, Babangida

- From Ibrahim Shuaibu in KanoViewed 1466 Times Rating: by 0 users
The late military Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, did not loot the national treasury contrary to the general impression, two military former heads of state have said.

Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, who ruled Nigeria between 1983 and 1985, and his successor, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, gave Abacha the clean bill in Kano yesterday after the rememberance prayers marking 10 years of the death of Abacha, who ruled between 1993 and 1998.

Abacha was accused of stealing nearly £5 billion while in office, out of which over $1 billion has reportedly been recovered from various sources around the world.

But Babangida, who described Abacha as a “courageous, loyal and honest military head of state who stood for the unity and development of the country during his years in government”, has dismissed the allegations.

He said the looting allegations against Abacha were unfounded and baseless, stressing that “it is not true that he looted public treasury. I knew who Abacha was because I was close to him”.

Babangida said: “Abacha was a courageous person who stood firmly in handling the affairs of the country during his regime.”

He added that the regime of Abacha brought positive changes in the country which should have been emulated.

He said 10 years after the death of Abacha, his contributions to the nation’s economy remain indelible.

“There is no doubt, during his administration as head of state, Abacha contributed his best to the nation’s economy which we are still enjoying,” he said.

Babangida’s new position however contrasts with what he told Newswatch magazine in July 2000.

He had said: “The revelations [on Abacha’s loot] surprised me. I am surprised, because I didn't know.”

He had also explained that Abacha's death brought "relative stability", adding that "it gives us, oh well, let's see, there is hope after all".

Babangida, in that interview, also blamed the society for allowing Abacha to grow into the dictator he became.

"I feel bad that society failed to realise that they have a duty to protect whatever values they hold dear to their hearts as far as this country is concerned. At any rate, there are people I like and do respect those who stood against the regime, who are not military officers but civilians who are able to speak out. They didn't mince words and if their views had been heard, he wouldn't have [done enough harm]," he had said in response to a question.

Buhari, in his own comments yesterday, described the allegations of looting against Abacha as “baseless”, because according to him, “ten years after Abacha, those allegations remain unproven because of lack of facts”.

While also commenting, former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who took over when Abacha died on June 8, 1998, commended his predecessor for initiating Vision 2010, saying that the economic vision of the present administration termed Vision 2020 is a replica of Abacha’s 2010 initiative.

Abubakar also tasked Nigerian politicians to concentrate on how best to contribute to national development instead wasting time and money investigating their predecessors, adding that probing past administrations “does not yield anything positive to the nation and should be discouraged”.

Babangida also spoke on the probe of his government by the immediate past administration, saying: “We are still waiting for the outcome of the probe.”

The three former leaders sat close to one another during the special prayer session which started exactly 10am and lasted for over one hour at an open compound belonging to the family of the former head of state.

The prayer session was attended by former Abacha’s aides, Emirs of Hadejia, Gumel, Jema’a and Chief Fredrick Fasehun of Odua Peoples Congress (OPC).

BEFORE I CAN SUPPORT BUHARI, !

Before I can consider joining the BB Train. Below are my concerns:

I thought it was the rot of the SHAGARI Government, then followed by the decay of the Military ERA and climaxing with the STENCH of the ABACHA Government (of which GENERAL BUHARI WAS PART AND PARCEL) that 'brought Nigeria to a dangerous and sorry state, a state that life has become short and brutal', and from which it has still not recovered since then. PLEASE CHECK YOUR HISTORY AND YOUR FACTS!

The often MOUTHED BUHARI ERA and REGIME (of NEARLY 30 YEARS AGO) used as a reference point by his 'admirers' and apologists, was marked by BRUTE FORCE, LACK OF VISION, LACK OF POLITICAL IDEOLOGY AND AGENDA AND ANY ECONOMIC POLICY, BUT FOUNDED ON GRA-GRA.

In fact, the ONLY ECONOMIC policy that I can still remember and associate his regime with was the era of ESSENTIAL COMMODITY (ESSENCO), where people were being BULLIED, WHIPPED AND FORCED TO SELL THEIR OWN wares and goods (NOT GOVERNMENT OWNED) BY FORCE.

BUHARI SHUT DOWN NEWSPAPER HOUSES AND HARASSED JOURNALISTS AND THREW THEM IN GULLAGS OR SENT THEM TO GALLOWS.

BUHARI'S GALLOWS OR GULAGS, UNDER THE SSS (OR NSO) WERE NOT FIT FOR HUMANS. And this contributed largely to the DEATH of some of those that were SELECTIVELY and UNLAWFULLY DETAINED there. PLAIN MURDER.

BUHARI passed OBNOXIOUS LAWS, including RETROSPECTIVE LAWS and MURDERED INDIVIDUALS, SIMPLY FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING.

BUHARI ABUSED THE DIGNITY OF AN INDIVIDUAL and CRATED HIM like a CHICKEN, while attempting to UNLAWFULLY EXPORT HIM OUT OF THE UK, IN GROSS ABUSE OF THE PERSON'S DIGNITY, AND IN CONTRAVENTION OF INTERNATIONAL LAWS.

BUHARI WATCHED ABIOLA JAILED AND DIE IN JAIL in the HANDS of ABACHA, while he watched and carried on BUSINESS AS USUAL SERVING AND WORKING FOR THE SAME ABACHA'S GOVERNMENT.

BUHARI WATCHED ON AND WATCHED JUNE 12 DIE IN THE HANDS OF ABACHA.

BUHARI also WATCHED KEN SAROWIWA MURDERED IN COLD BLOOD BY THE SAME ABACHA GOVERNMENT, while HE (BUHARI) WATCHED ON and carried on BUSINESS AS USUAL.

AS ALWAYS, AND CONVENIENTLY, BUHARI SAW NO EVIL AND HEARD NO EVIL ABOUT THOSE ATROCITIES.

HE SAW NO EVIL AND HEARD NO EVIL EVEN WHEN LATE PRESIDENT YARADUA LEFT NIGERIA IN AUTO PILOT STATE AND 'RULED' FROM THE 'GRAVE' (a la ANDOAKAH)

NEED I SAY MORE? NEED I CONTINUE AND REMIND YOU WHY BUHARI IS NOT FIT OR QUALIFIED TO BE ANYWHERE ELSE THAN AT THE HAGUE AND ANSWERING TO HIS CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY?

VISIT THIS LINK ON THE CRIMES OF BUHARI FOR MORE: http://www.republicreport.com/the-crimes-of-buhari-wole-soyinka. And you'll feel ASHAMED TO EVEN PRONOUNCE HIS NAME OR BOAST WITH HIM.

As for Pastor BAKARE, I am simply SHOCKED BEYOND WORDS OR SPEECH. I can only but ask, IS THAT WHAT ALL THAT 'NOISE' ABOUT 'BRIBE' OR NOT BRIBE AND BUHARI BEING THE BEST PRESIDENT, ALL ABOUT. ALL of that were for PERSONAL GAIN!

NIGERIANS may suffer from/with AMNESIA, but not ALL NIGERIANS are so plagued. GREAT MINDS DEAL WITH ISSUES, FACTS AND SUBSTANCE, AND NOT SENTIMENTS.

reply

desperate men

what does it say about gej, if all his supporters can do is engage in deceitful smear campaigns against his opponents?

is it because they know the man has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO OFFER that they engage in bare faced lies and duplicity?

do they think that all these shenanigans can somehow erase the fact that there is a foo-ool in aso rock?

face the fact. which one be smear campaign? No one is talking about GEJ here. It is about the fact that Buhari said Abacha was a saint and never stole a dime of Nigeria money. Talk on that one.

and the best you can come up with is an unverified quote from a blog called grandiose palor?

what sort of disgusting liars are you lot any way?

EVERYONE in team gej trades in unverified information

40 billion, atiku investigated by us senate, ibb sharia university

look here - we are not in your beer palor. i suggest you find your way back to your fellow drunken fishermen, the ones who will believe any tripe as long a it smears their man's opponents.

I guess u were not in town in 2008 when he made that statement. LOL

We are only reminding people of what he said, noone is smearing anyone. If you doubt he said it, thats your problem.

againstGEJ:

I guess u were not in town in 2008 when he made that statement. LOL

We are only reminding people of what he said, noone is smearing anyone. If you doubt he said it, thats your problem.

if you are not a liar , post A NEWSPAPER ARTICLE ; not some unverifiable quote from a blog.

why is it that the best you lot can come up withis copy and paste and one liners ?

is there such a scarcity of intellectuals in team gej?

In 2008:

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-140654.0.html

Even Guardian, ThisDay carried the story.

LOL

http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/news/article03//indexn2_html?pdate=090608&ptitle=Abacha%20served%20Nigeria%20well,%20say%20Buhari,%20Abdulsalami
http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=113628

these are the links in the post

can someone open them?

maybe something is wrong with my browser

http://www.google.com/search?q=TWO%20former%20heads%20of%20state%20and%20a%20military%20president%20yesterday%20rose%20in%20stout%20defence%20of%20their%20late%20colleague%2C%20Gen.%20Sani%20Abacha.

for some strange reason, one can NEVER find the original articles against buhari, just articles derived from those 'articles'

just as in the case of his 'call for sharia' all articles on the net say newspaper reports , but there is no link to the actual report

@Oyb

I remember when this particular story came out in the daillies. I think Abubakar as well at the same gathering supported the claim.

Come up with your proofs felas

Abacha never stole!!! Wetin man no go hear for 9ja? Buhari served in Abacha's regime, so his statement isn't surprising. Thats when he appointed his cousin as sole consultant to vet PTF contracts, pay out monies, inspect and decide completion. . . One man! No wonder the man committed suicide in his office when Abubakar opened the books.

Beaf:

Abacha never stole!!! Wetin man no go hear for 9ja? Buhari served in Abacha's regime, so his statement isn't surprising. Thats when he appointed his cousin as sole consultant to vet PTF contracts, pay out monies, inspect and decide completion. . . One man! No wonder the man committed suicide in his office when Abubakar opened the books.

---of course Abacha never stole
He never slept with teenage hot Indian whores either.
----of course Abacha never stole
Nigeria never had a civil war either
----of course Abacha never stole
And Sarduana of Sokoto was a pious Christian
----of course Abacha never stole
And OBJ is the first Kanuri army general

Why am I not surprised.


People just don't get it.

This man worked under Sani Abacha as head of the PTF. How could he then say that Abacha was corrupt? He's got to cover all his tracks and distance himself a bit.

On a side note, while working for Sani Abacha, Buhari used 75+ % of PTF money used for roads on roads in the North. More than 75%.

This is the man people want to elect.

"And while Buhari's tribunals which tried the civilian governors threw them in jail with terms ranging from 5 years to 250 years, it was on record that the cost of keeping the military governors he appointed was more than that of their civilian predecessors (A practice which continued into the Babangida years)

Everybody in Nigeria knew that Abacha was an usurper, and that he was uncontrollably corrupt and was also involved in state sponsored murder, but Buhari who you paint in such glowing colours, still agreed to serve under such a man as the chairman of PTF. As chairman of PTF, he made his own cousin the sole consultant for monitoring and assessing the value of contracts. Afriproject consortium was so corrupt that at the inception of Abdulsalami's regime, fearful of exposure, Buhari's cousin committed suicide in his office. When the books of PTF were opened, the can of worms was so much that Haruna Adamu said he felt sickened by it. One body determined the contracts to be awarded, the payments to be made and whether the contracts had been satisfied.

Do you know PTF estate in Wuse? The sweetheart deal that Buhari's PTF made with the contractor was so sweet. Not only would the contractor collect rent from PTF, but after 8 years, the place would be his to own!

Also, it is on record that though most of the monies which accrued to PTF was sourced from the south, a disproportionately large amount of projects were concentrated in the north, and particularly in Buhari's home state of Katsina, with little done in the east and Niger Delta which needed help more than ever!

Is Buhari a statesman? Please ask yourself and answer objectively. Here is man who called on Muslims to vote only Muslim candidates at the recent elections. As if that was not enough, when given the chance to deny the statement, he blurted that he only said Muslims should vote for those who would promote their religion! Is that not one and the same thing?

Here is a man who went on to say that Nigerians don't need "ordinary rubber" to justify their citizenship (in reference to the national ID card scheme). A man who labelled as subversives his opponents who were schemed out of the Abuja ANPP Presidential primaries. A man who when the flame were burning in the north over Sharia publicly denounced the Council of States decision to down play Sharia temporarily."

http://www.dawodu.com/omokri1.htm

The $1b recovered was that buhari's loot?

The $1b recovered was that buhari's loot?

I believe that Abacha did not loot.He was a victim of Western propaganda and those so-called recovered loots could be made up.

Oil ranged between 8 and 12 dollars per barrel throughout Abacha's era.If you compare with our inability to save from 100 dollar per barrel today,you will understand.

This is old, I mean very old news.
This was debated here on Nairaland nearly 3yrs ago. This topic is stale.
Check this link

@ abagworo, u mean the western countries just dashed us $1b? U must be heading smwhere

@ abagworo, u mean the western countries just dashed us $1b? U must be heading smwhere

@ abagworo, u mean the western countries just dashed us $1b? U must be heading smwhere

Buhari made this statement and I remeber vividly. For those calling it a smear campaign, well that is politics everything you have ever done can and will be used against you.

I believe this is one reason why some folks should not vote for Buhari, like I have always said Buhari is not necessarily an evil man, but he belongs to a past we need to forget about, his group of leaders should be left at the council of states, If he can not push his suggestions and advicxe thru the council of state then what do we need from him as the President.

Folks trying to defend Buhari are the same folks attacking GEJs statement that no one should rig for him.

Well I wont be rigging for GEJ, I will be casting my one vote, my brothers and sisters, mum, relatives and friends have been convinced to allow GEJ, thats the farthest I will go and then sit back and wait for the results in my polling booth be announced, I will personally upload my polling booth results here on NL.

I wish Nigeria Goodluck!!!

Abagworo:

I believe that Abacha did not loot.He was a victim of Western propaganda and those so-called recovered loots could be made up.

Oil ranged between 8 and 12 dollars per barrel throughout Abacha's era.If you compare with our inability to save from 100 dollar per barrel today,you will understand.

for real

then my neighbor's Ford Pinto is a fúcking BMW

~ and my friend's toyota avensis is peugeot

~ and all toyota avensis are peugeot

In relative to what obasanjo and his deadly crew stole from nigerian coffers,what jonathan and his wayward crew are stealing korokoro now,abacha probably didn't loot nigeria.

Obasanjo in just a single project 'dabarued' 16 billion dollars,just a single project.Bode squandered over 500 billion dollars and got two years in executive jail,with the monies still missing.

Even the most dreaded gadafi is not free from the wind of change.When shall we make these people pay for the atrocities they have committed against our motherland?they have defied our land and the gods must be appeased for there to be peace.

@ redsun, the $1b refunded was buhari's loot? Buhari was a direct beneficiary of abacha, so he must spew what u dn't expect. Has any country refund loots pointing at obj's?

karl max:

, Babangida

- From Ibrahim Shuaibu in KanoViewed 1466 Times Rating: by 0 users
The late military Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, did not loot the national treasury contrary to the general impression, two military former heads of state have said.

Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, who ruled Nigeria between 1983 and 1985, and his successor, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, gave Abacha the clean bill in Kano yesterday after the rememberance prayers marking 10 years of the death of Abacha, who ruled between 1993 and 1998.

Abacha was accused of stealing nearly £5 billion while in office, out of which over $1 billion has reportedly been recovered from various sources around the world.

But Babangida, who described Abacha as a “courageous, loyal and honest military head of state who stood for the unity and development of the country during his years in government”, has dismissed the allegations.

He said the looting allegations against Abacha were unfounded and baseless, stressing that “it is not true that he looted public treasury. I knew who Abacha was because I was close to him”.

Babangida said: “Abacha was a courageous person who stood firmly in handling the affairs of the country during his regime.”

He added that the regime of Abacha brought positive changes in the country which should have been emulated.

He said 10 years after the death of Abacha, his contributions to the nation’s economy remain indelible.

[s]“There is no doubt, during his administration as head of state, Abacha contributed his best to the nation’s economy which we are still enjoying,[s] ” he said.

Babangida’s new position however contrasts with what he told Newswatch magazine in July 2000.

He had said: “The revelations [on Abacha’s loot] surprised me. I am surprised, because I didn't know. ”

He had also explained that Abacha's death brought "relative stability", adding that "it gives us, oh well, let's see, there is hope after all".

[s]Babangida, in that interview, also blamed the society for allowing Abacha to grow into the dictator he became. [/s]

"I feel bad that society failed to realise that they have a duty to protect whatever values they hold dear to their hearts as far as this country is concerned. At any rate, there are people I like and do respect those who stood against the regime, who are not military officers but civilians who are able to speak out. They didn't mince words and if their views had been heard, he wouldn't have [done enough harm]," he had said in response to a question.

Buhari, in his own comments yesterday, described the allegations of looting against Abacha as “baseless”, because according to him, “ten years after Abacha, those allegations remain unproven because of lack of facts”.

While also commenting, former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who took over when Abacha died on June 8, 1998, commended his predecessor for initiating Vision 2010, saying that the economic vision of the present administration termed Vision 2020 is a replica of Abacha’s 2010 initiative.

Abubakar also tasked Nigerian politicians to concentrate on how best to contribute to national development instead wasting time and money investigating their predecessors, adding that probing past administrations “does not yield anything positive to the nation and should be discouraged”.

Babangida also spoke on the probe of his government by the immediate past administration, saying: “We are still waiting for the outcome of the probe.”

The three former leaders sat close to one another during the special prayer session which started exactly 10am and lasted for over one hour at an open compound belonging to the family of the former head of state.

The prayer session was attended by former Abacha’s aides, Emirs of Hadejia, Gumel, Jema’a and Chief Fredrick Fasehun of Odua Peoples Congress (OPC).

what were his achievements if i may ask mr maradona and how did nigerians made him turn into a dictator ?