It has come to this.In the free-for-all that was our banking system, even a nanny could obtain a N13 billion loan from one of our top banks. Especially if she is the owner's nanny.Such was the good fortune of Nanashetu Abdulai, who served Cecilia Ibru as nanny to her eldest son, Oboden.Billion naira Nanny "Mcphee" Nanashetu Bedell her Husband and the Loan Giver CeCeIBRUIn our banking system, this was enough collateral to persuade Oceanic Bank, which is now on life support and has been taken over by the Central Bank, to extend billions to Nanashetu. At least officially.Ms. Abdulai, 51, also known as Nanashetu P. Bedell, received what is now being called the "nanny loan" based solely on her relationship with Mrs. Ibru, who is now a fugitive from the law and is wanted on fraud, money laundering, and stock manipulation charges by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. As at May 31, the loan was non-performing, according to a list released by the Central Bank.Attempts to reach Ms. Abdulai at both her office and by telephone were unsuccessful.Ms. Abdulai secured the loan as the sole director of Circular Global International Ltd. The company turned up as debtor number 13 on the CBN list of debtors to Oceanic Bank, is also the chief executive of the upscale corporate and household gift items suppliers called Nanshet Limited. Its head office is on Akin Olugbade high street of Victoria Island in Lagos.Nanshet Ltd trades in corporate and household gift items and supplies majority, if not all, of Oceanic Bank's corporate souvenirs and staff insignias. Mrs. Ibru's signature neckties are samples of Nanshet's supplies.Nanshet Limited started business in 1990 selling only Christian Books and Gifts. It now specialises in the procurement and distribution of electronics, household items and corporate gifts on a wholesale and retail level. It opened an American office in 2002Ms. Abdulai was the nanny to the former Managing Director of Oceanic Bank and the first son of Mrs. Ibru, Oboden Ibru, but has become a close member of the family."She is generally called Sister Nana within Oceanic Bank," said one source. Another source referred to her as "Cecilia Ibru's twin sister," establishing the close relationship which Ms. Abdulai shares with the Ibru family and also alluding to the influence that Ms. Abdulai wields away from the domestic domain of the Ibru family to the corporate quarters where public funds are held."It is conventional wisdom in Oceanic that the fear of Sister Nana is the beginning of wisdom," said an insider who pleaded anonymity at Oceanic Bank Headquarters on Ozumba Mbadiwe Street on Victoria Island, Lagos.No. 4 Akin Olugbade Street is just a white, plain looking one-storey building that is unremarkable in every aspect apart from sharing a fence with an Oceanic Bank branch. It looks more like a residential building than an office space. In a section of the compound, heaps of ceramic tiles are packed amid large wooden boxes.Nanshet Mega Stores sell luxury gift items, including flower vases, ceramic plates, steel trolleys and large aluminium and enamel pots and dishes. It is located at the ground floor of City Mall directly opposite the entrance of the mall.
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Recently, the Director of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), Tim Daniel, revealed that Nigeria loses $110 billion annually to treasury looting. According to him, the country cannot boast of tremendous development because of the large amount of money being siphoned out of government and taken outside the country.Saturday Sun’s findings reveal that Daniel hit the bull in the eye. Every ministry, government’s agency and parastatal corporation have been discovered to be involved in the looting spree. Indeed, during her first anniversary as Chairman of Economic Finance and Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mrs. Farida Waziri noted that former governors, ministers and members of parliament alone have stolen N285billion in this political dispensation.With this and other reported cases of corruption Transparency International cannot therefore be faulted in its position that corruption is high in Nigeria.It would be recalled that one of the reasons the military sacked the civilian government of Shehu Shagari on December 31, 1983 was corruption. Corruption still continues. When what happened then is compared to the looting in the last 10 years, the former pales into insignificance. When the country started another journey in democracy, led by Olusegun Obasanjo, a probe was instituted against the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, which led to the discovery that the former military junta sole $3billion from the country’s treasurer.The uproar this generated and the recrimination it attracted to the Abacha family did not deter others from helping themselves from the treasury, whether it is national, state or local government levels.Saturday Sun gathered that on daily basis political office holders’ siphoned money, through various means, from the treasury. Recently, the National Coordinator, Nigeria Network on Stolen Assets, Rev. David Ugolor, revealed that the N65billion looted by Abacha, which had been returned, had been mismanaged. According to him, from evidence the Federal Government, under Obasanjo, disbursed the funds and could not provide evidence of transparent disbursement. The same fate greeted the N16billion recovered from Tafa Balogun, which was said to be missing and no record to trace it.When Obasanjo assumed office in 1999, he adorned the messiah toga. In fighting corruption, he set up the EFCC, with Nuhu Ribadu as its chairman. The anti-graft agency started blowing hot until it turned out to be a tool for hounding perceived or real enemies of the president. Ribadu, while appearing before the Senate in 2007, told the bewildered nation that the agency had investigated then serving governors and that 31 out of the 36 of them had been found to have allegedly looted the treasury of their respected states and would be prosecuted as soon as their immunity expired.Curiously, when the tenure of these governors ended, only six of them who were said not to be in the good books of Obasanjo were taken to court by the agency. Not much was known about the extent of looting of the national treasury until the National Assembly started probing various agencies, ministries and parastatals. The figures coming out from some of the probes that represent what have been looted are frightening. It was from the probes that Nigerian realised why the problem of the energy sector had defied solution and why the country has been in perpetual darkness. Over $16 billion, said to have spent by Obasanjo’s government to find solution to the perennial darkness, went into private pockets.The usual Nigeria’s conundrum was introduced in the probe, which made the report to be confined to the trash bin. The hunter later turned the hunted. Ndudi Elumelu, the head of the probe committee, is now facing trial with four others for alleged perpetration of monumental fraud of N5.2b.Those involved are Chairman, Senate Committee on Power; Senator Nicholas Ugbare, his House of Representatives counterpart, Ndudi Elumelu; Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Power, Dr. Abdulahi Aliyu and Managing Director of Rural Electrification Agency, Samuel Gekpe.Another sleaze at Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) involved N3billion alleged stolen by the suspended Chairman of the agency, Dr. Ransome Owan and six commissioners. They are currently facing trial on 197-count at an Abuja High Court. Of this amount, N77million was said to have been spent on overseas frolicking and cost of living allowances.Yet another case of looting is in educational sector, while the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is lamenting the high level of adult illiteracy in Nigeria, the literacy commission boss was involved in N271m fraud, which is part of the amount meant to reduce the illiteracy rate in the country. According to latest report of UNESCO, Nigeria is classified as one of the countries at a serious risk of not attaining the Education for All (EFA) goal by 2015. The report claimed that there are about 60 million adult illiterates and 11 million out-of-school children in Nigeria. It rated Nigeria as one of the most illiterate in the world. In the face of this negative index, the Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Adult Education, Mass Literacy and Non-Formal Education, Dr. Dayo Olagunju and 19 officers of the commission are being prosecuted for the alleged fraud.The Director of the Universal Basic Education Commission, Prof. Bridget Sokan and three top officers are also facing trial over N78million loot. Also, while the universities are crying of under-funding and lecturers on strike, the Vice Chancellor of Imo State University, Prof. I. C. Okonkwo, has been arrested in connection with N70million fraud. When his house was searched, the sum of N4.5million cash, $11, 200 and 700 Euros were found in his apartment in Owerri.Former Minister of Aviation, Prof. Babalola Borishade, NAMA’s former Managing Director, Roland Iyayi and two others were fingered in N19billion loot. They are facing criminal charges in court.The football house is not left out. It was recently reported that $236, 000 was stolen from coffers of Nigerian Football Federation. Funny enough, the National Sports Commission, the supervising agency inaugurated committee to trace the money. The committee, after collecting sitting allowance, did not come up with any finding.The National Film Corporation has its pie in the shame, as its Managing Director, Afolabi Adesanya and four directors were recently arrested for allegedly sharing of N11.8m belonging to the agency.The Trans National Corporation (TRANCOP) is also in the news as it relates to corruption. Its Group Managing Director, Thomas Isegoli, is in the net of EFCC for fraud. The amount involved is more than N15billion. He is being held with the company’s Secretary, Mohammed Buba and another official, Mike Okoli.The GMD is said to have, in connivance with other staff, severally abused the N100million approval limit given to him by the Board of TRANSCORP. He allegedly used organisations owned by his friends and associates to siphon money through bogus and overlapping consultancy projects, contracts and services.The Chairman, Federal Character Commission, Prof. Oba Shuaibu Abdulraheem, was last September accused of involvement in N262million scam. A petition on this issue was sent to President Umar Yar’Adua and Code of Conduct Bureau. Chief Bode George and others are also facing charges over scam in the Nigeria Ports authority. Former Senate President, Adolphs Nwagbara with Prof. Ebere Osuji, former education minister and others are also facing corruption charges, likewise serving Senator Iyabo Obasanjo and Prof Adenike Grange, who are alleged to have corruptly enriched themselves to the tune of N300million.At the peak of the Obasanjo campaign for the cancellation of Nigeria’s foreign debt, United Kingdom Minister for Africa, Mr. Chris Mullin disclosed, on February 2005, that about N315.5billion of Nigeria’s looted funds were frozen in various British banks. He had said that Nigeria’s quest for debt cancellation would be a mirage if corruption and looting of the treasure persisted in the country. From reports, Nigeria’s stolen money kept in foreign accounts in 1999 increased from $50billion to $170billion in 2003. This was buttressed in the June 2006 edition of The Africa Report by the former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Mr. Raymond Baker, who had estimated stolen money from Nigeria and stashed away in foreign banks to be about $100b.Baker, who put the total value of “dirty money” laundered globally at $500million per annum, also noted that about 50 percent of these funds, which come from developing economies end up in US dollar dominated accounts.Saturday Sun gathered that the sum of N53.3billion owed failed banks in the country and now considered bad debts came about as a result of insider abuse or outright stealing by officials of those banks. Before the collapsed of these banks, some of them went to the Nigerian Stock Exchange to raise funds to assist them come out of the woods. This ended with much of the funds being diverted to other uses by the unscrupulous officials of the banks.Of all these funds stashed away in foreign banks, in 2006, the then Attorney General of the Federation declared that the Federal Government could only recover $1billion.By VINCENT UKONG KALU(vin@sunnwsonline.com) Culled from The Sun
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Pop star Michael Jackson died from a lethal dose of the powerful anesthetic propofol given in a cocktail of drugs, leading authorities to suspect his doctor of manslaughter, court documents showed on Monday.The "Thriller" singer suffered cardiac arrest and died on June 25 at age 50. Since then, an investigation by state and federal agencies have focused on Conrad Murray, Jackson's personal doctor who was at his bedside the day he died.The findings, contained in a warrant to search Murray's home and offices, paint a picture of an insomniac pop star who could not sleep without heavy medication. Jackson sought out propofol -- routinely used to sedate patients and anesthetize them before surgeries such as a colonoscopy -- and called it his "milk.""The Los Angeles Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner, Dr. (Lakshmanan) Sathyavagiswaran, indicated that he had reviewed the preliminary toxicology results and his preliminary assessment of Jackson's cause of death was due to lethal levels of propofol (diprivan)," according to a warrant to search Murray's offices issued by California.The document was unsealed and released by the Harris County District Clerk in Houston, where Murray has an office. U.S. agents raided the office on July 22.In an affidavit seeking the warrant, Houston police officer E.G. Chance said U.S. agents had gathered "items constituting evidence of the offense of manslaughter that tend to show that Dr. Conrad Murray committed the said criminal offense."Murray's attorney, Ed Chernoff, was not available to comment.In a statement, a representative said Jackson's family has "full confidence in the legal process, and commends the ongoing efforts of the L.A. County Coroner, the L.A. District Attorney and the L.A. Police Department."Murray, who was with Jackson on June 25 administering drugs to ease the pop star to sleep, gave him a range of medication including a 25-milligram dose of propofol via an intravenous drip at 10:40 a.m. PDT, the state search warrant said.Jackson was "very familiar" with propofol and referred to it as his "milk" because of its milky appearance, the warrant said. Murray, who had been treating Jackson for about six weeks leading up to his death, was worried that Jackson was addicted to propofol. Murray was trying to wean him off the drug by giving him smaller doses, it said.OVATION Cella Miss 9jabookOVATION Cella Miss 9jabookJason Hymes, an assistant clinical professor at the University of Southern California who is not associated with the case, said the drug was a true anesthetic. "You administer it to somebody and then operate on them ... This concept of giving somebody a general anesthetic for sleep disturbance strikes me as just bizarre and astoundingly inappropriate."In the early hours of June 25, Murray also gave Jackson doses of anti-anxiety medications Valium and Ativan and sedative Versed, the filing said.Jackson went to sleep after Murray gave him the propofol, and Murray stayed by his side for about 10 minutes, then left "to go to the restroom and relieve himself," the search warrant said.Murray was out of Jackson's room for about 2 minutes and when he returned, Jackson was no longer breathing, the warrant said. (Reuters)
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We all are called to do the work of charity. In this case, there is no barrier and by that I mean how much you have. Sometimes we think it’s meant for those who have enough but let it be clear that human wants are insatiable for even the rich are still wanting for more wealth like the famous Oliva Twist. Charity as the Holy bible says covers a multitude of sin. This implies that God Almighty has every authority to forgive our iniquities just because we partake in the work of helping humanity (i.e. charity). Again, it does not mean we frequently sin and then take the antidote ‘charity work’ to cancel our debt. Not at all, we are made special by the creator of all things to control the environment we live in. You are never on your own as you cannot do without the other, so no man is an island. Something came to mind when I am concluding this writing about the parable of the rich fool in the bible who parked his rich harvests in the stores and was throwing party. He never woke up the next day as God demanded his soul. If one keeps wanting and remained insatiable in life, he may get full satisfaction in the grave and who knows what next?Today we have charity organizations, philanthropists and international bodies doing the work of charity. The common truth here is that they are not paid back reason because the clients are not poised to pay, instead they reap and that’s practical love. The work of charity does far more than donation. Charity in our various homes gives rise to a better society because the home is the fundamental part of the society where various characters abound. Contributing partially or immensely in moral upbringing of people around you is charity as well. This time around is it more than making donations as money could not buy you life; life eternal. Let’s build our homes with charity and love so that the society will improve. Helping others morally is very important while giving alms is nice as well but let’s merge the two (i.e. helping morality and doing almsgiving). If I keep giving to someone without giving morals or exhibiting true love through character, the beneficiaries see it as ordinary thing. Please note that the author is writing with experience using the teachings of Christ Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. Here he refers to the feeding of the 5000 men by Christ Jesus. At first they love listening to his sermons, secondly he performed miracles but Christ himself feeling for them demanded that a miracle be made and that was the multiplication of few loafs of bread. Remark that he (Jesus Christ) fed the moral food first before the perishable bread.Like the author stated initially, we are all stakeholders in the work of charity. There should not be excuses here because you are given all it takes to exercise your right as real humans. Your conscience tells you better when you are doing anything to salvage the world. No matter how little you have, ensure you share with others. See that the candle does not lose any light igniting the other candle as so is charity. Give and you receive.
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Posted by Politics X on August 23, 2009 at 10:34pm
Is Lamido Sanusi the new Nuhu Ribadu? ByAustyn OganahA couple of months ago during a chat with with an attorney friend of mine, I expressed my reservations over the cozy and unhealthy relationship between the then Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Professor Charles Soludo and some commercial bank Chief Executives. I saw the relationship as unethical and capable of compromising the regulatory duties of the apex bank. During his tenure at the helm of the regulator bank, there were several speculations about the frail state of the banking sector in the country, but the goverrnor at several instances debunked the claims, and instead was full of praises for the banks and their superfly CEOs. Today we know the true state of ten local banks, five of them are at this time under intensive care on life support. What I find most intriguing is that nobody from the apex bank came out to warn investors or depositors secretly or otherwise, that there were serious problems in the banking sector. Where were the so-called financial analysts and the business desk reporters when things were falling apart? When did journalism become only reproducing press releases and statements? Whatever happened to investigative journalism? Sad to note that during Prof. Soludo's reign, the Chief Executives were king. They got away with a lot of unethical practices. I recall that in 2007, Zenith Bank reneged on paying dividends to common stock holders and no regulator sanctioned the bank for it.The new CBN Chief, Mr. Sanusi Lamido Aminu Sanusi, until his appointment last month was himself a Chief Executive of one of Nigeria's oldest banks, First Bank. Those who know him, say he is a no- nonsense professional to the core. I gather his peers and a couple of interests lobbied against his appointment, because he was seen as someone who could upset the status quo, instead they pushed for Prof. Soludo's tenure extension. Looks like the new Czar is actually what they say he is. In an interview he granted the FT of London just after his appointment, he hinted on the audit report, that has today gunned down five bank Chief Executives so far. Will there be more casualties when the special examination is concluded in September? Which CEO's will be the last men standing? How did these banks get into trouble anyway?The boom in the country's Capital Market and the successful public offers during the last consolidation exercise, left the banks with loads of cash in their vaults. This unfortunately became the waterloo of these affected banks. Their Chief Executives obviously got carried away making out loans recklessly without proper risk assessment, management and corporate governance. Most of the loans made to their cronies were either invested in the Capital Markets, Oil and Gas or channelled towards funding extravagantly expensive lifestyles. Hence when the global recession came knocking, the value of the investments in stocks and energy nose dived and the banks were left with a huge hole in their vaults, as borrowers were neither able to finance their loans nor payback the principal loans. These loans have since been declared as non performing or bad loans.There has been frustration and outrage from the investing public because the executives ran these banks as if they were their private companies. They have been reckless in their management style and see themselves as unaccountable to shareholders. Their "I am above the law" attitude is a replica and reflection of the madness and shame of todays political class. Most have been so unethical to even lie in their financials to hide the true state of their balance sheets.Mr. Sanusi like Nuhu Ribadu is coming at a time when there is clamour for sanity and orderliness in the system. Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, from the time of his appointment to when he was frustrated out of office, put fear in the minds of corrupt officials and fraudsters. He prosecuted and ensured the convictions of quite a number of cheats during his reign. The governor has started well with the current audit of the 21 banks to ascertain their true state. He has so far fired five erring Chief Executives and their Executive Directors and sent them to the relevant agency for possible criminal investigations and prosecution. There is a wake up call in the entire banking sector and it seems like it's not going to be business as usual anymore.Cleansing the entire banking system is not going to be easy. Mr. Sanusi will no doubt meet stiff opposition from powerful people who have benefitted from the flaws of the past. They will use the media to discredit his work (haven't they started already?), they will do many more to tarnish his image, he will make new friends and no doubt also lots of enemies, but he must remain committed like Ribadu did to the end.
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Posted by Politics X on August 23, 2009 at 10:27pm
Most wanted dodgy duo, Erastus Akingbola & Cecilia IbruHe already fled the country and it was unlikely he would return. But Sunday, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) gave Intercontinental Bank's Erastus Akingbola a.k.a. the Madoff of Nigerian banking, yet another reason – if any were indeed needed – not to return to Nigeria. The EFCC declared Akingbola and his Oceanic bank counterpart, Cecilia Ibru, as fugitives, wanted by the law.The anti-graft agency said in a press release that the two are “wanted in connection with fraudulent abuse of credit process, insider trading, capital market manipulation and money laundering running into billions of Naira” and will be arrested on sight for failing to honor the EFCC’s invitation.The release signed by Femi Babafemi; Head, Media & Publicity noted that: “Apart from failing to honour the Commission’s invitation, intensive search for the two executives in the last one week has not been successful. They obviously went into hiding to evade arrest. This development has made it imperative for the Commission to solicit for useful information from Nigerians who know their whereabouts.” (Read full statement at) http://www.efccnigeria.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=699&Itemid=34Huhuonline.com has learnt from EFCC sources that as the noose tightened around Ibru’s neck, the quite respectable General Overseer and elders of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) where Ibru worships were trying to persuade her to come out of hiding and surrender and save herself and the church the embarrassment of being declared wanted.But the abrasive Ibru remained obstinate and vowed to fight CBN Governor Lamido Sanusi to the finish. Ibru, in a terse statement two days after the CBN hammer fell, said that the action was questionable and did not meet the rule of law. In another letter to the CBN Governor and his management, Ibru asked the apex bank to 'reconsider and reverse' the steps taken on August 14, 2009 pursuant to sections 33 and 35 of the Banking and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) in view of the “grave injustice” done to the bank, its shareholders and management.Through her lawyers, TRLPLAW, Ceciia Ibru in the letter signed by the firm's Managing Partner, Mr. Ajibola Oluyede, said she was raising these issues because of the serious accusations before and since the event, adding that Sanusi came into office with an "agenda to change the ownership structure of the banking industry".Covered by the blood of Jesus, InterContinental’s Dr. Erastus Akingbola sneaked out of the country to London, ostensibly for medical reasons in a private jet owned by Jimoh Ibrahim, himself named in the list of debtors. Akingbola had gone to the Federal High Court in Lagos to challenge every action and statement of Sanusi and the CBN on the matter of his purported removal, the legality of the audit carried out from which the apex bank made its decisions and why he should be labeled at all as incompetent by the CBN.He told the Court which has since granted his preliminary reliefs that he was not given fair hearing, a proper audit of a mega-organization such as his bank did not follow the Act of the CBN saddled with supervisory role of banks, and that all his actions were guided by the best of intentions for a bank he has been superintending for many years.The actions of the CBN Governor have opened an avalanche of complaints and a plethora of protests by some of the stakeholders. Besides threatening to sue the apex bank for libel of his character and lowering the reputation of his business empire, Jimoh Ibrahim, (who provided his private jet to fly Akingbola to London) argued that he has "performing loans" in the two banks in which his business name appeared. In that of Oceanic Bank where his company, Global Fleet Group, was alleged to owe N14 billion, he said that it was not true. He threatened to sue the CBN for "lying about the amount" involved.Other high net-worth individuals also listed by the CBN have either challenged their indebtedness or that their companies, not they as individuals, were in debt. They include: Prof. Ndi Okereke-Onyuike, Director-General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE); Chairman of Obat Oil and Petroleum Company, Fredrick Akinruntan; President of Zenon Oil and chairman of African Petroleum (AP) Plc, Femi Otedola; the President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote; Rockson Engineering Company; amongst others.Mrs. Okereke-Onyuike had to speak up after her employer, SEC, queried her role in the debt saga of Transnational Corporation (Transcorp) Plc of which she is the chairman. She explained that she is not owing any bank in her personal capacity, saying the figure owed the bank was "relatively high" as a result of "compound interest." Transcorp, according to the CBN, owes Union Bank N30.86 billion as at May. She said the debts arose when Transcorp wanted to acquire 51 per cent stake in Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL), adding that the firm had raised N22 billion through its Initial Public Offering (IPO) from which it paid N19 billion from the debt.Obat Oil's Akinruntan described the inclusion of his name in the debtors' list as embarrassing, claiming that the report did not reflect the reality on ground as he has been servicing his loan of N2.5 billion. He was listed as owing Oceanic Bank N4.47 billion.Similarly, Chairman of Rockson, Senator Aniete Okon refuted the charge of mega-debtor to Intercontinental. He explained that the loans in question were obtained by his company for implementation of the Independent Power Projects (IPP) it was handling for the Federal Government.The IPPs are the Alaoji (1,072 mega watts, mw), Gbarain (225mw), Egbema (338mw) and Omoku (230mw) and the debt was not N36.9 billion as claimed by CBN but N14.4 billion. He described the publication of the list without adequate verification on the part of the CBN as unfair and unnecessary. The firm's Managing Director, J I A Arumemi-Ikhide, noted that the loan was secured with due regards to the standard procedures. He disagreed that the loan was "non-performing," and cautioned against actions that could erode confidence in the Nigerian economy.In a similar tone and texture, the President of Dongote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote said that the published list was a gross misrepresentation of the facts. In a statement by Dangote Industries' management, it refuted the listing of Alhaji Dangote as a director and shareholder of Dansa Oil and Gas Limited, said to be indebted to Intercontinental Bank. It argued that Alhaji Ali Dangote listed as a director of Dansa is the son of Alhaji Sani Dangote and he is quite different in all materials particular from Alhaji Aliko Dangote. The management however said that debt of Dangote Industries Limited with Oceanic Bank valued at N2.526billion was still a subject of dispute that would be resolved very soon.The hunt for Ibru and Akingbola came after the EFCC Saturday, arrested two more bank directors in Lagos - John Maha, Managing Director, Afribank Securities Limited, a subsidiary of Afribank, and Niyi Opeodu, Managing Director, Union Capital Market Limited, a subsidiary of Union Bank. Both men have since been detained at the anti-graft commission office in Ikoyi. The arrest of Maha and Opeodu however makes it 15 bank chiefs that have been picked up by the EFCC since the CBN commenced the onslaught in the banking sector. The EFCC had earlier frozen the bank accounts of all the sacked bank CEOs.No one could have correctly predicted the direction, speed and destination of the bank debts battles, which the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) unleashed on the nation penultimate Friday. But what is beyond dispute now is that the unfolding saga has moved at dizzying speed from the banking halls to the courtroom and then the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)cells.
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Posted by Politics X on August 23, 2009 at 10:09pm
By Reuben Abati"If I have my way, I'd have all Nigerian journalists shot." "Excuse me?" "Yes. Including the ones that I know personally.""Hello o""Hi - i""Well, you won't be the first man to think journalists are pests; it is always easy to kill the messenger, but facts are facts.""The way the media is sensationalising the story of the five banks that are having problems with the Central Bank of Nigeria, I am concerned that not enough questions are being asked. Yes, Sanusi is showing great courage, and don't misunderstand me, I don't care whether anybody goes to jail or not. I don't bloody care. In fact, I believe that many bankers are crooks. Nobody can impress me with lapel pins, pin stripe skirts, yatchs or private jets. But I am concerned that the CBN is also over-exposing itself.""I guess all of that is part of the story. And you can't blame the media. If you ask me, it is a small part of the story though.""I am talking about the sloppiness that has been reported in the naming and shaming of debtors. The CBN should have been sure of all its facts before going public. Coming back later to correct typographical errors is a way of saying that the CBN itself needs supervision.""Come on, you are referring to all that hair-splitting over the difference between Okeke and Okereke. That's nothing.""This is a sensitive matter that is open to different interpretations. The CBN should have anticipated the responses. Now, the debtors are all over the newspapers challenging the figures and CBN procedures. If they end up creating doubt, then Sanusi and the CBN will become part of the story in a way that they may not like.""Let the debtors go and pay what they are owing. Simple. Are you not aware that Afribank has already received about N3 billion? Look the end justifies the means. The Sanusi formula is working. That is what matters. All these big men living on borrowed funds, we now know what it means to be rich in Nigeria. Just borrow money and advertise yourself as a big man. You can't take money belonging to pepper sellers, mechanics, civil servants and begin to talk about your right to borrow money. I am not interested in theory. Let them just return the money and stop turning an innocent man like me into an Ovie-Whiskey.""What has Ovie-Whiskey got to do with this? You always like to ridicule yourself and triviliase serious discussions""…vie-Whiskey was Chairman of the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) in the Second Republic. INEC used to be known as FEDECO. Ovie-Whiskey used to say at the time that if he saw a million naira he would faint. But have you seen the kind of big figures that the papers have been quoting? One man will just borrow N30 billion, N10 billion...""You are a very ignorant man. All that money was borrowed not to finance the taking of a second wife, but to finance activities within the economy. You borrow as much as you need for business. It is the duty of banks to lend money; businesses cannot really function without seeking loan advances. Some of the affected companies borrowed money to finance oil importation, power projects, and so on and many of those projects are Federal Government projects, also guaranteed by the same government.""But if you take loans there must be a collateral and the loans must be serviced.""That is between the debtor and the bank. There is no law in Nigeria that says a man should not borrow money.""But the loan must perform and the CBN has made it clear that it is only the regulator that can define performance because it is a technical term.""I don't agree. What are the details of each loan? What are the terms of repayment? ""I need you to make a confession. please. Because I don't understand you again. When this whole thing started, you were one of the most vocal defenders of Sanusi and the CBN. Tell me, are you owing any bank some money? If you are, I advise you to go and pay back before the EFCC deadline expires. I don't want to be subjected to the ordeal of coming to visit you at EFCC detention camp or having to explain to people why you had to run away from the country""It is small money. But this is not about me. I insist that you can't achieve the objective of economic growth if businesses are demonised because they have borrowed money. Look at what is happening now. Rockson Engineering says the country's power project may be jeopardised if it is forced to pay back all the money it borrowed and if the CBN compromises its own letters of credit. Foreign banks have also cancelled credit lines to Nigerian banks. Rating agencies have downgraded the country. And what is worse is that the CBN stands the risk of losing the support of people like me.""The CBN is not looking for the support of debtors in this matter. It wants to recover all borrowed funds. But tell me, how small is your own exposure? In confidence, tell me. I won't tell anybody. ""ì took twelve million to start a fish farm. But I have already paid more than twelve million and the bank is saying I am still owing 4 million and they are holding on to my land papers as collateral. Before this whole thing started the bank was even threatening to seize the collateral. What am I saying? I am saying that part of the responsibility of the CBN should be to look into the management of loans by the banks, investigate the abuses, and protect even the debtors as you try to sanitise the banks. People who take loans from Nigerian banks are also victims of the failure of corporate governance. Can we focus on that?""Well, what do I expect you to say, being a member of the Other People's Money Association of Nigeria (OPMAN). The rich also cry. But have you heard what the EFCC madam said? You are required to obey first and then complain. Going to court, throwing tantrums, does not remove the fact that people are owing. Simple.""Are we now in a miltary regime? In fact, if care is not taken, I will start believing some of the things that are now coming out. For example, someone sent me a story published in the Monday, March 23, 2009 edition of The Vanguard newspaper titled "Group plots takeover of five top banks." The story blew the whistle on everything that is now happening. And now it is precisely five banks that are being targeted. Even the CBN Governor gives the impression that the audit of the remaining 14 banks would be a mere formality. If there is no conspiracy, why target only five banks, why not complete the audit exercise before identifying all the erring banks and then you deal with all the issues at once?""ì think we should await the outcome of the second round of audit.""And we will go through this same process all over again? Or is it not likely that the other banks have been given enough time to clean up their books, enough time also for some people to escape?""I refuse to be drawn into such conspiracy theory in this matter. We all know that the banking sector is in need of environmental sanitation.""Yes, but the regulator in doing that must also realise that it is being watched. And I hope government has enough will-power to see this to its logical conclusion, and respond to all the legal actions that are coming its way. The EFCC is heaving and hemming; it has suddenly come alive, but we will wait and see.""For your information, the EFCC has relocated to Lagos. EFCC officials have taken over the banks.""And you think that is good for banking?""Yes. Yes. And yes.""Well, I don't think so. I think the CBN can manage the situation better.""You want the CBN to sanction the bank CEOs and managers, but you don't want debtors to be disturbed because neither the CBN nor the EFCC is a debt-collection agency? Do I understand that this is your position?""ìs that what I am saying?""Looks like. And if I really understand the way your mind is working, you are asking for amnesty for all bank debtors. You don't want a Boko Haram treatment in the banking sector""You are a confused man. And you are confused because you don't know banking, you don't know business, you are just interested in sensation and you think seeing big men in society rubbished offers you a sense of self-worth.""Go and pay your debt, my friend. Or I will be the one to tell the EFCC where you are hiding...You are lucky you are not a member of the private jet set, I would have asked you to go and sell your jet and pay back our money.""This being the month of Ramadan, I can only ask that Allah forgive all of you who think it is a sin to owe a bank money.""€re you fasting?""I don't wear my faith on my sleeves""Just don't behave like our good friend, Alhaji Gulder. Every Ramadan season, he breaks his fast in the evening religiously with a bottle of Gulder. And he says God is all-knowing. So we nicknamed him Alhaji Gulder. ""The Almighty knows those who are serving him. On the day of Judgement, every man shall answer for his deeds.""You are beginning to sound like Pete Edochie, the actor who was kidnapped in Anambra state on Sunday, August 16.""How?""Do you know that since the man was released by his abductors, he has been sounding as if he just returned from a five-star hotel and not the kidnappers'den. He says the boys treated him like a father. They offered him alcohol, they even allowed him to pray with his chaplets and they told him about the circumstances that led them to a life of crime. And he insists that no ransom was paid. He added that people are trying to sensationalise the incident. They loved me a lot, he said.""Since he enjoyed the experience so much, so why have I been losing sleep worrying so much about him? If he thinks this is another movie in which he is the main actor, so let it be.""Don't be nasty. My suspicion is that the experience of kidnapping affects people differently.""Have you been kidnapped before?""I have been following the reports. One missing link in this country is that there is no trauma care, no counselling for victims of kidnapping. Government often helps to pay the ransom, the kidnappers move on, and the victim is caught in a psychological trap, between condemning the abductors or ending up identifying with them. You can't expect the man to come out and condemn his abductors. Do you know what they told him? Has anybody bothered to find out what exactly he went through? At the end of the day, the experience is personal and there is so much that is buried in matters of this nature in unspoken silences.""Well, he is a lucky man. It could have been worse. But I don't think this is a rebranding of Nigeria. You know the man is Chairman of the Nigeria Rebranding Committee. What his abduction has shown is how vulnerable we all are. Nobody is safe anymore. Now anybody who has ever appeared on television or in a movie has to go about with bodyguards. It is an unsafe country.""ì picked something from Mr Edochie's statements which is that his abductors sounded very intelligent. They could rationalise their action. I won't be surprised if they are univesrity undergraduates. In the past month, I have been reading too many stories about undergraduates who are involved in kidnapping, armed robbery and all kinds of felony.""What do you expect? The Federal Government says it is not ready to negotitate with university teachers who have been on strike for three months. ASUU says it is ready to die on its feet fighting. The abandoned students are bound to find something to do.""In fact, I read one shocking story in The Vanguard of August 21. It is titled "Strike: Female students appeal to FG, ASUU...says strike turning some of them into prostitution (sic)" In the story, a group called the National Association of Nigerian Female Students (NANFS) is said to have issued a statement calling for an early resolution of the dispute between the Federal Government and university teachers because according to the ladies, many of their members not being in school, are already engaged in all kinds of vices including prostitution. They want schools re-opened because delay could be dangerous.""Delay could be dangerous. Very dangerous, I agree. But who is complaining, female students or the men who are patronising them?""èverywhere you turn in this country, there is a sad story waiting to be told. We can't even do well in Athletics. In Berlin, the Nigerian contingent at the 2009 IAAF World Championships is having to deal with allegations of drug use by some of its athletes. The country is being disgraced. Jamaica, a country that cannot boast of half the toilet water that is used in Mushin is being celebrated. ""Not quite. Some Nigerians are doing well too. Philip Idowu won the gold medal in triple jump.""For Great Britain.""ìt doesn't matter. The Idowu family house is in Nigeria. And don't mind the British. They are claiming Marilyn Okoro and Christine Ohurogu. Norway is parading Ezinne Okparaebo and Germany, Sorina Nwachukwu. These are Nigerians. In fact, there should be DNA tests in international sports.""I think you just like to talk. You know the truth. You want DNA test. Nigerian players for the Under-17 World Cup cannot even pass the age verification test. Have you not heard that 16 of them failed the MRI test? Now the Nigerian Football Federation is confused. We face the risk of not making it to the tournament because the country now has to start looking for young men who are actually under 17 not 30-year olds.""My brother, that story is emba-rra-ssi-ng. The number of players who failed the test is actually 22! And are we not supposed to be hosting the tournament in October? As we speak the Golden Eaglets camp in Bauchi has been disbanded.""Jesus is Lord."
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Posted by Politics X on August 23, 2009 at 10:00pm
You Can’t De-brand Dora by Sunday DareIt was with great effort that I concluded reading your last weekend’s disquisition on the Rebranding of Dora Akunyili our Honourable Minister for Information and Communication, and principal exponent of the Rebranding Nigeria project. Your title reads “Rebranding Akunyili and Ohakim”, but I will concentrate on the innuendoes and factual errors that impinge on Prof Dora because I know that Ikedi Ohakim has enough oomph to respond to the overtones fired at him.Firstly, you got your facts wrong on several of the issues you raised. Let me start with the N8.2 billion naira NTA upgrade contract. Prof Dora’s life does not depend on it as you claimed. Let me state clearly that Prof. Akunyili only presented only presented the memo on NTA upgrade project to Federal Executive council, FEC, just as she will present for any of the 14 parastatals under her supervision. NTA initiated this project about two years ago when Prof. Akunyili was nowhere close to Radio House Abuja. NTA went through selective tendering and recommended the following three contractors to Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) for the project: Thomson Grass Valley of France, WTS/Sunny Nigeria and VISAT USA .Interestingly, BPP reviewed submissions and called for fresh tenders from the companies to clear some technical details. Fresh tenders were submitted directly to BPP by all interested parties after which BPP selected WTS/SONY to handle the entire project. After BPP issued a certificate of “NO OBJECTION” for the project to be awarded to WTS/SONY, that the Minister the presented the memo for approval to FEC.It is therefore clear that the Minister was not evolved in evaluating the contract and selecting the contractors. It is clear to any discerning mind that Prof. Dora is a stickler for due process and walks the fine line.Your claim that the “the re-branding which was ill-conceived was brought down by the Federal Executive Council…” is false. There was never a time that the Minister presented a budget of N1.2 billion to the FEC or anyone for that matter. It was a section of the media that bandied this sum around based on rumour. For the avoidance of doubt, the money being used for the Rebranding Nigeria project is the leftover of the money budgeted for the Heart of Africa for the year 2009.The sum is N150 million, out of which an inherited debt of about N19.9 million was paid. The balance for the Re-branding project was N130 million.So much has been said and written on the NCC saga. At this point it suffices to state clearly that for her, this is an issue based on principles. Simplicita. If there is an established process by law, then it must be followed without short cuts. The facts are out there and you can verify. Well, after about 12 weeks of NCC controversy and representations, Prof.Dora has been vindicated. Her principled position and courage under assault won the day when on Tuesday, August 11, 2009 President Yar’adua ordered the cancellation of the 2.3GHz sale conducted by Ndukwe and directed that a new transparent process be conducted. So you see, like the NCC saga, most of these allegations and insinuations against Prof. Dora cannot stick because they are not factual. Lastly, the daggers drawn inference about her relationship with the Minister of State needs to be further investigated. We do not see any daggers yet. What she has tried to do is to make sure that the best working relationship is evolved and that issues are dealt with according to the rule of law. Period.To many, Prof. Dora Akunyili’s journey to the ministry of information is an odyssey. It is something that people only dream about but hardly witness in Nigeria . The ideological and physical journey by millions of people who always wanted to make Nigeria great have been traumatic experiences characterized by countless trials and tribulations, most of them harrowing and dreadful. This is what Dora’s odyssey has come to change. But it is most irksome when disinformation is coming from the enlightened class, who would do well to join hands in nation-building and not this objectionable frenzy that unkind opposition perpetuates.We all would want our nation to be great but great nations do not happen devoid of the contributions of great minds. Prof. Dora has surmounted some of the most outrageous obstacles in Nigerian life through hard work and perseverance. Her attitude since, has been, “if I can do it, many Nigerians can do it too”. That is why she is pursuing the Rebranding Nigeria project to veer Nigeria away from the course of misrepresentations that have turned the country into a war front and its future generation of citizens a war chest.Sobowale should know that the minister has no reason to indulge in propaganda, or use any concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the behavioral patterns of enemies, as most propaganda would do. There is no enemy here and she chooses her subjects very carefully, for the benefit of compatriots. The Rebranding project is a result of deep introspection and the conclusion that an ingredient that could make Nigeria better is lacking. By staking her hard-earned credibility in the project the minister is saying she could give anything to salvage Nigeria . It is therefore inconceivable that such a well-articulated dream would now be turned into a monster by people who should be part of it, wishing that it consumes its protagonist. So who is trying to Rebrand Dora?Her message is as simple as it has always been, even before her time at NAFDAC. She is a hard working ordinary woman who is out to change the world and willing to take all agents of change along with her in any crusade, be it at NAFDAC or elsewhere. There is the potent danger of people who supported her while at NAFDAC now abandoning her because she is in a terrain that they feel belongs only to them. But Dora refuses to be pigeonholed. She is a one-size-fits-all and would perform as creditably wherever she finds herself, in or out of government. But she also says one more thing; that she cannot accomplish anything without the support of people like Dele Sobowale who once believed and trusted her. They form her village of crusaders and jumping ship midstream is not a good idea. Not this time, at least.
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By Emmanuel OnwubikoMr. Pete Edochie is one of Nigeria's best known and respected movie actors in the contemporary Nigerian movie industry called Nollywood in local parlance. Among the more than one hundred films in which he played significant leading roles, Pete Edochie shone like the morning star in the popular film called Things Fall Apart, an adaptation from the internationally acclaimed novel Things Fall Apart by the award-winning writer and deep thinker, Professor Chinua Achebe.But for more than twenty four hours from Sunday August 16, 2009, Pete Edochie saw hell in the den of a dare-devil armed gang that abducted him on his way back from an official engagement in Asaba, the Delta state capital. He was kidnapped in the commercial city of Onitsha even as three persons who tried to foil the abduction were violently killed by the gang of kidnappers who were armed reportedly with the latest state of the art sophisticated arms and ammunitions far and above what the publicly-funded Nigeria police operatives are provided with by the Nigerian state.The kidnappers of Mr. Edochie were benevolent enough not to have harmed him physically just as they reportedly established contact with the family of the popular but not too materially endowed creative movie actor and made outrageous demand of N60 million ransom. The kidnappers upon intense persuasion by Edochie's family members, reduced the ransom money to N10 million, an amount that the family spokesperson said they could not raise. Before he was eventually freed, an unspecified amount of ransom was paid.The Anambra state Government under Peter Obi which is assailed by a monumental down pour of organized social crime in the last few months claimed credit for the eventual release of Pete Edochie but in obedience to the practice of official secrecy and lack of freedom of information, the state administration did not tell the good people of Anambra state exactly how much of their money was used to bribe the armed group of kidnappers before they freed Edochie. Anambra state is one place among the many places in the country where the people are daily facing the threats of armed kidnappers and armed robbers.Edochie has offered his candid impressions of what may be responsible for the rise in organised crimes like kidnapping and blamed poverty among the nation's youth as the underlying reason. I think he is correct. But again the question that naturally comes to mind is whether we are not all kidnapped? So I ask, are we not all kidnapped right now?The next question is who is the kidnapper that has made majority of Nigerians victims of kidnapping? To clearly understand the identity of the current armed kidnappers of a majority of the Nigerian population we need to examine the ways and manners that the so-called political office holders have piloted the affairs of state since the nation gained political Independence almost five decades ago with specific reference to how the current democratic dispensation has fared.The political story of how Nigeria was thoroughly messed up by both the civilian and military dictators is so well-known by even the most silly kindergarten pupil so much so that poverty caused by prolonged regime of political and economic crime of corruption has become the inevitable misfortune afflicting clearly a majority of Nigerians put at over seventy five percent of the more than one hundred and forty million population. Lack of transparency and accountability is primarily responsible for the near-collapse of socio-economic infrastructures in Nigeria because almost all previous and to a large extent the current administrations could not account for how the massive amount of over four hundred Billion United States dollars generated from Nigeria's rapidly vanishing crude oil mineral resources were spent. If this huge fund stolen by government officials in the last four decades was used to finance the introduction of infrastructures like energy power, rail transportation and road infrastructure, then the high level of poverty among Nigerians would have been minimised.Antonio Maria Costa, the Executive Director of the United Nations office on Drugs and crime UNODC in a lecture delivered at the sixth national seminar on Economic crime on November 13, 2007 titled "Anti-Corruption climate change: It started in Nigeria" told Nigerians the hard truth that: "Your country...lost billions of dollars - the livelihoods of millions of people - to foreign havens, stolen and expatriated by corrupt leaders. By some estimates, close to 400 Billion United States dollars was stolen between 1960 and 1999. Sani Abacha alone is said to have stolen the equivalent of 2 to 3 percent of Nigeria's Gross Domestic product for every year that he was president." It is safe to say then that ordinary Nigerians have all along been kidnapped by the political rogues for over four decades.Renowned Nigerian economist who speaks truth to power Professor Sam Aluko rightly captured the debilitating effects of corruption on Nigeria and ordinary Nigerians in his lecture at the 1999 annual conference of the Nigerian Economic society thus: "Income distribution has been skewed, and is still skewed, in favor of the rich and the powerful who gain by illegitimate means and who also contribute to capital flight and gross misappropriation of public funds in the absence of adequate systemic checks and balances."It is the considered view of some analysts that the ongoing widespread kidnapping of some Nigerians by armed gangs is a manifestation of their will to overpower their perceived political oppressors by taking their pounds of flesh through a coordinated regime of collection of monetary ransoms to leverage or rather be at par with their counterparts in the political seat of power who are the real kidnappers of millions of impoverished citizens in Nigeria.What these dangerously armed gangs of kidnappers are doing through their criminal activities could be interpreted as the practical manifestation of what Fredrich Wilhelm Nietzsche wrote that; "...there is however one thing that does characterise all human beings, and that is the drive to dominate the environment. This drive so central to human nature, is the will to power...the strongest and highest will to live does not find expression in a miserable struggle for existence, but in a will to war: a will to power, a will to overpower."But the truth is that if ordinary Nigerians who in the true sense of it are economically impoverished and have therefore become kidnapped victims because of political corruption of the elite who have captured the seat of power through an electoral process that is deemed internationally and locally as flawed, are also buffeted and bombarded by these armed gangs of kidnappers who have engaged in a regime of indiscriminate abductions, then things have truly fallen apart in Nigeria and only a popular revolution by the populace can salvage the situation.Professor Yemi Osinbajo, a senior Advocate of Nigeria in a paper titled "Rule of law or Rule by law: what are the real issues in bringing perpetrators of serious crimes," clearly painted a graphic picture of how ordinary Nigerians can safely be categorized as kidnapped victims. Professor Osinbajo stated that: "Today the nation is also faced with the challenge of fighting corruption. There are cases of individuals who are said to have stolen billions of naira and acquired assets locally and abroad. The mind-boggling figures have riveted everyone's attention. Many calculations are done daily on how many social services could be rendered to millions of citizens with money cornered by so few (elite)."The irony in the kidnapping episodes playing out all across Nigeria is that only the poor are actually physically kidnapped by these armed gangs who in any case are also victims of the larger kidnapping scheme coordinated by those in government who did not only corner public funds to themselves but have used their influence in government to reserve all the publicly funded security services to themselves and their family members for maximum protection without giving a thought to the fact that 'if the poor cannot sleep because they are hungry, the rich can not also sleep because the poor people are awake and a hungry man is an angry man'.The ball is therefore in the court of ordinary Nigerians who are victims of kidnappers in government to free themselves by voting out all corrupt politicians and working with organised civil society to ensure that the votes of Nigerians in the 2011 elections count. I agree with Professor Anya O. Anya that; "it is the case that respect for democratic principles, by reducing the political and social costs of governance, by promoting social harmony through the enhancement of the democratic legitimacy of the rulers, by fostering the political participation of the citizens, determines the effective and efficient implementation of development policies and strategies".Nigerians must exorcise themselves of the evil spirit of docility that has beclouded our collective sense of reasoning so much so that we tolerate these thieves in government and share from the crumbs that fall from their tables each time they come home with their well-armed security operatives at citizens' expense.
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Posted by 9jabook.com on August 23, 2009 at 6:35am
I am determined to change my slippers after 49 years, in the meantime , I will continue to wear it in hope not in fear. no matter how bad the heat is , no matter how hard you try and suppress me. Yes my legs are weak, I am not sure how far my slippers would carry me. I walk almost everyday because I cant find the energy i need to fill my tank.
Gradually my slippers shows wear and tear
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11 My slippers are still young
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18 Some have been in so much of a hurry that they have changed their slippers too soon much sooner than it was ordained
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21 We start to grow impatient the glue refuses to patch my slippers
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23 even when i fall there is hope I can lean on you come ooo there is a reason for keeping this slippers for so long
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25 I realise that the gum will not work, perhaps stapling the slippers wil patch it up, oh dear i have had an accident my hands are bleeding. 26 Yes there is hope
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28293031323334........it has to fly I have no choice..............3536............37382940414243444546474849
but I see my neighbours slippers and I see there is hope. I live in hope and not in fear that I will change my slippers but for now I thank BABA GOD for giving me the energy to note there is light at the end of the tunnel.
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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Saturday hauled in two more big fishes from the troubled waters of the five dirty banks. John Maha, the Managing Director of Afribank Securities was lured out of hiding while Niyi Opeodu, Managing Director of Union Capital Markets was arrested from his Lekki residence, in Lagos.This is just as one of the flamboyant billionaires in the country (names withheld) has sold his hotel at a give-away price to ensure that he was not caught napping at the end of the day.Our source disclosed that the billionaire owes one of the banks over N14 billion, but did not say how much the hotel was sold.Recalcitrant debtor, James Ibori & his partner in crime Dodgy Cecilia Ibru"This hotel is not your run-of-the-mill hotels. It is a very big one largely used by expatriates and oil industry employees. Because of the huge embarrassment an EFCC arrest could cause his reputation, the man has decided to let the hotel go, believing that he who fights and runs away would live to fight another day. I am not sure how much he sold it, but the buyer could not have paid the actual worth of the property", the source told our reporter.Also, one of the debtors of Oceanic Bank and chairman of the Dangote Group of Companies, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, paid a whopping sum of N3.1 billion to the bank on Thursday.Confirming the payment on Friday, acting Managing Director of Intercontinental Bank Plc, Mr Joseph Ajewole, said the bank has recorded giant strides in debt recovery.He said: "A lot of the delinquent debtors have reached us. Many have paid substantial amounts while others have come forward to discuss with us about their plans to repay."As the seven-day ultimatum given to the debtors of the five troubled banks draws near, some of them have started selling their assets to recover the money to pay up before the ultimatum expires. It was not clear on Friday how the debtors raised the funds to offset the debts, but Sunday Sun learnt that most of them are selling their choice property in choice locations in Abuja and Lagos to enable them beat the Wednesday deadline by the EFCC for them to pay up.So far, about N18 billion has been recovered from debtors of the five distressed banks, whose management and managing directors were sacked by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, penultimate Friday.Sunday Sun gathered at the weekend that Intercontinental Bank Plc has so far recovered N4.8 billion while Afribank Plc has recovered N3 billion. Others are Oceanic Bank Plc N4.5 billion and Union Bank about N6 billion.Meanwhile, Mr. Femi Babafemi, the anti-corruption agency’s spokesman, told Sunday Sun that John Maha had been playing hide-and-seek with the agency for six days before the long arms of EFCC reeled him in at the weekend."The EFCC had been on his trail since Monday, but each time we got closer he changed location. We decided to use other operational tactics to lure him out of his nest to a place where our operatives were waiting for him."Babafemi also disclosed that both Maha and Opeodu had been fingered in further allegations of book cooking, setting up fake companies to process out loans that are not repaid.With few days to the EFCC deadline for bank debtors to pay what they owed the banks or go to jail, highly placed sources at the Commission told Sunday Sun that at the expiration of the deadline, every defaulter would become the guest of EFCC."We are prepared for the task ahead and nobody should delude himself that he or she is too big to be arrested by the EFCC. The Chairman has given express instruction that all and anybody who does not do the honourable thing by Tuesday should be brought in. We have enough space for all of them."Some of those already arrested will be arraigned and taken to prison to make room for new ‘intakes’, the source assured.Sunday Sun also learnt that bank CEOs that have so far refused to show up at EFCC risked being declared wanted. "It is a shame really that these people Nigeria once trusted with their hard-earned money are unwilling to submit themselves to the law. After receiving awards from everywhere, they are now on the run. We know what to do and it is in their interest to submit to EFCC instead of waiting until after they are become fugitives from the law. We are closing in on them and whether they stay in Nigeria or escape abroad, we believe it would really be a shame if a former bank chief executive’s face and photo is displayed as one of the ‘wanted men’ in the same newspapers and television screens that once carried their awards", our source said.The EFCC source went on to say that one of the CEOs on the run would most likely surrender as her pastor and church are seriously persuading her to save herself and the church the embarrassment of being declared wanted."The CEO in question is a member of a big Pentecostal church and her quite respectable General Overseer and elders are persuading her to come out of hiding.The anti-graft agency decided to take the tough stance because, according to it, there is urgency in salvaging the banking industry from economic strangulation orchestrated by the heavy debt burdens on the banks.The debtors, who include the who-is-who in business and political circles in Nigeria, are together owing the five distressed banks about N747 billion.The EFCC, according to its chairman, Mrs Farida Waziri, will enforce Section 42 of the Establishment Act 2004, which states that "any offence committed or proceedings instituted before the commencement of this Act under the provisions of the(a) miscellaneous Offences Act (b) the Banks and Other Financial institutions Act 1991 as amended; (c) Failed Banks ( Recovery of Debts) and Financial Malpractices in Banks Act, as amended (d) the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act (e), the Money Laundry Act or any other law or regulation relating to Economic and Financial Crimes, shall as the case may be, required to be enforced or continued to be enforced by the commission."The CBN had, on Thursday, published the list of debtors (both institutions and individuals) who secured the loans worth over N747 billion from the five banks. It included names such as Alhaji Musa Bashir, Bashir Adamu, Abba Dasuki, Mr Jimoh Ibrahim, Chudi Ajaegbu and Chiamaka Ajaegbu; Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, Aliko Dangote, Femi Otedola and a host of others.( Culled from the sun)
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THE popular actor, Chief Pete Edochie who was, Sunday, kidnapped at Nkpor near Onitsha, Anambra State was released Monday night.It was not clear as press time if the family paid any ransom, but a member of the family told Vanguard that Pete and his younger brother, Tony, were still believed to be somewhere at Awka.Though their mission to the Anambra State capital was not immediately known, there were indications that he was in the custody of the state police command.However, in an interview with Vanguard, moments after the regained his freedomHow do you feel being taken into captive?I never thought my life was on the line for a split second. It was not a very pleasant experience in the sense that we were under siege, but again like I said I have lived my life in such a way that I don't imagine for a split second that God would want my life terminated through violence.I was not shaken one bit. All the young men know who I am and they cannot count me among those exploiting them, or milking this country, so I was not thinking about family or any other thing and that is the truth.How did your abduction happen?I was coming from Onitsha –Ukwu where we had gone to a church to sell a film on Father Iwene Tansi, which is my primary assignment now and we passed through the old road. I don't know the geography very well, but I think may be after Nkpor [Onitsha] and suddenly this vehicle came and double-crossed us and it is a vehicle that belongs to Anambra State Integrated Development Services [ANDIS] and then there was another vehicle, they over took us and shot their gun into the air and asked all of us to come out of the car and we came out of the vehicle and we were all headed into the van they came with, and they asked my other colleagues to leave and I guess that was where my ordeal started.Were you maltreated?Take a good look at me, I wasn't, like I said, they re garded me as their father and told me out rightly that I would not be hurt. I was not blind folded, I was not hurt, I was not tied. While we were conversing, they sustained my alcoholic passion by giving me some kind of stout. I enjoyed it thoroughly and I was discussing with them like young men of Igbo origin.There was this report that they demanded for N10 million?I don't know who gave you that report because you were not there with us. Who gave you that report because you were not there with us? Sometimes, you people speculate dangerously and sometimes stupidly, and when you do most of these things you endanger the lives of people who are either in jeopardy.How could you have known without being there that they demanded N10 million? Nobody demanded N10 million ransoms for my release and nobody paid a kobo and that is final. It is blatant lies by the some sections of the media and it is very unfortunate.You said you interacted with them. Would you let us into some of the interactions you held?They told me that politicians in the country were ripping this country off and that their ostentatious display of ill-gotten wealth was annoying them a lot and so they decided that they too were entitled to some portions of that national cake.That may be their method and may not be endorsed by us. It took my mind back to the Niger Delta and to incessant recurrent disturbances in the north, which for want of better expression we have described as religious disturbances.Those incidents that keep recurring in the north are not religious disturbances, they manifest themselves as violent civil disobedience but actually, those insurrections are inspired by hapless circumstances.What presents itself as irredeemable poverty and people who are victims of this poverty are the people who are easy to manipulate; so politicians use them to wreak havoc on the people and because the Christians are given to erecting buildings, establishing industries and whatever, they are the people who suffer a lot as a result of these disturbances. It is not as though they are the prime targets, but when people are condemned to irretrievable poverty, the person becomes desperate and resorts to violence as a result of desperation.And when these children do these things, capture any of them and ask them why they are doing this? They will tell you that that they were given some money to go and do this; because on their own, they don't benefit from going to burn houses and churches.These young men who took me captive a couple of hours, told me that the government doesn't take their plight into consideration, that the only way people seem to make money in this country is by getting into politics and once you get into politics, you don't give a damn about any other person; that politicians spend all the money, buy all the cars, go overseas anytime they like; then they on their own decided it is high time they stopped this. They said they are not interested in killing anybody unless you constitute a violent impediment.So what was your advice to them?I did not advise them in the circumstance. I did not think I was in the position to advise them. I allowed them to have free reign. We interacted, shared a few jokes and it seems as if they were too happy doing that but from all indications, they don't have a choice.How were you able to get here, did they on their own bring you here?They took me somewhere and left me in the night and I took a cab down here, that's all.Did they collect anything from you personally?No they did not. My phone is there, I decided to put it off, and people have been calling and calling. My bag is there and everything is in the bag.When I woke up in the morning, I said, go to my bag and get me my chaplet let me pray and they went to my bag and got me the chaplet and my drugs. when I finished, they took it back. They treated me with respect, they showed me benevolence.They respected my presence a lot, they believed that I am a very influential person in the country and that if I speak the government will listen. (Culled from Vanguard)
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Baba 2face now has new managemnt .Now music has decided that to cast all doubts into the ocean about the Rkelly fiasco .A Duet with Super R N B Diva Mary J Blige is in the studio and about to be hatched .
Tuface’s new management - Now Muzik are going the extra mile to make sure all doubt of Tuface reported collaboration with Mary J Blige for his next album is not marred by bad press.They got proof! His management went the extra mile - making his picture with Mary J Blige come out as crisp as possible unlike the picture with R Kelly that fuelled the controversy to lofty heights.I 'm sorry to say that If you go to the rkelly official website there
is no mention of a collabo with tuface also on Maty J Bliges site there is no mention of tuface or 2face but these are the pictures of them together in the studio ENOUGH PROOF TO HATERS !
ENJOY
Noelene J
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2 hours 58 mins ago
So-called professional beggars are earning up to £200 a night on the streets, it has ben revealed. Skip related content
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Street beggars earning £200 a night
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* Public spied on 1,500 times a day in UK
Have your say: Local Government
And police in Leicestershire added that numbers were growing and officers had cautioned 20 people for begging in the city centre in the first two weeks of a scheme to tackle the problem.
Officers discovered none of them were homeless.
Toni Soni, head of hostel services at Leicester City Council, said previous joint operations operations by them and police found no beggars to be homeless.
He said: "There are people who are actually professional beggars who are doing it to make a living. If we did find that they were rough sleepers we would obviously attempt to engage them in our support services."
It emerged one woman begged at night after her day job to fund a new kitchen in her flat.
Sergeant Adrian Underwood, of Leicestershire police, said some people could earn up to £200 begging on a Friday or Saturday night.
He told the Leicester Mercury: "We have intelligence that there is a woman who is begging because she wants a new kitchen for her flat. A lot of well-intentioned people see someone begging and think they are deserving causes. Would they give them money if they knew that person had just come out of a flat, was receiving benefits and had food in the larder?"
Previously Leicester Police announced a "three strikes and you're out" approach to begging after it emerged as a major concern for people living, working and shopping in the city.
As part of the drive, people seen begging are given a formal warning and their details taken by officers. If they are seen again then a second warning is issued by police and on a third occasion they can be arrested and prosecuted.
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Francesca Donner, 08.19.09, 06:00 PM EDT
Women are making waves in business, politics and nonprofits around the world. Their influence is growing
Forbes' Power Women list isn't about celebrity or popularity; it's about influence. Queen Rania of Jordan (No. 75), for instance, is perhaps the most listened-to woman in the Middle East; her Twitter feed has 600,000 followers.
In assembling the list, Forbes looked for women who run countries, big companies or influential nonprofits. Their rankings are a combination of two scores: visibility--by press mentions--and the size of the organization or country these women lead.
At No. 1, for the fourth consecutive year, is German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Up for reelection this September, she is leader of the world's fourth-largest economy. She faces a tough year: Germany's GDP is expected to shrink this year despite a small uptick in the second quarter.
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Posted by 9jabook.com on August 20, 2009 at 12:56am
WHICH DO U PREFER??? Fortunately or Unfortunately its the reality of our time...
FULL TIME HOUSE WIFE VS CAREER WIFE
House Wife: Welcome Dear, how was the office today?
Husband : Fine o jare. How are my kids?
House Wife: They are asleep already. Change your clothes while I get your bath water ready.
(10 minutes later)
House Wife: Dinner is ready oooooooo. (She sit down and watch the husband eat, waiting for compliment).
House Wife: The landlord was here today.
Husband: (stop eating) for what again? I have paid the house rent ke!
House Wife: He brought the bills for PHCN, LAWMA, Security, Water and Sanitation. Iya Agba too phoned that she needs money for that medicine we promised her last month. Mama Kemi brought the Ankara material for her father’s burial. Its N5,000 for 6 yards. We don’t seem to have enough foodstuffs again ooooooooo.
Husband: (Grunts)
House Wife: Ehen, you promised to give me the money for my cream yesterday. Junior’s food is finished oooooooooooo. I want to do my hair tomorrow ooooooooooo to enable me attend Iya Kofo daughter’s naming ceremony. I will need some pocket money as well. Even though I don’t have a shoe that will match the colour of the lace material, I will manage the black one any way.
Husband: (begin to cough)
House wife: Oh Sorry Dear! (Rushes to get cold water from the fridge). The devil is a liar! Sorry Darling! Let me get you a pack of juice.
Husband: I am very tired Dear, I am going to bed. We will talk about this tomorrow.
House Wife: Ok, I will join you later. I want to watch this film on TV. Galaxy showed part 1 yesterday, and part 2 will be on soon.
Husband: (Staggered to bed full of anxiety, with no idea on how to meet up with these entire financial obligation)
CAREER Wife
Career Wife: (Gets back from work) Ekaete! Ekaete!!! Ekaete!!! Where is this useless girl self?
Ekaete : Yes MADAM! Welcome Ma. I de come. I been de attend to the children. Dem don sleep just now.
Career Wife: Ok, get those things from my car for me right away, and get my bath water ready. Set the dinner very snappy. By the way, is Tunde back from work yet?
Ekaete : Che Oga? E nefa come back yet oooo. He been phone say na pounded yam im wan chop for dinner and I don prepare am plus the rice wey you wan chop self. But dem junior na egg and yam dem request for.
(10 minutes later)
Ekaete: Madam, de money you gif me to pay for junior dem school fees, na de receipt be dis. I don go buy the bags of rice, beans, garri, sugar, salt, semo, turkey and fish. I even go to Mile 12 for Ketu to buy the yams, cassava, onion, pepper, vegetable, fruits and meat.
Career Wife: Ok. Did Tunde give you the money to pay the bills for PHCN, LAWMA, Security, Water and Sanitation?
Ekaete: yes Madam! He even gif me money to pay for the house rent for landlord account. He gif Garba money to buy one drum of diesel for the generator, to service the generator, fill the gas. E don pay my salary and Garba own.
(Tunde enters)
Husband:Ah! Bridget, you are back already. The Traffic today is disastrous!
Career Wife: Is that so?
Ekaete: Oga Welcome Sir! Let me get your bath ready while you change your cloth. I don prepare your favourite meal as requested.
Husband: Oh that’s great, Ekaete
Career wife: OooooPh, I am going to bed. I got to be at the airport early to catch the first flight to Abuja tomorrow.
Husband: I will join you later. Got to watch the match between LIVERPOOL AND CHELSEA.
Ekaete: Oga, your dinner is set. (She disappeared into the kitchen)
Husband: (Eats his dinner alone without a companion).
YES, BOTH SITUATIONS HAVE DISADVANTAGES BUT HONESTLY...........WHICH WOULD YOU RATHER LIVE WITH???Read more…
FULL LIST !
ANalysis by Oluwafolabomi on Aug 19 2009
I would like to note a few interesting facts.
1. Access Bank managing and deputy managing director are owing N16 Billion in a personal capacity while hounding Femi Otedola who owes through a company...pot calling the kettle black.
2. Fola Adeola, founder of Fate Foundation, and a shareholder in this newspaper, on the list from being a director at Omatek. An obvious example of the endemic nature of the lack of corporate governance in Nigeria's publicly listed companies. Isn't a board of directors suppossed to guide the company away from such issues.
3. President Yaradua's, son-in-law (to be), a debtor too through RAHAMANIYYA OIL AND GAS LTD! I guess there is no accounting for taste when taking on new in-laws! Will there be a "Federal" bailout or will Yaradua be aloof to the travails of his new family.
4. "Who watches the Watchmen?". There is no wonder that the NSE doesn't support fighting the problems of insider dealing when it's head, NDI OKEREKE-ONYIUKE, is a director of a a company with several billions in bad debts. Afterall would you ban yourself? It's also interesting to note that both the current, Aliko Dangote, and immediate past presidents of the NSE, Oba Otudeko, are represented here too!
5. That Aliko Dangote's name appears does not surprise me. When you owe as much money as he does,you get to boss your creditors around since you are "too big to fail".
6. ARISEKOLA ALAO & Oba Otudeko owing billions of Naira, while being a major shareholders, gettng dividends, in First Bank.
7. Femi & Nana Otedola, whose lavish expenditure on a boat apparently costing over $12 million is to be noted, obviously live a life that cannot be supported without debt that they have no intention of paying back. Evidently its true that empty barrels really do make the most noise.
8. (Barrister) Jimoh Ibrahim has never been afraid of debt so he was bound to be here in some capacity. But not paying it back, while not a crime, is basically dishonest! Wetin lawyers dey do sef?
9. PRINCE FEDRICK .E. AKINRUTAN is just about to be made an Oba, who will then be dispensing "fatherly" advice to his people. Will that advice include "Go forth and accumulate debt". There is nothing dishonourable in running your business through debt financing. After all the government does it most years. The problem comes when you live a life, that drains the company of its life blood, while putting other peoples and your staff's livelyhoods at stake. That's just plain criminal and shoud be treated as such!
ARTICLE READ MORE HERE
Pushing on doggedly with its reform of the septic banking environment in the country, the new management team at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) late Tuesday published the list of the country's worst debtors on its website as an "Advertorial."
In a prefatory note to the table of debtors that has 205 names, the CBN said, "Following the recent regulatory action of the Central Bank of Nigeria on the five banks, it has become necessary to use this medium to request the following defaulting customers of the affected banks to pay without further delay their indebtedness, failing which the banks will take all appropriate legal actions to ensure repayment.
"These are the largest debtors and the CBN will continue to publish the list of defaulters on an on-going basis."
A keen reading of the CBN advertorial indicates that the five ailing banks that lost their management team in last Friday's "Bank Massacre", were neck deep in debt reaching the staggering proportions of N740 Billion, a quarter of the nation's annual budget.
The CBN Governor, Lamido Sanusi, blamed the intimidating numbers on what he described as the poor risk management, and corporate governance profile of the banks' management.
The Central Bank also took the daring step to name the institutional and individual debtors, many who are among the nation's high and mighty, and also warning them to "pay without further delay their indebtedness, failing which the banks will take all appropriate legal actions to ensure repayment."
Of the 205 debtors, most of whose indebtedness are in the double digit bracket, three elect for a daring borrowing culture which the CBN derisively characterise as "Non-performing", an euphemism for a poor credit record of not servicing ones debt.
These are companies in the Rahmaniyya Group which owe just two of these banks 41 Billion naira; companies headed by Peter Ololo, which owe three of the banks 76 Billion naira; and companies owned by the controversial Transcorp Plc, which owe two of the banks 41 Billion naira.
The Rahmaniyya Group is owned by Abdulrahman Bashir, Peter Ololo is the Managing Director of Falcon Securities in Lagos while Transcorp Plc is headed by the Director General of the Nigeria Stock Exhange, Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke.
The CBN stated in its advertorial that its action in exposing the debtors draws directly from its mission to restore proper regulatory culture in the industry long characterised by an "anything goes attitude."
Some of the banks had attempted to rationalise the huge debt overhang in different ways. The management of Intercontinental bank, one of the five ailing banks, in an open letter to President Umaru Yar'Adua on August 12, blamed its debt on "a plethora of personalities otherwise called the cabal who have deliberately refused to make returns in respect of facilities from which they have benefitted."
These could however not save the bank's management from being fired by the CBN. Other banks whose management were sacked are Union Bank, Afribank, Oceanic Bank and Finbank.
FULL PAGE LIST !
FULL LIST on CBN WEBSITE SCROLL TO SEE MORE BIG MEN DEBTORS ! http://www.cenbank.org/Out/publications/pressRelease/GOV/2009/ADVERTORIAL2.pd
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True to its vow at a world press conference held in Lagos on July 14, the coalition of major associations in the Nigerian music industry has begun the mobilization of stakeholders throughout the country for the commencement of an indefinite mass hunger strike to draw the attention of the world to the intolerable amount of piracy that is devastating the music industry in Nigeria. The mass hunger strike is planned to commence on August 25. As a prelude to the strike, there will be an important rally of stakeholders in the Nigerian music industry at the premises of the National Theatre, Lagos at 10.00am on August 25. The rally will offer an opportunity to artistes and investors across the industry to network and devise strategies to frontally attacking the piracy scourge that is plundering the Nigerian entertainment industry.Further to the hunger strike, the coalition has resolved that a powerful delegation of industry stakeholders will proceed to the National Assembly in Abuja on September 1 to express the frustration of the industry over the lukewarm and ineffective attitude of the government to attacking the piracy cancer that is fast eating away the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of Nigerians and destroying the Nation’s image. The coalition is also requesting all broadcast organizations in the country to show solidarity with the plight of the Nigerian entertainment industry by observing September 1, 2009 as “NO MUSIC DAY”. Consequently, broadcasting stations across Nigeria are requested not to broadcast music between the hours of 6 am and 6 pm on September 1. Artistes across the country are also requested not to engage in any musical performance on “NO MUSIC DAY”It will be recalled that at the Press Conference held at Protea Hotel, Ikeja on July 14, the coalition had called on President Yar’ Adua to declare a State of Emergency with respect to the fight against piracy in Nigeria and to muster the necessary resources to eradicate the monster. The coalition had also called on the President to take the following specific actions:-1. Set up a Governing Board made up of Nigerians of proven commitment and integrity to design and supervise the activities of the Nigerian Copyright Commission in accordance with the Nigerian Copyright Act as the records show that for more than five years, the Nigerian Copyright Commission has only had a Board for a period of a few months in 2005.2. Direct the Nigerian Copyright Commission to immediately put on hold the process of approval of any new copyright collective management organization pending the IMMEDIATE convening of a stake holders conference on Collective Management to ensure that the process receives input from the stakeholders that will earn any organization emerging from the process the support of the industry.3. Direct the Inspector General of Police to serve a warning to the traders at Alaba International Market in Lagos, the world’s biggest hotbed of piracy, that if within a specified period the traders do not clean up the market, the government will shut Alaba market down.At the massively attended Press Conference, the coalition had noted that whatever efforts made so far to fight piracy in Nigeria had failed and rather than piracy being controlled or reduced in Nigeria, it was ravaging an entire generation of creative people. The coalition also warned that in desperation, practitioners in the Nigerian entertainment industry may soon be forced to take the laws into their hands in a desperate attempt to safeguard their investment and this may result in otherwise avoidable bloodshed.The coalition made up of Performing Musicians Employers Association of Nigeria (PMAN), Nigerian Association of Recording Industries (NARI), Performing & Mechanical Rights Society Ltd/Gte (PMRS), Association of Music Business Professionals (AM.B-Pro), Music Label Owners & Recording Industries Association of Nigeria (MORAN), Music Label Owners Association of Nigeria (MULOAN), Gramophone Records & Cassette Dealers (AGRECD), Music Advertisers Association Of Nigeria (MAAN). Audio /Video CD Sellers Association of Nigeria (AVCDSAN) also reminded the government that Nigeria may face sanctions from the international community because of the glaring failure to meet the nation’s obligations under the different conventions and treaties signed by our country to protect intellectual property rights of citizens of other nations which are wantonly infringed upon in Nigeria alongside those of Nigerian nationals.All artistes in music film, comedy, drama, literary works and all friends of the entertainment industry are invited to storm the historic rally at the National Theatre Lagos on Tuesday August 25 at 10 amEfe OmorogbeFor: The Nigerian Music Industry Coalition
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Posted by 9jabook.com on August 17, 2009 at 9:08pm
The United States military had, in May 2008, conducted a war games test called Unified Quest 2008, to ascertain how its military might respond to a war in parts of Africa including ni.ge.ria and Somalia.
According to an article written by Director of the African Security Research Project in Washington, DC and Guest Columnist of AllAfrica Global Media, Mr. Daniel Volman, the ni.ge.rian scenario was predicated upon a possible war in 2013. The article observed that it was the first time the African scenarios were included, as part of Pentagon’s plan to create a new military command for Africa: the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM). It also emerged that “the free flow of natural resources from Africa to the global market” was one of the “guiding principles” of AFRICOM, as articulated by Vice Admiral Robert Moeller at an AFRICOM conference held at Fort McNair on February 18, 2008.
The 2013 war date, the article said, was a test of how AFRICOM could respond to a crisis in ni.ge.ria in the event that rival factions and rebels fight for control of the oil fields of the Niger Delta and the government was near collapse.
Among scenarios examined, Volman said, were the possibility of direct American military intervention involving some 20,000 US troops in order to "secure the oil,” bearing in mind that ni.ge.ria is a major supplier of US oil needs.
Also, the question of how to handle possible splits between factions within the ni.ge.rian government was tested.
Other options included diplomatic pressure, military action, with or without the aid of European and African nations.
One participant, US Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Mark Stanovich, drew up a plan that called for the deployment of thousands of U.S. troops within 60 days, which even he thought was undesirable, Volman stated.
"American intervention could send the wrong message: that we are backing a government that we don't intend to," Stanovich said. Other participants suggested that it would be better if the U.S. government sent a request to South Africa or Ghana to send troops into ni.ge.ria instead,” the article stated.
According to Major Robert Thornton, an officer with the Joint Center for International Security Force Assistance at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, "it became apparent that it was actually green (the host nation government) which had the initiative, and that any blue [the U.S. government and its allies] actions within the frame were contingent upon what green was willing to tolerate and accommodate.”“As the game progressed, according to former U.S. ambassador David Lyon, it became clear that the government of ni.ge.ria was a large part of the problem. As he put it, ‘we have a circle of elites [the government of ni.ge.ria] who have seized resources and are trying to perpetuate themselves. Their interests are not exactly those of the people,” said the article.
“The recommendations which the participants drew up for the Army's Chief of Staff, General George Casey, do not appear to be publicly available, as what the participants finally concluded was not known. But since the war games took place in the midst of the presidential election campaign, General Casey decided to brief both John McCain and Barack Obama on its results,” the article stated.
The game ended without military intervention because one of the rival factions executed a successful coup and formed a new government that sought stability.
AFRICOM representatives were said to be in communication throughout the test, but non of their officers were part of the event, said Volman.
Volman observed that neither the General of AFRICOM William Ward nor Vice Admiral Mueller “were under illusions about the” purpose of the command.
“Thus when General Ward appeared before the House Armed Services Committee on March 13, 2008, he cited America’s growing dependence on African oil as a priority issue for AFRICOM and went on to proclaim that combating terrorism would be “AFRICOM’s number one theatre-wide goal.” He barely mentioned development, humanitarian aid, peace-keeping or conflict resolution.”
“Since then, as General Ward has demonstrated in an interview with AllAfrica, he has become more adept at sticking to the US government official public position on AFRICOM’s aims and on its escalating military operations on the African continent,” stated the piece. Volman argued that contrary to expectations, President Obama had chosen to increase US military intervention in Africa by providing arms and training to the Transitional Government in Somalia, an attempt to make the continent a central battlefield in the “global war on terrorism.”
He further argued that the operations of AFRICOM had been expanded through a proposed budget for financial year 2010, which will provide increased security assistance to repressive regimes in ni.ge.ria, Niger, Chad, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and key US allies such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti, Rwanda and Uganda.
The war game test drew various participants from the State Department and other US government agencies, foreign military officers (including military representatives from several NATO countries, Australia and Israel), journalists, academics, and the private military contractors that helped run the war games: the Rand Corporation and Booz-Allen.
Another of the four scenarios that were war-gamed was a test of how AFRICOM could respond to a crisis in Somalia — set in 2025 — caused by escalating insurgency and piracy. Unfortunately, no information on the details of the scenario is available.
The five-day game was designed to look at what crisis might erupt in different parts of the world in five to 25 years and how the US might respond. Back in 2005, the US had predicted that ni.ge.ria would break-up in 2015. The report was highly criticised by ni.ge.rian leaders.
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Peter Edochie has been set f.r.ee by the kidnappers after an undisclosed amount was paid as ransom, his son Uche Edochie has said.The veteran actor was held by the kidnappers for about 24 hours; from yesterday, Sunday August 16 when he was kidnapped till Monday, 17 August 2009.He was kidnapped while he was being driven from his country home in Enugu in the company of his family members. Armed men stopped the car he was travelling in and Pete Edochie was the only one kidnapped 3 people were allegedly shot dead at the Scene of the kidnapping .
