By Dr. David B.A. Olufo
Crimes cover-up had been the bane of good governance in Nigeria since the first post-military Constitution was enacted in 1979. Cover-ups were institutional, they were bare-faced, they were intimidating and executed with impunity!
Twenty years after the aborted 1979 “Shagari Experiment” each democratic administration from 1999, was more brazen and determined to chart the path of deliberate robbery of the common patrimony with such audacity and assurance that accomplices would cover one another’s back even when it could end up in prison incarceration!
The Judiciary which should be the constitutional arbitrator in conflicts between the Executive and the Legislature would normally prefer to support the highest bidder while the investigative and law enforcement agencies deliberately work at snail speed to create loopholes for cases to be quashed and cases were thrown out for lack of solid pieces of evidence!
Financial crimes in Nigeria take as long as 10 to 15 years to prosecute and in the long run the criminals were usually discharged and acquitted – especially in high-profile cases!
It was very easy for KEEPERS OF THE TREASURY to collude with internal forces to rob the treasury and confuse the citizenry by pointing accusing fingers in the wrong directions!
When custodians of law and order whose primary duty and responsibility is the security and welfare of the people renege in their assignments and now open official doors to pen/armed robbers through deliberate connivance and collusion, then such government is already tottering towards the precipice and will surely collapse!
ON 13TH DECEMBER 2020, IT WAS PUBLISHED IN THE 383RD EDITION OF THE ZION B-BC NEWSLETTER WITH THE FOLLOWING TITLE: “THIS GAME OF DECEIT WILL BE THE DOWNFALL OF BUHARI’S APC!”
BELOW ARE SOME EXCERPTS:
“Nigerian citizens must perhaps be the worst sinners in the world for them to be persistently hurt, bruised, harassed and persecuted by political representatives who should normally protect them according to the law but have instead employed cohesive institutional instruments to destroy their collective psyche and deny them of inalienable fundamental rights as enacted in the 1999 constitution.
“Over the years of independence and Republican status citizens have been permanently relegated to the background – the bottom of the ladder – where they now have to look up to their so-called representatives at all tiers of government to eek a living albeit, to live LIFE, in spite of the fact that ‘sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom the government derives all its powers and authority!’
“All major or minor decisions/policies were usually conceived, incubated, mooted and executed between the executive and the legislative and forced down the throat of hapless citizens irrespective of their education, qualifications, positions, achievements, expertise, professionalism, experience etc, etc, as if at 60-year-old Nigeria is not part of the 21st century ICT compliant world but in a remote planet where feudal overlords hold sway.
“We also mentioned that the petroleum downstream sector, government’s subsidy scam of 21 consecutive years has made billionaires of all cadres of the ruling class since independence, is still very much trending because it is very difficult for very greedy politicians to take their hands off the honey pot!”
HAS ANYTHING CHANGED SINCE THAT PUBLICATION?
Things have changed for the WORST! The Buhari Administration had consistently declared that government subsidy on petroleum products would be totally abolished while the prices of the products will be determined by international market forces.
BUT instead, inconsistencies and confusion had been the order of the day year-on-year because the Petroleum Products Pricing Marketing Company (PPPMC), had consistently dictated and announced fuel prices of petrol which is known as PMS, diesel oil and kerosene prices till date.
Prices of petroleum products became an all-comers affair and everyone sold at prices conducive to them from N165 Naira official price per litre to between N170 naira, N200 and as of 13th March 2022 Petroleum prices have risen to between N300 and N400 Naira per litre at the black market while pump price goes for N200 or N250 as the marketers wished!
FOR 40 DAYS (2nd February, 2022-13th March, 2022) – THE NIGERIAN OIL CARTEL, under the Watch of the substantive Minister of Petroleum Resources, President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari, organised and deliberately planned nationwide fuel scarcity as an INSTITUTIONAL SIEGE against the fundamental rights of citizens to socio-economic dividends!
The clandestine drama was hatched in October 2021 when the finance minister announced that deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector would commence from June 2022!
AND Whereas, the plan was mooted to give DANGOTE PETROLEUM which is coming on stream later this year 2022 the platform to sell according to its whims and caprices from NGN 400 Naira or above according to International prices – especially when the Russia-Ukraine War has orchestrated Crude to between USD$100 and $105 US dollars per barrel!
FOLLOWING PUBLIC OUTCRY BUHARI REVERSED HIMSELF BY SUSPENDING PETROLEUM SUBSIDY FOR 18 MONTHS TO OUTLIVE HIS TENURE AT A COST OF NGN3TRILLION TO NNPC – THE SOLE IMPORTER OF REFINED PETROLEUM PRODUCTS?
And whereas, Federal Government is acquiring 20% minority stakes of USD4 billion in the DANGOTE REFINERY AND PETROCHEMICAL which has capacity to produce, 650,000 barrels per day ( bpd), to terminate foreign importation and SUBSIDY? Truth will prevail over CORRUPTION!
WHO ARE GOVERNMENTS’ COLLABORATORS?
Having created weak institutions deliberately in order to perpetuate all corruptive tendencies, the door was already opened for Civil servants to collude with the Executive and the Legislative which are in direct control of formulating disbursement of funds and making laws for budgeting and execution of budgets to manipulate figures in naira and Kobo dollars/euros, pounds sterling etc, to take advantage and create a cesspool for corruption to thrive seamlessly.
Nigerians do not need to look for the reasons why government has found it very difficult to diversify to agriculture, to build health institutions of international standards, to improve education and allot at least 26% of annual budgets to that sector, to continue allocating and awarding phantom projects which were never executed in the power sector and for continuing to embrace medical tourism as a matter of fundamental rights with government funds at all levels of administration because all such monies have been diverted two private pockets!
CODE OF CONDUCT BUREAU (CCB), SHOULD CHECKMATE THE UGLY TREND!
And whereas the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), and Tribunal Act Chapter 58 Law of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN), 1990 gave the Bureau the mandate to establish and maintain a high standard of public morality in the conduct of government business and to ensure that the actions and behaviour of public officers conform to the highest standards of public morality!
CCB would carry out its onerous duties by ensuring that all Public officers whether elected, appointed, recruited, or contracted must collect a mandatory form from its offices across the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), fill and return such forms duly signed to confirm that the declarant could vouchsafe that every declaration was to his or her conviction was true and correct.
Every declarant is required by law to declare his or her assets liabilities actually owned including overseas properties stating their values in foreign currencies at the material time and not anticipated assets/liabilities including that of his spouses who is not a public officer and children under 18 years and submit to the Bureau within 30 days of the receipt of the forms.
And declarants must personally go and swear to the declarations before a high court judge nearest to his work station before submitting to the Bureau.
CODE OF CONDUCT TRIBUNAL (CCT), SHOULD SYNERGIZE WITH EFCC AND ICPC TO ENSURE PROBITY, SANITY & JUSTICE!
Not much has been heard of the Code of Conduct Tribunal), Chairman and the activities of the Federal Government’s Agency under his watch since he was embroiled in a social mis-conduct in a public place, in March 2021!
Honourable Justice Danladi Umar was alleged to have assaulted a security guard, brutalized him, slapped him in the face and ask him to kneel down and thereafter used his leg to hit him on the chest and inflicted body harm on him during the Senate hearing of a petition brought against the CCT Chairman by a PDP Senator representing Plateau North on behalf of the alleged victim.
The petitioner is asking the Senate to investigate the matter to ascertain the role of the Honorable Justice Danladi in the alleged unwholesome drama to ensure Justice to the security guard Mr Clement Kargwalk.
The petition being handled by a panel set up by the Committee on Ethics Privileges and Public Petition was also handed a viral video that recorded the alleged assault and has been circulated all social media sites.
However, in a twist-off sequence of events, it was said that the chairman rushed to a police station to report an assault on his person which prompted the petitioner to be invited for interrogation.
According to media reports, Honorable Justice Danladi Umar always claimed to be hospitalized at each occasion of the Senate hearing while the matter remained unresolved till date, 13th March, 2022 almost one year ago!
CCB should advertise collection of assets declaration forms by public officers with the caveat of 30th JUNE, 2022, deadline collection date in order to avert false declarations especially when all eyes are on the PETROLEUM WINDFALL!
ONE KOBO OR CENT MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO BE STOLEN FROM THIS GOD’D PROVIDENCE TO KICK-START THE PARLIAMENTARY GOVERNMENT IN 2023 BY HIS SPECIAL GRACE! AMEN.
[WATCH OUT FOR A NIGERIAN PRIME MINISTER – NOT A PRESIDENT IN 2023!]
