President Muhammadu Buhari's trump card in 2019 presidential election wouldn't be signposted on the war against corruption. That's if he is strong enough to take a shot at the presidency for a second time. It would be something else, unknown to Nigerians. Because the anti-corruption plank upon which he stood to pull the rug off former President Goodluck Jonathan's foot is weakened and has lost its lustre. President Jonathan's corrupt dealings can now be properly said to be mere stealing, while under Mr. Buhar, corruption is the air the nation breathes.

Dead on economic recovery direction, lack of initiatives on power generation, killing and kidnapping of Nigerians by his Fulani herdsmen, inequality of education, and other woes plaguing the nation, President Buhari has shamed himself as an ethnic potentate whose bigotry is beyond comprehension. Buhari's Presidency which stands on antigraft solo soil has been romanticising with the nation's past and present financial criminals from Northern Nigeria who allegedly sponsored his presidential election to the office where he hopes to prosecute his war against graft!

Nations approach tipping point as a result of unremitting corruption which leads to economic turmoil by fostering staggering poverty and broken economic systems on the people and society and kneecaps a nation’s ability to function.
Again, President Buhari's resistance to restructuring specific power structures and government architectures has provided an easier means for corrupt officials to exploit his government. 

The questions on my mind has been since President Buhari has been plagued with delicate health or as a unregenerated military dictator, would that also have eroded his consciousness on key national and international sensitive issues bothering on concrete governance of the country? Did Buhari ever abreast himself with the happenings in Nigeria? Is it deliberate? Is it ethnically motivated? 

From investigation, Abdulrasheed Maina alone allegedly contributed N1.8 billion to President Buhari's presidential campaign in 2019, the same Mr. Buhari who was regaling Nigerians with his inability to procure APC N20 million nomination form. If this is real and to be believed, then Nigeria has gone to the dogs. My earlier emotional investment and that of millions of Nigerians who voted for him in like manner, to take the country out of the woods have been truncated in the worst primitive form. Otherwise, how do you explain behind the scenes reinstatement of a dismissed fugitive looter into the public service, millions of naira paid to him while retirees across the country can't receive their minimum N20,000 (two thousand naira) pension on a monthly basis.

On 13th February 2013, the Senate gave President Goodluck a two-day ultimatum within which to sack the Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina, from the Federal Civil Service. Mark spoke tough after a debate on a motion entitled, “Dismissal of Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina for refusal to appear before the Senate” sponsored by Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN) and 107 senators, urging Jonathan to sack Maina from the public service.

The Senate then threatened that President Jonathan risked dire consequences if he failed to end Maina’s tenure. Mark declared that the Senate as an institution had been pushed to the wall and could no longer tolerate the insolence of public officials working for the executive. “The executive has to choose between the Senate and Maina. He has crucified himself. If Maina remains, then the Senate would react appropriately. The Senate is not lacking in ideas on what to do. Nobody in this country is bigger than our democracy. I have been extremely patient with Maina so that when we react, they will know that we have been fair,” Mark told his colleagues.

Apparently mindful of the fact that he was sending a message not only to the Villa but also to Nigerians since it was in the full glare of media cameras, Mark threw a challenge to the Police about whether they would be on the side of the law or that of Maina, “This Senate is not going to allow this to linger, if in two days they (Police) have not done anything, we can come here and convene and take a decision. This Senate will bite when it needs to bite, and when we decide to bite, there will be no room for escape. We have been pushed to the wall. The reaction is the correct reaction; no matter the depth of the Maina situation nobody in this country will be left to go free, if he is associated with Maina, no matter who is behind Maina, we are not going to accept it.”

Before then, the Chairman and the Co-Chairman of the Joint Committee, Senators Aloysius Etok and Kabiru Gaya, gave accounts of their experiences with Maina. Gaya said the committee received 7,800 petitions during its assignment and that Maina coordinated the process of mismanaging pension funds.

A literally eviscerated Etok said of Maina, “We called him to account for his stewardship in all the offices he was overseeing. When we exposed some things, he decided not to appear again. Instead of appearing before the committee, he would go on the media, condemning the entire Senate. He said he was not given fair hearing, but when we offered him fair hearing, he refused. He drives two bulletproof cars, in a country where pensioners are hungry. He used N1 billion for jamboree in the name of verification abroad. He spends more than N8 million every two weeks on personal security.”

Maina was one of the supper corrupt individuals for allegedly misappropriating N159 billion of pension funds who sank the graft boat of President Goodluck Jonathan's government in 2015. At the time the Senate was debating him, Maina was being driven around town, including to Aso Rock, in a convoy of several vehicles with a retinue of policemen. It was the one scandal that made many conclude that the Jonathan administration did not ‘give a damn’ about public perception. After his failure to honor numerous invitations by the Senate joint committee, the upper legislative chamber ultimately issued a warrant for Maina’s arrest, prosecution, and sack.

A few days later, the House of Representatives followed suit and endorsed the decision of the Senate for Maina’s arrest and prosecution. The lawmakers said in a motion that the House was “conscious of the need to present a common front with respect to the institutional integrity of the National Assembly” as they were “aware of the need to send a strong signal to the executive arm of the government of the resolve of the national assembly to stop impunity and disregard of due process in the conduct of government business.”

However, President Jonathan eventually caved in and gave the go-ahead for disciplinary action to be taken against Maina, who was dismissed by the Head of Service for absconding from duty and evading arrest. Nothing was heard from Mr. Maina until he was seen in a photograph with President Buhari recently in Aso Rock, which his media aides denied. But Buhari has yet to deny his Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, twisted a 2013 high court judgment to ensure that Mr. Maina was recalled and promoted by the Federal Civil Service Commission, FCSC.

Mr. Malami had in a letter directed the FCSC to give consequential effect to a judgment he said voided the process that led to Maina’s dismissal from service. In line with the directive, the Ministry of Interior, at its Senior Staff Committee meeting held on June 22, placed reliance on the AGF’s letter and recommended that Maina be reinstated into the Service as Deputy Director on Salary Grade Level 16. Contrary to claim by the AGF that Maina was given clean-bill-of-health by a court of competent jurisdiction, a copy of the judgment made available to the public revealed that the court merely quashed a warrant of arrest that was issued against the former pension boss by the Nigerian Senate. The judgment delivered on March 27, 2013, by Justice Adamu Bello (now retired), of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, only faulted the process that led to the issuance of the warrant of arrest against Maina.

The court never cleared Maina of the allegation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, that he embezzled pension fund to the tune of N2billion. The court, in its judgment, equally did not insulate Maina from EFCC’s investigations. Instead, Justice Bello advised Maina to surrender himself to the authorities investigating the alleged N2 billion fraud.

President Buhari's decision to sack Mr. Maina is ridiculous. He did not sack his interior minister who facilitated this fraud in the Interior Ministry. He did not sack his attorney general or the COS who are all part of this fraud. He ordered the sack of Maina even when he knew that the Civil Service Rule did not give him the powers to sack any civil servant.

To further prove his active connivance as the head of these moral criminals, economic gangsters, Mr. Buhari ordered that MainaGate be investigated and the report submitted to his Chief Of Staff, Abba Kyari, the same Abba Kyari who reportedly masterminded the reinstatement and double promotion of a wanted criminal.

When did Abba Kyari become a saint? This is same Abba Kyari who purportedly collected N500 million from MTN management to mitigate its legal punishment for defrauding Nigerians. While MTN top management staffers who bribed Abba Kyari have been sacked, Abba Kyari remains Buhari's COS. You may wish to ask again why did Buhari refuse to act on the report that indicted his COS? What happened to the report on Mr. Grasscutter who stole millions from IDPs and was even defended by Buhari? What of the Ikoyi Dollars?

Was Zakari Biu, the sacked police commissioner who facilitated the escape of Boko Haram Kabiru Sokoto, not recalled and re-instated? Is the discredited Ibrahim Lamorde not currently serving as a senior police officer? How about Buratai and his Dubai property? What of Abdulrahman Dambazau, Buhari's interior minister, and his U.S mansion?

The 2015 presidential election was not a victory for President Buhari, it was a rejection of President Jonathan's corrupt government. Nigerians wanted a replacement for a girly-girly President who believe stealing is not corruption. President Buhari has turned out to be more corrupt now than his predecessor.

Even at that, Buhari's past can't be separated from his present glorification of corruption. He did not only served the most brutal and corrupt government of Abacha, he equally swore by all the seven gods of Daura that Abacha was not corrupt. This is same Buhari who violated his first campaign promise of publicly declaring his assets. It's only a question of time before Nigeria goes completely downhills as the most intrinsically corrupt country in the world, after Somalia.

Erasmus, A Public Affairs Analyst Writes from Lagos.
Email: ikhideerasmus@gmail.com
Follow me on twitter @ikhide_erasmus1

Source: Sahara Reporters

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

SENATORS resolved yesterday to probe the controversial return of Abdulrasheed Maina to the civil service.

The Public Service, Anti-Corruption, Interior and Judiciary  committee is to investigate the recall  of the former Chairman, Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, who is on the wanted list of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for alleged N2billion pension fraud, among others.

The committee is to determine how Maina was reinstated and promoted to director.

The upper chamber said the development became even curious, especially when Maina is wanted for alleged fraud.

The resolution followed the adoption of a motion of urgent national importance raised by Senator Isa Hamma Misau (Bauchi South).

Misau said the circumstances of Misau’s return and reinstatement service had become a huge embarrassment to the country.

Many of the senators who contributed to the debate asked the Senate to resolve to ask President Muhammadu Buhari to sack those linked to the development.

The lawmakers singled out Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami and Interior Minister Abdulrahman Danbazzau as two public officials that should be hammered by President Buhari for their alleged roles in the Maina matter.

Misau said: “Right from day before, you will see the story of somebody who has been declared wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).  We read how the man who was declared wanted and was said to be abroad came back to Nigeria miraculously.

“Going by the newspaper publications, somebody wanted by the EFCC left the country for so many years. He was dismissed from the service. He was out for a long time, but smuggled into the service. He left the country as an assistant director. Today, he is a director.

“We even heard that he goes about with police escort. I wonder how a government that claims to be fighting corruption will be involved in a matter like this. This is a big embarrassment for this country. The people around the President are not helping matters. It appears that the President is the only one talking about corruption. Other people around him are protecting corrupt people.

“The AGF was mentioned and other people were mentioned. We investigated this case in the 7th Assembly. I am calling on the Senate to investigate this case again.”

Chief Whip Olusola Adeyeye said: “I remember what happened then. It got to a point when the former President of the Senate, David Mark, told the former President Goodluck Jonathan to choose between Abdulrasheed Maina and loyalty to the country. It got so bad that Maina had over 30 police officers attached to him.

“It got so bad that he was always on the front row whenever the former President travelled. At some point, we thought that he was being protected. I remember one of us was blackmailed and called names. He was accused of taking billions as bribes. Today, that lawmaker was cleared and he is here.

“Some principalities in power then ferried Maina to neighbouring countries. There is a procedure when it comes to promotion in the civil service. This is an insult on the part of civil servants who have worked so hard.

“As a member of APC, it is a sad moment. We cannot say that we want to fight corruption and have this approach. Jesus Christ said it is difficult for a rich man to pass through the eye of a needle.

“This saddens me and I am sure it saddens all of us. I am glad that following the outrage from the public, the President acted swiftly. We read in the papers that the rules of the civil service were bypassed.

“It appears there are people in this government who want the President to fail. Every patriot and member of APC in this house must stand out and ensure that the President does not fail.

“Papers have reported that two Ministers were involved. Those Ministers must be brought to justice. The President must ensure that those Ministers are sacked. Corruption is not only about stealing money. Incompetence too is another form of corruption.

“I hope that this Senate will not forget its past resolutions on Maina. On it, we still stand. He must be made to stand and face the law. He is not above the law. Steven Oronsaye was accused. He did not leave the country. He stayed back and cleared his name. Maina must do same.

Senator Kabiru Marafa said:

“I want to appreciate the person who brought this motion by exposing some dubious people in government. No family can boast of having 100 per cent good people. APC is not an exception. We cannot attribute everything to the President. He should be commended for rising to the occasion.

“Reinstating Maina is a crime against Nigerians. We should approve a full blowninvestigation into what happened. We must not allow this thing to go unnoticed.

Senator Atai Idoko said: “We are looking at the symptoms; we are not looking at the cause. Maina is too small to go back to office. Somebody brought him back to the office. Maina is too small. He is not the issue. We should look at those who returned Maina.

“As we were told, the person who approved this thing is the AGF. The simplest thing the President could do was to terminate the appointment of Maina. That is not the issue. The AGF brought him back. The AGF has a history of doing things like this. The President should tell us what he will do to the AGF.

Senator Albert Bassey Akpan would like the Senate to “investigate and bring to book any person who wants to bring this country to disrepute”. “We will stand with the Senate to ensure that the right thing is done,” he said.

Senator Tayo Alasoadura cautioned his colleagues not to call names of people who have not been indicted. “We should not duplicate. If the executive has set up a committee, we should not do the same thing. We must not set up committees every time”, he said.

Senator Dino Melaye, “the whole unfolding affair is pathetic”. He said: “Should we continue in sin and ask grace to abound? The AGF time after time has abused his office. Maina did not get himself back. We should talk about the integrity of the AGF and his office. If the number one law officer is breaking the law, where is the hope?

“The AGF started with the forgery case against Saraki and Ekweremadu. Something happened we have not noticed. Two public officers had issues and the AGF chose to support the Inspector-General of Police against Senator Isah Hamman Misau. Today, it is Senator Isah versus the Federal Government.

“Tomorrow, if I commit any offence against the friend to the AGF, I will be arraigned. We should not encourage the setting up of investigative committees. The President is surrounded by worms who are bent on destroying the country.

“There are so many committees that have been set up by the President and the resolutions of those reports may not be implemented until after rapture. Enough is enough. We cannot have this forever. This is wrong. The Senate needs to do something.

“We must recommend to the President that the AGF has erred in discharging the affairs of his office. If we do not check it, the AGF will plunge us into trouble.

Senate President Bukola Saraki asked the joint committee to do a thorough job.

Source: reubenabati.com

While we commend President Muhammadu Buhari for dousing the anger in the land which emanated from the surreptitious and scandalous recall, absorption and promotion of Abdulrasheed Maina as a Director in the Ministry of Interior, we are compelled to ask the critical question whether the President can lawfully direct the dismissal or termination of the employment of a civil servant in the Public Service of the Federation, without following the due process of law.

The facts that we know are that both the Office of the Head of Service and Dambazzau’ s Ministry of the Interior have publicly issued statements that Maina was recalled and posted to the Ministry of Interior. So, we must assume that while Nigerians were totally unaware, Maina was brought back into this Country and reintegrated in the Public Service of the Federation. Thus, Maina , before the President’ s directive ” was in the civil service of the Federation”

Under the law ( Public Service Rules and Section 11 (1)(b)of the Interpretation Act, Cap I 23, Vol.8, LFN, 2004,), it is the Federal Civil Service Commission or the Permanent Secretary or Heads of Extra Ministerial Department as the case may be ( to whom disciplinary powers are delegated) that have the statutory power to mete disciplinary actions, including dismissal ( or sack ) to civil servants . In particular, Rule 04102 of the Public Service Rules provides that ” the power to dismiss and to exercise disciplinary control over officers in the Federal Civil Service Commission is vested in the FCSC. This power may be delegated to any member of the Commission or any officer in the Federal Civil Service ”

Legally, therefore, the President lacks the power to sack or direct the Sack of Maina.

But the President has the power to sack his AGF , the Minister of the Interior and any political appointee including his Chief of Staff who are reported to have masterminded and orchestrated the Maina fiasco. So, the President has left those he could sack and has gone for the head of the one he could not lawfully sack.

It appears to be forlon hope that the President will move soon against the members of his kitchen cabinet who are hatching one plot of dent for him after another.

But I can hear people shout for joy .” Thank goodness that the President has acted; what is rule of law and due process anyway? What was necessary was for Maina, the weapon of integrity destruction ( WID) to be defused” .

As we say, borrowing from the Nigerian parlance, ” end of story”

Nigeria is an interesting country. Very interesting.

Jiti Ogunye is a Lagos based Legal Practitioner

Culled from LawyardNG

“I hear say our Sai Baba don return from Turkey”
“Did you hope that he would stay there permanently? He went for the D-8 meeting, and he is bound to return.”
“D-8 meeting. I have been thinking about it. We are supposed to be a secular country but internationally, we have continued to engage with Muslim countries. We belong to the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) and also the D-8. Internationally, we are effectively a Muslim country.”

“I don’t think so. In international diplomacy, it is not a sin for a country to engage at all possible levels. Nigeria is the most strategic country in Africa with its population and economy. We have a responsibility to be everywhere in the world, and make our presence felt.”
“Which presence? There are at least 48 Turkish companies doing business in Nigeria: schools and hospitals and et cetera. How many Nigerian businesses can you point to in Turkey?”
“We have our footballers scoring goals in Turkey.”
“You are not okay.”

“We have our girls too. Nigerian girls are the most impactful diplomats in the world. They catch the men where it matters most from Turkey to Italy to London to Washington, back to home. What this government has not been able to do through diplomacy, our girls in diaspora are filling the gap, by grabbing the international community by the balls. I hear our girls are hot and famous.”
“You are talking nonsense. You are holding women responsible for Nigeria’s problems”.
“Emi ke? God forbid.”
“So what was that all about?”
“He-eerr. I am just saying that Nigerian leaders should stop junketing all over the world like a yo-yo, and stop passing that on as performance whereas there is nothing to it. The President of Nigeria must have the courage to act, and take decisions that will move the country forward. I am, in fact, surprised Baba went to the D-8 summit with his wife and children.”
“Are you okay? Baba Bubu has not done anything wrong by giving Mummy a treat.”
“ I have not said he has done anything wrong. But he be like say Baba sef don dey enjoy this thing. He promised oh. Baba promise. But Baba don dey enjoy so tey, him forget promise.”
“The President is a human being. You people forget that. You keep talking about promise. What promise, I ask?”

“Change.”
“Meaning?”
“Change”
“Nobody ever promised you change.”
“Tinubu did. The party did. Baba did.”
“My friend, go and sit down. You don’t know what is called change. The real change is that President Muhammadu Buhari is today President of Nigeria and he has every right to do as he wishes.”
“No. He can’t”.
“You are a fool. Okay, he can do what he likes for example in the other room. And change does not begin with him. It begins with you. Comment on that.”
“We are not happy with what is going on. The party is confused. The APC is divided all the way down the middle. The President is no longer with us. He has been hijacked by persons who don’t even belong to the party.”
“You have not commented on the other room”
“Which other room? Is this supposed to be a serious conversation? I don’t care what President Buhari does in his other room. I just want him to stand up like a man and run Nigeria. There are too many contradictions. His government is tearing itself apart and it is not funny at all because it gets worse everyday.”
“You can’t blame Baba. It is those people’s juju. The demons in Aso Villa have grown new wings and we can all see that.”
“Wait a moment. You are talking about the spiritual side of Aso Villa. I am in fact surprised that the President has not been able to return to his office since his staff told us rats had taken over his office.”
“I hear the rats are still there. Ogbologbo rats. No-nonsense-rats. Come-and-catch-me rats. The President’s main office remains under lock and key.”
“So why are we blaming Baba, then? Nigeria is certainly the only country in the world where the President has to vacate his office for rats and the rats have continued to exercise sovereignty rights for more than two months.”
“This thing is not ordinary. Una no wan listen.”
“Nothing is ordinary anymore in this country, my brother. Everything just be like anyhow.”
“You say?”
“I say, this their change don begin change my head. Make man talk true, even if truth kill man. Look at it now. This same government just reinstated Abdulrasheed Maina, a former pensions boss, who was declared wanted by the EFCC. He was even promoted. Then two days later, they say he has been sacked because the President wants some investigations. How?”
“What do you mean how?”
“I mean a government must have a mind of its own, and act decisively. No government should run on ad–hoc fuel. Is Maina a patriot or a villain? We don’t know. A serious government must be able to take a stand and stand by it. They should stop playing games with our minds. Must you reinstate a man, give him new hopes and a new lease of life and then turn him adrift?”
“Hey, hold on. Are you defending Maina?’
“No. I am condemning cluelessness. Extreme cluelessness. I ask you: where is the report of the investigations on the alleged abuse of the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation?”
“You are referring to the grass-cutters affair? Please pardon me for a moment. It is a lot for me. Grass-cutters. Rats. Lions. Hyenas. Too many animals in this holy of holies, we live now obviously in a kingdom of animals, governed by dancing pythons and smiling crocodiles.”

“Speak for yourself”
“I speak what the spirit says. And I prophesy that there is truth in the words of the Holy Spirit. E just be like say we don enter One Chance.”
“May be that’s why people are beginning to commit suicide. For the first time in Nigerian history, ordinary people are just committing suicide here and there. I feel like writing a book to be titled: Nigeria: The Years of Suicide.”
“Fine. And I your friend will write another book immediately and title it: Makobami: the writer who committed suicide writing about suicide.”
“You don’t get it. One man committed suicide after his wife gave birth to triplets. He had not been paid for eleven months!”
“Hen hen. Is that why he should die? Some other Nigerians would have turned that into a business opportunity. Is it easy to shoot three in one? I ask you. With all your gra-gra, can you shoot three at once? If people don’t lend themselves sense in this country, they will die before death comes calling. I tell my close friends. I tell them, this thing will pass. This change that has turned to poison in some people’s mouths, it will also pass.”

“What of the people who just parked their vehicles and jumped into the lagoon in Lagos? You think Nigerians will be happy again?”
“Yes, I believe Nigerians will be happy again.”
“But I hear government is borrowing money”
“Yes, because people you know stole the money. Still, Nigeria will rise again.”
“I think the problem is more than that. I hear the people who claim to have common sense have been told to shut up”
“Common sense is not common. Those who claim to have it may just be doing business. Common sense died in this country long ago.”
“Who is protecting this country, then?”
“Ordinary people. They should just allow us to speak.”
“It is their country too”
“Who?”
“The people who don’t want us to speak”
“It is not their country. They had the audacity to lie to us. They claimed they would bring change and transform Nigeria. They promised to kill corruption. They have done the opposite of what they proposed.”
“Can you stop now? I am in Abuja to have fun not to get into trouble, this man.”
“You must have the courage to speak up. We, the voters’ card carrying Nigerians are angry. We want change.”
“You wanted change. You got it. What other change are you asking for?”
“Change”
“Go and sit down and stop mouthing empty slogans“
“You must go and talk to Asiwaju”
“I am not going to talk to anybody.”
“I mean they shut down the man’s TVC and Radio Continental.”
‘I didn’t hear that.’
“I hear they even want to withdraw his Villa pass”
“I didn’t hear that”
“I hear the columnists in his newspaper can no longer write freely”
“I didn’t hear that.”
“In fact, I hear that it is now a sin to speak freely and that’s why Atiku is now suddenly silent.”
“I didn’t hear that.”
“I hear that Baba Buhari will win the win 2019 election, whether people like you like it or not.”
“I didn’t hear that”
“What do you ever hear? I am a street guy. I hear things. Are you in this country at all?”
“Good for you”
“But are you aware by any chance that Senator Isa Misau is fighting the Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Idris?.
“I have not paid attention to the story: something about the IGP befriending two female officers? How is that a problem? “
“It is unprofessional and unethical. But there is also a charge of corrupt self-enrichment.”
“Charges against who? The IG or the Misau?”
“Misau”
“Misau or the IG? Stop worrying yourself my friend. I am trying to discuss national matters you are focusing on the Inspector General of Police. Who is he?”
“I am just thinking right now, may be we should discuss issues that will not get us into trouble.”
“Our job is to get into trouble with our ideas.”
“God forbid. My mouth will not take me to detention cell.”
“Don’t’ worry. If the IG impregnates a female police officer, it is a matter of espirit de corps. Senator Misau should know that.”
“But the money”
“Which money? Everything is espirit de corps”
“Have you taken something?”
“Take what? I am saying this is not America. The Inspector General of Police grabs a police woman and proves himself to be a man and you are blowing whistle like a eunuch: is this America? I beg.”
“You are mixing things up. You don’t get it.”
“I get everything. Nothing is going to change. This is Nigeria. Nothing ever changes in real terms. Do you get it? This is Nigeria.”
“Can we talk about something else, please, to ease your depression? I see you talk like you are depressed.”
“Me? I am not depressed oh. Nobody can kill the beetle.”
“One of your favourite artists, Toyin Aimakhu-Abraham lost her dad.”
“That’s sad. My condolences.”

“Asa, the musician, has disclosed that she lost her virginity at 28.”
“Wow. 28! She is an absolute genius and a darling. Did she disclose the identity of the victim?”
“No. But I hear 2Face now gives advice on sex; he recommends the use of condoms”
“That is our Saul on the road to Damascus. We should make 2Face the next Pope.”
“13 Southern Nigerian Governors and 3 deputies met in Lagos yesterday.”
“A meeting of strange bed fellows holding talks, saying nothing.”
“The Federal Government has decided to confiscate funds in all bank accounts that are not linked to BVNs”
“That is a thief-thief policy. They are asking for more suicides.”
“I hear George Weah is in Nigeria to see Pastor Temitope Joshua ahead of the Presidential election rerun in Liberia.”
“I see. Liberia certainly needs a miracle.”
“Cristiano Ronaldo has won the FIFA best player award, beating Messi and Neymar.”
“I don’t watch football…sorry. I am too busy watching Nigeria.”
“Maina has been sacked.”
“I heard that. Nice chess.”

Source: The Cable

Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has said that the return of the embattled former head of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina to public reckoning is a classical case "of honor among theives.”

The opposition party said ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, could not absolve itself from the mess generated by the controversial return and promotion of the civil servant, who is under investigation for alleged diversion of billions of pension funds.

The party which said this in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Mr Dayo Adeyeye, Monday condemned the action.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday directed the immediate dismissal of Maina, who absconded after being declared wanted for corruption, but was recently reinstated to a higher post.

But PDP appears not to be impressed.

“Birds of a feather flocks together. The party condemns this action of reinstating a supposed criminal and fugitive, Abdulrasheed Maina to office instead of getting himarrested.

“All people of good conscience will not forget in a hurry that Maina, who was given an assignment by the last PDP administration to superintend the now defunct Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, dipped his hands into the jar and helped himself to N100 billion of what he was supposed to safeguard.

“With good conscience at fighting corruption, PDP government then mandated the anti-corruption agencies to perform their constitutional duty. Maina fled, only to resurface in the country four months ago under Buhari Administration,” the party said.

“As a party of good conscience, we wish to condemn in strongest terms, the penchant of the administration of President Buhari to giving safe haven to known criminals while hoodwinking Nigerians that it is fighting corruption,” it added.

It called for the arrest and persecution of Maina and ”other criminals like him.”

“While we are growing fatigued shouting ourselves hoarse in protest against nepotism, a clear form of corruption under this administration which has been elevated to state craft, we are appalled that the reinforcement of financial corruption by this government might soon lead to the demise of this nation if the Celestial does not intervene.

“We are worried that the APC Administration seem to have grown thick skins to constructive criticism; otherwise, no sane government, in spite of the open condemnation the party has received from Nigerians over its shielding of criminals, will repeat another one as done in the case of Maina.

“PDP wishes Nigerians could demand from APC government, the civil service rule it relied upon in promoting a wanted criminal who had abandoned his duty post as an Assistant Director, to the position of a Director with all benefits attached.”

It asked President Buhari to act with dispatch on other corruption allegations against members of his government.

“Nigerians have not forgotten in a hurry how the so called corruption fighting Government of President Buhari refused to allow the law take its course in the graft allegations involving suspended Secretary to Government of the Federation, SGF Babachir Lawal and the Director-General of Nigeria Intelligence Agency, NIA, Ayo Oke.

“The Government seems to have also buried without shame, the expose by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr Ibe Kachikwu on the illegal award of contracts running to over $25 billion by Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) who has told the World that he had the Support of President Buhari in carrying out the heist.

“Though we know that the APC is like a dead horse immune to any positive prompting; we however, will not do, but ask that the right thing be done.”

Source: reubenabati.com

The tweet read: “PMB orders immediate disengagement of Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina from service. Asks for a full report on circumstances of his recall.”

Vice-President Yemi Osibajo, seen at the Murtala Muhammed Airport on his way out of the country to Indonesia, reportedly chimed in by ordering the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to ensure that the man is fished out. 

The orders arrived after the EFCC declared a manhunt for Mr. Maina following a Premium Times revelation at the weekend that the former chairman of the Presidential Task Team on Pension Reforms had been readmitted into the civil service to head the human resources department of the Interior Ministry.

Before he chaired the Task Team, Maina had been an assistant director in that ministry.  He was dismissed by the Federal Civil Service Commission in 2013 on the recommendation of the Office of the Head of Service, following a N100 billion pension fraud scheme he was alleged to have headed and was subsequently declared wanted by the EFCC. 

News of his reinstatement has been received with tremendous outrage around the country, but SaharaReporters learnt that at least four core members of President Buhari's kitchen cabinet, including Attorney General Abubakar Malami, were instrumental to the maneuvers which clearly demonstrate how the government’s anti-corruption effort has been taken hostage.   Mr. Malami reportedly wrote a "legal advice" asking that Maina not be prosecuted for corruption, a memo was then taken to Nigeria's Head of Service, eventually leading to the reinstatement.

Prior to the reinstatement, Maina had met with in Dubai with the Minister for Interior, Abdulraham Danbazua, to perfect the deal. The Director-General of the Department of State Services, Lawan Daura, and the Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari then assisted Maina's return to the country and even provided him 24-hour protection to prevent the EFCC from arresting him.

 The deal was brokered while Buhari was in the UK attending to his health.

Shortly after the scandal broke, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo reportedly summoned EFCC chairman Ibrahim Magu and his Chief of Staff to a meeting at the Lagos airport on his way to Indonesia and ordered them to fish out Maina and get him arrested and detained, stating that President Buhari couldn't have been involved in the scandal.

Apart from ordering Maina's disengagement from service, President Buhari also instructed that the circumstances of his reinstatement be investigated and report forwarded to the office of the Chief of Staff but Nigerians are widely skeptical that such an investigation will see the light of day, citing the investigations of former Secretary to the Federal Government Babachir Lawal and the former Director-General of the Nigeria Intelligence Agency, Ayo Oke, that were never released to the public or acted on.

SaharaReporters learnt that the investigations against Mr. Oke implicated the DG of the Department of State Services, as Mr. Oke had always warehoused his agency funds for the Director-General without any official records.

“Buhari’s anti-corruption orders no longer have any steam,” a commentator told SaharaReporters today.  “You and I know the joke will blow over.  Maina will disappear, and the report of the investigation will be forgotten.”

Source: Sahara reporters