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Reaching for Nnamani’s
jugular
Dotun Oladipo
DATELINE: January 23, 2005. Four senior
members of the Enugu State Government were at
the Lagos office of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission to answer further questions on
the allegations of corruption levelled against
them. They were Governor Chimaroke Nnamani’s
Special Adviser on Political Affairs, Chief Sam
Ejiofor; the Accountant General, Chinyeka Oha;
the Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Peter Mba; and
the Chairman of the state’s Association of Local
Governments of Nigeria, Mr. Chidi Nwatu. The
EFCC was interested in confirming the truth in
the allegation that Nnamani’s government had
misappropriated N52billion since the inception
of his administration in 1999.
As the
officials, who had been undergoing interrogation
since last year, were being drilled again, a
news magazine, THE WEEK, in which the
Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, is
believed to have an interest, came out with that
week’s edition. It contained some of the
allegations that had been making the rounds,
with two of Nnamani’s former aides corroborating
the allegations. The former aides were Nnamani’s
Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Mr. Sam
Mba, and Special Assistant on Public Policy, Mr.
Nana Ogbodo.
Among other allegations,
the Enugu State Government was accused of not
being the original owner of the structure on
which the Nigeria Law School, Agbani Campus, is
located. Rather, the state government was
accused of taking over buildings that were put
in place by Alhaji Shehu Shagari’s
administration as a low cost housing project.
The Enugu State Teaching Hospital also allegedly
falls under the same category as the Law School.
The building was already in existence as a
referral hospital with the name Park Lane
Hospital. There was also the allegation that the
project at the permanent site of the Enugu State
University was not an entirely new one. The
governor was also accused of allegedly using
only one company, Marlum Nigeria Limited, for
all the contracts in the state. He was accused
of having an interest in the company.
Nnamani was also alleged to be the owner
of a N5billion Cosmo FM station. Other projects
the governor was alleged to be the owner or in
which he has interests included Renaissance
University whose cost was put at N10billion; a
N7billion Mea Mater Elizabeth High School; the
largest telecommunications network in the
South-East, Rainbownet, whose cost was put at
N10billion; and the residences of the governor
in Agbani and Forest Crescent, Enugu, estimated
to cost N2billion and N1.5billion. The governor
was also alleged to have spent over N2billion
for the numerous lectures he had delivered all
over the country on current political issues.
Mba, who claimed to have written most of
the lectures, said, “Enugu State does not know
anything called due process, transparency and
accountability. There is no form of competitive
tendering process for contracts here. It is like
the company called Marlum Nigeria Limited holds
the sole retainership of every major work or
construction in the state. And I don’t have any
doubts in my mind that the governor enjoys an
incestuous relationship with Marlum just like
Capital Motors Limited which is the sole
supplier of vehicles to the government.” Ogbodo
said, “There is nothing that connects the
achievements on ground with the propaganda that
is dished out. What happens is that if a high
profile visitor like the European Union
ambassadors or media chiefs come to the state, a
route under the aegis of a protocol arrangement
takes them through what the government want them
to see.”
The suspended Chairman of Udi
Local Government Area of the state, Mr. Oscar
Egwuonwu, who petitioned the EFCC, alleged that
Nnamani diverted local government funds.
Egwuonwu said that the reports that he was saved
by the state government from answering to
charges of manslaughter was a diversionary one,
adding that the crux of the matter should be
addressed by Nnamani. In a letter to The PUNCH
published on February 1, 2006, Egwuonwu said,
“It is regrettable that rather than address the
weighty charges against his aides, and by
logical implication, himself, as the state’s
chief executive, Governor Nnamani and his spin
doctors have embarked on a familiar fight of
political grandstanding. Governor Nnamani’s
willinglness to waive his immunity to facilitate
EFCC’s investigations is welcome.
“The
diversion by the Enugu State Government and its
officials of local government funds is the
primary issue in my dispute with Governor
Nnamani and Sam Ejiofor, as only N8million
monthly was delivered to Udi Local Government by
the state government, out of about N80million
monthly federal statutory allocations while I
was in office. It is regrettable that Governor
Nnamani would resort to falsehood in his
desperate bid to paint me black, as his
allegation that I am currently facing
manslaughter charges is fals in its entirety, as
the court records are verifiable at the Udi
Magistrate Court. I join the long suffering
people of Enugu State in commending the EFCC on
this bold action that it has taken to beam its
searchlight on the Enugu Augean stable.”
But the Enugu State Government has
dismissed the allegations as “a frenetic
desperation by the opposition to muckrake,
mudsling and tar-brush a government that is
adjudged to be at the vanguard of democratic
performance.”
Nnamani said, “As head of
government, I take full responsibility for the
actions of the government of Enugu State because
the buck stops on my table. I, for one, will not
hesitate to respond to questions raised by the
EFCC. I will be willing to waive the
constitutional immunity and go through
interrogation and prosecution if need be just to
reaffirm my belief in the process. So, I am
available to be investigated either here or even
in Lagos. I have no problem with it.”
Indeed, some have read political
meanings into the drama playing itself out in
Enugu State. But the problem is that there is no
agreement on which direction the arrow being
shot at Nnamani and his team could be coming
from.
Some watchers of political events
have traced the source of the problem to
aggrieved politicians, mainly those in the
opposition, in the state. Along this line, the
thinking is that Egwuonwu was not acting on his
own but in consonance with some other aggrieved
persons who do not like Nnamani’s style.
Egwuonwu reportedly became aggrieved owing to
Nnamani’s refusal to stop his removal from
office. It is in this regard that Mba and Ogbodo
are also seen. Both of them were relieved of
their positions by Nnamani. It was this
development that reportedly led to their
decision to do battle with the medical doctor
turned politician.
Nnamani, indeed, has
had to fight a lot of battles. Shortly after he
assumed office on May 29, 1999, he took on his
then political godfather, Chief Jim Nwobodo, in
a fight that saw Nwobodo losing out of the
political contest in the state. So also did he
take on others who were bent on removing him
from office for one reason or the other. These
battles, many are wont to reason, would have led
to Nnamani making enemies for himself. More so,
the fear is rife in the state that with the firm
hold Nnamani now has on the political terrain of
the state, he is likely to be a deciding factor
in who succeeds him and who gets whatever
political office in the state in the 2007
general elections.
Another angle to the
debate is the role of Nnamani in the Southern
Forum, a body made of leaders from the southern
part of the country fighting for the retention
of the presidency by the zone beyond 2007. The
Enugu State Government has been the backbone of
the organisation. With the clamour becoming
real, the suspicion is that some politicians
from the North who see the SF as a threat are
likely to go for the soul of the forum as
typified by Nnamani. Some of the northerners
believed to be keenly interested in the
presidential race in 2007 include Abubakar; and
former Heads of State, Generals Ibrahim
Babangida and Muhammadu Buhari.
But
there are also those who think that the enemies
Nnamani made for himself owing to the formation
of the SF with his active participation,
financially and morally, spread beyond just the
North. Some believe that even within the group,
there are some of Nnamani’s co-governors,
especially from the South-East and the
South-South who feel that the governor was using
the platform to raise his political profile.
Despite the fact that Nnamani had said he was
just looking forward to completing his tenure
and not a higher political position, there are
those who believe that with his rising political
profile, he was capable of emerging the
candidate of the South if the position was
eventually zoned to the South.
And there
are those who feel that Nnamani could be facing
persecution as a result of his perceived
closeness to President Olusegun Obasanjo who
many believe has made more enemies for himself
since he became president in 1999 than he did
before returning to power. Obasanjo has been
engaged in so many face-offs that many believe
it would be unwise to start thinking of where
those opposed to him, especially on the issue of
who succeeds him in 2007, would attack from. The
raging face-off over the 2007 presidency is more
noticeable in The Presidency now where Obasanjo
and his deputy, Abubakar, have been throwing
brickbats at one another. In this regard, some
have insisted, though Nnamani had said
otherwise, that the SF was formed to help
actualise Obasanjo’s third term bid.
So,
why would the EFCC, an organ of the Federal
Government, move against Nnamani if he is that
close to the President. Some have argued that
Obasanjo would not condone corruption no matter
who is involved. Which appears to be why many
have said that the challenge thrown by Nnamani
to the EFCC under Alhaji Nuhu Ribadu, a Deputy
Commissioner of Police, to interrogate him was
to prove to the President that he had nothing to
hide.
Rather, Nnamani and members of his
team had sought to explain that it was not
possible for a state that earns as little as it
does, when compared to others, to steal such
money as being bandied around. The state
government’s argument is that for a state with
its size of civil service and the number of
projects it is handling, it is practically
impossible to steal N52billion out of the
N58billion it had earned in six years (See Table
A).
According to figures released when
Obasanjo visited the state last year, the state
had embarked on projects estimated to cost about
N30billion. The projects included construction
of roads, buildings for the judiciary, an
international conference centre, housing estates
and projects that had to do with the state
university. A document obtained last week showed
that the dualisation of Chime Avenue, New Haven
Road, had been completed; the first road tunnel
in Nigeria linking Ogui Road with Okpara Avenue
was 97 per cent completed; the international
conference centre is only eight per cent from
completion; the 162 projects at the permanent
site of ESUT was 94 per cent completed; and the
324 unit Loma Linda Housing Estate had reached
58 per cent completion stage. Also, over
400kilometres of asphalt roads had been
completed by the Enugu State Government
according to the document. Information on the
website of the state government credits it with
a lot of achievements (See Table B, which is a
part of a long table on the website). This is in
spite of the fact that over 60 per cent of the
state’s revenue goes into the payment of the
civil servants.
The problem for most
political watchers is matching the allegations
against Nnamani with what some high profile
visitors to the state had said in the past. The
EU ambassadors were full of praises for
Nnamani’s performance when they visited the
state. Obasanjo and Abubakar did the same during
their official visits to the state. Even the
National Planning Commission rated the state
high in all aspects of development at the
conclusion of a survey of the performance of the
governments at the state level. It was rated
overall the best.
What this then means
is that for Nnamani, the road ahead would be
tough. This would be especially more so in the
political calculations towards the 2007 general
elections. Be it at the local or federal level,
Nnamani, it is believed, would have it rough and
tough. But many believe his chances are bright
based on his numerous achievements.
The PUNCH, Monday, February 06,
2006
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