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Tag: corrupt

  • Corrupt bank executives

    Corrupt bank executives

    •Sagay is right; those who connived with looters should be prosecuted 

    When bank executives commit fraud or betray their privileged positions of trust in other parts of the world, they are treated like any other criminal – prosecuted and convicted – if found guilty. But here in Nigeria, they are hardly prosecuted. At best, they are relieved of their jobs and business continues as usual. Obviously this is not healthy for the banking sector which thrives on trust and integrity.

    It is against this backdrop that we support Prof Itse Sagay’s decision to push for prosecution of bank chief executives who connived with looters. The looting of the country’s treasury on the massive scale that some unscrupulous politicians perpetrated could not have been possible without the collusion of bank executives. “In my own little way, we are going to push for the prosecution of such bank chiefs. They must be prosecuted,” Sagay said in a public lecture in Lagos on “The many afflictions of anti-corruption crusade in Nigeria”, on September 5. The lecture was organised by the Nigerian Society of International Law.

    Nigerians are inundated daily with reports of staggering amounts in local and foreign currencies suspected to be proceeds of crime purportedly belonging to some former public officials. While it is true that not all the stolen money passed through the banking system, as billions have been recovered in homes and other discreet places, we have also seen evidence of some money lodged in banks, or at least passed through the banking system to wherever they are now, at home and abroad. Yet, those who should blow the whistle when such huge funds were being moved looked the other way.

    This is only one of the many infractions in the banking sector. We have had instances of banks charging customers more than required; some chief executives had converted customers’ deposits in their care to personal property while others gave loans without adequate collateral security. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in August 2009 removed the managing directors and executive directors of five banks due to high level of non-performing loans attributable to poor corporate governance practices, lax credit administration processes and non-adherence to the banks’ credit risk management practices. Two months later, three more bank chief executives were sacked by the apex bank for gross mismanagement of funds. Only one of the banks’ chief executives fired was successfully prosecuted and substantial assets and shares confiscated from her, following the plea bargain she entered into with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    This state of affairs must be a source of concern to PACAC and all well-meaning Nigerians. There is nowhere in the world where chief executives do not tamper with funds in their care. The difference between Nigeria and those other climes is that they promptly prosecute such chief executives. For instance, in the United Kingdom, former Anglo Irish Bank executives John Bowe and Willie McAteer and the former chief executive of Irish Life and Permanent, Denis Casey, were all sentenced to prison terms ranging from two years to three and a half years for a €7.2bn conspiracy to defraud in September 2008. What is pathetic in their case is that they did not gain any direct profit from their crimes. They only conspired to mislead investors about the true financial state of their companies.

    It is doubtful if most of the crimes committed by bank chief executives in Nigeria followed this pattern of not benefiting from the crimes. As a matter of fact, corruption drives most of the unethical conducts in our banks.

    We support Prof Sagay’s idea. It cannot be otherwise if sanity must be restored to our banking system. We also note his apprehensions, especially about a National Assembly that has not passed any of the anti-corruption bills before it, as well as the judiciary that stinks, with some senior advocates colluding with some judges to sell judgments. What the situation calls for is eternal vigilance by Nigerians who should be more inquisitive about what transpires in both the legislative and judicial arms of government.

  • Dino: How to corrupt a country

    Now let all good men in the land rise and join hands in retrieving our country from Dino Melaye and his ilk. The handshake now seems to have reached the elbow and it is of course, no longer felicitation as the Igbo would say. And the Yoruba admonish that if you hesitate in apprehending the thief in your farm, he will promptly arrest you. A season of pernicious role reversal seems to be creeping fast into our polity and this is a wake-up call.

    The looters of our national treasury are now flaunting their booty in our face and indeed deploying it against us. The Minna parade of private jets last week is one example. In 2014, Nigeria was ranked 30th  of the world’s top 50 countries with private jets. Even though it’s a most impoverished country, it ranks ahead of such highly developed countries like Japan, Sweden, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Finland among others.

    Here is another example of corruption getting emboldened and acting up. This time it grows into a monster and threatens to eat us raw. It’s as concerns the power conundrum in Nigeria. Recall that Nigeria’s power sector was privatised a few years ago so that it would enjoy the fillip of the private-sector efficiency and growth. But three years down the line, the new owners who are mainly part of Nigeria’s corrupt political cabal now practically hold the nation hostage.

    Power supply remains at pre-divestment era when the government controlled it. Apart from getting the plants and installations at near non-competitive rates, new owners have not invested in commensurate measures, especially in the distributive stock. In spite of various credit facilities from the government and banks, consumers seem to reap only fresh excuses from power investors. It now appears to have resolved to hold the nation by the jugular. Metering which is the major plank of the new power roadmap has been stalled. Such is the extended dynamics of corruption plaguing the land today.

    With President Muhammadu Buhari voted into office on the strength of his anti-corruption stance now critically ill and the anti-graft agencies much flawed in their systemic and operational contradictions, the auguries are dark.

    What this means is that the country may have returned to her crass licentious state where public officials did not seem to know the difference between public funds and private bank account; we may be back to our inglorious years when public officials gloried in stealing and were honoured based only on how much of our treasury they could hijack.

    This explains the two troubling events that happened last week: the Minna display of private jets by former public officials and their contractor allies and the supposed book launch by a supposed senator. If the feast of locusts which took place in Minna is excused as one of those natural aftermaths of the depravity of the elite, the so-called book presentation is an affront and a present danger; it was cynical show redolent with un-nuanced insult on our collective psyche.

    The indisputable enfant terrible of the NASS, Senator Dino Melaye, representing Kogi West, is said to have written a book: “Antidote for Corruption: The Nigerian Story.” The book in itself is a fraud going by what is reported. It is said to be a 600-page compilation of media reports, bills and motions relating to the anti-graft campaign and major corruption cases under the current administration.

    One would have thought that Melaye was presenting Nigerians with a fresh distillation from the deep recesses of his mind, insights and knowledge about this canker that is eating up our polity. Why would a senator of the Federal Republic compile reports from the public space, tag his name to it as author and go ahead to make huge pecuniary gain of it at a public presentation? Is there a worse corruption? Yet he titles the so-called book “Antidote for Corruption…?

    Prominent at the public launch were Mrs. Patience Jonathan, wife of immediate past president, Goodluck Jonathan. She who is currently in court over tens of millions of cash in foreign currency traced to her numerous bank accounts among other indiscretions. Yet she would have sat there and probably proffered a few tips on the ills of corruption.

    Just in the same way the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, seized the moment to sermonise and teach us the basics and correct modalities for tackling corruption. He who is facing trial for money laundering, not mentioning the matters and allegations surrounding the collapse of Societe Generale Bank among others, took the podium and obliged us a disquisition on how not to…

    As my former lecturer would say, these fellows are really sucking it to us. Now we the victims of mindless corrupt practices are prostrate, taking lessons from our tormentors. We think Senator Melaye should write a book on how to suborn and loot a national treasury – that is the book he owes us. At a time like this, one would expect the legislature to stand in the gap; but the National Assembly, especially the 8th Senate, is even much more mired in its muck of sleaze and odious beginnings which have refused to blow away.

     

    It’s a grey republic!

    You may also call it the grey republic – that part of government in which impunity, fiscal irresponsibility and gross abuse reign. This is what happens when government agencies refuses to prepare budgets. This is especially troubling when such agencies control more funds than some state governments.

    Is it possible that parastatals like NNPC, CBN, FIRS and about 35 others are yet to submit their budget proposals for this year?  Is it true that such agencies have been living on huge extra-budgetary expenditures with the year nearly half gone?

    Deputy Senate Majority Leader Bala Ibn Na’Allah raised this point on Tuesday on the floor of the Senate, noting that it was wrong and indeed illegal for any government agency to spend funds not appropriated by the legislature.

    This matter of unbudgeted expenditure has been with us for a long time and these are some of the systemic abuses we expected this government to curb in its bit to combat endemic corruption in our polity.

    Apart from budgets, statutory agencies of government, especially the revenue-yielding one, are also supposed to render and publish financial accounts annually and promptly too. This is among the most critical ways of reducing the corruption in the system.

    But it is a grey republic we live in.

  • Paradox of corrupt opposition party in power

    SIR: The All Peoples Congress (APC) gained the Nigerian presidency on an enchanting mantra of change, particularly change from the tide of an endemic corruption that characterized the 16-year reign of the People Democratic Party (PDP). Unfortunately, however, over one and half years after it lost power, virtually all structures of government have remained in the firm grip of the PDP, the opposition party. Not surprisingly, the hope for the much-anticipated change is gradually becoming a pipe dream.

    A vast majority of the agencies under the executive branch are controlled by the opposition. The parastatals, for instance, remain dominated by the appointees of former President Goodluck Jonathan. The Foreign Service is sadly similar. With the undue delay to appoint substantive diplomats; the embassies and consulates, which typically help to promote the president’s vision abroad, are still in the hands of the very PDP apologists that tainted the convex lens through which the world views Nigeria.

    The paradox at the legislature has grown old but obviously worse. In short, the change agenda of the current government took a nose dive when the opposition swayed the election of the Senate President to a pliable member of Nigeria’s corrupt oligarchy. Still, that is practically nada when compared to the fact that the opposition has continued to hold fast the position of the Deputy Senate President.

    The situation at the third arm does not exude hope. Infamous for frivolous delays of corrupt cases at the courts, it did not shock anyone, therefore, that the judiciary would quickly collude with the legislature to obstruct the vision of the executive arm.

    The objective fact, if it is not already manifest, is that a virally corrupt opposition party is dictating the nature, character, and pace of the Nigerian national agenda. It goes to say, thenceforth, that the opposition confederates are also the ones relishing the spoils of the current government.

    Blaming the opposition for Nigeria’s current woes, as above, will always attract a captive audience for obvious reasons, but President Buhari’s style has become a perplexing quotient. Fresh from the euphoria of a historic victory, many thought the president had a unique clue when he proclaimed to “belong to no one” and thence begged our indulgence to single-handedly change Nigeria by himself. Alas, we are all finding out the hard way.

    What we have found out thus far is a meticulous approach to governance and, by consequence, a slow pace of the change. This pattern, coupled with a seemingly lack of transparency as well as skewed political appointments, had ignited a public outcry which, in essence, spurred the lees of the corrupt past regime to creep back in all spheres of political power. More painfully, any good intention notwithstanding, Buhari’s uneven attempt to prove that he belongs to no one might have painted a picture of a one-man show, thereby alienating the APC intelligentsia that would have ordinarily placed the opposition squarely where it belongs.

    The solution, though, is self-evident. Instead of continuing to rest on the oars of the victory of 2015 with a small clique of leeches or waiting to fully recover from an unfortunate health setback, Buhari might as well consider that the battle for 2019 is almost here. A ready route is to broaden and embolden the change agents. Besides a much-needed cabinet overhaul, it is about time the president finally embraces his party structure across the country to help him fill, without any more delay, the thousands of positions still in the hands of a party opposed to change.

    To regain the trust of the APC main thrust, however, is not expected to be easy. Even the purest of the paragons of virtue would feel used and abandoned. But there is every reason for the change family as well as the masses to remain steadfast. Any thought to officially surrender power back to the PDP or its makeover is a hellish proposition.

     

    • SKC Ogbonnia,

    Houston, Texas.

  • America’s ‘corrupt’ era, lessons for PMB

    Simon Cameron was a godfather during the civil war American politics. He was the lord, so to speak, of his home state Pennsylvania. His political machine held the state spellbound for decades making him both the king and kingmaker in state and federal politics.

    As a testimony to his dominance of his territory, he was a three-time senator over a cumulative 18 years; making him probably longest-serving senator in his days. In fact, he left the seat only when he had made sure that his son would succeed him.

    Orphaned early in life and with little education, he moved to Washington where he was self-trained, working as a printer, newspaperman, editor and publisher; buying and running the Republican at only 25. He later veered into business, building railroads and owning a bank in his early 30s. Having made much wealth, he joined politics, moved to Pennsylvania and began a public life that was at once remarkable and infamous.

    Cameron was notable for being corrupt and he made no bones about it. His famous quote is; ‘An honest politician is one who when bought, remains bought.’ He started out as a Democrat but soon crossed over to a smaller party from which he joined the Republican Party in 1856.

    When President Abraham Lincoln was to make him Secretary of War as part of a political deal, there was public outcry considering  Cameron’s corrupt ways. This had elicited the famous quote from Thaddeus Stevens, a Pennsylvania congressman, who in counselling Lincoln about Cameron had said; ‘’I don’t think that he would steal a red hot stove.’’

    To buttress Cameron’s odious public image he had sought a retraction from Stevens who then made the famous retort to the president, ‘’I believe I told you he would not steal a red hot stove. I will now take that back.’’

    However, because of his overwhelming influence in his state, Cameron got the job anyway but he lasted barely one year.

    He got other appointments but none lasted because his public persona was quite suffocating even in that era. Notwithstanding, he remained the kingpin of Penns politics till the end of his life.

    The original title of this piece was to be ‘’Salvaging the Buhari presidency.’’ But the above illustration from the American environment of the Lincolnian era – 1861-1865 — is to illustrate that the Nigerian situation of today may not be unlike USA of 1800. There was a civil war and institutions were still at formative stages. It would thus appear like a jungle setting in which only the fittest survived.

    It is not unlike Nigeria of today and our situation seems to deteriorate rapidly with successive governments. Then Muhammadu Buhari came along.

    Many of us had sworn by the Buhari presidency. Some of us were so sure that if this was not the ‘messiah’, it must be something quite close. We had been starved of honest, principled leadership for so long that we would have pledged our manhood to have one. One more tenure of a rudderless presidency was unthinkable.

    The Buhari presidency and his party’s change chant was refreshing to anyone who had an ounce of love for this land. However, about three to six months after inauguration, it became apparent that we had made a mistake once again in the quest to find a capable captain for our wind-tossed ship.

    It wasn’t that PMB had become less principled and honest overnight or that the fabled ghouls of Aso Rock had seized the soul of the president upon his stepping across that rarefied threshold of power. We simply found out that we were victims of our own zeal – the blind desire to install a president according to our own image.

    Most of us thought that stellar personal character, honesty of purpose and stoic lifestyle were the touchstones for successful national leadership, but alas, how mistaken, if not foolish we have turned out to be. We all must accept responsibility and indeed culpability for this debacle. We have proved to lack discernment, insight and the requisite ingredients for critical leadership selection.

    Character may indeed be key, but other variables, such as political pragmatism, efficiency, sense of urgency and a single-minded focus on results all must combine to deliver that wholesome broth of leadership needed to build a nation. PMB has been all about character in the last 20 months and his presidency has floundered, seeming to fail irretrievably if he continues on the current trajectory.

    To safe the Buhari presidency; it is bad enough that PMB is assailed by ill health but he should simply delegate and indeed devolve power as he did in his first coming. He has a vice president who can do much of the leg work and even work from the shop floor. He must retreat a little to the background and allow his cabinet run.

    Two; he must reshuffle his team quick. Apart from a couple of them like the minister of power, works and housing, most other appointees look like they still can’t find their way around the sprawling federal secretariat. There is an urgent need to press brighter minds and nimbler feet to work.

    Three; we must immediately change tactics in the current anti-graft war. Enough of Ibrahim Magu’s cops-and-robbers approach to solving a grave national malaise. It is not working and it never will work. It has indeed become counter-productive. For the umpteenth time let us re-work the system to make stealing from the treasury become nigh impossible.

    Four; some of the critical factors for driving change in the economy are still not being activated. Agriculture sector remains tepid and we still import major food and staple, such as rice, wheat, poultry, fish, milk, cooking oils and tomato paste. We must drastically cut the importation of these essential items by all means. That task force on price ought to be a task force to produce, preserve and package food.

    Five; the economy and the oil and gas sector need fresh pep. The management of our currency has been less than plucky. Oil and gas remains in the doldrums with no fresh ideas or projects in two years.

    But more debilitating is that the mindset of the rump of administration is warped. Not delivering much about two years after but continues to escape into yesterday, blaming the past government for its inability to think through the woes of the populace today.

     

    Babachir and the pro-Buhari crowd

    The other day, some compatriots led by music star, Tuface Idibia, who sought to protest the excruciating hardship that has become pervasive in the country were harangued and denied. But Tuesday, a pro-Muhammadu Buhari rally nearly marched straight into the Exco chamber until someone remembered how ridiculous an act it was.

    It was bad enough that they were allowed near the precincts of the Presidential Villa, the remarks by the SGF Babachir Lawal was most troubling.

    He said: ‘’Baba Buhari did not anticipate the problem that we are in. I am sure you all are aware. The people who caused this problem are the ones challenging the government… I tell you they will fail… in fact they have failed.

    ‘’You are aware of the economy that the president inherited, the economy in which revenues have virtually collapsed. The infrastructure is nowhere to be seen. The roads were dilapidated. The schools were dilapidated. Hospitals were abandoned…

    On and on, the same banal excuse is what we have harvested in two years but alas, even the articulation of these are vastly depreciated if not dilapidated as can be gleaned from the quote above. We must raise the game.

  • Ibori return to ‘fantastically corrupt country’

    David Cameron, the former British Prime Minister while briefing her majesty the Queen, Elizabeth the second of Great Britain about an official visit of President Muhammadu Buhari described our country as “fantastically corrupt”. He however added that President Buhari was not corrupt but he has inherited a corrupt country and he needs all the help he can get from the international community to make a success of his regime. Many commentators said Buhari should have asked for an apology for the derision with which his country has been treated. Buhari, a simple soldier, asked ruefully what he would do with an apology when what he needs is the return of the billions of pounds stashed by corrupt leaders in British banks.

    If there are people who  still believe Buhari should have asked for an apology, the return of Ibori in a chartered aircraft to Benin, followed by a long convoy of cars to Oghara his home town where he was celebrated by virtually the entire town, has settled the argument. Corruption is as Nigerian as apple pie is American. It seems our people have willed the commonwealth to their leaders to do whatever pleases them with it. In other parts of the world, an ex-convict would go quietly home to his family and lie low for years hoping that people would see his contrition and forgive him of his crime. But not in Nigeria where ex-convicts return to society on horseback or on the backs of their poor people who while sweating carry the unrepentant renegade on their backs while dancing wildly after consumption of poorly produced local liquor. What a life!

    It was not just the ordinary people who may have been rented to demonstrate support for Ibori. Political elite in Delta State and perhaps in other states in the South-south and possibly in other parts of Nigeria went to felicitate with Ibori. Senator Nwobosisi had earlier on, on behalf of Ibori, boasted that while in prison, he was responsible for electing his daughter into the House of Representatives and he also claimed he helped Bukola Saraki to become Senate President. Obviously Nwobosisi himself became a senator because of Ibori’s backing from prison.

    Before he returned home from London, it was reported that the Delta State government had paid him several millions of Naira in back gubernatorial allowances and other financial support befitting a former governor in spite of the British saying he robbed the state blind an offense for which they sentenced him to 13 years. He was released after serving half of his time in jail.

    The result of all this is that the international community is likely to sit on the proceeds of corruption in their countries’ banks. They will argue that if they returned the money, our various governments may return same to the thieving looters. This of course will be a convenient excuse for not releasing the money which can be put to better use in their countries. It is a case of fools would soon part with their riches.

    With the kind of leaders we have in this country, Nigeria is in trouble. One thing that baffles me is the general ignorance of the people, not just the uneducated but the apparently superficially educated persons who always demonstrate more enthusiasm than wisdom in politics. Some of these people do not mind Ibori soiling his hands and spoiling the name of our country. They will go on to say he is not the only one who is guilty as if this is a justification for his bad behaviour. Unless there are laws preventing this type of people from aspiring to the highest post in the land, one would not be surprised if Ibori runs for the presidency. His supporters would argue that the British were unfair to him and would cite the fact that a corrupt Nigerian court had said he had no case to answer when he was faced with 170 violations of the criminal code. Although the EFCC appealed the case and technically the case has not been dispensed with. This is the problem. How many corrupt cases have been decided even during the current dispensation?

    Many of the previously accused individuals are now senators earning humongous salaries and allowances as well as collecting millions of Naira as former governors. Until everybody realizes that there is a possibility of revolt by the suffering masses which in blind fury would terminate our lives, our leaders will continue to behave with the impunity which makes them inured to all criticisms.

    Recently the police displayed millions of Naira seized from INEC officials after the bye-elections in Rivers State. These monies were allegedly given to the officials of the electoral body by the governor of Rivers State. The governor has denied the accusation but we have some kind of evidence of Nigerian currency running into hundreds of millions displayed by the police as if they were chiffon de papier – mere pieces of paper as the French will say. When I saw this, I was depressed seriously because our national currency has been so thoroughly abused that one feels humiliated working to earn the dirty money so carelessly displayed by the police. With the Naira so easily available to be dispensed by governors, is it any wonder why the Naira value has so totally collapsed? In a country where salaries are not being paid when due, the sight of so much money on display can make the poor desperate. This desperation manifests in the current wave of kidnapping and waylaying of people on the highways.

    All people of good conscience must support this current government to rein in this monster of corruption. This brings me to the unkind, uncaring and hateful rumours peddled over the president’s medical condition. This is a man trying to slaughter the demon of corruption for which some are wishing him dead. Can people not make a connection between the vastly reduced price of crude oil on the world market and Nigeria’s total dependence on earnings from much reduced oil production because of sabotage in the Niger Delta and our present economic situation and recession? When apparently sane people tell the government to immediately diversify the economy, I ask myself whether these are serious people. To do that will take time. If we want to grow enough rice to feed ourselves and industrialize the country to stop imports, will these not take some time? All this whingeing will amount to nothing unless we radically boycott all luxuries we current indulge in and make use of local goods. I want to end this piece by parroting Buhari’s words that if we do not kill corruption, corruption will kill this country.

  • BUHARI VOWS TO DEAL WITH CORRUPT VARSITY OFFICIALS

    BUHARI VOWS TO DEAL WITH CORRUPT VARSITY OFFICIALS

    President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday warned that any university council or management found wanting of financial mismanagement or gross moral as well as ethical violations will face the full wrath of the law.
    Buhari spoke at the 6th convocation ceremony of the National Open University (NOUN) in Abuja.
    Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Abdulla Adamu, said 31 students were awarded first class degrees out of the 12, 000 students that graduated.
    Nkwor Jude Peter of the Ikeja study centre, Lagos, emerged best graduating student from accounting with a grade point average (GPA) of 4.83.
    The president, who was represented by the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), said he had directed Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, to demand quarterly reports from universities detailing their major financial and administrative activities.
    He said: “As we move to address the existing needs of our universities, we demand that the leadership of these institutions reciprocate government’s gesture by judiciously utilising their funds with utmost integrity and probity.
    “Any university council or management found wanting in relation to financial mismanagement or gross moral and ethical violations will be made to face the full wrath of the law.
    “I have already directed the honorable Minister for Education to demand quarterly reports from all universities detailing their major financial and administrative activities.
    “A template for such reports Wilson would be circulated to the universities by the federal ministry of education through the NUC.”
    The president said his administration recognises tertiary institutions as potent instruments of change in the collective resolve for the rebirth of a new nation.
    He pledged: “We will continue to create the required conducive atmosphere for the private sector and individuals, as well as development partners of our nation.
    “The federal government will not relent in its efforts to improve on the upgrade of infrastructural facilities such as powered roads to drive our industrialisation process.”

  • There’ll be sorrow for corrupt people, says Olukoya

    General Overseer of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries Worldwide, Dr. Daniel Kolawole Olukoya has sounded a stern warning to corrupt people, saying they will “reap multiple sorrow”.

    Olukoy spoke early yesterday while giving a 40-point prediction to spiritually guide Christians for 2017.

    He addressed worshippers at the MFM’s Prayer City at a service to herald into 2017.

    He declared 2017 as one of deep sorrow for the wicked, adding that it’s also a year of confused noises and meaningless storm.

    According to him, 2017 will “experience redemption in contention, while it is blowing heavenly final whistle against those attacking genuine God’s people, as several foundations of satanic problems will expire”.

    Noting that prayers would be required to avoid convulsion of the earth, in the form of earthquakes, hurricane, tsunami, he warned that lots of prayers would be required for nations treating the word of God with disdain.

    Giving the theme for 2017 as ‘Year of Indisputable Victory and Uncommon Deliverance ‘, Olukoya predicted that the New Year would witness fighting between the roads and road users, as well as experience incredible and energy sapping battles.

    He predicted that satanic recruitment to capture and cage innocent young girls into foreign sects would  be rampant, as sexual perversion is already on the rise and warned that the year is a bad one for fornicators and adulterers.

    Olukoya gave ten key survival strategies to hold on to in the year to include living a holy life, desist from unbelief, set a goal, be persistent, always seek divine directive and being filled with the Holy Ghost.

    Other keys are to disengage from unprofitable friends, being generous to God, locating one’s weaknesses and addressing them, as well as becoming a prayer and Bible addict.

  • ‘Corrupt Nigerians waiting for Buhari to leave office’

    ‘Corrupt Nigerians waiting for Buhari to leave office’

    •PACAC member seeks presidential task force on corruption

    Corrupt officials are waiting for President Muhammadu Buhari to leave office so they can keep looting the country, a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), headed by Prof. Itse Sagay, said at the weekend.

    The PACAC member, Prof. Femi Odekunle,  said corruption grew unprecedentedly before Buhari came into power.

    He spoke at the pre-inaugural lecture of the Olusegun Obasanjo Good Governance and Development Research Centre, organised by the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) in Abuja.

    Odekunle, who spoke on: ”Fighting Corruption in Nigeria: The Journey so far”, said corruption, since 1999, became endemic, pervasive and systemic in virtually all areas of the country’s public and corporate existence, adding that those who governed the country during that period ran it like a “criminal racket”.

    According to him, virtually every category of Nigeria’s “leadership is implicated in corruption”.

    “Prior to the Buhari administration, corruption continued to fester and its control largely half-hearted and utterly ineffective.

    “Except for 1975/76 and 1984-85, the status of corruption in the country described by the late Major Nzeogwu in January, 1966, has not only remained in its essence, but has grossly deteriorated from one regime to another.

    “It has been endemic, pervasive and systemic in virtually all areas of our public and corporate existence. At the top and indexing the untoward situation are the post-1999 myriad of un-sanctioned “scams” (such as Halliburton/Siemens, Police-Pension/Pensions, OPL 245/Malabo, and others associated with certain ministers, heads/functionaries of MDAs, governors, legislatures, judicial officers, banks) – to some extent that the country appears to be run like a criminal “racket” with nigeria@419.com as a derisive email address.

    ”Virtually every category of our leadership is implicated as shown by an official release that between 2006 and 2013, N1.34 trillion was stolen by about 50 people.

    “The consequences of corruption for the nation over the period continue to be devastating to the extent that it is ‘killing’ the polity economically, politically, and socio-culturally, resulting in unjustifiable underdevelopment,” he said.

    He said the fight against corruption would continue to fail, if the government continued to adopt legal and technical approach in fighting it.

    According to him, while anti-corruption efforts and achievements of the new administration are sincere and commendable, there remains a challenge, which must be addressed with conventional/routine measures and “out-of-the-box” thinking strategy.

    Odekunle called for a presidential truth and restitution task force on corruption.

    A former Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Malam Nuhu Rubadu said corruption had remained mind-boggling that successive governments had strived to eradicate.

    Ribadu, who was chairman of the occasion, hailed the judiciary and legislature for their support in the fight against corruption.

    He said the Supreme Court rejected all efforts to whittle-down powers of EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC).

    “We have had amazing judgments that often become golden references in support of the war against corruption. For example, all efforts to whittle down the powers of EFCC and ICPC have been vehemently rejected by the Supreme Court,” he said.

  • DisCos ‘probing corrupt officials’

    DisCos ‘probing corrupt officials’

    Electricity distribution companies (DisCos) are investigating their employees  suspected to be corrupt, The Nation has learnt.

    The exercise will help in checking workers who extort money from consumers before attending to their electricity needs. It will also fish out those who collect bribes under the pretext of providing meters, transformers, poles, cables and other equipment to customers. Those who connive with consumers to by-pass meters and tamper with their meters, among other untoward practices, will also be flushed out of the system.

    Any official found guilty will be sanctioned.

    The DisCos have been urging customers to provide information on workers who demand bribe from them.

    An official of Ikeja Electric (IE), who pleaded not to be named, said the DisCos were requesting for coded information to shield their customers from attacks.

    Executive Director of Research and Advocacy of the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), Mr Sunday Oduntan,  told The Nation that the power firms were battling corruption. Besides, he said they were meeting the Ministers of Power,  Finance, Senate Committee on Power and its counterpart in the House of Representatives on how to recover N100 billion debt.

    He said the sack of corrupt officials would enhance their operations.

    According to him, the 11 DisCos were relying on ANED to deal with corruption.

    Oduntan said: “Members of the team have been travelling from one part of the country to another to investigate officials with questionable conducts. They were  in Abuja in August, and were planning to go to Bauchi, Gombe, Jos, Yola and other areas in the North on issues that border on corruption this December.

    ‘’Besides, the association and the power companies are relying on members of the public to furnish them with information that would help them in detecting corrupt officials in the sector.’

    “ANED and the DisCos are not trying to blackmail customers; they are helping to sanitise the industry. Bribery revolves round two sets of people – the giver and taker of bribe. The body is adopting an all inclusive approach to solve problems such as corruption, illiquidity, poor power supply, estimated billings, metering, and others in the industry,” he said.

    Oduntan said corruption was widespread in the sector, because people did not follow due process. He stressed that the average consumer of electricity offers bribe to DisCos’officials for services they had paid for.

    IE’s Acting Chief Executive Officer Mr Anthony Youdeowei said the firm would deal with workers found guilty of criminalities.

    Youdeowei, who spoke to The Nation, on the sideline of a stakeholders’ forum in Lagos, said the IE would sack workers with  questionabe characters.

    He said the stealing of cables and other equipment was affecting the firm’s  operation.

  • Corrupt value system is Nigeria’s greatest problem, says Bakare

    Corrupt value system is Nigeria’s greatest problem, says Bakare

    Latter Rain Assembly Presiding Pastor Dr. Tunde Bakare at the weekend said the crisis confronting Nigeria will linger, if leaders and stakeholders fail to change their corrupt value system.

    Expressing sadness at the country’s level of corruption, Bakare said leaders must be held accountable no matter the situation.

    He said no one needed to be told something was wrong with most of the country’s  leaders.

    The fiery cleric added that the situation has become so bad that even clerics, who should teach morals, are involved in graft.

    Bakare, who was Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate in the 2011 presidential election on the platform of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), spoke while delivering a lecture at the 14th anniversary of Foursquare Gospel Church, Asokoro, Abuja with the theme: “The church and economic recession”.

    Worried by the dwindling fortunes of the average citizen, the Convener of Save Nigeria Group (SNG) called for a complete overhaul of the Nigerian system and structure.

    He frowned at the political situation, where about 27 states in the federation are broke and unable to pay salaries.

    The cleric said such a system of dependent and non-viable federating units was unsustainable.

    His words: “We do not need anyone to say something is wrong with our leaders. Something is actually wrong. But I defer when it comes to just blaming leadership. I have heard it so often said that Nigeria’s problem is leadership problem.

    “The leaders come from the same society. Our greatest problem in Nigeria is corrupt value system. And that is what is producing the type of leaders we have.”

    The Senior Pastor of Foursquare Gospel Church, Asokoro, Babajide Olowodola, stated that what the church had been doing was to make sure “we are not part of the problem, but working hard to ensure that we bring solutions to the country’s economic problems”.