₦airaland Forum

1 Corinthians 9:27 - 'But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.'

This is PAUL himself warning us that it is never too late to be damned!!!! So we need to continually watch ourselves to be sure we have not left what God has placed in our hands.

There is nothing like once saved, forever saved.

I also hope they conduct the test retrospectively.

That means that our presido would be tested, the minister of INjustice would be tested, madam EFCC, even the newly appointed inspector general (that recently disgraced and embarrassed himself) of the most corrupt organization on this planet would also be tested.

The funny thing is that ALL of them would fail.

Can you imagine what would become of a country that is being governed by a coalition of mad people?

Madam EFCC herself NEEDS psychiatric test.

I now understand why Yaradua is after Ribadu!!!

Ibori lied to our dear presido that Ribadu plotted to unseat him and the ******* took it, hook, line and sinker.

Ibori now thinks we are as DUMB so he tries to sell to us the same lie.

No wonder Nigeria is still at a standstill after so many years.

STUPID THIEF!!!!

back2back:
Nothing but criminal runs from the LAW of the land.

He is actually degrading Nigeria and you people are rejoicing.

Atiku(note, i don't care about him) stood his ground and went from court cases to court cases, that's strengthen Nigeria.

Abiola stood his ground. He gave us what is JUNE 12 today even though his dead.

Gani stood his ground. He gave us hope which is almost lost now.

Ribadu can step into Gani's shoes the moment he respect the LAW and turn himself up.

If RIBADU is HONEST, let him turn himself up to LAW and face his detractors in LAW court instead of sneaking around like common criminal he was busy chasing in his days.

NIGERIA is above anyone of us!

Another load of RUBBISH!!!

Ribadu is busy teaching other countries how to fight corruption and you want him to remain in a country where criminals like Ibori walk freely, a country where even the Attorney General  is a disgrace to the legal profession and where the head of the anti corruption agency is a complete joke.

NONSENSE!!!

back2back:
I guess RIBADU with this action has shown he is a criminal!

Here is a man that is wanted by Nigeria State(right or wrong is not my concern)

He should turn himself up like a LAW abiding citizen.

Gani that he came to visit always turn himself up. He never run away from the law.

Ribadu has shown that he is bigger than Nigeria. What a shame!!!

Absolute rubbish and nonsense!!!!

David please take it easy.

I agree that we have got lots of fakes around but i believe that it is only God that knows who serves him. I don't think that it is in our place to determine who is fake or not. If i don't agree with someones teaching, the best i can do is to leave and look for an assembly that preaches what i perceive to be true from my understanding of the scriptures.

Nonsense!!!

Why should anyone ask you to stop visiting Nairaland? it does not make sense to me at all.

I won't take that crap from ANYBODY. I will become suspicious because it means there is more to the request.

But really, i am finding it hard to believe this story.

Ibime:
A prophet has no honour in his own country.

You can say that again.

Ribadu is my HERO!!! We need more of him in this God forsaken country.

Ribadu Begins Working Visit to Liberia


Former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, has begun a one week working visit to Liberia.

Mallam Ribadu who arrived Monrovia on Monday, August 17, as a guest of the Government of Liberia, paid a courtesy call on Tuesday to the President, Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the Vice-President, as well as the Chief Justice of Liberia.

During his visit, Mallam Ribadu is expected to be briefed by heads of different government departments, agencies and institutions in Liberia. So far, he has been briefed by the Minister of Justice, the head of Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC), the Inspector-General of the Liberia National Police, the Director of the General Auditing Commission (GAC), Minister of Public Works, and the Director of National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

As part of his visit, Mallam Ribadu will address the Liberia Parliament, meet with media and civil society groups and development partners, including the World Bank and UNDP. He is expected to bring his experience and expertise to bear as Liberia seeks to tackle corruption and economic and financial crimes after years of civil war.

Mallam Ribadu’s visit will end on Friday, August 21, when he is expected to brief the President on the outcome of his fact-finding mission.

Below are pictures of Ribadu meeting with the Director of the General Auditing Commission (GAC)
and the Inspector-General of the Liberian National Police Force

Sacked CEOs guilty of ‘poor corporate governance practices'

By Stanley Oronsaye and Oluwaseyi Bangugu

August 14, 2009

The CBN governor, Sanusi Lamido has disclosed that the five banks, which were run by the recently sacked CEOs, accounted for a "disproportionate component" of the industry's total exposure to the capital market and oil and gas sectors. According to him, "the total loan portfolio of these five banks was N2,801.92 billion; margin loans amounted to N456.28 billion and exposure to oil and gas was N487.02 billion. Aggregate non-performing loans stood at N1.143 billion representing 40.81per cent".

The banks are: Oceanic International Bank Plc; Afribank Nigeria Plc; Intercontinental Bank Plc; Union Bank Plc; and Finbank Plc.

Mr. Sanusi also confirmed that the banks "were either perennial net-takers of funds in the inter-bank market or enjoyed liquidity support from the CBN for long periods of time, a clear evidence of illiquidity." He added that one of them is technically insolvent, with a Capital Adequacy Ratio of 10 per cent.Accordingly the five CEOs were immediately replaced on Friday,

They are:

Nebolisah Arah - to replace Sebastian Adigwe in Afribank Nigeria Plc.

Susan Iroche - replaces Okey Nwosu at Finbank Plc.

Funke Osibodu - replaces Bathlomew Ebong at Union Bank of Nigeria plc.

Lai Alabi - Erastus Akingbola at Intercontinental Bank Plc.

John Aboh - Cecelia Ibru, at Oceanic International Bank Plc, hitherto the only female bank chief executive in Nigeria.

The announcements did not go down well with the indicted bankers, as Mr. Ebong was visibly upset, while Erastus was more proactive, resigning his appointment hours before his sack was made public.

The CBN governor, who addressed the press in company of Steve Oronsaye, Head of Service of the federation, said the sacked banks' CEOs had displayed "excessively high level of non-performing loans in the five banks is attributable to poor corporate governance practices, lax administration processes and the absence or non-adherence to the banks' credit risk management practices,"

Mr. Sanusi said the CBN would inject N400bn into the five Nigerian banks, whose outstanding amount at the expanded discount window was put at about N256.571 billion, at as at June 4.

Apart from the five banks, other banks whose operations underwent a Stress Audit by the CBN are First Bank Plc, Diamond Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Sterling Bank Plc and United Bank for Africa Plc.
Contrary to insinuations that the sacking of the five CEOs were done unilaterally, Mr Sanusi, explained that his actions had the blessing of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua.

worldz:
Hi everyone,

What do you guys think about going for the ACCA Oxford Brookes BSc degree after a Bsc degree in Accounting from a Nigerian university. I am thinking about not opting in for it inorder to reduce cost for the exams, cos am seeking exemptions which wd enable me write only professional. But if i opt for the BSc in Applied Accounting, i tend to write F7-F9 and then professional which my budget might not carry.

I need advice from everyone to enable know whether to take up the degree or not or stick to the Nigerian Bsc degree in Accounting which i believe wd still get me to where Oxford Brookes degree wd take me - i stand to be corrected!

Also, how valuable is Adv. Auditng and Assurance cos someone said its advisable to opt for it as one of the optionals as its compulsory inorder to work in firms in the UK- How true is that?

Hoping to hear from u all! Thanks.

If you are given exemptions, you will still need to pay exemption fees which is the same as exam fees. The only difference is that you would not need to sit for the papers you have been exempted from.

You would not be saving money, you would only be able to save time that is if you pass the rest as you write them.

Also, if all you have is a Bsc in Accounting, it is not likely you would be exempted from ALL papers at fundamental level of the exam. You would only be exempted fro F1 to F4. You would have to write F6, F7, F8, F9 and the professional papers.

But if you have a professional qualification like ICAN the you would be exempted from F1 to F9.

larez:
WRONG!!! The only time there is an FX risk is between the time a decision was reached to purchase FX, and the time the purchase was executed. Continuing risks only involves foreign companies doing business outside of their registered boundary. These are the kind of lies Nigerian banks tell people to continue to milk them dry. FX is irrelevant if your transactions remain solely within an individual economy. The Bank can be blamed in this case if it tries to change a Naira loan (which is currently Nigerian currency last I checked), into a Dollar loan. CBN records will confirm the correct exchange rate on the single day that the transaction was made.

Sorry, but there's no hard and fast rule to THIS!!!

If i give you a facility in Dollars then i get paid in Dollars and if i give you one in Naira then i get paid in Naira not withstanding the registered boundary involved.

That said, there can be variations in the signed contract as agreed by the parties involved.

It is interesting to note that neither of the parties (Access bank & AP) have made copies of the contract papers available to the public but i guess the issue on the exchange rate was not clearly stated in black and white.

That is why i think there is a dispute.

knzguru:
AP Rebuttal in Punch 220709

ACCESS BANK/ AP SAGA:
THE FACT OF THE MATTER – The AP Plc Response



Our attention has been drawn to the various publication of Suit No: FHC/L/CP/644/2009 filed by Access Bank plc against African Petroleum plc in the Punch, Thisday and Vanguard of 20th and 21st of July 2009.



This is to assure all our creditors and esteemed investors that African Petroleum plc is a strong, vibrant company with experienced Management and Board and definitely not insolvent. The action of Access Bank Plc is about a disputed debt arising from a facility granted by Access Bank to AP for the purpose of opening Letters of Credit (LC) for the importation of refined petroleum products. Upon maturity of the LC, Access Bank debited AP Plc at the converted rate of N127 to one US Dollar this was at 2nd December 2008. (Letter attached as Exhibit 1 - http://www.proshareng.com/newsletter/avp.php)



AP immediately protested the rate of the exchange applied by Access Bank pointing out to them that Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) spot rate on 30th of November 2008 which was the maturity date of the LC and was N116.62 to on US Dollar and even the black market rate was between N119 and N122 to one US Dollar at that time. However, we stated our willingness to pay but at the appropriate rate via our letter dated Dec 2, 2008 (Letter attached as Exhibit 2 - http://www.proshareng.com/newsletter/avp.php).



Several correspondences have been exchanged in a bid to amicably resolve this matter but were unsuccessful. AP Plc then further petitioned the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) by the letter dated May 15, 2009 (attached as Exhibit 3 - http://www.proshareng.com/newsletter/avp.php) to adjudicate on this matter. CBN’s decision was being awaited when Access Bank filed the suit. Our lawyers have since filed appropriate papers in court as this is definitely not a case for winding up,


Geez,  they must really think we're fools.

I clicked on the links in the post above but the so called exhibits do not really explain anything.

The most important documentation, which is the contract paper, signed by both parties should solve this dispute.

I think that the terms of the contract should state who bears the exchange rate risk but if it doesn't, then the currency at which the facility was agreed should be the currency at which the loan would be repaid.

Thanks Kunle.

I would appreciate comments from others.

Please note that i need this for information and i want scriptural backings with explanations.

Thanks.

Hi Kunle,

Please note that this is not in anyway an attempt to engage you. I only need this for information and clarity.

What are your views on the 'RAPTURE'?

I am amazed how we decide to focus on inconsequential issues at the expense of the important issue.

The Bible says " BELIEVE in the Lord Jesus and you will be SAVED". Another part says " If you LOVE me you would do what i say".

For me, i think that we need to focus on believing JESUS and loving him with our ALL.

Paying tithe or not  paying tithe is, in my opinion, not the crux of the matter. I don't think it will, BY ITSELF, make you get to heaven or stop you from getting there. If you like pay, if you do not like do not pay.

That is definitely not a good reason to stop attending church.

I pray and sincerely hope that HE gets to read this thread by HIMSELF.

I lost hope in this country a long time ago. I wish i could just be wrong but at the moment i am not. An almost hopeless situation.

It's no joke.

The story is on espn soccernet

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=650465&sec=uefachampionsleague&cc=3888

I wonder what soccer fans are turning into.

Nigerian bus driver kills four Barca supporters
Reuters

May 28, 2009

A Manchester United fan in Nigeria killed four people when he drove his minibus into a crowd of Barcelona supporters after his team lost the Champions League final, police said on Thursday.

The crowd in the town of Ogbo were celebrating Barcelona's victory after Wednesday night's match when the bus drove into them. A police spokeswoman said 10 people were injured and the driver was arrested.

"The driver had passed the crowd then made a U-turn and ran into them," she said.

Barcelona beat Manchester United 2-0 in what was hailed as a "dream final" between two of Europe's best clubs. Both teams have large fan bases in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation.

Fresh Facts Emerge on ‘Redeemed Jet’
By Chinedu Eze, 04.02.2009

The purchase of a private jet, a Gulfstream 4XP with registration number 707EA, might have been attributed to the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, in error.
Documents available to THISDAY yesterday showed that the aircraft was purchased by five members of the church and will be run as a charter service, but priority is to be given to Adeboye who will be given “free rides” to ease his movement within and outside the continent.

THISDAY had erroneously quoted a price of $28 million but the aircraft papers showed that the aircraft, a 1996 model, was purchased at $10 million (N1.4 billion).

The five members of the church, whose names are being withheld for confidential reasons, made a down payment of 30 per cent of the cost while a first generation bank gave a loan of $7 million for the balance.
“The aircraft is the collateral,” a bank official conversant with the transaction told THISDAY.
The aircraft is to run private charters, with proceeds to be used to offset the loan and pay for its maintenance as well as settle the personnel cost of running the aircraft.

“The business plan is well laid out,” another source told THISDAY. “The Redeemed Church did not put down a kobo. It is not their aircraft. Pastor Adeboye does not have a kobo in it. It is unfortunate that the man is being savaged all over the media and on the internet for something he knows nothing about. Unfortunately, he is not the type to come out and be defending himself or issuing media statements.”

The source told THISDAY that some members of the church had expressed concern about the cumbersome flight schedules the pastor of one of Nigeria’s biggest churches has had to cope with.
“If he wants to go to Banjul, in Gambia, it is a tortuous journey, flying from one connecting point to the other,” the source explained. “This obviously influenced the decision of some entrepreneurs in the church to have this sort of arrangement in which Pastor Adeboye will enjoy free rides and can readily organise his journeys. But the aircraft will pay for itself eventually. It neither belong to Redeemed Church nor Adeboye.”

The aircraft arrived Lagos from Bahamas on Sunday, March 8, 2009.
It is a transatlantic aircraft that has the capacity of about 15 passengers – depending on the customisation.
Adeboye had come under criticism in the media and on internet discussion rooms for allegedly being “insensitive” at these economic crunch times and for allegedly abandoning his simple lifestyle for the flamboyance of jet-age pastors.
The General Overseer of Living Faith Worldwide, a.k.a. Winners Chapel, Bishop David Oyedepo, has a Challenger aircraft, with number D6640.

phemmy 7:
i think u guys need more exposure,

u need to know more about the western and wat is happening there,

av u heard of the crisis rocking world class banks like CITIBANK, BANK OF AMERICA, even WELLSFARGO has closed down

so talking of the global financial meltdown not only the banks ll be affected

'cos even the automobile, manufacturing, agricultural & other sectors is been affected.

"GUYZ, JUST WATCH AS THE WHOLE THING GOES AS THIS WAS PLANNED AND NOT AN ACCIDENT"

OLODO!!!!!!

Nonsense!!!!

Intercontinental Bank looked for our trouble by trying to stop us from having access to our hard earned money by imposing a senseless minimum balance on the poor masses that usually run savings account to shore up their own liquidity.

So, they (IBPLC) got the bad publicity they deserved.

Coming to the statement by the CBN, they are simply trying to cool down the hot steam that IBPLC started so that it won't have any serious impact on the Banking Industry as a whole. They don't want what happened to the Capital Market to happen to the Banking Industry (Investor confidence and the rest)

Even stronger banks in the US like Citi Bank are having problems so what makes Nigerian banks safe from the financial crises especially with all the toxic assets they carry in their Balance Sheet?

I don't know how bad the situation is but I think that the CBN is trying to manage the situation, so they come and say all is well with our banks.

The truth is our banks have become more desperate to get money and income at all cost so they come up with all sorts of charges that does not even make sense. They force you to use the ATM and then charge you for it.

Only God knows how bad the system is. Time will surely tell but i pray they all pass through this meltdown successfully.

I recieved the following sms from Intercontinental Bank.

'Dear customer, for better service, please be advised that the new savings account minimum balance is now N10,000. Kindly increase your balance by March 31, 2009.'

Is this an act of desperation?

The situation is very pathetic.

This is official and legalized corruption to say the least.

http://www.234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5258478-146/An_Assembly_for_looting__.csp

An Assembly for looting

By Musikilu Mojeed with Elor Nkereuwem

February 23, 2009 12:39PMT

Jobs are in short supply and cash is scarce, what with the economy heading for recession, Nigerians everywhere are trying to make every kobo count, and even big banks are begging for help.

But our politicians have turned themselves into instant millionaires just for being members of the National Assembly, paying themselves salaries and allowances that will make Bill Gates envious.

We can reveal today that your representatives in Abuja are getting ready to pay themselves nearly N18 billion, enough to solve the problem of portable water for all the people of Katsina State.And that is just their quarterly allowance, so that they can serve you better.

As soon as the quarterly allocation to the National Assembly is released each of the 360 members of the House of Representatives will get N35 million in cash money. Each of the 109 Senators will do even better, pocketing N48 million each, supposedly to maintain their offices back home.

If you are a civil servant, police officer or school teacher, and you earn N48,000 a month, you will have to work for more than 83 years just to earn what your Senator is walking away with later this month, for the privilege of serving you.

This is just in “constituency” allowances for only one quarter. Your favourite lawmaker will be paid this amount three more times this year, so that each Senator will get more than N192 million and each Representative will be paid, by you, about N140 million.

This does not even account for the regular salaries that each lawmaker takes home each month.Each of the 469 lawmakers have all 10 fingers in your pocket, which allows them to live lifestyles of outrageous excess, with the most expensive luxury cars packed on National Assembly grounds and filling up the parking lot at a favourite hangout for our millionaire leaders such as the Hilton Hotel in our capital city.

This brazen looting of our treasury has turned our National Assembly into an instant millionaires’ club. And it is in addition to the balloon salaries totaling another N15 billion officially sanctioned by an obscure body known as the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC.

The minimum wage, of course, remains at N5,500 a month. Well, a quick math says each Senator’s annual “constituency” allowance will pay for 2,909 workers earning the minimum wage. The “constituency allowance” is about five times the N15 billion approved by RMAFC for salaries and allowances of the 469 federal lawmakers.

If the citizens were to dismiss the entire membership of the National Assembly and find other uses for their money, our treasury will have nearly enough money to fund the N88.5billion that President Umaru Yar’Adua plans to spend this year on building power plants, so that children can do home work under electric lamps and not parafin.

Alternatively, we could send our lawmakers home and have more than enough this year to fund hospitals and clinics throughout the land. We would even be able to fix the Benin-Ore Expressway, which has collapsed, or make a significant downpayment on the Lagos-Kano railway line.

The payment also is not part of the allocations earmarked for committees of the House and Senate. The payment is labeled “office maintenance allocation” and it is usually directly remitted into lawmakers’ individual accounts purportedly for the running of their offices.

The money is disbursed after it is approved at a “closed-door session” once allocations are released to the National Assembly every quarter. After the closed-door session typically held to agree on the sharing formula, chairmen of the service committees in both chambers are mandated to put up requests for the payments.

The request is approved by the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives and then passed to the director of finance of the National Assembly for payment. The payment has been made regularly since 2005 but it had remained a highly guarded secret, with bureaucrats in the National Assembly keeping sealed lips on the matter for fear that they might be victimised by the lawmakers.

Last year it became a matter of deep acrimony between the Senate and the House of Representative, when the House members angrily insisted on equal status with the Senate and therefore expected the allocation to be equitably distributed.

Stella Ugboma, chairperson of the women’s forum of the Nigerian Bar Association, finds all this cash sloshing around impossible to believe. “If this information is true,” she says, “I can only say that it is daylight robbery, no more no less.” She called on the EFCC, the anti-graft body, to investigate.

But the payment has not always been that high. When it was first introduced in 2005, senators got N8million each while their colleagues in the House got N6million. The figure however rose with each succeeding year. In 2006, it was N20million for Senators and N12million for members of the House.

The following year, it was increased to N35milion for Senators and N25million for representatives. In 2008, the figure shot up to N48million for senators and N35million for members of the House. It is not clear yet whether this figure has been retained for this year or has again been increased.

Investigations by NEXT indicate that the management of the National Assembly tried in the past few years to halt the questionable payments. Insiders said before his retirement in 2006, the immediate past Clerk of the National Assembly, Ahmed Salim, tried frantically to persuade the leadership of both chambers of the Assembly to stop the trend. After Mr. Salim left, his predecessor, Nasiru Arab, reportedly continued the battle.

After holding several fruitless meetings with the principal officers of the National Assembly on the matter, Mr. Arab, in frustration, wrote to the leadership of the National Assembly to put his position and that of his colleagues on record. “The clerk wrote twice to them (the principal officers) so that if there is any problem over the payment, there would be evidence that what they were doing is illegal,” an official, familiar with the matter, said on Tuesday.

When David Mark emerged President of the Senate in 2007, becoming the chairman of the National Assembly in the process, Mr. Arab took up the matter with him afresh. On assumption of office, Mr. Mark reportedly indicated to the management of the National Assembly that he would adhere strictly to due process and global best practices in all his dealings in office so that his numerous political enemies would not have anything to pin on him.

Mr. Arab therefore felt that a man with that kind of mindset would be the right person to halt the corruption and profligacy that are pervasive among lawmakers. But Mark did not keep his promise as the illegality has continued unabated.

But when Mr. Arab was contacted on Tuesday, he rose in stout defence of the lawmakers, saying the lawmakers needed the money to run their offices. “The lawmakers have full-fledged offices to run.

They also have staff that have to be paid salaries. Whatever they are paid is budgeted for and you have to look at the budgetary provision for the National Assembly,” he said on the telephone. Section 11 of the National Assembly Commission Act 2000 provides that the clerk of the National Assembly could “be removed from office by the commission acting on an address supported by a simple majority of each House of the National Assembly praying that he be so removed for inability to discharge his function infirmity of mind or body or any other cause or for misconduct”.

Earlier, the Director of Information of the National Assembly, Monima Daminabo, had laboured vigorously to convince NEXT that the huge quarterly allowance that the lawmakers are paying themselves is legal. “I can tell you that the money is not a dash. What has been given to them is to allow them carry out the functions for which they were elected. As you know, they do a lot of travelling, perform oversight functions and conduct investigations. They can’t be expected to use their personal money to do all this,” Mr. Daminabo said.

When reminded that separate allocations had been made to committees to pay for lawmakers’ trips, accommodation and other expenses while performing oversight functions, Daminabo simply smiled and said, “All I can say is that the quarterly payment has a special purpose. The essence is to deepen openness and accountability in governance.”

On why the National Assembly management had been paying the illegal allowance to the lawmakers even when it was clear that it was not approved by RMAFC, the spokesman said, “As management, we only advise lawmakers, we don’t control them.

Once the Senate President or the Speaker approves, who are you to disagree? To do otherwise will be to stall the activities of the chambers.” Section 70 of the 1999 Constitution stipulates that, “A member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives shall receive such salary and allowances as the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission may determine.” The quarterly allowance is not part of allowances approved by RMAFC.

Labour’s reaction is swift and broad. The Assistant Secretary General the Nigeria Labour Congress, in charge of information, Owei Lakemfa, in reacting, shot at the law makers saying “Do you know that the minimum wage in Nigeria is 5,500? This is corruption with an official backing.

It is legitimized corruption. It does not make sense that all that money is paid to individuals who claim that they are doing the nation a service. But if this is for the senators and the house of reps, then the executives are receiving far more; the presidency and others receive the security vote which no one accounts for. This is indecent and the political system needs to be reformed.”

Senators and members of the House were evasive when asked by NEXT to explain the rationale for the jumbo allowance they had discreetly allocated to themselves. Eseme Eyibo, Chairman of the House Committee on Media, who was the first to be contacted via telephone, claimed that he and his colleagues had only been receiving their “statutory entitlements”.

When he was asked to explain who approved the allowance and why it is that high, Mr. Eyibo raised his voice, saying, “What you need to do is to look at our quarterly allocation so you will be able to determine whether the allowance we get is illegal.” He refused to entertain further questions, claiming he had a meeting to attend.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media, Ayogu Eze, said he would not react to the matter on the telephone after initially claiming that he did not understand what our reporter was talking about. On his part, Chairman of the Senate Services Committee, Effiong Bob, who is responsible for processing the Senate’s share of the largesse, rebuffed efforts to interview him on the matter.

He directed all enquiries to Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission, which later said through the chairman of its remuneration committee, Emeka Wogu that it was not aware that the lawmakers were paying themselves allowances different from what was approved for them by the commission.

The National Publicity Secretary of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, Osita Okechukwu, said what the lawmakers have done is part of the culture of impunity which he said had been the lot of the National Assembly. “We have always said it that our lawmakers have gross disregard for the law.

A lot of impunity happens there and it is no surprise that they have committed such an illegality,” Mr. Okechukwu said.

Rilwanu Lukman's tangled web

By Musiliku Mojeed,Idris Akinbajo,and Elor Nkereuwem

February 2, 2009 10:56AMT


Although he is the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Rilwanu Lukman is a major shareholder and director of a raft of offshore companies active in the oil and gas sector in Nigeria and the surrounding Gulf of Guinea, our investigations showed.

Mr. Lukman's tangled web of business interests are indisputably a conflict of interest for the 70-year-old minister, perhaps Nigeria's most famous oilman. He became minister on Dec. 18 2008 and, before that, served as President Umaru Yar'Adua's special adviser for the same industry. He also had previously been minister or adviser under various past administrations, and served also as Opec secretary general, based in Vienna.

As of Monday, Mr. Lukman remained a director and major shareholder in at least four companies actively pursuing business in the industry over which he presides as minister, according to official records obtained by NEXT on Sunday.
Mr. Lukman claimed South African citizenship in the registration documents of one of the companies, Africa Heritage Oil & Gas Ltd, while declaring himself a Nigerian in the others. It is perfectly legal for a Nigerian to also maintain citizenship of another country, and that fact alone would not disqualify from membership of Mr. Yar'Adua's cabinet.

It is unclear whether the president is aware of Mr. Lukman's business interests, or what efforts, if any, were made to vet him prior to his appointment. None of these issues were raised during his confirmation hearing before the Senate, which maintains a weird and unaccountable process of conducting confirmation hearings without insisting on which specific portfolio the president intended to assign a nominee.

Segun Adeniyi, the presidential spokesman, declined to address any issues related to Mr. Lukman's businesses, directing inquiries to Mr. Lukman.

But repeated attempts to get the minister to defend himself were rebuffed by his aides. Mr. Lukman himself ignored calls and text messages sent to his mobile telephone.

Mr. Lukman's companies are Africa Heritage Investments Ltd; Africa Heritage Oil & Gas Ltd; Africa Heritage Industrial Ltd; and Africa Heritage Logistics Ltd- all registered in London between Nov. 7 2005 and Oct. 10 2006.
The case of the Africa Heritage Oil & Gas Ltd offers a particular puzzle because, although it was incorporated on the same day as the Africa Heritage Investments Ltd, on Nov. 22 2006, Mr. Lukman claimed South African citizenship for the Oil and Gas company while claiming Nigerian citizenship on the board of the Africa Heritage Investments Ltd.

Moreover, Mr. Lukman is still indicated as a member of the Supervisory Board of the Dutch multinational Dietsmann NV, where he is Chairman of the "Selection & Appointments Committee". Dietsmann NV is a leader in the field of global operations and maintenance services in the oil and gas industry, utilities and other industrial sectors.

The year 2004 appears to have been a particularly busy one in the investment trajectory of Mr. Lukman, after he resigned as special adviser on petroleum matters to then President Olusegun Obasanjo. That year he helped form, in London, a raft of companies, many in the energy sector and with eyes on the Nigerian petrochemical market.

The most famous of all is an independent oil and gas exploration, development and production company called Afren. The objective of Afren, according to company records, is to maintain "an attractive, diversified and balanced portfolio of African assets, with an initial focus on the Gulf of Guinea region." The central question however is whether an oil minister with substantial investments in the oil and gas industry has crossed the line if he fails to report and indicate clearly how his involvement does not constitute a conflict of interest.

After helping to form Afren in 2004, Mr. Lukman later assumed Chairmanship in 2006 with voting rights on 33% of issued shares although he held only 1.74% of the equity.

Afren was a particularly lucrative venture, pumping about 3,000 barrels per day from the Nigerian field Okoro Setu, and 5,000 barrels of oil equivalent from block CI-11 of the shore of Ivory Coast. Apart from Afren, Lukman has ties of one manner or another with a raft of companies such as Afgas, Gasol, African Gas Development Corp., African LNG Holdings - which seek to invest in LNG and gas projects in the Gulf of Guinea.

Following his appointment as minister, however, Lukman resigned from Afren's board. He was replaced by Egbert Imomoh, former deputy managing director of Royal Dutch/Shell Nigeria.

NEXT also found that he placed his shares in Afren in a blind trust. But upon his departure, he was awarded an additional 650,000 shares in the company, as a parting gift. Lukman also stepped down from his post as strategic adviser to the firm Gasol which is linked to Afren through a complex system of cross-holdings.

As he failed to respond to several requests to be interviewed for this story, we were unable to determine why Mr. Lukman did not do the same for the four businesses placed under the banner of the African Heritage Investments Ltd. We could also not ascertain his motivation for claiming South African citizenship for Africa Heritage Oil & Gas.

Mr. Lukman is not new to strong allegations of conflict of interest. According to a yet unpublished report of a House of Representatives committee which investigated the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Department of Petroleum Resources during his tenure as presidential adviser on petroleum resources, Mr. Lukman improperly caused an oil bloc to be awarded in a manner that "did not follow due process." The Committee found that Mr. Lukman's office illegally shortcircuited the process in the award of a prospecting license (OPL 256) in 2002 to Ocean Energy Nigeria Ltd. by inviting only two companies to bid for the license.

According to the House report: "Two companies bidded for this block purely on ‘invitation'. Who did the ‘inviting' and the circumstances of the invitation are unclear. It was however established that a memo from the office of the Presidential Adviser, Petroleum and Energy dated October 21st 2002 authorised the ‘selective bid'. The bids were opened two days later on October 23, 2002; and the block awarded the next day October 24, 2002 to Ocean Energy Nigeria Limited." The only two companies that participated in the process were Ocean Energy and Statoil Nigeria Ltd.

The committee concluded that "the award of this block did not follow due process, " adding that "The duo of Rilwanu Lukman and Engineer Funso Kupolokun (managing director of the NNPC) should be reprimanded for arrogating to themselves the discretionary powers of the Minister."

The report also remarked that: "Furthermore, their role in the award of this block should be thoroughly investigated to establish if any malfeasance borne out of interest influenced the circumstance of this award, and prosecuted if such malfeasance is established."

Last Dec. 18, as he became petroleum minister for the fourth time at the ripe old age of 70, Mr. Lukman took the oath at the Aso Presidential Villa in Abuja to assume office . He pledged that he will not allow any "personal interest to influence my official conduct or my official decisions."

In the period since he left active public office as cabinet minister in 1993 however, Lukman initiated a low key investment profile by registering Taofiq Securities Limited, which was incorporated in London and which had him and his son, Ahmed, as sole directors. Two years earlier, he had registered a partnership, R. Lukman & Co Ltd with his daughter, Ramatu.

Stumbled on this over the weekend.

http://www.234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/1735688-146/NEXTRilwanu_Lukman%27s_tangled_web__.csp

What do you guys think?

OBJ's greatest sin against Nigeria and Nigerians is his imposition of this incompetent Govt.

I am waiting to see how Dora will not become another Ofonagoro.

2009 really seems like trouble. May God help us.

OBJ's greatest sin against Nigeria & Nigerians - giving us the current administration.

toshmann:
i'm just sitting down here and prayinh . . .and fasting . . . and hoping  . . that we don't wake up one day and say . . "why didnt the 3rd term of OBJ work" . .  

Like you read my mind.

I honestly think that OBJ was a much better leader. He seemed to have some direction and he knew what he was doing.
He also had the interest of the country in mind but his approach was appalling. He lost my respect because of that.

But the current one? i can't shout. The guy is just too --------------------- (fill in the blanks).

We are in for some real big trouble. Thank God 2011 is almost here because i can't wait to wake up from this nightmare.

F.G Directs NIPPS to Award Certificates to Ribadu, Briggs

http://www.channelstv.com/newsdetails.php?news_id=8949

I don't get it.

Do we have leaders this country at all?

First they cancel the U17 world cup and later reversed the decision.

Now, they stop Ribadu from graduating and we hear that NIPPS has been ordered to award the certificate to him. (and the list is endless)

There's been so much cases of decisions being taken and then reversals of the decisions.

No wonder we are at a standstill. Who the hell made these people our leaders? They just make decisions without thinking it through and they are not even bold enough to stand by their decisions. They are so incompetent and its becoming so embarrassing.