A former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam
Nasir el-Rufai, may have hit it big with the Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN), as his quantitysurveying firm has landed a multi billion-naira
contract with the apex bank.
El-Rufai joined critics of the
Federal Government shortly after he left the economic team of Ex
President Olusegun Obasanjo and his exit as FCT minister.
Sources
hinted that the CBN which has disbursed over N163 Billion so far under
the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) sub head, has concluded bplans
to build another events center in Garki Abuja for a whooping sum of N84
Billion.
El-Rufai and Partners Limited, design cost associates
based in Aminu Kano Crescent, Wuse 2, Abuja landed the design contract
for the center. The professional fee for the firm, Pointblanknews.com
stands at 6 per cent is about N5 Billion. Besides there is no evidence
that due process was followed by the CBN in the award. The total cost is
a little over N94 Billion with about N10 Billion going into
professional fees for surveyors, architects. Sources told
Pointblanknews.com that the CBN Governor has been capitalizing on the
liberal nature of the President to award contracts to his friends and
cronies.
Said a source, “can you imagine Sanusi awarding
contracts to his friends under a General Sani Abacha or even President
Musa Yar'Adua? This is only happening simply because President Goodluck
Jonathan is very liberal minded, he simply allows people to get away
with a lot.”
Wikipedia captures El-Rufai and partners thus:
Nasir established a Quantity Surveying and Project Management Consulting
firm in 1982 with three other partners. The firm was quite successful,
handling mainly building and civil engineering projects in Nigeria, and
made the partners wealthy millionaires while still in their twenties
The
center, which will be where the old NITEL building was, would
have malls, business centers, and sundry commercial and recreational
concerns. A South African firm demolished the old NITEL building. The
Central Bank of Nigeria had in 2012 awarded a N9.5 Billion contract for
the construction of a Conference Centre at the University of Jos'permanent site.
There
also indications that this firm got a large slice of the N64
Billion FCT city gate project that would have pedestrian bridges; the
Northern axis would have conference rooms, parade ground, botanical
garden, five star hotel and hospital among others.
Interestingly,
there had been a link between CBN Governor, Lamido Sanusi and E-Rufai.
Aside from the fact that the body language and rhetoric of both men have
not been anything complementary, they may soon be in-laws.
It
was gathered that kid sister of El-Rufai may soon be Mrs Lamido
Sanusi as preparations are on for the Nikai which comes up soon in
Daudawa, Faskari Local Government area of Katsina state .
Within
two years, Sanusi whose donations is well above $1 Billion, has doled
out N15 billion to only four educational institutions, and the figure
could even be more. The latest is the N10 billion donated to
Uthman Danfodio University, UDU, Sokoto, through Kabiru Nuhu, deputy
director, Projects, Planning and Implementation Division, Procurement
and Support Services Department, of CBN.
According to Nuhu, the
intervention, which was part of CBN's corporate social responsibility,
CSR, for 2013, was aimed at building capacity, manpower and
infrastructure in the university, with a view to making the Nigerian
economy at par with top economies in the world.
Pat Utomi, a
professor of Economics, had similarly described the donations as absurd
and arbitrary. Said he: “There is no logic in what he is doing. It just
shows there is no control even from the system. I am aware that he is
probably gunning for the Emirate of Kano, and wants to give the Bayero
s a run for their money, but should that be at the expense of Nigerians
and their money?”
Indeed, Femi Gbajabiamila, minority leader,
House of Representatives, wondered whether the CBN had become a donor
agency or a charity organisation.
In the meantime, the executive
and the legislative arms of government are worried by the donations by
CBN. For instance, the exercise reportedly earned Sanusi a query from
President Goodluck Jonathan in April.
Although the bank denied
getting any query from the Presidency, Reuben Abati, presidential
spokesman, was quoted by The Punch newspaper then as saying that the
President, indeed, wrote the CBN governor asking him to explain certain
things regarding the accounts of the bank, to which Sanusi responded
immediately. What was said in the reply was not certain, but
the Presidency might have been convinced that the CBN could not have
gone beyond bound.
However, if the apex bank cannot be questioned on how
it does its CSR, how proper is it that one institution gets N10
billion in an economy as Nigeria's, while others get interventions in
millions of naira?
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