I ended the Part 1 of this piece by saying that Muhammadu Buhari is not a friend of chiefs, and the first time he was here as C-in-C, he gave the chiefs long jail-terms; and, funny enough, they carried their National Honours and Medals along!
And so history seems to be repeating itself. It is as if anytime the chiefs mess things up with their unbridled thieving, or every time our nation-wide community chiefs gorge themselves on our commonwealth to the point of suicide, Providence sends the ascetic general to come and do some house-cleaning. And because Buhari is also a chief, but one of a different kind, any time the chiefs see him, they scamper. As in 1984 when the Umaru Dikkos, the Joseph Wayas, the Uba Ahmeds and the Adisa Akinloyes ran away, today too the Mainas, the Adokes, the Kukus, the Alison-Maduekes, and the Sambos…have taken off. But where Buhari became burdened with Umaru-cargo then because of his reliance on non-state actors, today he is tempered by the demands constitutional correctness: he is, therefore, banking on Interpol, an international actor.
In 1984, he came with gun-powder; this time, he has come with Broom-power. While gun-powder maybe explosive, fast and furious, broom-power is slow, but steady and thorough.
It is now sweeping the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA). From there, it is moving gradually, but steadily to the ministries, beginning with Defence. It will proceed thence to ATM machines like the NNPC, Petty-Cash points like SURE-P and cash-cows like Customs, NPA, FIRS etc. Already, 26 DGs of Federal agencies, commissions and departments, some of them chiefs in their own rights, have been shoved aside. Put another way, since some of these Dasuki-gate chiefs are versatile and rapaciously avaricious, it is very possible that many of them will also have mention in SURE-P-gate, NNPC-gate, NNDC-gate, Customs-gate, Immigration-gate, FIRS-gate, Maina/Pension-gate ….
Everywhere one turns now, there is a gate of some kind or a potential gate waiting to open and assault our already over-tortured imagination with its ugly skeletons. And mind you, these are not the type of gates that keep criminals out; these are the types of gates constructed by thieves, sorry, chiefs, who love themselves immeasurably far above their neighbours, their oaths of office, their country, their generation and their God!
This means there are many more chiefs waiting to be unveiled or unmasked, to be exposed for whom they really are. We may then discover that they may be knights, but there is no “K” in their “knights.” Meaning: They are people of the night: I am not saying they are thieves, although like thieves, the chiefs like operating in the night.
In the end, only the courts can authoritatively say whether or not a chief is also a thief. You can call that Combined Honours! But these are chiefs, so even when they are convicted, we cannot call them common thieves or petty criminals. We must, therefore, show some respect by calling them: executive thieves, posh criminals, stylish shysters, expensive crooks, classy hypocrites….
And likewise, the “hoods” in their knighthoods may be closer to the “hood” in hoodlums. This makes them modern-day Robinhoods! (And by the way, Robinhood, the legendary English criminal, was not convicted too! In other words, many of these our chiefs in resplendent attires and bombastic dictions may not be real Knights – despite their GCON, GCFR, OON, CON, CFR… – but people of the night who are closer to hoodlums than knighthoods.
The worry is that they are so everywhere.  My landlord is a chief! The chairman of the Security Committee in our estate is a chief! The school my daughter attends is owned by a chief! And the school is located near a massive estate said to be the property of a chief! There is a filling station adjoining it: it as owned by a chief! Everywhere I turn, I am assaulted by the sight of a chief! And crime statistics are on the rise. So is there any connection between chiefs and thieves?
Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu, while he lived, used to say the only thing distinguishing a Chief from a Thief is the C. Does this mean the “C” in “chief,” most times, stands for “Criminal?” In Tiv language, the “T” in “Thief” can mean “Tchough Kwagh!” Meaning: The Thief who is no ordinary criminal, but a con-artist!
Although every financial scandal under the Jonathan government staggers the imagination, given that they always run into billions, even trillions, the Dasuki-gate, with its emerging details, is especially numbing. Dasuki allegedly collected money in the name of Boko Haram, and then commenced pumping it, wholesale and full-scale, into President Goodluck Jonathan’s Re-election “Logistics.” If his office were not clearly advertised as that of the NSA, one might think he was PDP’s Director of Contacts-cum-Mobilization-cum-Logistics. And after Contacting and Mobilizing PDP chieftains, whatever “Change” that was left therefrom, Dasuki reportedly committed same into the building his personal estates and hotels in commanding locations across the country. And it seems whatever “Change” that remained of the “Change,” he went shopping with it in Dubai or any place that caught his fancy!
So as the APC shouted itself hoarse with its “Change mantra,” Dasuki, sitting pretty on $2.1billion, knew better! CHANGE may be an English word, but it had different meanings to John Oyegun and Dasuki. And so, it had to the array of chiefs in the Dasuki army: Dokpesi, Kuku, Amosu, Badeh, Obaigbena, Yuguda, Falae, Obanikoro, Muazu, Tompolo, Segun Osoba, Ayu, Metuh, Yarkin Bello, Bode George, Odili, Tom Ikimi, Nwobodo, Yerima  and, wait for it, Bafarawa & sons Ltd. You can also add: Haliru Mohammed & Sons etc, etc, etc, etc…! It is a long list indeed, and it is growing.
Bafarawa may not be a lion, but when it came to the Dasuki-Bazaar, he allegedly took the lion-share! Besides netting N100million from Yuguda and another N100 from Chairman Muazu, he is said to have grossed a hefty N4.6 billion for “Prayers and Spiritual purposes.” Since the Jonathan crowd was paying for endorsements (according Falae), and the Association of Nigerian Witches and Wizards endorsed Jonathan’s re-election bid, was settling the Witches/Wizards also part of Bafarawa’s brief? And since Bafarawa knows the efficacy of prayers in electoral victories, did he also pay for his election wins in 1999 and again in 2003? If Yes, how much? And if No, why did he collect billions from Jonathan for “prayers?” Was he really Jonathan’s helper or a buccaneer, preying on Jonathan and his vacuity?
And what about Chief Olu Falae, ex-banker, ex-Federal Permanent secretary,  ex-Secretary to the Government of the Federation, ex-Finance Minister and ex-double Presidential candidate? He collected money from Jonathan, on behalf of his party, the SDP, so the party would support Jonathan. But he kept mute and the party did not know about it until Dasuki started singing like a canary! How long has Falae been collecting money to endorse aspirants/candidates…for Senate, for governor, for president? Is the SDP a party or a shop? If it is a party, is it in the public space to secure political power or to secure lucrative endorsement deals? If it is a business, a limited liability company, how long has Falae been trading with the SDP? So much honour! So much transparency! And so much for integrity! If Falae became president in 1992 or 1999, is this the baggage he would bring to the Presidential Villa?
Even Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, the World Bank technocrat, could not resist the temptation of joining the merry-go-round of corruption. She  admittedly “loaned” Dasuki over $2billion! It defies logic or the international best practices she claimed to have brought from the World Bank! Is the Finance Ministry a Bank or a Finance House to loan people money out? How come some of us did not know about these “loans?” Was this how she was “loaning” out money at the World Bank? If it is a bank, which collateral did Dasuki give Okonjo-Iweala, the bank’s CEO? How many other chiefs did she “loan” public funds to? There is not even a letter that Dasuki wrote to her, requesting for the “loan!” And the money she illegally “loaned” to Dasuki was not even appropriated in the budget! But then, when you give out a loan, there is something called “commission.” And such other sweeteners like COT, banking charges, percentages etc.
Well, this $2.1billlion “loan” was not captured in the budget. This was the recovered Abacha loot! Meaning: There was money already appropriated for Dasuki’s office – close to N1Trillion. And this was outside the $1billion loan President obtained to “buy arms/prosecute” the Boko Haram war!
Plainly put, Dasuki creamed off his N1Trillion budget for the year; cleaned out the $1billion “Boko Haram loan,” and turned voraciously on the Abacha loot! Truly, only a Locust-Army could have achieved this rapacious feat so effortlessly – and all the while, mouthing patriotic slogans of “Transformation, Continuity and Consolidation!” And our Mrs. World Bank was, sadly, part of this army! Of course, she was neither the Commander nor the Quarter-Master nor even the Chief of Logistics of this despoiling army, but she was a Matron, a Coordinator, of sorts. So she was, besides being the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, perhaps, also Minister of Corruption and the Coordinating of the Dasuki Bazaar!
An authentic African High Chief, Field Marshal Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga told his chiefs (ministers and party Delegates in 1971: “If you steal, do not steal too much at a time: you may be arrested. Steal little by little.” With the benefit of hindsight, President Jonathan did not so advise members of his entourage. May be he did not know or read about Mobutu, the promising Congolese nationalist, who left the French Army for Journalism: that is one benefit of scholarship – reading.
Although the chiefs started their looting schemes with millions, they graduated to billions of Dollars! Today, the bubble has burst, and the veneer of innocence has been washed away. To paraphrase a poet from another country and civilization, we can say: “Things have fallen apart; the centre can no longer hold; the pretense of innocence has been washed away; even as the Dasuki-tide threatens to drown many….”
Imobo-Tswam, a public affairs analyst, writes from Abuja. He can be reached at: simonpita2008@yahoo.com

With the urgent task of resettling the more than two million refugees, mostly women and children on his mind, and at hand, the more urgent one of rebuilding damaged  infrastructure such as roads, bridges, clinics, schools as a requirement for their return to their  communities, President Buhari leaves for the Middle-East on a wee tour of three friendly countries.

Why Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar?

President Buhari is on schedule to attend the “Africa 2016: Business for Africa, Egypt and the world” from the 20th – 21st of February in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt.

The organizers say the primary objective of the Forum is to accelerate private sector engagement and investment within Africa. It is also to help develop new ties and partnerships, and to highlight the African opportunity. This meeting is seen as the African international business forum to attend for those concerned with doing serious business in Africa, “the world’s last investment frontier. Indeed, Africa 2016 will provide the platform needed for public and private sectors to network, discuss, and further advance African business.”

My interlocutors suggest that Egypt used to be one the closest countries to Nigeria on the continent. The region had been ignored by the previous government.

This visit marks the first substantive engagement between the two African giants. The President’s visit should hopefully build on the ashes of the old relationship and pave the way for transformed ties.

Why would the President not send a delegate, say a Minister to represent him?

In today’s compacted, globalist world diplomacy has become more personal. Leaders everywhere are on the move.

Just a few days ago, our President was with the British Prime Minister David Cameron who hosted a meeting on Syria.

The next day, while the three dozen or so foreign leaders he called to this meeting were still in the United Kingdom, Cameron left for Poland and thereafter, Germany.

In 2015, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited 29 countries on five continents.

Leaders are on the move because they don’t have the luxury of time in dealing with matters of importance at most of the times. A minister can meet foreign leaders on behalf of his nation, but his final answer would say, at best, “You will hear from us after I make my report.”

The President of a country is the final authority on any issue in international relations. A presidential visit is the highest track of diplomacy. Nothing can be more authoritative than hearing from the Head of State.

Equally important is the need for Nigeria to assert her relevance in global affairs.

We all recall with nostalgia the days of General Murtala Ramat Mohammed as the military Head of State.

Murtala made Nigeria to be heard and known all over the world as a no-nonsense, progressive, principled and confident nation and this paid off very well for both the citizens and the state. This remained the case until the decline set in some years after his demise.

The country has started well under President Muhammadu Buhari.

What does Nigeria seek to gain in the Middle-East?

The first thing on President Buhari’s engagement in Egypt is business, then followed by the issue of security. Terrorism is a serious issue for Egypt and it has become an urgent issue for Nigeria, to be dealt with before it gets even bigger. Egypt is perpetually a crisis state, if one can describe them as such. This has given them decades of hands-on experience dealing with extremism and terrorism. The President will talk to them on counter-terrorism.

It has become increasingly clear that the problem of terrorism is cross border and its solutions must equally be cross border. It requires cooperation with other countries.

Right now Nigeria’s priorities, and they must necessarily be so, are internal and basically, a tripod of three issues as identified by President Buhari’s election campaign: security, economy and corruption . This country needs peace and stability. Without these, there cannot be investment  and development. Although as many will argue, these priorities are domestic, it is not difficult to see that there is an external impact or impetus to be dealt with the help and support of other nations.

Egypt has equally got a relatively developed military-industrial complex.

Not long ago, President Buhari bemoaned the situation in which Nigeria bought nearly every item on its inventory list of weapons and ammunition. This is a very awkward situation, posing a real threat to the security and defence of Nigeria.

In the light of this, he has been thinking in terms of upgrading the facilities at the Defence Industries Corporation, DIC in Kaduna, to move the country in the direction of self-sufficiency in personal weapons and other basic armaments.

There is also significant room for improvement of infrastructure and trade between the two states.

Let us talk about Nigeria-Saudi Arabian relationship and hopefully, provide a context to the visit to the Kingdom. Recently, the President had a high level visit to the United Arab Emirates. The visit was a thumping success, in the course of which he covered a broad range of issues. The reconstruction of infrastructure and the resettlement of internally displaced persons in the North-East was one of the topics. Assuming all things are equal, the one big difference that the Saudis will make is that their government, less constrained by shortage of resources would unleash a massive infrastructure plan for the damaged parts of North-Eastern Nigeria. That in itself will make a significant difference to the lives of the more than two million homeless Nigerians, sixty to seventy percent of whom are women and children.

Given the large muslim population of Nigeria, warranting the second largest delegation to the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, Nigeria has had a significant but hardly beneficial relations with the Saudi Kingdom.

Beside the many Nigerians who go on pilgrimage to the country, we share a lot with them in the fact that we have our economies dominated by oil.

When they meet, President Buhari will make the Saudis see the problems of the world oil market from the point of view of Nigeria.

As Iran  begins its march back to normalcy following the lifting of economic sanctions related to its nuclear program imposed by the US, EU and the UN, the volatile world oil market has taken a turn for the worse on fear of increased supplies. This has come with severe consequences for countries like Nigeria and Venezuela. Saudi and Russian competition for the domination of the market has in part been blamed for the collapse of the World oil market.

These big producers must understand the current situation of countries like Nigeria if any action will be taken to prevent a further fall in the oil market.

Many in our diplomatic strategy section see this as a low-hanging fruit which we failed to pluck due to our own fault.

While the President is a strong believer in home-grown solutions to our domestic problems, he is not one to ignore a helping hand voluntarily offered by willing, friendly states.

He recognizes that we are a country of youth, considering that 60-65 percent of our population is formed by them.

As he  keeps saying, the joblessness of the youth is the next most volatile threat to the nation after Boko Haram. Our young people need jobs. The government is already overstretched and our private sector cannot be burdened more than necessary so we need foreign companies to come in to create the job opportunities.

In addition, the country is in need of investments in agriculture, power, solid minerals and other infrastructure. We don’t have the money to do all these in view of the fall of oil prices.

While it is a fact that a lot of countries spend enormous amounts in charitable giving, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE rise above many others. The North-East must be put on their radar.The President has been keen always to draw the attention of the world to the massive effort required to restore damaged infrastructure and resettle the two million IDPs in the North-East. It will not therefore be out of place for him to seek the help of the friendly Middle-Eastern countries.

Today, a great deal of our resources is spent on war against terrorism. If we close this chapter by ending the insurgency, needed resources will be freed for national development programs.

More than any other gain, Nigeria would hope to establish enduring agreements with the three countries to facilitate the exchange of needed intelligence on extremist movements and terrorism. This could be helpful in discovering the origin and sources of continuing inflow of resources to terrorists in the Lake Chad Basin area despite what many say is a formidable blockade around the Sambisa forest in which the terrorist are holed up.

Going to Qatar straight from Saudi Arabia would seem like a natural progression in terms of the pursuit of our national objectives in the Middle-East.

In addition to everything else, this country is reputed to be a big player in the Islamic Development Bank, IDB which should hopefully join the World Bank in voting a significant amount of money for the reconstruction of the North-East. The World Bank has already committed itself to spending USD 2.1 billion to rebuilding the region.

Qatar which made advances in the development of solar power and other renewable sources of energy may, in addition to keying into the reconstruction of the North-East also be persuaded to make investment of a serious nature in this country’s power sector.

As is usual with President Buhari, his visits abroad are not like a citizen’s vacation abroad. All his visits are according to plans taking into consideration advice from officials in the defence, foreign affairs, trade and investment departments of government.

Typically, these visits are marked by back-breaking schedules from start to finish.

In the Middle-East as in other regions he has visited, the aim is to project a respected and well-placed Nigeria; a country of good people under a good leadership  in the hope of attracting foreign investment which in turn leads to economic development and job creation which then lead to improved life-styles, security of life and property, better infrastructure and better services for the benefit of the citizens.

Garba Shehu is Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari. [myad]