Okonjo-Iwela directs SURE-P to terminate pact with firm.” PUNCH, May 15, 2015, p 9.

In one of her last face-saving measures, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Coordinationg Minister for the Economy, CME, “directed the immediate termination of the partnership between the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme and Forcecom Networks Limited on the Graduate Internship Scheme.”


*Finance Minister, Ngozi-Okonjo-Iweala
Even before reading the story to the end, something told me that it was another contract given to one of “our brothers” which now threatens to put everybody in trouble when the new government takes office in June.

And sure (pardon the pun) enough, the Managing Director of Forcecom Networks turned out to be one Paul Okafor, who allegedly “coerced the interns to sign an undertaking to pay N7,500 out of their monthly stipend for training with the Lekki Business School.”

“She also alleged that the company fraudulently convinced the graduates to register in January 2015 but set their hire date as November 2, 2014.”   Earlier on after asking security agencies to investigate the firm, “she also accused the firm for presenting time sheets, which showed that the interns had worked and requested payment of their monthly stipend when they did not work.”

On the face of the allegations made by the outgoing Minister, what emerges is a case of the Ministry engaging a firm for serious national assignment without asking the security agencies to conduct investigation first. That paints the Minister as a most careless individual in high office.

The obvious question one should ask is: how was Forcecom selected in the first instance and handed a multibillion naira contract without conducting due diligence regarding its competence to undertake the assignment and the character of its leaders? Specifically, who recommended Forcecom for the assignment and why?

We will return to this matter later because it is a demonstration of a character trait which the outgoing Minister apparently possesses but which we have all overlooked all along. An attempt to obtain information on Forcecom Networks Limited on the internet ended in a blank website, but, which certainly had only recently been erased. Forcecom Networks Limited obviously has a lot to hide.

It would have amounted to a waste of valuable time to try and Google Paul Okafor. That makes as much sense as searching for Bello in Ilorin or John Smith in the New York telephone directory. However, Mr Paul Okafor of Forcecom and his accomplices in what appears like several crimes can run but they cannot hide. The media will find them –not to persecute them but to help them tell their own side of the story.

What the Minister, apparently in panic, had presented as a simple case of several attempts to defraud the Federal Government and the beneficiaries of the Scheme might actually be part of a grand design to rake off funds by politicians – using Forcecom as a front. It is inconceivable that Forcecom can act alone without assurances of protection from powerful individuals.

Nigerians want to know the powers behind Forcecom which guaranteed the company immunity, before the result of the Presidential Election, in March, exposed everybody, including the Minister, to prosecution. That is why Mr Okafor should not run or hide. As for the Minister now blowing the whistle, two facts about her have escaped notice for a long time. As mentioned above, something told me that one of “our brothers” must own the firm.

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala ran the Ministry of Finance as if the Federal Character principle never existed until after the elections. The Chief Executive Officers of AMCON, Debt Management Office, NEXIM, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were all from the same zone of Nigeria; so is the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) – whose appointment she must have influenced.

No other Ministry had been so one-sided. For her, equity be damned. Incidentally, that was what happened on her first

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/05/another-genius-fails-nigeria-okonjo-iweala-1/?utm_source=&utm_medium=facebook

NOI should just bow out from public service,because some people won't sleep until they have finally buried her name under feet,though she keeps getting recognition outside Nigerians.

The fact is that Nigerians are looking for those that will bear the blame for the failure of the government. Since we all now believe in the law,lets wait till she has been found guilty before destroying her name. This is democracy.

Federal character in Nigeria is only remembered by the region affected when it's not their gain. Funny country

^^^ Do you need the in-coming government to tell you that Ngozi Iwealla was a fraud? Why didn't Nigerians called her Names during Obasanjo reign in power? Why were Nigerians singing her praises during Obj administration? Why did Nigerians begged for her coming back to join subsequent governmen despite we all know she us an Igbo woman? Why were Nigeria praising and singing Dora Akuyili despite the fact she is an Igbo woman?

Can you answer those question with unbiased mind? It's obvious to a new born baby in Nigeria that it's Igbos that are destroying Nigeria with Tribalism.

If you are a proper human being, read Nigeria history with open mind and come back here and be proud of your progenitors.

Everything is tribalism. Thank God those Igbos being executed outside Nigerians are not in the country otherwise You lots would have hold other Nigerians into ransom with your victim mentality.

Nigerians ll be shocked when Buhari/Osinbanjo led govt would start probing the appointment of some people in federal ministries and parastatal in the next couple of weeks.