Concerns grow over major oil Acquisition in Niger Delta by Tony Buckingham, former mercenary and arms dealer

Major oil industry players in Nigeria have expressed concerns over the recent $850 acquisition of 45% participating interest in a producing oil mining lease in Nigerian, OML 30, by Shoreline Energy Resources Nigeria Limited.

Shoreline Energy is a special purpose Nigerian company formed by an indigenous company, Shoreline Power Company Limited and Heritage Oil Plc, an independent upstream exploration and production company listed on both the London and Toronto stock exchanges.

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Shoreline recently announced that it was acquiring 45 % stake in OML 30 and its corresponding assets previously owned by Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC), Total E&P Nigeria Ltd and Nigeria Agip Oil Company.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, through its subsidiary, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, holds the remaining 55 % of the oil license.

However, concerns have been expressed by some oil industry executives about Tony Buckingham, the chief executive officer, CEO, of Heritage Oil, a FTSE 250 company and major player in the oil industry.

The fears concern Buckingham’s past as a mercenary and arms contractor before he transformed into a big player in world oil business.

Although he has built a multi – billion dollar oil business with interests and assets in Russia, Libya, Kurdistan Iraq, Malta, Oman, Congo, Mali , Pakistan and now Nigeria, Buckingham’s past as a known mercenary and his business relationship with mercenaries involved in coups in Africa continues to haunt him and his business interests.

Heritage, on its website attempts to distant its chief executive from his dark past by stating that he severed relations with his mercenary and security contacts and associates since 1998, but the British media continues to link him with old associates in the warring business.

The Sunday Times once put the Buckingham who owns 33% shares in Heritage “at the epicentre of the trade in arms and soldiers… into war-torn African states”.

Buckingham, a former diver and British SAS officer, is linked to Simon Mann, a former Scots Guard, who was arrested, tried and jailed for leading the “Wonga coup” to depose dictator Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasago of Equatorial Guinea.

Mann was sentenced to a 34 year jail sentence in Equatorial Guinea on July 7, 2008 for the 2004 failed coup but was granted presidential pardon in November 2009 on humanitarian grounds.

Buckingham and Heritage are at pains to play down his relationship with Mann and the company’s website is quick to point out that its CEO has not hadany kind of contact with the internationally acclaimed mercenary since 2000.

That is understandable. Buckingham, Mann and Lt-Col Eeben Barlow, a former Apartheid-era member of the South African Defense Forces, were founding partners in Executive Outcomes, a crack team of commandos made up of mainly former members of the South African Defense Force, which they used in fighting UNITA rebels in Angola.

Buckingham had become an adviser to the Angolan government under Jose Eduardo dos Santos around 1989 and helped the Angolan ministry of oil set up Sonangol, an oil and gas exploration and production company. He in turn set up Heritage in 1992 and his company and Sonangol held oil prospecting licenses.

In 1993, communist UNITA rebels overran Angola, taking over oil operations including Heritage’s oil interest in the country. Buckingham teamed up with Mann and Barlow who had founded Executive Outcomes in 1989, to use the mercenary outfit to fight the rebels and retrieve his oil interests.

But Buckingham had other direct involvement in mercenary activities in other parts of Africa, including Nigeria’s neighbor, Sierra Leone. In 1995, that country’s government contracted Executive Outcomes to help train its army and help fight RUF rebels.

Buckingham became a principal figure in another mercenary outfit, Sandline, founded in 1996 by Tim Spicer, a retired British colonel, which was hired to organize a counter coup against soldiers who toppled the government of president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone.

Sandline was allegedly contracted for the job by Indian financier Rakesh Saxena in return for diamonds exploration permits.

Sandline is notorious for breaking a United Nations arms embargo on Sierra Leone with the tacit support of the British government. That scandal implicated the Foreign Office in arms and linked it to Sandline and Executive Outcomes which shared offices at 535 King’s Road, London.

Sandline was also engaged by the government of Papua New Guinea to suppress the Bougainville Revolutionary Army which was seeking independence from the country. An enquiry by the Papua New Guinea commission of enquiry into the mercenary group’s contract later determined that Buckingham and Spicer were the chief controllers of Sandline.

Sandline was dissolve in 2004 while Executive Outcomes suffered the same fate in 2009.

Another of Buckingham’s unsavory business dealings in Africa concerns diamond mining in Namibia. The mercenary turned oil magnate as CEO of Sky Gem, a mining company, got diamond prospecting rights for the Neu Schwaben from the Namibian government. The businessman was accused of forcefully ejecting over 1,000 small time miners who had been operating on the farm for years.

Although Heritage claims that Buckingham severed links with Mann in 2000, Hansard Trust Company Ltd and Hansard Management, two companies which both have shares in four of the companies in the Heritage Group have been linked to Logo Limited.

Logo Limited is the company used by Mann in buying military equipment and ammunition and paying mercenaries and it shared offices with the Hansard companies St Peter Port as late as 2009.

In 2007, the Observer of London said of Executive Outcomes and Sandline: “They are the advance guard for major business interests engaged in a latter-day scramble for the mineral wealth of Africa [including] oil, gold and diamond-mining ventures… and offshore financial management services.”

Born in November, 1951, Buckingham worked in the North Sea as a diver in the 70s and later as a concessions negotiator for Ranger Oil and Premium Oil. He earned a big cheque from oil prospecting and production in Uganda’s Lake Albert fields and in 2009 sold his company’s assets and interest in the country to Eni Oil, the Italian oil giant, for $1.3 billion.

Buckingham, one of Jersey’s richest men – his fortune is put at more than half a billion pounds – is a major donor to the Conservative Party.

Investigations show that before its deal with Shoreline, Heritage had made spirited efforts for years to find an investment inroad into Nigeria. In fact, our investigation shows that as far back as 2003, the company was already sending representatives to Nigeria to prospect for investment opportunities.

Sources said that a representative of Heritage approached a Nigerian broker in November 2003 asking for opportunities in oil and gas, refineries as well as other business areas.

The source said that the representative also told the agent that Buckingham was interested in “military business”, asking for contacts in the military.

Buckingham’s man said that although he no longer had military affiliations, one of his companies still owned two Russian MI24 Helicopter Gunships, the type used by the Nigerian military, located in Australia and in good condition and which he was willing to sell to an interested buyer in Nigeria.

However, the man who first brought Heritage and Buckingham into Nigeria is Folorunso Okenla, the popular former Green Eagles player. Okenla disclosed to our reporter said that he got to know of Heritage’s good records in Uganda and contacted Buckingham to impress on him that he was not yet a big player in the oil business in Africa if he wasn’t doing business in Nigeria.

Subsequently, Okenla’s company, Haoni Oil and Gas, whose chairman is retired Justice Alfa Belgore partnered with Heritage in the 2005 bidding round in Abuja but failed.

“I brought Heritage into Nigeria” Okenla told our reporter, adding “what we were looking at was to be the local partner to Heritage which was already a big oil industry player in Uganda.”

“Our first business relationship with Heritage was in 2005 when Haoni Oil and Gas partnered with them during the 2005 bidding round in Abuja but we did not succeed,” the ex–footballer turned businessman stated.

Okenla also said that the two companies kept exploring business opportunities together until about two years ago.

Okenla, however, claimed that he was not aware of Heritage’s acquisition of OML 30 but stated that after he got the foreign oil giant interested in prospecting business in Nigeria, other companies might have approached it with a better deal.

He admitted he did not do much due diligence on the businessman and  denied knowing about Buckingham’s mercenary or military past, insisting that he only knew about him doing good oil business in Uganda.

Apart from Haoni, other companies that Heritage explored business relationships with in Nigeria include Hicog Oil and Gas, Eurasia Limited and ENP Limited.

Heritage’s new deal in Nigeria means that it takes over 45% of OML 30 with eight producing fields, some two hundred wells, along with associated infrastructure which includes a segment of the 850,000 bopd capacity Trans Forcados pipeline.

The acquisition, according to a statement by Heritage, is being financed by a $550 million secured bridge finance facility provided by Standard Bank of South Africa and a $370 million underwritten rights issue sponsored by JP Morgan Securities Limited.

Kola Karim, CEO of Shoreline Power Resources expressed excitement at the acquisition.

“Taking us into the upstream oil and gas sector at such a significant time when the Nigerian government is promoting active participation from indigenous companies. Shoreline, along with Heritage’s strong technical team and upstream experience will become one of the leading indigenous oil producing companies in Nigeria. This will strengthen our existing network of relationships with the local communities, local government & authorities in the oil producing areas of Nigeria,” he told a Nigerian newspaper.

Concerning the acquisition, Buckingham said in a statement, “”The acquisition of.  OML 30 [the oilfield assets] is transformational for Heritage, providing a material change in production and reserves whilst pursuing our strategy of generating shareholder value.”

“Heritage is very excited to be participating in the development of OML 30 and entering at an attractive valuation. We look forward to continuing to build local relationships and partnerships with the communities in the delta region and creating a platform to build a substantial presence in Nigeria,” he stated further.

Attempts to speak to Buckingham were unsuccessful. When our reporter called Paul Atherton, Heritage’s Chief financial officer in London Thursday night, he asked him to call the next morning through his official phone.

However, when the reporter called the given number and asked to speak to Atherton, he was told by a female voice that it was a wrong number. Atherton has since not taken his calls and has also not replied the mail sent to him asking questions about Heritage’s oil deal in Nigeria or fears about Buckingham’s past.

The acquisition of OML 30 is expected to boost Heritage’s net production significantly from 605 bopd to 11,650bopd.

In collaboration with The Guardian on Sunday

The Nigerian Senate indicts a task team that unearthed a multi-billion fraud in pension administration but protects the perpetrators.

Senate President David Mark may have inadvertently placed a curse on some of his colleagues in the upper legislative chamber.

Early in the year, at the commencement of the probe into pension funds administration by the Senate, Mark declared that “pension fund administrators pilfering funds meant to pay pensioners are accumulating “blood money.”

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Represented by Victor Ndoma-Egba, the Senate leader, he lamented that many people had gotten rich on “blood money while pensioners were left suffering and dying.

Again, a few weeks ago, at the presentation of the report of the joint committee on public service and establishment and state and local government administration, which conducted the probe, Mark declared, “for any living human being to have stolen the money of those who have laboured for this country, I think it is only God who can decide their fate.”

“But, as human beings, we have just made our recommendations and hope that the Almighty God will see them to hell,” Mark concluded.

At that session where recommendations of the committee, headed by Aloysius Etok, were adopted by the Senate, Ndoma-Egba who gave the example of his own father who was denied lawful pension amounting to N2 million, also rained curses on pension funds thieves.

“That is blood money and blood money is cursed money, not only on them but on their children’s children; it is a curse on them no matter what they think,” he declared.

However, Mark and Ndoma-Egba might have been raining curses on some members of the Senate joint committee who have now been accused of collecting billions from pension fund ‘thieves’ to forestall their prosecution and stop further investigations into the mindless pillage of funds meant for the payment of pensioners.

Sani Shuaibu Teidi, former director of pension in the office of the Head of Service of the Federation, who is being prosecuted along with 31 others, alleged that Etok and other members of the committee collected a bribe of N3 billion from him.

In statements he made to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Teidi said that he paid the money to Etok in foreign currency and that the bribe was meant to prevent their prosecution. He told investigators that he equally bribed Farida Waziri, former chairman of the EFCC.

Curiously, nothing was said about that allegation at the session of the Senate that adopted the report of the discredited committee. After the allegations were publicly made, Ike Ekweremadu, deputy Senate President, at a session, set up a committee to look into them with a mandate to report its findings within two weeks. Nothing has been heard about that committee since then.

Also, Abdulrasheed Maina, chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT) alleged that Etok demanded from him a bribe of $100,000 dollars for each of the 18 members of the committee. Although Maina has since been pressured to offer a public denial, he had revealed in confidence on the day the demand was made that certain key members of the panel asked for the bribe.

Maina said he declined giving the bribe on the advice of a security chief who alerted him that once he gave the bribe, he would be subsequently blackmailed into giving heavier bribes.

Etok has publicly denied both allegations. However, the conduct of the committee’s hearing into the fraud in pension administration and the report it presented to the Senate last week, among other things, are indications that the committee’s work may have been compromised and, indeed, orchestrated from the beginning for the purpose of discrediting the Maina-led task team and its work.

First, for years, while pensioners suffered and even died roaming the streets of Abuja while waiting for their pensions, the Senate did nothing. For years, old pensioners turned the corridors and underneath the staircases of the Complex housing the office of the Head of Service to their homes; yet, nothing was done by the Senate.

However, shortly after the EFCC started the prosecution of Teidi and others, as well as arrested several senior civil servants, including a serving permanent secretary for stealing billions of naira from the pension funds, the Senate suddenly got interested in the plight of pensioners.

For a discerning follower of the pension scam, a careful perusal of the report of the Etok-led panel immediately reveals that the primary goal of the committee’s work appears to have been to discredit the pension task team and disband it.

More than 90 percent of the 107-page report deals with only the pension offices handled by Maina — Police, Head of Service and the Customs, Immigration, Prisons Pension offices.

In its report, in the attempt to achieve its purpose, many of the observations of the committee are disjointed, contradictory and sometimes downright ridiculous.

The committee did make some pertinent findings in concerning goings on in the pension office of the head of service.

This includes the fact that “there is syndicated and institutionalised corruption, fraud and embezzlement in the administration of the payment of pensioners and administration of pension funds”.

The committee also determined that officials of the pension office “enrolled as pensioners several persons who had not served in the public service with forged and false documentations”

“The officials in the department use numerous fake and pseudo names in the pension payroll and banks to siphon monthly pension funds to their private use” the report declared.

The committee also noted that quarterly verification exercises on which it said the department spent N256 million every year “were only a facade to fulfill all righteousness and a decoy to expend the funds appropriated for that purpose.”

However, the report goes on to destroy the work of the task team which came to address and rectify all the anomalies. In the process, the committee cooks up several false allegations and claims against the team, which documents in the possession of www.icirnigeria.org contradict.

In spite of its earlier observation that yearly verification exercise were carried out to siphon money, the committee quarreled with the team’s conduct of a biometric capturing exercise which has forever removed the necessity for any further verification.

Through the biometric exercise, the team has come up with smart cards for every pensioner with which they can be verified without going to queue for hours unnecessarily.

The report alleged that the team conducted another biometric exercise in spite of the fact that the pension office had already conducted up to 90 percent of a similar exercise for the year at the cost of N234 million.

But the committee was aware that in truth the pension office under Teidi did not have any biometric data on pensioners and even if it had could not have used it because of the fraud it was perpetrating.

The committee equally falsely alleged that the team embarked on the biometrics without data or files from the pension office, only relying on documents submitted by pensioners. Due to this, the report further alleged that the names of aged pensioners whose documents had been lost or misplaced were removed from the pension payroll.

“The task team therefore declared aged pensioners (some of whom have received their pension for up to 20 years) as ghost pensioners thereby removing 71,133 names of pensioners from the payroll and reducing the list of pensioners from 141,790 to 70,657.”

However, documents in the possession of our reporters, which were also made available to the Senate joint committee, show that this is a deliberate falsification of facts. The over 71,000 names removed from the payroll are the same fake and ghost pensioners that the committee acknowledge exist in its findings.

The task team went to the 36 states of the federation but many of the fake pensioners stayed away because the team went with security officials. A few of the ghost pensioners were actually arrested.

It is also absolutely false that the team went on the exercise with no data because it had retrieved all the over 141,000 files of names of persons claimed to be pensioners. Working with these files, the team discovered a lot of cloned names, repetitions and doctored documents.

In many cases, names of dead people were brought into files of the living and paid pension while names from living files were also duplicated in the files of dead people so they could be paid death benefits. Officials of the pension office colluded with bank officials to collect the money thereafter.

To do this, they used under-age youths, teachers and jobless persons in several states.

Another false accusation is the claim that the task team illegally enrolled 49,395 new pensioners “without the mandatory pre – payment audit by the office of the Auditor – General of the Federation and other mandatory clearance and also refused to submit same for audit, thereby bringing the total list of pensioners to 120,733.”

The committee went on to observe that “if the list of 71,133 pensioners is verified and added to the 120,733 now verified by the task team, the number of pensioners would increase to over 190,000”

The truth, however, is that the biometric exercise conducted by the task team unearthed nearly 45,000 persons who were entitled but had been denied their pensions. Some of these people had never been paid for over 30 to 40 years since they retired. Over the last several months, the figure of such new pensioners has gone up to nearly 50,000.

One of the newly-paid pensioners, Ibrahim Damchida, a retired super permanent secretary, who spoke to www.icirnigeria.org in March confirmed that he had never received pension until the task team captured and put him on the payroll last year.

However, contrary to the impression given in the report, the task team has actually reduced the number of pensioners by cutting off fake and ghost pensioners and reducing the monthly pension burden on the government. Whereas the office was paying out N5 billion as pensions and gratuity to 141, 702 pensioners, the cost has been reduced to N1.7 for about 120,000 pensioners, including the nearly 50,000 that were recently added to the payroll.

It is also untrue, even ridiculous, the suggestion that the task team jerked up the monthly pension bill without pre-payment audit by the Attorney General’s office when the Attorney General is the one that approves the monthly payroll and pays the pensioners.

In one of its findings, the committee also alleged that “the task team engaged in contract splitting and awarding same to the tune of N1, 816,956,401.95.” It stated further that the companies that got the contracts were not registered and did not pay tax and that the funds were not appropriated for the contracts.

The committee deliberately closed its eyes to documents, which showed that the task team had nothing whatsoever to do with the contract awards. The award of fake contracts was one of the ways by which officials of the pension office siphoned money from pension funds. And although they claimed to be awarding contracts for items needed by the task team, they never involved any member of the team.

Documentary evidence shows that Charles Wali, deputy director, Pension Account wrote the memo for the award of the contracts, the Permanent Secretary, Establishment and Records office and the Head of Service approved and signed the mandate for the payments.

It is therefore misleading to say that the task team awarded any contracts. But the Senate committee shied away from indicting the real culprits who are the ones proven by documents before them as beneficiaries on fake contracts.

The report also accuses the task team of paying N830, 835,745.23 for the payment of pensioners in June 2010 using cheque instead of the e payment system in contravention of financial regulations.

However, the senators had facts before them that being the first month of the team’s operation, it adopted a parade system after capturing the biometrics of all the pensioners who showed up for payment.

The representatives of the bank used for payment issued every verified pensioner with an e – cheque with which he was paid. It was through this method that ghost and fake pensioners were weeded out.

The findings and observations of the committee in the report concerning the activities of the police pension office are even more curious and the recommendations even more questionable.

The committee observed that officials of the police pension office “use numerous fake names in the pension payroll and banks through which they siphon monthly pension funds” but in the same breadth accused that the task team taking over the financial operation of the office as well as changed the signatories to the accounts.

It alleged further that… “Opened bank accounts with signatories of such accounts being members of the task team without authorisation from the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation.”

The report also stated that the task team transferred over N40 billion being pension funds to new bank accounts opened by the team without authorisation from the accounting officer.

All that these documents show, however, are untrue. The Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, actually instructed the changing of the signatories to the Police Pension Account to stop the looting of funds. So the team had authorisation to take over the account.

But contrary to the impression given, only three members of the task team Maina, Baba Gana Kaigama and A.A. Magaji, were made signatories to the account. The police pension office still had Edwin Nwokoye, Yakubu Kolawole Adeyemi, Toyin Ishola and Mike Okoro as signatories to the accounts.

Also, contrary to the report’s claim, the Accountant General did authorise the team to open two bank accounts to transfer funds from accounts through which officials of the police pension office were siphoning hundreds of millions of naira every week.

In the authorisation letter signed by the Accountant General of the Federation, the task team got approval to open two accounts in Fidelity Bank and the UBA.

One of the most curious findings of the committees that the alarm raised by the task team over a N2 billion fraud involving the Nigerian Union of Pensioners, NUP, was false.

The committee said that “the amount so paid was legitimate outstanding union check – off dues from 2005 to 2011.”

However, investigations by the EFCC showed that Teidi colluded with Ali Abatcha, the president of NUP and Actor Zal, the secretary, to siphon up to N2.7 billion in the guise of paying check – off dues.

Teidi, Abatcha and Zal are currently facing a four count charge at the Federal High Court, Abuja. The report of the EFCC investigation as well as court papers were presented to the committee but it still declared that the NUP was clean.

THE Senate report made other alarming allegations of financial mismanagement against members of the task team without basis.

For example, the team is accused of engaging in “numerous contract splitting in order to beat the approval limit and avoid contract tender process. One company was allegedly awarded a contract worth N145 million split into units and that the funds spent were not appropriated for that purpose.

But the truth is that the team never awarded any contract because it does not have the powers to do so. The question of spending limit therefore does not arise.

Members of the team are also accused of collecting money to undertake overseas biometric exercise. Listed names include those of John Yusuf, Abdullahi Umar, Oludare Adedokun and Madubuike Christian. But none of them is a member of the task team. John Yusuf, for example, is an official of the police pension office while Adedokun is the security detail to the Head of Service.

However, the most outrageous claim in the report is that the task team’s assertion that it had helped the nation save any money is false. The report stated that what the team claimed it had saved were unspent funds. But even the Minister of Finance has publicly announced that the task team saved the government about N78 billion, funds which were incorporated into this year’s budget.

The Senate closed its eyes to include the over N3.3 billion that was being collected monthly at the head of service for over 71,000 fake pensioners and being stolen by civil servants. The case against Teidi and others arise from this monumental scam. But for the task team exposing them for prosecution, they would have stolen more than N70 billion in the last two years.

In the police pension office, the team has also saved the N1 billion that was being siphoned monthly in the guise of paying the pension and gratuity of retired police officers.

Also, through the work of the team, over N30 billion in cash and assets have so far been seized from pension thieves in the office of the head of service and the police pension office. But due to their prosecution, the seized funds cannot yet be returned into government coffers.

Besides this however, the team has also been able to discover the many illegally opened accounts into which pension funds were deposited before they were stolen.

In the office of the Head of Service, over N35 billion was discovered in some 66 illegal bank accounts. If the accounts had not been discovered, the funds would equally have been looted. There is also a six million pound account kept in accounts in London known to only a few top civil servants in different offices who were also allegedly drawing the interest on the account.

In all, the task team since June 2010 when it was constituted has saved the country about N170 billion that would have been pilfered. The committee, it appears, for some reason, has castigated the team from doing that.

Curiously, also, although it agreed that officials had been mismanaging these accounts, the Senate committee recommended that the accounts be returned to the pension offices from which they were rescued in the first place, giving the impression that the agenda is to allow the looting spree to continue.

In its recommendation, also rather curiously, the only mention of persons who have been found to have stolen billions from pension funds were given a cursory mention when the committee said that “those persons investigated and arrested by EFCC and other security agencies who are at present undergoing prosecution in various courts should be speedily tried.”

Even here, the committee was demanding protection for the pension thieves by calling for a speedy trial.

However, it recommended that Maina, Kaigama and all members of the task team “should be arrested and prosecuted by the Police Force,” spelling out their crimes as “fraud, embezzlement, misappropriation, misapplication, illegal virement, contract splitting, award of contract to non existing companies, award of contract without appropriation and outright stealing of pension funds.”

It recommended that the stolen funds be recovered from them.

The committee also recommended that officials of security and anti graft agencies such as the State Security Service, SSS, Customs, Prisons, Immigration, EFCC and ICPC seconded to the task team should be arrested and prosecuted.

What the committee members do not know is that all the agencies have a full report of the task team’s activities and the entire compromised proceedings of the Senate committee-led by Etok.

But the committee also made some very dangerous recommendations, which are not only unpatriotic but also would further worsen the sorry state of pension administration in Nigeria.

From these recommendations, it is clear that the senators ‘only agenda is to stop the Maina-led team from further stopping the looting of pension funds and returning to the status quo whereby billions were stolen monthly.

One of such recommendations is that the accounts of the police pension office, which was frozen, should be unfrozen for the office to be able to do its job. The committee claimed that the alarm raised by Maina over the accounts had been found to be false.

However, these are the accounts used by those being prosecuted to pilfer pension funds. That was what led to the setting up of the task force in the first instance. Without completing the restructuring of the office, what the Senate has done is ask that the accounts be returned to the same officials who were draining them.

The committee also recommended that the 49,395 new pensioners captured and paid pensions since June 2010 by the task team should be removed from the payroll “pending a proper and credible verification exercise.

Again, the committee is not only asking for a return to the era when N250 million was used yearly for bogus verification exercises , but also that genuine pensioners who were denied pension for years but whose biometrics have now been captured and included in the payroll be once again denied their entitlement.

There are two key recommendations made by the committee that indicate the entire purpose of its hearing on pension problems in the country.

First is the recommendation by the committee that the Police should take over investigations into issues relating to pension fraud in the country. And the other one is the recommendation that the task team be disbanded.

These two recommendations are entirely geared towards stopping the intrusion of the task team into the age long system of stealing pension funds by civil servants, a situation from which members of the committee are accused of benefitting from.

They are recommendations that appear to legitimise accusations that the whole purpose of the Senate hearing is to protect Teidi and all others who are being tried and their collaborators who are still in service.

Sources close to the proceedings also told our reporter that the joint committee chairman also remonstrated Oladapo Afolabi, the former head of service under whom the lead of massive fraud in pension funds was blown open, for suspending Teidi while he was being investigated.

It appeared that, throughout the hearing, the Committee Chairman was protecting Teidi, an accused person but was conversely hostile to Maina and other members of the task team, once declaring the team’s chairman wanted for failing to appear before the panel.

But unknown to him and other members of his committee, they too have come under investigation. Competent security source hinted www.icirnigeria.org that, at least, two security agencies have commenced a quiet investigation into the activities of the committee while it lasted as well as the allegations of bribery against its members.

It was gathered that members of the task team who belong to security services made detailed reports of compromise on the part of the members and that they have been on the radar of security agencies for a while.

In collaboration with The Guardian on Sunday

The vice chancellor, VC, of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, is being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for the mismanagement of billions of naira meant for development in the institution.

Boniface Egboka, the VC, allegedly misappropriated funds allocated to the university through award of bogus and inflated contracts to fronts and cronies through selective bidding and fraudulent contract cost variations.

Egboka was recently arrested and questioned by the commission and has made statements about his involvement in the alleged fraud. He was thereafter released on administrative bail.

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A group of lecturers of the university in March this year petitioned the EFCC slamming a litany of allegations against Egboka including fraud, abuse of office, inflation of contract, using fronts to get contracts and high handedness.

Our reporter confirmed from the EFCC that it was investigating a petition against the VC. Wilson Uwujaren, the commission’s spokesman, said that the petition was already being investigated by its Enugu office, adding that the Egboka has already been invited for interrogation and had made statements to investigators.

Independent investigations of the allegations by www.icirnigeria.org indicate that Egboka might be in deep trouble except he can explain many actions he took which bother on misappropriation of funds.

Our investigations revealed that the vice chancellor spends university funds like his own personal resources without recourse to rules and regulations, awarded contracts without due process and without open tenders, an infraction that earned him a query from the Bureau for Public Procurement, BPP in April.

For example, in October, 2011on a trip to America with other officials, Egboka ordered for two 2011 Toyota 4 Runner jeeps worth N27 million for himself and the pro – chancellor of the university who was also on the delegation.

He made the order without any bidding and without the approval of the tender’s board and in spite of the fact that he already had a Prado jeep as official car while the pro – chancellor used a Toyota Avensis. He also claimed to have committed the institution by making a deposit from his own pocket.

Upon returning to Nigeria, Egboka tried to perfect the purchase by causing the registrar of the institution to award the contract for the purchase of the vehicles. But the contract could not be awarded to a foreign company so, the VC directed that it be awarded to a local firm, Grech Resources Limited.

Going through the motions of a contract award, the bursar wrote an award letter to the company claiming that the tenders’ board at its 30^th meeting held on Wednesday, 12^th October, 2011, approved the award for the supply of the two vehicles.

However, the bursar refused to release funds for the purchase because there was no proof of tender, forcing the V.C. to write an undertaking where he explained the irregularity attending the purchase.

Investigations also showed that the vice chancellor, without due process and against regulations, selectively awarded contracts or just merely invited whosoever he wanted and handed contracts out to them.

In many of these cases, the contracts were awarded to family members. Apart from that, variations were illegally granted to the companies, raising costs outrageously.

For example, in August 2011, Porras and Oliva, a company allegedly owned by Egboka’s son – in – law, got a contract for the renovation and furnishing of the university auditorium for N20, 264,685.00.

The contract was awarded through selective tendering and given to Porras and Oliva which quoted N21, 229,670.00 in spite of the facts that there were lower bids.

However, halfway into the job’s execution, the company requested for a variation of N80, 536,788.00 in the contract sum which was granted at the sum of N58, 190,469.00.

In a letter written to the company on December 5, 2011, the registrar of the university stated that the tenders board at its 35^th meeting of three days earlier approved the sum as “completion sum” for the project, thereby granting more than hundred percent variation cost.

Porras and Oliva got several other contracts without going through due process. These include an N8, 455,145.00 contract for the reticulation of the university foundry; N5, 167,000.00 for furnishing of the VC’s office and a N5, 887,436.50 contract for the fencing of the university auditorium.

Another questionable contract was the one awarded to Regibel Limited, another company which is alleged to be a front for the VC. The company was awarded the contract for the construction of a 676 metre road for N92, 630,453.78.

Apart from the suspected inflated contract sum, subsequently the VC developed a relationship with the company whereby he just gives directives to it to execute projects running into several millions.

For these projects, there was no tender or agreement between the parties. Acting on the VC’s directive Regibel executed the project and sent a bill to the management which is rubber stamped, approved and paid.

On December 14, 2011, the university management got such a bill for the sum of N122, 141,500.85 for the construction of a 7.1 kilometre walkway. No details were provided about the exact location of the walkway.

There was never any tender process, agreement or any other document concerning this walkway contract. But the university approved and paid the company the money it asked for.

In the same manner, on December 16, 2011, Regibel sent another bill of engineering measurements and evaluation for N78, 450,062.36 for the construction of a 412 metre road – JoyEmordi Road – which it built based on a directive from the VC. There was no bidding or agreement before it got the contract. Again, it was paid the full sum it demanded.

Unilateral variations in contract costs appear to have become the hallmark of project execution in Nnamdi Azikiwe University.  There is virtually no contract that does not suffer an upward review in costs.

The contract for the construction of the Art Faculty complex is a good example of this. Initially awarded to Chyfon Limited for N558, 980,341.76, the cost was later adjusted to N624, 831,489.81. But other variations to the contract sum were to follow.

On December, 22, 2011, N7, 581,849.73 was granted to the contractor, being variation resulting from “relocation of library”.

The same day, another N9 603,239.30 variation was granted for the use of vitrified tiles instead of terrazzo in the construction work.

Yet again, on February 27, 2012 another N72, 966,890.70 variation was granted the contractor for “evaluation and assessment fluctuations”.

The petitioners allege that the amounts approved for variation were siphoned by officials of the university administration. In fact, it is alleged that all kinds of disingenuous methods are employed by the administration in December of every year in order to mop up unspent funds so that money is not returned back into the treasury.

Interestingly, as if to prove the petitioners right, many of the approved variations came in December.

Another contract unconventionally awarded by the vice chancellor is the public private partnership, PPP, students’ hostel project.

In January 2010, Egboka committed the university to a memorandum of understanding, MOU, with Elmada Consulting Inc., a company purported to be based in Canada, for the building of hostels on the main campus.

The MOU which was signed on behalf of the university by the VC and a Nigerian representative for the company, states that the institution’s equity to the project would be 40 per cent while the company would contribute the remaining 60 percent.

With a total cost of N239, 400,000.00, the institution was expected to contribute N97, 760,000.00.

There are several curious and suspicious developments about this PPP arrangement which has sent tongues wagging. First, the Nigerian representative of Elmada who signed the MOU on behalf of the company is alleged to be another of Egboka’s sons – in – law.

The alleged son – in – law is the sole project manager of the project which is being executed through a joint account managed only by him. The VC never disclosed his relationship or any conflict of interest that might arise to the university Senate.

What is more, the only document binding the two parties together is the MOU. No binding agreement spelling out details of contractual and legal commitments has been signed.

Besides, the cost has been reviewed upwards to N400 million and there are allegations that the university has solely funded the two – phased project. When our reporter visited the school’s main campus in Awka, it was observed that the project had been nearly completed.

However, the project that has gotten Egboka into real trouble is the contract for the construction of the bio sciences and physical sciences faculty complex. In fact Egboka has already been queried by the BPP over the manner the contract was awarded.

The contract for the construction of the twin identical complex housing the faculties of biosciences and physical sciences was awarded by selective bidding to Bechtel Nig. Limited on December 22, 2011 for the sum of 993,906,690.00.

In a similar fashion, without following due process, on February 27, 2012 the contract for the construction of the central facility linking the two structures was also awarded to the same company for N288, 307,464.27.

For the N1.2 billion project, the VC abandoned all due process such as open bidding and just called on a contractor of his choice to execute the project.

This jettisoning of due process irked some members of the institution’s management who petitioned the BPP, which on April 4, 2012, wrote to the VC demanding that he furnish the bureau with all the original bid documents in respect of the contract.

The letter signed by Emeka Ezeh, the bureau’s director general specifically asked for:

“a. Copies of the advertisement of this procurement.

b. Technical and financial tenders of all bidders.

C. Bid return sheet.

d. Evaluation report of the bid.

e. Scope of work and all other documents relating to this procurement.”

Sources in the university and at the BPP confided that no such documents exist and the VC has been unable to provide them to the bureau.

Consequent upon this, the school administration has been forced to cancel the previous contract and it has now advertised the contract in the newspapers asking for bids from interested companies.

Our reporter observed that the structures which were still in foundation level had since been abandoned by the contractor.

But Egboka’s sins are not limited to financial mismanagement of the university’s resources as he has also been accused of administrative recklessness, abuse of office and not following due process in appointments which he allegedly dishes out to family and friends as he wishes.

Two of the VC’s children, Nkechi Egboka and Dr. Egboka Chioma Mmazulu, were employed by the university since last year and their names have been on the payroll since then.  While Nkechi was employed as an assistant lecturer in the department of geological sciences, Chioma was appointed medical director of the institution’s medical centre.

However, none of them had resumed work when our reporter conducted checks in their departments about two weeks ago.

Also, Uchenna Okeke, wife of the deputy vice chancellor, DVC, administration and Godwin Orji, alleged to be a friend of the DVC, academics were employed against laid down rules.

Okeke appeared before the governing council’s appointments and promotions committee, A&PC, and found unqualified for the position of assistant lecturer for which she applied. However, she was still offered an appointment as an assistant lecturer after the council was dissolved.

Orji was interviewed for and appointed to the position of technologist however, although he never appeared before the A&PC, as is required in the appointment of all academic staff, his employment was unilaterally converted to lecturer by the VC.

When our reporter visited the main campus of the university and requested to speak to the VC, he was said to be out of station. And when he was reached on the phone to answer questions relating to the petition, Egboka declined, saying that “the matter is under investigation and I cannot make any comment”.

The VC dropped the line and subsequently refused to take calls from our reporter.

No other official of the university was ready to speak on the matter. The office of the registrar referred our reporter to the VC’s office. The couple of lecturers who spoke to our reporter on the corruption allegations against the VC did soon the strictest assurances of confidentiality as Egboka is said to be very vindictive.

Several academic and non – academic staff of the institution have been who oppose the VC have been allegedly victimised since the investigations into his management of the school’s resources commenced.

For example, a source told www.icirnigeria.org of the story of a professor friend of the VC who had written him warning him of the consequences of some high handed actions he took.

The professor had questioned why Egboka employed six consultants for the medical centre when requests for needed staff such as doctors, nurses and pharmacists had been repeatedly denied.

The friend also warned that the lack of due process in the employment of the consultant could land the VC in trouble as it had sent tongues wagging on the campus. Rather than listen to his friend, the VC transferred him to the Nnewi campus where he has been rendered virtually redundant.

Sources in the EFCC said that investigations have reached advanced stage on the corruption charges against Egboka and that enough evidence might have been obtained to institute a case against him in court soon.

The federal High Court in Abuja declares the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC’s use of transparent ballot boxes illegal due patent rights infringement, putting at risk the 2011 and future election.

A recent ruling by the Federal High Court in Abuja against the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and six others over the use of transparent ballot boxes has invalidated the entire 2011 general elections.

In a judgment that has possible far reaching political implications for the current political dispensation, the court also threatens the conduct of the governorship election in Edo State scheduled for next month.

Ruling in a case instituted by Beddings Holdings Limited against INEC, Attahiru Jega, its chairman, the Registrar of Patients, Federal Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and four companies, Justice Adamu Bello declared that the electoral body used the transparent ballot boxes illegally without the consent of the valid patent owner.

Having established Beddings Holding Limited’s ownership of the patent rights to transparent ballot boxes and that they were used without the company’s permission, the court ruled that “any action or actions whatsoever and howsoever taken or purported to have been taken by the defendants relating to the said products without the prior and express license, consent, authority and/or approval of the plaintiff is unconstitutional, illegal, unlawful and is therefore Null and Void.”

Also, significantly, the court placed a perpetual injunction on anyone from using the transparent and collapsible ballot boxes without the consent, license or authority of the patent owner, thus putting the upcoming governorship election in Edo State in jeopardy.

Beddings holdings Limited instituted the case in January, 2011 shortly before the general elections alleging that the electoral body was planning to infringe on it patent rights on transparent ballot boxes.

The company took the action after INEC sought for bids for the supply of transparent ballot boxes for use during the polls.

Bedding Holdings told the court that it wrote the commission to inform it that it holds the patent rights to both collapsible and transparent ballot boxes in Nigeria and that its consent or license was required before they could be used for the elections.

However, the electoral body went ahead and awarded the contract for the supply of the ballot boxes to three companies. The firms are Emchai Limited, Tambco United Limited and Anowat Project and Resources Limited. The three companies and the attorney general are the other defendants in the suit by Bedding Holdings.

Subsequently INEC sought and got approval of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, for the purchase of the ballot boxes.

The President presented the commission’s request to FEC through a memo dated November 15, 2010 in which he sought the council’s approval “for the award of contract for the supply of 150,000 units of Collapsible Transparent Ballot Boxes with pre-numbered security seals at N13, 000.00 each for the conduct of the 2011 General Elections, in favour of Messrs Emchai Limited, in the sum of N1, 950,000,000.00.”

In the memo, the president noted that the same company got the award of the contract for the supply of 300,000 collapsible transparent ballot boxes which were used for the 2007 election by INEC.

He went further to state that “Emchai Limited has the patent to its design and specifications” and that the commission decided to adopt the direct procurement method in the award of the contract to it “in order to maintain standardisation.”

After FEC approved the award of the contract, Bedding wrote a letter to the President dated November 25, 2010 wherein it informed him that is was the bona fide owner of the patent rights on collapsible transparent ballot boxes and that Emchai Limited and INEC had led him to misrepresent the facts put to FEC.

The company told the court that it got no response from the president.

Investigations show that, indeed the registrar of patents, a department in the ministry of commerce and industry, did issue Bedding Holdings a certificate of registration of patent rights No. RP 12994 and a certificate of industrial design rights No. RD 5946 for transparent ballot boxes on January 12, 1998.

Again on November 7, 2006 the registrar of patents, which is now under the ministry of trade and investments, issued Bedding Holdings certificates of registration of patent right (No. RP 16642) and registration of industrial design (No. RD 13841) for an invention names electronic collapsible transparent ballot boxes.

However, the registrar of patent went ahead to issue the same patents to other companies without first invalidating the right of Bedding Holding. On October 14, 2010, it registered and issued a certificate of industrial design rights (No. NG/RD/2010/702) for the same invention, which it renamed Tambco ballot box, to Tambco United Nigeria Limited.

On the same day, the registrar equally issued a certificate of registration of industrial design (No. NG/RD/2010/708) for what it renamed collapsible transparent ballot boxes to Anowat Project and Resources Limited.

Interestingly, the two patents were issues to the companies in October, 2010 the month that INEC called for bids for the supply of transparent ballot boxes.

In its originating summons, Bedding Holdings asked the court to answer four questions and grant seven reliefs. The questions and prayers before the court were to determine and declare that its patent rights over both transparent ballot boxes and electronic collapsible ballot boxes subsist and that the others were illegally issued.

The company also sought a declaration that actions taken by the all the defendants relating to the ballot boxes without its consent, license or authority be declared unconstitutional, illegal, unlawful and therefore Null and Void.

In his judgment, Justice Adamu Bello observed that although all the parties were served with all the processes of the court, only the attorney general of the federation reacted through a memorandum of conditional appearance in which he asked its name to be struck out from the suit.

Agreeing that the attorney general had a basis for the request, the trial judge struck out his name from the suit.

Justice Bello observed that INEC, the Registrar of Patents and the other defendants did not file any processes before the court or make any appearance in spite of evidence that they were served.

He stated that he granted an order of substituted service on the three companies involved when the bailiff reported to the court that the addresses given to INEC by them were found to be either fake or nonexistent. The processes were then pasted on the notice boards of the federal high court, Abuja and the federal high courts in Lagos, Minna and Port Harcourt, the judicial jurisdiction of the firms.

The judge declared that “in the absence of any counter affidavit to controvert the plaintiff’s averments in the affidavit in support of the originating summons, those averments are deemed to be true.”

In his ruling, Justice Bello averred that the distinguishing features of the patents granted Bedding Holdings are that its boxes are transparent and collapsible and that its possesses exclusive rights over any ballot boxes with these specifications.

The judge also determined that the Registrar of Patents erroneously issued patent and design rights to Emchai Limited over Envopac Ballot Boxes in August 2006 instead of and Envoseal, a security plastic coated metal bolt seal, a situation which allowed it bid for supply of transparent ballot boxes.

Justice Bello therefore ruled that the plaintiff’s patent claims supersedes any other subsequently given, thereby rendering others patents issued on transparent or collapsible ballot boxes after Bedding Holdings’ null and void.

However, the two most significant declarations in the ruling are the voiding of all actions taken by the defendants concerning the transparent ballot boxes without the consent or authorisation of the plaintiff and the perpetual injunction restraining anybody from further using the transparent ballot boxes for any purpose without the consent or authorisation of Bedding Holdings.

The import of this is that the 2011 general elections which were conducted using collapsible ballot boxes have been voided while the Edo State governorship election slated for July can also not go on unless with the consent of Bedding Holding.

However, INEC dismissed the claim of Beddings Holding when our reporter sought the commission’s reaction to the court ruling and its implications for the last general elections.

Kayode Idowu, the commission’s spokesman claimed that the electoral body did not use the transparent ballot boxes referred to in the judgment for the 2011 election. He said therefore that the judgment could not in any way affect the 2011 election or the upcoming Edo polls.

Idowu also stated that the commission never knew of the court case until judgment was delivered, inferring that it was not served. He recalled that Bedding Holding had previously taken the electoral body to court in 2010 but hurriedly withdrew it only to institute the latest one.

Contrary to Idowu’s claims, however, court papers obtained by www.icirnigeria.org showthatINEC was, indeed, served all the court papers by the bailiff. The document shows that the legal the commission and its chairman were separately served in February 2011.

Besides, it is also not true that INEC did not use transparent boxes in the last elections. Apart from the fact that pictorial evidence abound of the commission’s use of transparent ballot boxes, the president’s memo and the approval of FEC were for the supply of transparent ballot boxes for the conduct of the 2011 election.

The Registrar of Patents in the commercial law unit of the ministry of trade and investments, who is in charge of patents and trademarks was unavailable for comments. Her secretary told our reporter that she was  away from the office and that she would not be able to speak on the matter as she resumed work only last March.

Also, Edet Oti, head of the legal team in the unit who was said to be conversant with the Bedding Holding case who was also away in Lagos declined speaking on the matter. He told our reporter that he could not speak unless he got permission from the registrar and that that would take over a week.

However, a source in the Registrar’s office who knows about the case informed recollected that Bedding Holding did write a letter to the office complaining of the issuance of another patent for transparent ballot boxes to another firm.

The source said that a tribunal in the office sat on the petition and ruled against Bedding Holding. According to the source, a decision was given to grant all the companies what he termed “concurrent patent rights.”

Explaining why patents were issued to the other companies only following INEC’s calls for bids for the supply of transparent ballot boxes, the source said that it was done because of the timeframe for the elections and to meet the commission’s requirements.

“We did that as a matter of public policy because of the exigency of time because INEC appealed to us that it had a time frame. So we had to meet INEC’s requirements because it said that only one company would not be able to supply the number of ballot boxes it required for the 2011 elections.”

Although INEC does not regard the ruling as posing any threat to the coming elections in Edo State, an Abuja based lawyer, Abdul Mahmud, observed that “if there is an injunctive relief barring INEC from using the boxes because patent rights belong to Bedding, INEC would have to discharge that relief aspect of the judgment.

Another lawyer, however, said that because of the declaratory nature of the reliefs granted bedding, “The ruling cannot be stayed by a court of first instance and the appellate court, meaning that INEC cannot use the patented product for any election while any appeal lasts”

Text of the court ruling is reproduced below

The age long discrimination against Higher National Diploma, HND, holders is causing tension in the Nigerian Customs Service.

A quiet storm is brewing in the Nigerian Customs Service as holders of the Higher National Diploma, HND, certificates are complaining about the disparity in the conditions of service between them and bachelor’s degree holders.

Although the complaints started at the stage of murmuring among aggrieved graduates of Polytechnics in the Customs, those affected across the country are mobilizing to take action to register their position.

A few of the affected customs officials who spoke to www.icirnigeria.org complained that although they spend more years in a tertiary institution, the management of the service still discriminates against them and places them below degree holders.

The aggrieved customs men listed several ways in which the conditions of service of their colleagues who had university education and possess degrees are better than those of polytechnic graduates who hold HND certificates.

For example, while HND holders enter the Custom Service on Grade Level GL 7, degree holders’ entry point is GL 8. Also while polytechnic graduates can only rise to GL 14, their degree holder colleagues can rise to GL 17 and even become the Comptroller General of Customs, CGC.

Invariably, because of the grade level disparity, the salaries paid to HND holders are also lower than the ones received by bachelor’s degree holders.

But the biggest complaint of the polytechnic graduates is in the disparity in the schedule of duties between them and university graduates. According to them, while degree holders are posted to executive/superintendent cadre assignments, HND holders are treated as minions and posted on assignments like guard duties.

For example, three OND holders in the Customs who spoke to our reporters claimed that they were on guard duty in the residence of senior officers. One of them was guarding a retired customs officer in one of the Northern states.

“Though in terms of allowances, we enjoy same allowances with our Bsc/BA counterpart, but in terms of schedule of work, we do jobs meant for First School Certificate holders,” one of them bemoaned.

Another area of discrimination is that HND holders on GL 7 are not allowed to wear uniforms designated for officer cadre unlike degree holders. They can only wear officers’ uniform when they get to GL 8.

Although some of them who serve in Abuja are allowed to wear uniforms meant for officer cadre, in other parts of the country HND holders have to wear uniforms meant for the rank and file.

The complainants also stated that even when they try to improve their careers by obtaining degrees after graduating from the polytechnic, the management of the Customs Service still make it impossible for them to convert to officer cadre.

“ Many of us have gone to get university degrees, a few even have Masters degrees but what they tell us is that there is no vacancy,” one of the aggrieved men said.

The polytechnic graduates are demanding that they be put at par with their colleagues who are degree holders in line with a circular of the National Board for Technical Education which they provided.

In the circular dated February 13, 2009 signed by A.B Kurawe for the executive secretary and addressed to the Comptroller General of Customs, the board in response to a previous memo from the Customs stated, “the entry point for HND holders into the public service is CONTISS 7 (GL 7) and they progress to a terminal point of CONTISS 12 (GL14).”

Wale Adeniyi, the Customs Service spokesman refused to make comments on the matter when our reporter phoned him. While declining to grant an interview, he offered that the Customs employs personnel based on a scheme of service.

But investigations by www.icirnigeria.org indicate that the complaining customs men might be fighting a difficult battle. It was gathered that the disparity between HND and bachelor’s degree holders is not peculiar to the Customs Service but is a public service policy that affects the civil service and even the military and security services.

Tope Ajakaiye, deputy director of press in the office of the head of service of the federation, shed some light on the reasons behind the different conditions of service for the two cadres.

According to him, the disparity is “a policy issue that is fundamental and has existed for a long time and is rooted in the curriculum and philosophy behind setting up polytechnics and universities.

Ajakaiye explained that while university education and its curriculum were structured to produce top level policy makers, the polytechnic syllabus was conceived to produce technicians and technologists to drive advancement in technology.

He stated further that while the university graduate is trained to assume management and decision making positions, the polytechnic graduates are trained to implement decisions thus taken.

“In the public service the management level or decision making level is the directorate level between grade level 15 and 17 that is why a university graduate can reach grade level 17. But the polytechnic graduate who is trained to be a technician can only rise to chief technical officer or grade level 14.

Many people in the polytechnic system do not agree with this. Godwin Onu, a professor and rector of the Federal Polytechnic, Oko says the disparity is inimical to technological development and shows a lack of seriousness on the part of government.

He advocated allowing polytechnics to award degrees, observing that countries like South Korea, India and other technology conscious nations have done so.

“I think that’s the solution to it. The proper solution if they can be realistic is to allow the polytechnics to start awarding degrees, allow upward mobility of the staff, provide them with the facilities without losing site of technical and vocational content of the polytechnic education,” he said.

He lamented: “We train people in the polytechnic and at the end of the day, they acquire a PhD and leave the polytechnic and join the university system because he cannot be a professor here and that is why we are advocating that polytechnics, as they are should all be made polytechnic universities as they are in other countries of the world.”

The issue of disparity between HND and degree holders has always been an issue in the public service and actually received presidential attention during the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Sources in the federal civil service said that Obasanjo tried to get the National Council of Establishment to bring the two cadres at par. However, the council made up of the head of service of the federation and the head of service of all the states, reportedly came up with the resolution that the issue had to do with the curriculum in universities and polytechnics and could not be tampered with.

The council, this website learnt, advised, however, that the syllabus of some polytechnics could be structured so that they start awarding degrees. This would have enabled Ordinary National Diploma, OND holders to study for the award of degrees instead of the HND.

It was also gathered that the council specifically suggested that two polytechnics and four colleges of education. These polytechnics are Yaba College of Technology, Kaduna Polytechnic and Auchi Polytechnic.

The colleges of education are the Federal College of Education, Kano; Federal College of Education, Zaria, Kaduna State; Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri, Imo State; and Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo, Ondo State.

Since then there have been conflicting signals from the government about its true position. In May 2009, shortly before Sam Egwu, then minister of education at an interactive meeting with members of the Senate committee on education said that the federal government had commenced the process of eliminating the disparity between HND and degrees.

Egwu said that the government was concerned about it because if was affecting moral and productivity in the public service.

“We are addressing the problem, because when a staff with HND does not earn the same recognition that his counterpart from the university earns, it creates problems,” he said.

But in August 2010, Ruqquayat Rufa’i, the education minister, told journalists that the issue of eliminating the disparity was just a proposal that was being worked on and that it might take years to bring it to the federal executive council for approval.

“The planned conversion of these institutions is just the recommendation of the Implementation Committee on Guidelines for Degree Awarding for Colleges of Education and Polytechnics, which submitted its report on Tuesday, July 20. There is still a lot of job to be done before we can present it for approval by the Federal Executive Council,” she said.

The minister said that among the issues that still need to be worked out are the restructuring of syllabus; reconciliation of academic profile of members of academic staff and the status of existing students of the institutions.

There were indications last week that the committee saddled with working out these issues might have submitted its report to the minister and that the education ministry is putting finishing touches to a document to be presented to the federal executive council soon.

A source in the federal ministry of education told our reporter that it had been decided that as a pilot project, Kaduna Polytechnic and Yaba College of Technology will be immediately recommended to FEC for upgrade into degree awarding institutions.

The source said that issues such as curriculum and service conditions of HND holders have been worked out and that the institutions would be called university of technology.

As observed by Onu, other countries have adopted this policy. For example, in Britain, academic degrees were validated for polytechnics as far back as the ‘60s. Over the decades, polytechnics in Britain have all upgraded to universities and the disparity between degrees and HNDs, referred to as “binary divide” was abolished in 1092 by the Further and Higher Education Act.

Our reporter could not confirm from our source what the status of those who already have HNDs would be when polytechnics start awarding degrees.

But Ajakaiye admonished parents and guardians to always counsel their wards on the course of study and choice of institutions they should take in future. He believes that part of the problem is that students no longer have the benefit of career guidance and counselling before making a choice of which course of study to pursue and where to study.

He observed that with examinations into tertiary institution becoming more competitive, students who leave secondary school do not bother to distinguish a polytechnic and a university not minding that their curriculums are different and that they would take them on different career parts.

“I think that we should advice our children to seek career counselling before making choices such as the course they want to study and where to study them because universities and polytechnics are not structured to produce the same cadre of personnel,” he advised.