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Nigerians hoping to
see the outcome of investigations into the N9 billion scandal in the
House of Representatives, may have to wait a little longer.

Investigations by
NEXT indicate that the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related
offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC), which are both investigating the allegations, may
have hit a brick wall and may not conclude investigations anytime soon.

“Though our
investigations are ongoing, we are presently stuck at some point, but
we will ensure we complete our investigations,” a senior official of
the ICPC close to the investigation said at the weekend.

Indications are
that the cause of the ‘temporary halt’ mentioned by the ICPC source
involves a man believed to be behind the companies that received the
inflated contract. The man, who is believed to have fled to England, is
being trailed by the anti-corruption agencies.

“Already, we have
confirmed that there was inflation of prices in the contract. But, the
man central to the companies that secured the contracts escaped to the
UK when we wanted to bring him in,” an ICPC investigator told NEXT.

The investigator,
who declined to mention the suspect’s name, explained that the
commission might seek the man’s extradition if he fails to return to
the country to explain his role in the scandal.

The fraud
allegation started in the House of Representatives when some members
accused the speaker, Dimeji Bankole and the house leadership of
mismanaging N9 billion of the N11 billion capital vote received by the
house between 2008 and 2009.

The legislators,
who called themselves “the progressives” and led by Dino Melaye,
addressed a press statement on June 16, 2010 during which they gave Mr
Bankole one week to resign or be removed.

The legislators,
who also called for a probe of the house finances, further accused Mr.
Bankole of authorizing “a spurious, vexatious, and reckless expenditure
profile at a time when there is so much economic hardship.”

In other to prove
that they were right with their accusations, “the progressives”
submitted their petition and accusations to the EFCC and ICPC for
investigation.

Inflated Purchases

Some of the items
the “progressives” accuse Mr. Bankole of purchasing at inflated prices
include torchlights, which have a market price of less than N2000 per
unit, at N18000 each and 400 units of Samsung 40 inches LCD television
sets, which cost N160,000, but were purchased at a unit price of N525,
000. Others are the purchase of 800 units of HP Desktop computers,
which cost N160,000 but were purchased at N330,000; and sharp digital
photocopy machines (model 5316), purchased at N270,000 as against
N160,000.

“The progressives”
also accused the house leadership of wasteful expenditure in the
purchase of seven SUV cars for Mr. Bankole and his deputy, Bayero
Nafada.

When contacted to
give the official position on the status of their investigations, the
spokesmen of the two agencies gave similar positions.

“We are on it. Our
investigations are ongoing,” said Folu Olamiti, the resident media
consultant of the ICPC, who refused to give further comments. Femi
Babafemi, the EFCC spokesman asked this reporter to call back to
confirm the status of the case but efforts to contact him later were
unsuccessful.

Even the judiciary stalls

In the heat of the
allegations by “the progressives”, the House of Representatives
suspended Mr. Melaiye and 10 other members indefinitely, following a
rowdy and violent session.

The suspended
members, however, approached the court demanding a reversal of their
suspension and that their arrears since their suspension be paid in
full. After listening to the arguments of both parties, Muhammed Adamu,
judge of the federal high court Abuja who is presiding over the matter
announced that the judgement would be delivered on November 15.

After two
postponements however, Mr. Adamu is yet to give his ruling. The case
has now been adjourned to December 2 for ruling on the legality or
otherwise of the legislators’ suspension.

Two of the eleven members who were suspended have been recalled by
the House of Representatives. The lawmakers, Ehioge-West Idahosa and
Gbenga Onigbogi, withdrew their case from the court and apologized for
their actions.

The former governor
of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Chukwuma Soludo, is under the
radar of British crime investigators who want to understand his role in
the N29 billion polymer banknote contract issued during his tenure.

Between 2006 and
2009, the Central Bank carried out currency reforms that saw the
introduction of polymer bank notes to replace the paper notes of the
country’s lower denominations. In late 2009, media reports alleged that
top CBN officials had received bribes in order to grant an Australian
company, Securency International Pty Ltd, the contract which saw the
Australian company supplying Nigeria with at least 1.9 billion pieces
of the polymer substrate.

The contract is now
the subject of a multi-national investigation straddling Vietnam,
Malaysia, Australia, the UK and Nigeria, from which about N3.5 billion
was paid out in slush fund. Investigators believe that millions out of
the amount were paid to top Nigerian politicians and bank officials.

Investigating the Scandal

International
sources who spoke to NEXT in confidence, said that feelers from the
on-going investigations by the British Serious Fraud Office (SFO) point
to the fact that Mr. Soludo has become a subject of their
investigations. NEXT had earlier reported that the former bank chief
directed contract processes in the CBN as well as the Nigerian Security
Printing and Minting PLC, of which the CBN has a 77% shareholding.

“SFO is
investigating the Nigerian deal in the UK. Soludo may be tied to a lot
of those Nigerian deals which explains why the SFO may be investigating
him,” our source said.

The SFO’s spokesperson in an email exchange with NEXT however declined to confirm or refute the claims.

“Without wishing to
be unhelpful, I am unable to provide any further details. The
investigation is ongoing. For guidance; it is not SFO policy to confirm
or deny the names of suspects in its investigations,” Katie Winstanley
of the SFO said. Ms. Winstanley further said that the SFO has arrested
at least five people so far in connection with the on-going
investigation.

A source within the
EFCC, who asked not to be named, however confirmed that the SFO had
indeed contacted the Nigerian anti-graft agency in relation to the
investigations involving Mr. Soludo.

“There may be
something like that. I know that there has been intelligence exchange
between the EFCC and the SFO concerning this matter. It is an on-going
investigation which was not initiated by the EFCC,” our source said.

In the months
following the media reports, several anti-corruption agencies within
and outside Nigeria have launched investigations into the scandal. In
Nigeria, the initial enthusiasm showed by the Nigerian Police, the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and the National
Assembly has since waned. None of the Nigerian investigations have
yielded any results.

Efforts to get obtain reactions from the official spokesmen for the EFCC and the CBN were unfruitful.

Sharing the contract commissions

Documents obtained
by NEXT show that Securency, whose parent company is the Reserve Bank
of Australia, paid about $23 million dollars in suspect commissions to
a company domiciled in a tax haven, Seychelles. The company, SPT
Limited, further commissioned two other agents to secure the Nigerian
contracts.

The Australian
media, championed by The Age, is claiming that the agents chosen had
close links with top government and CBN officials. One of the agents,
Joseph Raad, who was appointed as a ‘confidential sub-agent’ by SPT
LTD, is Iceland’s honorary Consul General to Nigeria. SPT, which stood
to gain 12% of all contract deals secured from Nigeria, pledged to pay
its agents between 4.5-5% of the contracts worth.

Former president
Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday laughed off the emergence of his erstwhile
deputy, Atiku Abubakar, as the consensus candidate of the North in next
year’s presidential elections.

Mr. Atiku had, on
Monday, been named the presidential aspirant of the region by the
Northern Political Leaders’ Forum led by Adamu Ciroma.

Mr. Obasanjo, who
was approached by reporters while leaving the council chambers of the
presidential villa where he had, alongside three other former heads of
state, attended the National Council of State meeting, was initially
reluctant to respond to questions from journalists on his former
deputy’s chances at the polls.

But unable to avoid
the throng of persistent journalists for long, he comically cleared his
nose with his inhaler for a long while before replying in pidgin
English: “ah, I dey laugh o!”

Rather than complete his statement or speak further on the issue, however, Mr. Obasanjo turned into a preacher.

He said he had
always prayed for happiness in life and now he is a happy man. He went
ahead to pray for journalists who were eagerly waiting for him to make a
full comment on the question they had asked him.

“My prayer for you is that you will always have happiness in life” he said, and he got a loud chorus of “amen”.

Katsina state
governor, Ibrahim Shema, who was also approached for his reaction,
merely told journalists that Mr. Atiku is just a presidential aspirant
and that the north will speak for itself at the appropriate time.

When asked to
comment on the emergence of a consensus candidate from the region ahead
of the polls, former head of state, Muhammad Buhari replied that his
party, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), has nothing to do with
the issue of zoning.

“Zoning is a purely
PDP affair, but CPC’s constituency is the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Anybody, anywhere can contest for any office he think he can achieve,”
Mr Buhari said.

Lawmakers of the
Action Congress of Nigeria, in line with their party’s leadership, on
Thursday broke ranks with their colleagues over the ongoing amendment of
a section of the 2010 Electoral act to enable lawmakers become part of
the executive council of their parties.

The ACN lawmakers,
who said the amendment was self-serving, announced their position on
Thursday after a meeting with the party leadership in the National
Assembly complex, Abuja.

They said the
current amendment of the electoral act, which seeks to order all
political parties to have a National Executive Committee comprising all
the federal lawmakers, offends the Constitution and stifles the ability
of the parties to make their own constitutions and decide who attends
their executive committee meetings.

“Instead of the
feeble defence offered by its authors, that it will strengthen internal
democracy in the political parties; we say unequivocally that it can
only succeed in turning the parties to political zombies,” Usman Bugaje,
the party’s national secretary who represented the party chairman said.
“How can a zombie party thrive on internal democracy? This is a paradox
that is glaring to all except those behind the obnoxious misadventure.”
Mr Bugaje argued that prescribing uniform constitution for the parties,
with regards to the constitution of the party’s NEC, the conduct of
primaries and the other party guiding principles in the 2010 electoral
act, would limit the choice of which party Nigerians could opt for.

“This to us is like
prescribing one medicine for all ailments. This is wrong. It is not for
the National Assembly or INEC to tell all parties how to conduct their
primaries. Democracy cannot grow through such regimentation. We reject
it in its entirety,” Mr. Bugaje said.

Internal democracy

The PDP-led national
assembly, however, had argued that the various amendments in the 2010
electoral act will ensure internal democracy in the political parties.

“The talk about
internal democracy, as a reason for regulating party primaries, by the
PDP-led National Assembly, is a smokescreen, self-serving move. While
the PDP may have a reason for doing that – to satisfy a faction, we at
the ACN do not have such problems and should not be railroaded into one a
one-size-fits-all kind of arrangement. It is up to parties to determine
how their candidates will emerge,” Mr. Bugaje said.

The party criticised
almost every amendment in the electoral act, ranging from the
sequencing of elections to the proposed amendment which will make most
of the legislators member of their party’s NEC.

“We believe that the
ongoing attempt by federal lawmakers to gate crash into NECs of various
political parties is anti-democratic, self-serving and downright
unconstitutional. The national assembly as a whole whether senators or
House of Representatives fully associate ourselves with the position of
the party on this issue,” Mamora Olorunmibe, leader of ACN caucus in the
national assembly said.

Femi Gbajabiamila,
leader of ACN in the House of Representatives corroborated Mr. Mamora’s
stance. He also said some members are being victimized for opposing
contents of the proposed 2010 Electoral act amendment bill.

Strolling while the
Nigeria’s National Anthem is being recited may soon be punishable by
law, as the Senate on Thursday passed its bill through second reading.

The advancement of
the bill is a significant step in standardising its rendition as well as
protecting the National Anthem, which most of the senators agree is
currently exposed to risk of annihilation.

The bill is
sponsored by Osita Izunaso PDP from Imo state who also sponsored the
bill to mandate doctors to treat accident victims without police
reports.

“Our National Anthem
if not backed by law, might be rightly jettisoned into the historical
dustbin if any President feels he does not like it,’’ Mr. Izunaso said.

The bill seeks,
among other things, to give a legal framework to the National Anthem and
gives protection to it against unwarranted tampering and abuse.The bill
is to make the playing of the Nigerian Anthem a revered, respectful and
solemn occasion and prescribes penalties for anyone who deliberately
brings contempt and ridicule to the act.He lamented that the national
anthem which “encapsulates our collective pride and patriotism, is not
backed up with any legal instrument.”

Significant bill

Currently,there is no legislature on the use of the National Anthem.

Ayogu Eze, the
senate spokesman, said the bill is very significant as it will save the
current national anthem from the fate of the initial one.

“If we have had the
bill like the one on the floor now years ago , the old anthem will
still be in existence, because if you ask me, the old one is better than
this new one.” Mr. Eze said.

Mr.Izunaso said it
is regrettable that successive past governments “either out of oversight
or lack of political will did not care about this thereby exposing our
national anthem to the vagaries or vicissitude of tomorrow.” Every
senator who spoke supported the bill. They said if passed, the bill
would help to strengthen the sense of our national identity within and
outside of Nigeria.

The bill was
referred to the senate committee on interior matters , which would hold
public hearing on it and report back to the senate, possibly before
their tenure expires in May 2011.

Veteran filmmaker, Tunde Kelani, has
defended the governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola, against
criticism over his suggestion that filmmakers should befriend pirates.

Mr Fashola had, while declaring open the
2010 Association of Movie Producers (AMP) Eko International Film
Festival at the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos, on Monday referred to
pirates as “our brothers and sisters”. He also told filmmakers to
constructively engage pirates in order to have a win-win situation in
the fight against the menace.

“Let us understand that, they do not
dislike you. It’s not that they have a personal quarrel with you but
there is an economic opportunity there and that is the best way they
have responded to it,” Fashola had said.

However,speaking during a courtesy visit
to NEXT on Thursday, Mr Kelani, who has lost substantial revenue on
‘Arugba’, his latest film, due to piracy, said Mr Fashola meant well.Mr
Kelani, who described the Lagos State governor as the number one fan of
the entertainment industry, said people have misunderstood the man as
he would never succumb to illegality.

“I know Babatunde Raji Fashola very well
and I’m privileged to know that he has great plans for the reformation
of the entertainment industry in Lagos. Personally, he has identified
with artists and he is the number one fan of the entertainment
industry,” he said.

Reforming the industry

The award-winning filmmaker, member of a
panel Mr Fashola set up to reform the entertainment industry in the
state,disclosed that the committee had submitted its report.

“He has great plans for the
entertainment industry in Lagos State. He is passionate about that
industry. The governor knows the importance of ‘Eko’, the city of Lagos
as a major entertainment hub in the whole of Africa and [his] government
is ready to claim the number position in the entertainment
destination,” Kelani said.

Kelani, who also spoke in support of a
number of film events and festivals across the country, said it is an
indication of growth that will also boost tourism in the country.

“It’s an aspect of packaged culture which leads to tourism. This is
going to drive tourism because everybody knows that at this particular
time of the year, it is Akure, this particular time, it is Ibadan, Port
Harcourt or Yenagoa.”

The Northern
Political Leaders Forum (NPLF) on Thursday refuted reports claiming that
its consensus candidate, Atiku Abubakar, beat former military
president, Ibrahim Babangida, by a single vote.The rebuttal was
contained in a press released by the forum’s secretary, Bello Sabo
Abdulkadir.

Mr. Abdulkadir said
the report cannot be true because he was the only non- member of the
NPLF present at the voting and that none of the reporters spoke to him.

“Unknown to the
peddlers of this false report, I, Bello Sabo Abdulkadir, Secretary to
the consensus Committee was the only person present, who was not a
member of the committee,when the voting to choose the consensus
candidate took place. Yet, even I have no idea which member of the
Committee voted for which candidate simply because the voting was by
secret ballot and no member volunteered any information to that effect,”
he said, adding that “the forum would have totally ignored the report
if the report did not also attribute its story to ‘a source, who
witnessed the vote.”

He said the report
in question failed tenets of journalism in the sense that none of the
reporters spoke to him or to any member of the consensus committee. “As a
matter of fact, each member of the committee has assured me that they
have never met with any of the reporters nor spoken to any since the
conclusion of the process. How then did the reporters come about their
vote count, not to talk of matching votes and voters to specific
candidates? The report is, to say the least, highly irresponsible and
regrettable,” the statement said.

He also apologised to “all whose hard earned reputation the report
seeks to tarnish, especially the aspirants who submitted themselves to
the consensus process.”

Lawmakers of the
Action Congress of Nigeria, in line with their party’s leadership, on
Thursday broke ranks with their colleagues over the ongoing amendment of
a section of the 2010 Electoral act to enable lawmakers become part of
the executive council of their parties.

The ACN lawmakers,
who said the amendment was self-serving, announced their position on
Thursday after a meeting with the party leadership in the National
Assembly complex, Abuja.

They said the
current amendment of the electoral act, which seeks to order all
political parties to have a National Executive Committee comprising all
the federal lawmakers, offends the Constitution and stifles the ability
of the parties to make their own constitutions and decide who attends
their executive committee meetings.

“Instead of the
feeble defence offered by its authors, that it will strengthen internal
democracy in the political parties; we say unequivocally that it can
only succeed in turning the parties to political zombies,” Usman Bugaje,
the party’s national secretary who represented the party chairman said.
“How can a zombie party thrive on internal democracy? This is a paradox
that is glaring to all except those behind the obnoxious misadventure.”
Mr Bugaje argued that prescribing uniform constitution for the parties,
with regards to the constitution of the party’s NEC, the conduct of
primaries and the other party guiding principles in the 2010 electoral
act, would limit the choice of which party Nigerians could opt for.

“This to us is like
prescribing one medicine for all ailments. This is wrong. It is not for
the National Assembly or INEC to tell all parties how to conduct their
primaries. Democracy cannot grow through such regimentation. We reject
it in its entirety,” Mr. Bugaje said.

Internal democracy

The PDP-led national
assembly, however, had argued that the various amendments in the 2010
electoral act will ensure internal democracy in the political parties.

“The talk about
internal democracy, as a reason for regulating party primaries, by the
PDP-led National Assembly, is a smokescreen, self-serving move. While
the PDP may have a reason for doing that – to satisfy a faction, we at
the ACN do not have such problems and should not be railroaded into one a
one-size-fits-all kind of arrangement. It is up to parties to determine
how their candidates will emerge,” Mr. Bugaje said.

The party criticised
almost every amendment in the electoral act, ranging from the
sequencing of elections to the proposed amendment which will make most
of the legislators member of their party’s NEC.

“We believe that the
ongoing attempt by federal lawmakers to gate crash into NECs of various
political parties is anti-democratic, self-serving and downright
unconstitutional. The national assembly as a whole whether senators or
House of Representatives fully associate ourselves with the position of
the party on this issue,” Mamora Olorunmibe, leader of ACN caucus in the
national assembly said.

Femi Gbajabiamila,
leader of ACN in the House of Representatives corroborated Mr. Mamora’s
stance. He also said some members are being victimized for opposing
contents of the proposed 2010 Electoral act amendment bill.

The world’s poorest
countries are trapped in boom-bust cycles and their medium-term
prospects are a cause for concern, the United Nations Conference on
Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in a report issued on Thursday in
Addis Ababa.

The 49 states,
categorised as Least Developed Countries (LDCs), weathered the global
downturn better than expected, but they now need a new systematic
international approach to development, rather than ad hoc emergency
measures, to reduce their economies’ reliance on raw materials, UNCTAD
said.

“They have not been
able to benefit from any global trends to wean themselves away from
increasing dependence on commodities,” UNCTAD secretary general,
Supachai Panitchpakdi, told a briefing.

The 258 report,
which was titled ‘Towards a New International Development Architecture
for LDCs,’ said though these countries were coping with recession, they
remain stuck in ‘boom-and-boost cycle’, which have long plagued their
economies, and that their medium-term prospects posed a cause for
concern.

The report said the
49 poorest countries need better-designed financing – rising from an
estimated $4 billion to $17 billion per annum by 2030 – to cope with the
difficulties posed by climate change.

“They will have
difficulty escaping poverty and ending the chronic vulnerabilities, and
even boom periods have done little to improve living standards in those
countries,” it stated.

Optimistic on growth

It said that
aggregate growth indicators showed that average GDP growth in LDCs was
4.3 percent in 2009, higher than in other developed countries.

It also stated that
donors appear reluctant to scale up their external assistance, but that
the new multilateral lending may have partly cushioned the downturn, but
it certainly contributed to the build-up of external debt.

“While debt owed to
official creditors remains far below its level of year 2000, in the
median African LDCs it increased by 1.5 percent of GDP,” the report
stated.

“By April 2010, a
total of 10 LDCs were in a situation of debt distress and another 10
were at high risk of debt distress,” it said.

The report, which was jointly presented by Jean-Noel Francois of the
Trade and Investment Department of the AU Commission, and Maryam
Dessables of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, said in spite of the
challenges, most of the LDCs would achieve the MDGs by 2015.

The Anglican
Communion plans to open a university in Jos, Plateau State to enhance
educational development. Nicholas Okoh, the Primate of All Nigeria
,Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, has said.

Mr. Okoh disclosed
this on Thursday in Abuja during the Anglican Educational Stakeholders’
Forum, stating that although the communion already has two universities
located in Oyo and Anambra states, it has seen the need to open another
one in Jos.

He said the
communion plans to build the new university so that those who want to go
there for ease of proximity can access to education there, instead of
travelling to far away Oyo, and Awka in Anambra States