- Fear grips Jonathan
Ohia Israel examines former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s letter bomb to President Goodluck Jonathan last week, and reports that the gruesome revelations have brought to the fore the rot in the PDP-controlled federal government and why the centre may no longer hold
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo had accused President Goodluck Jonathan of ineptitude and of taking steps calculated at destroying the country. In the 18-page open letter Obasanjo regretted: “Nigeria is bleeding and the hemorrhage must be stopped.” The letter noted that Jonathan had failed to deliver on his promises to the Nigerian people, to stem corruption, promote national unity and strengthen national security.
Obasanjo observed that President Jonathan had betrayed the mandate of the Nigerian people who voted him to power, and had, instead, been pursuing selfish, personal political interests based on advice he received from unpatriotic aides. Obasanjo wrote that Jonathan had become terribly divisive and clannish, destroying his own party, polarising the country along regional and religious lines and ridiculing Nigeria in the comity of nations.
“It would be unfair to continue to level full blames on the Chairman (Tukur) for all that goes wrong with the party,” Mr. Obasanjo said. “The chairman is playing the tune dictated by the paymaster (Jonathan). But the paymaster is acting for a definitive purpose for which deceit and deception seem to be the major ingredient.
“Uptil two months ago, Mr. President, you told me that you have not told anybody that you would contest in 2015. I quickly pointed out to you that the signs and the measures on the ground do not tally with your statement. You said the same to one other person who shared his observation with me. And only a fool would believe that statement you made to me judging by what is going on. I must say it is not ingenious. You may wish to pursue a more credible and more honourable path.”
Obasanjo continued: “For you to allow yourself to be “possessed”, so to say, to the exclusion of most of the rest of Nigerians as an “Ijaw man” is a mistake that should never have been allowed to happen. Yes, you have to be born in one part of Nigeria to be Nigerian if not naturalised but the Nigerian President must be above ethnic factionalism. And those who prop you up as of, and for ‘Ijaw nation’ are not your friends genuinely, not friends of Nigeria nor friends of ‘Ijaw nation’ they tout about.
“To allow or tacitly encourage people of ‘Ijaw nation’ to throw insults on other Nigerians from other parts of the country and threaten fire and brimstone to protect your interest as an Ijaw man is myopic and your not openly quieting them is even more unfortunate.”
Obasanjo also asked the National Assembly to rise up and take decisive action over the recent allegation in the country that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, failed to remit billions of dollars in proceeds of crude oil sales to the federation account.
“This allegation will not fly away by non-action, cover-up, denial or bribing possible investigators,” Mr. Obasanjo told the President. “Please deal with this allegation transparently and let the truth be known.
“The dramatis personae in this allegation and who they are working for will one day be public knowledge. Those who know are watching if the National Assembly will not be accomplice in the heinous crime and naked grand corruption. May God grant you the grace for at least one effective corrective action against high corruption which seems to stink all around you in your government.”
Recently, Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, reportedly bought two BMW bullet-proof cars worth about N255 million ($1.6 million). Yet another cabinet member of President Goodluck Jonathan, Goodsday Orubebe, was accused of immense corruption. Dino Melaye had led Anti-Corruption Network and accused Orubebe of corruption. The property which the group accused him of acquiring with ill-gotten money is located at Mabushi in the Federal Capital Territory, and was said to have been built for the minister by a construction firm, SETRACO.
A summary of the allegation runs thus: The minister has paid for so many phantom projects.The minister is presently resident in a house at Mabushi District Abu]a built and handed over to him by SETRACO, a construction company that doubles as his crony. The minister’s failure to declare the said house in his asset declaration form with Code of Conduct Bureau, is a case of perjury if established. The minister’s financial escapades and liaisons are in Dubai and other corruption shelters overseas.
These weighty allegations were at first peremptorily rubbished and dismissed by the minister as handiwork of his detractors and some mischief-makers who were out for extortion. Since then, he has unfortunately laboured hard using the media to fault these revelations.
Similarly, the same Dino Meleye led anti-corruption group also accused Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN), of being corrupt and not fit to be either a minister or a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). It would be recalled that Melaye asked a Federal High Court in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, to dismiss the N10.2 billion libel suit Adoke filed against him “with substantial costs as it is vexatious, frivolous, and lacking in merit.”
In an 80-paragraph Statement of Defence filed by his counsel, Mr. Tony Itedjere, of Bamidele Aturu Chambers, Melaye, who is the Executive Secretary of Anti-Corruption Network, insisted that Adoke “has not shown that he is a fit and proper person to occupy the office of the AGF and Minister of Justice or hold any position of authority or responsibility in a decent society.”
In the Statement of Defence, a copy of which is in possession of News Express, Melaye, a former member of the House of Representatives, said: “At the trial of this suit the Defendants will prove before this Honourable Court:
“That the actions and inactions of Plaintiff in office has wittingly or unwittingly frustrated the trial of corrupt people and other criminals and thus sabotaged the efforts of the Federal Government to tackle corruption and other economic and financial crimes. “That the Plaintiff ought not to have received the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Commander of the Order of Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
Faulting paragraph 10 of Adoke’s Statement of Claim, Melaye averred as follows: “The Plaintiff has not shown that the conferment of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) on him in July 2006 was based on outstanding contributions to legal development in Nigeria or on merit. At the trial of this suit the Defendants will rely on the Application Form and all other documents submitted by the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee for the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria which the Plaintiff is hereby given notice to produce.
“The Defendants aver that the Plaintiff is not known to have handled any outstanding case to qualify him for the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria. The Plaintiff is hereby given notice to produce a copy of the application form submitted by him for the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria. At the trial of this suit the Defendants will rely on the Guidelines for the Award of the Senior Advocate of Nigeria at the material time to prove that the Plaintiff was not qualified. The Defendants aver that they have never come across the Plaintiff’s cases in the law reports. The Plaintiff is hereby given notice to list his cases which have been reported in law reports.”
Before his appointment as the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice the Plaintiff was defending Jolly Nyame, a former Governor of Taraba State. The Plaintiff now gives or is deemed to have given approval to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to try him, in other words trying someone he defended earlier, a clear case of conflict of interest.
“The Defendants aver that based on their conviction that the Plaintiff has abused the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, they requested President Goodluck Jonathan who appointed him to remove him from office in the national interest. At the trial of this suit the defendants will rely on the indictment of the plaintiff by several organisations, newspapers and magazines.
“The Defendants aver that the Plaintiff has wittingly or unwittingly aided and abetted corruption in Nigeria by causing many cases to be withdrawn from criminal courts. They include the cases of the accused persons in Siemens bribery scandal, Julius Berger bribery scandal, International Bank (Citibank) fraud, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission fraud, Halliburton $180 million bribery scandal etc.”
It would be recalled that Melaye and the Anti-Corruption Network had in a petition to President Goodluck Jonathan dated April 11 detailed alleged graft and “outrageous use of powers against public interest” by the AGF and for which the Presidency ordered investigation.
However, the mother of corruption allegations by Jonathan Minister is Diezani Allison Madueke, the Petroleum Minister, who has been accused of massive corruption. Just like a tip of an iceberg of allegations of corruption levelled against her, is the alleged award of a whooping N58.9 Trillion Oil Block deal without bid under the guise of a “Strategic Alliance Agreement. It was also gathered that Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Limited is also involved in the N58.9 trillion shady oil deals.
The award to one Mr. Jide Omokore’s Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Limited described as a close ally of the Minister is the reason for an agitation for a probe by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda, HEDA.
HEDA, in a petition dated April 26, 2013 and signed on behalf of five Oil producing Communities by Chief Emami Ayiri, Chief Aribogha Johnny, Olorogun Jaro Egbo, Zino Onaemor, Emmanuel Orwti, all representing Ijaw, Urhobo, Ndokwa, Isoko and Itsekiri nationalities and sent to the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, accused the Petroleum Minister of having secretly transferred production rights in four Oil Blocks (OMLs 26, 30, 34 and 42) to Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Limited.
According to the petition, “The communities accused the minister of having secretly transferred production rights in four large oil blocks (OMLs 26, 30, 34, and 42) to Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Limited (Atlantic Energy) allegedly owned by one Mr. Jide Omokore,” HEDA said in its letter to the Commission signed by its chairman, Olanrewaju Suraju, drawing attention to a report in sunnewsonline.com.
The petition alleged that “Mr. Jide Omokore’s Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Limited neither tendered for, nor bidded for the blocks. The petition alleged that on the above named OML, the minister entertained no bid under the guise of a “Strategic Alliance Agreement” that earned the federation account a little more than $50 million as initial entrance fee from Atlantic energy. The petition further added that if the open and competitive bidding process mandated by Public Procurement Act had been followed, the market value of the OML 30 assets divested to Atlantic Energy should not be any less than $800 million.”
HEDA recalled that the oil industry, especially the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, has been plagued for years by accusations of corruption and fraudulent dealings. This has led to misappropriation of revenue earned from oil production, consequently leading to under development and widespread poverty in the nation, not to mention injustice to the indigenes of the Niger Delta, HEDA said.
It argued that the state, over time, failed to ensure the exercise of the right to development of the communities in the Niger-delta which has led to such consequences evidenced in the rise of militancy in the region to which the government has lost billions of Naira in revenue.
The duty to ensure exercise of the right to development is one given to the state by virtue of Article 22(2) of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, HEDA said, calling on the NHRC to use the powers available to it to investigate these allegations and make appropriate recommendation(s) to the Federal government for the revocation, prosecution and such other actions as it may deem expedient.
The investigation which is expected to be taken over by the 2011 Class of Senators concern allegations that in September 2010, Allison-Madueke illegally assigned prospecting rights on three oil blocs; OML4, OML38, and OML41 to an international oil and gas company, Seven Energy International Ltd, through its Nigerian subsidiary Septa Energy Nigeria Ltd.
The contentious oil blocs located in Amukpe, Oben and Sapele, in the Niger Delta boasts of extensive oil and gas reserves with a gross production capability of 30,000 bpd. Nigeria owned 55% stake in the three OMLs held by the NPDC; a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). The remaining 45% stake was held by a consortium comprising Shell, Total and Agip.
The Senate launched an investigation after it received oral and written complaints against the deal, valued at billions of Naira, from some aggrieved stakeholders in the industry, who accused Allison-Madueke of discretional allocation of the oil blocs against industry guidelines that such allocations be based on an open competitive bidding process. The lawmakers wanted to ascertain that the divestments followed due diligence and was transparent in accordance with industry best practices, taking into cognizance, the overall national interest.
It is gathered that all attempts by the out gone Senators to get clarifications from Madame Minister were abortive as Allison-Madueke snubbed repeated written requests ostensibly because of her much-vaunted ‘special relationship’ with President Jonathan. The level of her arrogance and nonchalance was such that she did not even consider that the law makers deserved the benefit of a response from Madame Minister. Some stories are best told straight, so the hiatus of the denials and defensive infantile homilies hop scotched by Allison-Madueke and her apostates to stitch her tattered reputation are anything but convincing, in the face of mounting evidence that her disastrous tenure as Oil Minister makes it incumbent on President Goodluck Jonathan not to re-appoint her into his next cabinet.
Allison-Madueke has resorted to sophism rather than facts to dislodge the allegations of corruption and cronyism dogging her. But her incomprehensible arguments have raised further questions about her management of the oil sector. It would have helped if she had relied on unassailable evidence to shoot down the allegations against her; rather, she seems to have opted for the easy way out: to run away from her record. Whether out of choice or infirmity, the new strategy of shifting the goalposts and intimidating journalists is still self-defeating.
One of her major lowlights is the 10% racket she instituted at the Petroleum Product Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), where authorisation to import gasoline and other petroleum products were conditional on the importer paying $8 per metric ton allocated. An importer allocated 10,000 metric tons, for example would be required to cough out a bribe upfront of $80,000 in cash. No checks are accepted, so there would be no paper trail. The PPPRA and NNPC officials who operated the racketeering scam allegedly shared their booty with Allison-Madueke, who received 50%, while the others shared the remaining 50% amongst them.
As the mountain of evidence continues to grow, Madame Minister has increasingly been posturing like a boxing champion determined to defend her title. In a sense, Allison-Madueke’s title is on the line. Her supporters expect her to defend her title vigorously and successfully in order to win re-appointment as Petroleum Minister. Unfortunately, Allison Madueke’s public relations offensive aimed at damage control, has exposed her incompetence as Minister and her lack of moral character. She has also exposed her administrative ineptitude and poor leadership skills. It is a shame that even as allegations of official misconduct continue to swirl around her, Allison-Madueke is still lobbying to be re-appointed by President Jonathan, knowing very well that she will forever be distracted from her official Ministerial duties.
The distraction will come chiefly from the numerous scandals that have weakened her capacity to function as an effective Petroleum Minister at a time when the industry faces enormous strategic challenges. It is certainly not a good evidence of moral leadership for a Minister to be confronted with daunting allegations of corruption so early in the term of President Jonathan whose password is transparency and accountability. The chips are down on Allison-Madueke; she cannot wrestle herself successfully out of this mess. She would be remembered ignominiously as the woman who brought the high office of Petroleum Minister to public ridicule and disrepute. If President Jonathan (God forbids), commits the fallacious error of re-appointing Allison-Madueke, he also would have damaged irrevocably the dignity and integrity associated with the office she occupies. What would it profit Allison-Madueke for her to shrug off these seemingly endless debilitating scandals and continue in office as Petroleum Minister with a handbag full of cracked mirrors, facial masks and mascara? Only Diezani Allison-Madueke can answer this question.
Meanwhile just like his boss, had lampooned Jonathan last week in a 18 page letter, Minister of Education during the regime of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili earlier this year, raised the alarm that Nigeria is sinking under the weight of corruption going on under the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.
The ex-minister accused the Jonathan/Yaradua government of squandering a whooping $67 billion from the country’s foreign reserves. The comment had generated heated debates from the public and the presidency which in turn ordered a probe of Ezekwesili’s tenure as minister of education.
Oby who spoke after a Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) service to commemorate her 50th birthday in Abuja vowed not to keep quiet in the face of bad governance in the country. She denied nursing any political ambition.
According to her: “Actually, there is nothing about being interested in politics if you understand democracy. Democracy is incomplete without the engagement of the citizens in the process. The demand for accountability and for results is the role of citizens. You don’t have to be in politics in order to be an active citizen engaged in the democratic process. The reason that we have lacked results and accountability since our first democratic experiment in the 60s was simply because the citizens failed to play that role. I am not going to be a citizen that acts like a eunuch like there is no capacity to demand accountability.
“So, I am not a politician. The day I decide that I want to be a politician, you don’t need to guess, you will see me. I am very candid, I am very frank, I am too honest to play games on things that I believe in. I don’t want to be a politician, I am not a politician but I am an active citizen who is basically carrying out the role that every citizen of this nation must carry out.
It will be recalled that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, had accused President Goodluck Jonathan of encouraging corruption in the country. According to him, Jonathan’s “body language” portrays that he is not ready to fight corruption.
The speaker used the oil subsidy, Security and Exchange Commission scandal, the Pension scam as well as the Oduahgate saga as typical examples. He equally took a swipe on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, accusing it of being greatly corrupt.
He was reacting to issues raised during the question and answer session at an event organised by the Nigerian Bar Association to mark the 2013 International Anti-corruption Day in Abuja. Tambuwal said, “The Executive, by constituting committees to investigate what ordinarily would have been investigated by the EFCC, the ICPC (Independent Corrupt Practices and Other-Related Offences Commission) and the Code of Conduct Bureau, is engaged in a duplication of efforts.
“We (the National Assembly) do our own; we have been mandated by the 1999 Constitution to do it. They (the anti-corruption agencies) have been established by law to do what they do. The Executive has no business in establishing their own. They (the Executive) should just refer corruption issues, if they mean business, to the EFCC. Let the Executive have the will of referring these matters, from the office of Mr. President, to the EFCC and see what will happen. By the action of setting up different committees for straightforward cases, the President’s body language doesn’t tend to support the fight against corruption.”
The speaker turned to EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde, who was also present at the event and said the agency had turned a blind eye to several fraud allegations that the National Assembly had investigated.
He said: “Let us start with the anti-corruption agencies. I am happy that EFCC is here because they are also corrupt. Let us start by asking them what happens to the grants they receive from donor agencies which are neither budgeted nor accounted for? That is corruption.
“This is why we have asked the House Committee on EFCC to look into some of these issues and report back. The EFCC said it had started implementing the report on the probe of the fuel subsidy regime. Let me say it here that what EFCC said it was implementing was not the House report which exposed the enormous fraud in the system, but the one by Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede. The last the House heard from you on the subsidy report was when you requested me, the Speaker, to ask some members of the House to come and help you do your work. You also asked for explanations on some of the recommendations. I said no, it is not part of our job. We have done our bit; go and do yours.
“What has happened to all the exposed corruption cases? Of course, the pension scam is there. “There are also the recent and obvious fraud in the aviation sector and that of the SEC where trillions of naira from private investors were suspected to have been mismanaged. When we commenced investigation into the SEC matter, what became of paramount interest to the EFCC was an allegation that one of our members collected $4,000 as estacode to travel but failed to do so.
“Our members were immediately rushed to court for prosecution. Meanwhile, the top government official that was found culpable in the main fraud for which the National Assembly called for public hearing, nothing has happened to her till date. I have not heard or read anywhere that she was invited by the EFCC or that any member of SEC was even invited.
“We, at the National Assembly, for the sake of probity and accountability, agreed that budgetary allocation to SEC should be suspended, only for us to hear that the Finance Ministry, the Budget Office and the Accountant- General of the Federation’s office found a leeway of funding SEC through service-wide vote. Coming to what happened in the aviation industry recently, do we need an angel to report to the EFCC that something happened there? No we don’t.
“What we have is that the National Security Adviser, who should have been more seriously interested and concerned about the security situation in this country, is being given an assignment to investigate what is clearly obvious.
We all belong to this country and so people should stop taking us for granted.”
In a swift reaction, the Presidency said it was unfortunate that a man occupying a high office as the speaker could judge the President by body language. The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, while reacting said he wondered whether the Speaker had become a sorcerer that could read Jonathan’s body language.
He said, “Is he (Tambuwal) now a sorcerer that he now goes about reading people’s body language? He should make efforts to focus more on the efforts of the administration in fighting corruption and comment on what he knows. This administration is not going to fight corruption on the basis of mere speculation, or the politics being played by some people.
“Since his argument is based on body language, I think it is unfortunate that a man that is occupying such a high office is talking about body language whereas he is in a position to know the truth and defend both his party and the government. He should make the effort to know that the government is investigating various matters and working on them, and that President Jonathan will not condone any act of proven corruption. Besides, the Executive is not in a position to dictate to the judiciary and other independent institutions. There is a process. Corruption is not fought without due process being observed and he who is occupying a serious position should know a lot about it rather than acting the sorcerer and interpreting body language all over the place.
“it is not the executive that prosecutes people who may have been indicted. this fight against corruption is ultimately a collective responsibility”.