…Says: Pension thieves still after my life
Mallam Abdulrasheed Maina, the embattled former Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Pension Reforms in this Interview reveals that some Staff of the Pension Commission are far richer than some states. He also revealed several attempts made to eliminate him for the jobs his committee did to expose Pension thieves.
Excerpt:
Q: Mallam Maina, most Nigerians are made to believe that you have disrespected the Senate and refused to appear before them because you are having things to hide. Is this true?
A: First of all, I swear before my creator, I, Abdulrasheed Maina, NEVER, WILL NOT and CANNOT disrespect any institution in Biu kingdom where I come from, lest in the larger entity (Nigeria) to which I belong and any other society where I may find myself.
Therefore, the insinuation that I disrespected and had no regards for the Nigerian Senate is not borne out of what I am made of or the type of training I had from childhood. I am proud to say that I come from a well-respected royal family and background where respect is a first virtue.
The Task Team’s media representations even when the issues with the Distinguished Senator Etuk-led committee was on, had no iota of disrespect. I personally never disrespected the members of that committee lest the Distinguished members of the Senate whom I hold in high esteem and who have done nothing ulterior against me to even contemplate disrespecting them.
The entire National Assembly is an institution that represents the collegiate of intellectualism and the best of human resources of this country. Only a mad man will so abuse, disrespect and have no honour and value for such an assemblage of men and women who have in their individual rights paid their dues for the growth and development of this great nation. These are people we choose to represent all of us.
Q: What if the senate demands for an apology from you as a result of what they might have perceived as lack of respect, will you?
A: I certainly will and wish to even use this opportunity to tender my unreserved apologies to the Distinguished Senate for the perceived feeling that I, an ordinary citizen of Nigeria, will bring the roof of this assemblage to ridicule. However, the Senate, I believe was misled by communication gap to believe that I disrespected her.
I am just a Nigerian who believes strongly in the nation. Who was lucky to be saddled with the tasks I was given amongst millions who are qualified to do the same job. In my team, we gave all we had and did all we achieved with patriotic zeal and values.
We were tempted with so much money but we resisted and delivered. Those we held down, who we handed over to the anti-corruption agencies, who seized their cash, properties etc haunted us, they followed us with zealous disposition, they are the ones the Distinguished Etuk-led committee relied on and you know what? We survived assassination attempts, all sorts of threats and were antagonised by our bosses who we thought would be at the forefront on the war against corruption.
Q: Where then did the plank of relationship with the Senate broke?
A: Thank you, that is a good question. We knew we were exposing corruption. We knew corruption will come after us. To bring us down, I was accused of paying N8billion into my brother’s account. Toyin Ishola who made the accusations of the N8billion reversed himself after 40 days to say that the account where the N8billion is situated actually belongs to police pension to which the same Ishola is a signatory.
I was accused of having N21billion in my account. I was accused of maintaining illegal accounts. Now, the Distinguished Senate committee is accusing me of N195billion which in their words was embezzled in 5 years precisely between 2005 and 2010 in all the pension offices. The Task Team actually started work in July 2010 and had no operational funds, no any account in the name of the task team, talk less of even having control over the other pension offices in question.
We believe if the committee has questions on the purported N195b! Then the relevant Pension Agencies/offices could be invited to account for their offices and not the Task Team which has been turned into a “MAINA” affair.
To further buttress my point, no one, including the Distinguished Senate committee gave us or me, the room to defend these allegations. The committee wrote her report based on what they gathered from those standing trial in a matter being prosecuted by the EFCC, without offering us fair hearing.
So, when the Senate in its wisdom, extended the life of that committee, we felt we cannot get justice and fairness from them. We wrote the Distinguished Senate President to please set up another committee for us to appear before her and explain what observations and questions are needed to be clarified.
The temperature increased the moment the first of the several pension suspects, John Yakubu Yusufu, was sentenced, the committee intensified her efforts to nail us. The larger Senate was consistently given information which were not the truth thus, fuelling the anger of members.
Q: The way and manner the issues are being discussed around the country would you say you have respect for the Senate?
A: You know they have a rich history of scandals and controversies: Let me quickly correct the last aspect of that question. I may disagree with you on the issue of the Distinguished Senate having a “history of scandals and controversies”. You cannot also relate the circumstances involved in this issue with whatever the other previous scandals and controversies, were.
This is different and I don’t see this as a controversy rather a miscommunication.
To the earlier part of your question, there are individual members of the Senate I have had cause and reasons to relate with over the years. The Senate President, David Mark, is my father-figure. Many are my avuncular friends. Many are my mentors. Many are my icons. As a group, I have ample respect for the Distinguished Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and will always respect all institutions of our society.
Q: When then will you appear before the Senate?:
A: If by this moment the Senate leadership could grant us our earlier request for the constitution of an unbiased committee, I and my Team shall with glee appear before her the next moment and re-state and clear all that are looking furzy, unclear and hazy.
Neither my person nor the PRTT as a team has anything to hide. The processes that led to the impressions of bias by the Distinguished Senator Etuk’s committee were based on the absolute lack of confidence that committee imposed on us in her first report to the Senate where the Senators and Nigerians were grossly misinformed and they in turn refused to give us ample room to tell them the truth as understood by us.
I have it on good authority that there are designed plans to eliminate me so that the details and facts available with me and our team will not be made public. If these are made public, many people, many more people, I mean many senior people in government will join the few that are already being tried in the various law courts.
The plans to eliminate me are in writing by some of the yet to be exposed pension suspects. The nation’s security agencies have been provided with such information. There are some pension suspects and people currently in service that are richer than some Nigerian states. Do you think these people will allow us to continue blocking the leakages and recovering funds for Nigerians?
By the time the Distinguished Senate committee joined the threat value, it is obvious, rational, wise and reasonable for me to take the issue of my personal security very serious and try to play safe. I was just now informed that a group of concerned Nigerians and eminent lawyers have concluded plans to proceed to court to protect our fundamental human rights as enshrined in the Constitution of our great country.
I strongly believe that the Distinguished Senate will upon finding out the whole truth give us compliments for the kind of job and sacrifice we have done. That is why the House of Representatives committee on pension made that arm of the National Assembly sometime ago to pass a motion on the floor of the parliament addressing Mr. President to further strengthen the Task Team. (Please look at a copy of the letter)
Q: But is it true that President Jonathan is your god-father?
A: That is one of the misconceptions here. I swear to God almighty, it is the value of work we have done in the PRTT that gave us a good standing with Mr. President. It is not as if the President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, is my god-father as it is made to look like. The security agencies whose staff constitute the PRTT are adequately on the same page with Mr. President. If the Senate happens to have a space to hear us out, they will be more protective of us than they think Mr. President is of what we are doing.
Q: If you have a space to pacify the Senate now, what will you tell them?:
A: Distinguished Senators, I am just a Nigerian whose believe in our nation is driven by the absolute passion to be a change-agent using the pension sector to say our nation can be better than we have met it. I believe you were not given the correct information about us.
If we are given a level playing ground, I will in the immediate instant, I mean it, immediate instant, be available to an unbiased committee to provide all the required information.
We were not safe with the Distinguished Etuks committee for obvious reasons. There was no way we could have gotten a fair hearing from a committee whose initial conduct even before national television were persecutive. All we had demanded was just a level playing ground. Our letter expressing this to the Distinguished Senate President was very clear.
I believe that what matters most is not narrow appeals masquerading as values, but the shared values that show the true face of Nigeria; not narrow values that divide us, but the shared values that unite us:
pension, family, faith, hard work, opportunity and responsibility for all, so that every child, every adult, every parent, every worker in Nigeria has an equal shot at living up to their God-given potential earning their pension in the right measure when it should come. That is the Nigerian dream driving us and the Nigerian value we believe you share with us.
If this is true. We in the PRTT have a common goal with the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Executive, the judiciary and with the average man on the streets of Nigeria and even, the sole pensioner anywhere in diaspora.
This is a remarkable time for the nation. I refuse to believe it’s time to stop believing in the possibilities of our remarkable country. I refuse to accept the downsizing of the Nigerian Dream. I refuse to bet against the Nigerian entrepreneurial spirit and Nigerian ingenuity.
I admit a deep lack of communication with the larger Senate. I admit that the competition for the truth in this matter is tough, and it requires us to be tougher – tough-minded, never hard hearted.
Values are not just words, values are what we live by. They’re about the causes that we champion and the people we fight for. Here and this is where the Senate must like a good parent, take a second look at I and the PRTT. See the good in us. Forgive the individual “Maina”, and take the corporate eye to see the stubborn values of our faith in our nation, re-evaluate what we had fought for and see whether you will not strengthen us to do more for the good of the new Nigerian dream in a transformational zeal.
This is my case. God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.