The Senate has passed a Bill repealing the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) CAP B3 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 and replacing it with the one of the 2020 as Amended.
The passage of the Bill today, July 22, was made after a clause by clause consideration by the Senate at its Plenary, and after the public hearing by the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions.
The opinions of stakeholders in the industry, such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Federal Ministry of Finance, Body of Bank CEOs and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Company (NDIC) were part of the consideration for the Bill.
Others which made appearances at the hearing were the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Financial Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN), the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance & Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI) and the National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees (NUBIFE).
In addition to strengthening the Nigerian financial system, the Bill, which was sponsored by Senator Uba Sani (Kaduna Central) and co-sponsored by Senator Betty Jocelyn Apiafi (Rivers West), seeks to regulate banking and businesses of other financial institutions by prohibiting the carrying on of such businesses in Nigeria except under licence and by a company incorporated in Nigeria.
The Bill also made adequate provisions for proper licensing, supervision and revocation of licenses of such institutions by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
However, for the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) CAP B3 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 (Amendment) Bill, 2020, passed by the Senate to become Law, it has to be similarly passed by the House of Representatives; after which the Reports will be harmonised and forwarded to the President for assent.
It will be recalled that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in its presentation at the public hearing pushed for a review of the framework for managing failing institutions, a restriction remedy for successful action against revocation of licenses in line with international standards and the creation of a Credit Tribunal.
The CBN, which was largely backed by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) and other stakeholders, also made a case for enhancement of regulatory measures for single obligor limits, transfer of significant holdings and the strengthening of the sanctions regime to make it more deterrent.
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja and presided over by Justice A. I. Chikere has ordered a business man, Hima Abubakar to forfeit five houses he acquired through means considered to be inappropriate to the Federal Government.
The business man along with his company, Hima Aboubakar and Societe D’ Equipment International Nigeria Limited, will also forfeit a total sum of N46, 060, 373.84.
Abubakar and his firm, Societe D’ Equipment International Nigeria Limited, were dragged before the Federal High Court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on account of assets and properties acquired with suspected proceeds of unlawful activities.
In an application for the final forfeiture of the assets filed by EFCC counsels, Abba Muhammed and M. A Lamin, in Suit No: FHC/ ABJ/ CS/ 507/ 2020, prayed that the assets be forfeited to the government.
Justice Chikere, after reviewing the requirements for the forfeiture, said: “the applicant has satisfied the condition for grant of reliefs sought and accordingly the reliefs sought are granted as prayed.”
He subsequently ordered the forfeiture of the properties and money to the government.
The five properties forfeited include: House Number 6, Ethiopia Close, Off Owena close, Maitama Abuja; Plot 3515, Cadastral Zone A06 Maitama District, Abuja; Plot 3516, Cadastral Zone A06 Maitama District, Abuja; Plot 3518, Cadastral Zone A06 Maitama District, Abuja and Plot 3519, Cadastral Zone A06 Maitama District, Abuja. Also, a total sum of N46 million found in the bank accounts of Mr Aboubakar and his firm, were also forfeited to the government.
The breakdown of the money include N1, 143, 314.50, found in the Zenith Bank Account Number 1013860768 of Societe D’ Equipment International Nigeria Limited (SEINL) and the sum of $66, 417.60 found in the Zenith Bank Account Number 5070345440 of SEINL. Others are: N5, 802, 925.03 in Aboubakar’s Zenith Bank Account Number: 1004540143, €15, 288.08 in Zenith Bank Account Number: 5080095319 and $17, 607.75 in his Zenith Bank Account Number: 5070410935. The sum of N 304,864,81 in Aboubakar’s First Bank Account Number: 3083229135 was also forfeited to the government.
Aboubakar’s troubles started when he was declared wanted by the EFCC in a case of criminal conspiracy, contract scam, misappropriation of public funds, money laundering and fraud to the tune of $394 million, €9.9 million and N369 million.
He allegedly received the funds for the purchase of equipment for the Nigerian military but investigations revealed discrepancies in the supply of the equipment.
President Muhammadu Buhari, for the first time since coronavirus arrived, will fly out of the country tomorrow, July 23, heading to Bamako, Republic of Mali on a one-day visit.
His trip is backgrounded on the briefing by the ECOWAS Special Envoy to the country, former President Goodluck Jonathan.
A statement today, July 22, by the special adviser to the President on media and publicity, Femi Adesina said that President Buhari and some ECOWAS leaders, led by the Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the sub-regional organisation, President Issoufou Mahamadou of Niger Republic, had agreed to meet in Mali to engage in further consultations towards finding a political solution to the crisis in the country.
The statement said that the host President, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Presidents Machy Sall of Senegal, Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana and Alassane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire are expected to participate in the Bamako meeting.
It recalled that former President Jonathan was at the State House in company of President of ECOWAS Commission,Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, on Tuesday to brief President Buhari on the unfolding situation in Mali, necessitating the visit of ECOWAS leaders to consolidate on the agreements reached by various parties.
“We will ask the President of Niger, who is the Chairman of ECOWAS to brief us as a group, and we will then know the way forward,” the statement quoted President Buhari as saying.
He thanked Dr Jonathan for his comprehensive brief on the situation in Mali, “which you had been abreast with since when you were the sitting Nigerian President.”
The former President had filled in President Buhari on his activities as Special Envoy to restore amity to Mali, rocked by protests against President Keita, who has spent two out of the five years second term in office.
A resistance group, M5, is insisting that the Constitutional Court must be dissolved, and the President resign, before peace can return to the country.
Crisis had erupted after the court nullified results of 31 parliamentary seats in the polls held recently, awarding victory to some other contenders, which the resistance group said was at the instigation of President Keita.
Riots on July 10 had led to the killing of some protesters by security agents, causing the crisis to spiral out of control, hence the intervention by ECOWAS.
The Nigeria Customs Service Board (NCSB) has confirmed the promotion of 2,634 officers, including the former customs spokesperson and current Vice President of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR). Adewale Adeniyi.
Adeniyi was promoted to the rank of Assistant Controller General. He is currently Commandant, Nigerian Customs Command and Staff College , Gwagwalada.
A statement by the current customs Spokesperson, Joseph Attah reads:
Nigeria Customs Service Board (NCSB) at its 52nd Regular meeting approved the appointment of Five Assistant Comptrollers General of Customs, promotion of 2,634 Officers, dismissal of One ACG and compulsory retirement of another ACG. Hon. Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning and Chairman, NCS Board, Hajiya Zainab Ahmed who presided over the meeting said decisions taken during the meeting were meant to ginger and move the Service forward in-terms of manpower and operations.
The new Assistant Comptrollers General of Customs are: ACG, Mohammed Boyi – Training and Coordination ACG, Adewale Adeniyi – Commandant C&SC Gwagwalada ACG, Jack Ajoku – Strategic Research and Policy ACG, Olakunle Oyeleke – Doctrine, Development and Administration ACG, Emmanuel Edorhe – Zonal Coordinator, Zone ‘C’. Breakdown of the 2,634 Officers whose promotion have 1st January 2019 as effective date is as follows:
Deputy Comptrollers to Comptrollers of Customs = 37
Assistant Comptrollers of Customs to Deputy Comptrollers = 110
Chief Superintendent of Customs to Assistant Comptrollers = 138
Superintendent of Customs to Chief Superintendent of Customs = 93
Deputy Superintendent of Customs to Superintendent of Customs = 93
Assistant Superintendent of Customs I to Deputy Superintendent of Customs = 1224
Assistant Superintendent of Customs II to Assistant Superintendent of Customs I = 475
Inspector of Customs to Assistant Superintendent of Customs II = 464
205 out of the 2,634 are Support Staff who also enjoyed promotion to various ranks.
In-line with the reform agenda, the Board took some disciplinary actions against two Senior Officers. ACG Aminu Dahiru was dismissed for act of serious misconduct while ACG Bashir Abubakar was compulsorily retired for act of negligence.
The Hon. Minister described the NCS as “Making Progress” and expressed the hope that the coming of the e-Customs will help improve NCS operations
For the first time in the history of Nigeria, The Federal Government, for the first time in the history of Nigeria, has approved the establishment of the Nigerian Youth Investment Fund (NYIF) to the tune of N75 billion.
This fund, according to the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, is meant to create a special window for accessing credit facilities and financing for the youths that will help to fund their ideas, innovations and also support their enterprise.
Speaking to newsmen today, July 22 at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the presidential villa, Abuja, the Minister, said that for the first time, the country will have a youth bank.
He said that it is a fund that will cater specifically for the youth within the stipulated age band, “which is going to be between 18 and 35 years.
“The second approval that was secured was for the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development to play a leading role in working on necessary steps that need to be taken in terms of legislation, organisation and other aspects of financing.
“The Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning will take the lead when it comes to the aspect of financing, working with the CBN, the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development and other relevant MDAs.
“A couple of other details will be released later, but I think the most important thing is that the N75 billion Nigerian Youth Investment Fund, to cater specifically for this target group, a population of over 68 million.”
Sunday Dare said that the fund will be accessed by the youths, saying: “once they are able to present their ideas, they can access this fund directly.”
The suspended acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Ibrahim Magu has named a number of institutions and government agencies that benefitted from the recovered loots. This is contained in a letter titled: “Re: Alleged Case of Conspiracy, Enrichment, Abuse of Public Office and Other Infractions,” which his lawyer attempted to submit to the Justice Ayo Salami-led presidential panel investigating him. The letter was in response to an earlier report by the Presidential Committee on Audit of Recovered Assets in which Magu was accused of being unable to account for the interest accrued to N550 billion recovered funds as well as recovered vehicles and houses. Magu said in the letter that some of the agencies which received the vehicles on auction had not paid for them and that there was an arrangement that the money would be deducted from their financial allocations. According to him, some of those recovered by the EFCC were auctioned to the Presidential Villa, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development as well as the Federal Inland Revenue Services and other agencies. “The commission presently has presidential approval to dispose over 450 forfeited vehicles located in Lagos and Abuja. The vehicles have been valued by the National Automotive Council Valuers and the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing. But no sale/disposal has been conducted yet.” Magu said that some houses permanently forfeited to the Federal Government by looters have also been handed over to some government agencies like the Voice of Nigeria, North -East Development Commission and the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate. It was gathered that the panel insisted it would not accept the letter which Magu’s lawyer, Wahab Shittu attempted to submit on Monday. “An attempt to submit the letter to the secretary of the panel on Monday failed. Magu’s team was informed that the panel does not entertain letters but it is purely an investigative one. If there is a need for clarification, Magu would be invited,” a source was quoted saying. Magu was arrested by the police on July 6, detained for about 10 days and made to appear before the investigative panel on a daily basis. Source: The Punch.
Every now and then, an important item in the news tends to remind me of something. Get Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said last Tuesday that this country should try new tactics in the fight against corruption, he reminded me of Nasiru Imam, Deputy Managing Editor of Daily Trust and long-time secretary of its Editorial Board.
Some years ago, the editorial board was discussing the problem of teachers’ salaries, which were in arrears in many states. One member said the system of paying teachers through State Basic Education Commissions [SBECs] is failing. Another member however said funds for paying teachers’ salaries were once paid directly to local governments. The system was ended because many LGAs diverted them. Yet another member pointed out that in the 1980s-early 1990s, Babangida regime centralized the payment of teachers’ salaries in the National Primary Education Commission [NPEC] but that arrangement also ran into problems. Nasiru Imam dropped his pen, sighed and said, “Every method has been tried. Nothing worked.”
Osinbajo spoke at an Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission [ICPC] regional webinar on “Combatting Corruption and Illicit Financial Flows: New Measures and Strategies.” He said we must democratize the fight against corruption and protect whistle blowers. Very good. He is looking for another method to fight corruption. In the last 60 years in Nigeria, which tactic have we not tried in fighting corruption?
We have overthrown governments because of corruption. Those who overthrew the First Republic in January 1966; those who overthrew the Gowon regime in 1975; those who killed General Murtala Mohammed in 1976; those who overthrew the Second Republic in 1983 as well as those who voted out the Jonathan Administration in 2015 all alleged that it was due to corruption. We later realized that Sardauna, Balewa, Gowon, Murtala and Shagari had no money.
We tried affidavits. In 1974, Godwin Daboh filed an affidavit against Federal Commissioner for Communications Joseph Tarka while Aper Aku filed another affidavit in court against Benue Plateau State Military Governor, Police Commissioner Joseph Gomwalk, both alleging corruption. We tried a purge. In 1975-76 Murtala purged thousands of public servants in all sectors. He used the harshest words and the sternest language including summary dismissal, dead woods, with ignominy, with immediate effect, betrayed the ethics of their professions, and they should be ashamed of themselves.
We tried Public Complaints Commission, which Murtala formed in 1976 with the hyper-active Yusuf Maitama Sule as its first Federal Commissioner. When that did not work, we tried exhortation. In 1977 Head of State General Obasanjo went to Jaji and made the Jaji Declaration, that Nigeria must create a society that is fair, just, humane and African. It failed.
In 1981 President Shehu Shagari tried an Ethical Revolution. It hardly got off the ground so in 1983, he created an Egypt-style Ministry of National Guidance with Yusuf Maitama Sule as the minister. It made no impact either, so in 1984-85 we tried a War Against Indiscipline, WAI. Buhari/Idiagbon regime launched it in five brutal phases, complete with a WAI Brigade that became notorious for its excesses.
General Buhari also signed the Recovery of Public Property [Special Military Tribunals] Decree no 3 of 1984. The Special Military Investigation Panels turned the doctrine of justice on its head. They said based on a former public office holder’s declaration of assets, he was presumed guilty until he could prove his innocence. Though who couldn’t do so were turned over to Special Military Tribunals, which jailed dozens of former governors, ministers and other top officials, some for up to 300 years. Many governors were jailed for donating public funds to their political parties.
We tried court cases. Gani Fawehinmi filed an innumerable number of suits to challenge every suspected corrupt act by the Babangida regime, including Mrs. Babangida’s pet Better Life for Rural Women. We tried Failed Banks Tribunals. General Sani Abacha created them with much fanfare. They jailed many bankers and bank debtors, even though Abacha himself nearly bankrupted the Central Bank.
Under General Abdulsalami Abubakar, we began efforts to retrieve looted assets. Recovering the Abacha loot has been on for 22 years now. In 1999, President Obasanjo promised in his inaugural address to fight corruption. Five years later he created EFCC and ICPC. Later, EFCC created NFIU, which is now an independent body. We even tried an Anti-corruption Advisory, which EFCC issued just before the 2007 elections.
We tried a Freedom of Information Act but unlike in America, government agencies here routinely ignore FOI requests. Obasanjo also did a Servicom, with units in every ministry and agency but that did not dent corruption. A lot of human rights and anti-corruption NGOs also sprang up in Nigeria, mostly populated by left-wingers who were left ideologically stranded by the East Bloc’s collapse in 1989.
We tried Code of Conduct Bureau for public officers but since their assets declaration is kept secret, the Code of Conduct Tribunal that tries violators has very little work to do. We tried parliamentary Public Accounts Committees. They were very powerful in the First Republic but these days they have no audit reports to work on, since most government agencies never audit their accounts. We tried preaching; Muslim imams and Christian pastors have shouted themselves hoarse from the pulpits against corruption, to no avail. Sometimes they practice if you cant beat them, join them.
Newspaper editors, reporters and columnists also did what they can in the war against corruption. Nearly every day in the last 50 years, exposes of corrupt deeds were the lead stories in many Nigerian newspapers. No one can count the feature articles, opinion columns and editorials written against corruption. In recent years the social media joined in the fight, not always appropriately.
Nigeria Police too did its best, arrested and charged to court thousands of people for acts of corruption, even if they were less than one-tenth of the culprits. Ditto for the courts; they have jailed thousands of people for corruption in the last 60 years, after ponderous trials and appeals, but let many thieves off the hook. In 2007 President Umaru Yar’adua tried adherence to rule of law as an anti-corruption strategy. That did not work either. President Jonathan’s biggest contribution to the anti-corruption war was to make a distinction between ordinary stealing and corruption, which he later said he heard from the Chief Justice.
We tried whistleblowing but the blowers were left unpaid. In the last 10 years, we deployed technological tools including BVN, TSA and EFCC’s Eagleclaw against corruption. They made a dent, but not all that much. President Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign, launched in 2015, at first held the highest promise but it had no blueprint and totally relied on EFCC. It recently came crashing down in flames.
Even the force of personal example did not help. You can’t have a simpler national leader than Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. That iconic 1965 photo of him, on leave in Bauchi, taken by a white journalist, sitting on a local mat, his two children around him, eating sugar cane, no sign of security guards or limos, no mansion behind him, no exquisite furniture, no Persian rugs, no contract files in sight and no fawning aides nearby. Yet he was killed by totally misguided soldiers for alleged corruption.
Sardauna Ahmadu Bello, after being overwhelming Premier of the North for 12 years, governing 20 of today’s 37 states including FCT, had only one personal car, a Pontiac, when he was killed in the January 1966 coup. When I interviewed his personal driver Nuhu Direba in Sokoto in January 1991, he told me that two days after the coup, he evacuated Sardauna’s family to Sokoto in that lone car. It was too small to accommodate their bags so Sardauna’s Principal Private Secretary Hassan Lemu went and borrowed another car. The family left for Sokoto in that two-vehicle convoy.
Sardauna had no house in Kaduna that his family could repair to. Even though under his rule, Ministry of Lands carved out hundreds of GRA plots and allocated them to senior civil servants and merchants, Sardauna got none. In Sokoto too, he had only one modest house even though before he became Premier in 1954, he was the Northern Region Minister of Works, Community Development and Local Governments, in charge of all Emirs, Chiefs and Native Authorities. Before that, he was Councillor in charge of Sokoto NA’s Central Office, i.e. SSG of today’s Sokoto and Zamfara states combined. Which personal example again is anyone talking about?
I wish Prof Osinbajo luck in his search for a new tactic. I can’t think of any that has not been tried already.
PRESIDENT BUHARI RECEIVES ECOWAS DELEGATION TO MAIL LED BY PRESI JONATHAN. 5A&B. The President Muhammadu Buhari receives Former President and Leader ECOWAS Delegation to Mali Political crisis Dr Goodluck Jonathan on their delegation Mission to Mali held at the State House Abuja. PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE. JULY 21 2020 PRESIDENT BUHARI RECEIVES ECOWAS SPECIAL ENVOY TO MAIL LED BY PRESI JONATHAN. 3 President Muhammadu Buhari, ECOWAS Special Envoy to Mali and former Dr Goodluck Jonathan and President of ECOWAS Commission, H.E Jean-Claude Kassi Brou held at the State House Abuja. PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE. JULY 21 2020 PRESIDENT BUHARI RECEIVES ECOWAS SPECIAL ENVOY TO MAIL LED BY PRESI JONATHAN. 2A President Muhammadu Buhari receives ECOWAS Special Envoy to Mali and former Dr Goodluck Jonathan and the ECOWAS delegation held at the State House Abuja. PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE. JULY 21 2020 PRESIDENT BUHARI RECEIVES ECOWAS SPECIAL ENVOY TO MAIL LED BY PRESI JONATHAN. 0A. President Muhammadu Buhari receives ECOWAS Special Envoy to Mali and former President Dr Goodluck Jonathan and the ECOWAS delegation held at the State House Abuja. PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE. JULY 21 2020
The presidency has accused the publisher of SaharaReporters, Omoyele Sowore of telling lies against late Malam Isma’ila Isa Funtua who died yesterday over his role in his arrest and detention by the Department of State Security (DSS) recently.
In a statement today, July 21, senior special assistant to the President on media and publicity, Malam Garba Shehu said that late Isa Funtua on his own, called him (Garba Shehu) to ask that he broker a meeting with him and two others with the SSS, which they agreed to.
“First, it is important to state that the meeting was not instructed by the government. Nobody sent anybody to go and “negotiate” Sowore’s freedom as he put it.
“It is important that I state that it was the force of Malam Isma’ila’s argument that made the meeting possible. “Vanguard Newspapers publisher, Sam Amuka and ThisDay Publisher and President, Nigerian Press Organisation, Nduka Obaigbena, all agreed that Sowore was a “rascal”, who had used his newspaper “to abuse all of us,” but agreed, nonetheless to go and press for his release.
“As the late Isma’ila put it, although he (Sowore) got into his problems due to politics, not journalism, the fact of him being a publisher imposed a duty on the media leaders to seek ways of making free.”
Garba Shehu said that the meeting ended well, and that contrary to the posturing by Sowore, he said he was happy with a resolution proposed but that his lawyer needed to come on board.
“The fence mending process, apparently collapsed after the the meeting of the trio with the lawyer in Lagos.
“I don’t know what Sowore wants to achieve by distorting the facts of what transpired, but my advice to him is that he should stop his attacks on a dead, well-meaning intercessor.
“Knowing the way the secret service works, it should surprise no one if they keep a recording of that meeting. “Faced with this posturing and the unfair attacks on the dead, we certainly will be forced to ask for the release of tapes, in case they are available for the public to judge.”
It is a show of shame isn’t it, what is going on at the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC)?
Established in the year 2000 to assuage the fears of the people of the Niger Delta and address their concerns about the lack of infrastructural development in the region, despite the region’s contributions to the sustenance of Nigeria, it is sad to see how like all good initiatives gone bad in Nigeria, this interventionist agency has become, or has been exposed as a festering sore upon the wound of the Niger Delta. From personality clashes to sordid tales of mismanagement of funds, contractors that collect mobilization fees and simply take a walk, politicians in the National Assembly feeding fat on Niger Delta resources, and reports of terrifying wasteful expenditure and the conversion of every event or situation: graduation ceremonies and even COVID-19 into an opportunity to empty the people’s till, the stench from the NDDC stinks to the heavens. In the past week, we have been treated to the kind of melodrama an artist may never have imagined, complete with the stuff of a fainting fit, a failed romantic attempt, a woman scorned, and hell breaking loose and a once self-styled uncommon Governor as the deutragonist.
It is this latter part of the plot that has excited, amused and fascinated Nigerians. The protagonist is Joi Nunieh, the former Acting Managing Director of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NDDC (October. 2019- February 2020) who left the commission rather abruptly due to a yet unproven allegation around and about her NYSC certificate and so-called “insubordination”. In the course of a forensic audit of the agency ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari, it is noteworthy that all the hidden corpses in the NDDC especially within the last one year began to show up, and some of those ghosts emerged in the form of financial sleaze and broken alliances and failed relationships. The supervising Minister of the Commission, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, a once powerful PDP chieftain, turned an APC floor member, went on television to offer his perspective on what transpired at the NDDC (he must be regretting doing so); rather than address the issues, he launched an attack on Joi Nunieh, who worked briefly as Acting Chairman of the NDDC.
He complained about how the lady had married four husbands and called on those four men, who, if they exist at all, have lent themselves common sense and stayed off the radar. The Minister also made an allusion to Joi Nunieh’s state of health. Of course, she didn’t take it lying low. She seized the occasion with every ounce of oxygen in her body and smashed the table on which Akpabio leaned his bulky frame in the studio. In the course of her now famous interview on Arise TV, we were treated to the sub-plot of how Akpabio failing to dictate to her or control her actions adopted a “Plan B,” which is basically a plan to “entangle” her in “the other room.” She disclosed that what the “uncommon former Governor” from Akwa Ibom State got in response was an “uncommon slap in the face.”
It must have been one of those hot, dirty, blinding slaps that result in a momentary loss of vision and a loud scream of Ye!. Akpabio as Governor used to refer to Akwa Ibom as “Gilgal.” His current travail is like a journey from Gilgal to Golgotha. He insists that Joi Nunieh is lying. He says he has asked his lawyers to go to court.
You probably know the rest of the story: how things went downhill afterwards: the attempt to arrest Joi Nunieh at her Port Harcourt residence, a detachment of about 50 policemen knocking on the gates, smashing doors as if they were after a Colombian drug lord, Governor Nyesom Wike’s ironic, swashbuckling gallantry (can you imagine a PDP Governor protecting an APC member from members of her own party?), the sordid spectacle of the current Acting Chairman of the NDDC, Professor Keme Pondei walking out on the House of Representatives Committee on the NDDC, after practically accusing the Chair of the Committee of being an interested party in the matter, and the same Committee issuing a warrant of arrest to call Pondei to order. Earlier, the same Professor Keme Pondei allegedly disclosed how members of the IMC which he leads spent N1.8 billion on themselves alone as COVID palliative within three months! When he eventually showed up at the House of Representatives yesterday, and he was reminded that he and his colleagues had helped themselves to funds that were not covered in the approved NDDC Budget, he started fanning himself in an air-conditioned room and before anyone knew it, he slumped atop his table! His detractors argue that he was merely playing his role: an Acting MD, acting out a scene in the NDDC drama.
Stakeholders within the NGO community who claim that they have been monitoring the NDDC for years, in fact, suggest that we haven’t seen anything yet and that if a thorough forensic audit is conducted, Nigerians will be shocked beyond their marrows. But can anything be worse than what we have seen and heard so far? These stakeholders also argue that all the drama that our eyes have seen so far is at best a distraction and an orchestrated cover up attempt. The only problem is that the Niger Delta NGO community has also been fingered in some of the stories for having received patronage from the NDDC for work not done. If indeed things get more curious, a list of beneficiary-NGOs may surface, and we may all get busy struggling to lift the veil. We should be watchful. A Professor slumped yesterday. Someone else could have a heart attack tomorrow!
But where are the people of the Niger Delta in all of this? What are their views on the on-going controversy? They are the ones who have been short-changed the most. The NDDC, originally OMPADEC, was part of a series of policy measures including derivation, ecological fund, and infrastructure development plans to address the marginalization of the Niger Delta people, check youth restiveness in the region and promote peace and stability. Since inception, the NDDC has been managed by persons from the Niger Delta. A Ministry of the Niger Delta was also created, and to date, only persons from the Niger Delta have headed that Ministry. And yet all of these issues! The usual tendency is to say that the NDDC was designed to fail, but that is certainly not true. The goal was principled – to bring development to the Niger Delta. It will also be incorrect to say that the people have not seen any development at all. In 1999, parts of the Niger Delta were in a complete mess. I recall visiting Yenagoa in 2000. The Governor then was the late Governor-General of the Niger Delta, the famous Diepreye Alamiyesiegha. Yenagoa, the state capital had only one visible road, which looked like something constructed in the 1960s. I saw one bank: the defunct All States Trust, I believe. And one fuel station with a broken, solitary, pump. And there was a higher education college whose female students were friendly and hospitable beyond comparison! Today, Yenagoa looks different, and the same may be said of other areas of the Niger Delta. The improvement does not go far enough, however, because the major threats to the people’s lives: critical infrastructure like the East-West Highway, environmental crisis, and unemployment remain visible.
Governors of the Niger Delta since 1999 may claim credit for this improvement that we have seen but the perception in Nigeria is that the OMPADEC/NDDC intervention has helped to some degree resulting in the request by other regions for a similar intervention agency. Nonetheless, recent revelations that contractors and officials of the NDDC have been busy pilfering the funds of the Commission is at best stupefying, the sheer scale of it is benumbing. The N81.5 billion that was allegedly diverted within two months sounds like enough money to transform the health sector in parts of the Niger Delta in a season of COVID-19. So, this is not the time for the people of the Niger Delta to make the usual defensive point that anybody from the Niger Delta is entitled to take Niger Delta money. The view that “it is our money taken by our children” is unacceptable. The Niger Delta struggle was based on the ideals of justice, equity, development and progress, no latter-day revisionist should impose on the people of the Niger Delta, a Barkin Zuwo philosophy. I bring this up because I have read some comments by some members of the Niger Delta elite insisting that the big issue is that the NDDC has not been properly funded and that the thing to do is to release all outstanding funds to the Commission. Is that why the trillions in contention had to be mismanaged? Is that the issue on the table? There should be a more robust conversation about the development process in the Niger Delta beyond the confusing argument that this is a conflict between “a political Niger Delta” and “a geographical Niger Delta” or that the only way forward is to throw in more money.
President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered two major audits in recent times: the audit of the Niger Delta Development Commission and that of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Both should be taken as a personal reaffirmation of his commitment to one of the major planks of his proposed legacy at the inception of his administration in 2015: that is the fight against corruption. But beyond the anti-corruption battle, there is an emerging downside to the Buhari administration: the constant bickering, the cult of personality and the externalization of battles over territory within the government. In a Presidential democracy, a President appoints persons to assist him, he delegates authority to them and they are required to help him achieve the objectives of his administration. Under President Buhari, the in-fighting among his team conveys the impression that many of his appointees are either not interested in his own objectives or they are on a frolic of their own. We have had the Director General of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission at logger heads with the Minister of Communications over office space; Minister of Information vs. DG National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Minister of Labour and Employment vs. MD NSITF, Joy Nunieh vs Godswill Akpabio; Minister of Health vs. Executive Secretary, NHIS, AGF Malami vs EFCC Chair Magu, DSS vs. EFCC, First Lady vs. Presidential aides…all fighting-to-finish as if “Oga is not around”. They have done so much damage. Five years ago, the fear of Buhari’s war against corruption was the beginning of wisdom Today, his own appointees and political associates have messed up the message and strategy. The economy is in bad shape. The war against terror is not working…
Whatever is happening is a wake up call and an opportunity for Mr. President to steady the ship. He needs to rescue his government from ambitious and disloyal individuals and strengthen the institutions of state. He should disband the present Interim Management Committee of the NDDC and sack the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs. The Board of the NDDC as provided for in the Enabling Act should be immediately constituted. The audit of the Commission must be totally independent without any interference. The major challenge at the NDDC is that politics has been placed above development objectives. That must change with appropriate mechanisms put in place. On the war against corruption, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Commission (ICPC) should also be audited. Thereafter, it should be merged with the EFCC. The new EFCC should then be unbundled. It should have autonomous departments: an investigation department, a prosecution department and an enforcement department, all headed separately by professionals who will not be required to report to one individual. The EFCC must also be disengaged from the Nigerian Police. Since inception, only policemen have led the EFCC. How about neutral persons or graduates of the EFCC Academy that has produced many officers who have enjoyed international training and who joined the EFCC with the hope that they were looking forward to a career? The President must restore dignity and respect to the governance process.
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A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja and presided over by Justice A. I. Chikere has ordered a business man, Hima Abubakar to forfeit five houses he acquired through means considered to be inappropriate to the Federal Government.
President Muhammadu Buhari, for the first time since coronavirus arrived, will fly out of the country tomorrow, July 23, heading to Bamako, Republic of Mali on a one-day visit.
The Nigeria Customs Service Board (NCSB) has confirmed the promotion of 2,634 officers, including the former customs spokesperson and current Vice President of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR). Adewale Adeniyi.
For the first time in the history of Nigeria, The Federal Government, for the first time in the history of Nigeria, has approved the establishment of the Nigerian Youth Investment Fund (NYIF) to the tune of N75 billion.
The presidency has accused the publisher of SaharaReporters, Omoyele Sowore of telling lies against late Malam Isma’ila Isa Funtua who died yesterday over his role in his arrest and detention by the Department of State Security (DSS) recently.
It is a show of shame isn’t it, what is going on at the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC)?
Which Tactic Is There Left To Try? By Mahmud Jega
Every now and then, an important item in the news tends to remind me of something. Get Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said last Tuesday that this country should try new tactics in the fight against corruption, he reminded me of Nasiru Imam, Deputy Managing Editor of Daily Trust and long-time secretary of its Editorial Board.
Some years ago, the editorial board was discussing the problem of teachers’ salaries, which were in arrears in many states. One member said the system of paying teachers through State Basic Education Commissions [SBECs] is failing. Another member however said funds for paying teachers’ salaries were once paid directly to local governments. The system was ended because many LGAs diverted them. Yet another member pointed out that in the 1980s-early 1990s, Babangida regime centralized the payment of teachers’ salaries in the National Primary Education Commission [NPEC] but that arrangement also ran into problems. Nasiru Imam dropped his pen, sighed and said, “Every method has been tried. Nothing worked.”
Osinbajo spoke at an Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission [ICPC] regional webinar on “Combatting Corruption and Illicit Financial Flows: New Measures and Strategies.” He said we must democratize the fight against corruption and protect whistle blowers. Very good. He is looking for another method to fight corruption. In the last 60 years in Nigeria, which tactic have we not tried in fighting corruption?
We have overthrown governments because of corruption. Those who overthrew the First Republic in January 1966; those who overthrew the Gowon regime in 1975; those who killed General Murtala Mohammed in 1976; those who overthrew the Second Republic in 1983 as well as those who voted out the Jonathan Administration in 2015 all alleged that it was due to corruption. We later realized that Sardauna, Balewa, Gowon, Murtala and Shagari had no money.
We tried affidavits. In 1974, Godwin Daboh filed an affidavit against Federal Commissioner for Communications Joseph Tarka while Aper Aku filed another affidavit in court against Benue Plateau State Military Governor, Police Commissioner Joseph Gomwalk, both alleging corruption. We tried a purge. In 1975-76 Murtala purged thousands of public servants in all sectors. He used the harshest words and the sternest language including summary dismissal, dead woods, with ignominy, with immediate effect, betrayed the ethics of their professions, and they should be ashamed of themselves.
We tried Public Complaints Commission, which Murtala formed in 1976 with the hyper-active Yusuf Maitama Sule as its first Federal Commissioner. When that did not work, we tried exhortation. In 1977 Head of State General Obasanjo went to Jaji and made the Jaji Declaration, that Nigeria must create a society that is fair, just, humane and African. It failed.
In 1981 President Shehu Shagari tried an Ethical Revolution. It hardly got off the ground so in 1983, he created an Egypt-style Ministry of National Guidance with Yusuf Maitama Sule as the minister. It made no impact either, so in 1984-85 we tried a War Against Indiscipline, WAI. Buhari/Idiagbon regime launched it in five brutal phases, complete with a WAI Brigade that became notorious for its excesses.
General Buhari also signed the Recovery of Public Property [Special Military Tribunals] Decree no 3 of 1984. The Special Military Investigation Panels turned the doctrine of justice on its head. They said based on a former public office holder’s declaration of assets, he was presumed guilty until he could prove his innocence. Though who couldn’t do so were turned over to Special Military Tribunals, which jailed dozens of former governors, ministers and other top officials, some for up to 300 years. Many governors were jailed for donating public funds to their political parties.
We tried court cases. Gani Fawehinmi filed an innumerable number of suits to challenge every suspected corrupt act by the Babangida regime, including Mrs. Babangida’s pet Better Life for Rural Women. We tried Failed Banks Tribunals. General Sani Abacha created them with much fanfare. They jailed many bankers and bank debtors, even though Abacha himself nearly bankrupted the Central Bank.
Under General Abdulsalami Abubakar, we began efforts to retrieve looted assets. Recovering the Abacha loot has been on for 22 years now. In 1999, President Obasanjo promised in his inaugural address to fight corruption. Five years later he created EFCC and ICPC. Later, EFCC created NFIU, which is now an independent body. We even tried an Anti-corruption Advisory, which EFCC issued just before the 2007 elections.
We tried a Freedom of Information Act but unlike in America, government agencies here routinely ignore FOI requests. Obasanjo also did a Servicom, with units in every ministry and agency but that did not dent corruption. A lot of human rights and anti-corruption NGOs also sprang up in Nigeria, mostly populated by left-wingers who were left ideologically stranded by the East Bloc’s collapse in 1989.
We tried Code of Conduct Bureau for public officers but since their assets declaration is kept secret, the Code of Conduct Tribunal that tries violators has very little work to do. We tried parliamentary Public Accounts Committees. They were very powerful in the First Republic but these days they have no audit reports to work on, since most government agencies never audit their accounts. We tried preaching; Muslim imams and Christian pastors have shouted themselves hoarse from the pulpits against corruption, to no avail. Sometimes they practice if you cant beat them, join them.
Newspaper editors, reporters and columnists also did what they can in the war against corruption. Nearly every day in the last 50 years, exposes of corrupt deeds were the lead stories in many Nigerian newspapers. No one can count the feature articles, opinion columns and editorials written against corruption. In recent years the social media joined in the fight, not always appropriately.
Nigeria Police too did its best, arrested and charged to court thousands of people for acts of corruption, even if they were less than one-tenth of the culprits. Ditto for the courts; they have jailed thousands of people for corruption in the last 60 years, after ponderous trials and appeals, but let many thieves off the hook. In 2007 President Umaru Yar’adua tried adherence to rule of law as an anti-corruption strategy. That did not work either. President Jonathan’s biggest contribution to the anti-corruption war was to make a distinction between ordinary stealing and corruption, which he later said he heard from the Chief Justice.
We tried whistleblowing but the blowers were left unpaid. In the last 10 years, we deployed technological tools including BVN, TSA and EFCC’s Eagleclaw against corruption. They made a dent, but not all that much. President Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign, launched in 2015, at first held the highest promise but it had no blueprint and totally relied on EFCC. It recently came crashing down in flames.
Even the force of personal example did not help. You can’t have a simpler national leader than Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. That iconic 1965 photo of him, on leave in Bauchi, taken by a white journalist, sitting on a local mat, his two children around him, eating sugar cane, no sign of security guards or limos, no mansion behind him, no exquisite furniture, no Persian rugs, no contract files in sight and no fawning aides nearby. Yet he was killed by totally misguided soldiers for alleged corruption.
Sardauna Ahmadu Bello, after being overwhelming Premier of the North for 12 years, governing 20 of today’s 37 states including FCT, had only one personal car, a Pontiac, when he was killed in the January 1966 coup. When I interviewed his personal driver Nuhu Direba in Sokoto in January 1991, he told me that two days after the coup, he evacuated Sardauna’s family to Sokoto in that lone car. It was too small to accommodate their bags so Sardauna’s Principal Private Secretary Hassan Lemu went and borrowed another car. The family left for Sokoto in that two-vehicle convoy.
Sardauna had no house in Kaduna that his family could repair to. Even though under his rule, Ministry of Lands carved out hundreds of GRA plots and allocated them to senior civil servants and merchants, Sardauna got none. In Sokoto too, he had only one modest house even though before he became Premier in 1954, he was the Northern Region Minister of Works, Community Development and Local Governments, in charge of all Emirs, Chiefs and Native Authorities. Before that, he was Councillor in charge of Sokoto NA’s Central Office, i.e. SSG of today’s Sokoto and Zamfara states combined. Which personal example again is anyone talking about?
I wish Prof Osinbajo luck in his search for a new tactic. I can’t think of any that has not been tried already.
Culled from Daily Trust.