Sometime ago, I resolved to devote this column to the Coro war front. However, the relentless bloodletting in the land, NDDC et al and the 2M affair (Magu & Malami) are irresistible. Today I face the NDDC et al and start by reminding us that there is nothing new. But I will start with some Coro-related stories
President Buhari has harkened to my call on 6/7/20 as he wore the facemask recently on his trip to Mali. Up PMB? Cross River State, has reacted drastically to Coro-induced meltdown by slashing its 2020 budget from N1.1 trillion to N147 billion. The PTF has extended the ease of lockdown by 1 week and authorised exit classes to reopen by 4/8/20. I don’t know whether the schools have complied with the impossible conditions issued last week but while we are at it, South Africa, (with 13000 health workers coronised) has closed its schools which it opened earlier on.
It is also on record that Nigeria Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal and Guinea account for 80 percent of cases in West Africa while Lagos State Government spends about N1m daily to treat each severe Coro-case. Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro who tested positive thrice (now off the hook) downplayed the dangers cruising on his power-bike, mask-less and chatting with his ground’s keepers outside the presidential palace while his Mexican counterpart, Andres Obrador discarded the face-mask advisory, saying it is not scientifically proved. And then the vicious coro killed 13 sisters in one Michigan Convent while it appeared that coro was on a bull-mood on 23/7/20, when South Africa, Australia and California recorded the highest daily coro death tallies! But it is not all gloomy.
Our brother, Victor Osage has received a special commendation from the British Government for his ingenuity in the mass production of Ventilator, telling him that “your energy, ingenuity and camaraderie made a tremendous difference. You are a shining example of the best UK has to offer”. But he should have been helping us out in Nigeria though I doubt if the environment would have been favourable and whether he would have received this top-notch, “from the bottom of my heart” recommendation. Now to the issue of the day.
Read also: NIDCOM appeals to NDDC to pay stranded Nigerian students in UK
I am in deep sorrow. I am perplexed I am even confused. No, nothing happened to me directly or indirectly. It is the happenings around us that have placed me in this melancholic state: the killings by herdsmen, bandits and BH; the gluttonous lootocracy by apparently responsible people we have elected and appointed to serve us; the confusion in government in which brothers are engaged in savage fighting.
Our people say that everything you seek is in the native doctor’s goatskin bag and that the elder has more disused clothes than the young. I have been observing and commenting on Nigeria for the past 42 years and as such I have a repertoire of happenings in Nigeria; the good, the bad the ugly and even the VERY UGLY. In 2002, I wept openly about how the managed our finances. I wept again in 2008 and today, we are still weeping. This write up is from my archives (See how they manage our finances, BusinessDay, 28th March, 4th April and 11th April, 2008. Just compare what was happening then and what has been happening in the past 2 weeks. Read on
Those who are shocked and scandalised at the revelations of the latest TV show in town (House Public Hearing on the Power Sector) either have short retentive memories, or are suffering from selective amnesia, or have not been observing the unique financial management strategies in Nigeria since 1999 or are flowing with the tide of public opinion or are just new to the Nigerian environment. Of course, the outpouring of rage is significant in one material particular: it shows that even though Nigerians have seen enough absurdities to last them for the next ten generations, they can still be shocked by such matters!
In the very beginning of Obasanjo Administration, the tendency towards financial rascality was recklessly exhibited. We all remember the N12 billion paid to Julius Berger before Obasanjo had settled down in Aso Rock and the Abuja Stadium which nobody knew the cost and which was awarded on anticipatory approval. By 2002 the financial absurdities became so enormous that I had to “weep” publicly over the matter. (See how they manage our finances: Tears for my fatherland; Business Day,15/7/02).
The weeping was incidentally due to the outcome of another House of Reps ad-hoc Committee, which reported that N133 billion privatisation proceeds were not reflected in the consolidated revenue account, that N28 billion petroleum tax fund and $8 million oil sales since 1999 were not collected, that NNPC takes months to remit money to the federation account (in this online age), that there were outrageous excesses in recurrent expenditures while the capital budget was implemented to the tune of only 33 percent.
A similar Senate committee complained about $10 million dash to Niger Republic, selective extra-budgetary allocation to favoured ministries/ministers especially Works and Housing, Water Resources and Power & Steel which received N33 billion from nowhere in 2001…N40.7 billion Abacha loot was not reflected in the consolidated revenue account and that only N29 billion was in the account… and the Presidency, which spent N31 billion instead of N5.6 billion allocated for its recurrent operations”
In the 2002 budget, the president had a long-drawn out battle with the National Assembly. While the president claimed that the NASS increased the budget by N250 billion, the NASS countered that the N250 billion was at the request of the president to cover items that it forgot, underestimated or were started without budgetary provision. Some of the items forgotten were NYSC allowances, foreign statutory obligations, civil service wage adjustment while those being executed without budgetary provisions included Lagos Ring Road (where is that one sef?), Kaduna Bye-pass, Kano-Maiduguri road and Ibadan-Ilorin road,
We should remember the Azie (Auditor General) report for the year ended 31/12/2000 in which recurrent expenditure was N404 billion as against approved N206 billion, a revenue deficit of N5.3 billion against government claim of N109 billion surplus, revenue collected differed significantly from what was recorded while basic books of account were not kept. In the first 5 months of 2002, the CBN stated that the deficit was N93bn. But the presidency said it was “forty-something” billion while the Minister of Finance said it was “eighty-something” billion! Even as at then, the issue of how much was spent on NEPA had become contentious. Whereas it was claimed that $2 billion had been spent on NEPA, Senator Imoke countered that it was $700 million. Even NNPC was not sure how much it was owing its 6 joint venture partners.
I had concluded that rather lengthy treatise (7 pages) with some queries: “How can the executive, legislator, auditor and CBN be looking at the same documents and arriving at different conclusions? Why is the budget being treated with such treasonable levity? How can we manage our finances if we do not know how much we owe, how much we own, how much we receive, how much we intend to receive, how much we intend to spend, what activities we intend to fund or when we are not even ready or willing to go by the budget signed into law. Why should we continue huge allocations to NEPA when we don’t know how much has been spent, how much is being spent and how much is actually needed…? How can the president fight his war against corruption when there is no certainty about what is available, what is approved, and what is spent-and he is at the centre of it all? That was in 2002.
Commite’ d’Organisation de Jeux Africaine (COJA), organised the 8th All Africa Games in Abuja, Nigeria
The former president built on the earlier foundations and as the days went bye, the recklessness, impunity and arbitrariness with which our finances were managed only got worse. The budget was prepared to fulfil all righteousness and even though we had the greatest number of new institutions and statutes, acts of financial brigandage continued unabated. And it was not only at the presidency; officials of MDAs, States, and LGAs kept little or no financial records, and manipulated what was available, disregarded financial regulations and did not bother to differentiate between personal and public finances.
That was because the fish had rotten from the head and the moral fibre to ask meaningful questions had become non-existent. And that was despite the existence of the bureaucratic Code of Conduct Bureau; side-lined and under-funded ICPC, over-centralised, personalised and politicised EFCC and over-centralised, personalised, overwhelmed Budget Monitoring and Project implementation Unit (Due Process office).
Throughout that period, we were treated to banquets of financial scandals, especially involving those who fell out of favour or were just unfortunate. And because nothing meaningful was done about those scams, many more were reported. And yet, we will not –and cannot- know all the shady financial deals that occurred in the last 8 years. Even then, those we have seen and heard are enough to give us an indication of the general situation of things in those dark days.
We all recall the National ID and the Ministry of Defence contract scams. Those accused in the ID card affair said Obasanjo was aware of where the proceeds went while the government withdrew the charges on the Ministry of Defence case. We all remember how the contracts of COJA (8th All Africa Games in Abuja 2003), and CHOGM (Commonwealth Head of Governments Meeting, 2003) were handled and how the files had not arrived at EFCC offices up to this moment. We are all aware of the mess in the NPA under the custodianship of Bode George, and because of which for the first time, Obasanjo rejected EFCC report- thrice! The PTDF scandal in which the parties were trying to prove who “chopped more” is still fresh in our minds. Before Obasanjo left, the Dariye and DSP Alamaisiegha money laundering cases-and the consequential international embarrassment –had become common knowledge. We still remember that Obasanjo was also alleged to be aware of where the proceeds of the Dariye loot went and indeed, refunded some of it.
Since June this year (2003), almost all the previous governors have had to answer cases of multi-billion naira looting of their treasuries and the amounts involved are probably enough to fix all the dilapidated highways in Nigeria. One acquired all the houses and plots of land in the east; another insisted that Obasanjo was aware of where the money went while the other called “governor do nothing” was able to do something with billions of his state funds! Of course, we would not have forgotten the controversy about the various allocations for roads which ended up yielding more pot holes and pot-bellies.
The story of how Obasanjo’s beloved son, Andy Uba, used our presidential plane to smuggle currency into the US (and part of the loot was traced to Ota Farms); how Tafa Balogun oversaw the police force and got involved with N13bn worth of loot(while the policemen wore tattered uniforms and slept in shacks) and how 21 states and four officials defrauded the Universal Basic Education Scheme to the tune of N3.3 are still fresh in our memories.
Of course, beyond the power sector, almost all the other sectors at the federal level are in financial mess, courtesy of Obasanjo’s financial rascality. NNPC had a running battle with the Fiscal and Revenue Mobilisation Commission over illegal withholding, non-remittance and non-compliance with financial regulations; illegal accounts were opened and operated while funds were withdrawn from the federation account without proper authorisation.
A N14 billion fraud was reported in the Agricultural Ministry; the Aviation fund has developed wings while the sale, concession and privatisation of various national assets and undertakings became conduit pipes from which public finances were privatised. Even the embarrassing Etteh-gate and the unhealthy financial happenings in the ministry of health are indications that the “past” is still present!
But the House of Representatives public hearing into the conduct of affairs in the power sub sector has showcased in a detailed and graphic manner, how those who manipulated themselves into the control our common wealth and destiny did so in the recent past. It showcased all that is wrong with NEPA (alias PHCN) our public financial management and governance in general. We saw planlessness, duplicity, hypocrisy and pretentiousness in high-places, absence, abuse, misuse, and obfuscation of statistics, working at cross purposes, bare-faced looting and bureaucracy at its worst!
The government opted for gas-powered systems when a gas-rich Nigeria has no gas to power the stations; we are so short-sighted that we sold all our gas to foreign buyers without making provision for our own needs; planned for 10000 megawatts (even if it is on paper) while the transmission infrastructure does not have the capacity for more than 4000 megawatts; paid billions to genuine and fake contractors but failed to pay a few millions as compensation to villagers and thus land clearing could not commence; ordinary administrative approvals for sundry issues have held some projects down for years while transformers imported since 1998 are still “resident” in NEPA’s warehouses. It is shocking that some of the equipment and parts which some contractors bothered to import are held up at the ports because of bureaucratic ambuscades!
The financial aspects of the whole sordid episode are so heart-rending that one does not know where to begin. For one, as at this moment, no person or authority is certain about the amount that has been spent by Obasanjo’s government to generate darkness in the past 8 years. The figure varies from $2 billion to $16 billion and every person quotes his own figure authoritatively! PHCN and its supervising minister could not agree on how much was internally generated revenue (N505bn or 515bn) while the HQ claimed to have executed contracts worth billions which the benefiting units were not aware of.
Unregistered firms won juicy contracts and have magically been able to clear their cheques through the consolidated banking system! And for the first time in living memory, contractors are being OVERPAID! Marubeni was paid N19.8bn for a N19.5bn Calabar job which has an Expected Delivery Date of November 2007 but is yet to be completed! The lucky Marubeni was also overpaid by N168110366 and N179669787 in respect of its jobs in Edo and Delta states. Where were the auditors, due process and all checks/balances? Well, his imperial majesty just decreed that the NIPP projects were too important to undergo due process procedures! The NIPP has no legal backing, does not maintain account with the CBN and one junior officer there was/is more powerful than the CEO. Yet, that government was built on transparency, accountability, due process, total war against corruption and a no-more- business-as-usual paradigm.
Lahmeyer International, a firm “white-listed” globally won a feasibility study contract in 2005 at N587 million, was mobilised with N369 million, claimed to have used N200m to construct a bungalow for project site and nothing else. The bungalow, which should appear in the Guinness Book of Records for its cost was even nowhere to be seen when the committee visited the site. So, it was with most of the ghost contractors who collected between 60 and 120 percent (yes, 120 percent!) of the contract sums and disappeared without even visiting the sites.
Thus, from every dimension, it was shocking and unbelievable. 287 NIPP contracts were awarded to few favoured Nigerians through their foreign fronts operating mostly illegal companies in sums that were initially over-bloated and then additionally inflated. The contracts were awarded without passing through the famous due process because of presidential waiver and the contractors mobilised to up to 100 percent while some were overpaid while the level of performance averaged 10 percent. Most of them do not know where the sites of the projects were! That is why we spent so much to generate darkness
In another instance, the NNPC receives $4, 443936946 from the NLNG as dividends for the Federal Government from 2004-2009. But the Accountant Generals Office & The Budget Office received $27 million for 2004 & $100 million for 2007 and nothing for ‘05, ‘06, ‘08 & 09. So, where is the rest of the money?
As it was in NEPA, so it was in all Ministries, Agencies and Departments throughout the 8 Obasanjo years. And as reported severally, the greatest culprit was the presidency! But exposing these sorrowful happenings and moving us to more tears for the fatherland does not solve any problem. We have seen several of such exposures before. What is needed now is to ensure that all those who were guilty of commission and omission are duly punished and to ensure that this kind of thing does not happen again. While the first part is a government affair, the citizens should be involved in the second part; ensuring that the budgetary process is transparent is not an exclusive preserve of the government.
Does all this not resemble the NDDC, NEDC, NISTF stories of today?
