Baba Kadiri:
Let me once again commend your unstinting efforts at getting to the roots of why we are where we are today.
You left no one in doubt that under the long inglorious saga of PDP in power corruption was fully and unabashedly 'democratised' Not only that you proved beyond any doubt that corruption was a NATIONAL malaise and not restricted to any specific ethnicities with your revealing case studies of the corrupt service chiefs.
With the corrupt escapades of the likes Alex Bundu, Onyeabor Ihejirika, Air Marshalls Adigun and Amosun, Lt Gen Jacob Minimah ans subsequent refunds running into billions, it is clear that when people criticize the current government (including some trenchant voices on this forum) for not spreading appointment of service chiefs beyond a particular zone it is with a view to democratizing the corruption network.
In your sum up suggestions you missed the cardinal feature that allowed the festering of stratospheric corrupt practices: the evil Ibrahim Babangida reforms to occlude the corrupt generals corrupt practices for which Buhari would have retired him had he (Babangida) and allied corrupt military officers overthrew him thus postponing the salvation of Nigerians for two additional agonizing generations: the doctoring of the civil service rules which allowed punlicc servants to establish companies while still in public service. This must be the 9th assebly' first task on commencement of duties, for without this anomaly most coorruptly enriched officials would not risk paying such stratospheric amounts into the accounts of others who might not relinquish such funds on demand. It is because Babangida reckoned there might be a day of reckoning in the future for his ' original sin' that he schemed to bring so many Nigerians down with him in such eventuality that this verity will foreclose such reckoning in view of its enormity. This may be also , given Atiku Abubakar' s civil service antecedents which you previously revealed in the company formation wiith an Italian business partner while still in the civil service, be the reason why Atiku advocated the corruption solution of amnesty for corrupt officials.
In my almost 40 years as licentiate of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators what is held sacred is the clear demarcation of public service and private business. Put clearly civil servants cannot establish and run business while still civil servants. The 9th assembly must re- establish this rule and give the option of immediate retirement or dismissal to those still interested in running their companies or winding them down immediately.
Your focus of the collusion between the Judiciary and the National Assembly to sabotage this governments anti corruption drive with chief saboteur Bukola Saraki is commendable. With the control of the National Assembly the ruling party must now begin moves to expel from the legislature any member who has left the party on whose ticket they entered the chambers.
I must also to the Femi Falana class to put programs in place to educate as well as sanction, to let the learned ladies and gentlemen realise that learning to work in the national interests ( not delaying nor frustrating the administration of justice for monetary gains) far outstrips mercenary brief taking
As for the likes of Prof Farooq Kperogi the Nigerian Constitution provides for freedom of speech and opinion and it is when it is fully exercised that consumers know by pitching both your views side by said who is communicating in their best interests and whose views are too narrow and too shall to benefit them no matter what qualifications are brandished. People are not easily deceived.
I rejoice with the teeming majority of long suffering Nigerians that their redeemerS are now in sight and their patience will not be in vain. And I thank Adams Oshiomole for the fantastic job he is doing as his party's helmsman. We know Mr President is NOT perfect; he was first to admit this himself at the inauguration of his ministry. But he tries harder with his team and with a single minded purpose
Finally, I thank you, sir, Baba Kadiri, for your discipline to rise above the deafening din to sift the chaff from the grain and provide us once again this grail, this collectors item.
Sai Baba,
Say progress!
Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!
Olayinka Agbetuyi
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Salimonu Kadiri <ogunlakaiye@hotmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 29, 2019 9:47:18 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - THE 9TH NATIONAL ASSEMBLY AND PARTY SUPREMACY
Sent: Saturday, June 29, 2019 9:47:18 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - THE 9TH NATIONAL ASSEMBLY AND PARTY SUPREMACY
From 1999, when a democratic form of government was re-established in Nigeria and up to 2015, every outgoing government (federal, state, or local government) was a band of marauders, who mindlessly pillaged the economic resources of Nigeria and enthroned perfidy as a badge of honour. In the unbroken sixteen years of PDP government, the rulers converted national assets into their private wealth through privatisation, deregulation and liberalisation. 1999 to 2015 was a period marked as the Government of looters by looters and for the looters. It was an era in which the greatest robbers in Nigeria are the pen-robbers. Ministers, Permanent Secretaries and Directors in the Ministries and parastatals, all without exception, had brief-case companies registered and to which they personally awarded contracts. Mostly the contracts were fully paid for without any contract being executed
When the head of a fish is rotten, the rest of the body is useless. That was what happened in 2006 when the President, Olusegun Obasanjo, and his vice, Atiku Abubakar openly accused each other of corruption, an euphemism commonly used in Nigeria when state's funds are stolen by public officials. Obasanjo accused Atiku of having used his position in government to corruptly enrich himself and Atiku replied that Obasanjo was the greatest thief in Nigeria and he buttressed it with the fact that when Obasanjo came out of Abacha's gulag in 1998, he, Obasanjo had only N20,000 in his bank account and his Otta farm was in total ruin. He then called on Obasanjo to explain the source of his wealth running to billions of naira as at November 2006. By the end of Olusegun Obasanjo's two terms Presidency, 29 May 2007, not less than thirty Governors, most of them PDP, had been investigated by the Nuhu Ribadu led EFCC for stealing funds meant for the economic and welfare development of the people of their respective state. Ex-PDP governors mounted pressure on the new government of President of Umaru Musa Yar'Adua to remove Nuhu Ribadu as EFCC Chairman. Ribadu was not only removed but driven into exile after he had been replaced with the choice of the ex-PDP governors, Mrs Farida Waziri. Under Farida's EFCC Chairmanship, the accused ex-PDP Governors were granted opportunity to choose which court or judge should try their cases. Yet, Mrs Farida Waziri said at a press conference in Kaduna on 28 September 2009 thus, "Having dealt with many corruption cases, I am inclined to suggest that public officers should be subjected to some form of psychiatric evaluation to determine their suitability for public office. The extent of aggrandizement and gluttonous accumulation of wealth that I have observed suggests to me that some people are mentally and psychologically unsuitable for public office. We have observed people amassing public wealth to a point suggesting 'madness' or some form of obsessive-compulsive psychiatric disorder. Well, the EFCC was not set up as a science laboratory to observe public officials stealing public funds, but to arrest and prosecute them in the courts of law. Farida worked to the satisfaction of those who facilitated her appointment and stealing of public funds (corruption) flourished.
After Goodluck Jonathan had become substantive President in 2010 he replaced Farida with Larmode as EFCC's Chairman. By that time, and of all corruption cases filed by EFCC in different courts of Nigeria, only the case of former Governor of Delta State, 1999-2007, James Onanefe Ibori, was settled. In December 2009, the Federal High Court, Asaba, presided over by Justice Marcel Awokulehin, absolved James Onanefe Ibori of all the 170-count charge of corruption and money laundering of the sum of two-hundred and fifty million pound sterling stolen from Delta state between 1999 and 2007 when he was the State's governor. He pleaded guilty in a London court later to have laundered the same amount of money in the UK and was jailed thirteen years in February 2012. However, if corruption was an undergraduate during the reign of Obasanjo, it became a full bloom professor under Jonathan. In his Presidential inaugural speech, 29 May 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan stated in paragraph 30 thus, "Fellow citizens, in every decision, I shall always place the common good before all else. The bane of corruption shall be met by the overwhelming force of our collective determination, to rid our nation of this scourge. The fight against corruption is a war in which we must all enlist so that the limited resources of this nation will be used for the collective growth of our commonwealth." That sweet promise was not kept by Jonathan, who already in September 2011, decided to increase pump prize of fuel from N65/litre to N147/litre. Government had budgeted two-hundred and forty-five billion naira (N245 billion) for fuel subsidy in 2011 but by the end of December 2011, a total sum of two trillion, six-hundred billion naira (N2.6 trillion) had been paid as fuel subsidy without any supplementary appropriation by the National Assembly. In the western world, from where we copied our system of government, the government who spent beyond budget approval would not only have been sacked but its leaders would have faced automatic court trials. Both Jonathan's government and the National Assembly's subsequent enquiries showed that three billion, two-hundred and sixty-two million, nine-hundred and sixty thousand, two-hundred and twenty-five litres (3,262,960,225 litres) of petrol were falsely declared as supplied by briefcase companies owned by previous and current public officials who collected billions of naira from the government. Federal government listed seventy-three companies that defrauded Nigerians of fuel subsidy payments. It was also established that Nigeria's four crude oil refineries were being allocated with four-hundred and forty-five thousand barrels of crude oil per day for refinery for domestic consumption, whereas, the daily consumption at that time was under three-hundred thousand barrels/day. Consequently, if the 445,000 B/day were refined as intended, Nigeria would not need to import fuel and the cost of pump price per litre would be around N30/liter.
Beside corruption in the oil industry, the most embarrassing issue that characterized President Jonathan's government was the inability of the military to combat the rag tag Boko Haram insurgents. Despite the fact that the event that gave rise to Boko Haram started when Umaru Musa Yar'Adua was the President, Jonathan and the people around him believed that Boko Haram was an all out Northern conspiracy against his government. Many Nigerians wondered why the Nigerian Armed Forces that had fought to restore peace in the Congo, Sierra Leone and Liberia could not engage Boko Haram which in 2013 had occupied a large territory of Nigeria in the North East of the country. President Jonathan, with the support of National Assembly, declared a state of Emergency in the North East States of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe. In spite of emergency rule and Nigeria's armed forces presence, Boko Haram attacks and territorial occupation expanded. Therefore, President Jonathan reshuffled and redeployed the Service Chiefs on 16 January 2014. With immediate effect, Air Marshal Subundu Badeh took over from Admiral Ola Sa'ad Ibrahim as Chief of Defence Staff; Major-General Kenneth Tobiah Jacob Minimah took over from Lieutenant General Azubuike Onyeabor Ihejirika as Chief of Army Staff; Real Admiral Usman O. Jibrin took over from Vice Admiral Dele Joseph Ezeoba as Chief of Naval Staff; while Air Vice Marshal Adesola Nunayon Amosu took over from Air Marshal Alex Subundu Badeh as Chief of Air Staff. On assumption of office on 20 January 2014, the new Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Air Marshal Alex Subundu Badeh, assured the nation that by April 2014, Boko Haram and its murderous insurrection would be history. He stated, "I can say confidently that this war is already won. The security situation in the North East must be brought to a complete stop before April 2014. We must bring it to a stop before April so that we will not have constitutional problems in our hands." The constitutional problems which Badeh intended to avoid was lack of will by the national assembly to extend the State of emergency beyond the end of April 2014 as it was granted.
After the change of Service Chiefs and the assurance given by CDS Badeh, the nation expected quick retreat of Boko Haram from occupied Nigerian territories. Instead, Boko Haram intensified their attacks and in a spectacular manner, it launched attack on Chibok, in Borno State, and abducted close to three-hundred secondary school girls, on 14 April 2014 and transported them in a convoy to Sambisa forest that is situated 60 kilometres from Chibok without encountering challenge from the Nigerian security forces, in a state under emergency rule and where dusk to dawn curfew persisted. The general opinion among ordinary Nigerians was that the Nigerian military stationed there were complicit in the abduction of the Chibok's school girls. President Jonathan and his supporters did not believe, initially, that the abduction ever took place and that it was a propaganda aimed at bringing his regime into ridicule. The kidnap of the Chibok girls casted doubt not only the on the loyalty of the military to Jonathan's government but also on the competence of the entire military itself. It must be remembered that in a broad day light of 14 March 2014, Giwa Barracks in Maiduguri was attacked by 200 Boko Haram fighters transported in 12 Hilux pickup trucks in an area under Emergency rule!! The ability of the Boko Haram to freely move about without being detected by Nigerian Security Forces and passing through all military check points, in areas of state of emergency, at will and retreating safely back to their base, gave rise to the question from Nigerians, where were Nigerian Army and Air Force? That question was never answered by Nigeria's Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), but News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), a state-run news service, reported on Monday, 26 May 2014, that Air Marshal Alex Subundu Badeh had told it, "We want our girls back. I can tell you that our military can and will do it, but where they are held, can we go their with force? Nobody should say Nigerian military does not know what it is doing; we can't kill our girls in the name of trying to get them back." Fast forward, on 24 August 2014, Boko Haram renamed Gwoza in Borno State as Darul Hikma and declared it the capital of their Islamic State. On 1 September 2014, Boko Haram captured Bama, the second largest city in Borno State. In Adamawa state, which ironically is the home state of CDS Badeh, not only were Michika and Magdali captured by Boko Haram in October 2014, but also the home town of Chief of Defence Staff, Mubi, was captured and renamed, Madinatul Islam. By the end of 2014, Boko Haram was occupying fifty-thousand square kilometres territory in Nigeria which, in size was as big as Royal Kingdom of Denmark. In normal world, Nigerian military officers under whose command Boko Haram was allowed to occupy and control territories in Nigeria, would have been booted out of office for gross incompetence and negligence of duty.
The All Progressive Congress (APC) and its Presidential flag bearer in the 2015 elections, Muhammadu Buhari, anchored their campaigns on two major issues of ending corruption in public office and insecurity posed, majorly, by Boko Haram in Nigeria. Buhari did not win only the Presidential election, but the APC won majority seats in the National Assembly. In order that APC and Buhari could fulfil their promise of change to Nigerians, the Executive would need to update, review and amend the laws and regulations in which the anti-graft agencies were operating. Therefore, the APC majority in the National Assembly was expected to be on the same page with Buhari so that they would amend the laws as requested by the President. However, a coup occurred whereby in the history of parliamentary democracy, the Senate President and his deputy, on 8 June 2015, emerged through a process similar to what was described in Article 419 of the Nigerian criminal code, obtainment by false pretence. The old and new PDP seized the National Assembly from the APC. The new PDP, Bukola Saraki, did not only become the President of the Senate against the choice of the APC, he traded off the Deputy Senate President to the old PDP, Ike Ekweremadu. The disaster could have been rectified if President Buhari had not mistakenly projected his own standard of morality on Bukola Saraki when he declared after the parliamentary coup, that he was prepared to work with anyone that emerged as Senate's President and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively. Belatedly, Buhari realised that the PDP seized the National Assembly in order to prevent the prosecution and recovery of national assets looted during the sixteen years rule of the PDP in Nigeria.
The three arms of government in Nigeria, the Executive, Legislative and Judicial should work in tandem if injustice, the father of all crimes in Nigeria is to be seriously reduced and curtailed. Therefore, no matter how much the President tries, if the legislature and the judiciary, are not co-operative, he will achieve little. On 17 December 2015, the Chairman of Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Mr. Ekpo Nta, was quoted, by the online Nigerian Vanguard, to have said that the ICPC was prosecuting over 400 corruption cases in various courts across the country even as it blamed judiciary for the drawback it suffered in the course of prosecuting the cases. Since over a thousand of the corruption cases were initiated by the EFCC and ICPC as far back as July 2007, during the PDP government, The acting Chairman of EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, called for a legislation that would fix time frame within which corruption cases should be heard and determined by the judiciary. Speaking at a town hall meeting with Nigerians in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Sunday, 31 January 2016, President Buhari was reported to have said by all online Nigerian news media thus, "On the fight against corruption vis-à-vis the judiciary, Nigerians will be right to say that is my main headache for now." He stated further that the ongoing fight against corruption in Nigeria could be effectively tackled with the strong support of the judiciary. The President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) then, Mr. Augustine Alegeh, accused President Buhari of intimidating the judiciary, even though he deliberately refused to tell Nigerians why cases of treasury lootings to the tune of billions of naira since 2007 were still pending in courts in 2016, after bails had been granted to the looters and their cases adjourned sine die.
In February 2016, Buhari forwarded two Bills to the National Assembly namely, Special Criminal Court Bill seeking to establish Special Court for cases of corruption, narcotics and kidnapping; and Proceeds of Crime Bill, which automatically puts anybody whose asset is seized on the defence to prove ownership and its source. When nothing happened about the Bills, Buhari seized the opportunity at a presidential dinner he held in honour of National Assembly members, on Monday, 30 May 2016, at the Villa, to appeal for speedy passage of the Bills. Instead of acting on the Executive Bills, the House of Reps, on Tuesday, 31 May 2016 amended the CCB/CCT to the effect that the CCB would be obliged to draw the attention of any person that breaches the CCB Act to it and seek explanation before filing case at the CCT.
As year 2016 progressed, Buhari and his government discovered that not only the corruption cases filed during the PDP regime were still pending in courts, the new APC regime had witnessed that the criminal investigating agencies filed hundreds of treasury looting cases in courts only for the accused to be granted bails and their cases adjourned sine die. That caused Buhari to express his frustration, on Monday, 18 July 2016, at an International Workshop that took place at the National Judicial Council (NJI), Abuja. Buhari said among other things, "Critically important also, is the sacred duty of the judiciary to ensure that criminal justice administration is not delayed. I am worried that the expectation of the public is yet to be met by the judiciary with regard to the removal of delay and the toleration of delay tactics by lawyers. When cases are not concluded, the negative impression is given that crime pays. So far, the corruption cases filed by the government are not progressing speedily as they should …. This certainly needs to change, if we are to make success in our collective effort in the fight against corruption. To this end, the Judiciary is under a duty to keep its house in order and to ensure that the public, which it serves, sees this. Thus, we cannot expect to make any gains in the war against corruption in our society when the judiciary is seen as being distant from the crusade. …//.. The Judiciary must fight delay of cases in court as well as it fights corruption in its own ranks, perceived or otherwise." http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/07/corruption-war-delay-tactics-judicial-officers-hampering-progress-says-buhari/ On 7 October 2016, the DSS raided homes of Nigerian Judges including two Supreme Court judges and millions of naira, pound sterling, US dollars and euro currencies beyond their legitimate incomes were recovered. It was no longer a secrete that Judicial officers were routinely sharing looted public funds with looters in exchange for freedom from conviction. Even a fool could then understand why Nigerian Judges had been issuing perpetual injunctions prohibiting security agencies from arresting, interrogating, detaining and prosecuting suspected national treasury looters. But instead of Nigerian intellectuals rising up to protest against open sales of justice to the highest bidder by Nigerian Judges, the same intellectuals who today accuse Buhari of failing to combat corruption in his first term, accused Buhari of being a Dictator who through the DSS action infringed on the independence of the third arm of the government. The Attorney General of the Federation explained later that the Nigerian Judicial Council (NJC) had rejected DSS request to probe Judges. http://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2016/10/11/how-njc-rejected-dss-request-to-probe-judges/ Yet, when the culpable judges were subsequently prosecuted in court, the cases were dismissed on the ground that no judge could be prosecuted for criminal offence unless he/she has first been investigated and recommended for discipline by the NJC. NJC is not a criminal investigating agency but disciplinary institution for judicial officers such as when a judge falls asleep in the course of court proceeding. If a judge should drive on road path meant for pedestrians and kill a person, the NJC has nothing to do with the case and as such the judge should be arrested and prosecuted immediately since according to the constitution, judicial officers do not enjoy immunity from prosecution for criminal offence while in office. Buhari has stated publicly that if Nigeria does not kill corruption, it will kill Nigeria. Hundreds of Nigerians are being murdered daily through stealing of funds meant for socio-economic welfare of Nigerians by public officials. How the Nigerian courts of law are accomplice in the socio-economic murder of Nigerians can best be illustrated by how the courts treated those who stole funds set aside to buy weapons, recruit and train soldiers to fight Boko Haram insurgents.
As referenced earlier, the former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Subundu Badeh, on assuming office on 20 January 2014 assured the nation that Boko Haram would be history by the end of April 2014. The same Badeh told Nigerians through the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on 26 May 2014, that the Nigerian military knew where the Chibok girls were being kept but refrained from using force to free them so as not to risk the lives of the girls. Then, on Thursday, 30 July 2015, retired Air Chief Marshal Alex Subundu Badeh, at his ceremonial pull out from Service, held at a Senior Military Barrack, Abuja, said that the military he presided over was ill-equipped and troops were poorly motivated. Badeh's lamentation made headline cover of the Daily Trust, Leadership and Punch Newspapers of Friday, 31 July 2015. Seven Months after his retirement from the Service as Chief of Defence Staff, the EFCC on 24 February 2016 conducted a search at the residence of Alex Sabundu Badeh, situated at number 6, Ogun River Street, Maitama, Abuja. The EFCC recovered one million US dollars ($1million) cash; documents patainning to his company named, Iyalikam Nigerian Limited through which he was laundering the sum of five-hundred and fifty-eight million, two-hundred thousand naira (N558.2 million) transferred every month from the Nigerian Air Force Account between January and December 2013, when he was Chief of Air Staff. EFCC also recovered from his house bank documents showing that Badeh deposited the sum of nine-hundred thousand US dollars ($900,000) into his personal account between November 2012 and November 2013. Through his company named Prince and Princess Multiservices Ltd, the acquisition of a Shopping Mall at a cost of N1.4 billion was at advance stage. Alex Badeh was arraigned and charged for stealing a total sum of three billion, nine-hundred and seventy million naira from the Nigerian military and laundering the same through his company, Iyalikam Nigeria Limited. That was Badeh who lamented that he led ill-equipped military and poorly motivated troops. Badeh was granted bail and the usual Maradona dribbling with the law began. Unfortunately, Alex Subundu Badeh was apprehended and killed while driving to Zamfara by armed robbers who had privy information that he had a huge cash of money in his vehicle with which he was going to buy farmland. Lieutenant General Azubuike Onyeabor Ihejirika was Nigeria's Chief of Army Staff from September 2010 to January 2014 when Jonathan's regime retired him. Bearing in mind that it was the Nigerian Army that constituted the main ground force against Boko Haram, the army should be blamed for the military success of Boko Haram in 2013. Between March 2011 and December 2013 when Lieutenant General Ihejirika held sway as head of the Nigerian Army, two companies, Chok Ventures Ltd and Integrated Equipment Services Ltd, were exclusively awarded contracts to procure various types of Toyota and Mitsubishi vehicles for the Nigerian Army, at a total cost of three billion, six-hundred and fifty-eight million, two-hundred and ninety-three thousand, eight-hundred and forty-six naira and ninety-four kobo (N3,658,293,846.94), without any competitive bidding. Although there was physical evidence of delivery of the vehicles, according to EFCC report, the companies were fully paid based on job completion certificate authenticated by the then Chief of Logistics, Major-General D.D. Kitchener. Interestingly, the two companies in the almost N3.7 billion contract were owned by one person named Chinedu Onyekwere who happened to be brother-in-law to Lieutenant General Azubuike Onyeabor Ihejirika, the Chief of Army Staff. The EFCC investigation of the various bank accounts operated by the two companies that got nearly N3.7 billion procurement contract from the Nigerian Army revealed transfers of huge cash to five individuals related to General Ihejirika and who were identified as Raymond Ihejirika,Nkechi Ihefirika, Ndubuisi Ihejirika, Orji Ihejirika and Kingsley Ihejirika. After interrogation by the EFCC on Friday, 23 February 2018, retired Lieutenant General Azubike Onyeabor Ihejirika was granted administrative bail and was to return for more questions. Nothing has been heard about the case. Ihejirika was succeeded by Lt. General Kenneth Tobiah Jacob Minimah in January 2014 but he was retired in July 2015. According online PMnews Nigeria of 26 February 2018, citing EFCC sources, Lieutenant General Kenneth Tobiah Jacob Minimah had refunded in two tranches about N1.7 billion he illegally appropriated to himself from the Nigerian Army through his company, Conella Services Limited, to the EFCC.
As previously stated, Air Marshal Adesola Nunayon Amosu took over from Badeh as Chief of Air Staff in January 2014. By the time he was forcibly retired in July 2015, Nigerian Air Force funds grew wings and were flying into his and his comrades in arms account. He is currently undergoing trial with former NAF Chief of Accounts and Budgeting, Air Vice Marshal Jacob Adigun, and a former Director of Finance and Budget, Air Commodore Olugbenga Gbadebo, for having stolen twenty-one billion naira (N21 billion) from the account of NAF. Besides the cash of $115,000 recovered by the EFCC during a search in one of Amosu's houses in Lagos, he has voluntarily retuned two billion, four-hundred million naira (N2.4 billion) via bank drafts to the EFCC office in Lagos and Abuja. From Air Commodore Olugbenga Gbadebo, the EFCC has recovered one-hundred million naira (N100). Court has granted bails to the accused and while the EFCC is pressing for the opening of their case in court Amosu and his comrades are requesting for plea bargaining through their lawyers. Standing trial in court too, is retired Air Vice Marshal Olutayo Tade Oguntoyinbo who was Chief of Training and Operations of the Nigerian Air Force. He had received a gratification of one-hundred and sixteen million naira from a contractor with the NAF named Societe D'Equipmenteux Internationale Nigeria Limited and owned by two brothers, Huna Abubakar and Ousmane Huna Massy from Niger Republic. Oguntoyinbo had received the kick-back through the account of Space Web Integrated Services Limited of which he was CEO/Managing Director and sole signatory domiciled with Wema Bank. The bribe was paid into the account on11 July 2014. As for the retired Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Dele Joseph Ezeoba, the EFCC secured a permanent forfeiture of the sum of one billion, eight-hundred and twenty-five thousand naira (N1.825 billion) diverted from the Nigerian Navy account to the bank account of Aquila Leasing Limited owned by Chukwukwuka Onwuchekwa, later found to be a fictitious name invented by Admiral Dele Joseph Ezeoba for the purpose of swindling the Nigerian Navy of the huge amount. The Service Chiefs under President Jonathan committed high treason and should , as military men ought to have been tried in a military court, instead, they were being tried in civilian courts who were auctioning out bail grants in disregard of the consequences of the crimes committed. In the case of the Service Chiefs, their actions resulted in the murder of thousands of Nigerians and rendered millions homeless by Boko Haram. If Judges had weighed in the consequences of what the Service Chiefs did, as the law require them to always do, they would have kept the culprits behind the bar, at least, till the end of trials. Therefore, Buhari's first four years term was sabotaged by the alliance between the Judiciary and National Assembly seized by the new and old PDP in the 8th Assembly.
After the Presidential inauguration of Buhari for his second-term four years tenure on 29 May 2019, the Ninth National Assembly was inaugurated on 11 June 2019. Femi Gbajabiamila (APC) was elected Speaker of the House of Reps with 282 votes against 76 votes for Mohammed Bago. Ahmed Wase (APC) was elected Deputy Speaker unopposed by the 358 members present. Ahmed Lawan (APC) was elected Senate's President with 79 votes against 28 votes for Ali Ndume (APC). Ovie Omo-Agege (APC) was elected Deputy President of the Senate with 68 votes against 37 votes for Ike Ekweremadu (PDP). This time around, the election of the Principal officers of the national assembly followed APC's national working directives on who should hold those positions even though Senator Ali Ndume decided to disobey the decision of his party. The election of the Principal officers of the National Assembly was distasteful to Professor Farooq Kperogi. Substituting passion for vision, aggression for motivation and arrogance for wisdom, the learned professor titled his article of Saturday, 15 June 2019 thus, "A Slavish Parliament and the Road to Buhari's Life Presidency." A part of his article reads, "On June 11, 2019, Nigeria inaugurated what promises to be the most servile and least independent National Assembly in Nigeria's entire history. The new Senate President and the new Speaker of the House of Representatives, whose ascendancy to their positions was enabled by nakedly transparent executive manipulation are unabashedly obsequious grovelers to the presidency. ...//... The National Assembly will no longer be an independent arm of government, it will now be an extension of the Presidency and an assemblage of fawning factotums of fascism." Professor Farooq Kperogi is actually of the same opinion as Bukola Saraki who in 2015 asserted that after elections political parties should go to sleep until the next elections. T The National Assembly is still independent of the Executive arm of the government, even though majority members of the Legislative arm belong to the same political party as the President. The Executive at all times will depend on legislative backing for its actions based no the manifesto the party presented to Nigerians in its election campaign. Had Professor Farooq Kperogi bothered to read the Nigerian Constitution, he would have discovered that party supremacy is well entrenched there. Section 65 (1) of the 1999 Constitution states that a person shall be qualified for election as a member of (a) the Senate, (b) the House of Representatives if, according to Section 65 (2b), he is a member of a political party and is sponsored by that party. In order to protect political parties from political harlots, Section 68 (1g) of the 1999 constitution says, "A member of the Senate or the House of Representatives shall vacate his seat in the House of which he is a member if being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that that House was elected. The implication of Sections 65 (1a &1b), 65(2b) and 68 (1g), when read together is that if a member of the House of Reps or Senate is expelled from the party on which platform he was elected , he will automatically lose his seat in the National Assembly. For the ninth Assembly, Nigerians should hail Adam Oshiomhole, the National Chairman of the APC for insisting that party discipline and supremacy should prevail.
The APC controlled Executive and National Assembly must commence work in earnest. Section 15 (5) of the 1999 Constitution says : The government shall abolish corruption and abuse of power. The cause of all crimes in Nigeria today is the stealing of funds meant for various kinds of economic developments of the country and social welfare of the people. For instance, Boko Haram, Niger Delta insurgents, armed robbers, kidnappers and cattle rustlers are all products of corrupt Nigerian public officials. Since the Nigerian Judiciary, as it has been proved, has collided with treasury looters to share proceeds of looting in exchange for not being convicted, Buhari should resend his February 2016 Bill for the establishment of Special Criminal Court which shall exclusively try all cases of corruption, narcotics and kidnapping to the National Assembly. Section 16 (2c) of the 1999 Constitution says: The State shall direct its policy towards ensuring that suitable and adequate shelter, suitable and adequate food, reasonable national minimum living wage, old age care and pensions, unemployment, sick benefits and welfare of the disabled are provided for all citizens. Further in Section 17 (3) of the 1999 Constitution, it is stated: The State shall direct its policy towards ensuring (a) that all citizens without discrimination of any group whatsoever have the opportunity for securing adequate means of livelihoods as well as adequate opportunity to secure suitable employment. The APC controlled Executive and National Assembly should start immediately to implement what are stipulated in the above cited sections of the Nigerian Constitution. Lest I forget, Section18(3) states: Government shall provide free, compulsory and universal primary education; free secondary and university education; and free adult literacy programme, as and when practicable. Twenty years after the 1999 constitution became operative, the APC controlled Executive and Legislature must deem it practicable now to implement the contents of Section 18(3) of the constitution. On a special note, public officials are obliged to declare their assets on resumption and exit of office. However, paragraph 3 (c) of the 3rd schedule to the 1999 Constitution empowers the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, to retain custody of Asset Declarations and make them available for inspection by any citizen on such terms and conditions to be prescribed by the National Assembly. As at June 29, 2019, terms and conditions on which Nigerian citizens can access Asset Declarations of public officials are yet to be prescribed by the National Assembly. Declaration of Assets is one of the instruments with which corruption can be fought and the APC controlled Executive and National Assembly can never be credible in its fight against corruption if the terms and conditions of allowing citizens to access it are not prescribed. Finally, all the thirty-six states in Nigeria collect revenue allocations from the federal government every quater. In order that citizens of each state can monitor and evaluate what the government is doing with the revenue allocations collected on their behalves, the Federal Government should publish the amount of money in naira shared quaterly to each state in Nigeria. Should the Presidency and the APC majority in the National Assembly strive to comply with the letters of the 1999 Constitution as cited above, only a despotic and deceptive intellectual who wants to present butterflies as birds to Nigerians, will brand them an assemblage of fawning factotums of fascism.
S. Kadiri
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