The Spiritualism and Political Philosophy of Fela
Kuti
2.8 BILLION DOLLARS 1978 OIL MONEY WAS TRACED
TO GENERAL BUHARI'S MIDLAND NOW HSBC
OFFSHORE BANK ACCOUNT THAT WAS WHY HE
STRUCK ON DECEMBER 31 1983.
Before he became HOS in 1983 he was the General
Officer Commanding the 3rd Armoured Division Jos.
With armour under your command you could
launch coups. Abuja where President Shagari was
celebrating the New Year is flat terrain suitable for
armoured warfare. But it never came to that.
Shagari's regime (1979-1983), incurred Buhari's
wrath when it decided to investigate the US$2.8
billion that disappeared from the Midland Bank,
London account of the Nigerian National Petroleum
Cooperation, (NNPC), during General Obasanjo's era
as military head of state that preceded Shagari's. Dr.
Olusola Saraki, Turaki of Ilorin, was the majority
party leader of the Senate at the time and he
headed the Senate Committee set up to trace the
stolen money after some three years of clamour for
such an investigation by members of the civil
society. The money was traced to the Midland Bank
London branch fixed account of Buhari, Obasanjo's
appointee as military head of the Nigerian National
Petroleum Company. The Committee's report was
presented to the Senate during the tail end of
Shagari's regime in 1983, so the House decided to
deal with the matter soon after the 1983 general
elections.
The attempt at civilian-to-civilian transition provided
the fillip for mayhem at the time. The elections were
marred by massive rigging because incumbent
political office holders were refusing to slacken their
stranglehold on Nigeria Plc., mortgaged as the
leaders private property. On the 31st December,
1983, Buhari struck under the cover of the political
commotion that trailed the presidential election
results. Buhari generally had no agenda for
leadership but vendetta against those he called
critics and rabble-rousers.Buhari did not see any
moral wrong in his conversion of our oil money into
his personal use. Rather he railed at the press and
what he described as the self-righteous sections of
the country for making a big deal out of the issue.
He locked up without trial, politicians and critics
including Fela Anikulapo-Kuti,notorious for
clamouring for the exposure of the oil money rogue.
Satire saved my neck at the time. Vera Ifudu, who
was an NTA reporter then, was sacked through his
prodding as military ruler, for reporting what Dr.
Olusola Saraki had told her in an interview about
how the missing money was traced to Buhari's
account at a Midland Bank London branch. Vera
eventually won her case of wrongful dismissal in
court against the NTA and was financially
compensated.
Abacha rehabilitated Buhari with the chairmanship
of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) before he
(Abacha) died in 1998. When Obasanjo returned to
power in May 1999 as civilian president, he found
that over 2.5 billion naira had not been properly
accounted for in the PTF and that there was not
much on the ground to show for the colossal
expenditure the agency was claiming. On the day
Obasanjo announced the scrapping of the PTF, a
non-staff brother-in-law of the boss, allegedly
serving as his conduit on some PTF projects, died
suddenly from what appeared to be heart failure.
Haruna Adamu, who was appointed by Obasanjo to
investigate the PTF before finally consigning it to the
dung heap, allegedly quickly pocketed one hundred
million naira of PTF's money before operating table
could be set up for him, thus forcing Obasanjo to
hurriedly close the place down without further
investigations.Buhari has been trying desperately
since to return to power, perhaps to get a chance to
shred the PTF documents?
BUHARI IN STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN: A picture taken
13 July 1977, in Stockholm, shows King Carl Gustaf of
Sweden (R), talking to Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani of
Saudi Arabia (C), the strong man of the OPEC
summit, and Colonel Muhammad Buhari of
Nigeria — with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu ,
Goodluck Jonathan, Atiku Abubakar, Nasir El-Rufai ,
General Muhammadu Buhari 2015 Support Group
Centre and Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN)