My EFCC story, by Kuku, Jonathan’s former adviser

Posted by admin EFCC Politics, Headlines, Niger Delta Saturday, October 17th, 2015

The concluding part of the interview with Hon. Kingsley Kuku, immediate past Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Niger Delta and Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP, in which he talks about his Economic and Financial Crimes (EFCC) story

By Soni Daniel,

Northern Region Editor

Read first part one here

When I therefore became the SA on Niger Delta and the second Chairman of the PAP, I was already on a familiar terrain. The key actors in the Niger Delta struggle knew me and I also knew them. It was easier for them to relate with me. They had nominated me before to represent them in government discussions on their behalf. So, I was caught in between the government and my people. For the government, I played my role successfully by entrenching peace in the Niger Delta and stabilising the security situation in that oil production rose from 2.2 million barrels per day to over 2.7 million. That was the kind of result that the work of the Amnesty Programme produced for Nigeria under my watch.

But many Nigerians suspect that the Amnesty Programme has been used as a conduit pipe to siphon huge public funds?

That’s a very unfair assessment of what we have done there. I have seen a lot of prominent Nigerians make such statements, but what I have done to reply some of them, is not to insult them. In the past, Nigeria has been a country where, when agencies are set up, those managing the agencies just sit down and share money, without doing what the money was meant for. So, too many Nigerians don’t believe that the things that we’ve been able to do with the Amnesty Programme were possible. But what I have done is to put together a compendium of what we’ve been able to do in the programme, with names of students and delegates in flight training schools in Oxford, England, in Lufthansa, Germany, those who were doing helicopter training in Italy.

In the United Kingdom, over 800 students were deployed to over 72 universities. In the United States, under my watch, we brought over 300 students. You will find them in universities across the states. If you go to Malaysia, you will find them. In Ghana, we went to the best schools. For those who were not as bright as those who got scholarships to go abroad, or who didn’t want to travel, we took them to the best private schools in Nigeria. Today, you can find over 700 students, under my watch, at Igbinedion University in Okada. You can find over 400 students at the Benson Idahosa University in Benin. You can find them at the prestigious Afe Babalola University. It’s not a child’s play. At Novena University, we had over 156.

So, before I left office, I had successfully deployed some of my students that I put in Igbinedion University to the Nigerian Law School. There are some of them who graduated with first class. In Nigerian universities alone, I was able to deploy about 2,000 students. Outside Nigeria, I deployed about 2,000 students. I challenge any political actor in Nigeria to come up with any record that surpasses what I have done in PAP. I will publish the names of the people I deployed, with their emails, their courses, their schools, the grades they are graduating with, their age, their communities. So, if you take me to the court of public opinion, I am coming out clean. It’s not as if there won’t be errors, because it’s a novel programme.

As we are talking, we were able to train over 150 commercial licensed pilots. But for those of them who have moved beyond the commercial pilot licenses, in Lufthansa, I left behind 21. They all got trained in South Africa, but we went into advanced training with Lufthansa and CAE Oxford. So, they’ve acquired the European licence, CPL; they’ve gone into ATPL – special training in Boeing 737. Three of them, before I left Nigeria for my surgery, had finished their programme, and they are back. They’ve got their licenses, and done their conversion exams. One of them, Bassey, after his CPL, said he wasn’t going to fly, that he would love to be an instructor. He’s training people in aviation now.

I have Moses, who has been employed and further trained by Air Peace Airline. I felt like crying when two of my former staff said they were flying to Lagos from Abuja, and by the time they were announcing those who were flying them, they heard Moses’ name, one of their students. By the time they landed in Lagos, they had to wait to see who truly Moses was. So, the success story is there. Moses is one of them. There is Clifford Wilson and David Abang, they’ve finished from CAE Oxford, they’ve finished from Gatwick. So, they are certified Boeing 737 airborne pilots. But, they’ve not released their certificates, because, as of today, the Amnesty Office is owing some money.

Many Nigerians don’t seem to understand the rationale behind the huge sums you spent on foreign scholarship and training programmes given the fact that such could have been done in the country at a lower cost and prevent capital flight.

Indeed, the foreign scholarship and vocational training programmes, including aviation, were some of the lofty initiatives we introduced. Apart from the fact that we could comfortably accommodate these programmes in our budget, the major consideration was the proper reintegration of these youths from the region. The template adopted for the programme was based on the global DDR model, which made the reorientation and rehabilitation of such non-state actors outside the environment they were used to, a key aspect of the process. We were committed to a process that would produce completely transformed individuals, who would no longer find attractive their former lifestyle in the creeks. Life in the creeks is actually very harsh. So, the new environment they are exposed to locally or overseas helps the reintegration process greatly. The plan is that by the time most of them return to the country, they would have been completely transformed. Of course, our country is better for it.

But talking about capital flight, we tried to check that through the approval of the National Assembly to build four state-of-the-art vocational training centres in the Niger Delta. Even though our mandate did not include capital projects, we saw the necessity for such centres .Before I left, the training centres, sited in Bomadi in Delta, Agadagba-Obon in Ondo, Kaiama in Bayelsa and another in Rivers State, were nearing completion. These are specialised centres for training in oil and gas technology, power and electricity management as well as maritime studies.

How much in cash did you leave behind for your successor?

At the time I left office on May 29, 2015, the allocation for that month, worth over N5 billion, had been received and I left that intact in the Central Bank for my successor. That and some other funds in the account of the Amnesty Programme were available for my successor.

Would you say that the current clamour for amnesty in many states in the country is an indication of the success of your own model?

We need to thank the late Yar’Adua and former President Jonathan for their roles in bringing about the Amnesty Programme in Nigeria. We should also thank God for bringing Jonathan on board as Vice President at the time he did and when he became the President; he did his best to strengthen the Amnesty Programme that has brought sustained peace and stability to the Niger Delta. This programme has become a world model and there is need for Nigerians to understand what DDR- Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration- means. It is one of the most sensitive and most difficult peace initiatives or platforms you can create. You can imagine someone who has been trading and using arms and drugs and other inimical things being asked to drop them for peace and nothing more.

You are telling the man to drop his arms and drugs for peace and you don’t give him or her money or any other good thing. Like in our model, the agitators were given a deadline to disarm or be crushed. In our own case, there was no foreign intervention but was entirely funded by Nigeria. I came to the United States and I was asked if I needed financial support for the programme, and I said no. I only requested for technical support to enable our delegates get visa to study in some U.S universities. It was the same request I made to the United Kingdom. I was able to remove the embarrassing toga of ‘’ex-militants’’, which was not helping the delegates. They were never militants but agitators.

Let me say clearly that we created the Nigerian DDR model without any foreign involvement because we knew ourselves. If the Nigerian government had brought a man from outside to manage it, he would have failed because he would be starting to look for intelligence on who the key actors, like Ateke Boyloaf, Tompolo, Henry Okah, Shoot-at-Sight, Ogunboss, Pastor Reuben, Ekperi Papa, Fara Dagogo were.

This could have taken many years, but I knew all these actors and they also knew me and we were able to work together and achieve results within a short time.

We agreed to meet and the template we adopted was accepted by all. We looked at the money that was available and we rejected the initial idea of artisan and menial training and went for professional training for the delegates so as to give them a dignified future. It is a model that is novel because, as we speak, the UN-funded DDR programmes have failed.

As we speak, the UN-funded DDR in Liberia, the one in Sierra Leone and Rwanda are having issues. It is only the one we did in Nigeria and Burundi that are succeeding and they were put together and funded by the governments of those countries. Let me tell you something and you can check it on record, any time the United Nations or international organisations are involved in DDR programme, they would spend a fortune implementing such programmes. If you compare what we spent on our DDR to what the others are spending, you would see that we are doing very well and the results are showing.

So, whatsoever is needed to consolidate peace, should be employed and I dare say that the Nigerian DDR should be emulated. We have been highly commended by foreign organisations for the success we have recorded and we are satisfied we did our best to salvage this country from economic stagnation and destruction. We exceeded expectations in what we have done. Many Nigerians would not have done what we have done. It was the very first of such programme in Nigeria. We set the record and it is left for others to look at what we did and compare with what obtains elsewhere before passing judgment. We are bound to make mistakes.

Let me say that even the United States Institute of Peace and the United Nations have, in various memos, said that the Nigerian amnesty has surpassed its expectations. So, I don’t know why outsiders and critical viewers can see success in what we have done and many Nigerians cannot. But I am not even worried because it is a human institution. Many Nigerians could not have done what we achieved under the programme. We are bound to make mistakes because we created the template and set the precedent. We make efforts which could be improved upon by our successors.

If you think and are convinced that the PAP under your watch was a success story, why do you think the EFCC is after you? Are you afraid?

First, I will never be scared, because I was a public officer and I remain a public figure. In running a programme that is so novel, without precedent, no template- and I created a template with my team, and we funded it, and have so many success stories all over- things like these are bound to come. EFCC does not work in a vacuum. People write petitions. I have seen some of the petitions, and so many of them are frivolous. For example, a group of ex-militants claim that I denied them the opportunity of being accommodated in the programme. That’s a petition before EFCC; and that they should force me to pay them N65,000 from 2010 when they disarmed. And they are 38 in number.

So, that’s the crime I committed. I’m not the one who accommodated people. Before I came on board this programme, 20,192 were taking part. When I came, another 6,166 were documented. So, put together, over 26,000 people were already documented. I only came to advocate for over 3,000 people because I saw danger in what we were doing, as part of learning on the job. There was a growing population of Niger-Delta youths, women, young boys and girls, who didn’t believe that the Amnesty Programme was going to create pilots, marine officers, educational opportunities for so many people.

They thought even some of them were going to be captured by government and put in jail. So, they stayed away. So, I went into the records of DDR, and found out that the woman in the community, whose livelihood was affected by the negative operations of even the ex-agitators, and the Nigerian military, in maintaining law and order, was also due for compensation. The youths of that community, who were not ex-agitators, but suffered collaterally for the damages arising from the conflict, were also due for something. A lot of letters were coming to me. So, I ran to the President, and begged him to help the programme.

True, the United Nations has provisions for non ex-militants in the programme, so that we would not be seen as a country paying for violence alone. For that purpose, Mr. President approved the third phase of the Amnesty Programme. This was how we got this young boys and girls. Some of them had not even seen a gun before, but they were covered by what Mr. President defined as the violence-impacted communities slot. Most ex-agitators never wanted to leave Nigeria, that’s why most of them were involved in vocational training. Most of the people you are seeing outside are those affected by the violence. And this was given across ethnic nationalities in the Niger-Delta. Everybody took advantage of this.

I am never scared of defending my stewardship. It was a trust from the tax-payers of our beloved country, Nigeria. So, I’m ready to defend what I did in that office. Every public officer is open to scrutiny; I am no exception.

I’m not a saint. We made mistakes. We made errors. We corrected the ones we could see. So, those who succeed us must be able to review them and make the programme better. I’m human. But, consciously, I did not hurt my country. I committed the entirety of my life, the comfort of my life and family, to ensure that that the programme succeeded under my watch.

However, when such scrutiny is suspected to be laced with political undertones, witch-hunt, we would quickly seek protection under the law, against unnecessary harassment, detention, media trial. But you still have to create that window of having the opportunity to defend yourself. And that’s what I’m doing with the EFCC.

I must be treated as innocent; and when those signs are threatened, the only option left for common men like us is to seek refuge under the law, while still opening the opportunity of defending our stewardship.

Do you suspect that your invitation by the EFCC could be politically-motivated?

Sometimes I think so. Sometimes, I take solace in the fact that it also gives me an opportunity to stand before Nigerians today and defend the beautiful job I have done for our beloved country, which is being misunderstood by too many now. They will definitely understand, in five, ten years from now, when the thousands of students we trained, graduate; when these students are in positions of authority; at that time, maybe in my old age, I would be able to hear people say ‘Kuku deserves national honours’. This will come; I’m confident.

Even if it is political, it is not created by the EFCC. The EFCC is only doing its job based on petitions.They don’t hate me. Since 2007, I’ve been serving, and they never invited me any for a single day. But when people started writing petitions, they have to invite me. If they don’t, people will say the EFCC is taking sides. However, even the political one might also be wrong. I’m a PDP stalwart in Ondo State, but it might be wrong to assume that the political witch-hunt is only coming from APC. It is possible that the PDP people in Ondo State or outside, who are threatened by the likelihood of a Kuku attempting to be a governor, might be the people fuelling it. So, the political angle to it is not restricted to a political party. You know Nigeria. Even APC people might not even care about you; but your own PDP people might come up to do these things.

I will honour the EFCC. When I got their invitation. I was already in London, on my way for the knee surgery. It came in the night. I told my lawyer, and we wrote them that by the 30th of September, I would honour the invitation. But what you plan could be different from God’s. I’ve been here recuperating, but till today, clearly, flying from here is going to be very hectic for me. So, I do want to honour them, but I have to see my doctor to see if it would be possible for me to do that between now and the 30th, then return. But if he says no, I will write to them. I love to honour the invitation, because the EFCC is our statutory institution. If we, public officials, do not honour our institutions, it would not strengthen our democracy. I must be alive to honour their invite. So, giving me further extension is not going to be difficult for them.

With you now out of the PAP Office, what are your greatest fears about the programme?

I am a bit worried, leaving the programme at the time I did. I didn’t meet a soul in the university when I came on board, but I left behind over 4,000 students of Niger-Delta extraction in various schools, home and abroad. I didn’t meet any aviation trainee, I left behind over 150 commercial pilots, licensed and trained, over 30 ATPL holders, and 10 of those who have finished their programme. But there were still some little things to make most of them employable. Today, I still remember people like Timothy who left Edo State and went to the School of Oceanography in Lagos, because he was so determined to do marine training. Beyond that, we took them to the World Maritime Institute, in Poland.

Today, NLNG in Bonny engaged Timothy and put him on board a vessel for seatime. He called me from the Port of Spain, from the waters of Cape Town in South Africa. He called me from Barcelona. He has called me from India. That’s a product of our collective effort in the Amnesty Programme. These guys are our hope in Nigeria.

My concern is that this academic revolution we had brought into the annals of Nigeria, whether they are Niger-Delta people or not, the key point is that they are Nigerians. My concern is that their life ambitions are not going to be truncated. Luckily, a few of them are graduating this year. I am sure over 300 of the people we took outside will graduate this year. Their tuition will be paid. I just pray for continuity. I am worried.

Knowing President Muhammed Buhari, he is a lover of education; he’s a man who must believe in what you are explaining. If the opportunity is given to the right people to explain the Amnesty Programme to Mr. President and the NSA, I do believe that there will be continuity definitely beyond December. It is not going to be possible to take 17 and 16- year-olds to schools in the UK, and abandon their academic pursuit. This, Mr. President, will never do. But it needs direct and practical explanation on where they are from, and what they are doing in those countries. And these formed part of my brief.

I’m also aware that there are steps to return the aviation students who left because of lack of payments. I hope they return. These are critical points that can really sadden me. Imagine that billions of naira have been invested in the education of these kids, and that they were returned as a result of non-continuity by the Nigeria government.

So, it is vital that that continuity happens. If it does not happen, it would be a big blow to me. I put in five years of my life to make it happen. These kids are the hope of the Niger-Delta. They are the ones who will come back and drive the economic development and political consciousness of the Niger-Delta. We cannot truncate this dream. This is vital. Most importantly, the Federal Government needs to know that the Amnesty Programme cannot be terminated in December. It cannot. While I was there, even under President Goodluck Jonathan, I wrote to him severally. When we planned, it was a five-year initial programme. At that time, it was about first phase. It had nothing to do with the second and third phases. Now, the five-year plan has been fulfilled. But because of incessant protests for inclusion and accommodation by those who didn’t believe in the process, and later saw that it was succeeding, why would government not listen? So, more people, about 10,000 to the original 20,000, were included. And this inclusion was not considered when the five- year plan was made. So, these 10,000 people, government still owes them. We owe them an obligation to get them rehabilitated and reintegrated into the society. We need to fully reform them.

They have fulfilled their own part of the contract by disarming and coming out. And government also gave a commitment. And that part, for the second and third phases, has not been fulfilled by government.

So, speaking from experience and what we were able to do within this period of four years, it would take nothing less than two to three years more to train and rehabiliate the remaining delegates of the programme.

-Vanguardwp_posts

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Posted by admin on Oct 17 2015. Filed under EFCC Politics, Headlines, Niger Delta. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry