Governor Chimaroke Nnamani has been so many things to so many people at different times. There are many who would swear the agile and bubbly state chief executive is one of the Frankenstein monsters of the current democratic process, pointing at his human rights track record between 1999 and 2003. In particular is his longstanding feud with a certain Catholic priest who accused him as the mastermind of the adoration ground stampede, which left many dead. But there are those who see him as belonging to the league of proactive, achievement oriented governors, the good man who came to Enugu State to carry it forward with his track record of success in the medical field way back in the United States.
If you belong to the former, school of thought, kindly join us on a cruise round the major developmental projects of the state first and the chants of ebeano, ebeano, ebeano from his grass root constituency, would deafen the atmosphere and leave you wondering if the equivocations on the governor are not just the dead wishes of men and women who are simply jealous of his impressive score card in governance. Two, Nnamani drives himself to showcase his popularity though his traducers would argue that a governor who drives about with a string of escorts following, cannot claim to the popular wish of the people.
The issue at stake had little to do with the domestic altercations of husband and wife. And your guess is as good as ours who the husband or wife is in this context, or the issue of human rights, though it would have been an excellent opportunity to look at the governor eye ball to eye ball and see him open up on some of those discourses and accusations levelled against him before now, that is before this vote or test of the popular will proceeds. Yet there is something of an Nnamani mystique, which renders the atmosphere lively and his accusations typical of Lucifer the prosecutor. His gargantuan achievements as an architect and organizer of men and materials befuddle the imagination at a time when our sense of finesse has taken a backstage. Nnamani bubbles oblivious of what those who hold him and his achievements in disdain think about him. His worldview is that of a man who wants history to record him as one of the greats that did bestride the world like the Shakespearean colossus, Emperor Julius Caesar who walked the streets of Rome like a god come down to earth not minding what the lesser mortals felt about him.
After a near rough ride in the air, the governor whose genius in foetal and maternal medicine has been oft repeated for effect, shoves in from nowhere into the ramshackle office of his commissioner for Information, Igbonekwu Ogazimora. His appearance or is it disappearance, manifests in the style of Agatha Christie’s Scarlet Pimpernel-Hercule Poirot, as he reminds everyone he belonged to the third generation Methodist Church familiy by inheritance way back in the days of the legendary composer and musician Harcourt White who settled at the Uzuakoli Leper Colony after he was healed of leprosy.
It is many years away from those days of Methodism but its modern day offspring seems to have anchored his laudable achievements by being un-methodical which was why the EFCC for example is wondering why a particular construction company has remained a recurring decimal in the huge project disbursements that went on in Enugu State since 1999. But if Nnamani were a football coach, he would have been called Chimaroke Arsene Wenger Nnamani, because he believes in a winning team remaining on course until as the Americans would say, quoting the governor, “the old lady sings,” to declare the concert concluded.
In this eyeball to eye ball interview, punches were exchanged and smiles withheld. When he lost the war, the governor was humble to admit he had lost and when it was necessary to hold his head high, he reminded you he was an Nnamani, not just Nnamani in case you had forgotten. But no body was intimidated because history was being chronicled; a big inquisition was on course.
Deep into night, Nnamani drove the duo round his projects, waking up the sleepy mai guards to underscore his point, that he is no lame duck governor.
Your Excellency, the EFCC says from its report you are worth N50 billion naira; are you worth N50 billion?
The news of my being worth N50 billion or may be in the neighbourhood of $400 million is news to me. It is certainly surprising. I must answer your questions in the context of the report, which I have read. It talked about N50 billion and the report says this amount-N50 billion may not have been accumulated between 2003 and now, with the possibility that 2003 till now may have accounted for just N2.8 billion and in essence that N47.2 billion was made between 1999 and 2003. Of course it is not true. Not only is it not true, it is worrying to me and this affects my reputation both in Nigeria and abroad especially in the United States where I have friends and professional colleagues. It is very, very worrying. All I can say is that it is not true. There is no such possibility and it can’t be true. I am worth my certificate and specialist in maternal and foetal medicine as a specialist obstetrician and gynaecologist who came here to serve my people, to serve Nigeria. That’s my worth and that’s the worth that is important to me, the worth of service to man.
His net worth in 1999 before the Code of Conduct Tribunal and in 2003 during his second term in office..
Well if we make reference to my assets declaration papers, then that question can be answered correctly but I cannot tell you off the curve what is on my assets declaration. I wouldn’t want to say that and when you look at it, it does not add up but certainly not millions, how much more talk about billions.
If the assets value has appreciated since the last declaration…
It would have appreciated in so far as they concern my salaries and emoluments, which largely appear untouched since I have the privilege of being fed, of being taken care of essentially by government.
On why he faults the EFCC report on the governor…
I have read the report, I have studied the report, the report basically if analysed properly, essentially exonerates Enugu State in proper context.
Let’s look at the issue of contracts. Remember the origin of the investigation was as a result of multiple petitions by different individuals alleging that the governor of the state owns Marlum Construction Company and that contracts were inflated and that there were kickbacks. It is not in my position to ask the question or to remind you to make the case for the prosecution since we are going to go to court sometime. But I am just doing this for the sake of offering information. They talked about ownership of a construction company-Marlum Construction Company, they talked about the inflation of contracts, they talked about kickbacks; these reports completely exonerate the governor and the government of Enugu State in that regard. I say that because this report says certainly it does not attribute the ownership of the company to Enugu State or the governor or any individual or individuals in government. These are international companies owned by Italians. So we are exonerated in that regard. On the issue of inflation of contracts, this report also exonerates the government because this report talks of over-pricing to the tune of N2.8 billion. When you look at a total contract value of about N30 billion and you have two or three… essentially there were two engineers who came on what appeared to be a sight seeing visit. They spent three days, three days of hurry, hurrying from one project to the other, no actual physical measurement done during the visit and they came out with the result that there is a N2.8 billion difference in a N30 billion contract value. That’s certainly less than 10 percent. Are you following me?
These contracts were awarded based on this. I am not an engineer but there are certain factors that determine contract price in terms of cost of materials, in terms of cost of labour, in terms of fluctuations in energy prices of fuel or diesel etc, in terms of weather, in terms of the climate at that particular time. I believe that even in terms of statistics, it is not statistically significant, certainly not, certainly not. And under the system we operate, the Enugu State government within its authority, with its due process, can award contracts of whatever value it so chooses as long as due process is respected and the bidding is transparent. So in so far as the issue of contract inflation arises, we are completely exonerated. This report also exonerates the government in the area of kickbacks because even though the report says that the governor of Enugu State is worth N50 billion, I will rather prefer to say US$400 million because that’s what my friends and colleagues are talking about and they have already lined up waiting to see what largesse I will throw in their way. Again when you look at that, you will see that the price difference of N2.8 billion, assuming it was a kickback, would not account for the N50 billion estimated worth for the period of 2003 to 2006. So in the area of contract inflation, which is a major plank of the accusation, this report completely exonerates the government of Enugu State.
What is the next issue? The issue of ownership of Rainbownet. The government of Enugu State and the people of Enugu State appreciate the presence of Rainbownet in Enugu, we appreciate the presence of Cosmo FM in Enugu State. We are glad that that investment is in Enugu State and not elsewhere. I also acknowledge that I have relations, family relations, who have major shareholdings in these companies. There is no apology for that, absolutely nothing. It is not new in this country where relatives of people in government own companies or engage in business. These are adults and there is democracy in the land in so far as Enugu State government either in terms of leverage or in practical terms, were not involved in these companies. They run their businesses and pay taxes to the government. The government and the governor are not involved. There is no Enugu State government money involved in the running of these companies. We appreciate their presence here, no apologies; we have said that time and time again. These are companies doing business in Enugu, in the South East, in Nigeria and we are happy to have them here. There are many other people in government whose relatives are in business. We appreciate their enquiry, which was done subject to the petition. We appreciate it.
When EFCC officials came here in January, we welcomed them because we do realise it is in our interest for these issues to be investigated. It is even in our greater interest for the investigation to be carried out while we are in government. So the issue is not who owns Rainbownet because under a democratic system, anybody can own any business. And I am proud of these people. I am proud of my sister. She did not abscond from Nigeria; she was not even here when the investigation started. She is not a politician, she couldn’t take the heat. She could not take the heat of continuous battering on the pages of newspapers with all the name-calling. This is a certified urban and country planner, certified public accountant that rose to the highest level in the US public service, a level just before the level that is a political appointment. I am proud of her, she is dear to me. So no apologies, no apologies.
The next issue relates to local governments. You know what the constitution says about local management of local government funds. You know the affirmation by the Supreme Court. It becomes a constitutional paradox. If an agency does not have supervisory control over an organisation, whether a sub agency can also exercise that right. So granted that our constitution has been around for seven years or thereabout, is it not a subject for interpretation, re-interpretations, questioning and re-questioning? It is our advice that the Federal Government or its agencies and sub-agencies have no business in local government funds. That is not to say that where there is documented embezzlement of local government funds, every body has business in it. If there is documented embezzlement, the man on the street has business in it, the Federal Government has business, the state government has business, NGOs, civil societies, have business if there is documented evidence of fraud and embezzlement. But issues of management of those funds are issues that have to do with state governments under the supervision and enquiry of state houses of assembly. So we have reviewed four basic issues-the issues of enrichment, ownership of a construction company, we reviewed the issues of private businesses, we have reviewed the issue of local governments. The next is the issue of refunds of federal government projects executed by the state.
The same opposition denied that Enugu State government did any federal government projects, that those roads were not done, that there is no law school, law school built by the Federal Government, P&T, this and that. The same people are now saying that in fact these things were done but refunds were made. These refunds just from the statutory allocations went to the central pool and were disbursed based on the budgetary provisions.
If his administration has preference for only two construction companies…
Yes we do.
In spite of the principle of due process and competitive bidding…
We have had to address this issue on several fora, even in several interviews with This Day. How did we start? What are you talking about? You are talking about Enugu State, a state that is in the bottom three in terms of revenue allocation, a state that when we started, we received bulk pack N100 million a month- that was our initial allocation, N80 million to N100 million. From there it went to N400 million, from there it went to N500 million and now we receive bulk pack N1.5 billion. What do we do with the N1.5 billion? Salaries for teachers, civil servants, subventions to parastatals, bulk pack N800 million to one billion naira every month. You have N500 million left. We use the N500 million for emergencies and payment to contractors. We embarked on very ambitious, gigantic projects-the permanent site of a state university, the permanent site of a teaching hospital, an international conference centre with a 5000 capacity main bowl and a medium bowl with a capacity for two thousand people and another that sits 1000 people, judiciary headquarters, a tunnel, multiple roads. We embarked on all these projects at a time, at one time. We now realised that if we use multiple contractors, because of the finances available to us, we would not be able to mobilise all those contractors. In other words, if for all those projects we were to use five, six or ten contractors, each contractor would have to be paid a certain mobilisation fee, which is a certain percentage. Mobilisation on the university project which is about bulk pack N14 billion, means there is no way we could mobilise different contractors for the university, for the teaching hospital, for the judiciary and so on. Technically, there was no way we could carry it. Two, in terms of payment for work done, if we have different contractors and each contractor brought his certificate of completion, it means for the job to continue, you would have to pay each of them but if you have one contractor with a mobilisation for the university, the contractor could also be working on the other site and if at the end of the month, there is a generation of payment on any of the projects, the contractor would continue to work on all the projects. He cannot stop working. So in effect, the project is contractor financed because he is using payment for one project for all the other projects.
Enugu State went through a benchmarking process…
So we now reasoned that for as long as there was a bidding process… of course these contracts were advertised in the dailies, remember I told you that Enugu State went through a benchmarking process that involved about 35 states including the FCT. The process looked at budgetary and fiscal policy, it looked at vision, it looked at transparency and communication. Enugu State came first. We scored the highest. The issue of contract award was also, part of the analysis. I would tell you where they faulted us; they faulted us in terms of publication of awards even though we published tenders but they faulted because after the contracts were awarded we could not document that they were published in the papers and we took note of this and started doing just that. So as long as there was publication and communication, as long as there was bidding and the contractors biddings were acceptable to us who did the award, that was the secret, that was the only way a state with an allocation of about N1.5 billion could have done what we were able to do and you are free to see them. I challenge you, if there is any state in Nigeria that has what we have on the ground in Enugu State or if in the history of this country, any government has put down what we put on the ground within a 15-month period. The only way we could have done it, was through this process. Even the EFCC investigation has confirmed that the company is not owned by government or the governor, in which case it is not pre-determined, in which case there is no partisan interest in it. It has also proved even from its own measurement, that there was, may be 10 percent plus minus difference in terms of the value, which is also subject to dispute by government and by the experts of the contractors because you have different experts. The report also showed there was no kick back. So it was a secret we used in order to achieve success and I thank God it worked and I take responsibility.
If this ingenuous and plausible idea where only two contractors were the ones bidding and winning the contracts, did not negate the essence of competitive bidding…
No, no, no, no. No no no. No, it’s not two companies, other companies too bid.
But these two companies always won…
They were winning. Yes. It made sense. Do you know why they were winning? My brothers, they are on the ground, their cost is cheaper, they have already mobilised. For you to mobilise to build a university, you needed to have a work plan or something. For you to mobilise on the road, you have to first of all identify where you are going to get your raw materials such as laterite, chippings, rocks, you have to employ your staff, etc. You can’t compete with a company that is already on the ground; this company has 7000 to 8000 workers. The companies have been around for so long that even the president confirmed he knew the initial owner and that he was awarding contracts to him as a Federal Commissioner for Works. They have a record. Is it not in my interest to continue awarding them contracts as long as their bidding is within reasonable space with other companies even if they bid because they have a record? They have a record. So it does not mean that we own the company. That was the same thing we did with Strabag.
The allegation that Strabag left Enugu because it refused to be used for contract inflation and graft…
That is absolute nonsense; it is nonsense because in the first place, Strabag was a company doing business in Nigeria before our government arrived. The percentage of business they were doing in Enugu State was less than two percent of their total business. What did Strabag do in Enugu State? They built roads; what else? Strabag is a major Federal Government contractor building Benin whatever roads all over Nigeria before we came. It is an international company. Enugu State’s component of Strabagís business in Nigeria was like this, a tiny bit. If they left, it was not because of Enugu. If it were Enugu, they could have stayed because Enugu was giving them business. And they paid kick backs to nobody, nobody, nobody. So to suggest that Strabag left because of graft is pure mischief, pure mischief. It is not my business to make a case why Strabag left the country even though I know why they left; it’s not my job.
The EFCC claim that revenue coming from excess crude account and running into billions meant for local governments, were diverted by the state government which compelled these local government chairmen to raise bank drafts in favour of the state government…
No it did not run into billions. The report claimed it was N1.5 billion. In the spirit of transparency and in the spirit of communication, I should be making these explanations in the law court.
The governor…
I can say clearly that local government funds were not diverted. The state government is indeed satisfied with the disposition of local government funds and the House Committee on Local Governments and General Assembly is also satisfied. So in so far as management of local government funds are concerned, it is okay; the funds were not mismanaged, it was not correct. There was no embezzlement of local government funds.
This contradicts the President’s statement that reports reaching him from the states suggest a lot of sleaze and malfeasance are going on in the local governments through the council chairmen and the state governments, and how he checks these excesses…
Local governments are administered by local governments and supervised by the state House of Assembly. These are governments supervised by the state House of Assembly. So local governments have.. is it judiciary or whatever? Let me not go into what I don’t know, I am not a lawyer but local governments as an entity are held responsible for the receipt, the disposition and administration of their funds under supervision by the House of Assembly. The information I am volunteering to you is the information I have to the best of my knowledge as the governor of Enugu State. The constitution provides under section 8a or 7 or whatever that all monies accruing to the federation shall be shared to the federal government, to the state government and the local governments through the state government. It also provides that state governments shall set up a joint local government account committee that will meet to now share the allocations to the various local governments. That, we do in Enugu State. You must also understand that because of our level of development and I am being very honest with you in the interest of transparency and communication, because of what could be an overwhelming presence of politicians over local government staff, what we have done as a government is to try to professionalise the local government staff and guarantee their position, to avoid unnecessary dues, unnecessary transfers and undue interference and also to keep talking to the local government chairmen: “You take care of your local governments, you take responsibility for your local governments. But I cannot look at you and deny that I am not aware that there are deficiencies in the system, There are local governments who would get their allocations and they would not pay such departments as civil defence, some would not even pay the youth corpers claiming that their allocation were not complete or that the money did not come, that their allocations were yet to be made. No system is perfect even in Enugu State, I know cases where civil servants have received their salaries and claimed they had not been paid. I have had a personal experience where a relation of mine whose mother is a teacher said the mother had not been paid for three months and when I investigated the matter, I found out the mother was just giving an excuse. So I am saying that no system is perfect and that there could be leakages here and there because of the breakdown in the system, because of the non-professionalism and because of politicians who perhaps because of insecurity would want to settle themselves as much as possible within a short time. That is where the House of Assembly and other supervisory control mechanisms have to come to play. It is not a perfect system.
On the claim by the EFCC report that it did not have access to contracts done between 1999 and 2003 and so could not do a thorough job on that period…
Thank you very much for bringing this up. I am glad that this question came up. The EFCC investigation of Enugu State was in its tenth month by the 4th of October. It is an investigation that has been very, very intense, highly intense. Itís an investigation where experts came. These experts were given all documents-letters of intent, contract agreements, letters of awards, architectural and structural drawings as well as certificates of completion, warrants of payment and bills of quantity.
Not from government but contractors…
From both parties, from both parties. Consultants, contractors and governments but the bulk of the documents they had came from contractors and consultants but documents are the same, a letter of intent, a letter of award, your offer of employment whether it comes from you or if your employer copies it to you, your certificate of birth whether you get it from your local government registrar or your school, it is the same. So all the relevant documents such as letters of awards and intent, variations, soil testing results, where they came from were essentially the same. More over, the experts in their inherent knowledge, were in a position to determine the veracity of those documents or refuse them. But they came to the conclusion that there was only N2.8 billion variation. So it was an investigation going into its 10th month and all documents requested were given. Even reading the report itself, you would see the issue of 1999 to 2003 was an after thought. It was in the process of looking for this N50 billion and now finding that 2003 till now would not account for the N50 billion.
Meaning there was nothing done between 1999 to 2003…
No.Never. Never. Never. The issue of 1999 to 2003 was an after thought I am not aware of it. Okay if you asked for 1999 and 2003, why start from 2003? The investigation and even the letters written, as well as the petitions, were from 2003 till now, that is why it centred on Marlum. If they had asked for 1999 documents, they would have been provided. And that was where the investigation would have started. And if you are talking of 1999 when EFCC was not there, it is subject to judicial interpretation as to whether it could look at documents preceding its arrival. So to the best of my knowledge, 1999 to 2003 only arose as a result of the investigation’s findings and when you read the report, it says it was in the process of looking for this $400 million that they now felt that the N2.8 billion overpricing could not account for it and probably 1999 to 2003-Strabag. What was the total government income for 1999 to 2003? What was the total contract value? It was at a time when allocations came in trickles of N100 million a month, later N500 million, then subject to further verification, it came to about N30 billion. N30 billion to pay salaries to teachers and civil servants, subventions to parastatals, state university, IMT etc
N30 billion in one year…?
Total for four years.
What about the total for seven years…
Bulk pack N60 billion plus and minus.
But there is a tabulation that indicates total revenue accruing till date to the state government came to N117 billion…
No, this amount also includes allocations made to local governments and of course you remember when we came into office, these local governments then were 17 but the number later expanded.
On EFCCís report that monies accruing from VAT meant for local governments were issued on open cheques from where considerable and illegal deductions were made and the beneficiaries were the gang of three including the governor, his special adviser and local government affairs boss…
I did not read this in the report, from where is this coming?
It was there…
Okay, we will address it whether it was in the report or not. Do not forget whom you are discussing with. My name is Chimaroke Nnamani. I am a specialist obstetrician and gynaecologist. I am a sub specialist in maternal and foetal medicine. I have post-doctoral qualifications. I was involved in academia and practice in America. I had the opportunity to acquire some of the best skills in foetal medicine and surgery that any human being can acquire. I had no business coming back to Nigeria if I were not interested coming back home to help my people and contribute in the process of change and continuity. What you have on the ground in Enugu State, could it be the product of a man who goes collecting N500,000,00 or thereabout from local government chairmen. Is this his kind of vision, is this the kind of man that you are looking at? Are you looking at a man who would leave the state capital at the end of every month, go to local government chairmen and be collecting money? It does not arise. It means you don’t know whom you are talking to. There is no way…, it is impossible that I can ever subject myself to collecting money from any body because I don’t need it. The issue of being paid by cheque is news to me, it is news to me. As governor, how do I know whether any one is being paid cheque or cash unless it is brought to my attention? And they asked them and they said it was a process that was in place, that they were having difficulties sending it to their banks and that most of the time as the money is coming, people are already lined up waiting to be paid. They talked about armed robbery and all sorts of things. I was sitting here in Enugu, I never knew. It came as news to me and I felt this was an administrative lapse. And just when the investigation was a week old, it was stopped immediately. Enugu State, is about the only state in this country which publishes its local governments dusbursements monthly.
It’s an insult and highly uncharitable to suggest that I would go and collect bits and pieces of money-N500, 000, N200,000 or 300,000.00 every month. What do I do with the money? I will even give them because even if they were to misappropriate it, it would still be within the system. And this does not imply that I am promoting corruption.
But it does not happen, not in Enugu State. If I have to collect this kind of payments, why would I have to spend N14 billion building a university, why would I spend N6 billion building a teaching hospital or rather why would government spend N3 billion for a new judiciary headquarters?
Have you ever asked yourself, this governor that is worth S400 million has no house in America even though he spent all those years in America, has no money there. Do you realize that as governor he left this country may be four times? Does it sound like the story of someone who has $400 million?
It is not proper to promote sacrifice but I have paid my dues for Nigeria. It is not proper for someone to promote sacrifice but I have sacrificed for my people. And I thank God. Do you realize that no man can change it? I am blessed and very lucky because there is nothing on earth that will make anyone say the university is not there, the judiciary is not there, teaching hospital, tunnel, the roads. Whenever you write the history of Enugu, I am going to be somewhere there. Wherever you go in Enugu State, I am there looking at you. Have you realised that? So God has blessed me. If you are going to look for $400 million, go to America and the United Kingdom, the big mansions, the pent houses, the private jets, the first class travels, the platinum and gold cards, the golf courses, these are were to look for the money. And if the money is not in these places, it means it does not exist.
If her sister is aware she is the subject of an enquiry…
My sister is not the subject of any enquiry but a company where she has shareholdings is the subject of enquiry and she is aware of this.
When she is coming to clear her name…
There is no name to clear.
But EFCC says she is on the run…
No, EFCC did analysis of Rainbownet through confirmed shareholdings. The EFCC did an analysis of Enugu State government and could not trace any money from Enugu State to Rainbownet. Rainbownet is not a contractor to Enugu State government. In so
far as you have cleared Enugu State government, you have also cleared other parties by inference. She has shareholdings in Rainbownet, which has a substantive chairman and chief executive. An Nnamani cannot abscond from Nigeria, it’s an insult. Look at me am an Nnamani, go check. I have shareholdings in Nigeria. That’s why I came back. I came back to Nigeria, no
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