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), presents several agonizing puzzles. Recently, the
Minister of Information, National Orientation and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed
admitted that government was grateful for the N34 billion realised by NBC
through the special auction of part of the 700Mhz digital dividend broadcast
spectrum to MTN Nigeria in June 2015. Minister Mohammed’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.
In effect, government is
satisfied that the Management of NBC under Mba applied good sense of creativity
and innovativeness in creating that critical resource pool that leapfrogged and
escalated implementation of the digital switch over plan. 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. The same 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?
How is EFCC going about
this? The Commission literally considers that: “well, maybe after all there’s
nothing fishy in the transaction, but how on earth could the legal consultants
get paid as much as N2.89 billion? This must be evidence of money laundering.”
A lot of ignorance fly around here. 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. It is important that we go
through this carefully once more. EFCC has changed its accusations Mba 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. Never mind that due
approvals from the NBC Board, Minister, Federal Executive Council as well as
President and Commander-in-Chief are all in place. Puzzles!
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
Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osibajo, 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.
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 and dressing it up with the bizarre but
annoying toga of the “crime” of money laundering. 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. But by gosh no, just hold Mba, subject him to media
trial and wear him out, even if unjustly. Things do rapidly lose their meanings
these days, but this remains yet a puzzle.
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.
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