October 6, 2003

 

I want to thank the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, through you Mr. Chairman and members of your Committee for its resolution to investigate the allegation published in some national newspapers that a couple of Senators demanded money from me, to facilitate my clearance as a ministerial nominee. The Senate has by its resolution displayed great courage and given the people of this country hope that our country is indeed turning the corner of the perception of a corrupt nation where anything goes. The Senate has also voted overwhelmingly in support of transparency in public affairs and upholding the democratic principles of openness and fair hearing. Once again, I thank you distinguished Senators.
Let me start Mr. Chairman with a clear statement of my respect for institutions in general and the National Assembly in particular. I have spent all my years in public life lamenting the collapse of our institutions, and I will be the last person to disrespect the Senate or the House of Representatives. Indeed, as some Senators and the President, the Vice President and the Governor of my home state, Kaduna know, sometime in 2001, I actually had discussions with them to run for legislative office in 2003. I would not have considered that, if I thought that the legislature is not an institution worthy of serving, and building. Instead, it was my destiny to remain and build the Bureau of Public Enterprises into an institution that even international organizations and our detractors have acclaimed for professionalism, competence and integrity, until I was privileged to be nominated as a Minister by Mr. President.
Permit me to recall, Mr. Chairman, that the Senate blazed the trail in the war against corruption by passing the Independent Corrupt Practices Act in 2001, and had the singular courage of investigating its members in the past. These are actions worthy of respect and recognition.
It is important Mr. Chairman, to make this point to differentiate between my disappointment with the conduct of two members of the National Assembly, and my respect for the legislature. In the Senate, there are two former Vice Chancellors of my alma mater, Ahmadu Bello University, Professors Iya Abubakar and Daniel Saror, impeccable role models, and Barewa Old Boys like Dr. Dalhatu Sarki Tafida, and Professor Jibril Aminu. There are several others, including Senators Udo Udoma and Victor Oyofo, and my brother Senator Amah Iwuagwu, (with whom I worked together for General Abdulsalam Abubakar’s government to design and supervise the transition programme, which led to this republic), and others too numerous to mention. It will be a wild contradiction in law and fact to impute any disrespect to the Senate from the statement I make here today. Indeed, it is because I greatly respect the Senate and believe that our Senators are honourable and distinguished persons, that I felt the need to bring into the public domain, acts unbecoming of members of this Upper House.
Let me now go into the circumstances leading to the publication of the allegation. As part of our enlightenment programme on the President’s Vision to Retrieve the Abuja Master Plan, we had intensive interaction with several journalists. Some spent hours with me and my staff talking about the vision, and visited many sites within the Federal Capital Territory. I gave several interviews, and the quesiton was raised about how many people think that my boss, the Vice President, made money as the supervisor of the privatization programme, and how I must have facilitated it. I explained the impossibility of that happening due to the well-applauded transparency of our programme and its inherent checks and balances. This led me to relate a personal story which had disturbed and caused me great distress. This personal story was reported in the papers, and it has been my lot to handle the intended and unintended consequences flowing therefrom. I believe strongly that God has a reason for making this personal experience public at this time and for bringing us here today.
In June 2003, the President nominated me for appointment as a Minister. The President asked me to meet with as many Senators as possible to ease the process of screening. This I did, and many of you are aware that I made efforts by telephone and personal visits. It was a time when many Senators had not moved into official residences but I tried to see as many, and talk to as many distinguished Senators as possible. It was gratifying that many Senators felt that there was no need for me and many of my colleagues to go to the length we did to present ourselves to the Senate. It was a very enriching experience for me personally, as I moved from my comfort zone of a technocrat, to that of a potential politician.
The Vice President departed for a trip shortly after the announcement of the nominees, but left a message that I should meet with the Deputy Senate President Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu and other principal officers of the Senate. Though I did not get the Vice President’s message, a distinguished elder brother also reached me and communicated the same message. During my BPE days, I enjoyed excellent relations with Senator Mantu, who had at various times introduced businessmen and party members to me with interests to purchase shares in the Abuja Sofitel, and some other companies. We handled all the introductions in accordance with laid down procedures of the National Council on Privatization. Whenever we met, Senator Mantu used to comment on my youth and claimed to have told the president that he felt that I had the wisdom of Solomon without the age of Methuselah. I would naturally say then that Senator Mantu would support my nomination. However, trying to contact him as advised, I observed that he became evasive. And after several attempts and missed appointments, when I caught up with him in his office, I waited for over 6 hours with a former Senator without having a meeting with him. During this period, I was fortunate to meet or speak with most of the other principal officers, except for Senators Tafida and Zwingina, who were abroad.
With the intervention of several ex-Senators, I finally met with Senator Mantu in his house, and he assured us of his support but pointed out that some detractors were bent on blocking my nomination. He was quite specific about who these detractors were, and how he had been asked by "the Villa" to nominate a replacement for me due to the unlikelihood of my being cleared. None of what the Senator said was believable but I went along, since he then promised to apply his skills at scuttling the effort of these "detractors." Several meetings over a couple of weeks with the screening dates and schedules being shifted over and over, I was visited by an individual who said that I needed to meet Senator Zwingina who had just returned from a trip to South Africa. I was taken to Senator Zwingina’s house in Asokoro for the first time, on July 6, 2003.
We had a brief meeting with Senator Zwigina, who suggested that we drive to Senator Mantu’s house. We met Senator Mantu who restated that in spite of his best efforts, I still had serious problems, and my detractors had recruited many Senators to block my nomination. He added that he brought Zwingina into the picture to counter their move, and that the two of them were "expert" in these matters. However, he added that money would be needed to recruit an army of Senators to act as my defenders, and stated that about N54 million would be needed to secure the support of a minority of senators excluding four or five senators that he was sure would vote for me without payment, and making allowance for absenteeism. He added that many Senators felt I had made money as DG of BPE and should therefore cough out part of it now.
Senator Zwingina added that Senators also felt that I would be difficult to get much from, once I became Minister, and it was safer to have something up-front. I explained that I did not believe in paying for any job, which in any case, was likely to be a difficult and thankless one and have never had such money. I reiterated that I made no money in BPE, and was actually indebted to a couple of people. He added that he was aware that I was being posted to FCT where the sale of a single plot by the Minister would make up for the "investment." I tried without success to convince them of the impossibility of what they are requesting, while they advised that I go and think about it. They were passionate about the opportunities I would miss if I fail to scale the screening, and I was adamant that I could not do what they asked. We parted on this unhappy note.
Corruption is an interesting concept that I have observed over the years. As a professional in the construction industry, I have faced situations of offers and demands for bribery for twenty years. I have during these years strove to maintain my honour and integrity. Not once in my career as a private and public sector technocrat, have I been found to desire what is neither legitimate nor due to me. I have never and will never compromise on the issue of corruption. The few instances that we came across in BPE, we dealt with decisively and relentlessly.
This is my story. This happened between the three of us. No one else was present except God Almighty, and no one else made any demand of me except these two Senators. I immediately shared my ordeal with the available authorities as the president was away on a trip, and also with my inner circle of friends. Naturally, I was disappointed, disturbed and outraged.
Nobody invites witnesses to demand a bribe. Corruption situations are best understood in terms of power dynamics. In allegations of corruption therefore, the question to ask is who has the power to extort? Who would want to part with his legitimate earnings unless a gun is placed on his head? Why would I relate this story if it did not happen? Why would I pick on two Senators out of 109? In what way do they constitute an impediment to my current position or well-being? Why should I have entered details of my meetings on 6th July 2003 with Senators Mantu and Zwingina in my Activities Record Book if same did not occur as recorded?
Since this story broke out, I have personally maintained my silence on the subject while other corroborating and circumstantial evidence have been unearthed. Those who think I have no "strong proof," that it will in the end, amount to my word against theirs, I wish to remind that it is evidence that leads to proof, and that both the Senate and the Nigerian society are not gullible, but intelligent and discerning.
Finally, Mr. Chairman, permit me to make a few remarks in response to some of the speculations and statements in the media on this subject over the last two weeks or so.
Furthermore, attempting to blackmail the President and the Vice president by widening the theatre of disagreement – suggesting that I was recruited to make the allegation to spoil the existing cordial relations between the executive and legislature is even more pathetic. The misconduct of two Senators out of 109, and an allegation by one minister (for now) out of 40 is not reflective of the reality on ground. Finally, this is nothing personal. I have had no prior negative relationship or ill-will towards any of the Senators mentioned. Trivializing the situation and diverting attention from the investigation are unhelpful, and the Senate should remain focused and not waver. I am grateful to the President and Vice president for affording me the opportunity to serve this administration, and I will give up my life in the defence of their honour and integrity. Those that attempt to smear them should carefully weigh the consequences because I intend to see this to a logical conclusion.
I have been counseled by many of my friends and well wishers that desperate people do desperate things. My life has already been threatened, hints that the FCT will receive zero allocation have been passed and a forensic audit of my tenure at BPE is being undertaken. None of these is new or unexpected even from my previous job. With the support of God, the president and Vice President, my colleagues in the Federal Executive Council, as well as the prayers of ordinary Nigerians who are tired of the hypocrisy and corruption of some of our elite, I am ready for any eventualities.
I understand the great risk I took by this action, but it has to be done and somebody had to do it, for the integrity of our Senate, our administration and our country. My generation in all spheres of our society, traversing the membership of the current National Assembly, the public service, the private sector, and civil society are sick and tired of pretentious public officers, brazenly corrupt and having the audacity to point fingers in other directions. We are tired of people who equate politics with open corruption, and who think that the way to obscure and bury the truth is to ethnicize, regionalize or politicize it or rope other people through blackmail and intimidation. I stand before you as a citizen of Nigeria, and say I have nothing to hide. My life, my bank accounts, my assets, my liabilities and my record of service both in public and private sectors, are an open book, and I challenge those I have mentioned to offer themselves to the same level of scrutiny. Afterall, we are all public officers and subject to the Code of Conduct.
Mr. Chairman, distinguished Senators, I hope my statement will assist you in the discharge of the onerous assignment given to you by the Senate. Let me avail myself of this sitting to thank you immensely for giving me the opportunity to tell you my side of the story. I wish you success in your assignment and tenure in the Senate.

God bless you all, the National Assembly and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Mr. Chairman, distinguished Senators, I thank you very much.
 

Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai, OFR.