IBB: The Man is Vindicated

By 

Max Gbanite

maxgbanite@hotmail.com

 

 

“Truth is hard to swallow, but once digested is very delicious and nutritious to the body, soul, and mind.”

 

First, they convened at the hills of Bakama, Adamawa State. A few money-driven prayer mallams and marabouts from certain West African countries, selected for séance rituals, gathered to find out in which banks and countries His Excellency General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, GCFR, mni, had stashed billions in every currency that he allegedly appropriated to himself during his term of office. After many months of fasting and praying, a wise old mallam from Maiduguri got up and told the rest that the angels have spoken. The answer: “Ba corruption. Ba shiga!” The ex-commissioner in the State and now general contractor who organized the conclave was later rewarded handsomely with the kingship of the Bakama people without the consent of the people. The unpopular executive selection is still causing problem in the community as you read.

 

Undeterred, some Christian rightists went to “Fire-on-the-Mountain” chapels, where elders of certain selected Christian churches (Catholic church excluded), led by their Primate (a man that doesn’t believe in forgiveness), fasted for months trying to make contact with the Almighty to show them signs that the same General Babangida has a case to answer on corruption. The angels poured water on their mountain-fire and told them, “The man is vindicated.”

 

Not to be left out, the Animists went to Ogun State to consult Sango, the god of fire; others went to Anambra State to check with the priests of Okija Shrine. They all came back with the same results: Empty.

 

Then, Scientologists met with few selected Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that have been duping the international community into supporting their nefarious and spurious programs. They petitioned the current President, His Excellency Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, to investigate and deal with Babangida. On receipt of the petition, President Obasanjo contacted General Babangida for his response to such a serious matter. The retired former President did an unthinkable thing: He took an action very unprecedented in the history of Nigeria by openly challenging anyone, anywhere in Nigeria or abroad to present evidence of any shady deal, corruption, and embezzlement directly linked to him. Nigerians are still waiting. As of this writing, nothing has been substantiated. The truth remains that all accusations border on imaginative creation conjured under the influence of unrefined alcohol, unsanitized pure-water, or undiluted coffee. In other words, there is no truth to the allegations because nobody has come forward with substantive evidence.

 

In October of 1999, President Obasanjo added a presidential seal of authority to the drama by challenging Nigerians both within and outside the country to present evidence that this man General Babangida is corrupt and that he has billions of assorted currencies stashed in banks all over the world. When none came after six years in office and twelve years after General Babangida stepped aside, Obasanjo, being a practicing Christian, was left with the only available option: the truth.

 

During an interactive session with members of African All Party Parliamentary Group at the House of Commons in London, some British lawmakers enquired of the whereabouts of, and allegations against, General Babangida. President Obasanjo straightforwardly dismissed the insinuations and allegations of corruption as “speculations and rumours in coffee shops and market places.” He failed to include beer palours and pepper-soup and goat-head joints, but let’s continue with the issue as-is.

 

Prior to President Obasanjo’s total vindication statement, the self-proclaimed holier-than-thou head of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, had averred that his team of crack investigators in collaboration with Interpol and other well-respected agencies around the world had beamed their searchlight on General Babangida. Mr. Ribadu, a graduate of Nigerian Law School, was honoring a program in South Africa. Within days, he surfaced in Nigeria with empty hands. He expressed his disappointment clearly: “We searched all over the world and could not find any bank account or missing funds traced to his name.”

 

Although Mr. Ribadu was reported to have made other unsavory remarks, this can easily be attributed to youthful exuberance. By gosh, the man is a neophyte in the labyrinth of political intrigues. Be that as it may, as a trained lawyer, he has no choice but to abide by the rules of substantive evidence, not the rules of coffee shops, marketplaces, goat-head and pepper-soup joints, or hearsay evidence.

 

The truth was too bitter for General Babangida’s traducers to swallow. One of my friends, a self-acclaimed Babangidacist who had refused to heed to Nuhu Ribadu and President Obasanjo’s proclamations, immediately drew my attention to the Okigbo Report, especially the so-called “oil windfall.” Well, I once met the late distinguished Dr. Pius Okigbo in person. I went to school with his good son Pius Okigbo Jr. (“Mr. P” to his close friends). Dr. Okigbo’s last wife is a daughter of my father’s cousin and, therefore, by extension, he was an in-law. During my privileged meeting with him, I asked whether his Commission had ever INDICTED General Babangida. He puffed on his cigarette, looked me straight in the eye, and said, “Son, we did not, but there were some misplaced priorities and some excellent programmes he undertook, and we recommended the closure of the dedicated account.” I tried to prune more out of him, but he would not discuss further.

 

However, by chance while watching ‘Kaakaki’ programme on African Independent Television (AIT) on May 23, 2005, I was thrilled to see the publisher of The News holding a copy of his magazine with claims of publishing the “Okigbo Reports.” I quickly got a copy and read the publication in its entirety. I searched for the word “indictment,” but I could not find any. But the truth of my conversation with Dr. Okigbo stared me in the face when I came to page 38. It reads: “The list of projects to be serviced from the Dedication and other Special Accounts which had been referred to earlier, did indeed contain some projects of importance to the rest of the economy. However, there were many large projects of doubtful viability and many of clearly misplace priority. In addition to these, the Dedication and Special Accounts had become a parallel budget for the Presidency. Tile decision as to what expenditure items to be financed out of these dedicated accounts was made by the President alone.”

 

Before we move further, it is important to establish a time line on the so-called “Gulf War Oil windfall.” Whereas the Gulf War was fought from February 1991 and ended 60 days later, the actual $12.4 billion was recorded by Dr. Okigbo to have accrued from September 1988 and June 30, 1994.

 

As acknowledged by the Report and confirmed by various actors within the government of General Babangida, with whom I had the privilege to speak, they reiterated that the wise Harvard, Yale, Oxford, and Cambridge University-educated advisers working with Babangida advised him and members of the then Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) to dedicate 65,000 barrels of crude oil per day for the financing of special priority projects including Ajaokuta Iron & Steel, Itakpe Iron Minning, Shiroro Hydroelectric Projects, Ikot Abasi Aluminum Smeltering Projects, and other sundry projects.

 

All these projects do exist today. Shiroro hydroelectric dam was completed under General Babangida, and it is supplying electricity to the nation. Itakpe Iron Minning was completed under Babangida; it is functioning, but it is about to be sold to Indians under privatization. Ikot Abas Aluminum Smeltering Company was completed under Babangida; it was functioning very well, and it is sold to a Russian group last year under a not-so-transparent and questionable deal. (The bid was initially won by an American Company; the case in still in court.) Ajaokuta Iron & Steel Project was not completed under Babangida; the late General Abacha spent lots of money on the same project, but he did not live long to complete it. The current government under President Obasanjo has spent almost twice the amount spent by both Babangida and Abacha, yet they could not complete it. Instead, after pouring billions to Solgas, a furniture company without a registered address in Nigeria or in the United States -- from where they claim to have come, the government cancelled the deal for non-performance and re-awarded it to another Indian Group-ISPAT, without due process and transparency.

 

If you understand the truth, then Babangida has no case to answer on this particular matter. The traducers still ask: What happened to the rest of the money? I challenge any of them to visit the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). There, there will see the wonders of General Babangida, a leader with vision and clear focus. He simply took the dreams of the late General Murtala Muhammed and transformed a barren land into the best developed and functional city in Nigeria. The sheer beauty of the city galvanized the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mr. Nasir el’Rufai to take up a full page advert in The Leadership newspaper of May 22, 2005, reminding those who attended the African Development Bank (ADB) meeting: “You have come to the investors’ haven…Make a wise choice, invest in Abuja today.”

 

Other areas that took a good chunk of the Dedication Account fund were the maintenance of peacekeeping operation of ECOMOG in Liberia and Sierra Leone. A recent remark by Dr. Muktar suggested differently; however, suffice it to state that he displayed a remarkable knowledge of one who earned a doctorate in idiocy.

 

Another clever traducer faxed me an article written by Dr. Femi Ajayi titled “Speculations and Rumors on Allegations of (IBB) wrongdoings in Coffee Shops and Market Places --Who will Correct History of Babangida’s Administration?” The article was well-written, but the author wrote with one eye closed. In his attempt to paint Babangida bad, he chronicled all the loans taken during the regime but failed to establish culpability. When I ran into him at the just-concluded Zumunta meeting at Windsor, Connecticut, I congratulated him on his write-up and challenged him to write with both eyes open in the future. If you read the article, you will notice that of all the loans granted none went to any company owned or fronted by General Babangida. Most of the loans went to State governments and some Federal projects. I begged Dr. Ajayi to correct his mistakes by publishing all the loans granted to Nigeria from 1951 to date for the benefit of his readers

 

It’s imperative to note that the culprits in all these loans are the consultants from the private sector, who write the proposals that guide both the State and Federal agencies collectively to seek, accept, and sign for the money just to take huge sums of money as consulting fees. The men in uniform are not trained to see the loopholes in accepting these strangulating offers from the World Bank and IMF.

 

I strongly urge General Babangida supporters to celebrate because the Man is vindicated.

 

Uninformed people will brandish the issue and effects of Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) to cast aspersions on Babangida. Today, SAP is renamed National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS). The Vice President had this to say to Nigerians who are feeling the devastation of NEEDS policy and, after the Honorable members of the House warned the President of an imminent revolt against the government if corrective measures are not taken to assuage the common man:

 

“The pains and sacrifice of today are insurance for our future and those of generations yet to come. No government would willingly inflict punishment on its citizens, since it is the same citizens that hold ultimate power through the ballot box. I see hope in the horizon. I am confident that our economic reform programmes together with active collaboration of the private sector will, in distant time, herald a new Nigeria truly capable of empowering its citizens to maximize their potentials.” (The Guardian newspaper, Tuesday June 7th 2005)….

 

This is indeed a script developed and written by Professor Jerry Gana, the current Senior Special adviser to President Obasanjo, when he was in charge of ‘MAMSER’ (called NOA today) during the Babangida era. Again, General Babangida once said, “For their tomorrow we must give our today.”

 

Today, the technical Aid Corps established in 1987 during Babangida’s era is still waxing strong to the extent that the Foreign Affairs Minister, Ambassador Olu Adeniyi, ably represented by Ambassador N. U. Wadibia-Anyanwu who chaired the flagging off of recruitment interview of about 10,000 candidates, reaffirmed President Obasanjo’s commitment to further strengthen the scheme to enable it to continue to play its bonding role between Nigeria and the beneficiary countries.

 

Recently, National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in collaboration with the Nigerian Agricultural Cooperation and Rural development Bank (NACRDB) -- both Babangida’s creations -- are still doling out loans to small businesses under the start-your-own-business scheme.

 

Recently INEC ruled that electronic voting system will be employed during the 2007 elections to reduce voter fraud. Imagine if “Power Holding Company of Nigeria” (NEPA in disguise) decides not to cooperate with a voting district! Well, a generator may be deployed, but what if it doesn’t start? The answer to all these maneuvers to check electoral fraud is back to “Option A4” -- the system that is rig-free and does not entertain thuggery.

 

When the issue of General Babangida comes up, those who have always been loyal supporters must hold their heads high. For instance, it is a known fact through the Nigerian media that when President Olusegun left office in 1979, he established a multi-million naira farm and business on the pension and gratuity of a retired general. General Danjuma is said to be the owner of a bank, and oil, salt and farming industries too. The late General Shehu Yardua was known also to be a multimillionaire who owned many shipping vessels, farms, banks, and other businesses; yet none of them is known to have had a wealthy father or inherited money from wealthy relatives. Haba! Why then should General Babangida be an exception?

 

Honest Nigerians knows that on a barometer scale that the period 1999 to date will be recorded as the most corrupt era in the annals of Nigerian history, and this is happening 12 years after General Babangida left office. Corruption in Nigeria of today seems to be what the late musician Fela Anikulakpo-Kuti would call “Executive-Legislative-Judiciary Arrangement” (ELJA).

 

To those who criticize the creation of Dedication Account or wallow on the issue of misplaced priorities, let’s reconcile a simple truth: If the account were not created then, Abuja as a city with all the infrastructures would not have been built and ECOMOG forces would not have been sustained on budgetary allocations. As a matter of fact, it is the same Dedication Account that was used by the present administration to build the Abuja Stadium, Games Village Hostels, the hosting of COJA games, the hosting of African Heads of Government summit, the construction of Villa conference hall -- where the Common Wealth Heads of Government Conference was held, the maintenance of Nigerian troops still in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and in the Sudan. It is indeed an idea then well-thought out by Babangida’s advisers and is being utilized by Obasanjo, and I support it.

 

And in closing I urge those members of the media, especially General Babangida’s traducers to eschew bitterness, learn to forgive, and begin to brainstorm and ask questions bothering on the best way to move our country forward. The new Pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI, has charged journalists across the world to “be fair, balanced, and truthful in the discharge of their duties.” The glaring fact that many Nigerians are today within the dictums of democracy clamoring and urging General Babangida to return and contest the Presidency of Nigeria in 2007 is truly a vindication to the man.

 

As for 2007, the date is a certainty and the President of Nigeria will indeed emerge at Almighty God’s appointed time and date. And if General Babangida is God’s choice then, we shall all rejoice, knowing that the greatness of our country shall truly manifest.

 

Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.