I welcome your thoughts

[size=18pt]26 September, 2002, BBC News
Deal on Abacha's millions 'collapses'[/size]

Reports from Switzerland say a deal on the return to Nigeria of millions of dollars deposited in Swiss banks by the late Nigerian military ruler, General Sani Abacha, has collapsed.

Swiss Justice Ministry officials are quoted as saying the deal has fallen through because General Abacha's son, Mohammed, has not signed vital legal papers releasing the money.
The extraordinary out-of-court agreement between Nigeria and General Abacha's bereaved family was reached in May.

It was agreed the general's family could keep $100 million provided that his son signed an agreement enabling foreign banks in Switzerland and elsewhere to return to Nigeria a further $1 billion of allegedly looted money.

Embarrassment

The deal was apparently linked to the release from prison this week of Mohammed Abacha, ending his three-year period behind bars on charges of embezzlement.

Suspicions that the deal might be going awry arose on Wednesday when jubilant Mohammed was quoted as saying that - despite his release - he had made no commitment to sign anything.

Now the increasingly embarrassed Swiss authorities have acknowledged that they have received no signed papers, and therefore are in no position to hand over any of the Abacha family fortune to Nigeria.

Throughout this long affair, Nigerian President Obasanjo has faced a no-win situation.

He was condemned by one side for negotiating any deal with the Abachas.

At the same time, Mr Abacha's supporters slammed the president for detaining the general's son for so long on what they say are spurious charges

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2282366.stm
[size=18pt]It now all makes sense.

Obasanjo had to release Mohammed Abacha because of pressure from powerful traditional leaders and Emirs in Kano, who had been lobbied by Abacha's widow Maryam Abacha.


It is now clear to me that there was no deal with Abacha family, because they had no loot in foreign accounts.

Obasanjo knew that after he was forced to released Mohammed Abacha, he had to also drop the fake legal cases in foreign countries as he does want Mohammed Abacha, to get a chance to expose his lies in open court.

Which is why Obasanjo never resumed the prosecution after he claimed Mohammed Abacha had reneged on the deal.

If you have a more plausible explanation, I would be interested to hear it
[/size]

^

Nigerians are so gullible.
Never ever asked Obasanjo which member of Abacha's family he reached the deal with?

I am sure if he was forced to answer Obasanjo would probably claim that Abubakar Baguda (the fake Abacha business partner) made the deal on behalf of Mohammed Abacha.

Na wa ooh for Nigerians

[size=18pt]How Abacha Was Killed, By Uba Ahmed[/size]

Of course Abacha never died a natural death. Abacha was murdered. You see there were two Indian girls who were dormant operators of the foreign intelligence and they had to be flown in because every measures that were taken to get assess to Abacha was aborted because of the vigilance of his Security Agents. So when the two girls came, they were introduced to Abacha through his innocent friends, they don't even know what this girls were all about.

But for you to know that Abacha was killed deliberately, you need to read either Newsweek or The Time magazine I'm not sure which of the two because it's now almost 9 years ago. But one of them when they were covering the death of Abacha, you need to read loaded sentence, it said Abacha died, I am quoting now "Abacha died because he took a pill which he thought was Viagra" it obviously means by this sentence that the author of that story knew that Abacha was not taking Viagra and it also means that the suggestion of that writing that the very person who administered that drug on him knew it was administering Viagra. Therefore it meant he was being administered with poison and there is no doubt about it. With the way he died and the immediacy of his death having taken the drug speaks load. Viagra doesn't kill in minutes. But he died minutes after taking the pill. He was obviously killed and that is my conclusion.

You were the Minister of Labour then and was still in office for sometime after Abacha died so why were the Indian ladies not arrested and so on?

You know this is a security matter. I did not know how the security people handled it, but I do remember very well that I called their attention to that publication and I asked them to read it very well and to read it between the lines. So what they did to them, I knew also that they put them under house arrest not in prison but under house arrest. So I won't be able to say much about the security aspect of that one.

In fact they wanted Abacha to die because they wanted the Nigerian naira to go back from where it has come from the SAP era so that it will continue to have a free fall like we are having during Obasanjo and they wanted to take over our oil, all our assets to be sold and indeed all our assets have effectively been sold now by Obasanjo. They did not only sell but they even confiscated by force, unconstitutionally, illegally properties of Nigerian citizens and allotted it to themselves. That is the kind of government we went through for eight years.

Abdulsalami Abubakar himself did not help us when he took over, because when they were talking of Abacha having so much money or Abacha loot, Abacha loot. What has amazed me and what has surprised me is that no Nigerian yet has taken it up to embark on investigative reporting to find out really how did Abdulsalam Abubakar came about the information of Abacha loot in Switzerland.

Switzerland is one country where the Jews have been hiding their assets and wealth, gold, money and everything they own that is precious since 1917 during the 1st world war including the 2nd world war, from 1917 till today the Jews are unable to get assess to their inheritance because of the coding system and the absolute secrecy with which the Swiss account are shrouded and yet Abdulsalami was able to tell us within his 7 days of ascendancy to power that Abacha looted money and that they have found out the account, they have found out the numbers and that they have found out the balances.

Now I will tell you one thing. When Obasanjo came he confirmed it and having confirmed that he even went forward to say they have recovered some of the loot and our Senate made it as one of the basis of impeaching Obasanjo, the disclosure of the money they have recovered because its not been receipts, it has never been reflected in our accounts, budget or the federation account and therefore the senators when they wanted to impeach him made that as one of the subjects of investigation and impeachment.

I can even tell you more, like I have told you repeatedly, Abacha's government was the only government that operated under sanction, yet when he came to power Nigeria was owing foreign loan of $33 billion by the time he left Abdulsalami himself had announced in his budget speech that our loan was reduced to 26 billion which meant during the 5 years of Abacha, he was able to repay 7 billion dollars.

In addition to the repayment of 7 billion to our foreign debt, we had a domestic debt of over a hundred million (100,000,000), Abacha paid it. Abacha left foreign reserve of $9 billion when you add that to $7 billion that is $16 billion.role of the west, economic policies and more,


http://odili.net/news/source/2007/oct/21/200.html

[size=18pt]Abacha in the eyes of Bishop Ajakaye[/size]

Written by Kayode Adegbenro Saturday, 29 October 2011 05:00

The memory of good performance is always impossible to obliterate because action speaks louder than words, as saying goes. Speaking at a recent thanks-giving church service to the mark the first year in office of Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, the Catholic Bishop of Ekiti Diocese, the Most Reverend Felix Femi Ajakaye, told his audience that it was impossible to write the history of the state without bringing the late military ruler, General Sani Abacha, into reckoning. According to him, General Abacha would always be remembered whenever the issue of state creation is being discussed. He recalled with passion, how God used General Abacha to bring the dream of the people of Ekiti State to reality, adding that the indigenes of the state should remain ever grateful to the late military leader.

Bishop Ajakaye argued that despite the atrocities allegedly committed by late General Abacha, “God used him (Abacha) to fulfill what he sent him to do.” Prejudice is the greatest enemy of objective assessment of leaders, which is why General Abacha’s enemies always pretend that there was nothing positive the late military leader ever did for Nigeria. However, as Bishop Ajakaye argued, “we must always give honour to whom honour is due.” It takes courage to publicly praise the record of a leader to whom some people attributed the worst evils, playing down the greater part of the contributions of General Abacha to Nigeria’s development.

If Nigerians would have the courage to overcome prejudice, it may always be easy to assess our leaders objectively, regardless of which section of Nigeria they come from. The greatest problem with Abacha’s enemies is that his achievements were so remarkable that it is impossible to erase them even with the dynamite of hate and prejudice. Abacha bashing has become a hobby for his hardened enemies who ironically cannot beat his record. In his recent weekly column in the National Mirror newspaper, former President Obasanjo used General Abacha as an example of why men commit evil. General Obasanjo, who was analysing the contagion of global terrorism with particular reference to the Norwegian serial killer who attacked innocent youths, men and women, unleashed incredible venom on General Abacha’s memory.

There was no military administration, including the one General Obasanjo headed from 13th February, 1976 to 1st October 1979, that was totally free of abuses. In 1977, the late Fela’s mother, Mrs. Funmilayo Ransom-Kuti, was mysteriously killed by the so-called unknown soldiers, which was the official explanation offered over her death. Despite this atrocious record of human rights abuse, objective Nigerians still give General Obasanjo due credit for the good things he did while he was in office as a military dictator. However, since General Abacha’s administration convicted him for alleged coup plotting, Obasanjo doesn’t want to hear anything positive about Abacha.

However, with courageous Nigerians like Bishop Ajakaye, no amount of enemy attacks can wipe away General Abacha’s impressive performance record in office in just five years he was destined to rule Nigeria. General Obasanjo received more oil revenue than Abacha, in addition to the 18 billion dollar debt relief granted Nigeria when he was in power as a civilian leader from 1999 to 2007. Yet, despite the semblance of superior morality which Obasanjo presented to gullible Nigerians, corruption grew like weed under his feet and his performance in the social service areas didn’t match the huge revenue that came to his administration.

The condition of social services and national infrastructure deteriorated under Obasanjo and, despite the 16billion dollars supposedly spent on power rehabilitation, the investment went down the drain. While South Africa generates 45,000 megawatts of electricity, Nigeria is still hovering between 2,500 and 3000 megawatts since 1999. And this was despite Obasanjo’s commitment to improve power generation to 10,000 megawatts by the end of 2007. Until he left office, the picture in terms of infrastructure remained bleak.

However, with only 30 billion naira in its entire existence covering five years, Abacha’s Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), which managed the proceeds of petroleum subsidy withdrawal, achieved more remarkable results than Obasanjo’s entire eight years in power. Condition of roads, hospitals, schools, water supply systems and other critical areas of social service were by far better under Abacha. Abacha’s other legacies such as the National Hospital, the Gwarinpa Housing Estate, the largest single housing project of its kind in Africa, are still standing as permanent evidence of the positive legacy of Abacha. Through the Petroleum Trust Fund, headed by General Buhari under Abacha’s regime, Nigerians felt the impact in so many areas such as free drugs from government hospitals, road maintenance etc… Are our refineries operating at full capacity today? Has corruption stopped in the country? Why is insecurity worse? Can Obasanjo absolve himself of blame for failing to fix this shameful national decay? Where did all the trillions of dollars investments go? Nigerians should pity the late President Yar’Adua and President Jonathan for taking the burden of Obasanjo’s failure. They took over a country in bad shape under the wings of a self-righteous President (Obasanjo). Bishop Ajakaye must be commended for his courage to assess Abacha objectively even if it might offend his implacable enemies like Obasanjo.

http://weeklytrust.com.ng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7487:abacha-in-the-eyes-of-bishop-ajakaye&catid=1:comments&Itemid=109

Can anybody translate?

http://www.freedomradionig.com/news/interviews-and-special-events/item/38-interview-with-hajiya-maryam-abacha

[size=18pt]Group takes FG to court about whereabouts of " Abacha loot" they claimed to have recovered.[/size]

Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), an indigenous civil
society organization (NGO) has dragged the Federal Government to court over
alleged failure to release information and documents on the spending of recovered
stolen funds.

SERAP said the suit which was filed last week at the Federal High Court in the
commercial city of Lagos followed a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the
Accountant General of the Federation dated 26 September 2011.

The revelation that Nigerian past and present public officials stashed away the
country’s resources abroad prompted former President Olusegun Obasanjo to
commence bid to recover in 2000, after the inauguration of democracy on May 29,
1999.

To achieve the goal, Obasanjo established the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) and appointed Malam Nuhu Ribadu to head the anti-graft
agency to urgently proceed in the search for over $400 bilion looted by past
leaders of the country.

Many years down the line, hundreds of millions of dollars allegedly stashed by
late General Sani Abacha were said to have returned to the country. Many groups
have claimed that not less than $3 billion was looted by corrupt leaders during the
regime of the late military junta. Some authorities have alleged that the large bulk
of this amount were in Swiss accounts. Jersey Island, for instance, in 2003 was
reported to have returned about $180 million of Abacha’s loot traced to seven of its
banks. So far, the bulk of the alleged Abacha’s money have be traced to and
recovered from Switzerland.

In the same vein, the Swiss ambassador to Nigeria , Dr. Pierre Helg had disclosed
in February 2006 that a whooping sum of $700 million had been returned to
Nigeria .

Meanwhile there were also report that attempt was made by the military regime of
General Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd) to recover wealth traced to Abacha’s family
between 1998/1999.

On March 22, 1999, Abdulsalami’s regime revealed that Abacha’s son and Bashir
Dalhatu had returned $58m and 30m /Deutsch Mark, while former finance
minister, Chief Anthony Ani, was reported to have returned an undisclosed amount.

As at August 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan has recovered funds amounting
to 22.5 million ponds sterling from the Isle of Jessey in the United Kingdom.

The organization in a statement issued at the weekend, noted that under the FOI
Act, it has the right to request for or gain access to information which is in the
custody or possession of any public official, agency or institution.

The plaintiff explained that the suit is seeking an order “granting leave to the
Plaintiff/Applicant to apply for judicial relief and to seek an order of mandamus
directing and or compelling the Defendants/Respondents whether by themselves
and/or their agents to disclose to and or make available to the Applicant the
information requested as contained in a letter dated 26 September 2011 to the
Accountant General of the Federation.”

According to the plaintiff, “The disclosure of the information requested will give the
general public a true picture and a clear understanding of how the spending of
recovered public stolen funds have impacted on the lives of the poor and indigent
and other disadvantaged Nigerians.”

The statement further disclosed that no date has however been fixed for the
hearing of the application

http://www.africanexaminer.com/loot1212

[size=18pt]Abacha's Government was the best and most determined Nigeria ever had - Chairman of defunct Triax Airline, Chief Arthur Eze[/size]

Written by Shehu Abubakar
Wednesday, 23 December 2009 00:28

Defunct military government of late General Sani Abacha was the best and most determined administration Nigeria ever had, Chairman and Chief Executive of defunct Triax airline, Chief Arthur Eze said yesterday.

Speaking with aviation correspondents, Chief Eze said the late Abacha’s administration was able to execute so many projects in the country, adding that most of the good roads in the country today, the legislative quarters and the National Assembly building were all built by military regimes.

He said today’s politicians are only “busy sharing money” while the people are dying.

“For the past ten years the civilians have been in power, the Enugu/Onitsha expressway could not be rehabilitated. But I know God will ask them question one day. Abacha has never given me contract and I did not ask him. But all the Military Governors that gave me contract, no one asked me to give him anything. No politician will give you contract without asking for percentage,” he claimed.

Chief Eze said though democracy remains the most acceptable form of governance, it is regrettable that Nigerian politicians are not doing what is expected of them.

He said the late Abacha led military never used the award of contracts and execution of projects as a means of stealing public funds.

https://www.nairaland.com/370533/abacha-best-govt-nigeria-had

^

I have been searching for weeks for any interview where the Abacha family has been given a chance to answer the allegations against Abacha and their family.

Do yo know that it has proved more or less impossible for me to find such interviews?

Why is the press reluctant for Nigerians to hear the other side of the story?

We really need to open our eyes ooh!

[size=18pt]What happened to "Abacha loot" supposedly "recovered"?[/size]
1/4/2007

For eight memorable years, the Nigerian government has talked about battling corruption. Particular attention has been paid to the money stolen by former Head of State Sani Abacha, who died the year before President Olusegun Obasanjo returned to the throne.

Nobody knows how much the General behind the dark glasses actually plundered. I feel that Nigeria ought to know, in one clear statement, all the sums that are involved, particularly how much we have recovered, and how these funds have or are being spent. A war against corruption can be worse than corruption itself unless it is transparent.

For me, the Abacha treasure hunt is troubling. Here is my timeline:

In December 1999, Swiss authorities said they had frozen $550 million in bank accounts that belonged to Abacha, his family, and his associates including former National Security Adviser Ismaila Gwarzo, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu and other businessmen; the court order covered 120 accounts in a dozen banks.

In January 2000, the Swiss authorities announced they had frozen a total of $645 million linked to Abacha.

In April 2000, over $300 million of the stolen funds was reported to have been found in England.

In May 2000, the International Herald Tribune said over $1 billion had been found in various accounts in Europe in the names of the Abacha family or his associates.

In May 2000, Luxembourg confirmed it had found and frozen $630 million in eight bank accounts in MM Warburg & Co., a private bank, in the names of Alhaji Sani Mohammed and Abba Sani Mohammed, Abacha’s sons, pending Nigeria’s official claim.

In its May 2000 story, the IHT also reported that “part of an additional $654 million” had been found in Switzerland’s famous Credit Suisse.

In July 2000, Switzerland returned $64 million to Nigeria.

In August 2000, Nigeria asked Liechtenstein to help recover 100m British pounds.

In April 2001 the Financial Services Authority, Britain's financial watchdog, revealed that 23 London banks had handled $1.3bn belonging to family and friends of General Abacha.

Also that month, judicial authorities in Britain reportedly ordered some of the world's largest banks to freeze accounts believed to belong to the former dictator.

In October 2001, it was reported that the British High Court has given the government the go-ahead to help Nigeria trace more than $1bn allegedly looted by late dictator Sani Abacha; in an editorial, The Guardian newspaper (London) criticized banks in London for their reluctance to help Nigeria.

In May 2002, President Obasanjo struck a deal with Abacha's survivors under which the government was to recover about $1.2 billion while the Abachas kept $100 million and par bonds worth $300 million.


In November 2003, Finance Minister Okonjo-Iweala said the Nigerian government had recovered $149 million from the Island of Jersey, an offshore-banking centre in the British-ruled Channel Islands; she said the money was different from the $618 million for which she had just visited Switzerland and was confident that country would return to Nigeria.

In September 2004, Okonji-Iweala said the Swiss authorities had agreed to release $500 million of the Abacha loot.

In September 2005, in Switzerland, Okonjo-Iweala said Nigeria had recovered $458 million, with $290 million returned and the remainder set to follow.

At that same press conference, Okonjo-Iweala said Nigeria had recovered “about $2 billion total of assets” up to that point (including the $458 million subject of the conference).

In July 2006, a judicial officer said in Geneva that Switzerland was returning $66 million to Nigerian authorities.

In December 2006, La Declaration de Berne, a Swiss humanitarian body, said there had been irregularities in Nigeria;’s use of these funds, alleging that a total of $700 million had been repatriated to Nigeria by the Swiss, but that about $200 million had been siphoned off.

In January 2007, the Nigerian Embassy in Switzerland denied reports that $200 million of the Abacha loot returned by Swiss banks had “dropped on its way to Nigeria.”

On16 February 2007, the Finance Minister Nenadi Usman said the FG was investigating how the recovered Abacha loot totaling some N65 billion was being spent.

Before I comment any further, let me background this story, and recall that in November 1998, Mr. Michael Ani, Nigeria’s former Finance Minister, said that in the process trying to handover to General Abdussalam Abubakar, $1.3bn in illegal withdrawals had been discovered. They had been made by Ismaila Gwarzo under the personal authority of Abacha. Mr. Ani stated that some of the money was traced to Beirut, and that $700 million was recovered.

Now, this story is from my own research. It would be interesting for the federal government to publish a single, similar, official account for the records. Mr. Ani’s recovered $700 million is not a part of President Obasanjo’s “efforts,” for instance, but it forms part of the full Abacha story.

What is more important is how much Nigeria lost to looters of the treasury and how much has been recovered. Speaking in London in November 2006, Nuhu Ribadu, the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, said: “Abacha took over $6 billion from Nigeria.”

He confirmed that $2 billion has been recovered. “The rest is still hanging there outside and we’re trying to get it,” he said.

As many Nigerians know, part of the reluctance of the Swiss authorities to hand over Abacha’s loot to Nigeria was that the money would be squandered. They wanted guarantees as to how the money would be used. The Nigerian government swore the funds would be committed to infrastructure and education. I am one of those who said it was none of their business, similar to my position on the cancellation of Nigeria’s foreign debt. I will return to that on another occasion.

Under Obasanjo, Nigeria has been awash with resources for development, including the Abacha loot. The question is why we are clearly faring badly. The recovered funds, according to the government, were given to five ministries: Power, Works, Health, Education, and Water Resources.

While we cannot wait for the report of Minister Usman’s investigation, it is clearly hard not to laugh. Power? Nigeria’s power situation is worse now than at any other time, but what is really frightening is that it has grown worse and worse throughout Obasanjo’s tenure.

Works? Nigeria has spent close to N900 billion (that is billion) on roads since 1999, as I explored “Road Closed” in this column on December 4, 2006. We are yet to see the roads. The Lagos-Benin Road, the nation’s most important, has fallen apart again. Last December, as a piece of band-aid was pasted on the wound for Christmas, Cornelius Adebayo, the Minister for Works, said “major reconstruction” would begin right after to ensure “total rehabilitation.”

That was early in December. The work is yet to begin, and N6 billion that was allegedly approved for it last year has disappeared in a bureaucratic muddle. The Minister says the funds are available, while the Chairman of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency says it is trapped in a supplementary budget. It would be recalled that the federal government confessed the road was not provided for in the 2006 budget.

Health? Nigeria’s health services have improved so much that Nigeria’s top citizens are still being flown abroad in executive jets to treat a cold or an ankle sprain.

Education? Our education is such a success story that last week that lectures stopped on university campuses as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) began a new strike over a 2001 agreement with the government. The Minister of Education took a cushy new job as far away as possible, in Washington DC. Phew!

Water Resources? I have complained endlessly in this column about Nigeria’s failure to make water available nationwide.

Into these graveyards, Nigeria says, is where all of the funds recovered so far from the Abacha estate have been buried. And the same government which has consistently and conveniently refused to distinguish between the recovered sums and the regular budget, thereby making the returned loot impossible to track, says it is “investigating.” Talk about effrontery.


http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/sonala-olumhense/abacha-did-we-loot-the-looter-17.html

Abacha na biggest thief ever

something is deeply wrong somewhere.either the western govt is involved in all these brouhaha to make a good junta regime that didn't play ball with them with the help of the man the installed after killing abacha,or someone is smoking high on something. but left with me,1999 down to 2012,i wud still prefer abacha regime.

^^You are a rare voice of reason on this thread

Google Obsanjo loot and you would get lots of hits, telling you all the schemes that we could all verify . which Obj used to loot us dry.


Google Abacha loot and you would get just accusation that he looted and any schemes described are just re-iteration of Obasanjo's accusations and cannot be independentably verified


Welcome aboard the ship of enlightenment

[size=18pt]January 1995 African Business
Abacha's probe of major institutions for corruption[/size]

When President Abacha instituted a series of probes into 12 institutions in 1993, perhaps he did not expect the revelations that emerged to be as startling as they are. Over $12bn seem to have disappeared and among the people implicated is the former Head of State, Gen Babangida. Can, and will Abacha bring the culprits to book, asks Ochereome Nnanna, especially when he appears to have so many skeletons in this own cupboard?

FOR almost a year now, some of Nigeria's most distinguished jurists, academics, business and local political leaders and a host of other delegates have been meeting in closed session to trash out a new Constitution for the country. If the military government of Gen Sani Abacha is to be believed, the future of Nigeria's political and economic direction will be based on the conclusions of the Constitutional Conference.

The question is can the Government be believed? The Constitutional Conference should have concluded its deliberations by October last year. At the moment, there is no sign that even a draft frame--work has been agreed upon. And the longer the conference continues, the longer the military government can delay making firm commitments about a return to democracy. In the meanwhile, the entire nation seems to be drifting aimlessly in a state of limbo.

However, an earlier series of commissions to probe, among other things, the activities of former officials, including the former Head of State, Gen Ibrahim Babangida, has presented its findings. The report, especially on corruption, have been shocking, even by Nigerian standards.

Rarely do incoming Nigerian administrations probe their predecessors. Corruption investigations, they believe, are a waste of time and resources that would produce no useful results.

Of the nine post-independence regimes, only General Murtala Muhammad (1975), and Major General Muhammadu Bahari (1984) set up major investigations into the activities of their immediate predecessors, due largely to their self-styled populist leanings.

So when General Abacha pledged to probe strategic public institutions in his November 17 maiden broadcast in 1993 as Nigerian Head of State, not a few Nigerians were sceptical of his motives. This was particularly true since Abacha himself had been a prominent member of General Ibrahim Babangida's regime. But amid doubts and cynicism, the General went ahead.

Among the institutions the General decided to probe were Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL) - with a corruption panel headed by retired Air Vice Marshal Suleiman Natiti and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) - with a panel Chaired by retired Major General Emmanuel Abisoye. A Customs Service panel was led by retired Major General David Jemibewon, a Judiciary panel led by retired Supreme Court Justice Kayode Esho, and a Central Bank of Nigeria panel led by Dr Pius Okigbo, a chartered economist and Nigerian National Merit Award laureate.

All the panels submitted their reports detailing far reaching criticisms of institutional structures and operational procedures. The reports indict the boards and managers of all but NITEL.

Air Vice Marshal Natiti and the panel investigating NITEL actually go so far as to recommend the reinstatement of the NITEL management and its Managing Director, Engineer Augustine Otiji. The management, according to the panel, has turned NITEL from a heavily subsidised government department into a profit making organisation with improved services since its commercialisation in 1991.

However, the report on the Central Bank stands out, not only because it has exposed high levels of abuse of public funds, but also its no holds barred style and presentation.

Yet, of the 12 major areas the panel examined, the most interesting, as far as the public is concerned, was the section dealing with Dedicated and other Special Accounts. According to the report, "these [accounts] were established in 1988 to house the proceeds of the sale of crude oil dedicated to special projects and to receive the windfall oil revenue from the Gulf War.

"Between September 1988 and June 30 1994," the report states, "$12.4bn [over N264bn at the Government pegged exchange rate of N22 to the dollar or over N900bn at the black market rate of N70 to the dollar as at mid-October 1994] had been recorded in these accounts.

$12.2bn liquidated

"That $12.2bn was liquidated in less than six years; that this was spent on what could neither be adjudged as genuine high priority, nor truly regenerative investment; that neither the President [General Babangida] nor the [Central Bank's] Governor [Alhaji Abdulkadir Ahmed] accounted to anyone for these massive extra-budgetary expenditures; that these disbursements were clandestinely undertaken while the country was openly reeling from a crushing external debt overhang - these represent, Sir, no matter the justification for creating the accounts, a gross abuse of public trust."

Dr Okigbo told General Abacha that if the money or a significant portion of it had been paid in to the external reserves, Nigeria's exchange rate problems, the attitude of her external creditors, the investment climate and Nigeria's image abroad would have benefited incalculably. Resignedly he advised that the $206m left in the account be paid into the external reserve.

Indeed the Okigbo panel confirms a story written by former Financial Times correspondent, William Keeling, who in 1992 was sent packing from Nigeria for alleging that the Babangida regime had spent $3bn on the ECOMOG operations - the military arm of the Economic Community of West African States - hosted the expensive OAU summit in 1991 to become its Chairman, and also spent N4.65bn on an unviable aluminium smelting plant in Ikot Abasi, Eastern Nigeria, against the advice of Western creditors. A World Bank report describes the project as the most expensive of its kind in the world. Contracts were allegedly padded, and the project has yet to be completed. The former President and the Governor of the Central Bank were implicated in the Central Bank saga by de-cree number 24 of 1991 which granted the Bank autonomy from the Federal Ministry of Finance but placed it directly under the overweening influence of the President, thus making a mockery of the long-standing agitation for the Bank's independence.

Shocked Nigerians have reacted sharply to the Okigbo panel revelations. Chief Onaolapo Soleye, a former Finance Minister under the Buhari regime, wants General Babangida and Alhaji Ahmed tried for economic sabotage. "They should be jailed," said Chief Sam Mbakwe, a Second Republic Governor of Imo State, during an interview with Tempo magazine. "If they had been civilians like in our time, the military would have jailed them for 400 years!"

But will General Abacha dare punish his former boss, who in December 1993, challenged Abacha to investigate him? General Abacha opted to probe the institutions Babangida ran rather than the man himself, and it is also believed that the Ministry of Defence (MOD) could be Abacha's own Achilles heel. Many say that it too is in great need of investigation.

N350m lifeline

General Abacha, who has been the Defence Minister since 1990 has so far ignored calls for an MOD enquiry. Retired Brigadier General David Mark's allegation, in an interview in Newswatch magazine of large-scale corruption in the MOD, earned him the status of a 'Wanted Man' from then on. It seems probes will only be allowed to go so far in their investigations lest they uncover the wrong people's misdeeds.

General Abacha himself meddled improperly with the Central Bank when in June last year he ordered a N350m life-line from the Central Bank to Broad Bank, which was on the verge of liquidation by the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation, occasioning allegations of criminal abuse of the banking rules.

It was with this in mind that one banker was recently quoted as saying, "I don't see this regime doing anything about these panels' reports, after all, Abacha was a major player in the Babangida regime, and I don't see him being overly anxious to open the Pandora's box". Although the panels have uncovered corruption on a gigantic scale, there is little doubt in the minds of most observers that only the surface has been scratched. "When the full story comes out, it if ever does" one banker told African Business, "the entire world, leave alone Nigeria, will gape in astonishment. We are talking telephone-number figures here; we are talking larceny without equal in the world. The Guinness Book of Records should keep a sharp eye on this one".

This Shows Abacha's seriousness about corruption. Unlike Obasanjo he never targetted individuals but looked at the institutions as a whole

[size=18pt]Abacha's Petroleum Trust Fund which was run by Buhari[/size]

http://kubwaexpress.com/buhari%E2%80%99s-handshake-and-handcuff/

By Ebele Chukwu.
Obasanjo never hid his disgust for General Sani Abacha who had jailed him for a “phantom coup”. Released from jail and still wallowing in a fit of new found spirituality, he wrote a book and called it “The Animal Called Man”. And he elected to wage a battle on this “Animal Called Man”.
While taking his oath of office at the Eagle Square on 27th May, 1999, he had pledged to wrestle corruption out of our national psyche. In a fit of mediaeval triumphalism, he chanted: “there will be no sacred cows!”
But his first attack was a disaster. No sooner had he made that declaration than he dispatched Mallam Haroun Adamu to the headquarters of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), an intervention agency run by General Muhammadu Buhari, to start the war on corruption. Haroun Adamu’s public brief was to wind down PTF but the hidden one was to disgrace General Buhari by exposing the “shady deals” in PTF.
Contractors working for PTF were used to picking their cheques across the counter without much ado. Under the new inquisitor, contractors discovered they now had to oil their cheques out, something alien to the PTF they knew. They cried foul. And there were several other fouls after the first foul. To say that Obasanjo was thoroughly embarrassed by his minions would be an understatement, so much so that till date he does not discuss PTF in public.
As a General, it would appear that Obasanjo read Sun Tzu’ s “The Art of War” upside down. Sun Tzu had counselled: “Know thyself; know thy enemy. You will fight a thousand battles without defeat.” The blitzkrieg he deployed only showed he did not know PTF. He might not have needed to fire a shot to win or wean PTF. To date, most Nigerians knew how PTF started, what it did but not how it ended. Not known as one who forgives, was it not surprising that General Buhari walked the streets with his head high throughout Obasanjo’s imperial majesty when the fear of EFCC was the beginning of political wisdom?

In October 1994, General Sani Abacha increased the pump price of petrol from N3.25k to N11.00 per litre. Nigerians assailed him with criticisms for this unpopular move and to assuage their feelings, he quickly established the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund to use a portion of the proceeds of the increase to intervene in critical sectors of the economy. Nigerians never took Abacha seriously on this project until Gen Muhammadu Buhari was announced and inaugurated the chairman of the PTF in March 1995.

That PTF awarded contracts worth billions of naira is not news. The news the PTF made within the four years it existed was and still is that contracts awarded were executed to their logical conclusion and for those not executed, the PTF got every kobo back. Before PTF, contractors were used to abandoning contracts and bolting away with their advance payments. It never happened in PTF. When Buhari visited the Onitsha end of the Enugu-Onitsha express way awarded to a local contractor and discovered the job was abandoned, he simply called on the bank that guaranteed the contractor to pay back. There and then, the contract was terminated and later awarded to another contractor. From that moment, banks and insurance companies that provided bonds to contractors learnt that the old order had changed and had to monitor projects it guaranteed.

For the years it existed, PTF published its annual reports and always addressed press conferences to respond to issues arising from the reports. And each time it did, it challenged anybody who could deliver on any of its projects at a price cheaper than what it cost the PTF to submit his proposal. Nobody ever did.

In one of the presentations of its annual report, the Executive Secretary of the Board of the PTF, Chief Tayo Akpata, maintained that the roads constructed by the PTF not only cost less than World Bank funded roads but were also better qualitatively. He challenged anyone to prove the contrary. Until the PTF was scrapped, nobody did.
While the PTF existed, contractors never needed to lobby and grease palms to get LPO’s. You only needed to belong to the appropriate group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and other professional groups to qualify. Not a few contractors received requests to supply the PTF in the comfort of their offices. It was so unbelievably true that some had to travel to Abuja to reconfirm if the LPO’s they received were genuine. And genuine they were.

To be paid for a completed contract, all the contractor needed was to present a certificate of completion issued by the ubiquitous consultants engaged by the PTF and his cheque would be prepared. And with a proper letter of introduction, a contractor could send a third party to pick his check across a counter in the Finance Department without any ceremony. Picking a cheque then was just like walking into a bank to withdraw cash across the counter. As staff of Set and Sell Communications Ltd and later Media Trust Ltd, I personally picked several cheques on behalf of these firms. The challenge the finance department of the PTF faced then was getting contractors to come and pick their cheques which would pile up for months as a good number never knew it was so simple.

One cannot also forget in a hurry the PTF drug revolving scheme. Under this, the PTF set up offices in hospitals across the country and supplied them with drugs. The financial consultants employed by the Fund ensured that receipts from the sales of the drugs were used to replenish the stocks in an unending cycle that banished out-of-stock anthem the Nigerian public were forced to listen to before then. And it was not easy to divert PTF drugs to the parallel market. The smallest tablet supplied had PTF logo engraved on it. Somebody attempted diverting the drugs and was caught. General Buhari took up the case personally and ensured the culprit went to jail. After that, nobody heard of diversions again.

The strategy of the PTF in procuring these drugs is worth reviewing. Over 60% of the drugs supplied to the PTF were locally produced. In fact, the PTF only imported drugs that could not be produced by the local pharmaceutical firms. The pressure on the existing pharmaceutical companies was so much that almost all these firms had to increase their capacity by expanding and employing more hands. Neimeth Pharmaceuticals, Emzor Pharmaceuticals among others can be contacted to affirm or disprove this. This policy was deliberately made to ensure that more jobs were created within the economy.

Builders who built for PTF would also tell you that they were not allowed to import paints. There was a list of all the paint manufacturers in the country maintained at the PTF from which builders bought paints. Within the same period, the capacity utilisation in these companies soared as they expanded and created more jobs. A look at the records kept by IPWA plc and other existing paint makers within the period under review is worth attempting to digest the profundity of the PTF intervention in the building sector; and other sectors it intervened in as its model was so overarching that critics labelled it “the alternative government”.

This column is not enough to put in a proper perspective the job General Buhari undertook and did while in PTF but it suffices through this glimpse to understand the mindset and the strategy of this maelstrom which the ruling elite hate for his forthrightness – a quality in short supply in governance today.
One can cite the number of roads and hospitals rehabilitated by the PTF. One can also quote the billions it spent. The essence of the PTF, however, lies more in the multiplier effect its intervention had on the economy as a whole than in the number of what it did, which on its own was equally impressive. This distinction is what differentiates growth from development. While the former is quantitative, the latter is qualitative. As a political economist, I know that the economic development of any third world country lies in qualitative transformation.

Before the coming of PTF, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida had introduced the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) which he had claimed had no alternative. The revered economist, Professor Sam Aluko, had also reminded him that economics was a science of alternatives; that even death had an alternative which was life and that SAP was a kiss of death. IBB was to acknowledge the failure of SAP when out of frustration around 1991, he exclaimed that “the Nigerian economy had defied all known economic theories and was surprised that the economy had not collapsed”.
The economy did not collapse. The PTF intervention ensured it did not. This was the lesson OBJ failed to grasp when he dissolved the Fund with executive fiat in 1999. As at 1997, funds available to the PTF was about N115 billion and Nigerians could point at projects the fund was expended on. A decade after PTF, the governments from OBJ’s to date had spent much more than that in the power sector alone and have not been able to generate even a megawatt more of electricity.

Managing public funds is serious business. General Muhammadu Buhari was fond of telling contractors on visit to sites: “If you perform well, you get a handshake. If you perform badly, you get a handcuff”. This is the mantra we need at this historical juncture. The man that incarnates this mantra out of the available presidential candidates is General Muhammadu Buhari.
There is also a lesson to be learnt from the day Buhari left PTF. Obasanjo, on assumption of office, announced the setting up of the interim management committee led by Mallam Haroun Adamu to wind down PTF. The following day, Buhari addressed a press conference and invited the new management to immediately take over. He told Nigerians that everything the new management needed were in the records to which they would have unhindered access. He bid his staff farewell, descended the stairs, literally jumped into his four wheel drive that took him home to Daura. He never stepped into that premises again to this day. And he never fled the country to escape the EFCC.

The likes of Obasanjo should go back to the military academy to understand “The Art of War” before going on another offensive.

Ebele Chukwu writes from Eziora, Ozubulu (ababio38@gmail.com, 08186482246 sms only)

No corrupt Nigerian leader has ever employed Buhari.

The fact that Abacha appointed Buhari to run the PTF shows he is not interested in corruption

Of all the governments that increased fuel prices: Babangida, Shonekan, Abubakar, Obasanjo and Jonathan which of them ever set up a fund to such as the Petroleum Trust Fund to utilise the revenue realised?

Only Abacha did this.

^^

[size=18pt]Abacha's Vision 2010[/size]
ABUJA—THE Federal Government yesterday took a swipe at former President Olusegun Obasanjo, saying that for the hatred he had for anything which related to former Military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, Nigeria would have very vibrant in all its ramifications.

According to the government, Obasanjo killed Abacha Vision 2010 Development plan because he never liked him as a person and he (Obasanjo) went ahead and put in place the vision 2020 even though it was in principle without any concrete effort to prepare the document.

Speaking yesterday in Abuja while presenting the Nigeria Vision 20:2020, which seeks to place Nigeria among the 20 most developed economy in 11 years time, Minister/Deputy Chairman, National Planning Commission (NPC), Dr Shamsuddeen Usman said, “Obasanjo threw away the vision 2010 because he didn’t want to hear anything Abacha,

“Vision 2010 failed because it was not implemented. If it were, I am sure- I was part of it, this country would have been a different place by now.

“We need consistency in this country and look out for what is in the best interest of Nigerians. I said this thing elsewhere and somebody responded to me instantly but it is the truth. Vision 2010 was thrown out of the window by President Obasanjo.

As at the time he came on board he didn’t want to hear anything Abacha. This is the reality. I think he realised later that we do need a longer term vision (planning) and to his credit, the vision 2020 was initiated.”

According to him, the consistency in policy being recorded in different facets of the country today have demonstrated that the vision 2020 initiative would succeed during President Umaru Yar’Adua, adding that efforts were being made to convince the National Assembly to legislate the vision into law to make it mandatory for successive administration to continue with its implementation.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2009/07/16/obasanjo-killed-abachas-vision-2010-%E2%80%94-fg/

[size=18pt]SOME EAGLES CONFIRM ABACHA CALLED BEFORE NIGERIA/ARGENTINA DUEL[/size]

Athen, GEORGIA, Aug 3, 1996 (NigeriaTODAY): Several members of the Super Eagles confirmed today that they had spoken directly to Nigeria's head of state Gen. Sanni Abacha just before the gold medal encounter between Nigeria and Argentia.

The players said Gen. Abacha had encouraged them to "win this game for Nigeria and for Africa".

"It was motivating to know that he cares," said a striker who prefered to remain anonymous and whose play was critical for Nigeria's victory.

The Nigerian government had declared Monday a public holiday to celebrate the Eagles performance. It also promised cash rewards to any atheletes who wins a gold medal.

The Eagles stand to share 5 million naira (about $62,000) for beating Argentina

^

Another perspective...

^
A perspective based on reasoned argument or herd mentality of adopting whatever views the western nations and the corrupt media wishes us to adopt?

^





[size=18pt]19th January 1996 - ITN News
PRESIDENTIAL PLANE CRASHES, IBRAHIM ABACHA, SON OF NIGERIAN RULER AND 13 OTHERS KILLED - GENERAL ABACHA ORDERS ENQUIRY[/size]

Nigeria has formally set up a board of inquiry into the crash of a Presidential plane in January which killed the son of military ruler General Sani Abacha.

An official statement in the capital Abuja said the 11-member all-military board was headed by Air Vice-Marshall J.Y. Kontagora, commander of the air force training wing and a member of the Provisional Ruling Council.

National Security Adviser Ismaila Gwarzo, who inaugurated the board of inquiry, said it had two weeks to complete its assignment.

The British-made Hawker Siddeley 125 had been travelling from Lagos to Abacha's northern hometown Kano when it crashed, killing 28-year-old Ibrahim Abacha and 13 others.

A previously unknown group calling itself United Front for Nigeria's Liberation claimed it sabotaged the plane to step up a campaign to topple Abacha. The claim has not been independently verified.

Opposition groups have dissociated themselves from the front and offered Abacha their sympathies.

Nigeria has been in crisis since June 1993 when the army annulled a presidential election that was to end a long period of military rule and restore democracy.

[size=18pt]Prof. Aminu, Subsidy and Abacha[/size]

Written by Mohammed Balarabe Zogirma Saturday, 14 January 2012 00:00

The current debate about the necessity or wisdom of removing petroleum subsidy has frequently evoked the memories of the late military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, who was the first ever leader to practically justify the advantages of subsidy withdrawal to the socio-economic conditions of Nigerians. In fact, government’s credibility is important for the success or failure of any public policy. The success of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) created by the late General Abacha to manage the proceeds of subsidy withdrawal had disarmed even the most hardened skeptics who originally thought the funds would end up in private pockets as it did under previous administrations. This is the background to the current fears being expressed by Nigerians about the latest move by President Jonathan to remove petroleum subsidy in order to make our lives “better.”

A former Petroleum Resources Minister, Professor Jibril Aminu, recently told a national daily that the government should try to copy the example of the late General Abacha regime by using proceeds of subsidy withdrawal for the purposes they are intended. He was quoted as saying: “I believe that in the Abacha days, they found some answers to this problem by withdrawing the subsidy and taking the money, saving it and using it on development activities, which the people could see. That was the difference the PTF made. (Daily Sun Wed. Nov. 2, 2011).

Senator Aminu is an expert on this issue because he once headed the Ministry of Petroleum Resources. And the fact that he served under a different administration but still acknowledged the success story of the late Abacha in managing the proceeds of subsidy withdrawal is a significant revelation. Governance is about sincerity. Those who advocated the scrapping of the PTF after Obasanjo became a President in 1999 did so for selfish reasons. And these selfish reasons did not allow them to examine the bigger picture of public interest, which they were determined to harm.

One of the self-serving reasons they advanced for the dissolution of the PTF was that it was operating like a government within a government. Enemies of PTF are corrupt bureaucrats and politicians who did not want the policy of strict transparency that surrounded the operations of the defunct Trust Fund. Deliberate inflation of contract costs for personal gains and compromising standards are the common practices in the ministries and government departments. With the creation of the PTF, these corrupt officials felt uncomfortable because the conduit pipe through which they were siphoning public funds had been blocked.

Consequently, they started a campaign against the PTF, meeting the two main presidential candidates in 1999, General Obasanjo (PDP) and Chief Olu Falae (then of APP/AD alliance), to warn them about the “dangers” of retaining the PTF. They argued so persuasively but fraudulently that the PTF would make the government irrelevant. Unfortunately, without any deep and cool-headed examination of the arguments for and against, both Obasanjo and Falae announced their intention to do away with PTF once elected. At the end, Obasanjo of the PDP was elected President and one of his first major policy announcements was the dissolution of the PTF, despite achieving remarkable results with only N60 billion allocation throughout its entire life.

With the PTF dissolved, Nigerians would have expected better results in the management of subsidy withdrawal proceeds by the Obasanjo administration. But until he left office eight years after, Nigerians could not concretely point to anything as evidence where these proceeds were invested. In 2001, the Federal Ministry of Works alone received N350 billion as allocation but the conditions of federal roads continued to deteriorate. In fact, at one point, former President Obasanjo publicly acknowledged that he was ashamed of the conditions of federal roads!

In contrast, with only N60 billion allocation throughout its entire life, the PTF had something to show for that allocation. Many advocates for the dissolution of the PTF were forced to bury their heads in shame. Subsidy proceeds can never produce results because of the stubborn cancer of corruption that eats deeply in the public service and the minds of political leaders. With the dominant influence of corruption, the benefits could only go to a few individuals.

Therefore, the biggest challenge for the Jonathan administration in the current decision to remove petroleum subsidy is winning back public confidence. Indeed, the failure of the past administrations, especially from 1999 to 2007, to justify the arguments for subsidy withdrawal, may have largely contributed to the current public hostility to the latest attempt by President Jonathan to subject Nigerians to the inconvenience of another subsidy withdrawal. Although the former Obasanjo administration removed subsidy more frequently than any administration, Nigerians did not ultimately experienced the benefits that the government promised subsidy removal could bring.

Haunted by this unpleasant experience of disappointment, Nigerians are now not ready to believe the Jonathan administration that subsidy withdrawal could be beneficial to them. Grandiose but non-priority projects, plus massive corruption, are the main stumbling blocks to any effective management of the proceeds of subsidy withdrawal. Public support is essential for the successful implementation of any government policy. The real snag, however, is that the people are finding it difficult to trust their government in making subsidy withdrawal work to their ultimate advantage.

During the Abacha administration, Nigerians witnessed tangible and remarkable improvements in infrastructure, roads, hospitals, schools, water supply and other critical areas of social services. The defunct Petroleum Trust Fund, PTF remains a reference point of how to make subsidy withdrawal work to the people’s advantage. Unfortunately, the success story of PTF was killed merely on sentiments because former President Obasanjo couldn’t afford to see any Abacha legacy survive, no matter how beneficial it was to Nigerians. Even the railway rehabilitation and modernization projects started by Abacha were frustrated by Obasanjo. Shamelessly, towards the end of his tenure, he re-introduced the same railway projects he abandoned. The success of subsidy withdrawal depends on the sincerity of the government to apply the proceeds to the benefit of the people. Despite raising the fuel price to N75 per litre, the former President Obasanjo administration didn’t reward the sacrifices he expected Nigerians to make for subsidy withdrawal in return for better quality services. This experience is the core factor in the current hostile public attitude to another subsidy withdrawal by President Jonathan.

Zogirma wrote from No. 62, Old Karu, Abuja Email: mohammedb2002zogirma@yahoo.com
http://weeklytrust.com.ng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8185:prof-aminu-subsidy-and-abacha&catid=1:comments&Itemid=109

[size=18pt]9th Sept 1994: Statement of Nigeria, H.E. Mrs. Maryam Sani Abacha
[/size]
ISO: NGA



************************************************************************

The electronic preparation of this document has been done by the

Population Information Network(POPIN) of the United Nations Population

Division in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme

************************************************************************

AS WRITTEN







ADDRESS BY HER EXCELLENCY, THE FIRST LADY OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF

NIGERIA, MRS. MARYAN SANI ABACHA AT THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON

POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT





CAIRO, EGYPT, SEPTEMBER 9, 1994





President of the Conference

Your Excellencies

Distinguished Delegates

Ladies and Gentlemen



I am greatly honoured by the opportunity to address this highly

esteemed International Conference on Population and Development (I.C.P.D)

and to bring to you the warm and fraternal greetings from the

Government and people of Nigeria on this very important occasion.



That this Conference is taking place in this ancient country, Egypt,

the cradle of world civilization, the history of human development would

appear to have gone a full cycle. There cannot be a more symbolic and

historical place to host this Conference than Egypt.



I will like to congratulate and thank His Excellency, President Hosni

Mubarak and the great people of Egypt, for hosting this Conference and

for according us this wonderful reception and hospitality. I would like

to especially congratulate him on the United Nations award on population

which he rightly deserves. Our sincere congratulations also go to the

President of I.C.P.D., other elected officers and all those who have

contributed to the organization of this conference



My congratulations also go to all of us here for witnessing this

historic debate on the growth and development of mankind. It is on

record that the collective wish of the governments and peoples of the

world has led to a monumental and concerted effort in fashioning a

negotiated consensus on population husbandry and sustainable economic

growth in the years ahead. It is indeed heartening that this Conference

affords us the opportunity to share experiences and information on an

aspect of life which is vital to the development of mankind.



Permit me, Mr. President, to go down memory lane, to recall our

experience and the events of two decades ago at a similar Conference in

Bucharest in 1974 when Nigeria, the most populous African country,

erroneously joined the chorus that "Development was the best

contraceptive". We felt then that with development, fertility of the

people would naturally decline and population growth would be manageable

and affordable< in developing countries. We were proved wrong, for we

had rapid economic growth in Nigeria with Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

of about nine per cent, rapid decline in death rates and increased high

birth rates yet, our country witnessed the harvest of rapid population

growth with its attendant consequences.



With the experience, therefore, in 1984 at the Mexico Conference, our

message and undertaking were those of integration of population and

Family Planning or child spacing programmes in health and socio-economic

development policies. A life unexamined is not worth living. Every state

of human development is subject to scrutiny, examination and

reexamination without undermining values considered sacred to a people.



I am pleased to inform this august Conference that Nigeria has a

comprehensive National Population Policy and has shared experiences with

other African countries. However, in spite of the dawn of demographic

and fertility transition in Nigeria, infant, child and maternal

mortality rates are still unacceptably high. We have therefore come to

this Conference with high expectation of global consensus-building and

concerted action to improve the standard of living and quality of life

of peoples in all nation states, particularly in the developing

countries. The Nigerian delegation expects much from this Conference and

is willing to contribute as much to the debate and negotiations based on

human values and benefits.



Our views on some issues coming before this Conference are as follows:



1. That we endorse the Dakar/Ngor Declaration which contained the

African governments' views on many issues coming before this conference.



2. We recommend the draft Programme of Action before us as the basis

for consensus building towards solving the global problems of rapid

population growth, environmental degradation and poverty.



3. We endorse the integration of population, environment, poverty

alleviation and development strategies which place peoples welfare and

well-being at the centre of development process.



4. We uphold gender-equity, which extends beyond equality to fairness

and social justice as a pre-requisite to women empowerment and

development and which should be promoted as a national and international

policy.



5. We emphasize that women's health is generally interrelated with

productive and sexual health as well as safe motherhood. Therefore, all

measures to improve women's health will receive our commitment.



Our detailed points of views and proposed amendments to the draft

Programme of Action are contained in our Country's Statement on the

Draft Population Programme of Action.



I would like to use this opportunity Mr. President to intimate this

international gathering of our concerted efforts in Nigeria to address

family issues particularly on health and social welfare. We have

designed a social crusade known as Family Support Programme (ESP).

realized that our problems as a nation cannot be divorced from the

challenges facing our family system. We also believe that the family as

n social unit must be supported morally and materially in order to

continue to command the enormous influence on the personality

development or children.



The Family Support Programme therefore is essentially a \socio economic

regeneration of society on the foundation of our rich cultures and

traditions, strong family values, morality and discipline. It is

envisaged among other things that through this crusade our adult

population will acquire skills and learn relevant trades with the hope

that at the end of the day the unemployed members of our families may be

useful to themselves and others.



This crusade has so far garnered the support of Nigerian Government,

all our womenfolk through their various democratic associations,

individuals and groups. lt. is our hope that the successes we may

achieve in this crusade will inspire other nations and the world at

large.



Your Excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, my address would

be incomplete without stressing on a very vital ingredient of growth and

development, PEACE. You will agree with me that this Conference an(l

other similar international gatherings including our dreams of

sustainable growth and development would be an exercise in futility if

we do not address the issue of the promotion of peace among nations,

states and within countries and territories. As you are aware, women and

children are always the biggest casualities of war and crisis, it will

not be out of place therefore that a woman is expressing concern about

this human tragedy. May I appeal to the United Nations to set aside a

day each year to be observed as international peace day for the

promotion of global peace and resolution of conflicts.



Once more, Mr. President, Your Excellencies, distinguished Ladies and

Gentlemen, I thank you for your kind attention.

http://www.un.org/popin/icpd/conference/gov/940909214942.html

^^ Considering she was the first lady for almost 5 years, it is amazing that it almost impossible to find any links like abouve where we can read her own words first hand.

Is this a conspiracy to hide the truth ?

A major street in Sierra Leone is named after Abacha.

How many other Nigerian ex-leader have managed to get a street in a foreign nation named after them?