NEMA DG, Maihaja, Please, Step Aside
So many elites are still feeding fat on Internally Displaced Persons in the North-east under Buhari’s watch. One of them is strongly suspected to be the current Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency, Mustapha Maihaja. Stories emanating from the ongoing investigation of NEMA’s activities by the House of Representatives are not palatable. The House alleges that it has uncovered a N3.1 billion contract scandal in NEMA under Maihaja’s watch. The money was released to NEMA for procurement of rice for IDPs in the North-east. But supply contracts were alleged to have been shabbily awarded to companies without legal qualifications to get contracts from the federal government. Two of the rice contracts were said to have been awarded to companies that did not meet standard pre-qualification conditions.
In separate reports adopted by the committee, the FIRS claimed that the two companies had no tax clearance certificates, and had not paid any tax to the federal government as required by law before they can be awarded any contracts. The committee also reported that only 110 out of 271 containers of rice donated to IDPs by the Chinese government had so far been cleared at the port since July last year and took a swipe at the NEMA DG for paying over N800 million as demurrage on 110 rice containers, allegedly caused by the inefficiency of NEMA under Maihaja’s leadership.
The Committee was angry with NEMA boss over his claim that documents relating to the rice donation by the Chinese had been scattered and tampered with by unknown persons.
The allegations against Maihaja are weighty. He is struggling to account for the N5.9 billion spent on food intervention in the North-east; another N3.1 billion for food intervention in the same North-east; N1.6 billion spent on Libya returnees; N1.6 billion spent on flood intervention for 16 states; the payment of about N800 million demurrage on the rice donated by the Chinese government and the N10 billion received from Ecological Funds.
It is very sad to note that tons of rice meant for hunger-stricken IDPs in Northeast had been abandoned at Lagos Port by NEMA. I am particularly pained by this. Ineptitude aside, Maihaja has apparently been exploiting loopholes in the Public Procurement Act to the detriment of the country. His explanations about how NEMA expended about N23 billion in one year on emergency activities is uninspiring. For me, Maihaja should be man enough to step aside as NEMA DG. This critical agency of government requires an honest, pragmatic and selfless leader.