[size=18pt]" What Nigerians Pay The Federal Government" -The Opinion Piece That Got El Rufai Into Trouble With Jonathan[/size]
Posted: July 2, 2011 - 16:05
By Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai

The syndicated article below was first published on July 1st 2011, in it, Nasir El Rufai wrote that several security agencies combined spend about N2 billion a day with nothing to show for it. The office of the NSA is s reportedly angry about these claims and wants Mr. El-Rufai charged for "incitement, sedition and publication of false news". The former minister and CPC chieftain is currently facing interrogation at the offices of the State Security Services in Abuja after he was arrested this morning upon his return from the United Kingdom.

This year, every Nigerian - all 162 million of us - man, woman and child will 'pay' the sum of N27,685 each to help run the federal government. What we cannot afford, government will borrow on our behalf to pay for its activities.
That is why the federal government, on behalf of you and I will spend the sum of 4.485 trillion (over four thousand billion) naira in 2011. This is against the backdrop that our entire oil earnings for the year cannot pay the generous salaries and allowances of politicians on the one hand, and the meagre pay cheques of other public sector workers on the other, while infrastructure and unemployment are barely getting attention.
When you walk into a government office to request for a basic service, the staff you meet may not even bother to reply to your greeting and barely has time to listen to you; the policeman that should protect you on the roadblock, stops you and demands for bribes and has no qualms shooting dead any motorist that refuses to give him twenty naira; the customs officer at the border who is supposed to stop smuggling takes a bribe and actually connives with the smugglers to bring in banned products into the Nigerian market, while harassing the traveller entering Nigeria with two new pairs of shoes; the hospital staff that, contrary to every professional oath, refuses to attend to dying patients because they are on strike; the soldiers who get so bored that they occasionally go on a rampage, using policemen for target practice. With live ammunition, of course; the politician who rigs himself into office then proceeds to loot the treasury: these are all the people whose standard of living we are spending nearly 75 per cent of the 2011 budget to pay for - and borrowing some after spending all our collections from oil and taxes!

It will cost nearly 2.5 million naira this year on average to pay for the salary and upkeep of each of Nigeria’s nearly one million federal public sector workers – in the police, civil service, military and para-military services and teachers in government schools and institutions. Whether this amount justifies the service that is rendered is left for Nigerians to decide. In all, the 49 line Ministries, Departments and Agencies specifically mentioned in the 2011 Appropriations Act will each cost an average of N49.49 billion to run.

We elect a total of 360 members to the House of Representatives and 109 Senators to make laws and enhance good governance by checking and balancing the excesses of the executive arm of government. For this privilege, the 469 members of the federal legislature and their support staff at the National Assembly will spend N150 billion this year. It is worth noting that NASS only passed 8 bills as at the end of May 2011. So assuming that they manage to pass another 7 bills before the end of this year, it would cost the Nigerian citizen an average ten billion naira to pass a single bill! This implies that to pass the 2011 budget (which allocates N150 billion to NASS), Nigerians paid 10 billion naira. An even more interesting statistic is the cost of maintaining every legislator every year. It works out to princely N320 million per legislator per annum. At this rate, every four year stint at NASS works out at N1.28 billion per legislator. No wonder machetes, guns and thugs are used at will to "win" primaries and the elections. How many new businesses can achieve a turnover of N1.28 billion within four years with net tax-free profit in excess of 50 percent? Is this social justice?
For the NASS, even the amount of N150 billion above is just what we can see easily but is not broken down for further analysis or accountability. There is a bit more hidden all over the Appropriation Act - another N1.595 billion was tucked away for "In-lieu of accommodation for the Seventh Session of NASS" and another N200 million for "Funding of House Resolution Mandates." What these two provisions mean is best explained by those that legislated them and the executive that will release the sums! What is clear is that none of these will ever be accounted for, or audited!


Last week, I wrote about the cost of justice. I got a few things wrong because I did not appreciate fully the unique role of the National Judicial Council (NJC) in the administration of the nation's judicial system. My friend and former classmate Mrs. Maryam Wali Uwais clarified this and educated me, for which I am grateful. The NJC's budget of N95 billion covers the salaries and allowances of all judges of superior courts of record in Nigeria - that is State High Courts and their federal equivalents, Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. The NJC also funds the overheads of all the Federal Courts only - the Federal High Court and the appellate courts, as well as the salaries and allowances of all Federal Judicial support staff. The State Governments are responsible for the salaries of all other judicial staff (magistrates, support staff, etc.) and the overhead costs of all courts within their respective jurisdictions. It is therefore slightly more complicated to compute what it costs to keep our entire judicial system running without adding up all the budgetary allocations to the Judiciary in all 36 states. We will return to this sometime soon.
An interesting observation is the fact that the government says the problem of power shortage is a priority, yet the Ministry of Power only got 91 billion naira as total appropriation in 2011, while the National Security Adviser (NSA) controls and will spend 208 billion naira (Recurrent - N51 billion, Capital N59 billion, and another N98 billion for the Amnesty Programme!). This amount does not include the Defence budget. The Defence Ministry will get N348 billion, while the Police will get 309 billion naira. In other words, though Nigerians have never felt so insecure in recent history, the NSA, Police and Defence will spend a combined 865 billion naira - more than 2 billion naira a day, weekends included! This does not include the 36 states’ so-called security votes. Even state assembly members and local government councillors now have security votes. Clearly their security is more important than ours!

The point of these statistics is to show how expensive governance has become and how little Nigerians get in return. And the unproductive portions of our national budget have been rising rapidly in the last 4 years, to the detriment of capital investments in infrastructure and human development. Four years ago in 2007, the entire federal government budget was 2.3 trillion naira; today we are spending 4.485 trillion. In 2007, statutory transfers amounted to 102 billion naira or 5% of the total budget. Today, transfers amount to 418 billion or 9% of the total.
This year, the federal government will spend 495 billion naira or 11% of the budget on debt servicing compared to 326 billion naira or 14% it spent the year we finally exited from the London Club debt. More telling is the 1.05 trillion naira or 46% for recurrent expenditure in 2007 against the 2.425 trillion or 54% government will spend this year. Just four years ago, capital expenditure accounted for 36% (830 billion naira) of the budget. This year, the amount for capital expenditure has fallen to 25% (1.147 trillion naira - out of which N1.136 trillion is the budget deficit - that is to be borrowed!).

To the uninformed eye, the figures may seem to represent increases in all aspects, but to what cost, and to what effect? Apologists would want us to believe that the astronomical increase in the cost of government services can be explained by inflation, but even taking into consideration the high inflationary trend (thanks to Jonathan’s profligate campaign year spending), statutory transfers in the budget has gone up by a whopping 310%; debt servicing has a 52% increase; recurrent expenditure has gone up by 131% while capital expenditure has increased by 39% over four years. In real terms however, and accounting for inflation, the total budget has increased by 33% with recurrent expenditure going up by 58% while capital expenditure has actually reduced by 6%.

Facts and figures do not lie. Every figure used in this analysis came from official government records. What is the justification for allocating such huge amounts to running the government when a staggering 30 million Nigerians are unemployed? Only N50 billion has been budgeted to create employment, forgetting that money by itself does not create jobs without a well thought out plan to stimulate small and medium scale enterprises and the creation of appropriate regulatory environments. What are the strategies to ensure that these funds are not diverted? How many jobs will be created this year or in the next four years? Are our priorities right?

All these come down to the questions: Will government’s 4.485 trillion naira budget make life any better or even provide security for Nigerians? Can we feel the impact of this huge spending? Is the cost of governance justified? If we do not have the courage to ask these questions, we will be doing ourselves a disservice and endangering our people's future.

I don't agree with El Rufai on his support for Buhari, but I agree with him 100% on this article.

Go GEJ. . . .Despot!

^^^^
What does that mean?

Though he has faults of his own, El Rufai has been doing the job of opposition all by himself and I sincerely love his objective criticisms of the government.

The last time I checked, we had opposition parties of which ACN is prominent. What and what have they been telling Nigerians apart of shouting fiscal federalism all the time?

The sort of critical criticisms from El Rufai are the sort (and more) I honestly expect from ACN as a party.

God I hope this article is not the reason why GEJ's SSS is arresting Rufai.

It has to be something more, something that they need to tell us about very soon - otherwise this is a terrible direction for the government to be heading.

Or they could be using the fact that Rufai currently has a case to answer before the EFCC to get back at him for this article, especially since his lawyers were recently accused of using delay tactics. The government might want to impress it on him that if you out on bail or whatever over corruption allegations while in government, then it is not particularly bright to be writing condemnatory articles about the government

Okay, I am trying to help this government find a managable excuse before this becomes eggs on their faces.

The figures bandied about were the same things we talked about the 2010 budget and which Soludo took GEJ to task for. Its too late to cry over spilt milk for those GEJ supporters who agree with this article cos Soludo already spoke on this. My main critique of GEJ has always been his FINANCIAL RECKLESSNESS and lack of respect for money, from his days as Bayelsa gov to date, the man has always been a loose spender.

who are you people trying to scare me. I know about all your show. it does not work for me. It is only when you people change. that i will stop. As long as you continue the stupid game and not change. I will not change. Do the right thing.

Even if we agree that the figures posted by el-Rufai are wrong, cant the SSS simply give us the correct figures since they have now left their primary assignment and are now experts in the economy.

SSS no update on boko haram?

^^^^
yeah right.

Fresh air, 2011 Fresh air, 2011

if the SSS thought that El Rufai was wrong, I would have thought that they get a middle level officer PRO to issue a rejoinder and puncture El Rufai's article. It would have damaged El Rufai's credibility more - moreso when, theoretical, he got some articles in a row wrong (He admitted he got a previous article wrong). The SSS would have easily proven him to be a serial lair on public issues.

But no, they choose to go the VERY WRONG way of arresting and giving him the publicity he doesnt deserve. Of course the Nigerian public will be wondering why the leaders of BOKO HARAM were not quickly "intercepted" the way El Rufai was'.

The article was not as bad as the SSS are portraying. So its more convenient to talk about the spending of other arms of government like the legislature but not the intelligence community. They should have arrested Sanusi for his expose on the legislature

koruji:

God I hope this article is not the reason why GEJ's SSS is arresting Rufai.

It has to be something more, something that they need to tell us about very soon - otherwise this is a terrible direction for the government to be heading.

Or they could be using the fact that Rufai currently has a case to answer before the EFCC to get back at him for this article, especially since his lawyers were recently accused of using delay tactics. The government might want to impress it on him that if you out on bail or whatever over corruption allegations while in government, then it is not particularly bright to be writing condemnatory articles about the government

Okay, I am trying to help this government find a managable excuse before this becomes eggs on their faces.

Be quiet!

How dare you speak against the government of our great and prosperous nation Nigeria? How dare you question the wisdom of our dear leader President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan? Mr. El Rufai is guilty of the crimes of sedition and divisionism, that is why he was arrested. Soon, he will receive a fair trial and be sent to prison.

Let his fate be an example the posters on this site. We have been monitoring your activities for several months and have compiled comprehensive files on a number of your members.  All of you would be wise to be very careful of your utterances from now on. The government will no longer tolerate the kind of irresponsible speech we have seen in the past. Do not forget that since the sim card registration exercise, we now have a comprehensive database of all your personal information. Your phone conversations are being monitored, your ip addresses are being logged and your locations are being tracked. Do not think you can escape by using fake names. The State Security Service has the technology to unmask you. All those who incite anti-government sentiments will be severely dealt with! No one will escape punishment.

From today onward, all those who make seditious comments will be arrested. All those who criticize the government shall be jailed and all unapproved protesters will be shot. The Federal Government is willing to go to any length to preserve our free and open democracy from the threat of dissidents and malcontents.

You have been warned.

Signed,

Alhaji Evil D. Brain
Assistant Director for Electronic Intelligence Monitoring
State Security Service,
Abuja.

@evil mind
lol.did you work with al mustafa

Fuhrer Badluck Odechukwu Jonathan Stalin

The breath of Fresh Air

We voted GEJ and not PDP

Yes, sir! 

Just saw this - very very funny.

Evil Brain:

Be quiet!

How dare you speak against the government of our great and prosperous nation Nigeria? How dare you question the wisdom of our dear leader President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan? Mr. El Rufai is guilty of the crimes of sedition and divisionism, that is why he was arrested. Soon, he will receive a fair trial and be sent to prison.

Let his fate be an example the posters on this site. We have been monitoring your activities for several months and have compiled comprehensive files on a number of your members.  All of you would be wise to be very careful of your utterances from now on. The government will no longer tolerate the kind of irresponsible speech we have seen in the past. Do not forget that since the sim card registration exercise, we now have a comprehensive database of all your personal information. Your phone conversations are being monitored, your ip addresses are being logged and your locations are being tracked. Do not think you can escape by using fake names. The State Security Service has the technology to unmask you. All those who incite anti-government sentiments will be severely dealt with! No one will escape punishment.

From today onward, all those who make seditious comments will be arrested. All those who criticize the government shall be jailed and all unapproved protesters will be shot. The Federal Government is willing to go to any length to preserve our free and open democracy from the threat of dissidents and malcontents.

You have been warned.

Signed,

Alhaji Evil D. Brain
Assistant Director for Electronic Intelligence Monitoring
State Security Service,
Abuja.

dayokanu:

Fuhrer Badluck Odechukwu Jonathan Stalin

The breath of Fresh Air

We voted GEJ and not PDP

Nobody say democracy is easy, but I know one thing for sure, Buhari would have been 10x worse than GEJ.

useless country

naijaking1:

Nobody say democracy is easy, but I know one thing for sure, Buhari would have been 10x worse than GEJ.

Shut that your stinking mouth. on what parameter did you base ur baseless assumption? a primary school senior prefect would have performed far better than GEJ not to talk of the almighty BUHARI.

I dey laff o.

Evil Brain:

Be quiet!

How dare you speak against the government of our great and prosperous nation Nigeria? How dare you question the wisdom of our dear leader President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan? Mr. El Rufai is guilty of the crimes of sedition and divisionism, that is why he was arrested. Soon, he will receive a fair trial and be sent to prison.

Let his fate be an example the posters on this site. We have been monitoring your activities for several months and have compiled comprehensive files on a number of your members.  All of you would be wise to be very careful of your utterances from now on. The government will no longer tolerate the kind of irresponsible speech we have seen in the past. Do not forget that since the sim card registration exercise, we now have a comprehensive database of all your personal information. Your phone conversations are being monitored, your ip addresses are being logged and your locations are being tracked. Do not think you can escape by using fake names. The State Security Service has the technology to unmask you. All those who incite anti-government sentiments will be severely dealt with! No one will escape punishment.

From today onward, all those who make seditious comments will be arrested. All those who criticize the government shall be jailed and all unapproved protesters will be shot. The Federal Government is willing to go to any length to preserve our free and open democracy from the threat of dissidents and malcontents.

You have been warned.

Signed,

Alhaji Evil D. Brain
Assistant Director for Electronic Intelligence Monitoring
State Security Service,
Abuja.

Eski sir, you forgot to add that "this is a do or die affair".

this is just the beginning. we must decide to die before we can get our selves out of these blood suckers called pdp.
this is what i call; COMBINATION OF FRESH AIR 2011 AND FREEDOM OF INFORMATION BILL.(FOIB).
what is freedom of information if you are arresting el rufai for just one article when we have millions of articles to write and post?
i don't know if i will be arrested if i say this, this same jonathan that was telling us that there was no need for zoning is turning back to pick ministers from all the states. why didn't choose his ministers from one or two states? mr. freedom of information.
i know very soon, nigerians will make use of the egyptian style to pull down this pdp in a very shameful manner.

Let us be reasonable for once , Nigerians and call a spade a spade. There is nothing wrong if El -Rufai voice out his
opinion. what is wrong is the approach. This article as far as I 've so far is no a Constructive Criticism but very
Destructive to the Growth and Success of the Nation. Naija , in case you 've forgoten if I may quote; Muhammed
Buharri in his Campain made a careless statement that brought the so called, Boko Haram Gang into Notorious Lime
light.Today the consequence is the incessant killing including Youth Corper who went on Patriotic Service. For crying aloud, El- RUFAI has been a part and parcel of Nigerian Leadership for years. He has served under the past Goverment that got the Infrastructure decayed and abandone. What happened to his Thinking Faculty that time.Was the Previous
Goverment better than the recent Regime. He was in ASo Rock when these Remuneration of the Legislative House was
drawn. Does he want us to believe that it was this president that signed their pay into law.
He is supposed to be a Statesman. He ought have learnt how to create a Rapour and a conducive atmosphere to advice
the Government if he dims neccessary. Let us go to the drawing board how did his position in Government achieve for this
common Nigerian that he now claims to speek for . They hide under the guise of public opinion to institute confusion
and disorganise an active Government. Let us be careful because there men who make their money and fame from troubles and tumoil.
Nigerians Shine your eye. He should take inventry of the harvoke militancy cost the average Nigeria.
he should take inventry of the huge loss the federal government has incured both in human and material resources that should warrant huge bugget for Security. Lets leave the rest for another day.

Let us be reasonable for once , Nigerians and call a spade a spade. There is nothing wrong if El -Rufai voice out his
opinion. what is wrong is the approach. This article as far as I 've so far is no a Constructive Criticism but very
Destructive to the Growth and Success of the Nation.  Naija , in case you 've forgoten if I may quote; Muhammed
Buharri in his Campain made a careless statement that brought the so called, Boko Haram Gang into Notorious Lime
light.Today the consequence is the incessant killing including Youth Corper who went on Patriotic Service. For crying aloud, El- RUFAI has been a part and parcel of Nigerian Leadership for years. He has served under the past Goverment that got the Infrastructure decayed and abandone. What happened to his Thinking Faculty that time.Was the Previous
Goverment better than the recent Regime. He was in ASo Rock when these Remuneration of the Legislative House was
drawn. Does he want us to believe that it was this president that signed their pay into law.
He is supposed to be a Statesman. He ought have learnt how to create a Rapour and a conducive atmosphere to advice
the Government if he dims neccessary. Let us go to the drawing board how did his position in Government achieve for this
common Nigerian that he now claims to speek for . They hide under the guise of public opinion to institute confusion
and disorganise an active Government.  Let us be careful because there men who make their money and fame from troubles and tumoil.
Nigerians Shine your eye. He should take inventry of the harvoke militancy cost the average Nigeria.
he should take inventry of the huge loss the federal government has incured both in human and material resources that should warrant huge bugget for Security. Lets leave the rest for another day.

Look at my silly brothers and sisters, they are at it again!
Just "one faceless person" (no pun intended at naijaking 1, but all we can work on is his pseudo-name on Nairaland!) came here and bandied El-Rufai's article "as the reason why he was arrested" and you'all are jumping all over yourself?

Did you ask yourself whether there might be other reasons known to the govt but which you are not aware of, that necessitated his arrest? (At times l wonder the kind of people, in real life, who post on this NL!)

Always put a "caveat" on whatever you say, if you're not 100% sure it's a fact.
Like "if this was the only reason" then so-so-so and so!

Now, having said the above, lets go back to the article itself.
BTW: I have no single interest in GEJ or his government, l just like to give everyone a fair hearing and see things objectively.

Two things will strike you in that article.
1.) What GEJ proposes to spend on "Security" (Defense Ministry, NSA, amnesty, Police, e.t.c)
2.) The"ills and malaise" in our society (bribery, corruption, huge salary of National assembly members, payment of Minimum wage, e.t.c)

In summary, the article by El-Rufai was about "corruption and the huge cost" of running our govt.

Now, lets "dice and slice" the article itself.
I will do a "summary" of this since a more in-depth analysis would take a lot of pages and Nairalanders are reputed for a short attention span! Some dont even have attention at all!

Let me start from 2; Corruption:
El-Rufai, as a member of CPC, is an opposition member and if he thinks writing crap about a sitting govt is what "opposition" is all about, he needs to go back to school.
"Opposition" is about providing "credible alternatives" to what the govt is providing, not just criticizing them all day!

Take for example, the salary of the National assembly or that of Judiciary members.
Since we operate a "three-tier federal system", all tiers are "INDEPENDENT" and there is hardly anything President Jonathan can do about that. Point is, he does not have the "Constitutional Powers" to interfere in what the other tiers are doing due to the constitutional provision of "Separation of Powers".
This is O-Level Government Stuff, no marks awarded to me at all though, as a former Minister, you can award 10points to El-Rufai, for not knowing this or for been economical with the truth here!

Again, Payment of Minimum wage is an agreement with the Trade Unions. An agreement is an agreement, the alternative is for the Unions to go on strike and we all know that will lead to further losses and deaths (Universities, Health Sector, Power Sector, e.t.c). That GEJ is honoring these agreements and providing funds is actually a credit to his "uprightness" unlike El-Rufai's govt under OBJ when "agreements" means nothing!

But on the issue of "Corruption" generally, the President needs to live by example.
He needs to be seen as stamping out corruption from the top.
The bad thing about our own 'brand of democracy' is that "corruption is so ingrained in it, (from voting patterns, to political alliances, Ministerial Nominations, to contract award and even to "impeachment procedures" for tackling corrupt officials!) that it will take more than just the President to stamp it out.
All Nigerians must help him, especially now that he has signed the FOI Bill!

The Police or Court or another Attorney General like "Mr. Anaconda" under former President Yar Ardua can frustrate his efforts but with the help of the populace, who must stay focused and be devoid of these "anything GEJ is bad mentality", he can do better.

This is supposed to be a short summary and its getting long!

Now, to Security vote/Cost
I wont earn any marks if l try to remind anyone that under the military and subsequent civilian governments, the "security outfits" of the nation has been deliberately "underfunded" (and private armies established as an alternative) and where funds are provided, it has been looted (e.g Police: Tafa Balogun and company for example).
Why does Mr. President need to fund the Security outfits, especially now that we are beginning to face "existential threats" like we have never experienced before?

1.)if the Army Chief says he has never seen this kind of "Boko Haram" tactics before, is that GEJ's fault or should GEJ "deny him funding" if he now wants to "upgrade his knowledge" and that of the Army, to cope with the situation?
What will GEJ's detractors say, if he took that decision El-Rufai is insinuating and starved them of funds?

2.) Internal security is zero [/b]otherwise, Boko haram, Kidnapping, Armed Robbery, Assassinations, e.t.c will never get to this level.
what should the President do, when the NSA or SSS ask for funding, to train and equip "intelligence officers" like never before, to infiltrate the criminals?
Should he deny such funding, as Mallam El-Rufai is insinuating?

3.) [b]Amnesty: In as much as those who dont come from the Delta region but have benefited most from its Petro dollars, are often quick to criticize the President, an "unbiased analysis" by anyone who have gone into the creeks will be that "injustice" has been meted to these people, they deserve better.
When the various military and civilian govt failed to do the right thing, the militants took to arms.

Nigeria's crude level, our major earner of forex, dipped dangerously!
In short, we were loosing income while at the same time, the price of oil was rising.

President GEJ took a hard look at the situation and "offered amnesty" to all militants who are ready to drop their weapons and live a normal life.
a) he offered to pay them some "living stipends " while he "re-trains" them to be able to fit-in and work in the oil industry in their backyard!
b) They agreed and downed weapons, he allocated funds (the same funds El Rufai is crying wolf about) and was paying them this stipends while they learn a trade.
c) Mean while, Nigeria's export of crude oil has been steadily increasing since then and we are earning fabulously, from the 'roof-top' price of oil, in recent times!
In other words, the "Amnesty" is actually paying for itself since the additional revenue we now earn (as a result of peace in the Niger Delta) can be split between funding the programme while the rest is diverted to other projects like Power generation and distribution grids.

Be reminded that Babangida killed Ken Saro Wiwa for the same reason while Obasanjo obliterated two Towns in its whole entirety, using bombs (Odi and Zaki Biam) just to achieved "forced peace" in the ND but both failed woefully.
Well, President Goodluck just had the "Goodluck" of succeeding!
Now, if that is not "fresh Air" then l doubt what fresh air still means!

Left to Mallam El-rufai, he will rather GEJ deployed soldiers to level the whole of N.D, rather than "waste funds" on the amnesty programme.
The judgement is left to the public, unbiased public of course.

Thus, Mallam El-rufai is at best, a rabble-rouser, an alarmist and someone who is actually trying to cause chaos through his preachings since he came back from the exile he ran to, when he was charged for corruption.
Mind you, it was the Security Agencies that charged him, under Yar Adua, and he fled.
GEJ did not order his arrest when he came back otherwise, he would not even be daring to go into politics (if it were under Babangida, Abacha or even Obj!)

But every Tom, D.ick and Harry thinks GEJ is stewpid and can be taken advantage of, just because he follows the rule of law and is very disciplined, right?

*Is it not the same Mallam El-rufai preaching about corruption here, that was wasting money given to this country by foreign donors, by paying one of his "female Corpers " in DOLLARS, yes, American dollars!$$$$

*Was it not the same Mallam El-Rufai that was busy destroying peoples houses in Abuja (even when a court order was in place saying he should not), acting like a demi-god than has run amok? Just wait till someone like him becomes a President and you will hear "Despot, ruler for life"; Ghadafi will be a saint, walahi!

*Was it not the same El-Rufai that siezed people's land (saying they are not residential areas) and allocated same to his friends?

*Was it not the same Mallam El-Rufai, as FCT Minister, who allocated "choice land in Abuja" to every member of his family, government land o!

We Nigerians have very short memory and we are easily swayed by anyone making some pretentious noise in the name of "opposition"!

El-Rufai is desperate to come back to government, he has tasted "power" and is very bitter to be out of it, he is doing a "hatchet job" to get noticed but one thing is sure, "its not amusing to hear the Pot calling the Kettle black"! (even if we assume the President is bad!)

If GEJ was looting these funds, l could understand he be called to order but if he was "generating more" and allocating them to "needed areas" and El-Rufai is inciting the "most gullible masses" against his government, then he needs to be "reminded! that he has a case to answer in court for now

BTW: If Boko Haram needed to be "re-educated" through an amnesty programme, to stop all these bombing, then so be it;
at least if the likes of "Northern leaders like El-Rufai" have not neglected these Almajeris for so long, it wont be GEJ's problem to grant them an amnesty while the same El-Rufai is busy writing bull-shyte, just to appear like he gives a hoot about the masses!

@topic. So it's a crime to say d truth in NIGERIA now? This man has seen it all cos he's been there b4, breeze don blow fowl yansh open. Na so dem go dey expose diaself lil by lil.

I really dont see the big deal here. There is nothing gestapo-ish about this. The problem we have in Nigeria is that ordinary citizens, including supposedly educated illiterates like Oyb and El-Rufai, do not understand the real meaning of democracy. They assume you can say whatever and do whatever and get a way with whatever. NO! I have news for you, it aint so. The US, UK and other advanced countries are the most policed states in the world, utilizing the power of the Police and other non-uniformed security agencies ( FBI, MI-6 and even Google, IP addresses and Face-book) to closely monitor their citizens so as to prevent unnecessary break-down of Law and order. El-Rufai's intent is very clear, to make the state un-governable for GEJ. And it would be stupiddddddd of GEJ and the SSS to allow him roam the plains of Nigeria freely. They've done what is right and I am glad they acted fast this time around, before we start losing lives like we always do in situations like this.

His article is ridden with inflammatory words, with the intent to incite and cause public chaos.

Any government worth its salt would do whatever is necessary to keep him quiet. Next time, he would be more careful with what he writes. Now he knows there is a new Sheriff in town, and the Sheriff isnt going to be tolerate any nonsense from him and his ilk.

They are not happy with the election result? Let them go to court, quietly and jejely. Their dissatisfaction with the election result is no excuse for them to heat up the polity. If push comes to shove, they will be the first to elope via BA, leaving innocent people to die unsung. We cant afford this 'kain' behavior from our 'elites' any longer. The memory of his unpatriotic behavior during the SNG group is still very fresh in our mind; after all, he was the brain behind the group that created a larger than life image of Turai, causing the public to have negative impression of Turai, when in reality, Turai, like the rest of us, is just a victim of a failed and bastardized system.

This is democracy guys. Freedom isnt free; it requires each and every one of us to exercise restraints in how we talk and act in public. Do NOT rock the boat. If you do,you will be held accountable.

" I tire for this GEJ apologist oo" last page and co.

I am the president. If I give you all that you NEED to do a clean job and you can't do it, what am I supposed to do? Keep giving you? Would it be bad if I fire an incompetent minister? Head of parastatals? Police chief and other incompetent poo managers in government?

The truth is, I am not a Fan of El rufai and GEJ, but we should always try to do something right. So, tell GEJ to fire somebody and he should stop allocating money to a wrong cause!!!

Most of the replies here are as dumb. . . I wonder how some people think before they post replies.

So you want us to run this country at #10 trillion per year? Useless.

The guy was just speaking plain truth and nothing more. . Most uninformed people just post replies based on sentiments. . . Too bad.

How much is your salary? Answer now. When your legislator are collecting what most of you can never realize in a lifetime.

If you like act, if you like don't act and support bad governance, its our call anyway. . . But Nigeria deserves better.

I h.ate apologists!

This guy who was FCT Minister and who had serious corruption allegations including sharing landed properties to his friends and family, still has the voice to come around and accuse another government of the same thing he was guilty off? How can this type of person become a celebrated person in Nigeria?

Nigerians forget so soon and are hypocrites.

What did this same goon called El Rufai do to stop all the massive spending during his time in government? Or massive spending started with GEJ's government?

please,are these figures true?