I think OBJ is set to spread out worldwide, the errors in the GEJ administration. 2015 is drawing near, so I am not surprised that politicians such as OBJ are making such theories. However, personally, I have always said that the only way Nigeria can move forward is by "drastic change", e.g the ban on the Okada, or the removal of subsidy, e.t.c..

I know not everyone would agree with me, but I would like you be aware that corruption is like tree (with a lot of branches). The best way to mitigate corruption is by cutting the tree from the roots, and talking about Nigeria, our corruption tree is as old as 50yrs, with thick roots, and long branches.

In conclusion, i agree with GEJ's speculation about the issue of eminent uprising amongst the youth. We are all getting tired of everything. We don't want our children to have to go through all this.

A similar protests occurred at the Arab countries,, called the Arab spring.. This was what ended the era of explicit corruption in the nation. A man even had to burn himself to death!!..

Anyways, after reading this initial post, i decided to do a small research on what instigates youth uprising, or protest. Here is what Wikipedia said;

Numerous factors have led to the protests, including issues such as dictatorship or absolute monarchy, human rights violations, government corruption (demonstrated by Wikileaks diplomatic cables),[44] economic decline, unemployment, extreme poverty, and a number of demographic structural factors,[45] such as a large percentage of educated but dissatisfied youth within the population.

So looking at the causes, what do you think

Only GOd will judge.

I still find ito hard that I'll have a Doctoral Degree and opt for a Truck driver career and nòt even a Van executive sales but a truck driver is really bizarre and outrageous !

If my Masters degree cannot be recognized,I think I'll rather dust my beloved certs and neatly file them and wait till befitting oppOrtunity wóuld come.

Dangote to me,frOm my ówn perspective is a bit of a show Off man with a little complex character,I think is Out there to tell people that he can dictate and run things in the country with or without the government,I analyse is personality to be goddish and Donnish.

Dangote sent Doctoral and Masters degree holders to sign dotted lines for Truck drivers job and i also hope and pray to God it won't be a suicide dotted line notes-am just a little factual here without holding emotions.

Same Dangote who just recruited Drs. Came two weeks after to advertise new job offers that would have been reasonably filled in by the newly recruited Truck drivers and the vacancy still runs.

What exactly is he doing and what exactly are his board of directors and assistants up to !

Unemployment is gotten to a very shameful degree and only God Almighty can resolve it as what I see these days is potential companies and employers wickedly taking advantage of it.which is not fair.

OBJ is an elder statesman I respect and will continue to respect,if many can see all these enslavement and injustice under their nose and still sniff it in without pinpointing it just as OBJ has done,then Nigeria is one for a soon to be ugly revolution by growing population of umemployed youths.

Please am a careful critic and I don't normally go with the bandwagon,or what others think its fine until I carefully make I analytical observations.

I mean no harm with this but that's just a fact.Thanks to OBJ for the note and I hope all these injustice and faulty work structures in Nigeria will be properly handled by the right heads one day.

Thank God our eyes are open. This bastard politicians"including OBJ" have stolen our treasury yet they come to the press to give unwaranted opinions and predictions about the hapenings in Nigeria.

One question i usually ask without having a comensurate answer is that "why is our leaders usually notice the wrong in governance immidiately they leave power"?

FOR ME I BELIEVE IT IS ONLY REVOLUTION THAT WILL BRING BACK SANITY INTO THIS COUNTRY.
COME REVOLUTION COME. THOSE WHO DISLIKE IT SHOULD EMBRACE IT.
FOR TI IS BETTER TO DIE TRYING THAN CONTINUE TO LIVE AS A FOOL.

[size=18pt]How Obasanjo and his inner circle Stole Nigeria's Billions of Dollars [/size]
Friday, 09 September 2011 17:09 [elombah.com]

Corruption pervades the entire levels of the private and public sector under the administration of Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, so said a US Diplomatic cables revealed by wikileaks. The report said that "the arrests in London of the Bayelsa and Plateau State governors have barely scratched the surface of the endemic corruption at the federal, state, and local level. The diplomatic cables noted that in a
widely-circulated August 22 letter to President Obasanjo, Abia State Governor Orji Uzor Kalu accused Obasanjo of corruption, listing a number of
dubious deals, including:

--Cancellation of the contract for the construction of the national stadium in Abuja, only to re-award the contract to a different vendor at a higher price.

--Use of public funds for capital improvements at two private schools secretly owned by Obasanjo.

Obasanjo's response was to agree to be "investigated by the EFCC, which reports to the President. When the EFCC invited Kalu to provide evidence to support his accusations, Kalu refused, pointing out that the EFCC was not an independent investigative body and had no authority to prosecute the President, and the investigation died out.

The President's chicken farm in Otta is one of the largest in Nigeria. A Presidential spokesman said in November 2004, in order to explain Obasanjo's personal wealth, that the farm generated about $250,000 per month in income, though it was nearly bankrupt in the late 1990s (ref
A). Regardless of whether the current income figure is accurate, at least some Nigerians think it is unlikely that Obasanjo's military pension and benefits were the sole source of investment for establishing this huge enterprise, valued by a construction engineer involved in the construction at
more than $250 million.

It is also widely believed that the President's inner circle also reaps hefty rewards with impunity. Some frequently cited examples are:

--Edmund Daukoro, recently named Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, was charged in 1994 for embezzling some $47 million as a managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). The charges were abandoned, and Daukoro's political career soared when Obasanjo took office in 1999.

--Senator Florence Ita Giwa, indicted for misappropriation of funds by the Idris Kuta Panel in 2000, was pardoned along with other indicted senators, and she was named a special advisor to Obasanjo when she left office.

--The head of the National Airport Management Authority (NAMA), Rochas Okorocha, was caught and dismissed for embezzling about $1 million through an inflated contract; Obasanjo then appointed him as a senior aide, without requiring Okorocha to repay the stolen funds. Okorocha was
eventually fired on July 13 in a cabinet reshuffle, but went on to start a political party for his renewed presidential ambitions.

--The recent auction of oil blocks included some firms bidding,, sometimes with no prior ties to the oil industry, that were linked to Obasanjo associates, including Daukoro, Rivers State governor Peter Odili, Ogun State governor Gbenga Daniel, presidential advisor Andy Uba, presidential
chief of staff Abdullahi Mohammed, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Nasir al-Rufai and PDP Board of Trustees Chairman Tony Anenih.

--Anenih was indicted by the National Assembly for the sum of 300 billion Naira (approximately $2.4 billion) missing from Ministry of Works and Housing while he was the minister. The missing money is widely believed to have paid off 2003 elections "expenses," including to Balogun, in addition to
lining his own pockets.

--Minister of Finance Ngozie Okonjo-Iweala is said to have steered contracts to her brother (JonJon) with the help of el-Rufai. The contracts, said to amount to about $50 million, have been paid for consulting work for the Ministry.

--Al-Rufai is at the center of the corruption allegations. Well-known to PolCouns eight year ago, when he was homeless and seeking a loan to import a taxi from the UK, al-Rufai is said to have recently purchased seven upscale properties in a posh Abuja neighborhood. His demolitions of commercial and residential buildings in the capital have reportedly provided an opportunity for himself and several of his friends. After demolishing residential properties in Kubwa, the land was reallocated to several of his friends and to an investment company he allegedly owns. The community of Chika, where about two square miles of development was demolished in December, has allegedly been allocated to the same group of people.

--Chief Olabode George, current PDP National Chairman (Southwest) is a close friend of President Obasanjo and a leading proponent of the Third Term Agenda. He is one of the people accused of financial recklessness in the affairs of the National Port Authority, where he was chairman when the financial scandals were allegedly committed. He was retired from the Navy in the 1990s by the Babangida Administration after serving as military governor of Ondo State from 1987 to 1990 in addition to other military postings.

--Chris Uba, recently appointed to the PDP Board of Trustees, admitted rigging during the 2003 elections and attempted to kidnap the governor of Anambra state to try to collect payments for his efforts. Linked closely to several vigilante groups in the state, he is widely believed to be
responsible for the burning of many state government buildings in Awka, crimes that have yet to be solved.


¶10. (C/REL UK) Obasanjo himself is believed to be one of the owners of Suntrust Petroleum. And questions remain about the Obasanjo Library project, which collected enormous sums of money from government contractors, banks, industrialists, and state governors, ostensibly for the construction of a presidential library, the plans for which are vague. It is widely believed throughout the country that Obasanjo and his
son, Gbenga, are major shareholders in the newly reorganized Zenith Bank and UBA Bank as well as in airlines and the telecommunications sector.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/654360_Lt_Col__Olusegun_Obasanjo_rtd__jpg23760c4d724016d19de4851867117ce5

21 May 2006 - The Telegraph (UK newspaper)
[size=18pt]Obasanjo, leads Nigeria to despair[/size]

By Stephen Bevan in Lagos

12:01AM BST 21 May 2006

Once, Marcus Chegbene was one of the privileged in Nigeria. He had a much sought-after civil service job in Awka, 600 miles from Lagos. His salary, 2,000 naira a month - then equivalent to £15 - was reasonable, although because of corruption he received only 570 naira. "I was told the difference was for improvements like road construction. Usually you don't ask about it," he says.

Then, five years ago, he lost his job, a victim of the rationalisation of the civil service that was one of the first significant acts of reform by President Olusegun Obasanjo when he took office in 1999.

Now he lives in Maryland, a teeming, traffic-choked and down-at-heel suburb of Africa's largest city, Lagos. Home for Mr Chegbene, 40, his wife and their four children is a single room, just 12 feet square. They live on his wife's salary from a dry cleaner's: 3,000 naira a month, now worth £11. There is not enough room for more than one bed, so his children sleep on the floor. The building has just two lavatories between 40 families.

A proud, educated man, he says he has tried but failed to find another job. "It's very difficult because of the corruption," he says. "Employment is not based on qualifications but on whom you know."
Related Articles

Mr Chegbene is one of an estimated 90 million people - two-thirds of the population - who live on less than a dollar a day in Africa's most populous nation. It is a shocking statistic in a nation that is the world's eighth largest oil producer.

Nigeria should be relatively wealthy but a succession of corrupt and incompetent military rulers has made it one of the world's biggest debtors.

Mr Obasanjo was supposed to be different. This, after all, was the man whose opposition to the country's most notorious military dictator, Gen Sani Abacha, saw him hounded and imprisoned. To Tony Blair he was one of the "new generation" of African leaders who would help to drag the continent out of its dependency on foreign aid.

Others in the West have praised his efforts to crack down on corruption and the ambitious economic reform programme embarked upon by the small team of former World Bank technocrats he has brought into government. Even allegations that his re-election in 2003 was marred by vote-rigging in some states failed to dent his image.

Yet today, while the West still lauds him, many Nigerians have become disillusioned, blaming his government for a worsening standard of living and complaining that his anti-corruption drive is a tool of political intimidation. Some claim he is using his office for his own enrichment.

"Nigerians are suffering: there are no jobs and there is no security," says Layyanu Abubakar, 22, a student of business administration at the University of Abuja. John Ojamiren, 32, a trainee accountant, adds: "Everything is more expensive and often there are shortages… I think even under the military life was better than this."

But it is Mr Obasanjo's record on corruption that has taken the biggest battering. To Chief Gani Fawehinmi, a veteran human rights lawyer and former presidential candidate, Mr Obasanjo is the "Janus-faced president" who shows "one face to the international community - his much vaunted accountability and transparency - and another in his own country."

He is taking Mr Obasanjo to court over a eight billion naira (£33 million) presidential lib-rary to be built at Abeokuta in the president's home state of Ogun, claiming that the money raised to build it was essentially a payback from government contractors and foreign investors, some of whom have benefited from Mr Obasanjo's administration.

At his bunker-like chambers off a dusty Lagos backstreet, Mr Fawehinmi's voice rises with indignation as he runs through a list of donors. They include several who have been awarded lucrative oil concessions - as Mr Fawehinmi points out, Mr Obasanjo has kept the job of petroleum minister for himself - while others are beneficiaries of government privatisations.

However, Femi Fani-Kayode, the president's spokesman, said: "There is nothing in our laws that denies the right of a private individual to donate money to any cause they deem fit. This was seen by many as a noble cause... President Obasanjo would be the last one to abuse his office or enrich himself."

Yet the library is not the only one of Mr Obasanjo's business interests over which Mr Fawehinmi and others have raised questions.

Two years ago, in his role as the chairman of the Federal Executive Council, Mr Obasanjo approved a licence for Bells University of Technology in Badagry in Lagos state, run by a company in which he has a stake. His spokesman said that it was not an abuse of office and neither was the venture intended to make money.

Then there are persistent rumours about Mr Obasanjo's farm at Otta, in Ogun, said to be the biggest chicken farm in Nigeria, if not west Africa, with 3,000 employees and a monthly income of 30 million naira (£124,000).

Yet, according to a journalist who visited the 150-acre farm when Mr Obasanjo was released from prison in 1998, at that time it was only "a small place for the poultry". How, ask Mr Obasanjo's critics, did a man who earned an army salary find the capital to turn it into such a money-spinner?

Mr Fani-Kayode has an answer. "Every penny he made from it, he invested back into the farm... Not one penny of government money has gone into that farm since he became president."

Such allegations might seem far-fetched, were it not for the criticism generated by Mr Obasanjo's failed attempt to amend the constitution to allow him a third term in office.

For months it has dominated the news, achieving the rare feat of uniting a nation of 250 ethnic groups and several former heads of state, the current vice-president and a clutch of governors - all in opposition.

Its defeat in the Senate last week was greeted with the jubilation normally reserved for sporting triumphs. "Everybody was so happy. People borrowed money to go on a drinking spree," says Marcus Chegbene. "It is time he left."

Even in the febrile atmosphere of Nigerian politics it was an unsavoury campaign. Meetings of "anti-third term" politicians have been broken up by police.

Francis Amadiegwu, an anti-third termer in the House of Representatives, described how was pushed to the ground by police, putting him in hospital for eight days.

The paradox, say Mr Obasanjo's critics, is that all this was being done for the man who in 1979 became the first military ruler voluntarily to hand over to a civilian administration. Although on Thursday the president claimed he had never even wanted a third term, his allies fear the attempt will now overshadow the anti-corruption campaign.

Even in a country grown used to greed, the allegations of bribes of up to 50 million naira (£207,000) being offered to those who would back a third term have caused outrage.

Several politicians confirmed to The Sunday Telegraph that they were offered inducements to change their stance. Uche Onyeagucha, a member of the House of Representatives, revealed that supporters of a third term had offered him and nine other members a holiday anywhere in the world.

Ben Obi, a senate veteran not given to hyperbole, says the allegations need to be thoroughly investigated. "The world is talking about the fight against corruption by the Nigerian government.

''If you come up with allegations as strong as these and you refuse to do something about it, certainly people are going to think something is wrong."

Critics say that the very anti-corruption drive on which the government has staked so much - and in particular the powerful Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, led by a former policeman, Nuhu Ribadu - is being used as a tool of intimidation.

While few would disagree that the EFCC has done some excellent work - it claims to have secured the convictions of 56 people including Mr Ribadu's former boss, the inspector-general of police, and recovered more than £2.7 billion - many believe that it has targeted the president's political opponents while his supporters have been left alone.

It is a line of attack Mr Ribadu is used to hearing. Referring to those claiming to be victims of political persecution, he says: "These are all crooks, thieves, who stole public money and are just going under the protection of politics so that they can never be bought to justice."

Mr Ribadu disclosed that he was "almost ready to go to court" against 20 of the country's powerful state governors.

Promising to publish the report on their findings soon, Mr Ribadu conceded that Mr Obasanjo should not have started fund-raising for a presidential library while still in office. "If you ask me I would have said Obasanjo should not do this thing until he is out of office... but I don't think it has reached the stage of a criminal act".

With what promises to be a rough election battle coming up next year, claims that the anti-corruption fight has become politicised are unlikely to go away. As Mr Ribadu admits: "We do use our head; we do things to survive."

Whether Nigeria's reputation survives remains to be seen.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/nigeria/1519014/Obasanjo-hailed-as-a-saviour-by-Blair-leads-Nigeria-to-despair.html

21 May 2006 - The Telegraph (UK newspaper)
[size=18pt]Obasanjo, leads Nigeria to despair[/size]

By Stephen Bevan in Lagos

12:01AM BST 21 May 2006

Once, Marcus Chegbene was one of the privileged in Nigeria. He had a much sought-after civil service job in Awka, 600 miles from Lagos. His salary, 2,000 naira a month - then equivalent to £15 - was reasonable, although because of corruption he received only 570 naira. "I was told the difference was for improvements like road construction. Usually you don't ask about it," he says.

Then, five years ago, he lost his job, a victim of the rationalisation of the civil service that was one of the first significant acts of reform by President Olusegun Obasanjo when he took office in 1999.

Now he lives in Maryland, a teeming, traffic-choked and down-at-heel suburb of Africa's largest city, Lagos. Home for Mr Chegbene, 40, his wife and their four children is a single room, just 12 feet square. They live on his wife's salary from a dry cleaner's: 3,000 naira a month, now worth £11. There is not enough room for more than one bed, so his children sleep on the floor. The building has just two lavatories between 40 families.

A proud, educated man, he says he has tried but failed to find another job. "It's very difficult because of the corruption," he says. "Employment is not based on qualifications but on whom you know."
Related Articles

Mr Chegbene is one of an estimated 90 million people - two-thirds of the population - who live on less than a dollar a day in Africa's most populous nation. It is a shocking statistic in a nation that is the world's eighth largest oil producer.

Nigeria should be relatively wealthy but a succession of corrupt and incompetent military rulers has made it one of the world's biggest debtors.

Mr Obasanjo was supposed to be different. This, after all, was the man whose opposition to the country's most notorious military dictator, Gen Sani Abacha, saw him hounded and imprisoned. To Tony Blair he was one of the "new generation" of African leaders who would help to drag the continent out of its dependency on foreign aid.

Others in the West have praised his efforts to crack down on corruption and the ambitious economic reform programme embarked upon by the small team of former World Bank technocrats he has brought into government. Even allegations that his re-election in 2003 was marred by vote-rigging in some states failed to dent his image.

Yet today, while the West still lauds him, many Nigerians have become disillusioned, blaming his government for a worsening standard of living and complaining that his anti-corruption drive is a tool of political intimidation. Some claim he is using his office for his own enrichment.

"Nigerians are suffering: there are no jobs and there is no security," says Layyanu Abubakar, 22, a student of business administration at the University of Abuja. John Ojamiren, 32, a trainee accountant, adds: "Everything is more expensive and often there are shortages… I think even under the military life was better than this."

But it is Mr Obasanjo's record on corruption that has taken the biggest battering. To Chief Gani Fawehinmi, a veteran human rights lawyer and former presidential candidate, Mr Obasanjo is the "Janus-faced president" who shows "one face to the international community - his much vaunted accountability and transparency - and another in his own country."

He is taking Mr Obasanjo to court over a eight billion naira (£33 million) presidential lib-rary to be built at Abeokuta in the president's home state of Ogun, claiming that the money raised to build it was essentially a payback from government contractors and foreign investors, some of whom have benefited from Mr Obasanjo's administration.

At his bunker-like chambers off a dusty Lagos backstreet, Mr Fawehinmi's voice rises with indignation as he runs through a list of donors. They include several who have been awarded lucrative oil concessions - as Mr Fawehinmi points out, Mr Obasanjo has kept the job of petroleum minister for himself - while others are beneficiaries of government privatisations.

However, Femi Fani-Kayode, the president's spokesman, said: "There is nothing in our laws that denies the right of a private individual to donate money to any cause they deem fit. This was seen by many as a noble cause... President Obasanjo would be the last one to abuse his office or enrich himself."

Yet the library is not the only one of Mr Obasanjo's business interests over which Mr Fawehinmi and others have raised questions.

Two years ago, in his role as the chairman of the Federal Executive Council, Mr Obasanjo approved a licence for Bells University of Technology in Badagry in Lagos state, run by a company in which he has a stake. His spokesman said that it was not an abuse of office and neither was the venture intended to make money.

Then there are persistent rumours about Mr Obasanjo's farm at Otta, in Ogun, said to be the biggest chicken farm in Nigeria, if not west Africa, with 3,000 employees and a monthly income of 30 million naira (£124,000).

Yet, according to a journalist who visited the 150-acre farm when Mr Obasanjo was released from prison in 1998, at that time it was only "a small place for the poultry". How, ask Mr Obasanjo's critics, did a man who earned an army salary find the capital to turn it into such a money-spinner?

Mr Fani-Kayode has an answer. "Every penny he made from it, he invested back into the farm... Not one penny of government money has gone into that farm since he became president."

Such allegations might seem far-fetched, were it not for the criticism generated by Mr Obasanjo's failed attempt to amend the constitution to allow him a third term in office.

For months it has dominated the news, achieving the rare feat of uniting a nation of 250 ethnic groups and several former heads of state, the current vice-president and a clutch of governors - all in opposition.

Its defeat in the Senate last week was greeted with the jubilation normally reserved for sporting triumphs. "Everybody was so happy. People borrowed money to go on a drinking spree," says Marcus Chegbene. "It is time he left."

Even in the febrile atmosphere of Nigerian politics it was an unsavoury campaign. Meetings of "anti-third term" politicians have been broken up by police.

Francis Amadiegwu, an anti-third termer in the House of Representatives, described how was pushed to the ground by police, putting him in hospital for eight days.

The paradox, say Mr Obasanjo's critics, is that all this was being done for the man who in 1979 became the first military ruler voluntarily to hand over to a civilian administration. Although on Thursday the president claimed he had never even wanted a third term, his allies fear the attempt will now overshadow the anti-corruption campaign.

Even in a country grown used to greed, the allegations of bribes of up to 50 million naira (£207,000) being offered to those who would back a third term have caused outrage.

Several politicians confirmed to The Sunday Telegraph that they were offered inducements to change their stance. Uche Onyeagucha, a member of the House of Representatives, revealed that supporters of a third term had offered him and nine other members a holiday anywhere in the world.

Ben Obi, a senate veteran not given to hyperbole, says the allegations need to be thoroughly investigated. "The world is talking about the fight against corruption by the Nigerian government.

''If you come up with allegations as strong as these and you refuse to do something about it, certainly people are going to think something is wrong."

Critics say that the very anti-corruption drive on which the government has staked so much - and in particular the powerful Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, led by a former policeman, Nuhu Ribadu - is being used as a tool of intimidation.

While few would disagree that the EFCC has done some excellent work - it claims to have secured the convictions of 56 people including Mr Ribadu's former boss, the inspector-general of police, and recovered more than £2.7 billion - many believe that it has targeted the president's political opponents while his supporters have been left alone.

It is a line of attack Mr Ribadu is used to hearing. Referring to those claiming to be victims of political persecution, he says: "These are all crooks, thieves, who stole public money and are just going under the protection of politics so that they can never be bought to justice."

Mr Ribadu disclosed that he was "almost ready to go to court" against 20 of the country's powerful state governors.

Promising to publish the report on their findings soon, Mr Ribadu conceded that Mr Obasanjo should not have started fund-raising for a presidential library while still in office. "If you ask me I would have said Obasanjo should not do this thing until he is out of office... but I don't think it has reached the stage of a criminal act".

With what promises to be a rough election battle coming up next year, claims that the anti-corruption fight has become politicised are unlikely to go away. As Mr Ribadu admits: "We do use our head; we do things to survive."

Whether Nigeria's reputation survives remains to be seen.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/nigeria/1519014/Obasanjo-hailed-as-a-saviour-by-Blair-leads-Nigeria-to-despair.html

[size=18pt]Nigeria's Obasanjo and the $16 Billion Power Scam[/size]

Frontline Catholic cleric and social critic, Rev. Fr. Matthew Hassan Kukah, perhaps, spoke the minds of millions of Nigerians when he said recently that former President Olusegun Obasanjo deserved to be formally tried for his alleged role in the squandering about $16 billion voted for resuscitating the near-dead power sector during his administration between 1999 and 2007. Kukah, a close family friend of the Obasanjos, was the Secretary to the National Political Reforms Conference (NPRC) initiated by the Obasanjo government in 2005.

This call, which is a challenge to the Goodluck Jonathan administration, could not have come at a more appropriate time, especially considering the President's recent assurance that his administration would go after those who looted the national treasury, no matter how highly placed they may be. But many Nigerians doubt if Dr. Jonathan will summon the will to bring his political benefactor to book.

Dr. Kukah, who also chided critics and civil society groups for not doing enough to ensure that Obasanjo is arraigned, said: "Obasanjo probably will never be the President of Nigeria again, but we should be concerned if Obasanjo deserves to go to prison. Vilifying him doesn't give us (electric) power; it also doesn't get us the criminals that have taken our money, wherever they are. I would have loved to have Obasanjo brought to trial, because then we would know the truth." Besides the scandal ravaging the power sector, which the former President directly supervised, the double standards of the Presidency, under him, in the many established cases of corrupt self-enrichment by key government functionaries during his tenure were mind-boggling.

After the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) unearthed a N56 billion fraud by the former Board of Directors of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), for example, Obasanjo failed to institute any process towards recovering the stolen amount and/or prosecuting the culprits, who were said to be his close political allies. Rather, some of those who served on that board were appointed to other boards subsequently. Before that scandal came to light, back in July 2002, Nigerians had been shocked when the then Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Godwin Kanu Agabi, filed a nolle prosequi (discontinuance of prosecution) on the day an Abuja High Court was scheduled to deliver judgment in a case of alleged embezzlement of N420 million by Dr. Julius Makanjuola, Obasanjo's relation and a Director at the Ministry of Defence.

And in 2006, Nigerians were similarly shell-shocked over the revelation of massive pillaging at the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) allegedly involving Obasanjo and his Deputy, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. This was to be followed by allegations of Obasanjo's involvements in the Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp), which bought over Abuja's NICON Hilton Hotel, the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), and also acquired some oil blocks.

Fr. Kukah's recent call is timely. Nigerians continue till today to endure perennial darkness, with no real clue to the cause of the apparent intractability of the power sector's woes. It is disheartening, in this regard, that like the late President Umaru Yar'Adua, Dr. Jonathan has surrounded himself with some of the key figures that helped ex-President Obasanjo fail so dismally in service delivery. While we commend Jonathan over his appointment of Professor Bath Nnaji as Special Adviser on Power, it must be noted that Mr. Joseph Makoju, a seasoned professional, had held that same position under the Yar'Adua administration and also under the Obasanjo government. In addition, he was PHCN Managing Director for the better part of the latter administration. He ought to be facing intense interrogation over what happened to the alleged misappropriated $16 billion.

And, with discredited functionaries and contractors of the Obasanjo era still hovering around The Presidency and the PHCN, poised to snatch whatever fresh allocations go to the power sector, where is the guarantee that Nigeria will ever have improved electricity supply in the foreseeable future? While we urge the Federal Government to seek out individuals and organizations, locally and abroad, with proven track records in performance and integrity to revive the ailing sector, the issue of the mismanaged billions should not be treated as a 'family affair' of the ruling party. Nigeria's public funds must be accounted for.

Since the National Assembly Probe Committee on the Power scam was itself to be later dragged into the corruption quagmire, we call for a thorough investigation, by the EFCC, into the whereabouts of the vanished power allocations.

The former President, on his part, should cooperate fully with the investigators, in order to clear his name of the strong suspicions surrounding his administration's wasteful disbursement of the $16 billion power sector allocations. There should be no sacred cows, as he used to say while in office. Any preferential treatment of individuals will create the impression that the Nigerian government's commitment to the anti-corruption crusade, economic reform and transparent governance is cosmetic and insincere.

While sleaze in high places thrives, the ordinary citizens' quality of life has remained dismal, infrastructural facilities are decrepit, mass unemployment ravages the land, and poverty sentences the vast majority to a life of unrelieved misery.

Nigeria GSM History

Nigeria GSM History
Auctions and Providers

Granted under Abacha regime: One license granted.

Celia Motophone

http://wiki.ding.net/index.php?title=Nigeria_GSM_History


[size=18pt]Abacha issued first GSM licence [/size]