Femi Falana The right to development is a fundamental right by virtue of which every person is entitled to participate in, contribute to and enjoy economic, social and cultural development. It is a right which includes the exercise of full sovereignty over national resources, self determination, popular participation in development and equality of opportunity. By virtue of section 16(2)(c) of the Constitution, the Nigerian State shall direct its policy towards ensuring the promotion of a planned and balanced economic development and ensure that the economic system is not operated in such a manner as to permit the concentration of wealth or the means of production and exchange in the hands of a few individuals or of a group.
The demand for the control of the country's natural resources was a component element in the struggle for independence from the British colonial regime. But upon the attainment of self-rule the status quo was allowed to remain in the economic front. Realising that the socio-economic rights of the people could not be meaningfully guaranteed without the control of the natural resources a duty has been imposed on the member states of the African Union to freely dispose of the commonwealth in the exclusive interest of the people. In order to establish a welfare system in the country, the Constitution has imposed a duty on the State to direct its policy towards ensuring that the material resources of the nation are harnessed and distributed as best as possible to serve the common good and that the economic system is not operated in such a manner as to permit the concentration of wealth or the means of production and exchange, in the hands of few individuals or of a group. But with the hijack and control of the economy by imperialism and its local lackeys the commonwealth has been completely concentrated in the hands of a few people.
No doubt, the domination of the Nigerian economy by market forces has stultified the development and growth of an efficient, dynamic and self-reliant economy in Nigeria. The adoption of neo-liberal economic policies by the Federal Government has continued to promote poverty among the generality of Nigerians. Despite the abundant resources of the nation, the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has disclosed that "over 100 million Nigerians live below the poverty line." I am not unmindful of the commitment of the Buhari Administration to fight corruption. It ought to be pointed out that corruption is not the root cause of our poverty but a manifestation of the peripheral capitalist economy which is anchored on ruthless exploitation.
With the implementation of the Structural Adjustment Programme the State has stopped the planning of the economy, refused to harness the resources of the country and failed to address grand corruption and abuse of office. But in view of the debilitating effects of corruption on the society, the State has adopted some measures to promote transparency and accountability in governance. In addition to the penal and criminal codes which have provided for stringent penalties for fraud, embezzlement, stealing, conversion etc other laws which are designed to promote good governance are the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) Act, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Act, Code of Conduct Bureau Act, Public Procurement Act, and Fiscal Responsibility Act. In demonstration of its resolve to combat corruption, the Government has ratified the United Nations Convention on Corruption and the African Union Convention on Corruption.
Aside from, the collaboration with some countries to tackle corruption through Mutual Legal Assistance, the Federal Government has enacted a number of laws for encouraging ethical standards and promoting good governance. Notwithstanding the corpus of anti-graft laws and the establishment of anti-corruption agencies, official corruption has stultified growth and development and exposed the country to ridicule before the comity of nations. This is not unexpected given the nature of the country's neo-colonial capitalist economy compounded by impunity on the part of the ruling class.
Duty of Nigerian citizens to fight corruption The duty imposed on citizens "to render assistance to appropriate and lawful agencies in the maintenance of law and order” includes the duty to expose corruption by reporting allegations of corrupt practices to the anti-graft agencies. In Fawehinmi v Inspector-General of Police (2002) 1 NWLR (PT 767) 606 the Supreme Court held that notwithstanding the immunity conferred on heads of government by section 308 of the Constitution, criminal allegations against them may be investigated by the police during their term of office. The view of the apex court was captured by Justice Uwaifo when he said that “the evidence or some aspect of it may be the type which might be lost forever if not preserved while it is available, and in the particular instances given it can be seen that the offences are very serious ones which the society would be unlikely to overlook if it had its way. It may no doubt be used for prosecution of the said incumbent Governor after he has left office. But to do nothing under the pretext that a Governor cannot be investigated is a disservice to the society.”
The Court however turned round to hold that the police could not be compelled to investigate or prosecute any criminal complaint on grounds of public policy. With respect, the Supreme Court missed the point as it failed to take cognisance of the relevant provisions of the Constitution. In other words, the discretion of the anti graft agencies to decide whether or not to investigate or prosecute allegations of corruption cannot override the fundamental right of citizens to freedom of information coupled with the duty placed on them to render lawful assistance to law enforcement agencies in the discharge of their duties.
Convinced that they have discretion to investigate or prosecute allegations of corruption the anti graft agencies have often picked and chosen which cases to investigate or prosecute. The latitude given to the police and other agencies clothed with prosecutorial powers was challenged in Alhaji Sani Dododo v Economic & Financial Crimes Commission and Ors. (2013) 1 NWLR (PT 1336) 468. Having submitted petitions to the anti graft agencies alleging corruption against a former governor of Sokoto State, Senator Muhammed Adamu Aliero which were not investigated by the respondents the Appellant approached the Federal High Court for judicial review by filing a writ of mandamus. In striking out the case for want of locus standi on the part of the Appellant the federal high court held that the Respondents could not be compelled to investigate or prosecute the suspect.
The appeal against the verdict was also dismissed by the Court of Appeal. But the locus standi of the Appellant to institute the case was recognised when the Court (per Nwodo JCA) held that "the traditional and narrow view set out in Adesanya’s case will not attain justice in the realm of public right in the light of the Nigerian cases earlier set out on issue of locus... the African Charter provision encompassing public rights should be so construed broadly to vest locus on a tax payer who is interested in good governance and shows such interest by writing a statutory body to complain on misappropriation of public funds. Such an act is disclosure of sufficient interest.”
In recognising the constitutional duty imposed on citizens to report allegations of corrupt practices by public officers to the anti graft agencies the Court of appeal further stated that the appellant “also has a duty, by dint of section 24(e) of the same Constitution ‘to render assistance to appropriate and lawful agencies in the maintenance of law and order’. It is in the spirit of section 24 of the Constitution, read together with section 15(5) of the same Constitution that enjoins the state agencies to ‘abolish all corrupt practices and abuse of power’ that the appellant made his complaint of corrupt practices against the 4th respondent to the 1st and 2nd Respondents, who are no doubt lawful agencies of the Federal Government charged with police powers to investigate allegations of corrupt practices and financial crimes and prosecute the offenders.”
In the fight against corruption, the Court rightly held that aggrieved citizens who submit petitions alleging corrupt practices against public officers are entitled to the report of the investigation carried out by the police and anti graft agencies. It was the solid view of the Court that "the appellant is entitled to the investigation report on his right as the complainant. See Article 9 of the African Charter. The generality of the public are not entitled to that information until the person suspected is arraigned before a competent court for trial."
In view of the categorical pronouncements of the appellate courts in the cases of Fawehinmi v the President (2008) CHR 1 and Alhaji Dododo v. Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (supra) it can no longer be said that a tax payer has no locus standi in demanding for the investigation or prosecution of a public officer suspected to have engaged in corrupt practices. To that extent, the Federal High Court (per Kolawole J.) fell into error when it struck the case of Socio-Economic Rights Accountability Project & Ors. v Attorney-General of the Federation & Anor. Unreported Suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/ 640/ 2010 on the ground that the Plaintiffs, a group of human rights bodies, lacked the locus standi to demand for an account of the $12.4 billion which was allegedly mismanaged by the Ibrahim Babangida junta. Since the members of the Plaintiffs have a duty to render assistance to law enforcement agencies the doctrine of locus standi was improperly invoked and wrongly applied by the trial court.
Indeed, the trial court ran into contradictions when it turned down the request of the Defendants for the award of costs. Even though the court had struck out the case for want of locus standi it proceeded to say the Plaintiffs could not be said to be "busybodies" when it held that "It will be uncharitable for anybody to describe or christen them as ‘busy-bodies’. They are not, rather, I see them as patriotic ‘corporate citizens’ of Nigeria who in my view, are driven purely by a desire to use the judicial instruments to effectuate in practical terms, the ‘fundamental objectives’ expressed in section 14(1) of the CFRN, 1999 as amended that ‘the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be based on the principles of democracy and social justice’.... These Applicants are not busy-bodies but patriotic corporate citizens (regardless of the status of the 2nd and 3rd Applicants who did not sue through their registered trustees) whose courage to bring this action against all odds, must be commended."
In Bamidele Aturu V Honourable Minister of Petroleum & Ors. (unreported) Suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/591/2009 the locus standi of the plaintiff to challenge the decision of the defendants to deregulate the downstream sector of the petroleum sector was upheld by the Federal High Court. The trial judge, Adamu J. (as he then was) held that "...it is my considered view therefore that any decision by the government of Nigeria to deregulate the downstream sector of the petroleum industry in the face of the extant laws copiously referred to, will not only be unlawful, illegal but unconstitutional as well and therefore, null and void.” Recovery of looted wealth
No doubt, the avowed commitment of President Buhari to fight corruption and end impunity in the country has attracted the goodwill of the international community. Apart from his invitation to attend and address the last meeting of the G7, President Buhari is currently on tour of the United States on the invitation of President Obama. Before then, Nigeria had hosted the meeting of her neighbours in the renewed fight against terrorism. To a large extent, the pariah status of the country may be said to have ended.
At the meeting of the G7, President Buhari pleaded with the leaders of global capitalism to collaborate with Nigeria in fighting terrorism and in fixing her comatose economy. Convinced that the destiny of the nation lies in the hands of Nigerians I pleaded with President Buhari to look inwards. In particular, I suggested that Nigeria should reject any bailout and make a strong case “for the repatriation of our looted wealth in the vaults of western banks”. Happily, President Buhari has requested the Obama Administration to assist in the repatriation of about $150 billion looted from the public treasury in the last decade.
Since the war against official corruption commenced under the Buhari Administration corruption has decided to fight back in a vicious way. Apart from attacking the leadership of the anti graft agencies the regime has been accused of engaging in dictatorial and authoritarian tactics by the few unpatriotic elements who have stolen the country dry. While the decision of the Federal Government not to interfere in the work of the anti-graft agencies is a welcome development, the National Assembly should forward to President Buhari for his assent the Witness Protection Bill and the Whistle Blowers’ Bill. The National Assembly deserves commendation for enacting both laws together with the Administration of Justice, 2015.
Under the new Act the granting of stay of proceedings and other delay tactics have been banned in the trial of criminal cases. Accordingly, a criminal trial shall be concluded within months unless there are exceptional circumstances which may prolong any trial. Indeed, the elevation of trial judges to the Court of Appeal will no longer lead to a fresh trial before other judges as newly appointed judges will be given the fiat to conclude part heard matters. Plea bargain has been given statutory recognition by the Act.
Those who are opposed to the renewed fight against corruption have begun to accuse President Buhari of waging a persecution agenda. While urging the anti graft agencies to ignore such campaigns of calumny it is germane to remind Nigerians that since 1994 all successive regimes in Nigeria have waged a war against corruption. It was the Sani Abacha junta that enacted the Failed Bank Decree and the Advance Fee Fraud Decree to deal ruthlessly with bank fraud and the offence of obtaining money by false pretences. The Pius Okigbo-led probe of the mismanagement of the Central Bank instituted by the junta revealed that $12.2 billion in the Dedicated Accounts was misappropriated by his predecessor and comrade-in-arms, General Ibrahim Babangida.
Following the death of the maximum dictator, General Abacha on June 8, 1998, his successor, General Abdulsalami Abubakar ordered investigation into the grand looting of the Central Bank of Nigeria from 1993-1998. At the end of the probe it was established that the late military ruler stole about $5 billion from the vaults of the CBN through his National Security Adviser, Mr. Mohammed Gwazo. The said stolen fund has since been traced to over 140 bank accounts in western countries and some remote islands in the world. Based on report of the investigation the Federal Government recovered funds and properties worth over $1 billion from the family and associates of General Abacha. The forfeited assets were promulgated into law by General Abubakar on 26th May, 1999. Upon our request under the Freedom of Information Act, the immediate past Secretary to the Federal Government, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim confirmed that the said funds and assets had been forfeited to the Federal Government.
Upon the restoration of civil rule in May 1999 the Olusegun Obasanjo Administration embarked on the recovery of the remaining Abacha loot. Contrary to the misleading information of the then Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, that only $500 million was recovered under her watch we have established that the Government of Switzerland assisted Nigeria to recover $700 million which was handed over to the Federal Government while another sum of $350 million was recovered from family members and business associates of General Abacha in respect of the Ajaokuta contract scam. It has also been revealed that the proceeds from the sale of shares of the late dictator in a refinery located in Sierra Leone worth $450,000 were forfeited to the Federal Government at the material time.
It is on record that the recovery efforts of the Federal Government continued under the Goodluck Jonathan Administration. In justifying the withdrawal of the criminal charges filed against Mr. Mohammed Abacha over his role in the diversion of the stolen fund, the Federal Ministry of Justice disclosed, sometime last year, that another sum of $970 million had been recovered from the Abacha loot. Shortly thereafter, the United States' Government announced that it had recovered the sum of $458 million from the Abacha loot. The said sum of $458 has not been repatriated to Nigeria for obvious reasons.
During the recent electioneering campaign, President Jonathan boasted that his administration had fought corruption more than previous regimes. He therefore warned Nigerians not to vote for General Buhari as he was likely to jail corrupt people. As Nigerians actually wanted corrupt people jailed they decided to vote for the retired General. In fairness to President Jonathan, the fight against corruption under his regime recorded some success. Apart from an ex-governor who escaped the arrest of the EFCC only to be arrested, tried and jailed abroad the era witnessed the conviction of a few influential people who were convicted for stealing billions of Naira but asked to pay ridiculously low fines. Indeed, the regime charged Mr. Dick Cheney, a former Vice President of the United States and the Nigerians who were indicted in the Halliburton scandal even though the cases were struck out for want of diligent prosecution. Based on the concern expressed by President Jonathan over the inordinate delay in the prosecution of corruption and terrorism cases the heads of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and Federal High Court issued practice directions to accelerate the hearing and determination of such cases. Under the practice directions the hearing of cases of corruption and terrorism shall be heard day by day while appeals arising there from shall take precedence over other matters. But for reasons best known to our judges the practice directions have been ignored.
Campaign against Anti Graft Agencies by the Ruling Class Based on the avowed commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari to fight the menace of corruption the members of the ruling class have begun to wage a campaign of calumny against the EFCC and other anti graft agencies. An influential newspaper has, without any shred of evidence, accused the EFCC leadership of wallowing in corruption while a rented crowd has "stormed" Abuja to demand for the removal of the EFCC chairman. Even some members of the ruling party have not spared the EFCC for daring to ask certain people to account for public funds the EFCC has been accused of allowing itself to be used to settle political scores. On its own part, the Peoples Democratic Party has alleged that the anti corruption agenda of the Buhari Administration is deliberately designed to humiliate the party and embarrass the Goodluck Jonathan Administration.
The other day, the immediate past National Security Adviser, Col Sambo Dasuki (rtd) had his residence searched by officials of the State Security Service (SSS)based on a search warrant issued by a Magistrate. Without considering the fact that the search was carried out in line with the rule of law the SSS was accused by a section of the media of embarrassing Col. Dasuki for leading the soldiers who arrested General Buhari during the palace coup of 1985. In the same vein, police investigation into the alleged forgery of the Standing Rules of the Senate by a top national assembly staff is being politicised. Even a mere invitation extended to some persons to react to allegations linking them with multi billion naira fraud is now said to be a political vendetta.
Since the allegations of bias or persecution being leveled against the EFCC are deliberately designed to discredit the renewed fight against corruption and shield looters from prosecution it is high time that the attention of Nigerians was drawn to the fact that corruption is fighting back. It is indeed embarrassing that some members of a regime that promised to fight corruption are involved in the dubious campaign to sustain impunity in the country. Having closely monitored the recent activities of the EFCC since it was established over 10 years ago, I can say, without any fear of contradiction, that the Buhari Administration has not gone beyond granting autonomy to the commission to discharge its statutory duties. It may interest Nigerians to know that majority of the petitions which formed the basis of the ongoing investigation by the EFCC were submitted before the emergence of the Buhari Administration.
I have confirmed that the petition against the cabal of fuel importers was submitted to the EFCC sometime in January 2012 by the immediate past Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Deziani Alison-Madueke on the directive of President Jonathan. Even the petition against those who duped the nation of hundreds of millions of dollars through the oil swap scam was also submitted to the EFCC by her after the 2015 presidential election. With respect to the ex-governors of the APC and PDP who are currently standing trial, the petitions which triggered the investigations were written and submitted to the anti graft agency by concerned citizens and anti-corruption bodies.
It should be pointed out that the EFCC and other anti graft agencies are being inundated with petitions by Nigerians and foreigners alike who believe that the Buhari Administration will not shield corrupt people from investigation and prosecution. To that extent, the decision of the Federal Government to limit the investigation of corruption cases to the Jonathan Administration cannot be justified in law. As there is no statute of limitation with respect to corruption cases aggrieved Nigerian citizens cannot be restrained from exposing corrupt practices of successive regimes. More so, that President Buhari has requested the Obama Administration to assist in the recovery and repatriation of $150 billion stolen from Nigerian in the past decade.
Conclusion There is no doubt that official corruption has continued to arrest the development of the country. This is not unexpected given the nature of the country's neo-colonial capitalist economy compounded by impunity on the part of the ruling class. If the Buhari Administration is going to confront the menace of corruption it has to ensure that the stolen wealth of the nation is recovered and invested in promoting the welfare of the Nigerian people. To that extent, all the welfare laws enacted pursuant to chapter II of the Constitution should be implemented in order to promote the welfare and security of the people.
The EFCC and ICPC should leave no stone unturned in the recovery of the nation's looted wealth. Henceforth, state and local governments should cooperate with the EFCC in the investigation and prosecution of those who have diverted public funds belonging to them. To guarantee the maximum cooperation and participation of the citizenry in the fight against corruption the Federal Government should direct all public officers to comply with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. In addition, President Buhari should sign the Whistle Blowers Bill and the Witness Protection Bill into law. In granting autonomy to the anti graft agencies the regime should ensure that there is no selectivity in the investigation and prosecution of corruption cases while the rights of all criminal suspects are respected.
Mr. Falana SAN is a human rights lawyer and recipient of the Bernard Simmons Award of the International Bar Association.
Executive Briefing
Despite occupying a strategic position in the annals of Nigerian history, the memory of late military Head of State, General Murtala Mohammed, seems to be fading in the people’s memory. Shola Oyeyipo writes
Last week Thursday, July 30, 2015 was just like another day as Nigerians went about their normal routines. Even the military, government and the political sectors feigned ignorance about the importance of that day in the history of Nigeria. But the day marked the anniversary of a major political landmark in the Nigeria.
On that date, it was exactly 40 years when the late General Murtala Mohammed, in a military coup, sacked the nine year old government of General Yakubu Gowon.
Although the regime was relatively short, but its contribution towards the sustenance of Nigeria’s unity cannot be over emphasised, but last week, the date passed without its significance mentioned as the nation seemed too busy to remember Mohammed.
During the Nigerian civil war, he was General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Nigerian Army's 2nd Division, which beat back the Biafran Army from capturing the mid-western region, as well as crossing the River Niger.
He took decisions that were in defiance to superior orders when the war was on and he encountered problems as a result. First, was when he attempted to cross the River Niger to Biafra against the recommendation of his superiors at the Army Headquarters in Lagos that suggested that he should wait until the bridge that was blown off by Biafran forces was rebuilt. But he insisted on a riverine crossing and suffered causalities.
He was beaten back twice but due to his relentlessness. He eventually made it on his third attempt. His gallantry and historic military feats during the civil war won him national respect and it was recognised even among his adversaries. But despite their gallantry, the 2nd Division contended with the allegation of extra-judicial killings when an Army Lieutenant under the then Colonel Muhammed alleged that he ordered the summary execution of Biafran prisoners of war.
Brigadier Muhammed became the Head of State when General Yakubu Gowon was overthrown while attending an Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summit in Kampala, Uganda. It was then that Brigadiers Olusegun Obasanjo and Theophilus Danjuma (both eventually became Generals) were appointed as Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarter and Chief of Army Staff, respectively.
It is still on record that it was during his coup d'état that the phrases ‘Fellow Nigerians’ and ‘with immediate effect’ were scripted into the Nigerian political dictionary. His administration came up with policies that won him popular support. He was decisive about what he intended to achieve and he attained the status of hero of the masses, particularly as regards his anti-corruption stance.
Though his regime was relatively too short to give room for proper evaluation of his anti-corruption campaigns but as the incumbent President, Mahammadu Buhari, he was regarded as a leader with zero tolerance for fraud. He came up with a comprehensive review of the Third National Development Plan. Concerned about inflation, which money he considered the main setback to the economy, he moved to cut over bloated contracts
Students of history would be able to draw catalogue of analogy between the Mohammed administration and the current Buhari administration in terms circumstances that brought them into power, their anti-corruption drive and far reaching policies that were aimed at repositioning the country among developed nations.
When Mohammed took over power, all the twelve military governors that served under Gowon were retired, he ordered a probe into their conduct in office and ten of the twelve were found to have illegally enriched themselves while in government. Apart from Shehu Shagari and Ali Monguno, all Gowon’s civilian ministers were also found guilty of corrupt enrichment and were stripped of illegally obtained assets.
Likewise, no fewer than 10,000 public officials and employees were dismissed without benefits, on accounts of age, health, incompetence, or malpractice. The massive purge affected the civil service, judiciary, police, armed forces, diplomatic service, public corporations, and universities. Quite a number of them faced trials on charges of corruption. Though, most of the ill-gotten assets seized by Murtala were returned in later years by the General Ibrahim Babangida’s administration for unexplainable reasons in what some considered as indication of the disapproval of his quest to rid Nigeria of corruption. Murtala was assassinated in his car on February 13, 1976 at the age of 37, along with his Aide-De-Camp (ADC), Lieutenant Akintunde Akinsehinwa in his black Mercedes Benz saloon car in an abortive coup led by late Lt. Col Buka Suka Dimka. He was succeeded by General Obasanjo, who actualised his planned orderly transfer to civilian rule by handing power to former civilian President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, on October 1, 1979. To honour Mohammed, his portrait was put on the 20 Naira note and the Lagos International Airport was named after him.
Worried about the seeming negligence of the former leader, the current media aide to President Buhari, Alhaji Garba Shehu in an article titled: ‘Family Kills Murtala Muhammed again,’ expressed concerns that on Wednesday, February 13, 2013, which was a “Murtala Day”, being the 37th anniversary of the gruesome killing of the respected Nigerian leader, “the day passed with barely a whimper.”
“The family, which runs a foundation in his name, kept mute. Not a single event was held in his memory. No messages or newspaper pull-outs, no speeches, no essays, no editorials, no lectures, no symposia to remind the younger generations of the greatness of this leader who, in the view of many, is only next to the legendary Nelson Mandela on the continent. On that day, all I saw was a tail piece in the back page of The Nation, a full page in the new, vibrant Hausa Newspaper, Rariya, published by Dr. Aliyu Modibbo Umar and a short commemorative statement from the State House, Abuja,” Shehu bemoaned.
He would rather Nigerians go back to those good old days when the Murtala Day was marked with seminars held across the country, books published on the occasion; scholars revising his insights, thoughts and actions to determine what had flawed and what endured. He also wished personal or intimate accounts of associates, family and relatives, rendering compelling narratives of Murtala from his native Kano; testimonials from mates in school, college, the Army and at the pinnacle of his career where he held sway as Head of State and Commander-in-Chief.
According to him, while Mohammed is being relegated to the background in the memory of Nigerians, some other leaders of more, equal or even far lesser pedigree are celebrated year-in-year-out.
“You don’t have to look far to see and feel what veteran journalists in Western Nigeria make of Adekunle Fajuyi or of Obafemi Awolowo by the Awolowo Foundation. Surely, the reader must be familiar with the Anyiam-Osigwe Annual Lecture series and the Nnamdi Azikiwe Lecture and Awards. In the North, we celebrate the Sardauna, Sir Ahmadu Bello, General Yakubu Gowon, Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and many others.
“Murtala rises above many or all of these celebrities, especially in the light of his epic struggle for the decolonisation of Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and the Saharawi Arab Republic. Murtala’s leadership of Africa’s biggest and richest country in his time was marked by genuine advocacy for the dignity and honour of the African. That was why it was supported by all freedom-loving people all over the world. At home in Nigeria, Murtala taught citizens to place national integrity and national interest above self. “The fact that Africans still don’t have equal rights in the global economic and political systems suggests that Murtala’s thoughts and struggle are as relevant today as they were in the 70s,” he stated.
Though July 30 marked the date he took over power and not the date he was killed, it was still enough to remember it in the annals of Nigerian political history, but considering the passion with which Shehu had lamented his negligence and the fact that in August 1975, he appointed President Buhari as Governor of the North-Eastern State, to oversee social, economic and political improvements in the state, one would expect that the Murtala legacies will be relived again.
There is however a glimpse of hope that he would be remembered next year by the foundation that was set up in his name, the Murtala Mohammed Foundation, which is run by his daughter, Mrs. Aisha Muhammed-Oyebode, as CEO and former President Obasanjo as the chairman of the Board of Trustees.
Other members of the board of trustees of the MMF are Lt. Gen. Theophilus Y. Danjuma (GCON) - Vice Chairman; General Ibrahim Babangida (GCFR) - Deputy Chairman; his widow, Mrs. Ajoke Muhammed- Vice Chairman; his son, Mr. Risqua Mohammed - Member and Alhaji Ahmadu Yaro - Member.
The MMF has long been recognised as a frontline advocate of democracy, education, human rights, women empowerment, disaster relief and betterment of the lives of Africans. The mission of the organisation is to improve the living conditions of Africans by contributing to reduction of poverty and elimination of conflict, while promoting self-reliance and self-fulfillment.
According to an inside source in the foundation, there are plans to commemorate February 13, 2016, which marks the 40th anniversary of his demise in office with a series of events and initiatives.
The Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, on Monday admitted to supporting Yakubu Dogara over Femi Gbajabiamila, to clinch the Speakership of the House of Representatives.
Mr. Tambuwal, who is the immediate past Speaker of the House, said Mr. Dogara was more competent and had better leadership skills.
Mr. Dogara is more competent, accommodating and more capable to lead than Mr. Gbajabiamila, Mr. Tambuwal said, and added “sentiments have to be put aside”.
Messrs Dogara won the election to become Speaker the 8th House of Representatives despite stiff opposition from his party, the All Progressives Congress that supported Mr. Gbajabiamila.
Speaking for the first time on his role in the election, Mr. Tambuwal, said “the issue of competence led eight out of 10 members of the body of Principal Officers of the 7th Assembly” to endorse Mr. Dogara.
He said this when leaders of Sayawa Community of Bogoro and Tafawa Balewa Local Government Areas of Bauchi State paid him a “thank you” visit to show appreciation to him for supporting Mr. Dogara to become speaker.
Mr. Tambuwal’s admission has now put to rest speculations on whether he supported Mr. Dogara or played a neutral role during the jostling for the nation’s number four position.
Many had expected Mr. Tambuwal to support Mr. Gbajabiamila’s bid given the Lagos lawmaker’s role in his emergence as Speaker of the 7th Assembly. But ironically, he supported Mr. Dogara who opposed his ambition to become Speaker at the time.
But while explaining the reason for his action, he said, “the survival of the legislature as an important arm of government made it imperative that competent hands are headhunted to be its leaders”.
“Eight out of ten members of the Body of Principal Officers in the last Assembly supported Dogara’s aspiration,” he said. “Only Hon Femi (Gbajabiamila) and Hon Datti Ahmad supported Femi.”
“I have strong affinity with Hon Femi. He was closer to me than Dogara. But when talking about leadership and collective decisions, sentiments have to be put aside. I’m not here to tell you that my support made Dogara the Speaker, no. Two things made Dogara to become the Speaker, one is God and two, Dogara’s competence.
He continued, “The acknowledgement of Dogara’s competence did not start with me. It started from the time of Hon Patricia and Etteh and Hon Dimeji Bankole when they entrusted him with a sensitive position of the Chairman of House Services Committee.
“The committee is one of the most sensitive in the legislature. Apart from taking care of the welfare of members, the committee oversees all procurement processes. As the Speaker, I only did what my predecessors did by giving Dogara this sensitive position.
“No person, as far as I know, has ever served as chairman of the House Services committee in two dispensations. Dogara broke that jinx. All through my tenure, I brought Dogara close to me because I found in him a person who is competent, accommodating, and with capacity to lead.
“Anyone doubting Dogara’s ability to lead, should ask members of the 7th Assembly how he handled their matter. So we supported Dogara not for any reason but because he was competent to deliver on any task given to him.”
In his remarks, the paramount ruler of Sayawa, Gung Zaar (select), Ishaku Komu, thanked Mr. Tambuwal for reviving the age-long relationship between Bauchi and Sokoto States, saying the entire community will forever be grateful for the confidence shown to their kinsman.
Mr. Tambuwal responded, saying, “The relationship between people of Sokoto and Bauchi States was amplified in the First Republic when the first Prime Minister of Nigeria, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa worked in harmony with the leader of his party and then Premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahamdu Bello.”
Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase | credits: http://www.thescoopng.com
The Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, has defended police investigation into the alleged forgery of the Senate Standing Orders 2015.
The police boss defended his action in a preliminary objection opposing a suit filed by the Enugu East senator in the National Assembly, Mr. Gilbert Nnaji, asking the Federal High Court in Abuja to restrain the police and the Attorney-General of the Federation from taking any further step on the allegation.
Nnaji had filed the suit asking the court to stop the police investigation on the grounds that it “is inspired by a devious petition by the Secretary of the Unity Forum Senators, solely aimed at unjustly incriminating the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu.”
But the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, the second defendant to the suit, had also filed a similar notice of preliminary objection, asking the court to strike out the suit, which it said ought to have been instituted by Ekweremadu, if truly the police investigation was meant to unjustly incriminate him.
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In the preliminary objection filed by the counsel for the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Oloye Torugbene, the police asked the court to strike out the senator’s suit because the plaintiff lacked the legal right to institute the suit.
The police added that the forgery allegation raised “issues of criminality” and “not simply an issue on the floor” of the Senate.
They added that no Nigerian had immunity against investigation and that investigating alleged forgery could not amount to undue interference in the affairs of the Senate.
A counter-affidavit accompanying the preliminary objection and deposed to by an officer in the Legal/Prosecution Section of the Force Criminal Investigation Department in Abuja, Joshua Yohanna, stated, “Every Nigerian can be investigated for crime. There is no immunity against investigation in all civilised countries, Nigeria inclusive.
“Investigating the allegation of forgery can only strengthen the integrity of the Senate and the Senate leadership.”
The police urged the judge to strike out the suit because the plaintiff had not demonstrated that he had “special interest that is beyond that of every other senator.”
They insisted that they had a duty to investigate allegations of crimes and that their “duty will be impeded” if the court granted the prayers sought by the plaintiff.
The counter-affidavit also read, “The first defendant (the Inspector-General of Police) has a duty and responsibility to investigate all allegations of crime; to determine whether allegations of forgery are made out; who committed the said forgery; and if there is a forgery at all, in the first place.
“Investigating the allegations and determining the culpability or otherwise of the alleged culprits will lead to a just conclusion of the matter.
“Non-investigation of the allegations will engender mistrust amongst the disputing sides.
“The matter at hand is not simply an issue on the floor.
“The matter at hand raises issues of criminality.
“The first defendant (the Inspector-General of Police) owes Nigerians the duty to unearth the truth behind the allegations of forgery.”
The police maintained that the IGP had never taken side on the issue and would remain neutral.
“The first defendant is neutral in this matter.
“The first defendant has not taken sides, will not take sides and does not take sides on issues of this nature at all.”
Justice Gabriel Kolawole on August 4 fixed September 8 for the hearing of an application filed by another Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi seeking to be joined as a defendant in the suit.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. Photographer: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
As oil minister during military rule in the 1970s, Muhammadu Buhari oversaw the birth of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp.
Now, as democratically elected president, he intends to break up the opaque bureaucracy, which manages the oil assets of Africa’s biggest crude producer, to ensure taxpayers get their fair share. History isn’t on his side.
“No Nigerian leader, including Buhari himself from the 1980s, has managed to sanitize the oil sector,” said Philippe de Pontet, head of the Africa practice at the Eurasia Group in New York. “Buhari’s challenge is not only to depoliticize NNPC but to disentangle its vested interests and its rogue commercial operations, which won’t be easy.”
Buhari made cleaning up the 24,000-employee colossus -- the largest government-owned company -- a key plank in the election campaign that toppled President Goodluck Jonathan in March. He plans to split the NNPC in two, creating a regulator and a vehicle for investments, according to Femi Adesina, a presidential spokesman.
So far the president has fired the board and management of the company and replaced its Jonathan-appointed chief with Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, who was executive vice-chariman of Exxon Mobil Africa. He has also ordered a review of oil-swap contracts and barred 113 vessels from loading oil and gas -- about 250,000 barrels of Nigerian crude, about 10 percent of the country’s daily output, are stolen daily, Buhari has said.
‘Mind-Boggling’
“A lot of damage has been done to the integrity of Nigeria with individuals and institutions already compromised,” Buhari told an audience in Washington last month. “The amount involved is mind-boggling.”
Nigeria’s transparency watchdog says the NNPC has diverted more than $30 billion in oil revenue from the state since 2009. That exceeds the annual economic output of more than half the nations in Africa and roughly equals the federal budget.
The situation is increasingly desperate because, with a halving in Brent crude prices in the past year, government coffers are “virually empty,” Buhari said after less than a month in office; about two-thirds of the country’s almost 180 million people live on less than a dollar a day.
Set up to defend Nigeria’s interests with foreign majors, the company controls an aggregate 55 percent share in joint ventures with the likes of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. Crude exports account for about two-thirds of government revenue.
Nigeria’s transparency watchdog says the NNPC has diverted more than $30 billion in oil revenue from the state since 2009
Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg
Four Towers
NNPC’s four-tower headquarters building in the capital dominates Abuja’s skyline. It’s the landlord to the petroleum ministry, whose minister chairs the organization. Group managing director Kachikwu is its sixth head in five years.
For all its importance to Nigeria, the NNPC is largely inscrutable. It had the worst disclosure record of 44 energy companies analyzed in a 2011 report by anti-corruption nonprofit organizations Transparency International and the Revenue Watch Institute.
Ohi Alegbe, a spokesman for the NNPC, declined to comment, citing the pending reorganization, when contacted by phone Thursday. The NNPC consistently denies any wrongdoing.
Allegations of missing funds go back as far as when Buhari was oil minister. The Lagos-based Punch newspaper reported in 1978, a year after the NNPC took its current name, that the company failed to remit the equivalent of about $3.5 billion it owed the Treasury.
Military Investigations
In the 1990s, a military-sanctioned investigation found $12 billion in oil revenue was unaccounted for under the government of army ruler Ibrahim Babangida.
After the return to democratic rule in 1999, Nigeria signed up in 2005 to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a global effort in which governments committed to disclosing all extractive industry payments. Since then, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, or NEITI, has said at least $23.2 billion due wasn’t deposited into the national accounts from 2009 to 2011.
More recently, then-central bank Governor Lamido Sanusi alleged in a memo to Jonathan that the corporation retained as much as $50 billion in oil revenue that was due the government.
Sanusi’s claims led Jonathan to commission a PricewaterhouseCooper LLP audit for the period from January 2012 to July 2013. PwC found the NNPC had a “blank check” to spend without control and had accounting and monitoring systems filled with “significant” discrepancies.
The NNPC should refund as much as $4.29 billion to the government, the report said. Then-Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke said on April 22 that the company had started to refund the minimum $1.48 billion the audit recommended.
“No Nigerian leader, including Buhari himself from the 1980s, has managed to sanitize the oil sector”
Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg
Opaque Debts
Then, there’s the money it owes commercial partners.
The NNPC’s debts to its eight joint ventures have “ballooned over the years,” according to a ruling All Progressives Congress policy report submitted to Buhari after the election and obtained by Bloomberg.
In 2012, the state company paid $6.9 billion of the $10.4 billion it owed. The difference was covered by loans from international oil companies including Shell, Exxon Mobil and Total. The companies declined to comment.
Critics say any shakeup would have to resolve NNPC’s dual role as regulator and oil company.
Corruption would vanish if Buhari refocused the NNPC as just a regulator “so people like us can get on with the job,” said Kola Karim, head of a Nigerian oil explorer.
Producing about 60,000 barrels a day, Karim’s Shoreline Group, founded in 1997, could be pumping more than double that amount if the NNPC wasn’t a partner in his business and with civil servants slowing investment decisions, he said.
Senior officials in Buhari’s party are calling for even more drastic measures.
“We should replace the NNPC,” Nasir el-Rufai, the governor of northern Kaduna state, said in Abuja this month. Nigeria needs to “tackle the monster that the NNPC has become.”
• Itse Sagay, other professors of Criminology and Law make panel • President orders MDAs to open Treasury Single Account
Tobi Soniyi in Abuja 
 President Muhammadu Buhari has constituted a seven-member committee to advise him on his plans to tackle corruption, THISDAY can exclusively reveal.
Named as the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-corruption, investigation by THISDAY reveals that the committee will be formally inaugurated this Monday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Members of the committee are drawn largely from the academia. They are Professor Femi Odekunle, a professor of Criminology at the Ahmadu Bello University; Dr. (Mrs) Benedicta Daudu of the University of Jos; Professor Etannibi Alamika, a professor of Criminology and Sociology from the University of Jos; and Professor Sadia Radda also a professor of Criminology.
Others are Professor Itse Sagay (SAN), a professor of Law and a fierce commentator on national issues; Professor Bolaji Owasanoye, also a professor of Law at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies; and Mrs. Hadiza Bala Usman.
Curiously, no judge either sitting or retired made the list, a development that is causing disquiet among judges.
Many on the bench consider the president’s decision not to include one of their own in the committee as a vote of no confidence on the bench.
The president’s decision to exclude members of the bench from such an important committee may not be unconnected to his experience with the judiciary when he challenged three previous elections he contested in 2003, 2007 and 2011, a presidency source familiar with the development told THISDAY.
While challenging the results of presidential elections in which his opponents were declared winners, Buhari attended courts religiously and was able to assess judges closely.
He was said to have been disappointed with the way judges denied even the obvious while ruling against him.
During his recent visit to the United States of America, Buhari's conviction that the Nigerian bench stinks of corruption was further confirmed by the United States' Attorney General, Loretta Lynch.
Also, the US Department of State made it clear to Buhari that the judiciary must be purged of corrupt judges before he could expect the US to collaborate with him.
Details of the committee’s mandates will emerge today after the inauguration. Professor Odekunle is a 1968 graduate of the University of Ibadan and bagged his Ph.D. in sociology and social psychiatry from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, in the United States in 1974.
He taught at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, Kaduna State, from 1970 to early 1990. In 1994, he was appointed Chairman, Advisory Committee to Chief of General Staff (CGS), General Oladipo Diya, on Socio-Political and Economic Matters.
Known as an avid opponent of corruption, Odekunle organised the first Anti-corruption Conference in Nigeria in 1987 bringing together not only people in government but petty traders on the streets to address the issue.
He is the author of Fighting Corruption and Organised Crime in Nigeria. Etannibi Alemika is a professor of Criminology and Sociology of Law, specialising in criminology, sociology of law, criminal justice reform, policy and practice, and security governance.
He holds BSc and MSc degrees in Sociology from the University of Ibadan, and an MSc and PhD in Criminology from the Department of Social System Sciences, Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania.
He is a board member of several professional and academic organisations, including CLEEN Foundation in Nigeria; African Civilian Policing Oversight Forum (APCOF); and Altus Global Alliance, and a member of the American Society of Criminology and Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.
Owasanoye is an erudite Professor of Law. He graduated from the University of Ife, Ile-lfe in 1984 with an LL.B (Hons) Upper Division and was called to the Bar in Nigeria in 1985.
He obtained an LL.M from the University of Lagos in 1987 and holds the following certificates: Legal Aspects of Debt and Financial Management from the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) (1991); Legislative Drafting from the Royal Institute of Public Administration in the UK and the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies 1992; and Negotiation of international Trade Agreements from the International Law Institute, Washington.
Sagay is a distinguished legal scholar, a professor of Law and human rights activist, and a former Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Benin.
He is a constitutional law expert and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). A prolific writer, Sagay has written many books and countless articles.
In a related development, the president has ordered all federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to pay all government revenues, incomes and other receipts into a Treasury Single Account (TSA) with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
According to the directive, this measure is aimed at promoting transparency and facilitating compliance with Sections 80 and 162 of the constitution.
A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice-President, Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, said all receipts due to the federal government or any of its agencies must be paid into the TSA or designated accounts maintained and operated in the CBN, except otherwise expressly approved.
A TSA is a unified structure of government bank accounts enabling consolidation and optimal utilisation of government cash resources. It is a bank account or a set of linked bank accounts through which the government transacts all its receipts and payments and gets a consolidated view of its cash position at any given time.
Agencies like the CBN, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), among others, are affected by the directive.
According to the statement, the directive will end the era of several fragmented accounts for government revenues, incomes and receipts, which in the recent past had resulted in losses or leakages of legitimate income meant for the Federation Account.
Buhari had earlier promised state governors at the inaugural meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) in June, that all revenues prescribed for lodgment into the Federation Account would be treated as such under his watch and that he would ensure strict compliance with all relevant laws on accounting, allocation and disbursement.
Since then, the presidency has worked with relevant agencies of the federal government to evolve this policy directive.
This directive applies to fully funded organs of government like the MDAs and foreign missions, as well as partially funded ones, like teaching hospitals, medical centres, federal tertiary institutions, etc.
For any agency that is fully or partially self-funding, sub-accounts linked to the TSA are to be maintained at CBN and the accounting system will be configured to allow them access to funds based on their approved budgetary provisions, the statement said.
By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor, Clifford Ndujihe & Charles Kumolu The appointment with Chief Philip Asiodu was fixed for 12 noon but finding the residence of the octogenarian retired civil servant and elder-statesman was another thing that Wednesday. The reporter who made the contact had forgotten to note the address when the appointment was made, so when another call was made to request the specific address, the fear of the reporter was realised when the chief gently rebuked him for being careless. Chief Asiodu is undeniably a careful man, a fact that progressively unfolded as the interaction got underway following an hour long wait for him to end another meeting with an expatriate Caucasian.
The meticulousness of Asiodu was very visible from the neat arrangement of the anteroom where the three Vanguard reporters were received. It was also seen in the durable materials used in furnishing his apartment built more than thirty years ago.
The chief’s love for the arts and made-in Nigeria products was also visible. A number of art works adorned the anteroom and the lounge room where the interview was conducted.
Speaking about the house, Asiodu, who urged Nigerians, especially the elite, to patronise made-in-Nigeria goods, said the furniture (which are still very strong) were all sourced locally.
Asiodu was to note that imported furniture, which many elite are crazy for, don’t last as the ones made by experienced local producers.
In the interview proper, Asiodu assessed the Nigerian civil service, pointed out where the country missed the mark and how to retrace our steps. He spoke on the state of the nation and why President Muhammadu Buhari cannot limit his anti-corruption war to the former President Goodluck administration. Asiodu was Chief Economic Adviser at the commencement of the Olusegun Obasanjo civilian administration in 1999, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP presidential aspirant ahead of the 1999 election, Special Adviser to President Shehu Shagari on Economic Affairs, and well before then, one of the country’s foremost civil servants who retired as a Permanent Secretary in 1975.
AT 80 you look relatively fresh. You could pass off as a 60-year old man. What is the secret?
It is important to add a little moderation in all you do. There should also be regular exercises. The moderation should also include your eating and drinking habits. More importantly,one should try to bother less about things of life. Things are not always a bed of roses but some people take bad things badly. People are bound to disappoint you. Some bear it but others don’t.
It is unfortunate that many Nigerians age prematurely as a result of meaningless stress. In those days life was better and that accounted for the low statistics of death rate then. Those who died then, died probably at infancy. Beyond that, people lived as long as they want. So, moderation is my secret. For instance, the Itsekiri have an adage which advices people to chop life little by little.
What is your impression of the civil service of today?
I joined the civil service towards the end of the colonial era. And I became a permanent secretary under Zik and Balewa. I stayed on in the first two military regimes of Ironsi and Gowon. And then came the destruction of that civil service in 1975 when Gowon was removed. I was retired and I was the number one civilian among those retired with immediate effect! Later on, the military added an amazing phrase to our sack saying that it was done with increasing alacrity! It shows how people were not really thinking through what they were doing at that time.
Since leaving civil service I had the opportunity of coming back to the public service three times but not as a civil servant. So I have had the opportunity of seeing the civil service under the colonial and post independence era. There is no doubt that it is a completely different situation because the civil service that I joined had clear rules to be satisfied and defined conditions of entry. There were well arranged courses that you had to undertake before confirmation. And after that, there were local and international programmes to be undertaken. We had clear demarcation of classes.
There was the administrative class, which was supposed to be advising on policies. It was a class from which we had the permanent secretaries, who ran the civil service. We were able to make sure that the professionals did what they had to do. They were the ones who coordinated and formulated policy options in accordance with the objectives of the government of the day. Such recommendations were sent to the council as memoranda so that decisions would be taken. There was collective responsibility in the civil service at that time. The success of the ministry of education was also the success of the ministry of finance.
And the permanent secretaries helped to make that possible through broad consultation. Before something would be finally presented to the cabinet for approval, whoever needed to be consulted would have been consulted.
When you submit a council memorandum in those days, you do it with a file and the secretary to the premier will take it to the premier and they will make sure that it was worth it. For instance, if you want to build a secondary school in an area, it may require land and money. And so you will make sure that before finalizing the proposal that all those who will be involved are consulted.
This made for easy discussions in cabinet. It also made for seamless implementation because once it was decided, and you are now going to move into an area, the ministry of works will not deny knowing about it. That was the procedure. Those days, the things we hear now, about ministries being lucrative, didn’t exist. When you are posted to anywhere, it is your duty to do your best.
Discussions in the cabinet
The advice I will give to my minister as permanent secretary in the ministry of industries, will be coherent with the advice I will give to the minister of education. So, discussions in the cabinet were structured. And that was made possible by the competent civil service we had. Then came the debacle of 1975 when 10,000 people were asked to retire or dismissed within two months.
Even newly created states that were just putting together their civil service were asked to bring people to be retired. That act was quite unjust because there are procedures in the civil service for discipline. If anyone does anything wrong the person will be queried and if it was something urgent, the person is given 24 hours to state his case.
It was so bad that people will be at work while their wives will hear in the news that they had been retired.
Many good people, who were working very hard and even recommended for promotion found themselves in that situation. There was so much impunity and recklessness then because those people were working honestly and looking forward to retirement.
It was so bad that people whose children were schooling in Corona School and lived in the Government Quarters had to relocate to places like Ojota. Families were damaged and some even died. That was when we started hearing that people should make hay while the sun shines which is a euphemism for corruption.
Our founding fathers in 1954 before independence signed a document affirming that we should have an independent, professional and non partisan public service which would be run by professionals. We also had independent Public Service Commission which was damaged. Later on when late Monsignor Pedro Martin was asked to look into the cases of the dismissals, his report said that 90 percent of those dismissed did not deserve dismissals.
Institutional memory
When the service was truncated and dislocated, we were left without role models to ensure that the service worked. These people are supposed to ensure that there is institutional memory and other functions the civil service was supposed to have provided professionally. Before some of us were retired, we were on correspondence with British ministers.
It didn’t do us good because we lost institutional memory. To compound it, based on some ill advice, there was a decree under Babangida in 1988 whereby they now said that ministers can now hire and fire. They went on with some aberration that you can only get the leadership of a ministry from only those who were employed by such ministry.
At a time when Europeans will go to America, while Americans will go to Europe looking for competent people to run their public service, we were limiting ourselves. They also destroyed the administrative class concept. These were people who were trained to listen to experts and listen to the basis of policies and then marshal them. Udoji in his reforms said that you don’t limit the class from which you will get permanent secretaries to the administrative class. Whether you are a professional or not, by the time you will get to the managerial class, you will now go for an administrative training like anyone else.
And it is from that group that a permanent secretary will be selected. Udoji, who was head of service in the east tried to make sure that whatever route anyone took to become permanent secretary, the person will be a good administrator. This practice was damaged in 1975 and compounded in 1988.
On federal character principle
Now they invented the idea of federal character and quota system. At a time when people were looking for geniuses they were saying that we should not focus on high fliers. When we entered we had role models. We used to look for high fliers. In our days we used to send people to schools to get their best graduates even before they graduated.
We made the civil service the preferred destination. But we went into quota and misapplied the quota system. What we then had was not the civil service that we knew which was usually the destination for high fliers.
Then, you needed to have an honours degree before you enter the administrative cadre of the scivil service. You also needed to have proper career planning. We have lost the benefit of that and this was what came out in the dispute between Oronsaye and the public service commission. It was a situation where directors were brought in through the state civil service. It was then that they brought tenure system that people can go after eight years if they cannot rise to the next position.
Rather than saying that each state must have one or two permanent secretaries, merit should have been the basis for growth in the service. There are other things in life rather than being in the civil service. A state may have people who are interested in other pursuits. So with the great shock of 1975, stars were driven out of the service.
They made sure that the civil service was no longer the choice destination. My father was a civil servant, which was attractive then. If someone did not die early in service, that person was sure of being comfortable. It was not the route to becoming the richest man in the country.
So, did you allow your children to follow you in the service?
With the experience we received it will be difficult to have any of our children in the service, especially when our experience was occasioned by ill feelings. Some of us survived it but others did not.
What happened to us was not an inspiration to our children. When we were growing up, promotion was strictly according to the organizational chart.
If there was no space for the position of permanent secretary, nobody will be made a permanent secretary. After the disruption of 1975, they just started promoting people without respect to the organogram of the service. So we ended up having a public service without traditions. The fact that the service is no longer secure and objective did not do good to the public service. To show the decay, there was a time an examination was introduced for people who were to be made permanent secretaries and a number of them could not even write minutes.
When you look at what we have in the civil service today, it is a far cry from what we had. Up to 1975, salaries of public servants were quite comparable with our British counterparts. Indian consultants who came here then earned more in Nigeria than in India.
In terms of training, courage, entry qualification and career planning, we have gone backward and we must restore it.
How can we restore it?
It is until the leadership of the political class realize that you need a proper civil service for you to deliver. The civil service is the first manifestation of government to the people. Someone will need a permit for investment, instead of getting it, the person will be delayed for unjust reasons.
Permit for investment
For instance, when I was in the Transitional Council in 1993, they had advertised for people to express interest in deep water offshore/new technology. People had been short listed for two years without response. When I came I did it under three months. There was no need wasting such time. What was needed was simulation which was not done before I came. The idea of come today, come tomorrow does not help because the world does not owe us a living.
In the last 20 years especially in the oil sector, the amount of investments that have moved elsewhere as a result of indecision is so much. Now, they are talking about Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, when oil policies need adjustments on a quarterly basis. When the law is eventually passed, it may take them six years to start implementing it.
Are you saying that the PIB is not necessary?
The PIB is not necessary. PIB in their thinking which is to put all laws governing the oil industry into one is not necessary. A non performing civil service can frustrate the best intentions of government.
If people realize that they are going into politics for public interest and not for self aggrandisement as we have witnessed, thing will begin to change. We can restore the civil service to become efficient but it will take the best part of two administrations. You can start the process by naming the minimum qualifications for certain positions.
President Buhari recently asked that audit queries piling up for years should be replied within 30 days. How was it in your time?
I was very shocked to read that audit queries were outstanding. First, we had internal audit which may raise questions. Beyond that, the external auditors can come to raise issues maybe on the money that was not applied. In our days, no money was spent which was not budgeted for.
And if you had to spend money outside the budget, you have to come to the council and ask for variation. The person can come to the council to state that there was need to channel money to a different cause. That will be approved. And the accountant in charge of an organization did not allow money to be used except the one budgeted for or approved by the council. If the auditor now finds it funny, he raises a query which should be answered immediately.
If it is kept under, it means that the person has skeleton in his cupboard. And this has been the reason for the misapplication of money and bloated budget. I want to make it clear that the Federal Government budget never exceeded £40 million pounds a year. With that, they built 4,000 miles of railway.
Farm settlements
They built the habours in Lagos, Sapele, Warri, Calabar and Port-Hacourt. They provided airports in Lagos and Kano. They built the schools which the people before me and those of my generation went to. It was from the schools that we went to Oxford. In the First Republic, it was after some time under Balewa and Okotie Eboh as Minister of Finance that revenue reached 50 million pounds. In that era, we built farm settlements, industrial centres, new secretariats and more importantly, scholarships were awarded.
When Gowon came in, it was in his second year that our revenue reached 100 million pounds and by then the civil war was ongoing. The war was fought without borrowing. We also started the rehabilitation, reconciliation and reconstruction programme without borrowing. Our economy was growing at 11.75 percent yearly. That was from 1970 to 1975. We would have escaped poverty if we had continued in that manner successively. We were the African lion as compared to the Asian Tigers. I am not saying this because Gowon was removed, because the two leading members in the coup that removed Gowon, who were Obasanjo and Murtala were part of the Gowon administration. The 1975-80 national development plan started by saying that oil was not meant to last. It emphasised agriculture and agro-allied industries. We also factored in petro-chemicals. That basis for a proper industrial sector was abandoned. It was not only abandoned, the discipline of identifying priorities was abandoned.
After the 1975 coup, the metallurgical complex we started in Ajaokuta was not completed. Then they went to Delta which was not in the plan. Even at that, they were going to base it on imported beneficiated ore. But without digging Escravos which was started in 60s and abandoned, only 10, 000 tonners could come in. But ores are carried in big 50, 000 tonners.
They abandoned the Itakpe plant. We started the plan of assembling motor vehicles. We had worked out the deletion rates to show that at 150,000 cars a year, we will be casting the engine blocks in Nigeria. But that was abandoned when we left. Our plan was done in such a way that we would not have been importing cars by now. First, they came up with differentials by basing Peugeot in Kaduna. Then under the Shagari government they invited seven more people to be involved in vehicle assembling. And that killed the deletion process which we had begun. You know we had started producing radiators, but that required a certain volume. But all were allowed to collapse. Later on, they said that everybody can import.
Automobile policy
Even the new automobile policy which allows all sorts of people to assemble vehicles will not work. Even before we started our plans then, we had to put everything into consideration. We looked at three Latin American countries, Brazil, Peru and Mexico and learned from their experience. Brazil concentrated on Volkswagen and they started exporting after some time. We took the model, and if it had been followed, we would have been exporting today. We started assembling before South Korea, today we import Korean cars.
This is what happens when you do not stick to the discipline of planning. We then negotiated in reducing 100 percent concession with the oil companies. We later reduced it to forty five and fifty. I was a principal negotiator. That was going to give us more money, but Gowon was removed within four months. The trillions and millions you hear about today, did not come under Gowon. But under Gowon, the Ring Roads, new airports and other things were built. There was expansion of schools also. Remember that oil was about 14 dollars per barrel before Gowon left. What have we done since Gowon left? Maybe the road infrastructure in Abuja.
We heard the President saying that 150 billion dollars was stolen, it may be more than that. The point is that we did not have a proper independent public service as a guardian of national interest. In a developing country we don’t need different think-tanks, we are supposed to have a limited pool of people, and these people are to be found in the civil service. They are to analyse and offer the best policy advice.
Can you now proffer solutions to the economic difficulties confronting the nation?
Our economic challenges are over stated. We live in the world and we are not alone in that crisis. When I first got to the ministry of petroleum, oil was two dollars per barrel. It rose to three dollars. What happened from 2000 to now when oil rose from over 100 dollar before slumping to 50 dollar, is very unusual.
I personally believe that if we reined in corruption, inflation of cost of public procurement and try quickly to make proper power available at constant prices, things will get better. We should also try to stimulate the economy even at 50 or 40 dollars per barrel, Nigeria will have enough money to run a good accelerated developing economy. How many of our neighbours are exporting oil? Are they not existing? Some are even flourishing more than us. So, I think the key is to serve a notice that we would not condone this unsustainable level of corruption.
The kind of corruption going on the country is competitive. I was a member of the Presidential Advisory Council set up when Jonathan became President. We disbanded ourselves when he won election. And so I know that the budget of the National Assembly in 2000 was probably about N19 billion both recurrent and capital expenditure. By 2010 it had become N141 billion with same number of legislators.
Some figures we saw at that time made us know that a senator earned N47 million a quarter. When that is multiplied by four, then you will know what it was. When put together, a Nigerian senator was earning a salary that is four times higher than the salary of the American President, who is the President of an economy that is 20 times the size of the rebased Nigerian economy. That is scandalous! This same manner of wasteful use of money applies to the executive. I cannot understand why, the recurrent expenditure has been accounting for 75 percent of the federal government expenditure. At a retreat with the President and some political office holders, I proposed a salary structure that starts with N30 million. That should start from Mr. President while it will eventually cascade down.
The US President is drawing about half a million dollars while per capita income in America is about $45, 000. What is the relationship? In any case, 70 percent of Nigerians are living on less than $2 a day.
Making the Forbes list should not be through public service. Secondly, our people should know that history of great men is not history of the richest men. It is the history of those who have transformed the society for the better. If they want to be so rich they can leave government and do business. If we follow my suggestions, we can reduce the cost of governance by 30 percent. No American state has so many appointees. Let us as politicians and party people create an economy which is developing and let that be where we make our money and not drawing from the public purse. So, I don’t subscribe that we are in a very bad shape. We are only in this condition because we have turned public service into a place for looting.
So what was President Jonathan’s reaction to your observation on the National Assembly budget?
We addressed him in even stronger terms than I am addressing you. We advised the bar association to take the National Assembly to court. For two years the case was constantly being postponed until finally one judge said the NBA had no locus in a constitutional matter. Surprisingly, the man who succeeded the then bar association president did not appeal the judgement.
I have volumes of the reports we gave Mr. President. We will present the report, which he will give to his chief of staff and that was the end of it. None of us in the committee was one day invited by the president to discuss any of our recommendations. And so, we disbanded ourselves.
In 1975 we were becoming a middle income economy. Our economy was growing at 11.5 percent for five years until the coup. We would have grown in subsequent years. We have the unique geographical advantage to be supplying the plastic shoes and other things to the US because we are closer to America than Asian countries. We had textile industry that was employing millions of people until 20 years ago, but it was destroyed by unfavorable government policies. We also had a booming textile industry in Aba which was destroyed. With our genius, the Aba and Abriba tailors would have been making clothes that can be sold in European and American markets. So, our economy is just waiting to be stimulated.
We have to fight corruption frontally bearing in mind that the first coup plotters of 1966 had denounced those collecting five and 10 percent as kickbacks. There are some international reports that said that in public procurement, Nigerians were inflating what they were doing by a factor of 200 and 300 percent. Therefore, this means that if we are able to reduce corruption, Nigeria will do well. The government should ensure that those found corrupt are punished accordingly. That will send a strong message across the country. And the government must live according to what it preaches. We are eminently governable.
Buhari and Idiagbon brought War Against Indiscipline and people queued but as soon as they left people started becoming disorderly. So we are eminently governable. So the man who sets the law must live by what he says. And I hope that he we will be lucky this time because I believe that President Buhari has learnt from his first experience. He should monitor his lieutenants so that what he says should go down to the lowest apparatchik.
You, Gen Yakubu Gowon and three other super-permanent secretaries were accused of starting some of these things you have mentioned led to Nigeria’s current quagmire. How true is that?
It is one of those unfortunate things people say. And when you do not correct falsehood, it begins to take a life. When the coup happened in 1966, they wanted us to become ministers but we refused because we said the army was not in power to be permanent. And we pleaded that we must get the leaders whom the world knew to join his government. It was based on our recommendation that Awolowo, Arikpo, Tarka , Briggs, Aminu-Kano and others were brought in.
We were those, who helped to plan that Gowon should go by 1976. No civil servant that I know was a party to Gowon abandoning the 1976 handover date. As a matter of fact, it was some military people that were pressuring him that they wanted to become governors. And I believe he gave them the instruction that he will do so, but he did not implement it for about three years. He kept postponing. The last postponement happened because he had worked out the names of people he wanted to appoint governors, but he wanted the queen to visit in October before doing that.
Those of us being blamed worked quietly to get things done properly. Gowon may have his reservations for not appointing, and some were good reasons because some of the military people pressurising him then, had done heinous things at the war front. And you cannot imagine him making some of them governors. At that time, we also gave names of about eight governors who should be changed. And the governors got to know but did nothing to us.
The politicians felt that without the support of the civil service, the military people would not have remained. We saw the need to support the government of the day. And as far as we were concerned, keeping Nigeria was more important than the interest of the politicians. We even produced a memo telling Gowon that he may not last for six months if he did not start a consultative parliament and stop decrees from being promulgated without debates. Those documents are still available. And later on when he was removed they must have found the documents there.
And when we thought things were drifting against the tenets of the civil service, we arranged a meeting at the Supreme Headquarters to be presided over by Admiral Wey, who was the second in command to him and Gen. Gowon got to know and he left his office to attend the meeting uninvited. We still discussed our agenda particularly, the necessities of the changes we wanted him to make.
How did he react?
Gowon is a very pleasant man. He was not angry. He wanted to hear things we would say. He knew us very well because we had been with him before he became the Head of State. When the second 1966 coup happened, we had no government for two days. When the army pushed him forward, (as head of state) we had a meeting with him at the Police Headquarters which was the best place. We told him that since he had been chosen, he needed to meet the press. We gave him the questions that will be asked and when he met the world press there was no question that was asked that he didn’t know about. That was the bond between us. We were serving the country and not individuals.
How true is it that the initial aim of the second coup was for the North to secede?
Gowon was not among the coup plotters. But the people who planned the coup wanted to correct the marriage of 1914. They wanted to blow up the Cater Bridge and then secede. But civil servants like the late Abdulazeez Attah and Daggash sat down to question that secession plan. He said it would be disastrous for Nigeria to break up then because there was no authority in the country. Meanwhile, some northern civil servants were consulting then.
One of them told me that some cattle rearers who heard of the plans to break up met some top northern civil servant and cautioned them against war against brothers. They wanted an assurance that after the breakup, they will still be able to take their cattle to Enugu and sell. During those two days when there was no government, people did not know because the permanent secretaries and other civil servants kept working.
You had another opportunity to serve under Obasanjo, who was among those who truncated the National Development Plans. What were your inputs then and how did he receive it?
I failed and I bowed out. Though they had done what they did in 1975, he had the African Leadership Forum which published beautiful memos on what democracy should be. He was the Editor –in-Chief. The group was the first to produce a book called Nigeria in 2010. In the meantime, under Abacha, we had the Vision 2010. Although I was an aspirant in 1999, the PDP manipulated the process and gave the ticket to Obasanjo. He did not win even in his local government and under the PDP rules he should not have been a candidate. After he won he invited me to moderate a seminar (for his policy team). The invitation was for myself and the late Awoniyi.
For four days and four nights we brainstormed with Obsanajo on what each ministry should do. We also treated the profile of would be ministers and the calibre of ministers. And in that group, more than 10 of us were academics. He accepted our proposals. So when he invited me as the chief economic adviser, I agreed thinking he was going to implement the proposal. He did not like the Vision 2020 because he did not like the Abacha connection to it. But Abacha did not read even one paragraph of that report.
As far as Abacha was concerned, if that was what we wanted, we could have it while he was doing what he was doing. In fairness, things were set out and it was advised that we should have an implementation council with about 15 ministers and 15 non ministers. I was one of them. He knew my views but did not refuse my appointment. Before Abacha died, he was coming to the meetings, I don’t know what would have happened if he did not die.When Obasanjo came to power, I thought the 2010 recommendation should be followed. What has killed this country is the refusal of any new government to build upon what the predecessor had done. Unfortunately I failed. He refused to pursue vision 2010.
When Jonathan came, he came with transformation agenda which was 2011-2015. To me, it was unfortunate because once policy thrusts are personalised, it leads to discontinuity. I hope that Buhari will go back to the era of having things done along the principles of collective responsibility. Government must be synergistic.
Do you think Buhari should continue running the government with civil servants given that things seem to be working?
I am not privy to the fact that he is running the government with only civil servants. It is true that there are no ministers in place. And when the minister is not there, the permanent secretary stands in for him. Buhari also has some friends and advisers, who may also be advising him. So I would not give 100 percent credit to the civil servants. Now, can we continue like this? The answer is no. It will be unconstitutional to do so. We are practising a democracy. The executive is produced by the political class, who are supposed to be expressing the will of the people. Orderliness must be respected and I am sure the President would sooner or later appoint his ministers. I support the President in his insistence that in appointing ministers, as a signal for the future, Nigeria needs people who have no baggage.
I hope that the process of getting the background of those to be appointed would yield good results. I am wishing the President better luck this time than when he was a military leader. He left office not self enriched, so his ministers and appointees should also see him as a model. We know that some who served under him in the past enriched themselves, he should make sure that those who will work with him now should be accountable. He should also right size most appointments that were done before him because many were not appointed on merit. I must stress that I am all for limiting the number of ministers maybe to 18. The American government is governed by 12 departments. To further get things right, states in America also do that. Governors in our states should not also be seen as sole authorities. There is also no need for full time legislature.
Are you still a member of the PDP?
I ceased being a member when they came up with revalidation exercise. I left government in 2001 and did not attend any meeting since then. I have always maintained that there are no political parties in Nigeria. I am non partisan and I have been trying to see if we should form a non partisan movement and recruit young people. Our message will focus on how to make Nigeria great without looting the public treasury. You can’t add to comfort, you can only add to statistics. How many of the famous generals that made money during the military era, lived up to 60?
Buhari has limited the scope of his anti-corruption fight to Jonathan’s administration. Are you satisfied with that considering the fact that systemic corruption predated that administration?
Did he say so? The President knows that crime is not time bound. Supposing tomorrow the Americans demand the extradition of somebody who was mentioned in the Halliburton scandal, will the President say he will not allow the person to be extradited? As far as I am concerned, there is no time and energy for a holistic probe of Jonathan’s administration. There are one or two glaring cases like the NNPC scandal and procurement in the defense sector that should be focused on so that positive signal will be sent across. What we need in this country is not to have all corrupt people in court; rather two or three cases should be focused on and positively pursued to get justice. But in the meantime, any case stumbled upon or raised by our international friends, we should not hesitate to let the law take its course otherwise there will be endless probes. And we have many lawyers who are ready to bring out technicalities that will delay the cases. I am for some obvious cases being pursued immediately and I repeat that no cow should be seen as scared. And anyone who is mentioned in a reputable jurisdiction abroad, the person should be allowed to go abroad to defend himself.
What is your position on the back log of civil servants’ salaries being owed by most states?
Owing of salaries is very unfortunate and should not happen especially when you look at the things they do in government. The amount of money they waste is alarming. People should be paid their salaries.
