How ‘diverted’ N6bn UBEC fund aided Boko Haram crisis.

Date Published: 08/03/09

How ‘diverted’ N6bn UBEC fund aided Boko Haram crisis

Could the recent orgy of violence unleashed by the Boko Haram sect in some parts of Northern Nigeria have been averted if Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), the principal agency of government vested with the responsibility of educating the Nigerian child up to tertiary level, had not diverted N6 billion meant for feeding indigent school children?

This is one of the many questions raised by top security officials in the wake of the sectarian violence in some parts of Northern Nigeria, which left over 700 dead and damage to property worth tens of millions of naira. A number of military and police officers also lost their lives to the crisis.

Sources close to the ministry told Pointblanknews.com that the minister of education, Dr. Sam Egwu, and his deputy minister, Mrs. Aishatu Dukku, are so unsettled by the consensus in security circles that the crisis could have been averted if Dukku had not approved a memo by UBEC for the diversion of close to N6 billion meant for the Home Grown School Feeding and Health Programme (HGSF&HP).

The security officials, Pointblanknews.com learned, are analyzing the confessional statements by several members of the Boko Haram sect arrested in the wake of the crisis, that they were lured by the daily free meals by the sect leader, Mohammed Yusuf, in addition to the Islamic education he offered. No government-run school had answers to their ever hungry stomachs, they had reportedly explained.

Initiated in 2005 by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, HGSF&HP was designed to feed indigent pupils in schools, particularly in the rural areas, to discourage them from dropping out of school. With the prospect of a meal every day, Obasanjo had thought, more children would like to enroll in school.

To fund the programme, the Obasanjo administration had earmarked five percent of the two percent of the Consolidated Federal Revenue used to fund UBEC. A pilot programme was then conducted in 2006 in 12 states drawn from the six geo-political zones and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and was adjudged “fairly successful.”

“So important is the school feeding programme,” a top officer in the ministry told Pointblanknews.com, “that the honorable minister (Sam Egwu) identified it as one of the most important ‘turn-around strategies’ in a road map to the success of education in Nigeria.”

Egwu in the 150-page road map had urged government to “Promote State-driven incentives, such as mid-day meals, uniforms, transportation etc” and “improve health and nutrition of pupils and students.”

But since assuming office as UBEC boss, Pointblanknews.com learned, Dr. Ahmed Modibbo Mohammed suspended all aspects of the programme on the grounds that it was not feasible and instead, diverted the steady stream of money for the programme into a special account.



Said an UBEC management staff: “Ever since the honorable minister got Mr. President’s approval on the road map, nothing has been heard of it because Modibbo and Dukku would rather it didn’t work because the state SUBEBs and not they would be involved in the implementation of the programme. Since not a kobo would come their way, the duo insists that, not only is it not workable, but impracticable. They have chosen to, instead divert the money into one of the 37 accounts they use to siphon money in UBEC.

According to this source, “not knowing what to do with the money, Dukku and Moddibbo sat down and craftily designed a plan to settle themselves, their cronies, and such members of the UBEC board who ‘have been of good conduct’” by initiating a contract for the supply of textbooks.

“The money in this special account has now swelled to about N5.7 billion, and it is this money that Modibbo and the minister of State, (Aishatu Dukku) have diverted to fund contracts awarded themselves and their cronies for the printing and supply of textbooks,” a source close to Dukku told Pointblanknews.com.

These contracts, Pointblanknews.com gathered, was in sheer defiance of the objection by the chairmen of 36 States Universal Basic Education Boards of Modibbo’s “guidelines for the implementation of FGN-UBE counterpart funds and illegal charging of fees.”

The UBEC boss had claimed in a recent memo to Dukku that, he had, at a recent retreat with 36 states’ SUBEB chairmen, sought and secured their approval to “centralize” or take charge of the purchase of textbooks and instructional materials. He had sought the minister’s permission to divert the home grown feeding money to pay for textbooks. Dukku promptly acquiesced.

But in a strongly worded letter, 36 SUBEB chairmen emphatically refuted all the claims by Modibbo, insisting on “the unambiguous provision of Section 11 (3) (of the UBEC Act) which states, ‘The administration and disbursement of funds shall be through the State Universal Basic Education Boards.”

The chairmen, in the letter declared: “The Forum therefore considers your statement that the retreat ‘unanimously resolved that professional development programmes for teachers and procurement of text book materials be centralized’ as a complete misrepresentation of the proceedings and decisions of that retreat.”

They concluded: “Hence the memo presented to the Federal Executive Council by the Honorable Minister of State for Education(Dukku) consequent upon the purported decisions of the report is unjustifiable (and) we maintain that the Federal Executive Council was misled in to giving its approval to the memo.”

The letter, dated 3 rd June, 2009, was signed by the Dean of the Forum of SUBEBs, Mohammed Aliyu Anka.

However strong their protest was, Pointblanknews.com investigation revealed that the anger of the chairmen of SUBEBs was not sufficient to stop the Ministerial Tenders Board to meet a week later to approve the contract for the award of contract for the supply of textbooks.

In a letter dated 22 nd June, 2009, the Ministerial Tenders Board authorized Modibbo to award contracts totaling N3.3 billion, with assurances that “the six items on Annex B of your submission has (sic) been forwarded for Federal Executive Council’s consideration, accordingly.” The letter was signed on behalf of the minister by one Mrs. J.M. Agwal.

The six items in Modibbo’s Annex B, Pointblanknews.com investigations reveal, are contracts whose value are in excess of N200 million, and they total N2.45 billion.

Pointblanknews.com gathered from Presidency sources that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) is expected to give “express approval” to the “six items” on Modibbo’s memo to the Ministerial Tenders Board, totaling N2.45 billion.

According to the source, “we are not expecting any problems or objections when FEC meets on Wednesday because most members understand that to object would be courting the trouble of First Lady Turai (Yar’adua), Said Abba Ruma (Minister of Agriculture), and Yayale Ahmed (Secretary to the Government of the Federation), and the notorious smuggler Dahiru Mangal, whose interests are well accommodated in the contracts.”

Even as FEC meets to consider the “six items”, the list of successful contractors published by the Ministerial Tenders Board has continued to set tongues wagging. Insiders strongly opine that the main criterion for selecting the “successful” companies was their ties to top officials of the education ministry.

For instance, one of the successful bidders, Binani Enterprises, which won a N160 million contract for the supply of 109,943 copies of Macmillan Primary English course book 4 in Lot EMPR3 and contract for the supply of 320,000 copies of Think and Do: Activity Based Science Book for Primary Four, in Lot SCTDNC, is said to belong to Modibbo’s mistress, Aisha Dahiru.

Ms. Dahiru’s Binani Enterprises, according to investigations, is one of the main contractors/suppliers in UBEC as well as National Teachers Institute (NTI), where Modibbo served as Director for close to eight years. Binani handled the camping of 18,000 participants for the controversial National Teachers’ Scheme in which her lover, Modibbo, claimed over 40,000 participated.

Binani, Pointblanknews.com investigations reveal, had in the past handled events management, printing works, supply of office furniture, general cleaning services, catering, travel agency, recruitment consultants, among others, for UBEC. “So, this Binani woman has landed herself a printing job?” queried one UBEC official, adding, “well, don’t be surprised to hear one day that she has been appointed our ES (Executive Secretary.”
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Another source in the ministerial board who supplied Pointblanknews.com with documents, expressed confusion as to “why such reputable publisher like Heinemann and Evans Publishers didn’t qualify yet we had such funny names as Quest Ventures, Jomaco, Golden Crescent, Triangular Communications, Binwa, Al-Hazen, Ojunwa Press, Bancorp, Al-Mala, and Ginyike were asked to supply books worth billions of naira. Something just doesn’t add up.”

Pointblanknews.com also gathered from very dependable sources that Cigo-Vag, which won an N81 million contracts Lot SCTDSW to supply 300,000 Think and Do science textbooks, belongs to Modibbo’s elder brother, Yahaya Mohammed. “Cigo-Vag had in the past done tiling and consultancy jobs in UBEC,” said a top UBEC official.

Pointblanknews.com investigations revealed that the major problem with the UBEC “bazaar” may be that Modibbo and Dukku may be actually “out to settle themselves big time!”

The duo are believed to own over 80 percent of the “successful” companies, while UBEC chairman, Professor Tunde Adeniran, is believed to be responsible for the last minute inclusion of Ojunwa Press which, like Binani, won Lots to supply 105, 385 copies of “Macmillan Premier Mathematics” to Borno and Bayelsa States.

According to sources in the UBEC Procurement Unit, which Modibbo had “imported” from his former office in NTI haven redeployed key officers in UBEC’s procurement unit, “Oga and Madam Minister (Modibbo and Dukku) brought” Binani, Triangular Communications, Golden Crescent, Isani Ventures, Binwa , Al-Malal, Cigo-Vag, W.A Books and Bancorp.

Also listed as Modibbo’s fronts are Al-Hazen, Infinity Telecoms, Al-Mala and Ginyike.

Some insiders in UBEC’s procurement unit also faulted the Ministerial Tenders Board for what they said was arbitrariness in fixing the unit prices of the books and the cost of transportation.

“For instance,” said a procurement officer, “we cautioned them (Modibbo and Dukku) that it not justifiable for Cigo-Vag in Lot SCTDSW to charge N200,000 for transporting 300,000 copies of Think and Do Science textbooks to the South-west, while Isani Ventures in Lot SCTDSE is paid N500,000 for the transportation of 300,000 copies of the same books to the South-east.

Also, while contracts were awarded to Macmillan for the “printing and distribution of 80,250; 88,275; and 93,625 copies of 107 titles of Library Resources Materials of varying quantities” for North east, North west and North central states amounting to over N162 million, none of the three geo-political zones in the South were included.

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