There are strong indications that the Presidency has signified interest to fully implement the report of the Senate Ad hoc Committee that probed the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE). UCHENNA AWOM writes that the sudden interest may not be enough political will for a hapless presidency.

Could it be that the presidency has been pummelled out of its self-imposed cocoon to begin to mull the full implementation of the probe report of the Senate Ad hoc Committee?

The committee had probed the activities of the commercialization and privatization activities of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) since inception to date. At the end of the painstaking investigation, which involved site visits of various blue chip public enterprises that were sold ignominiously and public hearings, the probe panel courageously turned in a 42 point recommendation.

The recommendations were adopted by the Senate last year wherein the lawmakers approved the immediate sack of Ms Onagoruwa for her alleged involvement in privatization scam.

However, indications emerged late last week that the presidency has called for the clean copy of the report to enable it to forensically study the findings and the recommendations, which observers believed was far reaching enough, with the aim of implementing it. So the question is: what may have propelled the new thinking in the presidency? Perhaps the people or is it intuitive?

Well, the findings were that President Goodluck Jonathan was said to have directed his Vice, Arch Nnamadi Sambo, to commence full scale implementation of the report.

It was gathered that the Vice President, who is the Chairman of the National Privatization Council (NPC), may have in turn asked the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Pius Anyim to raise a team to implement the report of the committee.

“I can confirm to you that the new copy has reached the president’s table now and the government is set to do something”, the source said.

It was also gathered that the presidency would follow the due process in implementing any report from the National Assembly.

The import of the declaration is that the recommendations could still be subjected to further investigation by the agencies with the aim of establishing criminal breach. Such development later will not only strengthen the hands of the president, but will also be pivotal in their final decision on the matter.

A large section of the Nigerian public has variously scoffed this approach, insinuating that it usually turns out to be a cover by government to sweep such matters under the carpet.

Why the sudden interest?
Well, observers opined that the ordered implementation may have been stoked by what insiders say is a renewed discussion between the Senate leadership and the President on the report.

The Senate had in a recent reaction through its spokesman, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe asked the executive to look at the report now and very seriously too.

According to Abaribe, the constitution only empowers the Senate to expose corruption through public hearing adding that it was the duty of the executive to implement the report of probe committees.

If that is the case then the embattled Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Ms Bolanle Onagoruwa, Former minister of Federal Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, and others allegedly indicted in the privatization scam may yet warm up for a prolonged date with the people’s court.

They will need lots of convincing to pull Nigerians to their side, though political victimization allusion has always served as a fall back defence mechanism for indicted persons, but this time may present a hard scenario that would make it difficult to sway the Nigerian public.

The strident call for the implementation of the fuel subsidy probe report in the House of Representatives and the anticipated report of the pension scam in the Senate have toughened the public’s resolve to demand that examples must be set this time.

It was, however, not possible to confirm if the planned implementation committee will consider the over 42 recommendations of the Senator Ahmed Lawan led committee. But what is certain according to a source was that the ordered implementation of the report has put the BPE in quandary and may have also unsettled the BPE boss and her predecessors in office.

That notwithstanding, the renewed interest by the presidency to implement the report may have also put to rest, speculations about the where-about of the probe panel report. Before now, speculations were rife that the report got lost in-between its transition from National Assembly and the Presidential Villa.

The report and the Senate resolution
It could be recalled that the Senate had earlier in a resolution approved the immediate sack of Ms Onagoruwa ‘for illegal and fraudulent sale of five percent residual shares of the federal government in Eleme Petrochemical Company Limited (EPCL).

The call for her sack was one of the high points of the recommendation of the committee report. The Senate also specifically ordered the National Council of Privatization (NCP) to cancel forthwith the sale of Daily Times of Nigeria to Folio communication, the Nicon Luxury hotel to Mr Jimo Ibrahim for the failure of the core investor to inject at least an additional N2 billion for the furnishing of the hotel to a five star hotel.

Jimoh Ibrahim owner of Nicon Insurance was also asked to refund the sum of N900 million to the federal government as money paid by BPE for the recapitalization of the company in 2007 and another N1billion paid by BPE for the recapitalization of Nigeria Re-insurance plc.

It also recommended the immediate cancellation of the sale of Transcorp Hilton, Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Abuja, Delta steel company to Global Infrastructure Holding, the Aluminum Smelting Company of Nigeria(ALSCON) to Dayson Holding BV .

The BPE was specifically asked to source for sum of N2.7billion to settle all outstanding staff liabilities in ALSCON , another N5.2billion to pay Delta steel company and N73million for the Federal Superphosphate Fertilizer Company.

The Senator Ahmad Lawan led committee also directed the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) to further investigate the alleged fraud being “perpetuated against the nation at VON Automobile Nigeria Limited premises in Lagos by Barbedos venture limited (BVI)”.

That the taxes and import duties accruable to the federal government on all imported goods smuggled into the warehouses of VON automobile Nigeria limited should be computed and recovered by the Customs services. The committee also asked the EFCC to conduct a full scale investigation into the sale of Daily times Plc by the BPE.

It specifically asked the anti-graft agency to recover all assets sold to folio. The agency according to the committee should also work with the BPE to recover the sum of $70million of African Petroleum looted by the former head of finance and account of the company Mr M.O. Ajayi and former treasurer of the company Mr Pius Idigo.

The report specifically recommended that “the former director general of BPE, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai , Dr Julius Bala and Mrs Irene Chigbue should be reprimanded by the National Privatization Council for seeking approval directly from the president instead of NCP as stipulated in the public enterprise Act of 1999”.

The public pressures have become cacophonic and of course the presidency cannot afford to look away. So, they may weigh in to the current reality and what the present circumstance portends in the polity.

It, therefore, behoves the President and his top apparatchik to begin to do things that will elicit some level of public support as can be explicated with the kind of endorsement given to the report of the fuel subsidy scam in the House of Representatives.

Whatever may be the case, the President’s readiness to act this time will sure rekindle some level of optimism, yet the public can only wait and continue to hope.