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OPINION: From Maikanti To Maina: What Next?, By Azu Ishiekwene

By: Bhodemarz on October 26, 2017 / comment : 0 , , ,

It’s one of the ironies of the times that those getting the worst deal from retirement savings are the most vulnerable – the people that the scheme is supposed to help.
Stories about pensioners dying in long, waiting lines have moved from front pages to obscure spots, yet we’re often confronted with news of incredible stealing by public officials managing pension savings.
After months in hiding, former chairman of the Presidential Pension Reform Task Force, Abdulrasheed Maina, returned to the crime scene, hoping that we would have moved on from the allegation that he pocketed N2 billion from the fund.
Maina was an assistant director, Works, Customs, Immigration and Prisons in the Pensions Office when former head of service, Stephen Oronsaye, recommended him to former President Goodluck Jonathan for a job.
Highly connected, Maina is the grandson of Mai Ali Dogo, the Emir of Biu (1920-1935) and his late father, Abdullahi Aliyu Biu, was an ambassador to Mali. But these were not qualifications for the pension job, which was clearly beyond him.
Asking Maina to head an inter-agency team on pension reform, which comprised senior officials from at least five other agencies – and whose job was to straighten out the pension system – was like inviting a carpenter to perform tooth-extraction.
So, this carpenter came with his chisel and hammer to finish the bloody job that charlatans before him had started.
Maina had no business going near the pension fund and if his appointers had bothered to look, they would have found enough wreckage in his own life to warn them.
As an assistant director – the lowest rung in the directorate in the Federal Civil Service – he was heading a small unit, under the supervision of at least two other cadres of directors.
He was on a salary of between N150,000 and N200,000 monthly; and even if he added every naira from his side hustle, the best he would have hoped for was a small apartment in the suburbs of Abuja and a neat tokunbo car.
But that would have been another Maina. Abdulrasheed Maina still managed to live the life, apparently, from the sweat of pensioners pining away from unpaid entitlements.
This Maina, a third league director, paid $2 million cash to buy a house in Abuja. And it has now come to light that the $2 million property was only one in his collection of houses. As a fugitive, he escaped, not to his village in Biu, but to Dubai – that haven of princes – where he stayed for many months, plotting his triumphant return.
When he assumed office on a 30-month appointment to sort out the perennial pension mess, one of the major contracts awarded was for the emplacement of a biometrics system to cater for the estimated seven million plus registered pensioners, whose savings have been raided over the years in the name of “ghost workers”.
Maina actually claimed that he substantially cleaned up the system and exorcised the ghosts. He claimed that his committee recovered over N280 billion for the government, which was handed over to former finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who in turn handed it over to former CBN governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi for the treasury.
He claimed that he blocked loopholes in police pension, which had allowed officers to cream off N1 billion monthly and he actually carries around a hefty cheque stub to prove his claim.
He insists that he is, alas, the innocent victim of vested interests, including politicians, led by former Senate president, David Mark, who waylaid him in the National Assembly, demanding his head on a saucer.
His story hardly passes the smell test, not because it may not contain grains of truth, but because his own lips are shimmering with oil from the spoils. The unnamed persons he is pointing at are not blameless; but while he is pointing one finger at them, four are pointing back at him. It’s a case of who got a bigger share of the pension pie.
I’m surprised that President Muhammadu Buhari’s special assistant on prosecution, Okoi Obono-Obla, an otherwise reasonable man, is talking as if Nigeria owes Maina an apology for the expose by PREMIUM TIMES that led to Maina’s removal this week.
If the government was not ashamed to reappoint a man on the EFCC’s wanted list, pay him salary arrears and move to promote him again, because he has not been convicted of any crime, we may as well ask Diezani Allison-Madueke to return and help tidy up the mess in the NNPC.
This is one shambles too many.
To be sure, pension asset have grown over the years, especially since the Pension Reform Act of 2004, which widened the pension net, expanded the market and established better regulation. Pension asset have also increased by over three-fold since 2009 to nearly N7 trillion, with over N480 billion invested by fund administrators.
But the gains have been in spite of multiple scandals in public sector pensions, and the growing misery among public sector pensioners at federal and state levels. Virtually all those who were supposed to ease their pain have ripped them off. A labour union president, one Ali Abatcha, even faced a trial over a N2.7 billion pension fraud.
In 2013, a former director of Pensions Account in the office of the Head of Service was accused of offering a Senate committee chairman at the time N1 billion to look the other way in a pension scandal being investigated by the EFCC.
The investigation followed reports that civil servants had, over the years, creamed off N159 billion from the pension fund.
That was not all. In a ruling that showed that forlorn pensioners were still on a long way to hope, an Abuja court sentenced one of six federal officials accused of making away with N33billion of police pension fund to two years in prison, with the option of a N250,000 fine.
This scandalous ruling was, among other things, also a parable to Maina at the time of his appointment that he, too, could game the system and get away with a light touch. Yet, his restoration through the backdoor was more than he could have bargained for.
He’s been complaining since his removal, threatening to name names and to tell all. That is precisely what we need: to get Maina to tell us the full story about how an assignment to reform the administration of pension turned into a personal gold mine.
Buhari’s government of change cannot stop with removing Maina. With comparisons between Buhari and his predecessor, Jonathan, becoming worryingly shrill, failing to follow through quickly on the outcome of the presidential investigation into Maina’s second coming, can only further damage his government’s reputation.
It was, to say the least, shocking that the attorney general of the federation and minister of justice, Abubakar Malami, and the minister for interior, Abdulraham Dambazau, whose offices should have raised the flag, actually held the system at gunpoint to reinstate Maina, while the head of service and custodian of the rules, acted as a willing accomplice.
Coming one week after the face-off between the minister of state for petroleum resources, Ibe Kachikwu, and the GMD of NNPC, Maikanti Baru, on the ugly state of affairs at the NNPC, the Maina expose is another test of the vital signs of Buhari’s government.
Taking out Maina and letting the kingpins go unpunished will not only embolden others; it will give the dangerous impression that the anti-corruption war is finally on life-support.
And just after the head scratching on the Kachikwu-Baru saga, and lingering questions about Babachir Lawal and the delay in the release of the findings on the $43 million Ikoyi money, Buhari will struggle to convince the public that the heart of his anti-corruption war is still beating.
Speed kills but in the increasingly perilous highway of Buhari’s cabinet, delay kills even faster.

Azu Ishiekwene is the MD/Editor-In-Chief of The Interview and member of the Board of the Paris-based Global Editors Network.

 Original piece via PremiumTimesNG

The 25 Billion Dollar Palaver By Olusegun Adeniyi

By: Bhodemarz on October 13, 2017 / comment : 0 , , , ,

…I recall a particular episode when we were going to Saudi Arabia for the Third OPEC Summit, in November 2007. Before we left for the airport, someone had given me copy of a publication by a foreign website dedicated to oil and gas reporting. The publication detailed how oil lifting licences were given out by President Yar’Adua in a manner that lacked transparency. In the course of the flight, I scribbled a handwritten note, attached the document to it and went to hand it to him in his cabin.
Not long after, the president called me back and confirmed that all the information contained in the publication was accurate. It was at a time the president was holding on to the Energy Ministry portfolio. He said whenever we reached Saudi Arabia, I should meet the Minister for State for Energy, Mr Odein Ajumogobia and give him the document to read in my presence and let him know that I was acting on his instruction. He said I should listen to his comments and report back to him. He added that I should do the same to the GMD of NNPC, Eng. Abubakar Yar’Adua (not a relation of the president).
When we got to Riyadh, I acted as the president directed. I met the GMD first and he blamed everything on Ajumogobia and the president. When I later met Ajumogobia, he explained that he was powerless and that the GMD of NNPC had no regard for him since he was reporting directly to the president. He also agreed the report was accurate but that the said allocations were done between the president and the GMD.
I reported my “findings” back to the president who took time to explain his own role as well as the promoters of some of the “briefcase companies” on the list. They were prominent people in the society, including those who had held senior positions in government in the past. The president also debunked the charges by both Ajumogobia and the GMD by explaining the role each played in the matter. What was, however, not in doubt, even from the president’s explanation was that the GMD was indeed bypassing Ajumogobia because he had direct access to the president. This to me was not right. With my background in the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), a governing body to which I had been appointed by President Obasanjo in 2004, I was able to offer candid advice which the president promised to heed. When we returned, he indeed directed the GMD to be reporting directly to Ajumogobia but not long after, (Dr Rilwan) Lukman took charge of affairs in the ministry and the equation changed…
=============================================
In view of the controversy generated by a recent letter to President Muhammadu Buhari by the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, the foregoing excerpts from my book, ‘Power, Politics and Death’ is instructive. It is also a clear indication that the power struggle between Kachikwu and the GMD of NNPC, Dr Maikanti Baru is not new. Except you are Diezani Alison-Madueke, (the first, and to date only, sole administrator ever to superintend Nigeria’s oil and gas sector), it is difficult to compel the GMD of NNPC (who has enormous powers of patronage) to report to anybody other than the president.
Thanks to Mrs Oby Ezekwesili who nominated me as representative of the media and President Obasanjo who, to my surprise, approved the appointment, the best education I had going to my job as spokesman to the president in 2007 was my almost four-year experience as a member of the founding NEITI National Stakeholder Working Group. It is also for that reason that I am not carried away by Kachikwu’s allegations or the self-indicting rebuttal by Baru. When it comes to our petroleum sector where the more you look the less you see, I prefer to keep my own counsel.
However, to the extent that serious questions that border on transparency and accountability have been raised by Kachikwu, I hope the president will not treat the matter with deodorant as he did with the report on the ‘grass-cutter’. What the scandal suggests is that for an administration that claims to be fighting corruption, there is no preventive mechanism in place to enthrone any systemic change. In fact, it would seem that this administration has a narrow concept of corruption which is why so much energy is being expended on the retail side while the greater corruption–lack of adherence to the rule of law and due process–which, stripped of all pretensions, is what this scandal is all about, is largely ignored.
If he can wriggle out of the constitutional implications of signing approvals at a period he had ceded powers to his vice president, as it is now being alleged, I hope President Buhari will use this opportunity to identify and fix the gaps that have been exploited in NNPC and perhaps all such other entities. And there is no better way to do that than to order an independent review of all the contracts awarded by the corporation from June 2015 to date. I limit the scope to his period in office so it doesn’t become another weapon to which-hunt his immediate predecessor.
Meanwhile, even though this scandal may not be about any stolen money, I am almost certain that if it were under President Goodluck Jonathan, the APC propaganda machine would by now be on overdrive in telling Nigerians about “how the billions of dollars were shared and who got what”. That is why I am disappointed that nobody in the opposition is making life difficult for those who are notorious for spinning any and every untruth to score cheap political points.
Now, I am sure there will be some claims to a competitive bidding process in the awards of the oil contracts. Yes, it is true that the NNPC invites some stakeholders to witness such contracts bid openings. But as the Yoruba people would say, it takes no magic to put a lump of meat in the mouth and make it disappear. The bottomline is that the NNPC is, and has always been, opaque in its dealings because it has so many things to hide for the federal government, especially regarding the management of the federation account that statutorily belongs to the three tiers of government.
In all the foregoing, what saddens is that the NEITI has provisions that should have helped in detecting some of the breaches being alleged at the NNPC. The question for this administration therefore is: Does the President know and care about the instrument he has in NEITI?
I believe the president should use this crisis to remove the incentive for corruption in the national oil company and clean up the sector by investing in systems that pass the smell test. The passage of the key components of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is key in that direction even as I also enjoin President Buhari to inaugurate the Procurement Council as required in the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) Act so that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) can stop awarding contracts. Incidentally, this is one of the many promises in the All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign document.
All said, the only way President Buhari can redeem his vanishing credibility is to launch a bold deregulation agenda for the petroleum sector and as a first move, he should immediately relinquish the position of Minister of Petroleum and withdraw his Chief of Staff from the NNPC Board. It was, and still remains, a needless decision that runs counter to the enthronement of good corporate governance in such a critical sector.

Original piece by thisdaylive.com

Buhari approved N640 billion oil contracts from his sick bed in London, NNPC chief Baru indicates

By: Bhodemarz on October 11, 2017 / comment : 0 , , , ,

President Muhammadu Buhari was granting approvals for oil deals to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation during the time he was on his sick bed in London – and when he had relinquished presidential powers to his Vice President – the head, Maikanti Baru, has indicated.
Mr. Baru said Mr. Buhari approved at least two separate oil contracts on July 10 and July 31 worth $1 billion and $780 million, respectively.
The N640.8 billion contracts (at N360/$ exchange rate) were approved when Mr. Buhari was receiving treatment for undisclosed ailments in London, and when he was not supposed to be exercising presidential powers, having named Vice President Yemi Osinbajo acting president in a formal correspondence to the National Assembly.
Mr. Buhari was flown to London on May 7, barely two months after he returned from his first 2017 medical vacation which saw him spend 50 days in the United Kingdom.
On May 9, a letter Mr. Buhari wrote to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and President of the Senate notifying them that he had relinquished presidential authorities in accordance with the Nigerian Constitution was read on the floor of both chambers.
Despite rumours of his early return, Mr. Buhari ultimately spent 103 days receiving treatment in London, returning on August 19.
On August 21, the president notified the National Assembly of his return in writing, saying he had “resumed” his “functions as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria with effect from Monday, 21st August, 2017.”
THE CONTRACTS
But on Monday, Mr. Baru revealed that Mr. Buhari had been exercising presidential powers by granting approvals for NNPC joint venture contracts when he was supposedly on his sickbed and not exercising presidential powers.
Mr. Baru gave details of the contracts as follows:
Search:
S/N
PROJECT
Amount (US$mn)
APPROVALS

LOAN EXECUTED BY
NTB
PRESIDENTIAL
TOTAL
2980
1.
NNPC/CNL JV Project Cheetah
1200
16/04/15
01/09/15
Dr. E. I. Kachikwu
2.
NNPC/CNL JV Project Falcon
780
26/04/17
31/07/17
Dr. M. K. Baru
3.
NNPC/SPDC JV Project Santolina
1000
26/04/17
10/07/17
Dr. M. K. Baru
Showing 1 to 5 of 5 entries

(CNL refers to Chevron Nigeria Limited, SPDC to Shell Petroleum Development Company and JV to Joint Venture).
The disclosures were made when the NNPC responded – on behalf of Mr. Baru – to the allegations of contract fraud and insubordination raised by Ibe Kachikwu.
Mr. Kachikwu, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, had in an August 30 memo to Mr. Buhari said Mr. Baru unilaterally approved contracts without recourse to him or the NNPC board, amongst other concerns. The memo surfaced on social media on October 3, sending ripples through the country’s polity.
On October 9, the NNPC responded to Mr. Kachikwu’s allegations by publishing the above contract details, which it said was at the instance of Mr. Buhari, who had kept mum since the scandal broke.
But a look at the dates of the three contracts shows that two of them received presidential approval on dates Mr. Buhari was not in the country, July 31 for the second contract with Chevron Nigeria and July 10 for the contract with Shell. Mr. Baru’s name was placed against the contracts as the person who administered the contract in his capacity as the Group Managing Director of the NNPC.
Only the September 1, 2015, contract which Mr. Kachikwu oversaw during his tenure as the GMD of NNPC received presidential approval on a date Mr. Buhari was in the country and wielding presidential powers.
A compilation of Mr. Buhari’s travels reveals that he was in the country from early August 2015 when he returned from Cotonou until September 7 when he visited Accra.
But while it is clear that the presidential approval granted when Mr. Kachikwu was the head of NNPC happened when Mr. Buhari was exercising presidential powers; it appeared like Mr. Baru received his approval when Mr. Buhari was in London.
GETTING OSINBAJO’S CONSENT
In his memo to Mr. Buhari, Mr. Kachikwu stated that when Mr. Buhari was unwell in London for several months between May and August, Mr. Baru tried to get direct approval from Acting President Osinbajo for some personnel changes at the NNPC.
But Mr. Osinbajo asked Mr. Baru to go back to Mr. Kachikwu and get his input and approval first before making the changes. Mr. Baru refused to consult Mr. Kachikwu on that.
For weeks, the changes were not made, until Mr. Buhari returned on August 19. By August 29, Mr. Baru announced the changes.
This prompted Mr. Kachikwu’s letter to the president on August 30, complaining that he learnt of the development in the media.
Sources at the presidency corroborated Mr. Kachikwu’s claim that Mr. Osinbajo rebuffed Mr. Baru’s attempts to get presidential approval behind Mr. Kachikwu.
Neither the vice president’s office nor Mr. Baru also denied that claim by Mr. Kachikwu.
It is not immediately clear if Mr. Baru also attempted to get approval for the multi-billion dollar contracts from Mr. Osinbajo. But presidency sources said it was unlikely that Mr. Osinbajo, who did not allow Mr. Baru to make personnel changes, would allow the NNPC GMD to circumvent Mr. Kachikwu with such high-profile contracts.
Ndu Ughamadu, spokesperson for the NNPC, would not confirm or deny if Mr. Baru got the approval from Mr. Buhari in London.
“Presidential approval is presidential approval,” Mr. Ughamadu said.
When PREMIUM TIMES reminded him of potential legal implications of Mr. Buhari exercising presidential powers even when he had relinquished same in accordance with the constitution, Mr. Ughamadu dug his heels in.
“Presidential approval is presidential approval,” the spokesperson insisted.
For several hours on Tuesday, presidential spokespersons Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu, did not respond to PREMIUM TIMES’ requests seeking their comments about this and other problematic parts of the NNPC revelations.
Sola Adebawo, Director of Communications at Chevron, did not immediately respond to PREMIUM TIMES’ requests for comments Tuesday evening. His counterpart at Shell Nigeria, Bamidele Odugbesan, simply told PREMIUM TIMES to “direct enquiries to relevant government authorities.”
Yet, the N640.8 billion oil contracts might not be the only one Mr. Baru got Mr. Buhari to approve while he was still unwell in London.
For instance, the NNPC announced on February 2 ‎that it received 128 bids from local and international firms willing to participate in its 2017-2018 Direct-Sale–Direct-Purchase crude programme, which was adopted by the Buhari administration last year to replace the crude oil swap initiative and the offshore processing arrangement.
Mr. Buhari was not around in on February 2 when the announcement was made, having been flown to London on January 19 for his first medical trip of the year. He didn’t return to the country until March.
On May 19, when NNPC sources told Daily Trust and a few other media houses that it had finally entered into a $6 billion deal with 10 companies for 2017-2018 edition of DSDP contracts, Mr. Buhari was also not in the country.‎
The NNPC spokesperson declined comments about DSDP contracts.
LEGAL EXPERT WEIGHS IN
Mr. Kachikwu previously doubled as the Minister of State for Petroleum and GMD of NNPC until he was relieved of the latter post by Mr. Buhari on June 4, 2016, same day Mr. Baru was named as a replacement.
When Mr. Buhari named Mr. Baru the GMD, he made Mr. Kachikwu the chairman of the NNPC board.
The NNPC Act designates the board to oversee the affairs of the state-owned oil giant.
The Act states that the Minister of Petroleum must be the chairman of the NNPC board. Mr. Buhari is the substantive Minister of Petroleum. But he is allowed by the NNPC law to delegate powers, including chairmanship of the board.
However, the law also allows Mr. Buhari to act concurrently as the chairman of NNPC board even while the appointment of the person he delegated powers to is still valid.
Legal analyst, Liborous Oshoma, said the president’s action may be “unprocedural” but might not be entirely illegal.”
“This is similar to what we have witnessed since the president was away yet he was still issuing presidential statements and taking calls from President Donald Trump and other presidents to discuss matters concerning Nigeria.
“All that happened despite the fact that we had an acting president in place and Nigerians raised concerns at the time,” Mr. Oshoma said.
He said Mr. Buhari might not be in a good state of mind when the presidential approvals were procured and their validity could be challenged in court.
“The contracts could be challenged and possibly rendered invalid by the courts because he didn’t have presidential powers at the time he was exercising same,” Mr. Oshoma added. “The acting president ought to have approved those contracts because no one knew what state of mind the president was at the time.”

Source: premiumtimesng.com


SHOCKER! Kachikwu submitted letter to Buhari only AFTER media leak

By: Bhodemarz on October 11, 2017 / comment : 0 , , ,

Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum resources, submitted his controversial memo to the office of President Muhammadu Buhari only after it was leaked to the media, TheCable can report.
Whereas the letter — dated August 30, 2017 — leaked on Tuesday, October 3, 2017, he submitted it only on Thursday, October 5.
Buhari was said to have been surprised that he had not seen a letter supposedly written to him before it appeared in the media. He immediately raised an internal query on its whereabouts.
It was initially thought to be a fake letter by presidency until the ministry of state for petroleum resources confirmed it was written by Kachikwu in a press statement on October 4.
The registry of the chief of staff, which takes delivery of official mails for the president, denied receiving any such letter from the minister.
In standard public sector practice, all incoming mails are stamped “received” with date, time and signature of the receiving clerk all recorded. An acknowledgement copy is then given to the sender.
Kachikwu was asked by presidency to provide an acknowledgment copy of his letter, TheCable understands, but he said he could not find it, further fuelling internal suspicion that there was a political slant to the controversy.
ONLINE VERSION
He was then directed to submit another copy, which was received and stamped “received” on October 5.
However, the formatting of the letter he submitted on Thursday was different from what was circulated in the media, although the substance is the same.
In the new copy, the last paragraph on the opening page had four lines, whereas there were only two lines in the internet version with the other two lines “jumping” into the second page, TheCable learnt.
On page 6, the subheading of the first paragraph was “STOP” — but this was not in the online version.
It was also said that his story became inconsistent along the line.
In the fresh copy Kachikwu sent to the office of the president on October 5, he wrote in the covering note that he was “re-sending” what he had earlier sent “to the registry of the chief of staff”, but TheCable understands that when he was asked at a security meeting on Tuesday, he said he actually sent the letter to Daura, where the president had gone for the Eid-el-Kabir celebrations.
NO MEETING
The president does not have official mail receiving facility in his hometown but sources said Kachikwu might have requested someone to hand-deliver it to him and the courier might have failed to do so.
Kachikwu, who complained in his memo about insubordination and humiliation by the group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Maikanti Baru, in the widely publicised letter, was at the presidential villa on Friday, October 6 — ostensibly for a meeting with the Buhari.
Although it was reported in the media, TheCable inclusive, that he met with Buhari that day, it has turned out no such meeting was held.
TheCable confirmed that he was only able to meet presidential aides and that was why there were no pictures with Buhari and he did not make any comments to the State House media on the visit.
However, an angry Buhari ordered Baru to reply Kachikwu’s letter through the media since that was also where he read the minister’s complaints.
Buhari, sources told TheCable, believes the letter was meant to embarrass him because as the petroleum minister, he, and not Kachikwu, has the supervisory function over NNPC.
CONTRACT AWARDS
Baru was specifically instructed to explain the contract-awarding process at the NNPC under the procedures established by Kachikwu himself when he was GMD.
The NNPC, in a statement by Ndu Ughamadu, the group general manager (group public affairs), on Monday denied Kachikwu’s allegations and maintained that no law had been broken in the contract awards, most of which were not on cash basis and could not be valued as done by the minister in the memo.
But the corporation was silent on the issue of key management appointments which Kachikwu complained were made without his knowledge.
Aso Rock insiders also dismissed Kachikwu’s claims that he was denied access to the president which he said forced him to write the memo.
“The president was away on medical leave from May 7 to August 19. While still settling in, he went to Daura for the Sallah break, and not longer after that he went for the UN general assembly,” a senior presidency official told TheCable.
“Kachikwu dated his letter August 30th. When was he prevented from seeing the president? Kachikwu had been doing a lot of travelling, from the Netherlands to Abu Dhabi, Beijing, Washington DC and other places all the while.”
TheCable tried to get in touch with Kachikwu but he did not pick his calls or respond to messages all throughout Tuesday.
However, an associate of the minister said Kachikwu was not responsible for the media leak, and that he made frantic efforts to stop the publication but it was too late.

Original piece by thecable.ng


Nigeria: The cash cow of the sacred cows, by Ademola Adeoye

By: Bhodemarz on October 11, 2017 / comment : 0 , , ,

The ongoing imbroglio engendered by Dr. Kachikwu and Mr. Baru as an effect of the archaic and ineffective leadership chic of Mr. President should set every well-meaning Nigerian into cavernous and deep thinking. It is so easy (for those who understand how the civil service systems are being run in our clime) to know that no one can quickly see the bottom of a dirty and deep sea the way the bottom of a flowing stream can be seen. The truth is, the NNPC is still the cash cow of a few sacred cows and it would forlornly and dejectedly remain so until the strong wind of true change blows through the length and breadth of our greatly valued nation.
When I woke up in the wee hours of today, being the 10th of October, 2017, while still yawning and stretching my arms and legs, I heard that the presidency backs Mr. Baru’s response to Dr. Kachikwu’s clear allegations; I opened my mouth wide as river Jordan during a raining season. It is clear as water that Baru is the voice, arm and leg of Mr. President in the NNPC. But one question I have been asking myself and every non-partisan Nigerian is this: “is it that Dr. Kachikwu (at his level) did not know what he was saying through the leaked memo? Why would he play to the gallery? Why would he lie? When the contract proposals in contention were taken to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for an approval, where was Kachikwu, because only supervising ministers are allowed to get that done?” What I do know is that what is lurking in a corner today shall surely end up dancing naked in the market at noon time in the days to come.
Before I lay this issue to the final rest, I have a few thoughts to pass on to Mr. President: One, the law that makes it faulty and incorrect for a Group Managing Director to be accountable to a Minister of State and someone who heads the Board of same organization is an insensitive one and I strongly opine that it should be amended. Two, when Mr. President took ill and was flown abroad, who precisely was acting as the Petroleum Minister? I advise that President Muhammadu Buhari should step down and appoint someone he trusts as the substantive Petroleum Minister, so as not to lose the modicum and ounce of trust that he has left. Nigerians do not trust him as much as they did before he assumed the highest leadership position in our dear country. He should not let those professional politicians—who surround him for what to eat lie to him. Personally, my perspective on Mr. President has changed. I now see him more of a sectional leader than a national one. And what Nigeria needs now is someone—who can galvanize all of us, not further divide us. Currently, Nigeria is heavily divided under the watch of Mr. President and it’s quite very sad.
This is where I am coming. I see Nigeria as the cash cow of a few sacred cows. How do I mean? Kindly follow my line of thinking. This is it: Many years ago, when China was grappling with her food crisis, the political elite were served the choicest and safest delicacies. They got hormones-free beef from the grass lands of inner Mongolia, organic tea from the foothills of Tibet and rice watered by melted mountain snow. And it was all supplied by a special government outfit that provides all-organic goods from farms working under the strictest guidelines. And the secured food supply stood in stark contrast to the frustrations of ordinary citizens who have faced recurring food scandals—vegetables with harmful pesticide residue, fish tainted with cancer-causing chemical eggs colored with industrial dye.
Additionally, the former Soviet Union’s ruling class also ate food that was unavailable to the masses. In North Korea, where withering famines have seen tens of thousands starve in those days, leader Kim Jong II was known for his love of lobster, shark’s fin soup and sushi. Food was unavailable to the masses, but the biggest sacred cow in the country was feeding fat—feeding fat at the expense of the people he was governing. It is the same story in every developing country today.
As it was in China, North Korea and former Soviet Union so it is in Nigeria. In the days of Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), it only affected the led; it did not affect the leaders a hoot. From 1960 till this moment that I am penning this article, no economic policy has ever affected the sacred cows adversely, it is the masses—who do bear the brunt of it all. And the sacred cows I am talking about are untouchables, though President Buhari politically said that all past and current corrupt officials—who have illegally obtained monies meant for the good of the masses will not be spared as the anti-corruption agencies have been re-positioned to undertake the legal battle against them. Over the years, how many sacred cows, who daily use Nigeria as their cash cows have been thrown to jail? Since the crisis began in our dear country, many States cannot pay their workers, but all our political leaders have been smiling to the bank, including Mr. President and his vice!
Natural resources become a curse when the citizens are not treated with justice, fairness and equity. A nation like Nigeria that is heavily rich in natural resources is full of poor citizens. Natural resources, rather than contributing to freedom, broadly shared growth, and social peace, are now bringing poverty, power-outage, bad roads, misery, and insecurity to us as a people.
As I round off for today, the cash cow is still being kept as ‘one’ today, not because the sacred cows like it, but because they are yet to have their fills. In any nation where the country becomes the cash cow of a few sacred cows, the law the binds the poor will always set the rich free.


Source: thecable.ng

OPINION: Kachikwu, Baru and the NNPC debacle, by Reuben Abati

By: Bhodemarz on October 10, 2017 / comment : 0 , , , ,

The current NNPC debacle is probably the most embarrassing, even if mercifully, eye-opening crisis in the history of that nationally strategic institution since its creation in 1977. I seek in the following commentary to offer a number of observations that would probably throw some light on the muck and confusion running riot out there on the matter. In my view, it was an error to have paired the Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Maikanti Baru, with Dr. Ibe Kachikwu.
I say this for two reasons. When Dr. Ibe Kachikwu was appointed the GMD in charge of the NNPC and as Minister of State in 2015, it looked like a dream appointment and an extra-ordinary career point for him but not necessarily for the sector. Dr Kachikwu did not hesitate to assert himself and in his attempt to reform the NNPC, one of the victims was a certain Dr Maikanti Baru, most senior Executive Director at the NNPC, who was redeployed under the new dispensation as a Technical Adviser in the Ministry of Petroleum. This was like sending Baru to desert territory of the oil and gas sector. How the same Baru eventually got rehabilitated as GMD of the NNPC, to work with the same man who had tried to marginalize him within the system was a poor demonstration of an understanding of human psychology.
It was common knowledge that there was no love lost between the two men, and yet someone thought it was a good idea to force them to work together as a team. Leadership failed at that point, because the arrangement was not going to work. The Ministry of Petroleum and NNPC that emerged at that point was built on a fulcrum of conflict of personality and interest.
The key players in the oil and gas sector can only work together as a team if they must reduce the opaqueness and conflicts in that sector, but the pairing of Kachikwu and Baru practically showed a lack of understanding. The crisis that has now erupted between both men was foreseeable, and I dare say, avoidable. Where is the wisdom in forcing two persons who have shown open dislike for each other to work together?
But let us consider the other level of the conflict: and that is the conflict of interest. One major issue in the oil and gas industry, over the years has been the uneasy relationship between the Ministry of Petroleum and the International Oil Companies (IOCs). The Ministry of Petroleum through its parastatals, the NNPC, and more particularly, NAPIMS, regulates the IOCs. Nonetheless, the relationship between the regulator and the IOCs has always been like that between the cat and the mouse. Civil servants not just in the NNPC but elsewhere within the government have a penchant to want to work with their own.
Political appointees are treated with suspicion, as wayfarers, as the civil servants seek to protect their own territory. The battle for territory in the Nigerian government is one of the most vicious fights in the corridors of power. So it has been that in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria, every attempt to appoint an IOC-associated person as head of the NNPC or other parastatals under the Ministry of Petroleum has always resulted in the equivalent of street fights.
Under President Olusegun Obasanjo, Edmund Daukoru and Funso Kupolokun could not forge a seamless relationship even if Daukoru spent only five months or so in thatposition. Diezani Allison-Madueke was also from the IOCs (in her case Shell) and obviously she had issues with NNPC and Ministry officials. She had an advantage though: no GMD of NNPC would dare stand up to her, or by-pass her.
The belief within the Ministry of Petroleum system is that Ministerial appointees from the IOCs have interests that are different from their own traditions. President Buhari made the matter worse by making Kachikwu, an IOC man, from Exxon Mobil, GMD and Minister of State of Petroleum. On the surface of it, the impression was created that he could generate policies as he deemed fit, enjoy direct access to the Minister of Petroleum and gain the authorization to implement the same policies as he liked. From day one, Kachikwu was thus a marked man within the Ministry of Petroleum system.
It will be naïve to assume that it is only Maikanti Baru that is fighting him. It will be safer to assume that it is the establishment that is trying to cut him down to size. If you doubt that, then check the history of the system: most of the former Ministers of Petroleum that managed to do well are not even from the system but complete outsiders. Caught in the middle of this conflict, Kachikwu does not want to take the matter lying low. He is fighting back. I’ll comment on whether that is a smart or clever move anon.
I think the other problem signposted so far in this matter, is the role of the Minister of State and the substantive Minister and how power and responsibility are delegated along the reporting lines. The related issue is access to the delegating authority. What we know is that the Minister of State in the Nigerian system has always faced difficulties. He or she occupies the same space in the power spectrum similar to that of a Deputy Governor, even if he or she does not have any Constitutional right of succession, in the event of the death or impeachment of the substantive officer. So serious is this matter that when certain Ministers of State were treated shabbily in the past they had to protest, and force the issue.
The Nigerian Constitution, in line with the Federal Character Principle, says there must be a Minister from every state of the Federation. Since it would make no sense to have 36 Federal Ministries, some Ministers end up as Deputy Ministers, but in reality, they are expected to report to a substantive Minister representing another state! The result has been nothing but conflict. 
Under President Umaru Yar’Adua, the then Secretary to the Federal Government had to issue a memo dividing functions and responsibilities between Ministers and Ministers of State. Under President Goodluck Jonathan, there were three Ministers in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs representing different states of the Federation: their functions had to be spelled out to avoid conflict. This was also done in the Ministry of Health between Onyebuchi Chukwu and Muhammed Ali Pate, but one of the unwritten reasons why Pate eventually left the government was that he didn’t like the assigned role of a subordinate.
At a time, not even Rilwan Lukman and Odein Ajumogobia could work together. In Kachikwu’s case, he faced a humiliating situation whereby the GMD of a parastatal under his Ministry seemd to have better access to the substantive Minister and President. For months, the Minister of State could not access his principal, but the GMD of NNPC could, and that must have made him feel really bad. The truth is that the oil and gas sector is Nigeria’s honey pot and every GMD of NNPC has always enjoyed both official and unofficial access to the President. As I said earlier, only Diezani Allison-Madueke could keep her NNPC GMDs in effective check. If they stepped out of line, they lost their job.
Nonetheless, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria does not have to be the Minister of Petroleum of Nigeria. At face value, the President seeing that the oil and gas sector is the honey pot of Nigeria may want to supervise it directly. Oil generates close to 80% of Nigeria’s foreign exchange. Even a President who does not hold on to that portfolio will be tempted to keep a close eye on that. In President Buhari’s case, he had been a Minister of Petroleum in the past and chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund. All of this when new players in the industry were in kindergarten class, and so it can be assumed that he knows much about the industry. But the President being the Minister of Petroleum creates exactly the kind of crisis that we are witnessing. The President is the final authority.
Whoever is appointed Minister of Petroleum Resources exercises in any case, delegated authority. Both the Petroleum Act and the NNPC Act further vest authority in the Minister of Petroleum Resources exercising delegated authority. When the President combines the positions of President, Minister of Petroleum and Chairman of the Executive Council, and memos by all Ministers are to be processed through the Council, the President turns himself in the case of the Petroleum Ministry into a mini-god over Nigeria’s honeypot. If the President acting as Minister presents a Memo to Council, it is most unlikely that anyone among his own appointees will oppose that memo.
The memo ordinarily receives automatic approval, no matter how it may be. NNPC GMDs from Obasanjo’s time have tried to exploit this, when given that advantage, and it is why the NNPC’s response to Ibe Kachikwu now in the public domain is so troubling. Baru quotes the law. He insists that he has followed due process in all that he has done. He merely exploits the loopholes within the system that work perfectly in his favour under the present arrangement.
In his opportunistic statement released yesterday, he quotes NNPC’s alleged fidelity to the Procurement Act, and why and how the NNPC Group Executive Council does not have to report to a Minister of State, but the Minister or the Federal Executive Council. Mr Baru should be told that due process is not the only issue raised in Dr Kachikwu’s memo. He raised issues about the appointment and deployment of NNPC Executives and the appointment of COOs. Is that part of the mandate of the BPP? So, why should we have a Board that cannot perform oversight functions? The truth is that in many government departments, the chief executives often undermine the Board, especially if they are as powerful as an NNPC GMD who wields enormous influence and goodwill, as he wishes.
On his part, Dr Kachikwu himself ruins his own case when he begins to talk about his being pro-North and his father having served in the North. What is that all about? It is completely immaterial. When a serving Minister begins to justify his own Nigerianness on the grounds of being pro-north, then we get closer to the root of the problem with Nigeria. Is Kachikwu also trying to play smart, to protect himself strategically? 
Kachikwu and Baru have created significant mess in the petroleum industry due to their own conflicts. With due respect, that is the truth and the situation. It is a conflict that must be resolved in the national interest and the buck for doing that stops at the President’s table. This particular conflict, and other intra-governmental conflicts before now, almost becoming recurring decimals: EFCC vs NIA, DSS vs. EFCC, Babachir Lawal and NIA probe, the Senate and the Inspector General of Police, have altogether dramatized to the international community cracks within this administration, and a growing governance crisis. President Buhari has a responsibility to rescue his administration from the same odium that has often compromised Nigeria’s most strategic revenue sector. So far, he has not done so, and his failure will be remembered appropriately, if not now, then at the right time. It is tragic. 
The National Assembly also probably has a role to play, beyond claiming it would look into the allegations that have been raised. The Senate has since separated the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill into three sections. It has passed the Administrative Section. But it would appear that the key issues in that industry would be both the Fiscal Regime and the local community frameworks.
Administrative reform is not enough, and may even cause more serious problems such as we are witnessing. However, more probing questions have to be asked for the benefit of the divided public: how many NNPC contracts have been tabled before the FEC in the last two years, and what is their status? There is more to this matter than we know.


Source: reubenabati.com.ng

Why I did not consult Kachikwu, NNPC board on multi-billion dollar contracts – Baru

By: Bhodemarz on October 10, 2017 / comment : 0 , , ,

The embattled Group Managing Director of the state oil firm, NNPC, Maikanti Baru, made his first public defence of the allegations against him, saying he did no wrong.
Mr. Baru has faced stringent criticisms since a letter written by the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, leaked to the media.
In the letter addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari, Mr. Kachikwu, who is also the chairman of the Board of NNPC, accused Mr. Baru of illegality by awarding contracts worth about $25 billion (N9 trillion) without following due process in consulting the NNPC Board.
He also accused Mr. Baru of insubordination and improper appointments in the state oil firm.
In his response, sent to PREMIUM TIMES on Monday, Mr. Baru admitted not consulting the NNPC board in the contract awards, saying such consultations were not necessary as he got approvals for his actions from President Muhammadu Buhari.
“It is important to note from the outset that the law and the rules do not require a review or discussion with the Minister of State or the NNPC Board on contractual matters,” Mr. Baru said. “What was required was the processing and approval of contracts by the NNPC Tenders Board, the President in his executive capacity or as Minister of Petroleum, or the Executive Council of the Federation, FEC.
“There were situations where only approval by the NNPC Tenders Board was required, while in other cases, based on the threshold, the award must be submitted for presidential or FEC approval.”
Mr. Baru’s stance appears to conflict with Section 2 of the NNPC Act which states that “the affairs of the Corporation (NNPC) shall, subject to Part II of this Act, be conducted by a Board of Directors of the Corporation which shall consist of a Chairman and the following other members.”
The GMD’s position would, therefore, imply that the NNPC “affairs” to be conducted by the board excludes contractual matters, a stance he emphasised.
According to him, the NNPC Board has no role in contracts approval process, as members were appointed by government for the purpose of approving NNPC’s work programmes, corporate plans and budgets.
VALUE OF CONTRACT
Mr. Baru also questioned Mr. Kachikwu’s valuation of the contracts awarded without consulting the NNPC Board.
Citing both the Crude Term Contract and the Direct Sale and Direct Purchase, DSDP, agreements, Mr. Baru said contrary to Mr. Kachikwu’s allegations, no specific values of $10 billion and $5 billion respectively were attached to each transaction to warrant them being classified as contracts above NNPC Tenders Board limit.
He said the contracts were mere shortlist of prospective off-takers of crude oil and suppliers of petroleum products under agreed terms, which were not required to be presented as contracts to the NNPC Board.
Describing as “most unfortunate” allegations by the minister that he was not involved in the 2017/2018 contracting process for the Crude Oil Term Contracts, COTC, Mr. Baru said Mr. Kachikwu was not only consulted, but his recommendations were taken into account in following laid down procedures for the award of the contract.
He said the NNPC contracting process was governed by the NNPC Act and the Public Procurement Act, 2007 (PPA), which spell out the procurement method and thresholds of application as well as the composition of Tenders Board as provided by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Circular reference no. SGF/OP/1/S.3/VIII/57, of March 11, 2009.
In line with the NNPC procurement process, Mr. Baru said, authority to approve contracts resided with the NNPC Tenders Board, NTB, and contracts above certain threshold would then be referred to FEC for approval.
Under the NNPC contracting process, Mr. Baru said, the NTB is authorised to approve contracts valued up to a maximum of N2.7 billion, or $20 million; while contracts above that value would be sent to FEC for approval upon receiving certificate of no objection from Bureau for Public Procurement.
On the other hand, he said, the NTB was responsible for approval of day-to-day procurement implementation.
Members of the NTB consist the GMD NNPC as the Chairman/chief accounting officer, with heads of department (Group Executive Directors) as members and the head of procurement (Group General Manager) as the secretary of the NNPC Tenders Board.

Source: premiumtimesng.com


Kachikwu and other tales: Telling the truth even we lieby Umar Sa'ad Hassan

By: Bhodemarz on October 09, 2017 / comment : 0 , , ,

Questions people were supposed to ask:
So all Kachikwu alleges are true only because he thinks so?
Has Kachikwu actually said $26 billion was stolen?
Has anybody,whether from the NNPC board or not,corroborated anything Kachikwu said?
President Buhari’s pathetic leadership style is fast shutting the doors of objectivity in the mind of the average Nigerian and when the government can no longer do anything right, it automatically means it has become the number one enemy of the very people that voted it in. Days ago, a letter by the Minister of state and Chairman of the NNPC board, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu to President Buhari was leaked to the press. In it, Kachikwu alleged acts of gross insubordination and total disregard for due process by the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Maikanti Baru.
If giving a dog a bad name is the fastest way to hang it, then Nigerians aren’t afraid to do that. Not that the President didn’t already have a dog named after him any way. Never have i before seen such blatant misinterpretation of the very explicit contents of a document. We actually have more answers than we do questions.
Kachikwu blew the whistle on a $26 billion theft
Buhari refused to see Kachikwu when he reached out to him in person because he was shielding Baru
Buhari is conniving with Baru to steal money
Happenings over the past few days, have given an insight to the wonders of the human mind and how it can choose only what to understand. Hal Roach once said “Every man should have a wife because there are some things you can’t blame on the government”.
But nobody needs a wife with a President like ours. In his Independence day address Buhari said he was disappointed in the leaders of places where ‘hot-headed’ secessionist youths resided for not calling them to order. Less than an hour later, the internet was agog with stories of how Buhari was blaming the South Eastern leaders for the Biafran agitation.
Facts as they really are:
1. Buhari didn’t specifically blame the Ibo leaders. There have been approximately 3 agitations for separate states since Buhari took over: IPOB for a Biafran state, Niger-Delta Avengers and others for an Ijaw nation then a coalition of Yoruba groups for an Oodua nation.
2. Buhari may have said he was working with the South-South leaders towards improving the region but the most ‘hot-headed’ agitation has come from the Niger Delta avengers who bombed a lot of our oil installations.
3. In essence, Buhari was advocating for a united nation and calling on leaders (elders) who witnessed the sad outcome of the Civil war to educate youths on the possible implications of their actions.
Facts as they were understood:
1. Buhari was blaming Igbo leaders for Biafra
2. Buhari northern supremacist agenda will never allow him want peace
3. Buhari meant to incite the South East with his remarks
PMB helped justify agitations by promising to favour those who voted him en masse ahead of those who didn’t in what has come to be popularly known as the 97%-5% formula. He lived up to his words by not appointing a single south easterner out of over 35 non-ministerial appointments. As a matter of fact, Kachikwu, a seasoned veteran of the oil sector, was removed as GMD of the NNPC for a northerner when criticisms of his lopsided appointments were most vociferous.
Kanu’s bail was revoked and the army went to get him while the FG never even bothered to as much as keep Nigerians updated on its efforts to arrest and prosecute the Arewa quit notice issuers like it promised. The ibo hate song singers were never arrested too. What is good for Kanu isn’t for them. Why? Buhari doesn’t deserve justice too.
Kachikwu’s letter was written since August 30th and the President neither deemed it wise to invite him nor agree to see him. A Maikanti Baru probe should have been well under way. Buhari was practically dragged into probing Babachir Lawal, his suspended SGF and perhaps it may never have happened had optics not become vital when the DG NIA,a Jonathan appointee had reason to be probed as well. The report of that committee we may never see. Baru was in the clear till the Kachikwu letter leaked.
So yes, one need not alter or shut out any fact with regards to the President fighting a hypocritical war on corruption.
Nigerians are simply tired of the suffering,the lies,the incompetence,the favouritism and the hypocrisy.Nigerians are tired of Buhari. He is deservedly guilty until proven innocent.

Hassan is a lawyer based in Kano.
Twitter:@alaye26
Email: uhassan077@gmail.com

Source: thecable.ng
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