Transparency International writes Jonathan on corruption rate •As Soyinka, Bakare give FG 2-week ultimatum to prosecute culprits

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Written by Kunle Awosiyan, Lagos Tuesday, 01 May 2012
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[b]THE Transparency International has expressed worry over the scope and speed of corruption in Nigeria this year, saying it is beyond what it has ever dealt with.

This was revealed in an open letter to President Goodluck Jonathan by Fitch and Associates in The Hague, The Netherlands, on behalf of Transparency International.

In the letter, part of which was given to Nigerian Tribune by Save Nigeria Group (SNG), the Transparency International said the scam in Nigeria at present is quite heartbreaking.

It reads: “The problem, Your Excellency, has to do with the rate and scale of scams and corruption probes coming out of Nigeria in 2012.

The scope and speed of corruption in your country this year is beyond anything our client has ever dealt with. When the pension scam broke out, the three specialists working on Nigeria complained about overwork and threatened a law suit against Transparency International because they had to work 23 hours a day from Monday to Sunday just to cope with the figures coming out of that scam.”
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The letter further stated that the Transparency International had to transfer country specialists away from zero or low corruption countries, such as New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Singapore, Norway, The Netherlands, Australia, Switzerland and Canada to Nigeria to ensure that the figures were well scrutinised.

Meanwhile, in their reactions to the letter, Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka and Pastor Tunde Bakare have given the Federal Government a two-week ultimatum to begin the process of prosecuting indicted officials of the oil subsidy and pension scams.

The duo spoke at a news conference tagged, “A diary of executive theft” organised by the Save Nigeria Group, calling on government to do so now or face national protest to be initiated by the group.

The convener of the group, Bakare had read out the House of Representatives committee’s report on the management of petroleum subsidy with various figures, describing it as an organised banditry.

Commending the House for adopting the report, Bakare called on President Jonathan to act on it as he had promised not to spare any indicted official or face the wrath of the people through protest.

Bakare mentioned the governor of Gombe State, Alhaji Ibrahim Dankwambo, who was the Accountant General of the Federation in 2009 and who was alleged to have issued cheques for N999 million in places in 24 hours totalling N127 billion as one of the officials to be prosecuted.

He said: “President Jonathan has played the ostrich by saying that no one indicted would be spared. That is fine for as long as that includes his oil minister, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke and all three ministers of finance, which include Alhaji Mansur Muhktar; Mr Olusegun Aganga and Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, in the period covered by the report.”

Commenting, Soyinka said that the figures read out by Bakare were overwhelming and were yet to be disputed by the indicted people or the government.

He said: “This has gone beyond using the word contempt. This issue is being treated with disdain. It is dehumanisation of ordinary people of Nigeria. Some of us who travel around the world are facing serious humiliation over the country’s situation.”

He called for public examination of various financial scams to be televised. “We want to see how the indicted people would exonerate themselves. We don’t want any kind of kangaroo arrangement,” he said.

Soyinka, who threw his weight behind the two-week ultimatum said that the group would prefer the appointment of a private prosecutor to deal with the prosecution process.

1025: this is the worst govt nigeria has ever seen in the last 50 years.

9ja_I_hail:

cut the crap man,who told you? is this Govt not more transparency than Ibb/OBJ Govt,during the time of these two men who is bakare or save Nigeria group to question the Govt.Even who permit you to verify what oil/petroleum industry of Nigeria does? we are taking GEJ generosity for weakness.This is the best open and transparent Govt Nigeria have ever witness.During the time of our pass presidents who among Nigerians has the ball to step to the street for mass protest? sometimes we Nigeria masses act blind and dump.

Dis Guy: open season on the treasury, free for all country



yea best open lootocracy and very transparently done

PointB: If some of the posters are not doing so out of pure hatred or plain bigotry, they would agree that GEJ regime has been largely transparent in exposing some of these scam. Who will have any idea of the sleaze in the oil industry or pension scam if GEJ had simply ask for his cut and that of his lieutenants.

By allowing various organs of government including the now loud-mouthed House of Reps free hand to do their jobs, Nigerians are now better informed. Presidents like Obj would have covered most of the sleaze, by sacrificing a few who have fallen out of his favour.

I thank president GEJ for his unusual courage and wish him goodluck and he systematically confront the behemoths called corruption in this cesspit of a country. I hope to see the indicted prosecuted and punished. Beyond that I want to see oil blocks which were awarded to cronies of past regimes revoked! They are part of problems.

Dis Guy: open season on the treasury, free for all country



yea best open lootocracy and very transparently done

sheyguy: For those of us who don't know, Amnesty International is a Yoruba/hausa thing oh . . . They hate anything Gej!!! . . . Lol
without a doubt, Gej's attempt to score a cheap political point with corruption has backfired.

DaLover:

Yes ooo this one by TI is authentic, the other one is fake (President Jonathan Has An 81% Approval Rating: Gallup Poll)

PointB: If some of the posters are not doing so out of pure hatred or plain bigotry, they would agree that GEJ regime has been largely transparent in exposing some of these scam. Who will have any idea of the sleaze in the oil industry or pension scam if GEJ had simply ask for his cut and that of his lieutenants.

By allowing various organs of government including the now loud-mouthed House of Reps free hand to do their jobs, Nigerians are now better informed. Presidents like Obj would have covered most of the sleaze, by sacrificing a few who have fallen out of his favour.

I thank president GEJ for his unusual courage and wish him goodluck and he systematically confront the behemoths called corruption in this cesspit of a country. I hope to see the indicted prosecuted and punished. Beyond that I want to see oil blocks which were awarded to cronies of past regimes revoked! They are part of problems.

Dis Guy:

it's just one of the out fall of being a weak leader, GEJ is not allowing various organs free hand he just doesn't know how to actually direct all the initiative, i mean this is a pdp lead govt,where are the result of the probes? cabal this cabal that..... probes didnt start with him, obj actually had people fired,suspended thats result, that's a deterrent to many coming after them, straight from the top,

what do we get with this one? You sometimes get the feeling of 'abeg make them shout, that's what they are good at,this is democracy' as long as files reach AGF cupboard and him throway keys for him London pad.

Where is the PIB in a house thats solidly pdp, how many nnpc are we going to have? how many speech as he actually made against corruption, what steps has he actually taken to reduce govt wastage? this guy doesn't want to ruffle feathers in the slightest, he is not even trying to step on toes.

PointB: If some of the posters are not doing so out of pure hatred or plain bigotry, they would agree that GEJ regime has been largely transparent in exposing some of these scam. Who will have any idea of the sleaze in the oil industry or pension scam if GEJ had simply ask for his cut and that of his lieutenants.

By allowing various organs of government including the now loud-mouthed House of Reps free hand to do their jobs, Nigerians are now better informed. Presidents like Obj would have covered most of the sleaze, by sacrificing a few who have fallen out of his favour.

I thank president GEJ for his unusual courage and wish him goodluck and he systematically confront the behemoths called corruption in this cesspit of a country. I hope to see the indicted prosecuted and punished. Beyond that I want to see oil blocks which were awarded to cronies of past regimes revoked! They are part of problems.

9ja_I_hail:

cut the crap man,who told you? is this Govt not more transparency [/b]than Ibb/OBJ Govt,during the time of these two men who is bakare or save Nigeria group to question the Govt.Even who permit you to verify what oil/petroleum industry of Nigeria does? [b]we are taking GEJ generosity for weakness.[/b]This is the best open and transparent Govt Nigeria have ever witness.During the time of our pass presidents who among Nigerians has the ball to step to the street for mass protest? sometimes we Nigeria masses act blind[b] and dump.

PointB: If some of the posters are not doing so out of pure hatred or plain bigotry, they would agree that GEJ regime has been largely transparent in exposing some of these scam. Who will have any idea of the sleaze in the oil industry or pension scam if GEJ had simply ask for his cut and that of his lieutenants.

By allowing various organs of government including the now loud-mouthed House of Reps free hand to do their jobs, Nigerians are now better informed. Presidents like Obj would have covered most of the sleaze, by sacrificing a few who have fallen out of his favour.

I thank president GEJ for his unusual courage and wish him goodluck and he systematically confront the behemoths called corruption in this cesspit of a country. I hope to see the indicted prosecuted and punished. Beyond that I want to see oil blocks which were awarded to cronies of past regimes revoked! They are part of problems.

9ja_I_hail:

cut the crap man,who told you? is this Govt not more transparency than Ibb/OBJ Govt,during the time of these two men who is bakare or save Nigeria group to question the Govt.Even who permit you to verify what oil/petroleum industry of Nigeria does? we are taking GEJ generosity for weakness.This is the best open and transparent Govt Nigeria have ever witness.During the time of our pass presidents who among Nigerians has the ball to step to the street for mass protest? sometimes we Nigeria masses act blind and dump.

babaowo: This is an opportunity for GEJ. To be a hero, if he can just let this culprits be prosecute.

"It reads: “The problem, Your Excellency, has to do with the rate and scale of scams and corruption probes coming out of Nigeria in 2012.

The scope and speed of corruption in your country this year is beyond anything our client has ever dealt with. When the pension scam broke out, the three specialists working on Nigeria complained about overwork and threatened a law suit against Transparency International because they had to work 23 hours a day from Monday to Sunday just to cope with the figures coming out of that scam.”

PointB: If some of the posters are not doing so out of pure hatred or plain bigotry, they would agree that GEJ regime has been largely transparent in exposing some of these scam. Who will have any idea of the sleaze in the oil industry or pension scam if GEJ had simply ask for his cut and that of his lieutenants.

By allowing various organs of government including the now loud-mouthed House of Reps free hand to do their jobs, Nigerians are now better informed. Presidents like Obj would have covered most of the sleaze, by sacrificing a few who have fallen out of his favour.

I thank president GEJ for his unusual courage and wish him goodluck and he systematically confront the behemoths called corruption in this cesspit of a country. I hope to see the indicted prosecuted and punished. Beyond that I want to see oil blocks which were awarded to cronies of past regimes revoked! They are part of problems.

Mmuo Okija: DID people bother to understand what that report was saying at all?!

They said and I quote



Now what I dont understand is wether they are complaining about the corrution probes (Pension and Subsidy probes) or that corrution has been unusually high this year. Now if it is the former, then they are talking rubbish as both probes are dealing with matters that have been in existence long before even the late Yaradua regime and they should be complimenting Jonathan for exposing them.

If it is the latter then they need to provide facts and figure to back their claims of corruption being on the increase in Nigeria.

CyberG:

I think you are the ONLY one blind and dumb here but I will show you: No doubt, IBB was a corrupt leader but WAY smarter than the scum dumb Jonathan who is SO CORRUPT everyone around him can steal anything and will NEVER be prosecuted or punished, why? Because Jonathan is a bigger thief and even his wife had enough to steal with the $12 M stolen while he was Bayelsa Deputy Governor. Bad as he was the protests of 1993 effectively sent him out of power. Add extensive legal cases by Gani, public and targeted protests by Fela et al, many protests in Nigerian universities, did you say NO one looked IBB in the face? You must be very silly!

OBJ: Another imperfect and corrupt man comes along! But NO sane guy will compare Odechukwu Retardeen to OBJ who was not even preferred by his people. For all his faults, under his administration, Nigeria enjoyed its most recent and strongest economic bourgeois with Banks, Telecoms, Oil & Gas companies coming to Nigerian Universities to recruit new graduates. Nigeria for the first time had a voice in the international community, corruption was significantly on the downward trend, Nigeria could attend international events and see OBJ confidently and powerfully engage even presidents of the leading countries in the world without blinking, the Paris Club debt was negotiated successfully, Foreign Reserves grown to $ 60 B, Excess Crude Account around $ 30 B (correct me people if I am wrong and I will edit this), Nigerians abroad actually moved home from foreign countries, militancy was put down, out rightly corrupt people were shoved down and EFCC had its glory years, and I could go on.

Now tell me what this accursed fisherman bastard retardeen has done since he became VP? Even dead Yaradua is better than this excuse of a lunatic! Under OBJ, people accuse him of wasting $16 B on power contracts that were not executed or so and I am not here to speak for him but did you read what El-Rufai had to say in an interview on the issue, how the clueless leaders stopped the on-going work costing Nigeria more billions? Now that is in 8 years but in Odechukwu's 1st Year, ~2 Trillion Naira has been stolen when you consider the subsidy scam, pension, the frittering away of the $60 Billion foreign reserve which is almost depleted despite high all prices and ECA that now stands at < $5 Billion. You SEE you are totally MAD to compare OBJ to this FOOL that deserves to executed in the next COUP??

maclatunji: Transparency international is telling GEJ that their accountants' staff are complaining and asking for overtime payments because the amounts of stolen monies they have to count is too large this year! They have had to transfer staff from countries where there is very little stolen money to count and transferring them to Nigeria that has now become the corruption capital of the world under GEJ.

This movie will not have a happy ending if it continues like this.