During Governor Orji Uzor Kalu's first
term as governor of Abia State, he was reported to have registered as a full-time student of Abia State University,
to which he is the Visitor. At the same time, he was the executive governor of Abia State. What is the value of
any grades his own employees give him in the curses he registered in? Currently he is involved in controversies
involving the running of a commercial airline, Slok Airlines.
The Vice President, Abubakar Atiku is also known be running a number of commercial ventures. On November 24, 2004
the BBC reported that the President's Spokesman on Public Affairs, Mr. Femi-Kayode, announced the income of the
President from his farming hobby in Otta, Ogun State. I searched the announcement furtively for information on
the taxes the President paid on this bonus without success.
When I read that our President earns on the average $252,000.00 every month from his hobby, farming, I nearly collapsed.
This amount if converted at the bureau de change at the Local Wing of the MMA or better still at the Onitsha Main
Market amounts to roughly half a
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billion Naira annually. If our former chairman of FEDECO could faint at the sight of a million Naira, I guess I
should actually have suffered an infract. I must be made of sterner stuff than the poor chairman of FEDECO! Nobody
can begrudge our enterprising President or our governors the fruits of their entrepreneurship..
However, there is something as the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This piece of paper stipulates
against exactly what the Excellencies is reported to be doing:
Chapter VI Sect. 138 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic provides:
The President shall not, during his
tenure of office, hold any other executive office or paid employment in any capacity whatever.
Where are the President's legal advisers when this breach of the constitution is officially publicized in the media?
What are our Federal and State Attorneys General doing about these breaches of the constitution??
This stupendous wealth of the leader of one of the world's poorest countries raises a number of questions. Why
was the President still operating the Farm at the same time Nigerians are paying him as their head of state and
government? Is there any way he could avoid a conflict of interest under the circumstances? After all, the pay
as head of state is a pittance compared to his pay from the farm. How much was the Farm making before he became
the head of state? In any other country, the President would have been required to turn over the Farm to a trust
before assuming a public office. Is it possible to divest the success of the Farm from the fallout of his Presidency?
The nation has been grumbling about the president's junkets throughout the globe. Ostensibly, the jamboree was
in search of investors and debt forgiveness. Investors in the Farm or in Nigeria? It appears that the Farm has
been the only beneficiary of this investment drive.
How can Mr. President in good conscience continue to be subsidized by the public coffers with regards to board?
How many members of the President's family are being provided with accommodation and board at public expense? As
a matter of fact, how many wives and children are Nigerians providing with accommodation, health care insurance
and other public facilities? Does Deregulation and Monetization stop at the doors of Aso Rock? How can Mr. President
attract such effective managers for the farm, but cannot attract capable hands to handle the national economy?
First, how much of this amount does the President pay into public
coffers as taxes and what is the rate of taxes on such earnings? In any developed country such income would attract
a tax rate of between 40% and 75%. What other ventures is the President involved in? Unless Mr. President pays
about 50% of this income, Mr. Femi-Kayode needs to go further and release the President's tax returns for the past
five years.
Then how can a man who makes such fantastic income from a hobby, make such mess of the national economy? How can
our President be such a successful farmer but such a lousy administrator of the national economy? Could there be
any connection between the income of the farm and the income from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources or any other
state funds? Who are the customers of the farm? Is any government agency or parastatals among the customers of
the farm? Has any employee of the Farm ever accompanied him on his jamborees? Has the Farm refunded any public
funds expended for such trips?
But, then I read of the President's assurances while chastising Governor Kalu:
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Speaking about Governor Dariye on Friday Nov. 26, 2004, the President said:
"It doesn't matter whether you talk or you don't talk, this government which I head will continue to fight
against corruption. Is it ethically right for a governor to establish an airline while he is still in office? Is
it ethically right for a governor to establish radio and television stations while he is still in office, not that
he is investing in the public one? "
Mr. President is it legally or ethically right for the President to earn such a filthy income while he is still
on public pay roll? Mr. President does your admonition of the State Governors not also apply to the Governor of
the Central/Federal State of Nigeria? If the governors ought to have
invested in public Airlines instead of private ones, could the President not have invested in public universities
instead of founding his own private university?
The average Nigerian lives on less than a dollar a day. The President earns about $10,000.00 a day! How can such
a President relate to the average Nigerian? Yes, Mr. President, there is poverty in Nigeria! You should not be
feuding with the United Nations agency that established this fact. There may be no poverty at Aso Rock or at Ota
Farms but there is a dehumanizing poverty everywhere else in Nigeria! It is not every Nigerian who earns roughly
half a billion Naira annually! Nigerians now understand why Mr. President can vehemently deny that there is poverty
in Nigeria. Nigerians can now understand why their President is not in synch with them in their sufferings. If
I earn over a Million a day how would I be bothered about mere 70 Naira a liter of benzene? Nigerian's can now
understand why Obasanjo is the apostle of deregulation and a high the priest of the World Bank and IMF!
This distortion of the national economy also calls for deregulation Mr. President! One day, I believe Nigerians
will have a bold and honest government under the likes of a Gani Fawehimi of a Fr. Mathew Kukah,.then there will
be weeping and the gnashing of teeth at Ota Farms and Hilltop Mansions!