$20 BILLION MISSING MONEY: HURIWA ASKS SANUSI TO SEEK JUDICIAL REDRESS

Dissatisfied with the way and manner that the Central Bank of Nigeria's Governor Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has raised a number of sensational allegations of financial heist against the Nigeria's National Petroleum Corporation [NNPC] which has so far been discredited by the officials of the NNPC, a civil society group with pro-transparency tendency-HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA [HURIWA] has canvassed judicial interpretation relating to constitutional question of whether the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation [NNPC] is statutorily entitled to deduct foreign derived revenue from source before making payment to the Federation Account of Nigeria.

HURIWA is of the conviction that judicial process is best suited for this kind of very sensitive matter to protect the nation's fragile economy from suffering the consequences of loss of confidence by foreign direct investors and other industrialists just as the group said the financial health of Nigeria is of the highest essence that must be protected by all and sundry and especially government officials that hold very sensitive financial positions.

In a statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Director of Media Miss. Zainab Yusuf, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA [HURIWA] affirmed that in as much as whistle blowing is internationally acclaimed as the most effective and potent tool against corruption, economic crimes and the best measure to protect and promote the principle and practice of transparency, accountability and zero-tolerance to official, public and private corrupt practices, it said the 'politically suspicious' manner and the wrong timing of these deluge of allegations of sleaze and financial malpractices made by the CBN governor on the eve of his departure from office amidst speculations of his 'association' with political opposition elements belonging to the newly registered All Progressives Congress makes it imperative that a judicial decision be sought by the hierarchy of the Nigeria's Central Bank to put to rest once and for all the controversy regarding the administration of funds that ought to be remitted to Nigeria's Federation account by the Federal Ministry of Petroleum and the NNPC. HURIWA said that the federal ministry of Finance has also not helped matter by behaving as if the interest of the political masters was important than national interest in all of these spate of controversies over a range of 'missing' monies.

Specifically, The CBN Governor, who on Tuesday raised the allegation of another missing $20 billion against the NNPC when he appeared before the National Assembly's committee probing the nation's crude oil sector, defended himself by saying that he never raised the allegation to tarnish anyone's public image but that he did that in the best interest of the country's economy. Sanusi had earlier accused NNPC of stealing $49 billion but later admitted mathematical miscalculation in his allegation and amended it to $12 billion just before he raised another kind of criminal allegation concerning the financial malpractices noticed with the administration of the kerosene subsidy by the NNPC's officials which he puts at $20 billion as money stolen or diverted.

But, the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA [HURIWA] advised the CBN governor to proceed to the court of competent jurisdiction with facts and figures to obtain an authoritative judicial pronouncement in order to put to bed the allegations that the nation's managers of our crude oil resources have embarked on unrelenting bonanza of theft of public fund, unending vicious circle of misappropriation and diversion of huge foreign revenue that ought to be remitted to Nigeria's Federation Account. HURIWA stated that as the nation's most preeminent bank chief, the Central Bank Governor was in the best position to be in the know regarding the various transactions that go on at the highest levels of government but the group insisted that apart from presenting those damning evidence before the political and public arena, the Central Bank chief should also seek judicial pronouncement for posterity and to justify his claim that he is not on a wild goose chase and jamboree of political vendetta.

Besides, HURIWA asked the National Assembly to amend the Central Bank of Nigeria's enabling Act to make it imperative that the holder of the high office of the Governor of CBN is prevented and insulated from political influences by making it mandatory that the holder isn't allowed to venture until party politics until after five years of exiting or quitting his appointment  at the end of the statutory tenure. The Rights group has also called for the appointment of a thorough bred professional banker and economist of high repute from any part of the World irrespective of the person's place of birth or nationality but with clean forensic crime free record to head the Central Bank of Nigeria after the exit of the current holder. HURIWA said Nigeria should borrow a leaf from the British government that recently hired a Canadian scholar of Finance to head the British Central Bank.

HURIWA said thus: " While we commend the courage, and resilience of the CBN governor Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi in making these range of allegations, he must go a step further to file a suit at the appropriate and best competent court of law because the criminal allegations are specifically meant to indict certain individuals in the nation's crude oil industry so the court would be in the best position to indict, convict and sanction appropriately any Nigerian official of the NNPC found culpable of the series of allegations of criminal diversion of Nigeria's foreign revenue which breaches the Appropriation Act of 2013".

6/2/2014

MARSHAL BADEH’S THESIS ON NATIVE MEDIA By Emmanuel Onwubiko

From an unlikely source comes one of the most powerful albeit innocuous advocacy for the light to be reignited by Nigerian media owners in the area of publishing newspapers in the diverse popular Nigerian languages like Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa as against the common neo-colonial practice whereby major newspapers are dominated by the English language.

Alex Sabundu Badeh is Nigeria’s current highest ranking military General in the rank of Air Marshall and he doubles as Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff – meaning that all the three key service Chiefs in the Nigerian Army,  Airforce and Navy reports to his desk even as all of the top military echelons reports to the desk of the commander-in-chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces-Dr. Good luck Ebele Jonathan.     

This Adamawa state-born military officer made a harmless statement jokingly which to every right thinking media analyst should provoke a sense of nostalgia and propel the renewed advocacy for the local dialects to be used in the publication of certain editions of our national newspapers even as weekly insertions.

On February 3rd 2014, Alex Badeh led a delegation of the newly appointed military service Chiefs to attend a national security parley with President Jonathan in what observers say might not be unconnected with the renewed violent mass killings of villagers in the North East by suspected armed Islamic insurgents.   

After four hour long secret meeting with the President, the service Chiefs walked out and were met by the eagle eyed reporters for their comments on the meeting but none of these brand new military chiefs spoke up. The Chief of Defence Staff Air Marshal Alex Badeh was cornered by the journalists and put under intense pressure to speak but he  looked at them and said jovially; “I will only speak if you will allow me to speak in my dialect.” The reporters left him in peace since nobody could afford to demand that he proceeded so an interpreter can capture these words ton enrich their news reportage for that day.

Before delving into this beautiful thesis and possible prognosis on the need to return publication of newspapers in major Nigerian dialects, let me reproduce the story as captured by one of Nigeria’s most detailed journalists: Mr. Augustine Ehikioya of Nation Newspapers.

He reported thus; “President Goodluck Jonathan met for several hours with Service chiefs behind closed-door at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.”

“The discussions at the meeting, the first since the appointment of new Service chiefs last month, were not unconnected with the rising onslaught of the Boko Haram Islamic sect and other insurgents in the Northeast.”

He reported further; “the violence unleashed on the residents of the region has led to the death of scores of people with loss of property in tow. No statement was issued at the end of the meeting.

The Service chiefs declined comments on what they discussed with the President.”

According to the reporter; "at the meeting were: the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshall Alex Badeh; Chief of Army Staff, Maj.-Gen. Kenneth Minimah; Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Usman Jibrin and Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshall Adesola Amosu”.

“Also there were: the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd.); Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Abubakar Mohammed and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Sen. Anyim Pius Anyim. When reporters approached him for comments on the meeting, Air Marshall Alex Badeh declined to speak; he reported.

“Prodded further, however, he said: “I will only speak if you will allow me to speak in my dialect.”

The signal imbedded in that statement by the top military officer is indeed a prognosis that soon media owners may as well reintroduce native dialect publications even as small insertions in their English language-dominated newspapers and radio language.

This prophetic statement by Marshal Badeh is also a perfect ground to demand that the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission should quicken the pace of granting operational licences to broadcast entrepreneurs to establish community stations which will inevitably go a long way to promote our indigenous languages, preserve and conserve our cherished cultural values and promote respect for the sacredness of life.

Badeh’s statement reminds one of the historical perspective that the Nigerian media experienced to reach our current status. It is a historical fact that newspapering started in Nigeria in 1859 with native language publication aptly named as “Iwe Irohin” by the British Colonial officer cum missionary Reverend Henry Townsend (1815-1886) of the Anglican Church.

In media history class at the Nigerian institute of Journalism (NIJ) we were tutored how this gentleman left monumental legacies one among which is the precious fact that he showed the light on media entrepreneurship for others to follow.

Conversely, from www.dacb.org the writers rightly recorded some historical facts about this highly creative mind who was instrumental to the emergence of the media industry in Nigeria and indeed gave us an enduring heritage which is to say that native language newspapers must not be allowed to die.

According to this historians; the lasting legacy Townsend bequeathed Yoruba mission came in the skill he introduced to the Yoruba mission. It is interesting that this missionary from a family well known for their pedigree in printing business confessed that he had learned the trade by hands-on experience at Abeokuta".

This ingenuity, the writers stated, proved to be an advantage to the Yoruba mission. Apart from the ministerial vocation, printing became the first lettered skill the CMS mission introduced to the Yoruba people through Townsend, the historians recalled.

Going further down memory lanes, the historians observed thus; "But when he began to publish in 1859 the Iwe Irohin, a newspaper he produced in English and Yoruba, he etched his name in the history of media development in what is today Nigeria. Iwe Irohin was the first newspaper production in Nigeria. Happily, he has remained unforgotten for this achievement in a country where memory often proves short. In 2009, during the celebration of the 150th anniversary of print media in Nigeria, his name was honorably mentioned over and again. The Yoruba people too had sustained his legacy with their regional reputation as the bastion of vibrant newspaper media in the Nigerian state". 

In the eighties (1980’s) media owners such as the late Chief M.K.O Abiola of the National Concord Newspapers’ fame, experimented successfully with native language newspapering just as the Northern owned New Nigerian Newspapers was known for running one of the most successful Hausa language newspapers known as “Gaskiya Tafi Kwabo” .

Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu of Champion group of Newspapers experimented with Igbo language newspaper. Both Abiola and Iwuanyanwu’s effort at publishing native language newspapers have vanished into thin air.

Luckily, the Abuja-based Daily Trust group of newspaper still publishes on weekly basis, an Hausa language tabloid called “Aminiya”, meaning feminine type of trust worthiness. I am aware that leadership group of Newspapers also has an Hausa language weekly newspaper. That national newspapers like The Guardian, Thisday, Punch, Sun and Nation among others do not publish native language versions even as weekly insertions is reprehensible and anti-development.

The question that comes with the prognosis made by Air Marshal Alex Badeh is why no newspaper runs native language tabloids in Igbo and Yoruba even when these ethnic nationalities have some of the largest literate populations?

The worst case scenario is that most if not all the state government-run newspapers have suffered operational hiccups leading to their disappearances from newsstands and sadly, New Nigerian Newspapers owned by all the Northern states is in a state of operational hibernation as it is no longer commercially viable and the workers are owed backlogs of salaries.

Who knows perhaps, God has indirectly sent Air Marshal Badeh to speak for the reintroduction of native language vibrant newspaper industry in contemporary time Nigeria.

In a related development, Reverend Father Tor Alumuku who did his doctoral thesis on “Community Radio for Development: The World and Africa,” is of the opinion that native language media industry has a good prospect.

According to him; the following are some of the advantages of community radio; individual stations can be set up with inexpensive equipment and housed in existing facilities.

Father Alumuku also stated that concrete results could be felt quickly in the parts of the country where stations are set up; technically, community stations are relatively simple to set up and operate; the low operating costs and grassroots nature of such stations give them a good chance of financial survival; and it gives a real voice to local concerns and is a true alternative to national and commercial media that tend to ignore those concerns.

Reverend Father Alumuku who is a director at the Vatican radio further stated that community broadcasting offers a forum for participation in national affairs and issues; community radio could provide an effective training ground for journalists, technicians, and other broadcast personnel; as more and more community radio stations are set up in a country, this becomes an effective, albeit slow, way of creating a truly alternative national network.

Such a network, Reverend Dr. Alumuku submitted,  would have the advantage of bottom-up development, leaving most power in the grassroots communities and;  as they  provide an obvious alternative to both the reality of the national or regional stations, it might be easier to get licenses for community stations as they cover a limited area and desire to democratize their services.

All eyes are now on local media moguls like the Nduka Ogbaigbena's, Mrs. Maiden Ibru's, the Uncle Sam Amuka's and Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu's to venture into native language media business for purely developmental ground as part of their corporate social responsibility to our motherland.

+ Emmanuel Onwubiko is Head of Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria and blogs@www.huriwa.blogspot.org; http://www.huriwa.org

4/2/2014

WHO IS AFRAID OF AN INDEPENDENT FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE BODY? By Emmanuel Onwubiko

At the recent World Economic Forum, the Nigerian President Dr. Good luck Jonathan stirred up a debate when he reportedly told the international audience that Nigeria's problem is not corruption  but rather the insecurity situation that has not allowed productivity to reach a commendable height and for the democracy dividends to reach the millions of unreached rural poor Nigerians.

Most Nigerians immediately opposed this way of analyzing the very serious and weighty existential problem afflicting Nigeria which obviously is corruption that has not allowed Nigeria to grow optimally and this climate of corruption has created widespread poverty and hunger in the land and has led to the systematic collapse of vital national assets and infrastructure thereby exposing a lot of Nigerians to insecurity of lives and property coupled with the unprecedented rise in armed insurgency in parts of the North. Globally, it is a notorious fact that money laundering, terrorist financing and financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction are interconnected and are indeed serious threats to security and integrity of the financial system and constitute grave threat to the territorial integrity of sovereign nations. So it was understandable why right thinking observers challenged President Jonathan's assertion that corruption is not Nigeria's most disturbing problem. He was wrong because corruption and terrorism are like Siamese twins. Little wonder then that the Financial Action Task Force, a global wide mechanism for confronting financial crimes was compelled in February of 2012 to upgrade the international standards on combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The internationals standards which recommend independent and strong institutional framework/mechanism was reviewed to strengthen global safeguards and further protect the integrity of the financial system by providing governments with stronger tools to take action against financial crimes. These new standards rolled out on February 12th 2012 were targeted at addressing new priority areas such as corruption and tax crimes. These twin evils are rife in Nigeria making it all the more imperative that the nation has to work out an effective institution such as an independent Nigerian Financial Intelligence office to tackle these crimes headlong away from the bureaucratic bottlenecks that characterized the traditional crime fighting models.

Corruption is Nigeria's most important problem and must be seen as such. Those who are entrusted with the duty of fighting corruption are expected to be accountable and transparent in all their activities and the administration of the institutions that wage war against corruption and economic crimes must be cured of all maladies relating to abuse of power and corrupt enrichment of the officials. There is therefore the clarion call internationally for the creation of an independent body that will check and balance the activities of all the anti-graft institutions so that no particular agency of government acquires the larger -than- life tendency of thinking that the officials of these agencies are above the law.

Therefore the creation of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit was geared towards making sure that all financial transactions meet with international best practices and indeed this body ought to be independent enough to be able to also monitor, collate and circulate intelligence to all the agencies of law enforcement charged with the constitutional duty of keeping Nigeria free from money launderers and international kingpins who engage in illegal capital flight that contribute to the economic downfall of Nigeria.

The advocacy for the creation of a body of legislation to empower the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit to become autonomous is said to be stridently opposed by some persons in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Chairman is fingered as one of those fighting the passage of this bill by the National Assembly because he feels threatened that some of his executive powers would be eroded if this department is made independent. This opposition has led to public spat between the acting director of this Financial intelligence Unit and the chairman of the EFCC to such an extent that the media is awash with reports that a detachment of well armed mobile policemen on the alleged orders of the EFCC chairman took over the offices of the NFIU thereby chasing away the acting Director and refusing her access to her personal belongings. In this era of democracy should any official of government be allowed to grow too big to be controlled by the relevant laws? This and many other questions are expected to be answered by the National Human Rights Commission so as to save Nigeria from international opprobrium that may result from the determined effort of a cabal to undermine the independence of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit.

This infighting notwithstanding, the National Assembly, particularly the Federal House of Representatives kicked off a public hearing on the executive bill to empower the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit to become an independent institution on February 3rd 2014 with a strong note of warning by the Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, an accomplished lawyer Mr. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal that the parliament is determined to pass the legislation so as to combat the increasing wave of official theft, mismanagement of public fund in Nigeria.  There is no gainsaying the fact that under the current regime of anti-graft campaign, the type waged since the appointment as Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission [EFCC] Mr. Lamorde has yet to reignite the kind of momentum that characterized the anti-corruption battles which was waged successfully by the pioneer chairman Mallam Nuhu Ribadu who was however removed unceremoniously for political reasons under the late Umaru Musa Yar'adua-led government. The lackluster approach to the anti-graft war has now given rise to the clamor for the creation of an independent Nigerian Financial Intelligence Department away from the prying eyes or control of the chairman of EFCC since the office coordinate the generation and distribution of intelligence on financial transactions to all law enforcement agencies including the Department of State Security [SSS], the Independent Corrupt Practices and allied offence Commission [ICPC] among others.

On the public spat that greeted the determination of the embattled acting director of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit Ms. Julieth Umezuoke to secure independence for that office, a highly trusted and competent source at the National Human Rights Commission hinted me last weekend that the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission[EFCC] Ibrahim Lamorde, an assistant Commissioner of police has been dragged before the Rights commission following a very strong petition alleging abuse of power and threat to the life of one of Nigeria's best known anti-corruption legal experts who is said to be heading the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit within the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Listed as " PETITION AGAINST THE EFCC CHAIRMAN MR. LAMORDE ON ABUSE OF POWER, THREAT TO LIFE ,INTIMIDATION AND VICTIMIZATION OF BARRISTER JULIET IBEKAKU", the petitioner through her lawyer is praying for a number of reliefs among which is the clarion call on the authority to ensure that the precious life of this distinguished female lawyer who incidentally is a pioneer senior staff of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is not endangered by elements who are afraid that her bold moves to secure total autonomy for the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit may undermine their unpatriotic dealings. She also alleged that her office was invaded by armed mobile policemen on the instruction of the EFCC boss on December 20th 2013 and has not been allowed to pick her personal belongings.

 The reputable female lawyer left her job at THE UNITED NATIONS to join the EFCC in 2004 and for the past 10 years, she has been serving the EFCC in various capacities and was appointed acting DIRECTOR, NIGERIAN FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE UNIT (NFIU) in 2012.

Some of the critical accomplishments of the critically acclaimed female anti-corruption lawyer within one year of her appointment to this national assignment were: the delisting of Nigeria from the FATF blacklist, which received the generous support of PRESIDENT GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN and the cohesive collaboration of the relevant stakeholders; the development of a strategic plan for the NFIU that led to a collaborative approach to intelligence sharing between the NFIU and other law enforcement agencies in Nigeria, particularly in the area of anti-money laundering,  combating  terrorism  financing and international support for Nigeria.  

In a bid to ensure that the NFIU was operating within international standards as provided by the FATF, the acting Director was directed by Mr. President through the Attorney General of the Federation to initiate the Bill for the establishment of an independent NFIU. This is because it was discovered that the domestication of the Unit in EFCC has created a crisis of confidence amongst the other law enforcement  agencies and ultimately inhibited the efficiency in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.

This position was reflected in an Executive bill on the establishment of a “Nigerian Financial Intelligence Agency” endorsed to the National Assembly for consideration. This is a worthy cause.

+ Emmanuel Onwubiko is Head of Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria and    blogs@www.huriwa.blogspot.org; http://www.huriwa.org/

4/2/2014