Category: Editorial

•The Jonathan administration must account for trillions of Naira splurged under the cover of service wide votes

An eerie air of financial anarchy never witnessed in the annals of the country’s history looms large on the nation. The rate at which financial impunity is being foisted on the land by President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration could earthquake the very foundation of the nation but for the docility of Nigerians towards the imperial rape of their collective resources.

With the latest roguery to which the Service Wide Vote (SWV) is being subjected, we cannot but condemn the routine affront to the federation account. The SWV is designed to make provision for financial emergencies of government but it has now become a criminal conduit pipe for the depletion of the public till. We are left with the option of asking: Who is in charge of the nation’s finances?

The SWV has been turned into an inveterate cesspit of corruption by this administration. This reign of financial anarchy is a shame in a country that prides herself as running a constitutional democracy where laws are meant to guide the dos and don’ts of the society. Thanks to the House Committee, headed by Solomon Olamilekan Adeola that is investigating how N4.7trillion was spent as against the N2.1 trillion approved by the Presidency through the Budget Office from the SWV between 2004 and 2012. The startling revelations could lead to cosmic consequences. To start with: The oversight scrutiny of the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts came up with what ordinarily would have remained hidden from the public regarding the National Teachers’ Institute’s (NTI), Kaduna account that was credited with N791 million on December 31, 2012 by the Budget Office from the SWV account without formal request.

Mallam Abdulkarim Affo, NTI bursar, was jolted to disclose the following before the committee when he noted that the incident happened at a time that the Institute did not request for any financial assistance from the Federal Government: “On December 31st, 2012, we just received an alert; a sum of N791 million 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-General of the Federation to find out what was the purpose of the whopping amount but all efforts yielded no result. At the 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 declared. What a scandal to a government that claims to be fighting corruption?

Again, the financial sleaze continues. Some National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) officials that earlier appeared before the committee reportedly disclosed that the Budget Office claimed to have released the sum of N5 billion to the agency from the SWV but the regulatory agency was emphatic in its claim before the committee that it received only N365million. Furthermore, the National Boundary Commission, during a separate appearance before the committee, denied ever receiving N2 billion that the Budget Office claimed to have released to it under the SWV. This criminality is awful in a country where the government usually complains of scarce funds as an impediment in developing infrastructure. This outright stealing/diversion of public funds by a yet unravelled irreverent systemic syndicate, has exposed disquieting thefts. The National Assembly lawfully approved about N2.1 trillion for the SWV account in the period under review only for its committee to discover during investigation so far, that over N4.7 trillion had been expended by the Executive. What plundering of public till could be meaner than just these two examples, among numerous others

We are aware that the SWV as an emergency fund is not under compulsion to be captured in the annual budget of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) but the funds, as a matter of fact, must follow due process before the MDAs could have access. Two layers of authorities that must reportedly give approvals were willfully ignored – the National Assembly through appropriation and the Minister of Finance. Of necessity, they must approve, upon genuine requests. The questions? Why did the Budget Office pay NTI without a formal request or approval? Why the hyper-claims in remittances to NAFDAC? Has any government official been punished for these horrendous scenarios? We demand to know.

The siege on the federation account by the presidency does not look stoppable amidst widespread speculation that that arm of government is so desperate to get re-elected. In the 2014 budget, the sum of N296,138,705,839 was voted for the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF Charges-Service Wide Votes) and N924,173,571,397 for the Federation Service Wide Vote, bringing the total to over N1 trillion. If the presidency does not account for and punish the felons who perpetrated these acts, we doubt whether the N1 trillion will be deployed for their right purpose by entrenched gluttons of government believed to be working in cahoots with the presidency.

We recollect that Lamido Sanusi, the embattled suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had sometime ago assuredly accused the imperial Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC) of collecting petroleum money without remitting such into the federation account that is domiciled with the CBN. Lamido accused the NNPC in a September 25, 2013 letter to President Goodluck Jonathan that caused public altercation between the presidency and the CBN over non-repatriation into the Federation Account of $49.8 billion representing 76% of the value of crude oil lifted in 2012 and 2013. Also, the same NNPC was accused of illegally allocating un-appropriated money indiscriminately for pipeline repairs. A controversial middle point of $20 was agreed to be missing after doubtful explanations from Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy. The same NNPC is at the moment sadly ingrained in messy kerosene subsidy scam that is taking away from the Federation Account the sum of $100m per month despite presidential directive against kerosene subsidy. Again, we ask: Who is NNPC responsible to? Is the corporation above the law? Definitely not!

We can only affirm that the wanton looting of the nation’s patrimony under the current administration is a manifestation of gluttony and lack of proper coordination of the economy.

The decision last week by Penguin India to withdraw from publication and pulp copies of “The Hindus: An Alternative History” is only the latest assault on free speech in India. The publisher’s move is likely to encourage more demands for censorship.

India’s 1949 Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and expression. But colonial-era laws restricting that freedom are eagerly being exploited by self-appointed guardians of religious orthodoxy. Penguin India said it pulled the book by Wendy Doniger off the market because it faced criminal and civil suits under a 1927 amendment to British India’s 1860 penal code, which makes it a crime to outrage “the religious feeling” of Indians.

Both Hindus and Muslims have invoked this law to ban books they deem offensive. In addition, powerful companies and individuals have used libel charges to get books banned, and India’s government has used a 1951 amendment to the Constitution granting it the power to impose restrictions on free speech to ban books as well.

In December, India’s Supreme Court granted a stay of publication against a book about an Indian conglomerate, the Sahara Group, after it filed suit against the author. In 2011, Siddhartha Deb’s “The Beautiful and the Damned” was published in India minus a chapter after the person who was the subject of that chapter filed suit in an obscure provincial court. Outdated laws are only part of India’s free-speech crisis. Hindu nationalists, in particular, have lashed out against speech they do not like with threats of violence. Penguin, for example, cited “a moral responsibility to protect our employees against threats and harassment” in withdrawing Ms. Doniger’s book.

Meanwhile, simply reporting the news in India has become a potentially dangerous undertaking. In a report published last week, Reporters Without Borders ranked India 140th for free speech out of 180 countries surveyed. Journalists regularly face pressure, including direct threats, to tread lightly when reporting or commenting on Hindu-nationalist views or candidates.

The wanton abuse of laws restricting speech is creating a climate of fear. Enemies of free speech have pledged to get even more books banned. But there is also a growing backlash against these forces. In reaction to the Penguin decision, authors and journalists have written fierce condemnations, and two Penguin authors have even asked the publisher to pulp their books as well. Citizen petitions are now calling for India’s Parliament to repeal the damaging provisions in the penal code — a necessary step toward stopping attacks on free expression.

– The New York Times

MARYLAND WAS disgraced last year by a scandal at the Baltimore jail in which violent prison gang members (colluded and in some cases had sex) with corrupt correctional officers to engineer a virtual takeover of the facility. A contributing factor in the breakdown of order was that jail management found it all but impossible to discipline guards suspected of misconduct, thanks to a state law that guarantees them elaborate procedural safeguards. That law, known as the Correctional Officers’ Bill of Rights, should have been a cautionary tale for lawmakers in Annapolis. Unfortunately, under union pressure, they are flirting with repeating the mistake — this time for police officers.

Md. lawmakers would make it even tougher to discipline police officers suspected of misconduct. A bill drafted by the Fraternal Order of Police would force investigators to throw out any evidence of police brutality, corruption, racial profiling or other serious abuses if they made even a technical mistake while looking into suspected wrongdoing. Police chiefs and sheriffs around the state, most of whom oppose the measure, say the bill would undercut their efforts to weed out bad cops and promote public trust in their departments.

The measure, sponsored by Sen. Brian E. Frosh and Del. Kathleen M. Dumais, a pair of Montgomery County Democrats, would provide police officers facing internal disciplinary action or firing with protections usually reserved for accused criminals looking at prison time. Even in Maryland, where public employees have extensive rights thanks to their political clout, no other group of state or local workers is covered by such safeguards.

The bill would expand the existing “Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights,” from which Maryland police officers and sheriff’s deputies have benefited for the past 40 years. That measure, one of the most extensive in the nation, tips the scales heavily in favor of uniformed officers suspected of misconduct by providing stringent procedures in the course of internal investigations.

In general, the current rules have worked well, although they have added fuel to a process that is so highly litigious that it often takes a couple of years or more to discipline an officer once he is suspected of wrongdoing. But it is going too far to add an “exclusionary rule” that would ban any evidence collected if investigators committed even a garden-variety technical violation of the rules.

For instance, what if an officer were informed of the names of possible witnesses nine days ahead of an administrative hearing instead of the 10 specified? Should that be reason to toss out all evidence of serious misconduct gathered by investigators? What if the officer is not officially informed of the name, rank and job title of a fellow officer present during his interrogation, perhaps because the two have known each other for years — should that also be sufficient to quash evidence? Lawmakers seem prepared to consider watering down the bill, and they should. By automatically excluding such evidence, they would make an unwieldy system positively sclerotic and give bad cops a free pass.

– The Washington Post

•A testament to Chevron’s social responsibility and score against identity crisis

It is unfathomable that a country as deeply endowed as Nigeria with huge revenue from oil cannot boast of standard medical laboratory in over 50 years of its sovereign existence. It is sad that but for recent intervention of Chevron that donated a molecular biology laboratory to Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, Lagos, the nation is bereft of such significant laboratory. We are nonetheless happy that the bug of corporate social responsibility that has bitten the oil giant has made this feat possible.

Until the donation of this laboratory, problems of imprecise diagnosis had become routine in the country. Not only that, simple DNA tests were usually conducted outside the country after samples must have been collected from people that can afford the usually exorbitant cost. Yet, DNA technology is not only for the purpose of identification, but also for other very important purposes, including prenatal screening and genetic diagnosis. Now, this newly donated laboratory would help meet the distinctive need of Nigeria that is lagging behind in keeping pace with advancement in genome technology necessary for tackling virtually all human diseases. We are elated by reports that when the laboratory is fully operational, its maximal utilisation will guarantee speedy and appropriate interventions in arresting dangerous medical situations, thereby reducing mortality.

Quite sadly, the problem of determining the right treatment by doctors for patients suffering from different ailments has been quite a riddle in the country. If we have had such laboratory, medical problems such as the unravelling of the DNA of victims of the DANA crash of 2012 and the protracted delay that preceded the release of bodies would have been avoided. Ms Rhonda Zygocki, Executive Vice President, Policy and Planning of Chevron Corporation, said with enthusiasm during the handing over of the laboratory that the corporation’s intervention was because it views ‘….healthcare as a crucial social service that Chevron wants to help government to implement, as there can be no development in a society where people are plagued by ill-health.’ She added that the laboratory will ‘.…unlock DNA biotechnology for Nigeria and offer such services as diagnosis of sickle cell anaemia in an unborn child and DNA finger printing that were not readily available in Nigeria before now.’

Before now also, the country of recent has been bedevilled by challenges of miracle babies and paternal brawl. But with the new laboratory, LUTH would now be able to provide solutions to these problems and complex others needing specialised diagnosis and care. With this laboratory, parental determination, disease and disease risk determination, including DNA finger printing and forensic pathology, could easily be tackled in the country.

Widely reported recently too is the fact that LUTH is capable of handling renal transplantation, incision cataract excision surgery, laparoscopic surgery, small mandibular reconstruction surgery, joint replacement surgery, and micro-vascular surgeries but we are of the view that if properly funded and managed, these and many other medical ailments are things that any teaching hospital of its class should be able to conveniently handle in the country.

The donation of this molecular laboratory is a welcome development and a plus, especially for identity challenges that have become rampant in the society. More importantly, it will save the country a lot of foreign exchange that would ordinarily have been spent on medical tourism abroad. Other able companies and governments should emulate the Chevron gesture by establishing such an important laboratory in other teaching hospitals nationwide.

IT’S BEEN three months since Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) and his fellow Democrats used the “nuclear option” in the Senate to unilaterally change the rules to limit filibusters on most presidential nominations. So far, though, there’s been no flood of confirmations. Part of the explanation is continuing GOP obstruction, as unfounded as ever. But it also turns out that the nuclear option wasn’t the panacea some made it out to be. It remains unacceptably hard to staff the government.c

Perhaps the best — or worst — example is the number of ambassadorial nominations languishing in Senate confirmation limbo. Forget the campaign donors President Obama chose to reward with cushy ambassadorships, some of whom are embarrassments. According to the American Foreign Service Association, 20 career diplomats are awaiting consideration, including the president’s picks to lead embassies in important U.S. allies such as Chile and Colombia. Fourteen of them have already gone through their hearings. Last month, meanwhile, Secretary of State John F. Kerry sent Mr. Reid an understandable letter of complaint that more than a third of his senior staff still weren’t in place a year into his tenure. Examples include the able Tom Malinowski, whom Mr. Obama tapped in July to be assistant secretary for democracy, human rights and labour.

Uncontroversial nominees — and even those who rub some legislators the wrong way but are well qualified — should fly through the Senate. Instead, many are stuck waiting for floor time. When Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) tried to get two uncontroversial judges confirmed by unanimous consent last week, Republicans demanded hours of pointless debate. GOP lawmakers look set to mercilessly attack Debo Adegbile, the president’s talented choice to run the Justice Department’s civil rights team. In fact, the betting is that Republican senators, still smarting from Mr. Reid’s nuclear attack, will force the chamber to waste valuable time on all sorts of nominees.

Even with the filibuster neutered, that could hold up or effectively block many nominees from advancing. Republicans might have reason to be angry, but exacting revenge on well-qualified would-be public servants, particularly those who aren’t heading into lifetime judgeships, is toxic for the country and the sort of behavior that led to the deployment of the nuclear option to begin with.

The problem here is bigger than the partisan wars that get all the attention. Too many jobs are filled by presidential appointments, and too many of those require confirmation in the Senate, which only has so much floor time. That leads to too many layers between the federal bureaucracy and its leadership and to excessive caution from presidents, who are slow to nominate. Mr. Obama is certainly guilty of this; 13 ambassadorships, including the top diplomatic post in Cairo, are simply vacant.

One fix is to slim down the number of presidential appointments or at least the ones lawmakers must consider. The Senate did a bit of this last year in a bipartisan vote. Part of the price of going nuclear, though, is that the two parties are exceedingly unlikely to be able to agree on that sort of reform again anytime soon. If Democratic leaders want to improve things, they can rely only on votes from within their party — and worry that they will further destabilize the institution by going it alone.

– The Washington Post