Jacob Buba Gyang And His Stalkers

By

Emeka Oraetoka

oramekllis@lycos.com

Pull Him Down [PHD] syndrome, appears to have resurfaced  to the point of near institutionalization in Nigeria, in recent times. The trend of character assassination of public office holders, first, on the internet and other information dissemination outlets is a pointer to this view. The case of Jacob Buba Gyang, the Controller General of Customs [CGC] is perhaps the most barefaced and brazen as his traducers appeared to have thrown  tact and finesse  overboard in pursuit of their agenda.

After the Inauguration of President Umar Musa Yar’adua’s government on May 29^th, 2007, Mr. Gyang’s stalkers effectively kicked off their campaign to unseat him. This writer’s view on the activities of Buba’s stalkers could have been seen to be sycophantic, were the issue of Tariff and Duty waivers, the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo extended to Billionaire businessman, Alhaji Aliko Dangote and Co., not been in public domain before the inception of Yar’adua’s administration, in short, before now, the issue of import duty waiver to Dangote and others is a well known fact to Nigerians.

An Internet information dissemination outlet, pointblanknews.com, had in their characteristic manner of exclusive reportage scooped  that Controller General of Customs Mr. Jacob Gyang Buba had been a regular caller at the Independent and Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC, answering questions on how Nigeria lost over N50 billion annually to tariff waiver granted some friends of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Although the authorities in Customs headquarters denied Buba’s visit to ICPC. The purpose of this piece is not to examine whether Buba Gyang visited ICPC in connection with import waiver to Dangote and Co., but to examine the reason behind the desperation to Pull him down and see if there  is justification for it. To start with, everybody knows that the decision of granting import duty wavier to some class of Nigerians was clearly beyond the powers of the CGC. He only took orders from Federal Government on that.  

On Sunday, 09 September, 2007, Jonathan Elendu, writing in Elendureports.com, took the story of import waiver to some class of Nigerians by Customs to an unprecedented level of mischief. He cleverly planted story that suggested that the import duty waiver was a decision initiated and executed by CGC himself. The insinuation further suggested that the financial benefits arising from the waiver was enjoyed by Buba Gyang alone. In the said write up on Elendureport.com, with the title: “Fleecing of Nigeria by Custom Officers”, Elendu himself took subterfuge to a scientific level by insisting:--- “The documents in our possesion were put together by a group called the Joint Investigation Team which completed its work on the 27^th of August 2007. We do not know if President Umar Musa Yar’adua has seen these documents which are addressed to him”. he went on to say: “The men at the helm of affairs in the Nigerian Customs Services Headquarters and their cronies in the Area Commands have systematically been looting the economy and milking it dry through their fraudulent activities”….. One could clearly see that elendureports.com was commissioned to Pull Down Jacob Buba Gyang and his men at the customs, and nothing more.  It could also be seen that the so called systematic looting of customs alleged by Elendureports.com is in respect of those containers affected by import duty waivers that were released to their respective owners; a fact that was revealed by another internet information dissemination outlet-pointblanknews.com. A juxtaposition of the identities of those containers which Elendureports.com claimed were illegally released by Apapa and Kirikiri Lighter Terminal Command according to their so called informant, with the report contained in pointblanknews.com on the same identities of the released containers, showed that those containers actually belong to The Dangote Group. The question here is, what is the interest of those who commissioned Elendureports.com to Pull Down Jacob Buba Gyang and Co. in customs headquarters? If we are to go by articles planted in some national dallies after the stories of import duty waivers, that the next CGC must come from certain geo-political zone, into account, then we can begin to see the intension of Buba's stalkers. But it could have been better if Buba's traducers had employed a more sophisticated way of pulling him down, than weeping up issus he had no authorty over in the first instance.

As if pointblanknews.com was disgusted by the report of  Elendureports.com on the activities of Customs with respect to import duty waiver to Dangote and Co., it clearly shed light on what actually transpired in the document Jonathan Elendu fraudulently said President Yar-Ardua should see for reaction. In actuall fact, the document  did not indict Mr. Jacob Gyang Buba led Customs, but former President Olusegun Obasanjo led Government. In the opening paragraph of pointblanknews.com report said it all. It reads thus: “the allegation of connivance between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Billionaire, Alhaji Aliko Dangote to cheat Nigeria public of millions of Dollars in Tariff and Duty waivers, is not abating soon. Documentary evidence has shown the pattern through which the Dangote Group brought in several containers of goods to Nigeria without necessary tariff payments”. A side by side analysis of the two reports shows clearly that nowhere in elendureports.com's syndicated piece did the names of Dangote and Co. appeared but pointblanknews.com carefully reported that the likes of Dangote, Femi Otedola, ex-Governors Saminu Turaki, Donald Duke, and Governor Gbenga Daniel among others had enjoyed the tariff waiver during Obasanjo’s reign;which proved beyond dout, that Jacob Gyang Buba merely obyed the last order on the import duty waiver as expected of him.

Just on Wednesday, September 12, 2007, report had it that Jacob Gyang Buba, in a workshop held under the auspices of ECOWAS and World Bank, said Customs rakes in N 400 billion annually, making it the second largest revenue earner after petroleum. The workshop in question was organized for top Customs officer from five countries of the "Abidjan- Lagos Transport and Transit Facilities Project". Since this impressive financial record report emerged from customs, informed mind had expected Buba’s stalkers to disprove the record as presented with facts and figures. The rather cheap mischief from Elendureports.com on the issue of import waiver has generally presented the outfit as merchant of misinformation and confusion, or so it appears.

In case Nigerians have forgotten, Elendureports.com, was one of those information dissemination outlets that tactically celebrated the rumored  demise of President Umar Musa Yar’adua, some time April 2007, then the presidential candidate of PDP. By the Grace of God, Umar Musa Yar’adua is the President and Commander- in- Chief of the armed Forces of Federal Republic of Nigeria today. The wish of those merchants of death as reflected in the unprofessional manner Elendureports.com sensationally reported the wicked rumor then did not work. As if Julius Caesar knew in advance the wicked intension of enemies of President Yar-Adua and Buba's stalkers, when he said: "What we wish, we readly believe, and what we ourselves think, we imagine others think also".Elendureports.com wished President Yar-Ardua dead and readly believed the rumored death, and so on. The most annoying and insulting aspect of Elendureports.com countenance after the rumor was another report saying, AIT said the story was not true. It is generally funny that this same elendureport.com is fraudulently cajoling President Umar Musa Yar;adua into removing Controller General of Nigeria Custom Services, Mr. Jacob Buba Gyang, using what they probably know best at doing, mischief and subterfuge. This will surely not stand the test of time.

Emeka Oraetoka.

Information Management Consultant.

Wrote in from Garki – Abuja.

e-mail: oramekllis@lycos.com.