The simple question I have asked those who are sweating to justify this criminality is; “Is Mounir Gwarzo, in your books, the very worst public servant presently in Nigeria, worthy of immediate sack? I mean, is he the person you know who is the very worst cancer in Nigeria today, meriting his being disgraced out of office? Or perhaps his staying for one day extra as DG of SEC would have immense security implications for Nigeria?” They have not been able to answer.
And so my conclusion remains that Mounir Gwarzo was sacrificed by Buhari for politics, to probably mend fences with Tinubu whom he could have ‘settled’ a long time ago in their usual manner but whom he swept to one side until his wife had to go to Lagos to plead on his behalf. I don’t pity Tinubu though. What he requires as ‘settlement’ is a trillion times larger than what the average Nigerian needs. Buhari equally abandoned all average Nigerians, especially the talakawas who had thought they had someone there. Mike Asukwo made a recent cartoon where one guy went to his bank but was unrecognizable… He had lost much weight and had to explain, that ‘Change began with him’. Please permit me to bring you Part 2 of “Reckless Foreign Borrowing…” next week. We have this very urgent matter of Mounir Gwarzo to deal with.
I’m not usually very close to people…. Except they make an effort to draw close to me. I’m a hermit kind of personality. But Mounir is a man I have known from a distance, from his first stint at the same SEC around 2005, before he sojourned to Federal Mortgage Bank before heading back to SEC. I recall he had some issues with a one-time MD of the Mortgage Bank who turned out to be a major bull in a china shop and had to be relieved of his duties. From all I have seen about Mounir, he is a complete gentleman, dedicated to his duties, and not one of these money-grubbing Nigerian executives who are looking for money from wherever it can come. Mounir I believe, is detribalized, and gives opportunities to people from all walks of life. He may have his failings like everyone else but in my books, this guy is one of the finest professionals in this country where almost everyone at the top is a dirty, thieving pen robber. Again, right under Buhari’s government, Nigeria is showing it’s young ones that diligence and honesty WILL be punished, but deviance, corruption, and thievery will be rewarded. Unfortunate.
Now, what I know about the cases Mounir has been investigating is that there are hundreds of billions of naira involved. I know he’s been at war with Albert Okumagba and Chiedu Edozien of BGL Group, who had been reported by several people (including late Alex Ekwueme) to have swindled them of tens of billions of Naira. This led to SEC pronouncing a LIFE BAN on these two guys and the case is still in court. Perhaps for his stern efforts, the market has been picking up; gaining over 45% this year alone. Again, since before the crash of the stock market in 2008, this hadn’t happened before. If Kemi Adeosun was looking for a great time to sack Mounir, this is a very inopportune time that shows her bias. That Buhari is keeping quiet and perhaps supporting this anomaly, makes me give up hope on him. This man Mounir needs to be praised and protected, not sacked.
Now there is the case of OANDO. The managers of this oil company – sharp guys Wale Tinubu and Mofe Boyo, ‘over-sharp’ guys that have done what Nigerian big boys know how to do best (market manipulation) – are up in arms against Mounir Gwarzo. They have sworn to stop him in his tracks, and Buhari, through his ever-borrowing minister of finance has given them their wishes; on the altar of politics. Some other major shareholders of the company, namely Mr Volpi (of the equally embattled Intel – which means that Atiku has a hand in OANDO and that this war may also be targeted at him), and Alhaji Dahiru Mangal, have complained of share manipulation and insider trading. They have also complained of account falsification. Other small shareholders of OANDO have seen the values of their shares plummet from N100 to N5.
The Minister for Finance called him to drop the case and he asked to have it in writing. The next thing is that some baseless petition is dug up and the guy is summarily dismissed, under a government that lays claim to nonexistent anti-corruption fight! Here they are, waxing pontifical about Mounir paying himself an amount that is pitifully insignificant compared with the case that they are trying to obliterate! They claim to be continuing the probe of OANDO but the end can be determined from here. The new man will never see the probe to any logical conclusion. Buhari needs to play politics now, years after being asleep at the controls as majority of Nigerians fell further into penury while politicians positioned themselves to cream off everything in the land. Now he is ready to protect a thieving bunch who are seeking so eagerly to stop a forensic investigation. If they were clean as they claim, why rush to court to prevent your regulator doing a mere investigation of your accounts! Unbelievable.
This is a case of sacking your Maiguard at the very moment he is helping your repel armed robbers. This is about not having a sense of proportions. Useful people often have some small shortcomings. Nigeria does not need holy men to progress, but fairly righteous men, who have their eyes on the big picture. Buhari himself found ways to send his children to school abroad for example. Anyone who wanted to rope anything against him could have tried. It is his duty as our number one man, to help redefine the philosophy of Nigeria, away from this money-grabbing approach that all of us have adopted, wherein nobody’s salary is enough for them to spend. We live today under his government wherein every civil servant and politician is also a contractor, with companies that have been created to ensure that no one outside their circles get any bit, even to survive. Buhari presides over this scorched-earth economics of winner-takes-all. We are all suffering under his so-called change government – especially those who are not big men in his party.
This is how I situate this sage, which Nigerians are already forgetting – as we do everything – after one week. The allegations are that Mounir gave his brother their Kano offices to clean! What a wonder. Oh my God! His wife supplied the diesel they used in their head office. This is terrible! This is likely to lead to a collapse of the economy, abi? But it is equally disgusting. Unluckily for Mounir’s traducers, securities and exchange commissions around the world operate a very tight affiliation through the IOSCO. They bond more than even central banks. They adopt same conventions and learn a lot from each other. And just like FIFA, they take note when it is seen that one of theirs in any part of the world is not independent from political interference. Nigeria was going to turn the corner in matters of regulation in the capital markets, until this happened. It’s just rather sad where this nation finds herself today. And sadder that we were conned and deceived into thinking life would be better. The most important thing needs to be repeated; this government is not encouraging any modicum of honesty among the people. Not in the least.
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