Let me share a long story about corruption in Nigeria. Some years ago when I was still very much younger in the procurement business, there was this particular federal government contract my employer-company had shown interest in. It was such a big job and I was determined to do all the brainstorming and corporate movement to get this job for my company. There was this body called Police Equipment Foundation (PEF), it was headed by one Kenny Martins. Somehow this PEF was able to get a $100 million loan from the US EXIM bank for the procurement of equipment for the Nigerian Police force. As a proactive strategy, my company got an intel on the kind of stuffs to be procured and as a business development person, I quickly ran into action. Since the loan was US funded, I had to source for some USA security equipment manufacturers to form partnerships with since USA will not allow its cash to be used in purchasing products that are not made in the USA. First, in few weeks, we successfully developed a partnership with a US based security equipment manufacturer in the area of CCTV and other security telecommunication equipment. Part of the contract we targeted was to install CCTV within Abuja. Second, we prepared all necessary documentations as we warmed up for a competitive bidding stage. And finally, we began to pull all political strings to be sure that on whatever way the PEF wanted it, we were ready. Be it the international procurement standard way or the Nigerian abracadabra way, we were ready on both front. We followed every single process, from the signing of the loan money to the registration as a contractor and up to the last stage but there was no contract. While we were hoping that at the end of the day, we could get at least a small share of the numerous contracts that will spring up from this $100 million loan, we did not know that Kenny Martins and other top officials of the Nigerian Police had another plan for this money. In fact, before they even thought of borrowing this loan, they already had a list of mysterious contractors that would execute the contracts; all fronting for themselves. It was a well calculated and designed fraud that I still wonder how the US could fall for. It was not as if we did not know people in the business, it was not as if we knew someone who knew someone who knew someone who knew the then President, Olusegun Obasanjo. No. We simply knew someone who directly knew Mr. President and that was enough political string, but like I said earlier, everything had been scripted out and we just like many other contractors were not part of the script. To cut the long story short, Chief Kenny Martins was later arrested by the EFCC and sent to Kuje prison for defrauding the federal government the sum of about 8billion Naira (the guy nearly stole all the loan money)! I believe the FG must have paid back that $100 million loan even though it did not get genuine value for the money. All this happened under the leadership of Olusegun Obasanjo. Under President Goodluck Jonathan, this kind of fraud has taken a new dimension. There are several hundreds of such kind of loan funded projects I would have loved to discuss here but because of space, I will discuss about just two of such kind. The CCTV contract within Abuja which was funded by a Chinese $470 loan is one of such projects that is similar to that of PEF. Although initiated by Yar’adua, it was delivered by GEJ and his officials. It was a fraud designed to steal our commonwealth. A news reporter once reported that ‘despite the installation of the CCTV cameras, criminals have launched violent attacks on Abuja without being detected’. What then is the value for this $470 million naira project if the cameras are not functioning? Those CCTV cameras within Abuja are not fulfilling their purpose, they have longed stopped functioning, the people who installed them had two motives; first to fulfill the loan target, and second, to steal from the process. To them, the second target is more important than the first. That is why they simply awarded the contract to themselves, collected their cash and zoomed off. Whether the cameras work or not does not concern them. Those CCTV cameras at Abuja were supposed to have been provided for by that first US loan, but because a new government needs to award new contracts and make new cash, a Chinese loan was sought for. This happened under GEJ. The second fraud about Nigerian loan funded project is that of Rivers State government. The Rivers State government has developed a technique of beating international rules by stealing money through loan funded projects. The most annoying part of this all is that this state cannot collect this loan without FG support. An instance where the fraud is already happening is the issue of World Bank $200 million loan on water and sanitation project. Even the FG knows this project will end up like the monorail yet it went ahead to approve this loan simply because it wants to score a political tolerance point. Port Harcourt is now so distorted to the extent that it will be better not to even have a centralized water system than to attempt to have it and end up failing and wasting the fund. There are several of such failed projects in Nigeria today; all funded with foreign loans. There are hundreds of such loan funded projects in various federal ministries that are drain pipes of corruption. Yet we have no value for such loans. In the 2015 budget, the Federal Government will be spending over a trillion Naira in servicing debts! Where is the value for this debt? This is not funny. We have wasted too much money in the name of loan and fraudulent loan funded projects in Nigeria. Nigerians must learn to rise up, speak up and scrutinize every single kobo spent by its various governments in the name of project execution. We cannot continue to endanger our future in the name of loan that has no practical value on our lives. We must learn to be critical of our various governments.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 07:33:41 +0000
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