The activities surrounding the renewed attempt by the office of the
presidency in showcasing the good administrative efforts of the Goodluck
Jonathan administration via the Good Governance Tour under the auspices
of the Federal Ministry of Information may have opened a Pandora’s Box
that may spell doom for the continued stay of the Information Minister
at the Information Ministry.
Information available to 247ureports.com obtained through a top
sensitive source within the Presidency reveals the uncloaked perception
of Mr. President towards some of the Federal Executive Cabinet members –
particularly the Federal Minister of Information, Malam Labaran Maku.
The source who is a national player in party politics of the Peoples
Democratic Party [PDP] quotes the President as saying that Labaran Maku
as the “most corrupt Federal Minister” following a brief ‘behind-closed-door’ discussion between the source and Mr. President recently.
From discussions with the President, the source understood that the
President was livid over the ill performance of the Good Governance Tour
– in terms of the limited waves/impact made in the print and electronic
media. It was learnt that Mr. President was elated over the idea of a
Good Governance Tour when it was initially proposed at the Federal
Executive Council meeting by the Information Minister – partly because
the Tour would enable uplift a fast dwindling political currency. Mr.
President was also pleased the Tour was suggested by a former
Information Minister, Jerry Gana.
Pleased with the prospects of having a Tour to showcase the
developmental strides of the federal government – of which may result to
a good ‘Public Relations’ job for the president, Mr. President
immediately bought into the idea – and tapped his men to help make
available the necessary logistics to facilitate the Tour. The
Information Minister was given the go ahead – along with the authority
to approach the various Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies for
financial support – and a list of their various projects. The
information Minister also approached each state governor for the same.
But with roughly over one month into the tour exercise, the initial
elation felt by the President evaporated as the media headlines appear
to have not carried the efforts in the manner he [presidency] thought
was fitting. “The president was disappointed at the exercise”.
Specifically, according to another source within the presidency, the
president thought that with the monies raised for the Tour – that the
Honorable Minister should have been able to ‘force’ the findings of the
Tour into the Headlines of many Newspapers or Magazines. Rather, the
Honorable Minister opted to focus primarily on federal government owed
media houses for the dissemination of the Tour findings and
developments. Of which our source indicates the President was grossly
unimpressed.
On the part of the reporters – who had tagged along the entourage of
the Tour – as official selected reporters to report on the findings
along the Tour – the matter appears uneasy.
The reporters, according to the Tour details, were selected from a
wide variety of media houses and embedded with the Tour. They were to
receive a daily allowance of N100,000 from the Ministry of Information.
Also, to augment their daily allowance, the reporters expected to
receive monetized goodwill messages from the various State Governors
following the completion of each State tour. But the reporters have yet
to receive the monetized messages – of which 247ureports.com gathered
were regularly given to aides to the Information Minister for onward
transmission to the Minister. But the Information Minister hoards the
money without distributing the monies to the Reporters. As a result, the
Reporters remain unhappy.
But the Director of Press at the Ministry of Information, Mr. Dama
disagrees. In a text message to 247ureports.com, he termed the
allegation against the Information Minister false and untrue.
In his words, “There is no truth in these allegations. Mr.
Labaran is prudent with the good governance tour expenditure and no
reporter has been short changed as alleged. All reporters are being paid
their duty tour allowances as and when due as we went on the tour. You
can call any one of them on tour team and they will confirm that to you.
Again the allegation that the presidency is unimpressed is equally not
true. This is because Labaran briefed the Federal Executive Council on
the tour two weeks ago and it was adjudged to be good. If the presidency
has found any fault with the good governance tour it would have said so
and even be reflected on their resolutions for last week that he
briefed council but nothing of such was reflected. Please ignore all the
lies being spread about the good governance tour. We are ready to open
up our books for you to see please”.
Meanwhile, preliminary investigation carried out by our correspondent
indicates the Information Ministry to be administered under a less
prudent administrator. Our investigation showed the Information Minister
as a familiar player in the art of funds misappropriation.
Specifically, the 2011 budget for the Information Ministry earmarked
N65.68million for upkeep of Utilities at the Main Ministry, it earmarked
N261.6million for Maintenance, N69.1million for Other Services, and
N5.4million for Repairs – totaling to a grand total of N401.9million for
building maintenance and upkeep. However a visual inspection of the
building facility [both external and internal] shows a disparity – a
structured disparity.
See below for enclosed photographs depicting the disparity in
earmarked funds and the dilapidated utilities and associated structures.
![pic12[1]](http://247nigerianewsupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/pic121-225x300.jpg)
Laran Maku is an opportunist and criminal even from his days as a student activist in unijos, when he would receive bribes in order to lead student protests.
ReplyDeleteThis criminal disposition is a characteristic feature of his political career including his present office. He is known to extort hefty amounts of cash and juicy contracts from parastatals under his supervision especially the NBC where the Director General, Yomi Bolarinwa, is struggling to suppress information on his fraudulent appointment reaching the ears of Mr President.
The Minister of Information is a liability to the Jonathan administration. Recently, he embarrassed the Presidency by reckless utterances that led him to apologize openly to the Senate, whose President David Mark, dismissed Maku as a man who speaks before he thinks.
ReplyDeleteThese type of appointees are the source of eroding goodwill and mounting unpopularity of the President and Nigerians wonder why the President is retaining such political liabilities to the detriment of his administration.
Maku was a rogue even from unijos.
ReplyDelete