| Casino
Politics
By Sun News Publishing
Sunday, December 12, 2004
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•Obasanjo
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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Nigeria is a country of possibilities. Not a few Nigerians
know this. But events in the recent past have shown that perhaps,
more foreigners understand this better than Nigerians. Or
how else could the farcical drama trailing a bill entitled
“National Lottery Bill 2004” recently sneaked
to the National Assembly by President Obasanjo be interpreted?
In simple terms, the National Lottery Bill 2004, experts claim,
seeks to stamp a seal of legality on a well crafted ploy by
some foreigners in connivance with some Nigerian business
men to grab once again with the left hand what they had earlier
thrown away with the right. And why not? Nigeria is a land
of possibilities. But some vigilant Nigerians are not relenting
in asking questions. This exactly is what aggrieved Nigerians
are doing.
Trouble began in December 2001 when a band of South African
businessmen sweet-talked their Nigerian counterparts into
obtaining a 30-year licence to operate the National Sports
Lottery-NSL. Promising heaven and earth, the crafty South
Africans made their Nigerian partners believe that they had
not only the technical expertise to run an ambitious national
lottery but a huge financial outlay to ensure that the enterprise
worked.
The carrot dangled was so attractive that the then Minister
of Industry, Chief Kola Daisi accepted the chairmanship of
NSL. Diasi’s conviction was so deep he quickly roped
in Fountain Trust Bank in which he has substantial holding
to assist the project with the initial take of grant of about
N500m.
The company promptly signed a monthly retainership deal of
N8m with TWA/Concept Unit for media promotion and advertising
that would help push the games across to Nigerians. But the
deal soon turned sour. Gamblers and fortune-seekers who took
their chances in the lottery soon found out that NSL was the
closest thing to a legal vampire who sucked their money off
them and reneged on its obligations to them. The management
of Fountain Trust also discovered that the South Africans
had diverted a staggering N150 million earlier disbursed to
NSL to other uses. That meant that the promotional agency
TWA/Concept Unit had an outstanding N48.2 million being cost
of media advertising placements trapped in NSL. Repeated efforts
to compel NSL to make good on its indebtedness to diverse
Nigerians and especially the communication consultants came
too little too late.
Legal Royal rumble
After a series of fiery correspondences, TWA/Concept Unit
mandated its attorneys; to step into the troubled scene when
the 21 days of grace it gave NSL to offset its indebtedness
expired. In an earlier correspondence dated February 8, 2002
and signed by the company secretary Chief A.O. Akinyemi, NSL
had acknowledged its indebtedness to the former and requested
a meeting between the parties to be chaired by the NSL chairman,
Daisi, to seek a peaceful liquidation of the debt. But in
a curious counter affidavit stating NSL’s defence against
the suit brought against it by TWA/Concept Unit in a Lagos
Federal High Court, the gaming company’s defence counsel,
Mr. Kolawole Babalola denied that his client was in any way
indebted to TWA/Concept Unit. It was in the haze of this legal
battle that the crafty South Africans melted away to avoid
litigation costs only to resurface this year with a new game
plan.
Exit NSL, enter NSL LMC
Sensing that the embers of their last corporate heist had
died down after three years, the South Africans once again
resurfaced with their Nigerian collaborators. But they knew
that the only way they could evade their outstanding indebtedness
to Nigerians was to cast aside their earlier corporate identity.
This thinking gave birth to a new firm - NSL Lotteries Management
Company Limited, a subsidiary of gaming firm with a 30-year
license to operate on-line lottery in Nigeria. The new NSL
Lotteries Management Company Limited is the worthy inheritor
of all the assets but no liability of the troubled NSL. Perhaps
they would have gotten away with the scheme if they had not
pushed their luck too far. But they did.
They sought a definitive parliamentary act to anchor their
stranglehold on the gambling and gaming business in Nigeria.
Enter the National Lottery Bill 2004
Again it was yet another swift operation for the South Africans
to find spooky Aso Rock elements that threw their political
weight behind their new scheme. That was how the now controversial
National Lottery Bill 2004 came into existence. But legal
experts opine that the Bill in itself is a violation of the
Nation’s constitution which cedes all powers of legislation
on lottery and games to state houses of assembly. The new
bill, currently before the National Assembly, seeks to give
sweeping powers to the office of the president. It mandates
the president to grant lottery licence to licensees, select
the licensees, revoke the licence if need be, appoint trustees
to the trust fund, appoint members of the regulatory commission
of the National Lottery and give directives to the regulatory
commission among other unilateral powers. In truth, this bill
seeks to make the president, the absolute regulator of lotteries
and games in Nigeria. The question many aggrieved parties
are asking is whether the president of a 21st Century democracy
could find time and experience to regulate lottery in his
country. And that is even if it is proper for a president
to have such powers of invincibility.
Legal eyebrows
The attempt to push the National Lottery Bill 2004 through
the National Assembly is expectedly raising legal eyebrows.
Some Lagos based constitutional lawyers recall that the 1999
constitution placed lottery outside the scope of the National
Assembly. They claim that lottery is within the residual list
of legislative matters. Therefore, the National Assembly cannot
legislate on the matter without violating the spirit and letter
of the 1999 constitution. Some legal historians recall that
President Obasanjo himself fought to preserve this act in
his first coming when he singularly cancelled the defunct
Niger Polls, arguing in 1977 that lottery was a matter for
state houses of assembly.
But there are some observers who insist that due process was
not followed in the award of the 30 year licence to NSL LMC
as there was no open bidding. They quickly point out that
the current holder of the licence had lost the moral and professional
authority to plan and administer games in the country having
failed many times and with a huge outstanding debt to settle.
Their contention is that a custodian of a national lottery
should have an unimpeachable track record. But most observers
say that it is hard to understand how President Obasanjo who
had vowed earlier in his administration to wipe out corruption
could have gotten into the nebulous scheme of the South Africans
and their Nigerian counterparts. They maintain that it is
rather worrisome that the President had given assent to such
a bill as the National Lottery Bill 2004.
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