“The reports of both competent findings of the Senate and PWC left two further intriguing question mark on the then Governor of the Central Bank which were: “Sanusi was either grossly incompetent for coughing up three huge billion dollars figures in a space of weeks or he was simply playing politics”….”
This tag bandied around on President Jonathan’s government as the most corrupt in Nigeria’s history is getting very insensitive, outrageous and to say the least very offensive. To begin with documented evidence (what Madam Due Process, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili cynically referred to as Empirical Evidence) doesn’t support this claim of Jonathan’s government been the most corrupt ever.
A simple Google search on Transparency International website reveals otherwise that allegations against President Jonathan’s administration are nothing but an outrageous and uneducated opinion. A lot of Nigerians jumping on this line are unfortunately rehearsing what “they” are spewing out for them in the news. By “they” I mean the All Progressives Congress (APC) who has mastered the art and act of public deception. If one goes to Transparency International website where they have been running a ranking of nations’ corruption index for years, one will see former President Olusegun Obasanjo after all his so-called efforts on corruption left Nigeria at Number 147 on the ranking at his exit in 2007.
This doesn’t even take into account of later revelations on WikiLeaks where the former Anti-corrupt czar and Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Malam Nuhu Ribadu revealed that Obasanjo was more corrupt than Abacha and that Obasanjo was very good in covering up his corruption. Before you might want to sight prejudice and bias, one mustn’t forget that Obasanjo was the one who “made” Ribadu and appointed him as the first EFCC Chairman and even gave him a triple promotion from the rank of an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) straight to the rank of an Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of Police thereby by-passing two ranks of Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) and Commissioner of Police (CP). And Obasanjo did this even against the interest of powerful forces who sought to destroy Ribadu. And “they” finally had their chance against Ribadu under former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua by first sending Ribadu to an “unwanted” course at National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) in Kuru near Jos before they finally removed him from office and appointed a new Chairman Mrs. Farida Waziri to protect their interest. And to ensure Ribadu paid for his troubles “they” didn’t stop at that and even asked President Yar’Adua to review Ribadu’s triple promotion and wanted him to be demoted to a Deputy Commissioner of Police at most. So if there is anybody to be most qualified to give an honest and objective opinion about the Obasanjo’s administration then that man is Ribadu.
Many are also quick to forget that Yar’Adua and his new EFCC Chairman Mrs. Farida even slowed down the campaign against corruption as instructed by “they” that pushed for Ribadu’s sack in favour for her appointment. Things got really bad under Yar’Adua as the nation’s Attorney General Michael Kaase Aondoakaa (SAN) embarrassingly went to the United Kingdom and sternly castigated the British courts and Metropolitan Police in UK for pressing corruption charges against former Delta State Governor James Ibori when according to him “Ibori had no case to answer in Nigeria”. How embarrassing could it get that a nation’s Chief Law Officer in full approval of the President sought to stop a clampdown on corruption even at the expense of humiliation to the country even before the face of the entire world.
It is noteworthy that immediately after the unfortunate death of President Yar’Adua on fully assuming complete Presidential power, Jonathan immediately relieved the embarrassing Aondoakaa of the Attorney General’s powers and brought in a new AG who cooperated with the British authorities in convicting Ibori and his loot returned to Nigeria. But today many Nigerians will be celebrating Jonathan’s government as the most corrupt in our history. Lest we forget, Jonathan has taken Nigeria’s ranking down to Number 136 better than how Obasanjo left it for the Yar’Adua/Jonathan administration. This is in obvious recognition on his efforts against corruption. Added to the Transparency International’s position on Nigeria is also the data available from the EFCC which shows that the Jonathan’s administration has prosecuted more corruption cases than his two predecessors of Yar’Adua and Obasanjo.
To really probe further, why this deep-seated hatred and scorn for Jonathan? Why these extreme judgements on him that he is the most corrupt? The easiest answer to this scathing tag against Jonathan keeps pointing to the celebrated case of missing $20 Billion oil money. The entire perception and judgement of the most corrupt against Jonathan is hinged on this celebrated huge sum as it turns out it is the single highest amount that has ever been reported missing in the history of the country. The missing $20 Billion under President Jonathan beats the reported $2.8 Billion that was reportedly missing from the NPPC accounts under General Muhammadu Buhari as Minister of Petroleum in the 1970s, also beats the $12 Billion oil windfall purportedly missing under former Military President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, also beats the record of $16 Billion power sector money that went down the drain under former President Olusegun Obasanjo and also beats the Billions in dollars, Euros and Pounds Sterling of General Sani Abacha’s loot that have refused to finish and have been flying back in from overseas accounts since the days of Obasanjo’s administration.
Loot that the President-Elect Buhari even uptil this day has refused to acknowledged ever happened. Buhari insist that corruption allegations against Abacha are baseless and pure fiction. But what Nigerians know is that the money coming in from overseas bank accounts where Abacha stashed the loots aren’t bedtime fiction. The only plausible reason(s) to point to Buhari’s continued support of Abacha even in the face of obvious evidence is because he served under that administration as Chairman of Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) and also the other reason might be because Abacha is his “brother”.
A terminology used to describe supports based on ethnic and religious leanings. But what is certain is that Buhari’s unrepentant support for Abacha who is a celebrated corruption King speaks volume against his perceived integrity and how he will fight corruption particularly in the midst of some Persons of Interest amongst his midst in the incoming new government such as Asiwaju Bola Tinubu (aka Lion of Borudillion) Rotimi Amaechi and former Governor of Bayelsa State Timipre Sylva who himself has a ₦46Billion corruption case with EFCC yet despite all this Buhari found him “worthy” to Chair his Inauguration Committee. All eyes will be closely fixed on President-Elect Buhari as he intends to fight his legendary pledge on eradicating corruption as the early signs aren’t encouraging at all.
And looking at the alleged media celebrated missing $20 Billion oil money under President Jonathan, which has earned him the tag as the most corrupt government ever in the history of Nigeria, extensive investigations and audit has returned the alarm as false. This should nail the song as a political gimmick orchestrated by political interest in APC to nail the Jonathan government in an electoral contest and railroad the voters into voting against such a government. The objectives of the APC have worked out successfully but what is left is that the two investigations carried out to locate this missing money has returned empty that such never happened.
Firstly it was the Senate Committee on Finance led by the experienced Chartered Accountant Senator Ahmed Makarfi which carried out its investigations after thorough scrutiny and submission of evidence by the Minister of Finance Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala , and the report came out that the alarm was false as no such money was missing. Their findings went on to say that the only problems the accounts had was proper documentation and reconciliation of expenses made. To digress a little further, the Senate Committee was chaired by a man Senator Makarfi who should have reasons to be politically biased against President Jonathan, as he was turned down for the vacant job of Vice President in 2010 when the Northern Senators Forum led by Senator Umar Dahiru endorsed and presented Makarfi to Jonathan to be appointed as his Vice President.
The only member of the Senate Finance Committee to object against the findings of the Senate report which was fully adopted by the entire Senate was Senator Bukola Saraki who also doubles as the Senate Chairman for Environment and Ecology and is today vying to lead the about to be inaugurated 8th National Assembly as its President. To even be more objective, there is no way in the world that a huge sum as $20 Billion can disappear without a trace after an investigation. We are not talking about $1 million but a whole $20 Billion which is just a little more than the nation’s annual budget with the current 2015 budget proposed at a figure of ₦4.66trillion naira ($20 Billion).
It doesn’t take a Professor of Economics to wonder what the country has been running on, or how the country has been surving without completely folding up and crashing into anarchy if such an outrageous amount was missing or stolen. But yet in between such figures missing, the country economy managed to be rebased and it overtook the South African economy for the first time as the largest in Africa and also a recent world economic report listed Nigeria amongst four other countries referred to as MINT (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey) and the emerging economies of the world. There is absolutely no way such an economy will be growing if such an outrageous figure of $20B is missing. Somebody must definitely be lying amongst the two contending parties between those throwing up the allegations and those defending the allegations.
The next logically question that follows will be then why should a highly cerebral and important technocrat like a Governor of the Central Bank whose very words are sensitive and capable of shaking the economy should throw such a weighty allegation against the very government which he served under? Well the President in his media chat had revealed that at first when his former CBN governor raised the allegations, he took it seriously irrespective of how outrageous he might have sounded because of course he was the Chief Banker of the country and should be in a better position to know more. But the subsequent gyrating from the Central Bank Governor where in a space of just weeks he had coughed with the figures from an initial $49Billion,then went down to $12Billion before finally settling his mind that it was definitely $20Billion. A figure he has continued to defend even until this day that he is serving in his new role as the Emir of the populous City of Kano. The President noted that he had to suspend him to enable an unbiased look into the allegations as according to him “he didn’t know what to believe anymore”.
Another digression a little, a trip down to how Sanusi got to his position as Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria will further draw parallels on how the coordinated false alarm on missing $20Billion oil money was raised by the former CBN governor and by Senator Búkola Saraki who also took credit for raising the alarm. It is well acknowledged by both parties (Sanusi and Saraki) that their friendship spans nearly four decades way back to their days in the prestigious King’s College Lagos.
It is also acknowledged that just few months after been appointed as the first Managing Director of northern extraction of First Bank Nigeria, it was Senator Saraki who then as Governor of Kwara State and also doubling as the Chairman of the powerful Governors’ Forum that took Sanusi to the Presidential villa and introduced him to then President Yar’Adua and recommended him for appointment as the Governor of Central Bank to take over from the then Southern Christian Central Bank Governor Charles Soludo whose tenure had just few months to elapse and many had thought he had done well enough to earn a second term.
It therefore wasn’t surprising that the two men taking credit for raising the alarm on the missing oil money had a huge lot in common. Also not surprisingly, the then Central Bank Governor Sanusi had outrageously written off a huge debt of ₦27Billion naira owed by Senator Saraki who also through his bank Societe General Bank of Nigeria (SGBN) had caused depositors to lose their funds after the bank had fallen. It is Sanusi that will later help his friend Saraki to cover his lost through writing off debts and assisting him to recover his banking losses and licence and rebirth as Heritage Bank. A favour Sanusi never extended to Southern Christian Bank Executives such as Mrs. Cecilia Ibru of Oceanic Bank and Mr. Eratus Akingbola of Intercontinental bank. Sanusi allegedly swore to deal with them, recover their loots and jail them; threat which he successfully carried out. Many political analysts have noted that Nigeria a country deeply divided along ethnic and religious lines vastly has her economic and political decisions heavily influenced along these primitive lines.
To quickly get on with the subject of discussion, even before the Senate Committee had turned in its report which was adopted by the Senate, the International Audit firm Price Water House Coopers (PWC) was engaged to carry out a forensic audit of the accounts of the corporation. As if the Senate report weren’t reliable enough, the forensic report of the audit firm also backed the Senate’s report that no such money was missing.
The details of both reports agreed on the same lines that proper documentation needs to be adopted by a large corporation like the NNPC, but both reports agreed that the issue of missing $20Billion was unfounded. The reports of both competent findings of the Senate and PWC left two further intriguing question mark on the then Governor of the Central Bank which were: “Sanusi was either grossly incompetent for coughing up three huge billion dollars figures in a space of weeks or he was simply playing politics”. An objective investigation of the educational and professional track records of Sanusi leaves beyond doubt the impeccability of his competencies and only the latter reason of playing politics to assist “the Arewa cause” was objective enough. As a matter of fact it is Sanusi’s strong track record uptil that point that sustained the veracity of those claims even amongst international circles: “Why should and for what reasons should a Central Governor lie?” This strong convictions and Sanusi’s insistence on standing by his allegations has earned President Jonathan the worldwide tag as the most corrupt President in the history of Nigeria.
The issue now isn’t whether President-Elect Muhammadu Buhari will order a third probe of the missing oil money when he takes over from Jonathan, as indications from the APC shows that the new incoming government is still not satisfied with both reports from the Senate and PWC; the issue is should the Buhari government decides to probe the account books of NNPC then the terms of reference should be back dated to the 1970s to set records straight once and for all. This will also put to bed the stories of the missing $2.8Billion during his time as the Minister of Petroleum. Any probe by Buhari should not be seen as a witchhunt of the Jonathan’s administration but should also be made to cover the periods of the Obasanjo’s administration were he doubled as President and Commander in Chief and also as the Minister of Petroleum all by himself. Obasanjo ran the Petroleum industry as a family estate, and this period must be looked into. He shouldn’t forget also the periods of IBB and must revisit the $12Billion Pius Okigbo oil windfall report that has been gathering dust in the Presidential shelves. Also most importantly he shouldn’t stop or frustrate the continued repatriations of Abacha’s loot back to Nigeria as words and body language points to the fact that he still doesn’t see or accept that Abacha’s government was ever corrupt.
Mr. Dianabasi A. Udoh
Public Affairs Commentator and Analyst, Abuja, Nigeria
Twitter: dian4real