Nigeria: And the Oscar goes to Kemebradikumo Daniel Pondei

The art of the ill

I have watched the implausible incredulity of Nollywood, the Nigerian film industry version of Hollywood. The trite storylines of repetitive histrionics and melodrama that taxes your willing suspension of belief to the extreme. What people might not believe is how it is art that imitates life, that what you might term impossible or improbable in saner climes is everyday occurrence in Nigeria.

One such episode I could not ignore happened earlier today, when Prof Kemebradikumo Daniel Pondei, the acting Director-General of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) appeared before a Nigerian House of Assembly Committee to face questioning on his stewardship of the agency he heads.

Now, we are led to believe he might have been indisposed but against doctor’s orders honoured the invitation to appear. That is beside the point. The live feed to the event simply shows that under the assault of interrogation, the professor suddenly took ill.

NDDC Acting DG Prof Kemebradikumo Pondei appeared to have fainted during probe by House Committee pic.twitter.com/jwgRraiFG8

— BellaNaija (@bellanaija) July 20, 2020

First aid originality

He appeared stunted and slumped over the table before when heroic members of the House came to his aid if that is what you may call it after observation. I can find not medical terms for any of the actions taken. The tugging of his shoulders from behind was not anything like the Heimlich Manoeuvre, not that he was choking on anything that needed dislodging from his throat.

The person who approached him from the front, appeared to be contemplating with great hesitation whether he was going administer the kiss of life through mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but he could have had all fingers in the professor’s mouth trying to prise it ajar.

Now, miraculously, the intervention, either of discomfort or palliative urging appears to have revived the professor who from what I observed was starry-eyed and lifting his arms as if to dislodge the hands from his suffering buccal cavity. The spontaneity of the intervention made for an engaging global audience with intrigue. The professor did not die. Hallelujah!

Feeble bandits on account

Which brings me to the thought of how many influential people caught in embezzlement, malfeasance, fraud or misappropriation fearlessly and unassailably aggrandise themselves with moneys in their care with impunity and reckless abandon, when brought to account appear to fail in heart and health with the suddenness of some divine affliction.

One would not suggest it is a ploy, but too many in times past have been given the benefit of the doubt and much latitude to request and obtain leave from the courts to seek medical attention abroad. That avenue is trammelled by the Coronavirus pandemic.

Yet, I would be remiss in the duty of acknowledgement and appreciation if Prof Kemebradikumo Daniel Pondei; and don’t twist your tongue on his first name, it flows with effortless ease off the tongue, is not considered for an outstanding prize for a live-action award of extraordinary artistic talent rarely seen in highly accomplished professional actors.

Professor Kemebradikumo Daniel Pondei of Nigeria, please, step forward for the honours. A standing ovation is deserved.

Thought Picnic: Don't confuse corporate trust for individual trust

The wolves at your meeting place

I cannot think of the number of times friends and acquaintances have informed of being swindled or defrauded by a member of the religious establishments, especially churches they attend.

Usually, the result of such ventures is without consequence or restitution, the scoundrel at worst gets excommunicated from the assembly as the church strives to exculpate itself from any responsibility situation whilst imposing on the aggrieved not to involve law enforcement.

Now, the church environment is unwittingly an enabler because parties to the venture would probably have never met anywhere else. However, the reason why these engagements occur are because the parties mistake the corporate trust of a place they attend and get spiritual guidance for the individual trust they should cultivate separately and individually for anyone they will do business with.

Never assume trust, check it fully

If they were entering into a business relationship in a completely secular environment, they will probably do all the due diligence and assess the bona fides of prospective partners. In the church, they dismiss this requirement for the assumption that every Christian is honest, responsible, true, and full of integrity.

This is how church people fall easy prey to people who can exploit the corporate trust to inveigle their way into your confidence that you let down your guard and by the time you know what is going on, you have lost so much and might even give up your fellowship in the said church because the support you thought you would get was not forthcoming when it mattered.

Meanwhile, the confidence trickster moves on to another congregation to exploit their gullibility. Rarely, do they get caught out or sanctioned. I am not saying don’t do business with church people, just be sure that you are not confusing the corporate trust the church confers on all visitors with the individual trust that needs to be properly ascertained of individuals, and ensure you have independent references of character and probity from sources unconnected with the church.

Just a thought I needed to put down and document after a recent conversation. Extend this thinking to how you deal with old schoolmates, work colleagues, club memberships and other kinds of acquaintances including family. You must conduct essential due diligence, don't take it on trust.

Appearing for the defendant, Dammy Krane - A sketch

The boy living large

Until he made the headlines a few weeks ago, I had no idea who Dammy Krane was and I have not yet ventured a listening to his brand of entertainment. What I have been able to glean about him is, he is a somewhat successful musician.

Dammy Krane, born Oyindamola Johnson Emmanuel is 25 and he apparently got a record deal at 20 but is not the reason for my blog today.

On the 2^nd of June 2017, Dammy Krane was arrested in Miami, Florida for having booked private jets with stolen credit cards, the company that was about to be defrauded then alerted the law and when they were about to board the flight of luxury, he was nabbed along with a Chukwuebuka Ilochonwu who apparently has an existing rap sheet of fraudulent activity.

He’s on the money

Now, Dammy Krane has protested his innocence and in keeping an open mind, I probably should hear him out. He released a YouTube video apologising for being caught up in this mess and thanked all who have supported him through this rotten ordeal.

Now, Opa-Locka to the Miami International Airport (MIA) is just a 15-minute Uber ride costing about $20 and from MIA to Washington DC flying American Airlines one-way and non-stop is 2:37 hours at a cost of $82. Dammy Krane’s preferred mode of travel would have set him back $10,943, if he had the money in the bank, I cannot begrudge how he spends his hard-earned money.

We need to develop an urgency of the mentality to tailor our need to show-off to the honestly acquired resources we have to dispose of, you do not have to apologise for being a hedonist given to crude and ostentatious displays of wealth in the vulgar assertion of your manhood. Everyman has a right to be highly fed and lowly taught.

The trouble I saw

However, I know how on my decision to resettle in the UK in 1990, Danny Krane wasn’t even born then. Some Nigerians here before me had crashed the reserve of trust in Nigerians that you had to try twice as hard to be accepted as honest, truthful, qualified and able, all because of credit card fraud activities by people that included one of my close friends from secondary school.

He went to prison for it and when he qualified as a lawyer, that blot on his record meant he could never practice law in the UK. He eventually had to return to Nigeria waving as it were, a clean slate and bill of honesty and integrity.

You’re in deep shit, boy

However, Dammy Krane seems to have some explaining to do, because news reaching us suggests seven stolen credit cards were found in his pants (trouser) pockets, or more directly his wallet. Whilst this presents some difficulty, I offer myself in service for the defence with a number of questions I believe if answered accordingly might well exonerate Dammy Krane from this sordid affair. [Miami New Times]

I would think using the airport baggage check-in protocols, Dammy Krane only has to affirm, deny or plead ignorance to create enough reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury that he is being unjustly persecuted and prosecuted.

In court

Me: If it may please your lordship, I am appearing for the defendant who is in the dock and I am here to prove that he had nothing to do with this criminal activity.

Me: [Looking towards Dammy Krane] Mr. Dammy Krane, can I call you Dammy?

Dammy Krane (DK): That is fine by me.

Me: Thank you. Now, tell the court, does the wallet belong to you?

DK: I think so, it looks like one I bought for $15,000 a few months ago.

[The court gasps, but I move on swiftly]

Me: Do you recognise any of the contents of the wallet?

DK: The dollar bills and the platinum credit cards are mine, those other ones with strange names I have no idea of.

Me: One would assume you would know all the contents of your wallet, but I will give you the benefit of the doubt and I hope the jury would too. Did you at any time leave your wallet unattended where it could have been interfered with?

DK: That is quite possible, my agent usually does all my business transactions and bookings, however, since I was going up to Washington D.C. for a few days, I picked it up from the ivory table in my penthouse suite on the morning of our travel none the wiser about it.

Me: Did you at any time put any of the said stolen credit cards in your wallet, maybe not the seven, but at least one of them?

DK: I do not recall doing any such thing.

Me: Are you saying you did not notice your wallet was a bit weightier than before?

DK: Music is my passion, I don’t do much on the money side of things, that is what I have an agent for.

Me: So, tell the court who booked the Tap-Jets flight to Washington D.C. from Opa-Locka.

DK: I think my agent did, I am not sure if he asked for my wallet, but when I was leaving my penthouse suite, I was under the impression that everything was sorted.

Me: I recall Tap-Jets did ask that you present an alternative payment option because they had issues with your card. What happened there?

DK: I simply thought they had misheard the credit card details so I just read out the details of another card and they did not say anything to me that the transaction did not go through.

Me: Now, that is interesting, you mean they accepted your booking, sent you a confirmation and then ensnared you with a police bust at the airport?

DK: Yes, that is the case, I am still quivering at their underhand tactics, all they should done was tell me they had issues with my payment and I would have made good the arrangement. I am not that kind of person, I was brought up in a God-fearing home where my parents imbibed in me the dint of hard work, honesty, integrity, and responsibility. I would never have been involved in this racket, I am a successful musician with a thriving career.

Me: Indeed, I see that, it is so unfortunate that you have been a victim of entrapment by unscrupulous businesses as Tap-Jets. That will be all for now.

DK: Thank you.

Judge: The defendant may step down and the court is adjourned until 9:00 AM tomorrow morning.

Postscript

In view of my questions, how would there not be some reasonable doubt as to Dammy Krane’s culpability in this criminal enterprise?.

It would take a Houdini of an attorney acting out a Wallender tight-rope walk over the Niagara Falls in a Force 10 gale to get Dammy Krane off the indictments against him.

Seriously, who does Dammy Krane think he is fooling?

The plot thickens …

The Big Short on my life and those of others

The patterns I see

When it comes to financial matters, I have always said my father is a brilliant accountant, but it did not come down through the genes. Successful as he was in his profession which he still practices on behalf of the Anglican diocese in which he resides, only one of my siblings took a career path that had any financial component.

However, I somehow have an affinity for noticing patterns, things that align and things that seem to be out of place, unfortunately, I have never exploited that knowledge to the full as over time I have watched things that were once an inkling become an industry where if I had been more driven by my deepest premonitions, I would have been one of the pioneers. No regrets.

In March 2000, I travelled to Munich for an interview with the now defunct Compaq Inc., I decided to spend a week there and during my visit I met with a futures trader who was heavily leveraged in dot.com stocks. My reading of the situation then was things were about to collapse, simply because I noticed a pattern.

My advice to him was to reduce his exposure, he looked at me with incredulity, within weeks the dot.com bubble burst and the rest is history.

As it touched me

I have a more personal story about how I was affected by the markets, just less than a decade later. I bought my apartment in Amsterdam 2001, having given my estate agent 6 weeks to complete the deal to pick up my keys on the 1^st of November 2001.

It was a 105m², 7th-floor apartment with large windows overlooking two old Amsterdam harbours, a wonderful place by any standards. My mortgage was at inception the same as paid for rent in another part of Amsterdam for about 18 months.

The trajectory as it then was, whilst the housing market seemed overheated, the interest rates were going down, and this happened progressively every two years until about 45% was shaved off my mortgage in 6 years.

That other marker

Meanwhile, there was an underlying current that should have sent alarm bells ringing that I ignored until it was too late. My mortgage was undergirded by a life insurance policy that I paid a hefty sum to every year and in the mortgage term of 25 years, it was supposed to have accumulated enough to pay off my mortgage.

Each year, accounting for administration costs and much else, nothing was being compounded into the policy, rather, I was seeing less of what I put in that I had to ask for a review of the conditions of my mortgage to ensure I had not been defrauded.

Everyone who had worked on my mortgage had already walked away with their commissions as the signs of a financial crisis appeared on the horizon with the sub-prime mortgage defaults in the United States.

The tsunami I could not outrun

I could not ignore what was happening, yet I felt like there was an earthquake somewhere far away and the water was receding from the beach in anticipation of a tsunami I could not escape, it was scary.

As so I wrote in August 2007:

Blog - Dishonest lending clue to market tremors

Then casually in October 2007:

Blog - Local situations in global straits

The tsunami had already come in and swept me away from my apparent comfort zone, a revision of my biennial fixed term mortgage saw a rise of 50 basis points, some consequent outgoings of about €550 a month in addition to what I was already paying.

No particular fault of ours, only the banks shoring up their books having messed up and gotten bailed out, with none of the people in charge of this debacle going to jail for anything, if any even got to be questioned for their atrocity.

Swept away

By then, it had become a case of Fixing Capitalist Errors with Socialist Favours which I wrote in December 2007.

Within two years of that, I was diagnosed with cancer, got treated, recovered, but the markets had dealt a blow to our livelihoods, the job markets also began to introduce unfavourable filters to eliminate foreigners from consideration where we once freely had access.

In the end, I sold my apartment at a loss after 10 and a half wonderful years, though barely covered by the insurance and eventually returned home to the UK to rebuild my life.

The Big Short

Earlier today, I went to watch The Big Short which is described as a biographical comedy-drama, and whilst I will agree it is biographical and it is a drama, it was no comedy when we look at the disaster it caused in millions of lives whilst those who found out what was wrong with the system walked away laughing to the bank.

At worst, the banks have been fined billions by the regulatory bodies, but there have been no major indictments, the legislative framework that was to help avoid a similar collapse of the banking system has been watered down and the banks have more or less returned to their brand of casino banking with new banksters slinging guns of dubious provenance as products of the highest quality.

We’re back on that merry-go-round of atrocity for which the generality of the populace has been made to pay dearly for in austerity and worse, whilst the politicians and the banks waltz away in illicit copulation.

Yet, in understanding this rotten and corrupt enterprise a bit more, history is probably going to repeat itself worse than before and the criminals will once again walk free.

Woe betide them.

Nigeria: Football, Age Determination and Record Keeping

Page to age rage

As the FIFA Under-17 World Cup 2013 plays away in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) we find ourselves being ambivalent about the players my other footballing country of Nigeria has fielded. I support England be reason of birth and the Netherlands having lived there for 12 years. [Wikipedia]

We as fans of a football loving country are always taken by the amazing performance of our players, as somewhere in our minds we wonder whether the players are really as young as they state they are.

In 2008, David Moyes, then Everton manager made this comment about Yakubu Aiyegbeni, “He's only 25, albeit a Nigerian 25, and so if that is his age he's still got a good few years ahead of him.” [BBC News]

Whatever he might have been alluding to, he created the perception probably long held that some Nigerian players might well be many years older than the ages presented in their contractual documents.

Age fraud and overwhelming successes

Age fraud in association football is well documented in Africa and Asia, Nigeria was even suspended and sanctioned for fielding over-aged players in certain FIFA tournaments. [Wikipedia]

Nigeria is the most successful team in the U-17 World Cup tournament having been in six finals, winning three, followed by Brazil in five finals, winning two, but we must come to a stage where we are confident that we are playing on a level field without taking advantage of our opponents.

We must be in the eligible age range and what should show is our football talent and prowess in our taking the laurels. This however is not to take away from the successes of teams past and the pride we have in all their victories.

Some science to the rescue

In 2009, FIFA introduced the mandatory use of Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) which apparently has 99% accuracy in determining how old a person is up until the age of 17 after which it is difficult for medical expertise to determine the age that accurately. [BBC Sport]

The MRI system of age determination checks the grade of ossification/fusion in the distal radius [bones at the wrist] where fusion suggests the subject is above the age of 17 and thereby ineligible to compete in the FIFA Under-17 World Cup tournament. [NIH] [BBC Sport]

Courtesy of Wikipedia [Source]

Many African countries first rejected this age determination process, but it is the best science could do for countries that have poor documentation processes that have no proper trust or verification systems to ascertain the provenance or authenticity of birth certificates or declarations. [BBC News]

My scepticism is predicated on whether our kind of physiology is catered for and whether the scanners are calibrated to account to possible racial differences in bone structure, environment, diet and other factors. However, this is the best system we have to rely on now.

A poor record-keeping culture

We do not have proper systems to register life births in hospitals or maternity homes, our municipalities have poor record keeping systems for the registration of births, of marriages and of deaths; beyond which there is no centralised archiving system to maintain such information if acquired.

What we have adopted is a system of swearing affidavits, many of which are taken on self-recognisance given the weight of a notary public and then rubber stamped by the judicial arm of government.

These poor archiving systems permeate all works life; in government, in the private sector and in academia. There was an instance where a PhD holder from a reputable institution in the UK had to present all certificates he had acquired dating back to primary school after a 25-year career, with him approaching 50 to take up an appointment in Nigeria.

I dare say that white Africans are far ahead on the record keeping and documentation front; in another world, they would probably be able to produce enough documentary evidence to lay claim to anything even if acquired fraudulently by their forebears.

The fun in record keeping

I watch programmes on British television like "Who Do You Think You Are?" and I am always impressed with how researchers could trawl through archives going back centuries to piece together genealogies, ancestries and histories. We probably have just the adulterated and sometimes exaggerated or fabled oral histories to go by – we need to pay more heed to record keeping and documentation.

The idea that our sports ambassadors have to be herded like cattle through MRI scan turnstiles to determine the ages of the participants is degrading enough, if not disgraceful, but we brought this ignominious exercise upon ourselves.

We must address this now

The FIFA U-16 World Championship founded in 1985 and then renamed to FIFA U-17 World Cup has been running for 28 years. We should have learnt the lessons by now to ensure any new entrants to the competition have a good paper trail of birth certificates, medical histories, school reports and other supporting documentation not to have to suffer the indignities of an MRI scan.

This must be integral to our health policy, our education policy and other population census documentation and government planning policies. We need to get to a stage where the writing on any document emerging from our countries is worth the paper it is written on and accepted as authentic by any verification or certification organisation anywhere in the world.

Nigeria: Affinity Fraud in Community and Church Settings

No apologies

Quite a number of times I have been accused of being a church-basher, someone who excoriates certain activities in religious circles, condemning without mincing words the abuse that exploits trust and vulnerability by unconscionable wolves in sheep’s clothing. I am not one to apologise for my previous comments in blogs and on Twitter.

No gathering of people on earth can repudiate the need for truth, for justice, for fairness and for honesty. These are virtues that should be ever present in religious settings giving comfort to the many who seek refuge from a turbulent and riotous world where dog eats dog and the survival of the fittest cares not for whose blood is shed in the process.

Nothing irks me as much as those who infiltrate that sanctuary with hare-brained schemes, snake-oil remedies or fantastic opportunities that many secular and professional experts will ditch before they have heard the second word of that pitch.

Warning bells

Recently, a friend was about to be roped into some of those marketing opportunities to sell products that would enhance the performance of cars. The first thing that jumped out me was that it had come from relation of hers through another church member; that was the first warning bell.

Then none of the people down that chain were car propeller-heads, none would have been able to understand the jargon that followed the test results to sell the products to other car and performance enthusiasts; the second warning sign.

A quick search on Google threw up a number of questionable inferences to the whole scheme being a swindle; the company being unscrupulous and recruits running into difficulty; the third warning sign.

Be wary enough not to touch them

That was a cursory observation and a basic Internet search revealing enough evidence to show that this endeavour was one to give a wide berth; a Multi-Level Marketing scheme, which could easily be a Ponzi scheme too. [Wikipedia]

The Federal Trade Commission says, “Not all multilevel marketing plans are legitimate. Some are pyramid schemes. It's best not to get involved in plans where the money you make is based primarily on the number of distributors you recruit and your sales to them, rather than on your sales to people outside the plan who intend to use the products.” I will say, NEVER get involved.

The problem however is not that these schemes exist but that people get taken advantage of through the affiliations, affinities, associations, groups, communities or relationships they belong to.

Vulnerability in numbers

Belonging to any grouping confers a modicum of implicit trust, like herd immunity; this bond is more pronounced in settings like churches or tribal gatherings. Your guard is let down because you believe no one will exploit that setting for gain at your expense; you feel you are immune to infection because you believe everyone else is vaccinated and therefore not vulnerable.

The truth is; these gatherings are where we should be the most alert, because transactions in these places do not have the kind of scrutiny and standards that are necessary if conducted in a proper business setting.

The love of money in the church

I read this morning where leadership in a church had roped in members for a real estate scheme that went awry for reasons one could attribute to changes in campus leadership, improper handovers and greed. [PMNews]

The moment the membership were convinced and had ploughed into the project, with the huge amounts involved, a certain cohort illegally wrest control of the project from the purvey of the church and began operating a Ponzi scheme making promises, taking deposits but providing no evidence of how moneys were spent or what progress was being made.

The participants were instructed never to involve the press and it is possible they were strongly advised to resolve the disputes within the church. I say, only believe your church leaders in their core vocations – preaching, NOT business.

Closing ranks in the church

When the church hierarchy got involved, it was a damage-limitation exercise of appeasement rather than getting the law enforcement involved, meanwhile, the cosy setting of fellowship, community, church and trust was being eroded and the reputation of the church was receiving a battering, all because of the love of money.

Having been masochists for long enough at the mercy of those who defrauded them, they called in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC); one hopes all moneys will be returned, though some have received refunds, but most pertinently, those involved must be arraigned, charged and punished for fraud.

Affinity Fraud

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) calls this Affinity Fraud, this “refers to investment scams that prey upon members of identifiable groups, such as religious or ethnic communities, the elderly, or professional groups.”

The SEC offers the following key points of advice:

Check out everything - no matter how trustworthy the person seems who brings the investment opportunity to your attention.

Do not fall for investments that promise spectacular profits or "guaranteed" returns.

Be sceptical of any investment opportunity that is not in writing. [Even if it is in writing, is it legally binding and admissible as a contractual document in court?]

Do not be pressured or rushed into buying an investment before you have a chance to think about - or investigate - the “opportunity”.

Fraudsters are increasingly using the Internet to target particular groups through e-mail spams. [The honest truth is more are caught out in their churches, amongst family or friends and people you think you know well.]

You might belong in any of these groups

Of the 11 examples of Affinity Fraud cases that the SEC presents as examples, you see five church-related events, two senior citizens groups, African-Americans, Koreans, Armenian-Americans and so on.

Be on the watch out for this kind of arrangement:

“The fraudsters allegedly sold members non-existent “prime bank” trading programs by using a sales pitch heavily laden with Biblical references and by enlisting members of the church communities to unwittingly spread the word about the bogus investment.”

Other fraudulent activity is where the organisation engages you in voluntary work for these outside interests on the premise that you are working for a greater purpose; you put in the hours and the sweat for no reward, whereas it is a for-profit business benefitting the leadership alone.

Do your research well

This is not to say there are no good business opportunities out there, but do your utmost to verify everything before you put your money in it.

Ask difficult questions, get satisfactory answers, do not allow the purveyors to blackmail you or abuse your trust with the affinity they share with you – in the end, only part with money you are able to lose without losing your health and welfare.

Additional advice from the Wikipedia Multi-Level Marketing scheme page follows, with my comments in brackets.

Find — and study — the company’s track record. [Do a Google Search.]

Learn about the product. [What is the market, how can you sell, what are the competing claims and why have mainstream companies not seen this opportunity too?]

Ask questions. [Ask silly questions if you must, but always obtain intelligent answers you can further research on.]

Understand any restrictions. [There are usually many and never to your benefit.]

Talk to other distributors (beware of shills) [Shills are people planted to give the impression that the deal is good, they are in on the game to rope you in.]

Consider using a friend or adviser as a neutral sounding board or for a gut check. [Always seek some professional help completely outside that affinity group.]

Take your time [It can wait, do not be rushed into what might become rash decisions you will soon regret.]

Think about whether this plan suits your talents and goals. [If it is not your field of expertise, what are you taking into it to convince others of what you plan to do?]

Other Affinity Scams

Pastor Accused Of Fraud In $1 Million Immigration Scam - StaffingTalk.com

Pastor Sunday Adelaja's Church Calls for Urgent Prayer – Charisma News

Church-owned varsities not for the poor, as members cry out – Vanguard Nigeria

Nigeria: The Sweet Smell of Money is also the Bitter Taste of Stolen

Preaching the gospel of controversy

Once again a religious establishment with a sprawling business empire and an overly charismatic leader whose hubris will rival the extreme arrogance exhibited by Lucifer in the times of old is embroiled in controversy.

In fact, it appears to find myriad ways to court notoriety and be a ready receptacle for opprobrium and worse within its temple halls where violence and indifference have found expression and in the tertiary institution on its grounds that runs like a glorified secondary school.

In the case of indifference, about two years on, the child that was kidnapped from the crèche has now been reunited with its parents and that is wonderful news, a great cause for celebration more for the parents than for how it appeared the victims were treated without care or due consideration when the event occurred.

The tithe of writhe

However, now, it is another looming crisis that will determine what the character of that establishment represents.

An army tribunal recently found that one of their own had embezzled funds and as a ‘good’ Christian in church but a corrupt official beyond the temple walls had contributed the tithe into the coffers of the church in the sum of NGN 11 million ($68,497).

Now, because the majority of the moneyed in Nigeria who generally have no entrepreneurial sources of income nor are they speculators in the stock market to the extent of carting off with the bank, one can only suppose their unaudited sources of wealth have been corruptly acquired through degrees of fraudulent activity from simple influence peddling through to blatant thievery by embezzlement.

Due anywhere but right

The churches usually ask no questions because their moral compass has long lost its magnetism that once pointed due north to honest, prudent, righteous and reputable conduct to the libation of the Mammon ensconced on a throne where the sacred and most holy altar used to be.

Obviously, the church might well say they received donations and offerings in good faith, but that is the standard to which we view the secular world at which point the law might suggest the receiving party is a handler of stolen goods.

Again, it might well be a case of a mistaken and misdirected investigation, but the sleuthhounds have followed the scent of the money to pockets that might well include the collection buckets of that church. Lord have mercy.

What will they do?

If the church as it hopes to stand in the strictest moral rectitude is to maintain its integrity, it should require no persuasion to move everything possible temporal and spiritual to extricate themselves from this rotten embarrassment too foul for words to express in its odium and repugnance by returning the moneys paid with interest to the army with a loud display of the moralist dogma they preach at others but sometimes fail to observe for themselves.

One expects that this will be the case, but with an establishment literally inured to criticism, we might just have another thing to whip them with, God knows these people are gluttons for punishment, turning the other cheek with the rapidity of a lathe when convenient and acting like fiery rabid Rottweilers at other times, we’ll be red meat before we could scamper to safety. Run!

Nigeria: Celebrating the Banditry of James Ibori at 54

A birthday celebration

I woke up this morning minded that I will escape the need to tweet anything crazily absurd about Nigeria and just have a swimmingly smooth day. No sooner than that thought had crossed my mind I clicked on a link that brought up a picture and that was the end of my wish.

The associates of Chief James Onanefe Ibori [1], the ex-governor of Delta State and current jailbird in Her Majesty’s Prison accommodation in the United Kingdom will be gathered [2] at his Oghara Country Home in Delta State to celebrate a “Birthday of Reconciliation” highlighting his 54^th birthday anniversary with a praise and worship service presided over by three “eminent” men of the cloth.

We need friends

Now, regardless of the tribulations by omission or commission a man faces in life, it is of the greatest hope that he is not deserted by friends and that might be the case with James Ibori, he still has friends and that is probably a good thing.

What is dangerous is having friends who are dishonest, disingenuous or who choose to remain obdurately oblivious of the truth about one’s character, behaviour and reprehensible acts.

Living legend?

In a full page advert taken out to announce this celebration which should have been private and completely out of earshot for its odium they have suggested James Ibori is “The Living Legend of Resource Control Struggle.”

These people must be having a big laugh at our expense because if this is to suggest James Ibori was at the forefront of the Niger Delta struggle, then I must have been living in a parallel universe not to have noticed it.

However, what we know by reason of the case of fraud and money laundering [3] brought against him in the UK is that a man on a £4,000 per annum confidently bought a house in the UK worth £2.2m.

Beyond that, the litany of looting is such that the judge in the case said it was impossible to ascertain how much James Ibori frittered away in avarice par excellence that makes the mind boggle.

Let it be known that James Ibori had acquired his riches "at the expense of the some of the poorest people in the world".

These people stink

In any case, disgraced, convicted and jailed in a foreign land along with his wife, his mistress and lawyer, there are people albeit of dubious respectability who are gathered to laud this man as some champion of a cause that seriously escapes me.

The associates [4] of this bounder, scoundrel, fraud and thief have successfully corralled into their disreputable assembly the South South Vice President, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Archbishop God-Do-Well Avwomakpa, as guest preacher, while Rev. Gbejero and Rev. Oyibo would also minister.

It begs the question where the moral compass of Nigeria is if men of the cloth are cavorting with those who in other polite societies would be completely shunned until slowly rehabilitated when memory fails us, it is beyond shameful the hold that money and Mammon has over many church leaders that they will forget principle, character and tenet to sup with those without any virtue worthy of the barest emulation.

Where is our polite society?

The repugnant occasion will be chaired by an elder statesman and Professor Emeritus, B.I.C Ijeomah, a one-time eminent social science professor who by his involvement in this charade is neither distinguished nor reputable – but we probably have no discernment of character in Nigeria once the money is on the table to judge who we should associate with and who we should shun.

In another country, no one will publicly associate with James Ibori apart from his lawyers one of whom is serving time for serving him, he will be stripped of all honours and dignities and left so full of shame that he will seek a low profile exile in some faraway land.

Give no honour to them

Nigeria is not about to see that kind of society, though James Ibori will be kept at Her Majesty’s pleasure for 13 years or probably less than that, he will most definitely return to Nigeria triumphantly, celebrated to the rafters to find great honour amongst thieves like himself who have milked and bilked Nigeria dry with impunity and without consequence.

We can however avoid this shameful parade of the notoriously ignominious by excoriating in the sternest terms all who gather to celebrate corruption and worse as they continue to give our dear country a very bad name and image.

Stop this nonsense

Invite yourself to that rotten assembly at Oghara on the 4^th of August 2012 and make all the attendees as uncomfortable as you can get them, we need to repudiate these congregations of the reprehensible and give no place to the indefensible – we will do our bit on Social Media.

Nothing on God’s good earth should give licence to this decadent fanfare.

Sources

[1] James Ibori - Wikipedia

[2] James Ibori 54^th Birthday Advert

[3] Former Nigeria governor James Ibori jailed for 13 years | BBC News

[4] Associates to honour Ibori at 54 | Daily Independent

Other reference

Nigeria: Celebrating Honour Amongst Thieves

Social Engineering: Crooks preying on our parents

A menacing problem

I think this is becoming an emergency in Nigeria and it requires we begin to focus on the menace of unconscionable, unscrupulous and merciless confidence tricksters preying on the vulnerable sectors of our society.

Last year, somebody called my mother informing her of my being in trouble abroad and convincingly persuaded her to part with some money. Having tricked her the first time, they applied more pressure at which time she chatted to my siblings who were able to break her out of the spell she had fallen under and stop the criminal activity.

Using my blog, I tried to create a storm and though we never apprehended the nasty piece of work, the bank at least got involved enough for about 3 weeks trying to get hold of the person who for the pressure and bad publicity that had gone out regarding his identity was forced to go to ground.

My mother’s situation was not an exception, the fact is our once strong, able parents are now older and less agile in terms of things in their daily lives, there are people out there ready to create situations of distress, panic, anxiety or fear and by doing so getting our now vulnerable and sometimes lonely parents to part with their life’s savings.

Abductions and hypnoses

I heard today of another case where a fine and wonderful lady in her 70s had gone to withdraw some cash from a bank and as she left the bank, she was accosted by persons who abducted her and took her to some place she can no more recollect.

It is very possible she was hypnotised because she gave them the money she had withdrawn and then she was dropped off at home where the next day under some sort of influence she returned to the bank to withdraw 5 times what she withdrew before and handed it over to the gang.

At the end of the second day, she apparently came to and informed her daughter of what had happened but swore her daughter to secrecy about informing other siblings. Meanwhile the gang was trying again to get her to withdraw more money for them and thankfully to no avail.

Tackling the issue

At first one has to be thankful that she came to no physical harm but the mental anguish and scars of such an encounter will no doubt be more lasting. She is not as chatty as she used to be and she rarely leave her home; this is a lady who has travelled the world has been fiercely independent apart from the fact that she had been widowed for over 3 decades.

I do not think the case of my mother and that of this amazing lady are unique, I have the feeling it is happening a lot but the victims are not talking or telling anyone for the embarrassment, the shame or the realisation that they are a lot more vulnerable than they are ready to let on.

Banks must profile

Banks are usually the centres of this corrupt enterprise because that is where the money is with people being cajoled, blackmail, shaken-down or rustled. They need to be aware that people are targeting their customers usually gaining information about accounts or other pertinent details that will not draw suspicion to criminal activity preying on the vulnerability of the elderly.

Besides, I think banks have a greater duty of care and concern towards these vulnerable sections of society and it is important that they adopt measures that are sympathetic and cognisant of withdrawal patterns of these people – such as alerts to successive withdrawals of large sums of money, facilitation of wired transfers rather than the handling of large sums of cash and advising that senior citizens for their good be better accompanied to and from the banks.

They need to create better profiles of their customers of a certain age, install triggers to alert to unusual activity and have better levels of customer care and challenge/response scenarios to help their customers safeguard their wealth especially when things are somewhat out of the person’s control.

Any other ideas you might have towards helping our parents evade these crooks will be welcome and please post them as comments.

Thank you.

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Nigeria: Banking on some assurances

Some progress

I can report that following the unfortunate episode of scamming that my mother suffered yesterday and my communication with Stanbic IBTC Bank some progress has been made.

The first response I got from them did not appear to satisfy my need to be convinced that the bank was taking the issue seriously that I both responded and blogged about the situation expressing my dissatisfaction with their actions.

This morning, I received a more proactive email that suggested I rest assured that the matter was receiving the diligence it deserves – it was as assuring as it was obscure in meaning but I decided to give it time just in case subsequent readings of the email would persuade me of their growing commitment to tackle this matter with resource and enthusiasm unprompted but for the sake of integrity and reputation.

Contact

Just over 20 minutes ago, I received a call from an official of Stanbic IBTC Bank who was on this case and I was given more convincing assurances that they intend to see this matter to a resolution, even a more satisfactory resolution, if I dared dream it would happen.

I can understand that the bank would prefer I instituted legal or criminal proceedings to apprehend the criminal but that would be costly and stressful enough for my mother to handle in Nigeria and quite an extension of my ambit to manage from abroad.

Rather, the ideal would be for the bank to recognise that unlike other scams that use the less secure and less trust-reposed services of Western Union or MoneyGram; the criminal latched onto the reputational capital of Stanbic IBTC Bank to perpetrate a criminal enterprise that victims on realising they were dealing through a bank would have thought the whole scheme was above board.

Where the onus should lie

Obviously, the criminal might not have realised that there were ways to glean together all the bits of information to create a formidable investigation file and case for apprehension and arraignment.

Though, I believe that it should be the onus, initiative, duty, obligation and in the exclusive interest of the bank to pursue relentlessly those who tap on their reputational capital as a channel for their criminal enterprise; we as victims cannot in and of ourselves fight for maintaining the integrity of the Nigerian banking system; there is much more at risk and at stake for the banks than whatever individuals have lost through unfortunate and vulnerable circumstances.

Meanwhile, I have been promised useful and effective communication in the investigation of this issue.

A good resolution would be to apprehend this man and his network of accomplices, the better resolution would be to regain all the funds that melted away into the hands of the criminal and the best resolution would be a banking system in Nigeria that would brook none of this criminality, the ability to write glowingly about this and whatever else can put a smile on people’s faces – at home and abroad.

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