Dear Mr. Abati;

Even as I do not know the terms of your contract with Guardian newspaper as regards how many write-ups you must do say, per week/month/year. It is sure, however, that by the rate at which you have been churning out your articles, the possibility is very high that quality of work/writing will suffer--it is just common sense, even though, it can be proven scientifically--and this is exactly what has just happened in your last published articles titled: The 'repentant robbers' of Yobe and The Transcorp Story and Poor Fola Adeola.

On the 'The repentant robbers of Yobe', you have failed to put into account, reasons why the Governor of Yobe along with the legislators and state judiciary decided to try out this program  which I have termed "cash for confession and redemption."

Some of the questions which should have formed the kernel of your articles are:

1) The source of this kind of law or system--whether is applicable in Sharia Law or Cannon Law?

2) Why there is no widespread condemnation of this law from the citizens of Yobe State?

3) Why did the State Assembly and Lawyers/Judiciary went along with it?

4) What is the purpose of punishment after a person has been convicted of a crime?

5) How many thieves/robbers have participated in this program?

6) How many of them have desisted and rehabilitated?

7) Does the people/government of Yobe have the right to innovate or institute any program which they deems fit, and which they believe will help to stem the tide of robbers in their state's?

And, on the 'The Story of Transcorp and Fola Adeola,' you have failed tremendously, by making eroneous assertions or conclusions and this again is based on poor judgement and poor quality of research on your own part.

1) The Board of Directors of Transcorp does not own Transcorp all by themselves ( they may own some of its shares); Nigeria and Nigerians owns Transcorp, and the President by virtue of his position can change members of the Board  of Transcorp as his sees fit, at least for now, until Transcorp wholly becomes Public Corporation listed on the NSE--Nigeria Stock Exchange.

2) Yes, I repeat, Nigeria owns Transcorp as it is now, because the Federal Government allocated some items of value to Transcorp in the beginning.

3) Yes, Nigerians (both in Nigeria and in the Diaspora) owns Transcorp because they subscribed to its shares during the Private Placement Offerings--I know this for a fact--which took place during latter part of 2005 and it was a successful offer.

4) Transcorp will soon divest the rest of the Federal Governments' interest/equity by way of IPO--Initial Public Offer--to all Nigerians who can afford to buy directly or indirectly through their pension's fund administrators.

5) Transcorp is not a monopoly as you wrongly claimed. Have you checked your basic economics textbook to confirm the features of a Monopoly?

6) Transcorp cannot die when President Obasanjo leaves office, because Transcorp would have been a Public Corporation listed in the Nigeria Stock Exchange.

7) I have some reservations about the dual role of Transcorp's Chairman, Dr. Idi Okereke Onyiuke, in addition to being Director General of NSE, but I am sure she would have relinguished one of the two positions before Transcorp goes 'public'--by issuing IPO. This is to prevent the conflict of interest which will arise by keeping both positions during and after the issuance of the IPO.
But as it is now, there is no conflict of interest because Dr. Idi Okereke does not supervise the SEC--Security and Exchange Commission and Transcorp is not yet listed under her watch at the NSE.

8) The purpose of the formation of Transcorp is to leverage on Nigeria's areas of Comparative Advantage to the benefits of Nigeria and Nigerians. Why or what am I saying?

a) Nigeria has a lot of oil and gas, but there are not enough refineries, and the cost of building a refinery is too expensive for most Nigerian entrepreneurs to afford and even for Nigerian banks to finance. (prior to 2006)

b) Nigerian government have been accused in the past of not providing financial opportunities/assistance for local/indigene investors.

c) Government does not want to directly involve itself in the management of businesses which belongs in the Private Sector, e.g. Nitel, Hilton Hotels and Refineries etc. and as such, must divest itself of these entities.

d) Government decided that, rather than sell all of the soon to be privatized businesses to private investors alone, it formed a mega-corporation (Transcorp); allocated some items of value such as oil blocks; allow the corporation to bid and win some companies of great national importance such as the Nitel, which was last bidded for at $256 million by Orascom of Egypt,  and later was sold for $750million to Nigerians via Transcorp. This is to allow average Nigerians to enjoy  and partake in the benefits of privatization of moribound government corporations.

e) Transcorp can become big enough to participate in major areas of eonomic activities and huge expense projects within and outside of Nigeria shores, and this is to the benefits of Nigerians who might have invested in its' shares.

Now on Mr. Fola Adeola and Mrs. Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello.

1) It is only reasonable that if Mr. Fola Adeola wants to run for political office, he would and should have to free himself of  running a mega-corporation like Transcorp.

2) It is also common sense, that most soon to be investors' in Transcorp IPO's, would be wary of Mr. Adeola as Chief Executive in addition to being a senatorial candidate.
This is also true, because Transcorp and its' Board of Directors have been accused of dabbling into partisan politics.

3) Mrs. Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello has a right to say whatever she wants to say, as long as she does not lie against Mr. Adeola.

4) Mrs. Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello does not have to resign her appointments as an Hon. commissioner for health in order to contest future elections. Both her present occupation and her future dream of becoming a Senator are political positions and as well complimentary. The only thing, though, is that the Governor of Ogun State may relieve her of her current positions if determined, that she's no more upto the task or that she herself demanded to be free of her current duties, so that she can concentrate on her future ambitions.

In view of the aforementioned, I honestly believe that you, Mr. Rueben Abati should always endeavor to be objective, meticulous and produce well researched, quality articles which can stand the test of time. You should be more aware of your position as an elite journalist, whose followership is numerous and whose writings should be taken as contained nothing but the truth and as such, sacred. For, as you can see, the respondents, so far, on both of these articles in contention have gullibly taken your words as facts even when that is not entirely the case.

Good luck to you, Sir. 

I would like to add that, Nigeria has been adjudged to have one of the highest rate of return on investment--35%--and I am happy to inform everyone, that those who have invested in Nigerian securities in the last couple of years have had reasons to thank the achievement of this present administration in the economic arena.

Adebayo Animashaun, the writer, is an keen observer of Nigeria's political affairs.

Robot  Villager

# 1 Dear Mr. Abati;Even as I do not know the terms of your contract with Guardian newspaper as...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 10.07.2006 14:26

Exxcuzme  Villager

# 2 Uncle Adebayo. ________________________________________________________________________ you have failed to put into account, reasons why the Governor of Yobe along with the legislators and state judiciary decided to try out this program ______________________________________________________________________ you yoursef erred by not rebutting Abati writeup with some facts as you pointed out in the Transcorp issue. So I am waiting on Yobe policy apologists to prove the logic in providing n5.200 for armed robbers. Posted by Exxcuzme| 10.07.2006 14:40

Iphey  Villager

# 3 ... and you in turn should learn how to clean up your grammer before posting. I have never read an article on this site before with quite the amount of grammatical errors your contained. While I understand that english is not our native toungue, it is better to write in Yoruba than to murder the english language... afterall people write poems and stories in Yoruba and Igbo on this site... its allowed p.s. Admin, you should have helped him edit the paper abeg... instead of embarrasing him by posting it like that... Posted by Iphey| 10.07.2006 15:10

Free Publius  Villager

# 4 Who is this Adebayo Animashaun and what does it mean to be an (sp) "keen" observer of Nigerian political affairs? NVS Administratior might help us out with further information on the writer in order that we may have the proper handle on the submission which on the face of it appears to be a feeble hatchet job. Free Publius Posted by Free Publius| 10.07.2006 15:21

Prophet  Villager

# 5 When we choose to follow after lies and shadows, we mustn't complain of evil in society. If the writer of this article has been untruthful or wrong in his analysis, villagers and or guests alike are quite free to say so, as is Dr Reuben Abati himself. Otherwise, it will be seen as evidence of the writer's reasonable and truthful analysis. English may not be his forte but I am sure anyone who reads this piece objectively cannot claim not to understand his points. He has made himself clear enough and I personally do not see his expression of English language as so bad that it beclouds his points. Let us at least try to be fair. Posted by Prophet| 10.07.2006 16:10

Forshow  Villager

# 6 Prophet, Thank you very much, you beat me it.. Abati is wrong.. Iyabo Bello, should not been seen as Omo president, people should judge her for her works.. That is the way it shall be.. When the poor girl was in the sun in abeokuta making the life of the people better, Mr fola was in his Victoria island comfortable air conditioned office making money for himself. Like I wrote somewhere else. come 2007 by the grace of the God.. Rueben Abati and all of you, shall call her senator Iyabo in Jesus name.. Can you all repent that "Senator Iyabo" http://www.NigeriaONE.com Posted by Forshow| 10.07.2006 16:27

Omo'nna

# 7 I second your opinion, Prophet when you stated that "...English may not be his forte but I am sure anyone who reads this piece objectively cannot claim not to understand his points. He has made himself clear enough and I personally do not see his expression of English language as so bad that it beclouds his points. Let us at least try to be fair." After reading Bayo's article and then came to read the subsequent comment made by Iphey, I could only shake my head in disgust. For heaven's sake, were grammatical errors the most important lessons that guy or woman could take out of the article? And why did he/she fail so woefully to highlight the said errors...if they are so important to him/her? And then there was Free Publius who was more interested in the background of the article writer...God of Nazareth! What happened to the salient issues raised in the article? It's no wonder that Nigerians are so terrible when it comes to growth strategies...they are often more interested in pursuing the cure of mere guinea worm at the expense of leprosy. Shuo!! As for the writer of this article, I'll say please let's read more from you. You are not only easy to read, you are also very polite in conveying your points across to readers. How I wished many more writers on the NVS and the entire internet were so decent in their language. Posted by Omo'nna| 10.07.2006 16:46

Nonsense

# 8 Out of nonsense, there is sense. Animasahun has raised some questions, whether good grammar or not he has communicated. Wht are few people leaving the main issue going after side matters? who is lying Animasaun or Abati? That is the main question. Posted by Nonsense| 10.07.2006 18:29

DoubleWahala  Villager

# 9 Animashaun writes: "...the President by virtue of his position can change members of the Board as his sees fit, at least for now until Transcorp wholly becomes Public Corporation listed on the NSE." This is fallacious statement at worst, or an ignorant one, at best, both, in point of law, and factually. The company is an incorporated company, and as such, should be guided by its articles of association. Unless the writer is saying that the President is a director and/or majority shareholder, either in his personal, or representative capacity. This, of course, is untrue. Just as Free Publius opined on this thread, this article is, in most respects, a "feeble hatchet job". DoubleWahala Posted by DoubleWahala| 10.07.2006 19:49

N.A.R.  Villager

# 10 After reading Bayo's article and then came to read the subsequent comment made by Iphey, I could only shake my head in disgust. For heaven's sake, were grammatical errors the most important lessons that guy or woman could take out of the article? And why did he/she fail so woefully to highlight the said errors...if they are so important to him/her? Omo'nna Hmm, are you an NVS JJC? The article raises some very interesting serious questions. But you know far be it from some villagers to read the substance of the viewpoint! As prophet said, its up to other villagers or Dr. Abati himself to discount the articles points. In his very last statement on the robbery article: The right place for identified robbers is in jail not the pay office. I also disgree with Dr. Abati's opinion about the Yobe robbers program. Indeed the program maybe far from perfect, but the intent should not be overlooked. Not all robbers steal for the love of stealing. Furrthermore studies continually show here in the US that locking up offenders in most cases does not solve the problem. Prison systems are struggling to become real rehabilitation centers. The new thinking is to try to keep criminals out of prison, and reserve prison for the worst offenders. For one many offenders become even more hardened criminals when they are locked up, having learnt new tricks in prison. Secondly Nigerian already has a prison overcrowding crisis novel ideas may be required to solve the problem. And since many of us agree that Nigeria is an "abnormal" country, maybe we need some "abnormal" solutions to solve some of our problems. And Dr Abati may forget that the government may end up saving much more money by rehabilitating robbers rather than simply locking them up. Posted by N.A.R.| 10.07.2006 20:08

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