[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n the face of what is turning out to be the trial that is defining the true nature of anti-corruption agencies in Nigeria, the EFCC Vs Emeka Mba’s trial has left thousands in shock by many puzzling elements of the case.
The continued prosecution of Emeka Mba, erstwhile director general of the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, by the federal government through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, also attracted wide media coverage with the anti-corruption agency going on a spirited public relations offensive.
Mba, has certainly not turned out to be the criminal suggested in the media; in fact, he has turned out to be thoughtful and quite idealistic.
Recently, the Minister of Information, National Orientation and Culture, Lai Mohammed admitted that government was grateful for the N34 billion realised by the NBC under Emeka Mba, through the special auction of part of the 700Mhz digital dividend broadcast spectrum to MTN Nigeria in June 2015. The Minister’s feeling of elation and satisfaction stems from the fact that the amount has been critically pivotal in funding the ongoing implementation of the Digital Switch Over [DSO] from analogue transmission.
Meanwhile, the EFCC has been studiously working at the same time to criminalize him for working with NBC’s consultants to achieve the desirable. The same consultants that originated the very idea of auctioning the 700Mhz digital dividend broadcast spectrum. Ever heard of cutting one’s nose to spite the face?
While government has appropriated the outcome of that creative and innovative transaction between NBC and MTN which has given it the impetus to indeed implement the digital switch over along the framework created by Mba’s Management team, the EFCC, an agency of the same government has been seeking grounds to isolate Mba from the high points of the transaction which culminated in the funds realized from the licensing of the spectrum.
Mba is being prosecuted for paying the legal consultants the sum of N2.89 billion, which the EFCC believes is evidence of money laundering.
For over a decade, Nigeria despite several vows by government could not meet its international obligation to transition from analogue to digital broadcasting, as mandated by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). The recurring challenge over government’s inability to meet this obligation had always been blamed on unavailability of funds. Successive governments failed to appropriate necessary funding for this very crucial national development program. In 2014, the NBC’s legal consultant Basil Udotai submitted a proposal to the Commission to help raise funds through a special auction for the DSO project.
The NBC Management, headed by Mba thought the proposal was brilliant. He got the board of the agency involved and the board gave its nod. All necessary due diligence were done, and transaction success fee requested by the consultants was cut down from 20% to 10% by the board. It is the cumulative value of that 10% transaction success fee that the EFCC is now holding unto to prosecute the former NBC boss. The straight forward and intelligent thing to do you would imagine is examine records of transaction success fees for consultants in similar or related transactions in Nigeria and show graphically how the one in question differs injuriously to NBC from national industry rates.
Consultants generally and legally negotiate transaction success fees in percentages. Whether the transaction is a Public-Private partnership requiring the services of transaction advisors or an industry specific technical intervention such as the one under review benefits are negotiated in percentages.
The consultants benchmarked its demand for a transaction success fee on a threshold. Both the board and Management of NBC negotiated this down, according to sources in the know.
Mba, duly got approvals to pay the consultants from the NBC Board, Minister, Federal Executive Council as well as President and Commander-in-Chief.
EFCC has changed its accusations from time to time since this matter was evidently manufactured. And it would appear that the idea is to rope Mba in by hook or crook. Initially, members of the public were told that Mba misappropriated N15 billion. The documents of how the transaction was originated, all the justifications and approvals up till its perfection and the crediting of NBC accounts are clear, open and available. No money was misappropriated. As a matter of fact no money was even under any threat of misappropriation. The amount in question was lodged with Zenith Bank as collateral for the set top boxes manufacture and government approved rebate for Nigerian households, being a key demand of set top boxes manufacturers, before they could even engage.
Strikingly, for the first time in the history of alleged corruption cases brought up by the Commission, the EFCC has been unable in the charges leveled against Mr. Mba to trace any money to Mba or establish any ground on which Mba may have directly benefited by the transactions or indeed even by its own standards of money laundering.
The puzzles continue. For example one of the charges against Mr. Mba is: while being director general of the NBC on or about the 31st day of August 2015, “awarded contracts for the supply of set top boxes in the sum of N1,237,400 ( one billion two hundred and thirty seven million, four hundred thousand naira) for the digital switch over for the National Broadcasting Commission to Gospell Digital Technology, Trefoil Global Investment Limited, Zinox Technology, Media Concept International Limited, Digitune Media Technology Limited, SMK Engineering & Construction Limited, I-Box Engineering Limited, Innosson Communications Limited, African Cable Television Limited, Trendcorp Africa Limited, TV Enterprises, STB Manufacturing Co Ltd, and Design Build Concept Limited without seeking approval of the Bureau of Public Procurement contrary to section 40 of the Public Procurement Act No. 65, 2007, and punishable under section 58 of the same Act.”
But why, if all 13 companies got manufacturing contracts illegally, are they still being used to manufacture the set top boxes? Is it possible that the fact they are manufacturing the set top boxes as spelt out in the contracts has vitiated the “illegality” of the contract as contended by the EFCC? And if that were to be the case why is Mba’s status never viewed by the same EFCC through the prism of the successful outcome in every department of the entire framework, engagement, implementation and deployment of the digital switch over? The reality however is that all the set top boxes currently being used for the DSO pilot flag off in Jos, and the DTT signal distribution service recently launched in Abuja by the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, are totally and fully the proceeds of what the EFCC contends are illegal transactions, for which Mba is now being prosecuted. Think about this puzzle.
Things do rapidly lose their meanings these days, but this remains yet a puzzle.
Leo Obaze writes in from Abuja.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
