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President Jonathan |
January 21, 2015
Press Release
Houston , Texas
Press Release
Houston , Texas
His Excellency, Dr.
Goodluck E. Jonathan, GCFR, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria ,
Presidential Villa,
Asokoro, Abuja
Presidential Villa,
Asokoro, Abuja
Dear Mr. President,
Before the Election: An
Open Letter
A recent publication of
the federal allocation of projects by political zones in Nigeria
was an eye opener. According to the Daily Trust Newspaper, published
December 31, 2014, the Niger Delta received a lion’s share of
the ₦1.6 trillion Federal Government contracts for 2014.
The Newspaper based its
report on the analysis of all the 2014 federal contracts as presented by the
Federal Executive Council (FEC) at its weekly meetings chaired by you, Mr.
President. The report continued by providing the zone-by-zone allocations as
follows:
“South-South: N639.306
billion; South-West: N256 billion; FCT: N193 billion; South-East: N111.3
billion; North-Central: N101 billion; North-West: N62.151 billion and
North-East: N23.767 billion. The total amount shared among the zones as shown
above is N1.387 trillion. This excludes N262 billion of the total amount spent
on other programmes but not pinned down to any particular zone.”
Mr. President, below is a response in your own words as reported
by the Vanguard Newspaper of January 8, 2015:
“I saw a publication in
the Daily Trust showing projects that have been awarded by the
Federal Government, the ones for the north-east very small, south-south very
many. I had to make photocopies and distributed to all the ministers and I
asked if it is true that projects are skewed by this government? Because I am a
president from the south, I have taken all the projects to the south? And I
said all the ministers must come up and tell me how the projects are being
distributed across the country and if it is skewed you must tell me why it is
so. One of the ministers incidentally is from the north, she is in charge of
water resources. She said the publication cannot be true because Kashimbila Dam
alone, the value is more than the amount quoted in that paper.”
Mr. President, your
account above exposed two fundamental problems:
(1) It is obvious
you were misinformed by the Hon. Minister of Water Resources. The Daily Trust
report was based on funding for projects in 2014 only—not the value of projects
in the various zones. In fact, an investigative inquiry conducted by our team
has revealed that the amount of money disbursed in 2014 for the Kashimbila Dam
(referenced in your response) is more in tune with the Daily Trust story. More
importantly, our on-site contacts admitted that even though the dam is said to
be over 95% completion, the value of work on the ground is a far cry from the
whopping $1 billion already sunk into the project. It is also worthy of note
that we have identified a good number of other projects in different parts of
the country listed in official government gazette as funded but are either
poorly executed, abandoned entirely by the contractors or do not exist at all.
(2) Your response
to the Daily Trust publication suggests an apparent lack of accountability in
the administration. We believe, and rightfully so, that a national government
should have a ready list of its state-by-state projects, including names of the
projects, locations and costs of projects, expected time of completion, amount
so far disbursed, and names of the contractors.
Dear Mr.
President, an objective fact that has consistently escaped the minds
of many pundits is that the root cause of our endemic corruption has never
been lack of leaders with original intentions or hard work. Indeed, most
of our leaders, including your humble self, have initiated policies capable of
solving the country’s myriad of crises. The true problem is that the
contractors collude with the politicians to loot funds budgeted for the
projects. And given that there are no serious consequences for bad
behaviors in Nigeria , the bad behaviors have continued with reckless abandon.
Accordingly, Mr.
President, in line with the Freedom of Information Act of 2011,
please find ways to provide us a comprehensive list of all the projects
initiated since you assumed power in 2010—before the election. The list should
include but not limited to the names of the projects, locations, costs of the
specific projects, expected time of completion, amount so far disbursed, and
names of the contractors. The goal is to make it available to the Press for
public knowledge and awareness. This move can serve two critical purposes
before the election:
(1) Providing the
full list of projects (including the specifics requested above) can demonstrate
that you are truly committed to the much-desired transparency and
accountability in government. Besides, if as equitable as necessary, the list
can boost public trust and potentially assuage the feelings of the different
zones that have been restless because of what they perceive as abject neglect
or sheer nepotism by your administration.
(2) More
essentially, the list will be helpful to checkmate corrupt politicians during
this electoral season by exposing to the voters those senators or
representatives seeking votes in the various federal constituencies and zones
where your projects have woefully failed. This has become very necessary,
especially in view of the fact that political corruption is worsening day-by-day
in Nigeria while the masses continue to wait for the details of your unique
proposal to eradicate corruption without a jail system—a seemingly impossible
task, which when finally implemented would become the first of its kind in
modern history of humankind.
Perhaps some of your
advisers may think that our concern and request do not fall within the realm of
your responsibility. They would cling on to the cliché that you are neither the
minister, project inspector, nor the contractor. But ignore them this time, Mr.
President. Presidential leadership is far from the ordinary idea of initiating
public policies, assigning responsibilities, and then expecting action.
Ensuring that the policies are fully implemented for the greater good of the
people is where effective leadership begins and ends.
Sincerely,
Dr. SKC Ogbonnia
Executive Director
Patriots United for
Transparency and Accountability in Nigeria (PUTAN)*
Phone: 281-802-3449
Email: putanprojects@gmail.com
CC: *General David Mark
(rtd), President of the Senate
*Alhaji
Aminu Tambuwal, Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives
*Dr.
Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for Economy
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