Nigerians have a new currency in circulation. It was issued recently by the “National Assembly of Corruption and Terrorism”. The new “legal tender” is worth F620,000. “F” stands for Faroukas. The note has on it the picture of a smiling Honourable Farouk Lawan, an influential figure in the country’s lower House of Representatives, who has been embroiled in a murky corruption saga with businessman Femi Otedola, from whom he was alleged to have asked for and received a bribe of $620,000 so that Otedola’s name and that of his oil company, Zenon, would be delisted from the list of those accused of collecting huge subsidy payments without delivering the petroleum product which the Lawan committee was investigating.

This has been a closely-followed running story in Nigeria for some time now. And when Nigerians were expecting both Hon. Lawan and Mr. Otedola to be brought to court on corruption charges, news broke that the prominent legislator had been cleared by the ethics committee of the House of Representatives – hence the issuance of the “620,000 Faroukas” note by humorous Nigerians who quickly renamed the hollowed legislative chamber in the federal capital city of Abuja the “National Assembly of Corruption and Terrorism”. Address on the currency? Simply: “Corruption Headquarters”.

Suffering and Smiling

It is not for nothing that a global poll once ranked Nigerians as the happiest people on earth. They surely are enjoying their young and fragile democracy. Here is a country whose legendary Afro-beat musician, the late Fela Kuti, once described its people in one of his iconic songs, as “Suffering and Smiling”. Trust Nigerians, democracy has brought out the best of their wits, that when things are hard and hardly anything goes right for them and they should naturally be suffering, they generally make light of it all, suffering and smiling and just getting on with life.

That’s partly what makes this country of 160 million amazing. It is the biggest black nation on earth. Every one in four Africans is a Nigerian. And every two in seven black people in the world are Nigerian. Apart from the fact that there is an inherent democracy in the temperament of the nation, with robust arguments and debates on how to move the nation forward – every Nigerian is a potential president with solutions to the country’s myriad problems – the dynamism, enterprise and resilience of Nigerians is remarkable. It is, therefore, not surprising that a lot of hope is placed in this country by the international community. It has often been said, for instance, that if democracy is to work in Africa, Nigeria must provide the acid test, and be the engine room to drive the political and economic renaissance of the continent.

Uninterrupted democratic rule

Having gone through its bitter years (over three decades) under military rule, the country is now, for the first time in its history, enjoying its 13th year of uninterrupted democratic rule. On a very serious note, for a country where until recently the only certain thing about it had been uncertainty itself, this is no mean achievement; it is a remarkable feat. If Nigerians themselves are not clapping for sustaining this democracy for this long, it is not because they are not appreciative of it, but because they had often placed too much hope in their leadership to deliver the badly needed dividends of the democracy but were often let down. However, the world should be applauding because this young democracy needs all the encouragement it can get and which it surely deserves.

Nigeria’s democratic journey has by no means reached its destination yet. It is still under constant pressure, the pressure of leadership, to get the right person with the vision and know-how to lead this complex nation. Secondly, it is constantly under threat of severe division because of the diversity of its ethnic composition – 250 of them, sharing 800 languages. Each group wants its own man to be the one leading the nation. It is called sharing the “national cake”.

Thirdly, the leadership question and the ethnic pressure are compounded by the time-bomb of religion. Nigeria is divided almost evenly between the Muslim north and the predominantly Christian south with a sizeable number of animists thrown in for good measure.

For some time now an insurgency group from the north, calling itself Boko Haram (meaning Western education is a sin), has been bombing churches indiscriminately across the north killing so far over 3,000 people. It is the closest the country has come to war since the Biafra Civil War of 1967 to 1970. However, perhaps the biggest problem that could tear the country’s fragile democracy apart and make it impossible for the country to realise its ambition of becoming one of the world’s top 20 economies by the year 2020, if care is not taken, is the issue of corruption.

Combating Corruption

Corruption is so endemic in the country that there is hardly anything one does without parting with or exchanging some money either as “dash,” or in big bribery payments. A recent World Bank survey revealed that 80 per cent of businesses in Nigeria in 2011 had to pay bribes to government officials to stay in business. Widespread corruption in past administrations has led to the collapse of such hitherto successfully run national commercial services and institutions as Nigeria Airways, Nigerian Railways, Nigerian National Shipping Lines, NITEL, the postal service NIPOST, to mention a few; and it is even more ravaging now than ever before, under the watch of President Goodluck Jonathan. The situation is so bad that no sector or institution is spared the scourge of corruption, not even the Church where the president of the Christian Association on Nigeria (CAN) was recently presented with a private jet as a gift to celebrate his 40 years in the pulpit!

Controversy rages on in the country over the propriety of this controversial gift and the latest clergy to condemn it is the respected Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Mathew Kukah, who describes the acquisition of private jets by Christian leaders in the country as not only embarrassing but also counterproductive in the fight against corruption. He adds that the trend negates the church’s moral voice in setting an agenda for righteous living in society. Hear him: “The stories of corrupt men and women being given recognition by their churches or mosques as gallant sons and daughters, and the embarrassing stories of pastors displaying conspicuous wealth as we hear from the purchases of private jets and so on, clearly diminish our moral voice.”

Latest figures show Nigeria to be in the top league of countries that have ordered most private jets in recent years, with the source of the funding always questionable. The latest Gallup Poll globally indexing corruption places Nigeria as the second most corrupt nation in the world. That was the position it occupied before democracy in 1999. When President Olusegun Obasanjo came to power as an elected president in 1999, he identified corruption as his biggest challenge and made combating it a major national objective. He immediately on taking power embarked on a massive anticorruption crusade, setting up two special agencies, the ICPC (Independent Corrupt Practices Commission) and EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) to fight and eliminate corruption from Nigeria’s national life.

The two agencies embarked on their task in an aggressive and business-like manner that was unprecedented in the country. President Obasanjo’s effort yielded surprisingly good results, with some big shots like a former Inspector-General of Police, Tafa Balogun, arrested, charged and sentenced for stealing billions of Naira from police funds. Even some elected state governors were hounded out of power. Obasanjo’s method in dealing with the phenomenon might be controversial but his objective then was to both shame and punish people for their corrupt practices as to serve as a deterrent to others. The initiative worked to some extent, and Nigeria, for the first time, moved dramatically from the lowly No. 2 spot it had occupied for many years in the Transparency International’s annual global index. It moved up to about No. 15. In 2011, the same Transparency International ranked Nigeria 143 out of 182 countries it surveyed for the year.

However, today, under the Jonathan administration that has a former Managing Director of the World Bank, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, as its Finance Minister (some would say de facto Prime Minister), Nigeria has gone back to the bad old days. Okonjo-Iweala might be the darling of the West because of her impressive record while serving at the World Bank – she missed being the WB president by a whisker – but in the fight against corruption in Nigeria, the issue is proving beyond her. If she has the will, she has not got the power and support to make a difference. She seems confounded by the interplay of forces within the system that she seems to have decided to strike a delicate balance between sticking her neck out as an anti-corruption crusader and not getting anywhere with it in the end, and making the government more prudent and responsible with its spending. She’s gone for the latter. As a result, she has been rather more effective in imposing her imprimatur on the finances of government, making it more fiscally responsible. Her attempt to clean up the subsidy mess has been met with rebuff as she is constantly accused of withholding oil marketers payments even when her ministry is only trying to verify such claims. In the event, fighting corruption is a daunting task for her. It is not surprising, therefore, there is corruption everywhere – in the Church, police, judiciary, national and state parliaments, in the local authorities; even to play for the country’s national football team, the Super Eagles, one can bribe a coach to get a shirt. It is that bad.

The Jonathan administration might draw a lesson or two from the Obasanjo experience. The former president, in some of his recent remarks on corruption, has been giving advice to President Jonathan on how to tackle the scourge. Drawing from his own experience while in office, Obasanjo believes, first of all, that government has to have the political will; secondly it must show persistence; and thirdly, there must be consistency, to be able to combat corruption effectively in Nigeria “because the people that are involved in corruption are strongly entrenched and unless you are ready to confront them at the point of even giving your life for it, then you will give in and when you give in, that is the end of it.”

In what looks like a slight criticism of the Jonathan administration’s approach in tackling corruption, Obasanjo believes the government is laying too much emphasis on the corruption within the oil and gas sector: “We didn’t see beyond the oil. That was one of the misfortunes of Nigeria or regrets of Nigeria; but more importantly, corruption came in. Corruption came in initially with politics at independence when our politicians gave a contract to you, they demanded 10 per cent, they thought that was the way to make money for their party. Ten per cent of that contract is taken to develop the party – the party fund and all that – and then, of course, it went beyond 10 per cent to 20, to 25 and at times, it grew so large that, in fact, when you are given a job, you just don’t care to do it, you will share the money or whatever they called it. That was very bad…So, when I became president of Nigeria, the first thing I did after my election was to establish an independent body to fight corruption. Now, that body was so effective – in fact two bodies, one was a commission against financial crimes – and they were both so effective that ministers of government, the head of the police and the heads of parastatals were put in jail. If you are going to fight corruption, it is not a one night or one day war; you have to be consistent and persistent with it,” said the former president.

President Jonathan on Corruption

President Jonathan admitted the seriousness of the corruption challenge he faces in a nationally televised media chat November 18 this year, but assured the nation he was doing everything within his power to battle and defeat this phenomenon. He identified three specific areas where corruption is pervasive. First is electoral corruption, which he himself described as “the mother of all corruption”. Second is corruption in the distribution of fertilisers. And third, the massive corruption in the oil and gas sector. His voice: “We decided to sanitise the electoral system, dealing with corruption associated with the electoral process. In most cases, people manipulate themselves into office; state governors, local government chairmen and others manipulate themselves into offices without being voted for, thereby posing problems for the country. We are aware that dealing with corruption associated with the electoral process will ensure that corruption is dealt with totally,” he said.

He went further to give his government thumbs-up in its effort to fight the cankerworm when he asserted: “We have done very well on various fronts in terms of fighting corruption. We have sanitised the fertiliser subsidy process; we have tried in sanitising the electoral process; we have now started the audit of the oil sector, pointing to the fact that we are in the process of sanitising the sector. If you ask the average Nigerian, they will say it is all because of corruption, that is why there is a pot hole somewhere and that accidents are caused by corruption. We just believe that everything is caused by corruption…But in terms of perfection, we believe that corruption is the cause of all our problems. Corruption is there and we will continue to fight corruption, no doubt about that. But this government has tried to investigate the corruption associated with the elections, we have sanitised it; the corruption associated with procurement of fertiliser is enormous, we have sanitised it; and we are now dealing with petroleum products, we will go ahead and sanitise it. We will surely sanitise this country.”

Will he? Well, Nigerians themselves are not convinced. They are not convinced because despite all the noise made by government about fighting all forms of corruption they rarely see individuals being handed long jail sentences or publicly disgraced for being involved in corruption. Examples abound: still fresh in their memories are some sensational bribery scandals such as those relating to Halliburton, Siemens, Wilbros, Panalpina and A.G Daimler. Nothing has been done to those Nigerian bribe takers, whereas the United States, France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany have not just indicted individuals and companies from their own countries who paid the bribes to Nigerians to secure contracts, those people have been punished, some of them now serving prison terms. The Nigerian bribe takers are walking scot-free and still peddling influence within the corridors of power.

Besides, many corruption cases have been in the courts for years either without prosecution or they are mostly dragging on endlessly. Expressing his frustration that most cases that are in court have either not been tried or unnecessarily delayed on trial, the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Larmorde, explained why his agency has been unable to secure conviction of treasury looters. At a Senate Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes hearing in Abuja, he laid the blame squarely on the judiciary for hindering the EFCC from prosecuting the big thieves. His revelation is startling. Hear him: “The truth is no case had been concluded…They will file this, the judge will overrule them, they will go to the Court of Appeal and lose there, but they will still go to the Supreme Court. At the Supreme Court when they lost, they will be asked to go to the trial judge for the case to continue. They will come with another application and certainly, for lawyers among us, we know how long it takes for a trial to go to Court of Appeal and get listed, then go to the Supreme Court get it listed and decided upon. This is the fate of most of the cases we have in court. This year alone, we recorded over 200 convictions in various courts across the country, but they are mostly advance fee fraud, we have the yahoo [internet fraud], we have the commercial cases, we have the executives of financial institutions that are involved in currency trafficking. The cases that most people are interested in their conclusion are those before the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, these are people who have the resources to drag these cases indefinitely and perpetually. That is why we have established a very strong Assets Forfeiture Unit. The first thing we do now is that we try to recover and confiscate the assets of individuals that we are investigating because it is only when you deprive them of their resources that you will be able to force them to stand trial. Once they have access to their resources and assets, they will use it to continue to delay and drag some of these trials.”

However, another reason why it is so difficult to believe that the Jonathan administration is serious about fighting corruption is because Nigerians have seen the hanky-panky being displayed in the handling of recent investigations into corruption cases in the oil and gas sector. As a matter of fact, it is the belief of most Nigerians that their country is once again the second most corrupt country in the world because of the monumental corruption uncovered in this most important sector of the country’s economy. A recent investigation by the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force into dealings in the sector led by a former EFCC chair, Nuhu Ribadu, had discovered that billions of dollars in signature bonuses paid by multinational oil companies to the nation are missing. To the astonishment of Nigerians the Ribadu report had hardly been handed over to the president when some powerful forces, trying to prevent the president from acting on its findings, used some influential members of the investigation committee to discredit it. Aspersions cast on the report at its official presentation ceremony, was shown on live television to the amazement of the entire nation. A “home video” of it is now available on the internet. It was an extraordinary display of shame and contempt for the office of the president who was there seated. If there was any hope that the president will use the findings of the Ribadu report to fight corruption in the oil and gas sector, it evaporated there and then.

However, anti-corruption crusaders around the country are still appealing to President Jonathan not to listen to those who want to sabotage the report, imploring him to take action against individuals and companies indicted by it and not allow it to gather dust on the shelve like similar reports in the past which never saw the light of day once submitted.

The death penalty?

Corruption still remains an emotional issue in Nigeria. The country, according to a United Nations statistic, has lost over $400 billion to corruption since independence 52 years ago. Some Nigerians have called for the death penalty for culprits. Time will tell if President Jonathan can succeed where his other predecessors had failed. However, on the evidence on the ground, as they say, he has no chance in hell if we use the handling of the Lawan’s and Otedola’s alleged bribery saga as a test case of the government’s seriousness to fight and eliminate corruption from Nigeria’s national life. Placing the “Faroukas” in circulation, therefore, is Nigerians’ own way of expressing their frustration while at the same time making light of a very serious situation in their national life – a la suffering and smiling. They don’t trust the government to fight corruption; if anything, they are convinced that the government only pays lip service to the fight against corruption, which is sad because every Naira stolen from the treasury is one Naira less to reward honest enterprise and hard work; a situation which undermines government’s own ability to improve the lives of ordinary Nigerians – putting money into education, health, infrastructure development and delivering generally the much sought for dividends of democracy.

Kayode Soyinka is Founder/Publisher of the pan- African news and current affairs magazine, Africa Today.

TIME FOR G20 FINANCE MINISTERS TO LEAD REFORMS

Transparency International calls on finance ministers from the Group of 20 leading economies (G20), meeting this week to maintain the growing pressure for greater corporate transparency, particularly of financial institutions.

In a letter to Ministers of Finance from G20 countries and Governors of Central Banks, Transparency International said that corporate transparency is a crucial element for delivering economic growth and fighting corruption.

“The G20 finance ministers have the power to stop corrupt people hiding behind secret bank accounts and opaque corporate structures. Making corporate structures more transparent will help meet the stated aims of the World Bank, IMF and G20: increase financial stability, restore trust and prevent money laundering,” said Transparency International chair Huguette Labelle. “This year we have seen a flurry of new rules at EU level. Now it is the turn of the G20 as a whole to keep up the momentum for global financial reform.”

Transparency International is pleased to note that finance ministers have already expressed support for work on identification of beneficial owners of corporate vehicles.

New measures must ensure thorough disclosure of increasingly complex corporate structures so that investors can better assess risks and regulators can identify fraud and abuse.. A 2011 World Bank reportwarned that out of 150 high-level corruption cases, 172 companies used 800 corporate vehicles involving more than US $50 billion.

The letter calls on the G20 to meet its commitments to financial reform by taking a firm hand in ensuring:

• the incorporation of beneficial ownership information into annual, public corporate registries,
• all national financial regulatory and supervisory rigorously enforce  Know Your Customer and due diligence procedures to prevent anti-money laundering,
• more countries join the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information and the OECD Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, and support the automatic exchange of financial information. 10 EU countries have taken such steps in the past fortnight.

Each spring and autumn, the Boards of Governors of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund (IMF) hold their Annual Meetings to discuss a range of issues related to poverty reduction, international economic development and finance.

Source: http://www.transparency.org/

Mrs Uzoma Cyril Attang

Attang, who was absent in court when the others were first arraigned, was in charge of the police pension fund when N7.8billion was stolen through 10,863 cheques. She was also discovered to have personally signed 1,042 cheques to the tune of N1, 141,309,080.25.

Investigation revealed that Mrs. Attang used several companies to defraud the Police Pension Office. Some of the companies which she allegedly used are Royal Diadem Business Logistics Limited, Amazing Grace Property Development Company, Enyiuzo Ventures Limited, Status Symbols Rentals Limited, Status Travels and Tours Limited, Quillponte and Anifon Nigeria Limited.

Operatives of the Commission have traced more than twenty assets to her, which are currently under investigation.

Wilson Uwujaren

Ag. Head, Media & Publicity
9th April, 2013
Source: http://saharareporters.com/

late military dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha

A competent source close to the panel, whose office is in the presidency told Saturday Sun that about four different meetings between the SIP team headed by a retired senior military officer and a Switzerland-based lawyer, Enrico Monfrini, hired by the Federal Government to assist in the recovery of the Abacha loot in foreign jurisdictions, had taken place outside the country in the last eight months.

Monfrini is an Attorney-at-Law, Monfrini Grettol & Associés, Geneva, Switzerland. The source, who preferred to be anonymous because of the sensitive nature of the subject, said: “In the course of the recent meetings between the Nigerian team and authorities in about four other jurisdictions as well as the team from the foreign legal firm, it was discovered that a lot of underhand dealings must have taken place in the recovery of the Abacha loot.

“This was largely responsible for the under-declaration of what has been recovered so far by three successive governments and worse still what is still trapped in offshore accounts, which, in our estimation, in our last meeting with our foreign team, stands at $210 billion.” Some of the foreign jurisdictions, where the stolen funds had been traced to include Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

One of the latest discoveries includes a $550 million in a coded account in France. “It has been very difficult to get details out into the public domain so far because the latest process is being secretly coordinated by the retired senior military officer heading the SIP in the presidency and the Attorney General of the federation, who provides legal advice for the team,” the source added. The Federal Government was said to have been encouraged to dig deeper into the Abacha loot because of a recent statement credited to the Swiss lawyer, Monfrini, handling the case.

While giving further insight into previous efforts to recover the stolen money, the lawyer was quoted to have said: “Civil action was initiated by the Federal Republic of Nigeria before the High Court of London in May 1999. It resulted in the seizing of only USD 60 million in the United Kingdom. The ‘full account’ given by the members of Abacha family was notoriously incomplete, notably in respect of their Swiss, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg assets, totaling USD 1.5 billion, which were entirely omitted. Less than USD 10 million of frozen assets been forfeited and recovered in the United Kingdom, none of which was through civil proceedings.”

Only the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo has been able to record the highest amount of $1.25 billion from the Abacha loot. The preceding regime of General Abdulsalami Abubakar and the succeeding government of the late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua could not do much in this regard notwithstanding the efforts also made. Obasanjo recently gave an indication that much could still be trapped outside the country when he declared, at a function in Delta State: “When I was president, I called the World Bank.

I said, please, give me the list of the amount that has been stolen, where it is kept and who the beneficiaries are. I never got anything from the World Bank thereafter. We have on our own decided that we will investigate and get from one family, Abacha family alone. “From the Abacha family alone, we recovered millions of dollars. I got 1.25 billion dollars and the lawyer in Switzerland (he is still there), who was doing it for us, said, when I was leaving, that if we worked harder, there was still, at least, one billion dollars that we can get from that family alone.” General Sani Abacha had ruled Nigeria as a military Head of State between November 17, 1993 and June 8, 1998, when he died suddenly of a heart attack.

As a result, General Abdulsalami Abubakar became the head of state and within a short time, he re-established democracy in Nigeria, arranging for general elections that resulted in the emergence of Obasanjo assuming the presidency as the democratically elected leader of the country in 1999. Before Obasanjo took office, Abubakar’s government had delivered a clear message that Abacha had looted huge sums, and they had to be restored. Members of the Abacha family and some of their accomplice then ‘voluntarily’ returned approximately $1 billion to the Federal Government.

In 2002, the Obasanjo administration tentatively came to an agreement with the Abacha family to return another $1 billion out of the $1.1 billion that had been identified, traced and frozen, with the quid pro quo that the Abachas would be allowed to keep balance that had been assessed not to be of criminal origin. The arrangement was not well received by the masses.

Although the proposal caused a massive outcry for seeming to reward the theft of public funds, it was subsequently rejected by the late dictator’s son, Mohammed Abacha, who continued to maintain that all the assets in question were legitimately acquired. The highest sum that had in the past been traced to the family ranged from $3 billion to $5 billion, which includes money allegedly derived from misappropriation of funds from the Central Bank of Nigeria, bribes received from multi-nationals, among others.

The Swiss government last December said that it has so far returned to Nigeria the sum of $700 million stolen by the late dictator and deposited in several Swiss banks. The Swiss ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Hans-Rudolf Hodel, had announced the figure at a media briefing in Abuja. In addition to freezing about $640 million, the Swiss judicial authorities handling the case have also indicted Mohammed Abacha and Atiku Bagudu under Swiss legislation regarding money laundering, fraud and taking part in a criminal organisation.

While the latest discovery of the volume of stolen funds still trapped outside the country may appear as an indication of a breakthrough in the renewed effort to recover the looted funds, the sad news is, however, that Nigeria may never get the money back through the legal means it has been following since 1999. “In one of the last meetings before the SIP team stopped foreign trips on the case, the Nigerian government was told in plain terms that it will be too hard to get the money repatriated to the country through any court case or legal battles except through diplomatic negotiations with the foreign jurisdictions where these funds have been servicing their economies,” our source added.

It was further gathered that the Jonathan administration is already contemplating the idea of checking the record of recoveries made under the coordination of a former National Security Adviser (NSA). As a result, the SIP was said to have recently interacted with a retired Deputy Inspector General of Police, DIG Peter Gana who worked with the ex-security adviser on the recovery of the Abacha loot with a view to getting certain clues needed for further probe.

Source:http://247nigerianewsupdate.com/

Azuka Onwuka

It was also curious that there was no comment from the NJC that suggested that it planned to report the judges to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission or the police for prosecution. The NJC’s recommendation that the two judges be compulsorily retired by their employers, the Federal Government and the Plateau State Government respectively, was not different from the unpopular fine of N750,000 Justice Abubakir Talba gave to Mr John Yusuf, a self-confessed thief, who admitted to have stolen N2bn of the N27.2 billion of missing police pension fund a few weeks back. In that same case, Justice Talba, who is also being investigated by the NJC, insulted the sensibilities of Nigerians and made us a laughing stock of the world, by that ridiculous judgment.

Compare that with the ongoing case of a former US congressman and one-time Democratic Party rising star, Jesse Jackson Jnr., who pleaded guilty last Wednesday to misusing about $750,000 in campaign funds on luxuries such as fur capes and a Rolex watch. A five-year prison term is staring him in the face. And going forward, his political future has been destroyed. He has been tainted for life. He will never contest any election or be appointed to any public office in the US. No serious person will like to be publicly associated with him again. With such heavy consequences, why would any American public office holder want to be corrupt?

The action and inaction of Nigerians at all levels show that it pays to be corrupt in Nigeria. And if corruption pays, it is logical that corruption will worsen in Nigeria. Integrity hardly pays here. If it ever does, it pays in trickles. But corruption pays in billions of naira, which are used to make donations to churches, mosques, communities and universities, to “cleanse” the corrupt money and acquire prayers, titles, awards and honours.

Nigerians love to pontificate and lament about corruption but when a person is being tried for corruption or a crime, his people gather around the court premises, sometimes in clothes bearing the accused’s picture and name, and praise him for being a rare gem. Such people claim that their son is being persecuted for his stand against the government. Another comment from such people is: “Is he the only corrupt person? Why haven’t other corrupt people been arrested too?”

Taking it further, it was ridiculous that the House of Representatives and the Senate gave the anti-terrorism bill accelerated hearing, giving a 20-year jail term for a “terrorist”, while not doing anything to strengthen the anti-corruption law. Section 2(c) of the bill defines “act of terrorism” as any act by anyone who is involved in or who causes an attack upon a person’s life which may cause serious bodily harm or death; kidnapping of a person; destruction to a government or public facility, transport system, an infrastructural facility including an information system, a fixed platform located on the continental shelf, public place or private property likely to endanger human life or result in major economic loss. Almost all the states have also passed laws on kidnapping with a capital punishment for the crime. These are commendable steps. But a serious doctor who wants to cure malaria would not focus primarily on headache or fever and discountenance the root cause of the headache and fever: malaria.

It is, therefore, laughable that such laws are being passed in a country where the maximum penalty for stealing billions of public funds is about two years. Just as in the cases of former Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, and former Inspector-General of Police, Mr Tafa Balogun; by the time they were sentenced, they had spent such periods of time in detention, and consequently walked out of detention as free as a bird. Why then would someone in office not steal as much as he can?

It is the same fate that befalls drug traffickers and advance-fee fraudsters in Nigeria: Their sentences are usually less than two years. By the time their cases are done with, they just walk out of detention, because they must have spent up to a year in detention while the case was on. Such a person begins to plan for the next crime, because the punishment for the crime is ridiculous.

In contrast, those who steal a goat worth N5, 000 or a motorcycle worth N30, 000 are sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. Some are even forgotten in detention for over 10 years without any trial. Many of them die in the terrible prisons in the nation.

Rather than speedily passing laws on terrorism and kidnapping, which are indirect products of the monumental corruption in the nation, one would have expected the National Assembly to have amended the laws on corruption, drug trafficking, fraud – three crimes that have made every Nigerian a suspect in all parts of the world – and recommending a minimum of 20 years prison term for such offences with no option of fine. That is still more lenient than the death penalty in countries like China, Indonesia, Malaysia for such crimes. Such heavy sentences will not deter hardened criminals from such crimes, but before anyone decides to embark on such a crime, the person will know that if caught and jailed, chances are that he/she will come out prison in his/her old age.

And this fight against corruption does not stop only with public officers who steal public funds or demand bribes for contracts and appointments; it also involves the private citizens who demand bribes to award contracts to certain companies. It involves the private citizen who collects gratification to continue to use particular suppliers for jobs. It involves the man or woman who will not sign a document on his or her table unless a certain amount of money is made. It involves the pastor that collects money before he can pray for a sick person, or the pastor that does not care how his members make the money they donate to his church; or the journalist that will demand money before he can write a story, or the journalist that will collect money to kill a story; or the lecturer that will demand money or sex to give a student good grades; or the community, church, mosque or university that celebrates a person known to be a criminal; or even the ordinary Nigerian that keeps quiet about the corruption of his or her friend or relative. Corruption is corruption — whether big or small — and it is dangerous to the growth of a nation.

It is contradictory and hypocritical for our people to complain bitterly about corruption in public places, yet when our relative or kinsman gets into any political office, we believe that it is his turn to get rich. And if he leaves office without stupendous wealth, we call him foolish or holier-than-thou. In addition, once our kinsman gets into office, we mount personal and communal pressure on him with a long list of many things he must accomplish for us.

The time has come for us to stop commending any effort that is a mere slap on the wrist of a corrupt person. If we don’t fight corruption with zest, the wealth of this nation will continue to be stolen by a few people, and all efforts to transform this nation will be in vain.

Source: punchng.com

Needless to say the politician is probably hailed by those awaiting part of the loot he is stealing; the writer might have got his sponsorship from buddies he has been sucking up to in hagiographies paid for by the subjects; and the young woman’s promotion is likely to be an exchange for sex or the expectancy of it. So some form of corruption plays a role in all of these examples.

But corruption per se does not necessarily stand in the way of development. Otherwise a country like Indonesia—number 118 on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, not that far removed from Nigeria’s 139—would never have made it to the G-20 group of major economies. An even more serious obstacle to development is the lack of repercussions for underachievement. Who in Nigeria is ever held accountable for substandard performance?

Since I came here, I have been on a futile search for a stable internet connection that does what it promises. I started with an MTN FastLink modem (I consider the name a cruel joke), and then I moved on to an Etisalat MiFi connection (I regularly had to keep myself from throwing the bloody thing against the wall), and now I am trying out Cobranet’s U-Go. I shouldn’t have bothered: equally crap. And everyone knows this. They groan and mutter and tweet about it. But still, to my surprise, no one calls for a class-action suit against those deceitful providers.

A one-day conference I attended last year left me equally puzzled. Organisation, attendance and outcome left a lot to be desired, if you ask me. But over cocktails, after the closing ceremony, everyone congratulated each other over the wonderful conference—that started two hours late, of which the most animated part was undeniably lunch, and in which not a single tangible decision had been made. This left me wondering whether we had attended the same event.

I thought these issues to be unrelated at first, but gradually I came to see the connection. Nigeria is the opposite of a meritocracy: you do not earn by achieving. You get to be who and where you are by knowing the right people. Whether you work in an office, for an enterprise or an NGO, at a construction site or in government, your abilities hardly ever are the reason you got there. Performing well, let alone with excellence, is not a requirement, in fact, it is discouraged. It would be too threatening: showing you’re more intelligent, capable or competent than the ‘oga at the top’ (who, as a rule, is not an overachiever either) is career suicide.

It is an attitude that trickles down from the very top, its symptoms eventually showing up in all of society, from bad governance to bad service to bad craftsmanship.

Where excellence meets no gratification, what remains to be celebrated is underachievement. That is why it is not uncommon to find Nigerians congratulating each other with substandard results. It is safer to cuddle up comfortably in shared mediocrity than to question it, since the latter might also expose your own less than exceptional performance. Add to this the taboo of criticising anyone senior or higher up and it explains why so many join in the admiration of the emperor’s new clothes.

I have been writing this column for the last year, and after ten months I realised my angles were getting more predictable and my pieces less edgy. I figured newcomers do not remain newcomers forever and therefore decided to round up the ‘Femke Becomes Funke’ series this month, a year after it started. Ever since I announced the ending, tweeps have been asking me to change my mind and in comments on the columns and through my website I get songs of praise that make me feel my analyses of Nigerian society are indispensable. If I had no sense of self-criticism, I might be tempted to reconsider my decision to discontinue the series and start producing second-rate articles. Who would point this out to me if I did?

The hardest thing to do in Nigeria is to continue to realise there is honour in achievement and pride in perfection. I imagine the frustration of the many Nigerians who do care for their work, who take pride in their outcomes and who feel the award is in a job well done. When you know beforehand that excellence will not be rewarded, you are bound to do the economically sane thing and limit your investments to accomplishing the bare minimum. This makes Nigeria a pretty cumbersome place for anyone striving for perfection.
Talk to Femke on Twitter: @femkevanzeijl

The decision from a closed-door meeting Tuesday of the Council of State to pardon former Bayelsa state Gov. Diepreye Alamieyeseigha drew immediate outrage across Nigeria, an oil-rich nation long considered by analysts and activists to have one of the world’s most corrupt governments.

While the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan repeatedly says it is fighting the entrenched system of graft that strangles Nigeria, the leader has shared stages before with convicted politicians. Meanwhile, the country’s largely opaque budgets and loose regulatory controls continue to allow for hundreds of millions of dollars more to be stolen annually.

“It is the final nail that tells the story of fighting corruption in Nigeria today,” said Nuhu Ribadu, a former police officer and corruption fighter who led the Alamieyeseigha case. “I’m really sad. I’m sad for my country.”

Alamieyeseigha served as governor of Bayelsa state, in the heart of Nigeria’s oil-producing southern delta, from the nation becoming a democracy in 1999 through 2005. He was arrested in London after more than $1 million in cash was found in his home there.

Alamieyeseigha escaped British authorities — Nigerian officials say he disguised himself as a woman — and fled to Nigeria, where he had immunity from prosecution while in office. He was then impeached and charged in Nigeria with illegally operating foreign accounts in London, Cyprus, Denmark and the United States. Investigators said he acquired property in Britain and Nigeria worth more than $10 million.

The disgraced governor later pleaded guilty. Alamieyeseigha’s impeachment brought Jonathan, a little-known marine biologist who served as his deputy, into power. Jonathan as recently as a few weeks ago referred to Alamieyeseigha as “my boss” during an event in Lagos.

On Tuesday, the Council of State, comprised of current and former leaders, as well as retired chief justices, approved Alamieyeseigha’s pardon, Doyin Okupe, an adviser to Jonathan, confirmed on Wednesday.

Okupe described the pardon as a group decision, though ultimately under Nigeria’s constitution, only Jonathan has the power to grant it as president. The decision allows Alamieyeseigha to again serve in public office.

“It is like a parent, it is not every decision a parent takes that is palatable or acceptable to the children. But in due course, we always find out the parents were right,” Okupe told private broadcaster Channels Television. “The man has been displaced from his office as governor, he was hounded and tried and jailed. … What is eminently wrong, you know, in giving a remorseful sinner pardon?”

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, likely lost more than $380 billion to graft between 1960 and 1999, Ribadu once estimated while head of the country’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. Meanwhile, just more than 60 percent of Nigerians earn the equivalent of less than $1 a day, according to a study published by the country’s National Bureau of Statistics.

Ribadu, who served as the anti-corruption chief under the ruling People’s Democratic Party and later ran as an opposition presidential candidate, said the pardon will make the nation’s police question whether pursuing such cases in the future is even worthwhile

“There’s not anything people can do anything to bring the people who are corrupt to justice,” Ribadu told the AP. “It’s a terrible development. I can’t understand how leaders will sit down and come up with an unbelievable action like this.”

___

Associated Press

MY RESPONSE AND EVIDENCE ON AVM ATAWODI (RTD)
I, Rabiu Hassan, hereby confirm, re-assert and declare that it is absolutely true that the N620, 910,000.00 paid to me by AVM Atawodi and credited into my account on the 28th November, 2011 with A/C. No. 1830010246947901- HYPERTECH NIGERIAN LTD was indeed and in fact mostly converted into USD$ which AVM Atawodi collected and diverted for his private use. EXHIBIT A here attached is an extract from the official statement of account detailing the transactions carried out by me, the dates, specific amounts, the names of the beneficiaries and the Bureaux De Change that I used to purchase USD$ which, with the exception of the last item on the extract, were mostly delivered by me personally to AVM Atawodi. The Extract statement from ECOBANK speaks for itself even though it excluded some of the transactions carried out through a micro-finance Bank to purchase USD$ for the same purpose. The extract also does not contain details of some direct withdrawals by me and or through other parties, all of which were for and at the behest of AVM Atawodi (please find here Exhibit A 1 which is from the original statement of account showing those items omitted in Exhibit A above). What is fundamentally proven by the extract from ECOBANK is the fact that monies from the N620,910,000.00 paid by PICOMSS were at various times and in varying quantum withdrawn or used to purchase USD$.
Exhibits A & A1 on their own do not prove that the Dollars so converted were actually collected by AVM Atawodi, it may be argued.
But I have three (3) living witnesses that could testify and (two) 2 have indeed testified, one via sworn court affidavit and the other in witness statement as being privy to the fact that AVM Atawodi did collect the monies. In fact, on the 1st occasion, one of the witnesses was actually physically present.
These 3 witnesses are:?(a) The Bank branch manager-Ecobank Plc.?(b) Jingina Mohammed – My driver and a witness to the
actual exchange of the 1st sum of USD$ 1.3 Million given to AVM Atawodi.
(c) Mr. Roland (second name unknown to me) a protégé, close confidant and right hand man of AVM Atawodi, who in fact lives with the Atawodi family in the family home at Maitama, Abuja, for very many years and is, as far as I know, still living there.
Mr. Roland took physical possession of the money USD$ 1.3million at the car park of the IBB Golf Club and on the instructions of AVM Atawodi.
From the very beginning, I was fully aware that the N620 million was meant to be stolen because Atawodi made it very clear to me that he was in a hurry to get some money and service some judges handling the various litigations that followed the outcome of the Kogi State gubernatorial election disputes in which Atawodi was a candidate. Atawodi also confided in me the need to service some members of the National Assembly working for his bill before the NASS for the conversion of PICOMSS from an AD-HOC Committee into a full government agency.
I am no saint myself in this matter. On Atawodi’s instruction, I took USD$400,000 for myself. I have freely confessed to this fact in my statements to the SSS and EFCC investigators.
The transfer to my account was done without any documentation whatsoever. I never ever presented any invoice or demand for payment. I did not sign any payment voucher nor was there any contract or agreement between PICOMSS and myself
as at the time the money was credited into my account.?For the record the N620,910, 000.00 paid by PICOMSS is not USD $ 4.4 million as reported by The Nation newspaper. As at the 28/11/2011 the open market value of the Naira to Dollar was at N167.5 – USD $ 1, which means the N620,910,000 was worth USD $3,760,925.37. EXHIBIT A1 also shows that Mohammed Mustapha of Hypertech Nig. Limited received the sum of N10 million from the N620 million largesse. M. Mustapha should step forward and tell Nigerians what the N10 million he collected was for. For the record, M. Mustapha was a direct
beneficiary and part and parcel of the stolen N620 million.

2. ON N 1 BILLION CLAIM
“There is fresh evidence showing that over N1 billion was paid out so far but none of the six Boats has been delivered”. The quote is attributed to a source close to the SSS investigation team as reported in The Nation’s news story.
I bought these six (6) boats at an auctioned price of only Euros • 250, 000.00 each (basic), which amounts to Euros •1.5 million for the six (6) boats.
Atawodi requested the inclusion of optional items such as Radars, Navigation equipment’, night vision systems and spare parts etc. which after negotiations brought the total cost of the boats to Euros • 2,013,563.00million. And it was this price that the then NSA – Gen. Azazi (late) insisted on paying for the boats, less the cost of shipping and my agency fee. See Exhibits B1 – B10. So where does the alleged N 1 billion come from? I challenge anyone in this world to come up with proof that I got paid N 1 billion or more!!
Exhibits B3 – B5 are proof that I paid Euro 1, 820,000 to TP Marine out of Euro 2,013,000.00 with all transfers and receipts attached. Exhibit B6 is a copy of the certificate of ownership all of which have been released to me by TP Marine.

2A. WHY THE SIX BOATS ARE NOT DELIVERED
The conspiracy between Atawodi, the “2 Jews” who own M15 – and Mohammed Mustapha of Hypertech Nig. Ltd is the reason why the Boats have not yet been delivered. 1st, M15 sued Mohammed Mustapha in court in Holland and obtained a temporary court order attaching 3 of the 6 boats. See EXHIBITs C1 -C7. Place these in context with particular notice to the dates and the conspiracy is glaringly clear. With Azazi out and Sambo Dasuki in (Dasuki being another colleague and course mate of Atawodi), Atawodi must have been emboldened to re-launch his bid to defraud Nigeria of the 15.5 million Euros.
The “2 Jews” are ostensibly claiming USD$500,000 from M. Mustapha which they allegedly paid as deposit for the boats on behalf of Mustapha and 50% of the PICOMSS contract profit due to M. Mustapha. They showed an agreement they signed with M. Mustapha as proof.
I challenge anyone including the “2 Jews” Mustapha and PICOMSS to produce any contract awarded by PICOMSS to Mustapha to supply the 6 boats! I aver and assert that no such legally binding contract exists anywhere between PICOMSS and anybody.
I challenge the “2 Jews,” Mustapha and PICOMSS/Atawodi to show proof that PICOMSS or any of them paid a single kobo to TP Marine on the so-called PICOMSS contract. And I assert that the claim of the “Jews” to have invested USD$500,000 is a fraud and blatant lie! Exhibit B10 proves that beyond doubt.

3. ON HOW THE N 620,910,000.00 (USD $ 4 MILLION CAME ABOUT)
The deal for the purchase of the six (6) boats at the cost of Euros •15.5 million was based on Atawodi’s claim that the then NSA (now late General Azazi) had in fact jointly with Atawodi determined that the boats should be bought by PICOMSS at the cost of Euros 3.2 million each. Azazi was going to release the money to PICOMSS to pay for the boats. Atawodi reminded me that Azazi was a very close friend and confidant, that they were actually course mates at The Nigeria Defence Academy and that with Azazi in on the deal and paying, we had no need for due process certification. In fact, Atawodi assured me that the full •15.5 million would be paid by Gen. Azazi within a week and that the entire deal would be wrapped-up in 2 weeks time.
Atawodi collected my banking details, summoned his accountant and ordered that the sum of USD $ 4 million in local currency be paid into my account. N620, 910,000.00, apparently calculated as the equivalent of USD $4,000,000.00 at the official rate, was paid into my account by PICOMSS. My evidence here is the sales contract signed between PICOMSS and Hypertech UK Ltd/Hypertech Nig. Ltd for •15.5 million without recourse to any due process or approval. See Exhibits D1-D3 (Note: The EXHIBIT here attached is a back-dated document. My witness is PICOMSS’ secretary, Col Gabriel Musa).

4. ON GENERALAZAZI (LATE)
After a period of one month passed with no payment coming from Azazi, and with my personal investment already committed and the N620,910,000.00 paid by PICOMSS already gone, I became very worried and decided to enquire as to what was going on.
Atawodi’s response was that he had suddenly realised that Azazi was his enemy and was in fact not only refusing to release the money to PICOMSS but was also behind the withdrawal of PICOMSS bill before the National Assembly.
Atawodi assured and advised me not to panic as he had cut a deal with the National Assembly for PICOMSS to be voted huge sums of money in the 2012 budget which this time around would not be buried under the NSA’s budget, but would be paid directly to PICOMSS. He also said that I should just wait for the budget details to come out and he, Atawodi, would have the money to pay me to continue with the transaction.
Atawodi informed me that all he needed to do was pass my papers through the BPP, obtain a certificate of no objection and that he didn’t need the NSA anymore.
This was patently absurd and total madness to me. Here was a man, whom Atawodi alleged was in on the deal to inflate the price of the boats and overnight this same very man became Atawodi’s greatest enemy on earth. My senses simply could not accept this abrupt somersault and I knew something had gone badly wrong with the deal.
I personally knew Gen. Azazi as a friend and associate to whom I had free access as the NSA. I decided to check on Azazi to find out what had gone wrong as I was still working on the assumption that Azazi was part and parcel of the deal.
I made arrangement and saw Gen. Azazi, confronted him with the case of the PICOMSS deal and required to know what had gone wrong.
Azazi was utterly and totally shocked and rendered speechless by my assertion that he and Atawodi had fixed the price at which the boats should be bought by Nigeria and which had led me into a major financial commitment only for things to go awry at this late stage.
After Azazi had regained his composure, he sat me down and swore in all the names of what is holy that he has never sat down with Atawodi to discuss, determine or fix the price at which the boats were to be bought by PICOMSS.
Azazi informed me that Atawodi came to him requesting him to approve and release •15.5 million to enable PICOMSS acquire 6 boats which they had sourced in Holland, and that his response to Atawodi was that he couldn’t release that kind of money to PICOMSS unless Mr. President approved such an expenditure.
Azazi told me he advised Atawodi to write him an official memo stating PICOMSS’ requirement, and he (Azazi) would then forward his own memo to Mr. President seeking for Mr. President’s approval for such expenditure by PICOMSS.
Atawodi presented the memo on the basis of which Azazi filed a memo to The President on PICOMSS request.
According to Azazi, Mr. President, having gone through the memo informed him that he would only approve the request if the original due process certification of the contract for the boats originally awarded by MOD in 2007, was made available to him.
Mr. President’s position was conveyed back to Atawodi by Azazi, with a request that Atawodi comply and present the certification for presentation to Mr. President. Azazi insisted that was all that ever occurred between him and Atawodi on the issue of the 6 boats.
In fact, Azazi went on to intimate me of the fact that on 3 consecutive occasions Mr. President had cause to ask him about the due process papers and that he felt very embarrassed before The President and that consequently, he chose to completely ignore Atawodi/PICOMSS on the matter of the boats and never referred to it again.
I had every reason to believe Gen. Azazi’s version because he was clearly unaware of the true cost of the 6 boats which was only •1.5 million, as against the •15.5 million PICOMSS was requesting and was stunned beyond belief when I casually revealed to him the actual cost of the boats.
I suggested to Azazi that since Atawodi was one floor below his office, he should Summon Atawodi to join us and confront him with all these facts.
Gen. Azazi decided on a different approach, probably considering it beneath his dignity to have an open confrontation with Atawodi, especially in front of a relative outsider like me.
On the spot, Azazi took a number of decisions:
He directed me to steer clear of the PICOMSS contraption, and deliver the 6 boats to the Nigerian Army and not PICOMSS; and he assured that he, Azazi, as the NSA, would pay me for the boats as part of his contribution to the Nigerian Army.
In front of me he summoned the Chief of Army Staff, who arrived Azazi’s office while I was still within the premises. And Azazi later informed me that he had asked the Chief of Army Staff to, with immediate effect, forward him a memo as to whether the Nigerian Army still required the boats or not, and that the COAS promptly submitted a memo strongly soliciting for the boats. Azazi also informed me that he had already given his approval to the transaction on the memo submitted by the COAS.
Azazi made it very clear to me that he was not awarding me a contract but is only cleaning up the mess created by PICOMSS and therefore he was paying for the boats at the exact auction price that I got them for i.e •2, 013,000.00 million – not a kobo more, not a kobo less – and that he would pay me for my services only the sum of •600,000.00, for which I thanked him and indicated my acceptance.
See EXHIBITS D1 & D2 in evidence of the instalments approved and paid me by Azazi and Col. Sambo Dasuki, the new NSA. Both Azazi & Sambo paid me and dealt with me as HYPERTECH (MR) Ltd. Neither of them recognised any other company or names.
As far as the case of the Army Boats is concerned, Gen. Azazi played a very positive role by stopping the PICOMSS scam and saving the Federal Government of Nigeria over 13 million Euros. If he – Gen. Azazi – was part of the scam, he wouldnt have done this.
Gen. Azazi is now late and cannot speak for himself. But Mr. President is very much with us and is best placed to stand up for Azazi by confirming or denying what Azazi had attributed to him. The Chief of Army Staff is still with us as the COAS. The Special Assistant to the late Gen. Azazi and Gen. Wiwa, Azazi’s Chief of Operations are all alive and may have been privy to Gen. Azazi’s side of the story. I think the least that Gen. Azazi
deserves from the COAS and those that worked closely with him is the moral courage to speak up for the dead man who was their close friend and mentor. See Exhibit D3.

5. ON THE “JEWS” (DAVID MAMAN AND SHAY TAL) OF M15
There have for decades been operating in Nigeria, largely legitimately, serious minded, committed and honest Israeli businessmen and women with very solid names and reputations built over time.
The “JEWS” typified by the characters behind M15 are relatively new breed of Israelis and distinguished from the normal Israelis we knew by their utter and complete lack of conscience, insatiable and vicious greed and their capacity and willingness to do anything for money. These characters are the “MONEY GRUBBERS”, “the USERERS” and “heartless exploiters.”
M15 or David Maman and Shay Tal, whose generally unscrupulous conduct in handling government contracts is widely known, are out only to fleece Nigeria at all cost. These crookish businessmen are not only behind the 145 million Euros project designed to dupe Nigeria on the so-called 5 year contract for the leasing of 2 Israeli spy satellites from IMAGESAT – an Israeli state owned company – a project whose real value is less than USD $40 million (note: USD $ not Euros), they also are guilty of having duped both the BPP and the FCTA administration into approving the purchase of 1 unit surveillance balloon at USD $1.9 million while the actual cost of the project is less than USD 300,000. The same Jews were kicked out of Akwa Ibom state by current Governor – Godswill Akpabio – for duping the state in a deal for provision of equipment and material support for the tracking and apprehension of kidnappers. The duo are also, even as I write, still being investigated by the EFCC for alleged criminal breach of contract against the FGN.
These “2 JEWS” are Atawodi’s henchmen and professional experts at misleading, manipulating, concocting and feeding false information to the BPP for Atawodi – PICOMSS to obtain the desired Certificate of No Objection on the 15.5 million Euro boats deal. They deliberately lied by giving the BPP false information and specifications about the boats. They also lied and presented themselves to the BPP as the manufacturers’ representatives. See Exhibits E1 – E3.

6. ON MOHAMMED MUSTAPHA OF HYPERTECH NIG. LTD
This is a young, very hungry, unprincipled, opportunistic and desperate Nigerian. It is very easy to understand how and why M. Mustapha can so easily be drawn into the web of conspiracy and deceit by Atawodi and the 2 “JEWS,” given the figure of 15.5 million Euros being dangled before the eyes of such an unprincipled and desperate character.
Mohammed Mustapha was nothing more than an ingrate, a liar, impostor, betrayer and convenient tool at the hands of Atawodi and M15 – the “JEWS”. The boy is so desperate that he actually wrote the NSA asking for a double payment of N659,332,144.00 to get the boats delivered.

7. CRUX OF THE MATTER: ARE THE 6 BOATS PAID FOR BY ME OR NOT? WAS THE MONEY PAID ME BY THE NSA FOR THE BOATS DIVERTED OR APPLIED FOR THE PURPOSE IT WAS MEANT FOR?
Here, I need not comment. Refer to EXHIBITS B1 – B10 above. And I challenge anybody in this world to prove the contrary! I have paid fully for the boats less an outstanding balance of Euro 154,000 which my lawyers in Holland refuse to release in view of the court attachments by M15.

8. THE CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE: A COVER-UP OF JUST SHEER INCOMPETENCE?
Here is a very interesting question! You have a situation in which The President’s NSA paid up a total sum of EURO 1.5 million to me for the supply of the 6 boats to the Nigerian Army! On the other hand, you have “2 JEWS”, M. Mustapha and Atawodi/ PICOMSS claiming ownership of the very same 6 boats on which the ONSA expended the sum of EURO 1.5 million!
And yet, neither the NSA nor any other relevant authority in Nigeria is asking questions or bothered to find out what is going on until my open petition to The President and the D-G SSS. This is so incredible! What is going on? The least one will expect is that I be taken to task to explain the anomaly? No one did! And this is in spite of my innumerable letters, reports, memos and pleadings to the NSA, all of which to date I’ve never ever received even an acknowledgement letter. This is also in spite of my Holland lawyers’ several written requests to the NSA and other authorities which were never either acknowledged or replied. This is also in spite of the various written communications by TP Marine – the manufacturer of the 6 boats – to both the NSA, the Army authorities and the MOD, none of which was ever acknowledged or responded to!
EXHIBITS F1 – F5 here attached speak for themselves!
So why the conspiracy of silence? Is it an attempt to cover- up and save one of “our own” or just sheer incompetence or the usual NO ONE GIVES A DAMN!! I demand an answer!!!

9. BELLO FADILE & THE NSA’S INVESTIGATION
The investigation instituted by the NSA and being handled by Col. Bello Fadile (rtd), Director for Special Duties, ONSA was from the very beginning either diversionary or mischievous or is meant to achieve an undisclosed agenda. Clearly, the investigation is not really about the 6 boats/PICOMSS. Nor was it about the very serious crimes against Nigeria as reported by me in my petition which includes the Euro 145 million satellite deal, the Naval Dockyard fraud, the MOD failed contracts scam deal, amongst others. What agenda are the NSA and Bello Fadile pursuing?
Are the NSA and Fadile on the side of Nigeria or whose interest are they serving? See Exhibits G1-G3.
10. ON PICOMSS
Most of the Newspaper stories about the scandals at PICOMSS have focused largely on the issues of the supply of the six patrol boats and the scam associated therein.
In my actual petition, I had emphasised more on the fundamentally very very corrupt and rotten structure that PICOMSS had become, principally used as a vehicle for the siphoning of public funds.
I had for instance, referred to the 2011 National budget of Nigeria in which PICOMSS, an ad-hoc committee set up by the presidency, was somehow allocated the sum of N50 billion, which is twice the N25 billion allocated to the Office of National Security Adviser (ONSA) in the same 2011 national budget.
Nobody seems to have paid much attention to this anomaly. In spite of the fact that legally and constitutionally, PICOMSS is not entitled to a share of the national budget of Nigeria in its capacity as an ad-hoc committee, it was allocated such a mind-boggling amount in the Appropriation Act of 2011, hidden under the budget of the ONSA.
This has been the tradition since I knew PICOMSS. To the best of my knowledge, PICOMSS was not set up by, neither does it report to the NSA.
PICOMSS was originally set up by the presidency under the umbrella of the Federal Ministry of Transport with the Honourable Minister of Transport as Chairman and membership drawn from various places.
In fact, PICOMSS was originally housed within the premises of the Ministry of Transport. I’m not privy to how it came about that the Minister of Transport no longer Chairs PICOMSS. Nor am I aware as to the fact and circumstances under which PICOMSS was lent office spaces within the office of the NSA.
It is a fundamental breach of our constitution for PICOMSS to have direct access to the national budget of Nigeria. But it was very convenient for PICOMSS and its promoters and patrons for PICOMSS to appear to be part of the office of the NSA.
My petition did not focus on the so-called N3 billion scam over the supply of six units of K38 boats. I had, in my petition, brought up specific charges of massive official corruption, total disregard to and the manipulation of the due process or procurement law which under the leadership of AVM Atawodi led to the massive fraud perpetrated in the acquisition of two or three private air crafts, the project for hanger construction in Benin and Lagos and the project or contract for the supply and installation of a National Maritime Rader coverage of the coastal waters of Nigeria, to mention just a few.
All these allegations have been totally ignored by the Bello Fadile-led NSA’s investigation in spite of my assertions that if investigated none of these projects would be found to have conformed with, or passed the due process of Government in the management of public funds. These projects have cost Nigeria tens of millions of Dollars & Euros, carried out by an ad-hoc committee which I still challenge to produce evidence of a Presidential or Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval for any of its projects or contracts.
But this has always been the case in PICOMSS, as even before the ascendency of Atawodi as Chairman of PICOMSS, a fraud of monumental proportion in which Nigeria was bled of over •240 million Euros, ostensibly paid as the cost of a contract for the total radar coverage of Nigeria’s Maritime borders, at the end of which only three units of unserviceable UAVs and five units of 40 nautical mile capacity of unusable radars were supplied and dumped in Nigeria, none of which had ever worked to date, occurred.
This grand theft was perpetrated by an even more notorious Israeli defence contractor called Amit – owner of the infamous company known as DOLYATECH – through a front company registered in Israel called AERONAUTICS and with the active connivance and collusion of the leadership of PICOMSS and very top-placed government and close personal aides of The President of Nigeria.
The recent revelations by the Nuhu Ribadu committee about the over N19 billion paid to PICOMSS from the NNPC accounts only confirm my stated position that PICOMSS has been a massively corrupt and major drain pipe of the Nation’s resources, not accountable to any body and operating in total disregard to any laid down procedure or due process of Government.

11. THE THREAT TO MY LIFE
My life and that of my family have been under threat since my petition on the official corruption and the subversion of Nigeria’s security and defence interests through the award of fraudulent and often unexecuted defence and security contracts or projects.
This threat to my life and my family are very real and serious. Just last week, Thursday, December 27, 2012, my house was invaded and forcefully broken into by 3 truck-load of heavily armed policemen in company of the “2 Jews,” Shay Tal and David Maman, at about 2pm in the afternoon. Investigations are going on to determine where from and by whose authority the police came and invaded my house in company of the “Jews.”
The invading policemen and the “2 Jews,” where at my house demanding for my whereabouts, knowing fully well my office address. The invaders illegally arrested 4 of my domestic staff, and had them detained for hours at the Life Camp Police Division on no account.
My lawyer and I have sought for protection from the SSS and Police. Suffice it to say that no amount of threat to my life or my freedom can silence me. I have a lot more documents and information on what has been going on. And I will sing like a canary. I say to all my detractors, please bring it on. I am equal to the challenges, even though they control and have access to the apparatus of state coercion and I stand alone with only the truth and with God on my side.
I hereby call on Mr. President to institute a high-powered judicial commission of inquiry into the Defence and Security contracts awards for the last two decades to see how Nigeria lost hundreds of billions of US Dollars.”

Signed: Rabiu Hassan Abuja 02-01-2013

Source1: http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/75509-how-we-diverted-shared-south-south-oil-money-n6bn-army-contract-funds-meant-military-equipment.html

Source: http://newsrescue.com/nigeria-how-we-diverted-and-shared-n6bn-army-contract-funds-hypertech-director/#ixzz2MpzD4ed0