fxskye:




WHO IS AFRAID OF BUHARI? 

Despite serving in senior capacity in the oil sector, first as Minister for Petroleum and then Petroleum Trust Fund, Buhari has no petrol station, much less a rig, refinery or an oil block like so many of our so called leaders.
He could have retired into nauseating opulence like most of his counterparts (IBB or Danjuma or even OBJ) but didn't.
Instead of hobnobbing with the high and mighty, he has cast his lot with the ordinary man most of who follow him out

barcanista:
I assume that you made an innocent statement from your fair judgement. Please can you tell us what makes GMB the bold?

Ibnsultan:
#GejOut

rhymz:
Another lie you lot like to tell to yourselves. You honestly believ that Buhari did not profit from heading any of these agencies or there was no accusation of corrupt enrichment?

Have we all forgotten that as commissioner (minister) of petroleum, 2.8 million dollars (billions in today’s currency) went missing under his watch. Till date they say he was not the thief. Others stole it. Okay oh! At this juncture, I think it is imperative that we discuss his chairmanship of PTF:

Gen. Buhari was Executive Chairman of the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund from its inception in 1994, to its disbandment by the Obasanjo administration in 1999. According to the report of the Interim Management Committee, which was set up in that year to investigate the affairs of the Fund, the total income accruing to the Fund from mid-1994 to July 1999 was in excess of[b] N181 billion[/b]. There were six major areas in which the PTF intervened directly during the period. They were: roads and waterways; supply of educational materials and rehabilitation of educational infrastructure; food supply; health; water supply; and what was curiously termed other projects.

The management structure of the Fund was so capricious, from start, as in retrospect to suggest that the executive chairman was far more impressed by his position as an alternate Head of State, an Interventionist Czar who was answerable to no one, not even the Head of State himself, than anything else. First, he unilaterally appointed a single consultant, Afri-Projects Consortium, as the sole adviser to the Fund. Then he delegated virtually all his powers to this agency. Afri-Projects Consortium was given the exclusive power to initiate projects, assess their probable cost, approve the costs, execute the projects, and assess the quality of execution, all alone. The Consortium's decisions could not be questioned by anyone outside the Fund. Even the statutory members of the Fund's Board of Trustees found themselves helplessly watching as huge sums of money were paid out for questionable projects. And not surprisingly, the three professional management firms recruited by the Interim Management Committee to audit the performance of Afri-Projects Consortium came up with the unanimous conclusion that APC had over-charged the Fund for its services to the tune of over N2 billion.

APC directly managed the HIV/AIDS Intervention Programme of the Fund. Its managerial incompetence was found to be staggering. It knowingly imported sub-standard, poorly packaged, poorly stored, expired, or soon to expire treatment kits and drugs. And in the end, the auditing firms that investigated APC's performance concluded that it had cost the government N579 million by stocking huge silos of useless drugs and kits, purchased at inflated prices.

PTF's intervention in other areas of the health sector was equally atrocious. For instance, under the supervision of the omnipotent APC, PTF purchased large quantities of spectacle frames which were at the time costing only N800 a piece locally, for N1,900 a piece. This cost the public treasury over N45 million in inflated charges.

Ambulances whose going price at the time was N3 million each were found to have been purchased for N13 million each, leading to a loss to the treasury of N900 million.

PTF, through APC, purchased general drugs at the cost of N3 billion. The Interim Management Committee's consultants concluded that the Fund had been cheated by as much as N1.5 billion through inflated charges, and because most of the drugs had already expired before they could be safely used.

The Interim Committee's consultants also discovered that PTF had decided, without approval from the government, to build a residential estate in Wuse, Abuja, a project which was clearly outside the scope of its intervention mandate. The project purportedly cost PTF N703 million. But the consultants concluded that a realistic valuation of the project could not exceed N328 million. The project cost was inflated by more than 100 per cent, at N375 million.

In virtually every other area of PTF activity, three separate consultants engaged by the Interim Committee, and working independently, concluded that there had been massive fraud or criminal mismanagement of funds belonging to Buhari's empire. The Headquarters Extension and Renovation Project of the PTF cost the Fund N461 million. The consultants determined that it should not have cost more than N326 million. The Fund had been defrauded by N135 million.

The PTF had three main bank accounts. The independent consultants concluded that the Fund had been short-changed by as much as N3.6 billion by way of short payment of interest accruals from deposits, or excessive charges on Cost of Turnover by preferred banks.

The Rural Water Supply Scheme was another funnel from which huge sums of money were siphoned away. The independent consultants determined that as much as N1 billion was recoverable from inflated costs and mobilisations for work that was never done. They discovered, also, that the Fund had lost as much as N900 million in the Educational Materials Supply Scheme, through inflated charges and non-performance of contracts duly paid for.

The Rural Telecommunications Development Scheme was another such scheme from which money was cynically carted away by favoured clients. The scheme was designed in two parts: a Pilot Phase, and the Main Phase. The Pilot programme was intended to determine the viability of the project. But this did not deter PFF, under Gen. Buhari, to award contracts for the main programme to the tune of N1.6 billion, without any contracts signed, and before any conclusions could be drawn from the Pilot project.

It is a horrendous story of criminal negligence, cynical fraud, and unprecedented disregard for all civilised standards of prudence and transparency in the disbursement of public funds. In the end, the independent consultants concluded that of the N181 billion that accrued to PTF in the four and a half years of its existence between July 1994 and July 1999, as much as N25 billion was either stolen or improperly expended.

The great man's defence

Sources from within the PTF Interim Management Committee assert that when Gen. Buhari was invited to comment on the findings of the committee's consultants regarding the conduct of the empire over which he presided, he coyly retorted that he was not aware that such massive fraud went on his watch, but that in any event, he could not have benefited personally from the hideous purloining of the treasury.

That may be true, but it does not detract from the fact that he delegated to this outfit the sole and exclusive power to initiate projects, assess those submitted by other companies, approve variations on contract sums, and determine the quality of work done. He also, by his own admission, according to our sources, approved in writing all recommended payments from the Fund. But he did not know, he claimed, that those to whom he had delegated virtually all his powers were stealing the country blind. And no one has a right to call him to account, since to do so would be to question his famous reputation. So much for a clean slate, no nonsense leader.

karlmax2:
i hope you know that a countries external debt includes those borrowed by states ? And Nigerians know the states that has mogaged the life of their unborn children with loans to service the ego of a certain Tinubu.this debt includes the one FASHOLE collected for school project he didn't do and ran to court when asked to account for it the one fayemi used to buy that 50million naira bed was also part of the debt and the ameachis private jet too.
So don't make it seem as if the debt is federal government alone .it includes the loans fg signed off for states

soludo93:
@OP; bigots like you present this kind of selective statistics to deceive gullible people who do not mind salient details. OBJ and Yar'adua spent less money on nothing but GEJ spent more monies on tangible transformation projects. who's a waster: you spent #1m on nothing but I spent #100m to fix light substantially, aviation, agriculture, energy and paid up #200m u promised education sector and failed to give them within your regrettable tenure?

barcanista:
It is very clear that Goodluck Jonathan government is ruining Nigeria's economy, destroying what Presidents Obasanjo and Umaru Musa Yar Adua managed to build.




MODIFIED:
Thank you seun and team for the FP.

rhymz:
Another lie you lot like to tell to yourselves. You honestly believ that Buhari did not profit from heading any of these agencies or there was no accusation of corrupt enrichment?

Have we all forgotten that as commissioner (minister) of petroleum, 2.8 million dollars (billions in today’s currency) went missing under his watch. Till date they say he was not the thief. Others stole it. Okay oh! At this juncture, I think it is imperative that we discuss his chairmanship of PTF:

Gen. Buhari was Executive Chairman of the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund from its inception in 1994, to its disbandment by the Obasanjo administration in 1999. According to the report of the Interim Management Committee, which was set up in that year to investigate the affairs of the Fund, the total income accruing to the Fund from mid-1994 to July 1999 was in excess of N181 billion. There were six major areas in which the PTF intervened directly during the period. They were: roads and waterways; supply of educational materials and rehabilitation of educational infrastructure; food supply; health; water supply; and what was curiously termed other projects.

The management structure of the Fund was so capricious, from start, as in retrospect to suggest that the executive chairman was far more impressed by his position as an alternate Head of State, an Interventionist Czar who was answerable to no one, not even the Head of State himself, than anything else. First, he unilaterally appointed a single consultant, Afri-Projects Consortium, as the sole adviser to the Fund. Then he delegated virtually all his powers to this agency. Afri-Projects Consortium was given the exclusive power to initiate projects, assess their probable cost, approve the costs, execute the projects, and assess the quality of execution, all alone. The Consortium's decisions could not be questioned by anyone outside the Fund. Even the statutory members of the Fund's Board of Trustees found themselves helplessly watching as huge sums of money were paid out for questionable projects. And not surprisingly, the three professional management firms recruited by the Interim Management Committee to audit the performance of Afri-Projects Consortium came up with the unanimous conclusion that APC had over-charged the Fund for its services to the tune of over N2 billion.

APC directly managed the HIV/AIDS Intervention Programme of the Fund. Its managerial incompetence was found to be staggering. It knowingly imported sub-standard, poorly packaged, poorly stored, expired, or soon to expire treatment kits and drugs. And in the end, the auditing firms that investigated APC's performance concluded that it had cost the government N579 million by stocking huge silos of useless drugs and kits, purchased at inflated prices.

PTF's intervention in other areas of the health sector was equally atrocious. For instance, under the supervision of the omnipotent APC, PTF purchased large quantities of spectacle frames which were at the time costing only N800 a piece locally, for N1,900 a piece. This cost the public treasury over N45 million in inflated charges.

Ambulances whose going price at the time was N3 million each were found to have been purchased for N13 million each, leading to a loss to the treasury of N900 million.

PTF, through APC, purchased general drugs at the cost of N3 billion. The Interim Management Committee's consultants concluded that the Fund had been cheated by as much as N1.5 billion through inflated charges, and because most of the drugs had already expired before they could be safely used.

The Interim Committee's consultants also discovered that PTF had decided, without approval from the government, to build a residential estate in Wuse, Abuja, a project which was clearly outside the scope of its intervention mandate. The project purportedly cost PTF N703 million. But the consultants concluded that a realistic valuation of the project could not exceed N328 million. The project cost was inflated by more than 100 per cent, at N375 million.

In virtually every other area of PTF activity, three separate consultants engaged by the Interim Committee, and working independently, concluded that there had been massive fraud or criminal mismanagement of funds belonging to Buhari's empire. The Headquarters Extension and Renovation Project of the PTF cost the Fund N461 million. The consultants determined that it should not have cost more than N326 million. The Fund had been defrauded by N135 million.

The PTF had three main bank accounts. The independent consultants concluded that the Fund had been short-changed by as much as N3.6 billion by way of short payment of interest accruals from deposits, or excessive charges on Cost of Turnover by preferred banks.

The Rural Water Supply Scheme was another funnel from which huge sums of money were siphoned away. The independent consultants determined that as much as N1 billion was recoverable from inflated costs and mobilisations for work that was never done. They discovered, also, that the Fund had lost as much as N900 million in the Educational Materials Supply Scheme, through inflated charges and non-performance of contracts duly paid for.

The Rural Telecommunications Development Scheme was another such scheme from which money was cynically carted away by favoured clients. The scheme was designed in two parts: a Pilot Phase, and the Main Phase. The Pilot programme was intended to determine the viability of the project. But this did not deter PFF, under Gen. Buhari, to award contracts for the main programme to the tune of N1.6 billion, without any contracts signed, and before any conclusions could be drawn from the Pilot project.

It is a horrendous story of criminal negligence, cynical fraud, and unprecedented disregard for all civilised standards of prudence and transparency in the disbursement of public funds. In the end, the independent consultants concluded that of the N181 billion that accrued to PTF in the four and a half years of its existence between July 1994 and July 1999, as much as N25 billion was either stolen or improperly expended.

The great man's defence

Sources from within the PTF Interim Management Committee assert that when Gen. Buhari was invited to comment on the findings of the committee's consultants regarding the conduct of the empire over which he presided, he coyly retorted that he was not aware that such massive fraud went on his watch, but that in any event, he could not have benefited personally from the hideous purloining of the treasury.

That may be true, but it does not detract from the fact that he delegated to this outfit the sole and exclusive power to initiate projects, assess those submitted by other companies, approve variations on contract sums, and determine the quality of work done. He also, by his own admission, according to our sources, approved in writing all recommended payments from the Fund. But he did not know, he claimed, that those to whom he had delegated virtually all his powers were stealing the country blind. And no one has a right to call him to account, since to do so would be to question his famous reputation. So much for a clean slate, no nonsense leader.

aguiyi:


The relationship is clear, you are trying so hard to discredit the president who is most favored by the masses for a second term.

Several threads have been opened just to regain the image battered today by datolee, Buhari is not sellable

EmmyDe25:

Yeah, masses from the south south and south east.

rhymz:
Your frustrations knows no bounds.... Are masses from the south South and Southeast not Nigerians. Or you think you are more Nigerian than me because you are Yoruba or support APC because it has Yoruba roots?
You lot always want to tell others how to vote and whom to vote as if you are divinely privy to know who has got all the answers to Nigeria's problem. Majority of you shouting Buhari don't even know jack about the man, let those of us that lived through his regime educate you on some real life issues. The man is neither an intelligent mind or as pius as he likes to portray himself. In all fairness to Jonathan, in comparison Buhari is a loser not just because he has serially lost in all his three attempt but because he has been in government longer than Jonathan and can't even point out any legacy he left yet ignoramuses like you want to Lord it over others that he is the best thing since slice bread.

okoolori:


Show us yours statistics and facts table to proof your points. Don't come here and starts arguing unnecessarily coz ur town man or pay master has been exposed? Where are your facts,bro? #teamsaythefactasitis

LouisVanGaal:
.. have you ever tried for once to type 'GEJ' on google and see the results?? such as 'Incompetent' , 'Clueless', 'Corrupt' , 'Irresponsible' and etc I saw you earlier before NOW as an erudite! But all has waned cos of a statement..'I would rather Continue with GEJ than Buhari'...it's dude like you that REUTERS were actually referring to, when they insulted us and our so-called democracy...isn't it crass stupidity??, you are complaining bitterly about a 'situation'..kk, do something about it, and you saying you would manage it!

Ezemust:
u r just saying shit to make ur self happy. who will buy dat crap.

kulumo:

You can see the next generation leaders, instead of leaning and seeing things from the right perspectives, they resorted into sentiments and denial. Its unfortunate that generation yet unborn will never be bouyant enough to pay the debt of Jonathan and Okonjo. Its a shame; a big one at that. And the fools will still vote for him. By the time Okonjo n Jonathan finish with Nigeria Economy; even Liberia will be better, except something is done urgently. My opinion.

barcanista:
You funny bros. So you assume that only those from the North are against Jona? Well, Jonathan is my fellow Izon

EmmyDe25:

Dude, quite the noise, cos all i hear is sound bytes. Cant even make a sense out of the lame epistle you wrote. First of, there is no how South South and South East could be likened or used in exchange for the word 'masses' which youve been using losely. unless ofcourse you dont understand what the word means in its truest sense.
Secondly, you said Buhari isnt as intelligent as he tends to portray, he never claimed to be intelligent. But the fact is; he isnt as daft and clueless as a supposed PHD holder who under his watch the country seem to be heading into doldrum.
PS: Nobody is asking you not to vote for whoever you so pleases, but dont be out selling to us a failed administration by hoodwinking the poor masses of the figment called transformation agenda which only exist on papers or better still Bayelsa state.

tk22ng:
BETWEEN JONATHAN AND BUHARI

From the responses of so many people to this Buhari/Jonathan presidential contest, I noticed that those who love Buhari love him for cogent reasons like

1. He is principled
2. Criminals in power fear him
3. He will make Nigerians sit up
4. He has the political will to confront issues.
5. He has the incorruptibility that we need
5. No one can point fingers at him for anything.
6. The allegations against him are mere 'dem say.'

Those who speak for Jonathan have these to say
1. He dey try. He dey do im best.
2. Na Christian. We don't want to vote for a Northern Muslim who is pro-Boko Haram.
3. We can't trust Buhari, he is a jihadist.
4. We don't want Nigeria to be like Iraq, Egypt, Iran, Syria, etc.
5. ISIS, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram are children of the same mother. Buhari is their sponsor!

Until now, no one has said he will vote Jonathan because he is competent! Jonathan propagandists know that he is a weakling, clueless, unfit and undeserving of another term but if he would be replaced, NOT Buhari. Why? Sentiments!

Every Nigerian Christian know that Buhari, though a Muslim, is many many many many times better than Jonathan who carries a Christian tag. But they are scared to give him a chance for fear and suspicion of his unfounded Islamic commitments.

I am yet to see any thing Jonathan has done to better the lot of Christians either in Abuja or Nigeria in general. Mention one!

May God open our eyes to leave ringworm and tackle our cognate leprosy

anonimi:


Many of us continue to show utter cluelessness about the meaning and working of government in a democracy.
Have you factored Sanusi's statement that our SINators and representaTHIEVES (of whom APC's latest convert 'Saint" Tambuwal is Speaker) spend 25% of our budget before typing "GEJ's government"

For those who may wish to understand more about the mechanisms of defending a national currency =>



In all your getting, get knowledge that begets WISDOM

fxskye:




WHO IS AFRAID OF BUHARI? 
I write this because of millions of Nigerians who are below 30 and who constitute a significant chunk of our voting population.
This is the ICT generation that is largely ignorant about the events of the Buhari era (1984-85) and so can be
misinformed and misled by needless propaganda. I have sat with many in the under-30 bracket and those slightly above who only have faint recollections of the Buhari era and the level of ignorance about that era is amazing.

Before being MILITARY Head of State, Buhari had been Governor of one of the Northern States (under Obasanjo’s Military government) as well as Minister for Petroleum. He later served as Chairman of PTF under Abacha.

Please consider the following unassailable facts:
He birthed and supervised the establishment of our existing refineries.
There was no religious crisis while he was Head of State. It started under his successor IBB!
In his time as Head of State he reduced inflation from 23% to 4%, by fiscal discipline and a homegrown economic team (not achieved under any other era, even military).
JJ Rawlings of Ghana took over 2yrs before him, and killed all the corrupt leaders, while Buhari only sentenced the corrupt leaders here to prison.
Under his watch as PTF Chairman, what he did in road construction in that short period hasn't been matched by almost 16yrs of the PDP rule.
Hospitals and universities around the country never witnessed as much benefits as they got from the PTF from any government after or before his time.
Despite serving in senior capacity in the oil sector, first as Minister for Petroleum and then Petroleum Trust Fund, Buhari has no petrol station, much less a rig, refinery or an oil block like so many of our so called leaders.
He could have retired into nauseating opulence like most of his counterparts (IBB or Danjuma or even OBJ) but didn't.
Instead of hobnobbing with the high and mighty, he has cast his lot with the ordinary man most of who follow him out

Opiosko:
Lol! It's not about having access to more money, but what u are doing with the money. How much has GeJ used to reform ur amajiri terrorists recruitment camps to rescue northern children and give them a future?.. How much has been spent in reforming our military to help counter Buhari islamic insurgency?.....

zurine:
But this same administration has started and completed six federal universities, increasedand cleared all outstanding ASUU arrears, increased minimum wage from 11,500 to 19,500, updated military hardware etc, without incurring higher debts.

karlmax2:
buhari is not only daft he is also a coward and a fraud !!!! If Buhari is not a fraud and a coward why did he run to court when he was asked to come and give account of his stewardship both as the PTF chairman and as a president? How is his morality and uprightness better than that of babangida who also went to court to stop him from appearing on the panel too .apart from this two, other heads of state that were alive went to that panel to render account of their stewardship apart from Buhari and ibb.yet kids like you would want us to believe that this crook is upright and not corrupt.

barcanista:
NIGERIA BUDGET UNDER Obasanjo, YAR ADUA AND JONATHAN.
OBASANJO
2005.. N1.8trn
2006.. 1.9 trn
2007.. 2.3 trn

He left foreign reserve from less than 2 billion to 45 billon dollars and our debt was reduced from 30billion to 3 billion dollars. Despite the Oil Price

Yar Adua...

2008... N3.5trn
2009... N3.7trn

Pause: There was downwad in Oil Price, Plus he restored the subsidy removed by Obasanjo. He still left a Good fortune in the reserve and had a almost zero external debt(on his own)

Jonathan

2010... 4.6 trn

2012... 4.48 trn

2012... 4.7 trn

2013... 4.99 trillion

2014... Over 5 trillion

Pause: Jonathan enjoyed increased oil price, he partially removed subsidy, yet the country's debt was increased by almost 3b dollars and our reserve heveily depleted. On a very good ground, the reserve should be soaring High.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/01/fg-states-lgas-squander-n80-trn-in-9-years/

anonimi:


Just looking at this thread again.
It would be useful to see how the 36 state governments budgets have also progressed in the past five years and their total debt profile. I am sure you know that the Federation Account that contains Niger Delta oil revenue is shared by all these 36 states and 774 LGAs.
Cheers.

barcanista:
how does that absolve Jonathan?