Officers and men of the Rivers State Police Command have cried out over alleged non-payment of their four months salaries by the police authorities.

Findings revealed that over 500 police officers and men of the command have not received their September, October and November salaries and no reasons have been given for the nonpayment of the salaries.

A top police source who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that the development is already creating discontent among the rank and file of the Force

“It is sad that we have not been paid salaries since September this year and nobody is telling us the reasons why the salaries are been withheld,” the source said.

He added that the Rivers State Command has requested the affected officers and men to come for physical verifications and that they should present their bank statements and payslips and yet there has been no positive result.

This is believed to be rubbing off on the welfare and morale of the officers who are groaning under current economic down turn in the economy.

Meanwhile, several efforts made by our correspondent to reach the Force Police Public Relations Officer,  Bisi Kolawole, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) have failed as she would not pick calls nor respond to text messages.

However, an officer in the finance department of the Rivers State Command denied the story, claiming that there was no policeman in the command that was being owned any salary.

In a telephone chat today, the source said that the policemen could not have been planning to go on strike as no police man or officer under the command “is being owed any salary.

“ By the grace of God, we are not being owed salaries. At least I can speak for myself and my Command. It is only December Salary that is outstanding.” [myad]

The Publisher of ThisDay Newspaper, Mr. Nduka Obaigbena, has narrated how he too procured the sum of N670 Million from the embattled former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, saying the money was given to him as part of the payment was for compensation for the bombing of ThisDay offices in Abuja and Kaduna by the Boko Haram in April 2012.

Nduka, who has been invited to questioning by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), in a letter to the Commission, said that he had written a letter to the former President, Goodluck Jonathan seeking for compensation for the bombing of the company and that part of the payments was also for compensation to newspaper companies, following a crackdown on the press by the military which led to seizures and disruption of circulation of newspapers in Abuja in the wake of frequent Boko Haram attacks.

He named the newspapers as “ThisDay, Vanguard, The Sun, The Nation, New Telegraph, Daily Trust, People’s Daily, Leadership, Daily Independent, Tribune, Guardian and BusinessDay.”

Obaigbena is currently the President of the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN).

This was even as the meantime, the management of Thisday Newspapers Group has denied allegation by the EFCC that it received suspicious funds from the Office of NSA during the tenure of Sambo Dasuki, adding that all funds received from the office of the NSA “are payments for compensation to mitigate the dastardly Boko Haram twin bombings of the Thisday Newspapers offices in Abuja and Kaduna on Thursday April 26, 2012.”

In its response to a letter of invitation from the EFCC dated 8th November 2015, which was received in its Abuja office on the 8th of December 2015, the management of Thisday Newspapers Group said that during the attack, “four innocent Nigerian lives were lost. Our buildings were destroyed and we lost full colour Goss printing towers and three (3) pre-press Computer-to-Plate and anxiliary equipment and other (in) valuable property valued at over N2.5 billion.”

The response letter to the EFCC invitation signed by Nduka Obaigbena, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Thisday Newspapers Group and dated December 9, 2015, said that N150,000,000 + N150,000,000 and N250,000,000 respectively were received in August, November and February 2014 as compensation to mitigate the dastardly Boko Haram twin bombings of its offices as approved by the Federal Government.

Obaigbena who is currently in the United States of America said in the letter to the Executive Chairman of the EFCC that the N100,000,000 and N20,000,000 received in March 2015 was for The Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) and 12 newspapers “who demanded compensation for the brutal and unlawful seizure of newspapers and stoppage of circulation by armed soldiers in Abuja and several cities. As President of the NPAN, it was my duty to lead media leaders to hold discussions with President Goodluck Jonathan to avert a class action lawsuit against the Armed Forces and the Federal Government of Nigeria.”

“On both occasions, President Jonathan said he did not wish to lay precedence and in our case, he specifically said there were many victims of Boko Haram. I had to confront President Jonathan on the issue when I learnt of approvals for the reconstruction of the Abuja United Nations Building, since we were the second major organisation to be attacked by Boko Haram after the UN attack. He therefore directed me to meet the National Security Adviser who processed the 3 payments in question.

“Please find attached a copy of our letter to President Jonathan as well as correspondence with the then NSA on the Newspapers’ payment. I will make my way to Nigeria to meet with you should you require further information.” [myad]

The Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai has posed a question to media men and women in Nigeria, asking: would you join President Muhammadu Buhari in his present battle with corrupt people or join the corrupt ones who would always fight back?

The governor made it clear that if the press people decided to join the President to battle the corrupt one, Nigeria would subsequently get out of the socio-economic morass into which such corrupt people have thrown it.

El-Rufai, who declared open today, a three-day retreat in Kaduna, for State House Press Corps (SPHC), made up of senior journalists, editors and online publishers stressed that one of the consequences of media joining the corrupt people to fight the government back would be the mortgaging of the future of the country.

“It is really up to you to make the change succeed. You are the tool to fight back corruption and you have to chosen to either support or resist the fight against corruption.”

The governor who described the recent revelations and the ongoing investigations as more of stranger than fiction, expressed confidence that Nigerian media people who have been in the forefront towards the coming of Change would not now abandon the content of such change.

Governor El-Rufai lamented the rot and decay that had characterized previous regimes, adding: “the responsibilities that have been thrusted in the hands of President Buhari is immense. Our party and our president will do their best to pick up the pieces and restore the economy and make life better for Nigerians.”

He congratulated members of the State House Press Corps for choosing the theme: Journalism And The Change Mantra State House In Focus,” saying that the theme demonstrated the readiness of the State House Press Corp to be on the part of change being demonstrated by President Buhari.

The Chairman of the Press Corps, Mr. Kehinde Amodu thanked both governor El.Rufai and Garba Shehu for encouraging journalists covering the Presidency to go out and improve their perception of the workings of the Presidency and their impact on Nigeria.

He promised that the knowledge so acquired would be put to use for the benefit of the development of country. [myad]

President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed pain over the way a few Nigerian leaders amassed wealth which their generation and future generations of their families cannot spend in their lifetime, even as millions wallow in abject poverty.

The President, who spoke today at the Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe Foundation Lecture in Abuja said that the nation’s commonwealth had at one time or the other been entrusted to leaders and at different levels of governance, and that instead of using the God given resources to better the lot of the citizens, they diverted them to private use.

“They then amass wealth in billions and trillions of naira, and other major currencies of the world, ill gotten wealth which they cannot finish spending in several lifetimes over. This is abuse of trust, pure and simple. When you hold public office, you do it in trust for the people. When you, therefore, use it to serve self, you have betrayed the people who entrusted that office to you.”

Here is the full text of President Buhari’s lecture:

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I want to begin by appreciating the Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe Foundation for its impact on the development of ideas through its annual lecture series. The fact that the themes of the lecture series have focused on critical puzzles bordering on human development lends credence and justification for the sustenance of the lecture series.

It is no doubt that an event like this demands a lot of sacrifice financially and otherwise. Apart from the contribution of the lecture series to human development, it has also unveiled the genius personality of Emmanuel Onyechere Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe, whose philosophical insight is gradually finding place in the psyche of academics globally, particularly at a time when Africans are determined to rewrite their own history.

The topic of discourse at this session, which is corruption, significantly ties into my vision for our great country, Nigeria, that we must kill corruption before corruption will kill us. My being here to deliver the keynote address at today’s session is instructive on the resolve of this government to interface with initiatives that are fundamentally patriotic and assisting in our path to socio-economic and political recovery.

In the last general elections, in the midst of a number of issues upon which we campaigned as a party, the one that gained higher currency in the psyche of our people was that Nigerians needed leadership that could be relied upon to tackle the orgy of corruption in the country.

While our programme of action identified corruption as a very dangerous challenge that must be curtailed if our country could ever generate a future of hope, the issues of collapsing educational system, diversification of our economy, fostering a welfare based agenda for the disadvantaged,  infrastructural development, among others, were also very prominent in our campaign focus.

The primary attention that tackling corruption earned in the course of our campaign and in determining the final outcome of the election underpins how seriously Nigerians see corruption as a fundamental factor crippling the progress and development of the country. Nigerians are, indeed, convinced that except we curtail corruption, the country will remain in perennial regression.

It is upon this conviction of our people that corruption poses great danger and should be curtailed that we anchor our hope. It underpins our assurance that the efforts of this government in checking corruption will yield significant successes in the final outcome.

In other words, we note that sheer heroism cannot achieve the elimination of corruption from our social space. What is most required is the conviction of the populace that corruption is an antithesis to social cohesion and development, and must be eliminated. We must get to a point where every Nigerian begins to hate corruption with a passion, and collectively determine to root it out of our body polity.

Any effort to try to deal with corruption without a convinced populace will end as spasmodic, ephemeral exercise, lacking the appropriate social impact. When we are talking about corruption conventionally, it is a manifestation of the human mindset. It is the human beings that manifest corruption.

To win the war on corruption, therefore, begins with the people accepting that there is an error to be corrected in their lives, that there is a need to refocus and re-orientate the values that we cherish and hold dear. It requires change of mindset, change of attitude, and change of conduct.

The decision of the Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe Foundation to choose corruption as the topic of discourse at this session is, therefore, encouraging to this government, pursuant to our vision that winning the war against corruption requires our synergy, a collectivisation of our resolve that corruption must be eliminated in the social psyche of the Nigerian nation.

Even in my earlier years in service to our country, I had personally identified the destructive impact of corruption. Taken from the narrow perspective of the embezzlement of public funds, its social consequence of gross economic inequality alters the basis for social peace and security.

When given the opportunity to play a leading role in our national history in 1984, we acknowledged that corruption is not just about the embezzlement of public funds but that the perversion of our consciousness and mindset was the point at stake. This was the basis of our WAR AGAINST INDISCIPLINE (WAI) – Indiscipline in any way and manner is a form of corruption of the human essence. That was why we waged campaigns against indiscipline, and its many manifestations in the 1980’s during my tenure as Head of State of our great Nation.

Sadly in this season, we find ourselves in a Nigeria where indiscipline has been taken to an unprecedented level. The rule of law is grossly perverted, and corruption has been elevated to a way of life at all strata of the society. In striving to reorder our country and put it on the path of recovery, we have thus identified the need to tackle corruption head-on. In this regard, we have taken steps towards recovering a reasonable amount of the money that was looted or misappropriated from public coffers. Investigations are ongoing on public officers who served, or are still serving, and those whose conduct are questionable will be compelled to accept the path of honour and surrender their loots.

As I stated recently, a good number of people who abused their positions are voluntarily returning the illicit funds. I have heard it said that we should disclose the names of the people, and the amount returned. Yes, in due course, the Central Bank of Nigeria will make information available to the public on the surrendered funds, but I must remark that it is yet early days, and any disclosure now may jeopardize the possibility of bigger recoveries. But we owe Nigerians adequate information, and it shall come in due course. It is part of the collective effort to change our land from the bastion of corruption it currently is, to a place of probity and transparency.

Quite frankly, the anti-corruption war is not strictly about me as a person, it is about building a country where our children, and the forthcoming generations, can live in peace and prosperity.  When you see dilapidated infrastructure round the country, it is often the consequence of corruption.  Poor healthcare, collapsed education, lack of public utilities, decayed social services, are all products of corruption, as those entrusted with public resources put them in their private pockets. That must stop, if we want a new Nigeria.  And that was why I said at another forum that people need not fear me, but they must fear the consequences of their actions. Corrupt acts will always be punished, and there will be no friend, no foe.  We will strive to do what is fair and just at all times, but people who refuse to embrace probity should have every cause to fear.

Look at the corruption problem in the country, and tell me how you feel as a Nigerian. Our commonwealth is entrusted to leaders at different levels of governance, and instead of using the God given resources to better the lot of the citizens, they divert them to private use. They then amass wealth in billions and trillions of naira, and other major currencies of the world, ill gotten wealth which they cannot finish spending in several lifetimes over. This is abuse of trust, pure and simple. When you hold public office, you do it in trust for the people. When you, therefore, use it to serve self, you have betrayed the people who entrusted that office to you.

Again, how do you feel year after year, when Transparency International (TI) releases its Corruption Perception Index, and Nigeria is cast in the role of a superstar on corruption? In 2011, out of 183 countries, Nigeria was 143 on the corruption ladder. In 2012, we were 139th out of 176. In 2013, we ranked 144 out of 177, and in 2014, we stood at 136th out of 174. Hardly a record to inspire anyone. In fact, it is sad, depressing and distressing. Our country can be known for better things other than corruption.

In the process of trying to recover stolen funds now, we are seeking the cooperation of the countries were these loots were taken.  Time it was,  when such nations may have overlooked our overtures for assistance to fight corruption. However, we now live in an era where corruption is anathema, looked upon as something that should be tackled head-on because the actions of the corrupt can have global impact.

It is to be noted that resolving the problem of corruption transcends merely arresting and trying people that have held public office. This is because, to curtail corruption, we have to reorder the mindset of all. Empirical facts have shown that even those who are critics today are most times not better than those they criticize. When they are availed the same or similar opportunities, they act likewise. In other words, those who didn’t have the opportunity criticise and blow whistle but when they get into office; they become victims of the same thing they criticize. Nigeria must grow beyond that point, and be populated by people with conviction, a new breed without greed, radically opposed to corruption.

This points to the fact that curtailing corruption might require a more broadened social engineering. It, indeed, requires conforming every mindset in the social order to the moral tenets in which propriety anchors as a way of life.

That was why in the earlier dispensation, we saw corruption beyond the embezzlement of public funds. We knew that a morally upright personality, a disciplined person, will not embezzle people’s money or betray the confidence reposed in him after being elected or appointed to manage any office.

We knew that due to the perversion of our mindsets, people would rather abandon pedestrian bridges and flyovers and run through the traffic in very busy highways. We understood the economic and social worth of every Nigerian and the need to preserve their lives; we tried to enforce compliance with commuters using the pedestrian bridges provided for their safety. We even went as far as enforcing the discipline of queuing to board buses and not the chaos of scrambling with its attendant dangers. The people saw where we were headed, and cooperated with us.

That effort of the past was under a military regime, a dictatorship as it is classified. Now we are under a democracy. The democratic system has its benefit in the rule of law and the fact that a man cannot be assumed guilty until it is so determined by the court of law.

With the rule of law and its advantages, the same could however pose as serious limitations to curtailing corruption when the legal system is not adequately reinforced. The onus, therefore, is on those who run our legal process to ensure that the corrupt does not go free through exploiting the weakness and lacuna in the system.

I agree with Anyiam-Osigwe that corruption is an attitude and it is about the wrong attitude. The problem with tackling corruption is that when people have become used to a particular way of doing things, even if it is not the proper way, they find it difficult to change.

We all know that to lie is not good. But we have a sense of justification each time we tell lies. This sense of justification encourages us always to do the wrong thing. It is in this context that the mindset becomes an issue. There is the need to bring back our minds to the pure state of the human identity.

While changing the mindset of the people is integral to dealing with the manifestation of corruption socially, it is also important to heal the wounds inflicted by the corruptive indulgence of specific people who have been entrusted with public positions or funds.

Thus, it is the responsibility of government to investigate reported cases of corruption. In the process, suspected culprits could be arrested, detained or questioned. All these efforts would eventually end up with prosecuting the case in court. A government that closes its eyes to brazen corruption loses its essence, the very reason of its existence.  Such a government is sheer flippancy, a waste of time, moral and sociological absurdity.

In Nigeria, it needs be said that two problems stare us in the face. First is that our laws need to be strengthened if we must realistically contend with the miasma of corruption. The second is that we must correct the gaps in our legal system that are exploited to frustrate the process of justice. A number of anti-corruption cases have been rendered inconclusive due to legal limitations.

Dealing with corruption, requires the collective will of every Nigerian. Without our collective will to resist corrupt acts as a people, it will be difficult to win the war.  We in the leadership will provide the right example. We will not pay mere lip service to corruption.  We will eschew it in every aspect of our lives. However, we are but few, in a country of more than 170 million people. We need the mass army of Nigerians to rise as one man, and stand for probity in both public and private lives. It is only then that we can be sure of dealing a mortal blow on corruption, which will engender a better country.

Nigeria has been brought almost to her knees by decades of corruption and mismanagement of the public treasury.  We must come to a point when we all collectively say Enough!  That is collective will, and that is what will bring us to a new state and status.  If this country will realize her potentials, and take her rightful place in the comity of nations, we must collectively repudiate corruption, and fight it to a standstill.  It remains eternally true: if we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria.

I thank you for listening. [myad]

Over 100 Senior Journalists, editors and publishers covering the Presidency, under the aegis of State House Press Corps (SHPC), today, began a three-day retreat in Kaduna with change mantra as focus.

The retreat, which is being sponsored and hosted by the Kaduna state governor, Malam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, is being held at Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation, on race course road, Kaduna.

The occasion was declared opened by the governor, even as the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on media and publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, who is the Chief Convener of the retreat spoke on the essence of the retreat.

Garba Shehu admitted that members of the State House Press Corps were the best in Africa in terms of knowledge of what they are supposed to do, but that such was not an excuse not to continue to improve.

The Presidential spokesman, who commended the Press Corps, also cautioned them against the hysteria that is now pervading media industry, where each media is sacrificing accuracy of it reports for haste.

“Accuracy in journalism is essencial. Accuracy must come ahead of speed. If you are not sure, hold fire. Myself and Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to the President on media and publicity, have made ourselves available to the press, I dare say, more than many people who previously occupied similar positions in the past. You have our phone numbers, our email addresses; you are free to stop us whenever you see us outside…and so any information can be easily verified by first contacting us.”

Garba Shehu expressed President Muhammadu Buhari’s appreciation of the role they played in igniting the Change agenda that has swept into Nigeria in March 2015, but that the President has begun the Change agenda with the recent happenings.

“This government still requires the assistance of the media to continue that process of Change. The President needs the press to remain impartial and eschew spurious incentives when reporting and carrying out your responsibilities.”

Editor of the Guardian newspaper, Mr. Martins Oloja is expected to deliver a lecture on ‘Balancing State House Reporting with National Interest.”

A senior editor in the AIT, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi and the United State of America’s Counselor for Public Affairs in Nigeria, Victoria Sloan would also deliver lectures on various topics against the background of the theme: ‘Journalism And The Change Mantra, State House In Focus.’ [myad]