Prof Osinbajo calls out GEJ over his comment about corruption

When asked to clarify his statement "Stealing is not corruption" during the presidential media chat yesterday evening, president Jonathan said he made the statement quoting the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Dahiru Mustafa, who explained to him that his analysis of corruption cases in Nigeria showed that most of the cases tagged as corruption were theft. President Jonathan said that referring to stealing as corruption minimizes the crime. "Ole (thief in Yoruba) should be called Ole and given that treatment. Let us communicate properly. The word corruption, we have abused it." GEJ said. .

Not satisfied with President Jonathan's response, Prof Osinbajo took to his Facebook wall to react.

Photos: Protests against LUTH after woman detained for unsettled hospital bill dies

Family members and youths in the Idi-Araba area of Lagos state last Thursday January 29th took to the streets of Idi Araba, to protest the death of one Mrs. Folake Oduyoye who reportedly died on Dec. 13th 2014 at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, after her husband could not offset her medical bill of N1.3million while she was admitted in the hospital for post delivery complications she developed after having a child at the hospital. 

According to Sahara Reporters, Mrs Oduyoye's husband, Mr Oduyoye said she was transferred to LUTH following post delivery complications. He said after she was admitted into the hospital, she was treated and given a bill of N1m which he was able to offset through the help of relatives and associates from his wife's fashion trade. Mr Oduyoye said after his wife was officially discharged by the hospital, he was issued another bill of about N1.3million.

Mr Oduyoye said that he was able to raise N300,000 out of the bill and then had an agreement with management of LUTH to discharge her on the condition that he would provide a guarantor who would stand to ensure that he pays up the balance in a systematic manner and that the guarantor must be a staff of LUTH. He said his inability to provide a guarantor within their workforce made the hospital management detain his wife who in the process developed other illnesses with symptomatic cough. He said the hospital refused to treat his wife's new illness because of the unsettled bill.

"At this point they [hospital management] policed me everywhere, saying I might smuggle my wife out of the hospital. I slept beside her all 45 days in the hospital, watching other patients die on daily basis,” he said.

Sadly his wife passed away in the hospital on 13th of December, 2014,

"She asked me if we would go home any time soon, since she was said to be discharged a month and half ago. But that was only the last five minutes into end for her, I didn't know. At about 2a.m on 13th of December, she finally dropped on my lap,” he said.

One of the leaders of the protest and frontline human rights activist, Dr Joe Okei-Odumakin said this was a case of government corruption.

"This is neglect and a rip off. Where is the National Health Insurance Scheme and where are the billions earmarked for public healthcare?", Okei-Odumakin said.

Source

Fraud: Budget Office Credited N791m To NTI Account Without Any Request, Bursar Tells Reps

The House of Representatives Wednesday expressed shock at the revelation by the Bursar of the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI) Kaduna, Mallam Abdulkarim Affo,  that a whopping N791million was credited  into the Institute’s bank account on December 31, 2012 by the Budget Office from the Service Wide Vote (SWV) account without prior request for any financial assistance.

The bursar disclosed this when he appeared before the House Committee on Public Accounts, which is probing how the over N4.7trillion was expended by the Presidency through the Budget Office from the Service Wide Vote between 2004 and 2012 financial years .

Testifying before the committee, the bursar said:  “On December 31st 2012,we just received an alert and the sum of N791million was credited into the Institute’s bank account from the Budget Office without any prior request for financial assistance from the Federal Government. We tried to make enquiries and we wrote to the Office of the Accountant ant General of the Federation to find out what was the purpose of the whopping amount but all efforts yielded no result.

” At end of the day, what the Institute did was to pay back the money to the treasury at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), as required by the law of the federation. We have the evidence of payment, we never made request for any money,” he added.

Reacting to the revelation, chairman of the House committee, Hon Solomon Adeola Olamilekan, directed the Institute to furnish it with the official Treasury receipt to show that it actually returned the money to the Treasury as claimed and not that it actually went into individual bank accounts while further investigations into how the money got into the Institute’s Account in the first instance continue.

He described the transaction through the Service Wide Vote as a monumental fraud which had been allegedly going on for a long time unabated and lamented that several billions of naira of the tax payers’ money had gone down the drain.

According him.” Only last week, the NAFDAC officials appeared before the Committee over the whopping sum of N5billion claimed to have released to the Agency by the Budget Office from the Service wide vote and Agency claimed it received only N365million from the amount.

“Also, just a while ago, the National Boundary Commission appeared before the Committee over the N2billion the Budget Office claimed it released to the Commission which the Commission also denied ever receiving a kobo from the Budget Office under the Service Wide Vote. Where are we heading to? We must get to the root of these claims and counter claims. The fraud must stop, ” he lamented.

“It is disheartening that the National Assembly approved about N2.1 trillion for the Service Wide Vote Account in the period under review but at the last count over N4.7 trillion had been expended by the Executive.”

SAINT MUGAGA, ABUJA.

Source: THEWILL, http://thewillnigeria.com. Posted date: February 19, 2014

THEWILL_ Posted date: February 19, 2014http://thewillnigeria.com

Good Governance And Democratic Development As Trajectories For Socio-Economic Growth In Nigeria By Kayode Oladele

NIGERIA: A CASE STUDY

The Nigerian democracy is gasping for breath not only because of the poor performance by the political leaders but also because the people have been compromised! I would explain. While those that have been considered leaders have fallen short of our expectations and many cannot in good conscience be regarded as such, the ordinary man, common man or the people have also malfunctioned in a number of ways often justified by poverty, illiteracy or ethnicity.

First is the Monetization of politics and economy. The Nigerian politics is very lucrative and has therefore become a business activity. To contest for positions such as those of the president, governor, legislator, local government chairman or even a councillor, you must either be loaded or have a “godfather”. You either need to borrow massively from the bank or rely on someone, to bankroll your campaigns. Whatever the case, the money must be returned to the source. In Nigeria, we know that godfathers don’t bankroll a candidate for nothing, there is always a string attached. The tragedy is that some of the people are willing to sell their votes which represent their future for as low as  =N=5,000,($31) =N=2,000 ($12), or even =N=1,000 ($6). It is no news that votes are bought for as low as =N=500 ($3) or even with a pint-size portion of rice! With the buying of mandate, political office holders have no social contract with the people to improve their economic well-being. Who suffers? The people! Also, because of what has been termed “representational corruption”, Nigerian politicians earn far more than their colleagues in more developed societies like the UK and India. All this means that the funds that ordinarily should have been available for catering for the economic well-being of the people are reduced.

Second is the tragedy of avoidance of politics by some of the best brains in Nigeria. Nigeria does not have a dearth of thinking individuals who truly have the interest of the country at heart. The problem is that most of these people avoid politics. Where are the intellectuals? You hear them say, “It’s a dirty game” and that they don’t want to stain their hard earned reputations. This has not been helpful as can be seen in the crop of leaders that rule the country today. Nigeria indeed has and can produce better leaders. Again, good governance can only be championed by a ruling class that is developmental in every sense of the word. Therefore, our good materials must be encouraged to come out to salvage the country in every stratum of government the lack of which at the moment injures the prospects for good governance while also contributing to the impoverishment of Nigerians.

Third, good governance is again harmed by the ease at which people resort to violence. Political violence is becoming a habit in Nigeria. With violence, good governance becomes a secondary consideration in political chess game. A leading scholar simply captures it as “violence against democracy”. Today, violence (including the use of bombs) is now an instrument that is deployed for group and individual interest. For the political class, the habit of violence is one where political competition amounts to what Claude Ake referred to as “warfare” to the extent that almost all the politically motivated murders in Nigeria are still unresolved!

At the level of the people, violence is also becoming rampant as buttressed by mob actions and violent ethno-religious conflicts. This was the case in Jos and Niger. Today, the Boko Haram violence has made the worth of the Nigerian life trivial to a point that people are no longer moved with news headlines of tens of deaths. Violence thus diminishes good governance and also undermines human development.

Four is the absence of issue-based politics. With the massive developmental challenges facing the country, it is pathetic that issues of zoning and clandestine term agreements are enjoying the attention of contenders and their followers. What sense is in zoning in the midst of poverty, hunger and disease? Does poverty have an ethnic name that makes it only Yoruba, Hausa or Igbo? Good governance is driven by minds that are less concerned with petty issues of state of origin and other sectarian considerations.

Five is the issue of corruption. Along with the Boko Haram crisis, the fight against corruption is the most important fight in today’s Nigeria even though, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and sister organizations are doing their bit and could do more with the support of the judiciary, the people and the civil society. Corruption, if left unchallenged will destabilize a country’s efforts at fighting poverty and hinder economic growth and development.  According to Mahmoud Moustafa of the World Bank fame, “empirical studies show that countries with better redistribution of wealth enjoy longer periods of economic development ... and countries suffering from corruption cannot implement sound redistribution policies and thus are not expected to take benefit from sustainable economic development despite embarking upon economic growth from time to time for some reason or the other”.

Thus countries that have low corruption index enjoy positive growth and development by providing greatest happiness for the greatest number of the people while harmful consequence is the case in a country with high corruption index.  In addition, countries with high corruption index also experiences dysfunctional institutions, unfair and unequal treatments and constant encroachment of the rule of law.

Six is the problem of ethnicity. I must say that ethnicity in its self is not a bad thing if it promotes healthy competition among the groups that make up the Nigerian state. But it has historically been a justification for violence, promotion of redundancy and bad governance. People have been killed for no other reason than by the fact that they are from another ethnic group. Mediocre and run of the mills individuals have been retained in public offices for no other reason than the ethnic group that they represent all in the name of satisfying the federal character thereby depriving the country of quality leadership based on merits.

Conclusion: What Role for the People and their Leaders?
I would conclude by stating that while good governance aid the economic well-being of the people, it is critical for both the people and their leaders to take certain actions. The leaders by now know what they should do as represented in the need to prioritise the economic well-being of the people, promote the democratisation of the polity through the strengthening of institutions and embracing transparency and accountability. Leaders should commit themselves to ensuring good governance at all levels. The legislature must strive to gain the support of the people by becoming proactive in its   promotion of good governance. The legislators in the performance of their oversights functions should watch the executive and ensure that good policies are implemented for the benefit of the people.

For the people, they must also become proactive. Civil society Organizations and community based organizations as representatives of the people should strengthen good governance from below by providing the people with the tools they need to question and take charge of their future.  The media must also continue to hold the government accountable to the people while Traditional rulers should avoid confirming chieftaincy titles on corrupt politicians or their cronies who don’t have any feasible means of livelihood other than being friends of political office holders or their spouses. The intellectual class should also take up the challenge of providing a critical intellectual opposition to government. Specifically, they should constantly engage the government on policies and actions that will boost the socio-economic well being of the people and thereby enhance our democratic development.
Being the excerpts of a paper delivered in Lagos recently

Source: Sahara  Reporters

OPINION: NIGERIA IS BROKE! TRILLIONS IN OIL REVENUE LOOTED

Nigeria’s oil minister said in London, October, that the theft of oil revenue needed for national building, amounted to terror. British Prime Minister, David Cameron said at this year’s World economic forum meeting at Davos on January 24th, 2013, that Nigeria earned 100 billion dollars in oil revenue for the year 2012—which is more than all the aid given to the entire Sub-Saharan Africa—but corruption and lack of transparency of the civilian administration denied growth and causes suffering to continue in the nation, with a huge amount of Nigeria’s earned revenue being looted ever before it reaches the nation.

One such “hole” or “massive gap” Cameron referenced that had been uncovered, accounted for the looting over 800 million dollars from oil revenue paid to Nigeria. The British Prime Minister called for global attention to the epic looting and economic terrorism that is completely destroying Nigeria.

Presidential spokesman Reno Omokri denied these revelations and accusations of the British Premiere, but this link proves: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/prime-minister-david-camerons-speech-to-the-world-economic-forum-in-davos.

Premium Times on the 12th of November, published startling findings of a 7 billion dollar hole in Nigeria’s oil revenue retrieval, with the NNPC implicated along with Swiss oil dealers. In the report from the Berne Declaration, a Switzerland based anti-corruption NGO (http://www.evb.ch/en/p25021690.html); it was shockingly exposed that Nigeria’s oil was being sold below market price in an elaborate inter-continental scam involving the petroleum ministry and foreign cartels, operating in financial lax Switzerland.

The harrowing report from the Berne Declaration which includes a distressing 20 page BD Research detailed publication “Swiss traders opaque deals in Nigeria”  (http://issuu.com/erklaerungvbern/docs/bd-nigeria-en-20131101?e=3524425/5474605#search), exposed in detail, numerous looting operations of the Nigeria oil marketing sector. Some issues highlighted: Nigeria is the only major producing company that sells 100% of its oil via private intermediaries, thus the nation loses in extra revenue swallowed by the oil baron cabal. These middle men, “brief-case holders” act as “letter boxes” for PEP’s (politically exposed persons) –the well-known and hidden Nigerian cabal.

2. The irresponsible secret calls for tender, a common practice in Nigeria; this of course is a setup between parties to get kickbacks in billions, and sell the nation’s oil at treasonous prices. Most of Nigeria’s oil is marketed through the Switzerland channel. Well known is the multibillion fuel subsidy scam which the ministry of petroleum allowed to fester for years, effectively robbing Nigeria of more than N2 trillion. No one has yet been held accountable for any of these elephantine pilferages.

Nigeria’s minister of the economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has stubbornly denied that the nation is broke. This is far from the truth and reality on the ground. Multiple sources within all arms of the Federal government acknowledge that Nigeria is broke and unable to take care of it financial obligations to the people. The budget for the fiscal year, 2012 was 5 trillion naira, this is about 30billion dollars. The total revenue earned from oil sales in the same year, according to British Prime Minister David Cameron was 100 billion naira. There is a gross discrepancy in the budget – not inclusive of actual funds disbursed—from the total earnings in oil revenue. This gap can only be accounted for if Nigeria paid in amortization on its foreign debts to the tune of 70 billion dollars.

However in this same period, Nigeria has accumulated greater foreign debts and its 2012 repayment figure was $246,663,000 according to Index mundi. The total foreign debt stands at $6.7 billion. Clearly, foreign debts are not where our massive revenue from oil is going. The government in this period, rather also embarked on schemes to tax the masses via removal of oil subsidies and other schemes to supplement capital for government expenditure. More of such are put out almost every day. But despite increased taxation and levying, there is no money in the economy, as looting has completely drained the nation’s coffer of all wealth.

Nigeria’s domestic debts have also been catapulting as the nation awards contracts but cannot afford to pay the contractors. This domestic debt currently stands at over N6.1 trillion. If not the ASUU strike, then the recent riots over none payment of stipend by Niger Delta Amnesty militants in Russia, highlights the disturbing reality of the broken state of the economy; even pet and prized projects and national security concerns of the administration in which they have the most vested and regional interests can no longer be sustained and funded. Following the money—in this same period of rising domestic and foreign debt, Nigeria is making more and more “businessmen” and oil oligarchs, billionaires in dollars.

Compounding the acute lack of capital in the nation, implicated on looting of oil revenue by collaborations involving the ministry of petroleum with its family of international business stooges and a cartel of oil barons, is an artificial, politically motivated capital constriction. As is a common dirty practice in Nigerian politics, the ruling administration purposefully starves the nation of circulating capital to bring the nation to its knees ahead of elections, with aim to manage the release of this capital through the subservient, to influence votes. This artificial, criminal crisis instigated two years to the next presidential election has created a potentially unrecoverable economic catastrophe.

At the head of Africa’s largest nation’s financial meltdown is the oil minister, one of the president’s , or rather, “Charlie’s angels;” a billionaire or trillionaire, who “owns” Nigeria’s corporate media and senate and remains relatively insulated from proportional castigation and arrest for gross looting of the nation’s oil revenue. A typical case that merits little media attention involves the minister of oil, Diezani Alison-Madukwe and two of her alleged “stooges,” one Jide Omokore and another Kola Aluko. A case of iniquitous misappropriation of over N58.9 trillion naira from the illegal transfer of four oil blocks in favour of Jide Omokore`s ATLANTIC ENERGY DRILLING CONCEPT.

This whopping sum the minister and her coterie are accused of plundering, equals the nation’s total earned oil revenue for four years at the rate of $100bn or 16 trillion/year. The case is being handled by the Senator Emmanuel Paulker-led Committee on Petroleum Upstream. (National Enquirer) These “Diezani boys” who have recently been featuring in the news, command so much wealth, they are reported to be flying around the world in private jets and buying up hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property and boats. Illustrating the authority and audacity of Jide Omokore, he was arrested in France with Nigeria’s presidential jet in November of 2012 (http://saharareporters.com/news-page/french-police-detain-nigerian-private-jet-carrying-president-jonathans-front-man).

What the gross, blatant robbery and misappropriation of Nigeria’s wealth, being stolen before and after it reaches the nation; accounts to is frank terrorism. The nation is on its knees, crippled and begging for international assistance from the ongoing siege. The masses who pay tax and pay fuel subsidies, only for the income to be looted in whole, are what can be termed as “mugus,” “fools,” as also is the nation’s military currently dying, engaged in what the police should have controlled (waging a war against Boko Haram terrorists in the nation’s north eastern borders) while in a role-reversal, the police are occupied in fascist intimidation campaigns, as criminal tools of the presidency. While the drained military die to clean up the mess of politician and police fatuitous obliquity, the culprits and masterminds behind Boko Haram remain free with impunity, guzzling the nation’s wealth in high offices.

“Tax and Transparency after the G8: Nigeria and Beyond” revealed in London this October that “Nigeria is the only country in the world where illicit financial flows, which it estimated at about 10 percent of GDP, are larger than tax revenues levied outside the natural resources industries.” This means, officially more than what Nigerians suffer to pay in taxes is being looted.

Oil pollution in the Niger Delta has already reached levels of irreversible poisoning of the ecological environments. And nothing has been done to check this, as reckless looting of the oil resource is at its highest ever with consequential loss of revenue and dangerous cancer causing morbid pollution. Another form of massive and reckless looting of the recent civilian regimes is in the privatization craze. What one of Nigeria’s cabal who recently part-purchased PHCN (Power assets) coined the term “Africapitalism” to promote.

The reality is that these private sector cabal, do not provide alternative and cost effective service to supplement the government failures, but rather they accentuate the failure, then buy the nation’s assets at a tenth of their value to then turn around and offer the service or utility at double or triple the global charges for these. A benefactor of government unregulated oligopolistic service provision, recently referred to the wealth profiteered from the masses as “ritual-like.”  This Africapitalism is a grand scheme of extortion of the 160 million masses and sheer robbery. Unless something is done and done fast, Nigeria will never recover from the epidemic looting of its 6th republic.

Some in some quarters clamor for a fractionation of the nation—the size of which may actually be a factor in the impossibility to abate the gargantuan looting—however the next most urgent step for the nation is a Rawlings-style, “bloody” cleaning out and recovery of looted national assets and wealth, or else Nigeria or the fragments of it will never recover from the colossal looting that has been the bane of its 6th republic.

They say that one day the masses will have nothing left to eat but the rich. The day has indeed come.


Written By Dr. Peregrino Brimah
Email: drbrimah@ends.ng

Source: http://thewillnigeria.com.
Dated November 16, 2013.