|
|
Nigeria: CBN's $460 Million in AFC and $8 Billion Deposit in 7 Banks
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Vanguard (Lagos)
COLUMN
12 May 2008
Posted to the web 12 May 2008
Les Leba
Lagos
A good friend of mine has always insisted that the innocent advice of a primary school student in Ajegunle would be far superior to the postulations of a Harvard trained professor with overriding self-interest in a public project at stake!
My friend's favourite analogy to drive home his point is that of a plan to connect two small communities on opposite banks of a river with a bridge!
On consultation, our experienced, super-educated and enlightened professor with self-interest would first quote intimidating references of his credentials and buttress his arguments with copious information on the challenges and opportunities inherent in building bridges on the River Thames in London, River Kwai in Asia and the San Francisco Golden Gate bridge in America.
He would then proceed to support a bloated elaborate offer for a project cost in excess of millions of Naira, which would include all kinds of kickbacks and kick forwards from which he and his cronies would be major beneficiaries.
On the other hand, when asked his opinion, the innocent primary school student would timidly point to the narrowest neck of the river, with a width of about 20 feet as the ideal spot for the bridge.
Our literally, uneducated child would explain that since there are less than 100 people on either side of the shallow river, a sturdy wooden bridge would suffice, and indeed, the community in both villages can be mobilized in the course of a long holiday weekend to build the bridge by self help, using wood materials from the lush forest groves, which abound in the area.
But tell me, dear reader, who will listen to such simple analysis and reasoning from an Ajegunle primary school pupil when the professors from Harvard and Cambridge have spoken?
My friend's cynicism instigated my casual observance of a series of wasteful and uncompleted public projects on which billions of Naira have been spent all over the country and I wondered if simple common sense was ever accommodated in the project decision making process.
Indeed, over the past four years, I have consistently maintained in this column that the ubiquitous market women would have made more sensible and progressive decisions for our economy than the eggheads in our Central Bank, Ministry of Finance and Debt Management Office in the last 6 - 8 years!
Indeed, our depressed economy, parlous industrial landscape, rising unemployment and unbridled inflation and consequent insecurity are abiding testimonies of the failure of these public organs at a time when our income as a nation continue to exceed unprecedented heights!
The shocking revelations from the ongoing probes of impropriety in our public finance have confirmed my position in this column that Nigerians have been taken for a ride by those who have thrust themselves on the rest of us as our leaders at all levels of government.
The initial report of the government panel probing the unilateral CBN injection of $462million into the establishment of a private finance outfit called the "The Africa Finance Corporation" shows that our erudite Governor of the CBN may have momentarily forgotten that public funds do not belong to him in his private capacity.
The extent of this delusion is amplified in the following features of the establishment of the AFC; for example, $17 million of public money has been spent on consultancy and travel since the establishment of the AFC last year, even as its alledged Managing Director 'stayed in a hotel for more than a year at a cost of $1000/night.
The panel's report recently submitted to the Presidency also condemned Professor Soludo's appointment as "Chairman of the AFC in his personal capacity, as a clear violation of Section 9 of the CBN Act 2007 which bars principal officers of the CBN from holding any office by virtue of their respective offices."
The eminent Professor may also have overplayed his hand in the payment of the said $462million investment in November 2007 without bringing President Yar'Adua into the picture. Soludo's defence that former President Obasanjo approved the remittance a few days before he left office in April last year certainly begs the question.
Soludo's defence that six Nigerian banks also contributed about $551 million does not justify the attendant lack of due process in the establishment of the AFC.
Indeed, the government panel has alleged that Austin Ometoruwa, the AFC's CEO was arrested for allegedly "shuffling funds around without due process," and it is speculated that all six banks may also have been the beneficiaries of CBN's largesse of $8bn to some Nigerian banks as reward for their increased capitalization last year!
|
According to the petition from the office of the Federal Attorney General and Justice Minister, this pattern of scratch my back, I scratch your back may also have been adopted by AFC's CEO in the alledged handout of $100m to a Chinese company which used it to buy shares in the AFC; the promoters of the Chiense firms are yet to be identified!
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
