By Cudjoe Kpor
The all-round denials, or most likely lies, in top political circles about $2.9 billion (about N623.5bn) wasted on fictitious arms purchases for the armed forces over the past eight years raise curious brows. The sum is about 14.1 per cent of the N4.425 trillion nominal 2015 budget. That the purchases were also fictitious did not come as a surprise either. For, in October, last year, 283 additional soldiers were court-martialled in Abuja and Jos for mutiny. Their defence was that they were poorly armed to face the Boko Haram insurgents who had more sophisticated weapons with superior fire power.
So, it was no surprise again when the 13-member retired AVM John Ode panel on arms purchases indicted the ex-National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) – and some unnamed service chiefs – for squandering the sum earmarked for equipping the armed forces. But the first question one should ask is, are the Ode panel’s preliminary report figures accurate and true? That surprise came when Dasuki debunked as false the only damning accusation directly tied to him. Mr Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari had said, between March, 2012 and March, 2015, Dasuki awarded fictitious and phantom contracts in three different currencies worth: N2,219,188,609.50, $1,671,742,613.58 and €9,905,477.00. “The contracts were said to be for the purchase of four Alpha Jets, 12 helicopters, bombs and ammunitions. They were not executed and the equipment were never supplied to the Nigerian Air Force, neither are they in its inventory.”
Dasuki refuted the accusation as false, emphatic that there was no room for awarding fictitious contracts: Specifically, he explained in rebuttal: “All the services generated the types of equipment needed, sourced for suppliers most times and after consideration by the Office of the NSA, the President will approve the application for payment. For sensitive sectors (military/security), there was no room for awarding fictitious contracts.”
He even made mincemeat of the panel for assuming ridiculously that procurements were not delivered. In his response in a statement, he wrote: “It is laughable for the panel to assume that 4 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.”
Was the panel aware of these references? The NSA added other acknowledgement letters of arms and ammunition receipts from L.S. Alao (on behalf of the Chief of Air Staff), Nigerian Army for taking delivery of 14 armoured tanks and from Brigade of Guards for releasing N30m for RCA, Operation allowance for troops, among others.
He confirmed that a comprehensive list of all requests for procurements by the services, the items bought and those equipment being awaited was submitted to President Buhari long before he left office. Is the Ode panel aware of the handover notes? “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.”
More shockingly is the outright denial by ex-president Goodluck Jonathan. Dasuki said pointedly, “All contracts and accruing payments were done with the approval of the President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces after due process.” Jonathan was the Number One citizen then. In fact, in principle, he must take responsibility for all the bad deeds under his watch – just as he enjoys all the accolades for the good deeds. That’s the immutable first rule of leadership. That is why it is the peak of self-denigration for a head of state to say publicly that he did not know about anything. He has nobody to blame for any follies, foibles and errors of omission and commission.
But addressing a seminar audience at the National Democratic Institute in Washington, US, Jonathan claimed that the allegations against his government are untrue. “I did not award any $2 billion contract for procurement of weapons. Where did the money come from? The figures are staggering and untrue, another governor said someone stole a million barrels of oil per day,” he said.
Proceduraly, Jonathan approved all the arms purchases requests before they were cleared by Dasuki. But Jonathan claimed that he never bought arms worth $2 billion, creating a false impression that he was being accused, in retrospect, of placing only one order for $2.9 billion contract in one fell swoop. Meanwhile, the panel is investigating arms purchases from 2007 to 2015. Does Jonathan want the public to believe that the three services did not place orders for arms worth $2.9 billion over the eight-year period covered by the panel’s investigation? Or especially since the Boko Haram insurgency erupted in 2009?
My humble opinion is Jonathan is lying.
Alternatively, the panel did a shoddy job, cooked up the “humongous” figure to rope in Dasuki in a predetermined fabrication. Otherwise, why did it indict Dasuki without giving him a fair hearing? Why did it extrapolate Dasuki’s culpability back to March 2012 when he was appointed three months later in June? In democracy, nobody tries anybody in his absence. Even if an accused person is convicted in his absence as an accessory with others, he must be retried from start if he is repatriated from wherever he has been. So, to impute wrongdoing to Dasuki without fair hearing is undemocratic, in the first place.
More importantly, the former NSA is right to suspect that the Buhari government is out to soil his reputation unjustifiably. Needless to add, someone or group is playing a fast one on the public. Unless the panel unacceptably gave the dog a bad name to get it hanged…., as proverbial cliche says. For, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the arrest of Dasuki based solely on the shocking indictment for the huge waste and suspicion of corruption in the report which was not made public. One of the famous quotes of the late Chief MKO Abiola is, nobody shaves another person’s head in his absence.
Simultaneously, assume the John Ode panel is accurate with its figures; and Dasuki is right about the process which brings the office of the NSA into the arms purchases only AFTER the President approved the service chiefs’ requests for arms, chose their own arms suppliers, then the first blame of responsibility must stop on the President’s desk. No wonder Dasuki insists that the trial must be in open court where journalists will carry proceedings to the analytical public. For something is so incredible about the panel’s report and its indictment which make no sense.
Some opinion writers accuse President Buhari of a vindictive throwback to 1984 against Dasuki after the overthrow of his military regime. I have no opinion about that since I am unaware of them. What concerns me and other informed persons is the state of health of the former NSA. Cancer treatment is not a process any right-thinking person frustrates or delays. That is why I agree with the Abuja High Court’s order which allowed Dasuki to fly abroad for three weeks and return to face his trial.
As the learned judge said rightly, only a healthy man can be tried in court. Better still, since Dasuki as an accused is guaranteed constitutionally to be innocent and free till proved guilty in court, he has a right to get the best medical treatment before trial. Cancer is a curable disease at its initial stages where chemotheraputic drugs could treat – and even cure it. By the time it progresses beyond the initial phase to require radiation treatment, it is out of the fully curable zone. And if it goes beyond radiation treatment to require surgery, the relapse becomes a lottery chance.
The frustrations mounted by the uninformed Department of State Services (DSS) give the shocking impression that someone wants to ensure that Dasuki does not return to Nigeria if he flies abroad for treatment. If the DSS illiterates do not give a thought to that possibility in their actions to date, they should not be surprised if Dasuki jumps bail once he is out of the country. And their slaves’ mentality policing is to blame.
Clarity on the problem is further rendered nebulous by AGF and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami. The High Court summoned him to explain the siege laid on Dasuki’s residence by DSS in spite of the bail granted him by the court. Malami, lawlessly, did not only snob the temple of justice, he rather asked the prosecutor to ask the court – which he snobbed – to revoke the bail granted Dasuki and get him detained subsequently. What impunity about injustice against Dasuki…. who has not been convicted of any crime. Malami said his refusal to honour the court’s summons was because Dasuki was being investigated by the AVM John Ode panel. Dasuki’s lawyers objected to the fresh government attempt to revoke his bail.
At the risk of boring repetition, I must say nobody says Dasuki is guilty or innocent. That is strictly for the court to decide. Till then, everyone is watching when, whether or if, the impunity the ruling party used to complain about in its electioneering campaigns will cede way for democratic freedoms for all, Nigerians and other residents alike. For, the Constitution guarantees that every accused is innocent till proved guilty in court. No self-respecting president in or out of power says publicly he doesn’t know about anything which happened during his watch. Unless he wants to denigrate himself. Otherwise, Jonathan must play god and have his ears and eyes everywhere about the fictitious arms purchased while he was in office – which are now coming back to haunt him.
