How Obasanjo and his inner circle Stole Nigeria's Billions of Dollars
Friday, 09 September 2011 17:09 [elombah.com]

Corruption pervades the entire levels of the private and public sector under the administration of Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, so said a US Diplomatic cables revealed by wikileaks. The report said that "the arrests in London of the Bayelsa and Plateau State governors have barely scratched the surface of the endemic corruption at the federal, state, and local level. The diplomatic cables noted that in a
widely-circulated August 22 letter to President Obasanjo, Abia State Governor Orji Uzor Kalu accused Obasanjo of corruption, listing a number of
dubious deals, including:

--Cancellation of the contract for the construction of the national stadium in Abuja, only to re-award the contract to a different vendor at a higher price.

--Use of public funds for capital improvements at two private schools secretly owned by Obasanjo.

Obasanjo's response was to agree to be "investigated by the EFCC, which reports to the President.  When the EFCC invited Kalu to provide evidence to support his accusations, Kalu refused, pointing out that the EFCC was not an independent investigative body and had no authority to prosecute the President, and the investigation died out.

The President's chicken farm in Otta is one of the largest in Nigeria.  A Presidential spokesman said in November 2004, in order to explain Obasanjo's personal wealth, that the farm generated about $250,000 per month in income, though it was nearly bankrupt in the late 1990s (ref
A).  Regardless of whether the current income figure is accurate, at least some Nigerians think it is unlikely that Obasanjo's military pension and benefits were the sole source of investment for establishing this huge enterprise, valued by a construction engineer involved in the construction at
more than $250 million.

It is also widely believed that the President's inner circle also reaps hefty rewards with impunity.  Some frequently cited examples are:

--Edmund Daukoro, recently named Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, was charged in 1994 for embezzling some $47 million as a managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).  The charges were abandoned, and Daukoro's political career soared when Obasanjo took office in 1999.

--Senator Florence Ita Giwa, indicted for misappropriation of funds by the Idris Kuta Panel in 2000, was pardoned along with other indicted senators, and she was named a special advisor to Obasanjo when she left office.

--The head of the National Airport Management Authority (NAMA), Rochas Okorocha, was caught and dismissed for embezzling about $1 million through an inflated contract; Obasanjo then appointed him as a senior aide, without requiring Okorocha to repay the stolen funds.  Okorocha was
eventually fired on July 13 in a cabinet reshuffle, but went on to start a political party for his renewed presidential ambitions.

--The recent auction of oil blocks included some firms bidding,, sometimes with no prior ties to the oil industry, that were linked to Obasanjo associates, including Daukoro, Rivers State governor Peter Odili, Ogun State  governor Gbenga Daniel, presidential advisor Andy Uba,  presidential
chief of staff Abdullahi Mohammed, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Nasir al-Rufai and PDP Board of Trustees Chairman Tony Anenih.

--Anenih was indicted by the National Assembly for the sum of 300 billion Naira (approximately $2.4 billion) missing from Ministry of Works and Housing while he was the minister.  The missing money is widely believed to have paid off 2003 elections  "expenses," including to Balogun, in addition to
lining his own pockets.

--Minister of Finance Ngozie Okonjo-Iweala is said to have steered contracts to her brother (JonJon) with the help of el-Rufai.  The contracts, said to amount to about $50 million, have been paid for consulting work for the Ministry.

--Al-Rufai is at the center of the corruption allegations. Well-known to PolCouns eight year ago, when he was homeless and seeking a loan to import a taxi from the UK, al-Rufai is said to have recently purchased seven upscale properties in a posh Abuja neighborhood.  His demolitions of commercial and residential buildings in the capital have reportedly provided an opportunity for himself and several of his friends.  After demolishing residential properties in Kubwa, the land was reallocated to several of his friends and to an investment company he allegedly owns.  The community of Chika, where about two square miles of development was demolished in December, has allegedly been allocated to the same group of people.

--Chief Olabode George, current PDP National Chairman (Southwest) is a close friend of President Obasanjo and a leading proponent of the Third Term Agenda.  He is one of the people accused of financial recklessness in the affairs of the National Port Authority, where he was chairman when the financial scandals were allegedly committed.  He was retired from the Navy in the 1990s by the Babangida Administration after serving as military governor of Ondo State from 1987 to 1990 in addition to other military postings.

--Chris Uba, recently appointed to the PDP Board of Trustees, admitted rigging during the 2003 elections and attempted to kidnap the governor of Anambra state to try to collect payments for his efforts.  Linked closely to several vigilante groups in the state, he is widely believed to be
responsible for the burning of many state government buildings in Awka, crimes that have yet to be solved.

¶10.   (C/REL UK) Obasanjo himself is believed to be one of the owners of Suntrust Petroleum.  And questions remain about the Obasanjo Library project, which collected enormous sums of money from government contractors, banks, industrialists, and state governors, ostensibly for the construction of a presidential library, the plans for which are vague.  It is widely believed throughout the country that Obasanjo and his
son, Gbenga, are major shareholders in the newly reorganized Zenith Bank and UBA Bank as well as in airlines and the telecommunications sector.

¶11.   (C/REL UK) The Bureau of Private Enterprises oversaw the privatization of many government-owned business, including sugar, steel, rice and other sectors.  It is widely believed that the privatization exercise benefited both the President, through Aliko Dangote, and the Vice President,
through various agents.

¶12.   (C/REL UK) Meanwhile, at the state level, the personal excesses of several governors indicate that they are finding ways to supplement their government salaries:

--Edo State governor Lucky Igbenedion purchased a $6 million mansion in London in 2000 through a series of shell companies, a year after he was elected governor.  He has two Ferraris on the premises.  He also owns reputedly the most expensive residence in Abuja, estimated at $25 million.

--Delta State governor James Ibori owns two London estates. The properties were purchased for $3 million and $4 million, respectively, after Ibori was elected governor.  Through a shell company registered to his London-based wife, he offered for public auction an ongoing supply of 6 million barrels of oil per month.  When reporters confronted his wife, the shell  companies abruptly changed their directors so that Ibori's wife was no longer listed.

--Rivers State governor Peter Odili has built an impressive portfolio from his corrupt dealings as governor of one of the oil-rich states in Nigeria since his first election in 1999. Beginning his political career as a medical doctor with a small private clinic in Port Harcourt, he now hosts extravagant events and boasts that it would not have been possible "before he became governor."  Further, he is widely suspected of being directly responsible for facilitating massive irregularities in both the 1999 and 2003 elections. His own state officials have claimed that Odili has employed militia groups, many of which are responsible for the continuing unrest in the delta region.

--Each of the 36 state governors donated 10 million naira (about $75,000) to the Obasanjo library project.   Following a public outcry, the library organizers stated the donations were from the governors' personal funds, but several governors backpedaled from their commitments, claiming they
had made no such pledges.  When a Lagos lawyer filed a code of conduct complaint alleging conflict of interest in the President's receiving these donations from recipients of government funds, Obasanjo invoked the immunity clause of the constitution, and the complaint died out.

Section 308 of the 1999 constitution gives immunity from civil or criminal prosecution to the President, Vice President, Governors, and Deputy Governors, and many holders of these offices have clearly taken advantage of this privilege.

The rest of the wikileaks report:

SUBJECT: CORRUPTION: NIGERIA "IMPROVES" TO SIXTH-WORST IN THE WORLD, WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?
-------
Summary
-------

¶1.    (U) Transparency International recently released its annual Corruption Perceptions Index for 2005, showing that
there are now five countries in the world perceived to be more corrupt than Nigeria.  In 2004, only two countries had
been listed as more corrupt.  As expected, the GON both claimed credit for the "improvement" in position, and denied
that there was still a corruption problem in Nigeria.

¶2.    (S/REL UK) Corruption remains widespread in Nigeria at all levels of the private and public sector.  The arrests in
London of the Bayelsa and Plateau State governors barely scratched the surface of the endemic corruption at the
federal, state, and local level.  The current campaign to ferret out corrupt officials is widely perceived to be nothing more than a political witch hunt by President Obasanjo, a view supported by examining cases targeted at
high-level officials.
Section 308 of the 1999 constitution gives immunity from civil or criminal prosecution to the President, Vice President, Governors, and Deputy Governors, and many holders of these offices have clearly taken advantage of this privilege.  There is no such immunity from U.S. visa revocation under Presidential Proclamation 7750, however, and post plans to submit further requests for revocation of visas of corrupt public officials. End Summary.

--------------------------------------------- --------
Transparency International: Nigeria's a Little Better
--------------------------------------------- --------

¶3.    (U) Transparency International (TI) recently released its annual Corruption Perceptions Index for 2005, showing
that there are now five countries in the world perceived to be more corrupt than Nigeria:  Chad, Bangladesh,
Turkmenistan, Myanmar, and Haiti.  In 2004, only Bangladeshnand Haiti had been listed as more corrupt.   Nigeria's
absolute rating increased slightly, from 1.6 (out of 10) to 1.9, though the range of the confidence interval could have
placed the country anywhere in the bottom nine.  As expected, the GON claimed credit for the  "improvement" in position, saying it was evidence of the Obasanjo administration's reforms.  And as expected, the GON also faulted TI's
methodology and denied there was still a corruption problem in Nigeria.

¶4.    (U) The World Economic Forum has released the results of a survey finding improvement in Nigerian firms'
perceptions of corruption in the country.  For example, from 2002-2005, the percentage of Nigerian firms that believed
public funds in Nigeria were diverted due to corruption decreased from 100% to about 75%.

¶5.    (U) The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and its chairman, Nuhu Ribadu, continue to grab
headlines, as newspapers eagerly report the rumored targets
of EFCC investigations.  Independent Corrupt Practices
Commission (ICPC) chairman Mustapha Akanbi stepped down on
September 29 and was replaced by another former Supreme Court
justice, Emmanuel Olayinka Ayoola.  Meanwhile, the EFCC and
the ICPC have won only a single conviction of a high-level
public official:  on November 22, former Inspector-General of
Police Tafa Balogun, fired for corruption, pled guilty to
minor obstruction charges and received a sentence of just six
months, less time served.

---------------
What Can We Do?
---------------

¶13.   (S/REL UK) While we cannot prove all of these
accusations in a court of law, their significance is that
they are widely believed both among political figures and
among that part of the general public that is politically
aware.  It is in the USG's interest to support Nigeria's
efforts to root out corruption and, while our positive public
pronouncements contribute to the environment, the biggest
influence we can have is the judicious use of U.S. visa
revocation for corrupt practices, as provided by Presidential
Proclamation 7750.  Though we are unable to identify every

ABUJA 00000483  004 OF 004

corrupt official, the Mission is compiling a list of some
prominent and egregious corrupt officials from throughout the
country.  This list will take into consideration the
individuals, levels of corruption and the impact on Nigerian
stability of a 7750 decision.  The list could be expanded in
many directions, but the Mission feels that such an effort
would demonstrate the sincerity and seriousness of the USG's
commitment to good governance and, if these individuals are
found ineligible, that finding could contribute greatly to
entrenching the precepts of good governance and
accountability in Nigeria.

Privatisation: Another multi- billion naira drawback from Obasanjo

Written by Nuruddeen M. Abdallah, Turaki A. Hassan and Abdul-Rahman Abubakar Sunday, 14 August 2011 00:00

Revelations coming out of the Senate hearing on the privatization exercise indicated that almost all the 120 public enterprises sold to private firms since 1999 are either completely dead, or are currently operating at capacities worse than before they were privatized. As the committee sits, it also comes forward with a harvest of fraud, racketeering and official corruption. It also further dimmed former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration’s dwindling image. Not only that, people who were believed to be business geniuses were exposed as mere opportunists who fed on carcasses.
The probe has definitely changed the public perception of the privatization implemented by Obasanjo’s administration from 1999 to 2007. At its inception, the government came up with the policy of “government has no business doing business.” The policy sought to handover all Federal Government-owned companies to private operators either through privatization or commercialization. This resulted in the establishment of the Privatization and Commercialization Act of 1999. Consequently, in November 1999, Malam Nasir el-Rufa’i was appointed Director General of the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE), the agency saddled with the sole responsibility of selling off the companies. Available rrecords indicate that the Federal Government spent over $100 billion from 1973 to 1995 to establish public enterprises.



Government’s reasons for privatization

So many reasons were put forward by the federal government for the sale of virtually all its enterprises. Some of the cogent ones included that they had become completely inefficient and unable to deliver the much needed services to Nigerians, become conduit pipes for siphoning public funds as well as huge burdens on the government’s revenue.

The motive behind the policy introduced by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration was to ease government of the burden of running moribund firms by transferring them to private hands, believed to be more efficient in steering the wheels of business and economic growth. The policy was to ensure that the declining government companies are revamped through the injection of technical expertise, experience and funds by the private entities. The private firms were to ensure growth of the companies thereby creating jobs and opportunities for the people.

Also, it argued that since the late 1970s, public enterprises were not working. Instead, they were not only a drain on the economy as they were not providing services, but “were captured by the elites for their own benefits.” “In the BPE then we crafted a phrase which we called ‘the reverse Robin hood.’ They were stealing from the poor and giving to the rich. This is because only the rich and the connected get the services,” el-Rufa’i said.

In 1998, public enterprises were costing the country N265 billion; which is more than a billion naira per day to support the enterprises. The money came from subsidies on foreign exchange, import duty and tax exemptions. Also, they were not paying VAT to revenues they don’t remit.

El-Rufa’i also gave an insight into the state of the companies then when he said that, “as at 1998 during the military regime of General Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd), the budget of the federal government was N300 billion but the government spent N265 billion supporting inefficient, corrupt and epileptic public enterprises. That was the philosophy behind privatisation and commercialisation of the companies.”


How privatization policy was derailed

The privatization initiated by the General Ibrahim Babangida administration was derailed by Obasanjo’s administration, former Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Managing Director of Nigerian Industrial Development Bank (NIDB), Alhaji Abubakar Abdulkadir, had said in an earlier interview with Sunday Trust.

“Worse of them all is what Obasanjo’s administration had led us into. That is privatization. I think that was the worst thing that ever happened to this country. During Babangida’s time, we were the people who drew up the privatization programme. We categorized it into three groups: those that will be kept under the finances and control of the government; those to be commercialized; and those that would be outrightly privatized,” Abdulkadir said.

He explained that, “we just did not do it because we wanted to privatize any project established by government. We did not do it that way. Obasanjo made it that way. It was on that basis that he privatized everything. With no focus, no parameter, he just privatized.”

Abdulkadir explained that “in the privatization process, there was no idea whatsoever what would happen to the projects after the privatization exercise. When we drew up that programme during the Babangida era, we also drew up programme of how the projects would work after the privatization exercise. You remember the PCPC under the late Hamza Zayyad? Those were the projects we gave to him to privatize because it did not make any sense for them to be held by the government. We went to the second sector so that they can be adequately financed and managed so that they can really contribute to the economy.”

“At that time, even the breweries were being financed by the federal government. Can you imagine brewery? Textiles, they should not be run by government. Those were those we grouped and said, ok, Alhaji Hamza, sell these. And even the banking sector, we categorized in the second group for commercialization. Then the third group we said government should hold like broadcasting, communication and the rest of them. When Obasanjo administration came, this categorization was thrown overboard. And everything was privatized,” the former permanent secretary, said.


Senate’s intervention

However, 13 years down the line, in spite of the much talked about expected benefits from the exercise, most of the companies have not just failed to improve on what’s they used to be under government ownership. Rather, the companies have completely folded up and gone into extinction, thereby leading to the loss of hundreds and thousands of jobs. Worried by this sorry state, Senator Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan (ANPP, Yobe North) and 25 other senators sponsored a motion on the floor of the senate which was unanimously adopted leading to the setting up of an ad-hoc committee to probe the activities of the BPE on the privatisation and commercialization of federal government owned public enterprises in Nigeria from 1999 to date.

The senate’s intervention was occasioned by the fact that the privatized companies have failed to achieve anything after they were privatized. This is despite the policy’s grace of period of up to five years for the privatized companies to take-off. In the life of the sixth National Assembly, several lawmakers made efforts to bring off the issue of endemic rot inherent in the privatized companies. That session was however, burdened by several other probes including the power probe, aviation sector probe, FCT probe, transport sector probe and the food crisis probe. The last assembly also concentrated more on the constitution amendment to achieve reforms in the electoral process. Though most of the privatized companies already showed signs of decay characterized by apparent fraud in the bidding process, the last National Assembly could not directly probe the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) on the matter.

In the same vein, after the 2011 elections and the post-election violence that followed, some lawmakers began to ponder the remote causes of violence across the country. To many of them, unemployment has become the major source of concern to stakeholders in the polity as violent acts by youths are becoming more rampant in the country. It is no longer a secret that in virtually all corners of the nation, youths are seen in their thousands roaming the streets with no jobs or any source of seeking a living. The situation is easily linked to failure of the privatization programme which was perceived as a means of increasing employment opportunities.

Most importantly, the issue had also become a prominent topic of discourse soon after the Daily Trust newspaper, in an analysis, exposed the rot in some of the prominent privatized companies. The BPE caused several rejoinders to be published on the matter and at the end of the day, made the matter a subject of discourse in corridors of power. It culminated in the Vice President, Namadi Sambo, who is also the Chairman of the National Council on Privatization (NCP), disclosing that 80 percent of the privatized companies have failed.

Consequently, Senator Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan (ANPP, Yobe North) who had also been lamenting the failure of the privatization and commercialization policy, decided to bring the matter before the senate for deliberation. Lawan expressed concern over the failure of the policy, insisting that there are possibilities of fraudulent activities in the bidding process as well as poor post privatization evaluation on the part of the BPE. The senator who was chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts in the Sixth Senate, was curious to find out the factors militating against efficient running of the privatized companies and the reasons for their failure to meet the expectations of growing the economy.

In his motion, Lawan told the Senate that, “due to the collapse of the privatized companies, there are massive loss of jobs and colossal loss of economic returns to the Nigerian economy. For example, the privatized companies in the steel sector that used to employ up to 20,000 workers, now have less than 4000 after the exercise. The Electricity Meter Company of Nigeria, Zaria, that was privatized in December 2002, recently fired about 90 percent of its workforce.”

As the probe continues, there have been startling revelations made before the Lawan -led seven-man senate panel. There have been allegations of how some of the individuals who acquired the public companies did not meet the basic requirements for the privatization process. The major requirements for taking over a public company were technical expertise, experience in running similar firms as well as the financial muscles. The panel has been told that several firms were denied the opportunities to acquire public companies even after winning the bids. Some businessmen also fraudulently used the companies as collateral to secure huge loans from banks. In some instances, investors were only interested in the assets of the companies. In the days ahead and as the panel visits some of the companies, there are bound to be more revelations.


Gross Undervaluing

Not sooner than when the committee commenced public hearing last week than shocking and astounding discoveries began to emerge on how the transactions were done, sorry state of the companies, among other disheartening revelations.

Specifically, on Monday August 8, 2011, the Lawan -led panel was told how the $3.2 billion Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON) located in Akwa Ibom State was sold to a Russian firm, Russel at the sum of $130 million. The same ALSCON, which the federal government equipped with a 540 mega watts capacity power plant, from 1980s -1996. The BPE had earlier valued ALSCON at $250 million but turned back and discounted $120 million to the Russians in September, 2006.

According to BPE’s DG, Ms Bolanle Onogoruwa, the discounted $120 million was meant to dredge the Imo River which it will use to ferry its raw materials and also export finished products using bigger ships. However, five years after, Russel neither carried out the dredging exercise, nor remit the money to the BPE but rather chose to ship its goods through the Onne Ports.

“The pricing was anomalous. Russel has no capacity to dredge but was given $120 million to outsource the dredging. The sale was like dashing the company to Russel, with N800 million naira import waiver and gas subsidy to last for 20 years. As a Nigerian, I feel grossly short-changed,” Senator Lawan said.

“It is a criminal act for a $3.2 billion company, operating at 75 percent technical capacity and 95 percent structural capacity to be sold at $250 million at a time when it has worked for 18 months,” Senator Mohammad Magoro (PDP, Kebbi South) said.

In the same vein, the $1.5 billion Delta Steel Company was also sold to an Indian company, Global Infrastructure, though it never bidded for it. The company was sold 80 percent of the company’s shares at the sum of $30 million, which the BPE boss admitted that she suspected foul play in the transaction. Not only that, the $30 million was only paid instalmentally over a period of two years long after the company was sold.

The senators were also told of another allegedly shady deal in the purchase of Nigerian Re-Insurance Corporation by Global Fleet owned by Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim. Though the company was worth over N50 billion, it was sold for N1.5 billion. Shortly thereafter, Ibrahim used only two of the company’s assets to secure a N41 billion loan from Union Bank Plc. The company which had staff strength of over 1,000 as at 1996 was reduced to 23 workers under Ibrahim’s management. BPE’s current boss, Ms Onagoruwa, however, told the panel that she was not aware of the shady deals and series of illegalities labelled against the chairman of Global Fleet.


The Jimoh Ibrahim saga

Business mogul, Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim, also allegedly forged documents and a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which he used to acquire 70 percent majority shares in National Insurance Company of Nigeria (NICON). According to presentations and documents made available to the committee by Dr Dickson I. Osuala, representing Assurance Acquisition Limited (AAL), the preferred bidder in the privatisation of NICON; alleged that Ibrahim presented a fake MOU between his company, Global Fleet Oil and Gas Ltd to BPE before acquiring the insurance giant when he claimed to be a director of Oceanic Bank and offered to assist AAL to get the funding through the bank.

“One Jimoh Ibrahim of Global Fleet Oil and Gas Ltd has by use of false representation, name dropping, multitudinous false claims of representing a highly placed individual taken over NICON with diverse illegal acts and has been running it aground,” a letter written to BPE’s Director General on March 9, 2006, which was presented to the panel said. It charged that Ibrahim presented a fake MOU to the BPE dated 27th October, 2005 with a forged signature of N-Glory Development Nigeria Limited’s Managing Director Dr Obiora Okonkwo. It said the Deputy Inspector General of Police, ‘D’ department, had conducted a forensic analysis on it and confirmed that it was forged. A letter confirming the forging of signatures and falsification of the said MOU following a forensic examination by the Commissioner of Police, Forensic Science Laboratory (FORCE CID), Ikoyi, Lagos, signed by one DSP E. Kolawole, was also presented to the lawmakers.

The letter stated, “I refer to your letter dated 15th June, 2006 and have to report that the questioned signature in the column of Director/Chief Executive officer of N-Glory Development Nigeria Ltd on the document viz: “Memorandum of Understanding”, dated 27th day of October, 2005, has been carefully examined and compared with the accompanied specimen signature on N-Glory Dev. Ltd letter head paper dated 8th June, 2006. Examination of the questioned signature in the relevant portion of the document mentioned above carried out with the aid of video spectral comparator (VSC) and other apparatus, revealed evidence of free-hand execution but on comparison with the submitted specimen signature aforementioned, I found features of non-identity between them.”

Similarly, the BPE itself in a letter signed by its General Counsel, Paul Obo Idornigio, addressed to AAL, dated March 23, 2006, acknowledged that AAL was the preferred bidder. “The Bureau discovered that the members in the MOU were different from those evaluated, leading to the pre-qualification for the financial bid of Tuesday, 11th October, 2005.” On the alleged “diverse illegal acts of Jimoh Ibrahim,” the BPE wrote thus: “There is a process of monitoring core investors by the Bureau. This is being used to investigate the illegal acts noted in your letter.”

Also, a financial review of NICON undertaken by KPMG accusing Ibrahim of asset stripping of NICON, which was also tendered, stated, “the total assets taken out of the company either directly or through companies wholly owned and controlled by Jimoh Ibrahim and not properly accounted for amounts to N6.37 billion. He failed to discharge his duties as director as required by sections 279,288 and 282 of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, of 1990 as amended.” The report also detailed how Ibrahim allegedly withdrew 20 million pounds from NICON’s foreign account in London. It said, “the implication of this is that Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim has stripped the company of funds that should have been used to run the company and pay claims to policy holders and pensioners who continue to suffer.”


Infamous roles of Obasanjo

If there is anybody who can tell much about former President Olusegun Obasanjo, it is his former close associate, el-Rufa’i, former FCT minister and BPE boss. However, el-Rufa’i told the lawmakers that his former boss made nonsense of the privatisation plan because he kept interfering in the activities of the agency.

“The government of the day decided they were not going to appoint anybody from inside the BPE. They went and brought someone who literarily was fired from the BPE and that was the beginning of discarding rules, doing things capriciously the promoting people from one level to three levels and the institution has suffered from it since then,” el-Rufa’i said.

The former FCT minister also accused Obasanjo of blocking the privatisation of Nigeria Airways “practically because Kema Chikwe (former Aviation minister) will go and tell him stories and what is the result today? The company is dead. The 2000 jobs have been lost,” he said.

El-Rufa’i lamented that while he held sway at the BPE, he never investigated anyone for corruption except in his last three months. And the only person they investigated ended up succeeding him as the DG in spite of the fact that he recommended that his successor should be appointed from within the system and had recommended three directors and three deputy directors to the former president.

In the same vein, in his separate testimony, former BPE boss, Dr Chris Anyanwu, collaborated what el-Rufa’i told the committee when he said certain interest stalled the privatisation of the comatose Nigeria Telecommunications Ltd (NITEL). But when asked to expatiate on what he meant by the probe committee chairman, Senator Lawan; Dr Anyanwu said, “Officials from the presidency at the highest level. Whoever seats at the BPE is under serious pressure from even quarters you do not expect.”

Again, Obasanjo was accused of usurping the powers of the BPE when the presidency, together with the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel, in 2006 did concession the Ajaokuta Steel Company in Kogi State to Global Infrastructure, according to Ms Bolanle. She said, contrary to provisions of the Privatisation and Commercialisation Act of 1998, the presidency under Obasanjo did not involve the Bureau in the concession exercise.

Minister of State for Steel Development, Alhaji Musa Sada also accused Global Infrastructures, which also bought Delta Steel Company, of asset stripping in Ajaokuta. He said that “they were moving out equipments from Ajaokuta to Delta Steel. They cannibalized spare parts at the company and only wanted to use the place as a warehouse for DSC.”


BPE’s failures

The BPE under Ms Bolanle also illegally sold FG’s five percent shares in Eleme Petrochemical, Port Harcourt, to the same core investors, Indorama, who had saturated their maximum of 75 percent as stipulated by law. Ms Bolanle confirmed that she undertook the illegal sale but said the money was saved in the bank and will return same to Indorama.

On gross undervaluing of the companies, Ms Bolanle insisted that most of the Nigerian companies were built at exorbitant prices saying, “and their cost of production were inflated.”

More so, legislators also discovered that contrary to the BPE establishment Act of 1999, the Bureau had opened and operated uncountable number of accounts in many commercial banks into which were paid privatisation proceeds instead of the one stipulated by the Act to be opened in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

When asked by the committee how many of such illegal accounts BPE has in commercial banks, Ms Bolanle said she does not know their number off hand as there were several of them. She however, maintained that the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) had authorised the operation of such accounts as they were used to pay labour liabilities which were deducted at source before remittance were made to the proceed account in the CBN. “Our understanding is that there is no other law or this Act supporting the establishment of these accounts in commercial banks,” the committee charged.

The Bureau has also contrary to constitutional provisions and the BPE Act, embarked upon deduction from proceeds from source before remittance to the Federation Account. El-Rufa’i, himself, admitted to it before the senators but said, they resolved to be deducting the cost of transactions because the National Assembly refused to appropriate funds for them; contrary to section 80 of the 1999 constitution as amended. The section reads partly, “ All revenues or other moneys raised or received by the Federation (not being revenues or other moneys payable under this constitution or any Act of the National Assembly, into any other public fund of the Federation established for a specific purpose) shall be paid into and form one Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation.”

The Privatization Act also empowers the BPE to monitor privatized companies for a period of three to five years to ensure that they comply with the Post Acquisition Plan agreed upon in the Sale and Purchase Agreement. However, of all the 120 enterprises sold, the Bureau failed to monitor even one. Meaning that on this, it had 100 percent failure record.

“BPE never took any steps to call malefactors to order or exercise its powers as a regulatory agency, with results that all valuable assets of Daily Times of Nigeria have been stolen and squandered by Folio communications Ltd, Fidelis Anosike and Noel Anosike,” Senator Ikechukwu Obiora, Chairman of DSV Ltd said while testifying before the committee.

Thirten years now, thousands of Nigerians have lost their jobs, most of the companies closed down, their assets stolen, sold or stripped, no revenue to the government through tax and levies while the economy and the country as a whole suffers as even tooth picks are now being imported into Nigeria.


Opposition parties’ reactions

Reacting to the privatization probe, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), has accused the ruling party of squandering the nation’s wealth. In a statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Rotimi Fashakin, CPC, “has noted with stupefaction the recent admission of failure of the PDP’s 12 year- old privatization policy by President Goodluck Jonathan. This is coming on the heels of unmitigated plundering of the nation’s resources in a disguised neo-capitalist agenda ably espoused by the leadership of the PDP-led federal government in the past twelve years.

“The gambit that was sold to and patriotically rejected by the Muhammadu Buhari regime in 1984, had been swallowed by the PDP regime, leading to the dubious sale of the property of the the Nigerian state to privileged members of the ruling clique; an action that has brought about huge macro-economic distortions to the polity. It is soundly factual that unemployment index was exacerbated by this failed policy,” the party said.

The party added that “one of the seemingly plausible reasons advanced for this privatization policy, pursued with maniacal enthusiasm, was the efficiency of the production process. Unfortunately, we have not seen this in the company that the assets of Nigerian Airways were sold to. In essence, the policy was so implemented as to evince a new generation of stupendously wealthy individuals at the expense of the Nigerian state.

“As a party, we are desirous of a judicial probe to unearth the culpability of the leadership in the implementation of this policy. It is our belief that this is the only way to lay bare the facts in the making of the infamy against the Nigerian people. It is our hope that all those indicted, as having compromised their positions of trust, must be made to face the full wrath of the law,” CPC said.


Fate of the probe

“Subject to the provisions of this constitution, each House of the National Assembly shall have power by a resolution published in its journal or in the Official Gazette of the government of the federation, to direct or cause to be directed, investigation into any matter or thing with respect to which it has power to make laws and the conduct of affairs of any person, authority, ministry or government department charged, or intended to be charged, with the duty of or responsibility for. To expose corruption, inefficiency or waste in the execution or administration of laws within its legislative competence and in the disbursement or administration of funds appropriated by it,” section 89 of the 1999 constitution, reads partly.

Since the inception of the civilian rule in 1999, the National Assembly has carried out several investigations ranging from the Allocation of Houses to ministers , PTDF probe, FCT probe, Food Insecurity probe, the infamous power probe, Customs probe, death of textile probe etc. But if not all, most of them did not result in any action being taken and now comes this one. It is left to be seen if this will be an exception.

--The head of the National Airport Management Authority (NAMA), Rochas Okorocha, was caught and dismissed for embezzling about $1 million through an inflated contract; Obasanjo then appointed him as a senior aide, without requiring Okorocha to repay the stolen funds. Okorocha was
eventually fired on July 13 in a cabinet reshuffle, but went on to start a political party for his renewed presidential ambitions.

And this is the man some clowns are championing to all over the place?

Dude is just another petty crook like ibori. Always a con man and part of the Nigerian rotten system. No wonder the man is talking about building airport in his village, at least we know we
know where that money is going.

Obasanjo stole 2.4 trillion Naira, says CNPP

While the controversial N3.5 billion contract scam involving Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello is still yawning for investigation and prosecution, a fresh allegation against her father, former president Olusegun Obasanjo, has surfaced in which he is accused of robbing the country of over $900 billion and N1.4 trillion.

This is contained in a petition by the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against the former president.

Anchoring its request for EFCC’s investigation and prosecution of Obasanjo on section 15(5) of the 1999 constitution which stipulates that the state shall abolish corrupt practices and abuse of office, CNPP alleged in its petition that Obasanjo’s clan of “lucrative holdings” runs into billions of dollars and trillions of naira.

The group, made up of opposition political parties in the country, stated that Obasanjo illegally appointed himself minister of petroleum resources contrary to section 147 of the constitution, knowing full well that the oil sector was the cash cow where he and his cronies could have a field day.

“As petroleum minister, the transaction detail was only between himself and the managing director of NNPC. Our investigation shows that between 2000 and 2006, Nigeria lost over $130 billion unaccounted revenue.

“A thorough investigation would crack the secrecy and reveal the wanton billion of dollars that had vanished from the sales books,” the petition reads.

CNPP further alleged that the former president collaborated with two companies employed to handle the four oil refineries in the country to swindle over $1 billion meant for the refineries’ rehabilitation.

“The rehabilitation failed and Nigeria was criminally left at the mercy of international oil market fluctuation as importation of petroleum products became subject of volatility of the exchange rate of the naira to the dollar and prices of oil at world market.

“On this score, we have since confirmed that more than $700 million were misappropriated to enrich Chief Obasanjo and his cronies and to fund his political party, the PDP,” it noted.

The CNPP further stated that in spite of the fact that the companies’ contracts were controversial because they lacked record of specialisation in refinery rehabilitation, Obasanjo “turned a blind eye to the scandal” and the result was that in the twilight of his regime, he sold the refineries to his cronies as scraps.

“In the case of Kaduna refinery, he spent over $200 million to repair it and auctioned it at $106 million.

“Mr Chairman, these monies can easily be located in banks, where Chief Obasanjo used proxies and fanthom names to acquire dominant shares.”

While urging the anti-corruption agency to “exhume the rot in the oil industry,” CNPP asked the commission’s chairman, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, to “study the external firms that audited the account of the NNPC.”

It further claimed that Obasanjo withdrew over N1 trillion “unauthorised and unappropriated by the National Assembly from the NNPC account and the federation account,” adding that it regarded those withdrawals as gross economic and financial crime.

“The Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission severally fought to stem the tide of the withdrawals scourge; as a last resort it had no alternative but to sue the executive.

“This clearly shows that the cost of corruption under Chief Olusegun Obasanjo reached earth-shaking proportions for an arm of government to resort to court process against its principal.

“On account of this face-off, Obasanjo wrote to the Senate requesting for the dismissal of the chairman of RMAFC, Alhaji Hamman Tukur, a dubious requests that was turned down.”

The CNPP further alleged that Obasanjo, in the name of privatisation, sold NITEL to the Investors International Limited (IIL) of London, a company owned by his cronies. But the deal failed because the company was unable to pay 51 per cent shares it bidded to BPE, it said.

“The aftermath of the IIL fiasco was another bizarre fiasco when BPE nominated Dutch company with headquarters at a defunct church house called Pentascope. Pentascope, instead of diligently managing NITEL, reaped of its revenue reserve. In the event NITEL lost N51 billion.”

CNPP also tasked the anti-graft commission to go deeper “to not only recover the price differential and the $160 million paid for dredging Imo River, but possibly revoke the transaction.”

It stated that a total of $7.7 billion was fleeced off to build substations, transmission lines, “and gas pipelines have not taken off, while payment has been made,” adding that the N27 billion medical equipment supply was “over-invoiced and only few of the universities listed to benefit have their equipment installed. We strongly suspect fraud.”

The CNPP finally noted that Obasanjo’s abuse of power and corrupt enrichment were “never exposed in any transaction more than in the acquisition of 200 million shares in Transcorp Plc; for we are aware that out of prison in 1998, the man was going by his own account worth less than 20,000 naira in cash.”

The group then appealed to EFCC not to shirk its mandate as “failure to investigate and prosecute Obasanjo and his cronies and possibly confiscate their illegally acquired properties would send wrong signals and endorse wanton stealing of public assets.

“We shall furnish information and documents as we progress in the investigation and prosecution.”

The petition was signed by Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa for PRP, Chief AC Nwodo for PAC, Malam Mani Ibrahim for ADC, Malam Yunusa S. Tak, William Eziguni and Osita Okechukwu for CNPP.

Meanwhile, in a press statement signed by its national publicity secretary, Osita Okechukwu, CNPP accused President Umaru Yar’Adua of complacency towards the war against corruption.

It stated: “Most importantly, we took into cognisance of the fact that President Umaru Yar’Adua is lukewarm, reticent and reactive, rather than proactive in favour of war against corruption.

“We waited patiently for over six months; the little we observed was reactions to Wilbros scam in Texas, Metropolitan Police found in United Kingdom, Siemens scandal in Germany and Iyabo-gate in Paris.

“None emanated from Nigeria, whilst Mr President is sitting on top of files of monumental corruption.”

http://www.nigerianmuse.com/20071225100551zg/nigeria-watch/official-fraud-watch-towards-fraud-free-governance-in-nigeria/olusegun-obasanjo-stole-2-4-trillion-naira-says-cnpp/

And this is the man some clowns are championing to all over the place?

Dude is just another petty crook like ibori. Always a con man and part of the Nigerian rotten system. No wonder the man is talking about building airport in his village, at least we know we
know where that money is going.

yes we know the motive behind ur writing

we the igbos can only wish okorocha keep the pace of development in Imo for ur eyes to see in time to come

anything from u is just nonesense

ikeyman00:

yes we know the motive behind ur writing

we the igbos can only wish okorocha keep the pace of development in Imo for ur eyes to see in time to come

anything from u is just nonesense

And what's the motive behind wikileaks publishing the story? Let me guess, they hate ibo people too and they forced him to steal and embezzle taxpayers money?


You people are so cluelessly dumb,


lol @ pace of improvement? What improvement? I bet you mean internet page and invisible con man improvement,

^ To be fair WikiLeaks publishes what they believe is true, does not necessary mean that it actually is true.

GenBuhari:

^ To be fair WikiLeaks publishes what they believe is true, does not necessary mean that it actually is true.

The fact that the man stole the money and was fired has nothing to do with what wiki believe is true or not, these are facts. Wikileaks is not a your average corrupt and bogus naija news, their info came from the US and other classified sources. Was he not fired and kicked out of the PDP?

Wkiki is not ibo, Yoruba or Hausa.

what info has wikileak when the north ruled.
they stole more than obj and gej put together.
[size=20pt]i'll say its zonal looting[/size]

I say let Wikileaks keep em coming! But like the ''average'' naija person will say, na thief wey dem catch na im be proper thief. The one wey dem never catch that one na smart guy! No be so?

So, someone like Ibori is a real thief while Obj and associates are smart people.

^It is either the thief is smart or the victim (Nigerian people) are not smart.

[size=18pt]its wealth distribution[/size]

Na today?
Who cares?
It you or I were in Nigeria we would be stealing too.
It is inevitable.

vanity upon vanity! Wen he dies; can he pack all these monies to hell?

he leave am for his children

The President's chicken farm in Otta is one of the largest in Nigeria. A Presidential spokesman said in November 2004, in order to explain Obasanjo's personal wealth, that the farm generated about $250,000 per month in income

if other looters were able to invest in nigeria, unemployment would have reduced drastically.
taxes would be paid and the economy would benefit the multiplier effect.

^you need to have your head examined

OBJ shaping the future for nigerians

Obj is the number enemy of rational nigerians and africans in general.Anybody that has an atom of brain knows that the fifth generation of obj to come wont finish paying for obj's atrocities.

That he is a free man today is because nigeria is a rogue state,as soon as nigeria becomes a country where the rule of law applies,obj will be executed.

who will bell tha cat?
1000 chicken at a round table discussion with 20 wolves deliberating whats for dinner, there will be enough for dinner, there will be take away and lots of left overs.

meaning?

kunlekunle: who will bell tha cat?
1000 chicken at a round table discussion with 20 wolves deliberating whats for dinner, there will be enough for dinner, there will be take away and lots of left overs.

Kalu needs something from Baba i guess, he has neen going around with Baba's name.

First damn good post OP!

I can't wait for Tinibu's wiki to be leaked.

These are open secrets. We know Obasanjo's government had the ample opportunity to set the ball rolling , though he did initiated a lot of reforms part of which this administration is following and he helped stabilize the polity by breaking the military ranks as well as weakening the northern oligarchy but his government was wasteful.. This was the same era with Elrufai as a member of the kitchen cabinet. We should learn from our past

Obasanjo was more than merely wasteful - he was enormously destructive.

The damage he did to the country was enormous and it would take us decades to recover fully from it. There is no reform I can credit to Obasanjo that has benefitted Nigeria , every single thing Obasanjo did in government was intended to benefit Obasanjo first and foremost.

Wikileaks never report anything like dis fake news. I wonder when you people will have sence.

How did IBB,Atiku,Abatcha,Buhari and Northern Govenors stole?