TOP SECRET: How Jonathan Carted N67.2 Billion From CBN With 2 Bullion Vans For 2015 Elections

PREMIUM TIMES – Former President Goodluck Jonathan authorised the withdrawal of a whopping N67.2 billion in cash money from the Central Bank of Nigeria between November 2014 and February 2015 for “special services,” PREMIUM TIMES can authoritatively report today.

The two cash withdrawals were made in the build up to the 2015 general elections.Our sources said even more ‘curious’ large withdrawals were made from the bank during the period but we were unable to obtain documents to authenticate the claims.
But highly classified documents obtained by this newspaper, Friday, showed that at least N67.2 billion were withdrawn in cash from the banks in two tranches.

Insiders at the CBN said the huge cash were carted away in bullion vans.
One of the withdrawals was made through a memo which originated from the office of the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, allegedly based on Mr. Jonathan’s instruction.
The second memo was generated by the National Petroleum Investment Management Services, NAPIMS, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.
NAPIMS is in charge of the Federal Government’s investments in the petroleum industry.
The first memo, dated November 2014, contained a request for the withdrawal of $47 million cash out of N10 billion earmarked for release for an unbudgeted “special services”.
In the memo with reference number: NSA/366/S and titled: “Request for Funds for Special Services,” an official from Mr. Dasuki’s office had drawn the CBN governor’s attention to a previous discussion and requested the release of the said funds by the bank.
The balance from the N10 billion, the memo directed, was to be paid out in Euro, while a certain Director of Finance and Administration with the name S.A Salisu, was authorised to sign and receive the haul of U.S dollars and Euro in cash, on behalf of the NSA’s office.
“Further to our discussion, you are pleased requested to provide the sum of forty seven million United States Dollars (USD47, 000,000.00) cash out of the Ten Billion Naira (N10, 000,000,000.00) and the balance in Euro to this office for special services,” the memo read in part.
“Mr. S. A. Salisu, director finance and administration is, hereby authorised to sign and collect the amount. Please accept, Your Excellency, the assurances of my highest esteem,” the memo said.
It remains unknown what the “special services”, for which the funds were removed, are.
Our sources claim they were spent on “electioneering-related” matters. But that could not be independently verified Saturday.
The second memo, raised by NAPIMS, and dated February 25, 2015 conveyed an instruction to the director, Banking and Payment System Department of the CBN to urgently pay in cash, the sum of $289,202,382 (N57.2 billion) to the National Intelligence Agency, NIA.
“Upon receipt of this mandate, please pay urgently the under-listed beneficiary the cash amount indicated,” the memo said.
“Please debit CBN/JVCC Foreign Account No. 000000011658360 with the JP Morgan Chase, New York… and advise (sic) as soon as the payment is made.”.
The payment instruction in favour of the NIA was signed by one Okonkwo Godwin, General Manager, Finance, NAPIMS, with staff No. 18526, on February 25, 2015.
But sources from the CBN, who cannot be named because they were not authorised to speak on the issue said the funds were taken away at night with bullion vans under heavy security cover.
When contacted, CBN’s Director, Corporate Communications, Ibrahim Mu’azu, declined comment on the report.
Mr. Mu’azu said he did not have authority to speak to the media about the status of the bank customers’ transaction details.
However, a senior official, who asked not to be named, as he had no permission to speak on the issue in his official capacity, said the bank has details of the transaction.
“My brother, the report is true,” he told PREMIUM TIMES. “Every detail is on point. But, since they claimed the withdrawal was for security services, anything could have been referred to as such. Nobody knows.”
Mr. Jonathan could not be reached for comments. One of his former spokespersons said he no longer speak for the former President. Another said he was busy and could not speak on the matter.
They all requested anonymity, saying they don’t want to be associated with issues they know nothing about.
Violating the law
The withdrawals of the huge cash is a violation of Nigeria’s Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011, which Mr. Jonathan personally assented to.
According to Part 1, Section 1 of the law, “No person or body corporate shall, except in a transaction through a financial institution, make or accept cash payment of a sum exceeding- (a) N5,000,000.00 or its equivalent, in the case of an individual; or (b)N10,000,000.00 or its equivalent in the case of a body corporate.”
Section 16 (d) of the Acts says anyone who makes or accepts cash payments exceeding the amount authorized under this Act shall upon conviction be liable to a forfeiture of 25% of the excess above the limits placed in section 1 of the Act.

2019 Election: APC replies PDP chair, Modu Sheriff

Ali Modu Sheriff

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has reacted to a declaration by the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Modu Sheriff, that he would lead his party to reclaim federal power in the 2019 election.
Mr. Sheriff, who was named PDP chairman on Tuesday, made the declaration on Wednesday.
The APC responded Thursday with a statement below:
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has reacted to in reacting to the laughable comments credited to the newly-selected National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ali Modu Sheriff, is mindful of the 16th century English language proverb and nursery rhyme “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride”.
In monitored media reports, Ali Modu Sheriff boasted in Umuahia, the Abia State capital that the ailing PDP which lost power in 2015 will regain control of the federal government in 2019. Ali Modu Sheriff was also quoted saying the PDP would soon come out with its “master plan” to regain power.
The APC is reluctant to join issues with Ali Modu Sheriff’s idle 2019 postulations and would rather join issues that will bring about all-inclusive development in the country.
However, the APC and indeed Nigerians seriously hope the touted “master plan” includes how the PDP and its cronies will return public funds stolen under the PDP’s watch for 16 years.

Nigerians are aware that the current economic hardship and institutional rot was caused by the PDP’s 16-year misrule and pillage. President Muhammadu Buhari has been working assiduously to correct the PDP’s years of damage and bring about people-centric governance. It is baffling how the PDP expects Nigerians to abandon APC’s smooth sailing ship for a sinking and rudderless PDP ship, come 2019.
The 2015 elections has been won and lost. The priority of the present APC administration is to deliver on election promises made by the party to Nigerians who long-desired change of political leadership at the federal level and in many states.
Happily, Nigerians can look back, with relief and attest that since the APC-led administration took over governance, Nigeria is back on the right track – economically and security-wise – and has taken its right of place among the comity of progressive nations.
The widely-acclaimed job creation, social welfare and inclusion programmes proposed by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has been well received. The full implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) by the present administration has greatly plugged revenue leakages.
The presidential directive to the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) to adjust its pricing template to reflect competitive and market driven components has‎ resulted in a more efficient and realistic pricing system for petroleum products and also brought about constant availability of fuel nationwide.
Nigeria is winning the war against insurgency.
In spite of desperate attempts to discredit ongoing anti-corruption efforts, the war against graft is being won.
In reiterating the recent submission of the APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, for the first time in many years, Nigeria now has a solidly positive international image and the president is trying to cash in on this image to help rescue our nation from the throes, the economic morass which the PDP 16-year misrule has plunged Nigeria.
These are clear indicators showing that the APC and the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is on the right track to delivering on its Change Agenda. With the support and prayers of Nigerians, the APC assures that Nigeria will reach its full potential under our leadership.

Premium Times

Who has bewitched the PDP?Fani Kayode asks

By Femi Fani Kayode

 On the 16th of February 2016, the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) adopted Senator Ali Modu Sheriff (aka SARS), a two-time ANPP Governor of Borno state, a former ANPP senator, the former Chairman of the All Peoples Congress (APC) Board of Trustees and the indisputable founder of Boko Haram as its Acting National Chairman.
Modu-Sheriff  is also the erstwhile godfather and sponsor of Governor Shettima Ali, the present APC Governor of Borno state (until they fell out), he is a man that has a very deep and profound relationship and association with Idris Deby, the President of Chad and he is a man whose son is married to the daughter of President Muhammadu Buhari.

 

Many have argued that his allegiance is more to the Republic of Chad than it is to Nigeria, that he is an agent of the Chadian intelligence agencies and that he is a Chadian citizen who often flaunts his Chadian passport. I cannot confirm the veracity of these assertions but one thing that I know is that most of Modu Sheriff's funding and stupendous wealth emanates primarily from the Republic of Chad and that that country is as much a home to him as is Nigeria.

 

Yet it is not his connection with Chad that give me cause for concern. Rather it is his role in the establishment of Boko Haram. The truth is that appointing him as our Acting National Chairman is like appointing Jack the Ripper as the leader of the Conservative party in Victorian England.

 

Kudos must go to the elders in the PDP Board of Trustees, a number of State Party Chairmen and a number of key individuals in the PDP Ministers Forum for taking a courageous and noble stand by rejecting and resisting the imposition of this abominable monstrosity.

 

What Ali Modu Sheriff stands for and represents is utterly repugnant to every fiber of my being. Yet I have no objection to his being a member of the PDP simply because politics is a game of numbers. It is a game in which everyone, no matter how big or small, counts. If you want your party to grow and make progress you must accept the good, the bad and the ugly.

 

To this end when he left the APC and joined the PDP sometime back, I was one of those that gladly welcomed him into our ranks and defended him in the public realm. This was at a time when others criticized the party for accepting him.

 

There is however a world of difference between accepting him as one of the many leaders of the PDP and appointing him as the Acting National Chairman. Others may seek to justify such a course of action but I cannot, in good conscience, do so. To me it is a matter of principle. If we accept this then on what moral grounds did we condemn or oppose the APC or the APC-led Federal Government during the course of the last Presidential election?

 

If we are comfortable with the likes of Ali Modu Sheriff leading us then on what basis did we criticize and oppose President Muhammadu Buhari for appearing to support Boko Haram when he said 'an attack on Boko Haram is an attack on the north'? If we insist on Ali Modu Sheriff being our National Chairman then we may as well go and apologize to the APC  for all our past criticisms and condemnations and join them.

 

On what basis can we accept as our National Chairman a man who established, encouraged, supported and nurtured an organisation that later metamorphosised into Boko Haram? This is a terrorist organisation whose ultimate objective is to turn Nigeria into an Islamic fundamentalist state by the use of terror and the force of arms?

 

 On what basis can we accept a man to lead us whose Commissioner of Religious Affairs when he was Governor of Borno state, one Alhaji Buji Foi, was the de facto operational commander of Boko Haram. The man was later murdered by those closest to him after investigations into who and how Boko Haram was founded commenced.

 

On what basis can we accept as our National Chairman a man who helped to create an organisation that wishes to establish sharia as the norm in our country, repeal all our criminal and civil laws, ban all our civil liberties and human rights, proscribe the teaching of western education in our schools, turn our women into 6th century sex slaves and abrogate the secularity of our state.

 

On what basis can we accept as our leader a man who supported a group that wishes to suspend our constitution, wipe out the Christian faith and the practice of moderate Islam in our country and create an evil ISIL-type empire in our nation?

 

I really do wonder whether those that made this decision have lost all sense of rationality? I wonder whether they have lost their ability to see reason properly and to exercise their discretion in a logical, responsible and lucid manner?

 

I wonder whether they have lost their fear of God? I wonder whether they have forgotten the evil that was visited on our people, and is still being visited on them, over the last seven years by Boko Haram? I wonder whether they know at whose instance it was that Mohammed Yusuf, the erstwhile leader of Boko Haram, was killed by our security forces whilst in police custody in 2009 just so that he wouldn't live to tell the whole world who gave him the funds to set up his murderous cult?

 

I wonder whether they have forgotten the terrible havoc that Boko Haram unleashed on our citizens? I wonder whether they have forgotten the tears, wailing and suffering of the bereaved. I wonder whether they have forgotten the slaughter of the innocents. I wonder whether they have forgotten those that were beheaded, those that were chopped to pieces and thrown down wells like dog meat and those that were burnt alive?

 

I wonder whether they have forgotten the savage and bestial rape, murder and abduction of the Chibok girls and all the other little girls that suffered a similar fate in recent times? I wonder whether they have forgotten that our nation is still at war with the bloodthirsty barbarians that committed these atrocities?

 

Since when did we, as a political party, lose our memories and jettison our moral compass in this way? Since when did we become so callous, shameless and insensitive? Since when did greed and the lust for power and money determine and motivate our every course of action? Since when did we throw away caution, decency and principle? Since when did we become so barbarous and uncivilized?

 

Since when did so few make a decision that will affect the lives and fortunes of so many in a profoundly negative way? Have we forgotten about the priests and servants of the Living God that were crucified by Boko Haram at their own church alters? Have we forgotten those that had their homes, schools, churches, mosques and properties pillaged, robbed and burnt to the ground by this group of godless Phillistines? Have we forgotten that the international community, through the International Terror Index, has rightly described Boko Haram as the 'most deadly terrorist organization in the world'?

 

Have we forgotten those gallant young military officers that were killed at the war front whilst fighting this evil plague, all in their quest to keep us safe, to secure our borders and to protect our property and people? Does all that count for nothing? Is this the way to pay them back for their great sacrifice and their noble courage? Are we prepared to throw away all decency and morality just to seek favor with a handful of misguided mortals and in a futile attempt to win political power?

 

Simply put has the leadership of the PDP gone completely mad or are they working for elements outside the PDP? Are they suggesting that you need a godless Haramite to run the affairs of the party before we can ever win power at the center again? Where is the patience and fortitude that is required from true leaders? Where is their faith in God? Where is their sincerity of purpose? Does the leadership of the PDP really believe that it has kept faith with the founding fathers of the party, those that trusted them with power and those that bestowed them with leadership?

 

There were so many other people that they could have chosen to lead our party from the north-east. There were people like Mohammed Wakil, Nuhu Ribadu, Bala Mohammed, Wilberforce Juta, Aliyu Modibbo, Ahmed Gulak and so many others that could have been appointed. These are all committed people with impeccable records of public service, high moral standing and good character.

 

Instead of doing so the leadership of the party chose to impose the most controversial, intellectually-challenged, morally-depraved and despicable character that they possibly could to lead us and when asked why they did so we were told that it was because 'he has plenty of money to spend on the party' and no less than '5 private jets' to lend out to those who needed a free plane ride. Evidently we have sold our birthright and heritage, not just for a mess of pottage like Esau, but rather for a free ride on a private jet.

This is what a party that was once led by successive groups of seasoned and formidable intellectuals and great men of power, vision, courage and good character has been reduced to.

 

This is what the party that was founded and once led by giants like President Olusegun Obasanjo, Chief Tony Anenih, General Ibrahim Babangida, General Aliyu Gusau, Alhaji Adamu Ciroma,  General T.Y. Danjuma, Vice President Abubakar Atiku, President Umaru Yar’adua, President Goodluck Jonathan, Chief Bode George, Col. Ahmadu Alli, Chief E.K. Clark, Professor Jerry Gana, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, Chief Ken Nnamani  and so many others has degenerated to? What a pity! What a monumental tragedy!

 

This is a party that once boasted of having in its ranks many promising and dynamic bright young stars that were collectively capable of shaking the very foundation of the civilized world and creating new frontiers and greater hope for the future of our people and our beleaguered nation.  How are the mighty fallen.

 

What on earth has happened to us? As the Book of Galatians in the Holy Bible asks, 'who has bewitched us'? Over the the course of the last 17 years, in terms of the quality of party leadership, the PDP has gradually descended into the unceremonious cesspit of mediocrity. Worst still, with the recent appointment of Ali Modu Sheriff as our Acting National Chairman, we have chosen to spit in the wind, sleep with the dogs, dance on the graves of our fallen heroes, piss on the blood and bones of the slaughtered innocents and wallow in the filthy pool of compromise, deceit, doublespeak and shame.

 

As a consequence of this calamitous decision we have, literally overnight, become a shell, nay a shadow, of what we used to be. Unfolding events will prove my assertion true. I have no doubt that time will eventually prove me right and vindicate me.

 

The bitter truth is that this arrangement is an affront against the Living God and it cannot stand. Yet if it does stand the party will pay a heavy price for it because it will inevitably lead to the end of the PDP as we know it.

 

Imposing Ali Modu-Sheriff is an insult to all those that have fought for, led, served, defended, supported and risked everything for the party, at every level, over the last 17 years. Only the deeply malevolent can be comfortable with such an arrangement.

 

It is evil. It is godless. It is indefensible. It is shameful and as long as it stands the PDP does not have the moral standing or authority to criticize or condemn others. Those that made this decision behind closed doors and without proper or wide consultations have murdered sleep.

 

They have not only betrayed the confidence that the rest of us bestowed upon them but they have also prepared the coffin for our great party and dug its grave. It is a tragedy of monumental proportions and I have little doubt that God will judge them for what they have done.

 

Kayode is ‎former Aviation Minis‎ter and Goodluck Jonathan's 2015 presidential election campaign spokesman.

 

Daily Trust.

Ali Modu Sheriff is a wrong choice as PDP Chairman- Doyin Okupe

Former Spokesperson of the immediate past President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, Doyin Okupe, has said the appointment of Ali Modu Sheriff as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman is wrong and also coming at a wrong time.
Sharing his thoughts on his Facebook wall, Okupe noted that the present crop of leadership of the PDP fared badly by involving themselves in presumptive reasoning, ‘restrictive consultative processes, absolute lack of inclusiveness, mercantilism, group conceit with a resultant total disconnect with the main stake holders and the followership.’
“The capability of our party, the pdp and its leadership to make grave errors of judgement is legendary. What is intriguing is that even out of power that tendency seems unabating.
“Alhaji Ali Sheriff is a longstanding political associate of mine and a very adroit and astute politician of perhaps a sublime class.
“But for the post of the National chairman of the PDP, He is a wrong candidate and also coming in at a wrong time.
“According to many of his proponents, his strong point is that being a man of great financial resources he will be favourably disposed to funding the activities of the party easily. But the antagonists believe that he is bringing along with his wealth a crushing weight of burden capable of fatally destroying the few strands of moral fibres on which rejuvenation will depend on.
“For a morose and severely prostrate political party, thanks to the overwhelming and effective propaganda machinery of the (opposition) party in power, this may yet be the mortal wound that may cause the eventual haemorrhage of its long perplexed followership.
“The present crop of leadership of the PDP has not fared well. Impunity, presumptive reasoning, highly stratified and restrictive consultative processes, absolute lack of inclusiveness, mercantilism, group conceit with a resultant total disconnect with the main stake holders and the followership are some of the florid signs and symptoms of the terminal disease that is killing this erstwhile great party.
“Some of us have vowed not to leave the party. We still will not leave the party. Better still in spite of the present situation of things we will continue to engage all who care to listen and deepen consultation across the country seeking help from everyone ready to help to revive this severely challenged sickened giant.
“But if it is the divine will of God that our present masters must kill PDP, then by the Grace of God we shall yet tarry at the graveside to bid it farewell,” he wrote.

The Nigerian Times

Edo 2016: Battle of the titans

The race to the Governorship of Edo State, from all appearances, promises to take the shape of the legendry “Battle of the Titans”. With no less than 20 aspirants across the party divide already in the race and still counting, there is little doubt that the ancient and traditional land of Igomigodo is about to witness a robust political contest that will stretch the political maturity of the people to the limit. But it is all for the best and shows that the incumbent Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has not only opened the political space in the State in the last eight years but has further opened the eyes of the people to the realities of governance.
What is, perhaps, most interesting is the mix of the aspirants to the governorship race. Aside the old political war horses who have made their appearances in the race once or twice, or have held political positions by reason of appointments, there is a full dose of the academia who have, over the years, made their marks and left their footprints in the sands of the nation’s Ivory Tower. Then there are the members of the Private Sector who, perhaps, have suddenly realised that in order to grow the real economy of the State they must be on the driver’s seat and in control of the engine of growth which is the Private Sector.
Heading the political old war horses is, for example, Professor Oserhemen Osunbor who contested and won the Edo State Governorship election in 2007 with the ticket of the PDP but whose election was invalidated by the State’s Election Tribunal in 2008. Interestingly, the man he now seeks to succeed in office, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, is the same person who took the seat from him by virtue of the Tribunal’s verdict. Perhaps, more interesting is the fact that the erudite Professor is attempting a come back under the umbrella of the ruling APC. Then there is Professor Julius Ihonvbere, Political Scientist and former Secretary to the Government of Edo State. He resigned in 2012 and contested the Edo North Senatorial seat but lost. He is also contesting under the umbrella of the APC.
And heading the Private Sector entrants, perhaps, is Engineer Chris Ogiemwonyi, a former Group Executive Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and a former Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who lately decamped from the PDP to the APC. He runs alongside  Professor Osayuki Oshodin, the former Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin, another PDP decampee, Chief Lucky Imasuen and Pastor Ize Iyamu of the PDP. There is also Architect Mike Onelememen, Senator Ehige Uzamere and Major General Charles Airhiavhere who battled for the seat with Comrade Oshiomhole in 2012. With all these men in the race, is there any doubt that the people are going to witness a repeat of the Battle of the Titans? This is because these are juggernauts in their own rights and judging from their records, they should not be taken lightly when they enter a political battle such as is being envisaged in the State in 2016.
One possible difficulty, though, that could arise for the people in making their choice, perhaps, will be the personalities involved: what with the different levels of influence that are bound to come to play during the campaigns and the election itself. However, the out-going administration of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has lessened the burden of choice by providing the dividends of good governance by which any incoming administration would, no doubt, be assessed. He has, in the last eight years, brought to bear on the State the effectiveness and efficiency of the Private Sector as engine of growth of any economy.  The people of Edo State need someone who will sustain that tempo of development in the State after Oshiomhole.
 

Looking at the profiles of the aspirants, especially those coming from the Private Sector, Engineer Christopher Ogiemwonyi stands out as the leader and most experienced administrator and manager of men and resources. With over 30 years of work experience in the oil and gas industry, this graduate of the University of Benin, a 1974 B.Sc. (Hons) holder in Applied Physics with option in Electronics and 1976 post graduate Diploma holder in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Ibadan, has proven his mettle as an administrator and high profile manager of men and resources. Aside his intimidating academic achievements, 64 year old Christopher has a daunting career profile which began way back in the late 1970s. He began his career as a Petroleum Engineer 11 in 1975 with the Conservation Department and in February, 1977 was seconded to Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Warri, a secondment which was enriched by a four and half month Advance Petroleum Engineering Programme in SPDC Training Centre in the Hague, Netherlands. Between 1978 through 1982, he worked in various departments of Petroleum Resources including the then newly created gas Department.
In 1999, he was promoted General Manager, Operations and moved to National Petroleum Investments Management Services (NAPIMS) to oversee the Operations Division. He midwifed various projects especially the Local content initiative of the Federal Government. By dint of hard work, he was appointed the Group General Manager, NAPIMS in 2001. As GGM NAPIMS, he oversaw the whole industry including the Joint Ventures (JV) and the Production Sharing Companies (PSCs). While in NAPIMS, he served as Chairman, Nigeria OTC Committee for 2003 and 2004. Between 1999-2003, he midwifed key projects including EA field, Erha field, Bonga field and Agbami field amongst others. Also, under his watch, NAPIMS achieved zero cash call arrears by October, 2003. As GGM NAPIMS, the Oil Industry was encouraged on joint utilization of assets such as offshore swamp rigs. Engr. Chris Ogiemwonyi is, perhaps most noted today for his achievements while in NAPIMS. With an objective to compete with international oil and gas concerns, Engnr. Chris Ogiemwonyi, in 1988, facilitated the formation of Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) which he headed as Project Leader (Petroleum Engineer) in Benin City until 1999.
Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC),was incorporated in 1988 and, as stated earlier, one of its objectives was to compete as an indigenous Oil and Gas producing Company. NPDC was assigned four acreages including OML – 65 containing Abura Field, a takeover asset from the defunct TENNECO then producing at 980 bopd. He championed the takeover of this asset, kept an up-to-date reserves position of the new Company and served as the Abura Field Project Leader, He raised the production level from 980 bopd to over 4,000 bopd in 1990. In 1992, he served as Oredo Field Project Leader. This was a Greenfield project that involved KELT ENERGY,UK and IP CONSTRUCTION, Calgary. He also served as Oziengbe field Leader. This is another 10,000 bopd EPC facility at Oziengbe field.
If the career profile of Chris Ogiemwonyi is daunting, his professional progression is even more so. For example, he is currently President, Energy and Engineering Technology Construction Company, an Energy Consulting Group, a position he has held since May 2011. He was Minister of State for Works from April 2010 to May 2011, President Energy Strategy Centre (Esc) Abuja, an Energy Consulting Group,  from September 2009 to April 2010, Group Executive Director Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation ( Exploration & Production Directorate) from September 2007 to April 2009. As Group Executive Director (GED) Exploration and Production, Engr. Ogiemwonyi was in charge of seven NNPC Companies and Subsidiaries which included National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), LNG & Power Division, Integrated Data Services Limited (IDSL), Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) Crude Oil, Marketing Division and Local Content Division.  He was Managing Director, Nigerian Gas Company Limited Warri, from March 2005 to September 2007. In March 2005, he was reassigned to National Gas Company Limited as Managing Director. His focus was to increase gas supply to major customers like; PHCN, SNG, GSLINK, WAPCO, SHAGAMU, and EWEKORO, NOTORE FERTILIZER PH,OBAJANA CEMENT COMPANY etc NGC is coordinating 130mmscf/d gas supply (WAGP – West Africa gas Supply Project) to Benin, Togo, Ghana and hopefully to Ivory Coast. Trans- Sahara Gas Project (TSGP), the 2 billion scf/d supply from Nigeria through Algeria to Europe, was another portfolio under his supervision as NGC’s helmsman.
A technocrat per excellent, Chris Ogiemwonyi served on the board of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). He was also former council member of Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Warri and Chairman, N-Gas. Also a former Director NETCODIETSMANN and one time Board member of Nigermed, Engnr. Ogiemwonyi served as member, Presidential Committee on Independent Power Project (IPP) development for Niger Delta, served as a member of the NNPC Corporate Board and Chairman of Hyson/Calson Joint Venture (JV). He was also a member of the Presidential Committee on Accelerated Expansion of Electricity Infrastructure.
A product of the Harvard Business School, Ogiemwonyi belongs to many professional bodies including the society of Petroleum Engineers. He is a fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers and former President of the Nigeria Gas Association. He is a recipient of the Justice of Peace (JP) by Edo State Government and the Kwame Nkrumah Leadership Award. Ogiemwonyi, who is married and blessed with children, is patron to several bodies, including the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and the Association of Community Newspapers Publishers of Nigeria (ACNPN) .
•Obasuyi sent this piece from Benin

Frank Marshall Davis: Obama’s ‘Communist mentor’?

 

 

By Michelle Ye Hee Lee.  Follow @myhlee

Barack Obama, second row right, is shown in a 1978 senior yearbook photo at the Punahou School in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Punahoe Schools, File)

Megyn Kelly: A lot of liberals don’t believe in American exceptionalism, but that doesn’t mean they don’t love America.
Rudolph Giuliani: Well, that I don’t feel it. I don’t feel it. I don’t feel this love of America. I think this man (Obama) was — when I talked about his background, I’m talking about a man who grew up under the influence of Frank Marshall Davis, who was a member of the Communist Party who he refers to over and over in his book, who was a tremendous critic of the United States.

Kelly: But when you say he wasn’t raised to love America, I mean, he was raised in part by his grandparents, his – his grandfather served in World War II, his grandmother worked in a munitions plant to help the nation during World War II. I mean, to suggest he was raised by people who don’t love America, who don’t — didn’t help him learn to love America.

Giuliani: Well, his — his grandfather introduced him to Frank Marshall Davis, who was a Communist.

–Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Fox News interview with Megyn Kelly, Feb. 20, 2015
President Obama met Frank Marshall Davis four decades ago and saw Davis 10 to 15 times as a teenager. Yet the Obama-Davis relationship continues to be a concern among some politicians, as portrayed most recently by Giuliani during his Tour de President Obama Doesn’t Love America. Readers of The Fact Checker wanted to know if Giuliani’s comments were accurate.
So we reached out to Cliff Kincaid, president of America’s Survival, a group that seeks to expose Communist and Marxist influences. It is research from Kincaid and a few others that has shaped the opinion of critics who believe Obama adopted radical, socialist ideologies under Davis’s mentorship. Davis was a journalist and activist who was associated with the Communist Party in the 1930s and 1940s.
We interviewed Kincaid at the Conservative Political Action Conference. When The Fact Checker arrived, Kincaid had been waiting with four of his peers, stacks of documents and a video camera pointed at an empty seat saved for us.
“The Frank in Obama’s book, ‘Dreams from My Father,’ is Frank Marshall Davis,” Kincaid said. “You don’t dispute that.”
“It has been admitted,” he continued, “except that here we are, to be honest with you, seven years after we broke this story. … The Washington Post has not reported the facts about Obama’s relationship with Frank Marshall Davis. That’s why I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity so you can hear directly from us and see the material we have.”
He and his peers do not outwardly label Obama a Communist, but believe Communist influences have been played down by the media. Obama has shown to be an ineffective Communist, if he were one. He has failed to unravel the capitalist system over the past six years that he has held the most powerful position in the world — though, as Obama says, “interesting things happen in the fourth quarter.”
So we decided to take a definitive look at Davis’s Communist Party activities and his relationship with Obama, based on competing research by those who have spent years trying to posthumously vindicate or indict Davis.
What was Frank Marshall Davis’s Communist influence on Obama?

The Facts: The Case Against Davis

Davis was born in Kansas in 1905. His encounters with racism and poverty throughout childhood inspired his life-long quest for racial and economic equality. He lived and worked in Chicago for most of his early adulthood, then moved to Hawaii, where he died in 1987.
He was a prolific poet and political columnist. He associated with other black-rights activists and labor unions and decried Jim Crow segregation laws in his columns.
His writings caught the attention of the FBI, which began tracking him in the 1930s, according to FBI records that Kincaid obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The FBI was concerned with his role as executive editor of the Associated Negro Press, through which agents believed he was spreading Communist propaganda to the outlet’s members.
Informants told the FBI that Davis was a member of the party and organized its marches. The FBI record of Davis contains what is purported to be his Communist Party identification number: #47544. (The number was obtained from a “highly confidential source,” the files show.) The House Committee on Un-American Activities was well aware of Davis by the late 1940s. Davis’s last identification as a Communist Party member was in 1952, and he stopped being active with the Hawaii Civil Rights Congress in 1956, the file says. When Davis took the Fifth Amendment in front of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee in 1956, agents were suspicious.
So the FBI continued to track him into the 1960s and did not officially remove him from the Security Index until 1963.
Davis had an interest in photography. In Hawaii, he took pictures of shorelines, apparently not photographing any particular objects, according to an FBI informant. That implies he might have been taking photos for espionage, to send to Soviet leaders to target Hawaii as a strategic territory, said Kincaid and Trevor Loudon, a libertarian activist who also researches this topic.
No other person can claim the title of Obama “mentor” than Davis, wrote Paul Kengor in “The Communist,” his book about Davis and Obama. “Frank is a lasting, permanent influence, an integral part of Obama’s sojourn,” he wrote.
Obama’s grandfather introduced him to Davis, whom Obama took to as a father-like figure, Kengor wrote. Kengor quotes passages from “Dreams from My Father” of their conversations on social justice, race relations and limitations of white tolerance.
Obama sat around listening to stories as his grandfather and Davis drank, and “it would be the height of gullibility to assume that (Davis), during those long evenings of talk and drink, never taught any politics to the wide-eyed Obama, or ruminated aloud with no effect whatsoever on the impressionable young man in the room — brought there (by a leftist grandfather) to be mentored in the first place,” Kengor wrote.
Obama sought advice from Davis as a college freshman — the last known meeting between the two. As Obama became a community organizer in college and later grappled with the challenges of race and poverty in Chicago, he visualized Davis and asked, “What would Frank do? What would Frank think?” Kengor wrote. Obama does refer to Davis several times in his book when listing people who influenced his understanding of his black identity.
The use of the word “change” during Obama’s first campaign for president hearkens Davis’s desire for change, Kengor wrote.
Why do Kincaid and others believe that the relationship with Davis shaped Obama more than, say, his own experiences and others he met throughout his life? Why does it matter that he met Davis as a teen? It’s that Davis was a “hard-core member” of the Communist Party and hated America and instilled those thoughts in Obama, Kincaid said. Obama also has gone on to surround himself with others with radical left views, Kincaid said.
“There are millions of black people who had just as bad an experience as him [Davis] who didn’t become anti-American Marxists. That’s the key point, isn’t it?” Loudon said.

The Facts: The Case For Davis

Davis’s memoir, “Livin’ the Blues: Memoirs of a Black Journalist and Poet,” shows the evolution of his political views on segregation and economic inequality. He worked low-wage jobs until he started his career as a news reporter, covering politics and crime in Chicago and Atlanta. He became a political columnist for the Chicago Star, which had Marxist-Lenninist leanings and pro-labor views. Writings in his column, “Frank-ly Speaking,” showed he developed class-based ideologies that linked racism with classicism and fascism.
Davis never identifies himself as a Communist Party member in “Livin’ the Blues.” But he describes working with members, as long as they helped him achieve his goals. He had memberships, endorsements or affiliations with more than a dozen leftist groups, including the Chicago Civil Liberties Committee, CIO unions and the National Committee to Combat Anti-Semitism.
“I worked with all kinds of groups,” Davis wrote, “I made no distinction between those labeled Communist, Socialist or merely liberal. My sole criterion was this: Are you with me in my determination to wipe out white supremacy? Because I had some smattering of prestige as a writer and wielded some influence as an opinion maker in the black press at large, my active participation was welcomed.”
He was aware his associations had caught the attention of the FBI and the House Committee on Un-American Activities. He was amused by the FBI’s surveillance and was proud of it: “I would accept any resultant citation [by FBI or the committee] as an honor, for it would indicate I was beginning to upset the white power structure.”
When an FBI agent eventually interviewed him in Hawaii, Davis denied party membership. He wrote: “When they could find no evidence I was plotting to overthrow the government by force and violence, the Hoover gestapo turned to other tactics. … I owe the FBI an apology for causing them a needless waste of so much energy on me.”
Davis was a closet Communist at best, said John Edgar Tidwell, a University of Kansas professor who studies Davis’s writings. He was among many black intellectuals at the time who were exploring ways to dismantle Jim Crow laws and were attracted to groups that embraced social equality, redistribution of wealth and power, and integration, Tidwell said.
“He was not out there on the front lines carrying pickets and signs,” Tidwell said. “He wasn’t trying to overthrow the government at all. What he was seeking to do was intellectually find a way by which African Americans could be included into the mainstream of American life and culture.”
It is important to remember the U.S. political climate during the late 1930s through the early 1950s. The House Un-American Activities Committee and FBI were quick to label people and organizations with dissenting views as Communist. They were especially suspicious of people with pro-labor and civil-rights views, said Chris Brick, editor of George Washington University’s Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project. Brick has studied the thousands of pages of FBI files on Eleanor Roosevelt, under suspicion for her political activism and her criticism of the House committee.
Davis and his experiences made an impression on Obama, as shown in “Dreams from My Father.” Davis “made the young man feel something deep and disorienting” about his identity, wrote David Remnick in “The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama.” Obama’s anecdotes show he was intrigued by Davis’s experiences and insight. But the relationship was “neither constant nor lasting, certainly of no great ideological importance,” Remnick wrote.
Davis’s son, Mark, said he did not know his father had been involved with the Communist Party or that he had met Obama until he read about it years after his father died. So if Frank had had a father-son type of relationship with Obama, it is curious that Mark would never have heard about it.
“When I was growing up, I knew that my father had some radical history. But I did not know that he had joined the Communist Party,” Mark Davis said in a phone interview. “He did not in any respect try to indoctrinate me into any collectivist mindset.” And, he said, he doesn’t believe there was any indoctrination by osmosis for Obama.

The Pinocchio Test

It has been seven years since this assertion surfaced, and it continues to be perpetuated. Davis was indeed associated with the Communist Party, and the FBI identified him as a member. He was affiliated with more than a dozen other groups that were open to his views on social and racial inequality. He repeatedly showed his bitterness toward Jim Crow laws and wanted African Americans to have constitutional rights. He was an activist, but there is no evidence that Davis was a hard-core Communist who spied for Soviet leaders. He was critical of American society, but not America as a country.
Davis made an impression on Obama, as shown in his memoir. Obama mentions Davis several times in “Dreams from My Father” as someone who influenced his understanding of his black identity. But there is no evidence Obama was “raised” by Davis, or that Davis remained a close Communist mentor who advised him throughout his life. We carefully considered the facts underlying this assertion, and the evidence is slim. We may never definitively know one way or another, but it is time to put it to rest. (Update: Paul Kengor, author of “The Communist,” wrote a lengthy rebuttal of this fact check for The American Thinker.)

Applying Okafor’s Law in a new Nigeria

By Simon Kolawole

Interesting stuff. When the National Assembly was about to be inaugurated in 1999, some shadowy figures took money to the lawmakers to influence the leadership elections. A “principled” senator from the south-west turned down the N150,000 offered to him through a fellow senator who acted as the middleman. Some days later, the “principled” senator turned down another N200,000, which was intended for the confirmation of ministers. His colleagues then decided to leave him out of the loop. But he soon stumbled on another
sharing session in another room at the Hilton hotel. This time, it was N350,000. Our dear senator finally decided to eat his share of the national cake.

“Take it to my room,” he said, repentantly. And having realised how much he had missed on two occasions, he quickly asked for the arrears: “And the other one… and the other one.”

Have you ever heard about Okafor’s Law? It is the law of “repeatable” action: if you have done something once, you can do it again. If you have been somewhere before, you can go there again. This is because you have crossed the Rubicon. Although it is often mischievously applied to boy-girl relationships, Okafor’s law is a principle of life. If you collect bribe once, you can collect bribe again. If you drive against one way once, you can do it again. If you beat traffic light once, you can beat it again. In other words, having crossed the boundary, you can cross it again. Once you set off on a note, you are in position to continue with it.

As the senate started screening President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministerial nominees on Tuesday, Okafor’s Law came to mind. Are we going to start on a wrong note again?

I was in Abuja, expecting to hear rumours of Ghana-Must-Go (GMG) bags being moved around to facilitate the confirmation. I waited in vain. I am not saying for sure that nothing exchanged hands, or that no promises were made.

However, to the best of my knowledge, GMG was not deployed. Buhari’s body language is unmistakable. Who would dare offer confirmation bribe? Who would dare be the middleman? Who would dare collect it? It is now a risky
adventure. I left Abuja in high spirits.

Now, let’s compare and contrast. President Olusegun Obasanjo came to power on May 29, 1999 with the promise of building a new Nigeria, of changing our orientation, of creating a transparent society, of wrestling corruption to the
ground, and so on and so forth. I loved him to pieces. I believed in him. A few days later, it was time to elect the senate president. The clear choice of the PDP senators-elect was Dr. Chuba Okadigbo. But we were told Obasanjo did not
want him, so a lot happened on the eve of the inauguration of the National Assembly. Let’s just say Obasanjo had his way by hook and crook.

Unfortunately, once we took off on that cash-and-carry note, it became a culture at the National Assembly. Okafor’s Law simply set in. From that moment, ministerial confirmation, passage of bills, appropriation of budgets, public hearings, change of leadership and “oversight” functions became a matter of naira and kobo — and later on, dollars and more dollars. From the initial price of as little as N150,000 for ministerial confirmation in 1999, it rose to N50m in 2003. We started discussing billions thereafter. It had nothing to do
with geo-political zones, ethnic affiliation, party membership or gender. No. Nigerian politicians are blood brothers and sisters when it comes to “sharing”.

Every day, I see parallels between Obasanjo and Buhari. Both were soldiers. Both were military dictators. Both won democratic, national mandates to be president. Both were faced with similar challenges of a failing economy and moral decadence. Their commitment to duty is unquestionable.

Obasanjo, in particular, always worked round the clock. Yet the two men are so different — and I am not talking about their looks. Obasanjo is, clearly, intellectually ahead of Buhari. He also, evidently, has a broader worldview than
Buhari. Obasanjo’s nationalism, even at the risk of being ostracised by his Yoruba kith and kin, was remarkable.

But Buhari manifestly has greater moral character than his former boss. No matter your nationalism, intellectual ability and work rate, your moral character is most critical — and that, in my opinion, is what Nigeria needs the most to be
transformed. Buhari and Obasanjo have never been on the same pedestal in terms of character. Obasanjo easily lost the moral authority to inspire a new Nigeria when he was president. His government took off on a shaky note in 1999.

His attempts at redemption during his second term were again rubbished by the invasion of National Assembly by GMGs in the wake of the third term saga. Personal example is key to moral transformation.

Corruption is a virus that has compromised the health ofNigeria. Buhari has a golden opportunity to install the anti- virus and reboot the system. He has the mistakes of Obasanjo to learn from. He has the street appeal to keep him
in check. He has the moral authority to inspire new thinking. So far, I would say it is going well. He did not want Bukola Saraki as senate president but we never heard that GMGs were deployed to stop Saraki. He nominated some
controversial figures as ministers but he has not intervened with bags of dollars to get them confirmed by hook and crook. I am lovin’ it, to borrow MacDonald’s pay-off. Will Okafor’s Law now apply positively to the National Assembly since we have started on a GMG-free note? Let’s hope so. Budget defence used to be the height of perfidy.

Some committees would take rooms at hotels, far away from the National Assembly complex, and invite contractors — not ministries, departments or agencies — to come and “defend” the amounts allocated to their projects. They would ask for “settlement in advance” to enable them make “good”
provision for the projects. Any contractor who did not play ball was scandalised and the budget ridiculously sliced.

Impunity was the rule. I hope this will not happen without repercussions under Buhari’s watch.

The conspiracy to steal and waste our oil wealth was unimaginable. Some lawmakers were offering to jack up budgetary allocations on the precondition that a ministry or agency would bring some hefty sums in advance. The head
of an agency complained to me sometime in 2011: “The committee chairman told me they would add N25 billion to my budget if I agreed to give them N2 billion cash in advance.” That is why a president would send a budget of N1
trillion to the National Assembly and by the time the lawmakers are done with “budget defence”, it would end up as N1.4 trillion. The perfidy is heartbreaking. That is why Nigeria is like this.

Do I need to talk about those “oversight” functions? It is all about the money. Any minister or head of agency who does not play ball is given a hard time by the oversight committee.

Probes are instituted at the slightest opportunity. Committee members will ask an agency to foot the bill for a public hearing — even when this is already provided for in the National Assembly budget. So the money comes out twice.
Committee members want to travel abroad for a “conference” (probably a sex party in Dubai) and, in addition to the official allowances from the National Assembly, they will collect allowances from agencies they are supervising.
Lord have mercy.

Am I suggesting that corruption is limited to the National Assembly? Not by any chance. In fact, imagine what goes on at the state and council levels. It is humongous. Imagine what goes on at MDAs. It is murderous. But Buhari’s journey with the National Assembly so far is encouraging. The president will still have to deal with the crooks in his cabinet.

A couple of these guys are not fit to be ministers, but I am hoping they will play into Buhari’s hands and end up disgraced and prosecuted. That would be a good signal that we are in a new Nigeria. Once Buhari fires a minister for
corruption, he can fire another one. I love Okafor’s Law. And I mean its constructive, positive application.

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