The Immediate-past National Vice Chairman, Northwest, of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC, Salihu Moh. Lukman has accused President Bola Tinubu of running a government of exclusion and behaving more like a military dictator.

He said for a man who is desirous of a second term in office, it was unthinkable that the President would be carrying on the affairs of the country without consultations with Nigerians.

In a statement issued Saturday in Abuja, Lukman said although the president has taken responsibility for the economic situation in the country, “the crucial issue is, having taken responsibility, how long would it take to get to the end of the ‘tunnel’ when will the expected ‘light’ begin to shine?”

According to him, the main issue worrying Nigerians, and particularly APC members, in addition to whether citizens will survive the current hardship being experienced, is also to understand the details of government initiatives to get Nigerians out of the hardship.

He said; “With APC now increasingly becoming a closed shop with virtually all its organs demobilized and the omnipotent status of the President strengthened, what is the future of the APC? Being an envisioned progressive party but end up producing progressive governments in reverse gear, what is the implication? Is it a question of leaders becoming indifferent to the electoral fortunes of the party? Does the fact of being indifferent to the electoral fortune of the party also mean being unconcerned about the future of democracy in Nigeria?

“These questions are being asked not in agreement with any conclusion of being indifferent but to attempt to rekindle the conscience of our leaders, especially President Asiwaju Tinubu. Without any hesitation, one can argue that at the rate we are going, our party, APC, and our leaders have shortchanged Nigerians. What Nigerians are having today wasn’t what was promised at all. The most disturbing reality is that given that the current economic hardship is produced during the first term of President Asiwaju Tinubu, with no end in sight, does it then mean that President Asiwaju Tinubu is not interested in second term? Certainly not. If he is interested in second term, why is he managing affairs of government like a military dictator, shutting down the structures of the party and talking down on citizens like a philosopher king who has absolute knowledge of what will produce possible happiness for citizens?”, He queried.

Lukman noted that both as Nigerians and as members of the APC, these are worrisome realities, which weaken confidence in the prospect of getting to the end of the ‘tunnel’ and whether any bright light will illuminate the lives of citizens.

He said; “This is partly because what is becoming very disturbing is that since the assumption of office of the President Asiwaju Tinubu, on May 29, 2023, major policy decisions are taken impulsively without clearly defined plans, at least not shared with Nigerians. Three good examples are the issue of removal of subsidy on petroleum products, floating the exchange rate of the Naira, and sanction against Niger Republic following the coup of July 26, 2023.

“Adding to the impulsive approach to decision making, on Monday, February 26, 2024 after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) Meeting, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris announced the resolution of the Federal Government to implement the recommendations of Steven Oronsaye Committee report. With that decision, out of the 541 Federal Government parastatals, commissions and agencies that existed in 2012, 263 agencies should be reduced to 161, 38 abolished, 52 merged, and 14 returned to departments in ministries. To facilitate implementation within 12-week (3 months) deadline a committee comprising the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Head of the Civil Service, Attorney General of the Federation, Budget and Planning Ministers, among others has been empaneled.

“Giving further explanations about the decisions of FEC, Mrs. Hadiza Bala Usman, Special Adviser to President Asiwaju Bola Tinubu on Policy Coordination informed that the committee is to ensure necessary restructuring and legislative amendments to achieve implementation. Ideally, this should have been made an integral part of a policy of rebuilding the Nigerian public service to make it more efficient and productive. After implementation, what is the guarantee that the new outlook will result in reduced cost and will be efficient and productive in delivering services to Nigerians.

“As it is, the emphasis is more about trimming the size of of the civil service based on the old neoliberal agenda of World Bank and IMF. The approach, from the way it is being introduced is almost exactly the way previous administrations, especially military governments have initiated public service reforms in the country. Issues of engaging stakeholders aimed at guaranteeing inclusivity in policy implementation would appear to be taken for granted. Even the committee setup excludes critical stakeholders, which means stakeholders can only react to challenges of implementation with hardly any potential to influence or minimise possible negative consequences.

“Arguably, with respect to all these issues, it is as if government first announces decisions before beginning to think in terms of what needs to be done to manage the consequences that followed. In which case, rather than acting as a progressive government that is dynamic, action oriented towards improving the welfare conditions of citizens, President Asiwaju Tinubu’s administration is behaving more like a reactionary government. Given such reality, it is almost impossible to predict what the goal or vision of the government is. This was clearly the same problem we had with former President Muhammadu Buhari’s government. The incomprehensible reality is that both former President Buhari’s and current President Asiwaju Tinubu’s governments are APC governments, which got elected based on the promise of changing Nigeria. Part of the change that is expected is having a government that guarantees and accommodates inclusivity, based on which the outcry of citizens is factored and utilised to guide design and implementation of government policy.

“From the time of former President Buhari to the current era of President Asiwaju Tinubu, issues of inclusivity are in reverse gear. Rather than engaging Nigerians and getting them to own policies of government, supposedly progressive governments talked down on Nigerians and like dictators almost tell citizens to take as given every decision taken, even when faced with grave consequences, threatening survival as is presently being experienced. With a manifesto that was the product of robust internal consultations during the merger negotiations that produced the APC in 2013, the expectation was that, starting from the government of former President Buhari, through strong engagements of diverse interest groups in the country, the APC will begin to translate the party’s manifesto and all campaign promises into clearly defined policy decisions.

“Unfortunately, the most unexpected manifestation of lack of inclusivity in democracy is what appears to be a conscious demobilisation of the APC as a political party. From a situation whereby the challenge was to enforce the activation of party structures as provided in the constitution of the APC, through which party members and leaders could have a say in the process of managing governments produced by the APC, the government of President Asiwaju Tinubu has succeeded in completely insulating itself from basically all structures of the party. Few party leaders have access to him, which except for the National Chairman and may be National Secretary, other members of the National Working Committee (NWC) could at best be having distant or shadowy access to the President and other government functionaries. Perhaps, unlike during the tenure of former President Buhari when National Chairman meet the President periodically together with other members of the NWC, at least up to June 2020 during the tenure of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the current reality is that only the National Chairman meets the President.

“The consequence is that we are in a democracy that produce a ruling party, which scorn meetings. We have elected self-centred Presidents who hardly see the value of other party members. From the time of former President Buhari to today’s President Asiwaju Tinubu era, the orientation of government and party politics is that President is omnipotent, who no one can question. This has continued in a worse form under President Asiwaju Tinubu largely because at least under former President Buhari, he never invokes his omnipotent status to nullify subsisting agreement within the party. Interestingly, President Asiwaju Tinubu who is expected to be more democratic and progressive as well, one of the first exercise of his omnipotent leadership is to nullify zoning agreement within the party by moving the position of National Chairman out of North-Central to North-West with hardly any consultation with party leaders in both the two zones”, he added.

Jasmine Okekeagwu, the adopted daughter of John ‘Mr Ibu’ Okafor, has spoken about her failed marriage.

Jamsine met MD, her US-based lover, on TikTok and they later got married three months into their relationship.

But in 2022, Jasmine announced the end of her marriage — after nine months.

The entrepreneur said MD did not inform her that he was previously divorced and has three grown-up girls.

In a recent interview on the WithChude podcast, Jasmine revealed another thing she discovered while she was with MD.

She said she discovered that he was 51 on their wedding day after he had told her he was 38 years old.

“I was with this man for nine months I did not get pregnant. Now this is where the story got very tricky. This guy told me he had never married in his life. He has never gotten a lady pregnant. He told me he was 38 years old. The day I found out my husband was 51 years, it was on our wedding day. Imagine finding out that kind of a thing on how wedding day,” she said.

Jasmine said while going through MD’s phone, she also found out that he had also “promised marriage to five Nigerian girls on TikTok”.

“Different people had different experiences with him. Promised about five girls marriage. And then when I was going through my husband’s phone I started seeing a lot of girls, most of them Yoruba, mostly big big TikTokers,” she added.

[TheCable]

Mr Emeka Anyaoku, former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, has said that Nigeria’s current constitution would not adequately address the nation’s economic predicaments and other myriad challenges.

Anyaoku spoke to newsmen on Saturday in his country home, Obosi village of Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State.

He said the current challenges being faced in the nation like poverty, insecurity, and dilapidated infrastructure, among others, were serious challenges bedevilling the country.

“I am on record for saying that these challenges cannot be effectively addressed under the constitution and governance system we have at the moment.

“We cannot effectively address these challenges that have assumed nationwide dimension, especially insecurity which has pervaded the Northern part of the country and other communities,” he said.

He stressed that the current constitution was a departure from the constitution that the nation’s founding fathers negotiated and agreed upon.

“The constitution for a pluralistic state as Nigeria; we have to return to those principles of the constitution as earlier agreed by our founding fathers.

“Until we do that, I am afraid that we cannot effectively deal with the challenges facing the nation,” he added.

When asked about the Monday sit-at-home observed in the Southeast region and the negative effects on the economy, the elder statesman said that the sit-at-home was causing great damage to the economy of the country.

“The sit-at-home home is doing great damage to the economy of the South East region. I do not support the idea. I think it is doing great damage to the economy.

“We have to deal with the root cause of the sit-at-home, which is the continued detention of Nnamdi Kanu.

“Even though the court of law had ordered his release, that word gives those who advocate and participate in sit-at-home the reason for doing so.

“I think that the cause of the sit-at-home should be addressed. I do not think that the sit-at-home should be maintained, it should be stopped,” he suggested.

•Culprits already being identified
•Negotiations for the refund to the national treasury ongoing
•Political interference may compromise efforts

It may never be known whether the man, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, would have gone ahead to contest in the 2023 presidential election if he had an idea of what had gone down under the eight-year rule of Muhammadu Buhari. 

It may also never be known whether President Bola Tinubu would have acted differently and not be “possessed with courage”, had he seen the books and known how much of Nigeria’s commonwealth had been stolen by a few, fat cats in the Buhari administration, on Monday, May 29, 2023, when he announced the removal of subsidy on PMS.

Nigerians may not know whether Tinubu would still have gone ahead even if he had an idea of what had been stolen, just to fulfill a said messianic calling of rescuing Nigeria and charting a pathway for progress.

However, what is now known is that billions of dollars were “made away with by some players in the Buhari administration”, a presidency source disclosed to Saturday Vanguard last week.

What is also known, today, is that beyond the bravado and braggadocio President Tinubu puts up in public, he has a niggling headache about how to recover the quantum of funds stolen and what to do with the culprits.

Obaze’s Act

For security and intelligence gathering reasons, Saturday Vanguard was counselled by a very dependable Aso Rock source not to name names yet and to be careful in presenting details of an ongoing investigation into how billions of dollars disappeared.

This is because even Jim Obaze, the Special Investigator appointed by President Tinubu, has not been sitting pretty on the job as a result of constant meddling and needless interference from a few powerful players in the present administration.

But the source said “Obaze is undeterred. And Tinubu is backing him all the way in the investigation.
“Whatever you think you have heard before now would peter into insignificance in the face of what is being discovered”, the source said.

How it started

But it all first started as an unverified and unverifiable report that some powerful and influential operators close to President Buhari had become stupendously rich at the expense of Nigeria’s treasury.

Figures in the billions of dollars were said to have been traced to some of them. The figures were too high to be believed prompting one of the sources contacted to ask: “Is it that some of these people you are talking about were the ones to whom funds for the purchase of our crude oil were paid? Did they pay these people directly for crude oil sales or what?’

Billions of dollars traced to individuals

Well, after weeks of investigation, Saturday Vanguard can, indeed, confirm that billions of dollars have been traced to certain individuals.

A source privy to what is going on said that “some of the figures you get to hear are troubling. What does anybody want to do with $6 billion? What does anybody want to do with $8 billion? These figures are something else”.

But how did these disclosures come to light?

Weekend Vanguard discovered that President Tinubu gave Obaze the Magna Charter to dig into any and everything that had to do with how funds from Nigeria’s treasury disappeared or found their way into private hands.

Axes of financial malfeasances

It was in the course of pursuing leads at the CBN and the presidency that some authorised and unauthorised transfers and outright cash withdrawals were discovered.

From over-invoicing to forgeries, unauthorised releases, influence-peddling, funds diversion, arms deals, forex deals and other financial malfeasances, funds were traced and tracked to some influential operators in the last administration.

Saturday Vanguard was made to understand that monies printed using the instrumentality of ways and means, amounting to over N30 Trillion during the Buhari administration, suffered a series of alleged mishaps, leading to diversion and unaccountability.

But for the need not to compromise the ongoing investigations and litigation, a Presidency source said “Many disclosures would have been in the public domain. But that has not disturbed the work that is ongoing on how Nigeria’s money was stolen by a few people”.

Whereas some properties and businesses bought and paid for in these axes of financial malfeasances have already been tied to certain individuals in the outgone administration, Saturday Vanguard was made to understand that some of them have already been contacted and are making useful information available to the government.

The presidency source said: “What I can tell you is that some of these people are already talking. They are making revelations and the government is determined to get our money back. Except you see some of the raw documents and figures, you can never truly understand the magnitude of what happened to this country. And it was done by just a few people. The country’s funds were treated like personal allowances for enjoyment. Why do you think there is a problem with the naira and the exchange rate? It is because funds are in the hands of a few people who decided to buy up whatever is available in the market. That is why the government is starved of funds. But properties and businesses are already being seized”.

Tinubu’s missteps

Tinubu, indeed, met an empty treasury. While it is indeed true that the treasury was looted, Tinubu, being “possessed with courage”, simply poured fuel on an already highly combustible situation in the country.

Experts have asked why President Tinubu would announce the removal of subsidy on his first day in office at the inauguration ground when he did not have a petroleum resources minister in place, nor a finance minister in place nor a national planning minister in place? 

If these appointees were already in place, data and official documents would have guided whatever decisions were to be made by the newly inaugurated president. But this was not the case.

To make matters worse, the policy of flotation of the naira which the International Monetary Fund, IMF, and the World Bank have been calling for was also introduced by President Tinubu.

Unfortunately, a mono-economy that thrives largely on crude oil which suffers episodic interference and manipulation from a plethora of factors, was, naturally, going to suffer a mishap in the absence of huge proceeds from non-oil exports that could have cushioned the floatation of the naira with additional forex earnings.

It is the introduction of these twin policies at the same time that further exacerbated the crises in the economy.

A President and his headache

While some persons close to President Tinubu have confirmed the development, some neither confirmed nor denied the discoveries, the identities of the persons involved and the sums of money at play. 

But those who know are both amazed and amused at the attitude of the president to the issue.

With the present administration assailed from different corners by multidimensional crises on the economic and security fronts, some observers are wondering why President Tinubu has not openly dealt with the issue so that Nigerians would have a full grasp of the type of economy he inherited before he was “possessed with courage” to remove subsidy without the benefit of proper planning. Some say he doesn’t want to embarrass the outgone Buhari administration, while others say going public would present the party, APC, as one whose members were so reckless under Buhari. But Nigeria needs her money.

Indeed, penultimate week, the IMF reportedly issued a “statement on the conclusion of its Executive Board’s Post Financing Assessment with Nigeria and expressed concerns that the government had capped the prices of fuel at retail stations. The global lender advised the administration of President Tinubu to completely stop the payment of subsidies on petrol to free funds to run the government.”

How Tinubu would deal with this headache remains to be seen but he recently said that what mattered more were the feelings of Nigerians, an indication that he may be reluctant to give in to all IMF proposals.

Enter the manipulative hands of politics 

Saturday Vanguard was told that the ongoing talks with some of the looters were yielding positive results.
However, part of what has made the issue very knotty is the complicity of some leaders of the ruling party who actively participated in the Buhari administration.

Part of Obaze’s challenge is the constant meddling of some very powerful individuals in his investigations, sometimes introducing blackmail.

It was reliably gathered that the card being played so that the issue would not go public is the role of some prominent members of the last administration who also played prominent roles in the campaigns for the party.

Pieces of information available to us suggest that some of the funds could be eventually tracked to quarters that would be too uncomfortable for the government of the day to expose.

That is the point at which Tinubu’s headache is becoming a migraine. 

Former President Buhari has been reported to have told his successor to do whatever he needs to do to recover allegedly stolen funds because he knows his hands are clean.

All said, another major concern is how the recoveries would not be re-looted just like the Abacha loot.