May 24, 2010
Nigeria’s hopes of meeting Target 2A of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which seeks primary school education for all children by 2015, is now at the mercy of a war of attrition between the Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr. Ahmed Modibbo Mohammed, and his colleague in the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI), Dr. Aminu Ladan, over control of the billions of Naira Modibbo Mohammed skimmed off MDGs’ grant to the institute.
Nigeria’s hopes of meeting Target 2A of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which seeks primary school education for all children by 2015, is now at the mercy of a war of attrition between the Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr. Ahmed Modibbo Mohammed, and his colleague in the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI), Dr. Aminu Ladan, over control of the billions of Naira Modibbo Mohammed skimmed off MDGs’ grant to the institute.
MDGs office has since 2006 pumped over N14 billion to NTI, ostensibly to help the institute meet up with training enough teachers to meet the target of primary school education for all children by 2015. Of the grant, over N8 billion is believed to have found its way into Modibbo’s pockets through his wife’s Binani Group, while Nigeria, according to UNICEF’s 2010 report, maintains an unenviable world record of harboring the largest number of out-of-school children after Pakistan. Most of these out-of-school children became willing tools in the hands of the Boko Haram sect that recently unleashed mayhem in several parts of Northern Nigeria. Our checks reveal that in 2006, NTI got N3.3 billion from MDGs; N3.3 billion for 2007; N3.8 billion for 2008 and another N3.8 billion in 2009. For 2010, the MDG office has budgeted a whopping N4 billion. While Modibbo reportedly feels completely shut out by the current NTI boss, Ladan, sources say Ladan insists that the “fall-out” from the MDGs grants should not be for Binani Group of companies alone. NTI sources claim Ladan is towing a new path of competitiveness and transparency in the award of the contracts, “not minding the darts being unrelentingly being fired by Modibbo.” Apparently overwhelmed, Senior presidential assistant on MDGs, Amina Ibrahim-Zubair, had in April 2009, in Kaduna, painted a very bleak future for Nigeria’s progress towards achieving MDGs. “Nigeria is off-track and has not laid the real foundation for achieving them (MDGs),” she had lamented before Vice President Namadi Sambo, who at the time was the state governor. The threat to the MDGs’ work plan reared its head in 2006 when the body released a maiden grant of N3.3 billion to NTI. At the time, Modibbo was winding up his second three-year tenure (six years) as Director of the institute, having been first appointed in March 2000. The NTI Act provides for a maximum of six years for the institute’s Chief Executive. But confronted with the grim reality that the N3.3 billion would arrive after his exit from NTI, Modibbo reportedly deployed all resources at his disposal to bribe key officials of the Federal Ministry of Education (FME), to allow him continue in office, albeit illegally. Our investigations revealed that the current UBEC boss was able to raise the bribe money through the hundreds of millions of Naira he raked in from 2000 to 2006 through several phony ‘printing’ and ‘supply ‘contracts unilaterally awarded scores of firms belonging to his then girlfriend, Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed. Chief among the firms were Binani Nigeria Ltd., Binwa Press Ltd., Infinity Telecoms, Golden Crescent, Al-Hazen Enterprises, Al-Mala Ltd., Infinity Telecoms Ltd aka Infinity Global Systems and Ojunwa Press Limited aka Ojunwa Nigeria Ltd. And having successfully “bought over” those whose job it is to alert the authorities of the vacancy in NTI, Modibbo continued in office, unchallenged. Prior to this, Modibbo had actually tested the waters by awarding small printing contracts to real and phantom companies which search reports of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) have since revealed belong to his lover of many years whom he formally married on February 13, 2010, Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed. An undated payment schedule for the “9-year basic educational curriculum” obtained by Saharareporters revealed that, among other payments, Binwa Press Limited got N13, 816, 800 for ‘printing’ 34,542 units of Primary 3 Mathematic textbooks at N400 per unit; Ojunwa Press which was registered four years later, N9, 374, 715 for ‘printing’ 29, 761 copies of Primary 4-6 Agricultural science, at N315 per copy; and a non-existent Al-Hazen Ltd., N18, 749, 430 for 29, 761 copies of Primary 1-3 Home Economics and Arabic studies respectively. The three companies, among many others owned by Modibbo’s lover-turned wife, have since become standard ‘winners’ of all contract awards in NTI as well as UBEC. According to documents obtained by Sahararerporters, no sooner had Modibbo got the N3.3 billion MDGs’ grant for 2006 than he set out to empty the entire sum on a spurious “re-training programme” for 145,000 teachers across the federation. The façade took place between 4th and 29th September 2006. To maximize his gains, Modibbo, who was NTI boss at the time, insisted that 145,000 teachers would participate in the workshop, even when it was clear that the eligible participants were going to be less than half of his figure. He awarded bogus contracts to his girlfriend’s Binani Group of companies to print “training manuals” in six subjects for the 145,000 ghost participants at N374 per book. This contract sum spilled a little above N325 million. Next, he contracted the same Binani Group to serve “refreshment for 148, 500 participants and resource persons” at N250 per person for the six days the ‘programme’ was expected to last. This came to a whopping N222, 750, 000. Two officials in his office at the time recounted how scandalized they were to discover that all Binani provided was a warm bottle of coke for each participant, to, in the words of one of them, “wash down the very tasteless potato pie the Binani woman claimed was meat pie.” For such “technical support and biometric services” such as data capture of the participants, Modibbo awarded yet another contract to Binani Group in the sum of N101, 125, 000. Expectedly, no data such as fingerprints was captured electronically, as such would have obviously put a lie to Modibbo’s claim that 145, 000 teachers participated in the programme. One NTI official captured it thus: “When we questioned his claim that 145,000 would attend the programme, he countered by requesting for N101 million for biometrics to prove that the people actually participated. But at the end of the day, they came with a few laptops that didn’t work, and then requested the less than 40,000 participants to fill in their bios and thumb-print on sheets of paper, with a promise that the data would later be uploaded and documented. Of course, that was the last anybody heard of the biometrics project. That way, N101 million quietly slid into Binani’s purse. “Of course, their motives ab initio was now too clear: they never wanted anybody to know the actual number of participants, which was less than 40,000 from the number of file jackets, meat pies and crates of soft drinks distributed, so that Modibbo and his girlfriend could pocket N101 million,” he added. Documents sourced from NTI revealed that Modibbo further ‘paid’ N13, 250 as allowance to each of the 145,000 teachers he claimed participated, bringing the total sum to N1,921,250,000. He claimed to have spent another N90,000 on each of the 3,500 “resource persons”, bringing the total sum to N315 million. In the name of “bank charges,” Modibbo handed Binani N57, 586, 285, N71 million, 44 million and N11 million on “general monitoring, stationery and running cost respectively; whilst N10, 641, 352 was spent on “publicity” in print and electronic media. Not satisfied with paying Binani Group a consultancy fee of N34, 094, 128, Modibbo still paid the firm N25, 896, 000 for what he called “post-training evaluation.” Said an NTI official: “Till date, not a single kobo of the 2006 MDGs expenditure has been retired simply because there is nothing to retire as all the ‘interest groups’ that should ask for it have been taken care of.” Seemingly confirming this suspicion, chairman of the NTI governing board and current Minister of Transport, while highlighting the activities of the council between November 2005 and October, 2006, blabbed: “Council monitored and ensured strict compliance in the implementation of this project, and overall, it has been adjudged a complete success.” Basking in the euphoria of the “successful completion” of the 2006 MDGs training workshop, Modibbo moved through the Federal Ministry of Education to have the Executive Council of the Federation (EXCOF) pass a resolution baring all non-holders of National Certificate of Education (NCE) from teaching in public schools. He proposed to EXCOF to mandate NTI to run a Special Teacher Upgrading Programme (STUP) to help holders of Pivotal Teachers’ Certificate (PTC) and Grade 2 Teachers’ Certificate obtain their NCE. EXCOF approved the proposal, including a request for N3 billion for NTI to implement the programme for the 100, 000 teachers he claimed needed STUP. However, NTI officials insist that not more than 45, 000 participated in STUP as against the 100, 000 claimed by Modibbo. One of the officials told Saharareporters that, as usual, the only reason Modibbo jacked up the figures was for him to justify the huge cost involved in printing 13 different manuals for each of the 100, 000 trainees he claimed participated. He awarded contracts totaling N1, 124, 889, 870 to his girlfriend’s companies for the printing of books for the programme. So arbitrary were the awards that none of the letters of the awards bore any contract sum. Even though Modibbo’s thievery is legendary, his resort to impunity in looting NTI dry couldn’t be better captured than a letter of award to Ojunwa Press Limited dated 8thAugust, 2007, even though search records at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) reveal that Ojunwa Press Limited RC 816752, wasn’t incorporated until two years later, precisely on 8th May, 2009. While the letter of award instructed Ojunwa Ltd. to print 26, 000 copies of unspecified English textbooks at N1, 130 per copy, the document was curiously silent on the total contract sum. Modibbo told the company that, “based on past your past performance on similar jobs in NTI,” the institute decided to allow the phantom company print 26, 000 copies of English textbooks. In the letter, Reference Number NTI/SADG/STUP-PRT/VOL 1/06, Modibbo told Ojunwa Press that, even though the Federal Ministry of Education had assigned the responsibility of printing of books for STUP to the NTI printing press, he was of the opinion that the deadline would not be met. Captioned “Printing of books for the Special Teachers’ Upgrading Scheme (STUP)”, Modibbo, in the letter, admitted: “The (NTI) press has already commenced the job, but due to some logistics problems the press might not be able to meet the delivery deadline. “It has therefore been decided that, based on your past performance on similar jobs for NTI, you should (sic) be requested to assist the press in the printing of the book (sic) as a press consultant for this job only. Your job would be in the areas of planning, materials supplies, print run, delivery and other logistics.” He enjoined Ojunwa Press to ensure that the books were of “27.7cm by 21 cm size using 60 grams bond paper and 300-350 grams glossy card for the cover.” The letter was signed on behalf of Modibbo by his Special Assistant, David Itamah. NTI sources disclosed that the decision to omit the total contract sum in the letters of award to Aishatu’s several front-companies may not be accidental after all. They are quick to point out Modibbo’s admission that the contract was strictly on a consultancy basis, yet NTI paid Ojunwa Press over N29 million for what ordinarily should have been the actual total cost of producing the books if it had been handled by the NTI press. ‘When tongues started wagging that Modibbo paid his cronies to print books which the NTI press ended up printing , he responding by sacking David Namiji, an assistant director and head of printing operations of NTI. Apparently to send a message that he meant business, the NTI boss supplanted Namiji with Steven James, a much junior assistant Chief Printing Officer,” an NTI official offered, adding, “of course, most of the books they printed still litter all of NTI’s warehouses all because one greedy man printed much more than was required.” Shortly after “successfully completing” the STUP programme, Modibbo settled down to harvest the 2007 MDGs’ grant of N3.3 billion. “He didn’t need to do much work. Modibbo simply got the 2006 budget and changed the date to 2007, of course retaining the entire consultancy, printing, feeding and biometric jobs for Binani Group,” offered a top officer of the ministry. And desiring to smokescreen the charade as having complied with “due process” requirements, Modibbo caused advertorials to be published in two national dailies. “The Federal Ministry of Education through the National Teachers’ Institute,” he advertised, “is to implement a Capacity Building Programme for 145,000 primary school teachers in all the states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, in the period of July/August 2007,” reminding, “The programme is part of the Millennium Development Goals Project (MDG), being coordinated by the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs.” The advertorial continued: “The Institute is hereby requesting for Expressions of Interest/Pre-qualification from reputable and experienced educational consultancy firms for the implementation of the programme as regards: Recruitment, Coordination of briefing meetings, payment of 3,500 resource persons and logistics support for the implementation of the workshop.” It advised bidders to include such details as “technical proposal, Certificate of Article of Incorporation, Certificate of Article of Incorporation, Evidence of VAT Registration and Curriculum Vitae of the Principal Partners/Consultants of the firm,” among others, concluding, “Only successful firms will be contacted.” The advertorial was signed by a certain M. D. Yusuf, Registrar and Secretary to NTI’s governing council. Sneered an NTI official: “Of course, only Binani was contacted.” According to the officer, it was while on the last lap of the spending spree on the 2007 MDGs’ grant, that disgraced former Agriculture minister, Sayaddi Abba Ruma, drew Modibbo’s attention to the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), which they imagined would hold more “crude oil reserves”. “After all, UBEC had just given an American company, Intermarkets, the phase 2 project of a plastic furniture contract for N850 million. And with the projection that the company would handle the entire project, Abba Ruma and Modibbo obviously thought it might not be a bad idea after all, to get involved in UBEC and wrest the project from the American company,” a member of the NTI board volunteered. “That was how Abba Ruma gave a verbal directive to the cowardly Minister of Education at the time, Aja Wachukwu, to sack the UBEC boss, Dr. Lami Amodu, and replace her with Modibbo. Of course, poor Wachukwu didn’t realize at the time he was being used by the cabal. He obliged, and Modibbo became UBEC boss but still refused to hand over NTI to a certain Dr. Patrick Onyekwere, who was named his successor. This was because the fraudster didn’t want to miss any penny of the MDGs’ grant in the subsequent years,” the board member narrated. After close to two months after Onyekwere’s appointment to NTI, continued the official, “prominent persons managed to prevail on Modibbo to hand over since he had resumed at UBEC two months earlier.” Recalled the official: “I remember the day Modibbo finally agreed to hand over to Onyekwere, who had spent weeks lurking around NTI because he had no access to his new office, the UBEC boss openly declared that he was leaving an empty treasury. But the truth is that, even weeks after his illegal redeployment to UBEC, he still used NTI’s Director of Finance, Ismaila, to clean out the accounts. He had given a very prophetic assurance that he would be back to NTI. Little did we realize that it would be by way of his wives companies and the current Director, Ladan, who until recently was his protégé. “Even when Onyekwere assumed office, they continued to present scores of cheques issued by Modibbo in favour of Binani. Obviously, Onyekwere’s hands were tied given that he literarily begged his way into getting the keys to the office. Being new in the system, there was no way he could pick a fight with Modibbo who, in any case, had moved to UBEC in far away Abuja,” the official revealed. Other sources revealed how Onyekwere had inadvertently run in the line of the cabal’s fire when he and the chairman of the NTI board at the time, Yusuf Suleiman, bowed to pressures from participants for the 2007 MDGs programme, to monetize their feeding allowance instead of allowing Binani handle it. Suleiman is the current Minister of Transport. “Unknown to Suleiman and Onyekwere, Modibbo had assured his girlfriend of the regular N222 million for meat pies and soft drinks. I guess they underestimated his influence from UBEC. When Modibbo got word that the new management had settled for N250 daily allowance for refreshment for each of the participants, he, naturally, panicked.” “The move would have blown the lid off Modibbo’s thievery. So, what he did was to connive with certain officials of the Bureau for Public Procurement to frustrate the release of a No Objection Certificate, the prerequisite for the release of any monies. Modibbo was largely able to achieve this through one of his in-laws, Murtala Raji, a chief systems engineer. Raji died on 15th April 2010, after a brief illness,” the source further revealed. Another official revealed how, upon the stalling of the release of the balance of the 2007 MDGs’ grant, Onyekwere’s management now became asphyxiated, financially. Modibbo, he disclosed, continued to belch orders at top management staff of Kaduna-based NTI from UBEC headquarters in Abuja, “so much that the mere mention of his name was sure to send shivers down the spines of all NTI staffers.” Sources close to the Minister of Education at the time, Aja Wachukwu told Saharareporters that Modibbo continued to call the shots, with the Minister scared stiff to confront him. With Wachukwu literarily in Modibbo’s pocket, the UBEC boss then made a final onslaught against his hapless successor in NTI by instigating Wachukwu to remove him. Said a former member of the NTI board: “This paid off in May, 2008, as the minister (Wachukwu), to our utter consternation, placed a telephone call through to Kaduna to direct the Director of Field Operations and Students’ Services, Unwaha Ismaila, to take over from Onyekwere who was supposedly appointed by Mr. President,” stressing, “that gives you a peep into the inner workings of the devilish minds of these people.” An aide to the former Minister also disclosed how Modibbo would harass their boss on end by dropping the name of Abba Ruma. “Each time Modibbo came around, you would notice the honourable Minister working overtime to please him. Obviously Modibbo knew Abba Ruma’s name was like a talisman, and he deployed it for maximum benefits, literarily running the entire ministry,” he disclosed. The aide, a security official, revealed how Modibbo arm-twisted Aja Wachukwu into naming pussy-footed Ismaila successor to Onyekwere, and how that singular moved swelled the pockets of the UBEC boss by about N4 billion. “So scared of the UBEC boss was Ismaila that he literarily peed in his pants each time Modibbo’s called him on the telephone,” a security source hinted. “Soon after Ismaila was named Acting Director in place of the sacked Acting Director, Onyekwere, Modibbo through his brother in-law, Raji, re-oiled his links in the Bureau for Public Procurement. Barely three months after Modibbo’s puppet, Ismaila, took over, that is, August 2008, had the Bureau for Public Procurement, which had put several road blocks on Onyekwere path to accessing the N3.3 billion budgeted for 2007 MDGs, released the money to Ismaila. “Another three months later, the Bureau released the 2008 MDGs grant which came to N3.8 million. This meant that in less than three months, the Bureau for Public Procurement released N7.1 billion to Modibbo’s puppet NTI director,” the NTI official disclosed. Documents obtained by Saharareporters revealed that Modibbo, who left no one in doubt that Ismaila was his stooge, directed the new NTI boss to “disburse” the N7.1 billion using his (Modibbo’s) budget template for 2006. Expectedly, Ismaila hurriedly arranged MDGs’ training workshops for 2007 and 2008, with such companies as Binani getting a whopping N445 million as cost of “refreshment for participants and resource persons” for two years running, and N202 million for biometrics. From the 2007/2008 lumped up workshops, sources close to Modibbo disclosed, the Binani Group, made a conservative “profit” of N4 billion. According to UBEC sources, no sooner had Modibbo used the Binani Group to clean up the 2007 and 2008 MDGs’ grants to NTI, than he moved a fresh N6 billion MDGs’ grant to UBEC for a novel Federal Teachers’ Scheme (FTS) to NTI. The scheme was designed to train teachers and then send them to the states for employment, with the federal government paying the participants a monthly stipend of N10,000. The MDGs’ grant for this programme came to UBEC in January, 2009. On the pretext that UBEC would be too busy to handle the FTS, foxy Modibbo sought for and secured the approval of his board to authorize “the better equipped NTI” to organize the scheme on behalf of UBEC. “Unknown to us, the decision would turn out a costly one for UBEC as it became a legal instrument for Modibbo to siphon off MDGs’ grant to his girlfriend,” a former member of the UBEC board offered, adding, “and mind you, none of us was in a position to contest his claim that 40, 000 participants would be involved.” UBEC sources disclosed that the board decision authorizing the domiciling of the FTS account with NTI was vehemently opposed by the then Director of Accounts, Mrs. Hadiza Kura, who reportedly insisted that it was procedurally and administratively wrong to domicile an account meant for UBEC with another organization. On 16th July, 2009 Kura was fired by “UBEC management” for “services no longer required.” One of the sources claimed that Kura’s sack may not be unconnected with the eyebrows she was said to have raised over the alleged domiciling of the UBEC Federal Teachers’ Scheme (FTS) account with NTI. “We heard that, too. How can over N6 billion MDG grant be lodged in an NTI account? There are very strong reasons to be worried, because we all know that NTI is autonomous training institute and not a financial consulting institution,” lamented a ministry official. By January 2009, the 2nd batch of the FTS had kicked off in full gear with virtually all the contracts going the way of the Binani Group. For instance, on January 5, 2009, NTI signed a “Form of Contract Agreement” with Binani Nigeria Ltd. of 9, Thaba Tseka Street, Wuse, Zone II, Abuja, in the sum of N331, 897, 050 net of taxes for the “Provision of consultancy services for the Induction of participants in the 2nd batch of the Federal Teachers’ Scheme.” Whilst the NTI ‘boss’ Ismaila signed the contract papers on behalf of his organization, Ibrahim Hamisu and Ado Babangida signed on behalf of the Binani Group. On the same day, NTI signed another contract with Binani Nigeria Ltd for the “printing of 46, 443 copies of English Language manual for the induction of participants” for the same scheme valued at N44, 492, 394. Yet on the same 5th January, 2009, NTI signed another contract in the sum of N44, 492, 394 with Triangular Communications Ltd (another front of Modibbo) for the “printing of 46, 443 copies of social studies manual” for the FTS, and Binwa Printing Press, the same N44, 492, 394 for the ‘printing’ of 16, 443 for basic science and technology manuals for the scheme. However, what seemed the most ludicrous award was to Ojunwa Press Ltd of ‘Plot 241, Secondi Crescent, Wuse II, Abuja.’ On January 5, 2009, Ojunwa Press Ltd. ‘won’ an NTI contract in the sum of N44, 492, 394 for the “printing of 46,443 copies of mathematics manual for the induction of participants in the 2nd batch of the Federal Teachers’ Scheme.” Whilst the acting Director of NTI, Mallam Unwaha Yahaya Ismail signed the ‘contract agreement’ on behalf of the institute, Nadi A. A. and Toufiq Olarewaju signed on behalf of Ojunwa Press Ltd. However, search reports from the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) have since revealed that Ojunwa Press Ltd. was incorporated five months after it ‘won’ the NTI contract, precisely on the 8th of May, 2009, with 17, Atiku Abubakar Road, Yola, as the registered company address. Two persons were listed as directors: Modibbo’s lover at the time, Aishatu Dahiru, and her sister, Fadimatu. “The question,” demanded a top NTI official, “is how Ojunwa Press Ltd, which was incorporated in 8th May 2009 could possibly have won a N44 million contract five months earlier, on 5th January, 2009? Of course, it goes to show that even though the crook Modibbo had been ‘redeployed’ to UBEC, he remained the de facto boss of NTI, at least until the no-nonsense Ladan came on board,” He added: “Take a look at all the so-called printing jobs. Nothing could be more incredulous. For N44, 492, 394, Binani was asked to print 46, 443 copies of English Language books. For the same sum (N44, 492, 394), Triangular was asked to print 46, 443 copies of social studies manual, and Binwa Printing Press, 16, 443 copies for basic science and technology manuals . “How can the cost of printing 46, 443 copies of an English textbook, 46, 443 copies of social studies and 16, 443 copies of basic science textbooks be the same, to the last kobo? The person who computed the figures sure deserve a Nobel Prize in mathematics,” the source stressed. More grievous, continued the source, is that at no point in the “contracts bazaar” were taxes factored in. “The façade was net of taxes. No withholding tax which should be 5 to 10 percent, and VAT. I guess certain officials of the Federal Inland Revenue Service must have been settled, or how do you explain a situation where somebody pockets N333 million for consultancy without paying a dime as tax?” he demanded, concluding, “Well, I guess you do not expect tax from ghost companies?” NTI and UBEC sources suggest that the crack in Modibbo’s “brotherhood’ with Ladan set in shortly after the latter’s appointment as NTI boss in January, 2009. Back in the 1990s when they were lecturers in Ahmadu Bello University, the duo, and the current Vice Chancellor of Adamawa State University, Dr. Alkassum Abba, had ran a well-organised sex-for-admission syndicate. The ring involved giving backhand admission to beautiful girls in exchange for bouts of sex. So sophisticated was Modibbo’s syndicate that they successfully framed up several academic and non-academic staff who stood in their way. The situation lingered until a courageous Faculty Officer, Lawal Bala Isa, decided to challenge them. In a seven-page submission to a committee on the alleged alteration of students academic records dated 5th March, 1997, Isa listed 17 ladies as beneficiaries of the scam admission. Isa, who tasked the committee to “interview exhaustively the former dean, Dr. A. M. (Ahmed Modibbo) Mohammed,” listed Aishatu Hassan Mohammed (founder of Binani Group) with fake matriculation number U93HS1029 as the “alleged girlfriend of Dr. A. M. Mohammed” and another fake student, Raji Bilikisu U92EC1170 as sharing the same “permanent home address” of “No. 10, Plateau Close, Area A, ABU, Zaria” with Modibbo. He equally listed Abdulrazaq Jumai U93HS1035, Amaukwu Chizoba. B. U92EC1277, among others. A former lecturer recounted how he was hounded out of ABU because “Modibbo used the current Director-General of the SSS (State Security Service), his classmate in the same school, plant bottles of beer in my refrigerator, just because I had raised questions of how some female students got admitted into the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences,” adding, “of course, the authorities asked me to leave.” If Ladan’s insistence that the skim off MDGs grant be “democratized”, NTI and UBEC sources, hint, nothing drove the wedge between both men than the 2009 MDGs grant, in which Ismaila gave a lion share of the “jobs” to Binani Group, but were revoked by Ladan when took over NTI in early January, 2009. For instance, on 11th June, 2009, in a considered affront on Binani Group of companies, Ladan awarded a contract for the renovation of his official residence to Tsangaya International Ventures of No. 1 Shopping Complex, Kaduna. The contract sum was for N9, 989, 655.76. In other letters of award obtained by us, Ladan awarded consultancy contracts to never-before-listed firms as Extra Mile Synergy Ltd., Hadina Consulting Ltd., Educational Consultative Services, Lawagima Consultant Limited and Medhal Nigeria Limited, among others, to handle the 2009 MDGs initially awarded Binani Group of companies. On 10th September, 2009, in another instance, in a letter with reference number NTI/S/BC.44/Vol II to S.S. Management Ltd. of 2, Akinmade Street, Anthony Village, Lagos, Ladan told the firm that NTI “has considered your quotation for the Printing of 2009 MDGs Manuals for the Retraining of Teachers in Edo, Delta and Rivers States” and, therefore “convey approval of the management on behalf of the Governing Council for your company to produce English, Math’s, SOS and BST for the 2009 MDGs training programmes in the above states as specified in the Tender Documents at the rate of N14, 005, 600.” And in what some UBEC officials dub a calculated move to discredit Modibbo’s campaign of calumny against Ladan’s handling of the 2009 MDGs, the current NTI boss shortly after the exercise, gave himself a thumbs up. Commenting on the 2009 programme in far away Abeokuta, Ladan cheekily declared that reports reaching him “showed that the 2009 exercise was the most successful since the inception of the training review programme.” A common friend of Modibbo and Ladan told us that the latter is scandalised that his “brother Modibbo” spent six years in NTI “wacking the money alone with his girlfriend and all the while complaining that there was nothing in NTI.” Ladan was said to have complained to a few friends that his appointment to NTI has helped open his eyes to the reality that Modibbo is a very self-centered man whose only interest in life is how to make Binani a very big conglomerate, perhaps bigger the India-based Binani Group. The source explained that Ladan had hinted that he was not unaware of the subterranean battle Modibbo launched against him, including reporting him to the Minister of Education for rehabilitating an official residence Modibbo insists “does not need any rehabilitation.” Modibbo is also said to have deployed two influential aides of the education minister Professor Rufai, who worked with him in NTI, to keep frustrating Ladan’s plan to upgrade NTI into a degree-awarding institution until the expiration of his (Ladan’s) tenure in January 2012. Ladan’s reported disappointment with Modibbo is also said to stem from what he considers Aishatu’s penchant for running after every single contract in NTI, NDA, JAMB, NBTE, FTC, among others, even “when it is obvious she is the richest woman in the whole of Abuja and definitely among the richest women in Nigeria.” The NTI boss, according to one of his friends, is saddened that “Modibbo is not satisfied with the billions he makes from UBEC, and the hundreds of millions he still makes from NTI in the name of security and cleaning contracts,” adding, “all he is after is for Binani to get all the jobs even when there is no bidding process and the companies unregistered.” Family sources estimate Aishatu to be worth well over N25 billion, and poised to using her ever-widening connections with top government functionaries as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Yahale Ahmed, to enrich herself. “She got several contracts, including the construction of a military barracks, when Yayale was the Head of Service, Minister of Defence and now, SGF,” one of her friends offered, adding, “but you have to give it to Aishatu, she is one bitch that knows how to live below the radar of media attention.” According to her website, the Binani Group consists of Binani Oil and Gas, Binani Properties, Binani Construction, Binani Security, Binani Cleaners. “The recent appointment of Vice President Namadi Sambo may turn out to be the icing on the cake of Aisha, given her husband’s closeness to Sambo since their ABU days. Considering Aishatu’s habit of seizing every opportunity, Sambo’s Vice Presidency may prove the opening Binani Oil and Gas needs to launch itself into the league of big-time players like Zenon Petroleum, MRS, Capital Oil and Gas, among others” the family source predicted. It will be recalled that in September last year, Amina Ibrahim, the Presidential Assistant on the MDGs, said that Nigeria needed N4 trillion annually until 2015 if it is to meet the United Nations targets. Earlier, in April 2009, the late President, Umaru Yar’Adua, said Nigeria would not achieve the international targets in poverty-reduction, education, maternal health and child health. The new government of Goodluck Jonathan may want to find out why the MDG funds are so casually and generously going into private hands while Nigeria claims lack of resources.
MDGs office has since 2006 pumped over N14 billion to NTI, ostensibly to help the institute meet up with training enough teachers to meet the target of primary school education for all children by 2015. Of the grant, over N8 billion is believed to have found its way into Modibbo’s pockets through his wife’s Binani Group, while Nigeria, according to UNICEF’s 2010 report, maintains an unenviable world record of harboring the largest number of out-of-school children after Pakistan. Most of these out-of-school children became willing tools in the hands of the Boko Haram sect that recently unleashed mayhem in several parts of Northern Nigeria. Our checks reveal that in 2006, NTI got N3.3 billion from MDGs; N3.3 billion for 2007; N3.8 billion for 2008 and another N3.8 billion in 2009. For 2010, the MDG office has budgeted a whopping N4 billion. While Modibbo reportedly feels completely shut out by the current NTI boss, Ladan, sources say Ladan insists that the “fall-out” from the MDGs grants should not be for Binani Group of companies alone. NTI sources claim Ladan is towing a new path of competitiveness and transparency in the award of the contracts, “not minding the darts being unrelentingly being fired by Modibbo.” Apparently overwhelmed, Senior presidential assistant on MDGs, Amina Ibrahim-Zubair, had in April 2009, in Kaduna, painted a very bleak future for Nigeria’s progress towards achieving MDGs. “Nigeria is off-track and has not laid the real foundation for achieving them (MDGs),” she had lamented before Vice President Namadi Sambo, who at the time was the state governor. The threat to the MDGs’ work plan reared its head in 2006 when the body released a maiden grant of N3.3 billion to NTI. At the time, Modibbo was winding up his second three-year tenure (six years) as Director of the institute, having been first appointed in March 2000. The NTI Act provides for a maximum of six years for the institute’s Chief Executive. But confronted with the grim reality that the N3.3 billion would arrive after his exit from NTI, Modibbo reportedly deployed all resources at his disposal to bribe key officials of the Federal Ministry of Education (FME), to allow him continue in office, albeit illegally. Our investigations revealed that the current UBEC boss was able to raise the bribe money through the hundreds of millions of Naira he raked in from 2000 to 2006 through several phony ‘printing’ and ‘supply ‘contracts unilaterally awarded scores of firms belonging to his then girlfriend, Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed. Chief among the firms were Binani Nigeria Ltd., Binwa Press Ltd., Infinity Telecoms, Golden Crescent, Al-Hazen Enterprises, Al-Mala Ltd., Infinity Telecoms Ltd aka Infinity Global Systems and Ojunwa Press Limited aka Ojunwa Nigeria Ltd. And having successfully “bought over” those whose job it is to alert the authorities of the vacancy in NTI, Modibbo continued in office, unchallenged. Prior to this, Modibbo had actually tested the waters by awarding small printing contracts to real and phantom companies which search reports of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) have since revealed belong to his lover of many years whom he formally married on February 13, 2010, Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed. An undated payment schedule for the “9-year basic educational curriculum” obtained by Saharareporters revealed that, among other payments, Binwa Press Limited got N13, 816, 800 for ‘printing’ 34,542 units of Primary 3 Mathematic textbooks at N400 per unit; Ojunwa Press which was registered four years later, N9, 374, 715 for ‘printing’ 29, 761 copies of Primary 4-6 Agricultural science, at N315 per copy; and a non-existent Al-Hazen Ltd., N18, 749, 430 for 29, 761 copies of Primary 1-3 Home Economics and Arabic studies respectively. The three companies, among many others owned by Modibbo’s lover-turned wife, have since become standard ‘winners’ of all contract awards in NTI as well as UBEC. According to documents obtained by Sahararerporters, no sooner had Modibbo got the N3.3 billion MDGs’ grant for 2006 than he set out to empty the entire sum on a spurious “re-training programme” for 145,000 teachers across the federation. The façade took place between 4th and 29th September 2006. To maximize his gains, Modibbo, who was NTI boss at the time, insisted that 145,000 teachers would participate in the workshop, even when it was clear that the eligible participants were going to be less than half of his figure. He awarded bogus contracts to his girlfriend’s Binani Group of companies to print “training manuals” in six subjects for the 145,000 ghost participants at N374 per book. This contract sum spilled a little above N325 million. Next, he contracted the same Binani Group to serve “refreshment for 148, 500 participants and resource persons” at N250 per person for the six days the ‘programme’ was expected to last. This came to a whopping N222, 750, 000. Two officials in his office at the time recounted how scandalized they were to discover that all Binani provided was a warm bottle of coke for each participant, to, in the words of one of them, “wash down the very tasteless potato pie the Binani woman claimed was meat pie.” For such “technical support and biometric services” such as data capture of the participants, Modibbo awarded yet another contract to Binani Group in the sum of N101, 125, 000. Expectedly, no data such as fingerprints was captured electronically, as such would have obviously put a lie to Modibbo’s claim that 145, 000 teachers participated in the programme. One NTI official captured it thus: “When we questioned his claim that 145,000 would attend the programme, he countered by requesting for N101 million for biometrics to prove that the people actually participated. But at the end of the day, they came with a few laptops that didn’t work, and then requested the less than 40,000 participants to fill in their bios and thumb-print on sheets of paper, with a promise that the data would later be uploaded and documented. Of course, that was the last anybody heard of the biometrics project. That way, N101 million quietly slid into Binani’s purse. “Of course, their motives ab initio was now too clear: they never wanted anybody to know the actual number of participants, which was less than 40,000 from the number of file jackets, meat pies and crates of soft drinks distributed, so that Modibbo and his girlfriend could pocket N101 million,” he added. Documents sourced from NTI revealed that Modibbo further ‘paid’ N13, 250 as allowance to each of the 145,000 teachers he claimed participated, bringing the total sum to N1,921,250,000. He claimed to have spent another N90,000 on each of the 3,500 “resource persons”, bringing the total sum to N315 million. In the name of “bank charges,” Modibbo handed Binani N57, 586, 285, N71 million, 44 million and N11 million on “general monitoring, stationery and running cost respectively; whilst N10, 641, 352 was spent on “publicity” in print and electronic media. Not satisfied with paying Binani Group a consultancy fee of N34, 094, 128, Modibbo still paid the firm N25, 896, 000 for what he called “post-training evaluation.” Said an NTI official: “Till date, not a single kobo of the 2006 MDGs expenditure has been retired simply because there is nothing to retire as all the ‘interest groups’ that should ask for it have been taken care of.” Seemingly confirming this suspicion, chairman of the NTI governing board and current Minister of Transport, while highlighting the activities of the council between November 2005 and October, 2006, blabbed: “Council monitored and ensured strict compliance in the implementation of this project, and overall, it has been adjudged a complete success.” Basking in the euphoria of the “successful completion” of the 2006 MDGs training workshop, Modibbo moved through the Federal Ministry of Education to have the Executive Council of the Federation (EXCOF) pass a resolution baring all non-holders of National Certificate of Education (NCE) from teaching in public schools. He proposed to EXCOF to mandate NTI to run a Special Teacher Upgrading Programme (STUP) to help holders of Pivotal Teachers’ Certificate (PTC) and Grade 2 Teachers’ Certificate obtain their NCE. EXCOF approved the proposal, including a request for N3 billion for NTI to implement the programme for the 100, 000 teachers he claimed needed STUP. However, NTI officials insist that not more than 45, 000 participated in STUP as against the 100, 000 claimed by Modibbo. One of the officials told Saharareporters that, as usual, the only reason Modibbo jacked up the figures was for him to justify the huge cost involved in printing 13 different manuals for each of the 100, 000 trainees he claimed participated. He awarded contracts totaling N1, 124, 889, 870 to his girlfriend’s companies for the printing of books for the programme. So arbitrary were the awards that none of the letters of the awards bore any contract sum. Even though Modibbo’s thievery is legendary, his resort to impunity in looting NTI dry couldn’t be better captured than a letter of award to Ojunwa Press Limited dated 8thAugust, 2007, even though search records at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) reveal that Ojunwa Press Limited RC 816752, wasn’t incorporated until two years later, precisely on 8th May, 2009. While the letter of award instructed Ojunwa Ltd. to print 26, 000 copies of unspecified English textbooks at N1, 130 per copy, the document was curiously silent on the total contract sum. Modibbo told the company that, “based on past your past performance on similar jobs in NTI,” the institute decided to allow the phantom company print 26, 000 copies of English textbooks. In the letter, Reference Number NTI/SADG/STUP-PRT/VOL 1/06, Modibbo told Ojunwa Press that, even though the Federal Ministry of Education had assigned the responsibility of printing of books for STUP to the NTI printing press, he was of the opinion that the deadline would not be met. Captioned “Printing of books for the Special Teachers’ Upgrading Scheme (STUP)”, Modibbo, in the letter, admitted: “The (NTI) press has already commenced the job, but due to some logistics problems the press might not be able to meet the delivery deadline. “It has therefore been decided that, based on your past performance on similar jobs for NTI, you should (sic) be requested to assist the press in the printing of the book (sic) as a press consultant for this job only. Your job would be in the areas of planning, materials supplies, print run, delivery and other logistics.” He enjoined Ojunwa Press to ensure that the books were of “27.7cm by 21 cm size using 60 grams bond paper and 300-350 grams glossy card for the cover.” The letter was signed on behalf of Modibbo by his Special Assistant, David Itamah. NTI sources disclosed that the decision to omit the total contract sum in the letters of award to Aishatu’s several front-companies may not be accidental after all. They are quick to point out Modibbo’s admission that the contract was strictly on a consultancy basis, yet NTI paid Ojunwa Press over N29 million for what ordinarily should have been the actual total cost of producing the books if it had been handled by the NTI press. ‘When tongues started wagging that Modibbo paid his cronies to print books which the NTI press ended up printing , he responding by sacking David Namiji, an assistant director and head of printing operations of NTI. Apparently to send a message that he meant business, the NTI boss supplanted Namiji with Steven James, a much junior assistant Chief Printing Officer,” an NTI official offered, adding, “of course, most of the books they printed still litter all of NTI’s warehouses all because one greedy man printed much more than was required.” Shortly after “successfully completing” the STUP programme, Modibbo settled down to harvest the 2007 MDGs’ grant of N3.3 billion. “He didn’t need to do much work. Modibbo simply got the 2006 budget and changed the date to 2007, of course retaining the entire consultancy, printing, feeding and biometric jobs for Binani Group,” offered a top officer of the ministry. And desiring to smokescreen the charade as having complied with “due process” requirements, Modibbo caused advertorials to be published in two national dailies. “The Federal Ministry of Education through the National Teachers’ Institute,” he advertised, “is to implement a Capacity Building Programme for 145,000 primary school teachers in all the states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, in the period of July/August 2007,” reminding, “The programme is part of the Millennium Development Goals Project (MDG), being coordinated by the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs.” The advertorial continued: “The Institute is hereby requesting for Expressions of Interest/Pre-qualification from reputable and experienced educational consultancy firms for the implementation of the programme as regards: Recruitment, Coordination of briefing meetings, payment of 3,500 resource persons and logistics support for the implementation of the workshop.” It advised bidders to include such details as “technical proposal, Certificate of Article of Incorporation, Certificate of Article of Incorporation, Evidence of VAT Registration and Curriculum Vitae of the Principal Partners/Consultants of the firm,” among others, concluding, “Only successful firms will be contacted.” The advertorial was signed by a certain M. D. Yusuf, Registrar and Secretary to NTI’s governing council. Sneered an NTI official: “Of course, only Binani was contacted.” According to the officer, it was while on the last lap of the spending spree on the 2007 MDGs’ grant, that disgraced former Agriculture minister, Sayaddi Abba Ruma, drew Modibbo’s attention to the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), which they imagined would hold more “crude oil reserves”. “After all, UBEC had just given an American company, Intermarkets, the phase 2 project of a plastic furniture contract for N850 million. And with the projection that the company would handle the entire project, Abba Ruma and Modibbo obviously thought it might not be a bad idea after all, to get involved in UBEC and wrest the project from the American company,” a member of the NTI board volunteered. “That was how Abba Ruma gave a verbal directive to the cowardly Minister of Education at the time, Aja Wachukwu, to sack the UBEC boss, Dr. Lami Amodu, and replace her with Modibbo. Of course, poor Wachukwu didn’t realize at the time he was being used by the cabal. He obliged, and Modibbo became UBEC boss but still refused to hand over NTI to a certain Dr. Patrick Onyekwere, who was named his successor. This was because the fraudster didn’t want to miss any penny of the MDGs’ grant in the subsequent years,” the board member narrated. After close to two months after Onyekwere’s appointment to NTI, continued the official, “prominent persons managed to prevail on Modibbo to hand over since he had resumed at UBEC two months earlier.” Recalled the official: “I remember the day Modibbo finally agreed to hand over to Onyekwere, who had spent weeks lurking around NTI because he had no access to his new office, the UBEC boss openly declared that he was leaving an empty treasury. But the truth is that, even weeks after his illegal redeployment to UBEC, he still used NTI’s Director of Finance, Ismaila, to clean out the accounts. He had given a very prophetic assurance that he would be back to NTI. Little did we realize that it would be by way of his wives companies and the current Director, Ladan, who until recently was his protégé. “Even when Onyekwere assumed office, they continued to present scores of cheques issued by Modibbo in favour of Binani. Obviously, Onyekwere’s hands were tied given that he literarily begged his way into getting the keys to the office. Being new in the system, there was no way he could pick a fight with Modibbo who, in any case, had moved to UBEC in far away Abuja,” the official revealed. Other sources revealed how Onyekwere had inadvertently run in the line of the cabal’s fire when he and the chairman of the NTI board at the time, Yusuf Suleiman, bowed to pressures from participants for the 2007 MDGs programme, to monetize their feeding allowance instead of allowing Binani handle it. Suleiman is the current Minister of Transport. “Unknown to Suleiman and Onyekwere, Modibbo had assured his girlfriend of the regular N222 million for meat pies and soft drinks. I guess they underestimated his influence from UBEC. When Modibbo got word that the new management had settled for N250 daily allowance for refreshment for each of the participants, he, naturally, panicked.” “The move would have blown the lid off Modibbo’s thievery. So, what he did was to connive with certain officials of the Bureau for Public Procurement to frustrate the release of a No Objection Certificate, the prerequisite for the release of any monies. Modibbo was largely able to achieve this through one of his in-laws, Murtala Raji, a chief systems engineer. Raji died on 15th April 2010, after a brief illness,” the source further revealed. Another official revealed how, upon the stalling of the release of the balance of the 2007 MDGs’ grant, Onyekwere’s management now became asphyxiated, financially. Modibbo, he disclosed, continued to belch orders at top management staff of Kaduna-based NTI from UBEC headquarters in Abuja, “so much that the mere mention of his name was sure to send shivers down the spines of all NTI staffers.” Sources close to the Minister of Education at the time, Aja Wachukwu told Saharareporters that Modibbo continued to call the shots, with the Minister scared stiff to confront him. With Wachukwu literarily in Modibbo’s pocket, the UBEC boss then made a final onslaught against his hapless successor in NTI by instigating Wachukwu to remove him. Said a former member of the NTI board: “This paid off in May, 2008, as the minister (Wachukwu), to our utter consternation, placed a telephone call through to Kaduna to direct the Director of Field Operations and Students’ Services, Unwaha Ismaila, to take over from Onyekwere who was supposedly appointed by Mr. President,” stressing, “that gives you a peep into the inner workings of the devilish minds of these people.” An aide to the former Minister also disclosed how Modibbo would harass their boss on end by dropping the name of Abba Ruma. “Each time Modibbo came around, you would notice the honourable Minister working overtime to please him. Obviously Modibbo knew Abba Ruma’s name was like a talisman, and he deployed it for maximum benefits, literarily running the entire ministry,” he disclosed. The aide, a security official, revealed how Modibbo arm-twisted Aja Wachukwu into naming pussy-footed Ismaila successor to Onyekwere, and how that singular moved swelled the pockets of the UBEC boss by about N4 billion. “So scared of the UBEC boss was Ismaila that he literarily peed in his pants each time Modibbo’s called him on the telephone,” a security source hinted. “Soon after Ismaila was named Acting Director in place of the sacked Acting Director, Onyekwere, Modibbo through his brother in-law, Raji, re-oiled his links in the Bureau for Public Procurement. Barely three months after Modibbo’s puppet, Ismaila, took over, that is, August 2008, had the Bureau for Public Procurement, which had put several road blocks on Onyekwere path to accessing the N3.3 billion budgeted for 2007 MDGs, released the money to Ismaila. “Another three months later, the Bureau released the 2008 MDGs grant which came to N3.8 million. This meant that in less than three months, the Bureau for Public Procurement released N7.1 billion to Modibbo’s puppet NTI director,” the NTI official disclosed. Documents obtained by Saharareporters revealed that Modibbo, who left no one in doubt that Ismaila was his stooge, directed the new NTI boss to “disburse” the N7.1 billion using his (Modibbo’s) budget template for 2006. Expectedly, Ismaila hurriedly arranged MDGs’ training workshops for 2007 and 2008, with such companies as Binani getting a whopping N445 million as cost of “refreshment for participants and resource persons” for two years running, and N202 million for biometrics. From the 2007/2008 lumped up workshops, sources close to Modibbo disclosed, the Binani Group, made a conservative “profit” of N4 billion. According to UBEC sources, no sooner had Modibbo used the Binani Group to clean up the 2007 and 2008 MDGs’ grants to NTI, than he moved a fresh N6 billion MDGs’ grant to UBEC for a novel Federal Teachers’ Scheme (FTS) to NTI. The scheme was designed to train teachers and then send them to the states for employment, with the federal government paying the participants a monthly stipend of N10,000. The MDGs’ grant for this programme came to UBEC in January, 2009. On the pretext that UBEC would be too busy to handle the FTS, foxy Modibbo sought for and secured the approval of his board to authorize “the better equipped NTI” to organize the scheme on behalf of UBEC. “Unknown to us, the decision would turn out a costly one for UBEC as it became a legal instrument for Modibbo to siphon off MDGs’ grant to his girlfriend,” a former member of the UBEC board offered, adding, “and mind you, none of us was in a position to contest his claim that 40, 000 participants would be involved.” UBEC sources disclosed that the board decision authorizing the domiciling of the FTS account with NTI was vehemently opposed by the then Director of Accounts, Mrs. Hadiza Kura, who reportedly insisted that it was procedurally and administratively wrong to domicile an account meant for UBEC with another organization. On 16th July, 2009 Kura was fired by “UBEC management” for “services no longer required.” One of the sources claimed that Kura’s sack may not be unconnected with the eyebrows she was said to have raised over the alleged domiciling of the UBEC Federal Teachers’ Scheme (FTS) account with NTI. “We heard that, too. How can over N6 billion MDG grant be lodged in an NTI account? There are very strong reasons to be worried, because we all know that NTI is autonomous training institute and not a financial consulting institution,” lamented a ministry official. By January 2009, the 2nd batch of the FTS had kicked off in full gear with virtually all the contracts going the way of the Binani Group. For instance, on January 5, 2009, NTI signed a “Form of Contract Agreement” with Binani Nigeria Ltd. of 9, Thaba Tseka Street, Wuse, Zone II, Abuja, in the sum of N331, 897, 050 net of taxes for the “Provision of consultancy services for the Induction of participants in the 2nd batch of the Federal Teachers’ Scheme.” Whilst the NTI ‘boss’ Ismaila signed the contract papers on behalf of his organization, Ibrahim Hamisu and Ado Babangida signed on behalf of the Binani Group. On the same day, NTI signed another contract with Binani Nigeria Ltd for the “printing of 46, 443 copies of English Language manual for the induction of participants” for the same scheme valued at N44, 492, 394. Yet on the same 5th January, 2009, NTI signed another contract in the sum of N44, 492, 394 with Triangular Communications Ltd (another front of Modibbo) for the “printing of 46, 443 copies of social studies manual” for the FTS, and Binwa Printing Press, the same N44, 492, 394 for the ‘printing’ of 16, 443 for basic science and technology manuals for the scheme. However, what seemed the most ludicrous award was to Ojunwa Press Ltd of ‘Plot 241, Secondi Crescent, Wuse II, Abuja.’ On January 5, 2009, Ojunwa Press Ltd. ‘won’ an NTI contract in the sum of N44, 492, 394 for the “printing of 46,443 copies of mathematics manual for the induction of participants in the 2nd batch of the Federal Teachers’ Scheme.” Whilst the acting Director of NTI, Mallam Unwaha Yahaya Ismail signed the ‘contract agreement’ on behalf of the institute, Nadi A. A. and Toufiq Olarewaju signed on behalf of Ojunwa Press Ltd. However, search reports from the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) have since revealed that Ojunwa Press Ltd. was incorporated five months after it ‘won’ the NTI contract, precisely on the 8th of May, 2009, with 17, Atiku Abubakar Road, Yola, as the registered company address. Two persons were listed as directors: Modibbo’s lover at the time, Aishatu Dahiru, and her sister, Fadimatu. “The question,” demanded a top NTI official, “is how Ojunwa Press Ltd, which was incorporated in 8th May 2009 could possibly have won a N44 million contract five months earlier, on 5th January, 2009? Of course, it goes to show that even though the crook Modibbo had been ‘redeployed’ to UBEC, he remained the de facto boss of NTI, at least until the no-nonsense Ladan came on board,” He added: “Take a look at all the so-called printing jobs. Nothing could be more incredulous. For N44, 492, 394, Binani was asked to print 46, 443 copies of English Language books. For the same sum (N44, 492, 394), Triangular was asked to print 46, 443 copies of social studies manual, and Binwa Printing Press, 16, 443 copies for basic science and technology manuals . “How can the cost of printing 46, 443 copies of an English textbook, 46, 443 copies of social studies and 16, 443 copies of basic science textbooks be the same, to the last kobo? The person who computed the figures sure deserve a Nobel Prize in mathematics,” the source stressed. More grievous, continued the source, is that at no point in the “contracts bazaar” were taxes factored in. “The façade was net of taxes. No withholding tax which should be 5 to 10 percent, and VAT. I guess certain officials of the Federal Inland Revenue Service must have been settled, or how do you explain a situation where somebody pockets N333 million for consultancy without paying a dime as tax?” he demanded, concluding, “Well, I guess you do not expect tax from ghost companies?” NTI and UBEC sources suggest that the crack in Modibbo’s “brotherhood’ with Ladan set in shortly after the latter’s appointment as NTI boss in January, 2009. Back in the 1990s when they were lecturers in Ahmadu Bello University, the duo, and the current Vice Chancellor of Adamawa State University, Dr. Alkassum Abba, had ran a well-organised sex-for-admission syndicate. The ring involved giving backhand admission to beautiful girls in exchange for bouts of sex. So sophisticated was Modibbo’s syndicate that they successfully framed up several academic and non-academic staff who stood in their way. The situation lingered until a courageous Faculty Officer, Lawal Bala Isa, decided to challenge them. In a seven-page submission to a committee on the alleged alteration of students academic records dated 5th March, 1997, Isa listed 17 ladies as beneficiaries of the scam admission. Isa, who tasked the committee to “interview exhaustively the former dean, Dr. A. M. (Ahmed Modibbo) Mohammed,” listed Aishatu Hassan Mohammed (founder of Binani Group) with fake matriculation number U93HS1029 as the “alleged girlfriend of Dr. A. M. Mohammed” and another fake student, Raji Bilikisu U92EC1170 as sharing the same “permanent home address” of “No. 10, Plateau Close, Area A, ABU, Zaria” with Modibbo. He equally listed Abdulrazaq Jumai U93HS1035, Amaukwu Chizoba. B. U92EC1277, among others. A former lecturer recounted how he was hounded out of ABU because “Modibbo used the current Director-General of the SSS (State Security Service), his classmate in the same school, plant bottles of beer in my refrigerator, just because I had raised questions of how some female students got admitted into the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences,” adding, “of course, the authorities asked me to leave.” If Ladan’s insistence that the skim off MDGs grant be “democratized”, NTI and UBEC sources, hint, nothing drove the wedge between both men than the 2009 MDGs grant, in which Ismaila gave a lion share of the “jobs” to Binani Group, but were revoked by Ladan when took over NTI in early January, 2009. For instance, on 11th June, 2009, in a considered affront on Binani Group of companies, Ladan awarded a contract for the renovation of his official residence to Tsangaya International Ventures of No. 1 Shopping Complex, Kaduna. The contract sum was for N9, 989, 655.76. In other letters of award obtained by us, Ladan awarded consultancy contracts to never-before-listed firms as Extra Mile Synergy Ltd., Hadina Consulting Ltd., Educational Consultative Services, Lawagima Consultant Limited and Medhal Nigeria Limited, among others, to handle the 2009 MDGs initially awarded Binani Group of companies. On 10th September, 2009, in another instance, in a letter with reference number NTI/S/BC.44/Vol II to S.S. Management Ltd. of 2, Akinmade Street, Anthony Village, Lagos, Ladan told the firm that NTI “has considered your quotation for the Printing of 2009 MDGs Manuals for the Retraining of Teachers in Edo, Delta and Rivers States” and, therefore “convey approval of the management on behalf of the Governing Council for your company to produce English, Math’s, SOS and BST for the 2009 MDGs training programmes in the above states as specified in the Tender Documents at the rate of N14, 005, 600.” And in what some UBEC officials dub a calculated move to discredit Modibbo’s campaign of calumny against Ladan’s handling of the 2009 MDGs, the current NTI boss shortly after the exercise, gave himself a thumbs up. Commenting on the 2009 programme in far away Abeokuta, Ladan cheekily declared that reports reaching him “showed that the 2009 exercise was the most successful since the inception of the training review programme.” A common friend of Modibbo and Ladan told us that the latter is scandalised that his “brother Modibbo” spent six years in NTI “wacking the money alone with his girlfriend and all the while complaining that there was nothing in NTI.” Ladan was said to have complained to a few friends that his appointment to NTI has helped open his eyes to the reality that Modibbo is a very self-centered man whose only interest in life is how to make Binani a very big conglomerate, perhaps bigger the India-based Binani Group. The source explained that Ladan had hinted that he was not unaware of the subterranean battle Modibbo launched against him, including reporting him to the Minister of Education for rehabilitating an official residence Modibbo insists “does not need any rehabilitation.” Modibbo is also said to have deployed two influential aides of the education minister Professor Rufai, who worked with him in NTI, to keep frustrating Ladan’s plan to upgrade NTI into a degree-awarding institution until the expiration of his (Ladan’s) tenure in January 2012. Ladan’s reported disappointment with Modibbo is also said to stem from what he considers Aishatu’s penchant for running after every single contract in NTI, NDA, JAMB, NBTE, FTC, among others, even “when it is obvious she is the richest woman in the whole of Abuja and definitely among the richest women in Nigeria.” The NTI boss, according to one of his friends, is saddened that “Modibbo is not satisfied with the billions he makes from UBEC, and the hundreds of millions he still makes from NTI in the name of security and cleaning contracts,” adding, “all he is after is for Binani to get all the jobs even when there is no bidding process and the companies unregistered.” Family sources estimate Aishatu to be worth well over N25 billion, and poised to using her ever-widening connections with top government functionaries as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Yahale Ahmed, to enrich herself. “She got several contracts, including the construction of a military barracks, when Yayale was the Head of Service, Minister of Defence and now, SGF,” one of her friends offered, adding, “but you have to give it to Aishatu, she is one bitch that knows how to live below the radar of media attention.” According to her website, the Binani Group consists of Binani Oil and Gas, Binani Properties, Binani Construction, Binani Security, Binani Cleaners. “The recent appointment of Vice President Namadi Sambo may turn out to be the icing on the cake of Aisha, given her husband’s closeness to Sambo since their ABU days. Considering Aishatu’s habit of seizing every opportunity, Sambo’s Vice Presidency may prove the opening Binani Oil and Gas needs to launch itself into the league of big-time players like Zenon Petroleum, MRS, Capital Oil and Gas, among others” the family source predicted. It will be recalled that in September last year, Amina Ibrahim, the Presidential Assistant on the MDGs, said that Nigeria needed N4 trillion annually until 2015 if it is to meet the United Nations targets. Earlier, in April 2009, the late President, Umaru Yar’Adua, said Nigeria would not achieve the international targets in poverty-reduction, education, maternal health and child health. The new government of Goodluck Jonathan may want to find out why the MDG funds are so casually and generously going into private hands while Nigeria claims lack of resources.
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