DAILY TRUST

Soludo and Imoke: Testing yar’adua’s anti-corruption credentials

Written by Is’haq Modibbo Kawu, on 31-07-2008 00:00

Two major scandals presently unfolding in Nigeria, will largely help to define the genuineness or otherwise of the commitment of the Yar’adua administration, to the fight against the deeply ingrained problem of corruption in our country. Last week, most Nigerian papers gave a glimpse into the report of the committee set up to examine one of the many controversial projects of the corrupt Obasanjo administration: the Charles Soludo-initiated, financed and Charles Soludo-led, African Finance Corporation (AFC).

At the heart of the Obasanjo administration were some of the most devious schemes ever derived in the history of Nigeria, all calculated to fleece the Nigerian people, but almost always packaged with pretences at some altruistic purposes for the national good. This much we have severally argued in the past: from the dubious and unconstitutional process of privatization; the regime of import waivers; the concession of national assets; the oil blocks allocation; to the sale of federal government houses and so forth!

The most recent report of the Committee set up to investigate issues around the so-called African Finance Corporation, AFC, which the Soludo group "conceptualized as a private-sector driven entity", seem to have placed the contraption firmly amongst the many schemes of the Obasanjo regime that carry a huge question mark, if not about the stated objective which informed the setting up, but the practical ends which they served. It is therefore remarkable that at the end of its findings, the committee was unambiguous in its statement: "THE COMMITTEE FINDS PROF. CHUKWUMA C. SOLUDO LIABLE FOR GROSS NEGLIGENCE, RECKLESSNESS AND GROSS ABUSE OF OFFICE". This is very clear enough, and we shall come back to the report.

But let us refresh our minds about some related developments. On this page, a few weeks ago, I wrote a piece about the emergence of a season of spin, lies and blackmail in Nigeria. When the investigation committee was set up, the Soludo spin machine went into an overdrive in the media. We were regaled with stories of allegations that some faceless people were on a witch hunt against the ‘cerebral’, and ‘hard working’ Charles Soludo, who has worked so ‘selflessly’ to give Nigeria’s banking industry a much needed shot in the arm. The spin doctors gave the impression that "the genius" Charles Soludo was being set up as a fall guy, by faceless elements from the north who wanted to take over his job as CBN governor to engage in a revanchist mission because of the banking consolidation which the north was said to have lost out from.

Ijeoma Nwogwugwu of THISDAY even went to the ridiculous extent of accusing Nigeria of never appreciating "its best" such as el-Rufai and Soludo (of course the same set!), who other countries and institutions were falling upon themselves to beg to work for them. But these "geniuses" chose to do Nigeria a favour and yet we were not a grateful bunch, blah! blah!! blah!!! But these were mischievous examples of spin as I had argued before. This is because Soludo and his ilk did not do Nigeria a favour; on the contrary! It is on record, that chaps who used to enter Abuja by night bus from the East in 1999 have now become some of the most visible individuals in the country today. Take Charles Soludo; he is one of the richest public servants in our country today, and as part of the "favour" he has done Nigeria, he is now said to be the proud owner of what was the official residence of the Governor of Nigeria’s central bank in Wuse II, Abuja. What an ingenious way to "do Nigeria a favour"!

But the spin doctors bought with huge sums of money on the pages of various Nigerian newspapers cannot blot out the truth. The very damaging report found that a lot went wrong with the use of the CBN funds in that AFC contraption: "it is heart-rendering that till date nothing realistic has been done with the funds invested in AFC, concerning its core objectives". Nothing "apart from playing the money market around the globe…"

The committee also observed that "the AFC has not been able to compute the expenditure incurred to generate…income in order to net off and determine the amount payable to the CB/FGN. In view of this inconclusive and unhelpful state of affairs, the committee is of the opinion that Prof. Soludo and the CEO of the AFC, Mr. Austine Omotoruwa should be PERSONALLY ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE DETERMINATION OF THE ACTUAL INTEREST THAT HAS ACCRUED TO THE CBN/FGN FROM THE INVESTMENT IN THE AFC, and ensure its prompt payment". Furthermore, the report said that its opinion above, "is premised on the way and manner the fund invested by CBN in AFC found its way to UBA, new York and CitiBank, London only for it to be repatriated to Nigeria after a few weeks. THIS CONSTITUTES "ROUND TRIPPING" WHICH IS A SERIOUS CRIMINAL OFFENCE WITH ATTENDANT CONSEQUENCES UNDER THE MONEY LAUNDERING ACT. IT IS OUR VIEW THAT GOVERNMENT SHOULD TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION AGAINST PROF CHUKWUMA C. SOLUDO AND MR. AUSTINE OMOTORUWA WHO ARE INSTRUMENTAL TO THIS ACTION".

It is also in the report that "the duo of Prof. Soludo and Mr. Ometoruwa were in BREACH OF DUE PROCESS BY TRANSFERRING THE INITIAL HUGE SUMS OF USD750million and USD143million in November, 2007 and March 2008 respectively out of the country (to Citibank, London and Uba New York without the benefit of Board approvals either by the CBN or the AFC. This being the case, WE STRONGLY BELIEVE THAT GOVERNMENT SHOULD TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTON AGAISNT THE TWO OFFICERS COMMENSURATE WITH THE GRAVITY OF THE BREACH".

Our last quotation from the report equally gives incredible insight into the way that Charles Soludo has operated as the mandarin of the apex bank, who took on a larger-than-life image, under the protective wrongs of the lawless Obasanjo regime. It was a regime of monumental thefts and corruption; therefore, everybody went all out to feather his or her own rest. "Professor Chukwuma Soludo authorised the first transfer of funds sourced from the CBN in November, 2007. IT IS MIND BOGGLING THAT UP TILL April 2008 WHEN THIS COMMITTEE WAS CONSTITUTED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA TO INVESTIGATE THE AFFAIRS OF AFC, PROF SOLUDO DELILBERATELY FAILED TO BRIEF EITHER THE PRESIDENT OR THE FEDERAL EXECUTIVE COUNCIL FOR RATIFICATION AS PROVIDED UNDER SECTION 3 OF THE TREATIES (MAKING PROCEDURE, etc) ACT, LFN, 2004". The committee unambiguously stated that Charles Soludo’s action, "AMOUNTS TO A GROSS ABUSE OF OFFICE".

This is the background to the media spin of the last few months, when those working to defend Charles Soludo attempted to turn black to white, and tried to insult our collective intelligence about what amount of sacrifice Charles Soludo has been making for an obviously ungrateful Nigeria! But even if this represents just a tip of the iceberg of what happens at the CBN, we now know better. It is also clear that a lot of manipulation and lobbying is going on to save Soludo’s skin. And that is precisely the point. President Umaru Yar’adua has a choice to make: either to save Soludo’s skin, by sweeping the allegations from this report under the carpet, or he moves fast to sack and prosecute Charles Soludo and all those involved in the AFC scandal. There cannot be a middle way in the serious issues that the committee has unearthed about the funding of the so-called AFC. In sacking Charles Soludo, Malam Umaru yar’adua will also do well to retrieve the CBN Governor’s residence that Charles Soludo sold to himself so it reverts back as public property! How President Yar’adua handles this issue will give an indication of the real direction that he wants to take the anti-corruption fight in Nigeria.

The other issue in this elaborate network of corruption is related to the monumental scandal from the power sector. It was in fact President Umar Yar’adua himself, in obvious consternation, that first blew the whistle, that under Obasanjo, a sum of ten billion American dollars has been wasted on efforts to ostensibly produce electricity. Later on, the Speaker of the House of Representatives informed the nation that what was actually expended to deepen the regime of darkness under the Obasanjo regime, was in the neighbourhood of sixteen billion dollars.

DAILY TRUST newspapers of Tuesday, July 22, 2008, reported that Liyel Imoke had visited Malam Umaru Yar’adua and "sought the president’s protection against his likely arrest by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFC)". Liyel Imoke had been accompanied on that visit by the chairman and secretary of the ruling PDP. Thinking that he could fool Nigerians, Imoke told the press that he was in the villa "to inform the president about the nullification of his election by the Appeal Court and to strategize for his re-election."

The story took a different turn a few days later, when LEADERSHIP newspaper of Friday, July 25, 2008, reported that the presidency had in fact aborted the effort of the EFCC to arrest Liyel Imoke on the previous Tuesday, July 22, 2008! The report said that Liyel’s residence had been surrounded by operatives of the EFCC, while "the ousted governor was inside his bedroom making frantic calls to Obasanjo." "As soon as he (Liyel Imoke) learnt that EFCC men were at his gate, he panicked and began to make calls. He called Obasanjo and obasanjo in turn called Yar’adua, and a deal was sealed. Obasanjo commanded Yar’adua to call off the invasion. The President promptly compiled. Yar’adua, who was under intense pressure to please his benefactor was said to have called the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation…who querulously called Mrs Farida Waziri, the EFCC boss, to call off the operation.

It is therefore a very testy time for Malam Umar Yar’adua. Whatever he does or does not do about Liyel Imoke and Charles Soludo, will give the clearest indications of his genuine intention in the struggle against corruption in Nigeria. If he refuses to heed the suggestions of the committee which his regime set up in respect of AFC and Charles Soludo, then we would know that the histrionic about "public declaration of assets" and statements denouncing corruption are merely pitiable tilting against the windmills. Similarly, if Liyel Imoke is allowed to go scot free, insulting Nigerians and rubbing salt into our injuries, while all efforts are made to re-rig him back into power, we can conclude that President Umar Yar’adua has never been sincere about fighting corruption in the first place. Let us see which way he will move!