₦airaland Forum

“Integrity requires three steps: discerning what is right and what is wrong; acting on what you have discerned, even at personal cost; and saying openly that you are acting on your understanding of right from wrong." – Stephen L Carter

Months ago, before the 2011 voter registration exercise began in Nigeria some of us were very excited as we saw this as an opportunity to effect the much-needed change in our country. I geared up and began non-partisan campaigns aimed at youths in Nigeria to ensure that they register, vote, and protect their votes. I spent at least four to six hours everyday campaigning on social network platforms, TV/Radio, and print media. My team and I did everything we could from explaining the process, to following people on twitter who posted pictures of their registration cards, to giving away cellphone airtime and even went as far as helping local INEC officials with some of the technical difficulties they faced at the commencement of the registration exercise. We are currently working on an incidence reporting initiative to help curb election malpractices. What's in it for me you might ask, like I tell everyone who has asked me, some of us just really believe in a better Nigeria. If I have the resources to make change, I wont hesitate to put it towards just that. I am Nigerian, I have a daughter who is Nigerian and I would love to see my daughter raised in this country. I am a true patriot and I have consistently promoted the idea that the Nigerian situation can and should improve with the right leadership.

During the voters’ registration campaign, I got together with a few friends and colleagues of mine to discuss ways to increase youth participation in the democratic process of our country using our music platform. During one of those discussions, we came up with the idea to have multiple concerts across the country, which would only be accessed by registered voters. It felt like a great idea because with this initiative, we could all join forces and get more attention from our intended demographic. Household names such as PSquare, D’banj, eLDee, Tuface, MI, Banky W, Naeto C, Sound Sultan, Timaya, Wizkid, Duncan Mighty and the likes, would easily fill up arenas in any city so why not have a free concert that people can only be a part of if they present their voters registration card. To the best of my knowledge, we came up with a tag called “Our time” for the concert series. In order to avoid the initiative being politicized, we agreed to raise funds through non-partisan means alone.

We put little resources together and quickly shot TV commercials since there were only a few days left of the voter registration period. The commercials were immediately published on TV/Internet and it generated a good amount of attention. At the end of the voter registration period, there was overwhelming evidence of the success of the initiative and we all looked forward to entertaining our registered voter fans at the concert series.

Fast forward to March 17, 2011. I am watching television and I see a commercial that looked just like the one we shot for our campaign. It was indeed footage from our voter registration initiative commercial, however this version was manipulated to suit a different purpose. The new edit describes a free concert featuring D’banj, Tuface, MI, eLDee, PSquare, BankyW, Duncan Mighty, Wizkid and others, which supposedly holds in Abuja on March 25, 2011 and totally omits our voter registration campaign initiative. The advert now ends with a different tagline, “supported by Our Time Group, Youths rising up for GEJ.” I immediately had a cold feeling of shock, betrayal, deceit, and misrepresentation because this was the exact opposite of what we created the initiative for. Now I was being touted as a representative of the youth in support of the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan presidential campaign. What’s even more interesting is that Silverbird TV ran this new advert before and after the Dbanj interview with Goodluck Jonathan, as if it were part and parcel of that GEJ campaign initiative. I called all parties involved to express my disapproval and disgust at how anyone would take such an innocent initiative and manipulate it to misrepresent the interest and support of the youth. To my dismay, another slap in the face came in the form of a full-page newspaper advert in The Vanguard of March 22, 2011 with my picture, among others artists, advertising the same GEJ Presidential campaign concert.

It is sad and indeed worrying that people continue to take advantage of good intentions and initiatives for selfish and corrupt purposes. I use this medium to make public that I have never, and even more so now will never be a part of any campaign for President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, therefore please do not expect me to be at the supposed concert. Let me be clear, I have nothing against the supposed concert and its participants; I just prefer to be consulted about such a manipulation of interest beforehand. I have never received any money or gift of any kind from any member or supporter of the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan presidential campaign or any presidential campaign for that matter, neither have I volunteered my services in support of any such campaign. I’ll be glad to announce if and when I do but until then, I don’t appreciate my image and likeness being exploited for political purposes without my consent.

Here’s a link to the original “Our time” initiative: http://www.bellanaija.com/2011/02/04/dbanj-headlines-our-time-initiative-concert-series-to-inspire-youth-to-register-and-vote/

Here’s the new advert as displayed in the vanguard newspapers: http://plixi.com/photos/original/85832692

eLDee: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150113896423148

Buhari’s handshake and handcuff
By Ebele Chukwu

Obasanjo never hid his disgust for General Sani Abacha who had jailed him for a “phantom coup”. Released from jail and still wallowing in a fit of new found spirituality, he wrote a book and called it “The Animal Called Man”. And he elected to wage a battle on this “Animal Called Man”.

While taking his oath of office at the Eagle Square on 27th May, 1999, he had pledged to wrestle corruption out of our national psyche. In a fit of mediaeval triumphalism, he chanted: “there will be no sacred cows!”

But his first attack was a disaster. No sooner had he made that declaration than he dispatched Mallam Haroun Adamu to the headquarters of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), an intervention agency run by General Muhammadu Buhari, to start the war on corruption. Haroun Adamu’s public brief was to wind down PTF but the hidden one was to disgrace General Buhari by exposing the “shady deals” in PTF.

Contractors working for PTF were used to picking their cheques across the counter without much ado. Under the new inquisitor, contractors discovered they now had to oil their cheques out, something alien to the PTF they knew. They cried foul. And there were several other fouls after the first foul. To say that Obasanjo was thoroughly embarrassed by his minions would be an understatement, so much so that till date he does not discuss PTF in public.
As a General, it would appear that Obasanjo read Sun Tzu’ s “The Art of War” upside down. Sun Tzu had counselled: “Know thyself; know thy enemy. You will fight a thousand battles without defeat.” The blitzkrieg he deployed only showed he did not know PTF. He might not have needed to fire a shot to win or wean PTF. To date, most Nigerians knew how PTF started, what it did but not how it ended. Not known as one who forgives, was it not surprising that General Buhari walked the streets with his head high throughout Obasanjo’s imperial majesty when the fear of EFCC was the beginning of political wisdom?

In October 1994, General Sani Abacha increased the pump price of petrol from N3.25k to N11.00 per litre. Nigerians assailed him with criticisms for this unpopular move and to assuage their feelings, he quickly established the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund to use a portion of the proceeds of the increase to intervene in critical sectors of the economy. Nigerians never took Abacha seriously on this project until Gen Muhammadu Buhari was announced and inaugurated the chairman of the PTF in March 1995.

That PTF awarded contracts worth billions of naira is not news. The news the PTF made within the four years it existed was and still is that contracts awarded were executed to their logical conclusion and for those not executed, the PTF got every kobo back. Before PTF, contractors were used to abandoning contracts and bolting away with their advance payments. It never happened in PTF. When Buhari visited the Onitsha end of the Enugu-Onitsha express way awarded to a local contractor and discovered the job was abandoned, he simply called on the bank that guaranteed the contractor to pay back. There and then, the contract was terminated and later awarded to another contractor. From that moment, banks and insurance companies that provided bonds to contractors learnt that the old order had changed and had to monitor projects it guaranteed.

For the years it existed, PTF published its annual reports and always addressed press conferences to respond to issues arising from the reports. And each time it did, it challenged anybody who could deliver on any of its projects at a price cheaper than what it cost the PTF to submit his proposal. Nobody ever did.

In one of the presentations of its annual report, the Executive Secretary of the Board of the PTF, Chief Tayo Akpata, maintained that the roads constructed by the PTF not only cost less than World Bank funded roads but were also better qualitatively. He challenged anyone to prove the contrary. Until the PTF was scrapped, nobody did.
While the PTF existed, contractors never needed to lobby and grease palms to get LPO’s. You only needed to belong to the appropriate group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and other professional groups to qualify. Not a few contractors received requests to supply the PTF in the comfort of their offices. It was so unbelievably true that some had to travel to Abuja to reconfirm if the LPO’s they received were genuine. And genuine they were.

To be paid for a completed contract, all the contractor needed was to present a certificate of completion issued by the ubiquitous consultants engaged by the PTF and his cheque would be prepared. And with a proper letter of introduction, a contractor could send a third party to pick his check across a counter in the Finance Department without any ceremony. Picking a cheque then was just like walking into a bank to withdraw cash across the counter. As staff of Set and Sell Communications Ltd and later Media Trust Ltd, I personally picked several cheques on behalf of these firms. The challenge the finance department of the PTF faced then was getting contractors to come and pick their cheques which would pile up for months as a good number never knew it was so simple.

One cannot also forget in a hurry the PTF drug revolving scheme. Under this, the PTF set up offices in hospitals across the country and supplied them with drugs. The financial consultants employed by the Fund ensured that receipts from the sales of the drugs were used to replenish the stocks in an unending cycle that banished out-of-stock anthem the Nigerian public were forced to listen to before then. And it was not easy to divert PTF drugs to the parallel market. The smallest tablet supplied had PTF logo engraved on it. Somebody attempted diverting the drugs and was caught. General Buhari took up the case personally and ensured the culprit went to jail. After that, nobody heard of diversions again.

The strategy of the PTF in procuring these drugs is worth reviewing. Over 60% of the drugs supplied to the PTF were locally produced. In fact, the PTF only imported drugs that could not be produced by the local pharmaceutical firms. The pressure on the existing pharmaceutical companies was so much that almost all these firms had to increase their capacity by expanding and employing more hands. Neimeth Pharmaceuticals, Emzor Pharmaceuticals among others can be contacted to affirm or disprove this. This policy was deliberately made to ensure that more jobs were created within the economy.

Builders who built for PTF would also tell you that they were not allowed to import paints. There was a list of all the paint manufacturers in the country maintained at the PTF from which builders bought paints. Within the same period, the capacity utilisation in these companies soared as they expanded and created more jobs. A look at the records kept by IPWA plc and other existing paint makers within the period under review is worth attempting to digest the profundity of the PTF intervention in the building sector; and other sectors it intervened in as its model was so overarching that critics labelled it “the alternative government”.

This column is not enough to put in a proper perspective the job General Buhari undertook and did while in PTF but it suffices through this glimpse to understand the mindset and the strategy of this maelstrom which the ruling elite hate for his forthrightness - a quality in short supply in governance today.

One can cite the number of roads and hospitals rehabilitated by the PTF. One can also quote the billions it spent. The essence of the PTF, however, lies more in the multiplier effect its intervention had on the economy as a whole than in the number of what it did, which on its own was equally impressive. This distinction is what differentiates growth from development. While the former is quantitative, the latter is qualitative. As a political economist, I know that the economic development of any third world country lies in qualitative transformation.

Before the coming of PTF, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida had introduced the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) which he had claimed had no alternative. The revered economist, Professor Sam Aluko, had also reminded him that economics was a science of alternatives; that even death had an alternative which was life and that SAP was a kiss of death. IBB was to acknowledge the failure of SAP when out of frustration around 1991, he exclaimed that “the Nigerian economy had defied all known economic theories and was surprised that the economy had not collapsed”.

The economy did not collapse. The PTF intervention ensured it did not. This was the lesson OBJ failed to grasp when he dissolved the Fund with executive fiat in 1999. As at 1997, funds available to the PTF was about N115 billion and Nigerians could point at projects the fund was expended on. A decade after PTF, the governments from OBJ’s to date had spent much more than that in the power sector alone and have not been able to generate even a megawatt more of electricity.

Managing public funds is serious business. General Muhammadu Buhari was fond of telling contractors on visit to sites: “If you perform well, you get a handshake. If you perform badly, you get a handcuff”. This is the mantra we need at this historical juncture. The man that incarnates this mantra out of the available presidential candidates is General Muhammadu Buhari.

There is also a lesson to be learnt from the day Buhari left PTF. Obasanjo, on assumption of office, announced the setting up of the interim management committee led by Mallam Haroun Adamu to wind down PTF. The following day, Buhari addressed a press conference and invited the new management to immediately take over. He told Nigerians that everything the new management needed were in the records to which they would have unhindered access. He bid his staff farewell, descended the stairs, literally jumped into his four wheel drive that took him home to Daura. He never stepped into that premises again to this day. And he never fled the country to escape the EFCC.


The likes of Obasanjo should go back to the military academy to understand “The Art of War” before going on another offensive.

Ebele Chukwu writes from Eziora, Ozubulu (ababio38@gmail.com, 08186482246 sms only

Beaf:
Sorry, but some of you talk very stvpidly.
If there is a need to lock Buhari up, he'll be locked up. The article makes it quite plain that he is only walking freely, because he is contesting the presidential elections and GEJ does not want to lock up an opponent; but if he pushes it, he will be locked up and empty noisemakers like you will sit down and watch.

Agreed. Go ahead and arrest him. I guess if there are arrest Jonathan, he will be locked up.

Beaf don't worry I will keep the key of your cell come June. I intend to throw it into my sucker pit where the key will have real fresh air.

On a serious note, Nigerians lets support Buhari and halt corruption and build a nation that will make us proud.

Jakumo:
In response to his unrelenting propensity to instigate and sponsor disruptive electoral violence, existing statutes in Nigerian lawbooks contain adequate grounds on which to ARREST and DETAIN Ayatollah Buggari for his own protection, and that of the innocent voters whom this Islamic terrorist evidently considers expendable.

Johnny B. Goodluck PLEASE lock this mad muffuguh up NOW, to clear the field so that civilized, peaceful presidential elections to transpire in Nigeria.

Boy you are very fuunnny

Arrest Buhari? Who born am - no long story go ahead with the arrest. My advise to Jonathan is to provide Buhari with every security he needs - Nigerians will not accept any excuses if anything suspicious happens to him

Its only someone who hates Nigeria or stealing our treasure will vote PDP.

Am glad a Nigeria I can be very proud of is in the horizon.

Tell Jonathan, you cannot eat your cake and have it. Zoning was to allow the minorities have a chance, but for greed he truncated it to chose a free for all fight. Imagine Jonathan, using 2015 (what should have been Ndigbo hope) to bargain with the North. Even SS may split for Buhari - how long do he need to wipe the tears of his people?

From here in Enugu, its BB all the way: I have never been this happy for Nigerian politics.

Am glad a Nigeria I can be very proud of is in the horizon.

Tell Jonathan, you cannot eat your cake and have it. Zoning was to allow the minorities have a chance, but for greed he truncated it to chose a free for all fight. Imagine Jonathan, using 2015 (what should have been Ndigbo hope) to bargain with the North. Even SS may split for Buhari - how long do he need to wipe the tears of his people?

From here in Enugu, its BB all the way: I have never been this happy for Nigerian politics.

Why is it that when Beaf scramble to find his footing, look for lies/links to justify the sore policy and empty promises of Jonathan - I get delighted. Jonathan will promise you anything, kneel/beg anybody, if that will get him the presidency. That is a definition of a desperate man.

@Post:
Until corruption in the system is brought to a halt, no amount of money thrown into the power sector will bring forth results.

From here in Enugu, its Sai Buhari - people especially the educated are supporting and its growing.

He have been having a busy day since he took up his full responsibility as the grand-godfather of President Jonathan.

After Beaf will be ranting that Jonathan did not officially and share biscuits

Looking at those pics alone means Nigerians are ready for change. Time to kick corruption to the trash can.

It also gladdens my heart whenever I see PDP, Beaf and his legions of IDs biting the dust.

I am 100% Igbo and Christian - I approve this message - BB all the way. Its time to move towards a nation I will be glad to tell anyone online with pride.

lionness:
Jarus/Beaf

Whats the difference? Both should go hug transformers

If Beaf and his legion of aliases become Moderator on Political Section, apart from silencing every opposition, here is what you will get

egift:
Beaf

He want to open 50 IDs to campaign against Jarus

God forbid! Tufiakwa - Holy Ghostoooooo!

Beaf

He want to open 50 IDs to campaign against Jarus

Am sure BEAF is not here

[quote author=Enugu_Ukwu link=topic=628320.msg7957657#msg7957657 date=1300735428]some people have brains but find it hard to make it work.

poster, you yourself called it "initial projection". Do you know what that means? mumu.[/quote]

kasiem:
Ignorance is the worst curse that can bedevil a man.@poster, so u dont know the meaning of budget and things are not stable?

Stop attacking the poster. It is a sign of incompetence on the side of Presido, to have his initial budget estimate tripped within weeks after the first.

Or did he remember he have more hands to grease? And have you mumus find a way to defend the indefensible

Nigeria as a nation have gone through many levels (deep and high), now it have the opportunity to determine what course it will take.

Should Nigeria continue with it current leadership or do we need a more progressive change?

Nigerian politics of untouchables is becoming sad by the day. Does it mean those people pressurizing him are ghost?

Exposing, arresting and prosecuting them will just have been the best option. Am afraid this will end up to the "hight bidder" policy.

Mr President like many people, had opportunity (he is always at right place when something terrible happens to his superiors), but like most persons dead or alive, he wasted it.

He has been unable to to utilize such opportunity to make a difference. Worst of all, for fear or the nature of person he have chosen to be - he have surrounded himself with the finest thieves Nigeria ever produced.

The story of Jonathan is a sad one indeed.

The only way Jonathan and his supporters do become relevant in the scheme of things, is by lowering the bar to the pits.

One thing I like about Buhari is that he raises the standard to the highest and put up his very best to achieve it. That's what we need.

Vote Buhari - Lets stop corruption.

Supported. Jarus And Aisha like any other member here have the right to voice their opinion, any attempt to shout them down will never be accepted.

When she was protesting tirelessly all over the country for Jonathan to be president, did they complain. After the man have wasted the goodwill and opportunity granted to him like the prodigal son, GEJ's supporters think they can blind us to stay under the corrupt "umbrerra".

Never. Nigeria has the capacity to be a leading world policy maker, we are not going to settle for Corruption and mediocrity.

Vote Mr. Integrity - Lets clean this mess and charge to greatness  

If not being mumurish, what was it about making donation to a political campaign that necessitated you to reply with "why?".

Is it that you did not understand it or is that Jonathan draining our Billions to fund his campaign a reason for others not run theirs the way it ought to be.

I don't see you ask a newbie - you have been spamming every thread the much you can. I hope you are well remunerated with your numerous ids

[quote author=Enugu_Ukwu link=topic=628151.msg7956363#msg7956363 date=1300723459]why?[/quote]This make you look foolish BB All The Way

[quote author=Enugu_Ukwu link=topic=628320.msg7957339#msg7957339 date=1300731899]what point have you made?[/quote]Simple: That Mr Jonathan is a chameleon

[quote author=Enugu_Ukwu link=topic=627981.msg7956469#msg7956469 date=1300724274]dont mind the rascals - they call GEJ all manner of names possible, but when you touch Buhari, they protect his as if he is Jesus Christ.[/quote]Because he is a good and honest man. Unlike that thief of yours

Let PDP bring that blame game up. Nigerians are waiting.

Here is what Obasanjo have to say about Buhari - Nigerians, lets support Buhari (CPC) for President.

"Muhammadu Buhari as a member of the SMC & as the head of the petroleum dept was by nature taciturn & introvert. But he took any work given to him very seriously & if he failed at whatever he did, it would not be because he did not put his best, in fact, his very best. He was as reliable as he was hard working & HONEST"
– Olusegun Obasanjo ("Not My Will", University Press Ltd., Ibadan, 1990, Pg 59

Ozin:
Na big lie!! you are not for Buhari the Dictator.You are for the fake pastor Bakare, so stop deceiving youreslf.

Me am a christian
100% Igbo man
I campaigned and protest for Jonathan to become both acting and President
(because its the right thing to do - Jonathan never request that)
Me and many of my friends supports Buhari and Bakare for President 2011

WHY?

- Jonathan has surrounded himself by enemies of the Nigerian Masses
- He cannot fight corruption (meaning he will be condoning or practicing himself)
- After over a year our money is heavily spent and nothing to show for it.
- Buhari and Bakare are men of proven integrity
- Most allegations and campaign against Buhari are based on lies and feasting on the sentiments of Nigerian.
- No sincere person will insist that power be giving to Jonathan (with OBJ, Anenith, Ibori, Bode Gorge, Bankole, Mark etc calling the shot)
- How can an individual be promoted base on failure.

Buhari has what it takes to place Nigeria on a path of greatness and I support him. BB2011.

The only teeth wey day fowl mouth don fall comot

Mar 18th 2011, 7:55 by S.A. | LAGOS

ON NEW Year’s Eve in 1983, General Muhammadu Buhari seized power in Nigeria in a military coup. A series of counter-coups would leave the country under army rule until the sudden death of the last dictator fifteen years later.

General Buhari’s rule is best known for his "war on indiscipline," which aimed to stop officials from embezzling the state’s vast oil venues and bring order to a chaotic society. He had looting politicians jailed, drug traffickers executed and strikes banned. Elections were jettisoned.

These days, however, General Buhari seems more comfortable with the ballot box. Aged 68, he is running for president in April with the opposition Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). He faces a tough battle to unseat Goodluck Jonathan, the incumbent, whose People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has been in power since the return to civilian rule in 1999.

Some Nigerians say the austere General Buhari could be just what their country needs. Graft and disorder persist in Africa’s biggest oil and gas producer. He is particularly popular in the mostly Muslim northern states, where he hails from.

Baobab met General Buhari at his residence in Abuja, the capital. Wearing a simple white caftan and a traditional fez-style cap, he discussed his past and the upcoming polls.

Baobab: Some Nigerians are wary of voting for a one-time strict military ruler. How do you defend your past to your critics?

Muhammadu Buhari: Whether I was strict under military rule, or whether I am docile under the democratic system, is dictated by the system itself. I just try to operate in the system in which I find myself, I feel very strongly about certain issues—indiscipline and corruption—so people say I have been harsh and uncompromising, But, if you read the law, you will see that Nigerian law does not accept corruption. Why should someone be accused of being strict if he maintains fighting corruption?

Baobab: Many Nigerians remember your 1980s regime for its attempts to stamp out government corruption. Thirty years on, how is Nigeria doing on this front?

MB: It's even worse. We used to have a Nigerian shipping line, Nigerian airways, Nigerian railways, and better roads, If you look at what the state has earned over the last 12 years, versus the state of our infrastructure, then it will hit you how wasteful and corrupt the ruling party has been, It’s worse than not being productive; it’s destructive.

Baobab: You unsuccessfully ran for president against the PDP in previous elections in 2003 and 2007. Why are you confident this time?

MB: In 2003, we were rigged out and we were in court for 13 months. Again, in 2007, by the observation of international teams and our own local teams, it was a non-election. I was in court for 20 months, But this year we have a change in INEC [Nigeria’s electoral commission]. The new chairman is a man of personal and professional integrity. We are also sending a clear message to INEC that we will not accept rigging. We are mobilising people to defend their votes.

Baobab: Do you regret any of your strict decrees as a military ruler—such as executing drug traffickers and banning strikes unless all negotiations had been exhausted?

MB: I don’t believe those measures were too harsh at the time we took them, and in the context of the stability of our country, [drug traffickers] destroy our society and they want to destroy others' societies. We didn’t need that and we executed them, Our economy could not afford those wildcat strikes. So we stopped them, We did those things for the good of the economy and the country.

Baobab: Are you now a convert to democracy?

MB: Yes, but don’t forget that since we started this democracy 12 years ago, it hasn't really worked as a democracy. But that doesn't mean it can't work. The CPC is here to make democracy work, I don’t believe [anything else] is acceptable anymore to ordinary people. Nigerians have got the message after seeing what is happening in north Africa and the Middle East.

egift:
Mathematically

How much he met - $36b[b] =[/b]  

Also he have been having up to $40 extra per barel than his predecessors