• Focus On: What Happened to Nigeria's Reserves?

    , Sat 26 Jan, 05:51 am

    Former vice president of the World Bank, Oby Ezekwesili, says that U.S.$67 billion in foreign reserve and excess crude accounts were squandered by the governments of President Goodluck Jonathan and former president Umaru Yar'Adua.

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  • Garden-City Boy
    Jan 25 2013, 08:44

    I am thinking to myself that something does not quite gel about Oyy Ezekwesili’s "SQUANDER" contentions. The key-word in her submission is "SQUANDERED" …..not "STOLE". In other words, and to give the targets of her unwarranted, vitriolic tirades some benefit of doubt, let us assume that what Ezekwesili says is that Yar'Adua and Jonathan expended the said trillions on 'projects'. Let us again assume that "contractors and con-men' made away with the money, delivering nothing, not even "convert oil income to renewable assets through the development of human capital and other sectors through investment in foreign assets as other resource-rich countries did with their oil income". Let us also again assume that these "contractors and Con-men" were not fronts who turned the trillions back into the bank accounts of the presidential duo. What I am coming to is that Ezekwesili does not really accuse Yar'Adua and Jonathan of thieving in the strict sense. They merely ‘squandered’. That brings us to her real intention in this game of pokers. We do not need a seer to decode a subtle pandering to the base of occult political mafia, to seek the anointing of a self-acclaimed kingmaker whose regime she served. We know it from the grapevine that Oby Ezekwesili is not just an under-card OBJ's 2015 presidential pack. She is Obasanjo's joker to split Igbo votes and undercut Jonathan. Simply put,Oby Ezekwesili is enigmatic Aremu's dark horse (or dark mare). She is merely acting a her script of the choreography, and testing the waters for 2015. And that, we must admit, is good on the surface.However, the delusional nobody-else-can-do-it-but-me mentality she shares with her boss dwarfs her memory horizon in this first outing, leaving her with the myopic view of those who really engineered the stunted Nigeria's economy and social progress. She lacked the balls, and biologically so, to display her audience her ministerial scorecard showing how much of solid minerals came on stream as boost to the economy.She carefully and conveniently avoided giving a mention to the trillions -both ear- and eye-marked- appropriated for POWER GENERATION during the regime she served; she is tight-lipped as to how the staggering trillions was spent, …or stolen or squandered, and we have and the regime has only nationwide chronic power outages to show for it. Billions of money was stuffed in pick-up truck-loads of Ghana-must-Go bags and meant to bribe law makers to "elongate' the tenure of the regime she served. We know the giver of that bribe money; we also know there were takers, or were there not? Ezekwesili may graciously let us into her bit on where that bribe money came from. Was it an appropriation in any NASS-approved budget, or pilferage from the nation's coffers, or from the taxpayers, or money-doubler's counterfeits, or specifically printed by the Taiwanese for the purpose,.....Where, how? What about Halliburton? There is something in there Oby Ezekwesili labors hard to throw the wet blanket. And the truth will blow up into some faces soon. The clever failure to point to one legacy creditable to the regime she served, or to how, due to her exceptionalism, that regime converted “oil income to renewable assets through the development of human capital and other sectors through investment in foreign assets as other resource-rich countries did with their oil income", is disingenuous. Though arguable that this mantra forms her metrics for grading excellence in governance, including the performance of OBJ regime, she has not applied the same yardstick to this 'regime she served'. She served a regime, not the people of Nigeria. You could still wager your “bottom Dollar” that Oby might have been vacationing somewhere on planet Venus, when the Gulf-War Oil Bonanza fable, in which the nations earnings suddenly grew wings, took off and vanished into thin air under Babngida's very watchful nose happened.So did the Abacha kleptomania saga which, most likely, must be news to Nigeria’s prospective female presidential aspirant. All of those passed her by. It is bizarre that, in her parlance, none of the aforementioned regime leaders owed Nigerians any obligation whatsoever to "convert oil income to renewable assets through the development of human capital and other sectors through investment in foreign assets as other resource-rich countries did with their oil income, ….bla-bla-bla". For Yar’Adua and Jonathan, we must hold their feet to the fire. They must be the ones that owe us those obligations her regime boss denied us. We couldn't even have realized it that but for Oby Ezekwesili. R-i-d-i-c-u-l-o-u-s! In recent days, resort to Jonathan-bashing has become the vogue for the politically adventurous and willing porn alike. It is a cheap-shot kind of way to attract attention and savor ego-boosting, self-aggrandizing spotlight on this President's expense. The idiotic thinking here is that this President is the very easy pick for all-comers. They can be assured their lives’ greatest shock and surprise. An intelligent lady with great personal accomplishments, Oby Ezekwesili is easily a worthy material for the presidency, no doubt. But she needs to be wary of the magnetic temptation to hop onto the delusional political bandwagon of spent, jaded, wishful-thinking deadwoods. She has to be her own man (or woman, should I say), if her desire is to succeed and actualize her political dreams. Though at complete liberty to play the image maker and engage in pandering to a base of disaster that was the regime she served, she must be more discerning to avoid blunders with the potential to cost her enormous creibility deficits. With the certitude that the regime she served was the best thing that ever happened to us, just because it "left $67 billion (about N11 trillion) behind", the concern is that what is seen is the tip of her presidency iceberg. That trillion left-over was what “they chop remain”, as my Bini friend would say. We have had enough of the pudding, and don’t wish for more. In this new dawn, Nigeria's electorate anoints its leaders. The era of braggadocios self-appointed kingmakers and egomaniacs is should be well behind us.

  • blessing20052003
    Jan 27 2013, 15:49

    All Unrighteousness is Sin (I John 5:17a) If you are not born again or maybe you are a compromiser or backslider, you must do something as a matter of urgency. He that commits sin is of the devil, I John 3:8 (I John 3:8). If you are into lying, cheating, bitterness, keeping malice, pride, manifesting anger, quarreling, unforgiveness, hatred, envy, contention, strife, bitterness, speaking evil of others, taking or giving bribe, selfishness, deception, kidnapping, smuggling, falsification of documents, swearing, extortion and other sinful character dispositions, you must repent. Such evil and wicked character will hinder the manifestation of abundant blessings upon your life. If you are into masturbation, fornication, adultery, prostitution (private or public), patronizing prostitutes, abortion, lesbianism, homosexualism, watching pornography (I Corinthians 6:9-10), or any form of immorality, you need to repent. Whatever be the area of your sin, you must repent and make amends. Are you into idolatry, do you make or use charms, rituals, bow down to images, do you rob or steal? Are you into cultism, whether open or secret cult? Do you practice witchcraft? Do you smoke cigarette or hemp? Do you sell them or offer them to people? Do you smoke or sniff hard drugs such as cocaine, heroin, captain black, hashish or other banned drugs or snuff? Are you lusting - lusting after men or women, covetous, alcohol drinking? You must repent and give your life to Jesus Christ. Are you into the business of marriage and divorce? Are you married to more than one person? Repent!! Marriage is between a man and a woman. Marriage is for better and for worse until death separates (Matthew 19:3-6). ‘Wherefore they are no more two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together let no man put asunder (separate)’. Amend your ways and God will bless you. Proverbs 28: 13 says, ‘‘He that covers his sins shall not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy.’’ You must not therefore hide your sins. You must repent of them, confess and forsake them. A Christian is not a sinner and a sinner is not a Christian. If you must be a blessed child of God, you must repent of your sins and give your life to Jesus Christ. If you believe Jesus Christ today, righteousness of God will come into your life and abundant life will be your portion. If you neglect this call to repentance and salvation, you will not escape hell fire (Hebrews 2:3). In Luke 13:3, Jesus said, ‘I tell you, Nay: but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish’. Matthew 6:33 says, ‘‘But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you’’ Peace, joy, healing, deliverance and all blessings will be your portion. You will make heaven at last, as you continue in righteousness.

    If you have decided now to give your life to Jesus Christ and to forsake your sinful lifestyle, you need to pray this prayer: Almighty God, I come unto you in the name of Jesus. Father I confess that I am a sinner. All my sins I confess to you. I am very sorry for all my sins (mention those you can remember). Lord I promise you that from today I will never continue in them anymore. I believe that Jesus Christ died and rose again on the third day for my justification. Almighty God, use the blood of Jesus to wash my sins away. Lord Jesus, come into my heart, be my Lord and personal Savior. I surrender my life to you. Cancel my name from the book of death and write it in the book of life. Give me power to sin no more. In Jesus name I pray. Amen!!

    Your spiritual welfare is my concern. e-mail blessing20052003@yahoo.com I recommend www.chosentv.org, www.thelordschosenworld.org, and www.chosennews.net for you.

    If you want to be free from satanic bondage, you need to visit this church, 'THE LORD'S CHOSEN CHARIMATIC REVIVAL MOVEMENT' with HQ in Nigeria, Ijesha Lagos

    • Nigeria: Yar'Adua, Jonathan Squandered U.S. $67 Billion Foreign Reserves - Ezekwesili

      Daily Trust (Abuja), 25 January 2013

      Former minister of education Dr Oby Ezekwesili yesterday said the squandering of $45 billion in foreign reserve account and $22 billion in Excess Crude Account by the two subsequent administrations after Olusegun Obasanjo's was a clear proof of Nigeria's failure to make the right developmental choices.