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[rocky822]

Here's another article with Offor mentioned. I seem to remember Oilphant posting either the entire article or least excerpts, but after a quick search, I think he must've deleted it?

Editorial
THE BILL ON THE NIGERIA POLICE SERVICE

Let’s Open The Can Of Worms

Ken Nnamani, Senate President
Rumour mongering is a much sought after ‘virtue’ in the land today. One of the qualities that give you mileage in the scheme of things in the land is the ability to spin rumours about happenings in the corridors of power.

Rumour mongering has unfortunately become an integral part of government and governance. Nigeria would no doubt be ranked among the most polluted nations in terms of rumours either founded or unfounded.

Over the years, we have watched helplessly as it gets ...... into the psyche of the people. But rumour mongering, a vice that has become a virtue in the land has been of great benefit to the Nigerian nation of the various attempts to refute these rumours has given light in many instances, into the happenings at the nation’s corridors of power.

So, if any information is needed in any sector of the nation’s socio-economic life, all that is needed is a dose of rumour. In Nigeria, unlike some other parts of the world, there is an element of truth in most rumours. Rumours in Nigeria comes as allegations of misconduct and mismanagement against a public officer or an organ of government. Even after the allegations have come to prove that these rumours might be hitting the bulls eyes with stemming accuracy, Nigeria is a nation that is governed by secrecy. Our elected public officers see no reason why the owner of their mandate deserves to know how their mandate is being managed.

And that is most unfortunate. The greatest lesson from the face-off between President Obasanjo and his vice, Atiku Abubakar is that there is need for the demystification of governance in the country. There are too many secrets in our government that must be blown open in the overall interest of the nation and to keep rumour mongering at bay.

There is the utmost need to de-classify a lot of information that had little to be described as classified and confidential. Government must be transparent and accessible to the people. If democracy is indeed a government of the people, then the people should not be kept in the dark in the operations of their government.

There are too many secrets in the government for the comfort of the people. The right to know how our mandate is exercised is not only fundamental but also an in alienable right of the people. The people that are entrusted with our destiny are riding rough and packing skeletons into their cupboard at our expense.

We are being governed by those who think they are doing us a big favour by their election. They expect us to be eternally grateful to them for accepting to rule over us. If we are to reap maximally from this season of revelations then the way we treat information and access to it must be reviewed.

That is why the passage of the freedom of information bill must be of prime importance to the people at the National Assembly. Our lawmakers must save the nation from the clutches of sleaze by giving vent to the right of the people to know. There are so many atrocities being committed by the operations of our democracy that the access into their books would have prevented.

Now in the land, there are so many questions begging for answers. So many secrets that we deserve to know as a nation. Orji Uzor Kalu, the governor of Abia State in the last seven years underscores the need for the declassifications of information in the land. The governor alleged that the president and his vice are only scratching the surface with their revelations in the last couple of weeks.

According to him, the two most important public officers are only playing with the intelligence of the people as they have not opened up on their roles in the mounmental fraud in the real sector of the economy. He wants the leaders to go deep into the other secrets as their expose on the handling of the funds of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) is a child’s play compared to what they are still hiding.

Kalu concluded that the current revelations are peanuts compared to the large scale not in the nation’s finance. And this is the crux of the matter. Why should the finances of the nation be convered in secrecy. Why is it difficult to throw the nation’s account book open for the knowledge of the Nigerian people?

Why, for instance is it difficult to have an accurate figure of the number of barrels of crude oil we sell in a day? The activities of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has been shrouded in secrecy and the rumour is that the place is the nation’s corruption pot.

Several allegations of corruption against the way the supervisory authorities of the economic mainstay of the nation is being managed. Why is it that difficult to access the account of the NNPC to give Nigerians first hand information on happenings at the corporation?

Joe Ajaero, General Secretary of the National Union of Electricity Employee (NUEE) added to the list of rumours in the land with the allegation that a big chunk of the over N50 billion invested in the power sector ended up in the private pockets of some people.

According to him, Nigerians must begin to ask questions on the way they are governed. But if you ask question and no credible answer is offered, what can you do when it is in their discretion to tell you the truth or not.

Aside the official denials, no concrete effort was ever made to convince Nigerians that we are not running a government on sleaze. That was why it was easy for a public officer to accumulate N7 billion naira. That was why it was possible for the president to “bail” his vice out of a debt situation with N50 million naira.

The nation is still waiting for the president to explain the source of the N50 million he used to help Atiku even after the presidency had initially denied receiving money from the embattled governor of Plateau State, Joshua Dariye.

That was also why it was possible for the presidency to shop for an unbudgetted N7 billion to facilitate the National Political Reform Conference. The National Assembly has done well to demand a probe of the PTDF. They should go beyond that to the real sector where more stunning revelations awaits the Nigerian people.

The NNPC, the Ministry of Works, the presidency, the INEC, the National Population Commission, the PHCN and other real sectors of the nation’s economy should be probed. We must begin to ask them what they have done with our money. A situation where states fund has been turned into a fabrication that is used to oil the libido and sexcapade of our elected officers is not too good.

Vice President Atiku Abubakar says there are two other accounts apart from the one operated by Otunba Oyewole Fasawe. If we cannot ask Waziri Mohammed the state of the account he was managing on behalf of our president and his vice, we expect Emeka Offor to come out and explain how he’s been managing our account that is with him.

These two accounts should also be probed. The nation deserves to know how funds got into the accounts and the identities of the recipients of the fund. I agree absolutely with Kalu, more revelation awaits the nation in this tale of .... lets open the can of worms.

http://www.tribune.com.ng/30092006/politics_2.html