any significant increase in our population. In his first year in office, the president spent about N2 trillion fuel subsidy even though only N245 billion was appropriated for this. Only in the Nigerian style democracy would this man continue as president two years after this revelation. In decent climes, a president like this would have long been impeached and removed from office by the National Assembly in the national interest.
I once wrote on this page that we have a president who gets very angry if you catch a thief. He gets very, very angry. And many people have started wondering if there is a linear relationship between him and these thieves. He wants thieves to be left alone to ply their trade quietly and efficiently.
Sometime ago, the media exposed the squalid conditions police cadets lived in at the Police College, Ikeja. Those who exposed the sorry condition thought they were helping Jonathan to do his work as president. The first thing the president said when he was shown the place was, “Who brought pressmen to this place?” It was like saying, “Why are you exposing the thievery in this place?” In other words, “thieves at work, don’t disturb.” Till date, nothing has happened. Vintage Jonathan.
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Central Bank of Nigeria governor, has been shouting himself hoarse that $20 billion or N3.3 trillion of the revenues that the NNPC was supposed to have made for the country has not been remitted to the nation’s coffers. The first thing any normal president would do on getting this kind of information is get very angry. And if you were the kind of president who stole along with your minister, the best first thing to do would be to pretend to be angry. Our president did not get angry at this very serious revelation, and he did not even think it was worth his while to pretend to be angry. Our wonderful president did not even get angry when his beloved minister of petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke, confessed that she had spent N3.5 billion on kerosene subsidy without appropriation, a power the president himself does not have. He also did not waste his time pretending.
Sanusi was obviously the only one angry on behalf of Jonathan and his government, and he kept raising the alarm. As Sanusi continued to raise the alarm, our president got more desperate. The president knew he did not have the power to remove the CBN governor, as he needed the Senate’s approval to achieve that. Sanusi had earlier rebuffed his order to resign. A smart president would have just respected himself and waited for Sanusi’s tenure to run out. An even smarter president would have simply announced Sanusi’s successor and, by so doing, he would have made Sanusi a lame-duck governor at once and made his comments largely ineffective. People would now be waiting for the incoming governor to either confirm or repudiate Sanusi’s allegations.
But, instead, Jonathan has, by the needless or even groundless suspension of the CBN governor, further confirmed the reasoning of many who have said that he (Jonathan) should not be president in the first place because he lacks the reflexes of the president of a nation. Jonathan’s detractors should go to sleep because the president himself is doing their job excellently for them. They can’t do it better. The president is his own greatest enemy.
The reactions from around the world about the Nigerian president in the wake of such a very unpresidential action should embarrass every Nigerian. Some in the international community are already comparing Jonathan’s Nigeria to Idi Amin’s Uganda, except that the latter was not nearly as corrupt.
I still find it incomprehensible that a CBN governor would complain that a minister has misappropriated N3 trillion and, instead of the president to suspend the minister first, pending the outcome of an investigation, it is the CBN governor who reported the theft that has to be suspended. Indeed, our president is a wonderful man.

EARSHOT

A Military Governor For Borno?
I first heard the improbable rumour at the weekend but I quickly dismissed it because it would not make sense to believe it. But the story was the lead of yesterday’s Sunday Trust: President Goodluck Jonathan is indeed contemplating appointing a military administrator for Borno State. Even with that story, I still will not want to believe that Jonathan will carry his suicidal instincts that far. If he tries that kind of stunt, someone could someday borrow from the same play book to say that a military administrator should be appointed for Nigeria, especially as President Jonathan himself has messed up the country so badly.
So, let President Jonathan save all of us that setback. Even though the president thinks he can get away with illegalities, this one may ultimately be his waterloo. The military has quit power; he must never bring them back with his own hands through the back door. The security problem in Borno and Yobe states is Jonathan himself. Whenever he gets serious about tackling security in the north-east, he will do it. Let him ask the countries that are doing it successfully how they are doing it. Even an average president can solve this problem easily. When he starts to equip the soldiers properly and starts giving them their appropriated budgets to carry out their functions, they will defeat Boko Haram. Let the president tell Nigerians how much of their appropriated budgets the military and police have been receiving since he became president.
In the very recent past, the Nigerian military and police have been adjudged as some of the best in the world when they are sent on international operations. If under President Jonathan they have so declined that they are now unable to defeat Boko Haram, it should not be difficult to know why.

Leadership

: "Nigeria’s missing petrol billions" - FT



Case for shaking up the oil industry has never been clearer

Corruption in Nigeria has fed for generations on state monopolies that encourage failure on a grand scale. Yet each time over the past two decades that government has found the political will to break up these power centres, the country’s potential as the leading driver of continental growth has become evident. The case for commercialising the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the state oil company, has never been so clear. Because of its position as a source typically of 70 per cent of state revenues and more than 90 per cent of export earnings, oil and the way it is managed is central to Nigeria’s economic wellbeing. As things stand, the NNPC is at the centre of a rotten industry which is a barrier to growth.

According to Lamido Sanusi, the outspoken governor of the central bank, mismanagement at the NNPC and other state agencies in upstream and downstream energy is costing the treasury about $1bn every month. His detailed revelations to a senate committee and the unprecedented scrutiny that oil sector transactions now face as a result, should provide ammunition for reformers in and outside government to demand an urgent clean-up. The scale of losses is now so huge it is jeopardising macroeconomic fundamentals despite the soaring price of oil. It is stripping the treasury of rainy-day savings, placing the currency and foreign reserves under stress and forcing the central bank to raise interest rates.

The potential benefits of shaking up the oil industry are correspondingly great. Reforms to Nigeria’s banking system have led to the emergence of a new generation of banks with the scale to challenge South Africa’s financial powerhouses in a race for regional expansion. The case for liberalisation was made more strikingly still in telecommunications. During the 1980s and 1990s, Nigeria squandered untold billions digitalising its landline network in a quasi monopolistic relationship between the state company Nitel and Germany’s Siemens. Only one in 300 Nigerians ended up with access to a phone. The explosive growth of mobile phone use since the government auctioned off GSM licences in 2001 showed what is possible in Africa’s most populous nation when the dead hand of the state is lifted. There are now some 110m connected phones.


President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration has begun to tackle the next main impediment to growth: chronic power shortages. The privatisation programme he has launched, in the face of stiff resistance from interests vested in procurement fraud and the lucrative import of diesel to run generators, is the most ambitious in Africa. Eventually, this should eliminate another costly racket while delivering cheap electricity.

The government’s record on managing energy resources is another matter. The gradual elimination of rent-seeking opportunities in other sectors appears to be concentrating hands in the oil till. Mr Sanusi’s exposé suggests that, like power and telecoms before it, Nigeria’s oil industry is on a path of diminishing returns as a result.

The forensic audit that Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, finance minister, has initiated in response could go some way towards identifying where money is going missing. But the value of such an audit will be limited if the government subsequently fails – as it has before – to plug the holes, prosecute the culprits and use the evidence to change the way Nigeria buys and sells its oil.

The case for untethering the NNPC from the political system and restructuring the body is clear. With commercially priced domestic gas and fuel supplies, functioning refineries and an oil export industry that pays its own way, there is every reason to believe Nigeria might finally take off. The status quo, on the other hand, will bleed the country dry.

BREAKING: We never received $6bn from NNPC, NPDC insists #Missing20Billion

CAM00213
Feb. 24, 2014
Vanguard
BY JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU
ABUJA—AS controversy continues to trail the alleged unremitted $20 billion by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to the federation account, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NDPC, has denied receiving $6 billion from NNPC.
It was alleged that $6 billion which was part of the unremitted fund was given to NPDC, a subsidiary company of NNPC, but the management of NPDC at the Senate panel sharply contradicted the NNPC claim as it denied receiving any such money from the corporation.
The Managing Director, NPDC, Victor Briggs told the committee that what the company received was only funds to cover its capital and operational expenditure from NNPC but he did not mention the amount that was paid to NPDC.
Testifying before the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led Committee on Finance investigating the alleged missing money from the federation account, Mr. Briggs said, “NPDC will like to confirm that it received funds from NNPC to cover its capital and operating expenditures as approved by NNPC for the NNPC funded assets during the period under review.
“We did not in the NPDC account receive $6 billion. We did not rely on NNPC for the funding of our activities. Like we stated in the letter,
“From the account managed from the NNPC, royalties and taxes, we received only what is required to fund the budget.  The exact amount will be forwarded in writing to the committee.”
He assured the committee that before February 28, the company would provide the committee with the exact amount paid by the NNPC for its capital and operational expenditures.
The NPDC boss said that the NNPC was only mandated to contribute funds to cover its asset and nothing more, adding that though the NPDC is an auxiliary corporation set up by the NNPC for upstream business, it had other sponsors and was legally required to work within the service and strategic contract terms.
He further said that he barely received enough to cater for assets contributed by the NNPC.
“There is a funding relationship. The NPDC has service and strategic contract with the NNPC which pays specific amount to cater for its asset in the company. We did not receive $ 6billion from the NNPC. We, however, received specific amount to cover the asset as statutorily required,” he submitted.
The amount in contention was part of the money the suspended Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Governor,  Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, had said the NNPC ought to have remitted to the federation account but was not.

NewsRescue

A Clearer Picture Of Nigeria’s Missing Billions By BudgIT

sanusi-babariga



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Feb. 24, 2014
NewsRescue
This image/infographic presents the account so far pretty clearly to appreciate.
follow the money

NewsRescue

Jonathan Surrounded By Incompetent, Fraudulent Aides – Sanusi


The suspend governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has described President Goodluck Jonathan as a man trying to do well but whose efforts are being undermined by incompetent and fraudulent aides.
In an interview with AFP in Lagos yesterday, Sanusi said many of the people advising Jonathan are sycophants who do not speak frankly about the extent of corruption in his government.
He said, “When you sit with President Jonathan himself, he appears a nice simple person who is trying his best to do his best. His greatest failing obviously is that he is surrounded by people who are extremely incompetent, who are extremely fraudulent and whom he trusts,” Sanusi told AFP.
On why he secured a court order against his arrest, Sanusi said, “I thought taking away my passport was the beginning of infringement on my fundamental human rights.”
Regarding the allegations against him, Sanusi explained that he had written to the president when he heard about a report condemning his performance, asking if an explanation was needed, but received no reply.
He argued it would be too simple to describe his removal as payback for his attacks on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
“Since 2009 I have been annoying the government… You’ve got people who think I have the wrong friends, people who think maybe I have not distanced myself enough from people who are seen to be opposition figures,” he further stated.
In the short term, he voiced readiness to face any attacks that may be coming from those committed to preserving the status quo, adding: “If I am sacrificed in whatever way, my freedom or my life… if it does lead to better accountability it will be well worth it.
“I think everybody has known that NNPC is rotten. I don’t think it has ever been as bad as this. The so-called kerosene subsidy money in fact pays for private jets…yachts… and expensive property in Beverly Hills and Switzerland,” Sanusi alleged.

Leadership

Saturday, 22 February 2014

CBN: Disquiet over Jonathan’s silence on Deputy Governors


CBN: Disquiet over Jonathan’s silence on Deputy Governors
CBN

 by: Yusuf Alli, Managing Editor, Northern Operation

Barely 24 hours after the suspension of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, President Goodluck Jonathan’s silence on the fate of the Deputy Governors of the bank was faulted yesterday by some top officials of the administration.
The report of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, upon which Sanusi was suspended, had recommended that the CBN Governor and his deputies should leave office.
It was also learnt that the State Security Service (SSS) has returned Sanusi’s passport.
The passport was allegedly seized in what a source described as a “routine” security check at the airport in Lagos.
Investigation by our correspondent revealed that many government officials are wondering why Sanusi was singled out for suspension
A part of the report said the President should “exercise the powers conferred on him by Section 11 (2) (f) of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, 2007 or invoke Section 11 (2) (c) of the said Act and cause the Governor and the Deputy Governors to cease from holding office in the CBN and also direct the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria to carry out a full investigation of the activities of the CBN…”
A reliable source said: “There has been agitation for the President to implement the report in full instead of isolating Sanusi for sanction.
“The Financial Reporting Council was explicit in its recommendations. Stakeholders even in CBN are worried that the Deputy Governors were spared by the President.
“Going by the workings of the CBN, there was no way Sanusi could have acted alone. What was the role of the management in all these findings by the FRCN?”
Another source said: “I think the government should not give us only a side of the FRCN’ report; it is about indictment of the CBN as a body. Let them tell us what they are doing about others.
“Does it mean Sanusi was in charge of all units, procurements and supplies? Don’t we have Deputy Governors and Directors overseeing some of these contracts or projects awarded by CBN? Could Sanusi alone have initiated all these projects?
“What was the role of the Board of the CBN in all the findings of the FRCN? I think there are many questions unanswered before Sanusi was hastily suspended.”
There were indications yesterday that the State Security Service (SSS) might have returned Sanusi’s passport to him.
A security source said: “I am aware that security operatives only went through his passport and it has been returned to him.”
But a former Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, tweeted last night that he “just learnt that the SSS has obtained an arrest warrant that discloses no criminal offence to detain and gag Sanusi.
The security source however said: “I do no think we have obtained a warrant to arrest Sanusi. As at 6pm when I left office, I had no knowledge of a warrant.”
El-Rufai has explained why he would stand by the suspended Governor of CBN.
The ex-Minister, who made his position known on Sanusi’s suspension in some tweets, said: “Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is my friend and brother since 1977. An injustice to him is an attack on me as well. I will be on his side through this and beyond.
“First the gangsters illegally removed Justice Isa Ayo Salami. Then they tried to impeach Governor Rotimi Amaechi. Now they unlawfully suspended Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. Who is next?
“The Jonathanians are not bothered about the law or bound by reason; they just want to stay in power at all cost.”
TheNation

Nigeria Human Rights Commission releases damning report, says INEC, judiciary, police are election criminals


Highlights of Report
*INEC is partisan and falsifies election results
*Judiciary creates the impression that there are separate sets laws for the poor on one hand and the rich on another
*Police perform role of party agents, thumb-prints and stuff ballot boxes
——————————————————–
The National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, has indicted the Nigerian Judiciary, the Nigerian Police Force, NPF, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for perpetrating electoral impunity in Nigeria.
In its report on the investigation of the election petitions filed at the various election petition tribunals across the six geo-political zones, the Commission found the three key organisations in the electoral process culpable of promoting electoral offences, which are a threat to the nation’s democracy.
The report is being released in Abuja Thursday morning but PREMIUM TIMES was able to scoop an advance copy for this story.
The report is titled, “An Independent Review of Evidence of Gross Violations of the Rights to Participate in Government to Public Service and to fair trial through the Election Petition Process in Nigeria — 2007 and 2011.”
The 146-page document was prepared by a seven-member expert Technical Working Group, TWG, constituted by the NHRC and chaired by Nsongurua Udombana. The other members are Mohammed Akanbi, Oluyemisi Bamgbose, Ifeoma Enemo, Muhammed Ladan and Solomon Ukhuegbe.
The report provides evidence of the extensive pattern of judicially sanctioned criminality in the election cycle as part of the continuing narrative of the long history of elections as organised crime in Nigeria.
The investigation covered the six geo-political zones, and considered 84 diverse crimes committed by individuals and institutions during the 2007 and 2011 general elections.
The common crimes identified by the researchers include cases of unlawful substitution of candidates by political parties and INEC, inflation of the numbers of ballots cast, forgery of election returns, and intimidation of voters and election officials at polling centres.
According to the report, the practice of falsifying election results is far from abating. It cited a 2007 case in Kano State where the tribunal there complained that INEC wanted it “to tacitly endorse abracadabra.”
It also referred to a case in a ward in Anambra State during the same 2007 elections where only 2,089 voters registered, but INEC declared 7,226 votes.
“In this case, the tribunal found that INEC had been involved in the “generating of results for an election that did not hold,” the report stated.
“In Ekiti State in south-west Nigeria, the Resident Electoral Commissioner announced as valid returns, results “which she declared as fake.”
“In another Anambra case, the tribunal accused named INEC officials of generating “results for an election that did not hold as proved by Chief Edith Mike Ejezie, which showed clearly  that these results ranging from EC8A (II), EC8E (II) as tendered by the respondents were obviously fabricated.”
The NHRC report also noted that one way in which officials of the electoral body falsifies elections was by manufacturing results long after voting had ended.  It said this occurred in units in which results had not yet been announced and no result forms completed or signed by party agents.
It gave an instance where in Katsina State, an Election Petition Tribunal found that although voting took place, “result (sic) in Form EC8A (I) was not collated and declared”, yet a result was filed from the Polling Unit.”
It further cited another case where the tribunal found that “the results of the election was (sic)declared before the completion of collation in Awka South.”
The document stated that there were other cases where supposedly neutral election INEC officials were criminally partisan.
For example, in Kaduna State, north-west Nigeria, the Election Petition Tribunal in 2008 registered its “dislike of the law on the practice of allowing party members of any one party to function as INEC Supervisor or Returning officer in the conduct of election(s).”
It also listed a case in Edo State where one official, Felix Osaigbovo, who was “INEC presiding officer for Unit 1 Ward 9” in the 2007 elections, signed the result sheets “as (a) PDP agent”.
The report quoted the election tribunal in Adamawa State where such routinely electoral crimes also took place as saying that:
“In more serious and accountable political climes, INEC should have evinced some remorse for the whole problem it has caused and the public money it wasted to organize an election it made inchoate even before it started.
“Its grandstanding is rather unfortunate. As a result of its ineptitude or mischief, a serious disruption will be caused to the governance of Adamawa State.”
Atrocities by the police
The report also regretted the role of the Nigeria police in the elections, saying its officers also routinely commit electoral crimes.
It said that in one case, the Election Petition Tribunal lamented that the evidence on record as per exhibit E showed that a policeman, ASP Christopher Oloyede, signed an election result sheet as party agent on behalf of the PDP.
It quoted the tribunal as saying, “This is an illegality and violation of electoral rules both by INEC and the police. ASP Oloyede behaved disgracefully and abused his position.  Neither INEC nor the police could defend the illegality that ought to have been sanctioned.”
The Commission’s report also cited a case in Edo State during the 2007 governorship election. It said the tribunal found that “the evidence of the witness is that police officers were in fact doing the shooting, the thumb-printing or the ballot-stuffing.”
It noted that violence, including the intimidation of voters, snatching and stuffing of ballot boxes was another mainstay of recent Nigerian elections.
According to the document, in one case arising from the contest over the 2007 Osun Central Senatorial seat, the Election Petition Tribunal said “the evidence of violence, voter intimidation, hijacking, illicit thumb-printing, ballot box stuffing is overwhelming and beyond reasonable doubt, conjecture or proposition or presumption.”
Also in Kogi State, it said a tribunal found that petitioners proved beyond reasonable doubt that the 1st Respondent, Clarence Olafemi, a former Speaker of the State House Assembly, led his agents and thugs and committed acts of corrupt practices and non-compliance with the Electoral Act by disrupting the conduct of election, harassing and intimidating eligible voters who were sent away from polling units without voting.
The report lamented the cases of forged credentials and eligibility documents, which were also established. For instance, in Nassarawa State, the tribunal ruled that it was “satisfied that [Umar Sani Ebini and another] have succeeded in proving the allegation of forgery and/or presenting a forged certificate to INEC against [Patrick Ashagu Ebinny] beyond reasonable doubt.”
It added, “In Ibeju-Lekki in Lagos State, south-west Nigeria, Tunde Isiaq, a 2007 candidate for the House of Representatives also presented forged credentials. In yet another case from Nasarawa State, the tribunal found that Yakubu Mohammed Kwarra, a candidate in State legislative elections, presented forged documents with respect to both his age and educational qualifications.”
Judicial excesses
The report lamented thus, “In each of these cases, and many more, the Tribunals, without exception, failed to direct, suggest or order action to ensure accountability for the crimes they identified were committed.
“By doing so, the Nigerian judiciary has created the impression that there is one law for poor people and another for the big men and women who put themselves forward for elections,” it said.
“As a result, the courts not only facilitate the violation of citizens’ rights to effective participation in their government, they also aid the culture of impunity that has become the hallmark of elections in Nigeria.”
It said that out of about 870,000 persons apprehended for offences connected with the 2011 voter registration and general elections, only about 200 persons, or about 0.02 per cent, were successfully prosecuted though INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega, attributed this abysmal number of prosecutions to lack of funds and personnel.
The report said the evidence from the material it examined “clearly supports the conclusion that the judiciary in Nigeria is unwilling and unable to ensure accountability for electoral crimes. It is also open to the conclusion that the judiciary supports, tolerates or is indifferent to the crimes committed by candidates, parties, and their agents in unlawful pursuit of power and its perquisites.”
The report said the ways tribunals handle election petition cases have fostered a “real perception that the judiciary can be bought or sold, not just in election petitions, but in all cases”.
It adds, “If the judiciary cannot be trusted to resolve disputes fairly and justly, the people may find comfort in violence and vigilante methods.”
The report also said as officers of the court, judges and lawyers were an integral in the effective administration of justice and the legal process, noting that without cooperation from them, the system necessarily collapses.
“So, when judges and lawyers help to break the law, impunity necessarily ensues.  Thus, appellate courts have indicted judges from lower courts for such malfeasance,” the document said.
The NHRC stated that based on the evidence so far reviewed, it was clear that:
-Huge gaps remain in the Constitution, the Electoral Act, and other laws governing elections in Nigeria. Different stakeholders – INEC, political parties, politicians, and other individuals – exploit these gaps to violate the right to participate in government, the right to public service, and the right to fair trial;
-Many of the tribunal decisions have been based on technicalities while ignoring issues of substantive justice; as such, the judiciary has been used routinely to validate clearly unlawful election outcomes, in many cases clearly accompanied or facilitated by crimes;
-Many of the cases reviewed also disclose improper exercise of judicial discretion by election tribunals and courts as well as insufficient evaluation of evidence and some suggest possibilities of judicial misconduct that require investigation. Such acts implicate on the right to fair trial and institutional credibility of the judiciary;
-In cases where petitioners fail to prove allegations of criminality beyond reasonable doubt, courts/tribunals simply dismiss the petitions and ignore the compelling evidence that crimes were committed quite apart from questions of proof;
-Counsel for respondents, in clear collusion with INEC officials, also sometimes use unethical methods to delay cases and defeat the cause of justice without consequences; and
-In all cases where the tribunals/courts found infractions of the (criminal) law, they fail to exercise their inherent powers to recommend prosecutions by the appropriate authorities.
On the way forward, the NHRC said the task of consolidating electoral democracy in Nigeria would require that urgent attention be paid to the elimination of electoral impunity through ensuring accountability for electoral crimes.
While making recommendations to all relevant institutions in the electoral process, it, however, stressed that, “No number of recommendations can replace the need for political will on the part of all concerned branches and agencies of the Nigerian State, as well as the INEC, political leaders, political parties and civic organisations.”
 PremiumTimes