N2.5 billion naira fraud in PINE
Last week, the Senate declared that it discovered a N2.5 billion fraud in the activities of the Presidential Initiative on the North East, PINE. PINE was created by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2014 for the purposes of reconstruction and rehabilitation of communities attacked by Boko Haram. Senate’s discovery was made during a public hearing […]
Last week, the Senate declared that it discovered a N2.5 billion fraud in the activities of the Presidential Initiative on the North East, PINE. PINE was created by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2014 for the purposes of reconstruction and rehabilitation of communities attacked by Boko Haram. Senate’s discovery was made during a public hearing held by its ad-hoc committee investigating the alleged diversion of relief materials meant for Internally Displaced Persons [IDPs] in the region.
For example, PINE could not account for N2.5 billion it received for intervention projects in the region. Its secretary Umar Gulani failed to rationalize how the agency spent N203 million to clear grass in Yobe State. Yobe State’s commissioner of information Alhaji Mohammed Lamin, who was at the public hearing, faulted the claim that such a project was ever executed in the state. He also disputed PINE’s claim to have expended N253 million to clear “invasive plant species” on river banks in the state, as well as another claim that PINE spent N422 million to provide tents for small IDP families in Yobe State. The commissioner also challenged PINE’s claim that it renovated 18 schools burnt down by Boko Haram, saying only three schools were rehabilitated by agencies outside of Yobe State.
The Senate committee then directed the PINE secretary to produce within one week, documents and photographs of the projects it said it executed. One of the unfortunate aspects of the PINE saga is that many Nigerians think this is the North East intervention initiative headed by eminent statesman General T.Y. Danjuma but this is not so. While PINE was created as a think tank for the reconstruction efforts in the Northeast, Gen. Danjuma heads the Victims Support Fund, VSF, which was also inaugurated by President Jonathan in 2014. VSF’s mandate was to coordinate the funds for the rebuilding of the region. Toward that objective, VSF now has N29 billion in its account. Danjuma also heads the Presidential Committee on the North East Initiative (PCNI) inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari in October this year. Stakeholders represented on PCNI’s board include VSF, the military, Vice President’s office, the House of Representatives etc. its mandate is to coordinate all rebuilding activities in the Northeast. VSF and PCNI are not being probed by the National Assembly, at least not yet.
Indeed, President Muhammadu Buhari dissolved PINE on October 26, this year and instructed that PCNI should inherit its assets. So technically, PINE no longer exists although its assets and records should be with PCNI. It is not clear under whose leadership PINE incurred its questionable expenditure. Its first secretary was Professor Soji Adelaja, who passed the baton to Umar Gulani at the beginning of 2016. Umar Gulani has said that he complied with Senate’s directive to submit documents and pictures of the projects PINE executed “and wish for a physical inspection of the projects by all concerned.” Gulani also said that he was not an executive secretary at PINE, so he had no authority to “approve expenditure of a single kobo.”
We believe that the lesson here, a lesson which keeps being reiterated on a daily basis in Nigeria, is that our functionaries can and will steal from anyone. Some Nigerians leaders steal from God during pilgrimages and religious programs; judges steal from the dead while sharing estates to inheritors. It is not therefore very surprising if officials are stealing from the helpless and the displaced people among their compatriots. This degeneration into satanic default anytime there’s a national assignment is not only disgraceful but it also blights hopes that we carry of urgently fixing this country.
No matter, Senate’s investigations should be concluded urgently and the culprits should be identified and punished. We also advice all outside intervention agencies to liaise with the state governments concerned in order to identify areas of need and projects required. Sitting in faraway places to select intervention programs for the Northeast easily leads to unconscionable waste, squander and plunder.