The forces that sacked Tukur

Politicians are known to be boastful. The former National Chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, is not an exception. Even when it was clear that the drummers who were playing music for him had since dropped their drums and were no longer ready to sing his praises, Tukur soldiered on. He believed that the tide could still change and he would retain his much-treasured exalted position.

Thus, when he had even dropped his resignation letter, Tukur said he was still in power. He told the unsuspecting journalists at the State House that he had not dropped his resignation letter.

Perhaps, he had thought that the tide could still change and those who wanted his downfall would have a change of heart. How wrong he was.

While he was not sleeping, his enemies were also planning. Just as he set up a panel of eminent persons from his home state to reach out to  Governors Jonah Jang of Plateau State, and Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State, his enemies were also plotting how to thwart that move.

The two governors were picked for strategic reasons. Those reasons, according to investigation, included the fact that Jang is heading a faction of the Nigeria Governors Forum, which is recognised by President Goodluck Jonathan while Akpabio is the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum.

The committee was made up of retired Air Commodore Dan Suleiman, General Anthony Haladu Hanaiya, Dr. Umar Ardo and Wilberforce Juta.

Before the committee could reach the two governors, Tukur’s enemies had mobilised the 37 state chairmen of the party, who at an emergency meeting, passed a  vote of no confidence in him.

One of the chairmen, who spoke with our correspondent but asked not to be named, said with this decision, Tukur would have no option but to resign before or at the National Executive Committee meeting that was held in Abuja on Thursday.

He said, “You can see what we have done tonight. The passing of vote of no confidence in Tukur signifies the end of his tenure. We are going to meet with the President tomorrow and tell him our resolution. We won’t allow him to kill the party before asking him to leave. Enough of this rubbish.”

As this was going on, majority of the members of the National Working Committee of the party, which Tukur was heading, were also laying ambush for him. They had refused to be part of the meeting he called on Monday.

Our correspondent, who was at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja, observed that majority of the national officers of the party were within the premises but refused to honour the meeting called by Tukur. Tukur was however joined by three other officers namely, National Secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo; National Treasurer, Bala Buhari; and the National Auditor, Mr.  Adewole Adeyanju.

But the four party officers were unable to deliberate on any issue because they didn’t form the needed quorum as stipulated in the party’s constitution. The NWC consists of 12 people and to form a quorum, eight of them should be in attendance at the meeting.  Part V111 (4) of the constitution says that “The quorum of the National Working Committee meeting shall be two-third of membership drawn from at least two third of the zones in the country and a simple majority shall pass any motion.”

Investigations by our correspondent showed that after waiting till 12.43pm, Tukur  decided to call off the meeting. He drove in his convoy with his security details out of the party secretariat around 12.46pm. The national chairman refused to acknowledge greetings from security men and employees of the party while leaving. However, as soon as the national chairman left, other national officers of the party, apart from the Deputy National Secretary, Mr. Solomon Onwe, called another meeting where they met briefly.

Onwe, who was seen briefly within the party’ secretariat, was said to have “cleverly left” as he was said not be seen to be fraternising with any of the groups. Those in attendance at the second meeting were the Deputy National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus;  National Youth Leader, Abdulahi Mainasira; National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh; National Financial Secretary, Mr. Bolaji Anani; National Organising Secretary, Alhaji Abubakar Mustapha; and the National Legal Adviser, Mr. Victor Kwon.

Tukur had stepped on so many toes in his short stay in office. Apart from the numerous grudges by the NWC members over his leadership style which they silently described as being high-handed, he was also accused of not holding meetings regularly and not carrying them along while taking major decisions like the sacking of state executives, equating his (Tukur’s) personal assistants with them and others.

Before then, the five governors that defected from the party had also complained about his leadership. The governors, Rotimi Amaechi(Rivers); Rabiu Kwankwanso (Kano); Murtala Nyako(Adamawa); Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara); and Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto) had defected to the All Progressives Congress, claiming that the leadership of the PDP was autocratic. Few weeks ago, 37 members of the House of Representatives also left the PDP to join the APC while 27 out of the 30 members of the Sokoto State House of Assembly also left the ruling party.

Even with this, the governors of the party and the Presidency were not moved. However, it was learnt that Tukur incurred the wrath of the governors when he started courting the enemies of some of the serving governors with the hope of giving them the party’s governorship ticket in 2015.

The governors became apprehensive, thinking that they might not be allowed to have a say in who succeeds them. That was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. The governors met, took a decision that it would be suicidal for them if they would not have any say on who succeeds them.

That was why they joined hands with Tukur’s enemies and supported those clamouring for his removal. When they did, the pleas by his supporters led by the wife of the President, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, were ignored. Now, Tukur has joined the league of former national chairmen of the party who left office unceremoniously.

Wizkid's manager apologizes for posting private message online

Wizkid's manager Godwin Tom has apologized for posting a screenshot of a private message sent to him by a female fan of his artist. (If you missed the story, read it here). More Tweets after the cut..

Shocking Photos: Chinese Students Chain Their Heads Up So They Don’t Fall Asleep While Studying

No wonder they’re beating us in education. *hehee*

These terrifying pictures of some Chinese students' study habits were snagged from the Chinese social media site Weibo.

These young students actually tied their hairs, necks to bunks so that they don't fall asleep while studying.

Abeg is this appropriate? Would you ever try it?

See more pictures after the cut

 

France's First Lady In Hospital After Her Boyfriend's Alleged Affair With Actress became exposed!!

President with official girlfriend Ms Valerie. Second pic is Julie Gayet

The woman considered to be France's first lady, Valérie Trierweiler has been hospitalized, suffering from depression, after Closer magazine reported that her boyfriend President François Hollande was having an affair with a 41-year-old actress, Julie Gayet.

Closer magazine had published 7 pages of pictures of the President allegedly sneaking in to spend nights with Julie Gayet at her apartment. Ms Valerie Trierweiler, 49, had suffered a “severe case of the blues' on hearing the news and was taken to a Paris hospital for recovery. She currently faces the prospect of being kicked out of the Elysee Palace if the President announces it is over between them.
Ms Valerie would have to leave the Elysee, where she has an office and a staff of five working for her.
Before now, President Hollande had left his fellow Socialist politician Ségolène Royal, the mother of his four children, for Ms Valerie Trierweiler, a divorced mother of three.

But in the meantime, both President Hollande and Miss Gayet have pledged to take action against Closer magazine over alleged breaches of privacy following the exposure of their affair, though neither denies they are having an affair.

'I have a $1million watch' - Oba Obateru Akinruntan

Billionaire Oba Obateru Akinruntan, the Olugbo of Ugboland in Ondo and chairman of Obat Oil spoke recently of his love for the good things of life and how he loves to be the first in acquiring these things. In a recent interview with City People, the Oba described himself as a stylish king

"First and foremost I am very creative and secondly, I emulate the style of our forefathers, wearing royal beads as an old style. You know these days, if you want to become a popular and flamboyant king, you have to use diamonds. Diamond chains, diamond wrist watches, diamond shoes, diamond ring and my muffler is also made of diamond or gold. And that will make you unique among other Obas and that doesn't make you proud. I like to be the first in everything. I have the largest oil tank in West Africa today. Again my chain of cars, I use the same type of automobile with the Queen of England, Queen Elizerbeth, we use the same Rolls Royce and Bentley. Asides that, I have 7 door limousine Mercedes, I want to be the first in everything.

The Oba who has an aquarium wristwatch that is worth $500,00 spoke of his wristwatch collections

"I also have a wrist watch that cost $1 million. Aside that I am a car freak and what I wear with the way I dress, my shoe, my royal diamond cap, wrist watches, diamond ring, and my diamond Mofila is the new thing I have added to it now. I do my shopping in London Jeweller, a special store for top ranking personalities of the world. I wear expensive wrist watches, shoes and chains all made of diamond". he told City People

Why Nelson Mandela Was Called Madiba

Nelson Mandela was a renowned South African peace, human right activist, revolutionist and former South African president who didn’t care much about his background and safety but stood against the South African Apartheid system of government when it was at its peak and eventually succeeded in bringing the much desired change and mutual respect. He died on the 5th of December, 2013. He was popularly known as “Nelson Mandela”but there are several other names he was known by for which he surely left much deeper meanings to; one of those was MADIBA

The True Meaning and Origin of Madiba

Madiba is the name of the clan from which Nelson Mandela came to be. In South African belief, the name of a clan is much more relevant and important than a person’s surname. The reason is because a clan’s name makes significant reference to the ancestor from which the individual came into existence. In South African history, Madiba was the name of a prominent Thembu chief who was popular in the 18th century as a ruler of the Transkei hence it is generally considered very polite and respectful to use someone’s clan name.

Madiba’s Popularity and Political Struggles

Outside, historical associations with the name Madiba, there are many other reasons why he was called Madiba: Nelson Mandela was a political prisoner in South Africa for twenty seven years before the turning point of his life where he rose to the presidency. The ascendancy to the top seat of the country changed all spheres of his society and even those of the nations beyond; he became the first black president in South Africa. The country had been ruled by segregation laws which came to end in the early 90s after a long battle for freedom. He was the flag bearer of the African National Congress (ANC), the political party that had rallied the blacks against segregation rules for decades. The apartheid government had banned all political parties in 1960; this led to the arrest of Mandela and his detention and subsequent jail for life being charged with treason. Mandela served his prison term that was meted out by an impartial court in the Reuben Islands. On the contrary, this ostensibly made him gain more popularity, making him the greatest weapon that the black people held as a beacon of hope. [See Also: Best 25 Nelson Mandela Quotes]

Not only has Mandela’s story been based on his political struggles but also on his contribution to the welfare of mankind globally. South Africans hold him in respect and have a penchant for referring to him as Madiba, also Tata which embodies a father among the Xhosa people. Thus he was referred to as “father of the nation” because of his substantial role in the pre-independence political resistance and the post apartheid contributions in the wake to freedom. The racial segregation government had tarnished his name with reprehensible acts of terrorism and as a communist. Notwithstanding his suffering in political persecution, he received global acclaim for his vehement opposition to colonialism and apartheid. Before his death, he received more than two hundred and forty international honors, key among them: Soviet Order of Lenin and he was also among the very few South Africans to receive the Nobel Peace Prize which was bestowed on him in 1993. Due to the long struggle that led to the lifting of the ban against the ANC by F.W. de Klerk in the early 90s, Mandela was released from jail and a wave of freedom began to sweep across South Africa.

Madiba’s Books, Creativity and Talents

Mandela had numerous talents, he also did a number of works that are still very much appreciated at the global arena of literary materials, the Long Walk to Freedom reveals a lot about him. For example in the book, he states that his teacher coined the term Nelson for him on the first day to school.

When he was elected president, he shocked many people due to his stand for national cohesion and an end to discrimination that had ruled South Africa for decades. The ruling party known as Government of Unity was initiated by Mandela in a bid to avoid ethnocentric, racial and political tension that was rife on the walk to freedom. This was backed up by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that was mandated with delving into human right violations. Mandela’s role as president was intricate due to the balance he was compelled to strike between all the people. On the one hand, the famished and discontented Blacks had suffered for long under the manacles of segregation; the Boers sought more rights while the whites clamored for equal rights. Unlike his counterpart in Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, who chooses to throw out all settlers to cripple the economy, his approach to administration was feasible.

Through the efforts of Mandela upon the joyous daybreak to emancipation, he spearheaded the introduction of land reforms, measures to curb poverty and an extension to health care services. On various international platforms, he acted as Mediator and peacemaker. For instance he led the military intervention that was necessitated by deadly and horrible fighting and arbitrated between Libya and the UK dispute on the Pan Am Flight 103 Bomb trial. He was also a distinct African president who shunned a second term in favor of the vice president in a continent where men rule for decades through undemocratic tactics. On his retirement from public life the former president became a key player and elder statesman whose focal point was curbing impoverishment of vulnerable groups and combating the spread of HIV/AIDS.

There are many reasons why Nelson Mandela was called Madiba, and other names such as the “father of the nation”. He gave his life for the freedom of South Africa, suffered for the course and demonstrated deep patriotism by shunning the deplorable acts of many African leaders. Mandela was an international statesman and had earned the respect through his dedication, commitment and tenacity.

Tolu Ogunlesi writes open letter to President Jonathan

It's a season of open letters...here's another one from award winning journalist & social commentator Tolu Ogunlesi to the president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan...

Dear Mr. President,

I am constrained to write this open letter to you before this season of letters comes to a close. I will go straight to the issues at stake. Let’s start with the level of toxic-ness in the air, sustained to a large extent by the attitude of your array of spokespersons, who today do little more than insult and dismiss everyone deemed to be an “enemy” of the President. Just as you have a point when you said that the easiest way to be deemed “progressive” is to abuse Jonathan, it has also become that criticising the President quickly earns one all sorts of unprintable labels from the your camp.

Everyone in your camp seems obsessed with the fact that the world is against you. One adviser recently accused everyone criticising you of lacking home training. Another, who made his name writing brilliant articles that skewered the governments of the day, recently lamented — without any sense of irony — that all Nigerian media is in the hands of the opposition.

There’s a siege mentality at work, us versus them. I can assure you that that is not at all a helpful attitude to adopt. Let’s get one thing clear – if the Nigerian media seems to be against you, it is because it has always been that way; always tending to be deeply critical of the abuse and misuse of power. At the next Council of State meeting, you might want to ask your predecessors about their experiences with the media and the “opposition”.

If the media was unusually “nice” to or tolerant of the self-styled Evil Genius, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, why did he spend so much time proscribing media houses? If it was nice to Gen. Sani Abacha, why was his government obsessed with hounding journalists? If it was nice to President Olusegun Obasanjo, why did he once boast that he never read newspapers? The late President  Umaru Yar’Adua earned himself a reputation as “Baba Go-Slow”. Remember the joke that circulated widely a few years ago, about going into a restaurant to order amala, shaki and ‘Yar’Adua’ (where Yar’Adua stood for ‘snail’).

My point is: I doubt that Nigerians and their news media are singling you out for ill-treatment. It’s not about you being a Southern President, or a Christian, or an Ijaw man, it’s far more likely to be about the action and inaction of your government.

Mr. President, step out of the trenches. Your battle is not against the media, or ordinary Nigerians wont to express their frustrations and disappointments. I suspect that your battle is instead with many of those characters who surround you, claiming to be friends and loyalists, but who imprison you within a dangerous Bubble and delight in misleading you for their own selfish ends.

I have slowly come to realise how the condition of power easily sets up the wielders of that power for incarceration within a Bubble. It’s prison without the uniform and without the realisation that you’re in prison.

In that Bubble, you’re cut off from reality, and people come up to you and say all sorts of things. They give you lists of your “friends” and “enemies”, they concoct allegations, they worship you, they call you their Alpha and Omega, the best thing to happen to Nigeria since 1914; they endlessly whisper rumours and rumours of rumours. They will tell you that everyone hates you because you’re from a minority ethnic group. They will tell you to ignore what “all those yeye newspapers and critics” are saying.

It’s time, perhaps, for you to fight to step out of that Bubble. Your own long walk to freedom ought to commence now, considering that it’s almost too late.

We all know that governance is largely a series of perception games. Thus far, your government has, like many of the governments that preceded you, has played those games badly. When people perceive your government as corrupt, it is because they see no evidence otherwise. We all saw fuel subsidy payments rise four-fold during your first year in power. No one took responsibility, no one was punished.

When the Ikeja Police College incident happened, it was an angry you who said the revelations were the work of your enemies. It was, and is still, puzzling – did the opposition somehow corner all the funds allocated to the College(s), making it impossible for the police bosses to spend their funds responsibly? Then, there was the aviation industry scandal – and I’ve reliably heard that it is only a tip of the iceberg. The “Oga At The Top” is still sitting pretty, invoking the “Law of No-Shaking”.

Meanwhile, that same government wastes no time pushing Prof. Bart Nnaji out for “conflict of interest’; and hounding the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Sanusi Lamido, on the unproven ground that he “leaked” a letter to the President. Perhaps, you will be able to explain to us how a Sanusi has managed to embarrass your government to a greater extent than a Stella Oduah.

With scenarios like this, you shouldn’t be surprised that Nigerians are angry and confused.

If you stood where Nigerians stand, and gave the affairs of your government a proper consideration, you’d probably – hopefully – come to the same conclusion. That something is just not right somewhere.

The tragedy is that someday, maybe in 2015, or 2019, you will step down from the Bubble. Your eyes will “clear”, and like Obasanjo, you will become an advocate of good governance. Perhaps, you will even write longwinded letters (or emails) to your successor complaining about corruption and about how the international community is deeply worried about Nigeria.

And we will be forced to remind you of your own time in office, and wonder aloud what it is about the water in Aso Rock that turns occupants into this strange species of Homo Sapiens.

Perhaps, you would like to backtrack a little, to the beginnings of your Presidency. To the circumstances in which you, an underdog of underdogs, came to power. When you were at the mercy of the “cabal” that ran Nigeria in the absence of a then ailing President Yar’Adua.

I, like millions of other Nigerians, was angered by the antics of that cabal, at how you, the sitting Vice-President, was treated. You were kept out of the loop, humiliated. I recall joining protest marches in Lagos and Abuja, calling for an end to the shameful state of affairs that kept you away from taking charge of Nigeria. We didn’t do it because you were an Ijaw man, or because your loyalists “mobilised” us to march for you. We did it because it was the right, sensible and decent thing to do.

Recall the promise and potential with which you came to power. A Nigerian President who came from outside the hegemonic contraptions that have run Nigeria since independence. No one doubts that your victory in 2011 was legitimate; those elections, while not perfect, were the most credible we had seen in almost two decades. I recall describing your appearance on the social media in 2010 as a “breath of fresh air” – a mantra that eventually became one of your campaign themes.

The question to ask yourself is: What happened? How did we get here, where the name “Jonathan” has become a byword for goofs and gaffes, for complete helplessness in the face of oil theft and corruption?

In trying to answer that question (and maybe, there are some answers above), the least we expect is that you will try to make amends. Because that is all that will really matter, in the long run. You will probably need to sacrifice some of those Untouchables in your cabinet. There’s news of an impending cabinet reshuffle. Go ahead and do it. Surprise us.

You will also need to do something about your communications set-up. Your achievements – and they do exist (these might form the basis of another letter) – deserve to do better than get lost amidst the din of mindless propaganda and abusive language flowing from your spokespersons and aides.

You would need to come and meet Nigerians where they are – sadly trapped beneath layers angry cynicism – to directly tell them what you’ve been doing, what you’re currently doing, and what you plan to do in 2014. A handful of Presidential Media Chats per year will no longer cut it; not in these dire times.

You will have to face up to the difficult questions that Nigerians are asking, and answer them yourself. Go on TV, get on radio, get out there on the social media. You can no longer continue to depend solely on a battery of spokespersons speaking dangerously off-the-cuff, hyper-excited by the sounds of their own intemperate voices.

The siege mentality has to go. You’re not the first, and will not be the last, Nigerian President to feel beleaguered. It is the nature of the task. And, considering what they receive in compensation and benefits for the job of ruling or misruling Nigeria, our politicians should generally learn to take all the heat, or leave the kitchen.

I have written this letter in genuine concern. I am not currently a member of any political party, and I do not have anything personal at stake in this brouhaha – no bids for a marginal field or NIPP power plant or import licence that might possibly be affected by the way things play out. I do not hate you.

I am simply an ordinary Nigerian, concerned about the direction in which our country is headed; concerned about seeing that Nigeria gets the highest quality of governance that is reasonably possible, considering our very complicated circumstances.

Thank you.

Chidinma “Ms. Kedike” rocks traditional Attire (Photos)

Ex project fame star, Chidinma is not one celeb one would usually would see rocking a traditional attire.

According to her, She said she was literally forced to put this on. She rocked the outfit today to church and we think it looks beautiful on her. What do you think?

CBN Governor explains how vested interests are killing Nigeria

CENTRAL Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

Hello everyone and good morning.

I’m very happy to be here with you. Just to tell you that I am a rather outdated person. I never really knew what the TEDeX event was, and when my daughter spoke to me about it, she said something about youth and development.

I thought I’d just come here and talk about young people and job creation and the usual stuff we talk about until a group of young ladies came to me to explain that I was actually expected to speak in 16 to 18 minutes about one idea that can change the world.

I thought that was crazy because I don’t have any idea that can change the world. And the thing with young people is that they are the most difficult audience to address. I have found myself in situations to address people of your generation and frankly the questions I get are more incisive, more intelligent, more thought-provoking than the questions I get from people of my generation. At all levels.

I am actually just beginning to understand how difficult it is for those of us who were in the analog generation to have a conversation with our children.

I have am eight to nine-year-old daughter that I always see in the morning and she goes to school, she comes back… I’ve never really had serious conversation with her. Two days ago we were at the table with her sister who is about 15 or 16 who then said to me you know dad it’s time for us to start talking about boys. Before I could answer, this younger one who’s eight or nine looks up and said ‘you want to talk to dad about boys? He won’t understand. He is a man. He’s a big boy.’

Now, you can imagine for me I mean this wasn’t the kind of conversation I had with my mother or my father. So for me, having … and of course the next day I had my son who’s in form one talking about chromosomes and X&Y cells on the table. So this is a completely different world for me.
I am going to speak to you today about overcoming the fear of vested interests.

It’s a topic that I have come to be engaged in mentally because I have learnt in the four years also that I have been in Abuja that if we understand, we may begin to unlock the key to change our world. The world of the country in which we live. And what is this country?

It’s a country of 167 million people, as you know. Largest population in Africa. Second-biggest economy on the African continent. In 1960 with the per capita income that was better that higher than per capita income of South Korea. 1960 Nigeria was the preferred investment destination – prefered to Japan according to US investment advisory – which has always had potential but which has never been able to realize that potential.
A country that specializes in exporting what it does not produce and importing that which it produces.
One of the world’s largest producer of crude oil, that does not refine its own petroleum products and has to import petroleum products.
The world’s largest producer of cassava but does not produce starch or ethanol.

A large tomato belt, yet the world’s largest importer of tomato paste.
A country that from my childhood I have heard, had the potentials for being a world power, but everyday we talk about potentials! Everyday we talk about potentials!

Today we still talk about the potentials of Nigeria. And yet China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Brazil… all of those countries have turned the potential that they had into reality.

What are these? What’s the one thing that if I were to ask, what is the one thing that we need to do to break this barrier that faces us?
In four years in Abuja, I’ve come to the conclusion that we need to overcome the fear vested interests.

I’ll talk to you through a little bit of my own experiences and as governor of Central Bank and use that as a basis or as a template for what I think we need to do if change this country.

I became governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2009 and this was in the middle of a global financial crisis. I came to the central bank knowing that banks have problems and believing that these problems were caused by a global crisis, by the collapse in the capital market, the collapse in the price of oil, and that they would be fixed by simply addressing the normal risk management issues in banks.

Shortly after I came in and when we went through investigations, I discovered that the Nigerian banking system was infested with the same corruption of the renter system in this country.

That a number of bank chief executives have taken their banks and fleeced those bands and literally taken away depositors’ money to buy property all over the country, all over the world.

And just like people in ministries or in government agencies or whenever they have opportunities in all companies, the bank’s were themselves a site for rent seeking.

The fundamental character of the Nigerian state is that for decades since we found oil, it has existed, not to serve the people but as a site for rent extraction by a very small minority that controls political power.
It doesn’t matter where this group comes from. Whether it’s north or South or muslim or christian or military or civilian, the State has always being the sites for the extraction of rent with the exception of a few years that we can think of, when we’ve had development.

This is at the heart of the problems of this country.
Now when we discovered this – and I’ll give a few examples, these are well known now, they’ve been published.

You know there was one chief executive officer that took away from her bank over 200 billion naira.

Okay that was over a billion dollars. And where was this money taken to? Purchase of property. We recovered from one CEO 200 pieces of real estate in Dubai. Real estate in Johannesburg. Real estate in Potomac in Washington apart from shares in over 100 companies.

And all of those were purchased with depositors’ funds.
We went to the court in UK on the case of another CEO, we got a judgment against that CEO for $142 billion naira stolen from the bank, taken to buy shares while manipulating the shares of his own institution and also transferred outside to purchase property.

Now the first CEO we were able to convict, we recovered these assets and got a six-month sentence and sorted it out.

The second CEO, we finished our case, established in Nigeria – we had a civil case in the UK, we had a criminal case in Nigeria – established the case… two weeks before the closing statements were made the judge was miraculously promoted to the Federal Court of Appeal. After three years of trial at the very end of trial!

Because someone, a very popular religious leader with hundreds of thousands of supporters, carried into political authorities, and the system that was supposed to protect depositors and handle criminals was used and manipulated to promote a judge so that he would not convict a thief.

Now this is an example and an instance of the kinds of things that happen in a country that stop a country from reaching its full potentials.
But my experience with the banking reforms, and how it affects the fear of vested interest is as the following.

After we discovered the things that happened in the banks, the critical thing we had to do was to take a decision that would pitch us against powerful political and economic forces.

We were dealing with chief executives that in 2009 had become invincible. They were in the seat of power. They had economic power and they had bought political protection. The were into political parties, they had financed elections of officers and they believed that nobody could touch them.

And every time I said it was time for us to take action, people said to me you can’t touch these people, you’ll be sacked. Or you can’t touch these people they will kill you. Or you can’t touch these people, you can’t do that.

And I said you know what? We are going to take them on.
And we took the decision. We’re going to remove them. You know what? We removed them and nothing happened.

We’re going to prosecute them, we’re going to put them in jail. And we put one of them in jail.

And were are going to recover these assets. Because the way the central bank operated in the past, these guys take all this money and the central bank says “the bank has failed”.

The banks that we saved had 4.4 trillion naira in deposits. They had eight to ten million customers. But the government and the system has always berthed on the side of the rich people.

Because these eight million customers, the old woman in Gboko or in Yenagoa, or Maiduguri, who has been told to save her money and who’s saved money for 40-50 years wakes up one day and all her savings are gone.

The civil servants whose saved for 35-40 years, kept his pension money in the bank, the school fees of his children, their medical bills, wakes up one day and he finds that his bank is barricaded because the bank has failed.

Banks do not fail.
When people say banks have failed, it’s like saying a man whose throat has been slit and you say the man died. He did not die, he was killed.
And those that murder the banks, those that destroy these deposits have always walked away. They become senators. They become governors. They become captains of industry.

They set up new banks and they continue. And the millions of poor people who don’t have a voice. That’s it!

Nobody knows the number of Nigerians who have died from failed banks because they were sick and could no longer pay their medical bills because the money was locked up in a bank that has failed.

Nobody knows the number of children whose parents could very well afford to pay their school fees who had to drop out of school because banks were mismanaged.

So we use this as one instance, as one example of what you can do if you are ready to confront these vested interests. And deal with them and protect the poor for the very first time.

But the banking industry is just one part of Nigeria. What is happening in other areas?
Take the oil industry. We talking about fuel subsidy.

In 2009 this country paid $291 billion naira as subsidy for petroleum products. By 2011, this number had jumped to 2.7 trillion naira.
Did we start consuming 10 times as much petrol? Do we have 10 times as many cars? Did the population of Nigeria multiply 10 times?
I did not believe those numbers. I screamed against those numbers, and more people screamed, of course we tried to remove subsidy, there was occupy Nigeria.

There have been investigations, and what did we discover? That a lot of that money never went to fuel subsidy that was consumed by Nigerians.
There are people in this country that produced pieces of paper and brought to PPPRA and somebody stamped those pieces of paper and said they brought in petroleum products and actually paid them subsidy. And those pieces of paper said I brought 30,000 metric tones on so so ship, and we discovered that the said ship was nowhere near the coast of Nigeria on that date.

We have seen vessels that did not even exist – that had been retired – on bills of landing and money has been paid. And you know what? None of them as I speak to you has gone to jail.

This is the only country in the world where you have something called oil theft. Where vessels can simply come and take crude oil and literally just drive out of the country. You see the numbers every day 100,000 200,000 400,000 barrels a day, nobody even knows. 7.3 billion naira.
How does anybody take oil in a vessel and leave the country? We’ve got the Navy, we’ve got NIMASA, we’ve got security services, you’ve got the oil companies themselves.

And every day we complain about the lack of development. We don’t have development because Vested Interests continue to rape this country and continue to take the money out.

And the only way you’re going to move from potential to reality it is stop preaching and start asking yourself how can we overcome the fear of Vested Interest and how can we confronts them?

And if there’s one thing I learned from banking, it is that they are not to be feared. They stand on quicksand. They’ve got only two tools. They are not very intelligent people. It doesn’t take much intelligence to steal. If they were smart, they probably will not be stealing. They’d find other things to do.

They have two weapons and two weapons only. First is how much do you want? And if you don’t want anything, then I’m going to destroy you.
If you don’t want their money and if you are not afraid of them you’ll destroy them. There’s nothing else in there.

You’re more intelligent!
And we’ve got to ask ourselves as a country, how have we allowed ourselves to be reduced to a level that is so far below our potential.
A few weeks ago, I was in Lagos, at Tinubu’s birthday, at the colloquium and I spoke to young people. I said we have 65 million young people in Nigeria, I’ll give you one idea. You have 65 million youth in Nigeria, what does it take for one of you to get your votes be the president of this country?

What does it take for you to say you’re tired of my generation. I’m going to get one 40-year-old intelligent, committed, patriotic Nigerian and we are going to ask all the youth to vote for him.

What does it take for you to address this issue sector by sector? Identify these interests one by one and confront them.
Why does it have to take fuel subsidy removal for us to come out and challenge the rot that is in our country?

What are we afraid of? We are afraid of losing the security that we have today. We may not lose it today, we will lose it tomorrow.

So there is one thing I have, one message I have for every Nigerian: is to remember that the problems of this country are enormous, the solution is simple and that solution is we must overcome.

We must recognize that at the heart of the problem of Nigeria, at the heart of ninety percent of our issues – from Boko Haram, to religious crisis, to ethnic crisis to unemployment, to the lack of education, to the lack of health care – is that there are people who profit from the poverty and underdevelopment of this country.
And these people are called Vested Interests.

And so long as they remain entrenched, and so long as we do not overcome our fear of them and dislodge them, we are not going to find a solution to this problem and we are not going to reach true potentials.
My time is up.

Thank you very much.

Source: Premium Times.

Note: This speech was delivered by Sanusi Lamido Sanusi at TEDx, Abuja in 2012; the video was uploaded in August 2013, but went viral a few days ago.