The Nation Newspaper

Tag: report

  • NSE to sanction 14 firms for earnings’ report default

    NSE to sanction 14 firms for earnings’ report default

    The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) will sanction 14 firms for failing to meet July 31 deadline for the submission of their interim financial and operational reports, it was gathered at the weekend in Lagos.

    Sources at the Exchange said the firms were to submit their first half and second quarters’interim earnings report and accounts by that date.

    NSE’s Post-listing rules  require quoted companies to submit their audited earnings’reports, not later than three months after the expiration of the period. The rules also require quoted companies to submit their interim reports not later than 30 days after the end of the relevant period.

    Most quotedcompanies, including all banks, major manufacturers, oil and gas cement companies use the 12-month Gregorian calendar as their busines year. Their business year thus terminates on December 31. March 31 is the deadline for the submission of the yearly report of companies with Gregorian calendar business year. The deadline for the quarterly report is a month after the quarter.

    The regulatory filing calendar of the NSE indicated that July 31 was the deadline for the results for the period ended June 30, thus the last working day of the period, Friday, July 29, was effectively the deadline.

    Sources at the NSE said there would be no general waiver or extension of the earnings submission deadline besides the specific waiver or extension granted to some companies that had applied for such, noting that the Exchange would impose appropriate sanctions on the companies that defaulted.

    The Exchange confirmed that it would sanction the companies that failed the deadline.

    “The Exchange will enforce the appropriate sanctions in accordance with the Issuers’ Rule 2015 where a listed company fails to apply for an extension or provide a reasonable explanation before the due date,” NSE stated in email response to enquiry by The Nation.

    The NSE indicated that about three-quarters of companies met the deadline. Besides the 14 active companies, there are also about 40 dormant companies under the watch of the Exchange.

    NSE tags and fines companies that fail to meet earnings reports’ deadline. Under the corporate governance and rules compliance assessment report known as X-Compliance Report, NSE identified four various tags or symbols to alert investors about the status of each quoted company. These include below listings standard (BLS), the first degree alert level, indicating a company that has not complied with post listing rules, such as late submission of financial statements, unauthorised publication, and management failures.

    Also, financial services companies, such as bank and insurance companies awaiting regulatory approval, will carry the appropriate symbol of awaiting regulatory approval (ARA).

    Companies undergoing a capital reconstruction, including supplementary issue, share buyback, split, and share reconstruction, will be tagged capital reconstruction exercise (CRE) while companies that have indicated that they will be delisting or companies that are being delisted at the instance of the regulator would be flagged with delisting in process (DIP) symbol.

  • Fayose urges Fed Govt to implement 2014 confab report

    Fayose urges Fed Govt to implement 2014 confab report

    •Governor canvasses true federalism, state police

    Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose has urged the Federal Government to implement the report and recommendations of the 2014 National Conference to tackle various problems afflicting the polity.

    He warned against consigning the report into the dustbin of history, expressing confidence that it would serve the collective interest of the citizenry, if implemented.

    Fayose advocated the need for restructuring, the practice of true federalism and the establishment of state police to tackle security challenges.

    He accused the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government of reneging on its campaign promise and manifesto on restructuring and entrenching true federalism.

    Fayose, in a statement yesterday, alleged that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration “is returning to full-blown unitary system”.

    The governor expressed regrets that Nigeria developed faster in the 50s and 60s, when it was practicing a loose federalism in which states were allowed to develop at their own pace.

    He maintained that the federating states must be strengthened to develop.

    He spoke in reaction to the consensus reached last Thursday at a parley held by the APC in the Southwest, contending “that the party must now go beyond playing to the gallery and set machineries in motion to restructure the country”.

  • 9/11: FBI’s Final Report

    Osama is not a product of Pakistan or Afghanistan. He is a creation of America. Thanks to America, Osama is in every home (today). As a military man, I know you can never fight and win against someone who can shoot at you once and then run off and hide while you have to remain eternally on guard. You have to attack the source of your enemy’s strength. In America’s case, that’s not Osama or Saddam or anyone else. The enemy is ignorance. And the only way to defeat it is to build relationships with these people, to draw them into the modern world with education and business. Otherwise the fight will go on forever.”  ¯ Greg Mortenson (Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace … One School at a Time)

     

    Preamble

    In about two months time, most Nigerian Journalists will begin, as usual, to mimic and chorus the voices of their Western ‘superior’ counterparts on the tragic occurrence of 9/11, 2001. Precisely, on the 11th day of the coming September, that event will be 15 years old. Ever since, so many statements and counter statements, disclosures and revelations as well as analyses and interpretations, have been advanced by people who are directly or indirectly connected to the incident. The thoughts and views of different people from different parts of the world on that incident have remained as diverse as the interests they represent.

    Some (Nigerian non-Muslim) readers of ‘The Message’ column have queried the leaning of this columnist so much towards religion, particularly Islam. They have wondered why yours sincerely can hardly put pen to paper in this column without tilting towards Islam in one way or the other. That is like querying the snail on why it incessantly goes about with its inseparable shell.

    Perhaps, it may be necessary to make a clarification here that there is no columnist in the world without a particular interest that he or she represents. Let the doubting readers of this column endeavour to verify this assertion and they will discover that every newspaper columnist or radio broadcaster represents an interest about which he or she is reflectively passionate. What matters in such cases is the necessary application of professionalism. After all, while this Islamic column called ‘The Message’ occupies only one page weekly in ‘The Nation’ newspaper to educate Nigerians about Islam, many other newspapers allocate about five pages or at least three pages to the propagation of Christianity and the Muslims are not complaining. That clearly shows where religious tolerance or intolerance lies.

     

    Voice of the Voiceless

    As a veteran Journalist and a devout Muslim, yours sincerely chose to represent (in Nigerian media) the voice of the voiceless majority who happens to be the Nigerian Muslims. And that is without any prejudice to the media activities of a retinue of non-Muslim professional colleagues who also represent the voices of the various religious denominations to which they belong in their faith. For any or some of such colleagues to want to intimidate or blackmail this columnist therefore is the height of professional absurdity. A pot must not tag a kettle black.

     

    Nigerian Media’s Perception of Islam

    In Nigeria, Islam is seen in the media from the perception of the non-Muslim Journalists who dominate the pen-pushing profession. Thus such Journalists see everything about Islam from their own biased perception as they often accuse the Muslims of practicing their religion against the expectations of the non-Muslims.

    What most Nigerian Journalists refuse to understand is that Islam is neither a dogma like other religions nor a mundane ideology that can be manipulated at will. It is rather a divinely guided total way of life for all its committed adherents. Any misconduct of a Muslim therefore, does not equate Islam in any way. There are laws and there are law breakers everywhere in the world. To attribute the misconduct of certain Muslims to the fundamental norms of Islam is to deliberately exhibit mischief with impunity at its peak.

    As an informed Muslim, I do not query the use of anybody’s column to defend or protect his or her interest, whatever that interest may be. And in the same token, I do not expect any civilized reader or fellow journalist to query my choice of interest. Doing so may not only connote irritating ignorance, it may also amount to implacable provocation or unwarranted aggression which in itself is a euphemism for fanatical intolerance.

    You may not like my thoughts or views just as I may not like yours. But in as much as I do not accost you for holding your convinced views, you do not have any right to accost me for holding mine. That is the democratic norm to which every civilized modern person should adhere in a multi ethnic and multi religious society like Nigeria. It is the also the principle of fair play with which journalism should be practiced as a profession.

     

    FBI’s Disclosure on 9/11

    On Friday, June 10, 2016, the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released what can be termed as its concluding report on the 2001 disaster popularly known as 9/11. This can be found in Vol.52 Issue 22 of an American security journal called ‘The Onion’. Excerpts from the introduction to that report reads thus:

    “…..After 15 years of broadly targeting the 3.3-million-member community and extensively monitoring its activities, the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) declared an end Friday to its surveillance of Muslim Americans, saying its exhaustive study of their beautiful culture was finally complete”.

    Officials confirmed that the program was started in the fall of 2001 when federal agents, captivated by Islam’s complex history and rich spiritual traditions, redirected the full force of the bureau’s intelligence-gathering apparatus toward developing a more thoughtful, nuanced appreciation of the Muslim-American way of life. The Director of FBI, James B. Comey had the following to say recently when the latest report of the Bureau was about to be released:

    “We’d always known Islam was one of the great world religions, but it wasn’t until we recruited a network of 15,000 informants and infiltrated mosques all over the country (US) that we came to understand just how magnificent and fascinating it truly is,” said FBI director James B. Comey, who noted that agents gained a valuable and eye-opening understanding of Islam—while also learning a lot about themselves and their own faith in the process—after entering the Muslim places of worship to collect as much information as they could on the intriguing personal beliefs of the religion’s followers. “After analyzing the transcripts of thousands of phone calls and intercepting the communications of prominent Muslim-American leaders and academics, we’ve really come to admire their vibrant culture.”

    “The considerable amount of intel we’ve gathered and carefully pored over for the past 15 years has shown us that their faith and customs are really quite inspiring,” Comey added. “If there’s one thing we’ve taken away from all our surveillance, it’s what a glorious and enriching part of our world Islam is.”

     

    Explanation

    “According to sources within the bureau, the harvesting of internet data, widespread racial profiling, and the nationwide mapping of Muslim communities have allowed agents to closely observe the followers of Islam on an extremely personal level, thereby allowing them to develop a deep respect for the amazing ethnic and cultural diversity of the faith’s 1.6 billion believers, as well as the striking distinctions between the religion’s various sects, which, they stressed, went far beyond just Sunni and Shiite.

    Remarking on all the information they had gathered, FBI officials emphasized that adherents of Islam speak dozens of beautiful languages—Arabic, but also Urdu, Pashto, Farsi, Bengali, Javanese, and many others—and noted that agents came to treasure this linguistic richness after installing recording devices throughout Muslim-American communities and then surreptitiously listening in on Qur’anic study groups, prayer sessions, and social events.

    “Thanks to advances in video surveillance, we’ve been able to look inside Muslims’ homes and view some breathtaking calligraphy prints and hand-woven tapestries,” said former agent Casey Hanna, who fondly recalled assignments that allowed him to overhear moving recitations of the Hadith, which he was fascinated to learn come from an oral tradition and are considered to be the direct word of the Prophet Muhammad. “I went undercover in hundreds of Muslim-owned businesses and residences across the nation and was lucky enough to sample many variations on the aromatic stews and delectable desserts that serve as staples of halal cuisine—Arabian, North African, Indonesian. They were all delicious, and unlike anything I’d ever tasted.”

    “I’ll never forget this one instance when I closely trailed a New York shop owner for three straight years—his coffee was just spectacular,” Hanna added. “Muslims were the first people to drink coffee, you know.”

     

     

     Advanced Curiosity

    “After realizing they could not fully nurture their curiosity by limiting their study to Muslims in the United States, the FBI reportedly enlisted the help of the NSA to find out more about the incredible religion. Between 2002 and 2008, the bureau is known to have monitored 7,485 email addresses around the globe in order to learn answers to their many questions about Muslims’ compelling lives and rituals, from why they don’t eat pork, to what Muslim holidays are like, to why some Muslim women wear garments that cover their heads while others don’t”.

     

    Camey’s Revelation

    The Director, J. B. Comey, told reporters that the FBI also received information from the CIA, whose enhanced interrogation techniques and clandestine intelligence-gathering methods yielded many interesting revelations from Muslim sources around the world, such as the fact that Arabs make up only 15 percent of the global Muslim population, and that through most of history, women in Islamic societies actually had more property rights than women in the West.

    He said they thoroughly enjoyed studying “such a lovely people and such a lovely faith,” Comey explained that agents would often remove a Muslim citizen from their community and keep them detained for days, weeks, or even months on end to learn everything they could from them about Islam”.

    “There’s no way I could remember the names of all the Muslim citizens that our agents brought in to discuss the beauty of Islam with one-on-one, but rest assured that with their help, the FBI has gained a deep and illuminating understanding of Islamic culture,” said Comey, who noted that by combing through thousands upon thousands of citizens’ banking records, agents discovered with astonishment how some observant Muslims set up special loan payment plans to avoid paying interest, as they consider it usury, which is forbidden under Sharia law”.

    “It’s crazy to think about, but until little more than a decade ago, I had no idea there were Five Pillars of Islam that guided all Muslims’ spiritual lives. I also didn’t know anything about the multitude of Muslim contributions to mathematics and science that have been absolutely vital to the world. But that’s not to say they don’t value art, though. Poets like Rumi and Hafez drew upon mystical Sufist interpretations of the Qur’an to write verse that is every bit as sublime as, say, Keats or Coleridge. And don’t even get me started on the architecture.”

     

    Comey’s Conclusion

    In concluding the report of his team’s research and findings, FBI’s Director, James B. Comey told the American Muslims as follows:

    “As this program sadly comes to an end, I just want to thank Muslim Americans from the bottom of my heart for teaching us all about your faith and your culture,” he continued. “We’ve learned so much about you over the years. More than you could possibly imagine.”

     

    Observation

    From the foregoing, it can be vividly deduced that contrary to general global belief, Muslim terrorism in the US is more hypothetical than real. In other words, it is more of media propaganda than physical disaster. Another vital report from an FBI data summarized the scenario as follows:

    “Terrorism Is a Real Threat … But the Threat to the U.S. from Muslim Terrorists Has Been Exaggerated”

    The above conclusion seems to have brought to an end the 20th century view of a British intellectual but deified poet, Rudyard Kipling who in one of his poems once stated as follows:

    “…OH, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,“

    Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat;

    But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,  When two strong men stand face to face, tho’ they come from the ends of the earth!”  If that poem was sensible to the Europeans of the 20th century, it has surely become anachronistic to the Europeans of the 21st century. Today’s world is a global village in which no part can claim to be an island onto itself.

     

    Conclusion

    If it could take the well educated people of the United States a whole length of 15 years of rigorous research to understand Islam despite the involvement of experts in many areas of human endeavours, one can imagine the number of decades it will take half-educated Nigerians to even think of sitting down to study the divine religion called Islam. Nigerians are only good in copying from other countries either evil acts or satanic means of becoming rich as quickly as possible. The thought of emulating decency from other lands is alien to Nigerian so-called elite. But no matter how long it may take, reality will one day dawn on Nigerians about Islam as it is now beginning to dawn on Americans. Bitter as it may sound in the ears of Nigerian pessimistic bigots, America may soon become the voluntary haven of Islam with or without bigotry of the rest of the world, Nigeria inclusive.

  • Iraqi war and Chilcot report

    The media in the UK is awash with news and commentaries about the report of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq 13 years ago on the ostensible grounds that the Iraqi president, Saddam Husain was in possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). We all know that the intelligence report presented to both the American and British publics was fabricated and false. I can still see in my mind’s eye, General Colin Powell, the American Secretary of State  waving a piece of paper in the UN Security Council (UNSC) in which it was allegedly stated the volume of uranium imported from the Republic of Niger and with which Saddam Husain was planning to make nuclear weapons. A UN weapons inspection team was sent to Iraq but found no evidence. George Bush, the American president supported by Vice President Cheney, Wolfowitz, General Schwarzkopf and the defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the so-called new conservative group were determined to go to war to illegally remove a sitting head of state based on spurious grounds that Iraq was trying to develop weapons of mass destruction. In order to make the invasion look like an international operation in consonance with the UN idea of collective security, the United States government got the unquestioning support of the British government led by Tony Blair. Public opinion in the UK was against the war. A demonstration of about one million people converged on Hyde Park to try to prevail on the government not to join the war. Even the governing Labour Party was split down the line but the then Prime Minister Tony Blair apparently operating with the spirit of special relations withthe United States was determined to demonstrate more loyalty to the USA than to the British electorate.In actual fact, the reason for war was more personal to George Bush who felt Saddam Husain planned to kill his father. Secondly after the 9/11 attack on the most important  American institutions like the World Trade Centre in New York,the Pentagon in Washington DC, failed attempt to bomb the White House,the American government was looking for a way to demonstrate power to impress the American people. In spite of the fact that almost all the 19 members of the Al Qaida group involved in turning civilian planes into weapons of war and terrorism that killed about three thousand people in the USA were Saudis, America decided to visit their sins on hapless Iraqis. Reasons were cooked up and an assemblage of the willing was put together to support American invasion of Iraq.

    It is now academic whether the decision of the British to join the invasion was as significant as the British public is now being made to think. I am personally convinced that the Americans were determined with or without Britain to go to war.The war was a mistake no doubt about it and the consequence of the war has left the world unsafe and dangerous. The British are now up in arms against Tony Blair for causing the deaths of 170 soldiers while not recognizing the250 thousand civilians who were incinerated through carpet bombing and the use of indiscriminate force against a legitimate government that posed no threat to the USA and Great Britain. Iraq was destroyed. Saddam Husain and his sons and grandson and several members of the Baathist party were killed. The most stupid thing the invaders did was the dissolution of the Iraqi army and all its security forces and the promotion of Shiites to replace the Sunnis who under Saddam Husain were the dominant force in Iraq. They may have been driven by the ideals of liberal democracy but the Middle East as it has now been realized is not the place to experiment with democracy.The consequence of the war is the destruction of the entire Middle East. The same thinking that outsiders have the right to dictate to other countries how to run their countries is still prevailing in the chancelleries of most countries in the West. This was what led to western instigation of so-called Arab Spring the result of which was the intervention in Libya, the support for rebels in Syria,  Oman,Yemen ,Tunisia even Algeria. Only Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and theEmirates were spared from western meddlesomeness. The question to ask is whether the world is safer today than in 2003 when this whole thing began. No part of the world is safe today. The recent attack on the prophet’s mosque in Medina shows that no place is safe or sacred from attack by these non-stateactors.

    Our own problem in Nigeria with Boko Haram is not unconnected with the NATO intervention in Libya which led to the killing of a sitting head of state and the dispersal of a stockpile of weapons across the Sahara desert being used by Al Qaida in the Maghreb, Al Qaida in West Africa and Al Shaba in the Horn of Africa.The African Union tried to persuade NATO not to get involved in Libya but they were brushed aside. I am not proud that the Jonathan administration connived with the West in its intervention in Libya.

    Intervention in Libya took place under the Obama and Cameron administrations. This is why the Cameron government understands the predicament of Tony Blair who is being threatened withprosecution by families of soldiers who died in the Iraqi war. Some are even asking that he should be dragged before the International Criminal Court in Hague in Holland. I am afraid Tony Blair will be protected by the Anglo-Saxon establishment in the UK and the USA .The kind of public opprobrium Tony Blair is being subjected to compares sadly with the almost total acquiescence and approval for George Bush in the USA. This shows the difference between American and British politics. British politicians are more accountable to the public because of the parliamentary system in which members of cabinet are subjected to questioning during debates and question time in parliament. The American system epitomizes more the Montesquieu’s idea of separation of power and the cabinet is not directly answerable to Congress except during special hearings in Congress. Perhaps the most important thing is that the USA is a world power and not answerable to any power but itself. American deference to the UN is a matter of convenience. Of course Russia also only pays regard to the UN when its own national interest is notinvolved.

    Unfortunately one of the recent tendencies in international relations is for powerful countries operating either under UN auspices and cover or even without it to take unilateral action against those they have problems with.This has led to most countries that feel threatened now to resort to nuclear armament as a deterrent as is the case with Israel, Pakistan,North Korea and clandestinely Iran. In all this, it is the poor people who suffer. One of the double standards people allege in the case of the Iraq war was that unlike post Second World War Germany and Japan, no thought was given to post conflict reconstruction in Iraq. We now have a situation in which a country with an old civilization has been destroyed and the contagion has spread to Syria with her own old civilization destroyed and the rest of the Arab world and other countries in the world living in fear of non-state terrorism whether in the garb of Islamic State (IS) or various variants of Al Qaida and theiraffiliates. In the meantime the world has witnessed massive migration and dispersal of people not seen since the Second War. Millions of Arabs have been reduced to beggary, destitution and even prostitution. Europe has also witnessed instability as a result of massive migration causing disaffection in many countries in Europe and leading to the rise of right wing fascist parties or tendencies in France,Hungary Britain, Slovakia, TurkeyGreece, Germany and Austria that have borne the weight of these migrations. The recent BREXIT vote in Britain is directly related to the possible fear of migration from Turkey and the rest of Europe. These are difficult times. The future political development of the world is pregnant and no one knows what it will bear.

  • Chilcot report on Tony Blair’s role in Iraqi war

    Chilcot report on Tony Blair’s role in Iraqi war

    In 2003, US President George Bush, and Tony Blair, the British Labour Prime Minister, led their two countries into a military invasion of Iraq. It was an unholy alliance that stirred things up in the Arab world. Although long expected after months of tension and inconclusive diplomatic engagements at the UN, the invasion of Iraq by the US and the UK took the world by surprise. It was sudden, massive, and had taken place when the Iraqi crisis was still the subject of intense debate and negotiations at the UN Security Council. Bush and Blair claimed jointly they invaded Iraq because they had received credible intelligence report that Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator, was in possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs. In a matter of weeks, the war was over. Saddam Hussein was toppled from power and a joint interim local government, under the aegis and control of the US-led coalition partners, was set up in Baghdad. But it lacked legitimacy and, despite military and political support from the US/UK occupation forces, soon fell apart from sectarian violence and conflicts all over Iraq. The official British Chilcot report on the war released last week in London confirms the perfidious and despicable role of Tony Blair, the British Labour Prime Minister, in the war.

    The war was unpopular globally, even in countries, including the Arab world, that would normally support the US. Many critics considered the invasion of Iraq illegal and illegitimate under international law. The UN did not authorise it. It evoked deep global divisions and controversy on the credibility of the intelligence report on which the decision by the US and the UK to invade Iraq was based. Many considered it an unjust and unjustified war based on false and faulty intelligence reports. Specifically, President Chirac of France, which did not participate in the invasion of Iraq, declared publicly that the decision to go to war in Iraq was hasty and premature and that the ongoing negotiations at the UN Security Council had not been concluded when Bush and Blair decided to wage war on Saddam Hussein. All peaceful options had not been fully exploited and exhausted before the joint US/UK invasion. In fact, while the US and the UK had made up their minds to go to war in Iraq at all costs, a UN weapons inspection team that had just returned from Baghdad reported to the UN Security Council, in New York, that it had not found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. If there were any, it added, they had probably been destroyed in Iraq by Saddam Hussein so as to avoid a war against his country, a war that he did not want. But this report no longer made any difference to Bush or Blair. A decision to go to war had already been taken and they would not be deterred even in the face of credible evidence that the intelligence reports they claimed to have on the WMDs lacked any credibility globally.

    For years after the war, the British Labour Prime Minister at the time, Tony Blair, continued to defend his decision to go to war on the grounds that the evidence he had was that Saddam Hussein did have the WMDs. He even lied to the House of Commons in the UK that Saddam Hussein could trigger his weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes, and that he had to act in the interest and defence of the UK by taking his country into war with Iraq alongside the US. But even at the time his claims about the WMDs were hotly disputed in Britain. The war was unpopular in Britain and there were strong public protests and demonstrations against it. Many condemned Blair as Bush’s ‘poodle,’ arguing that, despite Britain’s self-acclaimed ‘special relationship’ with the US, which is not often requited by the US, there was no real political, security, or moral obligation on the part of Blair to support Bush’s senseless war in Iraq. They could point out that under Harold Wilson, a former British Labour Prime Minister, the UK had stayed out of the American war in Vietnam. Some of the harsh critics of Tony Blair’s toadying to the US were able to recall that when Anthony Eden, the British Conservative Prime Minister, invaded Egypt in 1956, in concert with France and Israel, over Nasser’s seizure of the Suez Canal, the US denounced the invasion as an unjust war and forced Eden to withdraw his forces from Egypt. Such was the weight of US and local criticism of the war that Anthony Eden was forced to resign from office as prime minister. He had resigned as Foreign Secretary in 1934 in protest against the policy of appeasement by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. But his misguided invasion of Egypt in 1956 effectively ended his brilliant political career.

    Now, from the report of the Chilcot official enquiry into the despicable role of the UK in the joint invasion of Iraq we are now able to confirm what had been suspected all along, that Blair did not have credible and incontrovertible evidence that Saddam Hussein had WMDs. There was little or no consensus in the British intelligence agencies, particularly the MI6, on this, although the head of the British M16 was reported as tending on the whole to present to Tony Blair only intelligence reports that were favourable to the claim that Saddam Hussein was in possession of WMDS. So, in effect, the British Government and Parliament were conned by the Prime Minister into supporting an unpopular and unjust war in Iraq based on false intelligence. The report also revealed that the two cabinet Ministers, Jack Straw, the Foreign Minister, and his Defence colleague, Hume, whose views should count, were not fully briefed by Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, on why Britain had to go to war in Iraq. They were swindled into accepting his perfunctory and unsatisfactory briefs on which basis they decided to go along with Tony Blair on the Iraqi war. This reinforces the view of a steady increase in the powers of the British Prime Minister. From being first among equals, he is now more presidential and, like the US president, will normally have his way on any major Cabinet decision. In the Iraqi war Blair had his way despite reservations from some of his Cabinet colleagues.

    Now, as reported by the Chilcot enquiry set up in 2009, what was even more galling about the decision of the British government to go to war in Iraq is the manner Tony Blair toadied to Bush on this grave issue of war and peace in Iraq. Right from the start, Bush had decided he would go to war in Iraq over the false intelligence claim that Saddam Hussein had WMDS. After 9/11 Bush had made up his mind to shake things up in the Arab world by dealing with the ‘bad’ guys. Whether or not Hussein had WMDs was immaterial to him in his narrow and unsophisticated view of the world which he simply divided into the ‘bad and good guys’. Saddam Hussein was a bad guy and had to be removed from power. A regime change in Iraq, Bush concluded, had become imperative. In the several trips that Tony Blair made to Camp David for talks with George Bush he was left in no doubt that Bush was determined to go to war. According to the Chilcot report, Blair made a feeble attempt to delay the final decision on going to war by suggesting to Bush that the matter be placed before the UN Security Council. Bush agreed to go to the UN but insisted that while a role by the UN was useful, he did not consider it as necessary. A UNSC resolution was in fact passed later urging Saddam Hussein to rid his country of the WMDs, or face the consequences. But this did not amount to the endorsement by the UN of a unilateral military attack on Iraq by the so-called coalition partners, or the use of force to resolve the crisis.

    As revealed by the Chilcot report, even as a junior coalition partner to the US, Britain did not make adequate defence preparations for the war. Blair ignored warnings from the Defence Ministry and British defence establishment that Britain lacked and could not provide the resources, the equipment, to go to war in Iraq, and that the British military should first be re-equipped. This advice was ignored by Blair. The consequences of the war have been truly tragic and continue to reverberate around the world, including the US, with increased terrorist violence and insurgencies all over the world.

    For Britain, the upshot of this criminal negligence on the part of Tony Blair was that young innocent British soldiers were sent to war, in harm’s way, severely handicapped. 179 of them needlessly lost their lives in the war leaving their loved ones to mourn their needless and premature deaths. The war against Saddam Hussein was won by the coalition forces. But it left Iraq and the whole of the Arab world in turmoil, in a far worse situation than ever before. Violent sectarian conflicts have widened as the ISIS simply moved into the vacuum left behind by the departing coalition forces. Instead of a localised war in Iraq, we now have the ISIS’ full blown war in Syria that has again brought in the US and Russia into combat in the region. So, the objectives of the war for securing peace and stability in the world have not been realised by both the US and the UK.  Here in Nigeria, the Boko Haram, which claims affiliation to ISIS, is a direct consequence of the Iraqi war in which we were in no way involved.

    The Iraqi war raises some basic but old issues about why nations go to war and the extent that their leaders can be trusted in making the right decisions on war and peace. Nations do not on their own decide to go to war. This decision is taken on their behalf by their leaders based on their own judgments about any perceived threat to the nation. As was the case in Iraq the decision to go to war or the reasons advanced for doing so are often wrong. Even in a stable and advanced democracy such as the UK and the US, such mistakes can be easily made by leaders who go to war when there are no real or direct threats to their countries. That was the tragic mistake of the former British Labour Prime Minister, Tony Blair, the longest serving Labour leader and Prime Minister for well over half a century.

  • $15b arms deals: Report indicts ex-military chiefs

    $15b arms deals: Report indicts ex-military chiefs

    Buhari, panel’s chairman meet

    DSS files report on detained Air Cdr.  

    Some former military chiefs are likely to be invited over some suspicious arms contracts, The Nation learnt yesterday.

    They are among those indicted by the Presidential Committee on the procurement of arms and equipment in the Armed Forces, a source said.

    The committee is ready with its report on arms deals in the Army.

    The panel, headed by Air Vice Marshal JON Ode, is expected to submit its report this week to President Muhammadu Buhari.

    The audit report on procurement of arms and equipment in the Armed Forces and Defence sector covers 2007 to 2015.

    Some former Chiefs of Army Staff may be asked to respond to some issues in the report.

    Ahead of the submission of the report, the chairman  of the panel on Friday met with the President on some  recommendations and the  detention of one of its members, Air Commodore  Mohammed Umar(retd.)

    Umar is said to be central to the breakthrough recorded by the panel on some high-profile fraud.

    The Air Commodore was arrested on June 19 by the Department of State Service (DSS). About $1,030,000 was reportedly found at his residence in Maitama District, Abuja.

    The DSS has been working on clues that Umar  might have taken “advantage of his membership of the Arms Panel” to extort suspects.

    But Umar  insisted that the money was payment to his company, Easy Jet Integrated Service Limited, for cargo flights to  Houston and Hong Kong.

    He said the payment on 12 May 2016  was for: Cargo flight (Ilyusin II-76 cargo plane from Nairobi-Houston) at $520,000 and drop-off from Nairobi-Hong Kong at $510,000.

    The DSS is, however, still probing Air Commodore Umar.

    A source told our correspondent that the Ode Panel was ready with what he described as an “explosive” report.

    The source, who pleaded not to be named because of the “sensitivity” of the matter, said: “Certainly, heads will roll as it was the case when a similar outcome was presented to the Presidency on the Nigerian Air Force.”

    The source said the panel’s chairman met with the President in company of the National Security Adviser(NSA), Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd).

    “I think the panel had issues with the DSS over the arrest of Air Commodore Umar who is said to be central to the bursting of high-profile arms scandals. He was worried that Umar’s detention  had to do with plans by some forces planning to destroy the panel.

    “He made known his intention and that of other panel members to abandon the work over what they termed the unfair treatment of Air Commodore Umar,” the source said, adding:

    “You know these people have presented their report on Air Force on the basis of which Badeh and other Air Force chiefs are now on trial. They were preparing to submit this week that of the Army, which has indicted many people.

    “The detention of Umar was seen by the panel as part of a sinister ploy to get at the committee and rubbish all that we have done. And the Air Commodore, being a key member of the committee, knows too much and has a lot of documents that aided our work. That is why some are jittery.”

    “Umar was instrumental to the early success of the committee as he used his personal money to hire foreign experts on forensics and arms procurement to help the committee in unearthing alleged frauds committed over the years.”

    Apart from the chairman of the panel, some senior government officials and other individuals close to the President are said to have been angered by what they called “shabby and disgraceful treatment meted out to Umar for no just cause and allegations that cannot be proven”.

    A delegation of five governors led by Kaduna State Governor Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, was said to have met President Buhari on Thursday to complain about the travails of the retired military officer and the implications of what they called “the power game” on the government.

    Some of the items recovered by the DSS from the residence of the Air Commodore on June 19, 2016  are 13 vehicles; various denominations of both foreign and local currencies;  one bag  containing documents; one Black Star Express  bag containing documents; a laptop; a document containing details of disbursements made  by  the Armed Forces and security agencies, Volume 1-3; document on contract for Niger Armec EE Niger; document on Nigerian Air Force Holding Company(NAFHC) and the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria; two files  of Nigerian Air Force Properties Limited documents; and  one file of the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).

    Also listed are two Pump Action guns.

    The DSS has filed a First Information Report (FIR) with a Chief Magistrate’s Court in Abuja on Air Commodore Umar  to ensure that his detention is  in line with the law.

    Umar is undergoing investigation for alleged illegal possession of firearms and money laundering.

    The FIR reads in part: “Illegal possession of firearms and money laundering contrary to Section 27(1) (b) (i) of the Firearms Act Cap. F28 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 and Section 15(1) (d) (e) of the Money Laundering Act Cap. M18 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

    “Enquiries by the State Security Service revealed that Air Commodore Umar Mohammed (rtd) has in his possession two Pump Action guns with Serial Numbers 09/1573 and 397 without a valid licence and large sums of money in local and foreign currencies suggestive of the fact that he received the said monies in contravention of the Money Laundering Act.”

    A document sighted by our correspondent revealed that the FCT police on March 10, 2000 granted Mohammed the gun licence in line with The Firearms Act of 1958.

    The gun is described as SBSG, 12 Calibre or Bore, made by Magnum with No. 397. The ammunition is cartridge with 100 rounds.

    The licence reads: “Licence is hereby granted Air Commodore Mohammed Umar of House No. 4 Lundi Close, off Missisipi Road, Maitama, Abuja to possess and bear the firearm described in the Schedule hereunder. The licence is issued subject to the following terms: Hunting and Gaming. The licence is valid until 31st December, 2010.”

    The licence was for a period of 10 years; it was not immediately clear why Umar did not renew it.

    He ran into trouble with the DSS for not renewing the said licence.

    A source gave an insight into the investigation of Air Commodore  Umar by the DSS.

    He said: “Air Commodore Umar was a known face in Aso Rock from the time of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua up to the twilight of Jonathan administration.

    “A very close ally of Isa Yuguda during the inglorious days of the Cabal operating  in the Presidency in the absence of an incapacitated late President Umaru Yar’Adua, under the Buhari administration, he has struck a blossoming partnership with a top security chief.

    “There is also pressure on investigators to question him as to how he got the money to float Easy Jet as an Air Commodore?

    “An equally important question is why keeping government documentary evidence in personal abode?”

    The source spoke of “a cabal fraternising with close aides of the President while also going around to drop the President’s name for favour-seekers.

    “The activities of the cabal are gradually becoming an embarrassment to the anti-corruption campaign of the Buhari-led administration.”

    The cabal  is said to have turned the home of a member of the arms probe panel into a “trial-before-trial” meeting place.

    “It will be recalled that former Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu retuned N2.3b to the Federal Government. The EFCC also seized houses belonging to Mr. Amosu worth over N500m, in addition to $140,000 USD in cash with an additional N381m seized from Mr. Amosu’s wife.

    “The cabal’s tentacles are growing by the day and might be bigger than what was experienced under any administration in Nigeria.

    “The latest onslaught was unleashed on the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari who has been considered a threat to the cabal’s operations. He has been targeted and silenced with a view to successfully isolating the Presidency. Kyari has been side-lined.

    But there were rumours last night over plans to save Umar.

    A security source said: “Insiders also squealed that an independent team of investigators would be raised to establish the veracity of all allegations against Mohammed Umar.

    “This proposed move is to forestall a scandal of unimaginable proportions which could threaten the success of Buhari’s anti-corruption war.”

    A source close to Umar debunked all the allegations and described them as baseless.

    He said: “These allegations are like wild goose chase. One, how can a person with unblemished military career like Air Cmdr Umar and who is close to the President be accused of terrorism financing? Which terrorists? And because that cannot fly they changed the music.

    “The two pump action guns they picked from his house were registered when he procured them in the year 2000. The licence is there. And how can you say someone who has business interests all over the world cannot be found in possession of foreign currencies?

    “Air Commodore  Umar travels widely. He is a friend of several heads of governments across the world and his two companies, Easy Jet and African Energy, have business interests the world over. And the cars that they found there are vehicles that he bought over the years; some 10 some, some eight, some five years.”

  • Reps stay action on NERC board report

    Reps stay action on NERC board report

    The House of Representatives yesterday stepped down the report of the investigative public hearing on the motion titled: “Planned Payment of N2.7 billion by the Board of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission to its Members.”

    This is the second time within one week that the report laid by the Daniel Asuquo-headed House Committee on Power was stepped down.

    The report was laid before the House by the committee on May 17  while the Order Papers of both and published in the  Order Papers of yesterday and the day before, yet it was stepped down.

    Though a lawmaker who spoke on condition of anonymity said the report is being frustrated by “ a  mafia” within the National Assembly, other factors may be responsible for the non consideration.

  • Last month’s power generation lowest in seven years, says report

    Last month’s power generation lowest in seven years, says report

    Nigeria’s power generation hit zero megawatts six times in May, the lowest level since 2009.

    ESI Africa, Africa’s power journal, in its report, said industry data showed that power supply to households and businesses dropped significantly in May as the national grid recorded six total collapses and one partial collapse within the period.

    The data further revealed that the national grid collapsed 11 times in the first five months of 2016, compared to six and nine times for 2015 and the preceeding year, adding that generation system was failing to deliver. It stated that the most recent total system collapse was recorded on June 1.

    It said last Friday that 11 power plants, including the Shiroro Power Station in Niger State, are not operating.

    Others are not Afam IV & V, Geregu I, Omotosho I, AES, ASCO, Trans-Amadi, Rivers IPP, Gbarain, Olorunsogo I and II, the report added.

    According to the Ministry of Power, the total national power generation stood at 2,604.5 megawatts (mw) as at Friday morning. It came down from a peak of 5,074.7mw on February 2.  Generation from Egbin, the nation’s biggest power station, stood at 181mw, down from 1,085mw on March 15, it said.

    Shiroro Power Station in Niger State, Olorunsogo II in Ogun State and Rivers and Trans-Amadi IPPs, both in Rivers State, were idle.

    Due to an increased mix of gas shortages and pipeline vandalism, the Niger Delta has left about 4,400mw of the nation’s power generation capacity idle as of Friday.

    Gas constraints prevented 3,661.1mw from being generated, while 355.6mw and 380mw could not be generated due to line constraints/load rejection by distribution companies (DisCos) and water management/maintenance, respectively.

    It quoted the Chairman, Network of Electricity Consumers Advocacy of Nigeria, Tomi Akingbogun, as saying: “We hear that most of the problems arise from the transmission lines because many of them are weak.

    “They (power firms) are not concerned about the total system collapse because they are making money whether they supply electricity or not. So, why will they be interested in making sure that we have electricity?” he asked.

    The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, at a recent public lecture, said: “In our roadmap to incremental power, we are looking at what we have and what we can get out of them.

    “We have 26 power plants (including the AES plant), three of the plants are powered by water, the hydro power plants in Jebba, Kainji and Shiroro. The remainders are powered by gas.”

    “At the best of times, only about 78 turbines are generating power, which gave us our peak of 5,074mw. The problems have been identified as either damaged, unmaintained or unserviced turbines in the hydro power plants; and in the cases of gas plants, it is largely non-availability of gas, coupled with lack of maintenance.”

  • Audit report: Nigeria loses N1tr in one year

    Audit report: Nigeria loses N1tr in one year

    • Senate invites NEITI chief

    The Senate President, Bukola Saraki yesterday lamented that Nigeria lost over N1trillion in 2013 alone in the extractive sector.

    To unravel what led to the loss, the Upper chamber  resolved to invite the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Waziri Adio, to brief it on the content of the 2013 Audit report of the agency.

    Saraki said if the 2016 budget figure is N6 trillion, N1 trillion could not be lost in one sector without the Senate finding out what happened.

    The resolution followed a motion on “the urgent need for the Senate to look into the NEITI 2013 oil, gas and solid mineral audit report” sponsored by Senator Tijjani Yahaya Kaura (Zamfara North).

    Senator Kaura in his lead debate noted that one of the key statutory functions of NEITI is to conduct regular audit of the extractive sector as provided in Section 4 of the Extractive Act.

    He said details of the report showed that the country made $58.07 billion from its hydrocarbon industry in 2013, while N33.86 billion was realised from the solid mineral sector the same year.

    The lawmaker said the report also indicated that $3.8billion and N358.3 billion stood as outstanding revenue from the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiaries during the review period.

    The outstanding payments, he said, were due to unpaid consideration from divested Oil Mining Lease (OML) from NNPC and National Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) and cash call refunds by the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS).

    Kaura said it was worrisome that between 2005 and 2013,  $12.9 billion paid by the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) to NNPC was not remitted to the Federation Account.

    The report showed that Nigeria lost $5.966 billion and N20.4 billion in the sector from the operation of Offshore Processing Agreements (OPA) by state oil firm, the NNPC and crude oil swap and theft.

    He noted that the report also showed that  $99.98 million was reported as underpayment to the Federation Account from petroleum profit tax and royalties by oil and gas companies, as a result of the use of different pricing methodology by the government

    Kaura urged the Senate to invite the Executive Secretary of NEITI to brief the Senate on the missing funds and the cause of the leakage. The prayer was unanimously adopted.

    Saraki, while receiving the report, said: “I agree with you entirely that this type of opportunity also enables us to strengthen the institutions such as yours that have the responsibility of improving the governance and transparency administration of the management of our resources.

    “In preparation for this courtesy call, I studied the report in the early hours of this morning, and honestly I was just dumbfounded about the figures that we are talking about.

    “This is just 2013 -one year’s report. It is not cumulative. In one year’s audit report, you are talking about figures of over $3.8billion at that time, I am sure the rate was close to N150 per dollar. So you are talking about N650billion. Then you are talking about another N358billion which brings it close to about N1trillion.

    “Then you are talking about assets that were undervalued and transferred to NPDC, but still no payment was made. You are talking about NAPIMS paying cash calls for an asset that doesn’t belong anymore to NNPC and you truly wonder that this is going on right under our nose here in this country.

    “Honestly, I just concluded that as a country I don’t think we are serious. We are just paying lip service to this issue of fighting corruption because this is the real terminology of economic sabotage.

    “This is what I believe agencies that are truly fighting corruption should have taken up. Meanwhile you see them sometimes chasing a local government chairman for N10million, or chasing even the state governments for less.

    “These are just astronomical figures and nobody is being asked where the authority came from. Even if you say it was a minister, do we have where managements of those organisations have been able to say this is not what should be done?

  • NERC to query TCN over report

    NERC to query TCN over report

    • Scores DisCos, GenCos low

    The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission  (NERC), is set to query the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), for its falure to submit the mandatory operational report between January and June 2015.

    NERC’s Head of Engineering Standards and Safety Department, Mr. Abdullahi Mohammed said during a meeting in Abuja to review agreed key performance indicators in the industry with operators that the commission was uncomfortable with TCN’s attitude to its reporting responsibility.

    He said: “I am disturbed about TCN because it is the hub. If it does not behave well, other parts suffer. They refused to submit the six months report against the provision of the Act.

    “We will write them query on that lack of compliance. They submitted two days ago but we are not accepting that.”

    Industry experts had overtime queried the capacity of the TCN to comfortably operate within laid down rules in the country’s privatised electricity market. Their stated discomfort with the TCN stems from its reported years of operating with disregards to rules.

    Similarly, NERC expressed its displeasure with the 11 electricity distribution companies (DisCos) for mostly performing poorly in 2015.

    NERC explained that in addition to the DisCos’ poor operational performance, they equally did poorly with their data submission to it for relevant documentation.

    Mohammed in this regard said there were suspected cases of incredibility of data submitted by the operators.

    He reminded them that the Electric Power Sector Reform Act (EPSRA) 2005 abhors the submission of such false information to the Commission, adding that such attracts various sanctions including imprisonment.

    According to him: “By the next performance review, we will get the actual culprits that are not performing accordingly.”

    Accordingly, data presented by the Commission indicates that the TCN, which transmits generated electricity across the country and which is also under a contract management of Canadian firm, Manitoba Hydro International did not submit its six monthly report.

    Although the the report said that the TCN reduced its transmission losses to 6 per cent in the second half of 2015, there was however a surge in the losses to about 9 per cent between August and September the same year.

    The year end figure was also higher than the 8.05 per cent that the Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO) assumed would be the case. This also shows  that there is a high level of constraint in power delivery and subsequently revenue generation.

    The generation companies (Gencos) on the other hand, had their electricity output go down from 70 per cent earlier in 2015 to less than 65 per cent with more stranded (unused) power in the system.

    According to NERC, the Discos’ performance showed that on the average they had their Aggregate Technical Commercial & Collection Losses (ATC&C) figures at 55 per cent. It however noted that it was unacceptable because only 17 per cent was projected as the acceptable level in the MYTO.