The report by Oyetunji Abioye, also said that “SEC investigated the lender after do Rego [the Group Executive Director of Finance and Risk] told the SEC in August that Tanoh and former Chairman, Kolapo Lawson planned to sell assets below market value. Do Rego said she was pressured to write off debts owed by a business headed by Lawson and manipulate the bank’s results. Tanoh and Lawson have denied any wrongdoing,”

The answer is simple. For years, if I had to choose one columnist to read every Sunday, and no other, it would be Olumhese. I stopped buying Guardian on Sunday when he left. Today, March 2, 2014, I just asked for Guardian, and there was Olumhese in a battle of words with Paul Nwabuikwu, spokesman for the Finance Minister. Spokesmen are echoes, not voices; they are like microphones.

“There is nothing more wasteful than doing diligently what should not be done at all.”
President Jonathan took a plane load, or more, of people to Davos, Switzerland for what was billed as the World Economic Forum, WEF. The entourage included several Ministers, some Governors, captains of industry and others too numerous to mention.

“Power failure will be a thing of the past within six months.” Late Chief Bola Ige, Federal Minister of Power and Steel, June 1999.

It has become necessary to remind Nigerians that our unrealistic expectation about the Nigerian power sector is not a recent occurrence; in fact, it predated the Cicero of Esa Oke, as Ige was then known.

The management of Federal, as well as states funds, since 1999 had been one great swindle perpetrated by all the governments without exception. But, I had long restricted myself to the Federal government because the unitary constitution handed to us by General Abdusalami Abubakar, on his way out of office, gave so much power to the Federal government.

“Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain.” Fredrick Von Schiller, 1759-1805. (VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p 235).

The objective of the waiver policy, the implementation of which was reviewed and strengthened in late 2011 is to curb the abuses and inefficiencies of the previous regime…There is evidence that it is working to boost key sectors of the economy.” Federal Ministry of Finance in November 2013.

But in Nigeria, it almost invariably ends up getting bogged down in colossal corruption. The minute government embarks on a multi-billion naira enterprise the sharp guys devise the plans to subvert it by robbing the programme blind. SURE-P is going the way of National ID Card Scheme, Obasanjo’s $13-16 billion IPP for which we had nothing to show until PHCN was privatized and the National Water Rehabilitation Scheme of another regime.

But in Nigeria, it almost invariably ends up getting bogged down in colossal corruption. The minute government embarks on a multi-billion naira enterprise the sharp guys devise the plans to subvert it by robbing the programme blind. SURE-P is going the way of National ID Card Scheme, Obasanjo’s $13-16 billion IPP for which we had nothing to show until PHCN was privatized and the National Water Rehabilitation Scheme of another regime.

In my nearly twenty years of writing on these pages, I had predicted four crashes – two banking and two capital market crashes. The first was in reference to the banking crisis of the 1997/98 financial years. Writing under the titled FUNNY MONEY, I had predicted that Nigerian banks, which at the time were enjoying rave reviews in the media in general, were as a matter of fact deceiving all of us. The high profits and dividends being declared were out of tune with the underlying economy which was in a recession. My query then, as now, was “What sort of investments were banks making to earn the returns they were declaring?” I went further to list seventeen (17) banks which were sure to go under. The list included Alpha Merchant Bank, the darling of ignorant investors, and Commerce Bank headed by two former heads of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, CIBN. Few people believed me until the banks went belly up and bankers changed designer suits for prison uniforms.

“We are not looking for a stronger currency neither are we looking for a weaker one. People want to pay fees and investors want to know if they will have returns on investments.
We will use the reserves, we will use interest rates, we have gone through difficult months; hopefully, the next few months will not be difficult. We will not allow the naira to be weakened and we are committed to that”. Governor of CBN, Sanusi Lamido, in September.

Governor Uduaghan earned my respect during his first term when he boldly warned his people about preparing for a future Delta State without oil. It was almost sacrilegious. Who ever wanted to contemplate such a future with so much oil still in the ground to be lifted? Even the Governors Commissioners, who clapped with gusto, were skeptical about such a prospect. Nationally, the Governor might as well have been talking to cows – for all the attention he received. Nigerians have demonstrated that if there is anything they don’t want to think about, it is a future without oil – because it will require a vast amount of effort to build such a future.

It would have amounted to economic self-delusion of the worst kind if the Federal government had failed to take into account the failure of this year’s budget, largely on account of the shortfall in crude shipments while preparing next year’s budget proposals. By July, revenue shortfall for 2013 had already reached N686bn and are projected to get close to N1 trillion by year end. So instead of N4.925bn proposed for 2013, the nation will be extremely fortunate if N4tn is received. Thus, while the 2014 proposed budget is lower than the 2013 appropriation, it is N495bn more than what can be reasonably expected this year.

Just in case public sector workers fail to get the point, the Federal Government went further to declare that “only actual earnings will be shared.” Again for those who might not understand the meaning of that statement, it means that the Federal Government will no longer dip into the excess crude oil to make up the difference between budgeted earnings and actual income. Typical of governments everywhere, the Federal Government failed to tell the entire story – perhaps because it might be too alarming. Yet, the truth must be told to enable public servants, at all three tiers of government, as well as creditors to government to prepare for the inevitable. And, what is inexorable?

The second story was the real wake up call to Nigerians about our dismal economic future if we continue with our over-reliance on crude oil for our survival. According to the paper, “the country [Nigeria] began a new journey into the shackles of foreign and domestic indebtedness in which by 2011, statistics indicated its total foreign debt soared to the tune of US$47.9 while the domestic debt platform rose to about US$42.3 billion, much higher than even before the debt relief”.