Onjeh writes Buhari, indicts minister in PRODA crisis

A former Board Chairman of Project Development Institute, PRODA, Comrade Dan Onjeh, has written an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari acknowledging his efforts toward the fight against corruption.

Onjeh, however, raised concern over how some heads of federal ministries are sabotaging the commendable efforts of government to deliver campaign promises to the people.

He was particular and specific about what is currently causing crisis in PRODA where he chaired its governing board under Chief Ogbonnaya Onuh, Minister of Science and Technology.

In the letter he personally signed and tagged, “Impunity and disregard for presidential directives: A major setback to your administration,’’ Onjeh sincerely praised Buhari for his zero tolerance of corruption in Nigeria and equally commended the Secretary to the Government of the Federal (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha for his timely interventions to ensure everything is in good shape and place.

The former board chairman called on President Buhari to, as a matter of urgency, wade into the ongoing alleged corrupt practices at PRODA before it gets out of control.

The twelve pages letter reads below…

OPEN LETTER TO H.E. PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI, GCFR

13^th February, 2021

His Excellency,

President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR

The President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces,

State House, Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.

Your Excellency,

IMPUNITY AND DISREGARD FOR PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVES: A MAJOR SETBACK TO YOUR ADMINISTRATION

I must begin by expressing my deep gratitude to you for the opportunity to serve our nation as the Chairman of the Governing Board of Projects Development Institute (PRODA), Enugu, Enugu State, from 2018 to 2021. Serving as PRODA Chairman enabled me to experience the intrigues, challenges and acts of sabotage that undermine public service delivery in Nigeria; and to realize the frightening depth to which the cankerworm of corruption has eaten into the very soul of our nation.

2. Therefore, while the arrest and detention of corrupt individuals and the clamp-down on corrupt organizations is a necessary complimentary approach to fighting corruption, it should not be seen as the effective solution to nipping corruption in Nigeria in the bud. Even if we jail one million Nigerians for corruption today, it would still not solve the problem, as corruption is a deeply entrenched systemic problem which can only be effectively tackled from its roots. That is what the previous Board of PRODA under my leadership tried to do at the Institute; which unfortunately, the Honourable Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onuh, is trying to reverse now to the relief of those in the inner circle of the systemic corruption at PRODA.
3. Furthermore, I apologize for employing an open letter to get this message across to you. I wanted to be certain that my message would reach you directly and without distortion. But time is of the essence if your Administration must take decisive actions to address what I have identified as the root cause of the underperformance of successive federal budgets. Hence, the open letter seems to be my best option to draw your attention to this salient message.
4. Your Excellency, there is no gainsay that I am one of millions of Nigerians that ardently believe in your capacity, disposition and commitment to redeeming Nigeria through credible, honest and patriotic leadership. I am proud of my decision to join your crusade with my heart and soul, in all your attempts to clinch the Presidency since 2003. I still consider it a great honour and privilege to have served as the National Youth Director of the Buhari Support Organization (BSO) for the 2015 General Election, which ushered you in as the President and Commander-in-Chief.
5. However, the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government are the final points of implementation of government policies and programmes. The delivery of our campaign promises is hinged on the attainment of budget targets. Hence, if the MDAs fail to perform in line with set targets, their shortcomings would certainly rub-off on the Administration. Your Excellency, the abysmal performance of some of your trusted appointees sometimes leaves some of us, your devoted supporters, short of words in assuaging the worries and fears of the teeming Nigerian masses that are looking up to your leadership.
6. I must admit that it was a very difficult decision for me to bare my thoughts to you on this matter, being that I am a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and a stakeholder in your Administration, and my honest intention may be misconstrued by others as a subtle attack on your leadership. But I would be unfair to Your Excellency and to your Administration, if I failed to speak up on these issues, because in spite of the much effort you are making, the results are not commensurate with your targets, as a result of the wanton acts of sabotage being perpetrated by a few of your appointees. Consequently, many Nigerians are grumbling; and in the end, it is the leadership that bears the brunt of the people’s plights.
7. Your Excellency, I am aware that many of your supporters who are uncomfortable with the tide of events in the Administration prefer to murmur from the background for fear of hurting your feelings or being taunted by some narrow thinkers as agents of the opposition. However, I am emboldened to speak-up because I never tend to forget that the crucible of my political orientation was student/human rights activism; and speaking the truth to all persons and in all circumstances, not minding whose ox is gored, is the fuel that sustains the true activist.
8. While I must admit that some of your Ministers are performing at par with your policy imperatives; which places high premium on economic recovery, anticorruption, due process and the rule of law; I regret to inform you that Dr. Ogbonnaya Onuh, the Honourable Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation (FMSTI), though mistaken by many Nigerians to be a gentleman because of his easy-going disposition, is in fact, a very weak link in your Administration. That is why in spite of the many Research and Development Institutes under the FMSTI; and the billions of Naira budgeted annually to the Ministry, it cannot point to one distinct innovation anywhere that it has pioneered to the benefit of Nigerians in the last seven (7) years that Dr. Onuh has held sway as Minister.
9. Nigerians can appreciate the delivery of democracy dividends from the Federal Ministry of Transportation under RT. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, from the massive transformations in the once moribund railway sector. The 2^nd Niger Bridge, amongst other groundbreaking infrastructural works going on across the country, speaks volumes of the efforts of the Hon. Minister of Works and Housing, His Excellency Babatunde Fashola. The impact of leadership should be keenly felt and appreciated by the people. Many years after Mallam Nasir el-Rufai served as the Hon. Minister of the FCT, albeit under the opposition, Abuja residents are still applauding his transformational efforts in the city. He is not doing any less in Kaduna State now, as Governor. I say this, because I reside in Kaduna.
10. Your Excellency, I wish to use this medium to relate my experience of the massive corruption in the FMSTI and by extension the Nigerian system, using PRODA as a reference point. I am hoping Your Excellency would consider my petition on its merit, along with my recommendations, with the view to sanitizing not just PRODA and the FMSTI, but all other Ministries and Parastatals of the Federal Government.
11. Furthermore, my team and I had not quite spent a year on the Board of PRODA before we noticed the massive inefficiency and corruption at the Institute under the previous Management, under the suspended and now retired DG/CEO, Engr. Dr. Charles Agulanna. Consequently, the Board wrote to the DG/CEO on two occasions, cautioning him on the need to improve the manner in which he was administering PRODA, in line with the “Change” mantra of Your Excellency’s Administration which places premium on anticorruption, due process and strict discipline. But all our warnings fell on deaf ears.
12. Hence, amid mounting allegations of Contract Splitting; Absence from Duty Without Leave; Nepotism; Misappropriation; Insubordination and Total Disregard for Board Resolutions; Suppression of Vital Information and Sabotage; and Extortion of Money from Contractors as Admin Charges levelled against the former DG/CEO; the PRODA Board under my leadership served him a query on 2^nd March, 2020. Details of the allegations levelled against Engr. Agulanna are contained in the Report of the Independent Administrative Panel subsequently set-up by the SGF under your directive, to investigate the former DG/CEO and the activities of PRODA.
13. The PRODA Board, in line with the provisions of the Public Service Rules, the relevant Circulars issued by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and the Conditions of Service of the Institute, after establishing a prima facie evidence against the suspended DG/CEO, wrote to the Honourable Minister, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onuh, recommending the suspension of the DG/CEO for a period of six (6) months, to enable the Board conclude its investigations and make final recommendations to the Minister on the matter. The Board further recommended that in line with the relevant SGF Circular, the next most senior officer of PRODA should act as the DG.

14. But to our utter chagrin, the Hon. Minister ignored the Board’s letter recommending the suspension of Engr. Agulanna. It took the SGF, Mr. Boss Mustapha, one of your most dependable political allies whose office we copied same recommendation earlier, to intervene in writing and draw the Minister’s attention to our letter, further directing him to act on the matter.
15. I therefore commend the SGF, Mr. Boss Mustapha, for his untiring efforts at ensuring that all Ministries and Parastatals of the Federal Government adhere strictly to the due process and the rule of law, in the current Administration’s dogged fight against corruption. It was the SGF that followed through, and ensured that the recommendations of the previous PRODA Board under my leadership, and the subsequent report of the SGF Panel, got to your office for approval. While Dr. Onuh may appear to be a gentleman, the fact that he harbours corruption, and shields corrupt individuals, makes him an accomplice to the act, hence a corrupt gentleman.
16. While he reluctantly complied with Your Excellency’s directive through the SGF, to act on the PRODA Board’s recommendation for the suspension of Dr. Agulanna, the Hon. Minister and his accomplices at the National Assembly unleashed a fierce campaign against my person and the former Board of PRODA which I chaired, to create the false impression that I was engaging in a personal vendetta against the suspended DG/CEO. At the end of the long saga, while an Independent Administrative Panel was constituted by the SGF under Your Excellency’s directive to investigate the Board’s allegations against the former DG/CEO and to generally investigate activities in PRODA, I was equally directed to “step-aside” as the Board Chairman, pending the conclusion of the investigations.
17. Your Excellency, I was not unaware of the risks involved in fighting corruption at PRODA, because the beneficiaries of entrenched corruption in the system were bound to hit back at me with all their might. In the words of Dr. Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, “when you fight corruption, corruption fights back.” But I was confident that since I was doing the proper thing, Your Excellency, as my Appointer, would shield me from some of those attacks!
18. Although I was very happy when after several months, the report of the SGF Panel was released, and it reflected that Your Excellency upheld all the recommendations of the former PRODA Board which I Chaired, and even further directed that the suspended DG/CEO of PRODA should in public interest proceed on compulsory retirement, I was taken aback when the Hon. Minister, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onuh, started implementing the opposite of the directives approved by Your Excellency. In the first place, I was not under any investigation, aside the fact that the report of the SGF Panel vindicated the actions of the PRODA Board that I chaired by upholding all our recommendations.
19. It may interest you to know that while the report of the SGF Panel was yet to be released; Dr. Ogbonnaya Onuh made several efforts to dissolve the Board of PRODA which I led, as well as the Boards of all the other Agencies under his ministry. He first sought Your Excellency’s consent to dissolve the PRODA Board through the SGF where board matters are handled, but met a brick wall. He then went through the Office of your Chief of Staff, where he somehow got your consent and went ahead to dissolve and reconstitute all the Governing Boards of the Agencies under the FMSTI. Accordingly, a new PRODA Board was inaugurated in Abuja in October, 2021, with Mr. Emmanuel Eneukwu, one of the Honourable Minister’s stooges, as Board Chairman. Your Excellency, I find it incredible that a Minister would have the effrontery to hijack the exclusive powers and functions of the President with respect to the appointment of Chairmen and Members of the Governing Boards of federal Parastatals.
20. We also noticed that the former PRODA Management was working in cahoots with some corrupt federal legislators, to rip-off the Nigerian public under the guise of Zonal Intervention Projects and Constituency Development Projects, many which never see the light of day! The once secret issue of budget padding by National Assembly members became public knowledge under your Administration. But these Zonal Intervention Projects and Constituency Development Projects were meant to touch the lives of the citizens at the grassroots. Under the suspended DG/CEO of PRODA, there were instances where contractors earn nearly 100% of contract sums without carrying out any work to benefit the Institute or the general public.
21. For instance, the 2020 Capital Budget of PRODA reflected payment for Solar Street Lights already supplied in Koton Karfe Local Government, Kogi State on contract Lot No. W284. But the PRODA Board under my leadership discovered that the solar street lights were never supplied in the first place. We wondered whether the contractor supplied the items to the Federal Government on credit. The Board that I chaired then directed the Overseeing DG/CEO, Engr. Okonkwo, not to pay the contractor the allotted sum of Two Hundred and Fifty Million Naira (N250,000,000.00) only in the 2021 budget; rather, the PRODA Management should engage another contractor that would truly supply the street lights to Koton Karfe from the 2021 capital appropriation of the Institute. I strongly believe that there are several other similar phony contracts in the annual budgets of other federal Parastatals.
22. I recall that a member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Henry Nwawuba, once wrote to the suspended DG/CEO of PRODA, requesting for payment of one his contractors, and claiming that the contractor had finished his work, when actually; the contract had not even been awarded by the Institute. That may be the case in many other Federal Ministries and Parastatals, especially as the suspended DG/CEO of PRODA, Engr. Agulanna, had once informed me that the Hon. Minister’s Special Assistant (Technical), Engr. Oguejiofor Ibiam, was personally handling some contracts at PRODA. More so, these corrupt elements have collaborators at the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP). But I would like to reserve details of BPP’s involvement, for another day.
23. I recall that the Ceramics Department of PRODA was for long not functional, due to the failure to equip the Department’s Laboratory with the required items to power its operations. The former PRODA Board eventually discovered that the contract to equip the laboratory was awarded to a certain contractor, HRH Eze Uche Egenti, owner of El ‘N’ Matt Integrated, who failed to execute the contract. But upon further probing by the previous PRODA Board, the suspended DG/CEO, Engr. Agulanna, discreetly cautioned me to back down on the matter, as the contractor involved was the contractor handling the jobs of the Honourable Minister.
24. Undeterred, I went ahead to confront the so-called Minister’s contractor, HRH Egenti, via a phone conversation initiated by the suspended DG/CEO, and he unabashedly admitted to me that he had expended the funds released to him for the PRODA Ceramics Department project in the Agency’s 2018 budget, so we should kindly await the release of the 2019 budget, so he can re-appropriate monies released to him in the 2019 budget, to the execution of the 2018 project. Our question was, how did the contractor receive the full payment for the contract in the 2018 budget, when he did not deliver any job? Yet, the same contract was captured in the 2019 budget of PRODA as an ongoing project.
25. I am afraid that what was happening at PRODA may be happening in many other Federal Ministries and Parastatals, especially the Parastatals under the FMSTI, because the very same phony contractor friend of the Hon. Minister, HRH Eze Uche Egenti, has now been appointed as the Chairman of the Governing Board of the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NIBRI), another agency under the FMSTI.
26. When monies are siphoned from federal budgets, it limits the ability of government to create jobs and fight unemployment and poverty. These monies find their way into the hands of a few corrupt individuals, and in a bid to evade the authorities, they embark on all forms of economic sabotage which takes a heavy toll on the nation’s foreign exchange regime. In the end, they defeat the purpose of the fiscal policies of the government to fight unemployment and poverty, as well as the monetary policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria to stabilize the foreign exchange and price levels of goods and services.
27. To compound my worries, the cronies of the suspended DG/CEO of PRODA (and with the active support of their accomplices at the Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and other agencies/institutions; especially the Director, Legal Services of the FMSTI, who has for long been feeding off the table of the suspended DG/CEO, Engr. Agulanna) did not relent in their bid to frustrate the efforts of Engr. Dr. Fabian Okonkwo, the successor of Engr. Dr. Agulanna, at PRODA. Hence, with the support and approval of the Honourable Minister, FMSTI, they were finally able to use the agents of the State Security Service to forcefully take over the Management of PRODA on 25^th January, 2022; and install their preferred crony, one Dr. Mrs. Arit Beta Etukudo, the Director, Ceramics Research and Production Department, as the Overseeing DG/CEO of PRODA. Their action has sparked off an industrial disharmony in PRODA, for which I humbly seek Your Excellency’s kind intervention before it escalates beyond proportions.
28. I recall that the appointment of Dr. Fabain Okonkwo as Overseeing DG/CEO of PRODA was approved by Your Excellency, as communicated by the Honourable Minister, FMSTI, through the previous Board of the Institute. From my understanding of the SGF Circular of May 29^th, 2020, it is the President and Commander-in-Chief that has the sole prerogative of power to approve his removal from office. Therefore, the action of Dr. Ogbannaya Onuh and the new PRODA Governing Board, of forcefully removing Dr. Okonkwo from office, is totally illegal and should be reversed without further delay.
29. The entire plot of the Hon. Minister, Ogbonnaya Onuh, is to return the suspended DG/CEO of PRODA, Engr. Charles Agulanna, through the back door, by removing Dr. Fabian Okonkwo, whom Your Excellency duly appointed, and replacing him with Dr. Arit, a loyalist of the suspended DG/CEO. I have proof that the suspended DG/CEO had previously made a promise to Mrs. Arit, that he would groom her to become his successor. Essentially, they are paving the way so they can continue with their wanton looting, and to reverse all the good works of the former PRODA Governing Board which I Chaired. Especially now that Your Excellency has granted approval for a full-scale investigation into PRODA, the corrupt cabal is working tireless to inject its loyalists into strategic positions in the Institute’s Administrative, Financial and Due Process Units, so they can cover-up their shoddy track records. I seriously hope that in the end, the story would not be that the war on corruption at PRODA was won, but lost.
30. Your Excellency, it may interest you to know that while you approved the recommendations of the SGF Panel and charged all concerned parties with the implementation of those recommendations, the Honourable Minister, Ogbonnaya Onuh, went behind and constituted a committee to review Your Excellency’s recommendations. His Committee came-up with parallel recommendations to those which Your Excellency earlier approved. Regrettably, it is the recommendations of that Ministerial Committee that the Hon. Minister is currently implementing. The SGF Panel Report equally directed all authorities charged with the implementation of the recommendations, to carry the Office of the SGF along in the implementation process. But considering that the FMSTI is implementing parallel recommendations to those approved by Your Excellency through the SGF Panel, it is easy to deduce that the FMSTI is not carrying the SGF along in the implementation of the Presidential directives contained in that Panel report.
31. For instance, the two PRODA staff, namely Mrs. Ogechi Assumpta Obinna and Engr. Ifeanyi Ofili, that Your Excellency specifically recommended for discipline by the PRODA Management in the SGF Panel Report for complicity in the extortion of monies from contractors under the guise of Administrative Charges; and who irreverently declined the invitation of the SGF Panel, were not only absolved from discipline by the Honourable Minister and the current PRODA Board, but were returned to the Due Process Unit of PRODA and elevated in position. Engr. Ofili was made the Head of the Due Process Unit. No mention was even made of the query previously issued to the two affected staff. But such brazen violation of Your Excellency’s directives by the Honourable Minister and the current PRODA Board should not be tolerated, as Nigeria is not a banana republic!
32. Your Excellency, part of your recommendations through the SGF Panel Report conscientiously delegated Engr. Dr. Fabian Okonkwo to implement the disciplinary actions on the affected staff of PRODA, as the Acting DG/CEO of the Institute, considering that he was at the helm of affairs at PRODA when the issues came up, hence conversant with the facts of the matter. But the Honourable Minister and the PRODA Board circumvented Your Excellency’s directive and replaced Engr. Okonkwo with Mrs. Arit as the Overseeing DG/CEO of PRODA, even when she is not qualified for the position. That is because the Hon. Minister is aware that the duly appointed Overseeing DG/CEO of PRODA, Engr. Fabian Okonkwo, was poised to implement Your Excellency’s directive to the latter, and the affected staff are loyalists of the suspended DG/CEO. Hence, he was desperate to replace Engr. Okonkwo with another stooge of the suspended DG/CEO, Dr. Mrs. Arit.
33. The fact is that the underhand dealings of these corrupt elements in our public service cause economic leakages, which affect budget performance and set targets. To meet your developmental targets, Your Excellency is constantly seeking foreign loans to finance our critical infrastructure. It is only unfortunate that some corrupt elements should come and steal such funds, without delivering results. While I admit, as your ardent believer, that all the acts of these corrupt individuals and cabals are not your fault, the ordinary Nigerians on the streets do not understand how these economic indices interplay to yield the results that impact on their lives. So how do I explain to these set of Nigerians, how tirelessly Your Excellency is working to improve their socio-economic conditions, when the saboteurs are still busy at work?

MY RECOMMENDATIONS

1. That the use of backdoor tactics by the Hon. Minister, FMSTI, Dr. Onuh, to dissolve and reconstitute the Governing Boards of Agencies under the Ministry, as well as his unlawful removal of the duly appointed Overseeing DG/CEO of PRODA, Engr. Dr. Fabian Okonkwo, should be discouraged and promptly reversed, as that would set a bad precedence for other Ministers.
2. That the Federal Government should urgently organize a retreat for all Board Members of all Federal Ministries and Parastatals, to fully make them aware of their duties, functions and powers; so they can be alive to their onerous tasks of ensuring checks and balances in the administration of the various Ministries and Parastatals under which they are serving.
3. That Your Excellency should urgently constitute a high-powered committee, such as the Prof. Itse Sagay Committee, to launch full-scale investigations into the financial mismanagement at PRODA and other Parastatals under the Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation; detailing the involvement of members of the National Assembly. The high-powered committee’s report should serve as the basis for further investigation by the EFCC, ICPC and other anti-graft agencies.
4. That the Federal Government should investigate the PRODA School Pencil Project, and the promises of the Honourable Minister Dr. Onuh to Nigerians that the project would commence before December 2020, and would create 4,500 jobs for Nigerians. It is 2022 now, and the project has not employed even one additional staff since the Hon. Minister came to commission it in 2020. Besides, all the equipment and machines used on the project are imported from China, whereas PRODA is a Research and Development Institute that is expected to utilize local raw materials for the innovation, design and construction of its tools and equipment.
5. That a more systematic approach that would tackle corruption from its roots and quash all the corruption cartels in Nigeria’s public and private sectors, be adopted to waging the war against corruption in Nigeria. This is because the arrest and detention of individual corrupt elements does not significantly affect the operation of the corruption syndicates and cartels.
6. Your Excellency, while space and time may not permit me to bare my mind on all the pertinent issues at hand, I strongly believe that the implementation of the aforementioned recommendations would go a long way to further demonstrate your Administration’s commitment to upholding due process and the rule of law.
7. I wish to assure you that for all the allegations I have made in this letter, I have sufficient proof to back up my claim. I am writing this letter to you as a pure act of patriotism; hence, I am ready to face any consequences that this well-intentioned action may bring upon me. My only interest is to uphold your integrity, and to ensure that the Nigerian public is no longer short-changed by the practices of the corrupt cabal at the FMSTI.

Finally, I wish to use this medium to wish you good health, long life and God’s guidance and protection in your diligent service to our nation and humanity.

Yours faithfully,

Comrade Daniel Donald Onjeh

Former Chairman, PRODA Governing Board.”