Politicians disagree over Obasanjo at Ribadu’s book launch

WEDNESDAY, 15 DECEMBER 2010 00:00 FROM LILLIAN CHUKWU, ABUJA AND LAOLU AKANDE, NEW YORK NEWS - NATIONAL 

THE eight years of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo regime re-echoed yesterday in Abuja as two influential politicians had an open disagreement about how the administration fared.

The event was the public presentation of a book: My story: My Vision, an autobiography by the former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and presidential aspirant of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.

The contending actors were a female political activist and member of the pro-democracy ‘Save Nigeria Group’, Hajiya Najaa’tu Mohammed, and former Minister of Aviation and Senior Special Assistant in the Obasanjo administration, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode.

Extolling Ribadu’s virtues, Najaa’tu stated that it was only a courageous man like Ribadu that could survive under a “totalitarian tyrant” and still achieve results in government.

She then called on all Nigerians to “stand up to the oppressors as Jesus Christ and Prophet Mohammed did” in ancient days. The firebrand politician went on to remind the audience that the time has come for a change in government of oppressors by voting Ribadu.

Mounting the podium, Fani-Kayode immediately rebuked the reference to his former boss as a “tyrant,” saying that the retired general’s administration was not oppressive or “totalitarian” in any way since it enabled and positioned an egalitarian, result-oriented and fearless administrator like the former EFCC boss to come into governance. He stressed that even in the mist of divergent views on issues between the then President Obasanjo and Ribadu, the former allowed the latter a freedom of implementation of sometimes radical policies.

Fani-Kayode citied the period when the Adamawa-born Ribadu had to go on an 18-month self-exile to escape from assassins. He reflected that it was under the Obasanjo administration that Ribadu excelled than when he was haunted by the successive government.

Meanwhile, just as a United Arab Emirates’ court in Dubai on Monday ruled to extradite former Delta State governor, James Ibori to the United Kingdom to face corruption charges, a new book is revealing greater details of his alleged attempt to compromise Ribadu with a $15m dollars cash bribe.

Entitled ‘A Paradise for Maggots’, the 464-page book was written by a U.S.-based Nigerian, Professor Wale Adebanwi and was presented to the public yesterday in Abuja.

According to some of the several revelations in the book, Ibori was allegedly stealing about 75% of the state’s revenue and made the $15 million bribe offer in cash to Ribadu at the residence of an aide to Obasanjo in Abuja.

Explaining why he wrote the book, whose forward was written by Nigeria’s internationally famous author, Prof. Chinua Achebe, Adebanwi, a journalist and political scientist, said in a chat that “it is a Nigerian story and I started working on it while Ribadu was still in office.”

Other revelations in the book include how Ribadu said Obasanjo asked the late President Umaru Yar’ Adua to go and seek his support after Obasanjo had selected him to be the PDP candidate. It also detailed how Obasanjo’s then Chief of Staff stopped the former president from accepting Ribadu’s resignation letter when Obasanjo demanded that he apologise to former Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun. Ribadu refused and offered to leave the EFCC then.

Quoting directly from Ribadu, the book disclosed: “At a point, our investigations revealed that James was taking about 75 per cent of the state’s monthly revenue. James is a hopeless case. He cannot change; even though as an individual he is likeable, very warm. But I had a responsibility to do my work. He desperately wanted to stop me.”

Conceding that both Ribadu and Ibori were somewhat friendly as Ibori would often call Ribadu and Balogun, the book quoted Ribadu as saying the former Delta State governor who is now facing extradition charges in Dubai expected Ribadu to stop EFCC investigating his activities as governor.

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