Our dear country, Nigeria seems or has actually found herself on a
precipice of hypocrisy such as the children of God found themselves in
the days of our Lord Jesus Christ. The 8th chapter of John verses 1-7
describes a scenario where the Pharisees (sinners who hide their
sinful acts) and teachers of the Word (law quoting hypocrites),
brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus and asked Him what should
be done to the woman? And when they insisted on getting answer to the
question, our Lord told them: “…He that is without sin among you, let
him first cast a stone at her” That settled it! The marauding
hypocrites were held spellbound by their conscience; they were pricked
and no one could stone the woman. Nigeria is exactly in the scenario
of that episode today - a corrupt society chasing after the corrupt,
to stone him or her.
Conscience is a virtue that has the potency to save, deliver and cause
true repentance from deadly endeavours. Conscience it was, that saved
and delivered those Pharisees from the wrath of God on that day and in
that particular situation. If they had stubbornly refused to listen to
the voice of their conscience and cast a stone at that woman, perhaps
there would have been an instant justice from the Throne of Divine
Justice and who knows, stones would have rained upon them from heaven
by the warring angels of God. Conscience plays a role in the every day
life of man to steer him to safety. Many times we intend doing
something wrong and our conscience dissuades us to refrain. But an
average Nigerian have seemed and still seems to damn this vital virtue
when it comes to satisfying insatiability. We pay deaf ears to the
small still voice of our conscience, plunder the national treasury and
resultantly send the innocent to an early grave.
This is why everyone in positions obeys the loud and destructive voice
of graft, thievery and oppression. Everyone knows that corruption is
bad and it retards a nation’s development; at least the still silent
voice within us always says so but because we are terribly worse than
the Pharisees of the days of our Lord Jesus, the voice of conscience
is not heeded and the crime is committed. As it happens to armed
robbers, so it happens to pen robbers; as it is to smugglers so it is
to those who collect bribes and turn the other way; as it is to
collectors of kick-backs so it is to junior ones who hide files until
their palms are greased; and as it is to adulterers so it is to
adulteresses. We all know what is bad and we choose to do that. Shall
we therefore blame everything on lack of conscience? NO! We have
ourselves to blame for ignoring this God’s given device of measuring
good and bad decisions. Curtis Mayfield of blessed memory sang “… why
don’t we check out our minds; it’s been with us all the time….”
Many Nigerians including yours sincerely daily seek for antidotes to
permanently counteract the menace of corruption. The visible and
seemingly antidote is probe, prosecute and retrieve stolen monies from
culprits. The answer to the question if these would deter Nigerians
from corrupt practices can be left for another day, because corruption
has been unarguably ingrained from the pores of our skins to our
bones. It is a laudable idea for any new administration such as the
one now in place, to attempt these deterrents, but my fears are
predicated on the attendant fraught. Is there any Nigerian, credibly
honest enough and without corruptive baggage to probe, prosecute and
retrieve stolen monies from others? Is there any who would not spare
his own (children, brethren, political associates and kinsmen) in such
wholesome exercise? Is there any Nigerian leader who is not tied to
the apron-strings of past corrupt leaders? The questions of true
credibility can go on and on, but the truth is that if there is no
such leader as of today, then none is qualified to cast stones at
others. It will be sheer hypocrisy and political brigandry!
A visit to the Holy Book again says in I Peter 4:17: “For the time is
come that judgment must begin at the house of God; and if it first
begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of
God?” This is not just an adjuration but also a yardstick to identify
God’s judgment – it must begin at the house of God. It is pertinent to
say therefore that true judgment must start from the judge’s chamber.
A judge of any court who committed robbery yesterday and comes to
court the next day to convict another robber is not a true judge but a
hypocrite shrouded in legal gown and wig. So also, any Nigerian leader
who wants to probe, prosecute and retrieve stolen monies from others
must first give account of himself, particularly when there are
corruptive rumours, so to say, surrounding his past. In this
fore-going the Nigerian President, His Excellency, Muhammadu Buhari,
as a matter of true integrity, must first probe and prove that the
following rumours are truly what they are - RUMOURS:
RUMOUR #1: Major General Muhammadu Buhari first came to widespread
public attention in 1976 when he became the Minister (or Federal
Commissioner) for Petroleum and Natural Resources under the then Head
of State, General Olusegun Obasanjo. The first dent to his public
office career had a serious impact in 1977 when $2.8 billions Nigerian
oil money grew wings and flew from the account of the Nigerian
National Petroleum Cooperation, (NNPC) Midland Bank, London to some
where (within the same bank), under his watch. Till this moment of
writing this piece, the whereabouts of those $2.8 billions is unknown
to Nigerians. Perhaps, the disappearance of that Nigerian oil money
may have opened the eyes of other Nigeria’s oil money thieves that,
after-all, oil money can be stolen with impunity.
After over three years of consistent clamours by members of the civil
society, comprised of social critics, human rights activists, the
press and leading musicians, for a thorough investigation into the
disappearance of that oil money, the Senate, under Shagari's
administration in 1982, appointed Late Dr. Olusola Saraki who was the
majority party leader of the Senate at the time, to head the Senate
Committee set up to trace the stolen money. The money was traced to
the same Midland Bank London branch, although not the NNPC account but
the fixed account of Major General Muhammadu Buhari, the military head
of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company. The Committee's report was
presented to the Senate and both the Executive and the House of Senate
decided to deal with the matter and expose the rogue military head of
the NNPC soon after the 1983 general elections. But sadly, that
Shagari’s administration did not live beyond December, 1983 to deal
with the matter. The military struck and His Excellency, Mohammadu
Buhari became head of State and everything about the $2.8 billions
“missing” oil money was resigned to posterity. It is rumoured that
soldiers ransacked the Senate chambers, destroyed some vital documents
which might have included the Senate Committee’s reports on the
“missing” oil money. It is therefore in the interest of our President
to throw more light on this rumour.
RUMOUR #2: According to the online Nairaland Forum of February 23,
2011, “the late head of state General Sani Abacha had invited former
Head of State, Major Gen. Muhammadu Buhari to serve as head of the
newly created Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund (PTF) in 1994. Major
General Muhammadu Buhari was said to give condition for his
acceptance: He must be given the title of Executive Chairman, and he
must have a free hand to run the Fund as he saw it fit, without any
interference from anyone. Buhari, who was often referred to as Mai
Gaskiya (the honest one) was apparently considered for the job mainly
because of the “qualities” he possessed, which the Abacha led
government felt would douse the tension generated by the increase in
fuel prices. With time however, allegations started flying that the
PTF was no more than another avenue for the Abacha administration to
siphon funds”. His Excellency got his way and immediately, he
unilaterally appointed a single consultant, Afri-Projects Consortium
(APC), as the sole adviser to the Fund. Afri-Projects Consortium was
given the exclusive power to initiate projects, assess their probable
cost, approve the costs, execute the projects, and assess the quality
of execution.
For instance, under the supervision of the omnipotent APC, PTF
purchased large quantities of spectacle frames which were at the time
costing only N800 a piece locally, for N1,900 a piece. This cost the
public treasury over N45 million in inflated charges. Ambulances whose
going price at the time was N3 million each were found to have been
purchased for N13 million each, leading to a loss to the treasury of
N900 million. Findings by the Interim Management Committee's
consultants later set up by former President Olusegun Obasanjo
concluded that the PTF had been cheated by as much as billions of
naira through inflated contracts, fees and charges. It was also
discovered that PTF had gone out of scope and decided, without
approval from the government, to build a residential estate in Wuse,
Abuja. The project purportedly cost PTF N703 million. But the
consultants concluded that a realistic valuation of the project could
not exceed N328 million. The project cost was inflated by more than
100 per cent.
On under-estimated findings, President Obasanjo found that over 2.5
billion naira had not been properly accounted for in the PTF and that
there was not much on the ground to show for the colossal expenditure
the agency was claiming. Haruna Adamu, who was appointed by Obasanjo
to investigate the PTF before finally consigning it to the dung heap,
quickly pocketed one hundred million naira of PTF's money before
operating table could be set up for him, thus forcing Obasanjo to
hurriedly close the place down without further investigations. Till
date billions of naira siphoned from the Petroleum Trust Fund conduit
pipes – all under the watch of Major General Muhammadu Buhari has been
swept under the carpet. Please Mr. President; Nigerians need light be
shed on the PTF deals to ensure that their leader is beckoning on
equity with clean hands.
Corroborating these 1st and 2nd rumours, Former Military Head of
State, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida reportedly warned His Excellency in the
Daily Post of August 28, 2012 headlined: “Those who live in glass
houses do not throw stones” – Babangida tells Buhari
As reported by Abiodun Badejo, “Former Military Head of State, Gen.
Ibrahim Babangida yesterday hit back at former Presidential candidate
of the Congress for Progressive Change [CPC], Gen. Muhammadu Buhari
who accused his regime of being behind the destruction of the oil
sector. Babangida, a Chieftain of Peoples Democratic Party [PDP]
threatened to expose the ‘holier-than thou-attitude’ of Gen. Buhari.
It is not in IBB’s tradition to take up issues with his colleague
former President, but for the purpose of record, we are conversant
with Gen. Buhari’s so-called holier-than-thou attitude. He is a
one-time Minister of Petroleum and we have good records of his tenure
as minister. Secondly, he also presided over the Petroleum Trust Fund
(PTF) which records we also have. We challenge him to come out with
clean hands in those two portfolios he headed. Or, we will help him to
expose his records of performance during those periods. Those who live
in glass houses do not throw stones. Gen. Buhari should be properly
guided.”
RUMOUR #3: In the report of New Telegraph compiled by Ayodele Ojo and
published on February 24, 2014 and titled: “How donation to Buhari
landed Sanusi in trouble” it was exposed how Major General Muhammadu
Buhari has been siphoning Nigerians tax payers’ earnings to pursue his
personal aspirations to become president of the nation. According to
the report, “A source in the Presidency told New Telegraph that
President Goodluck Jonathan was miffed over Sanusi’s activities with
the opposition. The source noted that in the build up to the 2011
presidential election, Sanusi made donation to the presidential
candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Major- General
Muhammadu Buhari (rtd). Jonathan was said to have invited Sanusi to
the Villa to explain the motive behind the donation to Buhari’s
presidential campaign. It was learnt that Sanusi admitted that he only
made a N20 million donation to Buhari to advance his course because of
the relationship the former Head of State had with his family,
especially his uncle. But a source said the President had evidence of
Sanusi donating more than N100 million to Buhari’s campaign. This
rumour goes to suggest that HE Mohammadu Buhari took advantage of the
relationship between him and the former governor of the Central Bank
of Nigeria, now the Emir of Kano, to dig deep into the purse of
Nigeria commonwealth and pilfer for his private needs and for his
previous campaigns to the Aso Rock. This does not count well for our
President and Nigerians need to know the truth.
After this in-house cleaning Mr. President, your policy on probe,
prosecution and retrieval of Nigeria’s stolen monies is appreciated by
all Nigerians, at least the corruptive tendencies of public office
holders would be stamped out. But as much as your policy receives this
applause, there are the needs to review the modus operandi for the
sake of justice. Glad to note that adherents to the different
religions, particularly Christians and Muslims in Nigeria see God as
God of Justice, Who is not a Respecter of persons. In this case His
Excellency, you must not be a respecter of persons and justice must
not only be done but must be seen to have been done. Most Nigerians,
judging from the results of the last elections, blame the woes of the
nation on the 16 years administrations of the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP). While yours sincerely supports fishing out thieves that
plundered the purse of the nation during these years it smacks of
injustice to spare a man who spent 8 years of PDP in office and go
after a man who spent 6 years. This is obviously so as the corruptive
records of the administration between 1999 and 2007 is in the public
domain. Here revisited below is a tip on the iceberg of the catalogue:
* In the report of the infamous Halliburton fraud, Former President
Obasanjo supervised the sharing of the $74 million bribe by
Halliburton to influence the award of the liquefied natural gas (LNG)
contract in Nigeria. He was reported to have given his aide, Bodunde
Adeyanju, a whooping $21 million of the bribe. This is less the
Siemens and Wilbros oil scams.
* The $16 billion allocated for the National Integrated Power Project
developed magical legs while additional N16 billion was paid to 34
ghost companies to execute project under the same scheme.
* Obasanjo directed the sale of the Kaduna and Port Harcourt
refineries to friends at a giveaway price of $750 million.
* In his promise to revive the railway sector, President Obasanjo
removed N8.3 billion from the nation’s treasury, but this money
miraculously didn’t get to the rails.
* On February 5, 2009, the Daily Sun reported that President Obasanjo
has allegedly single-handedly withdrawn N232 billion from the
Federation Account without any approval from the National Assembly.
* The bilateral air transport agreement (BASA) fund of $86 million
felt the touch of the former President, as $68.8 million “suddenly
disappeared” via an order from Obasanjo.
* Transcorp, believed to be directly linked to Obasanjo Holdings
Limited, suddenly got acquisition of four major oil blocs (namely,
OPL218, 219, 209 and 220) allocated to it on 21 July 2005 by President
Obasanjo; it also acquired NITEL and Nicon-Hilton.
*At the twilight of his administration, President Olusegun Obasanjo
awarded some contracts totalling N850bn in the following tranches: N70
billion to revive textile industry; N58.6bn for the second Niger
Bridge and maintenance of same for N42bn; N16.53bn for reconstruction
of the Lagos port harbours; N20bn for expansion of the Lagos airport;
N4.8bn to build permanent accommodation for the Security and Exchange
Commission (SEC); N1.39bn for construction of the Ministry of
Defence’s permanent residence; N1.4bn for conversion of steam and head
for power plant; N47.4bn for conversion of the Alaoji power plant to
double circuit; N3.5bn for procurement and repair of two boilers at
the Egbin power station; N233 million to fix the Agege-Lagos road. All
these funds were stolen!
*In his infamous third-term move, the former President was reported to
have bribed members of the National Assembly with a total sum of N10
billion, a report former Senate President, Ken Nnamani and Hon. Femi
Gbajabiamila corroborated.
To sweep the above under the carpet and give the perpetuators a bill
of corruptive healthiness is likened to killing a snake (corruption)
by only cutting off its tail. The snake can wrinkle away with pain
until its tails grows back but only God knows what will happen to its
next victim. It’s just a way of saying that probing, prosecuting and
retrieving Nigeria’s stolen monies from ONLY recent past
administration will not end corruption in Nigeria, it may only educate
corrupt public office holders on how to steal public monies and hide
under the ruling political party. This is the exact situation when it
is reported: ‘Buhari Abandons $182m Halliburton Scandal Probe’ by
Daily Onus on August 7, 2015.
The full report reads: “President Mohammadu Buhari has rescinded his
decision to reopen the $182m Halliburton scandal probe. According to
informed presidency sources, President Buhari’s decision might have
been stemmed because of the intense pressure mounted by former
president Obasanjo, Babangida, Abdulsalami, and former vice president
Atiku Abubakar. Our source further revealed that “they frightened him
with a possible revelation of his own dirty past if he dares expose
them in the deal” And that the probe might implicate his wife Aisha
whose name also appeared in Jefferson court case in America” So Your
Excellency, there seems ‘truly no one’ who can cast the first stone.
Even ex-President Jonathan who is now rigorously pursued, may have a
Pandora’s Box to open and storm not only Nigeria but the global
village, on the dimension of corruption of past Nigerian leaders. A
saying from my place of origin has it that "spectators in a wrestling
contest shout 'pick his leg! carry his leg!!' but that leg belongs to
a wrestler"
Besides probing, prosecuting and retrieving stolen monies from the
past government at the center, viz-a-vis Federal Government but
without extending your hammer to State Governments and may be Local
Governments, your efforts will be likened to applying prescriptions to
the skin of a broken bone and expecting the bone to heal. After-all
you did not spare the states and local governments corrupt officials
in 1983. Your decisive actions then on corruption gave you the
privilege to come back to power. Corruption in the states of Nigeria
sucks and there are clamourous rumours peddling around each of the
state governors. Notable amongst them is Mr. Rotimi Amaechi whose
rumours have it that he pilfered from the commonwealth of Rivers State
to contribute to last your last presidential campaign, Mr. President.
Recently, one of the Nigerian online tabloids published his account as
re-produced below:
“… In like manner, the PDP recounted the illegal disbursement of N2
billion agricultural loan, non-execution of the contract for the
construction of the Justice Adolphus Karibi-Whyte Specialist Hospital,
after the payment of the sum of $39,200,000, illegal withdrawal of N96
billion from the Rivers State Reserve Fund, illegal sale of Omuku,
Afam, Eleme and Trans-Amadi Gas Turbines, as well as the sale of
Olympia Hotel.
The PDP also recounted the fraudulent practices surrounding the
mono-rail and other phony projects abandoned in the state, after
billions of naira were reportedly paid to ghost contractors by the
former governor.
The party recalled how under the state Chairman of the APC, Mr. Davies
Ikanya, when he held sway as Commissioner for Special Duties, billions
of naira earmarked for the rehabilitation of Rivers indigenes, who
were deported from a neighbouring country to the state was mismanaged,
an incident that led to him being disgraced from office.
The party also challenged the governorship candidate of the APC, in
the state, Mr. Dakuku Peterside, to explain what happened to billions
of naira on Operation Zero Potholes, a conduit pipe used to siphon
government money under his watch as Commissioner for Works, during the
Amaechi administration.
No one sits with corruption to fight corruption because as it is
today, President Buhari is sitting among corrupt people and he must
first extricate himself from the comity of corruption”.
You know what Mr. President? Yours sincerely was browsing the Face
Book and found this ‘rumoured’ posting culled from Nairaland online
publication:
US FBI REVEALS 16 RICHEST POLITICIANS IN AFRICA AND THEIR WORTH IN USA
BOTH IN CASH AND PROPERTY
NAMES BANKS
AMOUNT
1. Rochas. JP Morgan chase New York.
1.4 billion $
2. Kwankwaso. American express New york
1.15 billion $
3. Shettima. Wells Fargo San Francisco.
1.1 billion $
4. Nyako. Citi group New York city.
805 million $
5. Ibrahim. Citi group New York City.
798 million $
7. Amaechi. US Bancorp Minnesota.
757 million $
8. Abdulaziz. Ally financial Detroit.
626 million $
9. Oshiomole BB&T North Carolina.
625 million $
10. Aregbesola. Citi group New York.
513 million $
11. Almakura. State Street Corporation
510 million $
12. Wamaidco. Wells Fargo San Francisco.
476 million $
13. Fashola. Citi group New York
448 million $
14. Amosun Bank of America.
442 million $
15. Ahmed. US Bancorp.
437 million $
16. Ajimobi. Ally financial Detroit
422 million $
TOTAL
US $10.529 billion
SOURCE: http://www.nairaland.com
Mr. President, $10.5 billion is whooping enough to call for a probe,
it should not be treated as a mere rumour and what this writer cannot
understand here is that the governor of his home state, the man at the
front of finger-pointing, accusation-leveling and who the President
has appointed to head the National Economic Council, NEC, Ad-hoc
Committee on the Management of Excess Crude Account Proceeds and
Accruals into the Federation Account, in his resolve to probe the
immediate past president, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, makes the “FBI”
list. It makes me wonder if this is a case of a thief accusing others
of thieving. No one, despite his political leaning, religious
affiliation or highly placed former leader should be spared; else the
whole exercise of the President would be a clear anti-thesis of his
true primary concern and resolve to wipe out the canker-worm called
CORRUPTION. The President’s name would be written in gold if he can
seriously commence the probe, prosecution and retrieval of Nigeria’s
stolen monies from Aso Rock and spread within the political party that
now occupy the mansion, and then to any other Nigerian; anything
contrary to this would make posterity to remember His Excellency as
not only a religious but also a political bigot.
To mop this piece, I love to pitch my tent with a co-patriot who
wrote: “The Nigerian state has been a victim of the most savage abuse
by pubic officials for decades. The commonwealth has been looted with
recklessness, and the vast majority of the masses have reaped abject
poverty and unmitigated misery in the process. What is more, those
long standing abusers of the commonwealth are maintaining their
relevance today precisely on account of their loot. Like the biblical
King Adoni-besek, they have reduced fellow citizens to hapless
beggars, feeding on crumbs under their bounteous table. In fact, the
vast majority of citizens cannot even secure a place under the table
for bony crumbs. They are shut out at the gate, languishing to death
under the scotching heat of starvation and despair. For them the
imperative of justice goes well over and beyond the concerns of
vendetta and punishment of past offenders, it is a fight for basic
humanity, a struggle to reclaim their dignity and take their rightful
places as citizens with equal rights and opportunities”
GOD BLESSES NIGERIA!
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