PTDF Inquest: Spilling the beans and the unanswered questions (I)
By Abubakar Chika Malali
achikamalali@yahoo.com
Nigerians are beginning to know how public monies are being wasted by the people put in trust to manage them for the common good.
For example, in addition to the daily looting of the public financial resources going on at the states and federal government levels by some of our supposedly elected leaders, a lot of haemorrhage of the public treasury is going on simultaneously and is being perpetrated by our bureaucratic and technocratic elites in the public service.
That is to say, corruption, corruption and corruption everywhere and the ordinary Nigerians are wallowing in abject poverty, insecurity and hopelessness in the midst of plenty.
Although the phenomena of theft, graft, looting and wasteful application of public resources are very well known to the average Nigerian, it is the recent revelations at the ongoing public hearing on the activities of the embattled Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), that is beginning to once again, awake our attention and consciousness to these entrenched national maladies of corruption, kleptomania and abuse of public office by Nigerian politicians, bureaucratic and technocratic elites.
The ongoing allegations and counter-allegations between President Obasanjo and his estranged Vice President Atiku Abubakar regarding the use and abuse of PTDF monies, is just one typical examples of the sordid manner in which Nigeria’s scarce financial resources are being plundered, illegally appropriated and squandered. Why PTDF? That is a very excellent question.
The enabling Act that established the PTDF in 1973 has specifically outlined its statutory duties and responsibilities. For instance, the PTDF Act of 1973, places the supervisory function of the agency under the office of the minister of petroleum resources.
We all know that since 1999 President Obasanjo happens to double as the de factor Hon. Minister of Petroleum Resources. However, between 2000 and 2004, President Obasanjo delegated the supervisory function of the PTDF to the office of the Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
But President Obasanjo has recently accused Vice President Atiku Abubakar of abusing his office by way of mismanaging the finances of the PDTF over the period between 2000 and 2004 for private gains against public interest and trust.
In order to nail Vice President Atiku Abubakar, President Obasanjo initiated an investigation into the financial affairs of the PTDF under the leadership of Vice President Atiku Abubakar using the instrumentality of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The EFCC completed its investigation of the financial affairs of the PTDF and submitted its Report to President Obasanjo. Immediately the EFCC report was tabled before the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for adoption and Ratification. Vice President Atiku Abubakar was excused from sitting at the FEC meeting that considered, adopted and ratified the EFCC report.
Based on the outcome of the EFCC report, President Obasanjo instituted and inaugurated an Administrative Panel headed by Chief Bayo Ojo, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Hon. Minister of Justice to recommend sanctions against the persons found wanting by the EFCC Report.
Soon after, Chief Bayo Ojo submitted its recommendations to President Obasanjo indicting Vice President Atiku Abubakar and others of financial mismanagement and abuse of public office and trust. To that extent, President Obasanjo accepted the recommendations and ordered the official gazetting of the EFCC and Administrative Panel Reports respectively and forwarded same to the two legislative chambers of the National Assembly for information.
On his own side, the Vice president Atiku Abubakar has staunchly denied all the charges against him. He went to the law courts to exonerate him from all the allegations labelled against him by the EFCC and the Federal Attorney-General’s Administrative Panel Reports, which were accepted, approved and gazetted by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) sometime ago.
The Senate has already initiated and inaugurated an Ad-hoc Committee under the distinguished leadership of Senator Ndoma-Egba (SAN) and others to investigate the allegations contained in the two reports (and probably the House of Representatives will also do the same).
So far, in addition to the deluge of written memoranda from interested parties submitted to the Senator Ndoma-Egba Committee, public hearing on the matter is presently ongoing.
It is the revelations coming out of the public hearing of this Ad-hoc Committee by the major players in this affair that are the subject of analysis here. For example, since the commencement of the Senate Ad-hoc Committee public hearing, the public have been inundated with scandalous revelations of the dirty dealings and financial haemorrhage that have been taking place at the PTDF and by logical extension, the Presidency. These revelations have hitherto been unheard and unknown to the general public.
Before the Senate went for the Christmas and New Year break, so much has been revealed by the dramatis personae involved in the management and control of the huge financial resources at the disposal of the PTDF.
For example, the leading parties involved in this saga have made public appearances before the Committee. The EFCC, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Office of the Accounted-General of the Federation, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who is principal accused and indicted person all have made appearances before the Committee. Also, the Management of the PTDF together with its immediate former Executive Secretary, in the person of Alhaji Adamu Maina Waziri appeared before the Committee.
These revelations coming from these public appearances by the principal actors involved in this sordid affair are very interesting. A lot of beans have been spilled so far.
The Nigerian public is being informed about what they never knew before and will not have known without the courtesy of this very important legislative opening – the public hearing.
For example, Adamu Waziri’s testimonies before the Committee revealed a lot of his incompetence, corruption and abuse of his office while at the helms of affairs of the PTDF as the Executive Secretary of the agency. For example, here are some of the most bizarre revelations he made before the Senate Committee as the immediate past Executive Secretary of the PTDF: