On 16 May, 13 days to the end of his tenure,
Obasanjo announced to the Federal Executive
Council, FEC, the award of contracts worth
N756 billion. That proposal sailed through the
council like a greased pig in a slaughter
house. As Frank Nweke, then minister of
Information, explained, N70 billion of this
would be for the resuscitation of textile
industries in Nigeria; N58.6 billion for the
second Niger Bridge; its maintenance was to
gulp N42 billion. The companies to execute
the projects were not named.
Three days earlier, FEC, approved N16.53
billion port harbours reconstruction in Lagos;
N20 billion, expansion of the Lagos airport;
N4.8 billion, building of the Securities and
Exchange Commission, SEC, permanent
accommodation; and N1.39 billion for the
Ministry of Defence’s permanent residence for
participants of War College Training Course in
Abuja; N1.4 billion, conversion of steam and
head for the power plants; N47.4 billion,
conversion of the Alaoji Power Plant to double
circuit; N3.5 billion for procurement and repair
of two boilers at the Egbin Power Station in
Lagos and N233 million was for fixing the
Agege-Lagos Road.
THE ENTIRE N850BILLION WAS EMBEZZLED!
YET the same Obasanjo had the effrontery to
accuse # GEJ of corruption among other
things? And people are taking him serious?
Nigeria is indeed a country filled with many
people who cannot think for themselves –
where everything is sacrifised at the alter of
ethnicism and religion.
Corruption in Nigeria under Obasanjo
administration
Transcorp
President Obasanjo used his position to
corner considerable shares of Transcorp, a
blue chip company that was formed overnight
to corner juicy contracts and make fat
company acquisitions. It was incorporated in
November 2004 and officially launched on 21
July 2005, at the Presidential Banquet Hall,
State House, Abuja, with Obasanjo as the
special guest of honour.
The Transcorp matter was so serious that
Chief Gani Fawehinmi, the human rights
lawyer, dragged the former president to the
Code of Conduct Bureau. He wanted Obasanjo
tried over the activities of Transcorp and his
shareholding in the company seized or
forfeited to the federal government as
provided for under item 18(2)c of the Code of
Conduct for public officers contained in the
fifth schedule, part 1 of the 1999 Constitution.
Fawehinmi lamented that during its formal
launch on Thursday 21 July 2005, Obasanjo
announced some concessions to the
corporation as part of government support
and encouragement.
These include: Licence to build a 400,000-
barrel per day refinery, licence to build an
independent power plant, access to the
federal government cassava project for the
construction of cassava processing exports
facility, designed land mass for the
construction of free port facilities, continued
support to help open up market on the African
continent and to make Transcorp a partner in
Nigeria’s current policy on private/public
partnership, creating additional opportunities
to develop large scale projects in oil and gas,
power and information and communications
technology, ICT.
As Fawehinmi put it, the company acquired
three prime business interests from Nigeria:
four oil blocks, OPL218, 219, 209 and 220
allocated to it on 21 July 2005 by Obasanjo
when it was launched; Nicon-Hilton, Abuja in
October 2005 for $105million and NITEL on 3
July 2006 for $750million.
The lawyer noted that the Director-General of
the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, and
Chairman of Transcorp, Dr. Ndi Okereke-
Onyiuke, admitted before the House of
Representatives that the former president is a
subscriber to Transcorp through Obasanjo
Holdings Limited.
He added that, the admission by the
Trustees–Elder Daniel Atsu and Barrister
Lucky Egede–of Obasanjo Holdings Limited
compounds the constitutional illegality of the
ex-president’s involvement in Transcorp.
Obasanjo Holdings Limited, the lawyer
maintained, is the nominee of President
Olusegun Obasanjo in Transcorp and acts on
behalf of the president as a cover.
He argued: “for the president to allocate oil
fields or blocs as the Minister of Petroleum
Resources to Transcorp, a company in which
he has substantial shares, is clearly an abuse
of office contrary to section 15(5) of the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, 1999 which provides that, “the state
shall abolish all corrupt practices and abuse
of power.”
The former president used his influence to
sway the purchase of NITEL and Nicon-Hilton
Hotel in favour of Transcorp, a practice which
Fawehinmi regarded as “a corrupt act and
violation of the code of conduct.”
The Presidential Library
When Obasanjo launched his N7 billion library
project, government contractors, banks,
businessmen, governors, government
functionaries and hangers-on fell over one
another to donate N4 billion, while the oil
majors operating in Nigeria put in US$20
million. Those who donated were a
consortium of banks – N622million; 36 state
governors – N360million; MikeAdenuga-N25
0million; Aliko Dangote and friends-
N200million; Femi Otedola- N200million;
Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA community- US
$1million; Ogun State governor-N100million;
Obasanjo Holdings- N100million; Sunny
Odogwu-N100million; Arisekola Alao-
N100million etc.
Also, Fawehinmi took Obasanjo to court,
saying that he abused his office and violated
the constitution because, the presence of the
big donors meant he used his office to “force”
out the money from the corporate
organisations and those seeking one favour
or the other.
Excess Crude Account
When he was in power, Obasanjo withdrew
N2.1billion from the excess crude oil funds.
That was in March 2006, when he explained
that he wanted to use the money to
supplement the cost of the extension of the
national census. However, the former Nigerian
leader failed or refused to inform the National
Assembly or those who elected him into
power for almost three months.
It was only after the Senate Committee on
Finance and Appropriation began to turn its
gaze in that direction that Obasanjo wrote a
letter to the House of Representatives,
claiming $17,290,067 (about N2.1 billion) was
withdrawn after he had convened an
emergency meeting of the stakeholders–so
me state governors and the Revenue
Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal
Commission members.
However, analysts maintained that Section
80(3) of the 1999 Constitution states that no
monies shall be withdrawn from any public
fund of the federation, “unless the issue of
those money has been authorised–not by
governors or stakeholders–by an Act of the
National Assembly.”
Petroleum Trust Development Fund, PTDF
Obasanjo was the first to stir the hornets’ net
on this matter when he accused Vice
President Atiku Abubakar of corrupt
enrichment. According to the EFCC document
which Obasanjo dangled with glee, Atiku was
alleged to have diverted a sum of $125 million
approved for the operation of the PTDF to the
Equatorial Trust Bank, owned by Otunba Mike
Adenuga, and Trans International Bank, TIB,
which, thereafter, gave N400 million to MOFAS
Shipping Company, owned by Otunba
Oyewole Fasawe. EFCC also connected
Adenuga’s payment of $20 million for his
Globacom licence to PTDF money lodged in
his bank.
From October 2003, according to the
document, MOFAS paid more than N500
million to Umar Pariya, Personal Assistant to
the former Vice-President, while N61 million
was paid by the company directly to Atiku and
N60 million directly to Musa Garba, a
contractor who works for Atiku’s ABTI
American University. Atiku responded with a
ballistic missile that threw Obasanjo off his
perch. Speaking through his media aide,
Garba Shehu, Atiku said that Obasanjo, his
family, businesses, native community and the
Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, benefited from
the PTDF money.
He revealed that Bodunde Adeyanju,
Obasanjo’s Personal Assistant, made over 100
visits to TIB, Abuja, located at Tofa House in
the Central Business District, between 1999
and 2004. “The truth of the matter is that there
is a big linkage between Chief Obasanjo and
Otunba Fasawe, contrary to the claims that
the President has made.
There are cheques worth over N100 million
issued to IBAD Nigeria Limited, a construction
company solely owned by Obasanjo, from
Fasawe’s MOFAS TIB accounts,” Garba
revealed.
Shehu charged further that Fasawe made
some direct payments to Obasanjo’s Africa
Leadership Forum, ALF, and to the Obasanjo
Campaign Organisation. “Also, a TIB Abuja
branch cheque of N4 million was issued to
Ibogun-Olaogun Development Association on
26th February, 2004. Ibogun-Olaogun is
Obasanjo’s village,” Garba added for effect.
Garba spilled the beans further, claiming that
from 1999 to the elections in 2003, Adeyanju,
on behalf of Obasanjo, collected over N3
billion from MOFAS account at TIB, Abuja
branch. Atiku further revealed to the Senate
Committee on the Fund how Obasanjo paid a
staggering N250 million of PTDF money to a
lawyer to register a company, Galaxy
Backbone.
NNPC Funds
Like a possessive, jealous husband, Obasanjo
clung to the Ministry of Petroleum Resources
under which is the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. Chief Audu
Ogbeh once told TheNEWS: “I was National
Chairman of PDP for over three years. I was
also honorary Special Adviser on Agriculture.
I know and I was told by many ministers that
President Obasanjo did not for once bring any
memo for the award of oil bloc or contract in
the petroleum sector to council.”
Obasanjo, through his Chief of Staff, General
Abdullahi Mohammed (retd.), allegedly used
the NNPC to unilaterally award contracts
without regard to tender or competitive
bidding. As reported by this magazine in the
past, Mohammed, in a letter entitled,
“Request for Revalidation of Approval for
NNPC funding on the Nigerian Navy” and
dated 18 August 2006, merely stated the
importance of procurement of spare parts for
the Navy and Obasanjo directed NNPC to
award the contract.
Ten days later, Mohammed approved a
contract for the local refit of NN ships and
procurement of spare parts at the cost of
N4.63 billion.
Obasanjo also wrote a letter to the then Group
Managing Director, NNPC, Engineer Funso
Kupolokun, asking the corporation to fund the
training of 50 individuals and establish media
and operational centres in Abuja, Warri and
Port Harcourt for N1.19 billion.
This lack of due process also manifested in
the award of contracts handled by Kinetic
Ltd., which supplied 193 Cobra Armoured
vehicles for the Nigerian Army at the cost of
$35.7 million and was paid through Bankers
Guarantee No. 550-0-0446905 with Invoice No.
STK/2007/088B.
This contract was fixed in January 2007 by
the former Chief of Army Staff, Major-General
Owoye Azazi, on behalf of the Federal
Government. Singapore Kinetics was, through
the NNPC, given an “advance payment”of
$35.7million.
Falana, in his suit, alleged that from 1999 to
2007, Obasanjo had withdrawn over N1trillion
unauthorised and un-appropriated by the
National Assembly, from the NNPC account
and the Federation Account.
A New Revenue Arrangement
At the height of his civilian dictatorship,
Obasanjo whimsically altered the revenue
allocation arrangement so much that the 36
state governors, including those in his party,
PDP, filed a suit at the Supreme Court against
him on 16 September 2002. They alleged that
Obasanjo acted unconstitutionally by coming
up with a new revenue formula without the
approval of the National Assembly.
Two months earlier, Obasanjo approved a
controversial amendment to the Revenue
Allocation Act, giving 54.68 per cent, instead
of 56 per cent, while the state governments
and local governments received 24.72 per
cent and 20.60 per cent instead of 24 and 20
per cent respectively. The Governors charged:
“The modification order issued by the
president is a violation of the judgment of the
Supreme Court.”
Money Given To Ghana
Obasanjo, in July, 2004, whimsically granted
Ghana and the Republic of Sao Tome and
Principe $45 million loans. It was after
questions were raised that he rushed to the
National Assembly. Ghana’s share of $40
million was to help it complete its part of
financing of the West African Gas project
while the remaining $5 million was to enable
Sao Tome and Principe tackle some
immediate problems.
Other Withdrawals
On 9 September 2005, Obasanjo wrote a letter
to the Senate, requesting approval to withdraw
$2.4billion from the account as the
government’s counterpart fund for the Power
Sector Development Scheme, PSDS, and $12.4
billion to offset Nigeria’s debt to the Paris
Club. Although the Senate approved the $12.4
billion to settle the balance of the debt owed
the Paris Club, it resolved that this was
possible after it had been appropriated by
relevant authority as required by law.
But Obasanjo withdrew the $12.4 billion from
the Federation Account, instead of the
Consolidated Revenue Fund Account, which
the upper legislative chamber recommended,
and he also took $2.4 billion PSDS fund
without waiting for the approval of the
relevant authorities.
That time, Chairman, House of
Representatives Committee on Public Finance
and Appropriation, Farouk Lawan, argued that
Obasanjo’s action was illegal. He wondered
why, for instance, Obasanjo’s “request for
fund outside the Appropriation Act was never
brought to the National Assembly for
consideration and possible approval.”
Nigeria Sao-Tome and Principe Joint
Development Authority, JDA
The JDA was formally inaugurated in January
2002 to explore crude oil in the Gulf of Guinea
and the strait between Nigeria and Sao Tome
and Principe. According to the treaty, which
would last for 45 years, with a review due after
30 years, 60 per cent of resources would be
for Nigeria, while 40 per cent would be for Sao
Tomé and Principe.
But the Obasanjo government changed the
goalpost in the middle of the match just one
year after this treaty, a development that
soured the relationship between the two
countries.
Trouble started after the 2003 first licensing
round, FLR, of oil bloc awards. In 2005, the
Sao Tome Attorney-General, Adelino Pereira,
investigated an allegation raised by a United
States of America-based major oil company
on certain shady deals it said characterised
the FLR awards by the JDA. The investigations
were backed by the World Bank and Dobie
Langenkamp, a professor of Energy at the
University of Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA.
According to TheNEWS’ earlier report, the
protesting oil company bid substantially
higher than the Nigerian companies that were
eventually awarded concession.
“But alleged political manipulation and certain
option rights to Environmental Remediation
Holding Corporation, ERHC, the major
beneficiary of the awards, frustrated the US
firm to abandon the cause even though it was
far more qualified and possesses the requisite
financial, technical and managerial
capabilities to handle the lead operations in
the JDZ than the favoured companies.”
EHRC is owned by Chief Emeka Offor, a
controversial politician and friend to
Obasanjo. Other figures close to Obasanjo
were fingered as beneficiaries of the award:
Chief Anthony Anenih, now Nigerian Ports
Authority chairman, who owns controlling
shares in A & Harmattan Ltd., which won oil
bloc 2; Godsonic Incorporated Oil and Gas,
which succeeded in bloc 4; Aliko Dangote
clinched bloc 3 through his company, DEER.
So also did Mike Adenuga, whose Conoil won
in bloc 4 .
“Kema Chikwe, former Aviation Minister,” this
magazine wrote, “is believed to have recruited
Hope Uzodinma, an Obasanjo crony–who was
recently arrested by the Economic and
Financial Commission over an alleged scam–
to float Filtzim-Huzod Oil and gas. The
company, registered in the Cayman Islands,
was yet another beneficiary, as was Sahara
Energy, owned by Tonye Cole, son of Dr.
Patrick Dele Cole, a former Special Adviser to
Obasanjo…”

Apart from lack of a geological or petroleum
engineering academic or professional
expertise, the companies, as the Sao Tome
government alleged, “equally lack the
financial guarantee to actualise operation.”
The Sao Tome AG’s office alleged further:
“The procedures used to select the
companies which received concessions
contained serious flaws and did not satisfy
the minimum standards required for the award
of such licences.” The report views the
Nigerian-owned companies awarded
exploration rights as emergency “investment
vehicles of financial speculators with no track
record of achievement in oil producing or
exploration.” Also regulatory documents
published in the USA, where ERHC is
domiciled, described Offor’s company as
“little more than a paper company with no
operations and just one favourable contract in
its portfolio.”
The Odi Massacre
Odi, a town on the bank of the famous River
Nun, popularised in one of Gabriel Okara’s
poems, has a population of over 60,000. The
inhabitants engage in fishing, farming,
harvesting and processing of oil palm
produce and trading. And it is a host
community for Shell Petroleum Development
Company, which controls three oil wells there.
Early in November, 1999, some youths
abducted and killed 14 policemen. Thereafter,
Obasanjo issued a 14-day ultimatum to the
government of Bayelsa State to produce the
killers or he, Obasanjo, would proclaim a state
of emergency.
Before the expiration of this ultimatum,
however, Obasanjo ordered troops into Odi
and the surrounding villages. The soldiers
cordoned off the East-West Road by the
Orashi River at Mbiama and by the River Niger
at Patani, after which they began a major
military operation with the use of heavy
artillery, aircraft, grenade launchers, mortar
bombs and other sophisticated weapons.
According to the Civil Liberties Organisation, a
human rights non-governmental organisation,
which visited the area after, “So ruthless,
savage and thorough was the operation that it
could only have been intended to achieve a
genocidal outcome.” CLO added that two
weeks after the operation, the stench of
decomposing bodies dumped into various
creeks could still be perceived one kilometre
from the town. And every house in the entire
community, with the exception of the First
Bank, a Community Health Centre and the
Anglican Church, were burnt down.
But the Obasanjo government defended itself.
The invasion, code-named Operation Hakuri II
by the then Minister of Defence, General T.Y.
Danjuma, was “initiated with the mandate of
protecting lives and property–particularly oil
platforms, flow stations, operating rig
terminals and pipelines refineries and power
installation in the Niger Delta.”
The Zaki Biam Killings
Between Monday, 22 October and Wednesday
October 24, 2001, Obasanjo unleashed similar
mayhem on Zaki Biam, Vaase, Agbayin, Gbeji
and Sankara in Benue State for the same
reason–alleged murder of some soldiers.
Amnesty International said: “The government
of Nigeria must…condemn the killings publicly
and make it clear that those responsible will
be held accountable.” But Obasanjo told the
Financial Times, on 9 April 2002, that when
you send in soldiers, “they do not go on a
picnic”, adding that “in human nature,
reaction is always more than the action.”
Loans for Obasanjo Farms Limited
Obasanjo’s transformation in this area is
spectacular. Since its establishment in 1978,
Obasanjo’s farm was surviving on shoe string
but when he became President, the story
changed. Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, a former
Special Assistant to the President on Public
Communications and one time Minister
supervising the Ministry of Aviation, revealed
that the former president’s farm was chalking
in an average of N30 million a month or N360
million per year.
When the former president and Atiku were
engaged in a political brawl, going for each
other’s balls, the Atiku Campaign Organisation
raised the challenge that Obasanjo should tell
Nigerians how he could transform his farm,
which was going under in 1999, to a multi-
billion naira business octopus in 2007.
The former Nigerian leader had only N20,000
in his bank account before he was voted into
power, according to Malam Nasir el-Rufai,
former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory.
But Obasanjo’s spokesman, Uba Sani, said
his principal raised a N2 billion loan for the
farm.
However, Atiku’s foot soldiers replied, asking
Sani to tell that to the marines. They argued:
“The explanation of Uba Sani has only further
exposed the duplicity of General Obasanjo.
General Obasanjo should tell Nigerians how a
farm, which was moribund in 1999 and had to
be bailed out of impending liquidation,
became so rich to generate the collateral for a
N2 billion loan.”
They maintained that one needs a collateral of
about N6 billion to raise a N2 billion loan.
Obasanjo, in their words, “should tell
Nigerians how he transformed from a man,
who his closest minister said had less than
N20, 000 in his account in 1999, to someone
who now has N6 billion collateral to take a N2
billion loan.”
Atiku’s people threw the poser: “Nigerians will
be glad to know if President Obasanjo solely
took a N2 billion loan from the N50 billion
agriculture fund facilitated by the Federal
Government when there are millions of
Nigerian farmers who should access the loan,
but have been crying for access since the
introduction of the loan.
If President Obasanjo collected N2 billion from
a N50 billion agriculture fund approved by his
government, does this portend conflict of
interest or corruption? These are the
questions President Obasanjo should answer
to rescue his sagging integrity.”
Obasanjo As Land Grabber
Obasanjo laid foundation for this when, as a
military head of state, he promulgated the
Land Use Decree in 1978, vesting the
ownership of land in the federal and state
governments. Through that, Obasanjo
dispossessed the people of Akpa in Badagry,
Lagos State, for the building of Bells
University. A protest by the villagers was
crushed by the former president’s soldiers.
The same treatment awaited the people of
Lekitaba and Gembu towns on the Mambilla
Plateau.
They were beaten up by policemen when they
stood up against what their enlightened sons
called “the Savannah leg of the expanding
Obasanjo Farm.” The people of Ishasi-Akute
in Ogun State and Ayetoro Itele via Ayobo in
Lagos State were also given the same dose of
medicine. The rest of the community went
wild, almost creating another Agbekoya that
OBJ went soft, saying in Yoruba: Oto l’eto, oto
le’to (legal and backdoor processes are
different).
People of Awela near Ayetoro also lost 500
hectares of land to OBJ over 12 years ago.
And in 2002, the former president acquired
250 hectares at Ajoda for teak cultivation. The
former Nigerian leader turned the people of
Abela, near Abeokuta, against their leaders
over land.
As this magazine reported in 2007, the people
complained: “He didn’t buy the land from us
properly. What he did was to meet the heads
of families who owned the land and give them
some paltry sums before he took over the
land.”
Alhaji Yusuf told TheNEWS in January 2005
that Obasanjo used his status to “give us
what he likes; the family members are fighting
one another instead of the land grabber
himself.” Close to Iseyin, Oyo State, Jim Shina
Farms offered a N250 million lease to
Obasanjo’s farm for 50 years. For good
measure, he made it possible that an
abandoned Federal Government dam be
resuscitated in order to turn this farm into the
Garden of Eden.
In Cross River state, the story is not different.
In 2001, Obasanjo acquired 10,000 hectares
from the immediate past Governor Donald
Duke for oil palm estate. Also, the retired
general secured an additional 5,000 hectares
at Kwa Plantation and took over the
government oil palm nursery in Ochong.
“When this thing started some few years ago,
Obasanjo was coming here regularly,” Goddy
Akpama, National Democratic Party, NDP,
Publicity Secretary, once lamented to
TheNEWS. He added: “We all thought he was
doing this anti-deforestation campaign. Later
we heard rumours that he was coming to take
over the forest and all that.”
Obasanjo’s over 100 square kilometres of land
spread across nine communities in Akampa
and Akpambuyi local government areas of the
state. At a point, youths from Abiati,
Mfamosing, Aningafe, Mbobui, Ndigane,
Akonganaku and Akira Ikot, all in Akampa
Local Government Area, as well as Effanga
Ikot and Oyom Eneyo, challenged the former
president, a development that led to the
victimisation of Chief Daniel Asuquo, the
chairman of Akampa Council.
He lost his re-election and spent 18 months
in detention on a spurious murder charge,
which the court threw out in 2004. Since 2000,
this magazine gathered, Obasanjo’s oil palm
mill on his plantation, under the supervision
of one Gilbert, a Malaysian, has been
producing 10 tonnes of palm oil per day.

Obasanjo poached a majority of the mill
workers from the Nigerian Institute for Oil
Palm Research, NIFOR, Evborneka in Edo
State. He accommodates them at Kwa
Housing Estate, a former property of Calabar
Sports Club on Ekorenium Road.
In Rivers State, Obasanjo’s oil palm land is
located at Ehuagie in Ogbo/Egbema/Ndoni
Local Government Area. His two fish farms are
at Ota Ahoada and Ogbo communities. He has
other choice parcels of land at Omuotude
area. Analysts, however, are anxious whether
President Umar Yar’Adua’s plan to review the
Land Use Act will affect the former Nigerian
leader.
Unethical Agribusiness Practice
Before becoming president, Obasanjo leased
out his Abeokuta Owiwi Commercial Hatchery
because it was almost going under. An Israeli
farm, Agrited, took over his farm at Oluyole
Local Government in Ibadan. From 1993 to
2004, Avian Specialities was in charge of
Obasanjo’s poultry at Alomaja in Ibadan.
But with a combination of greed, laws
designed to favour his farm at the expense of
others and other underhand tactics, Obasanjo
gained a slow but steady monopoly that
caught his competitors panting like a
beached whale.
It all started on Saturday 24 November 2004
when the management of Zartech Nigeria
Limited, an agribusiness company,
unwittingly invited a goat to come and
inspect its barn of cocoyam! In other words,
the company gave Obasanjo the honour to
unveil its Tunnel Ventilation houses, a new
production system. As the ceremony was
going on, the former president’s mind was
somewhere else.
Something was taking shape in his head. He
shunned the lunch with Maurice Zard,
chairman of the company and skittered to his
Otta farm where he lambasted his own
officials for allowing the other company to
outperform them.
Then Obasanjo started laying his snare, first
by persuading the Poultry Stakeholders
Council, at a meeting, that importation of
grandparent stock, a better breed of chicken,
be controlled. In their communiqué, the
following companies came up for licence:
Zartech Nigeria Limited, Avian Specialities,
Tuns Farms, Oshogbo; Obasanjo Farms, Otta;
Nirrya Farms, Kaduna and S & D.
However, while the stakeholders had their
say, Obasanjo had his way. He jettisoned
their list and came up with four companies:
Obasanjo Farms, S & D Farms, owned by his
chum, Femi Coker; CHI Farms, producers of
Chivita and the National Animal Production
Institute, Shika, Zaria. The stakeholders did
not have any stake in the new scheme!
Those who had the wherewithal were not
given the opportunity while weak ones had a
field day. Zartech, the biggest farm in Nigeria,
with the capacity to slaughter 20,000 chickens
per day, was inexplicably denied the licence.
The new arrangement was such that weaker
farms would supply big players with grand
parent stock.
When the stakeholders complained to the
former Agriculture Minister, Alhaji Adamu
Bello, he threw his hands up in frustration.
Not a company to give up easily, Zartech
seized the opportunity of the inability of the
National Animal Production Research
Institute, NAPRI, to finance what was
approved for it to import. Zartech expressed
its readiness to provide the money. But when
Obasanjo got wind of this, his security goons
arrested Zartech’s Managing Director, Roger
Adjaude and his brother, Tony, and deported
them to Lebanon, their country. Dr. A Oni,
NAPRI boss was also detained.
Obasanjo went further to make it a crime for
any foreign airline to freight the grandparent
stocks to Nigeria without approval from Aso
Rock. They chickened out because they knew
that the former president was a mean and
jealous chicken farmer. Obasanjo went a step
further to make sure the stocks were
intercepted at the border.
With the coast clear, other farms, since then,
have been buying grandparent stocks from
Obasanjo’s farm. Obasanjo’s hatred for
Zartech manifested when he tried to persuade
the United African Company, UAC, not to lease
its farm in Maya, Oyo State to it. But UAC
stood its ground. Worse still, he accused
Agrited of lowering prices, a practice which
Obasanjo himself was guilty of. For this, his
soldiers drove away the Israelis from the farm
he leased to them.
Hurried Terminal Contracts
On 16 May, 13 days to the end of his tenure,
Obasanjo announced to the Federal Executive
Council, FEC, the award of contracts worth
N756 billion. That proposal sailed through the
council like a greased pig in a slaughter
house. As Frank Nweke, then minister of
Information, explained, N70 billion of this
would be for the resuscitation of textile
industries in Nigeria; N58.6 billion for the
second Niger Bridge; its maintenance was to
gulp N42 billion. T
he companies to execute the projects were
not named. Three days earlier, FEC, approved
N16.53 billion port harbours reconstruction in
Lagos; N20 billion, expansion of the Lagos
airport; N4.8 billion, building of the Securities
and Exchange Commission, SEC, permanent
accommodation; and N1.39 billion for the
Ministry of Defence’s permanent residence for
participants of War College Training Course in
Abuja; N1.4 billion, conversion of steam and
head for the power plants; N47.4 billion,
conversion of the Alaoji Power Plant to double
circuit; N3.5 billion for procurement and repair
of two boilers at the Egbin Power Station in
Lagos and N233 million was for fixing the
Agege-Lagos Road.
Professor Daniel Saror, former Minority Leader
of the Senate, told TheNEWS in 2007:
“Obasanjo was dipping his hand into the
Federation Account to execute many projects,
including the power stations in the Niger
Delta. Billions of dollars are being spent on
those projects without the approval of the
relevant agencies. No senator can exercise
oversight function over them because nobody
at the National Assembly knows about the
contracts and the companies handling them.
Senator Farouk Bello Bunza had tried to draw
the attention of the Senate to this anomaly,
but the PDP senators shot his motion down.”
If the above contracts were rubberstamped by
the FEC, it was not aware of when Malam
Muhammad Habibu Aliyu, then Minister of
State for Water Transportation, awarded $140
million worth of contracts for the protection of
the Lagos coastline and N2.3 billion for a river
port in Lokoja.
The FEC neither revealed the contractor nor
how the money would be raised. Worse still,
Obasanjo awarded a N22 billion contract for
the dualisation of the East/West Road without
going through competitive tender. Others
were the Oron-Eket Road awarded for N26.6
billion; Eket-Onne section, N29.4 billion;
Onne-Kaiama section, N86 billion, Kaiama-
Warri Road, N78 billion.
There were also the N30.3 billion contract for
the building of a dam at Karhia, a suburb of
the Federal Capital Territory; dualisation of
Jikwoyi-Karshi Road, N7 billion;
redevelopment of the popular A.Y.A. area N1.5
billion; surveying and mapping of the FCT,
N162.8 million; construction of Abuja Children
Resort Library, N130 million; construction of
comprehensive health centres in the 774 local
government areas across the country, N55
billion. The Millennium Development Goals,
MDGs, fund for the development of the
agricultural sector was to gulp N15 billion and
replacement of dilapidated infrastructure in
the education sector, N600 billion.
He also committed N21.2 billion for the
development of the Middle Rima Valley
Irrigation Project II in Sokoto; rehabilitation of
Sokoto-Talata Mafara-Gusau Road was
reviewed upward to N4 billion; renovation of
the Jigawa Polytechnic, N156 million;
provision of amenities in border communities
around the Nigeria/Niger Republic in Katsina
State, N800 million.
Dr. Joseph Wayas, Second Republic Senate
President, was quoted by a medium: “It was
wrong of Obasanjo to award contracts at a
stage when he should be preparing his
handover notes. Why should you sit for eight
years only to start awarding contracts for
somebody else to supervise? What is your
interest in those contracts? Who do Nigerians
hold accountable for the success or failure of
those contracts?”
Although Frank Nweke, then Minister of
Information, argued they were in order,
because government is a continuum, analysts
wondered that it was the same Obasanjo who,
in 1999, set up the Christopher Kolade Panel
to probe all transactions of the General
Abudusalami Abubakar government.
Siemens
During a news conference last year, acting
U.S. Assistant Attorney-General, Matthew
Friedrich, announced that German company,
Siemens AG, pleaded guilty to Foreign Corrupt
Practices Act violations, one of which was
bribery scandal against some Nigerian big
shots. President Umar Yar’Adua, penultimate
Sunday, directed all relevant security
agencies to investigate it.
A statement, signed by the President’s
Special Adviser on Communications,
Olusegun Adeniyi, read: “The attention of
President Umaru Yar’Adua has been drawn to
media reports of the alleged bribery by an
international telecoms company (Siemens) of
some past Nigerian public officials and the
President wishes to assure the nation that
anybody found culpable in the scandal would
face the full wrath of the law.”
Although Lori Weinstein, the dogged
prosecutor, who pursued the case, did not
reveal the names to Judge Richard Leon, she
said the documents contained clues for the
court to figure out who was who in the $4.5
million bribery scam over $130 million
telecommunications projects between 2000
and 2001. Yar’Adua’s investigation may
unravel who accepted $180,000 wristwatches.
Halliburton Bribes
The Umar Yar’Adua government, according to
analysts, should probe Obasanjo and Atiku
over the Halliburton scam. It was the former
Nigerian leader who started it all when he
mentioned his former VP in the scandal
during the controversial BBC interview. Atiku’s
media aide, Garba Shehu, however, countered:
“Obasanjo had said these and many more
while he was in office.
Yet, with all the law enforcement agencies at
his disposal, he failed to establish a single
case against Atiku. The scandal broke out
after a French court investigated Kellog,
Brown and Root, KBR, a Halliburton
subsidiary, on an allegation that it paid
$180m to FG officials to win contracts for the
construction of the $6 billion NLNG plant. For
this, Halliburton pleaded guilty and agreed to
pay a fine of $579 million.
According to documents on the website of the
US Justice Department, Tri-Star, based in
Gribraltar, and a trading company of Tokyo
were respectively paid $132 million and $50
million to be passed to Nigerian officials. The
EFCC, which once probed the $180m bribe
scandal, interrogated Edmund Daokuru,
former Minister of State in the Petroleum
Ministry, and Funso Kupolokun, then the
Group Managing Director, NNPC.
The scam started from the General Sani
Abacha years–Alhaji M.D. Yusuf and former
oil minister, Dan Etete were named–and
continued under Abdulsalami. Under
Obasanjo, Halliburton twice paid kickbacks–
in 2001, $51 million and in 2002, $37.5
million.
In its 29 March, edition, Next on Sunday
reported that after the “transition to civil rule
in 1999, the United States Department of
Justice attorneys stated that (Albert Jackson
Mr.Stanley, Chief Executive of KBR) met with
the new President, Olusegun Obasanjo and
the then Group Managing Director of NNPC,
Gauis Obaseki, in Abuja on November 11,
2001, to designate ‘a representative with
whom the joint venture… should negotiate the
(obligatory) bribes in support of the award of
the (forthcoming) Trains 4 and 5 contracts.”
Mr. Wojciech Chodan, an American but UK-
based wheeler dealer and Mr.Stanley, as the
newspaper put it, met Obaseki over lunch, “to
discuss the details of the Trains 4 and 5
contracts.”
Violation of Court Orders/Constitution
The one that readily comes to mind was the
way Obasanjo seized the funds of Lagos State
councils, in spite of the Supreme Court ruling.
Jide Ayobolu, a public commentator, once
lamented “a situation where those that swore
on oath to uphold the constitution, are
wantonly violating the constitution.”
Bells University
As President, Obasanjo awarded licence for
himself to establish a private university, Bells.
This is in spite of what is contained in the
statute books that a serving president should
not engage in any business except
agriculture. Analysts argued that it was for
this reason that the former president
victimised former Abia State governor, Orji
Kalu, whose Slok Airline had to relocate to
Gambia.
Though supporters of Obasanjo claimed that
he ran his companies through blind trusts,
but watchers of the government are of the
view that he used his influence to the
advantage of such ventures.
Oil Deals
As petroleum minister, Obasanjo did not
account for oil sales. For this reason and
more, Femi Falana, the human rights lawyer,
dragged the former president to a Federal
High Court, Abuja. Falana charged that
between 2000 and 2006, Nigeria lost over $13
billion unaccounted revenue. “A thorough
investigation will crack the secrecy and reveal
the wanton billions of dollars that had
vanished from the sales book,” Falana
maintained.
He also wants the court to question OBJ on
how he spent over $1billion between 1999
and 2006 for the rehabilitation of the Port
Harcourt and Kaduna refineries, all of which
are not working. “On this score, we have
since confirmed that more than $700million
was misappropriated to enrich Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo and his cronies and to fund his
political party, the People Democratic Party,
PDP,” Falana alleged, adding that in the end
Obasanjo sold off the refineries as scraps.
A can of worms was opened by Hamman
Tukur, Chairman Revenue Mobilisation
Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC)
when he called President Umaru Musa Yar’
Adua in August 2007.
According to Mathias Okoi-Uyouyo, in his
book, EFCC and the New Imperialism, A study
of Corruption in the Obasanjo Years, “Tukur
who almost bit the dust in the dying days of
the Obasanjo administration (due to his
campaigns for probity in governance), told
Yar’Adua that the Nigerian National Petroleum
Company (NNPC) had withheld a total sum of
N560 billion from the Federation Account from
December 2004 to April 2007.”
Tukur, as the writer puts it, revealed that
NNPC lifts 445,000 barrels of crude oil every
day for domestic refining but it sells most of
these to refineries outside the country,
especially because our refineries are not
operating at full capacity.
The NNPC pays for refining and collects all
the refined products but Nigeria and collects
all the refined products but Nigerians only
see kerosene, PMS and diesel. “Revenue from
the sale of the other LFPO should be enough
to recover costs and save Nigerians from
price increase. (However,) the NNPC does not
account for the other products but it also
withholds about N20billion every month from
the Federation Account as subsidy.”
The critic maintained further that there is also
the need to question the rationale of the
NNPC being supplied 450,000 barrels of crude
oil a day when the refineries when functioning
at full capacity can only refine 300,000 barrels
a day. The refining capacity of the refineries
during the period under review has further
plunged to 150,000 barrels per day from
250,000 barrels per day in 1999, yet 450,000
barrels were daily supplied to it.
In his calculation, Okoi-Uyouyo said that in
2001, when the local allocation was increased,
crude oil was selling at N35per barrel in the
international market. “The price NNPC was
paying is $18 per barrel for an excess 300,000
barrels it could not refine. A profit of
$5,100,000 was earned daily from this
transaction. The crude oil was paid for in
naira by the NNPC.
The organisation paid the Central Bank of
Nigeria at N110 to a dollar, when the existing
rate of the dollar in the foreign exchange
market was N135 to a dollar.” The book
further tells Nigerians that revelation by NEITI
on an audit carried on its behalf by the United
Kingdom-based audit firm, Hart Group,
showed that about 65million barrels of crude
oil sold between 1999 and 2004 could not be
accounted for.”
Privatisation of State-Owned Enterprises
According to a survey contained in Mathias
Okoi-Uyonyo’s book, EFCC and the New
Imperialism, the Privatisation programme
under Obasanjo was implemented in a
“manner that handed over these public
assets at ridiculously low prices to people
alleged to be his business associates or that
of his family members. Typical examples were
his Nigerian Telecommunications and
Ajaokuta Steel Complex.” On NITEL, Falana
has an axe to grind with OBJ.
The Investors International Limited, ILL, of
London is, as the lawyer explained, owned by
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s cronies and was
“induced into buying up NITEL”. First Bank,
therefore, as the lawyer said, lent $100million
to ILL, which the company paid as part of the
required 10 per cent deposit to Bureau of
Public Enterprises, BPE, in lieu of NITEL
shares. Questions were raised on the loan
because it breached the Bank and Other
Financial Institution Act, BOFIA, 1991, which
states that no bank can give a loan to a single
client in excess of 35 per cent of the value of
its shareholders’ fund.
But Obasanjo, as Falana alleged, withdrew
$100 million from the Federation Account
without appropriation by the National
Assembly to offset NITEL’s indebtedness to
the bank, just before the auction took place.
Obasanjo also has questions to answer on the
Aluminum Smelter Company of Nigeria,
ALSCON, Ajaokuta Steel Company, Hilton
Hotel, NICON Insurance plc, Federal
Government houses and others.
For Obasanjo, therefore, to say to the
international community that he is clean,
analysts conclude, he was playing the
ostrich. To them, his backside is exposed to
the wind, desert wind!
The News Magazine

Obj is a great grandfather of corruption . GEJ till 2019!!!

The problem in Nigeria is the lack of any investigative police system that can bring people to justice. The only people they bring to "justice" are criminals caught redhanded, those tortured ruthlessly to confess and those that doesn't have money to bribe them and the judges.

It is a jungle justice. No justice. In a normal world,OBJ won't be free to walk the street at this point in time,talk less of contributing to the country's politics.

As of Now.. Am just declaring my full support to my President... GEJ.....
Ride on Omo Otuoke till 2019.. And hand over to young Dude like Seun Osewa....

Is that al u v? There r more jor. Al of us knw obj na criminal
Bt ow does dt change d fact dt we wil vote out gej as we dnt want cycles of thieves in govt.
Obj na thief does nt make any oda thief better
Obj is nt contesting I guess n if gej get little brain y not investigate obj, gej sees nothin wrong in corruption. Sad

obasanjo is the king of corruption. if you want to learn how to be corrupt, meet Obasanjo and Tinubu for training. it is free.

The same Obasanjo endorsing Buhari, hmmmmmm!

I wish God can bomb our corrupt leaders right from the Top.

Imagine OBJ calling GEJ corrupt......kettle calling pot black.


If some1 or something is to unveil the way our politricktians embezzle money....hmm! We'll surely run away from Nigeria.

Be it GMB, GEJ nd OBJ....they all ready av a special account for their 30th century nd greatest grand children to spend.

Now, our currency has no value again...petroleum is becoming less relevant....other factors are stagnant cos we so much depend on Petroleum.

I can't help but weep for our coming generation....those lil kids who doesn't know when it all started. ouch!

So many university undergraduates wants to go into politics immediately they graduate......hehe! Not because they love Nigeria dearly but because they know ao much their parents who're politicians embezzle per day.

*sighs*

Some fools are so blind dat dey'lld shout sai Buhari nd GEJ2019 till they fall into d pit of stagnation nd poverty...not reasoning nd viewing with inner eyes what d future holds. Mtcheew


There's no way outta corruption unless God intervenes. No way.

TKO

lanicky:
I wish God can bomb our corrupt leaders right from the Top.

Imagine OBJ calling GEJ corrupt......kettle calling pot black.


If some1 or something is to unveil the way our politricktians embezzle money....hmm! We'll surely run away from Nigeria.

Be it GMB, GEJ nd OBJ....they all ready av a special account for their 30th century nd greatest grand children to spend.

Now, our currency has no value again...petroleum is becoming less relevant....other factors are stagnant cos we so much depend on Petroleum.

I can't help but weep for our coming generation....those lil kids who doesn't know when it all started. ouch!

So many university undergraduates wants to go into politics immediately they graduate......hehe! Not because they love Nigeria dearly but because they know ao much their parents who're politicians embezzle per day.

*sighs*

Some fools are so blind dat dey'lld shout sai Buhari nd GEJ2019 till they fall into d pit of stagnation nd poverty...not reasoning nd viewing with inner eyes what d future holds. Mtcheew


There's no way outta corruption unless God intervenes. No way.

Who are you and what have you done to nike? Lol

As for your post..... WORD!!!!!

JeffreyJamez:


Who are you and what have you done to nike? Lol

As for your post..... WORD!!!!!

I forced Nike to politrictians section...

Abi.

Come OP,

Make una leave our "progressive" Navigator alone ooo!


Emm, Ebuka please come and interpret my post oo.
So many here won't understand

I said it before that all the people who keeps 9ja down perpetually by reason of their greed wiil one day expose themselves, following which their crash will come.
When the war to rescue 9ja eventually gets underway, it will be operation 'know your enemy'.
Everyone will know whom to face.

But first, there will surely be a devastating bombshell to scatter them.