₦airaland Forum

SapeleGuy:
nduchucks is your continued involvement dependent on those quotes, because I feel we need to look beyond them and discuss the issues at hand as they affect us today. Those people don die tey tey.

What's wrong with removing these inflammatory quotes and moving on?

@Beaf, I'm afraid your first post is an argument for the southern areas of Nigeria to break away from the northern areas. Such arguments should not be included in the introduction of this thread as many people will find them objectionable.

You initial post should be neutral. Only your last 2 paragraphs qualify as such  i. e. The paragraph which starts with the text "The purpose of this National Conference    " down to the bottom of the post. I'd still recommend that you remove the rest of the post to encourage full participation.

Beaf, may I recommend that you remove the quotes credited to Sir Ahmadu Bello and Awolowo in your post because these quotes have been sited by various ethnic haters in many threads as an excuse to continue to carry on their hatred.

This thread should be free of such inflammatory quotes from the past. I can find similarly negative quotes from leaders from the South East and South South as well - funny thing is that people from that region may not find them inflammatory. Let's not start this exercise on the wrong footing.

What we want to do is encourage participation from as many people as possible instead of starting off with an implicit blame game.

Thanks

Sanusi, Utomi(beneficiary of non-performing loans) and Renaissance Professionals

For some months now, a group known as Renaissance Professionals has been on the offensive, trying to show that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, is unsuitable to occupy the apex job of the nation’s financial empire. These people see virtually all the measures Sanusi is taking to sanitize the banking industry as disastrous. Although I sometimes read their advertorials, I took particular interest in the one of The Guardian, Feb. 10, 2010, p. 11, captioned “CBN Governor: A Bull Fighter or A Bull in China Shop?” So many others have been published ever since.

From the frequency of their full-page advertorials, this group is certainly one of men and women of deep-pockets. I am beginning to wonder if the millions of naira they are expending cannot be put to a better and more altruistic use. It is not that what they are writing is worthless or inconsequential. In fact, the authorities concerned, especially the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), should take deep interest and action concerning the allegations leveled against CBN Deputy Governor Dr. Tunde Lemo.

Of equal importance is the unresolved matter of the current MD/CEO of Bank PHB, Mr. Cyril Chukwumah, who, from newspaper reports, typifies some of the continuing looting practices of indicted bank chiefs. As the Rennaisance Professionals rightly recalled from reports, Mr. Chukwumah has been accused of a range of greedy and selfish measures taken by him since he took over from Mr. Atuche. These should be investigated.

Notwithstanding the merits of some of these allegations, most of the issues these faceless people are addressing are, strictly speaking, internal to what I may conveniently name here as the banking club. Mr. Sanusi is seen as rocking their club’s boat.
Evidently, the Renaissance Professionals and Professor Pat Utomi are on the same side concerning their disapproval of the Sanusi administration. The advertorial about Sanusi being a bull in a china shop listed a dozen points lifted from Utomi’s latest book, Business Angel as a Missionary: Reflections of Economic Growth Activist.

An excerpt of this book was published in the Sunday Guardian of 7th Feb., 2010 upon which the Professionals relied. The summary of what Utomi is arguing in the book is that Lamido Sanusi’s style is a far cry from what obtains in the more advanced economies such as England and the USA. But the advertorial does not do justice to Utomi’s presentation which I found more subtle in the author’s characteristic style of presentation.

Style apart, the advert writers and Utomi are clearly professional soul mates. As a Nigerian who has observed the disclosures of the reckless and criminal looting of our bank chiefs, as well as what Sanusi has done so far, I believe his attackers are on the wrong path. Besides, we cannot, in all fairness, compare Sanusi with Bank of England’s Leigh Pemberton or America’s Federal Reserve’s Ben Bernanke or the latter’s predecessors such as Alan Greenspan or Paul Volcker. Our respective circumstances are different. What Sanusi blew open in Nigeria and the rot therein is out of proportion with the kind of failures in the banking world of Europe and America.

Drastic situations require extraordinary measures. Sanusi has the kind of revolutionary temperament we witnessed in the former EFCC chairman, Nuhu Ribadu. This disposition is also true of most of our social reform activists, including the late Gani Fawehinmi, Femi Falana, Wole Soyinka and, indeed, the silent majority that is now on the precipice of violent explosion over the unbridled looting in the country by highly placed officers. When Sanusi said that public execution, as obtains in China and elsewhere, is the ideal punishment for grand economic and financial felony, many agreed with him.
The reason Sanusi’s temperament is irritating to high stakeholders in the banking industry is because the man is clearly an outsider.

He does not seem to be the greedy type. To label him as ‘a strong man’, as Utomi did, and to remind us that what Africa needs are strong institutions, not strong men (Obama in Accra) somehow suggests that the ideal Central Bank governor should be complacent. Both Obama and Utomi are wrong on this. Nations need both strong institutions and strong men, though one is not oblivious of the strong man in terms of dictatorial tendencies. Regulatory bosses such as Sanusi’s predecessor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, a world class economist, cheerfully made policies to please bank owners and then relaxed to enjoy whatever largesse the bankers could offer, dinners and more tangible perks. So, his cerebral credentials notwithstanding, he was simply a club player.
Look at the kind of monsters bred by the system he bequeathed the nation, among them a woman that sat over N500billion in personal fortune and a man that stockpiled N346billion. As they ‘enjoyed’, their companies tottered under mind-boggling toxic assets and incredible debts. Are we to believe that Professor Utomi, the Renaissance Professionals, Cecilia Ibru and Erastus Akingbola are on the same side? Who are the financiers of their wasteful campaign?

To suggest that Sanusi should have used baby-gloves in punching the monsters he found in the Nigerian banking jungle is absurd. What he should be commended for is for knowing when to halt further punches for the sake of the industry’s survival. I personally believe that if the CBN governor had persisted in making further disclosures and arresting more offenders, those who obtained the grace to retire and even serving ones would have had serious cases to answer. It is, of course, not fair to halt mid-way, but the very nature of banking makes it a corruption-prone industry, with no ‘business angels.’

The most objectionable trait of liberal capitalism is usury. Banking may be a necessary contraption for national and international commerce but credit and interest took over as money-lending became a global affair. The Jews who dominate global finance started the modern money business as we now know it from the earliest centuries. The Bible records how Jesus chased out money dealers and others from the vicinity of the Temple in Jerusalem. After the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D.70, the Pharisees dispersed into the Diaspora and, in due course, became money lenders in Europe, parts of Asia and later America. All these can be treated in another article, but it was Jewish money lenders such as the Rothschild family in the late 18th Century that began lending money to kings and governments, funding wars (sometimes both sides) and it was this lending to potentates that formed the foundation of central banking. It has never been a people-oriented devise. Banking, both central and commercial, is an elitist mechanism.

Today, Jewish families continue to dominate world trade and finance, using various cartels and cabals, including Freemasonry. There is hardly any bank that does not have the long hands of Masons controlling it. At a higher level, this makes banking a closed shop. Only those within know what is going on inside. The interest extorted from borrowers of money is exorbitant and disproportionate. Imagine that the countries of Latin America paid $400 billion on $80billion principal between 1970 and 1980. At the micro-level, the same unreasonable interest rates prevail. Apply all that to a country like Nigeria where the banks are not interested in manufacture and agriculture. By the nature of their trade, bankers and financiers produce no wealth at all. They thrive on credit and interest.

When Sanusi’s attackers end their weekly advertorials with the line, “Nigerians, our future is at stake, we deserve an answer”, I think they should narrow it down to the banking club. (not Nigerians, but bankers). The majority of Nigerians subsist outside the system and have no voice or stake in the affairs of our banks. Justice, in Nigeria and the world at large, will come the day banking is shorn of high credit and interest designed to enrich a few. Our interests do not coincide at all with those of bankers since we are exploited and cheated by the banks.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/opinion/2010/mar/03/opinion-03-03-2010-002.htm

mikeansy, what do you think about the above article?

edoyad:
@frosbel very good question. If poverty and illiteracy is what makes the hausa-fulani race an impediment on national development, how come the educated ones in the UK (Mutalla) are still as draconian in reasoning as any almajiri singing for 5 naira as i speak ?

Assuming that your generalizations are not based on ethnic bigotry, would you kindly tell us what percentage of these educated hausa-fulani race is draconian as you put it? 50% 60% 70% or more? Your percentage should be over 50% for you to confidently make such a generalization. I'd place my money on less than 0.000001%

naijaking1:
What post
Do you have to congratulate him before he actually post

Ah Ah. Didn't Auawal start this thread with a post? Abi you don drink qwaya?

Beaf:
Abeg go and sleep jare! I trust you to compare the gargantuan crime of theft of the nations soul to freedom fighters, struggling to lift the yoke of the slavemaster.

All Nigerian demonstrators must seriously consider replacing their placards with some of these;

[img]https://www.nairaland.com/attachments/242202_FN_PS-90bipod_jpg61c0ba53c279d49ef2bef75bf4131b88[/img]

Ewu terrorist. I bet you use a hunting knife instead of a toothpick, olodo rabata.

kosovo:
Keep dreaming and living in a world of Fantasy,  

You have a better chance at succeeding with mass protests, the government will not be able to stop you at will. The international community will also be watching - its not easy to shoot and kill 500 people out of 400,000 protesters particuarly if they are unarmed.

If on the other hand you try to use violence, they will just kill you people like guinea fowls. They have bigger guns.

Sapeleguy knows what I'm talking about. Peaceful protests can bring the government to its knees.

Beaf:
You don't know the difference between the definitions of victim and terrorist, hence your abhorent use of the word.

Mandela was a terrorist only in the eyes of the apartheid regime and racists, he was and is a hero to all of Black Africa and the World. Shame on you. Olodo.

Don't flatter yourself by comparing your terrorist activities including kidnapping of innocent foreigners, oil bunkering, and other criminal activities, to Mandela's freedom fighting activities.  You and members of your terrorist organization are nothing but thugs.

Instead of the extreme actions like fire bombs which you are advocating, in Nigeria, I submit to you that the Nigerian government can be brought to its knees by millions of peaceful protesters showing up at the national assembly and refusing to leave, mass protests in every state capital. That is what you should be trying to organize instead of the terrorism you so dearly espouse.

chosen04:
You know what am talking about.
You rejoice at others misfortunate while fighting to support the 'enemies from your place' infecting the disaster on people. I know what and where you represent and why all your debates here tend to mock at others misfortunate. And why will continue to sympathise and support this enemies from your place.

nwanne m maramma. Ogini? Please explain the bolded part above. Where did I mock at anyone's misfortune and who are these enemies from my place ?

You can't keep speaking in parables, explain yaself before I vex.

chosen04:
You seem to rejoice when the 'enemies from your place' are intimidating others. Have you heard of inevitable wars or inevitable violent protests?

enemies from my place? Pray tell, where is my place? Where have I rejoiced as you stated? If you want to engage me, do it properly, have a legitimate reason.

kosovo:
how you manage to make use of the Computer is totally beyond me.

I'm not sure I understand what you are attempting to say.

Are you reacting to my post where I objected to the terrorist act proposed by Beaf wherein he stated that you were referring to throwing petrol bombs at politicians? Speak clearly let us understand, olodo

Beaf:
I don't think he is proposing a protest as such, no, its about simply throwing molotov cocktails at erring politicians.

When are you going to give up your terrorist ways? Even Mandela had to give up and renounce terrorism before he was able to free his people through political means. You people have to learn to play the political game, olodo.

Onlytruth:
LOL, you don't know that guy.
I've come to the same conclusion about him loooooooooong time ago when he wouldn't even condemn inflammatory statements from his tribesmen here.

He says his people are not cowards, and I believe him. I always condemn a fellow Igbo guy here who is way out of line. Why won't he? There is what is called "courage of convictions". If you are convinced of something, you are willing to take the risk of defending it. If you can't take that risk, you may appear weak, or worse -duplicitous.

sharaaap, if you have nothing to say. Ogbanje, onye ocha, olodo.

@Kosovo, are you, or does anyone you know, prepared to lead such a protest? If so, when are these non peaceful protests going to start? If not, then you, and the masses are part of the problem and deserve the government you have.

Afam:
Pay attention to details, your error rate is getting embarrassingly high.

What you are attributing to me was a reproduction of what the guy had stated on several occasions whenever his lies are exposed.

On my part I believe that people should do well to verify information they have rather than making ridiculous statements and expecting others to correct them.

Again, take time to read and understand posts before jumping into conclusions.

If you've already responded to the questions in my last post, I apologize for missing your response. Kindly post me a link to your response.

Afam:
I cannot remember responding to any of your posts for more than 2 weeks apart from today where posts that I responded to that had anything to do with you amounts to less than 5% so stop feeling important and stop telling silly lies.

Your views are largely inconsequential considering the fact that most times you don't even have any solid information or facts to back up anything you put down, hence your constant rant that this forum is a place for us to learn and as such we can make mistakes while expecting others to correct them.

So, when it comes to serious issues trust me your views don't count. Unfortunately for you today I felt like exposing some of the lies, inconsistencies, lack of knowledge and hypocrisy that are usually inherent in your comments.

If indeed this forum is a place for us to learn and as such we can make mistakes while expecting others to correct them, as you put it, then why don't you respond to Katsumoto's questions directly, why dodge the issue?


Here are the questions you were asked and a link to the post itself:

[quote author=Katsumoto ]Unlike you, I analyse issues with logic and facts; I do not analyse issues with emotions. Making a comment after each post I make amounts to immature stalking. If one makes a comment about an issue which is connected to Ndigbo, you immediately get a fit. It appears that you prefer to discuss the errors and sins of the leaders of other tribes ignoring the errors and sins of Igbo leaders. Please read below and tell me that Zik's actions did not amount to personal ambition. Why was Zik trying to keep the three regions together in one country if not because he wanted to rule Nigeria? The North said they were not ready, the west said they were ready for self autonomy; why did Zik say the East wasn't ready? In the process delaying Independence by three years only to serve as a ceremonial head of state in a government ruled by people that were junior to him in all facets of life?

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-411126.0.html#msg5670250[/quote]

[quote author=Akanbi_edu link=topic=410625.msg5663715#msg5663715 date=1268228672]I am afraid the Nigerian youth thingy is for Lagosians and many others abroad who are connected only to Nigeria through the internet. When it comes to the real deal, you will see the difference.

How exactly are people like Duke, Utomi etc  supposed to get to the grassroots. All these achievements can not get to the grassroots and at such they need the grassroot politicians who are mostly corrupt and have their interests to protect.

A good example is Fashola in Lagos. Do you think he could have won Jimi Agbaje without the help of Asiwaju? Jimi, if you asked me, ran a better campaign and impressed a lot of people in Lagos. But because Tinubu controls the grassroot, Fashola won.

You can liken this to Nigeria. Any aspirant that has not been tested at the national level stand no chance except backed by the grassroot politicians.[/quote]Your analysis is accurate and your understanding of the Nigerian political terrain is obvious. The idealism expressed by many internet analysts cannot get them or people like Duke elected as the President of Nigeria under any party's umbrella in 2011.

A revolution and full mobilization of the masses is required for a person like Duke to win in 2011. That revolution is not happening, there are no leaders to make it happen, the masses that are required for its success are too busy worrying about issues such as personal safety and 3 square meals - the last thing on their minds is to put their lives on the line for a political cause. Even our cyber revolutionists have never organized a single protest in their lives and have no clue how to organize one. None of them is prepared to go to jail for the cause, if necessary.

Where were the revolutionists and cyber warriors during the recent Yar'Adua debacle? Did they march on NASS by the millions to force the required action?

For those who are expecting PDP to implode, think again. The thing these elite have in common is the love for the country's wealth, these people will unite rather that give up the power. As long as no revolution is in the horizon, I'm afraid the status quo will not change. The cowardice of the electorate is one of the reasons why IBB may very well become the next President of Nigeria. Revolution ko, sexual transformation ni.

Fhemmmy:
Dont be surprise to see IBB winning in almost all the states . . . . .

Fhemmmy, hmmm you may be right, IBB may very well get more votes in the ND and the SE region that he'll get in the SW. The numbers are on IBB's side - he may very well win given the constitution of the electorate.

He is hated by most internet warriors and commentators, an affair which is irrelevant as fas as the electorate is concerned.

mikeansy:
That you spend so much time to recite cynical rules and conjectures displays a sign of a worried man. I don't know why you are worried?

Don't be naive. I'm not worried about anything - just ignore my comments if they bother you.

SapeleGuy:
I can read that you posted a dodgy and malicious article and have now become emotional because you have been challenged.

Amazingly, you even went as far as to say you didn't know if the contents were true. Which begs the question, why post it in the first place?

To answer you question. Yaradua picked Goodluck, OBJ originally wanted Odili.

Try to be civil instead of your normal cyber agberoism.

Nigeria will unite behind Duke.

your pathetic attempt at starting a fight will not work in this case. I have nothing against Duke but I know with 100% certainty that he will not be on the PDP ticket in 2011 because of the unwritten agreement I mentioned in an earlier post.

I doubt Duke will leave PDP for any other party in 2011, his skin is probably not as tough as Atiku's. I doubt that the mega party being floated will make Duke their presidential candidate leaving your only option, a brand new party - Pat Utomi tried that already. Good luck to you Duke supporters in 2011.

Beaf:
Did I not mention that I am a Hausa / Fulani called Abdul Kwancha DanDaudu? I am only pretending to be Igbo

Mallam Beaf, your Hausa/Fulani paranoia is setting in again, ko?

SapeleGuy:
So you are in the habit of building your argument on baseless and malicious rumours. Not smart, at all.

Could it be that EFCC have decided to let DUKE off the hook and are wrongly persecuting 'innocent' people like bafarawa and adamu ? The mind boggles.

Can you read at all? What was the argument of my first post on this thread? Nada! You have to ask EFCC why people like OBJ, Kalu, Ibori and others are not being persecuted, as you put it.  The mind boggles indeed.

Pick a good fight if you want to fight me. The one you are attempting to start here will not be useful - there is nothing to fight over in this case. olodo

Duke was high on the list of potential VP candidates for PDP, I wonder why OBJ decided to throw his weight behind Jonathan at the last minute. 

@OP, will Duke join a new party? He cannot be the presidential candidate for PDP under the party's North/South rotation agreement.

SapeleGuy:
You don start your 'Pattern' again. If 'this kind of information' is not already out there where did you get it from?
The man was investigated and cleared.

Vetting process? do you mean like Ribadu did in 2007

Calm down, my brother. The people who accused Duke are still around, and if his supporters want to do a good job selling him, the knowledge of the accusations would be helpful. I have no idea whether the allegations are true.

I have not accused Duke of anything, so back off.

mikeansy:
Ndu_chuks

In the light of the above its entirely upto you what to believe.

That there is an allegation does not mean he is guilty.

The last time I checked he has not been charged to court, let alone convicted.

I stated that more information is needed, I have not reached any conclusions regarding whether Duke is a criminal.  This kind of information needs to be out there, so it can be used in the vetting process.

Note also that most looters in Nigeria have not been convicted of any crime.

There are some very serious allegations against Duke, but we need more information.

See Details here http://www.onlinenigeria.com/articles/ad.asp?blurb=387    

For the avoidance of doubt, the following specific issues are hereby being submitted to the EFFC, for further consideration.  It is hoped that these issues will lead the EFCC to a better understanding of the affairs of Cross River State, in order that they could also reach a valid conclusions about the operations of the government and the Governor.

 

a)     The deduction of N360,000,000.00 from local government allocations in the pretext of purchasing the cable car at the Obudu Ranch Resort.  

 

b)    The monthly payment of N18,000,000.00 to the Governor’s wife, Mrs. Onari Duke through her NGO called Enterprise Nigeria Foundation with Head office at Plot 15E, Flat 2, Muri Okunola Street, P. O. Box 71003, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria; and operational office at Suit C9, Amin Building, Calabar Free Trade Zone – CTZ, Calabar.  For the month of November 2005, this amount was paid vide Cheque No: 00000714 of Guaranty Trust Bank – GTB, Calabar, dated 06-01-2006.  

c)     The monthly deductions of N42,968,036.53 meant for the poor communities and people of Cross River State from the local government joint account as equity participation of Councils in the Tinapa project.  

 

d)    The arbitrary deduction of N62,812,531.51 from the local government joint account as loan repayment for the Tinapa project for the month of September 2005, vide Guaranty Trust Bank GTB.  

 

e)     The inexplicable deduction of N50, 810,121.76 from the local government joint account vied Guarantee Trust Bank – GTB in favour of Citizens International Bank.  

 

f)      The unauthorized deduction of N62,575,342.40 as Tinapa loan repayment for the month of August, 2005, vide Guaranty Trust Bank.

 

g)     The unauthorized deduction of N50,810,121.76 at source from the LGA joint account as loan repayment for the month of July 2005,  vide Guaranty Trust Bank.  

 

h)     The unauthorized deduction of N50,810,121.76 from the local government joint account (meant for the poor rural and forest dependent communities) as loan repayment for Tinapa for the month of July 2005, vied GTB in favour of Citizens International Bank Plc for August 2005.  

 

i)       The unauthorized deduction of N63,505,013.70 at source from the LGA joint account as loan repayment for Tinapa for the month of July 2005,  vide Guaranty Trust Bank;

 

j)       The unauthorized deduction of N143, 267,132.29 from the local government allocations vide Guaranty Trust Bank in favour of Citizens International Bank Plc for the months of June and July.  

 

k)     The unauthorized deduction of N70,028,538.81 from the local government joint account vide Guaranty Trust Bank  in favour of Citizens International Bank Plc for the month of August 2005.  

 

l)       The unauthorized deduction of N61,279,178.08 from the local government joint account as loan repayment for Tinapa vide Guaranty Trust Bank Plc.

 

Supporting documents including vouchers pertaining to items (a – l) sited above have already been forwarded to EFCC and ICPC for appropriate investigation.  Therefore it would appear that the alleged pronouncement of the EFCC on the Cross River State Governor is hasty because any information to the contrary will endanger the integrity of the EFCC locally, nationally and internationally. For the avoidance of doubts therefore, the EFCC should justify its claims by deliberately investigating the financial operations and records of Mr. Donald Duke.  The EFCC, whose corporate integrity comes into question in the event of failure to recover huge sums of public funds, must be concerned. The following are specific areas of concern in this context:

                       

i.                    A situation where huge sums of public funds allocated for poor rural communities is being diverted monthly for the Governor’s wife (Mrs. Onari Duke) for personal use and expensive life styles while the poor people languish in abject poverty and penury is fraudulent and should be investigated as a matter of urgent public interest.  This is important because expenditure of over four hundred and eighty million naira [N480, 000,000.00] by Enterprise Nigeria Foundation (an NGO owned and managed by Onari Duke) without definite policy guidelines and presentations to the council authorities for ratification and approvals questions the transparency of the Governor’s operations.

 

ii.                  A situation where huge sums of local government funds meant for poor communities are being diverted from the local government joint account for personal use in the pretext of loan repayment amount to fraud.  The urgent question at this point is: Who authorized and received the loans on behalf of the 18 local government councils? What were the loans meant for and how much was actually taken? When will the repayment terminate?  

 

iii.                A situation where local government statutory allocations are being budgeted to undertake specific operations by the various council chairmen to meet the needs and aspirations of their poor communities, and these funds are being diverted to undertake an unbudgeted operation, i.e. to purchase the cable car at the Ranch Resort ostensibly to play Chief Executive and meet the recreation needs of the rich class, is outrageous and tends to raise very serious questions of budget discipline and financial prudence.  The pertinent question therefore is: do the poor people of Cross River State really need/use the Cable Car?

 

iv.               A situation where the local government chairmen who are the accounting officers of their various councils are being prevented from maintaining clear records of actual expenses of their programmes and activities, questions the TRANSPARENCY of the Government of Mr. Donald Duke. Indeed a scenario where hundreds of millions of naira are being signed off single handedly without recourse to, and due approvals from the appropriate council authorities amounts to a breach of trust and should be investigated.

 

v.                 A situation where the Ministry of Local Government Affairs arbitrarily disburses hundreds of millions of Naira meant for local government councils calls for urgent investigation.

 

vi.               A practice where public property are being grossly under valued and privatized to unknown persons in disregard to the appropriate policy procedures for the sale of public property should be viewed seriously by the EFCC and indeed the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC. For instance, who bought Metropolitan Hotel Calabar (a six storey building in a prime location, precisely opposite the Governor’s office; adjacent the stadium and international conference centre as well as the Millennium Park; accessible to over ten banks and the Calabar airport) valued over N2 Billion naira but sold at only N200,000,000.00 even when General Ukpo had offered to buy the same property at N600,000,000.00?  What is even more provoking is that this same property was renovated during the junior World Cup tournament hosted by Nigeria in 1999 at the cost of over N400,000,000.00.  If Metro Calabar was sold at a loss of 2 billion naira in public funds, what was the rationale behind the decision?  Is government not constituted to safeguard the overall interests of the people?  In what way does the act of foregoing 2 billion naira amount to safeguarding the overall interests of the people?  Does the act of foregoing 2 billion of public money amount to transparency in the conduct of public business?  Importantly, who bought Metropolitan Hotel, Calabar?  This is indeed a classical case for urgent investigation.

 

vii.             A practice where public properties sold for a grand total of N1,291,000,000.00, and consultancy alone gulped a whooping N1,258,449,687.00 remaining a balance of N32,550,313.00 only, as revenue to government is unacceptable.

 

viii.           A practice where huge sums of public funds meant for poor rural people are being diverted by Mr. Donald Duke for private and personal investments, i.e. for the construction of the ADMIRALTY TOWERS (three sets of high rise luxury flats) located at No. 9A Gerard Road, Ikoyi, in Lagos, is fraudulent.  Mr. Duke rents out these flats at $5,000 per flat each month.  For the avoidance of doubt, SHELL Petroleum is one of his tenants and has already paid rents for two years amounting to $960,000. This is a clear case of Mr. Duke putting his personal interest before public good.  It is unacceptable and should be investigated urgently.

 

ix.               A practice where government contracts are over-priced arbitrarily for personal gains is fraudulent.  For instance, it was initially announced to the public that the construction cost of Tinapa is N25 Billion.  Sadly, Mr. Duke now claims that the cost has arisen to N65 Billion, perhaps to justify his monthly deductions of local government allocations.  

 

x.                 A situation where Banks in Calabar are being threatened and penalized for refusing to contribute N200 Million each to support the Tinapa project should be investigated.

 

xi.               A situation where the Governor’s wife and brother are contracted to handle multi-billion naira Christmas carnival shows, the so called People Empowerment Programme (PEPI), architectural and construction projects (through Hameg consultants and COGEDS which bare a striking resemblance with HEGEDS, the company Donald Duke operated with office at 6 Razaq Balogone Street, Surulere Lagos, before he became governor) in Cross River State tends to raise very serious questions of ethics. The disclosure policy is instituted as a system of checks and balances to circumvent actual or potential conflict of interest. The provisions of the disclosure policy are very clear on matters such as this.  Under this policy, the Governor is expected to make known his interest with persons or groups doing business with his government. This means that His Excellency who has actual or potential conflict of interest should not participate in decisions or vote on matters affecting any transaction (s) between his government and the other person or group. The danger in the Governor not making his interest known is that he may connive with such persons or groups to the detriment of the state.  Therefore the appointment of Mrs. ONARI DUKE and GEORGE DUKE to undertake multi-billion naira projects for the government of Cross River State would appear to be prejudicial to the disclosure policy, and indeed a clear case of conflict of interest.

@OP,  a more appropriate question should be "Who appoints ministers and were the appointments in violation of any law or constitutional provision?"