Minister Threatens Activist Over Report

Akanimo Sampson

Minister Threatens Activist Over Report

NIGERIA's Environment Minister, Mr. John Odey, is allegedly on the war-path with the Niger Delta Budget Monitoring Group (NDEBUMOG), a pro-public accountability organisation, over a recent report by the civil society group.

The Legal Adviser of NDEBUMOG, Mr. Frank Nabena, in an on-line statement to AkanimoReports on Saturday, claimed that the minister has threatened the life of the one of the key functionaries of the group.

The alleged threat to life followed the release of the group's statement by their Regional Accountability Centre on Tuesday August 4, 2010. According to Mr. Nabena, ''on Wednesday, the next day, our Monitoring and Evaluation Officer I, Emanuel Jackson informed us that the Minister of Environment, Mr. John Odey had called our office and requested to speak with the Executive Director, (Mr. George-Hill Anthony). The Officer he spoke with informed him that the person in question, with whom he asked to speak was not on seat''.

Excerpts of the NDEBUMOG testimony goes thus: ''The minister then dropped his mobile number and requested our staff to inform the Executive Director to return his call. Upon receipt of the information, the call was returned accordingly, a few minutes after 12pm on 4th August 2010, and lasted for over 30 minutes at the cost of NDEBUMOG.

''In the process, Mr, John Odey spoke about being a “gentleman and a South-South brother” and actually agreed that there was need for a reconciliation between his Ministry and that of the Niger Delta. He however said, his discomfort was the headline used by NDEBUMOG that “his Ministry is deceiving Nigerians”

''While the discussion was going on, network problem terminated the conversation towards the end of it. The second time the Minister called our office, his tone was no longer ‘gentle’ by the details of the conversation. On the 5th of August 2010, at about 11am, Mr. John Odey called and requested to speak with the Executive Director once again. He spoke for some minutes with one of our staff before requesting that the ED be requested to call him. This, the ED did exactly by 11.06 am. The call went into call waiting, with he (Minister) reverting just immediately after. Upon realizing the call was from NDEBUMOG’s leadership, he barked out why the number in use is not the same as the one we used to speak with the previous day.

''The number popularly known to belong to the Executive Director of NDEBUMOG, by our associates, friends and other Nigerians, since the inception of GSM till date is 0803 341093., which is registered with MTN. We told the minister that this particular MTN number was not in use that morning, and that we used our other GLO line, which is also the ED’s official line. At that point, Mr. Odey began to bark at our ED, George-Hill Anthony, asking why there had not been a retraction of the Public Statement, as “his people and friends are still getting back to him” following the wide circulation of the statement by a section of the media.

''He went further to say that our Public Statement must have been influenced by the state of origin of NDEBUMOG leadership, since he was not from Cross River State. According to him, he said majority of the projects NDEBUMOG mentioned are in Cross River State. He was fuming when he said, he was coming to Port Harcourt and would report us to the Governors of Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Rivers State; that, he would treat our leadership not as a human beings...” and many other unprintable statements, which is not to be expected from a state commissioner, much less from a minister of the Federal Republic.

''We can make evidence of the minister’s statement available. NDEBUMOG leadership is not afraid of death, provided the world knows where it is coming from.

''General Sani Abacha killed Kenule Beeson Saro-wiwa and thousands of our Ogoni brothers and sisters in the Niger Delta, but that did not stop the struggle. Today, there are many Sarowiwas in the Niger Delta and many are coming. Day-by-day we are building the capacity of Niger Delta Communities to demand accountability and the struggle would continue beyond one generation.

''To put facts clear to Mr. John Odey, he should know that his true friends are those who would tell him the truth always. We know there are some people who trade vital public statements for favours. We are not looking for contracts or favours. We are not asking our names be listed for international conferences or whatever. If there is any agency of government we have approached for such favours, we hereby challenge them to come out factually and tell Nigerians. Civil Society community (being where we belong) is large enough for us to ask favours from. The era where the Civil Society was seen as an uninterested bystander is over.

''Facts are sacred! What Mr. John Odey needed to do as a Federal Minister who is paid with taxpayers money is to clarify with Nigerians what the true position is, rather than issuing threat against our lives. Let his Defence be put in the court of public opinion for Nigerians to judge either.

''Our advocacies aren’t targeted at individuals but at getting the system to work effectively for the salvation of the nation. All the titles of our public statements are carefully chosen after in-depth research for facts. That is why we do not jump to the media now and then. It may also interest Mr. John Odey to know that NDEBUMOG is a baby of the Niger Delta Struggles, having been conceptualized by the Commonwealth of Niger Delta Youths. NDEBUMOG leadership has been in the flagship of Pan Niger Delta Youths’ movement for many years, without getting into crimes against humanity in the region.

''The Minister should not also think he can always use politics to confuse every governor in the Niger Delta. He cannot fool Governors like Rotimi Amaechi, who has openly condemned duplication of projects in the region. He cannot also fool Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, neither the Governor of Cross River, who is privy to our work on reconciliation and harmonisation of Federal Projects in his state, not just those concerning the Environment Ministry in Cross River State.

''This would show the Minister that we work everywhere and even have a pending working visit to Cross River State (his State), with the knowledge of his state government. Our job is not driven by sentiments or political desperation. For the information of the Minister and “his friends”, Cross River State has benefitted from our work more than any other state in the entire Niger Delta. That is a state where we openly frowned at the allocation of just one project by the Niger Delta Ministry in 2009. Also, Cross River State is ranked among the best within the benchmarking of governance indicators in the entire region by NDEBUMOG We therefore would not accept duplication of efforts in a state struggling with a budget of less than N100 Billion per annum like in 2010 fiscal year.

''Last year the state had to revise its budget because of these challenges. We want such projects reconciled and moved either through virements to other communities in need within the area. There should be inter-agencies budget intelligence sharing. We did not inform Nigerians that Capital Votes in the Federal Budgets seem to be tilting in favour of minister’s home states. That is not an issue with any individual minister, but a problem of the system that we hope to use advocacy to address.

''Mr. John Odey may wish to know that just three weeks ago, we alerted Cross River State Government and other States in the region to watch out for their contracts just awarded by the Niger Delta Ministry, after Certificates of No Objection was issued by the BPP. We went ahead to list Cross River State projects as:

* Building Construction awarded to Messrs. El-Hanan Ventures Limited awarded for N1.6 Billion with completion tenure of 12months.

* Civil/Engineering Works awarded to Messrs Naaman Associates Limited for N678 Million with completion period of 10 months.

* Works and Services awarded Messrs Anchor Nuel Resources Limited awarded for N627 Million with completion period 12 months. He should ask his State Government if that information was received from NDEBUMOG, without a fee; we are just doing our work.

''It is public knowledge that we critically engaged the Niger Delta Ministry when Chief Ufot Ekaette was the Minister. We were more critical than this intervention on Environment Ministry and Chief Ekaette is a Son of the Niger Delta and from Akwa Ibom State, and he did not threaten anybody’s life or play politics with it. Same was done on Rilwanu Lukman and Chief Odein Ajumogobia at the PIB Public Hearing in the National Assembly, which we were among those who spoke on behalf of the wrecked people of the Niger Delta.

''Chief Odein Ajumogobia (a gentleman indeed) was seated there live, eyeball-to-eyeball and did not threaten anybody. It is our Sister who is the Minister of Petroleum Resources, yet, we analysed that Ministry’s Budget critically, pointing out red spot and Mrs. Alison did not threaten anybody. Senator Lee Meaba was the one who gave our organisation the Harmonised Version of the Nigerian Content Development Act 2010, immediately after, we critically disagreed with some clauses there (refer to page 64 and 65 of Thisday Newspaper of May 15th 2010) and the Senator did not threaten anybody’s life.

''We called Honourable Ita Ennang and enquired about a particular Water Project in his Constituency under the Cross River Basin Development Authority, asking if he had seen the cost slated for it; he answered the issue straight and did not threaten anybody. We were critical with Senator Felix Ibru as Chairman Senate Committee on Establishment for the passage of NEITI Act and the old man engaged us constructively without threatening anybody.

''Our organisation is an elected member of NEITI’s Civil Society Steering Committee, yet, we issue a Special Report- THE OIL DRUMS OF BLOOD AND THE COMPLICATIONS OF NEITI’s 2005 AUDIT and the leadership of NEITI did not threaten anybody. Rather, NEITI under its current Chairmanship is working seriously to make sure every barrel of oil extracted from the soil of Nigeria is accounted for. Also, we were invited to speak at the 1st ever Pilot Programme for Procurement Due Process for Bayelsa State at the Sport Complex, Yenagoa, a few years ago when President Gooodluck was the Governor He was there seated with Honourable Ebebi and we insisted that the Bill (now an Act) must have Local Content. Today, the Law has been passed with a bit of Local Content (though far from being perfect), and we globally circulated a statement that the Law is below people’s expectation in Bayelsa State, without the Governor threatening anybody.

''There are issues we are scoping in the Budget of Federal Ministry of Urban Development, that is, a bridge re-enforcement project in Sapele and Honourable Nduese Essien who did much for the Niger Delta during the period of Onshore/Offshore Oil Dichotomy is the Minister, but we cannot bring sentiments of where people come from to bear on issues of accountability. These are to give Mr. Odey in-depth information about our work in the Niger Delta. We have information on duplicated projects in Ministries beyond Environment and would not look the other way when we see them being advertised. Whoever does not want to account to Nigerians like it is done in other democracies has no business being in government.

''We came hard on the Niger Delta Ministry in the presence of their Permanent Secretary, Directors, Assistant Directors and others, where we informed the Ministry (face-to-face) that after 2011 Federal Budget, if the Ministry does not perform effectively, we would mobilise Niger Deltans for a campaign to scrap the Ministry. Openly the Niger Delta Ministry agreed that their doors are open for all stakeholders in the region who genuinely want to engage it.

''At the same time we have urged other Ministries to accelerate the reconciliation of projects in the region with Niger Delta Ministry. Tuesday, 3rd August 2010 was the first time NDEBUMOG leadership set foot in the Niger Delta Ministry. There and straight away, the Permanent Secretary directed his staff to harmonise the projects and embark on a visit to locations in the region to see areas that need demarcation between the two Ministries. They did not threaten anybody’s live. What would Mr. John Odey do if NDEBUMOG’s Special Projects Adviser were not from the Niger Delta; or if our Governmental Affairs Adviser were a Northerner? He would say they are paid to whistle-blow on his ministry.

''To us, every Nigerian who has the genuine interest of our region is a Niger Deltan. Leaders who are from the region cannot be exonerated from the backwardness of the region. Genuine Freedom Fighters in the Niger Delta are aware about the work we do in the Niger Delta.

''In conclusion, just yesterday, our Regional Accountability Centre received a letter with Reference No:NPC/AB/SEC/2300/1 signed by Prof. Sylvester Monye, MFR, which was also copied to the Perm Secretary of Niger Delta Ministry, Permanent Secretary of Federal Ministry of Environment, the Managing Director-Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and to us Niger Delta Budget Monitoring Group (Regional Accountability Centre), being an invitation to a Harmonisation Meeting on Projects which seems to be duplicated. That is a genuine way which an Agency of Government should address issues. After all, there are genuine people in the system, who seeks credible information to help the system, not to threaten lives. Perhaps, the Federal Ministry of Water Resources should also be invited to the said harmonisation meeting. We are a legal entity and what we do is recognised by law.

''God bless all those working to salvage this country from sinking.

''The World should take the threat to our lives by Mr. John Odey seriously''. ENDS

ENDS

© Scoop Media