Another corruption scandal may be staring the\u00a0 Muhammadu Buhari
\nadministration in the face following revelations that his Chief of Staff,
\nAlhaji Abba Kyari, and the Minister of State for Budget and National
\nPlanning, Hajiya Zainab Shamsuna-Ahmed are stealing billions of Naira
\nmeant to rehabilitate the ravaged northeast.<\/p>\n
This is as the administration pussy-foots on the report of a contract scam
\ninvolving Kyari’s accomplice, the now suspended Secretary to the
\nGovernment of the Federation (SGF) Babachir Lawal.
\n\u200e
\nThe president had on October 26, 2016 inaugurated the Presidential
\nCommittee on North-east Initiative (PCNI). At the occasion, the president
\ndirected all government agencies involved in humanitarian action in the
\nzone to collapse into PCNI, which he said would thereafter coordinate all
\nefforts in the zone.<\/p>\n
“PCNI “will be the apex coordinating body for all interventions in the
\nregion, including those by the public, private, national and international
\ndevelopment partners…” and “is charged with the responsibility for
\ndeveloping the strategy and implementation of the framework for rebuilding
\nthe North east region”, said Buhari.<\/p>\n
\u200eA presidency official told Pointblanknews.com that, unknown to Buhari,
\nhis Chief of Staff (CoS), as well as his\u00a0 Minister of State for Budget and
\nNational Planning had other ideas.<\/p>\n
An official of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) from Borno
\nState told Pointblanknews.com that Kyari, who hails from Bama, Borno
\nState, had always wanted to control \u200ewhatever federal government monies
\ncame into the northeast.
\nHe said, “On four occasions Kyari flooded PCNI with his cronies. On each
\noccasion, President Buhari rejected the draft. This explains why it took
\nclose to a year to inaugurate PCNI. When it became clear Kyari wouldn’t
\nhave his way, he bidded his time, springing up a devious scheme cloaked as
\n“The Bama Initiative.”<\/p>\n
He continued, “Kyari and Zainab Ahmed, who belong to Buhari’s kitchen
\ncabinet, fraudulently set up what they call the “Bama Initiative” , an
\naction plan known to only both persons, but through which they hope to
\nsteal all of the N48 billion approved by the National Assembly for
\nhumanitarian efforts in the six northeast states”.<\/p>\n
The states are Adamawa, Borno, Bauchi, Yobe, Gombe and Taraba.
\nPointblanknews.com investigations revealed that should feelers from the
\nMinistry of Budget and National Planning be anything to go by, Kyari and
\nMrs Zainab Ahmed \u200ecould in the coming months waltz to the banks with all
\nof the N48 billion budgeted for the zone.<\/p>\n
In what a ministry official called “testing the waters,” the Minister of
\nState for Budget and Planning penultimate Friday released N5billion to the
\n“Bama Initiative” whose chairman, interestingly, is the Chief of Staff.<\/p>\n
“In the next few weeks, madam (Minister Zainab) will release the remainder
\nof the N18 billion which they decieved Acting President Yemi Osinbajo into
\napproving in Baba’s (Buhari) absence\u200e,” offered a ministry source.<\/p>\n
According to the official\u200e, during Buhari’s medical leave, the Minister on
\nJuly 28, 2017\u200e wrote a memo to Osinbajo requesting the diversion of N18
\nbillion out of the N48 bilion approved by the National Assembly for PCNI,
\nto “Bama Initiative.”
\nThe four-page memo which was entitled “Request for approval for
\nconstitution of funding for the Bama Initiative\/It’s Presidential Steering
\nCommittee Project Implementation Committee and Procurement Committee “,
\nthe minister urged Osinbajo to approve the release of N18,227,065,037.50
\n“out of the N48 billion provided for Northeast Intervention Fund in the
\n2017 budget.”<\/p>\n
According to the ministry official, “either to court the Acting President,
\nor to allay his concerns,”\u00a0 Minister Zainab Ahmed \u200ein the memo disclosed
\nthat the Acting President had been appointed chairman of the steering
\ncommittee of the “Bama Initiative “.<\/p>\n
In the memo the minister said she would be chairperson of the project
\ncommitee, while Kyari would chair the procurement committee.
\nAccording to the source, Kyari’s strategy was to suck-in Osinbajo as the
\nfigurehead chairman of the \u200esteering committee while she and Kyari skim
\noff the funds.<\/p>\n
Pointblanknews.com gathered that, not wanting to be further buffeted by
\nBuhari loyalists who were accusing him of trying to oppose everything from
\ntheir end, Osinbajo, on August 10\u200e, 2017 apprroved the minister’s memo.
\nThe approval was conveyed in a letter signed by Osibajo’s deputy Chief of
\nStaff\u200e, Ade Ipaye.
\nNoted the senior ministry official, “The Acting President \u200eacting either
\nout of fear or ignorance. At no point during the budget defence at the
\nNational Assembly did Bama Initiative come up. Bama Initiative is Kyari’s
\npersonal property, a front for stealing monies meant to rehabilitate
\ninternally displaced persons (IDPs).<\/p>\n
“The Chief of Staff and my boss (Minister) had their minds made up to
\nsteal the Northeast money blind. First, they gave the impression that
\nthere was a fund called the Northeast Intervention Fund. This is a huge
\nlie. It was created by the Minister to warehouse money from which they can
\nsteal. The money ought to go straight to PCNI headed by the respected
\nGeneral T.Y.Danjuma.<\/p>\n
“However, by cleverly creating a dubious account which she dubbed the
\nNortheast Intervention Fund\u200e, the Minister of State, in concert with the
\nChief of Staff, have set the stage for controlling every kobo of the N48
\nbillion budgetted by the National Assembly for the northeast.” he added.<\/p>\n
A source in the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF)
\ntold Pointblanknews.com that his office released to ‘Bama Initiative’
\npenultimate Friday N5 billion out of the N18billion approved by the
\nerstwhile acting president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.<\/p>\n
\u200ePointblanknews.com also gathered that, contrary to Buhari’s directive
\nthat, as far as all northeast humanitarian efforts are concerned,\u00a0 PCNI
\nshould coordinate, Kyari and Zainab-Ahmed have converted PCNI into a
\nmember of the ‘Bama Initiative.’<\/p>\n
Scoffed an official of the officie of the Chief of Staff, “I feel so sorry
\nfor Mr. President. He is busy fighting corruption, not knowing that
\ncorruption springs from his bedroom.<\/p>\n
“Can you beat the fact that Chief (of Staff) is chairman of the
\nprocurement committee of Bama Initiative, while the head of PCNI, to whom
\nall government agencies and agents should be reporting to, has been
\nreduced to a ‘member’, a typical case of the tail wagging the dog,” he
\nopined, stressing, with one Farouk Gumel as the taskmaster.<\/p>\n
Continued the official, “in their wisdom federal lawmakers\u200e approved N48
\nbillion for the entire northeast made up of six states of Borno, Adamawa,
\nYobe, Taraba, Bauchi and Gombe comprising 112 LGAs.<\/p>\n
“However, Kyari and Zainab -Ahmed feel they know better hence they
\nunilaterally cut out N18 billion or about a third of the entire budget for
\nBama, just one of the 112 LGAs. If this isn’t corruption and abuse of
\noffice, what is?” quarried the official.<\/p>\n
Pointblanknews.com gathered that the fraud was worsened by the realisation
\nthat the N5 billion released penultimate week was for “re-training”
\nsecurity personnel in the zone.<\/p>\n
\u200eMinister Zainab Ahmed is believed to have been nominated minister by
\ngovernor of her home state, Kaduna, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai.
\nThe 56-year old minister had served as General Manager of the defunct
\nNigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), and later, Executive
\nSecretary, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).
\nIn late July 2015, shortly after Buhari’s inauguration, she had during a
\ncoutesy visit on the newly sworn-in El-Rufai, declared that NEITI’s checks
\nrevealed that between 2009 and 2012, Nigeria lost about 160 millions
\nbarrel of crude oil valued at $13 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Another corruption scandal may be staring the\u00a0 Muhammadu Buhari administration in the face following revelations that his Chief of Staff, Alhaji Abba Kyari, and the Minister of State for Budget…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n