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$49.8 billion missing oil money: Jonathan, Sanusi, in open confrontation 10 years after
For the first time in 10 years, former President, Goodluck Jonathan, and Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, had the chance to square up frontally over the $49.8 billion missing oil money for which the latter, now 16th Emir of Kano, was abruptly kicked out of office as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), about one year to the expiration of his tenure.
Sanusi, had alleged that the money belonging to then Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), grew wings with which it flew out of the government coffers, because it was not remitted to the CBN, an allegation, which the government of the day felt it could not stomach and handed him a suspension from which he never returned from, until he was handed over the stool of the ancient Kano monarchy.
Against the backdrop of the details, which the monarch supplied as part of his contribution in a book compiled by Samsudeen Usman, former Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, where he still maintained the allegation, Jonathan, took time not only to deny that such an amount was mission, but also debunked the contention that Sanusi was sacked, as he was only suspended to enable credible investigation, but could not be recalled before his tenure expired through the effluxion of time.
At the launching of the book, titled Public Policy and Agents Interests: Perspectives from the Emerging World, the monarch, though clearly avoided open exchange, saying the occasion did not call for a debate over the matter, still subtly maintained his own line of the narrative, jokingly referring to ex-President as “my boss that constructively sacked me.”
His words: “My boss who sacked me. I was constructively dismissed. I continue to respect Jonathan and I don’t have grudges against anyone,” Emir said, as he delivered a short message at the event he presided over as Royal Father of the Day.
But insisting that no such amount was lost in his government, Jonathan told attendees at the event, one of whom was the 16th Emir of Kano, that an internationally-recognised audit firm engaged to probe the alleged missing amount, gave the administration a clean bill of health, Jonathan also recounted how he was confronted by then President of Germany, Angela Merkel, over the matter and that he explained that such money couldn’t have been stolen from a struggling country.
He said: ““Let me mention that I did not agree with some issues raised by one of the contributors. I need to say why I did not quite agree with him. But I don’t intend to join issues because he is our royal father. And he is here. All that he wrote was on some of the issues, especially the one that is related to me. The one he raised was that he was sacked because he blew the whistle that the federal government lost $49.8 billion. It’s not quite correct. It was not that he was sacked. He was suspended.
“He was not sacked. He was suspended because the Financial Reporting Council queried the expenditure of CBN. And there were serious infractions that needed to be looked at. That was the reason. But somehow, the time was short. So, before we finished, his tenure elapsed. Probably, he would have been called back. On the issue of $ 49.8 billion, till today, I am not convinced that the Federal Government lost $49.8 billion.
“And that year, our budget was $31.6 billion. So, for a country that had a budget of $31.6 billion to lose about $50 billion and salaries were paid; nobody felt anything. The researchers that wrote this book need to do further research. And more so, when our revered royal father came up with the figures – first, $49.8 billion, later $20 billion and later $12 billion – I don’t even know the correct one.
“I was vindicated about the claim after he began to change the narrative from $49bn to $20bn and later $12bn. Price Water Coopers, PWC, which investigated the matter, revealed that no such amount was stolen. However, $1.48 billion could not be accounted for by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, (now NNPCL) at the time.”
But the monarch who could have used his time to speak on the matter, when he was handed the chance, clearly avoided dwelling on it, saying the time was not auspicious, the occasion was only a book launch and not debate, stressing: “When I was told to make a speech, I told Shamsuddeen Usman that I will not speak about my intervention, out of respect for my boss, the President.”
“I feel most inappropriate for this to turn into a debate. It’s not about me or the President, it’s really about Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman today and his book. I always knew my chapter will be controversial when Dr. Usman asked me to write. I said, this topic is so similar to my book. You’re making me begin to reveal some of the things that are in my head. In other words, when I wrote that chapter, that’s it for me.
“I’ll make a few remarks. First of all, I continue to respect my President, Jonathan. I do not have any grudges against anyone. The most important thing for me is not about personalities. I think what comes out of my chapter, like in the book, is something that we all know. Which is that for decades, the Nigerian state has been captive to elites class that sees the state as a site.
“This is a fact, and this is what has destroyed Nigeria. People get into office, and when they get into office, what they’re thinking of is how much they can make out of the state, rather than how they can use the state to serve the citizens. If we agree on that, we have no disagreements. Why is Nigeria where it is today? I mean, you referred to the Dangote Refinery.
“I don’t know what the details are. For a country feeding itself from imported petroleum products, instead of grabbing this opportunity, you know with open arms, we are frustrating it. Why would anyone stop us from having the capacity to produce our own refined petroleum products? Because there are vested interests who have profited from Nigeria continuing to import these products.
“They could be all marketers internationally. They could be people locally who have been profiting from these subsidy stamps. And this is the end, because every excuse disappears when you are not getting imported, and you are disembarking.”
For not only pardoning Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others on Thursday, but decorating them with national honours, Suage Bade, son of Albert Bade, one of the four prominent Ogoni leaders killed by a mob in 1994 has a word for President Bola Tinubu – you have killed my father a second time.
“Since yesterday (Thursday) night, I started mourning my father again,” the scion of Bade, a retired permanent secretary in Rivers State Government, who later took on the role of a traditional ruler in his native Ogoni community, said on Friday.
A guest on Prime Time, a public affairs programme on ARISE NEWS, television network, Bade saw the move as propelled by the quest for money, accusing Tinubu of being too eager to see to the commencement of resumption of oil drilling in Ogoni land that he did not care about the consequences of his action.
The pushback came just a day after Tinubu, at the celebration of the 32nd anniversary of June 12, 1993 presidential election, now being marked as Nigeria’s Democracy Day, pardoned the Ogoni-9, led by Saro-Wiwa, leader of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), the family of the slain leaders also known as the Ogoni-4, hold culpable for the murder of their parents.
Though the President, who made the declaration in a speech he delivered at the joint-sitting of the National Assembly, did not absolve them of guilt in the crime, which led to their arrest, trial and eventual hanging by the military government of Sani Abacha, after their conviction by a military tribunal, he went ahead to confer on them national honours.
Palpably anguished by the gesture, Bade told his host on Friday: “It is a complete disregard for the memory of our fathers, who actually served this country diligently without blemish over the years and were killed, murdered in cold-blood in broad daylight by the same men that are being honoured today – yesterday – and they made no mention of the four. It’s a very sad development.”
Acknowledging that Saro-Wiwa and the rest might not have participated in physically killing the Ogoni-4, he said they remained blameworthy by vicarious responsibility, because they were the ones who instigated the mob as leaders of MOSOP, the group agitating over the activities of oil companies in the community.
He added: “It is actually a vicarious responsibility on the part of those who were at the leadership of MOSOP at that time. So, if they were leading MOSOP and people were defamed and at the end of the day, they conspired, hacked them down, butchered them and today we have not seen their bodies, how else do you – you know that if somebody assigns somebody to go and kill and you’re not there, you have also killed that person.
“So, he was the mastermind of the killing. I’ve said that before, he was the mastermind for the murder of the four. However, for me, I don’t have anything with the pardon, what I feel that is wrong, which is an aberration is how do you honour a murderer that you have just pardoned. Then you said nothing about the four, our fathers that were butchered to death. They didn’t disappear.
“Pardon is okay, as I said. It’s the President’s prerogative to grant pardon. But to now honour murderers, I think we are now introducing a new low in our Nigerian society, because a lot of Ogonis who escaped and went under the cover of United Nations Refugee Programme, are you telling me if they return, you’re also going to accord them an OON (Officer of the Order of the Niger)?
“We have a lot of respectable Nigerians like Wole Soyinka and other people who deserve such honour. But I can now see why Chinua Achebe turned down such an offe,r because it looks like values are not being considered anymore. You can now be a career murderer and be given an honour in Nigeria. That’s what it means. That’s the new low.
“So, I’m not happy about this because my father was a man who was straightforward. He served and at the end of the day, contributed in development, not only in the sphere of his service, but in Ogoni. But all he got from the people he served, through Saro-Wiwa’s evil rhetoric was for people to hack him down, cut him into pieces and take his body away and till today, there’s no remorse.
“Well, we can’t cry on for more than 30 years. If certain people in Ogoni don’t want to be remorseful for what they did and they want to stand by all the lies, and continue to promote themselves, because they want to enrich themselves – because they have protruding stomachs that cannot be filled and continue an activism that is not real to the people – I want to say for the Bade family and for others, we have reached a point, we hand it over to God.
“I think all of these is all about how to come to Ogoni and get oil and they are in a hurry about it. I’m not in a hurry to betray my father for any form of compensation. In fact, honouring him and putting him side by side with murderers, I don’t think I will accept that. I don’t need compensation.”
Regarding to many who are calling for the total exculpation of the Ogoni-9 of blame over the incident, Bade, attributed it to disinformation, which he said usually led to misinformation adding that a lot of people, particularly the younger generation who did not know the true story, saying if they truly knew the correct story, the situation would be different.
“Just imagine that a man left his house and then he was hacked down. I was there. I saw blood splatter all around the wall in the palace. Today, they refer to that place in Gokana as “slaughter.” People leave their homes and say they’re going to “slaughter.” Then people like Ledum Mitie, Professor Ben Nanem and all those who are agitators for MOSOP, who have the responsibility to turn around for good, they have created a transgenerational catastrophe in Ogoni land.
“This is going to pass through generations and Ogoni is remain divided. I’m so sad. What the President did is wrong. I used to see him as one who listens to both sides and does the right thing. But unfortunately, I think he is misguided and I don’t know why he fell to that.”
A woman who was scheduled to board the Air India flight that tragically crashed in Ahmedabad has spoken about her narrow escape, saying she missed the doomed plane by just 10 minutes, The PUNCH is reporting.
Quoting Mail Online news, the report said Bhoomi Chauhan was en route to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Gujarat to catch flight AI-171 to London when heavy traffic caused a critical delay, preventing her from boarding, and eventually spared her from a devastating crash that claimed 241 lives, leaving only one survivor.
Chauhan, a resident of Ahmedabad, who due to being stuck in heavy traffic, reached the airport 10 minutes later and ultimately ended up missing her flight, told local media that upon receiving information of the devastating crash just moments after she was turned away from the boarding gates, she shivered badly and her legs started shaking.
The Gatwick-bound plane carrying 242 passengers, including 53 British nationals, crashed just moments after take-off.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner careened back down to earth in the densely populated Meghani area of the city just minutes after leaving the runway around 1.40pm local time (8.10am BST).
Terrifying CCTV footage shows the plane appear to lose control before it starts rapidly descending with a high nose angle and landing gear deployed.
Chauhan said her ‘mind went numb’ after she learned of the incident before she returned home. She had been visiting India for a holiday while her husband remained home in London.
Akpabio: Diary of a legislative czar in the Red Chamber
Pardon of Ogoni nine: Tinubu has murdered my father a second time – Bade
How traffic jam saved me from ill-fated Indian plane – woman narrates
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