Halliburton: M.
D. Yusuf, Not a Bribe-Taker
By
Max Gbanite
maxgbanite@yahoo.com
When
I read an article titled “Halliburton Bribe Takers” published on March
29th, 2009 issue of nextonSunday newspaper; the same
publishers of
234NEXT.com in the internet wire, my
first initial reaction was, "What is new?" However, upon
reading further, it dawned on me that what was new was the inclusion
of the name Alhaji Muhammadu Dikko Yusuf as a bribe-taker.
I felt a tight knot
in my stomach, became sick right away because the name MD Yusuf, GCON,
is a brand associated with integrity, detribalized, honesty,
straightforward, and all that has to do with decency in a country that
has self-inflicted corruption as its first language and
election-rigging as the second.
Then I remembered
that our mothers, before preparing rice or beans, very often separate
the chaffs from the real thing; I, therefore, embarked on a journey of
seeking the truth from the lies.
This journey took me
to speak to my senior uncle Alhaji Muhammadu Gambo Jimeta, GCON, a
retired inspector General of Police (IGP) and former National
Security Adviser (NSA), in whose house I met Alhaji MD Yusuf for the
first time shortly after the 2003-rigged elections. Alhaji Gambo
encouraged me to see MD Yusuf and get his views.
When I met him in
his modest flat in Maitama, Abuja, on Good Friday, I knew then that as
our Lord Christ has resurrected, that the truth will be told. After
the respectful greetings, I swung into action:
Sir, did you take bribe on Trains 1 and 2, as alleged by Mr. Tesler
(the corrupter) under the ‘cultural arrangement’ orchestrated by TSKG?
No, was his answer.
However, he went on
to expand my knowledge on events that happened while he was a director
and later as chairman of Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG).
Alhaji MD Yusuf
spoke with candor. He narrated that when he was a board member of LNG
under General Ibrahim Babangida, GCFR, they were under orders by the
then Minister of Petroleum to follow due process and rule of law in
the award of the LNG project, that international tender bidding
process must be adhered to; but, on the day the tender was to be
opened, the minister dissolved the board just like that. The
unexpected action foreclosed the tender.
I asked why that
happened. He simply said that I may have to find out from Dr. Chu S.
P. Okongwu, the then Minister.
Thereafter, a new
board was appointed and inaugurated with the Late Dr. Pius Okigbo as
the chairman. Unfortunately, with the annulment of June 12, 1993
elections and change of guard to Chief Ernest Shonekan, much could
not be achieved by that board. When now late General Sani Abacha took
over, he appointed Alhaji MD Yusuf, chairman of a newly inaugurated
board of LNG. The petroleum minister then, Chief Don Etiebet, met with
MD Yusuf and both agreed that the transparent international bidding
process already put in place must be followed. Royal Dutch Shell was
excluded from participating in the bid, but it was paid about US$9
million to provide technical advisory to the board.
When I spoke to Dr.
Chu S. P. Okongwu to find out why he dissolved a board on the morning
a tender was to be decided, he stated that, as at the time, Shell was
a major player and controller of the country’s oil production, and
that the administration felt that giving them the gas sector was
suicidal. Dr. Okongwu was also informed by the ministers of petroleum
and gas of Algeria and Indonesia to avoid the technology being offered
by Shell because the ones Shell built in their respective countries
were old technology and the maintenance of the plants is outrageously
expensive. He was further told that of the 20 gas plants existing then
in the world, those built by Shell were not operational. Armed with
such intelligence data, Dr. Okongwu swung to action. He dissolved the
board to prevent Shell from abducting the tender and taking control of
the gas sector too.
Moreover, additional
investigations at the time revealed that Shell was neck-deep in bed
with some member of the board and would have won the tender and
installed a plant that would have killed Trains 1 & 2. Therefore, Dr.
Okongwu’s memo to the incoming board had a paragraph that barred Shell
and other oil companies that were active players in the petroleum
industry from the LNG project.
To circumvent the
law and amplify the corruption in Nigeria to an exponential level,
TSKG was formed by a consortium of bribegivers. A French engineering
company Technip, an Italian engineering company, Snamprogetti, a US
engineering company, KBR of the Halliburton group, and a Japanese
engineering and construction company, JGC: all became equal
partners-in-crime.
The bubble bust when
those responsible for bribing the lower level technicians failed in
their duties, prompting the French company to complain to their home
government by suggesting that Halliburton was allegedly diverting
monies meant for cultural arrangement in Nigeria back to the United
States as contribution towards the Republican ticket of Bush/Cheney in
2000 elections. It is instructive to know that Dick Cheney was the
chairman of Halliburton as at the time of Trains 1 and 2. This
allegation prompted the French government to start the investigation
that opened this can of worms. It is also important to state that the
former Vice President Dick Cheney was never implicated.
I apologize for the
digression.
As chairman of LNG,
MD Yusuf maintained a very high level of integrity and transparency.
For instance, on one occasion he was approached by his friends (Chagouri
brothers) to influence their interest in the LNG project through the
back door. MD Yusuf flatly refused by reminding them that the simple
reason that he was the chairman of a flour mills and a construction
company owned by them (Chagouris) made it a crime, if they are seen to
be benefiting from the LNG project. He pointedly told them that should
they insist, they must join the list of companies bidding for the
projects through international tender and that he (MD Yusuf) would
also resign as the chairman of their companies. The Chagouris withdrew
their demands. This is clearly not the actions of a bribe-taker. As
chairman of LNG, Alhaji MD Yusuf could have done wonders for his
friends, but he rather insisted that they follow the rules of
engagement-transparently.
When Abacha sacked
Don Etiebet as the petroleum minister and appointed Chief Dan Etete as
his replacement, the new minister met with MD Yusuf to discuss Trains
1 & 2 tender. MD Yusuf told him that Trains 1 had been awarded to the
lowest bidder through a transparent international tender. The winner
won by being US$50 millions lower than the next higher bidder. Etete
probably did not like the system of transparency. He ran to Abacha and
convinced him that retaining MD Yusuf would disturb the cultural
arrangement, that the idea of tender should be replaced with onward
negotiations. A few days later, Alhaji MD Yusuf was removed as
chairman of LNG. The era of negotiation --instead of tender
(bidding)-- was ushered in. The new protocol played well with TSKG’s
well-oiled machines of cultural committee-arrangement. All other
contracts awarded from then on became an extended
negotiated-corruption, the system of engagement that spanned General
Abdulsalam Abubakar, President Obasanjo, and has remained unchanged.
When in 2004, the
House of Representatives committee on gas called MD Yusuf, he told the
committee all that he knew: the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth. As a matter of fact, a close friend of Nuhu Ribadu, the
then EFCC boss, told me that Ribadu went to see the then President
Olusegun Obasanjo to seek his permission to investigate the
Halliburton matter further, but Obasanjo refused.
Obasanjo opined that
if MD Yusuf took bribe, he (MD Yusuf) will be honest and bold enough
to tell the truth and accept the fall out, that investigating the
matter further will expose a lot of high-ranking PDP stalwarts who
collected money for the 2003 elections and were still collecting
towards the 2007 elections.
President Obasanjo
knew that MD Yusuf fears only God and respects everyone. It was MD
Yusuf, as the Inspector General of Police (IGP) after the death of
General Murtala Mohammad on Friday, February 13, 1976, who went to
General T. Y. Danjuma and convinced him to make a case for Obasanjo to
take over as the Head of State. He argued that since Generals Gowon
and Mohammad were both from the North, another section should be
placed in that position. The opportunity was there then, and Obasanjo
was the Second-in-Command. That argument was accepted, and history was
made.
However, to the
surprise of many, after Obasanjo was sworn in as the Head of State, MD
Yusuf tendered his letter of resignation. He reasoned that as the IGP,
he had failed in his duties to know about the Dimka Coup that caused
the death of a Head of State before it happened. For him to continue
after having failed was unacceptable and cast aspersions on his
integrity. The Supreme Military Council (SMC) flatly rejected the
resignation letter. He continued as IGP until he willingly retired in
1979. Before retiring, he made sure that General Obasanjo adopted his
blue print to fight apartheid. His policies helped to liberate South
Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and later Angola from the
clutches of racist regimes.
This is the
character of a man’s man, not one that would accept $75,000 as bribe.
Had he wanted to be so induced, he would have collected millions of
dollars; after all, he was the chairman of LNG.
If still in doubt
about this man, kindly contact Prof. Wole Soyinka. He will tell you
that when he was imprisoned by the government during the
Nigeria-Biafra War, that it was Alhaji MD Yusuf as the head of ‘E’
Special Branch who gave the orders that prevented the prison and
police rogues guarding him (Soyinka) to stop tormenting and torturing
him. The "E" Branch of the police was the Nigerian equivalence of
MI-5, KGB, and CIA which later became Nigeria Security Organization (NSO)
during President Shehu Shagri and General Buhari’s era. It was later
broken to become the State Security Services (SSS) and National
Intelligence Agency (NIA) under General Babangida’s administration.
Once MD Yusuf got information that Soyinka was being dehumanized, he
swung into action and probably saved his life.
Even ex-Biafran
military officer who were detained and interrogated at the end of the
war by MD Yusuf were never tortured or dehumanized. He was a police
officer with a human face who understood what his fellow officers went
through, and therefore treated them with respect and dignity.
The same M.D. Yusuf
endangered his life for his love of Nigeria by challenging General
Abacha's sole presidential candidacy when most politicians were
cowered into cowardice. His act of bravery motivated the G-18 to
evolve into G-34 and, after Abacha’s death, it became PDP.
Alhaji MD Yusuf told
me with sadness that two years after he left office as LNG Chairman,
while visiting London, his friends the Chagouris arranged for an
unsolicited gift for him: to help with his shopping, but definitely
not as bribe because he was no longer in any influential position to
facilitate LNG or any other contracts for them. That facility is
probably what is today termed “75 thousand dollars download.” What a
pity how friends can blackmail a man of integrity, a man with
impeccable credential. What a phenomenal error. This must count as the
cheapest form of demagoguery!
I am however pained
that no Nigerian journalist has taken the time to see this great man
and ask him the hard questions or, at least, help him to clear his
good name. As for me and others that know this great Nigerian prince
from the royal house of Katsina and yet a true friend of the
talakawa [hoi polloi] we offer our unreserved apology to him: Sorry,sir!
To those who care to know, even if the others took bribes, Oga
MD Yusuf is not a bribe-taker.
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