The Nation Newspaper

Tag: scandal

  • Volkswagen Emissions Scandal: CPC gives seven-day ultimatum for report

    Volkswagen Emissions Scandal: CPC gives seven-day ultimatum for report

    The Consumer Protection Council (CPC) has issued a seven-day ultimatum to Volkswagen Nigeria to provide information on the status of its vehicles in relation to the emissions cheating software, which has reportedly affected 11 million cars worldwide.

    CPC, in a letter to the automaker signed by its Director-General, Mrs Dupe Atoki, said “the attention of the Council has been drawn to some publications wherein Volkswagen has admitted the allegation that certain illegal “defeat device” software was installed in Volkswagen vehicles to cheat emission test. The resultant effect of this on the environment and quality of these cars is of great importance to the CPC.

    “The publications also indicated that Volkswagen had admitted that vehicles with 1.2, 1.6, and 2.0 litre EA 189 engines are all affected, (i.e. Golf, Beatle, Jetta and Passat models).”

    CPC noted that Volkswagen has a huge market in Nigeria, with many customers who may currently be in possession of the affected models.

    The council requested Volkswagen Nigeria to within seven days of the receipt of its letter make available to it the number of affected vehicles in Nigeria (if any), steps taken to inform and sensitise consumers and efforts being made to facilitate quick recall of such vehicles in the country.

    CPC said its directive was pursuant to the powers of the council to compel manufacturers to give public notice of any hazard inherent in their products.

    CPC’s action came on the heels of a scandal that the auto manufacturer’s diesel car engines were found to contain software that can cheat pollution tests, making them seem cleaner than they actually are.

    Around 11 million vehicles worldwide manufactured between 2009 and 2015, including 5 million VW cars, 2.1 million Audi, 1.2 million Skoda, 700,000 Seat and 1.8 million vans, are confirmed to have been built with these so-called “defeat devices.”

  • SON: Fed Govt to speak on Volkswagen scandal this week

    SON: Fed Govt to speak on Volkswagen scandal this week

    The Federal Government will state its position on the Volkswagen (VW) emission scandal this week, Dr Joseph Odumodu, the Director General, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), has said.

    Odumodu, in an SMS to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said the relevant government agencies were “working out something.’’

    NAN had asked the SON’s helmsman why the Federal Government was silent on the matter and whether the country was not at risk.

    He said: “We are at risk and we are working out something, but it involves more than one agency.

    “Next week you will be notified of our position, but currently, the standard emission in Nigeria is at the very basic level.

    “While Nigeria is at level 2, Europe for example is at level 6,’’ Odumodu told NAN.

    NAN recalls that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had discovered that some Volkswagen diesel engine cars on sale in that country had devices that could cheat emission tests.

    The EPA’s findings cover 482,000 cars in the U.S. , including VW brands, such as Audi A3, Jetta, Beetle, Golf and Passat.

    The German car giant had owned up to the malpractice, admitting that about 11 million of its cars worldwide were fitted with the technology, dubbed “defeat device’’.

    Many countries, including South Africa, had reacted to the scandal by carrying out investigations to test the legitimacy of VW’s emissions claims.

    Mr Aminu Jalal, the director general, National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), attributed Nigeria’s silence on the scandal to the status of its emissions standards.

    Jalal told NAN that the country was still at Euro 2 (the second level of the European emissions standards), while VW cars affected in the scandal cheated on far higher levels.

    He said: “We are still at Euro 2. Even if those vehicles that are cheating abroad are imported to Nigeria, it is likely that their emissions would not be violating Euro 2.

    “When they cheat on Euro 5, it means their emission levels are in violation of Euro 4 or 3, but Nigeria is currently at Euro 2.

    “This is why we can’t say that they have breached our regulations until we carry out our own investigations.’’

    The NADDC boss said Nigeria was still at Euro 2 due to a number of factors, including the quality of our fuel, which he said, could not support higher standards.

    He explained that the quality of fuel was one of the bases of emission standards, adding that Nigeria must first increase its fuel standards to attain higher emissions regulations.

    “Emission standards go hand in hand with fuel quality. Our fuel quality is not good enough to support higher emission regulations.

    “The specification for sulphur in our fuel standard is too high. Currently, it is 3000ppm (parts per million) for diesel and about 1000ppm for petrol.

    “For us to go for an emission standard higher than Euro 2, we have to bring down the specification for sulphur in our fuel.

    “We are already working with SON to bring it down to 50ppm, then we can have more rigorous standards as Euro 4 and 5,’’ he said.

    Jalal called for the modification of the nation’s refineries to enable them produce high quality fuel.

  • SA to probe VW unit after emissions scandal

    South African regulators are investigating Volkswagen’s local business to see if cars sold there also rigged carbon emissions data, an official said.

    The National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS), which ensures vehicles comply with the necessary standards, including emissions, before being sold in the South African market, says on its website that all VW cars had met the requirements.

    Volkswagen, the world’s biggest carmaker, has admitted using software known as a defeat device to ensure it passed U.S. testing for nitrogen oxides and said 11 million of its cars had been fitted with it.

    The NRCS said it could recall cars if VW was found not to have complied with local emissions measures.

    “Should we find out that the tests that were provided to us were non-compliant, that’s when the sanctioning process will have to start,” said Temba Kaula, acting general manager of the automotive sector at the NRCS.

     

     

    Kaula said they hoped to conclude the investigation within two to three months.

    Matt Gennrich, spokesman for VW South Africa, said the firm was in contact with regulators.

    “There is obviously a full investigation going on internally, and that includes to see how many cars are involved in each market, including South Africa, and once that investigation is complete we will co-operate with authorities,” he said.

    Volkswagen was the second most popular car brand in South Africa after Toyota, selling 8,472 out of 51,055 units in the market during August, data from the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa showed.

  • EFCC moves in as $4.5b tax scandal hits agency

    EFCC moves in as $4.5b tax scandal hits agency

    Commission grills NIPC officials

    Three ex-ministers, Customs chiefs for questioning

    How did 20 oil companies get $4.5 million tax holidays to which they are not entitled?

    This is the puzzle the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is battling to resolve.

    Helping the EFCC are some officials of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) and the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.

    The Ministries of Petroleum Resources and Solid Minerals and the Nigerian Customs Service may also be probed for questionable tax waivers, it was learnt yesterday.

    A former Special Assistant to an ex-minister has been interrogated by the anti-graft agency.

    Besides, three former ministers and some officials of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) are likely to be interrogated by the anti-graft agency.

    The tax holidays were given to the oil firms during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

    It was gathered that about 20 local oil companies benefited from the bonanza after buying over marginal fields from some International Oil Companies (IOCs).

    A source at the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment said: “The EFCC is investigating the ministry and the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission [NIPC] for tax holidays to about 20 oil companies.

    “We actually got a letter of invitation which was dated 28th of July, 2015 and it was received by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry.

    “The EFCC letter requested for the appearance of the director (Industrial Inspectorate Division) for interaction.”

    Two directors of NIPC, who were allegedly responsible for granting these tax holidays, have also been grilled by the EFCC.

    A former Executive Secretary and Chief Executive of NIPC when the tax holidays were given has also been questioned, The Nation learnt.”

    Another source confirmed the invitation of no fewer than six top officials of the ministry and the NIPC.

    The source added: “The Special Assistant to a former Minister was invited and also quizzed over the issue and other cases involving some unrefunded monies paid in 2013 by the NIPC to the former minister.”

    The former aide reportedly made “some useful statements and offered to make some refunds.”

    When our correspondent sought clarification from the EFCC, a source said: “We are looking into some allegations on tax holidays involving some top officials of NIPC and the Ministry of Trade.”

    But the source refused to disclose the list of those grilled and the 20 oil firms involved because “investigation is still ongoing”.

    NIPC is the agency, which approves tax holidays under the Industrial Development Act for companies that are taxable under the Company Income Tax Act.

    NIPC was in the news a few months ago for granting illegal waivers to oil companies taxable under the Petroleum Profit Tax Act between 2010 and 2014.

    A former Executive Secretary of NIPC, Mrs Saratu Umar, was sacked at the twilight of the Jonathan administration for allegedly “refusing to grant tax holidays to some oil companies.”

    Until the Tax Waivers were stopped last year, the nation lost huge revenue to the Federation Account running into billions of dollars.

    On May 10, the former Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, raised the alarm that the Federal Government had lost over $20b to tax holidays fraudulently granted companies by NIPC officials.

    She said: “Pioneer status (tax holidays) was granted to companies whose products do not meet the requirements of the list of industries or products specified in the schedule to the Act.

    “NIPC officials granted tax holidays for a straight five-year period, contrary to the provision of Section 10 of the Act, which states that the tax relief period for a pioneer company shall commence from the production date of the company and shall continue for a period of three years in the first instance, and may be extended for a period of one year and thereafter for another one year, or for a period of two years, subject to the satisfaction of Mr. President that certain requirements, such as rate of expansion, standard of efficiency, level of development of company, among others, are met.”

  • How NNPC ran into swap scandal

    How NNPC ran into swap scandal

    Some foreign oil firms have been implicated in the multi-billion dollar oil swap probe, it was learnt at the weekend.

    The investigation might be extended to four oil giants, said a source, who recalled that the crude oil swap began between 1977 and 1986. He did not name the companies so that, according to him, the probe is not jeopardised.

    But the current scandal began in 2009 when the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)/Pipelines Products Marketing Company (PPMC) advertised sought proposals for Offshore Processing Arrangement and other proposals to guarantee fuel supply.

    It was learnt that a $2billion debt on importation of petroleum products made NNPC to embrace this option, which has been grossly abused.

    These disclosures were contained in a document made available to one of the security agencies handling the ongoing probe.

    The document reads in part: “The ongoing investigation of oil swap agreement is incomplete without looking at the involvement of some International Oil Companies(IOCs). The probe should be holistic.

    “It is very curious to see all of these negative reports and also the exclusion of the names of foreign and International Companies that have for many years taken part in these SWAP and Offshore Processing Contracts absent from all of these news and reports.

    “ When foreigners (multinationals) were handling crude swap and delivering Petroleum Products on Open Account for Nigeria, our government was buying refined products at PLATTS plus $136-180/metric from these multinationals. The government was equally required to pay interest to the multinationals on delayed receivables. The government incurred the cost of logistics and handling unlike the arrangement where we have local players participating…

    “But local companies sell at PLATTS plus $82/metric ton and the government does not pay interest on delayed receivables.

    “These foreign companies create wealth and employment for their countries, why can’t Nigeria do the same with its own people and companies? Instead, Nigerians let envy get the better part by fighting their very own.”

    The document said although the present oil swap scandal was traceable to 2009, the nation had been involved in it since 1977.

    It added: “Crude Swap/ Offshore Processing arrangements have been a Federal Government initiative since 1977 in partnership with International Oil companies (IOCs).

    “Nigerians must know that the supposed interim policy of the NNPC to bridge the gap between petroleum products demand and supply was initiated over three decades ago between 1977 and 1986 when Nigeria needed heavy crude from Venezuela to feed the recently opened Kaduna refinery. We as a nation swapped Venezuela heavy crude for Nigeria’s light crude.

    “The scope of crude swap was later broadened specifically because our refineries began to produce below their stipulated name plate capacity.

    “In addition, NNPC/PPMC from late 1990s-2010 used to import Petroleum Products on an Open Account backed by a PPMC Payment undertaking that payment will be made 45 days after imported vessels arrive.

    “This payment timeline was never met with payment delays running to 400 days late, currently with an outstanding debt to Importers and bankers of close to $2billion currently standing at 7 Years late payment,

    “No Local or International Bank will finance any NNPC/PPMC imports on an open account. Banks need to see a solid bankable security or guarantee to finance any import to NNPC/PPMC due to their indebtedness and bad payment record. “NNPC/PPMC used to rely on their refineries Un-Utilized Crude oil barrels to fund these open account Payment Batches. With this challenge to NNPC and Government, this posed a problem to 50% of fuel supply into Nigeria around 2009 and 2010.

    To avert this, NNPC/PPMC advertised in 2009 inviting for proposals for Offshore Processing Arrangement and other proposals to guarantee fuel supply to Nigeria. Thus crude swap/ OPAs concept widened to include crude for refined products, which had been in practice with Oil Majors more than two decades. British Petroleum and SIR refinery of Ivory Coast were the first engaged in late 2000s for this.”

  • Torn apart by scandal

    President of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) Students Union Government (SUG) has been suspended over allegation of financial misconduct, throwing the institution into crisis, KINGSLEY AMATANWEZE (Material and Metallurgical Engineering) reports.

    •Peter
    •Peter

    Barely five months after it was restored, the Students’ Union Government (SUG) of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) has been hit by crisis. Its President, Peter Oji, has been suspended for alleged financial misconduct.

    Peter, a 400-Level Veterinary Medicine student, was also accused of trampling on the privileges of his colleagues in the executive arm of the union. He was said to have sidelined Students’ Representative Council (SRC), the legislative arm, and embarked on projects without approval.

    The SRC accused the embattled president of single handedly setting up an unapproved a task force to sell tickets and stickers to vendors during matriculation for freshers. The tickets, CAMPUSLIFE gathered, were sold for between N1,000 and N2,000.

    CAMPUSLIFE learnt that Peter’s colleagues in the executive council described his activities as illegal at a meeting, saying the president did not carry them along in the running of the union. Peter, it was learnt, apologised for the lapses. He promised not to repeat such again.

    The executive ordered the president to remit all revenue realised from the sale of ticket and stickers within 72 hours through the Treasurer, Kelechi Nwachukwu, a 300-Level Civil Engineering. But, this did not happen.

    Two weeks after, Kelechi sent a petition to Privileges Committee of the SRC to investigate the president and Director of Welfare, Chinonye Elochukwu, for unauthorised billing of shop owners on the campus. When the SRC members convened a meeting to deliberate on the petition, it was learnt that Peter invited the security men to disrupt the “unapproved meeting”. The sitting was stopped. The SRC members described the action as an affront on their right. They dispersed in anger.

    The matter got worse when Peter and Financial Secretary allegedly applied for take-off grant without informing other members of the executive. Peter was also accused of stopping the union’s transaction alert at the bank. This prompted Kelechi to request for the union’s full bank statement, where he allegedly discovered illegal withdrawals by the president and Financial Secretary.

    The SRC members lost their patience with the president when Peter allegedly gave out the union’s secretariat for letting without the consent of other members. The SRC clerk, Victor Emenike, a 200-Level Metallurgical and Materials Engineering student, said: “Peter did not seek the consent of other members in executive and legislature before collecting rent of N250,000 each from the people who he gave our vacant spaces at the union’s secretariat.”

    •Kelechi
    •Kelechi

    Kelechi also accused the president monopolising union affairs, saying: “When the union building was to be renovated, Peter did not make the processes and plans open to anyone. He also turned the SUG secretariat into a marketing plaza without consulting members of executive and the legislature. He handles the union’s assets as if they are his personal properties.”

    The last straw that broke the camel’s back was Peter’s walkout at a meeting where the union members were considering budget harmonisation. A participant at the meeting said Peter rained abuses on members and left the meeting. Infuriated, the executive members passed a vote of no confidence on the president and forwarded their decision to the SRC.

    The SRC members, after deliberation, suspended the union president and set up a committee to investigate all allegations against him. The Vice President, Joy Nebo, a 300-Level Combined Social Sciences student, was sworn in as Acting President.

    Reacting, Peter denied he sidelined other members, saying he sought service of any executive member when needed.

    He said: “I never ran the affairs of the union alone. I approached anyone whose service was needed. For instance, the renovation of the union building was handled by the office of the General Secretary and I. So, I did not need to meet the Treasurer on that.”

    He also denied collecting N250,000 rent from the union secretariat, saying only one occupant paid and the money was used to renovate the building. He said: “The rent paid for the space at the secretariat was used to renovate the building. We could not wait for the management to give money for the project, because it would take time. So, we approached people to help with funds and promised them they would be considered during allocation. But only one person gave us N250,000. We also borrowed other money to get the renovation done.”

    The union’s Information Officer, Maximus Anyanwu, a 300-Level Public Administration and Local Government student, said: “We have a good plan for the union building, which does not have to do with turning the place to a business plaza. This building is the union’s secretariat. But, since the matter is being investigated, we must wait for the outcome before taking the next step on the suspended president.”

    The history of the union has been marred with crisis, which had led to impeachment and suspension of its leaders.

  • Statistical scandal

    Statistical scandal

    NBS chief’s claim that only 4.6m Nigerians are unemployed is far from the truth

    Last week, the nation’s chief statistician and chief executive officer of Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Dr Yemi Kale, threw at the millions of unemployed Nigerians, what many would call a statistical fraud. According to the bureau chief, only 4.6 million Nigerians are unemployed. That number amounts to 6.4 percent of the labour force, which his bureau gave as 72, 931, 608. He also claimed that using a 40-hour benchmark, fully employed Nigerians stand at 55, 206, 940 while those unemployed using 20-39 hours, stand at 13, 052, 219; but using 1-19 hours benchmark, the number is 3,145, 383. Finally, he gave the category of Nigerians who are doing nothing, as mere 1,527,067.

    Understandably, Dr. Kale is coming from the same barn that overnight rebased the Nigerian economy, and catapulted it to the biggest economy in Africa. For us and many other Nigerians, the numbers do not add. Not when unemployment has been rightly described as a time-bomb that could derail the peace and security of Nigeria. Even without resort to cooked figures, the number of unemployed youths in a megacity like Lagos, where most young Nigerians across the country migrate to, in search of jobs, is more than the number thrown up by the bureau.

    Interestingly, at the 2015 World Economic Summit in Davos, youth unemployment was a big issue. According to one of the panellists, youth unemployment in Nigeria is about 50 percent. Strangely, according to NBS in 2014, referring to the National Population Commission estimates, the Nigerian population estimate was 167 million in 2012, of which half are young people, aged between 15 and 34. So what has changed dramatically between 2012 and 2015, if not the cooking of figures? In his contribution on youth unemployment at the Davos summit, Aliko Dangote was quoted to having said, “Our entire society is in danger of destruction”, unless urgent attention is paid to this dangerous trend.

    Part of the challenge of un-employment is that technology is trumping employment opportunities across the world, so we appreciate that the problem is not a Nigerian problem alone. But the Nigerian situation is aggravated by corrupt governments, which breed inefficiency in the provision of necessary infrastructure, to drive the economy. Therefore, those employed to provide the statistical data to aide our governments in planning must be ready to provide the grim figures. It would not help the system for our statisticians and bureaucrats to be fixated on cooking up favourable data that will not change the stubborn reality on ground

    If NBS wants a realistic data, it should conduct one across the mega cities, particularly during the working hours, as Nigerians reject that cooked-up statistics, and urge the in-coming administration to disregard it. The glaring scenario of grave unemployment bears out in big metropolis like Lagos, Kano, Aba, Kaduna, Port Harcourt, Onitsha, Ibadan and many others. Across all these cities, the share waste of human capital is alarming, as youths roam about, playing games, when they should be at work.

    Probably what the eye can see, statistics cannot capture.

  • N9 billion scandal

    N9 billion scandal

    In the expected era of change, the jumbo pay for lawmakers and ministers is obscene and unacceptable

    The reprehensible allowances allotted to elective and appointive officers of state by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), even though legal are odiously immoral. It is condemnable that officers of state can hide under the guise of collecting what is legally due to them to fleece the country. We are perturbed that incoming senators, House of Representatives’ members and also ministers to be appointed by President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, will be depleting the public till by N9bn upon assumption of office.

    Isn’t this ludicrous? We wonder why housing allowance for these men/women should be 200 per cent of annual salary; furniture allowance – 300 per cent of annual salary per year and motor vehicle loan – 400 per cent of annual salary. But more to come as the regular allowances built into the salaries of these officials are scandalous. The lawmakers will commence collection of these allowances immediately after the new president inaugurates the eighth National Assembly on June 5, when the tenure of the seventh National Assembly would have expired.

    Why should a nation in wanton corruption and with a lot of deficit in infrastructure be paying a total of: housing- N433, 649,600m for 109 senators per four years at N4, 052,800 yearly per senator: House of Representatives’ total- N1, 421,412,150 for four years at N3, 970,425 per member each year. For furniture allowance; a total of N650, 474,400 will be spent on the Senate with each of the entitled 107 senators collecting N6, 079,200. The total furniture allowance for House of Representatives members is N2, 132,118,225 with each of entitled 358 members collecting N5, 955,637.50. For vehicle loan, each of the 107 senators collects N8, 105,600 totalling N867, 299,200 for Senate while each of the 358 representatives gets N7, 940,850.50 totalling N2, 842,824,479. Unfortunately, it is on record that in 2007, the RMFAC commendably turned down requests made by the current Senate President David Mark through a letter dated November 15, 2007 titled “Monetisation policy as it affects senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” stating that the vehicle loans for senators totalling about N856m to the sixth Senate members be converted to grants for official cars. But RMFAC was ignored in the end.

    The Federal Government provides official accommodation for Senate President, the Deputy Senate President, the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker, respectively. The Federal Capital Territory Administration is currently building new houses for them.

    Furthermore, the lawmakers’ vehicle maintenance and fuelling – 75 per cent of their monthly salary; personal assistants – 25 per cent; domestic staff – 75 per cent; entertainment – 30 per cent; utilities – 30 per cent; newspapers/periodicals – 15 per cent; wardrobe – 25 per cent; house maintenance – five per cent and constituency – 250 per cent.

    There are other entitlements that they do not receive directly but are provided and paid for by the government. Government picks the bills of their special assistants, security, legislative aides and medical expenses. The lawmakers are also entitled to tour duty/recess allowance/estacode; for a senator, the tour duty allowance is N37, 000 per night; estacode is $950 per night and the recess allowance is 10 per cent of their annual salary. For House of Representatives’ members; the tour allowance – N35, 000 per night; estacode – $900 per night and the recess allowance – 10 per cent of annual salary.

    On the executive side; housing; a minister gets N3, 915,160 totalling N140, 945,760 for 36 ministers at one per state. Furniture; a minister collects N6, 079,200 totalling N218, 851,200 for the 36. And vehicle loan: a minister gets N7, 830,320 totalling N281, 891,520 for all ministers. Scandalously, the total cost to the nation on housing, furniture and vehicle allowances for incoming lawmakers and ministers amount to about N7.3bn. Yet they are still entitled to the remaining N1.7bn meant for motor vehicle maintenance, fuelling, and others.

    The ministers’ allowances are: motor vehicle fuelling and maintenance – 75 per cent of salary; personal assistan t -25 per cent; domestic staff – 75 per cent; entertainment – 45 per cent; utilities-30 per cent; monitoring – 20 per cent and; newspapers/periodicals – 15 per cent. Government caters for the ministers’ security personnel, medicals and special assistants. A minister collects amongst other s- tour duty allowance – N35, 000 per night; estacode-$900 per night and the leave allowance – 10 percent of annual salary.

    For the special advisers to the president-elect: housing allowance – N3, 885,750; furniture – N5, 828,625; motor vehicle loan-N7, 771,500. Also, the special adviser collects allowances such as motor vehicle fuelling and maintenance – 75 per cent of their salaries; personal assistant – 25 per cent; domestic staff – 75 per cent; entertainment – 45 per cent; utilities – 30 per cent; and newspapers/periodicals – 15 per cent. Again, government also provides for their security personnel, medicals and special assistants. The tour duty allowance – N25, 000 per night; the estacode – $800 per night and; leave allowance – 10 percent of annual salary.

    We call on the RMFAC to quickly seek amendment of the law dishing out this kind of unsustainable allowances to these sets of public officers. The commission should realise that these people are called upon to serve the country and not to milk her dry by seeing the call as an avenue to make debauched fortune. What obtains at the federal level is equally being replicated in the states, giving room to corruption galore. At the root of this challenge is the warped federal system in place in the land. Quite sadly, after collecting this kind of obscene pay and making money from other sources at the expense of the state, the country would still provide severance pay to some of these elected officers at the expiration of their tenures. After all, the severance pay of outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan, Vice-President Namadi Sambo, non-returning federal lawmakers, ministers and aides to the president will reportedly cost the nation N3.24bn. What double jeopardy!

    The reality is that there is a preponderance of excessive comfort amongst those holding elective and appointive positions in this country. This should not be so as it acts as disincentive to those who have toiled for decades in other sectors to make the country a better place for all. Our First Republic elected officers, particularly the legislators, did not enjoy such over-pampering yet, they did their job creditably. Indeed, they did their law making on part time basis. In many other countries, including the very rich ones, there is nothing special about being a legislator or minister. These people leave among the ordinary citizens in whose interest they make laws, board public buses and share a lot other things in common with the people. If anything, these mouth-watering perquisites that our elected and appointed officers enjoy make people want to die contesting for these offices or make them reluctant to leave when their time is over.

    It is inequitable, unfair and unacceptable for people who should be servants of the people to be waxing fat at the expense of the ordinary citizens. Gen Buhari has promised to look into this; he should do so without delay. What we pay these categories of people is out of sync with the national minimum wage. It is simply unsustainable and outlandish.

     

  • Alleged N6b CAN scandal: There’s no smoke without smoke, says Bishop

    Bishop of Anglican Communion, Kaduna Diocese, Bishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon, has said the Christians clerics, who partook in the sharing of the N6 billion allegedly given to the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) by President Goodluck Jonathan, to canvass vote for him, should confess to God and the Christian community.

    The cleric said this was because “there is no smoke without fire, and I thank God the allegation is not against the Anglican Church.”

    Addressing reporters yesterday after the service of collation of archdeacons of the diocese, the Bishop said there was nothing wrong with an offender to confess after committing an offence to enable God forgive him or her.

    He alleged that President Jonathan was surrounded by bad advisers, who were only being hypocritical without telling the President the truth about the progress or retrogress of the country.

    Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi recently alleged that President  Jonathan gave pastors across the country N6billion to vote against the standard-bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, in the presidential election.

    Amaechi’s allegation caused  an uproar among the  clerics, with the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) and the Northern State Christian Elders Forum (NOSCEF) asking the governor to name the church leaders, who collected the N6billion.

    Bishop Idowu-Fearon said: “If you accuse me of  sleeping with your wife,  and it is true, I should be able to confess to God first before confessing to human beings. So those who collected the money should confess to God and the Christian community.

    “But if it is not true, I should ask God to forgive you. It is good to be humble and ask God for forgiveness whenever you go wrong.”

    He urged the congregation to vote for the right candidate during the elections, saying: “If you vote for a wrong candidate, you have committed a sin.”

  • Jonathan and Ekiti election scandal

    Few people are likely to be surprised that the Jonathan administration has not reacted to the recording released by Sahara Reporters in which a junior defence minister claims that he was mandated by the president” to draft a couple of army officers to facilitate and coordinate a subversion of the  2014 Ekiti governorship elections. Having personalised state security institutions, and having become accustomed to suborning law-enforcement agencies for partisan, often criminal, political assignments, any president overcome with hubris enough to play the strongman can afford to treat the people with contempt. Incidentally, barring a columnist’s comments, as well as brief stories from some newspapers, the public has maintained a funereal silence over this horrifying revelation. Does this seeming lack of interest imply a feeling amongst the populace that the country has, in any case, opted out of the civilised world, owing to the barbarity of Nigerian rulers, and their impunity-hardened proclivity for criminality?

    Or, perhaps Nigerians themselves have become indifferent to their own collective plight because everybody is preoccupied with “claiming” his personal material salvation in accordance with the individualism-ethos of miracle-peddling Pentecostal neo-Christianity? That none of our civil-society associations has so far raised its voice over this affair – NLC, NBA, Roman Catholic Bishops and Guild of Editors – also gives the impression that one and all have taken the Sahara Reporters’ revelation as no more than the latest token of the moral collapse of the Nigerian state.

    Nevertheless, I am personally surprised that Jonathan’s no. 1 attack dog has not been fuming with righteous indignation at what would, if untrue, be outrageous slander of his master’s reputation. This must indeed also be an awkward time for even the urbane artists at white-washing sepulchers. But, what can the smartest geniuses at advertising deep-black as sparkling white (depending on circumstances and inducements) do in this difficult-to-deny involvement of the president in a subversion of the electoral process? For now, these professional equivocators appear to be waiting for it to blow over, seeing their boss, like the proverbial dog fated to be lost, can no longer hear the hunter’s horn.

    In a situation like this concerning the alleged involvement of powerful people in serious crime for which they have not been formally charged, and over which they themselves are keeping silent, perhaps the only way to go is by the law of probabilities. The main issue, then, is what is already known about the abuses to which the Jonathan government has often subjected the security forces, including the military, during national elections.

    All Nigerian rulers, right from Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa, have always considered it part of their prerogative to use the army for partisan political interests, including influencing the conduct of elections. However, in matters of scale, and in the brazenness of the abuse, Jonathan would appear to have been far more daring than his predecessors. It was in the Ekiti elections of June 2014, conducted when the Boko Haram insurgency which began five years earlier was still fiercely raging, that the largest numbers of troops so far were deployed for elections. Yet, the polling was far outside the theatre of the insurrection. Apart from the regular army, the Ekiti elections, as well as the ones in Osun two months later, for the first time in the country’s history, witnessed a number of uniformed, gun-toting masked men. These “soldiers” it was subsequently learnt, were used to pick up opposition party candidates, along with party officials and agents, to be either locked up, or guarded by the uniformed and masked, party thugs for the two or so days the elections lasted. Some of these masked soldiers of spurious provenance also went about the streets of Ekiti and Osun towns, shooting into the air, intimidating the populace, and causing consternation and panic. It is also instructive that during the Ekiti elections, two state governors, who are members of the APC opposition party, were prevented by soldiers from entering the state. A “chieftain” of the ruling party, a professional political thug with obnoxious reputation, from Anambra State, was however escorted by soldiers to Ekiti where local opposition politicians had already been put away to ensure that they could not monitor the process and conduct of the elections either at the polls, or at the collation centres.

    A number of questions are pertinent at this point: Were the soldiers who prevented Governors Rotimi Amaechi and Adams Oshiomhole from entering Ekiti to monitor the elections, and those who escorted Chris Uba to the state not acting under orders? What duties, under the constitution were the police minister and junior defence minister, in Ekiti to perform during ‘the elections? And finally, why were the opposition party men incarcerated during the course of the elections, only to be released without charges immediately after? Whoever can adequately explain away these questions in relation to the mysteries of what actually transpired at the Ekiti governorship elections, can as well cast doubt on the audio, and now even the video, recordings, of the conclave of criminals, haggling over how to rig the elections.

    Short of a personal confession, it is obvious that only a judicial pronouncement can determine whether Jonathan indeed authorised a subversion of the Ekiti governorship polls. I am only, like any citizen is entitled to, expressing dismay at the president and his administration pretending that they are unaware of the grave allegations about their involvement. Equally grave are the implications for the president’s person and office, and for the image of the country and its people. This is as if Richard Nixon and his administration were to keep mum when the Watergate story’s dirty ramifications began to unfold. Even if Jonathan, in his usual self-and-office- compromising attitude, does not “give a damn” about what Nigerians think of his excesses, does he also not care about the standards and values which prevail in the conduct of public affairs in civilised countries, and about the opinions and feelings concerning pariahs that dare defy and defile these international usages? ‘Unfortunately, whether he takes these things into consideration or not, it is the country which ultimately suffers, just like during the regime of Sani Abacha, whose infamy Jonathan seems to be now aiming at surpassing.

    In view of the above, Jonathan should immediately empower the Chief Justice of the Federation to set up an independent panel of inquiry into the Sahara Reporters’ revelations. Should the president fail to do this, the Nigeria Bar Association should proceed to organise the probe.

    While the issue of Nigeria’s image in the international community over the Ekiti governorship elections affair is of the utmost importance, a far more crucial issue is the implications of the scandal for the current situation in Nigeria itself. In one respect, the Sahara Reporters’ revelations could not have come at a more appropriate occasion. Today, Nigeria again seems to be drifting into another crisis of political succession, a situation generated in the main by the ambitions of an incumbent ruler to do what other presidents before him have brazenly gotten away with – namely, to appropriate state powers to manipulate the electoral process to his advantage and that of his party. The eight-year rule of the loathsome moral nihilist, Babangida, was a study, as well as a variation of some sort, in this tragic political chicanery. Nor was the Obasanjo presidency much different. (In this context, I believe it is high time Abdulsalaami Abubakar, came before Nigerians to apologise for the stable-institution-inhibiting, and the pro-one-party dictatorship of a fraudulent constitution that he imposed on the country in 1999).

    Given Jonathan’s constricted and clannish worldview, unredeemed by weak character, he thinks that to fail in his bid for a second term in power would be tantamount to discrimination against him because of his ethnic origin. Hence he does not seem to care whether his schemes for re-election bring the country crashing down over his head. Jonathan should rather see his entitlement to enjoy the prerogative of even appointing the INEC chairman (not to talk of otherwise influencing elections) as comparable to exercising the antiquated divine right of kings. For, when the people decided to terminate such sweeping powers, they chopped off the heads of monarchs who resisted the tide of change. By the way, Jonathan swore to uphold something called the Nigerian constitution. So what does the faith he wears like his trademark hat say about allegiance to this sacred document? Perhaps his crowd of spiritual advisors should remind him.