Red Alert! Security beefed up around Goodluck Jonathan

Security agencies including the State Security Services (SSS) and the Nigerian Police may have increased the security alert threshold of the acting President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
“As it is with matters relating to security, the security agencies have beefed up security around the acting president because of the increased threat level to the person of the acting president,” an official said.
Though the state’s official would not give a reason for the increase in the threat level to the acting President, there are indications that events since the dramatic return of ailing President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua may have heightened security tension in the land.
“You know that there is a silent probe of strategic security officers of the presidential villa like the chief security officer to the president, Yusuf Mohammed Tilde and Yar’Adua’s aide-de-camp Mustapha Onoyveta and some other security details, this coupled with some other controversies still going on in the country, it is generally believed in security circles that the situation remains quite tempting for ambitious or aggrieved characters to want to take it out on the acting president. So, for me, I think these are some of the reasons the security alert around the acting president must have been increased.

Rilwanu Lukman: The Controversial Mr. Fuel Scarcity

“Time will tell!” This is one of the elder’s saying when there is a major controversy over a particular issue or a person, what they are saying in essence is that there is no offence in waiting for the person to come up with proof and true picture that will provide the basis either for rejection or acceptance of the good or bad allegations against him/her.
This is the case of Nigeria’s longest serving Petroleum Minister, Hon. Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr.Rilwan Lukman, who was appointed by the present ailing President of Nigeria, Umaru Yar’Adua in the late 2008 after a cabinet shake-up in which 20 ministers were relieved of their positions.
He has a very rich academic background that will earn him accolades anywhere in the world. In Nigeria, his visibility in the corridors of power with one appointment or the other provides support and breakthrough for successive presidents to put him in a sensitive position of higher responsibility.
However, in reality and in practice, the opposite is always the case when it comes to assessment of his performance in office. And that is why most analysts have described him and former governor, Dr. Sam Egwu as the worst ministers in President Umaru Yar’Adua’s cabinet.
Lukman has severally been criticized by eminent Nigerians for accepting to serve as Minister of Petroleum when his name was submitted to the Senate in 2008 because of his long stay in the corridors of power and his health condition which Nigerians don’t know. On his health condition, a petroleum industry insider submitted that “Dr.Lukman must have been really touched by the national embarrassment caused by the fuel scarcity, but I can tell you that nothing will happen to the management of the NNPC even if the scarcity lasts for another 12 months. His ties with the NNPC Managing Director, Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo can be traced years back, and besides, the old man is not exactly in good health shape to take the fuel crisis head on.” He has his excuses, though, of travelling abroad for one international conference or most often for medical check up.
His power acquisition story started when he was appointed by the then former Head of State, General Muhammed Buhari in 1984 as Federal Minister of Mines, Power & Steel. He also lobbied his way into the cabinet of General Ibrahim Babangida as Federal Minister of Petroleum Resources of Nigeria between 1988 and 1989 and as President of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
He was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria,1989-1990, Chairman, Board of Directors, National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), Lagos,1993-1994, Secretary General of OPEC, Austria,1995-2000, Presidential Adviser on Petroleum & Energy, Nigeria,1999-2004, Pro-Chancellor & Chairman of Council, Nasarawa State Univeristy, Keffi, Nasarawa State, Nigeria 2004 – date, honorary Presidential Adviser on Petroleum & Energy, Nigeria, 2007-2008. Chairman, Presidential Committee on Oil & Gas Reform, 2007-2008. Now he is the Minister of Petroleum Resources of Nigeria since 2008 till date.
As at the time of his appointment in 2008, it was exactly five years when former President Olusegun Obasanjo removed him as Presidential Adviser on Petroleum & Energy when he could no longer contain his failed “chicken” policies responsible for the incessant fuel scarcity between May, 1999  and September, 2003, and then the establishment of Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Authority (PPPRA).
Suddenly, after his unceremonious replacement with Dr. Edmund Daukoru as Presidential Adviser on Petroleum, fuel began to flow in all the filling stations as marketers embarked on fuel importation to support output of the refineries belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Within a short period, Nigerians, particularly Lagosians forgot the pains of long queues for fuel until recently. We should not forget cases of kerosene explosions in Lagos and Benin during the period and performance of the refineries below 30 per cent which led to the sack of several top shots of NNPC by Jackson Gaius-Obaseki, former GMD. This particular action was carried out by Obasanjo without his consultation. In response to the protest, he was advised to resign.
Perhaps, in some quarters these days, they prefer to call Lukman “Mr. Fuel Scarcity” and to support that label, he travelled out of Nigeria during Christmas holiday despite the directive of the then Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan that he should stay back during the holidays so as to ensure improvement in fuel supply. His cronies that cut across both upstream and downstream sub-sectors of the Nigerian oil and gas industry fear him like God to avert his wrath on suspicion of disloyalty. And to compensate loyalty, he is good at giving them appointments that will sustain the relationship. One of such loyalty appointments recently was the confirmation of Dr. Bello Gusau as executive secretary of Petroleum Directorate in January 2009, even though the National Assembly is yet to pass into law the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) that gave birth to the directorate. Today, Gusau, a member of the Oil and Gas Implementation Committee (OGIC) is a senior government official managing an illegal office not approved by law yet.
Another beneficiary of Lukman’s loyalty is Dr. Barkindo Sanusi Mohammed, GMD of NNPC, who was technical assistant and later acting secretary general of OPEC. The controversy still rages in the petroleum ministry over his appointment by Lukman as governor of OPEC along with his position as GMD of NNPC. This position since joining of OPEC by Nigeria is reserved for the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources. And for protesting against the appointment of Barkindo as governor, the former permanent secretary was redeployed and later retired last year. It is also good for the record to mention the recent appointment of former Head of Media at OPEC secretariat in Vienna, Austria of Mr.Umar Farouk as his special assistant on media and communications. The appointment, according to industry sources, is temporary because the actual target is for him to be the spokesman of the NNPC.
To ensure that he has his boys in control of the downstream sub-sector, Dr. Abiodun Ibikunle, technical assistant was also appointed recently as the executive secretary of PPPRA. And that is why the ostentatious stakeholders forum organized by the NNPC having Lukman as Chairman barely a week after the forum organized by Mr.Odein H. Ajumogobia, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, who was saddled with the responsibility of downstream sub-sector a week before the departure of Yar’Adua for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia. However, three weeks after the forum, Nigerians now stay longer at the filling stations to queue for petrol.
And for those that refused to play along with him, the reward is denial of appointments. Indeed, he always ensures they are far from getting any key position and that is the case of Dr. (Mrs.) Donu Kogbara, former member of OGIC from Rivers State.
If his refusal to honour  the invitation by the Senate on four occasions and the fine of =N=4,000 he was asked to pay last year is an indictment that will remain in his file, what will be the fine for supporting the NNPC to create shortfall in fuel supply? If in reality, it is clear that NNPC can only supply 47 per cent of the daily demand requirement of fuel, why will Lukman support several lies of former TV talk-show hosts on NTA – “The Sunday Show,” Dr.Levi Ajuonuma, Group General Manager (Public Affairs) that the corporation has 31 cargoes of fuel on the high sea when there is actually none.
If all is well in the oil industry, National Assembly should ask “Mr. Fuel Scarcity” why NNPC cannot support multi-national oil companies in early completion of damaged gas pipelines after the amnesty deal so as to increase gas supply to the power generating stations of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN)? It is clear that the failure of the Federal Government to achieve 6,000mega watts (mw) target on December 31, 2009 lies with the NNPC under the direct supervision of Dr.Rilwan Lukman. He should be held responsible for the failure of the 6,000 mega watts (mw).
At this stage, what is good for him is to resign voluntarily because when the pressure of problems created by his expedition for power becomes too much for him with his fragile health condition, the beneficiaries of his office, would not be able to help him hedge on to power. The sudden withdrawal of support by former President Obasanjo for Yar’Adua should serve as a lesson.
The feeble Dr.Rilwan Lukman will do better as an adviser and therefore it is better for him to join the Eminent Elders Group and allow talented, skillful, agile and energetic young Nigerians like Kola Karim, Femi Otedola, Uche Ogah, Sayyu Dantata and the amiable Wale Tinubu to manage the petroleum industry. He should stop providing cover for NNPC in the mismanagement of our crude oil resources. There are several Nigerians from the North if Yar”Adua must insist on producing a Minister of Petroleum for the region. And that is why the Senate should take the lead to sustain the plans to move Nigeria forward by taking a cue from the success of Oando PLC, Shoreline Energy Int’l by young Nigerians. The hope of Lukman lies in the quick recovery of the ailing President for him to remain in office. Lukman should quit the stage while the ovation is loudest.

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PEN ROBBERS! NDANUSA, MAI NASARA ILO IMPLICATED IN LOOTING FIFA U-17 N12BN HOSTING FUND

Background to Record Setting Swindle

Nigeria’s hosting of the 2009 FIFA under 17 World Cup championship otherwise known as Nigeria 2009 may have turned out to be a record setting swindle by officials of the National Sports Commission (NSC) and the Local Organising Committee (LOC) responsible for organizing the successful hosting of the tournament.
Soon after the conclusion of the football tournament on November 15, a rash of protestation and public suspicion heckled the quality of organization deployed by both the LOC and the NSC in hosting the tournament in Nigeria. Not a few sports stakeholders had questioned the total N12billion reported by the LOC to have been spent on hosting the tournament. The LOC was managed by Mr. Mai Nasara Ilo in the capacity of the chief executive while the supervising Ministry of the LOC, the NSC, was under the charge of Engr. Sanni Mohammed Ndanusa, chairman of the NSC and the country’s Minister of Sports.
The truth (as new facts are unfolding) suggests that the hosting of the tournament represented different motives for FIFA, the global governing body of the game of soccer and the Nigerian Local Organising Committee, the adhoc body set up to manage the hosting of the tournament.
Insider sources at the LOC swore that FIFA administrators had to go out of their ways to support when they realized in the run up to the tournament that the organization of the event was headed for a possible embarrassing failure to it. This contrasted to the reported approach of the top echelon of the Nigerian LOC who were said to be determined to cut corners for personal gains in putting together the tournament.
At the end, the Nigerian government was presented with a N6billion debt supposedly arising from the hosting of the tournament, this is besides the N9billion initially approved for the LOC by the Federal Government and an additional N3billion doled out to the LOC just about two days to the kick off of the tournament on October 14. The additional N3billion was given out to the LOC on account of the various scenarios of failure painted by the LOC to throw the Federal Government into the scare mode.

What the Security Agencies Are Discovering

400 PEUGEOT CARS DIVERTED

The State Security Service (SSS) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission are reported to be involved in unearthing the shady deals that characterized the expenditure incurred during the hosting of the tournament.
Reports indicate that the reviews of the expenditures undertaken by the LOC as approved by its supervising ministry are becoming mind-boggling by the day.

The truth (as new facts are unfolding) suggests that the hosting of the tournament represented different motives for FIFA, the global governing body of the game of soccer and the Nigerian Local Organising Committee, the adhoc body set up to manage the hosting of the tournament.

A major troubling question that is yet to be properly answered by officials of the LOC and NSC is, how a fleet of 400 Peugeot cars ordered and duly paid for by the NSC simply disappeared into the air? A source in the then LOC confided that even as everybody awaited the delivery of the vehicles, nobody can, till this moment, explain how the cars were diverted.
“It is one of the major questions the security agencies are trying to resolve,” the source said.
“Except for the purchase of high budget SUVs that the top management of the LOC bought for themselves, there was a paucity of mainstream transport for the tournament, of course, the expected Peugeot cars had been diverted, it was again FIFA that came to the rescue when it imported a fleet of 78 Hyundai cars into the country to serve the transportation needs of middle ranking officials of FIFA and the LOC; so again, where did they spend the N13billion they collected?” the source further queried. “Matters usually get to a head when the LOC had to hire vehicles to convey its officials when the FIFA vehicles were not available.”

UNAVAILABILITY OF TRAINING AND COMPETITION PITCHES

A bewildering scandalous angle to emerging revelations is the failure of the LOC to invest in building training and competition pitches.
It would be recalled that a contract was awarded for the upgrading of the country’s stadia for a very huge amount to Mallorca Nigeria Limited over six months before the commencement of the tournament, and after several visits by FIFA to ascertain its worthiness, only disappointment awaited them.
An LOC insider said that matters got a to a head in this regard so much that Engr. Ndanusa himself had to make it a part of his morning chores to rush down to the Abuja stadium to water the pitch.
“This is because he holds a heavy interest in the company that was awarded the contract to upgrade the pitches,” the insider gushed.
“We know that in a desperate effort by FIFA to justify the granting of the hosting right to Nigeria, they were ready to do anything. In the face of the obvious failure of the LOC to provide the required four training pitches in each of the hosting city, FIFA had to reduce the standard requirement from four to two pitches and was compelled to provide two synthetic training pitches and donated them to the LOC. We also know that most of the other synthetic pitches used during the tournament in the eight centres were funded and provided by Governors of the states in which those centres were located. The centre are Abuja, Bauchi, Calabar, Enugu, Ijebu-Ode, Kaduna, Kano and Lagos. Now, tell me where they spent the billions they collected,” a security agency insider queried.

FIFA WAS ALSO FORCED TO PROVIDE ACCOMMODATION EVEN FOR NIGERIAN OFFICIALS

“This is beside the fact that FIFA arranged and paid for the accommodation and feeding of all the participating teams including even officials of the LOC. I know that Mr. Sanni Lulu, Chairman of the Nigeria Football Federation and Mai Nasara Ilo, the LOC CEO himself stayed in rooms provided by FIFA at the Transcorp Hilton. Yet the LOC claimed it paid two point something billions on providing accommodation,” the source further revealed.
“What has also been revealed is that the LOC neither purchased nor installed any public address system in any of the stadia used for the tournament. Even the CCTVs that were supposed to be installed in the eight hosting states to enhance security of participants were only installed in Abuja. What happened to the money earmarked for both the importation and installation of the CCTV?” the security source wondered.

N37MILLION FOR TERMINAL DEDICATED TO NIGERIA 2009 AT NNAMDI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

As part of standard practice, a space is usually secured in the airport of the capital city of the hosting country’s where all participating teams and officials will arrive and depart from. To create this space, it is reported that the LOC claimed that it forced out a princely N37million. The sum went into partitioning the space, spending N7million for its perimeter fencing, fixing the toilet and laying tiles on the floor of the space dedicated for the Nigeria 2009 terminal.
“The LOC claimed they paid the sum of N7million to wash the space, we are not talking of the whole airport here, just the space,” the insider said.

WHAT HAPPENED TO 700 WALKIE-TALKIES BUDGETED FOR?

To ease communication between and among LOC officials, the LOC made orders for the delivery of 700 walkie-talkies. There is strong evidence to show that payment was duly made for the purchase of these walkie-talkies but all through the course of the tournament, none of the walkie-talkie was delivered, rousing suspicion of diversion.

WHEN UPS BECAME INVERTERS

Inverter is the new technology introduced to Nigeria to help assuage the continuing power problems ravaging the country. The management of Nigeria 2009 LOC also decided to adopt the new technology to support its computer network and other communications infrastructure.
Report affirmed that all the idea for using inverter turned suspicious when officials of the LOC only saw that they were units of UPS that were delivered instead of the more expensive inverters that had been paid for.

HUMILIATING FIFA’S PRESIDENT

Nothing would rankle the sensibility of the average Nigerians than the revelation that Mr. Sepp Blatter was left stranded at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport when he arrived the country two weeks to the commencement of the tournament.
“When the FIFA President arrived the country at about 10 p.m. there was nobody at the airport to receive him and his aides. In fact, private arrangements had to be made to convey him from the airport at about 11p.m.
“Perhaps, it was for this reason that FIFA determined to bring into Nigeria all provisions for the use of its about 230 officials, these included security gadgets and transportation,” the insider said.

WHO GETS N250, 000?

Part of the remuneration for officials of the LOC was the specific provision of N250,000 to be paid LOC board members as monthly seating allowance. Reports indicate that while the management of the LOC insisted that each member of the board was paid this stipend every month for six months, all members are denying receiving such payment for the period.

LOC SEND FORTH PARTY AND FIFA’S $5.5MILLION MARKETING GUARANTEED FUND?

Same source revealed that FIFA had released the sum of $5.5million generated from marketing activities related to the hosting of the tournament. Even in the face of claim of N6billion debt resulting from the hosting of the tournament, the LOC is reported to be planning to spend a sum of about N12million on a send forth party for officials of the LOC that had been disengaged weeks after the conclusion of the tournament.

WHAT THEY HAVE TO SAY

At the NSC, our correspondent was told that the Commission or its chairman cannot be responsible for activities of the LOC because it was an independent body and administered as such.
At the EFCC, Fortune&Class Weekly was told that the agency was continuing in its investigation of the organization of the championship.
Several calls to the mobile telephone number 08037881673 belonging to the LOC’s CEO, Mai Nasara Ilo were not picked or returned.