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BPE Probe:Plot to Nail el-Rufai Backfires
By Danlami Nmodu
Newsdiaryonline Sat
Aug 13,2011
While appearing before the Senate
Adhoc Committee probing the Bureau of Public Enterprises,BPE
and its handling of the
privatization of public enterprises,Nasir el Rufai the first DG
of BPE felt it was
necessary to register a crucial point right for the records.He
told the committee
that that the whole
exercise was a witch -hunt targeted at him because of his
criticisms of the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and the
Goodluck Jonathan
regimes .The suspicion is ‘out there,’ he said, before going
into the kernel of his introductory remarks.
Newsdiaryonline
has learnt that in fact
the el Rufai matter has remained a major worry for officials of
the Jonathan administration. The former Minister,Federal Capital
Territory ,FCT joined
the opposition Congress for Progressive Change, CPC
whose presidential candidate
General Muhammadu Buhari was Jonathan’s main challenger in the
last general elections. Even before the Senate commenced its
probe of BPE, some officials in the executive arm of government
told a prominent
politician that el Rufai really has questions to answer. The
official view, it was learnt, was that the former
minister should be in jail and there was no room
for him to be
castigating government under any guise .It could be recalled
that the former DG of BPE who later became FCT minister was
arrested by the SSS over a critical opinion published in his
Friday column of Thisday Newspaper.
Newsdiaryonline
sources noted that the
government might not just be targeting el Rufai as the only
person to be dealt
with. “I think they are
just determined to deal with anyone who may seem capable of
kicking against this their tenure elongation plot by the
presidency”,a source conversant
with the on-going intrigues said today .According to the
insider, officials of government appear to be identifying
critics and they are searching for allegations to ‘pin on them’.
Interestingly,
Newsdiaryonline
learnt that one other critic officials want to deal with is
Najatu Mohammed, radical politician from Kano who incidentally
is with another
opposition party, Action Congress of Nigeria,ACN .She ran for
the senatorial seat
(Kano Central) in the last election and her supporters believe
she was robbed of victory by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Some frustrated officials of Jonathan’s
government
it was learnt confronted
her recently with the fact that they have searched and searched
around but could not find something to ‘pin on her’. “We have
searched but we can’t find something to pin on you”, a source
quoted officials as having told the ACN politician popularly
called Naja.
But it appears the search for what to pin on el Rufai has
backfired after the presentation by the former FCT minister to
the Senate Ad-hoc committee
.He told the committee that most of the companies privatized
under his watch as DG BPE are doing
well.El- Rufai also revealed that he was always quarrelling with
President Olusegun Obasanjo
because the former
president consistently interfered with
the process.He
balmed Obasanjo and
former Vice President
Atiku for some of the lapses.He particularly accused Obasanjo of
ruining the privatization process because a staff who had been
investigated by the
BPE management and sacked for corrupt deeds was surprisingly
appointed by Obasanjo as his successor DG ,BPE.The successor
turned everything upside down, el Rufai said.
The former minister’s indictment
of Obasanjo may in fact be the game-changer. Many in the former
minister -cum-obasanjo’s political circles(before el-Rufai
joined Buhari’s CPC) were reportedly rattled as they were
unaware that the former FCT minister had any problem with
Obasanjo -whom he seemed to
hitherto ‘adore’ to the
annoyance of some his associates.Worse still, there is the
feeling now that the unfolding revelations may have placed
Obasanjo as the man really responsible for the ruining of the
privatisation and the subsequent
stripping of the nation’s assets by fraudulent buyers.Will the
regime which is allegedly targeting El Rufai now go after
Obasanjo?
Beyond el-Rufai, the shocking revelations about ALSCON which was
built with $3.2billion but sold for $250million also came to
light.Worse still, the Russian company
which bought ALSCON only paid $130million.Yet the company has
not dredged the Imo River 5years after the sum of $120 million
was earmarked as part of the ALSCON
deal. Worse still, very graphic details have emerged about the
questionable deals by Jimoh
Ibrahim of Global Fleets Oil And Gas Ltd who
acquired NICON
and Nigeria Reinsurance.
But going by the
revelations so far, the chief villain of the privatization
process may in fact be former
President Olusegun Obasanjo and not the former FCT minister that
the regimes seeks to put in jail .In fact, el Rufai’s indictment
of the former president relatively pales into insignificance in
the face of equally damning assertions by the current DG of BPE,
Ms Bola Onagoruwa told the Senate Committee that former
President Obasanjo concessioned
Ajaokuta Steel Comapany to Global Infrastructure
without recourse to the
BPE.She said OBJ did not involve the BPE in the concessioning of
Ajaokuta steal Company ,a move that was illegal.
But a more disheartening picture of the state of the steel
industrial was painted by Musa Sada, incumbent
minister of steel
before the committee
when the minister accused
Global Infrastructure that had
also acquired Delta
Steel company of asset stripping in Ajaokuta
. Said the minister:
“They were moving out equipments from Ajaokuta to Delta Steel.
They cannibalised spare parts at the company and only wanted to
use the place as a warehouse for DSC.The minister added: “The
steel sector is in a sorry state, we have not been able to move
forward and the inability to use the machines have resulted in
depreciation of value. Global Infrastructure has succeeded in
asset stripping. They bought Delta Steel company and won the
concession of Ajaokuta, they later added Iron Ore and they ended
up treating all those entities basically as one.”
Newsdiaryonline
has learnt that the revelations by Ms Onagoruwa and Sada are
causing ripples across
the country.There are worries in deed
that such revelations may generate some
some kind of revolutionary pressures in Nigeria.That is
why those who spoke in confidence are urging President Jonathan
to ensure that those
named in these shady deals so far
are dealt with to stave
off avoidable uprisings .
‘Look at the case of Egypt where a former President
who has been
overthrown was taken to a court for prosecution over allegations
of fraud and misdeeds.These revelations at the BPE probe are
really sensitizing people about what happened in Nigeria.They
must do something about these revelations.See how Obasanjo sold
Ajaokuta?’,an observer said worryingly.
Thus, what was suspected to have been targeted at el Rufai may
have assumed a life of its own.How the regime handles
the outcome of the probe is likely to define how the
government is portrayed
afterwards.A spokesman of CNPP recently said the revelations so
far portend ominous
signs for the regime.
But a transparent handling of its after- effect may equally win
plaudits for Jonathan.What is needed henceforth is the political
will, after hearing Obasanjo
and perhaps Atiku
Abubakar’s side of the story.
Related
Nasir el-Rufai arrested:A
synopsis of his endless travails
Obasanjo ruined privatization -el
Rufai
No Health, No Wealth (2)-By
Nasir el Rufai
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