Here's an Article from Newswatch in 2000 on how saint Buhari ran the PTF with allegations of mismanagement, nepotism and plenty missing funds. Squandering N135 billion which is almost N1 trillion Naira equivalent today. N500m still missing.

Interim Management Committee on PTF raises questions over some of the transactions it considers irregular during the tenure of retired Major-General Muhammadu Buhari

How did N500 million belonging to the Petroleum Trust Fund, PTF, disappear mysteriously? That is one of the questions being raised in the preliminary report of the Interim Management Committee, IMC-PTF, set up by President Olusegun Obasanjo to wind-down the activities of the organisation.

Newswatch gathered that the money was put in a bank by the erstwhile management led by Muhammadu Buhari, retired major-general and former head of state. But when the IMC-PTF took over the operations of the body, it discovered that the money had been withdrawn by unidentified persons.

Haroun Adamu, executive chairman of IMF-PTF who confirmed the story, said: “They took in N500 million but by the time we came in, there was no one kobo from the deposit.” According to Newswatch investigations, both the bank and Buhari were dragged before President Obasanjo who insisted that the money must be recovered. Adamu told Newswatch in Abuja a fortnight ago that the bank has now agreed to pay back the money in seven years but his committee insists that the money should be refunded as soon as possible. Adamu neither named of the bank nor say whether or not Buhari was personally involved in the matter.

The mysterious withdrawal of the money is one of the allegations levelled against the Buhari-led past administration of PTF by the IMC which seems to have put the four-year tenure of Buhari as the executive chairman of PTF under intensive searchlight. Although Adamu insists that Buhari is not under probe, he said that a technical audit/verification exercise being carried out by the committee shows that a lot of ugly things had taken place under the acclaimed no-nonsense retired army general.

The committee is asking questions about several contracts worth N207 billion awarded by PTF under Buhari. It is also raising serious doubts over different payments totalling N135.59 billion made by the Fund for various projects, leaving a debt burden of more than N70 billion owed numerous contractors, consultants, manufacturers, publishers andsuppliers who are now waging a big war against the IMC-PTF.

Some of the other unwholesome things dug up by the IMC include the “unholy” alliance that existed between the Buhari led PTF and Afri-Project Consortium, APC, a private consultancy company, which literally and exclusively ran the affairs of the fund, and the alleged over-inflation of contract sums such as the one involving the N650 million extension of the PTF headquarters in Abuja; IMC is also alledging serious contractual anomaly in the N800 million PTF staff housing estate; importation of expired drugs especially the N28 billion HIV/AIDS screening and confirmation kits as well as the mysterious disappearance of the N500 million.

The missing money, in fact, exposed the kind of “unholy” business relationship that existed between PTF of the Buhari era and APC led by late Salihijo Ahmad, a 42-year old businessman from Adamawa State. Newswatch learnt that the APC consultants virtually managed PTF. Infact, a report prepared by the IMC showed that APC was really in charge, not Buhari. “When the IMC took over the management of PTF, there were no contract documents, drawings, or specifications relating to committed projects within the premises of PTF headquarters. All that were available were lists of projects and programmes in the following sectors: roads and road transportation, water supply, education, food supply, health and other projects. The client as is mandatory in all contractual relationships, is expected to have in his possession, the client’s copies of all documents relating to projects on which payments have been made. In PTF, this was not so,” the report stated.

It went further to say that “all documents (including the mandatory client’s copies) were in possession of Afri-Project Consortium, APC, who were appointed as the sole management consultants to PTF.” APC was also said to be responsible for the corporate development and recruitment of staff for PTF.

The IMC report said that PTF in its operation was not functioning as a government agency in the real sense. “APC was actually the real PTF and yet it was a private company,” it lamented. One area of the PTF-APC alliance that worried the Adamu-led committee was the fact that Buhari delegated his powers as executive chairman of PTF to the APC. The IMC also discovered that the “power of the engineer” which normally should reside with the client (PTF) was delegated to APC through a letter. “With this power of the engineer, APC was able to award contracts and vary same without any reference to PTF,” the IMC report stated.

Newswatch gathered that PTF had about 620 consultancy firms reported to the APC, which had the sole responsibility for the issuance of certificates for payments by PTF. Indeed, too much power and responsibilities were said to have been given to the APC. Adamu told Newswatch that the situation created a scenario where proper procedures were not followed in the award of contracts. Some of the contracts, it was gathered, were inflated by more than 100 percent. In many cases, no bidding was taken. People were just given the contracts and contract sums slapped on unilaterally. When the Adamu-led committee was set up, the members visited Ahmad, the managing consultant of APC, in his office to look into the issues. He promised to make all records available to the committee and gave Adamu an appointment for Monday July 5. Before he could keep the appointment, he suddenly collapsed and died that day.

Official sources within the IMC informed Newswatch that the committee was therefore determined to take full control of the activities of PTF from the APC. It wrote a letter to the sole consultants demanding the client’s copies of all documents relating to all projects and programmes of PTF. It also withdrew the “power of the engineer” delegated to thefirm by Buhari.

In response , APC sent to the IMC a letter of resignation as management consultants to PTF. It gave a three-month notice expiring on November 15, 1999 during which all PTF project documents in the company’s possession would be physically handed over to the IMC. The IMC is now in full control of PTF.

The technical audit/verification exercise embarked upon by the committee has shown that “projects were abandoned at random and completion rates were no higher than 30 percent with contractors holding on to vast sums of advance payments.” Newswatch learnt that PTF had a multi-layer of consultants (about 620) who were paid hundreds of millions of naira as consultancy fees. It was also gathered that there was no performance evaluation criteria for any of the management consultants including APC.

“What has been discovered is that the consultants were working at their own pace and space and as long as APC did not raise any query, everything was alright,” the IMC source said, adding, “in spite of the array of consultants at different layers, the supervision of projects was very defective, resulting in low performance rating on projects.”

APC was indeed literally incharge from project conception to execution, thus virtually control of the billions of naira which the late General Sani Abacha government pumped into the PTF. The fund was originally meant to rehabilitate social infrastructure in all the nooks and crannies of the country and as at December 1998, PTF had received N144.51 billion from the federal government.

As a confirmation that APC was really making payments on behalf of PTF, Newswatch investigation showed that in 1995, PTF lodged N1 billion in Commercial Bank Credit Lynonais, Elephant House, Marina, branch, Lagos, but it was APC officials who made withdrawals from the account for various payments. By the end of 1997, only N200 million was remaining in the account.

Since Ahmad died, APC has virtually died with him, moreso, since the new Adamu-led committee took away the PTF job from them. When Newswatch visited their Abuja office last week for comments on the allegations against them, the place was virtually empty. No official of the company was ready to speak on anything relating to PTF. But before he died, Ahmad had admitted Newswatch in an interview published by the magazine in the April 19, 1999 edition, that APC was, indeed, the main force behind PTF operations. In fact, he said it was APC, which wrote the proposal that defined the mandate of PTF.

Said he: “By that definition, we were now able to postulate or interpolate and be able to identify the assignment of the PTF, the resources, both human and material that would enable them implement their own projects successfully and effectively.” “We came out with an indication of what we think their institutional structure should look like and proposed some operational policies and guidelines which would enable them effectively implement their own projects to the end.”

The APC chief stated in the interview that in the implementation strategy, his company also conceptualised the engineering project cycle adopted by PTF. He said it was APC that also suggested the criteria and procedure for the selection and appointment of PTF consultants, contractors and suppliers. He said APC, equally conceptualised the monitoring mechanism adopted by PTF for its projects.
Some analysts believe that Buhari was not effective enough in running the affairs of PTF, especially judging from the fact that he ceded much of his executive powers to a private company which decided the fate of the organisation and the fate of Nigerians at that time. Adamu told

Newswatch that it might have been Buhari’s own style of management, but it may not be acceptable to some management experts.

As a result of Buhari’s alleged poor handling of PTF projects and finances, some PTF officials believe that the N135 billion that was disbursed out of the PTF’s total income of N146 billion was squandered. “It is unfortunate that such a colossal sum of money was squandered. It wasn’t used properly,” the source told Newswatch. But Buhari and his team have tried to explain how they spent the N135 billion. In the PTF 1998 Annual Report and Accounts, they stated that N60,029,375,000 (N60.03 billion) was spent on the rehabilitation of 13,500 kilometre roads under the national highway and urban roads rehabilitation programme. Buhari said the programme was able to attain 80 percent completion by December 1998.

The health sector, he said, gulped N17,433,879,000 (N17.43 billion). This involved the drug revolving scheme, the screening and diagnostic kits for HIV/AIDS control, the research for the development. of Niprison, a drug for the treatment of sickle cell anaemia as well as the rehabilitation of several health institutions across the country. But Adamu told Newswatch that most of the drugs supplied to PTF expired because they had very short shelf life. He was particularly unhappy with the HIV/AIDS kits on which, N28 billion was spent. He said his committee had visited Israel to discuss with the manufacturers on how to solve the problem.

Last July, a media-based HIV/AIDS group, Journalists Against AIDS, JAAIDS, raised the alarm that the purchase of the kits was a “colossal waste” and “a scandalous squandering of scarce resources that would otherwise have benefited 4.5 million Nigerians living with HIV/AIDS.”

In a statement signed by Omololu Falabi, the project co-ordinator, JAAIDS, said: “Our discovery is that not only is the amount claimed to have been spent on the kits in excess of the requirement of all hospitals and medical institutions in Nigeria, the shocking fact is that more than half of the kits expired in June this year (1999) while the rest will expire by the end of August.”

The Nigerian Guild of Medical Directors, NGMD, had also said that fake and expired drugs were supplied to PTF. Rowland Ogbonna, secretary of NGMD, in September last year called on the federal government to withdraw all drugs supplied by the PTF from hospitals in the country.
Briefing the press on Saturday, September 11, 1999, he said: “Unless

the federal government immediately withdraws all the PTF supplied drugs, and do a reappraisal of their relevance, Nigerians are at a high risk of consuming expired and fake drugs.

Ogbonna further stated that “PTF deliberately sidelined qualified pharmacists on its committee for the importation of drugs and went ahead to hand over same drugs to businessmen and contractors who have been selling them without expert advice.” In Kogi State, Governor Abubakar Audu, said most of the drugs supplied to his state by PTF were expired. He has set up a panel to investigate the scandal.

But on Wednesday, February 16, a body known as the PTF Consultants and Contractors Forum submitted a memorandum to Chuba Okadigbo, senate president denying the involvement in the purchase of the expired drugs denying the involvement in the purchase of the expired drugs. In the 12-page document signed by Ibrahim Mahmood and Femi Aluko as co-chairmen, the body insisted that its members never supplied any expired drugs or equipment to PTF. “The fact of the matter is that no drugs or seeds were ever accepted for payment without a quality control
certification from NAFDAC and the National Seeds Service which are the federal government agencies that have the statutory responsibility to
certify locally manufactured and imported drugs and seeds respectively”, it said.

The forum argued that if any of the drugs or seeds had expired, it was due to the inaction of the Adamu-led IMC in directing the distribution
of the items. Mahmood told Newswatch in Kaduna last week that the IMC was only giving a bad name to their members so as not to pay them their legitimate claims.

According to the PTF 1998 Annual Report and Accounts, five other sectors that combined to eat up huge sums of PTF money are education,
water supply, food supply, security, the federal capital territory, FCT, and “other projects.” Education gulped N6,829,614,000 (N6.8billion), water supply took N9,053,774,000 (N9.1 billion), food supply got N7,590,629,000 (N7.6 billion), security consumed N27,284,000,000 N27.29 billion) while FCT got N2,043,278,000 (N2.1 billion). The report said disbursements made in the security sector and the FCT were direct transfers to the task force on armed forces and police PTF and the FCT respectively.

In the “other projects” sector, one of the projects that is causing worries among IMC-PTF members is the Abbajaye housing estate taken over by Buhari. It has 32 housing units made up of eight units for grade level 15 officers; eight units for level 13-14 officers and 16 units for grade level 10-12 officers. As at December 1998, Buhari had paid the total sum of N479,.325,398.00 on the project which is earmarked to cost about N800 million on completion.

Two things are bothering the IMC-PTF on the housing estate issue. Firstly, the cost is said to be too high. The new consultants commissioned to assess the project said it cannot cost more than N400 to N500 million, said Adamu. Secondly, the estate was originally being developed by Alhaji Abba Jaye and Sons Limited, a private developer. At a point, PTF took it over, demolished the man’s own structures and started afresh to put up very beautiful buildings on the land. PTF agreed to pay N4.5 million per annum to the man but after 12 years, the estate would revert back to Abba Jaye, the original owner.

Adamu told Newswatch that he found such an agreement quite unwholesome. He prefers paying the owner his due compensation while PTF takes over the estate completely. He has succeeded in getting the authorities to revoke the ownership of the land in favour of PTF.

concluding part.

Another controversial project is the extension to the PTF headquarters in Abuja whose contract value is said to be N650 million. Adamu said their technical audit shows that the building would cost between N300 and N400 million. Even in the food supply sector, Adamu said the farm power machinery rehabilitation programme in which Buhari claimed to have repaired 786 tractors, 29 heavy-duty equipment and 2,744 units of implements was badly managed. According to him, most of the commissioners of agriculture in different states of the federation complained that the programme only provided an opportunity for some people to loot the PTF money. The farm equipment was hardly repaired.


Another allegation being levelled against Buhari is that he marginalised some states heavily in the sharing of PTF projects. The situations in Imo and Bayelsa states were said to have shocked the project verification teams. Buhari was said to have concentrated most of the heavy projects in Kaduna, Katsina, Kano, Niger, Edo and Adamawa states. Adamu told Newswatch that his committee had noticed the gross imbalances in the way the PTF projects were shared but regretted that it cannot do much now to redress the situation because the committee does not have the mandate to start new projects.

Newswatch made efforts in the last two weeks to speak with Buhari on the many allegations levelled against him. When our reporter met him in
Kaduna, he declined to comment on the allegations, saying he had spoken on them sometime ago in Sokoto but his comments were grossly twisted by the press. Last week, Newswatch also faxed a letter to him detailing all the allegations against him. “We have been trying since last week to get you to respond to the allegations. Because we would not like to publish a one-sided story, we shall be pleased if you could respond to the allegations and fax same to us on or before 6 p.m. tomorrow, February 29, 2000,” the letter stated. But upto the time we went to press last week, Buhari did not respond to the allegations. But in a recent interview in TheWeek magazine, Buhari had insisted that allegations of corruption against him were false. “My integrity is intact,” he said and challenged anybody who can prove that he was corrupt as PTF executive chairman to take the matter to either the Christopher Kolade panel on review of contracts or soon to be established panel on corruption. In another interview, he contended that the press had not appreciated the magnitude of what he did for Nigerians in PTF.

Some of his associates told Newswatch in Kaduna that Adamu was only being vindictive because he was one of the persons detained by Buhari
in 1994 when he (Buhari) was head of state. Adamu denied this charge in an interview with Newswatch, contending that he and Buhari are friends. Adamu insisted that he was not probing Buhari’s tenure at PTF. According to him, the IMC is only carrying out the terms of reference given to it by President Obasanjo. The seven-point terms of reference are: to ascertain all monies accruing and received by PTF from the inception of the fund to date; to ascertain the state of all bank accounts operated by PTF for the whole of the period of its existence to date; to produce an up-to-date comprehensive projects and programmes report including location, coverage and whether performed, performing or abandoned; and to produce a final report of assets and liabilities as well as to examine the administrative structure and the cost effectiveness of PTF projects and services.

Other items on the terms of reference include the review all contracts and agreements entered into by PTF; and re-negotiation of cost of projects/programmes and services to reflect current financial realities of PTF. The seventh item states that “no new projects should be undertaken during the committee’s tenure except under the directive of the president.””Adamu told Newswatch that after their preliminary investigations, they will pass on their report and recommendations to president Obasanjo who will institute a debt recovery panel to recover all excess monies paid to the PTF contractors and consultants under Buhari.

But Adamu and his IMC are now being accused of corruption. Each member of the committee has received a furniture allowance of N5 million. Some PTF officials are also being accused of extorting money from contractors, and consultants before they are paid their claims. Mahmood
told Newswatch that only persons who are able to pay the bribes are paid their claims.

Adamu told Newswatch that the N5 million allowance was to make the members comfortable and prevent them from being corrupted by
contractors whose contracts and projects are being reviewed. He said the allowance is not too much for a committee handling an investment of N250 billion. He also challenged the contractors to name any of his officials who are extorting money from them so that he can discipline
such an official. He, says that such claims by contractors amount to pure blackmail meant discredit or distract his committee from the job
it has been asked to do in PTF. The last, it appears has not been heard about the PTF controversy.

Additional reports by Ibrahim Modibbo, Tunde, Abuja and Janet Mba-Afolabi

http://247ureports.com/2018/05/how-buhari-ran-ptf-missing-n500m-newswatch/

Pls My Atikulate Nigeria's pls dont Allowed Buhari APC hunger state of this Our Nation pass this weekend because we know God is on Our side in this Election. APC End is Now for Nigeria to move Forward. thank you

Buhari alone is more corrupt then the entire Nigerians

Who doesn't know buhari and tinubu are big thiefs .

Tinubu alone is richer than some African countries all thanks to Lagos .

APC zombies will avoid this thread like a plague

No be today Thief buhari begin dey steal. Imagine how much all these monies would have been worth today had it been buhari actually put it into good use.

Thief Buhari.

cc ngeneukwenu deomelo madriguy

Lalasticlala Mynd44

I see zombies avoiding this thread like plague.

Rusher14 where you dey run go? Come and defend your saint.

in 2015 when obasanjo exposed Buhari.

Obasanjo Exposes Buhari’s Mismanagement Of PTF

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has exposed former head of state, General Mohammadu Buhari’s mismanagement of Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF). ThisDay in an exclusive report said the exposure was contained in the original copy of a report by the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund (PTF) Interim Management Committee, instituted on July 7, 1999 by Obasanjo.

The development has called to question the ability of the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Buhari, to manage the Nigerian economy and fight corruption, if elected president in the face of deepening world economic crisis. According to the report, the PTF under Buhari's supervision was mismanaged. The report was however neither made public nor was it acted upon by the ex- president. READ

The report revealed that the Committee had advised Obasanjo to "set up a high powered judicial panel to recover the huge public fund and to take necessary action against any officer, consultant or contractor whose negligence resulted in this colossal loss of public funds." The report further disclosed that the sum of N25, 758, 532, 448 was mismanaged by the Afri-Project Consortium (APC), a company contracted by the PTF as management and project consultant when Buhari was the chairman. It was stated that Buhari delegated to the Afri-Project Consortium the power of Engineer in all appropriate project requiring such power, which made them assume absolute powers to initiate, approve and execute all projects by the PTF.

In summary, the mismanagement of funds under Buhari’s chairmanship of the PTF was carried out by the APC (the company) in their capacity as management and project consultants. It said both their management services fee and budget for various projects executed during the existence of the PTF were greatly overpriced. However, the Committee made up of Dr. Haroun Adam as Chairman, and Alhaji Abdu Abdurrahim, Mr Achana Gaius Yaro, Edward Eguavoen, Mr. T. Andrew Adegboro and Mr. Baba Goni Machina as members, while carrying out its obligations, engaged three management consulting firms to verify all payments made to PTF from inception to September 30, 1999.

The Committee during verification discovered that the consulting firms had overcharged PTF for their services to the tune of N2, 057, 550, 062. Also, while intervening on behalf of the PTF in the road and waterways, education, food, health, and other sectors, the company, according to the report, inflated all the prices. For example, intervention in the health sector, was said to have amounted to N9 billion in total, and projects in this sector were said to have been executed by the APC and PTF in-house staff, where loss of billions of naira were recorded due to price inflation of products and services. The committee also discovered that the APC (Company) bought spectacle frames, which could have been done locally at a price between N80 to N880, under the watch of Buhari, at an inflated price of N1, 900 each. Ambulances were said to have been purchased at N13 million per unit, instead of N3 million. And then price inflation of drugs were done to the tune of N1.5 billion.

The report further revealed that the PTF lost money to the tune of N3.5 billion from its bank account operations and that PTF operated its bank accounts under three different categories: Administration, Project and Treasury accounts, and the loss of money to these accounts were said to have been due to "overcharge on Cost of Turnover (CoT), non-payment of interest on current account balances as stipulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), short payment of interest on deposited funds, and other various discrepancies." READ ALSO: GMB's Military Regime Vs GEJ's Civilian Administration The Committee also discovered that an average income of N182 billion accrued to the PTF from its inception to the date of filing their report. The Committee’s report showed that the PTF used about 70 per cent of that income on highways and urban road projects. "In this project sector there was total variation of contract sums of N68 billion. These variations were not done with properly priced bills of quantities and approved civil contracts procedure as stipulated by government regulations.

Taking the experience of what has been discovered after verification of various contracts awarded by PTF the minimum potential recovery will be about 15%. This estimated percentage will be about N10 billion. The verification of this project sector was about to take off when the committee members were replaced," the report stated. Meanwhile, the country’s main opposition party has been constantly lambasting the President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration on corruption, recently urged Nigerians to vote out Jonathan in 2015 or else the nation will be worse for it.

Read more: https://www.legit.ng/353981-obasanjo-exposes-buharis-mismanagement-of-ptf.html

No be today Buhari begin dey use APC to steal.

To all those screaming corruption but are now quite about these, your judgement day is coming.

Let me see anyone call Atiku a thief again.

Vanguard expose on thief Buhari. All ladenn with verifiable facts.

The question that arises now is: how did retired Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari manage the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund (PTF)? A detailed analysis published in Newswatch magazine of March 24, 2000, reveals sordid information about how the fund was allegedly systematically mismanaged. Aside from the fact that an estimated 75% of PTF projects were cited in the north, its achievements were overshadowed by massive waste and corruption.

Remember, the total income that accrued to the fund in its five years of existence was over N146 billion, meant for special intervention in basic infrastructure, supply of essential materials and rehabilitation of health and educational facilities, among others. The first blunder Buhari committed as the executive chairman of PTF was his unilateral appointment of a private firm, Afri-Projects Consortium (APC), as the sole adviser and management consultant to the fund. Buhari The investigative Interim Management Committee (IMC-PTF) set up by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, headed by Haroun Adamu, discovered that not only did Buhari delegate most of his powers to the APC, it also confirmed that the consortium overcharged the fund for its services to the tune of N2 billion. One of the critical areas of intervention in the health sector handled by the company was PTF’s programme for the control and eradication of HIV/AIDS, where it allegedly imported sub-standard, poorly packaged, poorly stored, expired or soon to expire treatment kits and drugs.

Indeed, because of APC’s unprofessional handling of the programme, the federal government spent over N500 million to stock big silos of useless drugs and kits purchased at inflated prices. At the time, late governor Abubakar Audu of Kogi state, Dr. Rowland Ogbonna, secretary of the Nigerian Guild of Medical Directors, and Omololu Falabi, coordinator of Journalists Against Aids (JAAIDS), insisted that unless all PTF supplied drugs were withdrawn Nigerians are at a high risk of consuming expired and fake drugs. Other cases of mismanagement of public funds include the purchase of large quantities of spectacle frames sold N800 each locally for N1,900, resulting in government paying N45 million extra, and ambulances that normally costs N3 million per unit were purchased at the grossly inflated price of N13 million, leading to a loss of N900 million. In all the areas that PTF was expected to carry out its interventionist mandate, Obasanjo’s interim committee concluded that there had been massive fraud or criminal mismanagement of funds belonging to the PTF. Indeed, Haroun Adamu reportedly complained that before his committee began its assignment, N500 million belonging to the fund and lodged in a bank had been withdrawn by unidentified persons. Overall, of the N146 billion PTF received from government, the staggering sum of N25 billion was either stolen or improperly spent on dubious goods and services. Of course, APC denied any wrongdoing: the company issued a statement in which it claimed that its members were people of impeccable character who had undertaken several national and international assignments during and after the PTF years.

Similarly, Buhari, when confronted with allegations of mismanagement of PTF’s funds, affirmed that he was unaware of it and as such could not have benefited personally from what happened. But does his denial hold water? Assuming that he did not benefit from the corruption, was he so insular or alienated from what was going on in PTF that he had no idea about corruption there? In any case, as we noted earlier, he approved the appointment of APC and delegated virtually all his executive powers to the consortium. Moreover, it is alleged that Buhari himself ratified all recommended payments from the fund. Therefore, because the buck stopped at his table, Muhammadu Buhari cannot be completely exonerated from the mismanagement in PTF if the findings of the interim committee reflected the true situation.

Now, what happened to the final report of the committee? If the report contained details of gross mismanagement and corruption as reported in the media, why was Buhari not invited to give account of his stewardship? If Obasanjo was really sincere in setting up the investigative winding down committee, if he really wanted to know the truth about how PTF was managed and punish anyone found guilty of improper conduct, why was he eager to exonerate Buhari completely from blame? The answer to the last question is: Muhammadu Buhari is one of the so-called sacred cows or untouchables alongside other former military heads of state who appear to be above the law. Besides, putting him in the hot seat might unearth facts that could tarnish his reputation for integrity and incorruptibility.

Those that voted for Buhari on the conviction that he would improve the economy were hoodwinked by the persistent narrative of integrity and incorruptibility from Buharimaniacs: they did not reckon with his track record both as a military head of state and executive chairman PTF to arrive at a more realistic and rational estimate of what he can achieve in that critical area of our national life. Moreover, Buhari seems averse to accepting responsibility especially when things go wrong under his watch. According to President Buhari and his lieutenants the immediate past government left the economy in shambles, but now, owing to diligent management the economic outlook is “looking up.”

They cite increase in foreign reserves from $24 billion in 2016 to $34 billion in 2017, rise in crude oil production to about 2 million barrels a day, World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business Report” of 2017 which showed that Nigeria had progressed 24 places to 145th, improvement in rice production and modest gains of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) launched by the administration to ensure continuous improvement of the economy. Now, juxtapose these claims with the situation before May 29, 2015: after being rebased by the Jonathan administration, Nigeria’s economy was adjudged the largest in Africa and 24th in the world. According to “CNN Money”, a flagship economic, financial and monetary analysis programme of the Cable News Network (CNN), Nigeria’s economy was the third fastest growing economy in the world, bettered only by China and Qatar, whereas the British government claimed it was the fourth.

A World Bank Investment Report prepared by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) projected Nigeria as the number one destination for foreign direct investment in Africa. Added to all this are about $30 billion in foreign reserves, $5.6 billion dividends from Nigeria Liquefied Gas Co. Ltd, and a budget of over N4 trillion inherited from the outgone Jonathan government by the incoming Buhari administration. It should also be pointed out that when APC took over power, the official pump price of fuel was N87 per litre, the exchange rate was N199 to one $1, while data from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics put inflation rate at a single digit. The foregoing seems to contradict claims by Buhari and his party stalwarts that Nigeria’s economy had virtually collapsed by the time he took over. In fact, in some areas the economy seems to be getting worse now. For example, the Nigerian sank into recession in 2016.

That same year, according to information from Bloomberg L.P., a privately owned software, data and media company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York, the naira was the fourth worst performing currency in the world, having lost more than one hundred percent of its value in 2014. Current estimates of job losses since APC came to power range from 3 to 7 million, mostly due to retrenchment of workers and closure of thousands of manufacturing firms and other enterprises in the real sector. Perhaps President Muhammadu Buhari and his team are trying their best to improve the economy. However, there is no clear evidence that their policies are working. The welfare of ordinary Nigerians has not improved significantly in the last three years, which leads me to the question: if the improvement Lai Mohammed and others are talking about is real, why are more and more experiencing increasing hardship than they did before June 2015? Certainly, the President and his lieutenants are not listening to the masses, the voiceless millions who are weighed down by double digit inflation, worsening insecurity and the psychological trauma of failed hope on the President as the messiah.

Objectively considered, the economic policies of this government are inappropriate for our current circumstances, a fact reiterated by an ardent supporter of the President, Dr. Dele Sobowale, and Bill Gates, one of the richest men in the world. Millions of ordinary Nigerians feel alienated economically from the government because they are becoming poorer, hungrier, more insecure, destitute and disillusioned about the future. I, like others bearing the burdens of incompetent leadership, trying so hard to eke out a living with low income worsened by the depreciating value of the naira, do not need an expert to inform us that our economic fortunes in the last three years have nose-dived such that “changing the change” is increasingly becoming an attractive proposition.

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/04/demystification-president-muhammadu-buhari-3/

Why are all zombies suddenly going dumb on the thread? why not come and defend Thief Buhari?

Lalasticlala this deserves to be on the front page.

Jman06:
APC zombies will avoid this thread like a plague

as in eh.... let me see anyone say trash about Atiku.

Buhari is a confirmed kleptomaniac.

Thief bubu with the stinking integrity.

Nackzy:
Buhari alone is more corrupt then the entire Nigerians

I'm telling you. Tinubu dey learn where thief Buhari is. Imagine stealing these billions in the early 90s. No wonder the thief once said Abacha never stole.

naijapips04:
I see zombies avoiding this thread like plague.

Rusher14 where you dey run go? Come and defend your saint.

When you know the difference between PTF and PTDF, maybe we can have a discission.

It's no surprise, whilst PTF gave good roads, drugs, boreholes and classrooms, PTDF (handled by ATIKU) left you with a poor education.

rusher14:


When you know the difference between PTF and PTDF, maybe we can have a discission.

It's no surprise, whilst PTF gave good roads, drugs, boreholes and classrooms, PTDF (handled by ATIKU) left you with a poor education.

Shutup you know that's a typo. so you know more than Newswatch magazine that carried out a proper investigation into the matter with verifiable facts?

is this the best defence you can come up with?

naijapips04:


Shutup you know that's a typo. so you know more than Newswatch magazine that carried out a proper investigation into the matter with verifiable facts?

is this the best defence you can come up with?

It's not a typo.

It is your level of advancement or ignorance.

If Newswatch was such a commendable medium, where is it today?

rusher14:


It's not a typo.

It is your level of advancement or ignorance.

If Newswatch was such a commendable medium, where is it today?

You mean a magazine owned by your Great son Dele giwa is thrash?

Address the allegations oga. A Judiciary committee carried out the investigation and Newswatch reported.

naijapips04:


You mean a magazine owned by your Great son Dele giwa is thrash?

Address the allegations oga. A Judiciary committee carried out the investigation and Newswatch reported.

Dele For a died in the 80's.

If you are a kid, I am not one.

I worked on PTF borehole projects across Ondo state from Owo to Abababubu.

Nobody, not even your God, Obasanjo had the temerity to indict Buhari.

On the other hand, Atiku banked PTDF money for himself, raking in the interests for his personal gains.


Of course, he only accepted this when he had been found out.

Buhari is a crook and a thief. Always disguising as aan with integrity. He mismanaged funds in PTF. What about the 17 suitcases loaded with dollars. A man who can not manage all the money he looted now see Atiku as a thief.

rusher14:


Dele For a died in the 80's.

If you are a kid, I am not one.

I worked on PTF borehole projects across Ondo state from Owo to Abababubu.

Nobody, not even your God, Obasanjo had the temerity to indict Buhari.

On the other hand, Atiku banked PTDF money for himself, raking in the interests for his personal gains.


Of course, he only accepted this when he had been found out.

rusher14:


Dele For a died in the 80's.

If you are a kid, I am not one.

I worked on PTF borehole projects across Ondo state from Owo to Abababubu.

Nobody, not even your God, Obasanjo had the temerity to indict Buhari.

On the other hand, Atiku banked PTDF money for himself, raking in the interests for his personal gains.


Of course, he only accepted this when he had been found out.

I like the bolded. Same way nobody had indicted Atiku yet your folks go about calling him a thief.

A judicial council submitted that report and here's obasanjo's own opinion of the whole thing.

OBJ just had to let go because he's not vengeful as your Buhari.

The judicial report actually cited facts that should put Buhari in jail had it been OBJ wanted to pursue the case.

But here you are defending corruption.

Would love to see some of these PTF (not PTDF) projects you are referring to. Name some or go home in shame.

Obasanjo Exposes Buhari’s Mismanagement Of PTF

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has exposed former head of state, General Mohammadu Buhari’s mismanagement of Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF). ThisDay in an exclusive report said the exposure was contained in the original copy of a report by the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund (PTF) Interim Management Committee, instituted on July 7, 1999 by Obasanjo.

The development has called to question the ability of the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Buhari, to manage the Nigerian economy and fight corruption, if elected president in the face of deepening world economic crisis. According to the report, the PTF under Buhari's supervision was mismanaged. The report was however neither made public nor was it acted upon by the ex- president. READ

The report revealed that the Committee had advised Obasanjo to "set up a high powered judicial panel to recover the huge public fund and to take necessary action against any officer, consultant or contractor whose negligence resulted in this colossal loss of public funds." The report further disclosed that the sum of N25, 758, 532, 448 was mismanaged by the Afri-Project Consortium (APC), a company contracted by the PTF as management and project consultant when Buhari was the chairman. It was stated that Buhari delegated to the Afri-Project Consortium the power of Engineer in all appropriate project requiring such power, which made them assume absolute powers to initiate, approve and execute all projects by the PTF.

In summary, the mismanagement of funds under Buhari’s chairmanship of the PTF was carried out by the APC (the company) in their capacity as management and project consultants. It said both their management services fee and budget for various projects executed during the existence of the PTF were greatly overpriced. However, the Committee made up of Dr. Haroun Adam as Chairman, and Alhaji Abdu Abdurrahim, Mr Achana Gaius Yaro, Edward Eguavoen, Mr. T. Andrew Adegboro and Mr. Baba Goni Machina as members, while carrying out its obligations, engaged three management consulting firms to verify all payments made to PTF from inception to September 30, 1999.

The Committee during verification discovered that the consulting firms had overcharged PTF for their services to the tune of N2, 057, 550, 062. Also, while intervening on behalf of the PTF in the road and waterways, education, food, health, and other sectors, the company, according to the report, inflated all the prices. For example, intervention in the health sector, was said to have amounted to N9 billion in total, and projects in this sector were said to have been executed by the APC and PTF in-house staff, where loss of billions of naira were recorded due to price inflation of products and services. The committee also discovered that the APC (Company) bought spectacle frames, which could have been done locally at a price between N80 to N880, under the watch of Buhari, at an inflated price of N1, 900 each. Ambulances were said to have been purchased at N13 million per unit, instead of N3 million. And then price inflation of drugs were done to the tune of N1.5 billion.

The report further revealed that the PTF lost money to the tune of N3.5 billion from its bank account operations and that PTF operated its bank accounts under three different categories: Administration, Project and Treasury accounts, and the loss of money to these accounts were said to have been due to "overcharge on Cost of Turnover (CoT), non-payment of interest on current account balances as stipulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), short payment of interest on deposited funds, and other various discrepancies." READ ALSO: GMB's Military Regime Vs GEJ's Civilian Administration The Committee also discovered that an average income of N182 billion accrued to the PTF from its inception to the date of filing their report. The Committee’s report showed that the PTF used about 70 per cent of that income on highways and urban road projects. "In this project sector there was total variation of contract sums of N68 billion. These variations were not done with properly priced bills of quantities and approved civil contracts procedure as stipulated by government regulations.

Taking the experience of what has been discovered after verification of various contracts awarded by PTF the minimum potential recovery will be about 15%. This estimated percentage will be about N10 billion. The verification of this project sector was about to take off when the committee members were replaced," the report stated. Meanwhile, the country’s main opposition party has been constantly lambasting the President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration on corruption, recently urged Nigerians to vote out Jonathan in 2015 or else the nation will be worse for it.

Read more: https://www.legit.ng/353981-obasanjo-exposes-buharis-mismanagement-of-ptf.html

Come and show this to the market women

KunleyY19:

Come and show this to the market women

The market women are already atikulated. I don't need to show them this for the hardship they can see and feel. Everyone is tired of buhari.

this article is for the so called college educated that preach morality when defending their choice of Buhari.

Buhari is as corrupt as any other Nigerian politician/civil servant.

all the zombies don't run finish for this thread.

I started this for posterity sake. incase anyone comes to preach to me about some stupid integrity.

Chai.mr intergrity my foot.

Hollysaint:
Chai.mr intergrity my foot.

Rotten integrity.