Sir: Former President Obasanjo has in the past weeks, characteristically dominated the headlines and political discourse nationwide. From his “Third Force Movement” which started out as a “non-political movement” to its concomitant collapse into an opposition political party, the African Democratic Congress, ADC, the sudden meeting after over 10 years with his erstwhile enemies, the Afenifere and many other shenanigans he has brought to bear.
It is really funny that Obasanjo, who ruled Nigeria like his personal fiefdom used four chapters out of his three-volume and more than a thousand five hundred pages of book to defend a heist running into billions of dollars which has kept millions of Nigerians in perpetual darkness. According to investigations done by Ibrahim Lamorde, former EFCC chairman, Obasanjo’s administration spent N1.2trn on the National Integrated Power Project NIPP, only N360.7bn had been paid to contractors as at the time Obasanjo left office in 2007. Same administration also spent N273.65bn on the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN between 1999-2017.
Controversies abound as to the exact amount spent, given that Obasanjo said “only $3.7bn” was spent out of $10bn. Statements credited to the former Speaker, House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, during the power sector probe shows that $16bn was spent. The most important conclusion to be drawn out of this back and forth is that billions of dollars were spent yet no considerable improvement was witnessed in the sector. It was akin to spending money and more money to make darkness darker. What makes Obasanjo’s stand laughable is that his government spent an excess of a trillion naira and gave darkness. The mess created by the Obasanjo administration is what the Buhari administration is working earnestly to clear.
Obasanjo is quick to point to global happenings and trends for validation. He chose to un-look the fact that as of the year he left office, Brazil had more than 600 hydroelectric power projects with a total capacity of more than 73,000MW according to their Ministry of Mines and Energy. This is more than 14 times the highest power generation levels Nigeria had in her 58 year history at 5,156MW. This didn’t happen under Obasanjo. Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN)’s interim Managing Director, Usman Gur Muhammad said that the transmission rehabilitation and expansion programme of the TCN will upgrade Nigeria’s transmission capacity to 20,000MW in the next four years. We’re witnessing progress that Obasanjo and his clout of Nigeria PLC don’t want to admit. It must be painful seeing someone doing better than one who thinks he is the best.
We’ll read chapter 41 sir, but it hasn’t answered the question of “Where is the power?”.
pRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari, former President Olusegun Obasanjo Senate President Bukola Saraki and Bayelsa State Governor Henry Seriake Dickson have paid tribute to the late former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Mustapha Akanbi.
President: he was a man of enviable integrity
Buhari described him as a man, whose greatest asset in life was his enviable integrity and incorruptibility.
The President believed that Justice Akanbi would be long remembered for his enormous contributions in bringing credibility and respectability to the country’s judiciary.
Buhari, in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, noted that the death of the pioneer Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) is a colossal loss to the Nigerian judiciary and the country as a whole.
According to the President, “being respected by the people for your honesty and patriotism is the best legacy a man can leave behind.
“In a country where corruption is perceived as fashionable, Akanbi stood out as a remarkable man who put personal integrity and selflessness before the desire for money outside his legitimate income.”
The President affirmed that Justice Akanbi’s greatest achievement was leaving the public service with his integrity intact and untainted.
‘A paragon of rectitude is gone’
Obasanjo said the late ICPC was a man who radiated honesty and integrity.
In a condolence letter to Akanbi’s eldest child, Akeem Akanbi and signed by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, Obasanjo described the late Akanbi as a distinguished Nigerian, an icon, a paragon of rightness and rectitude, who devoted his life to the service of Nigeria.
The ex-President revealed that the demise of Akanbi has left him in a “sorrowful” state since it happened.
The letter reads: “It is with a grieving heart, but with obedience to the will of the Almighty that I write to commiserate with you and other members of your family over the painful demise of your loving father, our most revered Hon. Justice Muhammad Mustapha Adebayo Akanbi.
“News of his death today, Sunday, June 3, 2018, came to me as a jarring shock far away in Dubai. But we mortals can never question the designs of the Almighty Allah.
“In a country like ours, which is abundantly endowed with stars and frontiersmen, Justice Akanbi was one genuine patriot who radiated dominantly within our national space and beyond. He was a distinguished Nigerian, an icon, a paragon of rightness and rectitude, whose life is devoted entirely to the service of his nation. He was a role model and a nationalist.”
Saraki says Akanbi was a honest, principled jurist
Saraki, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu, described the late Akanbi as an indefatigable, honest and principled jurist, who upheld the fine ethics of the judicial process till he breathed his last.
“I am sad that Baba (Akanbi) has left us. He was fearless, courageous and spoke truth to power during his lifetime,” Saraki said.
One of the finest justices is gone, says Dickson
Dickson commiserated with the governments and people of Kwara State over the demise of Akanbi.
The governor, in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Francis Ottah Agbo, described Akanbi as one of the finest justices in Nigeria.
Dickson said while on the bench, Akanbi dispensed justice without fear or favour.
He said: “Justice Akanbi was a courageous judge who used the bench to dispense justice without fear or favour and rose to be President of Court of Appeal. As Chairman of ICPC, he fought corruption to a standstill for which we are grateful to him. His death is clearly an irredeemable loss to the country. ”
THESE, certainly, are not the best of times for former Nigerian president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. For the first time since he became the nation’s unofficial kingmaker following the expiration of his two-term tenure as President, his dominant influence on the polity is under severe threat. Calls for his probe have grown by the day since President Muhammadu Buhari confirmed the long-dated allegation that a whopping $16 billion was spent on electricity under Obasanjo’s watch as President between 1999 and 2007 without any remarkable result. Receiving some members of the Buhari Support Organisation (BSO) at the Presidential Villa penultimate Tuesday, the President told the delegation, led by the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), that a former Nigerian leader was bragging that his administration spent the said sum on electricity.
He then asked in disarming calmness: “Where is the power?” While a committee constituted by the House of Representatives to investigate the spending had in 2008 described the $16 billion spent on electricity as “a colossal waste” and the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) had in 2016 called for an investigation into the expenditure, the matter had been discussed in muffled tones because of the awe and respect that surround Obasanjo’s personality. He is not just the only Nigerian that has led the country for eleven and a half years (including his three and a half years as head of state), he has acted as the ultimate force that determines the occupant of the nation’s number one seat. Following the collapse of his bid for a third term in office as President, Obasanjo had adopted the then Katsina State governor, Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua, in spite of rumours of the latter’s ill-health and rolled the machinery of government behind him to become the presidential candidate of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the eventual winner of the 2007 presidential election. He also anointed the then Bayelsa State governor, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, as Yar’Adua’s running mate and ultimately the Vice President. And when Yar’Adua was incapacitated by ill-health barely two years into his four-year tenure, Obasanjo shifted support to Jonathan and worked for him not only to complete the two years that were left of Yar’Adua’s tenure but also to win a fresh election. In an instance of the instability of human relationship, however, Obasanjo fell apart with Jonathan midway into the latter’s four-year tenure and campaigned vigorously against his bid for a second term until Buhari won the election on the platform of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).
But while Obasanjo had succeeded in mobilising public angst against Yar’Adua and Jonathan at crucial moments, Obasanjo’s bid to use the same weapon against Buhari appears not to have worked with the same measure of efficacy. If anything, his recent call on Buhari via a widely publicised letter not to seek another term appears to be working in the reverse following Buhari’s declaration that the rumoured $16 billion electricity scandal is as real as day light. In apparent demystification of the awe and respect around the former President, individuals and groups are calling for a probe into the scandal even if it must involve calling Obasanjo for questioning. In a statement issued by its Executive Director, Adetokunbo Mumuni, last week, SERAP urged President Buhari to “urgently refer the allegations of mismanagement of $16 billion power projects between 1999 and 2007 to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for further investigation, and if there is relevant and sufficient admissible evidence, for anyone suspected to face prosecution.” The statement reads in part: “We welcome the focus by President Muhammadu Buhari on the massive allegations of corruption and mismanagement in the power sector and urge him to expand his searchlight beyond the Obasanjo government by ensuring accountability and full recovery of the over N11 trillion squandered by the three administrations.
It is only by pursuing all the allegations and taking evidence before the court that the truth will be revealed and justice best served. This is the only way to conclusively address the systemic corruption in the power sector and an entrenched culture of impunity of perpetrators.” In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Muhammad Ibrahim Biu, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) said the calls by some Nigerians that the $16 billion power projects scandal be probed was in order. Biu said: “From 1999 to date, the promises made by our political leaders to improve power supply have mostly been observed in the breach. The National Assembly had sometimes probed the alleged corruption associated with power supply, but Nigerians are yet to know the fate of that probe. Most worrisome is the lack of political will to bring to justice those found guilty by the probes which have unfortunately continued to encourage corruption by making it a way of life and culture.”
The ACF added that public officials, no matter how highly placed, must account for their malfeasance while in office, saying that the probe would serve as a deterrent to others and instil prudence in the management of public office. The Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay, said during the week that heavens will not fall if Obasanjo is probed for the $16 billion spent on National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP) under his administration. There were also reports last week that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had commenced the probe of suspects in the failed power projects. Reacting to Buhari’s pronouncement on the failed power project in a statement, Obasanjo’s media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, said President Buhari spoke from the position of ignorance because he relied on the “unsubstantiated allegations” against the former president by the then leadership of the House of Representatives. Akinyemi said: “We believe that the President was re-echoing the unsubstantiated allegation against Chief Obasanjo by his own predecessor, but, one, while it is doubtful that a President with proper understanding of the issue would utter such, it should be pointed out that records from the National Assembly had exculpated President Obasanjo of any wrong-doing concerning the power sector and has proved the allegations as false.
“For the records, Chief Obasanjo has addressed the issues of the power sector and the allegations against him on many occasions and platforms, including in his widely publicised book, ‘My Watch’, in which he exhaustively stated the facts and reproduced various reports by both the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which conducted a clinical investigation into the allegations against Chief Obasanjo, and the Ad-Hoc Committee on the Review of the Recommendations in the Report of the Committee on Power on the investigation into how the huge sums of money were spent on power generation, transmission and distribution between June 1999 and May 2007 without commensurate result. “We recommend that the President and his co-travellers should read Chapters 41, 42, 43 and 47 of ‘My Watch’ for Chief Obasanjo’s insights and perspectives on the power sector and indeed what transpired when the allegation of $16 billion on power projects was previously made. If he cannot read the threevolume book, he should detail his aides to do so and summarise the chapters in a language that he will easily understand.” Obasanjo’s critics are, however, of the opinion that he cannot plead any alibi in the matter because as the head of state and head of government, the government officials who awarded and supervised the failed contracts were his appointees. Will Obasanjo ride the storm? Only time will tell.
FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo has been busy lately. He is full of energy, the type that makes a young man envious. Since he announced the formation of a Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM), which has morphed into the African Democratic Congress (ADC), he has been travelling, pushing hard for President Muhammadu Buhari’s defeat in next year’s election. He had earlier advised Buhari not to run.
Obasanjo has been in Benue to mourn the victims of the bandits’ attacks and he was in Akure to woo Afenifere leaders. While on the recruitment shuttle, the former President was hit with the allegation that his administration spent $16b on power without any result.
Of course, Obasanjo replied in a vitriolic manner.
Just before he settled down to do some other things, the former President was reminded of how his administration allegedly removed governors from office in a reign of sheer impunity. He is yet to reply to this. Besides, videos of his appearance on the BBC programme, “Hard Talk”, have suddenly flooded the social media – all in a bid to puncture his anti-corruption credentials.
What are Obasanjo’s thoughts on these and other matters? What is his next move likely to be? Does he really believe that he is on the right track? Will he change his mind about Buhari?
Nobody has answers to these and many other questions being asked in town. Will an encounter with the former president provide answers to these questions? Let us conjure up such an encounter with reporters at the Lagos Airport.
Obasanjo saunters into the hall on his way to the Presidential Lodge. Reporters rush to interview him. He looks at them and frowns. He continues to walk away.
Reporter: Good afternoon,Your Excellency. May we have a minute with you on some national issues?
Obasanjo stops. He waves at the horde of reporters and walks away. One of the reporters repeats the question. The former President beckons to him, draws him close and knocks his head twice.
“Oya, two questions. If you ask me more than two questions, you get two more knocks. Is that clear?”
Reporter:” Sir, this allegation about your administration spending $16b on power without result and you boasting about that; are you really proud of what you did in that sector? Don’t you smell corruption here?
Obasanjo (Raising his right hand and pointing a finger at the reporter): “I hope nobody sent you to embarrass me or get me angry unnecessarily. What do you know about corruption? (Hmm…hmmm… hmmm. He clears his throat). You see, Mr Reporter or whatever they call you or you call yourself, for there to be corruption, there are certain conditions that must be present. There must be the bribe, the giver and the taker. Tell me, all the probes that had been conducted on this matter, have I, Olusegun Aremu Okikiola Obasanjo, been indicted?
“I have nothing to say; go and read my book. I have answers for you and people like you who, with due respect, talk nonsense about what they know nothing about.
“If they say there is no power, let them go to the ports where the equipment were left to rot away. If they are not pleased, let them go to the various sites of the projects. If they still can’t find the power they are looking for, dat na dem toro. For me o, anytime they are ready to probe the matter, I dey kampe; I’m ready.”
“Sir, you were in Akure the other day to plead with Afenifere leaders to join you in the rescue mission you claim to be leading. Now, people are saying, how do you want the leaders to trust you after deceiving them in 2003 when the PDP swept the Southwest and rolled back its progressive credentials?”
Obasanjo (raising his right hand and frowning.He adjusts his glasses.) With due respect; I’m sure you were sent. How can anybody say I deceived them and that my coalition is on a mission to deceive? Absolute nonsense. As for PDP, I resigned from their party a long time ago to become a statesman and … .
“Yes, Your Excellency. That is the point. People say what you’re doing now is beyond statesmanship and that it is pure politics. They say you’re attempting to tell Nigerians who to choose. In fact, some say it is an attempt to cover your failure as a president.”
“Really? I dey laugh. They say I failed? Well, let them say whatever they like. I remain a statesman. Will I say because I’m a statesman I should allow Nigeria to drift? No way. Anybody who says I should keep quiet is trying to insult me and I won’t take that. I won’t. Go and tell them at the Villa or wherever they say they are. Anybody who says I should keep quiet about Nigeria, I am ready to go konko bilo with the person.”
“Sir, Prof Itse Sagay (SAN) is quoted as saying that if you’re put on trial for alleged corruption, heaven will not fall. In fact, he said your administration has been one of the most corrupt in Nigeria’s history, that you act like a saint when you are ‘the most stained’”.
“Sagay? Who is that? He said that? When? You see, that is absolute nonsense. I fought corruption. I set up the EFCC and put that boy, emm…emm Nuhu, Nuhu Ribadu in charge. I set up also the ICPC. How then can you say I’m corrupt? I’m the only leader who has been examined by the anti-corruption agencies and found to be clean. Yes.”
“Your Excellency, people allude to the Halliburton scandal over which some people have gone to jail in the United States. They say it happened under your watch and it was a monumental case of corruption.”
“Halliburton? Yes. Did they mention my name? If it happened under my administration nko? Did anybody find any bribe in my sokoto pocket? Am I responsible for the corruption of every Nigerian? If they say Nigerian officials collected Halliburton bribe, tell me, is that Obasanjo? Please, don’t annoy me. With due respect, can you see a former European leader and ask him such questions? Halliburton my foot! Besides, that is an allegation. I don’t dwell on allegations, but solid, concrete evidence. If anybody has such evidence, a proof of my involvement, let him bring it up. I’m ready to face him in any court.”
“Is it true that you said those supporting the Buhari administration are morons?”
“Are you a moron? If you are not a moron, why bother about that? Why do you want to know what I said and what I did not say? Don’t I have a right to say what I like?”
“Sir, what people are saying is that that is hate speech, which is unexpected of a statesman like you.”
“Hate speech. What do you know about hate speech? How old are you? Once I have spoken, I just move on. Chikena!. If anybody is offended, that is not my problem. In any case, what is your problem; are you a moron?”
More questions, but Obasanjo walks away. No smiles and no byes as the reporters turn back.
Love conquers all
HOW do you assure and reassure a woman that you are head over heels for her? Do you just sing some romantic songs or compose some moving poems? Do you take her on a walk, holding her by the hand and telling her beautiful stories, laughing and blowing kisses? Or sit there in a restaurant, dimmed lights, slow songs wafting softly through invisible speakers and half-filled wine glasses? Hugs and kisses?
That was then. Love has since found its love in more seductive phenomena. Call it cash or materialism or whatever suits your fancy.
Davido
When songster Davido decided to give his girl Chioma “assurance”, he rolled out a N45m Porsche for her to drive round town. Then some busybodies said it was a used car that cost far less than the announced price. The musician reached for the receipt and flaunted it in the social media. Were they pleased? No. They said the crooner may have been scammed.
Davido has held his peace. Why not? After all, Chioma has got the “assurance ” she wanted and the singer has got the love he badly desired. All is well that ends well, according to the Bard, who himself was love-struck at one point or the other.
Another public figure, also love-struck, has given his woman “assurance”. On her birthday, he landed her a brand new G-Wagon that cost a fortune. The lucky woman and her excited friends were happy. They danced and danced.
The limo was said to have cost N100m. The social media was on fire: Why should he do that in a country where many go to bed hungry and angry, their tummies rumbling and their hearts grumbling? Why that when many are out of school for lack of school fees?
It is to his credit that House Majority Leader Femi Gbajabiamila has taken it all on the chin. He has remained tight-lipped in the face of the unwarranted assault on his freedom of choice. Who is he who has never been in love? Let him cast the first stone.
Love conquers all! Ask Samson, the biblical superman. Ask Clinton. Ask the former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss-Khan. Ask former World Bank chief Paul Wolfowitz. Ask former United States President Bill Clinton. Ask President Donald Trump.
The Presidency yesterday attacked the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration, especially under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, for “toppling” elected state governments, using the police and the secret service.
In an article to commemorate the third anniversary of the Buhari Presidency last night, Senior Special Assistant to President Muhamadu Buhari on Media and Publicity Garba Shehu recalled how former Governors Joshua Dariye (Plateau), Rashidi Ladoja (Oyo) and Peter Obi (Anambra) were removed for reasons not noble.
The statement added that under that dispensation, “it took an insider collaboration to thwart the unseating of Governor (Chris) Ngige (of Anambra State) by a powerful thug sponsored by the PDP administration.”
Shehu added: “The parliament at the centre seized the law-making powers of the Rivers State House of Assembly as a way to save Governor Rotimi Amaechi, the then chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, from impeachment by the PDP presidency.”
Recalling the way the governors were removed without going through the due process, the statement said: “A five-man legislature met at 6:00 am and ‘impeached’ Governor Dariye in Plateau; 18 members out of 32 removed Governor Ladoja of Oyo from office; in Anambra, APGA’s Governor Obi was equally impeached at 5:00 a.m. by members who did not meet the two-thirds required by the constitution. His offence was that he refused to inflate the state’s budget. The lawmakers had reportedly met with representatives of the President in Asaba, Delta State and then accompanied to Awka by heavy security provided by the police Mobile Unit.
“The PDP President at that time had reportedly told Obi to forget re-election in 2007 if he did not join the PDP because he (the President) would not support a non-PDP member.
In Ekiti, Governor Fayose in his first term faced allegations of financial corruption and murder. Following the failure to heed the instruction of the Presidency to impeach only Fayose and spare the deputy, Madam Olujimi, now a senator, the PDP President declared that there was a breakdown of law and order in the state and declared a state of emergency.
“He appointed Brig-Gen. Adetunji Olurin (rtd) as the sole administrator of the state on October 19, 2006. In an earlier incident in Anambra, it took an insider collaboration to thwart the unseating of Governor Ngige by a powerful thug sponsored by the PDP administration.”
The Presidency said: “Thank God for Buhari, none of these absurdities has happened under his watch but the PDP is indicating their boredom with his meticulous observance of the constitution by calling for a return to the old order.
“If not for “dry eyes,” as said in our common parlance, what is it that would push this party to write a letter to the United Nations, laying false claims to constitutionality and alleging that democracy is presently under threat?
“But then, we all understand that by its tone, this is an angry opposition unhappy about the loss of privileges they desperately want to hang on to, privileges now abolished by the prudent, austere Buhari Administration. “The former Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, shocked the world by the revelation in her new book, titled, Fighting Corruption is Dangerous: The Story Behind the Headlines, that they paid N17 billion bribe to the National Assembly to get them pass the 2015 budget.
“President Buhari’s first budget in 2016 was the first year of passing the budget without the bribery of legislators. He came to power to clean up the mess and has so far managed a cleaner government than all of the past administrations.”
The article said “the beneficiaries of the old order have since been complaining that they are being starved. Four more years of Buhari?”
“If by chance or accident you have a USD 16 billion question hanging on your neck, money large enough to construct the Lagos-Port Harcourt standard gauge railway and the massive Mambila power plant put together without borrowing a kobo, then you see a capacity in the change administration to end the shenanigans and get to the root of what happened with the money in that exercise, what do you do? Most people will say start running, scream it: that this change we voted for has gone too far. Foxy generals don’t wait to be caught.”
“It is the same thing with the narrative of suffering and hunger in the land, the blame which is unfairly being heaped on this administration. Understood in its proper meaning, it is just a way of saying that the country’s ghastly and complicated corruption industry, which provides inestimable amounts of disposable incomes to public servants and elected officials is being shut down. What government has done in the trade and investment sector, and in other processes of government are illustrative of this. Government has been streamlining systems as a result of which there is transparency and fewer rules.”
NO one can determine whether President Muhammadu Buhari will reflect on his statement suggesting that one of his predecessors in the presidency, more likely ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, boasted spending about $16bn on power projects without delivering power. If the president does, he will be convinced that he needs to eat his words, set the records straight, and look for other more plausible and sensible issues to play politics with. If he is reflective, he will be deeply mortified by how badly he got his figures wrong, how despite holding down the presidency for three years he had moaned around and ruminated on the wrong facts, and how really precariously he had drawn the wrong conclusions based on the wrong assumptions and facts.
Presidential aides have mercifully not attempted to rationalise the president’s latest gaffe. They can’t, no matter how hard they try. The president sometimes indulges in dry jokes, but this time, when he received on Tuesday the grinning and eager members of the Buhari Support Organisation led by the intransigent Customs boss, Hameed Ali, he was unequivocal about his disapproval of ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo’s politics and criticisms. In fact the president’s statements, lips quivering, were so strident that reporters characteristically and unanimously presaged their reports of the visit with what the president fulminated against rather than what Col Ali (retd.) crooned over. No one can tell why and how the president got his facts so wrong.
Perhaps Col. Ali’s fawning conclusion about President Buhari’s politics and leadership, which he described as transparent and patriotic, was to blame. But inspired by the uplifting statements of the Customs boss, and probably persuaded that all the people rooting for him tell the truth about his endowments and politics, the president instantly launched into a tirade, wildly traducing Dr Obasanjo, the chief personification of his enmities. Here is what the president said: “You know more than I do on the condition of our roads. Some of them were not repaired since the PTF days. No matter what opinion you have about (late Gen. Sani) Abacha, I agreed to work with him and the PTF. We constructed road from here (Abuja) to Port Harcourt, to Onitsha, to Benin and so on. This was in addition to other things in education, medical care and so on. You know the rail was killed and one of the former Heads of State between that time was bragging that he spent $16bn, not naira, on power. Where is the power? Where is the power? And now we have to pay the debts. This year and last year’s budgets that I took to the National Assembly were the highest in capital projects: more than $1.3 tn. Let anybody come and confront me publicly in the National Assembly. What have they been doing? Some of them have been there for 10 years. What have they been doing?”
With those unsparing 168 words, and insisting that he was repeating in public what he wanted the public to know, President Buhari opened a can of worms that inadvertently questions his knowledge and familiarity with national issues, and also exposes some of his pet prejudices in garish colours. Quite apart from his subsequent adumbration of oil prices, which he also got badly wrong, the president inadvertently opened himself to searing criticisms. Dr Obasanjo’s aides had last month described those who surround the president as moronic, a description many analysts winced at; now they feel exuberant and justified to describe the president once again as ignorant and lacking in proper understanding of issues relating to the financing of the power projects. It is hard to fault them, even if their use of words flatters no one.
The president needlessly made reference to his Petroleum Task Force (PTF) days. He should have restrained himself. Not only was that programme very controversial, it made his detractors conclude that he had displayed so much bias in the citing and funding of PTF projects that he could not conceivably describe himself as a patriot and unifier. Statistics show that an ungainly and indefensible majority of the projects were cited in the North to the detriment of the South. Equally, his detractors suggested that as proof of his inattentiveness to details, he virtually surrendered the running of the PTF to his favourite but controversial and allegedly grasping consultant. The president needlessly woke this corpse up and imbued it with ghoulish life. Dr Obasanjo’s aides and friends are therefore beginning to recall the president’s unflattering record in the PTF.
More astonishingly, the president made a snide remark about those who think the late dictator, Sani Abacha, was unworthy of national leadership. For a dictator who robbed Nigeria blind and who pillaged the commonwealth, it beggars belief that President Buhari would say “No matter what opinion you have about Abacha…”. In other words, the president is still not convinced that the cruel and hedonistic Gen Abacha was a national disaster and a mockery of what leadership is all about. It says something of the president’s values and worldview that he neither regrets taking appointment from Gen Abacha nor finds the late dictator’s attributes too revolting to associate with. This is truly shocking.
As proof that his animosities run very deep, and probably that he also nurses deep contempt for the National Assembly, he finds the presence of mind to throw a barb at them, including their predecessors. He questions their work and commitment, despises those who have lasted in those chambers for 10 years, and throws a challenge to them to come and confront him. Is it any wonder that the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris has shown irreverent and untrammelled disregard for the parliament? For a president who started out by denigrating ministers as noisemakers, and who for more than six months refused to put a cabinet in place, it is not surprising that he wishes to rule as a sole administrator daily bemoaning the restraining influence of the judiciary, the irritating polemics of his cabinet, and the questioning and sometimes censorious scrutiny of the parliament. It is that instinctive dictatorship that showed up in inelegant colours last Tuesday when he received the Customs boss, one of the many flippant public officials who idolise and lionise him.
But above all, nothing proved the tendentiousness of the president’s woolly conception of the national paradigm as his conviction that $16bn was spent on the power projects that delivered only darkness. He is president; and if he feels particularly piqued by what transpired in that sector, he had the leeway and the funds to authorise a quiet probe of what could be described as a national calamity. He did not. Instead, he bought into the unsubstantiated stories woven around the issue, chewed the cud on it for nearly a decade, and has regurgitated aspects of the controversy in a manner that diminishes the presidency. How many more unsubstantiated yarns has the president bought and nurtured over the years, especially in politics where he seems to think he has some natural endowments? The country is now only having a glimpse of these ‘endowments’ three years into his presidency.
Reports by this newspaper in the past few days showed that the facts and figures relating to the power projects were readily available for the president to peruse. Those facts show that nowhere near $16bn was spent on power projects in Nigeria. Indeed, under Dr Obasanjo, whom the president sarcastically dismissed, a little over three billion dollars was spent. Overall, says this newspaper in its investigations, not more than $8.5bn had been spent in 13 years, most of it after the Obasanjo presidency. Having thus armed the vitriolic Dr Obasanjo the more, President Buhari should prepare himself for a far worse verbal and possibly epistolary assault in the coming months, especially as the elections draw near.
It is doubtful whether presidential aides can be blamed for the president’s latest misfiring. He speaks off the cuff, and when he does that, he speaks candidly and animatedly, almost with boyish innocence and a carefreeness that shows how unmindful he is of where the chips may fall or what the truth is. His extempore remarks show the essential President Buhari, as opposed to the managed, carefully controlled and sculpted hibernator whose decades out of office were apparently spent hardening his many superficialities. If his aides cannot manage his extemporaneousness, how can they hope to manage him in the stressful and demanding presidential debates? He is not eloquent, regardless of his intermittent rustic humour, and he has no mastery of economic issues, not to talk of professing any deep and esoteric convictions of democracy and its concomitant virtues. Will he dodge the debates? And can he safely dodge them without suggesting that he feared to expose his limitations?
Many civil society organisations have called for a probe of the power projects spending, and even the EFCC has indicated it might look into it. They are wasting their time. The president got his facts wrong, and tried to ride piggyback on the emotions of the public to assail his fiercest critic. Unfortunately for him, he shot himself in the foot. State investigators should not waste public funds looking into what is not lost. It was said in the 1990s that Gen Abacha had a damning dossier on Gen Ibrahim Babangida, and that every successive president had one black book or the other on his predecessor. If he has nothing better to do, President Buhari is welcome to build one dossier or the other on Dr Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan. For, after all, Dr Obasanjo himself is said to have a dossier on the PTF. With all past Nigerian rulers holding a loaded gun to one another’s head, it is remarkable that the guns have not gun off even once. They should spare the country the charade. Hopefully, next year, the electorate would be smart enough to put the right people in office, except of course they are gluttons for punishment.
The Presidency said yesterday that former President Olusegun Obasanjo is angry with President Muhammadu Buhari because “Buhari is fixing Nigeria with improved power supply and OBJ (Obasanjo) is angry”
In a tweet yesterday, Special Assistant to the President on social media Lauretta Onochie lashed Obasanjo for failing “to answer a simple question posed by our President who inherited a nation in darkness.”
She added: “It’s now a clear choice between Pres. Buhari and a coalition of past corrupt leaders coordinated by ex-Pres Obasanjo.”
President Buhari on Tuesday while receiving a delegation of the Buhari Support Organisation (BSO) led by Customs Comptroller General Hammed Ali, challenged Obasanjo (although he did not name him), over his claim of spending $16 billion on power asking: “where is the power.”
But Obasanjo swiftly rejected the accusation saying he was ready for probe. A statement by his media adviser Kehinde Akinyemi added: “The answer is smple: The power is in the seven National Integrated Power Projects and eighteen gs turbines that Chef Obasanjo’s successor, who originally made the allegation of $16billion did not clear from the ports for over a year”.
SINCE his famous January 23 Special Press Statement, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has been unrelenting in his campaign to stop President Muhammadu Buhari from seeking a second term. In his no holds barred statement, Obasanjo pointedly advised the President not to seek reelection in 2019 because he has nothing to show for his first term, which third anniversary comes up on Tuesday. Obasanjo yields no ground to his opponents during a battle. He fights with all he has as well as what he does not have.
As a soldier, he knows the rules of engagement. You cannot afford to be on his wrong side and you cannot fight him and go to sleep. You must be on your guard always because you do not know his next move. Obasanjo’s main preoccupation these days is to stop Buhari from seeking reelection next year. Since the President has rejected his advice, Obasanjo has become more determined than ever to stop him.
To achieve his aim, he has resorted to courting the political foes of his own foe. To borrow the popular language, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. This is the political strategy Obasanjo is using in his fight against Buhari. To get Buhari out of the 2019 race is, according to him, a task that must be accomplished. And he is working hard to achieve this goal. He might not have worked on some of his fellow generals before he got their tacit support for his project, but getting the support of many other Nigerians may not be that easy.
This is why he has embarked on a political shuttle beginning with some Southwest leaders so as to get them in his camp. It was learnt that he would be embarking on similar visits to the remaining five geopolitical regions over the same issue. Obasanjo has a Herculean task up his sleeves. He is up against a man who remains the beloved of many despite his seeming shortcomings. Buhari may not be that outstanding leader many voted for in 2015, but he has his integrity and uncompromising stand on corruption still going for him.
When former military head of state Gen Yakubu Gowon said the other day that large scale corruption took root in the country after his exit from office, he was indicting some of his successors of whom Obasanjo is one. The late Gen Murtala Muhammed succeeded Gowon, but he spent six months in office before he was killed in an abortive coup. Obasanjo took over from him in 1976 and handed over to former President Shehu Shagari in 1979. Following the 1983 coup, Buhari took over and was toppled in 1985 by his army chief Gen Ibrahim Babangida in a palace coup. Babangida hurriedly handed over to the Ernest Shonekan-led Interim National Government (ING) after he ‘’stepped aside’’ in 1993. The late Gen Sani Abacha took over from Shonekan that same year. He died in office in 1998, paving the way for Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar whose administration midwifed this democracy.
Without even indicating, many know the direction Gowon’s finger is pointing. We do not need to name them; what they did while in office is enough for us to judge them. On Tuesday, Buhari wondered what happened to the $16billion voted for power projects during Obasanjo’s tenure between 1999 and 2007. Recall that just last week, he said he was toppled in 1985 because of his fight against corruption. You do not need to look far to know who he was referring to. The message he is sending across is clear : I am ready to take on all those against my second term bid. The fight promises to be interesting in the days ahead. To stop the President’s second term bid, Obasanjo is now romancing Afenifere. Nothing bad in that, you will say. But many are questioning Obasanjo’s moral authority to take up this crusade. Then, as some argue, there is no morality in politics. Obasanjo did not start romancing Afenifere today. He tried to woo the Yoruba socio-cultural group for his political bids in 1999 and 2003, but failed.
The group’s late leader, Chief Abraham Adesanya, told him that Afenifere would never support him because he did not belong to the association. Now in order to get at Buhari, he has returned to Afenifere. Will he have his way this time around? I do not think so because many have come to know him for who he is. Obasanjo, they say, only courts people when he needs them, and once he gets what he wants, he dumps them. What did he do for Afenifere while in power? Did he recognise the group’s leaders when they visited him in Abuja while in office? Moreover, Afenifere is divided; so the group cannot speak with one voice on Buhari’s second term bid.
The group will surely differ on the issue. Some will speak for, and others against, the President’s second term bid. So, where will that leave him? Can the faction he is romancing help him in his self-serving cause? This is the question for him to ponder as he steps up his crusade to stop Buhari, who seems ready to fight back with the poser he raised over the $16billion power fund.
Who lifts the cup?
THE big eared cup as the Champions League diadem is called is up for grabs on Saturday as Real Madrid and Liverpool play in the final of the competition. The Champions League Final comes up in Kiev, Ukraine, but millions across the globe will be glued to television, watching the biggest soccer tourney in Europe.
The Champions League is a big deal to clubs in Europe and many of them are crazy about winning it. But only one club can lift the trophy in any given year. Real Madrid are the defending champions of the trophy, which they have won for 12 times in the history of the competition. They are aiming to win the cup for the third consecutive season, having won it in the 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 seasons.
Real Madrid may have a rich history of winning the European Cup as the trophy was hitherto known, but Liverpool are no push over too when it comes to this competition. They have won the cup five times and are now gunning for their sixth. Can they get it at the expense of Real Madrid which is aiming for their 13th title? Many soccer pundits say they cannot. But they seem to forget that Liverpool beat Real Madrid in Paris, France, in 1981 to win the cup.
Many things are at stake in Saturday’s final – prestige, fame, money and history. Will Real Madrid make history by winning the trophy for the 13th time and the third consecutive season? If they do, they will be keeping the cup for good. Will Liverpool achieve fame by stopping them? We will know in 48 hours when the game would have been won and lost. May the best team win.
The Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), said on Wednesday that former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration was one of the most corrupt regimes in Nigeria’s history.
He said Obasanjo acts like a saint when he is the “most stained” person around.
Asked if the ex-President should be probed over the $16billion he allegedly spent on the power sector without result, Sagay said: “Honestly I think he should be probed. You see, President Buhari has been very generous and mild towards his predecessors, not wanting to cause discomfort and embarrassment for them out of respect for the positions they held.
“But, Obasanjo is a man who does not respect himself, who thinks he’s the President-General of Nigeria for life and has a right at any time to wade in and be very caustic and publicly insult his successors just because he’s envious of the same position he held. He cannot detach himself from the presidency.
“I think he needs to be brought to order. He has been tolerated enough in this country. The President’s remark was very appropriate and more and more should come because Obasanjo ran one of the most corruption governments this country has ever seen.”
On if the Federal Government can prosecute Obasanjo, the PACAC chairman added: “It’s possible but not likely. It’s possible in the sense that there are issues like Siemens, Halliburton, funding for his library, and not to talk of this electricity thing.
“But, because people decide to be quite and let bygones be bygones. He won’t let peace to prevail, he must raise dust and behave like a saint when you’re the most stained person around. He may bring it on his own head if he’s not careful.”
Another Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Emeka Ngige, urged the anti-graft agencies to do their work no matter who is involved.
“I believe there was a report of the House of Representatives Committee on Power that indicted President Obasanjo in 2008 for various infractions on power sector contracts during his regime. The committee recommended that EFCC or ICPC should do further investigation and possibly prosecute him if found culpable. That report was kept in a deep freezer till date.
“So, the remark of President Buhari is not new. I still believe that the EFCC or ICPC should do its job as recommended by the House. The earlier we start jailing our present and past leaders who made Nigeria a fantastically corrupt nation the better for our democracy,” Ngige said.
A former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Dr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), called for strong measure against all those found culpable over the $16billon spending.
President Muhammadu Buhari raised a poser yesterday for former President Olusegun Obasanjo: where is the fruit of your administration’s $16 billion expenditure on power?
The President spoke at the Presidential Villa in Abuja while receiving the Buhari Support Organisation (BSO), led by Comptroller-General of Nigerian Customs Service Col. Hameed Ali (retd.)
Although the President did not specifically mention Obasanjo’s name, what he said was a direct reference to Obasanjo’s tenure and the controversial expenditure.
The House of Representatives had in 2008 described the $16 billion spent on power by Obasanjo’s administration as “ a colossal waste”. The lawmakers blamed it all on “poor budget planning and a lack of proper oversight by relevant bodies”.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project in 2016 urged Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Justice Walter Onnoghen to appoint an independent counsel to investigate allegations of corruption in the spending of $16 billion on electricity by the Obasanjo administration.
Buhari said: “I have to repeat what I want the public to know here. Some of you may not have heard it. Either there is no power in your place or even on the television.
“I said and I challenge anybody to check from Europe, Asia and America. Between 1999 and 2014, Nigeria was getting 2.1 million barrels per day and average cost of 100 American dollars per barrel. It went up to $143.
“So Nigeria was earning 2.1 million times 100 times 16 years seven days a week. When we came, it collapsed to $37-38 and it was oscillating between 40 and 54, sometimes. I went to the Governor of Central Bank, thank goodness I did not sack him, he is still there. I went with my cap in my hand and said oya. He said there was no savings, only debt.
“And you know more than I do the condition of the roads and some of them were not repaired since PTF days. No matter what opinion you have about Abacha, I agreed to work with him and the PTF road we did from here to Port Harcourt, to Onitsha, to Benin and so on.
”On top of other things in the institution, education, medical care and so on. You know the rail was killed and one of the former Heads of State between that time was bragging that he spent more than 16 billion American dollars (not Naira) on power. Where is the power? Where is the power?
”And now we have to pay the debts and this year and last year’s budget I took to the National Assembly was the highest in capital projects: more than N1.3 trillion. Let anybody come and confront me publicly in the National Assembly. What have they been doing? Some of them have been there for 10 years. What have they been doing?
“So, really this country luckily for me I said it about eight years, that we have no other country than Nigeria, we should remain here and salvage it together – no matter what you have outside.
”Now, we get some of the people with houses here and may be in Abuja or somewhere in America and Europe, they swear some of them to God that it doesn’t belong to them. But we traced their accounts, through the banks, through their companies, it is their own. But they say it’s not their own. This is a terrible time and the people are saying what are we doing? Why can’t you lock them up?
”And again I went on by telling them, I said when I was in uniform, younger and rather ruthless, I got from the President downward I locked them up in Kirikiri. I said, ‘you’re guilty except you prove yourselves innocent’.
”I myself was locked up and those who misappropriated public funds were given back what they had taken away. Who did anything about it? Then I decided to come and put agbada. I tried one, two, three, four times. God agreed. And the third time I came and met a statesman outside the Supreme Court. My chief lawyer was Mike Ahamba, Roman Catholic and Ibo man.
”He had witnessed in the box and asked the panel of judges that they should check on certain constituencies in certain states to bring us our register so that we can prove that the people that voted there were the people INEC submitted.
”Another Ibo man, a Roman Catholic, he said that this is what happened. He was among the panel of the judges, he wrote a minority report in my favour. So, why this question of religion and ethnicity and so on? People are worshipping the dollars, the Sterling, not to even talk of the Naira.
“He wrote a minority report, saying this is what we have decided. But the President of that court was my classmate for six years in secondary school; he is from my own state. So, please, we have nothing to regret. Absolutely nothing. Since we all believe that God works in our hearts, not in our talking. God help us, God help our children and grandchildren. We will try as much as we can to work and bring this country to its senses.
”God has given Nigeria everything; we are rich in human and material resources that let us keep praying to God that He should put people of conscience in charge at all levels.
”Sometimes, I wonder those who can afford to educate their children are to go overseas and train, America, Europe, Asia and so on. And they continue sometimes in economy. I wonder what kind of Nigerians they want their children to come and work with.
”I think there is a lot of lack of imagination. Because if you’re fighting for the country then you shouldn’t be misappropriating or misapplying the fund the way people do.”
Thanking the group, Buhari noted that nobody was paying them for what they had been doing.
”It is because from the bottom of your hearts; you exposed yourselves by identifying with me through opposition to success and after the success. You can only get satisfaction through voluntary and understandable way of believing in issues you do. You are only expecting your return from God and you are looking for the future of the country-your children and grand children.” he said
Allegation unproven, says ex-president
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday described the allegation that his administration blew $16billion on failed power projects as “unsubstantiated.”
In a response by Obasanjo’s media assistant Kehinde Akinyemi, to President Muhammadu Buhari’s speech, when he received officials of the Buhari Support organisation (BSO), the former President said: the “statement credited to President Muhammadu Buhari, apparently without correct information and based on ignorance, suggested that $16 billion was wasted on power projects by “a former President”.
“We believe that the President was re-echoing the unsubstantiated allegation against Chief Obasanjo by his own predecessor but one.
“While it is doubtful that a President with proper understanding of the issue would utter such, it should be pointed out that records from the National Assembly had exculpated President Obasanjo of any wrong-doing concerning the power sector and has proved the allegations as false.
“For the records, Chief Obasanjo has addressed the issues of the power sector and the allegations against him on many occasions and platforms, including in his widely publicised book, My Watch in which he exhaustively stated the facts and reproduced various reports by both the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which conducted a clinical investigation into the allegations against Chief Obasanjo, and the Ad-Hoc Committee on the Review of the Recommendations in the Report of the Committee on Power on the Investigation into how the Huge Sums Of Money was Spent on Power Generation, Transmission And Distribution between June 1999 and May 2007 without Commensurate Result.
“We recommend that the President and his co-travellers should read Chapters 41, 42, 43 and 47 of My Watch for Chief Obasanjo’s insights and perspectives on the power sector and indeed what transpired when the allegation of $16 billion on power projects was previously made. If he cannot read the three-volume book, he should detail his aides to do so and summarise the chapters in a language that he will easily understand.
“In the same statement credited to the President, it was alleged that there was some bragging by Chief Obasanjo over $16 billion spent on power. To inform the uninformed, the so-called $16 billion power expenditure was an allegation against Chief Obasanjo’s administration and not his claim. The President also queried where the power generated is.
“The answer is simple: The power is in the seven National Integrated Power Projects and eighteen gas turbines that Chief Obasanjo’s successor who originally made the allegation of $16 billion did not clear from the ports for over a year and the civil works done on the sites.
“Chief Obasanjo challenges, and in fact encourages, anybody to set up another enquiry if in doubt and unsatisfied with the EFCC report and that of the Hon. Aminu Tambuwal-led ad-hoc committee.”
