FG picks management team for sovereign wealth fund .

BusinessDay

Okonjo Iweala

The federal government, on Tuesday, announced a top management team to manage the country's sovereign wealth fund, a move which analyst believed would steer oil revenues into longer-term investment, announcing a top management team for its new sovereign wealth fund.

Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the fund would start with a cash hoard of around $1 billion. The top team will come from First Bank and UBS.

Nigeria is one of only three OPEC member states that do not have an SWF, and the new fund is being keenly watched by global markets and investors in Africa's second biggest economy.

The government hopes the fund will provide a firmer legal basis to ring-fence Nigeria's savings from competing demands so it can better save when oil prices are high.

Sovereign wealth funds are essentially government-run investment portfolios that buy into anything from mainstream assets such as stocks and bonds to direct foreign investment.

Nigeria, Africa's top energy producer, pumps over 2 million barrels of oil a day but has frittered much of it away over the years on government wages, other recurrent spending and corruption, ills that Okonjo-Iweala quit her World Bank job to come back and tackle.

Auditor and consultancy firm KPMG helped hire the SWF board.

Mahey Rasheed, a member of the board of First Bank, was chosen as the chairman of the fund team with UBS executive and former JP Morgan head Uche Orji chosen as the managing director and chief executive officer.

Okonjo-Iweala said she hoped by the end of the year the team would lay out plans for the $1 billion but did not say when investments would start.

The SWF has three main aims: saving money for future generations, funding infrastructure and defending the economy against commodity price shocks.

"I think the sovereign wealth fund will make Nigeria more attractive for investors," Okonjo-Iweala told reporters.

She said she hoped more money would be paid in later, adding that 20 percent of the fund would go to each of its three targets and the board would decide how to invest the other 40 percent.

President Goodluck Jonathan signed a bill into law in May last year authorising the SWF, but powerful state governors originally blocked the fund, saying it was unconstitutional.

They later agreed to it going ahead, albeit with an initial limit of $1 billion, a fraction of the $7 billion savings that are in Nigeria's Excess Crude Account (ECA).

Many state governors fear the SWF will mean less money for them to spend than the current ECA system for saving oil cash.

"The battle was long but I think the country stands to gain and I think it was worth it," Okonjo-Iweala said on Tuesday.

The SWF is meant to replace the ECA eventually but Okonjo-Iweala told Reuters last week the two will run side-by-side until people get comfortable with the SWF.

Critics say the ECA is opaque and can be too easily used.

The account contained $20 billion in 2007 but fell to $3 billion after a presidential election last year, despite five years of high oil prices. It has since risen to $7 billion.

Corruption: Buhari dares IBB.

By CLIFFORD NDUJIHE, DAPO AKINREFON, MICHAEL EBOH & GBENGA OKE
FORMER Head of State and Presidential Candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, in the 2011 general elections, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), yesterday dared former Military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (rtd), to expose him if he had facts and insisted that IBB and other leaders played crucial roles in destroying Nigeria’s oil industry.
IBB had on Monday threatened to expose Buhari’s shady deals in the oil sector when he functioned as Petroleum Minister and later chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund, PTF, if Buhari did not shut his mouth.

Former heads of state, Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Muhammadu Buhari

Speaking through his spokesman, Mr. Kassim Afegbua, the former Military President was responding to Buhari’s comments blaming President Goodluck Jonathan, IBB, Obasanjo for killing the nation’s oil industry.
On IBB specifically, Buhari, who was hosting leaders and members of the CPC, led by the House of Representatives member from Funtua/Dandume Federal Constituency of Katsina State, Dr. Mansur Abdulkadir, on Monday, said the administration of General Ibrahim Babangida was responsible for the high level of corruption and destruction in the petroleum industry.
He added that the corrupt practices in the oil sector during the eras of Babangida, Obasanjo and Jonathan had led to the enslaving of the masses.
Countering, IBB had reportedly said: “We are conversant with General Buahri’s so-called holier-than-thou attitude. He was a one-time Minister of Petroleum and we have good records of his tenure as minister. Secondly, he presided over the Petroleum Trust Fund, PTF, which records we also have. We challenge him to come out with clean hands in those two portfolios. Those, who live in glass houses, do not throw stones. General Buhari should be properly guided.”
However, Buhari insisted on his comments and dared IBB to carry out the threat of exposing him.

Decadent state of petroleum industry

Speaking through Engr. Rotimi Fashakin, the CPC spokesman, Buhari insisted he spoke the truth.
He said: “The truth of the matter is that General Buhari has just stated the obvious and it is what everybody knows about the decadent state of the Nigerian Petroleum Industry. Nigerians know which regime contributed immensely to that sector. So we still insist that what General Buhari stated is the truth and if General Babangida says he has facts about General Buhari over the issue, let him bring them out.
“At least Prof Tam David West worked closely with both General Buhari and General Babangida, so Tam David West should be able to tell Nigerians who among both men actually contributed to the decadence state of the oil industry.”

Corruption blossom under Obasanjo—Falae

Reacting to the exchanges, yesterday, one-time Minister of Finance and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Olu Falae, told Vanguard on phone that corruption reached an alarming height during Obasanjo’s administration in 1999.
His words: “The people are former heads of state and to the extent that corruption had been going on for quite sometime in the country, maybe that is why he (Buhari) is holding them accountable. But I don’t know the statistics or information to either agree or disagree with him (Buhari).
“But there is corruption in the whole country; the country is awash with corruption and nobody can really know where it started from though some government functionaries can. Corruption is the biggest problem we have.
“I cannot attribute it to any particular person but this thing started in earnest since 1999 that was during the Obasanjo administration; that was when the thing really blossomed.
In the past, one suspected that a few military leaders were the ones, who had access to the money, but since we returned to civilian rule, thousands of people now got into the act: from the local to state and federal government levels. And it has been growing since then. Corruption has grown very fast since 1999.”
At a time other leaders were exonerating themselves from the decay that had been inflicted on the citizenry, Obasanjo said yesterday that his regret after eight years in power as a civilian president was that he was unable to fix the epileptic power situation of the country.
President Jonathan had on Monday dissociated his administration from the rot, saying there was no how his regime, under two years, could have destroyed all amenities and infrastructure, if his predecessors provided them after many years in power.
Obasanjo, who was speaking at the Nigeria Leadership Initiative, NLI, as Guest Speaker Forum in Lagos, said, however, that his inability to fix the power problem was as a result of lack of funds in the initial period of his administration, owing to the low price of crude oil in the international market, Nigeria’s depleted foreign reserves and huge debt burden.
He also blamed oil companies operating in the country for their non-chalant contribution towards addressing the nation’s power problem.
Some oil companies abandoned Nigeria—Obasanjo
According to Obasanjo, oil companies in Nigeria refused to contribute towards addressing the power problem, except for only one of them, Agip.
He said: “During my time as a military president, my major aim was forging a united country and a self-reliant economy. I later realised that we can only achieve that with a constitution. When I came back to power 20 years after, I also pursued the agenda of uniting Nigeria and building a self-reliant economy. I can say we achieved all that.
”However, my regret is that we did not address the power issue in the country before we left. This is mainly because of the absence of funds at that time. If the country had money at the early stage of my presidency, we would have fixed the power.
“The country’s earning was low when we came to power; crude oil was selling at about $18 – $20 per barrel. When our earning started improving, we then started the Independent Power Projects, IPP.
“The oil companies abandoned Nigeria in our drive towards addressing the power problem. They did not do what they were supposed to do in that regard. Only one oil company, Agip, supported the country”.
Asked to rate Nigeria’s current leadership, Obasanjo said, “I will not want to comment publicly on Nigeria’s leadership at the moment.”

Nnaji resigns amid controversies, scandal.

 by Martin Ayankola, Fidelis Soriwei and Olalekan Adetayo.

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Minister of Power, Prof. Bart Nnaji, on Tuesday resigned from office amid controversies and allegations of conflict of interest in the privatisation process.
Besides being at loggerheads with Power Holding Company of Nigeria’s workers on sundry issues, he was said to have interests in two firms that submitted bids for the Afam Power Plc and the  Enugu Electricity Distribution Company Plc.
The PUNCH learnt on Tuesday that Nnaji  must have been pressured into resigning from the Federal Executive Council by the Presidency because of  fears that the issue of conflict of interest could damage  the credibility of the privatisation process, which has local and foreign investors as bidders.
The privatisation of 17 electricity firms is scheduled to be concluded in two months’ time.
Meanwhile,  President Goodluck Jonathan said he had accepted the resignation.
In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, the President thanked Nnaji for his services to the nation.
It was gathered that it was when it was established that Nnaji had interest in two firms, Skipper Nigeria Limited and Eastern Electric Nigeria Limited, that the National Council on Privatisation chaired by Vice- President Namadi Sambo, decided to cancel the technical bid evaluation process conducted for the two firms.
The NCP had last Friday named seven firms as the successful bidders for five generation companies.
 According to Chairman of the National Council on Privatisation’s Technical Committee, Mr. Atedo Peterside, the successful bidders qualified to take part in the financial bidding slated for September.
The preferred bidders for Ughelli Power Plant are Phoenix Electricity, Transcorp Consortium and Ampiron Power Distribution Limited.
Two bidders, CMEC Energy and GPN Nestoil Power Services Limited, were named for the Sapele Power Plant.
Only one firm each emerged successful for Geregu, Kainji and Shiroro Power Plants. They are Ampiron Power Distribution Limited, Mainstream Energy Solution Limited and North South Power Company Limited respectively.
He explained that the seven firms were chosen after scaling the 750 pass mark for the bidding process which involved submission of bids by pre-qualified bidders.
There was speculation that the NCP had been silent on the bidders that were prequalified for the Afam Power Station because of the conflict of interest that had arisen during the privatisation process.
A national newspaper had reported that Nnaji, a member of the NCP by virtue of his position as Minister of Power, had told the council that O & M Solutions of Pakistan, a member of one of the consortia bidding for Afam, had worked as a contractor for Geometric Power.
Nnaji  further notified the NCP that Geometric Power had a minority stake in Eastern Electric Nigeria Limited, which had submitted technical and financial bids for Enugu Distribution Company Limited on July 31.
He also reportedly informed the council that owing to his position, he had notified President Jonathan of his company’s bid for Enugu Distribution Company, and brought it to their attention that although he had an interest in Geometric Power, he had resigned from its board and transferred his shares to a blind trust.
Following this disclosure, Nnaji was said to have excused himself from the consideration of the report of the technical bids.
Having been informed of Nnaji’s direct and indirect interest in two companies being privatised, the report said the council decided to cancel the technical evaluation that had been conducted for Afam and disbanded the evaluation team.
Reacting to the issue of conflict of interest few hours before his resignation, Nnaji said he had voluntarily on Friday, August 24 , 2012, informed other members of the National Council on Privatisation at a meeting, which considered the report on the technical evaluation of bids for generation companies. He said he had revealed to the committee that a company with which he was associated before he joined the government in 2010, was a client of a member of a consortium interested in acquiring majority shares of the Afam power plant in Rivers State.
A statement from his office then said, “The minister consequently applied to be excused from all deliberations at the meeting, and he maintained his ground despite the insistence of some of his colleagues.
 “The minister ought to be commended for exemplary commitment to transparency, probity and the common good. If most public officers had been behaving like Professor Bart Nnaji , there would not have been trust deficit in Nigeria over the decades in respect of the relationship between the people and those in government. The unprecedented domestic and international investor confidence in the
Nigerian power sector is directly traceable to the personal and professional integrity of the process drivers like Professor Nnaji.
“We welcome wholeheartedly the decision of the National Council on Privatisation that bids for the Afam plant be evaluated all over again because justice should not only be done but also seen to have been done by all and sundry.’’
Before he finally threw in the towel, the former minister had also been at the receiving end of the war declared by workers of the PHCN.
The workers had opened a can of worms on some financial transactions allegedly carried out by Nnaji which reportedly drained the purse of PHCN.
They had given the embattled minister a seven-day ultimatum to explain what he did with the money running into millions of naira which they claimed was withdrawn from the firm’s coffer.
Vice-President of the National Union of Electricity Workers Employees, Mr. Etete Ntukuben, last Friday, called for a probe, not just of the PHCN superannuation account, but the entire account of the PHCN.
Ntukuben said that investigators should be brought in to take a critical look at the withdrawals by the  former minister from the account of the PHCN.
“Let us have a holistic look at the PHCN account apart from the pension account; we should take a look at the minister’s withdrawals.
A lot of millions of naira have been withdrawn and given to soldiers and policemen in the guise of security maintenance,” he said.

Why Are CPC Leaders Impervious To Reason?

Abubakar Yusuf Bakori.

How far can the national leaders of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) go in their stubborn resistance to reason without ultimately weakening or harming the party? Their present approach to ending the internal crises rocking the party is only making the situation worse.
The appointment of caretaker committees to run the affairs of the party in states such as Kano and Katsina states is only intensifying the crises. In fact, these committees are not welcomed in these states because they were brought to displace grassroots-based politicians who are the main strength of the party.
They are being tolerated rather than welcomed. Appointing caretaker committee is a clever way to shield the national leaders of the party from taking  full responsibility for the party’s disappointing performance during the 2011 general elections.
No keen political observer of Nigerian politics can be fooled by the subterfuge of creating or imposing caretaker committees to protect the national leaders from responsibility. Were they not responsible for the crises in the first place by the introduction of the needless and unjust policy of substitution and imposition of candidates?
Didn’t they deliberately reject the outcomes of peacefully and credibly conducted gubernatorial primaries in Kano, Katsina and Bauchi states because the results didn’t favour their preferred aspirants? Instead, they imposed candidates that lost the primaries and the voters revolted at the polls. This injustice was the beginning of the intractable internal crises rocking the CPC.
Therefore, the establishment of caretaker committees is a clever way of dodging the solution. General Buhari needs to assert himself over the way  the party national officers are running the CPC. Why should Buhari remain indifferent when injustice was committed against duly elected candidates? He is the moral pillar of the party’s credibility and Nigerians would have expected him to overrule any decision by the party leaders, which was inconsistent with justice and the principle of internal democracy. The tail should not be wagging the dog in this respect.
If the CPC leaders are really serious about addressing the internal crises decisively, then a caretaker committee should also be appointed at the national level of the party to replace the officials responsible for the mismanagement of the party’s goodwill.
It is immoral to remain in office after being responsible for the losses your party suffered during the elections. Leadership is about taking responsibility for your own poor judgement, which ultimately cost your party victory.
It is on record that the former British Labour Prime Minister, Mr. Gordon Brown took personal responsibility for the defeat of his party by the Conservatives.
Do the current national leaders of the CPC have any justification setting up caretaker committees and creating scapegoats when they themselves have no reason to remain in office any longer? They exhausted energy fighting the party’s popular candidates and imposing their own who were never legitimately elected at the primaries. Do they have to wait for General Buhari to tell them to take the path of honour and resign? Should any sensitive leader value office more than his credibility?
When they called a post-election evaluation meeting at the party secretariat in Abuja, the national leaders were openly booed by the chairmen of the party chapters across the country. Wasn’t that embarrassing incident a signal that they have lost the confidence of the CPC members and supporters?
Let us face it: the CPC requires radical surgery and that cannot be achieved by the present cosmetic strategy of sacking democratically elected leaders and replacing them with caretaker committees. The excessive idealism of the CPC national leaders was mainly responsible for the poor showing of the party during the 2011 elections. Humility is a critical element of effective leadership.
The all-knowing mentality of the CPC national leaders, which seeks to shut out other better ideas and opinions, will take the party nowhere. Any humble leader should listen to well-meaning advice. Unfortunately, when leaders assume a tin god posture, they cannot see reason or acknowledge where they go wrong, even if it may cost the party dearly. In the words of the great inspiration writer, John Mason, “the person who never changes his opinion can never correct his mistakes.”
Inflexibility and the posture of indispensability is the core reason why the current national leaders of the CPC should not be trusted with the responsibility of restructuring and reforming the party. They are part and parcel of the crises rocking the party. No realistic party leader should expect to displace popular politicians like Mohammed Abacha, Lado Dan Marke and Dan China in Kano, Katsina and Bauchi States and carry the people along. These popular politicians have touched the lives of the people so much that you cannot detach them from hearts of the ordinary people.
Only a man living in the moon would have expected Col. Lawal Ja’afaru Isa to defeat Mohammed Abacha at the primaries or any other elections. But the national leaders ignored reality and imposed Isa at all costs. And the party paid dearly for that miscalculation.
The appointment of caretaker committees to replace elected chairmen of CPC chapters in the country is like holding a conductor responsible for a man-made accident and letting the driver go scot-free!
General Buhari should order the immediate dissolution of the national leadership of the party and replace them with credible and grassroots-based politicians who can relate with the people better and win their trust. They should stop scratching the surface of crises that demand radical and courageous solution. In fact, Chief Mike Ahamba, a former Buhari loyalist, foresaw the disaster they were leading the CPC into and resigned. They are exploiting General Buhari’s trusting attitude to sit tight even when it is obvious that their continuation in office is an obstacle to progress.

Bart Nnaji Abruptly Resigns As Nigeria's Power Minister.

By SaharaReporters, New York

The minister of Power resources Professor Bart Nnaji has resigned as a minister in President Goodluck Jonathan's government.
A statement from the Presidency said the President Jonathan has accepted Prof. Nnaji's resignation.
 Mr. Cdon Anuba who acted as spokesperson to Prof. Nnaji also confirmed Nnaji's resignation to Saharareporters.

Oshiomhole Not Qualified to Be Governor – Tribunal told..

As the Edo State Electoral Tribunal hots up, the Tribunal has been told that Governor Adams Oshiomhole the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) candidate was not a fit, an appropriate person to contest the governorship election as a result of his academic qualifications as stimulated by the constitution. The Tribunal was also told that the primary schools claimed to have been attended by Adams Oshiomhole was not in existence as at the time he claimed to have attended the school and that he Oshiomhole did not complete the secondary modern school he claimed to have attended.
In response to the reply of the Election petition filed by General Charles Ehigie Airhiavbere (Rtd) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Airhiavbere lead counsels Chief E.L. Akpofure, SAN and S.O. Agwinede Esq said that the voters register used for the election was manipulated as a manual register was smuggled in and used in several polling units contrary to INEC and political parties earlier position.
The summary of the response are as follows:
PARTICULARS
1. There was no Iyamoh Primary School, Iyamoh in 1957.
a) The 1st Respondent (Adams Oshimhole) was barred from enrolling into and entering primary one in 1957 having not attained the minimum age of SIX YEARS by the provision of Western Region of Nigeria Garzette No. 17 Vol. 5 dated 5th April, 1956.
b) The 1st Respondent dropped (Adams Oshimhole) out of the Secondary Modern School in the second year and did not complete the mandatory three years course at Blessed Martin Secondary Modern School, Jattu-Uzairue, which he claimed to have attended between 1963 and 1965.
c) Unexplained discrepancies in the academic certificates presented as aforesaid.
d) The Petitioners state in reply to paragraph 27 of the said Reply that publication in the Newspaper like the Nation Newspaper does not cure the effect of the continued campaign carried out by the 1st and 2nd Respondents (Adams Oshiomhole and the ACN) beyond the prescribed campaign period as stipulated by law.
2. In specific reply to paragraph 24 of the 2nd Respondent’s Reply to the Petition, the Petitioners (Airhiavbere & PDP) state that the 1st Respondents (Adams Oshiomhole) is not the owner of the Secondary School Modern School Certificates and the altered Testimonial presented to the 3rd Respondent and the 1st Respondent does not have Primary School Leaving Certificate.
3. The Petitioners aver in reply to paragraph 23 of the 2nd Respondent’s Reply to the Petition that the 1st Respondent(Adams Oshiomhole) is not educated up to School Certificate Level or its equivalent contrary to Section 182 (1)(J) of the same Constitution (as amended) .
4. In answer and reply to paragraph 22 and 22(a) of the said 2nd Respondent’s Reply, the Petitioners (Airhiavbere & PDP) state that the production of new Manual Registers under any circumstance for use in the Governorship election in Edo State on the 14th day of July, 2012 amount to a revision or amendment which was clearly prohibited by the 3rd Respondent (INEC).
5. In further response to the said paragraph 15 and 16 of the 2nd Respondent’s Reply, the Petitioners state the laid down accreditation and voting procedures in the manual For Election Officials were not observed and the column for “Governor” were not ticked as required and box for entering number of accredited voters and other statistical Election data were not followed rendering the various Forms EC8A affected void.
6. In further answer and reply to paragraph 11(c) of the said 2nd Respondent’s Reply, the Petitioners state that any addition to or alteration of the said 2011 Voters Registers amount to a revision which the 3rd Respondent’s expressly and unambiguously prohibited. All revised Voters Registers are void as far as they affect the said July 14, 2012 Governorship Election in Edo State.

Edo Political Forum.

 

 

Perjury, Forgery: S/West PDP gives FG 14 days ultimatum to commence Tinubu’s trial.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South-West has given the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN) 14 days to commence the trial of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) leader and former governor of Lagos State, Bola Ahmed Tinubu for forgery and perjury.
The party said it was on record that Tinubu did not attend Government College, Ibadan as he stated in his profile and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) FORM CF. 001 in 1999, adding that; “it insults the sensibilities of Nigerians and the integrity of the country for liars and document forgers like Tinubu to be sermonising about good governance.”
PDP Zonal Publicity Secretary, Hon. Kayode Babade said in a statement issued in Ibadan today, that; “Until people who commit crimes are made to pay for their crimes, no matter their status, Nigerians will continue to see criminality as a way of life.”
Babade said; “It is on record that when Tinubu was Lagos State governor, a petition dated August l2, 1999, was written against him by one Alhaji Jameed Seriki of 62 Balogun Street, West, Lagos and one Dr. Waliu Balogun-Smith of 5 Unity Road, Ikeja, Lagos to the Inspector General of Police.
“The documents enclosed by the Petitioners were photocopies of Tinubu’s inauguration profile, INEC FORM CF. 001, affidavit sworn to at Ikeja High Court of Justice on 29th December 1998, the year books of Government College, Ibadan and the transcript of Chicago State University.
“It was alleged in the petition that there was discrepancy in the age of Bola Tinubu since the profile published during his inauguration stated that he was born in 1952 and the age on the transcript of the governor at Chicago State University states that he was born in 1954.
“Also on INEC form CF 001 1999, he said he was born on March 29, 1952, but on his passport with number, A1883991 he said he was born on March 29 1954 in Iragbiji, Osun State.
“Tinubu also claimed on oath that he attended Government College, Ibadan, which he never did. And curiously, he did not include the Government College, Ibadan in his INEC Form in 2003.
“Again, Tinubu lied on oath that he was a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the United States. Curiously too, he did not include this qualification in his INEC Form in 2003. He simply wrote; ‘Not Applicable’ on both his O’ Level and Post Graduate qualifications.
“From the above, it is an established fact that Tinubu lied on oath about his attendance of Government College, Ibadan and the O’ Level certificate he filled in his INEC forms in 1999 was forged.
“Therefore, if perjury and forgery is still an offence punishable by the relevant laws of the country, Bola Ahmed Tinubu must be tried now!
“Failure to do this by the AGF will mean that Nigerians are free to go ahead and be committing forgery and perjury.”
TheTruthNg.com