I have seen this story on me on your site titled “NTA Scam: 8.2 Billion Naira NTA Broadcast Equipment for Nigeria 2009 questions” written by unidentified concerned Nigerian broadcast professionals on Monday July 20, 2009. In the story I was labelled a scammer.
I have also noticed that it has remained on your home page as a news flash for months and this has become an embarrassment to me, my family, my staff, and all the people around me. It is also a surprise to me that you did not cross-check such a weighty and damaging allegation before placing it on your website. It is even more worrisome that it is anonymous. I deserve to be contacted for clarification on such a damaging allegation after long years of selfless service to our dear country, especially my eight years sojourn in NAFDAC where I almost lost my life for refusing to be compromised by criminals.
When this story started making rounds, I wondered where it was coming from. A whole lot of questions raced through my head; could this be sponsored by those who lost out in the bidding process, or those who would not want NTA to compete with their stations, or are these fake drug merchants still looking for ways to attack me for ruining their businesses? I am confused but only God knows who is desperate to malign me. My consolation is that nobody can pull me down except if God allows it.
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In my several years as a public servant, I have endeavoured to live above board right from when I served in the caretaker committee of my local government, to when I was zonal secretary of Petroleum Special Trust Fund (PTF), to when I became the DG of NAFDAC, and to this moment that I am the minister for Information and Communications. I have tried to be as transparent as possible in my activities. I have neither asked any human being for bribe nor asked anybody to collect on my behalf, and I have also said this publicly many times. I always feel a sense of pride that I can say this without any fear of contradiction after having been in public service (including the most sensitive and tempting places) since the mid 90s. I have always been a firm believer in this country Nigeria for many reasons. All through my life I have studied on Government Scholarship from Secondary school to undergraduate and post graduate levels. I did my post Doctorate Studies in University of London on commonwealth fellowship because I am a Nigerian. My commitment to public service understandably is propelled by overriding national interest. As a firm believer in God, I know that we are on a pilgrimage on earth, and that at the end of this journey I will, just as any other person account for my actions or inactions.
As a minister, it is my responsibility to present memos on projects from all the 14 parastatals under the ministry of information and communications to Federal Executive Council (FEC). This presentation is normally done after due process certificate is received on any project. Consequently, from my assumption of duty in December 2008 to date, I have presented the following 3 financial memos on projects to Federal Executive Council for approval: The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) contract which involves Building of Emergency Communication Centres in 36 States of the federation and FCT at the total sum of N2, 439,896,837.57; Supply/Installation of Emergency Communication Equipment in 37 Centres at the total sum of $13,572,651.60; and the NTA Broadcast Equipment Upgrade of N8.9 billion.
In all these contracts from NCC and NTA, I never requested to know any of the contractors, and I never saw any contractor, or discussed anything with any of them, except the NTA team that wrote officially seeking an audience with me after their contract was approved by FEC.
Surprisingly the memo to Federal Executive Council on NTA project has generated so much heat that I feel compelled to clear my hard earned reputation of any complicity in this matter.
Let me give some clarification on the whole process for the award of the equipment upgrade on NTA. First of all, the process started 2 years ago when the National Sports Commission indicated interest to host the FIFA under 17 World Cup, long before I became Minister.
The first step undertaken by NTA was to go through selective tendering, after which they recommended 3 contractors to Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP): THOMPSON GRASS VALLEY OF FRANCE for upgrading and refurbishing of 6 Outside Broadcast Van from Standard Definition (SD) to High Definition (HD), plus upgrading and refurbishing of International Broadcast Centre from SD to HD; WTS/SONY NIGERIA for renovation of the 6 Digital Satellite News Gathering van and VISAT USA for upgrading and refurbishing of 9 meter satellite Hub at the National Stadium. Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) reviewed the submissions of NTA and decided to call for fresh tenders from all interested parties in order to clear some technical details. Following the BPP position, fresh tenders were submitted directly to BPP by all companies that were interested in the bid. Thereafter, BPP selected WTS/ SONY Nigeria to handle the entire project. Based on the BPP decision, a ’Certificate of No Objection’ was issued to WTS/SONY.
It was at this stage that I carried out my statutory responsibility to carry the memo that had gone through all necessary due process to Federal Executive Council for approval. The only condition for a Minister to submit a memo to FEC is that the parastatal obtains certificate of no objection from BPP, which BPP can only give after scrutinizing all processes to ensure that everything is in order. The DG of NTA/his technical staff and a staff of BPP attended council (which is the usual practice) to answer technical questions. Council debated on the memo with all relevant attachments and approved it. Thereafter, I officially conveyed council’s approval to NTA to enable them award the contract. From the above information which has been in the public domain, it is clear that I was not in any way involved in determining the project or selecting the contractor; I did not initiate the contract; I did not in any way influence the contract; and I had nothing to do with the process by law.
I had earlier said that I never asked who was the contractor to any project in all the contracts that I had taken to FEC since I became Minister, and that WTS/SONY group wrote a letter to see me after the contract had been approved by FEC. During the meeting with the WTS/SONY group, which eventually took place in my office in the presence of a ministry staff, I raised the following points:
(a) That the contract is time bound and therefore must be executed with dispatch and delivered on schedule.
(b) Delay would not be entertained.
(c) Sometimes when contractors are given any form of down payment, they go about looking for whom to give money. I thereby warned them not to give money to anybody, and that if anyone asks them for money, they should report to me. This is because such distribution of monies leads to delays, contracts not being properly executed and sometimes abandoned projects. I added that I did not want this contract to become another Halliburton.
People have done a lot of damage to the image of this country. Some writers even said that the South Africans OB vans cost N6.4 billion and that NTA wanted to refurbish six OB Vans with N6.8 billion. This is not true. First, I will like to clarify that the right figure for all projects is N8.9 billion and not N8.2 billion. People got everything wrong about the contract. The NTA project is in four different areas. The first area includes Upgrading the six OB Vans. Second, is the upgrade of the International Broadcast Centre (IDC) to high definition mode. This centre has well over 40 monitors, which are to be removed and installed with another set of equipment of high definition mode. In addition, there are four Edit Suits in place. The third one is the Upgrade of Nine-Metre Satellite Hub at the National Stadium, Abuja. And four, there will be an upgrade of the digital satellite news gathering vans. Before jumping into conclusion we should find out what constitutes the contract in South Africa? Has anyone given an analysis of what they bought? What kind of cameras, how many cameras, what quality of cameras, are they remote control or with cable, what quality of microphones, what payment plan was in place, warranty period, maintenance agreement, staff training and other details. Are all their equipment powered by UPS and Generators as is the case with Nigeria? For the NTA contract, I believe that federal Government secured a good payment offer. Government makes a 15% down payment, and 85% will be paid over a period of 27 months at an interest rate of 5%. One would have thought that this should have given some of our journalists good news to write about. The interest rate of any loan today as we all know is between 20 to 25%. Here is a wholly owned Nigerian company offering government 5% interest rate spread over two years to supply equipment and somebody thinks it is a fraud. Where is the fraud coming from? Has anybody made effort to find out the financing method South Africa adopted?
On why NTA is renovating from SD to HD; this is not a possibility. You cannot renovate from standard Definition to High Definition. Part of the job content is to remove all equipment in those six Outside Broadcast (OB) vans and install them with brand new equipment of high definition mode. It is what NTA calls upgrading from standard definition to high definition. It is therefore not renovation but total stripping and replacement of the entire content of the OB vans.
One can therefore understand how saddened I was when I read in Sahara that the contract was shoddy and expensive. It is not fair to label me a scammer on a contract that I neither initiated nor negotiated the cost. I plead that management of Sahara reports should kindly endeavour to reach out and verify issues of national relevance, and if possible interview whoever is concerned before going to town with sensational and damaging accusations and misinformation. This is important because blackmailers will continue to think of the next story to make up when one fails.
What is happening today is very dangerous; a situation where anybody can write anything and it will be posted to the internet unverified. Is it not better to verify allegations to avoid vilifying an innocent person? Must we destroy the image of our country and the future of our children by painting our country and every Nigerian Public Servant “bad’’ in the eyes of the world? The impression we give to the world today about ourselves is what they will use against us tomorrow. If it is in my character to be compromised, or if I am desperate to make easy money, I would have become a multibillionaire in my almost 8 years as NAFDAC DG. Rather, I preferred to tread the part of incorruptibility for which I nearly lost my life.
Signed: Prof. Dora Nkem Akunyili, Minister of information and Communications, Nigeria
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