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HEDA says Mr. Obasanjo used his position to curry monetary gifts.
A non-governmental organisation, Human and Environmental Development Agenda, HEDA, has petitioned the Code of Conduct Bureau against former President Olusegun Obasanjo for the alleged violation of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers contained in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
A copy of the petition made available to PREMIUM TIMES, Wednesday, said Mr. Obasanjo, who was the former president of Nigeria (from 1999-2007), “used his position as a sitting President to curry and solicit for monetary gift, benefits and donations from government contractors, federal parastatals, oil companies, politicians, government functionaries that cut across all tiers of government, privates individuals/sectors etc”.
The group said Mr. Obasanjo did not publicly declare his asset till date.
It also accused him of “abuse of power contrary to Items 6, 9 and 13 of the Code of Conduct for public officers contained in Part 1, Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as Amended”.
According to the petition, Bells Educational Services, a multi-million dollar institution, is wholly owned by Obasanjo Holdings Ltd, group of Companies owned by Mr. Obasanjo.
It also said while serving as Nigeria’s president, he launched a library tagged Presidential Library for the Bells Educational Services on May 14, 2005 at Abeokuta where the sum of N8.5 billion was garnered.
HEDA also listed some of the donors at the event to include “Femi Otedola who gave N250 million, Mike Adenuga N350 million, Aliko Dangote, N220 million, consortium of banks N1.9 billion; consortium of oil companies N2.4 billion and so on”.
HEDA recalled in the petition that Mr. Obasanjo was for eight years the Minister of Petroleum Resources apart from being President of Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Donations were forced
HEDA said Managing Directors of banks in Nigeria which had direct dealings with the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and those handling NNPC accounts were invited through a letter signed by the Finance Director of the corporation to donate to the Library project.
It may also interest you to know that banks were not the only private sector institutions that were compelled (though) subtlety to donate to the project. The NNPC had also written to oil companies to donate toward the project for which the seven major oil companies responded by donating $20 million (about N2.7 billion), the highest from the business community.
“ N10 million “donation” (read: levy) by each state governor said to have been pledged on their behalf by Chief Victor Attah, the then Executive Governor of Akwa Ibom State and also the then Chair of the Governors’ Forum.
“There was also a vexatious donation of $1million from the Nigerian Ports Authority, a very sick and dying government parastatal indebted to hapless contractors to the tune of billions of naira,” it said.
Consequently HEDA accused Mr. Obasanjo of using his position as a sitting president to curry and solicit for monetary gift, benefits and donations to “deceitly build a library for his educational institution in the guise of building a Presidential library for research and use by public institutions”.
The organisation quoted Items 6 of the Code of Conduct for public officers Part 1, Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as Amended which provides that:
“A public officer shall not ask for or accept property or benefits of any kind for himself or any other person on account of anything done or omitted to be done by him in the discharge of his duties.”
“for the purposes of sub-paragraph(1) of this paragraph, the receipt by a public officer of any gifts or benefits from commercial firms, business enterprises or persons who have contracts with the government shall be presumed to have been received in contravention of the said sub-paragraph unless the contrary is proved”.
“A public officer shall only accept personal gifts or benefits from relatives or personal friends to such extent and on such occasions as are recognized by custom:
“Provided that any gift or donation to a public officer on any public or ceremonial occasion shall be treated as a gift to the appropriate institution represented by the public officer, and accordingly, the mere acceptance or receipt of any such gift shall not be treated as a contravention of this provision.”
HEDA said the said acts of Mr. Obasanjo and his failure to publicly declare his asset as required by law is unlawful and unconstitutional as it violates Item 9 of the Code of Conduct which provides that “A public officer shall not do or direct to be done, in abuse of his office, any arbitrary act prejudicial to the rights of any other person knowing that such act is unlawful or contrary to any government policy” and Item 13 which states that “A public officer who does any act prohibited by this Code through a nominee, trustee, or other agent shall be deemed ipso facto to have committed a breach of this Code.”
Relief sought
Consequently the petitioner prayed that its complaint should be investigated by the Code of Conduct Bureau.
It also prayed that Mr. Obasanjo be recommended for prosecution by the Code of Conduct Tribunal pursuant to Item 15(1) of the Fifth Schedule, Part 1 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.
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