MAITATSINE, The Story of Nigeria’s Religious Terror of the 1980s

by Naijarchives · March 17, 2015

It was over 34 years ago, the 18^th of December, 1980 to be precise. A Fulani teacher named Shehu Shagari was the first elected civilian Nigerian President but the nation he was leading was in flames, set alight by a skinny but energetic man who spoke high-pitched Fulani like him too. The security forces were helpless and even the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces seemed confused. The violence, the horror and the terror that ensued from the wild ideas of one old man who was not even a Nigerian was about to consume the nation. Sheer madness was mixed with agonizing destruction as major cities burned.

MAITATSINE: Nigerian security forces pose with him after an arrest. Image credits: Engr Shamsuddeen Lukman El-Shams/Nigeria Nostalgia Project.

  Untamed hordes of insurgents brandishing all sorts of primitive weapons like bows and arrows, dane guns, leopard skins to serve as bulletproof vests, and powdered charms went from house to house in the northern state of Kano and went on looting, maiming, burning, raping and killing as they wished. But despite the low sophistication of their weapons, their pattern of destruction was so brutal and complete that in a matter of just days, about 5,000 Nigerians lay dead. Considering the fact that Boko Haram’s activities have claimed the lives of over 15,000 Nigerians since 2009, you will appreciate the scope and degree of violence of this red-faced sect that killed so much Nigerians in just 12 days. Maitatsine had become a terror and a fast-growing one, with 12,000 followers ready to march to the death on the vehement orders of their much-revered spiritual leader. For the first time in the history of Nigeria, religious differences would lead to the loss of thousands of lives and Nigerians would witness a horror that would be surpassed only by the Nigerian Civil War which had ended ten years earlier.
SEEDS OF TERROR: THE ORIGIN
The founder of the Maitatsine sect, Alhaji Mohammed (Muhammadu) Marwa was not a Nigerian even if his activities would later lead to the loss of thousands of precious Nigerian lives. He migrated from the town of Marwa (Maroua) in northern Cameroon to Kano State in 1945. Marwa, which is a center of cotton industry is also the capital of the Far North Region of Cameroon (see picture below) and the predominant religion there is Sufi Islam. Maitatsine settled in the warm and hospitable city of Kano, acclimatized and adapted to the ways of life. Fulfulde, the language of the Fulanis was the common language in Marwa where he came from so it is safe to assume that blending in would not have been a major issue. Not much was known about his activities in the ancient city of Kano up until the early 1960s when the story changed all of a sudden.

The origin of Maitatsine is Maroua (Marwa) located in northern Cameroon. Image credits: Creative Commons.

  Before then, Maitatsine had gained a reputation in Kano as a noble scholar and an expert in the interpretation and commentary of the Holy Qu’ran. He was so good at it that he was named Mai Tafsiri meaning the ‘Tafsir scholar’. Tafsir is the exegesis, in-depth explanation or critical interpretation of the Qu’ran.  In 1960, Nigeria became an independent nation but the politics that would follow in Kano State was far from peaceful. The senseless jostling for power by the politicians led to an entropy in the society, and Maitatsine, who was already gaining some followership, took advantage and rode on this resultant wave of disorder initially generated by the power-hungry politicians. Unemployment soared, crime rate increased, poverty was not abating, people were disgruntled and the citizens were already tired of the fumbling and corrupt politicians. It was at that time that Maitatsine decided to launch his own movement. His message was simple but brutally efficient: to oppose the government and even orthodox Islam itself. He had transformed himself into another creature, one that would terrorize the world’s most populous black nation.
LOVE, FAMILY AND MARRIAGE
 Maitatsine was reportedly a caring husband and father but it is not clear the precise layout of his familly but he was polygamous. His children lived above and outside the law. One of his sons, Tijani, once told a neighbour that the amount of weapons under the bed of his father in his room alone would wipe out the entire police force. It is believed that the death of Tijani, Maitatsine’s son was a turning point in his life. One fateful day, Tijani went out with his friends to one of their wild parties as usual. A very sad piece of news would later reach Maitatsine that his son was dead, he was shot in unclear circumstances. As Maitatsine set his eyes on the blood-stained lifeless body of his son, he cried in agony saying:
‘Oh the people of Kano, what have I done to you to deserve this? ’
Maitatsine believed the death of his son was orchestrated by his enemies i.e the government forces and that the people of Kano would definitely pay for it. His tone change markedly from that point on.
THE TEACHINGS AND THE SPREAD

MAITATSINE: Nigerian security forces pose with him after an arrest.

At this point, a little background information would be helpful. Maitatsine was just one of the many sects of Islam in northern Nigeria as at that time. Others included the Shiites (as at the initial time of writing this piece, the home of the Shiite leader, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky was reportedly attacked by hired youths in Zaria and left many dangerously wounded with machete cuts), Izala and the Tariqa. These other sects are still active and there is a precarious swing of harmony and violence. It has been like that for a while with occasional but very turbulent clashes. However, out of these four main sects Maitatsine stood out as the most radical. While other sects still cooperated to a reasonable extent with the government, Maitatsine was absolutely against the government and anything that represent constituted authority. Even the Emir of Kano was not safe from his wrath. He would later be known for his fierce and curse-filled speeches against the Nigerian government. It was this practice that earned him the nickname Mai Tatsine. That was because he would mount the pulpit and lash out in his red-hot speeches in a not-too-perfect Hausa:
Allah ya tsine maka albarka!
(Meaning: May God deprive you of His blessings!)
He would continue thus:
Whoever uses wristwatches, radios or ride bicycles,
Allah ya tsine maka albarka!
In no time, the people of Kano quickly labelled him Mai Tatsine which can be loosely translated to mean ‘the one with curses’ or ‘the one who curses’.  
  But that was not all. There was another dimension to Maitatsine’s teachings that alarmed millions all over northern Nigeria: he preached clearly against the conventional form of Islam. He came with his own brand of puritanical Islam and condemned everything else. The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi, pictured below (who incidentally was the grandfather of the former Central Bank Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and now the Emir of Kano) was shocked at Maitatsine’s audacity. A majority of the city’s clerics were also appalled and outraged at Maitatsine’s teachings and the challenge that he would pose as an obstacle to constituted authority, both in the religious and political spheres. But the man from Cameroon did not even send anyone of them, including the all-powerful Emir. He continued his fiery ‘preachings’ and scary sermons to his amused followers, who obviously lapped up and enjoyed everything he said.

The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi, pictured below (who incidentally was the grandfather of the former Central Bank Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and now the Emir of Kano) was shocked at Maitatsine’s audacity.

   Maitatsine’s teachings were quite interesting indeed. Although many may see Boko Haram as a new creation or novel development, the truth of the matter is that this is not the first time in the history of Nigeria that a fundamentalist religious sect would challenge the state with their audacious teachings and unleash maximum destruction in a bid to establish their own version of how a society should operate. Maitatsine spoke with anger and instructed his followers that:
-Western education is a sin.
-The use of money is not important and even accumulating too much money is a grave sin. He preached that sleeping with more than one naira was lack of trust in Allah. He encouraged his followers to dress simply and they were engaged in low-paying occupations as begging, transient labourers, cart pushers, petty traders and tea sellers.
-They should do away with all tools of modernity such as wristwatches, radios, television sets, cars, bicycles and the rest.  Considering the fact that many of his followers were even already too poor to afford such luxuries, the teaching was quite easy to follow and enforce. Even those of his followers who had these items gladly smashed their black-white Philips television sets.
THE POWER

At the height of his power, the terror of Maitatsine gripped all of Kano, seen here from across the famed Dala Hill. Image credits: Creative Commons.

Maitatsine’s genius laid in his ability to utilize the contemporary social problems like poverty, despair, corruption and unemployment as tools to indoctrinate hopeless youths and then turn them against the government, simultaneously blaming the government as the source of their misery. His cult was massive and as at December 1980, he had between 8,000 and 12,000 members (Falola, 1998, 143). He would send his followers out in small groups of three to five to preach at major junctions near the Sabon Gari Mosque or in places around Koki and Kofar Wombai where they ferociously attacked secularism, modernity, corruption and blasted the other clerics. It was rumoured that Maitatsine was supported by one of the wealthiest contractors in Kano and that he even got assistance from politicians but there is no evidence for this. His mystique was fed by tales of his magical powers, tales of cannibalism and human slaughter, hypnotized students and brainwashed women.
As he spoke with considerable rage from his pulpit, his gleeful supporters and frenzied followers nodded in agreement to everything Maitatsine said. To them, he was nothing but an angel, God’s own manifestation on the face of the earth. Many swore they would lay down their lives for him, and they were not joking. At the height of his power and influence, Mohammed Marwa was the toast of the high and mighty. Influential personalities paid him visits in his Kano powerhouse seeking his services as a marabout. High-ranking clerics also visited his sprawling quarters. That the high political class and the religious elite have worked hand in hand to unleash terror upon the populace for their selfish gains is an unfortunate recurring decimal in Nigeria’s history. But what is even more unfortunate is the desperate attempts by some Nigerians (who are already bearing the brunt of the stupidity of the ruling class and suffering on a daily basis as a result of this unholy marriage of the exploitative clergy and the parasitic politicians) to either justify the actions or even shift blames.
  At a point, Marwa had become so powerful to the extent that he operated his own autonomous enclave. Because his followers regarded other Muslims as heretics, they avoided the general population and lived in an isolated section of the city. You know, in the Reverend Jim Jones style. Like the Hamaliyya sect of the Tijanniya order, the Maitatsine preferred to live in their own hermit kingdom, creating a minuscule North Korea in the heart of Kano. Interestingly, one of the fastest and most efficient ways to indoctrinate anyone is to isolate them or cut them off from relatives and friends and then subject them to a constant stream of sweet propaganda. Maitatsine and his followers lived in an area of Kano called Yan Awaki, it was a vast tsangaya (community) on its own. In this enclave, he was the absolute ruler and the king that no one dared question. He was clearly, a power unto himself.
  From within the comfort provided by the confines of his Yan Awaki residence, he launched scathing verbal assaults against the city’s imperial ruler, Emir Sanusi who was the traditional leader of all Muslims in the city. With thousands of eager youths at his beck and call, flanking him on all sides and ready to carry out his even his flimsiest instructions to the last, Maitatsine felt he had the height of it all. He became bolder, more confrontational and even more daring as the sun rose and set.
  But the Emir, the government and the security agents were not finding his astronomical rise and popularity funny at all. The royal institution in ‘collabo’ with the religious establishment and with the tacit support of the state government, decided to act fast before this volcano blew up on their turbaned heads. So in the year 1962, the Emir released a royal edict indicting Marwa of various crimes. He was accused of preaching illegally and for engaging in what is called shatimati or abusive speech in fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). An obstinate Maitatsine was then brought before a qadi (Muslim judge) to face proper judgment. It was not funny at all. The qadi sentenced him to 90 days in jail and after serving out his sentence, he was promptly deported to Cameroon.
  Many thought that was the end but the battle had just started. Maitatsine would return, full of renewed vigour, hate and anger. When he was catapulted into Cameroon from Kano, he continued with his subversive teachings much to the anger of the local authorities in Cameroon who then bundled him again and threw him into Gongola State in another wave of ‘repatriation’ in early 1963. That same year, Maitatsine’s old enemy, the Emir of Kano would abdicate the throne and the coast was finally clear: Maitatsine sneaked back into Kano.  The Nigerian populace would suddenly be rudely woken up to the latest brand of terror in town. There was no regulatory force to keep him in check and he quietly resumed his job as a Quranic scholar indoctrinating countless homeless and illiterate boys and youths.
  After Maitatsine managed to slip back into Nigeria (na wa for our immigration pipu sef) and made his way back to Kano, he properly settled in his Yan Awaki area. Bitter and enraged, he would once again warm his way into the hearts of his followers who believed that he was unjustly victimized by the Kano elite and monarchy. It must be pointed out that a vast majority of Maitatsine’s followers were street beggars and destitute, called almajiris or gardawas in the local dialect. Many of these people learnt the Qur’an from him and got high on his bold and eloquent teachings. To them, the state was nothing but a sheer representation of evil and oppression, as exemplified by the imprisonment and deportation of their highly-revered leader.
  A very clever and intelligent man, Maitatsine was not blind to all these developments and in time, he would make his boldest claim ever. He told his enthusiastic followers that he was the forerunner of the much-awaited Mahdi (Saviour or Messiah) who would wipe away all their tropical tears and take to the much-desired Promised Land. He said he was the saviour to rescue them from the tyranny of the establishment. He would banish the infidels, bring peace to the land, erase all their wheelbarrow-pushing suffering and water-hawking stress. For centuries, West African Muslims (and others across the globe) believed (and still believe) that a Mahdi would eventually emerge to get rid of all the injustices of this world. Maitatsine cashed in on this age-long belief of the people and kukuma declared himself as the one they’ve been waiting for, the one to come before the Mahdi himself. He even compared himself to the late Fulani scholar-warrior, Uthman Dan Fodio. The other Kano clerics could not get their head over Maitatsine’s latest pronouncements, which many of them regarded as nothing but heresy.
   But while they were trying to grapple with what Maitatsine was saying, he fired another shot. He declared all the hadiths and sunnah (recorded actions, sayings and traditions of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam) as false and that no one should follow them. Maitatsine did not stop there. He went further to ban his followers from facing Mecca, Saudi Arabia while praying. This clearly went against the standard requirement in Islam that mandated that worshippers face the Ka’aba in Mecca while praying. But that was not Maitatsine’s business. He would release another damning pronouncement: no one must say Allahu Akbar (God is Great) while praying and whoever said so was condemned to Hellfire. Christians, Muslims, government, traditional worshippers, Maitatsine criticized and fought with everybody.
  You thought he would end there but he did not. The Emir of Kano and the clerics were more than alarmed but Maitatsine was yet to drop the real shocker. He simply declared himself the nabeey (Prophet) after initially making demands to be addressed as a prophet in 1976. His excited followers happily shouted his praise and truly believed in his new gift of prophethood. Still riding his wave of power and influence, he stated that Muslims in northern Nigeria should not mention the name of Prophet Muhammad again, as they regarded him as any other Arab. Reports have it that after his death, copies of the Qu’ran found in Maitatsine’is home were already altered: Prophet Muhammad’s name was replaced with Maitatsine’s name. But that was not even the strangest part. The most curious part was yet to come.
  He declared that while the Holy Qu’ran was indeed the true word of God, no one but him was in the right position to interpret and explain the contents of the Qu’ran and issue new proclamations in his new status as a prophet. A deafening howl of approval from his thousands of followers assured him that all was well. But all was far from well or even borehole. Just as Maitatsine was busy proclaiming himself the overall lord of the heavens, the earth and all that was in between, his terrified enemies knew that they had to do something really quick if not they would have willingly signed their own documents of annihilation because Maitatsine and his overzealous band of followers would stop at nothing to bitterly fight the opposition this time around. Once bitten, the shame of 1962 would never repeat itself again. For Maitatsine and his followers, their actions were justified and they were backed by God Himself with His Divine Armed Forces with invisible jet fighters.
  A petrified government watched helplessly as events snowballed. Other Muslims in the city were not just angered at Maitatsine’s arrogant and heretical pronouncements, they were also genuinely worried about the menace he was rapidly constituting. The clerics also knew that more masculinization of Maitatsine and his adherents would mean a catalysis of the progressive erosion of the power and influence they had enjoyed unbridled for centuries. Something really decisive had to be done.
  But as his foes were planning, Maitatsine too was not sleeping, he was scheming. But his plans were interrupted suddenly in 1973 when the military government of General Yakubu Gowon started a wave of arrests and incarceration of religious leaders who were brainwashing kids for anti-social activities. Maitatsine was one of those that they picked up in Kano and he was promptly given a room in jail. But when Gowon was overthrown in July 1975 by Murtala Muhammed, people like Maitatsine regained their freedom and once again, he was on his way to Kano, this time around, with some really new and devastatingly efficient strategies to ultimately wreak maximum havoc.
  Upon reaching Kano, Maitatsine quickly rallied his lieutenants and divided them into three wings for recruitment of new members, each for one sector of Kano City. The job of the first wing was to recruit members from the railway stations and public transport garages. The other two wings would focus on public parks and parking lots, the most ideal location to see the constant troops of ambitious but jobless youths streaming into the commercial city of Kano in search of the greener pasture. Many of these naïve boys would soon be ensnared to become fighters for Maitatsine. They were recruited for doom. Some of them were refugees from Chad, Niger and Cameroon who joined simply because they would be guaranteed food, clothing and a roof over their dusty heads. That was the initial motivation for many to join.
  But being the troublemaker that he was, Maitatsine would soon land in hot soup again in April 1978 when he was arrested. His violence-laced teachings had brought wahala on his head again. He would spend one horrible year in prison with hard labour before he was released. Following his release, he stopped making public appearances, seemed to melt into the background but his followers became noticeably more outspoken and violent. By October 1979, the military regime of General Olusegun Obasanjo handed over to the civilian president, Shehu Shagari.
With the iron-fisted military gone and a less repressive civilian government in power, the time was perfectly ripe for Maitatsine to emerge from the shadows. He became bolder, expanded his colony (which now had over 6,000 people), forcefully took the property of neighbours and erected illegal structures on it. He even had a kangaroo court in his Yan Awaki colony where offenders, infidels kidnapped by sect members and disloyal members were made to face ‘justice’. He was a law unto himself and built his own ‘state within a state’.

RATTLED: President Shagari. Image credits: Creative Commons.

  As he continued his arrogant strides of defiance, Nigerians in Kano became tired and frustrated and increased pressure on the government to act and do something. Finally, in 1980, the Kano State House of Assembly summoned courage to introduce a bill that would clearly combat abusive religious preaching. But you know the amusing thing? The bill did not pass. Members of the house were afraid they would lose patronage of the powerful and influential religious clerics so the bill failed.
Towards the end of 1980, there were widespread rumours that Maitatsine and his sect would overrun and take over two of the city’s most important mosques. By then, the Governor of the state, the late Alhaji Muhammadu Abubakar Rimi, later Sani Abacha’s minister, felt he had had more than enough. On the 26^th of November, 1980, Rimi fired an instruction that Maitatsine’s illegal enclave in the Yan Awaki area be broken up or Maitatsine and his followers would regret the day they were born. (Before Rimi’s action, between October and November 1980, the Kano State Commissioner of Police had asked for reinforcements and approval to use lethal force against Maitatsine but his requests were declined).

Governor Rimi of Kano State.

 But for a man used to so much impunity and scoffing at the political leaders right in their faces, Maitatsine brushed Rimi’s order and deadline as not just some laughable comedy but an empty threat. Rimi would not budge and Maitatsine too would not blink. The order from Governor Rimi stated that Maitatsine should vacate the premises, disband his sect and demolish all illegal structures within two weeks or face ‘appropriate action’. The stage was set for was has been described as the second most violent incident in Nigeria, second only to the civil war.

Kano in 1966, an era when Maitatsine was residing in the city. Image credits: Uyi Obaseki/Nigeria Nostalgia Project.

THE BLOODBATH
  Either using the benefit of hindsight or simply taking time to orchestrate the most effective strategy to invade Yan Awaki and flush out Maitatsine and his die-hard loyalists, Governor Rimi did not immediately act on his threat even when the deadline came and passed. He even sent emissaries to Maitatsine in the background that Maitatsine could ignore the order if he would negotiate, Rimi was clearly pandering to Maitatsine because of political reasons. But something would later happen that would force Rimi to invite the combined forces of the Nigerian Police officers, Nigerian Army soldiers and the heavy federal might of an angry
President Shagari to crush the terrorist sect. 
 Maitatsine was on the edge. He summoned his thousands of followers near and beyond to come to his aid and join him in the mother of all battles against the infidels. They heeded his call and flocked in in their thousands. Maitatsine was to lead the attack and all the plans were fine-tuned and perfected. All the ‘holy warriors’ were at alert and ready to fight at the slightest flick of Maitatsine’s slim fingers. The residents of Kano knew trouble was going to explode soon but no one had any precise idea of where and when. Finally, the D-Day came and the venue where demons descended on earth that day was the football field of the Shahuchi Playing Ground where Maitatsine had camped his followers and was giving his usual fiery sermons.
  Security forces were around his venue to maintain law and order but in an instant, a skirmish broke out between the armed followers of Maitatsine and the Nigerian Police, four police units were actually on a mission to arrest some of his preachers. In a matter of seconds, police officers were killed and their vehicles were in flames. The crisis had started and Maitatsine was not looking back and the whole thing spread to Yan Awaki, the base of the Yan Tatsine and others areas like Koki, Fagge, Kofar Wamba and so on. On that day, 18^th of December 1980, bright-red blood of Nigerians was flowing on the streets of Kano. It remains one of the bloodiest days in Nigeria’s history. For the next three days, the only thing that was visible on the skyline of Kano were plumes of thick, black smoke. There were corpses everywhere, on the roads, in trucks leaving the city and more fighters came in from outside Kano, six buses full of Maitatsine’s supporters coming all the way from Sokoto were intercepted.
But what happened? An uprising by the Maitatsine sect and led by the leader, Marwa himself, had taken the ancient city of Kano with its old mud walls by the storm in what he called a jihad against the infidels and a direct ticket to paradise. His army of crazed fighters was very excited to embark on the one-way trip to heaven. Maitatsine had later developed paranoia over Rimi’s order of eviction and he concluded it was actually a declaration of war and a notice of an imminent attack on him and not even Rimi’s overtures of peace could convince him. He was sure he was going to be attacked but he felt that attack was the best form of defence and that he had to act first. He lashed out at the governor saying that he took over the land and that ‘all land belonged to Allah’.
For a people used to living in impunity and believing they were in their own republic, free of any government, the followers of Maitatsine regularly clashed with the Nigerian Police. But this particular clash was extremely bloody. Considering the fact that the government was already planning on how to smoke Maitatsine and his followers out of their fortress and that the populace was already fed up, the government decided to land the blows one after the other. By the time the madness ended, about 5,000 Nigerian lives were wasted. Maitatsine was one of the dead, he was killed in the first wave of fighting. According to the Nigerian soldiers, Maitatsine’s fighters fought with so much bravery and fearlessness that even the federal troops sent to exterminate them were impressed.  The military crackdown led to the arrest of almost 1,000 people, of which 224 were foreigners. Under Buhari in 1984, he would step up the expulsion of unregistered foreigners (aliens) following attacks of the Maitatsine sect (New African, Issues 196-207, IC Magazines Limited, 1984, pages 29, 44).
While a frenetic BBC crew ran into the center of action to interview fleeing Nigerians, government security forces responded brutally. Frantic efforts to control the madness led to hundreds of suspects rounded up by the Nigerian police and military to be summarily executed. It was a desperate time and extremely desperate measures were taken by the Nigerian government, making some costly mistakes in the process, especially with the extrajudicial killings.
THE WATERLOO
  With about 5,000 Nigerians dead and Maitatsine still at large, there was palpable tension in the land. The old and romantically beautiful city of Kano had suddenly turned into a horrible scene of war, a theatre of speeding bullets, stabbing machetes and wheezing arrows. There was confusion all over the place and as the death toll continued to rise, the Kano State government had to admit that they had underestimated the strength of Maitatsine and his sect, who responded with so much ferocity that the State Governor had to call on the Nigerian President to assist. The state command of the Nigerian Police was totally overwhelmed by the raging Maitatsine and his sect.
An enforcement of more mobile police (MOPOL) units from neighboring states could not quench the fire too. When the combined forces of the police and the mobile units could not tame the overwhelming force of Maitatsine, weapons were borrowed from the Nigerian Army arsenal but nothing tangible happened to reduce Maitatsine and his irate army. It was time to call in the federal troops. According to Toks Ekukinam, who was then the Assistant Legal Adviser to President Shagari, a request for help from the Kano State Government reached the Chief of Army Staff and it was discussed in the Cabinet, and approved by President Shagari in his capacity as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
A battle-ready contingent led by Colonel YY Kure from the Nigerian Army was finally drafted to the ‘battlefront’ and what followed was another round of butchering interspersed with the ceaseless gunfire of furious Nigerian soldiers. In the ensuing scrimmage, the Nigerian soldiers progressed and went deeper into the heart of the Yan Awaki enclave, the evil empire of the dreaded sect. A continuous pounding with artillery, mortars and machine guns by the Nigerian Army changed the tide of the battle. The military entered the battle on December 29.
From the heavens, warplanes of the Nigerian Air Force rained bombs on his household. The sect incurred very heavy losses and Maitatsine fled Kano metropolis with a handful of followers, wives and children as the heat of the gunfire, consistent shelling and aerial bombardment became unbearable. They escaped and marched out of the city into the western districts along the Gwarzo Road. His time was up but his followers would not just give up on their prophet like that. They launched an assault to save their spiritual leaders from the crushing jaws of the Nigerian Army but in the crossfire, Maitatsine himself was hit. A bullet flying from nowhere lodged itself in his leg. He let out a piercing shriek of pain and agony and would later die of the wounds he sustained. He reportedly bled to death. Maitatsine met his end at the Rijiyar Zaki suburb of Kano (while some others believe it was at Rimin Abzinawa village that he met his waterloo). The Nigerian Army met the band of his mourning followers who had just buried him hurriedly by a roadside grave but he would later be exhumed by the government forces and kept at a local mortuary for several days before it was finally cremated.
THE END

Image credits: Reworking Modernity: Capitalisms and Symbolic Discontent by Allan Pred, Michael Watts.

After Maitatsine’s death, his defeated followers took his body and quickly buried it. However, the exhausted Kano State government would have none of that. The soldiers got a tip-off of the location of the shallow grave and an order was given that Maitatsine’s body be exhumed. His grave was cleared up and his corpse was brought to the surface. It was then embalmed and presented before the Commission of Enquiry. Jubilant police officers even posed with the corpse. What followed next is as dramatic as it was puzzling. The government was so determined to crush anything that left of Maitatsine that his corpse was set on fire. He was cremated. Today, his badly-burnt teeth and bone fragments are safely sealed away in a bottle at the Nigerian Police laboratory in Kano State. In a corner of an unused, dark and dusty room that reminds one of an evil dungeon, lies Maitatsine in a bottle. On the specimen bottle, is an official seal and an inscription that goes thus:
“The remains of Late Malam Muhammadu Marwa alias Allah Ta-Tsine or Maitatsine.”

The remains of Maitatsine were kept in a local mortuary for some days before the authorities requested that they be burnt to ashes.

THE AFTERMATH
But his sect did not die with him. In fact, in October 1982, his followers would launch another round of violence. This time, it was not in Kano but in the town of Bulunkutu (Bullumkutu) near Maiduguri in Borno State which would later be under siege by the rampaging Boko Haram. What sparked this crisis was the attempt of the police to arrest the sect members. Mohammedu Goni was the Governor of Borno State that time and he was also taken aback with the scale of the ferocity of the Maitatsine sect and the attack spread to Kaduna where 39 members of the sect were killed by the vigilante group (total killed was 44 in Kaduna and at least 452 people had already lost their lives in the Maiduguri attack). It was a brutal assault launched by the surviving remnants of the sect that fled from Kano. (Please note that the Kano crisis of 1982 in which Bala Muhammed, the beloved Secretary to the State Government, SSG of Governor Rimi was murdered in cold blood was a different incident).
  The government records indicate that 188 civilians and 18 police officers mainly in Maiduguri were killed and 635 arrested but the Commission of Inquiry hinted that the deaths could have been well over 500. But that was not all. On 27^th of February 1984 (after it was banned in November 1982 with its members rounded up and others subjected to surveillance), the surviving members of the sect escaped from jail in Jimeta and launched a series of devastating and indiscriminate attacks on the Yola, the capital city of Adamawa State (then Gongola State) and they also made attempts to enforce their brand of Islam on everyone – Christians and Muslims alike.
  The military head of state, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, who had barely spent two months in office, responded with a deafening ferocity. He moved in his forces to wipe off the sect from existence with the same ruthlessness that he pursued Chadian forces under President Shagari. General Buhari had flown into Yola to personally on a Wednesday oversee the military offensive against the sect (AF Press Clips, United States Department of State, Bureau of African Affairs, 1984), this include the bombardment of the sect’s hideout at Rumde, a suburb of Yola. The counterattack was so brutal that the Jimeta Main Market was destroyed, over 700 people had died and 30,000 were displaced from their homes by the time the smoke cleared. With constant artillery pounding, the unrest was finally controlled and Maitatsine was severely decimated, the blow was clearly a mortal one. 
  Nigerians were very excited with the offensive with various personalities like Dele Giwa hailing the military campaign. They made their last show of rebellion, which was to start riots in April 1985 when the police made attempts to arrest Maitatsine’s successor under the Babangida regime in what is now Gombe State (then Bauchi State) which led to the deaths of over 100 people and the arrests of 146 suspected members of the sect, three police officers were killed and 100,000 rounds of ammunition were discovered in Maitatsine caches. That was the last time they would disturb public peace. But from inception till their final attack in April 1985, the total death toll was at least 5,646 lives. After their attack in February 1984, the Buhari-led military regime set up its own panel headed by Mr. Justice Mohammed Lawal Uwais to investigate the causes, remedies and incidental matters of the crisis.  
(I must state that under the Buhari regime, the suppression and crackdown on militant religious sects were second to none. The military dictator launched a terrifying wave of repression against sects as the ‘Yan Izala with many of their members imprisoned and tortured by the secret service. Donors like Alhaji Haruna Danja who funded the ‘Yan Izala sect were imprisoned under the charges of corruption. These multiple suppression tactics severely weakened religious sects that had the ability and capability to foment trouble, disturb public peace or undermine state security. However, this would change when Buhari was overthrown on the 27^th of August, 1985 and the incoming regime of General Ibrahim Babangida relaxed the rules and provided a broader political context for sects as the ‘Yan Izala and others. Babangida released the jailed ‘Yan Izala members and supporters, Sheikh Abubakar Gumi was reinstated to his old position as a religious adviser to the president and his sect resumed its controversial preaching and activities). – Islamic Reform and Political Change in Northern Nigeria by Roman Loimeier, pages 220 – 223.

The late Sheikh Gumi of the Yan’ Izala sect, opposed Maitatsine and his ideology.

Following his death, Maitatsine’s enclave was demolished and all his illegal buildings levelled. His own house was converted to a magistrate court.
President Shagari signed into law the Unlawful Society Order of 1982 and it clearly prohibited the formation and operation of groups such as the Maitatsine under whatever name or form.
THE SECRETS OF MAITATSINE
Remember the three recruitment wings of Maitatsine? Yes, once they got batches of new recruits, what followed next was a bizarre initiation ceremony in which they all met Maitatsine who would then administer hypnotizing potions and concoctions on them, special tattoos are made on their abdomens after which they pledged eternal allegiance to him. The new recruits, many of them in their teens would also be given charms and amulets that were supposed to protect them from bullets and other weapons. The military training and combat rehearsal sessions were handled by the sect members who were former officers in the Nigerian Police or the Nigerian Armed Forces. Many people feared them and this made them have this aura of invincibility like Abubakar Shekau has today but in actual sense, all na wash. The ends of violent actors like Maitatsine are usually very shameful indeed.  
 However, it must be said that although there were widespread rumours on the sect receiving weapons from Libya and Israel, the government commission of inquiry set up to look into the crisis found no evidence of any foreign support. In fact, Maitatsine fighters made use of the crudest weapons such as machetes, daggers, bows, knives, arrows, spears and a few rifles but which they used with the devastating efficiency of a King Shaka-led Zulu army. Their main source of financing was alms collecting and that was surely not enough for them to procure arms from overseas. All in all, they launched four devastating series of attacks: Kano (December 1980), Bullunkutu (October 1982), Rigasa (October 1982) and Yola (February 1984).
THE RESURGENCE
For those who felt that the death of Maitatsine meant the end of his sect, they were sorely mistaken. In 1982, the surviving members of the sect collaborated with another sect named Kala-Kato and unleashed untold violence in their base in Bullumkutu, Borno State. Before the government security forces could react, almost 120 people were already killed, with property worth millions of naira damaged. Before the smoke of Bullumkutu died down, the Maitatsine sect under the command of Maitatsine’s second-in-command, Mallam Musa Makaniki launched another round of terror in 1984 in the old Gongola State (now Taraba and Adamawa States) in places like Yelwa, Jimeta, Dobeli, Zango, Va’atita, Nassarawa and Rumde. Before the police could respond again, almost 570 Nigerians had already lost their lives with countless property destroyed in the carnage. That was not the end. Maitatsine did not stop there.
  After their strings of ‘victory’ in Borno and Gongola States, they launched another strike in the Patami Ward of Bauchi State (now in Gombe State) from the 26^th to the 28^th of April, 1985. Before the security forces could intervene, over 100 lives were lost. General Buhari would then launch a devastating assault on the sect, leading to the arrest and prosecution of many of them, with the others fleeing.
THE ESCAPE
One of those who fled and escaped to Cameroon was Musa Makaniki, the one who took over the sect following Maitatsine’s death in 1980.
THE RE-NABBING
You may find this difficult to believe but Makaniki would not be caught until the year 2004 under the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo. Makaniki was initially sentenced to death by hanging but he was later freed upon appeal in May 2012.
ANY CONNECTIONS WITH BOKO HARAM?

Boko Haram is like a resurrection of Maitatsine. The similarities between the two are eerie.

-Max Siollun, historian and expert on Nigerian military history.

Some Nigerians believe that the present-day Boko Haram is an offshoot or a mutation of the Maitatsine. Those who believe this state that the uncle of the Mohammed Yusuf, the late Boko Haram leader, was actually one of the senior commanders of Maitatsine but he narrowly escaped from Kano to Maiduguri during the heavy military onslaught on the sect. This uncle of his was said to have raised Yusuf as a child. However, that is not to say that there other factors did not contribute to the growth and emergence of Boko Haram and it is not clear if Boko Haram has confirmed or denied this relationship.
   There are many similarities between the two sects but Boko Haram has remained a far more resilient organization. Both sects were anti-government, had their own autonomous enclaves and organized charismatic sermons against the use of Western items. Just as Maitatsine also had ties with the politicians of Kano State, Boko Haram was also linked with the politicians of Borno State. As a matter of fact, a suspected financier of the group, Alhaji Buji Foi, was summarily executed by the police. Foi was a Commissioner for Religious Affairs during Governor Ali Modu Sheriff’s first term in office. Before then, Foi was twice the Chairman of Kaga Local Council in addition to other top public offices that he held in Borno State. Here is a video of his execution:
INTERESTING THINGS ABOUT MAITATSINE
-Although Maitatsine banned his users from possessing and using modern devices like the radio and television, he was smart enough not to ban guns, knives, explosives and other weapons.
-Some analysts like Paul Collier and Nicolas Sambanis do not see the Maitatsine event as either a riot or an uprising but they have classified it as a full-blown civil war, and even refer to it as the ‘Maitatsine War’. Basis for this classification was given in their book, Understanding Civil War: Africa.
–Today, the name Maitatsine has come to be associated with religious intolerance in the nation. Anytime a new violent outflow of religious intolerance is noticed, people reflexly mention or make reference to Maitatsine.
-Maitatsine was described as an ‘isolated fanatic’. He has also been described as a cultist and magician masquerading as a cleric.
-Owing to the fact that Maitatsine had a squint in one eye, there were some Muslims who took this to be a sign that he was indeed, the Dajjal (Anti-Christ) who would combat Islam and hasten the end of the world.
MATTERS AND ISSUES ARISING
EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS
Although while agreeing that an onslaught by the military was necessary to maintain order, the summary execution of Nigerians without fair trial is a very disturbing trend indeed. When Lawrence Anini, the notorious armed robber was caught in 1986, he was shot in the legs, taken to a military hospital, treated with courtesy and care, allowed to confess and name all his collaborators before facing trial and eventually the executioners. On the other hand, the late Boko Haram leader, Mohammed Yusuf was summarily executed even when he was already subdued. The manner with which Nigerian police officers and members of the armed forces descend on everyone during insurrections and public disturbances is alarming.
THE POLITICAL ANGLE
While Maitatsine as a phenomenon cannot be said to be a creation of the greedy politicians, the growth and strengthening of the sect can be linked to the direct actions and inactions of the political class. In the Maitatsine case, politicians deliberately played ludo with the whole scenario until it became a full-blown monster. One political party would be blaming the other while also trying to shore up their respective political bases. At the end of the day, who suffers? Innocent Nigerians. That the Kano State government could put down the riots in less than two weeks show that they were not hampered in the real sense by the needed resources but by an embarrassing lack of political will. When the government was ready to wipe Maitatsine out, it was done quickly. Political will is always important in quashing fundamentalist insurrections. 
LAX POLICING METHODS
In a nation where police officers are in the pockets of politicians, it is very difficult to combat crime. Maitatsine had been arrested before a couple of times but on each occasion, he called on his friends in high places and secured his freedom. With each bout of liberation, he became more emboldened until he transformed into a monster that almost swallowed up the politicians themselves.
PERVASIVE SUPERSTITIONS
In 2011 the World Bank released a report stating that the Northern region of Nigeria has the highest rate of illiteracy not in Africa but on earth. As if that was not enough, in April 2013, the former Central Bank Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi revealed that 93% (read that again, 93%) of girls in northern Nigeria are illiterate. In such an environment with such a thick atmosphere of ignorance, it is very easy for superstitious beliefs to spread about people like Maitatsine. During his time, many believed that he even had magical powers and bullets could not penetrate his followers. The fact is that no matter the amount of the magical powder you rub on your body, a bullet will not sweat before piercing your skin. If you need real ayeta, go get the latest Kevlar vests.
  A very negative impact of these baseless superstitions is that they demoralize the police. During the onslaught on Maitatsine, many police officers were very reluctant to go smoke him out, some officers did not even bother to report for work at their respective stations, they simply disappeared (who wan die) while the few unfortunate ones drafted out to confront the full wrath of Maitatsine were already psychologically defeated, they were fighting from a position of fear and trepidation, all because of superstitious rubbish. Education, is the key. For Nigeria to bloom, she must experience an explosion in information technology and a revolution in the education sector. That time, we will stop holding up criminal elements as mythical and indomitable figures.
THANKS YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TIME. 
ABIYAMO. 
REFERENCES

1. Encyclopedia of African and African-American Religions edited by Stephen D. Glazier
2. Understanding Civil War (Volume 1: Africa) Evidence and Analysisedited by Paul Collier, Nicholas Sambanis, a publication of the World Bank.
3. From Cultural Justice to Inter-Ethnic Mediation: A Reflection on the Possibility of Ethno-Religious Mediation in Africa by Basil Ugorji.
4. Cities and Citizenship edited by James Holston.
5. Hegemony and Culture: Politics and Change Among the Yoruba by David D. Laitin
6. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0127jsh
7. http://www.ifra-nigeria.org/IMG/pdf/N-_D-_DANJIBO_-_Islamic_Fundamentalism_and_Sectarian_Violence_The_Maitatsine_and_Boko_Haram_Crises_in_Northern_Nigeria.pdf
8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_North_Region_(Cameroon)
9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maroua
10. http://allafrica.com/stories/201205090224.html
11. http://saharareporters.com/news-page/hired-youths-attempted-attack-sheik-zakzaky%E2%80%99s-home-nigerian-shiites-say
12. http://beegeagle.wordpress.com/2010/05/08/from-maitatsine-to-boko-haram/
13. Reworking Modernity: Capitalisms and Symbolic Discontent by Allan Pred, Michael Watts.
14. Petrotyranny by John Bacher.
15. Islamic Reform and Political Change in Northern Nigeria by Roman Loimeier, pages 220 – 223.
16. Peace and Violence in Nigeria: Conflict-Resolution in Society and the State: Panel on Nigeria since Independence History Project by Tekena N. Tamuno, University of Ibadan Secretariat, 1991.
17. Crisis and Conflict Management in Nigeria since 1980 by Mahmood Yakubu, Nigerian Defence Academy, Volumes 1-2, January 2005.
18. The Voice of the Voiceless: Pastoral Letters and Communiques of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, 1960 – 2002, Catholic Church, Catholic Bishops of Nigeria, Daily Graphics, Nigeria, 2002.
19. The Killing Fields by Shehu Sani, Spectrum Books, 2007.
20. African Recorder, Volume 23, M.H Samuel, 1984, pages 6516 – 6517.

Police Investigators Detail How Senate President Saraki Used Credit Card To Launder Funds Stolen From Banks And Kwara State

SaharaReporters has received exclusive documents of a police investigation revealing how Nigeria’s current Senate President, Bukola Saraki, made a series of questionable deposits and illegal withdrawals from banks in order to launder stolen funds through shell companies and an American Express credit card.  The report was authored by a team of detectives at the Special Fraud Unit of the Nigerian police headed by a Commissioner of Police.


SaharaReporters has received exclusive documents of a police investigation revealing how Nigeria’s current Senate President, Bukola Saraki, made a series of questionable deposits and illegal withdrawals from banks in order to launder stolen funds through shell companies and an American Express credit card.  The report was authored by a team of detectives at the Special Fraud Unit of the Nigerian police headed by a Commissioner of Police.

The police investigation found that Mr. Saraki, during his tenure as Governor of Kwara State, was the “prime promoter” of several shell companies, including Skyview Properties Ltd., Limkers Ltd., Dicetrade Ltd., Carlisle Properties and Investment Ltd., and the parent company known as Joy Petroleum.
Senator Saraki’s moneymaking scheme, according to the details of the Special Fraud Unit’s investigation, was to withdraw millions of naira disguised as loans from GTBank, Intercontinental Bank, Zenith Bank Plc. The funds were then moved into different accounts, sometimes under the guise that the purpose was to pay off some bank debts with other “loans.”
A part of the investigation discovered that Senator Saraki at various times withdrew 11 billion naira from the Intercontinental Bank, 160 million naira from Zenith Bank, and 204 million naira from GTBank. According to the report, “the investigation also saw evidence of a 200 million naira loan facility that was availed by Zenith Bank to Joy Petroleum Ltd.”
During an interrogation, Mr. Saraki admitted to owning all these companies with the exception of Joy Petroleum. The owner of Joy Petroleum, the senator claimed, was his former personal assistant, Mathew Obahor. He also added that Mr. Obahor administered the other companies throughout his tenure as Governor of Kwara State.
However, the investigators believed that Mr. Saraki lied to them about Obahor’s role. They found out that Mr. Obahor was “sick and in a vegetative state and could not have instructed the bank” to make financial transactions in the name of Joy Petroleum or any of other companies.
As the special investigators reviewed Bukola Saraki’s statements they found that Zenith Bank issued a loan in Saraki’s name on November 25, 2009 for N160 million.
When pressured, the bank provided two incriminating documents including “(1) an internal [bank] ledger statement of account in the name of Dr. Bukola Saraki showing a debit withdrawal of 160 million on 26/11/2009 and a credit deposit of 11,901369.98 on 26/05/2010. (2) A page of the bank’s Manager’s Cheque register showing that a draft of 160 million [naira] in favor of Joy Petroleum Ltd was signed for by one Uche Phillips.”
The investigation noted, “Bukola Saraki, who was purportedly granted a N160 million loan with which a draft of N160 million was made in the name of Joy Petroleum Ltd, was not a customer of Zenith Bank. He neither maintains a current nor saving account with the Zenith Bank that claimed to have granted him the loan.”
The report also added that Bukola Saraki did not apply for that loan with a “formal request as is best practice.”
The police also concluded that the “purported loan has remained unpaid and un-serviced and there is no evidence that the bank has made any demand on Dr. Bukola Saraki to repay the purported loan.”
The Special Fraud Unit extended its investigation into companies belonging to Bukola Saraki, and discovered “evidence indicative of money laundering.” The investigation found that “a series of cash lodgments were found in accounts of the companies solely belonging to Dr. Bukola Saraki within the period he was the Executive Governor of Kwara State. The investigation observes that the monies were deposited in cash by personal aides of Dr. Bukola Saraki, especially one Abdul Adama.”
The investigators found that the total sum of money laundered by Mr. Saraki was more than two billion naira. They also remarked numerous sneaky tactics that Saraki’s aides used to make secret deposits of laundered funds. According to investigators, Abdul Adama “was responsible for making the cash deposits using several fictitious names and GSM numbers of several unsuspecting members of the public.” The police used the identical handwriting on the deposit slips to trace the deposits to Mr. Adama.
The investigators also discovered that Bukola Saraki’s wife, Toyin Saraki, was listed as the second Director and shareholder of Skyview Properties Ltd, but she was unable to explain how the company generated revenue or the source of cash deposits.
The police investigators also found, according to the report, that “a series of cash lodgments was found in the personal accounts of Dr. Bukola Saraki during the period he was Executive Governor of Kwara State.” Moreover, the report concluded that the “pattern and frequencies of cash deposits into these personal accounts of Dr. Bukola Saraki, are indicative of money laundering.”
The police report also asserted: “the [stolen] funds were mostly washed overseas to fund Dr. Bukola Saraki’s American Express Card No. 374588216836009.” The investigators concluded that Mr. Saraki’s personal account “also received an inflow of about $4,560,871.27 between May 18th 2009 and May 5th 2011, mostly cash lodgments and a couple NIFT Transfers.”
The Special Fraud Unit recommended that Bukola Saraki be prosecuted for offenses related to money laundering, violation of foreign exchange laws, and breaches of the Failed Banks (Recovery of Debts) and Financial Malpractices in Banks Act.
The police investigators accused Mr. Saraki of using proceeds of corruption to purchase properties abroad. In particular, the report revealed that Senator Saraki bought several houses in the UK both in his name as well as that of his wife.
One of our sources in the Ministry of Justice stated that Nigeria’s immediate past Attorney General, Bello Adoke, obstructed the prosecution of the current Senate President. “Both the police investigators and some lawyers in the Ministry [of Justice] recommended that Governor Bukola Saraki should face prosecution. However, the AGF [Adoke] refused to give permission to prosecute Saraki based on the weighty evidence provided by the Special Fraud Unit,” a source in the ministry told our correspondent.
Instead of proceeding with the prosecution of Mr. Saraki, the Ministry of Justice instructed the Special Fraud Unit to focus more of their attention on the role of Zenith Bank in the shady financial transactions.
Mr. Adoke’s tenure as AGF saw the weakening of the ministry’s prosecution of political powerful as well as high-level corporate elements in Nigeria. Mr. Saraki was one of the notable beneficiaries of the Adoke era of “looking the other way instead of tackling massive cases of graft and money laundering,” said one source.

How Buhari can change Nigeria in 100 days —Ikokwu

SECOND Republic politician and one of the founders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Guy Ike Ikokwu, wants all Nigerians to rally round President Muhammadu Buhari, to actualise his change agenda or the country will pay direly for it.
Assessing the performance of the president since he took over the reins of power 38 days ago, the lawyer and former Anambra State chairman of the defunct Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP), said Buhari’s wind change could be made to blow good tidings for Nigerians within 100 days, if the needful is done. His words: \
By Clifford Ndujihe, Deputy Political Editor
Nigerians enamoured by Buhari’s change mantra
The whole of Nigerian nationalities in the last five months of this year have been enormously enamoured by the change mantra of the Buhari’s and the All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign ideology, which was vividly summarized on issues of insecurity, economy and corruption, gross unemployment and electricity.
Since President Buhari’s inauguration a month ago, he has been engrossed on the resolution of these issues and his ruling political party, APC, has also been engrossed in the issues of governance and the objective rather than the subjective criteria for the implementation of the mantra.
Brewing impatience
The Nigerian public is in some way becoming impatient with the seeming lack of progress as had been expected for the wind of change.
In view of the fact that our constitution, supposedly federal in character enshrines the doctrine of the separation of powers and democratic principles and processes, one must not be tempted as had been in the distant past to believe that a departure from the above principles would legitimize the diverse methods for the actualization of the mantra.
Buhari’s initial good steps
Although President Buhari’s constituency covers the whole country, it does not necessary guarantee that his style of governance should be unitary rather than federal. At the presidential level, it is his duty to tackle the issue of insecurity which requires both military, political and international solutions. He realizes these facts and has to the delight of Nigerians and with his background as a former military personnel of the rank of a general and astute administrator of the areas in the North East zone of six states, Borno, Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Taraba, Yobe, has taken on the challenge by visiting our neighbouring West African states, attending a meeting in Britain, the G7 meeting of major powers, and scheduled a visit to Cameroon and the United States of America for the urgent resolution of the insurrection of the Boko Haram.
President Buhari on the issue of the economy and corruption has begun the probe of the NNPC and the recovery of several trillions of Naira looted by previous administrations and public and private moguls. It should be understood that many public servants and civil servants are indeed richer in wealth and style of living than some who are still serving or may have retired or opted out of service with their stolen billions, including ministers and commissioners.
Pervasive graft, economic depravity
It is also known and admitted that corruption pervades the very fabric of the Nigerian nation in both private and public sectors, and among all classes of individuals and professions and trade and among the various federal, states and local government structures of all the existing and previous political parties and colorations.
Restructuring the polity: This economic depravity is systemic in nature which is why President Buhari should vigorously, on the basis of the separation of powers, hand over to the legislature at the national and states levels, the urgent and immediate task of restructuring the nation.
President Jonathan had handed over to President Buhari and the National Assembly the 2014 reports of the Abuja National Conference on the issue of restructuring the nation into a viable fiscal federal culture. The National Assembly has spent some billions of Naira like the Jonathan administration in discussing and enumerating several constitutional issues which have to be corrected as a result of the immense lapses of the 1999 constitution, which was more unitary than federal in character.
The 1999 constitution was enthroned by the previous military regime rather than the people of Nigeria.

Diversification of economy
For the diversification of the economy which was part of the change mantra there must be an immediate devolution of powers from the central Abuja level to the zones and states. Several issues which are exclusive to the central government today should really be concurrent to enable the Nigerian economy grow at a greater pace than it is now.
It will also enable our economy to stop being a mono oil product economy to a diversified macro and multiple product economy which with discipline and zonal competition can grow at a rate of not less than 12 per cent per annum as China had done.
For instance, the federal government should no longer be the sole authority in the oil and power sectors of the economy. Local governments should no longer be sustained by the federal government but should be organized and funded were necessary by the state governments.

Cultural ambience
The system of government best suitable to our cultural ambiance is the parliamentary system where the state governor or premier or administrator is elected by his own constituency and has a seat in the legislature. Most Nigerians do not like the present system of executive governance in the states whereby the governors of all political parties are financially reckless and absolutely abusing their powers which has personalized the system of governance without any mode of accountability. In a parliamentary system a governor who is unable to pay the wages of its statutory workers would certainly lose his seat in a vote of no confidence and be replaced by another commissioner. This system strengthens the position of the political parties during and after elections.
It reduces the evil of corruption which was enhanced by the military which abolished our parliamentary democracy into the executive personalized unitary system.
Virtually all the previous and present governors of the states in Nigeria are guilty of financial recklessness and indictment by the EFCC and have used the false doctrine of immunity to shroud their economic misdeeds. The 2014 Abuja confab decisions have certainly taken care of most of these problems.
Reducing cost of governance
The other crucial issue on the economy which Buhari and the APC should immediately address is the issue of the cost of governance across the country. It should be reduced by 50 per cent and it should be made a constitutional issue that the capital expenditure ratio should not be less than 60 per cent while the recurrent expenditure should never be more than 40 per cent. The national and state legislative expenditure as well as those of the Executive and administration should be reduced by half and their number should also be trimmed down. Constituency projects, wardrobe allowance, bogus travelling allowances and too many vehicles should be reduced or scrapped. Imagine the recent case of where over 20 vehicles were retrieved from the wives of a state governor.
Indeed the recurrent expenditure in most cases should be 30 per cent so that privatization and governance of the economy should be the mode rather than the exception.
Actualising change in 100 days
The yearning of the majority of Nigerians can be achieved this year within the next 100 days if President Buhari’s administration takes the bull by the horn. The reduction of the ministerial appointees at the central and state levels should be guaranteed constitutionally.
Imagine the smallest state in the South-East recently appointing more commissioners than other states. This state is one of those wallowing in huge public debt, unfinished projects and unpaid salaries and pensions. A state in the South-West is guilty of this enormous profligacy of unpaid salaries, while financial recklessness and abuse of powers is dominant and the governor is one of those chanting the change mantra.
The resultant change will be manifest and the issue of patience will endear itself to the majority of Nigerians who are prepared to make sacrifices today for a better future for their children born and unborn and for the new Nigerian Nation.
Both the presidency and the legislature at the National Assembly have 100 days each for the transformation agenda in their change mantra. If the Boko Haram insurrection is not suppressed in the Northern Region, to make way for the economic transformation of the North East zone, in particular, Nigerians will become disillusioned.
On the other hand, the National Assembly can within the next 100 days achieve the constitutional restructuring of the nation into a truly federal nation with a truly fiscal federal structure in other to pave the way for the diversification of the economy, enhancement of education and employment and a rapid increase in the electrification of the urban and rural areas of the country.
The time is now and Nigerians have the capacity to claim the above areas of transformation and change mantra. This change can come but if it doesn’t, it would lead to total disillusionment, disenfranchisement, apathy, inequities and separatist tendencies of all sorts to our own political, economic, social and cultural detriment

Abacha’s Personal Doctor Sheds Light On How He Died

 

Professor Sadiq Suleiman Wali was General Sani Abacha’s personal doctor. Professor Wali spoke to the press, revealing the details of Abacha’s sudden death seventeen years after his mysterious demise.

Sani Abacha’s sudden death caused lots of rumours

An event in 1998 changed the Nigerian history. By June 1998, Sani Abacha had ruled Nigeria for almost five years. Isolated by the West, Abacha had promised democratic elections and a transition to civilian rule by October 1998, but with just months to polls, all the political parties nominated General Abacha as their candidate for president.
READ ALSO: Nigerians React To Abacha’s Newly Discovered $370m Loot
Professor Sadiq Suleiman Wali was General Sani Abacha’s personal doctor. Professor Wali describes Abacha as “a quiet person, calm person. He could be really firm on some issues, but normally he didn’t talk much”.
READ ALSO: Federal government opens up why Abacha received centenary award
Professor Wali has served as physician to the three previous Nigerian heads of state after being reluctantly recruited to that role in the early 1980-s. He considered himself politically neutral and lived outside the sprawling heavily guarded presidential complex known as Aso Rock in the capital Abuja. But he was a fixture in the presidential entourage.
READ ALSO: Gumsu Abacha Angrily Reacts To New Lawsuit Against Her Brother
Professor Wali says Abacha’s health was OK just before his death. “Abacha was generally healthy though he had some health issues, he was treated, he’s responded [to that treatment] very well. He didn’t have any heart-related diseases at that time.”
READ ALSO: ‘My Husband’s Death Was Like A Coup’ – Maryam Abacha
On the 7 of June, 1998 Wali’d been with Abacha, as he hosted the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and all seemed well. The next morning General Sani Abacha was due to fly to the OAU summit being held in Burkina-Faso and professor Wali was due to go with him.
Professor Wali recounts that “around 6 am I had a phone call from his security officers, and they said, “please come, come to the villa, come urgently!” Before I even could get ready, they came and picked me. I had no idea what it all was about.”
The car carrying the doctor sped towards the presidential villa through a special entrance – a shortcut which only the president was allowed to use.
READ ALSO: 7 Things History Wont Forget About Abacha
The doctor realised something was seriously wrong.
“I arrived then I saw chief security there and he said “doctor come in, please, come in!” We all rushed and I just saw the president. There was another doctor who came earlier, resuscitating him. Abacha was in the sitting room. He was on the couch. He was in his normal work clothes. I didn’t panic. I’ve seen a lot of serious problems before in my practice, but to affect him was very tough, definitely. I joined and we did as much as we could to resuscitate him. But I realised that he was dead because he was fuming. We just continued resuscitation and even injected some things, but it didn’t work.”
READ ALSO: Rare Photo Of Former First Lady, Maryam Abacha
After 40 minutes trying to resuscitate the stricken general, Professor Wali said General Abacha had died. “I said, sorry – there’s nothing we can do”.
There was no immediate public announcement, in a country prone to coups, Abacha’s head of security first increased the guard around the presidential complex and then called the heads of the armed forces to gather to decide on his replacement.
“Immediately the security officer took over, and he invited all the service chiefs to come to Abuja, by then most of them were based in Lagos.” says doctor Wali.
When the service chiefs arrived, some of them asked to see the body to pay their respect to their former leader.
READ ALSO: Abacha Secured 60 False Security Vote Letters To Loot CBN — US
“They wanted to make sure, that he is dead. And some of them were crying” – tells Wali.
Professor informed the family of what have happened. Obviously, the sudden death of an apparently healthy head of state raised a few questions.
Professor Wali was determined that there should be an autopsy to find out what caused the sudden heart attack. After much deliberating, the family declined, preferring the quick burial in line with Islamic tradition. But the doctor was determined to find some clues as to what have happened.
READ ALSO: Sadiq Sani Abacha Writes Open Letter To Prof. Wole Soyinka Over His Statement
“I still try to take some samples of blood and urine and hair and things like that, just thinking for the future chemical tests,” Professor Wali said, adding that “it’s very difficult to say [whether he died of natural causes]. What I can see. The blood test we did, has shown some raised cardiac enzymes [proteins that are released into the blood by dying heart muscles].That’s why we thought maybe it was cardiac attack.”
READ ALSO: PHOTOS: Maryam Abacha Celebrates 68th Birthday
Every Nigerian has his own theory about what happened to General Abacha. There are rumours that he has been poisoned, or that he spent a night entertaining young ladies. Professor Wali conmented on those rumours that “when I entered [Abacha’s premises], there were no ladies. It might be true but I did not see them. Concerning the poison, as I said no post-mortem has been done, so I couldn’t assure whether he was poisoned or it was a heart attack.”
READ ALSO: Abacha’s Daughter Tempted To Join APC
While the generals deliberated on who would take over, plans were made to take Abacha’s body in his hometown of Kano later that day. It was decided to finally tell the public what had happened. But the mystery around Abacha’s death still remains seventeen years after his sudden and unexpected demise.

Earlier Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, Chief Security Officer (CSO) of General Sani Abacha, who was Nigeria’s military Head of State from November 1993 to June 1998, told the press his own version of Sani Abacha’s last day.

EXCLUSIVE: EFCC quizzes former Head of Service, Oronsaye over multi-billion naira corruption allegation

Ibanga Isine

A former Head of Service of the Federation, Steve Oronsanye, is currently being interrogated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over allegations of corruption, PREMIUM TIMES can authoritatively report.
The former HOS summoned Wednesday morning to the EFCC headquarters in Wuse 2, where he is being interrogated.
It is not clear as at the time of publishing this report whether Mr. Oronsaye would be allowed to go home after his interrogation or detained.
When contacted, the spokesperson for the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed that Mr. Oronsaye is with the anti-graft agency.
Mr. Oronsanye was appointed Head of the Civil Service of the Federation by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in June 2009 and retired in November 16, 2010.
However, in September 2014, the office of the Auditor General of the Federation released a damning report that indicted him of N123billion alleged fraud.
The 169-page report, titled “Special Audit of the Accounts of the Civil Pensions”, found Mr. Oronsaye guilty of allegedly presiding over the looting of the nation’s resources during his tenure.
The audit by the Auditor General arose from the work of a Special Audit Team constituted by the Federal Government in May 2011 to conduct a comprehensive examination of the accounts of the Civilian Pension Department domiciled in the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.
The audit, which covered the period 2005 to 2010, uncovered monumental financial irregularities, opaque transactions, irregular and abnormal running costs, and outright stealing and kick-backs said to have reached its zenith during the 18 months that Mr. Oronsaye served as Head of Service.
The Auditor General’s office, insiders say, completed its assignment and submitted its report to government in 2012. But no action has been taken to bring all those indicted to book.
While allegations of massive corruption hung around his neck, Mr. Oronsaye remained very close to then President, Goodluck Jonathan.
He also continued to occupy some of the most important positions in the country. He is, for over 10 years now, chairman of the Presidential Committee on Financial Action Task Force [FATF] and was board member of both the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation [NNPC] and the Central Bank of Nigeria [CBN], the two public organisations widely considered the most lucrative in the country.
Even more scams
Investigation by this newspaper however suggested that there are some corruption fronts that both the Auditor General of the Federation and the EFCC are yet to cover.
For instance, highly placed sources at the presidency and the office of the Head of Service showed PREMIUM TIMES documents detailing how Mr. Oronsaye, on June 30, 2010, transferred N113million from pension account No; 4501040012292 with Union Bank Plc to a Unity Bank account named Contingency.
The said Contingency account turned out to be a State House Account in the name of Principal Private Secretary to the President, which Mr. Oronsaye continued to operate many years after he was removed as private secretary to the president.
Further checks showed that a certain Shola Aiyedogbon withdrew substantial part of the illegally transferred funds for onward delivery to Mr. Oronsaye. It was only on January 27, 2011 that Unity Bank alerted the Permanent Secretary, State House, that Mr. Oronsaye was still operating the account before he finally let go

Exclusive: How DPR, Navy Collude with Asians to Defraud Nigeria

ESIMONE, an engineer and president of the Crusteam Group, is not a new comer to the oil and gas industry. An insider, Esimone, has garnered experience in multi-disciplinary engineering practice and management for 25 years. He also has been in top management in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria for 10 years. His deep understanding of the industry shows in his analysis of the state of the economy, current fuel subsidy challenges and the corruption in the sector. He also provides a perspective on how the fuel subsidy quagmire could be resolved in the interview he has with Realnews magazine in May. During the session which lasted for more than an hour, Esimone explained how the rot in the economy started and how to fix it, especially the issue of fuel subsidy which has generated a lot of controversy in the country.
According to Esimone, who is very conversant with project management and delivery strategies in Niger Delta environment with its unique community management challenges, “if government rightly identify that there is a fraud in the subsidy programme. …that fraud must be done in collaboration with tank farmer owners. Because in a supply chain there are police check points. Those check points include the Navy, Department of Petroleum Resourses, DPR, the appointed auditors, depot owners – those are the checkpoints. If the policemen at the checkpoints fail to do their job fraud will go through. So for that fraud to go through all these police men must have failed or collaborated for that thing to happen. If they did their job it will never happen.
“So when they start chasing traders for perceived fraud in the industry, the set of people to be jailed should be those policemen who failed in their duty. A trader is a business man who will do everything to make money. It is the laws that check them and those who are supposed to implement these laws at the checkpoints I mentioned to you; if those people are compromised fraud will exist,” he said.
Part of the fraud in the oil and gas sector is that traders collude with the policemen (officials of the Department Petroleum Resources, the Navy, etc) to cook up documents about importation of fuel that never was to collect money from government. The country also pay demurrage for non-existent vessels that purportedly brought fuel to the country. Esimone thinks the fraud in the system can stop if government hold the policemen at the checkpoints responsible for this action which makes the country lose humongous amount.
On the allegation that the Lebanese, Chinese and Asians are involved in these fraudulent activities in oil and gas sector, Esimone said: “If you look deeply into their operations you might find one or two acts untoward. … It’s all Nigerian activities.   What you can blame them for is that because of their nature, they don’t have strict integrity in doing business like I have mentioned about Mobil and so on who have integrity. They can decide to collaborate with people who have decided to circumvent the check points. They can co-operate with them and give them papers. That is what they can do for them. But they (Asians) themselves can’t initiate it.”
According to him, “it’s the locals who discuss with the policemen at the checkpoints. They can pass by and do this thing but you will need certain papers they will file. So they can’t initiate it. It is internally initiated. So how can you start chasing the man and holding him responsible when it is your policemen that failed”.
He also observed that the federal government stopped independents from participating in fuel importation to curb fraud in the downstream sector in 2012, saying: “Now that you have driven them away and allowed only tank farm owners, have they confirmed if that fraud still exist or not. If you take an action, you should measure whether it is working or not. With what is available now, are you sure that fraud is still not in the system?
He said: “none of those independents have the capacity to shortcut the process without active collaboration of the tank farm owners. You can’t do it. In order words, the tank farm owners are the custodians of the fraud base. So how can you send this other people out who could actually constitute some of your checks and balances. You sent them away so that these guys will settle down and use their power to manipulate the process. So, this is the major issue government didn’t see. Government was just reacting to the symptom without bothering to look at the cause.  So, these are the issues.”
On the issue of subsidy, Esimone, said: “Because of these backlogs of subsidy unpaid, the marketers are not able to import anymore because the banks cannot give them credit anymore. So they can’t import. They would want to import, they are business men. It is only when they import that they make money. So when people think they are holding government to ransom, they are not able to import. They can’t because they can’t access credit. That was why people would have noticed from the end of last year, they cried about this their backlog. The queues emerged but people were getting by with long queues. Just like the shutdown now. You know while people were getting by with long queues, there became only one source of product into the society. The Independents were castrated. The major marketers can’t import.”
Is there a way out of this? Yes. “Government should float bond, do whatever it takes to pay the marketers to enable them import and immediately hand off fuel subsidy,” said Esimone who has developed a model for successful project management in labour sensitive environment and has experience in contaminant plume mapping for both DNAPL and LNAPL using MUDFLO software and the use of special probe for oil-water interface mapping. Co-founder and pioneer president and chief executive officer, LLoyds Energy Group, a petroleum products supply-chain-management company with interest in refinery development, he became the first executive director operations of NESTOIL and later senior vice president, Corporate Affairs. He is the founding chief executive of Crusteam Group, an integrated energy and infrastructure development company with expertise in greenfield projects development, brownfield projects appraisal and resuscitation, business development, planning and management.  He is ardent at project viability analysis using compact and customised models.
Esimone has handled the upgrade of oil production facilities for Shell including platform and flowlines repairs; integrity survey of pipelines using non-intrusive techniques, DCVG; carried out API635 Inspection of ASTs for PPMC in MOSIMI and Shell in UQCC using TMI 150. OCTG Inspection services and organised and led the oil and gas industry team from Nigeria that comprised Shell, ELF, AGIP and NAPIMS to Russia for certification of OCTG and Linepipe products of TMK Mills. He has worked in several communities in Nigeria Delta: Tunu, Opokushi, Letugbene, Forcados, Ogoni, Warri, Bonny among others and created a large network pool of community leaders in these areas.
In the non-oil and gas sector, the chartered professional engineer registered by COREN, with a background in civil engineering and holder of post-graduate degree in Geotechnical Engineering, has carried out successfully, planning, field supervision and technical report writing for several engineering investigations for infrastructural development in water resources, geotechnics and environmental services. He has also represented Nigeria in the multi-national assignment on the integrity status of Lake Nyos natural dam in Cameroon; authored more than 30 technical reports, conference and seminar papers in engineering.
Other national assignments Esimone did include serving as a resource person to NUC in a private university development committee and member of the federal government visitation panel to Universities and Inter-Universities Centre. He is in good standing with several professional engineering bodies both locally and internationally as a fellow of Nigeria Society of Engineers, FNSE, member, Nigeria Institution of Civil Engineer, NICE, member, Nigeria Geotechnical Association, NGA, member, International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, ISSMGE, and Member National Association of Corrosion Engineers, NACE, and member, American Society of Civil engineers
A specialist consultant in Geotechnics to WADSCO, a World Bank accredited water resources consulting company in Nigeria providing geotechnical services for most of their project, Esimone made time out of his busy schedule to give deep insight into the challenges facing the oil and gas sector in Nigeria and how the current fuel subsidy crisis can be resolved. He also painted a vivid picture of how fraudulent activities happen in the downstream sector of the economy, describing tank farm owners as the custodian base of fraud in the oil and gas sector.
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Barry Esimone, an engineer and President of the Crusteam Group has varied experience in the oil and gas having worked there for more than a decade providing services and build infrastructure in the sector. He shares his deep understanding of the goings on in both the downstream and upstream of the industry as an insider in an interview with Maureen Chigbo, editor, Realnews on opical issues such as fraudulent activities in the sector, why they persists and who should be held responsible, describing tank farm owners and regulatory officials as the custody base for fraud.  Excerpts
Realnews: Can you talk about the state of the economy in the Nigeria right now that we have a new government?
Esimone: The truth of the matter is that situation is pretty gloomy. The economic state of the nation is in a very bad shape. That’s facing the fact. It probably will not be the lowest we have dipped through our journey but we are in a bad state.  And this state is a product of previous bad leadership. It is not the immediate regime’s problem only. It is not the immediate party’s problem only. It is not the immediate past political party that has ruled the country in the past 16 years. It is a culmination of events; of improper implementation of policies, lack of focus on how to get us developed. So, maybe we have been running from pillar to post all this while.
You recall we have always had national planning and all that. Rolling plans have all come and gone. The NEEDS were developed at a time. All those programmes as robust and as promising as they were never transformed anything. So, I think that what we are seeing now is a destination that we have known must come. I know that this destination will come. I have always known that. And I am always doing an analogy of where we are going to in Nigeria as a trailer loaded with very heavy load and ascending the hill and suddenly before it gets to the peak to level out it started developing engine problem. The natural thing the bodyguard or the motor boy will do is to jump out of the vehicle and take a wage and put so that the vehicle doesn’t role down. And so he will do that and they will manage to go up a little bit, he will put another wage. But after a while if the engine now packs up completely and you will find that you have gone so much and the retraction force is so heavy that it can tumble over and crash with everything in the trailer. So, the option is to repair the engine or replace the engine so that it can drive up to the top level. What is our best option in the repair of the vehicle in that instance? I have posited that the best option is to allow that trailer come down to the floor where it will not go down anymore. At the floor it’s cheaper to change the engine, cheaper to have mechanics work around it and fix it for good and you put the key and drive it up the hill again. Rather than trying those adhoc mid-way as it was coming down. If you even want to repair at that point how do you bring in the engine at that point? It is even more difficult to manage it there than to let it come down. I suspect that’s where we are going. We are coming down to the ravine. That’s where we are. And I think this is a beautiful opportunity for us to fix it. All the while the previous governments have been the boy dropping the wage to try to fix it; that’s what we have been doing and it has not worked. And so we have a situation now is that things have slipped down. When it has hit rock bottom, we can now begin to build. We can now get more hands to build. People will contribute and we will go up the hill. For that thing to happen you must be sure you have the right engine, worked on properly and fixed for good. So that you won’t have that same problem mid-way when we begin to climb, that’s my analogy of Nigeria.
Barry EsimoneThe economy has been treated with such ad hoc measures, that they never really got it right. Now the immediate past regime unfortunately came towards the dying days of the vehicle; the last time they could fix the engine anymore that was when they came on board. My analysis is that rather than fix it at that location, they allowed it to start coming down so they can get it at rock bottom and then start to fix it. For me, it is positive as they realised that it cannot be fixed mid-stream, it has to come down. Coming down means the devaluation of the Naira you are seeing, the inflation, the restructuring they are doing, the insufficient fund coming from the crude, all these agric development programmes they are running, those are the programmes using to wind it down to rock bottom so that it can be fixed. So, their action cannot be seen as being totally negative to the economy. So, you can’t give that judgement because it is important that the thing comes down before we can go up. So, they have taken those actions. We should consider it positive.
Meanwhile, on the net effect of the destination is negative the destination is up and you are going down but you know that you want to gradually bring it down and when you fix it, it can drive up with speed to anywhere you are going to. So, that credit should go to them. And that’s what you see them talk about their achievement, we have done this. We have done this. They have done those things. But those things while not in the process of taking us up, it is in the process of managing our coming down so that when we are on ground level we can fix it. The fuel crisis which manifested just recently is just one of them. The absurdity of depending on imported petrol for fueling the nation cannot be put better. It is total absurdity. No nation does that. Nations that don’t have the feedstock – crude oil even build refineries because it is cheaper for them to buy crude oil and refine in their country for their own use first of all and if they have excess they will sell. It is a cheaper thing to do. While they are refining it they are creating job for their people. We could have done same with our refineries but rather our four refineries have been run down to ground zero. For how many months none of the refineries is functioning. None, as I speak to you now (in May) No refinery is refining anything. So, how are you going to cope so you now depend on importation for all your fuel need? Meanwhile, your source of revenue for importing is dwindling. It has crashed from above $100 per barrel down to $50, down to $60. And meanwhile you are continuously importing.  You see the danger. That’s why we are in this position. Now because of the deep corruption in the system, there are some of the funds that would have gone into the developmental processes have been frittered away under corruption. You know those in the team, have not helped matters by their attitude, bloated bureaucracy and all kinds of thing that they do. So, we were pretending and living on borrowed time, thinking that we will sustain the action of using imports to fuel Nigeria. The same revenue from their sales of crude oil is needed for every other development of the nation and yet what you could do locally you throw that pressure to the same revenue we make abroad and so we ended up where we are now.
So, government is unable to meet their obligation under the subsidy and they will not be able to do that. All your revenue, truly speaking, may not be sufficient to pay the subsidy. It is very simply arithmetic. Maximum permissible sale by the OPEC is 2.5 million barrels of crude oil per day. That’s our OPEC quota. Meanwhile, we don’t meet this OPEC quota because of sabotage in the Niger Delta. We barely sell 2 million barrels, sometimes, a little above 1 million barrels. All the calculations are based on the OPEC quota to you which we don’t meet. If you don’t produce that much you won’t sell that much. You can only sell what you have produced. So, that is the major challenge they have. So, the only revenue source has so dwindled. Therefore, it is putting pressure on everything.
Now, the programme of importation didn’t help either. Now, the activity of the government in supplying the fuel, their programme or process of making fuel available are from three key sources. One, the Pipeline and Product Marketing Limited, PPMC, that belongs to government has responsibility to provide fuel. And they provide their fuel from two sources; one, from the local refinery output; two, they augment by importation because the local refinery output is not sufficient for local consumption. So, they are supposed to import the balance. That is the government strategy for getting fuel to us. The PPMC is responsible for that particular function. The pipeline side of their name is dead. So, it’s only product marketing that is there so the name should have been changed since there is no pipeline. But the product marketing is the statutory responsibility of the PPMC to take over all the refined products from the four refineries. Refineries don’t sell. Theirs is to refine and the do custody transfer to the PPMC. That’s why in every refinery you see the PPMC depot around. The refineries refine and push over to them to sell. So, when it is insufficient they are supposed to import to augment. So, nobody should get involved in import if they function efficiently. They are supposed to be responsible for all the importation and everything. Now because they have not functioned well, it has created a lot of problem in the past. There are queues everywhere and because of that government created another window, the PPPRA to support that process by inviting private marketers and allowing them to import part of the requirement of national consumption. That’s how private people got involved.
So, the PPPRA began to give private people allocation. They will collect the national need from national planning and subtract the one the PPMC said they would provide and give the balance to marketers to import. Initially, only the major marketers were providing that service. That was the standard. Due to political pressure they broke up that cartel and allowed others to be part of it and called them the independents. So, the independents joined the importation through allocation from the PPPRA. It means, therefore, we have the PPMC, major marketers and the independents. These are the three who bring fuel to the nation. Now, independents were given a condition precedent before they can participate they must own a tank farm. Naturally the major marketers own tank farms because they were the original distributors and have storage facilities where they store products the PPMC sell to them which they put in their tankers and start distributing. By this initial structure the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation was not part of the trading group. They were not part of the distribution group. They don’t have filling station. So, these majors that have filling stations – Mobil, the Total, Oando, Forte oil – they had the filling stations. And then the independents began to own filling stations. So, these Independents were encouraged that if you are to participate you have to own tank farms. So, they started building tank farms so they can have the statutory requirement to participate in the trade. Somewhere along the line they dropped the condition for participation and said that if you have a thorough-put arrangement you don’t have to have the tank farm to participate which in my own opinion is a beautiful programme. But after the crisis of 2012, government reverted back to only tank farm owners to participate so those independents, those traders who didn’t have tank farms who were using peoples tank farms through thorough-put arrangement to import were thrown out of business. This people constitute major employers of labour. In my opinion, it wasn’t necessary to throw them out on the pretense that they were the ones who perpetrated the subsidy fraud. But I tell you this, none of those independents have the capacity to shortcut the process without active collaboration of the tank farm owners. You can’t do it. In order words, the tank farm owners are the custodians of the fraud base. So, how can you send this other people out who could actually constitute some of your checks and balances? You sent them away so that these guys will settle down and use their power to manipulate the process. So, this is the major issue government didn’t see. Government was just reacting to the symptom without bothering to look at the cause. So, these are the issues. I just want to give you this background to understand. Because of these backlogs of subsidy unpaid, the marketers are not able to import anymore because the banks cannot give them credit anymore. So, they can’t import. They would want to import, they are businessmen. It is only when they import that they make money. So, when people think they are holding government to ransom, they are not able to import. They can’t because they can’t access credit. That was why people would have noticed from the end of last year, they cried about this their backlog. The queues emerged but people were getting by with long queues. Just like the shutdown now. You know while people were getting by with long queues, there became only one source of product into the society. The independents were castrated. The major marketers can’t import. So, you are left with the PPMC. In other words, the PPMC can only take from the refineries if they are working or import to supplement. So, if the refineries are not working it means that they have to import everything. Now the PPMC do not import directly the import through contracting. They award contract to international traders to bring cargoes for them. That’s their process of importation. Of which by my own opinion the PPMC should be an international traders itself and should not rely on contracting. Yes, they should have grown to be international traders going to other countries to trade and supply products to them; go to other international market place and bid for products, have contracts with refinery owners across the globe. Because that’s what international traders do, have long term contract with refiners so they can pick off their cargo and distribute it around the world. The PPMC should have grown to that position. They never did and they relied on contract. You know what goes with contract. In the contracting process, all the systemic fraud will go into it, you understand, and so costing us more, much more. And they do not have the detail logistic capacity to manage the imports thereby accruing another heavy cost of demurrage. You see those big traders – they will not schedule their window so there will not be a waiting time. But they will all come and line up and by international best practice, you will keep paying them for the vessel until you take your cargo. So, proper scheduling would have avoided those expenses because the vessels carrying the cargoes would only come in when there is space to discharge. But this planning was never done. So, huge payments are made on demurrages that are not related to the prices of the product. It is a reflection of incompetence in the supply chain management. That’s how that comes.
The local refinery component they came up with a creative idea. This other import by international traders is a cash based transaction. You pay them, open letters of credit, LC, you pay them cash. If you don’t pay cash they don’t give you. They are not father Christmas so you need to have cash to do that one. The same way the majors marketers need cash, independents need cash and the PPMC needs cash to do that. If the refineries were working the PPMC will not need cash to take the products. They take it by statute. Now what they did, since the refineries are not working and the refineries are allocated 445,000 barrels per day by law, they decided to sell the products, get people to do basically trade by batter; carry this crude oil and give us refined products because the refineries are not working due to gross inefficient process; because it’s what they tell you, you take. Cost of crude oil is much more lower than cost of refined products. By this act it opens also opportunities for fraud. So, that’s the issue. Now because this particular arm doesn’t require cash they have been the ones bringing the fuel we are using. This fuel you are seeing now through that little pact out of the whole chain. Those people run what they call swap programme. You swap crude for refine products. Some companies were licensed, contracted to do that. And they are indigenous companies.  So, meanwhile what everybody used to operate and bring to fuel the nation suddenly it is only one little tribe that brings it. That’s why typically you have queues because you have availability in trickles. Since January you have been seeing queues. They are the only sources of product in the economy through the swap pact of the PPMC programme because the international traders pact with the PPMC is so affect by cash flow.
Realnews: There is something you said about major marketers being custodians of fraud….
Esimone: That’s not what I said. Don’t misquote me. I said if government rightly identify that there is a fraud in the subsidy programme. And I am saying that fraud must be done in collaboration with tank farmer owners. Because in a supply chain there are police check points. Those check points include the navy, the DPR, the appointed auditors, depot owners – those are the checkpoints. If the policemen at the checkpoints fail to do their job fraud will go through. So, for that fraud to go through all these police men must have failed or collaborated for that thing to happen. If they did their job it will never happen. So, when they start chasing traders for perceived fraud in the industry, the set of people to be jailed should be those policemen who failed in their duty. A trader is a businessman who will do everything to make money. It is the laws that check them and those who are supposed to implement these laws at the checkpoints I mentioned to you; if those people are compromised fraud will exist.
Realnews: Part of this fraud is that traders collude with the policemen you have mentioned to cook up documents about importation for fuel that never was to collect money from government. The country will also be paying demurrage for non-existent vessels that purportedly brought fuel to the country. Does it happen in the industry?
Esimone: Yes, it is possible.
Realnews: How can the government stop this?
Esimone: I have said this, the checkpoints, hold them responsible for this action.
Realnews: How much do you think the country loses to these fraudulent acts?
Esimone: I can’t give you a number now but it is humongous. It is a major loss. Now, the question I asked is this: now that you have driven away and allowed only tank farm owners, have they confirmed if that fraud still exist or not? If you take an action, you should measure whether it is working or not. With what is available now, are you sure that fraud is still not in the system?
Realnews: Do you think the fraud is still there?
Esimone: I think so. The fraud is still in the system because they have never punished any of the policemen. So, they are safe. They can only refine their approach with their collaborators, because if they had sanctioned…
Realnews: The DPR officials are also there
Esimone: They are the police people. They are the police people
Realnews: When we are talking about this fraud it also not limited to the downstream. In the upstream too does the fraud in the downstream confirm the allegation then that nobody really knows the amount of crude oil being lifted in the country and that the police people also collude to short change the country?
Barry EsimoneEsimone: Let me say this. Ignorance abounds in this society and people fathom things. I don’t belong to people who say all kinds of things. The reason is this. One, there are policemen again in that line and some of them are diligent policemen because the exports are handled by the multi-nationals. And so, there is a limit to which they can collaborate in a fraud because the laws of their land hold them accountable if they are indicted and so they will not risk losing their license. They can be recalled out of Nigeria.  For example if ExxonMobil is caught in that kind of fraud, their home country will shut down their operation in Nigeria and they will not want to risk that. So, they will do everything to protect that. People don’t understand this side to it about Shell, Mobil, Chevron and all that. And there only few export terminals in Nigeria. It’s is not that everybody put their trucks to carry crude oil. Bonny terminal is owned by Shell. Forcados terminal is owned by Shell. Excravos terminal is owned by Chevron, Quoa Iboe terminal is owned by Mobil. They are the people who invested and developed the export facilities from where the crude oil will go. And the places are manned by the DPR representatives and the representatives of these multinationals. I am saying in effect that such fraud may exist but not to the level of what obtains in the downstream because there are people who are involved whose integrity are important to them.  The downstream is all Nigerians affair.
Realnews: There is also an allegation that the crude oil that is taken out to be refined abroad that nobody accounts for the by-products when they are refined. The idea is that all the by-products of crude oil are also sold and money accruing from that is stolen and not remitted to the coffers of the country.
Esimone: Again, professionally, it is not possible. It doesn’t make sense to us professionally. The reason is this. When you are negotiating a swap programme – crude oil for refined products – the terms of engagement is very clear. This is the crude oil and you give me this amount of PMS. What you are exchanging is crude for PMS and not the derivatives. Do you understand so whatever happens to the derivatives doesn’t concern you. You know when you talk about derivatives, it means that they are refining your crude oil for you. That is not what is going on. What is going on is trade by barter – I take your crude I give you refined oil. Which refinery are they taking it to for refining? The refineries cannot depend on your crude oil. Refineries feedstock are planned throughout the year. The owners of refinery can never depend on sporadic availability of crude oil. They plan ahead. They sign long term contract for the supply of crude oil. So, when you take this oil and you say refine for you for what? They take it and sell it in the market and then you buy PMS and the quantity you agreed is returned to the nation. There is no refinery anywhere they are taking it to.
Realnews: That means there is a lot of ignorance on the part of people making that argument, especially during the 2012 crisis, union officials talked so much about the derivatives and what the country is losing. From your explanation, it is like members of the labour who are making the allegation don’t understand what is happening? When they make this argument they make government look fraudulent.
Esimone: It is not. There is a lot of ignorance. It is a highly technical negotiation. Products trade is a sophisticated trade. That is the problem.  Product trading is a sophisticated trade. It is a features trade. A trade that you make a gamble into the future just like stock exchange. Not exactly like that but close to that. Stock might go up tomorrow you want to buy today. It’s futures, it’s sophisticated, it’s a specialty. That’s what this brokers know how to play very well. It’s a specialisation. Product trading is a specialisation done internationally. Our people were allowed to come in to contribute to what they don’t know how it operates because government failed in giving them what they required. What they required is for them to go to the filling station and buy fuel and go. And so, they won’t be involved in the technicalities of the swap programme and other technicalities. They began to be involved because they were asked to pay more and there is no fuel and they begin to ask questions from point of ignorance. We need to separate those things, the facts from the ignorance.
Realnews: What is the way forward for the downstream sector right now?
Esimone: The way forward is this. Pay your debt to the traders. Remove subsidy and everything will flow. In the short run, it is an immediate measure. On the long term measure, they must plan to refine all our needs in this country, no matter how they do it, because one of the reasons this subsidy bill keep rising is because of the devaluation of the Naira. During that subsidy investigation of 2012, I kept seeking audience to explain to the public. They don’t understand what they are saying. They will brandish numbers. For the uninitiated, it will make sense that last year you spend N200 billion for subsidy and this year they are spending N1 trillion. It is possible and it can be legitimate.
Realnews: So, explain it now so people can understand
Esimone: The reason is this. Two factors determine the amount of subsidy. One is the international price of crude oil and international price of products because they go together. Two, exchange rate because it is an import based business.  That year they referenced when in 2010, I imported cargoes the average price of per metric tonne of cargo was about $600. By that year, it jumped already the price per metric tonne which nobody has control over here was about a $1000 plus. So, only on international market price change, the subsidy automatically had already doubled in dollar terms. So, you will expect to pay double. Because they used buy it $600 now they are buying at $1200. So, automatically your subsidy payment will double. Number Two, at that time it was $600, exchange rate was $1 to N150 because it is a dollar based business. On the dollar component, the dollar need has doubled and the exchange rate had moved from $150 to about $168 as at the time I can remember. Just say $170 easy of analysis. That is N20 per dollar increase of which no trader has control over. It’s the CBN, government policy and lack of economic activity in the nation that dropped the value of your currency. So, if you take that extra N20 per dollar put it in a double dollar value. The dollar value at which you are used to import has doubled and you multiply it by this extra you see the subsidy you need to pay will jump high. So, that is why the number jumped not because of fraud. Yes, that can be part of the system. But the key issue why the subsidy figure moved is because of these two major reasons. The only component of fraud that will effect this change will be as a result of claiming for un-imported quantity, that is the third component. So, the country has no control over it but international market price. The exchange rate traders have no control over it except Central Bank of Nigeria. It has nothing to do with traders. The third component is where the public can participate in increasing the value. Now who could check that, those police men I mentioned to you, if they did their function nothing would have happen. Is that clear to you?
Realnews: There is allegation that the Lebanese, Chinese and Asians are involved in these fraudulent activities, especially in this paying for un-imported quantity. So many of them are involved in it and ripping the country off….
Esimone: No! On a serious note I can’t say that. I am not standing in for them, if you look deeply into their operations you might find one or two acts untoward. Ordinarily, if you recall the process I have gone through with you will realise that it’s all Nigerian activities. Where they come in is that they are the traders who sell to you. The Lebanese they bring their cargoes they keep it they know you will come. And they sell it at the proper price because the price is according to plat which they have no control over. What you can blame them for is that because of their nature, they don’t have strict integrity in doing business like I have mentioned about Mobil and so on who have integrity. They can decide to collaborate with people who have decided to circumvent the check points. They can co-operate with them and give them papers. That is what they can do for them. But they themselves can’t initiate it.
Realnews: So, who initiates it?
Esimone: I say the locals who discuss with the policemen. They can pass by and do this thing but you will need certain papers they will file. So, they can’t initiate it. It is internally initiated. So, how can you start chasing the man and holding him responsible when it is your policemen that failed.
Realnews: It is a very serious problem. Is it not?
Esimone: It is. I think we have done just to this.
Realnews: Let’s talk about the offshore business. Investment in the offshore oil and gas business is dwindling.
Esimone: Unfortunate. It’s very unfortunate but that’s what is going on. I think that politics and politicians took a stranglehold on the goose that lay the golden egg by policy summersault, unnecessary bureaucracy, making things difficult unnecessarily had made decisions for further investments on oil exploration difficult. That’s exactly what it is. So, if you don’t explore you don’t find. You know, that your OPEC quota is a function of your reserve and the population of your nation. And without exploration you can’t add to stock of your nation. And mind you, crude oil is an exhaustible resource, so, if you don’t replace it can finish. Some countries have used up the crude oil. They have used to have crude oil but don’t have anymore. The reality is takes billions of years to cook another crude oil. Yes, the one you are taking here takes billions of years to cook.
Realnews: Cooked?
Esimone: (laughs). You don’t know how crude oil is formed. It is from the decay of vegetable and animals that’s it. So, the theory of crude oil is that the dinosaur era due to major event called the big bang not really the big bang there was a collision of an asteroid onto the earth that raised the dust cover and blocked the sun rays coming into the earth and all the animals died. These animals were dinosaurs, huge animals that covered the face of the earth. It is when they died that the decayed formed this oil. Oil is a hydrocarbon – hydrogen and carbon. They are the things that formed oil; they are only found in living things, in your body and in plant. It is carbon and hydrogen that formed you, formed plants so when the decay, they only come to the elements and they can exist in three states: solid state, liquid state or gaseous state. The solid state of the hydrocarbon is called coal. The coal is hydrocarbon, the liquid state is the crude oil and the gaseous state is the gas. It is in these three stares of matter they exist. That’s why you can cook with coal without smoke. Coal is the same thing as petroleum just on a solid form. That’s why some countries crack coal to get petroleum. South Africa cracks coal to get petroleum. It is just that it is more expensive to crack. They don’t have crude oil so what they have they extract fuel from it. They are converting gas to petroleum because they are the same material but in different state. It’s just like water – your ice cubes, if you like you chew it, or if it melts you drink it like water, and gas, the steam. If you are boiling water, the steam will be going off your kettle. So, those are same. If you remove the cover of your kettle you will see water droplets. You have converted steam into liquid. If you keep the ice cubes in the sun it will melt so you have converted it into water and vice versa.
Realnews; Thanks for the explanation. I am sure a lot of people don’t know this too. But we were talking about the future of the upstream where no investment is shrinking now…
Esimone: Yes, it is shrinking. It has an immediate effect in local content development. Some of the chaps who developed capacity in rig and ownership had their rigs laid off and they are owing debt. And once they are not drilling all their service support will lay off service. A serious country that is into oil production will have a plan of additional oil exploration they will do in a year in search of additional reserve to replace the depletion to constantly keep you in a position where you can get increase quota from the OPEC. Because if we drop our reserve value they will drop your quota value. If we can double our reserve value our quota can go from 2-5 to 3.3million barrels per day.
Realnews: The Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, is not likely to be passed by June 5, when the tenure of the seventh National Assembly expires. How is this affecting the oil and gas sector?
Esimone: I don’t think that the seventh Assembly will pass the bill. From now to Friday, all attention will be focused on the handover ceremony. They won’t have time to pass what has not already been passed. The required legislative process is not a presidential fiat. The legislators are business doing courses, preparing, so this will not come up. We hope the new government regime will take it serious and expunge things that are contentious and pass the bill.
Realnews: What is really the problem?
Barry EsimoneEsimone: I have always recommended that if there are grey areas of the bill you can expunge that for further consideration and pass the ones that you accepted. You know, there are two key elements involved in the PIB. One is the fiscal structure in the oil and gas. The second is the unbundling of the NNPC group. Those are they too major elements.  On the fiscal structure, the problem there is that the fiscal structure strives to increase the tax on profit apart from the royalties, etc. The target is to increase the tax on the profit for the nation. You should know that the international oil companies are here to do business and what drive the business globally is the tax regimes. If the tax regimes become very punitive, they will leave you. They are not father Christmas. They will also lobby to ensure that you don’t do that because they are having already in-country massive investments.  So, it will be cheaper to take a bit of the pain here than to go to a new place where their tax is better to start another new investment. But there is a limit to what they can take.
Realnews: But in other countries’ such as Angola where the IOCs are the tax regimes there are higher than in Nigeria and they have not left those countries…
Esimone: They are higher. No. I say this, people have erroneous assumption that labour in the country is cheap. There is no cheap labour in Nigeria. You know why. The labour efficiency factor in Nigeria is very low. In some of these places, the labour efficiency factor is high. So, if you pay them high you get high output. So, if you pay low here you get very low output. So, labour efficiency factor is part of it. So, labour cost in Nigeria, therefore, is high. What that means is that the operating cost of bringing the product is high. And this profit you are taxing is sales minus expenses. So, if your expenses are so high that your margin here is so narrow, and you come to take higher tax from it you are leaving your partners with little or nothing.
Realnews: The impression is that the IOCs make a lot of money.
Esimone: I say that it is just an impression. It is something you can check. Perception is not necessarily a reality. They are all quoted companies in their homes. If you dig deeper, you will find out how they are performing. So, that is the point. So, why they are struggling is that government should, therefore, not focus on tax regime. In that chain, what they have to do is see if they can increase the size of the cake. So, that even if you increase the tax you take, what is left for them will be worth their time. And where can you touch and since it is sales minus expenses you can’t affect sales so much because they can’t determine the price. It is in your cost that you will touch. So, government should focus on how to reduce the cost of operation in Nigeria so that there will be more in that cake after you apply the percentage tax the left over is enough for them to make enough return on their investment. This is the fact.
Realnews: Interesting. So, what is your last word on how to improve the oil and gas sector and for the management of the economy which is what we have been talking about?
Esimone: You know why we dwell so much on oil and gas because that is the mainstay of our economy. It contributes about 90 percent of foreign exchange earnings and about 80 percent of our budgetary need comes from oil and gas. So, discussing it is discussing the economy literally.  (laughter) So, the challenge with the new regime is that they have to have an integrated approach to oil and gas development. Number one, they should ensure that all we can get from the oil and gas for our local needs is gotten from there without importing it. In other words, there must be sufficient refining capacity in-country no matter how they do it. I don’t want to go into the details suggestion of how they do it but you must have that done. When you do that you will save the pressure on the dollar that you used to import and the exchange rate will naturally come down. And that will be the first step out. But like I said, when you asked me about the fuel subsidy I said pay the debt. Even if it is N1trillion, pay it. And remove your hand. If you want you can actually pay it and tax the society gradually to recover it. But by paying it, by any instrument within the system, borrowing or creating a bond to pay it. Then remove your hand so the people can have the capacity for credit rating to import so they can start importing and you can now plan the long term of internal capacity development. Good news, Dangote is building refinery with about 500,000 barrels per day refining capacity and that is marvelous. Many more should be encouraged. I will expect government to target 1.5 million barrels per day refining capacity so that our export will only be 1 million barrels per day. Set it as a target that we would want to refine in-country 1.5 million barrels per day. Dangote has taken 500,000 barrels. There are 1 million to go. The four refineries all together are already taking 445,000 barrels per day. So, we have about 500,000 barrels balance of that to go. So, you can allow independents to build. Encourage them with incentives. So, that is my suggestion on way forward.