Chief Judge of Bayelsa State Justice Kate Abiri yesterday set up a panel to investigate the allegations against the Deputy Governor Peremobowei Ebebi. Ironically, Ebebi is Abiri's first cousin. The seven-man probe panel will investigate the allegations of

Written by This Day Tuesday, 15 June 2010

President Goodluck Jon-athan yesterday identified greed as the major stumbling block to the nation’s development, warning that Nigerians engaging in corrupt practices would no longer have a field day.
The President spoke at the first Presidential Retreat on the Implementation Plan for Vision 20:2020 and Public Private Partnership Framework for Infrastructure Development in Nigeria at the Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa Abuja.

At the event, he promised that contractors and public servants engaging in corrupt practices would soon meet their waterloo.
President Jonathan also explained the reason behind the committee raised last week at the meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on the high cost of Federal Government contracts, saying the idea is not to victimize any contractor but to checkmate those engaged in contract inflation.

“Greed of which corruption is a part is the main stumbling block that stems our growth. If people are greedy, they tend to inflate contracts. If people are greedy, even when they are in the private sector, they tend to inflate the price. All these retard our development. It is not just the corruption that someone in government misappropriates funds. But we use the word corruption to describe some other corrupt acts by some people, which I believe are the greatest part of our underdevelopment,” he said.

Jonathan said: “We must look at our procurement process. If we must move fast, because whenever I travel out of this country to another and I happen to see some infrastructural development, I always ask about the cost of execution. And sometimes the cost I am told is three times less of what we are charged in this country. “That is one of the reasons why in the last FEC meeting we set up a committee to look into our procurement because if we do not review our procurement money that will give us three times the price of something but ended up giving us only one. For instance, money that will give us three vehicles we end up getting one; money that will give us three dams, we are getting one. Money that will give us 30 kilometres of road we are getting 10. Then our visioning will not materialize.”

He said all Nigerians have a role to play in building the country. “Nations are built by people. When I was in South Africa and during my interaction with Nigerians over there, a woman said her son would not want to come to Nigeria because of the constant power outage. But I told her to encourage her children to return to give a helping hand to developing her country. Because we cannot travel out and enjoy other nations built by people and abandon your own.”
The President charged ministers to monitor contracts to ensure that the nation gets value for its money, saying the emphasis should not be on government approving contracts alone.

President Jonathan pleaded with Nigerian youths to work hard, saying “without hard work our visioning will be a mirage.”
He told the leaders to ensure that “in whatever we are doing as a nation we should bear in mind we are planning for our children. Any nation not planning for the children and grandchildren is in trouble. But if we are planning for our children, our children must also work hard. A situation where only 30 per cent who sits for examination will pass or probably only 10 per cent will pass mathematics, then we are in trouble as a nation.”

President Jonathan said he looked forward to the recommendations from the retreat, pledging to implement them “to the letter.”
Senate President David Mark, represented by Senator Saminu Turaki, said Nigeria should focus immediately on the provision of adequate power with emphasis on energy and gas; and transportation, including land, rail, sea and air.
Mark said the estimated $600 billion which has left the shores of Nigeria in the last 50 years should be brought back “either by incentives or by guaranteeing security of investments of Nigeria . It is only in Nigeria that a foreigner can come with briefcase, with no idea but having access to the corridors of power without any visible investment in our economy and would win juicy and major government contracts and leave with their briefcases despite due process while Nigerian engineers, entrepreneurs and professionals are denied access.”

He said “for this vision to be successful, we need investment and support for Nigerian companies to participate in this sector. There can never be attainment of Vision 20:2020 if our companies do not take part. For Vision 20:2020 to be a success, Nigeria should not be an exporter of crude oil but exporter of petrochemicals and energy like Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and today China.”

Former Head of the Interim National Government, Chief Ernest Shonekan, expressed regret that one of the paradoxes in the country’s development history is that despite the potential for strong and sustained growth capacity of the economy and the resourcefulness of Nigerians, the vast majority continue to remain in abject  poverty.
“There is clear evidence that two related factors have contributed significantly to this unhappy situation. One is the almost total abandonment of systematic and consistent planning in the management of our economy. The second contributory factor which is indeed the consequence of the first is the haphazard way and manner in which we continue to attempt to provide the basic economic and social infrastructure.”

Meanwhile, the Presidency has reacted to comments allegedly made by the former Chief Justice of the federation, Justice Muhammed Uwais, that the nomination of the new INEC chiefs did not follow the recommendations of his electoral reform committee.
A statement by the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity Ima Niboro said the President needed to respond to the urgency of the reconstitution of the new INEC following the existing laws. 
He said President Jonathan remains committed to electoral reforms.
Uwais had reportedly said key recommendations of his committee were not taken into considerations in the nominations into INEC.

The Presidency said “it shares to a large extent the frustrations of the eminent jurist. This is even more so if we recall that it was the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua, to whom Dr. Jonathan was deputy that set up the Justice Uwais committee in the first place. We must also recall that Dr. Jonathan played a key role in the process, having chaired the committee of all political parties, less the Action Congress, that took a wide ranging look at the defects of our electoral system, and whose report was passed on to, and largely adopted by the Uwais panel.”

It, however, noted that “no matter how we feel about the reforms, the law is the law, and Justice Uwais probably knows this more than the rest of us. For now, the law in place mandates the President to nominate the chairman and members of the electoral commission, along with state chairmen of INEC, present them to the National Council of State, which is advisory, and send to the Senate for screening. This is exactly what the President has done.”
The Presidency said the recommendations of the Uwais panel, “no matter how well-meaning, remain recommendations until they are passed into law by the National Assembly.

“The President particularly noted the complaints of acting chairman of INEC that time is too short to prepare for the next elections and all manner of ridiculous tenure elongation scenarios being played in the media, it would have been fool hardly to put off a decision on reconstituting the electoral body until the National Assembly passes the Uwais panel’s recommendations into law. This is why the President moved with dispatch to reconstitute INEC, putting together a team whose credibility has been hailed locally and internationally.”
It restated that Jonathan is fully committed to electoral reform, and is determined to ensure that all votes count in Nigeria from now on.