No doubt, Nigeria parades the best set of Newspaper editors in Black Africa as aptly shown by the quality of awards received so far by many Nigerian Journalists across Africa. Just last week, the Sunday Trust editor, sorry, one of the nation’s longest serving Acting Sunday Editors Mr. Theophilus Abbah scooped for himself a fantastic award as Africa’s most outstanding editor in the year who published very controversial but objectively sound news material amid widespread pressure from certain quarters.
That award was the first PANAFRICAN Journalism award of excellence. May I please ask the senior editorial and management staff of Daily Trust group of Newspapers why this exceptional and gallant editor Mr. Theophilus Abbah is still appearing on their masthead as ACTING EDITOR? Or is it a perfect case of a prophet not being sufficiently recognized in his homeland? Pardon me for this necessary digression because as journalists we owe ourselves a duty to say it as it is because we are worshippers in the temple of truth and objectivity. Thankfully, the motto of our beloved Daily Trust is TRUTH IS A BURDEN.
Sorry, may I throw an open challenge to all the editors in Nigeria, I mean the photo Editors of newspapers and television stations with the possible exception of the Nigeria Television authority [NTA] for fear of Professor Dora Akunyili, to please publish and broadcast the original photographs or films of the swearing-in ceremonies of the current ministers so that Nigerians can judge for themselves whether the title of this piece is appropriate or rather whether I am right in drawing a conclusion that while Nigerians cry because of ongoing government-made excruciating poverty, the ministers are smiling to their bank accounts with handsome commissions and kickbacks from some dubious contractors who would collect mobilization fees for jobs awarded them without compliance with due process as required by the enabling law setting up the Bureau For Public Procurements [BPP] and pocket some percentage after settling the so-called ministers who have suddenly grown big stomachs and disappear without a trace even when the jobs are abandoned recklessly?
But for the gallant work [even if not totally fool-proof] done by the Bureau for Public Procurements [BPP] to ensure that due process is met by all the ministries before issuing out certificates validating awards of contracts by the ministries, agencies and extra-ministerial departments, the stomachs of these federal ministers some of whom are heading ministries that are not performing at all like the Federal Capital Territory, would have expanded beyond human imagination. I know some of these ministers before they assumed offices and I can attest to the fact that their bellies have indeed expanded unimaginably. I also know some of these ministers who were staying in some funny corners of Abuja before they were rigged into offices by President Yar’adua but whose houses were transformed overnight into mansions with some of the largest power generating sets donated to them on assumption of office by some dubious but clever contractors. Do you now understand why the ministers, legislators and their brother Governors including the seemingly HOLIER-THAN-THOU governor of Central Bank of Nigeria [CBN] have blindly endorsed the current draconian drive by the Federal Government to deregulate the downstream sector of the petroleum industry thereby deregulating misery, suffering and harsher poverty among a majority of Nigerians?
Once more, apologies for my digression from the main issue in focus today which is the revolutionary effort being made by the Engineer Emeka Ezeh-led Bureau For Public Procurements [BPP] to effect a positive change in the various ministries and departments of Government agencies to ensure that due process is met before contract award could be issued by the ministries or their departments. In this last quarter, nearly a dozen stakeholders’ conferences and capacity building seminars have taken place under the auspices of the Bureau for Public Procurements [BPP]. Trainings of different dimensions aimed at equipping the managers of procurement in the federal ministries with the technical knowledge of transparent and accountable public procurement processes are currently ongoing by the Bureau for Public Procurements [BPP]. Most Nigerians interviewed for this piece believe that if the current momentum is maintained by the Bureau for Public Procurement, then Nigeria will sooner rather than later begin to experience transparent bidding process and clean contract award process in the federal ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria. To borrow from my Pentecostal brothers, can someone shout Alleluia? Alleluia...
It is not Eldorado yet because even the Bureau for Public Procurements [BPP] recently disclosed that the ministers are putting a cog in the wheel of progress as regards the effective execution and implementation of the 2009 budget. The Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria with all their imperfections and total lack of representation of the interest of Nigerians in the core area of defending public interest in the ongoing debate on deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry, have also stated in black but may be not in white, that the ministries in the Federation have performed poorly in the execution of the extant budget which is a law of the National Assembly.
On November 4th 2009, The Guardian carried a cover story stating the obvious that; ‘’senate accuses Presidency, Ministries and Departments of Federal ministries of non-performance in the execution of the 2009 federal budget’’. The Senate spokesman who most times speak from both sides of his mouth when issues bordering on the defence of public interest especially matters on poverty eradication come up, stated that; ‘’the senate is not satisfied with budget performance... in some places, the performance is as low as 15 percent [15%], in some others 27% and in others 30 something %... the lapses and failures recorded by the Yar’adua administration in budget performance were largely due to massive corruption and inefficiency in the civil service’’. Good talk but little or no action because as federal legislators with constitutional duty of oversight functions on the implementation of budget by the Federal ministries, the National Assembly has over the last two years witnessed spectacular cases of corruption in the procurement process by the bureaucrats running the place. Was is not in the House of Representatives that the bureaucrats and the law makers purchased series of choice Peugeot automobile cars at three times their original market value and when issues of transparency were raised all hell was let loose for a while only for the scandal to be conveniently hidden under the green rugs?
+Onwubiko is with Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria.
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