Leadership (Abuja)
Andrew Oota
5 July 2008
Abuja — When the chairman of the Senate Committee on Information, Media and Publicity, Senator Ayogu Eze, and his colleagues moved the motion, urging the Senate to turn its searchlight on the transportation sector, the motion was clear and heart-warming. It received the blessings and support of a larger number of senators, including the leadership.
In the motion, Senator Ayogu and his colleagues emphasised the huge sums of money spent on the transport sector by previous governments without any positive results. They were of the opinion that the only way to get the real details of what happened, or rather went wrong in the transport sector was from the state of the Nigerian roads.
The intention actually was to get all former presidents and ministers, heads of agencies, including the military leaders, to account for their stewardship, which would have equally afforded them an opportunity to clear the air on all allegations and counter allegations levelled against them and their lieutenants while in office.
However, the Senate, in its wisdom, amended the motion to allow only those that served this country from the time Nigeria switched over to a democratic system of government in 1999.
This motion, was also premised on the allegations made by a former governor in the South East who served between 1999 and 2007.
Former governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Kalu Uzor had alleged that the former minister of Works and Housing, Chief Tony Anenih wasted the sum of N300 billion on the transport sector without producing any positive results.
This statement was literally confirmed by the former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo on one of his visits to the South, where he declared that he was ashamed of the state of the roads in the South East.
This allegation was not denied, nor did it receive any counter formal response from the former minister of Works and Housing and one time chairman of the Board of Trustees of the PDP, Chief Tony Anenih.
Again, the allegation of N300 billion wasted by the former Works minister, otherwise regarded within and outside the PDP as Mr. Fix It, wormed its ugly head into public discourse, through a resolution of the upper legislative chamber.
Suffice it to say, the call for the probe of the transport sector, to many, was a calculated attempt to get at the former ministers of Works, particularly the former BOT chairman of the ruling party.
This was the thinking of some loyalists of Chief Anenih, both within and outside the Senate.
Senator Ugbesia from Edo State was one of those that moved against the probe, but his submission that the Senate set aside the motion calling for the probe of the transport sector as it affects Chief Anenih, could not see the light of the day.
It is also important to note that the call for the probe of the transport sector was one probe that excited many Nigerians, considering the state of the Nigerian roads.
It was also believed in many quarters that the probe of the transport sector was initiated and engineered outside the National Assembly by some perceived political enemies of both Chief Anenih and other former ministers of the Works Ministry.
Aside Chief Anenih, former senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Adeseye Ogunlewe also held sway as minister of Works during the period under investigation.
The Senate, apparently determined to conduct a holistic and clinical investigation into what went wrong in the transport sector, raised an ad-hoc committee, with membership cutting across the six geo-political zones, to conduct a public hearing on the spent funds in the sector.
The committee swung into action by first calling for memoranda from all stakeholders, as well as invitations to all the former ministers of Works under former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, to appear before it.
The committee had equally assured that it was not out to witch-hunt after anybody, but exercise its constitutional powers, which are to expose corruption and recommend appropriate sanctions for public officers.
Just last week, the man at the centre of the controversy, the former minister of Works and Housing, Chief Tony Anenih, was before the probe panel and, aside the startling revelations , he opened another can of worms where he gave a detailed account of his stewardship, touching on all the controversial issues.
He told the committee that the ministry during his tenure, received N125, 839,073,412.00 and not N300 billion, as alleged in some quarters.
According to him, "On the whole, the total amount that was cash-backed and released to the Ministry of Works under me was N125, 839,073,412.00. Out of this amount, payments were made to some states that were owed. These figures were authenticated by the office of the accountant-general of the Federation and the Central Bank of Nigeria.
"The combined effect of the information in the attached tables is that the total balance available to the Ministry of Works and Housing for roads was N123, 240,812,239.00. Note further that of this amount, the sum of N2, 517,424,604.00 stood as a balance carried forward, leaving the sum of N120, 723,387,635.00. It was this amount that was spent by the Ministry of Works and Housing on roads during my tenure from 1999 to October 2002. A breakdown of the various road projects, whether completed, on-going, or at the drawing and design stage, with their corresponding values, are contained in the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing publication. The director of federal highways will present this before the committee.
"It is important to note that there is a great difference between what was proposed in an Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly, what was approved (appropriated) by the National Assembly, what was committed to contracts, and what was released to the ministry for the fulfilment of those commitments.
"Distinguished chairman and distinguished members, it is true that between May, 1999 and October 2002, the ministry awarded contracts to the tune of N352, 080,449,699.94 that were to last years to complete, including designs, weighbridges, consultancy, etc based on approvals. The fact is that only the sum of N120, 723,387,635.00, representing about 34.28% was spent on roads during my tenure from June 1999 to October 2002."
On the submission of the movers of the motion for the probe concerning the allegations of the former Abia governor, was captured by Senator Ayogu Eze and co-sponsors of the probe motion thus:
"Recalling that not too long ago, a former governor of one of the South East states accused a former minister of Works of squandering over N300 billion on Nigerian roads in one year with nothing to show for the money, whereupon the affected minister himself admitted that the amount was approved but that the actual draw-down was about N200 billion plus."
The former Works minister took strong exception to that submission when he accused senators of not crosschecking their facts, inasmuch as they have the privilege of saying whatever they feel like saying on the floor of the Senate.
According to the former minister, "I must say that I did not expect the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to put in its records, claims that were not authenticated. I am told that senators also have limitless privilege of saying anything on the floor of the Senate. As distinguished
senators, I advise that sentiments should not be the order of the day when matters affecting citizens are being considered. No matter our personal and political interests, many of us have served Nigeria with sweat and blood. We worked hard to build and nurture our family names. Such efforts must not be contaminated or denigrated on the basis of emotions, or diabolical designs, when we are all working to build a better nation.
"It will interest you to know that when in 2004, the former governor of Abia State made wild and totally baseless allegations against me about N300 billion, and that I wanted to kill him, I took him to a high court in Abuja to give him the opportunity to prove his allegations. He led a delegation of Traditional rulers from Abia State to the Oba of Benin, my royal father, who also invited me to the palace for a meeting. In that meeting, the said the former governor apologised and also followed it up with a written apology, on the receipt of which I instructed my team of lawyers to withdraw the case against the former Abia State governor. Most Nigerian newspapers reported this story at the time.
"In my statement of claim before the High Court, I admitted that the Ministry of Works received N123 billion during my tenure. But the Senate said I admitted N200 billion, plus. That statement was false. I do hope that the Senate will be kind enough to amend its records.
"Moreover, it is on record that on Thursday, 15th April 2004, the then honourable minister, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, in his ministerial press briefing, stated that actual releases received by the ministry during the period from June 1999 to November 2002, stood at N126.676 billion. This amount neither falls within the realm of the N200 billion plus, nor the N300 billion which I was alleged to have squandered.
"Distinguished chairman, let me seize this opportunity to appeal to all Nigerians to give each other a chance. The struggle to build a system of transparency, accountability, service delivery, social justice and due process is still on-going. The tendency to make accusations and allegations just to denigrate the image of other patriotic Nigerians is very unacceptable and unbecoming.
"It is even more painful when persons in high positions, educated persons, who ought to know better, engage in mudslinging, rumour mongering and deliberate distortion of facts to score cheap political points and the contaminate the profile of others.
"We must perhaps, begin to consider sanctions against persons who persistently, perpetually and shamefully engage in this demonic practice. All the noise about N300 or N400 billion, as you can see, is nothing but the confused, corrupted and criminal imagination of evil-minded people."
The committee is still taking evidence from all who held sway as ministers of Works under former president, Olusegun Obasanjo. And the question is: between the allegations of the former Abia governor which formed the basis of the probe, and the submissions by Chief Anenih, who actually is guilty?.
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