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Subject:	Gambia Hotel:I’ll commit suicide if proven to be owner –Mantu
From:	Sanusi Owens <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:	The Gambia and related-issues mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
Date:	Fri, 15 Apr 2005 18:23:42 +0100
Content-Type:	text/plain
Parts/Attachments:	text/plain (130 lines)

Daily Independent Online.
Friday, April 15, 2005

Gambia Hotel:I’ll commit suicide if proven to be owner –Mantu

Hotel in Gambia allegedly owned by MantuIn the second part of this interview with Group Politics Editor Felix Ofou published yesterday, Deputy Senate President Ibrahim Mantu spoke on the National Political Reforms Conference which recommendations, he said, will form part of input for the National Assembly to review the 1999 Constitution. He also said the Palliative Committee on Fuel deserved national honour over the way members handled their assignment and spoke on last year’s hajj. In this concluding part of the interview, Mantu criticises the tardy manner hajj operations are handled in the country. He further denies ownership of multi-million naira Mansea Beach Hotel in The Gambia, vowing to commit suicide if found to be the true owner. Excerpts:

Still on the hajj

What happened this year is like a recurring decimal. It has been happening every year of pilgrimage. And surprisingly, it is sad, it even makes us look like we are no human beings because if you keep on committing the same mistakes year in year out, then nobody would be wrong in giving you a different name. You must learn from your mistakes. We have been organising hajj trips for decades and we commit the same mistakes year in year out.

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rnum=Math.round(Math.random() * 100000);document.write('');There must be a way of stopping what has been happening. We cannot continue this way. After all we are not the daftest people on the face of the earth. We are very intelligent people and we can apply that intelligence to achieve something positive for ourselves. From my experience as Amir Hajj, I discovered that three or four things are basically wrong with the organisation of pilgrimages in Nigeria. Number one is corruption. Number two bothers on the short time allocated for preparing for the hajj. In other words, even though we have a National Committee on Hajj, members of the committee are usually appointed two or three months before pilgrimage commences. Upon the return of the pilgrims from the Holy Land, the committee is disbanded only for another one to be appointed three months before another pilgrimage exercise.
Yet, this is the highest committee on hajj. Now, after they have been appointed, the committee spends another few weeks negotiating with and selecting the airlines to use for the pilgrimage. Thereafter, the selected airlines are sent to the states to choose from the accepted airlines. And before the states are able to conclude negotiations with the airlines, it is may be a month to the deadline for pilgrims to arrive at the Holy Land. So if an airline has entered into an agreement with a state to airlift pilgrims and the company does not have decent planes for the exercise, it may require another two weeks to hire an aircraft. No airline would go and look for planes to hire unless it has a valid contract. And by that time, most good planes have been taken by those who are better organised. What you will get are therefore cheap planes that are not the price of groundnuts. In the case of IRS, they went and got five aircraft, which the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) found
unworthy and refused to certify for use. That contributed to their inability to perform. Insufficient time for planning is really a major problem. Other countries like Indonesia and Malaysia that are better organised start planning on time. For example, as they are finishing one hajj, they book for accommodation against next year’s pilgrimage.
Nigeria would only begin to look for accommodation for pilgrims one month before the time. In the end, it is the worst of the worst that our people get because the best of the best have been taken by those who are better organised. We just have to change the way we do things in this country. I want to submit my report in the next two months. But that would also be the first time such a report would be submitted early. The practice before now is for the Amir Hajj to submit his report when a new one is appointed. The report is more like the hand over note. So you see that even the report is delayed like every other thing concerning the hajj. I have taken time to study what is happening in other parts of the world like Malaysia and Indonesia where they are more organised. In fact if you go to Kabul Hajj which is the organisation responsible for hajj operations in Malaysia, they are building the tallest skyscraper in that country. They are so rich, so prosperous and organised that they
have investment all over. Over there, people save money with the Kabul Hajj. They start saving gradually the amount they require for the hajj. So it is only when their money is complete that they are able to make the pilgrimage. That gives the organisation access to so much money, which are invested judiciously in a manner that when you need the money, it is readily available.
It is like a bank, but different in the sense that nobody is charging you any interest. Sometimes, it takes seven years for people to save enough for the hajj and that provides turn around money for the body. Today, the Kabul Hajj is the richest organisation in Malaysia. Here in Nigeria we have to lean on government to come to our aid otherwise things would go wrong. But, much as we don’t want to toy with religion, I think government should play fewer roles on issues about religion. This is a secular state and the less involved government is about the issue of religion, the better for everyone because people should be able to organise themselves to carry out the expectations and obligations of their faith without government interfering. Logistically, we don’t have enough time to plan. There are corrupt practices and the appointments are done rather late, and everything is done on a ‘rush rush’ ad hoc manner. Ultimately, I would want to suggest that we have an independent body devoid
of government that would run the hajj like a private initiative, even though profit would be out of the question.
In the alternative, we can set up the Hajj Commission which would be a permanent structure responsible for hajj affairs and that would ensure that accommodation is secured for our pilgrims in good time in Saudi Arabia. The commission would also be in charge of airlifting the pilgrims and establish well furnished and properly managed camps for the pilgrims. As you can see, I have become very versed about hajj operations. This is because apart from going round the various camps in Nigeria before our departure to the Holy Land, I also went to where our pilgrims were kept in Mina to see personally the living conditions there. You see the biggest problem of the hajj is how you spend the three days at Mina before going over to the Arafat. The Arafat of course is the climax. But the three days at Mina is very critical and crucial, in the sense that that is where millions of people gather from all over the world for the pilgrimage. This time around, where Nigerians were kept and the distance
they would have to walk to get to where you have to stone Satan was very far, almost five kilometers. But I used to trek that distance to and fro to be able to see the Nigerian pilgrims because where I was kept along with the leaders of the Nigerian delegation was quite close to where you have to stone Satan.
My people were fed up with me at some stage because sometimes because of the distance, I would not return to my room until 3am or 4am because of the long trek. At a stage I was considered a mental case because I wanted to know first hand what problems the people were facing. You know that the place was so congested that there was hardly any one who came back without some form of cough. As a result of the problems, I had to approach the minister in charge of hajj affairs in Saudi Arabia to find why Nigerians were kept so far away, at the periphery. I also didn’t see any whites or Arabs within the vicinity and I was curious to know why. There were only blacks, most of them Nigerians. Actually, the minister and other Saudi officials were shocked because of my question. So I told them that since before God we are one, they should consider rotating the camps every year, so that the man who finds himself very far this year can hope that next year he would be close enough. Again I noticed
that because the authorities want to make money that they are not really keen on making the place have all you need for the pilgrimage. All these I was able to see and because I was able to see, I can assure you that my recommendations would be very explicit and direct to the point because I believe that the dignity of the human being should begin with the pilgrimage. No doubt we had so many problems, but nobody can tell me stories about the hajj operation. There is no aspect of the operation, I’m sorry to say, that I don’t know something about. And I hope that when I submit my report, government will act swiftly to address the problems and make hajj operations in Nigeria comparable to what is obtainable anywhere else.

Is it true that you are the owner of a hotel in Gambia known as Mansu Holiday Resort and if it is true, for how long have you owned the property?
Let me say this: I don’t own any hotel in Gambia. Secondly, there is no basis to ask for how long, since my ownership of the said hotel is not true. With all sense of responsibility I wish I had money to own not only hotels, but any other investment in Nigeria, in Gambia, in South Africa and any other part of the world. What is wrong with that? Is there any part of the constitution of Nigeria that says I should not own properties, companies or investment in Nigeria or any other part of the world? The answer is no. So, those who are praying that I should own a hotel in Gambia should pray harder. They should pray hard for God to give me the resources to invest in Nigeria, in Africa, in Asia, in Europe, America and any other part of the world because it is my constitutional right, if I have the money, to invest in any area or place of my choice. And let me use this opportunity to tell you one more thing: most of the people who consider themselves very rich have not had the potential of
being very rich as I have had in my life. When the economy of this country was run by the two foremost British companies— United Africa Company (UAC) and John Holt— when everybody who was somebody could not make money, unless you were a contractor to either of these two companies, I had the opportunity of working with the two firms.
I became a manager in John Holt at the age of 24. That was a feat. I became a General Manager at the age of 27 and I had two whites working directly under me. As a General Manager in charge of the Maiduguri Branch of John Holt, I was a very prominent person in the company. That was in 1976. And I want to tell you that most of these names that you hear as billionaires in Nigeria, those who have made money genuinely, through hard work and sweat, got their breakthroughs through people like us. We made the way for them to make money. Some of them came as contractors and we opened accounts for them to buy building materials on credit and after they are paid, they came to us to redeem their debts. You know in those days, money was virtually in the hands of contractors. So, I had greater potential of becoming a multi-billionaire 25 years ago than those who call themselves billionaires. I am one of the greatest self-made people in the country, even though I share what I have with others,
including the less privileged. I have been too generous in my life. For anyone to imagine he can stumble on an earth-shaking investment owned by me and query it is borne out of ignorance. There are very few Nigerians who have had the kind of opportunity that I have had to make money. Check my records. I became a General Manager at the age of 27 in John Holt. Today I am 58. I have invested in various aspects of the economy. I was the largest exporter of wood in Nigeria. And we were making an average of $4.5m per month in the process. I have been in business since I left my job in 1979. That was also when I joined politics. I have invested in properties as far back as that time. I was a distributor of automobiles. I was a major distributor to PAN (Peugeot Automobiles Nigeria). I have been in the business of exporting wood to Asia. So, I have been somebody who you can say is a reference point in money-making in the country. For anybody to be surprised at one investment, for that
matter, is for me rather mischievous.
Indeed, I am surprised that anyone could be making such an observation. All my life, I have never had anything to do with government until now. This is my first time of having anything to do with government. And I have been in politics for the past 25 years spending millions and millions of naira. I have no godfather. Instead I have been godfather to others. In politics, you will hear people talk about their godfather. Some will boldly tell you that General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua was their godfather. But, that is not the case with me. I came into politics with my own money, with my resources and so, I became oga from day one, even though I may have been a green horn in politics. So, I was the provider because my supporters had no money. I have been spending my money for all these years in politics. It is only in the last five or six years that I have anything to do with government. Whether in politics or business, it is my money that I spent. As a legislator, I don’t give out contracts.
I make laws for the good governance of the country. So, if I own the whole world, how can anyone question the source of my income since I have no access to government money? I want to say that the allegation of owning a hotel in Gambia is the figment of the imagination of those accusing me. It is not true. If it is, let them produce documents to prove that Ibrahim Mantu owns the hotel. I also want to say ‘Amen’ to their prayers because it is my dream to own investment not only in Gambia, but all over the world. Thirdly, because I have never worked in any government department, nobody can question my source of income. I have been a successful private businessman and manager. The records are there for anyone to confirm who Mantu really is.

But, the story is that you have a front, one Hamat Bah, who is a parliamentarian in Gambia that supervises the hotel for you. Both of you are said to be co-owners of the hotel.
What I want to know from you is that if it is unconstitutional for me to own property in Gambia or any other place. Assuming it is correct, what is wrong with that? It is true that Hamat Bah is my friend. In fact, he only left Nigeria today (Tuesday). You must have been told that I returned from Niger Republic on Monday. I have been away to Niger Republic because we moved the meeting of the conference of Chairman and bureau members of the first ECOWAS parliament to that country. You must be aware that I am the first Deputy Speaker. So we came back on Monday. I had aircraft that took me to Niger and brought me back. I then offered to lift some of my colleagues because they felt that it would be cheaper to return to their countries from Nigeria. So, I gave lift to Hamat Bah, to Haura Yakubu from Ghana, to Hon. Hassan Shehu from Benin Republic and to many others. There were about nine of them, including the Speaker of the ECOWAS parliament. I can tell you that Hamat Bah is one of the
admirers of Nigeria in the ECOWAS parliament. He is my friend. Of course, I should relate with them closely, I was elected by them. So, there is no member of the ECOWAS parliament that does not have access to me or my house because I am their colleague and friend. But, let me give you the shocker of your life. I have never been to Gambia before contrary to what they are saying. I don’t know how Gambia looks. I have never been to that country. You can go and check the records because if I have ever been there, the records will show. It will also be in my passport. It will be stamped on my passport that I entered the country. If you go to Gambia and you find out that since I was born, up till today, the 7th of March, 2005 I have ever been to Gambia, on my word of honour, I will commit suicide.

abdoukarim sanneh <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Arrests continue in Senegal

Diack is one of the people charged with theft

Two more people have been arrested in connection with the financial scandal in Senegalese football.
Moustapha Sèye, the investigative judge, ordered the arrest of Moussa Fall, former deputy administrative director of the Fédération Sénégalaise de Football (FSF) and Alpha Fall.
Fall was in charge of international mailing services for the FSF.
Both men, accused of stealing US$4,000, were subsequently released after paying a bond but are expected to remain in the country while the investigation continues.
The arrests were the consequence of an audit which examined the FSF's accounts between 2002 and 2003.
Scandal rocks Senegal's football

The string of arrests began on 3 March, with that of Bounama Dièye, a former FSF vice-president.
Dièye, incumbent president of clubside AS Saloum, is charged with embezzling public funds and 2002 World Cup proceeds received from Fifa, football's governing body.
Papa Diack, a co-owner of sports marketing firm Pamodzi and sports ministry official Oumar Ndiaye were picked up four days later.
Both men have also been released on bail.
Papa, the son of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) boss Lamine Diack, is accused of withholding US$108,000 in sponsorship money from the FSF.
The investigation continues.

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