“The PBS NewsHour said it had in its possession a letter written by the embattled former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), and addressed to the CBN, requesting $47m.
The letter, which was written on the letterhead of the Office of the NSA, titled ‘Request of Funds for Special Services’ with reference number, NSA/366S, was dated November, 2014.
According to the US television show, which has over four million viewers weekly, the money was given to the ONSA in cash and was conveyed in armoured vehicles at midnight.
In a second document on the letterhead of the NNPC and addressed to the Director, Banking and Payments of the CBN, the CBN was asked to give the National Intelligence Agency, which was under the leadership of Dasuki, $289,202,382.
This was despite the fact that the NIA’s budget was only $160m for the year.”
Courtesy Punch Newspaper
Me – I have been wondering about all these sensational stealing that went on under Jonathan – and before Jonathan – and that which will also go on after Jonathan.
In Nigeria once you are close to government you are made. People actually resume at work simply to share billions of Dollars. But what is the upshot of it all? I am thinking that all the money still doesn’t make them happy. Yes, money can take you to places, and high-class shopping, ownership of skyscrapers, private jets and the fastest cars, can give you a kick. Poverty is painful, and want, can be gutting. Yet, Nigeria seems to be a country of discontents; a people who are perpetually angry, who are sad, who cannot get rid of the gaping holes in their lives. There has to be a midpoint, a decent region that a man – and a woman – can live fairly comfortably, eat minimally what he/she loves to eat, have a decent car or two that doesn’t stall on the expressroad, and a house of one’s own where you dont live in fear.
Have you ever met any of these stinkingly rich people? Most – not all of them – are quick to anger. Many fly off the handle and are indeed nasty. Most are still not satisfied and you would see them hustle for the next N100,000 like their lives depend on it. Matter of fact, it is often – not always – the truly greedy and self-centred who can accumulate huge amounts like this. Generous people give things away and are unable to pile up so much lucre. That doesn’t say we should be stupid.
Would Linda say she is truly the happiest woman today? Ok, so she has a fantastic mansion in Banana Island. Did that purchase wipe away every worry? Did Dino Melaye’s gold-plated Rolls Royce relieve him of every pain in the world? Is he the happiest man in Nigeria this morning? I love that Biggie/Diddy collab ‘Mo money mo problems’. It’s very true. If you are looking for the truly fulfilled and happiest man in Nigeria today, he probably woke up in one village this morning, with his family around him, and without a care for the nonsense that we worry about.
So i take solace in that. Else one would begin to feel under-accomplished, with all these news of loot all over the place. Apparent most – not all – of those huge buildings that intimidate us in Nigeria, those mansions, those acquisitions, those mega-companies, even those expensive ivy league education, are proceeds of brigandage and heartless looting. That is the only way to process this. Hopefully, there will come a day when honest work, and modest wealth, will command respect in this country. One day. Let us thank God for Buhari government, and support him constructively – not by sycophancy. For the fight is not for the faint-hearted.
