The cover story in Newswatch Magazine of August 16, 2004 is a classic example of how a hitherto principled and excellent journal can lose its bearing on a fast track paved with gold. The sensational, yet false, caption of the story, proclaimed in bold types: “Ooni, Nwokedi in N24 Billion Deal”, is misleading in the extreme, and untrue, besides, Okunade Sijuade, the Ooni of Ife, and Igwe Alex Nwokedi of Achalla were not involved in any DEAL. Both rulers are dual Chairmen of the Consolidated Construction Company (CCC). Any dealing on contracts, therefore, was between officials of the government and the company. Certainly not with shareholders.
The CCC is the international outfit that has been in the construction field in four continents, including America, since 1952. It is the rated 13th largest construction company in the world. It won the Onitsha-Owerri road contract in stiff compettion with twelve other reputable companies, one of which is Julius Berger. This big company in Nigeria is 20% owned by the Lagos State Government. It is German owned, but is not in the first ten of big construction companies in its fatherland.
Berger, before now, was dominant and enjoyed the constant patronage of the Federal and Lagos State governments. It was indeed, the lion of the Nigerian construction state. The jinx of Berger superiority was however broken when it lost the bid for the Onitsha-Owerri road contract. The Berger bid was 2½ times that of CCC and its completion period of six years twice longer than 3 years in the bid of CCC.
The loss clipped the over expanding wings of Berger. Its aura of invincibility in the field since it came to Nigeria in 1965 was grounded. It rankled. But, what is seen as causing the greater irritation is the conquering air of the Project Manager of the CCC. Michael Zaheed expressed himself publicly that the company tendered low to show Nigerians that they have been paying exhorbitant charges for projects of that magnitude. This exuberant display of confidence may have fuelled the inspiration of Newswatch — acting as a surrogate — to launch the unwarranted, unfair and scurrilous assaults on the reputation of the company, and integrity of two eminent monarchs. No constitution bares traditional rulers from owning or having a stake in business enterprises. It is unfair to impeach them in print for exercising their rights.
The false postures and distortions of fact that saturate 17 pages of the cover story of Newswatch, suggests that the organ has lost its sense of service to the people; and is now an arrowhead for vested interests. It did well to interview all those concerned with the contract, including the Minister of Works, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe. But its bias for Berger did not allow it to grasp the full impact of the merit of the CCC, not even when the Minister admitted that government was not meeting its project funding obligation.
On Page 12, the Magazine stated blandly that the two traditional leaders are “. . . linked to a road project that is about to fail.” It placed them in bad light, when it should direct its dart to the Federal Government for not releasing funds to the company, as at when due.
Mud was sprayed with abandon on the two rulers when the paper defamed them by writing that they influenced the contract award success of the CCC; that the two rulers influence most of the decisions of the company; that initial payment of N6 billion for mobilisation was routed through them; that the control of the rulers of released funds is responsible for the not-so-impressive progress performance on the road project; that the company has done only 3km on the road, when the Minister confirmed to it that 5km had been done from the Onitsha end; and that from Owerri end, 10 miles of one side of the dual carriage way has been done.
All the above negative thrusts are fabrications, or half truths contained in one half of the paper titled: “From the Editorial Suite.”
In his preface to the cover titled the Patronage Syndrome, Ekpu claimed that contract business in Nigeria is a BIG RACKET.
This is not true. According to him, contract money is paid or donated to the man of influence in our country. He claims to know of a state where a 1km of road without bridges or culverts or any special adornments was paved for one billion Naira. If this is not subtle blackmail, he should have named the state or receiving company. Inspite of the veil of deceit, Ekpu seems, in this instance, to be the Commander of Corps of contract experts, writing to run the CCC down. He needs to redeem his conscience from the prison of degrading influences.
A phantom official of the Ministry of Works in Abuja is supposed to have told Newswatch that part of the problem of the CCC is that it did not study the design of the project appropriately before bidding. So, it was overwhelmed by problems of compensation, numerous bridges and unexpected turns that have cropped up. This is sheer fantasy aimed at belittling an international company. The company won the bid against twelve competitors, who are all familiar with all the technical and other details of a road project.
A single, unnamed, official cannot be more knowledgeable or experienced than the team of top level manpower on the Ministerial Tenders Board. This piece of lies is more insulting to the CCC and its Chairmen than the crude impaling of their integrity with the tale that mobilisation fees was channelled through the traditional leaders. It is as far fetched as saying that payments for advertisements in Newswatch are made to the CEO or Editor.
As has been explained, mobilisation fee is not meant for discharging the contract per se. It is only in June this year that the Federal Government paid the balance of N 1.2 billion of the N6 billion mobilisation fees for the project which is scheduled for completion in September next year. Certified work done on the road so far is over N3.5 billion. It has not been settled up till now. Senator Ogunlewe confirmed that there was no basis for the negative reports of Newswatch when he agreed that the cash crunch experienced by the government is responsible for the paucity of funding to the company.
This situation is the major drag on progress on the road project. He passed on the buck of funding delays to the National Assembly — Keeper of the purse strings. He told Newswatch of his belief that if the Assembly releases funds now CCC would meet the completion schedule of the contract in September next year. In the circumstance, it will be a worthy deed of rectitude and courage for Newswatch to confess and name its paymaster for sordid writings.
As the Minister noted, the delay problem is the shortage of funding due to the demands of other services on a cash strapped Federal Government. The Project Manager of the CCC himself spoke of his frustrations on the job. The government, he said, has not been fulfilling the payment schedule to enable work on the project to move on. The company offered a year ago to finance the work, provided it was given a repayment guarantee for the investment.
That was one year ago. The offer was not rejected, though the Project Manager has not heard from the government on the offer.
When the Minister of Works was asked to explain what the situation was, he blurted out that there were many implications in the offer. The Ministry of Finance has empaneled a committee to study it and make recommendations and it has been one year since. Only N900 million was provided in the current budget for the road project. It is a laughable pittance.
Senator Ogunlewe, the Minster of Works, explains it all. The Federal Government is a nation that has many children to care for. Other services like Education, Health, Agriculture etc make claims also. It is clear that the CCC is without blemish as it is not the party delaying the work. Newswatch know the facts. All the negative reporting is believed to be externally generated and designed to give comfort to Julius Berger which though has its hands full with work in the South zone, may be suffering from ego damage. This is that for once in more than three decades of its existence, it has lost a major job in direct competition.
We posit that it is not against any culture, tradition, or lawful practice for traditional leaders to be involved in commerce or industry or to facilitate the presence of any legal business organisation in the country. We stress that is not a crime or error known in law, or convention, that they must exclude themselves, as inferred by Newswatch, from participation in any lawful business, or, refrain from having a stake in an enterprise. We point out that traditional leaders have rights available to other citizens. These are rights which can be abused only at peril to the transgressor. They also enjoy privileges not available to all and sundry. We must honour them for what they are. Newswatch has tried in vein to wrongly dishonour them.
To claim, as Newswatch did, that the Ooni of Ife and Uthoko of Achalla are influence peddlers without backing up such claims with facts is made merely to sprinkle mud on their high credit in society. And to charge that they teamed up to corner the contract for their company is to impute base conduct against the two rulers. Worse still, by linking the President’s name with their dreamed up DEAL, they have soiled — without proof — the image of a Federal Government that is furiously battling economic and other malpractices through two agencies that can bark and bite.
Newswatch has to purge itself of Yellow journalism which thrives by trampling with abandon on reputations of famous leaders. If, in this instance, the organ had done so for profit or even personal aggrandisement, then it must be said that it has joined the ranks of mercenary warriors, who bend the freedom the press enjoys in our democratic setting, to personal ends. This, apparently, may be the reason the paper is able to concoct false stories of alleged inadequacy of CCC to handle a N24 billion road contract in Nigeria.
The paper knows full well that the company that prospered well on the international market for half a century, did so through efficient performance. It is aware also that it has successfully executed billion dollar contracts elsewhere in the world market, it went ahead to trample on the company’s reputation despite its offer to rescue the government — which Newswatch said was broke — with a hefty loan to finance the contract. Government is yet to respond to that bail out offer after one year. The CCC stand high, in good credit. It has done everything to help move the contract forward. But government must do its bit.
The war of Newswatch is misdirected. It should have been with the National Assembly for failing to release funds for the project in a zone where he belongs. The Minister of Works said that much, by interpretation, in the interview he granted the paper. We believe that the three warriors in Newswatch who did the job of shredding reputations and showing CCC performance in a bad light unjustly, have a conscience. The honourable road to trek now, is to do some penance — in public or privately.
