While we expect further legal battles to take place in the law courts, let us examine the troubled ex-NSA’s response to the allegations and attempt to make any sense of it.
It is laughable for the panel to assume that four Alpha jets and 12 helicopters were undelivered. In a memo to the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), referenced NAF/905/D/CAS of November 28, 2014, the immediate past Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Adesola Amosu acknowledged the receipt of the 4x Alpha jets attack aircraft and the helicopters.
“On 10/21/14, the Chief of Air Staff also confirmed the receipt of F-7 N1 aircraft combination of 250kg bombs and accessories at $2,894,000 with the cost of freight at $1,200,000. The same Air Force confirmed getting 2xTri Shield 36DG tactical radars.
It’s more laughable for Dasuki to think the panel “assumes” those jets and helicopters were not delivered. The items we’re talking about are not bolt and nuts but large equipment. Presence of 4 jets and 12 helicopters are not items that could not easily be verified through the Nigerian Air Force and other military formations across the country.
Secondly, acknowledgement letters cannot be proof that those items were supplied. Those who wrote and signed the letters could as well be Dasuki’s coconspirators in this criminal act of sabotaging the country’s security. We’re used to hearing of letters acknowledging delivery of supplies in various organizations when in reality nothing has been supplied.
In another letter of December 1, 2014 signed by L.S. Alao (on behalf of the Chief of Air Staff), the Air Force said it received five containerised fuel storage and dispensing units with equipment.
“The Nigerian Army wrote the ONSA to acknowledge the delivery of 14 armoured tanks. In a December 13, 2014 memo, the Brigade of Guards thanked ONSA for releasing N30m for RCA, operation allowance for troops on Op Urban Sweep II for third and fourth quarters of 2014. This is apart from the installation of CCT cameras at the Brigade Headquarters, two backscatter bomb detection vans and other equipment.
“On November 26, 2014, the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh sought for approval of the award of one pair of uniforms (in the interim) for the Armed Forces at N165,375,000 to El-Jahab Mubarak Nigeria and N330,750,000 for two pairs.
Are we talking of the same Alex Badeh who revealed on Channels TV to the whole world that the last time weapons were bought for the Nigerian Army was in 2006? http://dailymail.com.ng/former-chief-of-defence-staff-badeh-alleges-last-time-weapons-were-bought-for-nigerian-army-was-in-2006/
In a saner society, Badeh himself would have been put behind bars for selling us dummies in the past.
Again, the allegation is not that NOTHING was procured by the NSA’s office. The accusation is that “the committee also observed that of 513 contracts awarded at $8,356,525,184.32; N2,189,265,724,404.55 and €54,000.00; Fifty Three (53) were failed contracts amounting to $2,378,939,066.27 and N13,729,342,329.87 respectively”. The concern here is the 53 failed contracts whose value is more than double the $1bn loan approved by the national Assembly. Why is Dasuki not saying anything about the alleged failed contracts?
These are some of the acknowledgment letters submitted to me by the end-users (the services). It is not for me to go and find out whether the equipment was delivered or not. I am not the one keeping the inventories.
Look at the cheap defense in the bold! It also rubbishes the earlier statement that the committee “assumed” those equipment were not supplied.
How can a whole national Security Adviser who took charge of procuring weapons for the nation’s security say it’s not for him to go and find out if the equipment he paid for were supplied? This is a subtle admission by Dasuki that those equipment were not delivered despite the acknowledgment letters he got. You as the NSA virtually had the Service Chiefs in your hands and you got briefings from them from time to time. How could you not have known those heavy equipment were not delivered?
To prove that he had nothing to hide, the ex-NSA said he submitted a comprehensive list of all requests for procurements by the services,“the items bought and those equipment being awaited to His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari long before I left office”.
“If there were issues, I should have been questioned. I was just the clearing house, I did not award contracts to my company or proxies. There was no contract awarded or equipment bought without approval from the then President and Commander-in-Chief. I am not a thief or treasury looter as being portrayed,” he added
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Submitting a list of items “bought” based on monies released for such purchases is not the same as actually having those items in stock. The president still needed time to verify your submissions and I guess it’s the reason the weapons committee was set up. So, what’s the point here?
Besides, you don’t determine when and how you will be questioned. The president will normally wait to have enough facts/evidences before calling you to question and the time has come NOW.
The question is not whether there were approvals or not from GEJ for those awarded contracts. We know the type of president GEJ was and his special ability for condoning impunity from people like you is a reason he is no longer a president. If not, he as the C-in-C would have known that you guys were “using his head” and would have discovered all these long time ago. He was sincere enough to reveal that some of the allegations he was confronted with by PMB were not known to him until then. We know the job was beyond his ability but it will not be a good defense for you in law courts.
He said he was ready for trial on all these allegations in order to prove to Nigerians that he did nothing untoward in office. “We will certainly meet in court.
It’s obvious you will surely be tried properly and no one is in doubt about that. And Nigerians will be happy to know your coconspirators.
I have a lot to tell Nigerians but in the interim, they should not believe some of the allegations as the gospel truths. The good thing is that some of the key actors in the present administration were parts of the past process being viciously challenged.
Please pay attention to the bold. Does this statement not mean that Dasuki accepts that he is indeed guilty of some of the grievous allegations? Some weighty ones he didn’t address include:
“… that the former NSA directed the Central Bank of Nigeria to transfer the sum of $132,050,486.97 and €9,905,473.55 to the accounts of Societe D’equipmente Internationaux in West Africa, United Kingdom and United States of America for un-ascertained purposes, without any contract documents to explain the transactions”.
As for my tenure as the nation’s NSA, I acted in the interest of the nation and with utmost fear of God. I did not use the office for any self-serving agenda. I occupied the Office of the National Security Adviser at a difficult moment in Nigerian history when terrorism was at its peak and I am leaving posterity to judge me accordingly
Well, let the courts decide if you indeed acted in the interest of the nation according to our laws. However, judging by your own statements, it is very clear that you failed to do due diligence as expected of a National Security Adviser who took charge of purchasing and expending defense budgetary allocations.
Lastly, Nigerians should expect more revelations in the days ahead. There will be mind boggling revelations on how Defense budget was spent between 2007 and 2015. What we have been served now only relates to the extra budgetary interventions (such as the $1bn loan and other grants from foreign and local agencies) and not the trillions of naira spent on Defense.
Message to the “which weapons are we now using to fight Boko Haram if GEJ/Dasuki didn’t buy weapons?” crew:
The allegation that they didn’t buy weapons should be understood from contextual point of view. They may have bought some weapons but are grossly inadequate and not corresponding to the amount budgeted/spent on arms and ammunitions. Besides, if Nigeria did not buy a single riffle in ten years, it doesn’t mean there won’t be any weapons in our arsenal.