Return of the evil genius

There are widespread speculations that former military President, General Ibrahim Babangida has his eyes on Aso Rock come 2011 elections. In this report, Deputy Editor Adewale Adeoye examines the chances of the former leader who once ruled the country for eight controversial years

Can former military leader, General Ibrahim Babangida rule Nigeria again.? Probably the answer should be ‘yes’ and ‘no’. In the eyes of the Nigerian law, nothing debars him. But in the court of public opinion, scores of thorns lay his path. This will however depend on what public you belong to, especially in a country where truth has many colours flavoured with ethnicity, individualism, ego and faith. ‘If he contests the next election, we shall mobilize both home and global opinion against him’ the National Publicity Secretary of the Alliance for Democracy, AD, Mr Popoola Ajayi told The Nation.

Recently, Babangida was reported as saying he was ‘still consulting’ as regards 2011 presidential race. Many who have mastered his well known tradition of intrigues are reading meanings to his latest statement. Some see Babangida as a politician who acts like a typical lady in a love tango who would never say "yes" or "no" to a love proposal. When she says ‘No’ she means ‘maybe’ and when she says ‘maybe’ she actually means "Yes I do’. So recently when Babangida reportedly said he was still consulting on the 2011 presidential race, those conversant with his political tradition are anxious to conclude that the former dictator, who ran the country for close to a decade, under his iron fists, actually meant ‘yes, I wlll contest the election.’

In the past, observers say Babangida had said things he would later deny, and had denied things he would later say.

Some analysts think at 69, if his official age is real, the 2011 election seems his best and possibly last chance to seek control of the Nigerian state again. But will he contest the race? If he does, can he breast the tape? The pendulum that swings to his side is the fact that given the current geo-political equation, what seems to have almost become an unwritten constitution among all the political parties is the fact that the North should produce the president in 2011.

Babangida is from the North. But there is a clause, a very significant one. The slot of the north should terminate in 2015 when the baton is expected to go to the South, meaning that the North’s candidate, even if Babangida is one of them, will only have a maximum of four years, yet Babangida has no reputation for handing over whatever he holds so easily without sometimes a messy, if not bloody fight. Again, there are strong indications that President Umaru Yar’Adua, despite unconfirmed reports of his ill health, said to be occasioned by kidney related ailments, is anxious to seek re-election come 2011. Already, a contact committee has been put in place led by some Peoples Democratic Party, PDP chieftains a like Tony Anenih, Iwuanyanwu and many others, are part of the new machinery. Analysts think Babangida’s arithmetic ignores this reality to his own peril. ‘Babangida will come out to contest the 2011 election. He is already oiling his political machinery’, one reliable source hinted The Nation. The source told how Babangida held a ‘political dinner’ with his associates recently in Minna, the Niger-State capital. The source claimed that many former military administrators who served under his government (1985-1993) were gathered. ‘Though Babangida did not expressly disclose his intention, but the attendants participants at the meeting knew his intension was to rule the country again,’ the source claimed.

Other factors might make the race a virgin contest among contending, sometimes mutually inclusive Northern interests. For instance, The Nation gathered that Northern leaders are worried about the floundering fortunes of the Nigerian state, the mounting threats to unity of the country, which the north desperately deserves for obvious economic reasons, and under President Yar’Adua’s, government and the fact that a new person from the North in 2011 will make it easier for the North to toy with elongated rule through the backdoor. ‘The North has never been so vulnerable, would wish Yar’Adua to continue in office, but we are concerned there is the need for a stronger personality to stir the affairs of the state,’ one top PDP member told The Nation saying that the current leadership has failed woefully to manage the seething religious, ethnic and political crisis that continue to threaten the already fragile foundation of the country.

The source said the core-North is worried that if Yar’Adua gets a second chance and midway he fails to push ahead, given possible natural factors, the Vice-President, a Southerner would emerge and that would offer an elongated tenure to the South through the 2015 election. The source said there are concerns about ‘the health of the President.’ There is the thinking among a section in the north The Nation heard last Wednesday that it is better for the zone to produce an alternative candidate in 2011. The source also hinted that such an alternative candidate will give a double edge advantage to the north, chief of which is the possible of such a fresh candidate spending eight years in power, providing an additional four-year term to the North. ‘There is the plan to pick another presidential candidate from the North with a vice president from the Igbo East’ the source hinted.

One Babangida’s aide said the former military president is watching the political calculus for him to take adequate leap. On the other hand however, several factors seem to stand as obstacles to Babangidas possible game plan. Top on the list remains his eight year tyrannical rule which left the country reeling in anguish. He came into power in 1985, exploiting the euphoric anti-human, anti-media rights and the obvious plans to delink from Western dependency, under Gen Mohammadu Buhari, his predecessor. IBB came to power on August 27, 1985 in a bloodless coup which swept away his superiors. There were rumors that before he struck, the army authority had put a search light on his ‘nefarious’ activities and that he would have been retired from the army if not for the coup he staged. Initially, Babangida struck the nation as a liberalizing force when, at the budding state of his regime, he released political prisoners, abrogated the obnoxious anti-press Decree 4 of 1984. He also rose to meet initial admiration based on the self-initiated mystery of his ancestry, leaving many to guess he was Yoruba from Ogbomoso or was both Yoruba and Hausa-Fulani, two domineering ethic blocs in Nigeria. He was latter to denounce the speculation about his root when his government issued official statement that he hails from Bagawatse of the Sulubawa stock in Sokoto, affirming his Fulani ancestry, but that was years after he had stabilized his regime. He also initially selected a cabinet considered by many as fine apart from his populist programs like Directorate for Food, Road and Rural Infrasture DFRRI, Mass Mobilisation for Social and Economic Recovery MAMSER, National Directorate of Employment NDE and the Peoples Bank.

Later Babangida introduced what many considered the worst economic and political systems never witnessed before in the country’s troubled history. He was generally seen as a deceitful leader who mastered the pauperization of his people and ended up enriching himself and his rookies, Ayo Awosode, a strong member of the Nigerian Bar Association in Ibadan told The Nation.

An official of the Movement for the survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP, Mr. Patrick Nagbaton told our correspondent that Babangidas second coming ‘will spell doom for Nigeria’ saying that his regime set the tone for the emasculation of the Ogoni People and the entire people of the Niger-Delta.

Leader of the Supreme Egbesu Assembly SEA, Mr. Digifa Warinipre told The Nation that ‘I will be surprised to see any political party listing Babangida as it’s presidential candidate.’

IBB’s government sought and obtained loans from the International Monetary Fund, IMF after a well tailored public debate the conclusion of which he already drew, ab initio. The loan and the consequent introduction of the Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP sent the nation’s economy tumbling down the cliff. Poverty, want, deprivation and hopelessness took the better part of the country. When Babangida came to power in 1985, the value of the naira was 1 to 5 dollars, by the time he left power, the value of the naira had depreciated to 1 to 80 dollars. Unemployment rose in geometric progression, manufacturers closed shops, the commanding height of the economy was privatised and sold to his cronies, millions lost their jobs and societal values pummeled to an all time low and the dignity once associated with the image of Nigeria home and abroad, ebbed.

His human rights records were horrendous.

For instance, despite global outrage, IBBs government took the lives of several senior military officers in 1986, including that of Gen Mamman Vasta who was his best man when he married Mariam. He accused Vatsa of planning to overthrow his government. In 1990, about 78 young soldiers linked to the April 22 1990 putsch were shot dead by his government. Many of those killed claimed innocent. The martial court usually had the defence lawyer and the judge provided by the military. His government deliberately launched an offensive against the university system, attacking ideological lecturers which he accused of revolutionizing the students movement. In one instance, his armed men pounced on Dr Patrick Wilmot who was sent out of the country from the Ahmadu Bello University, ABU. In another instance, his Secret Service agents pounced on Dr Festus Iyayi, then of the University of Benin. Iyayi’s household was thrown into the streets in broad day light.

IBB carried out similar attacks on students and the intelligentsia, a generation of which never completed their education up till today or were compelled to flee the country. Many continue to link the spate of violence and rise in cultism in Nigerian Universities to Babangida. One retired soldier who worked in the espionage department of the Directorate of Military Intelligence, DMI told The Nation that Babangida armed several reactionary students on campus in his bid to emasculate the student movement, the result of which was the mushrooming of armed cult groups. The labour movement also faced direct onslaught from IBB. He did not only ban and unbanned the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, he also imposed administrative cronies.

Critics say under Babangida, corruption, naked abuse of power, opaque system of governance became almost elevated to the level of the directive principle of state policies. On IBB, Dr Timothy Othman of the Manitoba, California, US University wrote: ‘Despite the laudable policies and programs (of IBB), Nigeria went through catastrophic economic collapse. During the IBB era, official corruption expanded dramatically. The cancer consumed every government establishment at all levels impeding sincere execution of developmental projects.’

His iron fist rule was backed by draconian laws that held captive once a vibrant and prosperous nation. Though his supporters describe him as being liberal with everything including cash, but some think that such only epitomized the spendrift nature of his government and the share lack of decency in the utilization of public fund. His enemies insist IBB ruined every sector he believed was opposed to him including his own constituency, the "military": His government survive on the ruins of ethnic cleavages which he helped fuel.

Born in Minna, he had no higher civil education apart from his military training. He joined the army in 1970, at a time of the civil war when the force was largely propelled by the need to unite the country at all cost and not based on any compelling humanitarian ideology. His rise in the army, like many of his contemporaries has little link with any statesmanship achievements but rather propelled by his place of birth, the advantages and pecks associated with his being a potential crony of the Northern oligarchy and the usually noticeable membership of a wing of the military that seems committed to a blind determination to defend a significantly decadent status quo.

But there are those who think that the heinous economic and political harm committed by IBB’s successors, first by Gen Sanni Abacha, whose agents killed political opponents on the streets, hounded the nation to a state of coma, President Olusegun Obasanjo, whose soldiers sacked a whole Odi village, leaving sorrows, tears and blood, and even now with the recent onslaught on the Niger-Delta people, show that IBB’s failings are not extraordinary. ‘If the tunnel look irredeemably dark, then what is special in another blind leading the flock’ a clergy man who does not want to be named told The Nation on Wednesday. But Madam Kudirat Naibi who sells grocery in downtown Lagos took solace in the saying of the common man ‘IBB for president again,? Ha, for this country anything can happen. But, one day one day, monkey go go market, he no go come back.’ Her expression of hope is that one day, the circle of deceitful lordship and cruel manipulation of the Nigerian people may one day be brought to an end. But that remains a wish, a mere wish.

House where Dele Giwa was bombed now hospital

It is an irony of fate that the same building where Dele Giwa, the founding Editor-in-Chief of Newswatch Magazine, was bombed to death 23years old now houses a hospital, reports Sunday Oguntola.

Time was 11.40am. It was a sunny Sunday that October 19, 1986. 1980s Nigeria’s most outspoken journalist, Dele Giwa, was at home having breakfast. Rather than eat on the dinning table, he chose his study, ostensibly to also spend the few minutes reading. On hand was Kayode Soyinka, the then London Bureau chief of the magazine. Giwa’s 19-year-old son, Billy walked in with a parcel in a light brown envelope given to Musa Zibo, the security guard by a 504 car without registration number, which zoomed off after delivery. The parcel had a seal of the Nigerian Coat of Arms with the inscription "From the office of the C—in-C" on one side on the top. Dele Giwa’s name was typewritten on the parcel with an instruction "nobody except the addressee should open it".

Having received similar letters from the presidency, Giwa hurriedly placed the parcel on his lap, after remarking "this must be from Mr. President". No sooner had Giwa opened the parcel that a loud explosion occurred. Within seconds, Dele Giwa’s stomach and thigh had been scattered into pieces. The bombed journalist was rushed to First Foundation Medical centre, Ikeja where he was pronounced dead. The then military government of General Ibrahim Babangida was widely speculated as the brain behind the dastardly act that marked the first assassination via letter bomb in Nigeria. The assassination took place at Dele Giwa’s private residence on 25 Talabi Street, Ikeja.

Last Wednesday, our correspondent went in search of what has become of the building where the assassination took place. Talabi Street, off Adeniyi Jones in Ikeja, is by all means an exclusive estate. No doubt about it that residents must be rich and powerful. A metal bar close to the main gate ensures entry and departure are monitored as well as curtailed. Had this been there 24 years old, maybe the merchants of death that delivered the deadly parcel would have been arrested. After the heavy downpours in the early part of the day, every where was silent as our correspondent exchanged greetings with the two soldiers on guard and made for the estate.

Parents walked in and out of a private school to pick their wards after closing hours immediately after the main gate. Other than them, the estate was deserted. Since the building is situated on house no 25, there was no doubt one had a little way to go. Walking into the sharp bend, it became obvious one was only a few houses away. Keeping an eagle eye on the houses and their numbers, one walked slowly to avoid passing by the targeted building with no notice. Suddenly, house no 23 came into view. Beside it is house no 24 with an unpainted gate, the only one on the street. Where then is House no 25? For the first time in almost five minutes, two persons were seen seated and chatting by the roadside.

With house no 25 missing, it became wise to ask the two middle-aged persons for description. One is in military uniform, meaning he is a security guard. Another is in mufti but also looks every inch a security guard. After exchange of pleasantries and calculated friendly moves, the atmosphere was now suitable to ask for house 25. "25? I don’t know where that is. Why not check further?" the uniformed guy replied. Could it be that the building has been evacuated? It’s been 23 long years. But then, there is no vacant space, confirming the suspicion of evacuation. The house must be somewhere. Why not lead these men into one’s real mission so that they could at least help out?

Forcing a smile, our correspondent asked, "do you know the house where Dele Giwa was bombed on this street? The question finally came intended to be as harmless and as non-threatening as possible. With a trained soldier on the other side, such weighty question, harmlessly as it was meant to sound, was bound to attract curiosity. After few minutes of explanations, the uniformed man pointed, "that is the building". The one-storey building sits on a plot of land. The fresh white paint leaves one in no doubt it has undergone recent renovation. It was hard to know it if it is still residential or not. The frontage has no signpost to indicate otherwise. But then, the design convinces one it has to be used for commercial purpose. If it is now commercial, how come there is no security guard or a signpost around?

To ascertain the true state of things, one approached the building. The sophisticated main door opened and showed an exquisite reception. Before one could take in the beauty of the reception, a unformed, private security guard surfaced. Concerned on how to beat the man to see the right persons, two ladies thankfully showed up. One of them who said she is Gloria finally let out the cat. "We run an hospital here," she stated on what takes place in the building. How come there are no patients, nurses or human movements? "We just moved here. We have our headquarters elsewhere and we are just working here skeletally," she added.

Perhaps sensing she was letting out too much, she suddenly became cold, saying "I cannot tell you any more. You will have to go to our headquarters to get whatever you need". The note of finality in her voice left one in no doubt a brick wall had been created. So, why not proceed to the headquarters of Mother and Child Hospitals on Adeniyi Jones Ikeja for further reactions? Meanwhile, it would be nice to gauge residents of the estate on how it feels to live on the street where unprecedented assassination took place. Being working hours, one had to contend with passers-by and security guards. A guard who said he is Sule simply shrugged and said, "that one no be my wahala". Pressed further, he suddenly switched over to Standard English, "it is nothing really. Thank God, I did not witness it so it does not affect me".

Rose, who was taking her boss’ son home from school, did not know Dele Giwa was assassinated on the street until that afternoon. "Is that so? Eh, I no know at all. That is interesting then". Now that she knows, how would she react to the knowledge? "I go pretend I no hear you. I no want anything to disturb me". With no human beings on sight for further reactions, it was time to visit the headquarters of Mother and Child Hospitals. Sandwiched among other commercial buildings, the hospital was a beehive of activities when our correspondent arrived. Quick introductions earned one a waiting seat for the Medical Director, Dr Olarenwaju.

Told that "a certain Mr. Sunday from The Nation Newspapers is waiting to see you sir" as he emerged from the consulting room, the averagely-built doctor retorted, "Oh, that is interesting. I am also Sunday". Hope of having an extended conversation evaporated when he courteously disclosed that he was going to attend a naming ceremony. "I am a pastor and the father’s business comes first," he informed. But the distance between the reception and the parking lot can be utilised for few comments. He wasn’t indisposed to this, as long as it did not keep him any minute. So, is he aware the building where his hospital’s extension sits was where Dele Giwa was murdered?

After a long thought, he said, "I got to know that recently after I had bought the building". How then does that make him feel? "Well, it is unfortunate; I mean the incident but there is nothing one can do now. The place should have been an historical centre". As if reading one’s mind, he went on, "but that is not the first building where murders had taken place. I mean people die everywhere. People die in houses and people still live there. People die in hospitals and you still save some in that same place. You won’t because of that abandon the building or hospital. So, it is really nothing". But the gracious Dr Olarenwaju had more information about the building before he made for the owner’s seat of his chauffeured-jeep, "I bought it from a company, I think ACA, an accountant firm owned by foreigners. They moved to the Island and were not interested in working around here again. We have been renovating for over a year now".

It is certainly an irony that the same building where Dele Giwa was bombed to death is now a hospital that will save many lives. In other places, maybe it would have been turned to a monument. But Dele Giwa is likely to be satisfied in death that on that same address where he was murdered gruesomely by suspected state agents at 39, has become a place where several lives would be saved from untimely deaths.

How Soludo’s CBN got N750m bribe

Fresh facts have emerged how the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN under its former governor, Professor Charles Soludo in 2006 received N750million as graft in the polymer note contract which runs into several billions of naira.

It became clearer yesterday that the controversial N750million bribery scandal, trailing the award of the polymer banknote contracts, actually took place in 2006, when Soludo was the CBN boss.

There had been allegations of shady deals between some CBN officials and Securency International Pty of Australian Reports indicated that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) is already probing alleged N750million offered by Securency to win the contract.

President Umaru Yar'Adua had in company with the new CBN governor, Sanusi launched the new N5, N10 and N50 polymer notes on September 30 at the Presidential Villa.

The circulation of the new bank notes coincided with Nigeria’s 49th Independence Anniversary day celebration.

Investigation by The Nation, however, revealed that although the contract for the printing of N5, N10, N50 notes were awarded in April this year, the bribery scandal involving Securency was perpetrated in 2006.

A reliable source, who knew about the contracts, spoke with our correspondent in confidence last night.
He said: “If you are talking of any bribery, it must have been perpetrated during the initial award of contract for the supply of polymer substrates to Securency in 2006 for the N20 banknote.

“The same template used for the N20 banknote was also applied to N5, N10, and N50 without any fresh bid. It is curious that the CBN officials chose to adopt the same template in November 2008 without fresh bid. The contracts for the printing of 1.915billion of N5, N10, and N50 notes were only awarded in April this year.

“So, the approach adopted by the CBN was suggestive of a conspiracy or an understanding. The bribery scandal predated the award of the contracts in April this year.

"I don’t think the decision to print N5, N10, and N50 notes in polymer was the key thing. The bribery must have been done in 2006. The terms of the deal were only extended to the contracts for N5, N10, and N50 notes.

"To show you that a cabal was at work, not every party was involved in the evaluation process.

"It was a sealed deal because the CBN dictates who prints abroad, what substrates to print on as well as the quantity. The CBN even decides the companies that will clear and do the freight."

A document obtained by The Nation also showed the CBN tender results for banknotes in 2006 where Securency bid for N20 polymer note at Euro 73.475 per 1000 notes including freight charge.

But it was learnt that the cost was later reduced to Euro 59.88 by the CBN when the N20 polymer contract was awarded in 2006.

Others involved in the bid were Global Securency ( Australia ); Gieesecke and Devrient (G &D) of Germany ; De La Rue (the UK ); FC Oberther ( France ) and Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC).

According to findings, the bid was opened on March 27, 2006 and finally concluded by April 4, 2006.

A March 16, 2006 letter from the Director of Currency and Banking Operations of the CBN had invited the five firms for the bid.

After the bid, G&D and NSPMC were awarded contract for the printing of the notes. But Global Securency won the bid for the production of polymer substrates.

On the CBN relationship with Securency, the source added: "There is a memo to show that the apex bank was already in discussion with the Australian firm since 2004.

"So, Securency has been in the system in the last five years. To have their way through, the government was deceived to believe that polymer substrate is cheaper.

"The truth is that polymer substrate is about 1.7 times more than the cost of paper. A survey had also confirmed that polymer lasts four times more than paper note."