₦airaland Forum

A Presidential Committee report on the Audit of Defence Equipment Procurement in the Armed Forces from 2007 to 2015 has revealed that a N35bn loan given to the Ministry of Defence for the purchase of Contingent-Owned Equipment was misspent on equipment, which did not meet the United Nations’ standards.

The committee, in its Fourth Interim Report, obtained by The PUNCH, said it observed several abnormalities in the Ministry of Defence’s administration and use of the N35bn loan.



The Fourth report, released on October 23, 2016, through the Office of the National Security Adviser, for submission to President Muhammadu Buhari, detailed how the Ministry of Defence and the Debt Management Office did not follow due process in the release and use of the N35bn loan.

It said that the lapses in the disbursement and administration of the N35bn should make the Federal Government call for a review of the “entire DMO loan portfolio with a view to remedying the observed lapses.”

President Buhari had in 2015 approved that the committee should investigate the former service chiefs, military officers and ministry officials who were allegedly involved in the irregularities uncovered in the contract awards and procurement process.

The committee had said it was investigating 18 retired and serving military personnel, 12 serving and retired public officials and 24 chief executive officers of companies involved in the procurement.

Among those the committee is investigating are two former Chiefs of Army Staff, Lt Gen Onyeabo Ihejirika (retd.) and Lt Gen. Kenneth Minimah (retd.), former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr Nurudeen Mohammed, and three former Permanent Secretaries in the Ministry of Defence, Bukar Aji, Haruna Sanusi and E.O. Oyemomi.

The committee had in July 2016 released its Third Interim Report on the Audit of the Defence Equipment Procurement, which said that a total of N185bn and $685m were spent on procurement and operations between 2007 and 2015.

The Third Report stated that between 2007 and 2015, the committee found out that N71bn and $685m were spent on procurements for the Nigerian Army by the ministries of defence, finance, foreign affairs and environment.

Others mentioned in the Third Report were the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Office of the National Security Adviser. The report said that some state governments, notably Adamawa, Kano and Yobe, as well as the ministries of finance and power also funded the army operations with N114bn during the eight years.

Our correspondent obtained the Fourth Interim Report on Wednesday, which further revealed that a N35bn loan given to the Ministry of Defence for the purchase of Contingent-Owned Equipment was misspent and failed to meet the UN standards.

The report partly reads, “In March 2008, the President approved the request of the Ministry of Defence for the procurement Contingent-Owned Equipment with a domestic loan of N35bn by selective tendering through Original Equipment Manufacturers or their representatives and reputable defence vendors. It was estimated that the nation would generate over N4bn annually from the COE and recoup the investment within nine years. Consequently, the Debt Management Office raised and transferred the loan into the MOD Unity Bank Operations Account in June 2008, instead of a dedicated capital project account.

“In spite of the sense of urgency created by the MOD, the funds remained inexplicably unutilised for the intended purpose for over nine months thus stalling the anticipated reimbursement and repayment of the loan for more than two years. MOD awarded the first set of eight contracts with a total value of N9.2bn in October 2018. However, while some of the equipment procured was not required based on the Memorandum of Understanding Nigeria signed with the UN, others were acquired at highly inflated costs, far above the Generic Fair Market Value recommended by the UN.

“Additionally, equipment that did not attract any reimbursement from the UN were procured in excess of the total requirements of the battalions in the UN Missions. For instance, procurement of the K-38 High-Speed Assault Patrol Boats awarded to Doiyatec Communications Limited at N3.12bn was wasteful as boats were not needed in the landlocked region of Sudan. Moreover, Level II Hospital was procured through Kishalom Nigeria Limited at N475m whereas the UN recommended only N10.5m for such equipment.”

The Presidential Committee report added that the MOD also retained the N35bn loan at the bank for 21 months and subsequently disbursed the outstanding balance of N28.4bn into six commercial banks.

It said, “Similarly, the MOD procured a large quantity of communications equipment from RCN Nigeria Limited and Richfield Technologies at the total cost of N5.2bn even though the equipment did not attract reimbursement from the UN. These trends manifested in all subsequent contracts awarded by the MOD from the N35bn loan, suggesting that the entire loan package was deliberately packaged to rip off the nation.

“Furthermore, the MOD contravened emphatic Presidential directive that the loan should be used only for procurement of COE that would generate reimbursement from the UN for repayment of the loan. The committee also established that in June 2010, MOD transferred the sum of N2.175bn from the 35bn to the Defence Intelligence Agency as a loan for construction of building for the Defence Section at the Nigerian Embassy in Brazil. However, the DIA could not account for the utilisation of the money released as it was confirmed that only N400m from the 2010 budgetary appropriation was remitted to Brazil for the stated purpose.

“Over N1bn of the N35bn loan was also used to settle bills of 10 revalidated contracts awarded in 2006. Unfortunately, some of the contractors still failed to perform or return the sum of N262m paid to it as 20 per cent mobilisation fees for contracts worth over N1.31bn. In the committee’s view, it was fraudulent and a disservice for the MOD to commit the funds into expenditures other than those approved by the President.”

Responding to the indictment of the Debt Management Office, Director General, Ms Patience Oniha, said there was actually a Memorandum of Understanding between DMO and the Ministry of Defence.

She said available record indicated that the ministry had been able to repay a significant part of the loan while the balance had been restructured.

Oniha said, “There was a loan to that effect. However, there was a MoU. There were terms. For confidential sake, I will not disclose the figures involved.

“The Ministry of Defence has been servicing the loan. The loan has not been fully repaid but there has been restructuring. They have made a significant repayment but for confidential purpose, I will not disclose the amount involved. For the President to grant a standalone approval means that there was some sense of urgency around it.”

Lalasticlala, Mynd44

Dozens of women are currently being held by suspected Fulani herdsmen after a raid on Gwon, Bolki and Nzumosu communities in Numan local government area of Adamawa State.

Numan communities have being under a total siege by suspected herdsmen since January this year, the repeated attacks that have been dismissed as mere farmer/herder clashes by the authorities.

Confirming the recent attacks, the member representing Numan constituency at the state House of Assembly, Mrs. Sodom Tayedi told newsmen that the marauding herdsmen were advancing towards other neighboring communities.

She further explained that the exact casualties cannot be ascertained as locals scampered to safety in the bush.

Hon. Tayedi, lamented that the attackers are mobilizing from Abbare which has large contingent of soldiers.

“There are soldiers in Abbare, yet these attackers will always mobilise from that Abbare”, she submitted.

She said further; “there is never a time they’ll attack and I never called security agents as member representing the constituency.

“I just called the Brigade Commander again and he assured me that troops are on their way to the area”, she reluctantly said.

The member also noted that even if the soldiers get there they may not be able to reach the affected villages due flooding of the area now.

Police could not confirm the attack as Police Spokesman, Habibu Musa could not answer phone calls up to the time of going to press.

mrsheidu:
what is their political weight?

“Too Good To Die: Third Term And The Myth Of The In Dispensable Man In Africa” By Chidi Odinkalu & Ayisha Osori

Insight: "How Obasanjo's Failed Third Term Agenda Was Funded" - New Book

A new book has given an insight into how money was raised for the spirited campaign to keep former President Olusegun Obasanjo in office beyond his second term in 2007. It also reveals how the campaign began and the individuals who conducted it.

The so-called Third Term Agenda collapsed May 16, 2016 when the Nigerian Senate threw out the Constitutional Amendments Bill.

Mr Obasanjo left office a year later on May 29, 2007 and has since stridently denied being interested in staying longer or playing any part in the agenda, despite admissions to the contrary by some of the principal actors.

The new book, however, a close scrutiny of the Third Term Agenda, names some of the aides and associates who pushed the agenda, states how a massive war chest was built for it and reveals some of the sources and individuals who provided the money.

The book, “Too Good To Die: Third Term And The Myth Of The In Dispensable Man In Africa”, was written by Chidi Odinkalu and Ayisha Osori.

Mr Odinkalu, a lawyer and civil rights advocate, is senior team manager for the Africa Program of the Open Society Justice Initiative and former Chairman of the Governing Council of the National Human Rights Commission.

Mrs Osori, also a lawyer, writer and management consultant, is the executive director of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).

How Much Was Spent

According to the authors, although Nuhu Ribadu, who at the time was Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), estimated the campaign gulped $300 million, evidence suggested the cost was much higher.

“When all the cost elements, including the public relations campaigns, additional incentives, the work of the JCCR (Joint Committee on Constitutional Review of the National Assembly) and constitutional conference, as well as inevitable incentives to the security services, are added to the inducements proposed for legislators, it seems almost certain that the budget for the third term was in excess of $500 million or half a billion dollars,” the authors state.

How Money Was Raised

The book provides an insight into how the money was raised.

“None of this money was lawfully appropriated. They could only have been generated by theft, diversion or misappropriation of public resources.

“Among many sources that were raided, the Obasanjo administration patented and pioneered a habit of unusual withdrawals from Nigeria’s Excess Crude Account, a rainy day, sovereign savings scheme funded by the extra earnings from Nigeria’s petroleum exports.

“2006, the year in which President Obasanjo hoped to achieve an elongation of his tenure by constitutional amendments, was by some unusual coincidence also the year in which Nigeria achieved the highest inflow into the ECA. In that year, the fund had an inflow of $29.614 billion from oil export earnings.

“In the same year, however, the administration also inexplicably authorized withdrawals from the ECA totaling the sum of $29.799 billion, resulting in a net negative balance of $184.404 million. In one year from 2005 to 2006, coinciding with precisely the most active period of the third Third Term Agenda, President Obasanjo authorised unusual payments totalling12.176 billion Naira, reportedly to fund the Niger Delta Power Plants and the National Independent Power Project (NIPP).

“Until then, this volume of payments out of the ECA was unprecedented. There is scant evidence that these sums were in fact administered for the declared purpose.

“Some of the disbursements from the ECA may plausibly have gone towards public purposes like the management of Nigeria’s debt settlements. It is not inconceivable though that at least some part of the ECA’s net negative balance went to fund activities connected with President Obasanjo’s Third Term Agenda.”

Following the collapse of the agenda, President Obasanjo went after some of those he held responsible. One of these was Atiku Abubakar, his vice president, whom a panel he set up and the EFCC indicted of fiddling with funds at the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF).

Mr Abubakar appeared before a 13-member Senate committee on 18 December 2006 to address the allegations raised by Mr Obasanjo and the EFCC report.

“Atiku proceeded to share with the committee various transactions and approvals Obasanjo had been involved in specifically with the PTDF. For instance, six days before the Senate killed the third term project, President Obasanjo approved the immediate release of N10 billion out of the N20 billion requested by PTDF for undisclosed projects. The unspoken suggestion was that Obasanjo had approved these funds to benefit his third term project,” the book states.

There were also other sources of funds outside federal coffers.

“Sometime before the National Assembly debate on amendments to the Constitution began, Governor (Saminu) Turaki reportedly sent N17 billion and $20 million in cash to Abuja,” the authors state.

“In his defence against money laundering charges brought against him by the EFCC for siphoning N36 billion out of Jigawa State, he admitted that this formed part of his investment in the PDP’s third term project.

“Turaki was also among the governors who invested in a third term for Obasanjo because it meant a third term for those who were in their second term of office and extra terms for those in their first. Some of the governors who joined him in the support group of tenure elongation, whether out of self-interest or self-preservation included: Ahmed Makarfi (Kaduna), James Ibori (Delta), Bukola Saraki (Kwara), Umaru Yar’adua (Katsina), Bukar Abba (Yobe) and General Olagunsoye Oyinlola (Osun).”

The budding Oligarchs

But it was not just a public sector affair, according to the book.

“In the shadows were budding oligarchs and private sector operators who knew enough to be part of every government. They had morphed into a formidable clique during the Obasanjo administration as the main beneficiaries of a privatisation policy from which they profited tremendously.

“While the majority were and have not been open about their involvement in or support for a third term, Festus Odimegwu, then Managing Director of Nigerian Breweries at the height of the advocacy for and aginst a third term, threw his hat firmly in the ring for tenure elongation and lost his job for it.

“The cream of this businessmen and women became part of Transcorp, which was launched with much fanfare by Obasanjo at the Presidential Villa in Abuja in July 2005. Transcorp became the symbol, identity and totem of 32 of Nigeria’s wealthiest people. In addition to billionaire financiers, Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola; bankers Tony Elumelu and Jim Ovia, and Odimegwu, this group included former CEO of First Bank Plc, Bernard Longe, who was appointed the first CEO of Transcorp after Obasanjo summarily removed Fola Adeola, the pioneer Managing Director of Transcorp.

“Apart from having a mind of his own, Adeola was said to have harboured ambitions to run for a seat in the Senate, in which Obasanjo’s eldest child, Iyabo, a veterinary doctor, was also interested. After he made his anti-third term public, Obasanjo also had Adeola summarily removed from his position as Chairman of the Pension Commission.

“Others included Jacobs Moyo Ajekigbe, MD/CEO of First Bank of Nigeria Plc.; Otunba Funsho Lawal, CEO of Charterhouse Group; Tony Ezeanna, CEO of Orange Drugs and Adegboyega Olulade, an investment banker and stockbroker.

“Also part of this group until his death was Waziri Mohammed. From the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Nicholas Okoye, who was designated as the head of derivatives trading, joined his boss and Director General, Ndi Okereke-Onyuike, in this select assembly of Obasanjo’s favoured businessmen and women.

“Transcorp raised N16 billion through private placement and had the good fortune to be the successful bidder for 71 percent of Nigeria’s former telecommunications monopoly, NITEL. It was also proud owner of Nicon-Noga Hilton Hotel, which many considered a national heritage, a concession for a 400,000-barrel per-day refinery at the Lekki Free Trade Zone and independent power plants.

“Other assets auctioned to the group were oil blocs to enable the new company operate in the upstream oil and gas industry. The controversy around Obasanjo’s acquisition of 200 million shares of Transcorp gave no pause to his ardent supporters for whom he was the model of exemplary leadership.

“A few months after the launch of Transcorp, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), made a case for a third term for Obasanjo. Charles Ugwu, the president of MAN, suggested that he spoke for the private sector in support of tenure elongation when he described Obasanjo as an example of rare, experienced and mature human resource.

“Addressing the 34th annual general meeting of the MAN on 15 November, 2005, Ugwu asked rhetorically: ‘(S)hould we package him in a box and put on a shelf of retired leaders and seek out a neophyte with whom we would experiment?” The benefits of a close collaboration between the presidency and private sector were too glaring or resist,’ he argued.

Agenda With Long Roots

According to the narrative by the authors, the seed for the Third Term Agenda was planted in the first term of President Obasanjo.

“The seed germinated perhaps innocuously, from the idea that political stability and continuity of policy was vital to Nigeria’s economic development.

“As chairman of the G77 developing countries, Obasanjo was an active and vocal advocate for debt relief in the context of the Jubilee 2000 global campaigns calling for debt relief for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC).

“This required meeting conditions of the Bretton Woods institutions, some of which entailed economic reforms. With this realisation, the Obasanjo administration reportedly worked feverishly, first with his ALF (African Leadership Forum), and then with the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), to create a blueprint for economic reforms. Their efforts came to be known as the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS).

“During this exercise, the penny dropped. It dawned on Obasanjo that he would not be in office long enough to oversee his plans for Nigeria and towards the end of 2002, sources recalled, in a meeting about the reforms which would lead to debt relief, President Obasanjo confessed that he would not be able to execute his vision without first tackling the political problems, starting with his own party, the PDP.”

The campaign for debt relief for Nigeria eventually yielded results in 2005 when the Paris Club of creditors granted Nigeria debt forgiveness to the tune of $18 billion after an agreement that the country was owing US$30 billion and would immediately repay the US$12 billion balance.

“Advocates of ‘consolidation’ sprouted, nourishing the roots of the idea that Obasanjo needed more than two terms in office. The Nigerian shorthand for this was tazarce, the noun for ‘continuity’ in Hausa, the major language in Northern Nigeria,” the authors state.

It started with the campaign for Mr Obasanjo to seek reelection, against the backdrop that he had in 1998 reportedly pledged to those who prodded him to power that he would serve only one term.

One of the leading advocates, Tony Anenih, said about his support for a second term for Obasanjo that ‘… it would be unwise not to allow Chief Obasanjo have a second term. This second term would enable him consolidate and complete the transformation of the society’”.

Mr Anenih was at the time Minister of Works and Housing. After Mr Obasanjo’s reelection, the book states, the plans for a third term began in earnest.

Different Interests, Repeat Offenders

“The people and stakeholders that worked together for a third term for Obasanjo were driven by different reasons and interests; for instance, self-interest was an underlying motive for many,” states the authors.
Aside cabinet members like Nasir El-Rufai, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Frank Nweke, were others like Nuhu Ribadu who was chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

“Many of the courtiers for Obasanjo’s self-succession were repeat offenders from previous episodes with uniformed military rulers. The currency of such campaign, they knew, was cash – lots of it.

“It was expensive to incentivise people, mobilise support across the country and hold conferences and rallies in support of any self-succession plan and best of all, most transactions were in cash and largely untraceable.

“Legislators needed the money to buy their reelection or prepare for their retirement amidst the realization that they could become electoral liabilities, irrespective of how third term ended. Governors needed money to buy off legislators in or from their states and Obasanjo and his acolytes were in a similar predicament at the federal level.

“The natural logic of Obasanjo’s third term aspiration was predicated on him spreading money around. Corruption was a necessary and inherent element of the Third Term Agenda.

“This gave birth to a cottage industry of third term investors and beneficiaries from the military god complex such as Femi Fani-Kayode and Andy Uba. Some did not fall neatly into any category but were driven by their closeness with Obasanjo to fall for the narrative that Obasanjo was Nigeria’s best option for progress and development.

“Finally, there were the legislators who formed a key part of operations to secure a third term for Obasanjo. In the Senate, Ibrahim Mantu, Ifeanyi Ararume and Jibril Aminu were some of the leading figures involved in the lobby to induce legislators to accept the constitutional amendments.

“Within the House of Representatives, there were several caucuses across interests, geography and parties. For instance, there was the Unity Forum led by David Idoko. Under the guise of advocating for the unity of Nigeria, this group of legislators sought to drive support for the Third Term Agenda within the public and amongst legislators. In return, many of them were reportedly well rewarded.

“These foot soldiers committed to the glory of a third term, an ode to Obasanjo’s now personal god complex, worked towards their goal with the aid of various strategies guided by Obasanjo’s mechanical engineering mind. What was needed? Who was needed? Who could be bullied or bought?

“Some of the strategies were familiar and had been used by other self-succession artists. The key tool was incentives – the trade by barter that had worked so well in keeping elite support for military rule for over 29 years.

“Positions were offered. Sitting governors, for example, would enjoy tenure elongation as well and several loyalists from the North had been promised that they would become Obasanjo’s vice president during his third term.

“Financial reward was also a huge inducement. The most credible figure for members of the National Assembly was N50 million for each member of the House and N75 million for each senator who would vote for the tenure extension amendment.”

Mr Obasanjo has repeatedly denied he ever planned to stay longer than the two terms the Nigerian Constitution allows a president and governors. But he has yet to speak on the claims in this new book.

Bitterleafsoup:
of course Dearie

Chikpat:
Noo!
Does the Nigerian constitution have provision for Chairman ohaneze, middle belt, afenifere, etc? Are these tribes not under the Nigerian state and under the 36 states of the federation? Why should self seeking, power hungry men, constituting nuisance in the polity be allowed to disturb the polity? what tangible projects have ohaneze, middle belt, afenifere etc ever done for her people? when governors or Abuja tips them, does an average Igbo man, Yoruba man, Hausa man know or benefit? Don't we have traditional constituted authorities (Igwes, Emirs, Obas etc) in these same places they claim to be leaders and chair-less chairmen? These and lots more are what I am talking about. And I don't know if you understand or not.

Bitterleafsoup:
Aww safe delivery in the ATL on my way there this weekend I will bring you a gift Linda.

Chikpat:
Who are Clark, Nwodo and Pogo? I don't know how they became Southern leaders?

Southern and Middle Belt Leaders, on Thursday rejected the appointment of Yusuf Magaji Bichi, as the new Director-General of the Department of Security Service, DSS by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The group in a statement jointly signed by its leaders, Chief E.K Clark (South South) Chief Ayo Adebanjo (South West), Chief John Nwodo (South East) and Dr. Bitrus Pogu (Middle Belt), rejected the appointment of Magaji, saying the new DSS DG does not come near removed Acting DG, Matthew Seiyefa in terms of experience and qualifications.

The statement reads, “The outright disregard for the conditions precedent for a united Nigeria and an inclusive country which President Buhari has become well known for was taken to a new height this evening with the removal of the Acting DG of DSS, Mr. Matthew Seiyefa and replacement with Mr. Yusuf Magaji Bichi from Kano”.

“The I-don’t-care and in-your-face attitude of the President in restoring Nigeria security architecture to the provocative situation of having 16 out of 17 service chiefs from his corner of the country is a clear demonstration of the fact that Nigeria for General Muhammadu Buhari is no more than his section of Nigeria and the resources and the constitutionally mandatory votes from other sections of the country”.

“Since 1960, Nigeria has never had a leader more sectional, narrow, parochial ,and tribalistic like the current President who went on a global stage to divide Nigeria into “97 % and 5%”.

“We have looked critically at the profiles of the Acting DG, who was removed and the one Buhari just appointed and it is crystal clear that Bichi does not come with any experience close to that of Seiyefa.

“The only qualification for this appointment is therefore only the rabid nepotism of the President which has seen him always masking personal and sectional interest as “national interest.

“Besides, Bichi is an out-of-the -system man drafted by Mr Lawan Daura in the days of his nepotism rule at the DSS. The next six most senior persons in line of succession at the DSS after Seiyefa are from our findings are all southerners which may explain why the President picked a man who already retired from the DSS to lead because of ethnic affinity

“That the President went ahead to deep himself further into the cocoon of ethnic irredentism in making this insensitive appointment shows clearly that he does not care a hoot about the unity, cohesion and oneness of Nigeria

“We reject this appointment and we do not shy in telling Mr. President that he no longer pretends that the country is one under him.

“In the last few days, there have been fears coming from the international community about the dangers that would come the way of Nigeria if Mr. President returns for another term. With his latest action, we add that the country is not safe in the remainder of his first term.

“Lastly we ask, Mr President, Are we still one county?”

yeyerolling:
receive sense. Every bandit must be fulani herdmen abi. Ode

Kyase:
lol see your mouth

iammo:
let's say we restructure Nigeria today, how exactly would osun pay back $96m without allocation from oil revenue.

LEADER of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) and foremost Ijaw nationalist, Chief Edwin Clark, has advised people of the Niger Delta not to vote for any politician that does not support the restructuring of the country.

He said however that they must be careful not to fall for politicians who merely mouth restructuring without really meaning it.

Clark said the people must ask the presidential candidates about their manifestoes to determine whether it meets the aspirations of the Niger Delta before supporting them.

“If it says restructuring, then vote for that person,” he advised, adding: If this country is restructured, within 10 years, the pattern of life will change.

Speaking while receiving leaders of various youth councils in the region led by the President General of the Niger Delta Nationalities Youth Leaders Council, Peretubo Oweilaemi, at his Asokoro Abuja residence on Wednesday, he regretted that the Niger Delta has been marginalised in the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) even though it produces 98 per cent of the crude oil.

“The thing we produce in our area feeds the whole country. Yet, we are beggars in our own country.

“Could you imagine a situation whereby nine directors in NNPC appointed by President Buhari, six of them are Northerners including the Chief of Staff (to the president), one from South West, one from Niger Delta with all the oil we produce in is country,” he said.

The same thing he said happened in the appointment of NNPC General Managers, which he said had 10 from the North, two from the South West, two from the South-South and none from the East.

He pointed out that Imo and Abia states which also produce crude oil got no representation.

He said out the 55 Managers appointed, 36 came from the North and while the remaining were spread among the other parts of the country.

“So, they control the oil, they maintain it and what do they say? ‘we are ungrateful for anything they give to us, we are troublemakers and so on,” he added.

Clark further stated: “Today, some people say oil flowed from the desert and came to our area, we don’t own it. They won it. They are now managing it.

“We are saying, restructure this country. If you restructure the country, whatever is produced in your area, you manage it at your own pace,” he asserted.

The elder statesman, however, appealed to the youths to remain calm, saying that with God on their side, they will prevail.

He said the country must be restructured to allow all the component parts to develop at its own pace as it was in the first republic.

The one time Federal Commissioner of Education observed that there is the perception that the country as it is now is “lopsided, deliberately constituted to oppress some people,” saying that the people must continue to speak their minds.

Chief Clark, whose residence was searched by the police last Tuesday, said he decided to accept the police apology over the incident because he wanted to avert war in the Niger Delta.

He said: “So, they (police) came and apologised, they disowned those boys but I said don’t. We are no fills. Those boys have no powers to come and search my house.

“When they were here, somebody her phoned an Assistant Inspector General of Police and he answered.

“When my people went to their office, the boys did not stop on their own, they took them to their boss. So, don’t lie to me. But the apology, I have accepted it because of Nigerians.

“And if I don’t, problem will take place in the Niger Delta. I hear the boys and the girls are already gathering in Port Harcourt, in Yenegoa, WARRI and so on, even up to Arogbo in Ondo state.

“I have to accept it their apology in the interest of peace and in the interest of our country. But go and make it public. And so, they did.”

He affirmed that he had written a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari demanding that the matter be investigated to fish out those who were responsible for it.

Clark said instead of embarrassing him, the police only succeeded in embarrassing themselves.

In his remark, the leader of the delegation demanded that the police publicly parade the officers involved in the search of Clark’s residence, otherwise, it would be seen that the police lied.

He said the people of the Niger Delta wanted to know the officers and be assured that they were not merely moved by the police to continue their service other areas.

Lalasticlala, Mynd44

The All Progressives Congress has rejected what it described as doomsday prophecies by two British-based institutions about Nigeria’s economy and the 2019 presidential election.

The APC position was contained in a statement by its acting National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, in Abuja on Wednesday.

The statement was the APC’s response to reports by The Economist Intelligence Unit, the research unit of The Economist, and a multinational banking and financial services company, HSBC.

The Economist had in a report by its EIU predicted that the Peoples Democratic Party would win the 2019 presidential election.

The HSBC also said the second term of President Muhammadu Buhari would stunt the economy of the country.

But Nabena said the reports were nothing but the usual doomsday prophesies about Nigeria, which had serially proved false, deceptive and unreliable.

The statement read in part, “The All Progressives Congress urges Nigerians to regard these ‘expert analyses and prophecies’ for what they are and dismiss them accordingly.

“We should remember similar prophesies and analyses about the political situation in Nigeria made some years back by similar Western institutions.

“It was prophesied that Nigeria would collapse in 2015, resulting in some ethnic nationalities going their separate ways.

“Here we are, nearly four years after the doomsday prophecy; the Nigerian federation rather than collapse is waxing stronger with President Buhari administration striving to unite the country and consolidate positively on the strength of our diversity.”

The party wondered why it was only negative reports that The Economist, HSBC and similar institutions had about Nigeria.

It added that the two institutions did not see all the positive impacts that the APC administration was making in relation to ongoing economic reforms, fight against corruption, infrastructure drive and counter-insurgency.

The APC listed some of the recoveries made from officials of the immediate past administration by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission as well as increases in remittances by public institutions such as the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board and the Federal Inland Revenue Service as evidence of the Buhari-led administration’s success in transparency.

In a veiled reference to the ex-minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, the statement read, “A former minister in the immediate-past administration who is resident in the United Kingdom is alleged to control enough corruptly-obtained assets whose value if put to productive use could have employed thousands of Nigerians.

“How much of this loot has the United Kingdom, the base of these experts, returned to Nigeria? Of course, these experts are conveniently oblivious of these and many similar cases.

“Rather than consider the plight of Nigerians and campaign for the return of the stolen funds, these institutions have chosen to dissipate energy spewing doomsday prophecies on Nigeria.

“We advise these economic experts to focus on their pressing domestic issues and ponder, for example, on the important question of the role Britain will play in the world, post Brexit.”

Nigeria is doomed if Buhari is elected –SDP, ADC

The Social Democratic Party and the African Democratic Congress have lambasted the APC for defending Buhari.

The SDP National Publicity Secretary, Alfa Mohammed, said, “The APC is only denying what is obvious. The reports are genuine and we know these things already. Of course, we all know that Nigeria will be doomed if a President, who is not in charge, returns for another four years.”

In his reaction, the ADC National Chairman, Chief Okey Nwosu, said, “I wish I could rewind to four years back when the APC was condemning Nigeria’s economy based on the same foreign reports.

“Are these reports true? Yes. The poverty and unemployment index in the country is obvious. Even in agriculture and healthcare, we are not catching up. Our President still goes to same Britain periodically for medical attention.

“The APC has closed its eyes to the truth and has tried to suppress the opposition by all means. It has now extended this condemnation to the international community.

PDP hails reports

The PDP said the reports confirmed its position that Nigerians had rejected Buhari ahead of the 2019 presidential election.

The PDP said Buhari’s rejection was predicated on his alleged failure and the deception of the APC in the last three years.

The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday said the findings by the two organisations that President Buhari stood no chance in the general elections and that his winning portended grave danger for Nigeria was in tandem with the stance of majority of Nigerians.

He noted that Nigerians were fed up with Buhari due to his alleged incompetence and unprecedented corruption under his watch.

This, he said, had resulted in the ruining of the nation’s once robust economy, “with attendant mass job loss, ravaging hunger, starvation and disease, as well as escalated insecurity.”

“The world knows the reason the Buhari-led APC administration has resorted to harassment and vicious attacks on the opposition, assaults on the judiciary and the National Assembly, as well as unrelenting machination to compromise the Independent National Electoral Commission to rig the elections.

“This is also the reason President Buhari rejected the amendment to the Electoral Act passed by the National Assembly, which practically checks all APC’s rigging strategies ahead of the 2019 general elections,” Ologbondiyan added.

He said the fear of imminent defeat was the reason Buhari was allegedly against the amendment that checked the use of underage voters, provided for online publication of voter register in addition to instant transmission of results from the polling to collation centres, thus eliminating interferences and planned alteration of results by the APC.

“Nigerians are aware that this APC and INEC have been conniving to secretly create 30,000 illegal polling units in remote areas, as well as registration of compromised observers to validate their machinations.

“Now that Mr President is aware that his approval rating among Nigerians and across the world has hit the rocks despite the many choreographed endorsement stunts by his handlers, the PDP urges him to rein in his lackeys, bury the idea of rigging the elections and get ready to accept an inevitable defeat.”

The National Chairman of the Labour Party, Abdulkadir Abdulsalam, also said the APC would lose the 2019 election as predicted.

He spoke to one of our correspondents on the telephone on Wednesday.

Abdulsalam said, “The British groups merely stated what some of us already know, Nigerians are tired of this government and will vote it out in 2019 if we have a free and fair election.”

APC’s change brought hunger – Kwankwaso

In a related development, a PDP presidential aspirant and a former Governor of Kano State, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, on Wednesday said he and others who supported Buhari in 2015 made the “greatest mistake.”

Addressing the Niger State PDP supporters at the party’s secretariat in Minna, the former governor said the much talked about change only brought hunger, killings and unemployment.

He said, “I will not support or remain in that type of change. That is why I am back to the PDP to change the change that has brought untold hardship on Nigerians.”

In Kano State, a former Vice-President and PDP presidential aspirant, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, promised a turnaround in the “current misfortune of Nigerians.”

He spoke while addressing the PDP chieftains and supporters at the residence the party’s state Chairman in Kano, Ma’sud El-Doguwa.

I Will Defeat Boko Haram In Two Months - Buhari 2014

Boko Haram Will Be A Thing Of The Past Soon - Osinbajo 2018

kenddys:
the funny part is that they recovered $322m abacha loot and decided to share it with the poor and then borrow $324m to fund telecom sector who does that please?

kenddys:
the lady just sits there and let the fg keep borrowing without thinking

Same Baba That Has Recovered Billions/Trillions Of Naira Is The One Going Up And Down, Borrowing Left, Right And Centre

kenddys:
sometimes I wonder if kemi did any course relating to the finance industry

Amina Mohammed, the deputy secretary-general of the United Nations (UN), says Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, two-time minister of finance, spent years to get Nigeria out of debt, but the country is now back to worrying levels of debt.

Speaking at the International Monetary (IMF) and the UN working together conversation on Tuesday, the former minister of environment in Nigeria, expressed her worry on the rising level of debt in Nigeria and the rest of Africa.

She said the UN and IMF must have better conversations on the demands of a growing economy, seeking ways to make growth better and inclusive.

“Public resources are always going to be important, and so is ODA and the private sector. But I think we still haven’t yet got quite the solution and I hope that the work that we do together will open up that space to think more on how to leverage that,” she said.

“As I was coming up from New York, some of the concerns that came up from the meeting we had in China just recently and reports that we have; the debt issues are really big, I mean, having experienced what it was for Ngozi (Okonjo-Iweala) to get debt relief.

“It took her a few years to convince people, and we are now back again in my country, with a level of debt that is worrying, but its happening all over. Africa, is that the way we want to go?

“I think we really need to sit down and have a better conversation about all the asks of a growing economy; that needs to be inclusive, it needs to succeed, because stability is needed more than ever today, across our countries and where we are working.”

In the conversation with Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the IMF, Mohammed had agreed with Lagarde that Okonjo-Iweala was very influential in the debt relief Nigeria secured in 2006.

Before 2005, Nigeria had an external debt stock of $36 billion, which had been carried over from the military years, dating back to 1985.

In October 2005, with Okonjo-Iweala as finance minister, Nigeria and the Paris Club announced a final agreement for debt relief worth $18 billion and an overall reduction of Nigeria’s external debt stock by $30 billion.

The deal was completed on April 21, 2006, when Nigeria made its final payment and its books were cleared of any Paris Club debt, bringing Nigeria’s external debt profile to just $3 billion while domestic debt was only about N1 trillion.

As at June 30, 2018, Nigeria’s total debt profile, according to the Debt Management Office (DMO) had risen to $73.21 billion or N22.38 trillion.

AMINA MOHAMMED AS THE ‘DUSTBIN LADY

The mother of six also spoke about every of the 17 goals that make up the SDGs as her children, saying all were equally important for the future of the world.

She added that when she was appointed minister of environment in Nigeria, she was seen as the dustbin lady, because the people did not see the real value of her office.

“I have to tell you, when I went back to Nigeria as minister of environment, my state was saying, it was environment they gave you? that is the dustbin lady. They did not even get that environment was broader than just waste disposal,” she told Lagarde and a room full of development experts.

She said climate change is important, so is gender parity and inclusion for youths.

Mohammed stated that “the average age of entry into the United Nations is 45”, adding that the UN is working hard to change this, and include young people in its working process.

PrinceZahzah:


I know why he's angry...

Motorists and other innocent people will not be available to ROJAH na

That day is always bad market lol