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Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn - Politics (7) - Nairaland

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Poll: What is Obasanjo's crime against Nigeria

Massacre of Tiv civilians in Zaki Biam Benue State: 9% (3 votes)
Impoverishment of the Nigerian Masses by 500% devaluation of Naira.: 6% (2 votes)
Mismanagement and closure of our National Airline Nigeria Airways: 9% (3 votes)
Massacre of thousands of villagers in Odi, Bayelsa State in Niger Delta: 9% (3 votes)
Taking IMF loans and implementing damaging economic policies: 6% (2 votes)
Increasing fuel prices by 500%: 9% (3 votes)
Deceiving Nigeria by claiming fuel was subsidised: 6% (2 votes)
As military ruler, using the funds /land for "Operation Feed Nation" to acquire his Ota farm: 6% (2 votes)
Covertly sponsoring the coup in which Muritala Mohammad was assassinated, and executing dozens of people to cover up: 3% (1 vote)
Closing Petroleum Trust Fund and allowing Infrastructural decay: 3% (1 vote)
Presiding during collapse of electrical power supply in entire eastern region: 0% (0 votes)
Inviting US military into Nigeria and exposing national security secrets: 3% (1 vote)
Making himself minister of Petroleum and failing to have his management of oil revenue audited till this very day: 3% (1 vote)
Embezzling and estimated $120bn or approx N20 trillion: 9% (3 votes)
Sold off all of Nigeria's assets including Oil Blocks , Refineries, Electricity Authority, National, Telecommunications and historical buildings etc.: 6% (2 votes)
Buying up the national assets he privatised at a price that is a tiny fraction of its true value: 3% (1 vote)
Giving away Bakassi peninsula without a national referendum or conference: 3% (1 vote)
Mismanaging our national pension fund and presiding whilst $15bn went missing and denying pensioners their pensions: 3% (1 vote)
Deceiving Nigerians that Abacha' government was a bad, to justify undoing most of Abacha's good work: 3% (1 vote)
Presiding over the worst period of political assassinations in Nigeria's history: approx 20 assassinations including Bola Ige: 0% (0 votes)
This poll has ended

Poll: Obasanjo's worst crime is?:

Massacre of Tiv civilians in Zaki Biam Benue State:: 25% (1 vote)
Looting and closing our National Airline Nigeria Airways:: 0% (0 votes)
Massacre of thousands of villagers in Odi, in Niger Delta:: 0% (0 votes)
Devaluation of Naira 500% & raising fuel prices 500%: 50% (2 votes)
Embezzling an estimated N30 trillion ($180bn):: 25% (1 vote)
This poll has ended

Police Brutalised And Stole From A Lawyer (picture) / Jonathan Told Me & Obasanjo He Never Wanted To Be Vice-president - Donald Duke (2) (3) (4)

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Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 7:11pm On Dec 30, 2012
angry
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 2:26am On Jan 02, 2013
angry
GenBuhari: [size=20pt]Obasanjo's monumental corruption and looting by Col.Umar (part3)[/size]

CRUDE OIL CONTRACTS


No where has president Obasanjo shown so much disdain for due process and displayed greed and crass opportunism as in the management of crude oil contracts. The nation was defrauded tens of billions of Dollars in the most opaque and criminal contract process, which was handled between the president and his willing accomplice, the GMD NNPC.



It will interest Nigerians to know that all crude oil lifting contracts signed by the Obasanjo administration were only advertised once. All subsequent awards were done through a roll over. This was achieved through an arranged delay in notification of the expiration of the ongoing contracts. The GMD NNPC writes to the president seeking his approval to roll over the contracts citing lack of time to adhere to a proper procedure and the president willingly approved. In this way due process was circumvented.



It is safe to say that NNPC contracts were not subject to due process verification, The president decided on the terms. So also were winners and losers decided by president Obasanjo. In some cases, the winners were companies with dubious profiles. They won huge contracts on account of their close relationship to the president or members of his family. For example, Petrodel Resources Ltd which got one of the highest allocations of 90,000 barrels per day was initially not known to NNPC consultants based in London. On further inquiry, it was discovered to have been registered in Isle of man as a one man registered company. This fact was made known to the president by the investigative panel which he set up to probe the crude oil contracts in September, 2003. Once again, no action was taken to correct the system.
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 8:46am On Jan 22, 2013
GenBuhari: [size=18pt]How Obasanjo and his inner circle Stole Nigeria's Billions of Dollars [/size]            
Friday, 09 September 2011 17:09 [elombah.com]

[img]http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/thumbnail.php?file=obj_774911614.gif&size=article_medium[/img]

[b]Corruption pervades the entire levels of the private and public sector under the administration of Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, so said a US Diplomatic cables revealed by wikileaks. The report said that "the arrests in London of the Bayelsa and Plateau State governors have barely scratched the surface of the endemic corruption at the federal, state, and local level. The diplomatic cables noted that in a widely-circulated August 22 letter to President Obasanjo, Abia State Governor Orji Uzor Kalu accused Obasanjo of corruption, listing a number of dubious deals, including:

--Cancellation of the contract for the construction of the national stadium in Abuja, only to re-award the contract to a different vendor at a higher price.

--Use of public funds for capital improvements at two private schools secretly owned by Obasanjo.


Obasanjo's response was to agree to be "investigated by the EFCC, which reports to the President.  When the EFCC invited Kalu to provide evidence to support his accusations, Kalu refused, pointing out that the EFCC was not an independent investigative body and had no authority to prosecute the President, and the investigation died out.

The President's chicken farm in Otta is one of the largest in Nigeria.  A Presidential spokesman said in November 2004, in order to explain Obasanjo's personal wealth, that the farm generated about $250,000 per month in income, though it was nearly bankrupt in the late 1990s (ref A).  Regardless of whether the current income figure is accurate, at least some Nigerians think it is unlikely that Obasanjo's military pension and benefits were the sole source of investment for establishing this huge enterprise, valued by a construction engineer involved in the construction at more than $250 million.

It is also widely believed that the President's inner circle also reaps hefty rewards with impunity.  Some frequently cited examples are:

--Edmund Daukoro, recently named Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, was charged in 1994 for embezzling some $47 million as a managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).  The charges were abandoned, and Daukoro's political career soared when Obasanjo took office in 1999.



--Senator Florence Ita Giwa, indicted for misappropriation of funds by the Idris Kuta Panel in 2000, was pardoned along with other indicted senators, and she was named a special advisor to Obasanjo when she left office.




--The head of the National Airport Management Authority (NAMA), Rochas Okorocha, was caught and dismissed for embezzling about $1 million through an inflated contract; Obasanjo then appointed him as a senior aide, without requiring Okorocha to repay the stolen funds.  Okorocha was eventually fired on July 13 in a cabinet reshuffle, but went on to start a political party for his renewed presidential ambitions.
[img]http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS3VO8bKye51Sl5jevOfhvG0ICa89Na2FRueTyTJ4j0q_gz1pRR-A[/img]



--The recent auction of oil blocks included some firms bidding, sometimes with no prior ties to the oil industry, that were linked to Obasanjo associates, including Daukoro, Rivers State governor Peter Odili, Ogun State  governor Gbenga Daniel, presidential advisor Andy Uba,  presidential chief of staff Abdullahi Mohammed, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Nasir al-Rufai and PDP Board of Trustees Chairman Tony Anenih.

Edmund Daukoru


Peter Odili


Gbenga Daniel

[img]http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTBS5mZwiMEQTrNrd9TL0gKr8bJhD9toepyVmMxFnQokyn8uIKdFQ[/img]
Andy Uba

[img]http://www.naijaurban.com/wp-content/themes/respo/js/timthumb.php?src=http://www.naijaurban.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Tony-Anenih.jpg&w=200&h=150[/img]
Tony Anenih


Nasir Al-Rufai


--Anenih was indicted by the National Assembly for the sum of 300 billion Naira (approximately $2.4 billion) missing from Ministry of Works and Housing while he was the minister.  The missing money is widely believed to have paid off 2003 elections  "expenses," including to Balogun, in addition to lining his own pockets.

[img]http://www.naijaurban.com/wp-content/themes/respo/js/timthumb.php?src=http://www.naijaurban.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Tony-Anenih.jpg&w=200&h=150[/img]
Tony Anenih


--Minister of Finance Ngozie Okonjo-Iweala is said to have steered contracts to her brother (JonJon) with the help of el-Rufai.  The contracts, said to amount to about $50 million, have been paid for consulting work for the Ministry.

Ngozie Okonjo-Iweala

--Al-Rufai is at the center of the corruption allegations. Well-known to PolCouns eight year ago, when he was homeless and seeking a loan to import a taxi from the UK, al-Rufai is said to have recently purchased seven upscale properties in a posh Abuja neighborhood.  His demolitions of commercial and residential buildings in the capital have reportedly provided an opportunity for himself and several of his friends.  After demolishing residential properties in Kubwa, the land was reallocated to several of his friends and to an investment company he allegedly owns.  The community of Chika, where about two square miles of development was demolished in December, has allegedly been allocated to the same group of people.

Nasir Al-Rufai

--Chief Olabode George, current PDP National Chairman (Southwest) is a close friend of President Obasanjo and a leading proponent of the Third Term Agenda.  He is one of the people accused of financial recklessness in the affairs of the National Port Authority, where he was chairman when the financial scandals were allegedly committed.  He was retired from the Navy in the 1990s by the Babangida Administration after serving as military governor of Ondo State from 1987 to 1990 in addition to other military postings.

Olabode George


--Chris Uba, recently appointed to the PDP Board of Trustees, admitted rigging during the 2003 elections and attempted to kidnap the governor of Anambra state to try to collect payments for his efforts.  Linked closely to several vigilante groups in the state, he is widely believed to be responsible for the burning of many state government buildings in Awka, crimes that have yet to be solved.

Chris Uba
[/b]
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 12:15pm On Jan 28, 2013
angry
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by kramer: 12:12am On Jan 30, 2013
undecided
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 1:06pm On Jan 30, 2013
undecided
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 3:40am On Feb 11, 2013
angry
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 12:32am On Feb 15, 2013

[size=20pt]President Obasanjo's monumental corruption and looting (1999-2007 ) by Col.Umar (part4)[/size]

[size=18pt]LPFO Scam[/size]

Scarcity of Low Pour Fuel Oil, a cheap source of energy for the nation's industries, led to the unprecedented closure of many of them. An estimated 60% of the industries were known to have totally shut down with the remaining operating at a very low capacity. But what could have been responsible for this scarcity when some of the refineries were still producing this product, at least enough to satisfy the need of our local industries?



Once again, it is all to do with the insatiable appetite of the president and his business associates for wealth. It is the story of wickedness, lack of patriotism and greed. Towards the end of 2002, an Obasanjo business associate, who had grown weary of the president's cash demands on him, broached up an idea on how to raise funds for the 2003 presidential election campaign. If only the president would cause the NNPC to allocate large quantities of LPFO to his companies at the local price he would export and sell at international market price and contribute part of the proceeds to Obasanjo campaign fund. The president saw this as a brilliant idea and immediately instructed GMD NNPC, Mr. Gauis Obaseki to implement. About one million metric tonnes of LPFO was allocated to one of the businessman's companies at the subsidized rate of N8.20k per litre. Over 90% of this allocation was illegally exported and sold at the prevailing international market price of about S187 per tonne. The customs was evidently instructed not to record the export but this was recorded by the USA library of congress. Some other companies were similarly allocated huge quantities of this products.



A senior adviser to president Obasanjo was so incensed by this scandal, which he naively thought was not known to his principal, that he reported to him. The president faked ignorance. To demonstrate this, he summoned the GMD NNPC in the presence of the adviser and informed him about what he termed the shocking report which was just given to him by this patriot, the adviser. He instructed the GMD to verify the facts. The GMD left certainly amused by the president's con act. No further action was taken by the GMD as non was expected. The scam continued. Those of us who had knowledge of this scam were incredulous by the president's attempt to resuscitate textiles industries with a Federal Government loan of N70 billion. Perhaps it was an attempt at atonement but this failed because all the cheques issued proved dud.
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 9:24pm On Apr 06, 2013
angry
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 7:11pm On May 06, 2013
[size=18pt]President Obasanjo's monumental corruption and looting (1999-2007 ) by Col.Umar (part5)[/size]

OIL BLOCK ALLOCATIONS

The allocation of oil blocks was preceded by the usual Obasanjo deceptive maneuvers intended to give the process some semblance of credibility. The real allocations were concluded long before the blocks were advertised. Some of the oil blocks that were allocated by previous administrations and which were found to be highly productive were revoked and reallocated to preferred bidders on the flimsiest of reasons. Over 70% of all blocks allocated by the Obasanjo administration were cornered by him and his business associates through this dubious process.




LPG SCAM

If the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) popularly referred to as cooking or domestic gas is beyond the reach of the average Nigerian on account of its exorbitant cost it is because of the nefarious activities of the Obasanjo business clique. On the instructions of the president the NNPC allocated the bulk of LPG produced locally to a select group of LPG marketers. Some of these marketers were allowed to use NNPC storage facilities at concessionary rates. It is to these facilities that they shipped their allocations and sell at international market price on the false claim that the product was imported. In this way the price rose sharply from N38, 000 per metric ton as at May 1999 to N98,000. That is to say the favored marketers only enjoyed that government subsidy. Such market manipulation continued to drive the prices skyward. A ton of cooking gas is currently being sold for N250, 000. It is so painful to remember that a tonne of LPG sold at the subsidized rate of N4, 000 during the much vilified Abacha administration.
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 8:56pm On May 06, 2013
[size=18pt]Nigeria: Time to Track the Obasanjo Loot[/size]
By Sam Nda-Isaiah, 17 March 2008


Abuja — As General TY Danjuma (rtd) declared during a recent interview with The Guardian, we must force even President Umaru Yar'Adua to take action in the face of all the ongoing revelations of monumental thievery against Olusegun Obasanjo and his accomplices at the ongoing House of Representatives-inspired probe into the power sector. There are many reasons to believe that Obasanjo is finished, but not just yet. He is yet to answer all the questions and refund stolen money.

In his time as president, he made smaller thieves refund money. So, asking him to refund some of the large sums he has stolen would just be in order. And besides, we still want to know why a man who is well past 80 years will need to steal the kind of money we are talking about.

Even for many who have always believed Obasanjo was the nearest Nigeria has had to an armed robber occupying Aso Rock, the revelations oozing out from the ongoing probe is a culture shock. And this is only the power sector. We have not looked in the direction of the petroleum sector, excess expropriation funds, or even the finance ministry.

Nigerians have always known why NEPA never worked and never could work under Obasanjo. We now at least know why there was always "system collapse" and why the entire South-West region was recently plunged into darkness. Indeed, we now know why virtually nothing worked under Obasanjo, even as he and his cronies got richer.

We now at least have an idea of the source of the money he is currently using to give his Ota homestead a facelift. Obasanjo, who came out of Abacha's prison (we now know Abacha was right) with poverty as his middle name, is now probably the richest man in Africa. Forget the Forbes rich list.

The publishers of Forbes still have not developed the know-how of measuring the wealth of thieves. Obasanjo's permanent residence on a hill in Abeokuta is still under construction several years after it was begun. The man who was rescued from Abacha's gulag by General Abdulsalami Abubakar and also had to be quickly rescued from the harsh ravages of poverty by old friends is currently constructing a five-star hotel at his Ota fief.

He now has farms, oil palm plantations and estates scattered all over the nation. The presidential library which gathered N7 billion from government contractors when he was still in office and in power and still single-handedly approving contracts and the allocation of oil blocks is still under construction.

His Bells School now also has a university attached to it, thanks to eight years in Aso Rock. It is obvious that while the nation got poorer in the eight years he was in power, Obasanjo got stupendously richer. Little wonder he wanted a third term. Obasanjo saw power only as an avenue for self-enrichment.
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 2:07am On May 07, 2013
[size=18pt]Notes on dubious Obasanjo legacy[/size]

By Charles Onunaiju

The contributors and editors of a two-volume work on former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s legacy (1999-2007) are naïve and deluded to think that they can callously, and with the impunity that characterized the Obasanjo regime, re-write our recent history that every living Nigerian is an eye-witness to.

The Obasanjo self-centered roadmap, designed principally to perpetuate his rule, has brought the country to its current state of paralysis and chaos. In the political context, Obasanjo’s most nation-damaging legacy was the 2007 election, following the acute personal political bruises ever inflicted on him, after the collapse of his third term plot. This was in spite of having heavily compromised the gluttonous and mercantile sector of the then National Assembly, the House of Representatives in particular, with bribes.

After every desperate effort to cling to power, falling flat on his face, Obasanjo plotted his revenge on the nation. After causing so much disaffection and division in the ruling party (PDP), he picked, singlehanded, the party’s candidate for the presidential poll.

In the full knowledge that his candidate for the election were hard-sell, he set out desperately to compromise all state institutions including the military, police, and the already compromised electoral commission run by a spineless minion, keyed-in to the project “do or die”, which culminated in the fraudulent election victory of the drab Yar’adua/Jonathan ticket. Obasanjo’s political travesty and electoral malfeasance was denounced and decried universally as the worst in all human experience of the electoral process.

Even the beneficiary of the travesty, the late president, could not hold on to the Obasanjo electoral chalice in good conscience. Right at the point of receiving the certificate of return in the office of the electoral commission, he announced an electoral reform committee. In spite of having been handpicked, late President Yar’adua repudiated Obasanjos’ worst excesses including his last desperate action of auctioning the Kaduna and Warri refineries to Messrs Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola, two well-known regime operators and insiders masquerading as independent entrepreneurs.

During his short time in office dogged by poor health until his eventual death, Yar’adua targeted Obasanjo’s most egregious infraction on the nation’s socio-economic life and placed them in reverse gear, prompting the petite despot to hit back at him. When Yar’adua’s health challenge became the nation’s most serious discourse, Obasanjo’s intervention was to simply ask him to abdicate.

With Yar’adua out of the way, following his death, also handpicked vice-president, Mr. Goodluck Jonathan, was shoved in.

After the experience of having his excesses reined in by a politically savvy and overly ambitious vice president who has a mass-based political machine, Obasanjo shopped for a spineless neophyte for vice president. While the controversy over the president’s health was raging, and a cabal led by the late president’s widow waged a relentless war of disinformation, the vice president did nothing and said nothing in defence of the Constitution, ostensibly waiting for his legendary luck to smile on him, which eventually did happen, with the death of President Yar’adua.

Today, the nation is tortured through the chaos of insecurity and the mindless looting of the national treasury, while poverty, misery, squalor and hunger mount an unprecedented assault on the ever bigger vulnerable sector of the population. In Obasanjo’s eight-year rule, he imposed a most socially insensitive economic policy, helped along by a band of ideologically rootless and socially inchoate technocratic clique that is a caricature of traditional liberals in the Western sense.

The Okonjo-Iwealas, El-Rufais, Soludos, Ezekwesilis, unleashed on the nation as reformers, set out on an epic and unprecedented asset stripping and looting of the nation’s collective patrimony, superintended and overseen by Obasanjo.

El-Rufai, whose current vocation consists of playing a phony opposition and his obsession with budget figures and statistics had the temerity to auction the nation’s telecom flagship to a Dutch firm, whose headquarter was an uncompleted building. In an uncanny exhibition of impunity, el-Rufai recently claimed that the Dutch firm that drove NITEL and Mtel into bankruptcy won a competitive bid overseen by him.

The core person in Obasanjo’s economic management team, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, harangued the nation with exiting the debt trap as the core component of their economic policy. She claimed that after exiting the vicious creditor clubs’ stranglehold, there would be enough funds to confront domestic the challenges of rebuilding infrastructure, job creation and even reviving moribund industries.

After a dubious debt buy-back arrangement, in which the country paid out 20 billion US dollars, the highest capital flight suffered by any country in history, neither infrastructure was rebuilt and the job market kept shrinking under massive de-industrialisation.

Promoted to coordinating minister of the economy, a job most people said made her a de-facto prime minister in the current administration, the woman is still on the theme of fiscal discipline to rebuild infrastructure and create jobs. She recently led a road show to China to shop for credit to rebuild infrastructure and create jobs, a grand mirage in the context of her neo-liberal grandstanding.

For more than a decade, after the Obasanjo government seized on the well-worn out theme of privatization of the public sector, a discredited credo of the Washington consensus, almost every aspect of Nigeria’s economic life has been privatized, but there has been no single successful privatized firm better run and more profitable.

In the power sector, which is continuously mutilated and mutated, neither efficiency in service delivery nor profitability has been recorded. After spending almost 20 billion US dollars in the sector, the country still generates less than 3,000 mega-watts, less than the total generated for China’s Beijing international airport alone. The Islamic Republic of Iran under intense sanctions from the West, generates 70,000 megawatts of electricity, with distribution extending to neighbouring countries of Turkey, Iraq and Armenia and Syria.

Following in the tradition of military rule before him, the Obasanjo regime turned the oil sector into a huge patronage industry. Oil blocs became toys, literally, given freely to associates and even girlfriends.

In nearly thirteen years of civilian rule, not a single refinery was built, in spite of having given more licences than any other government to private sector stakeholders to build and manage refineries.

The massive corruption unearthed in the fuel subsidy regime indicated that for the seven times Obasanjo adjusted the pump price of fuel upwards, it was actually stealing from the public and handing over to the regime’s fronts.

Under President Jonathan and his petroleum resources minster, Mrs Deizani Alison-Maduekwe, billions of raw cash are handed out to siblings of ruling party hacks and others for absolutely nothing under the dubious regime of fuel subsidy. There is probably no place under the sun, where state institutions are more explicitly deployed for criminal purposes.

Obasanjo’s socially rootless and insensitive technocratic elite, still dominant in his foster regime of Jonathan and Namadi Sambo, is driving the country on the high way of socio-economic bankruptcy with a heavy toll exerted on its political and moral trajectory as a collateral. Worse still, they have impoverished the national discourse, reduced it to the narrow confine of whether one individual public officer is doing well or not and completely obliterated the big picture of ideological and policy debate.

In a short treatise (only 177 pages) but an intensely scholarly work, Looting Africa, a South African academic and activist, Professor Patrick Bond, exposes the trajectory of Africa’s contemporary underdevelopment, even revealing how the Obasanjo/Okonjo Iweala debt buy-back of 2005 was a scam and part of the project of the West to loot Africa with active connivance by home collaborators.

Looting Africa has been published since 2007 and is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the double-speak of the likes of Okonjo-Iweala, Obansajo and others in the heinous agenda of Africa’s underdevelopment.

No short note on Obasanjo’s dubious legacy would be complete without reference to the infamous saga of the kidnap of a seating governor by a group of political felons backed by the Obasanjo led federal government. After the attempted kidnap the then governor Chris Ngige of Anambra state, after he allegedly failed to deliver the state treasury to the felons, who were his alleged political backers, Obasanjo famously quipped that declining to respect a pre-election agreement in which he was rigged to office in exchange for delivering the state treasury to them, was at the root of the governor’s travails.

As the nation’s chief law officer, commander of its armed forces, and the general overseer of its institutions, Obasanjo watched with obviously satisfactory glee as the institutions are systematically torn shreds. From the Uba/Ngige kidnap saga, and the tacit endorsement of the Obasanjo led-federal government, the criminal gangs who would not mind to explore the government-sanctioned new crime frontier quickly bought into it.

Within a very short while, after the governor kidnap saga, the new crime, bourgeoned and exploded into the most lucrative crime industry. Till date, with a national spread, it appears no crime pays more than the kidnap industry and no white-wash will exorcise it from the baggage of Obasanjo presidential legacy.

The reason why Obasanjo’s presidential legacy is not a mere academic exercise or just a theoretical question is that, it is an existing political paradigm that eats away the nation’s fabric. While my modest effort is to put in short perspective, its essential features, the most important thing is to politically repudiate it in our national life.

Mr. Onunaiju is a journalist based in Abuja.

http://peoplesdailyng.com/notes-on-dubious-obasanjo-legacy/

Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by tomakint: 11:30am On May 07, 2013
Baba Iyabo is a 'Complete Rogue' in every angle you looked at his administration!
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 2:07am On May 08, 2013
I still cannot believe how Nigerians allowed this rogue to deceive and impoverish them over 8 years.
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 9:22pm On May 08, 2013
The assassination of Muritala in 1976 was a covert coup by Obasanjo and Babangida.

Obasanjo convinced the country that it was an aborted coup and then executed dozens of officer in the pretence that they were coup plotter, when what he was really doing was purging the army of his perceived enemies.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_GEnkpbIU8
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by juman(m): 9:37pm On May 08, 2013
Anyway, I like his pictures in the thread.
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by gilmaro(m): 9:44pm On May 08, 2013
Giving away Bakassi peninsula without a national referendum or conference:
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 11:34pm On May 08, 2013
The damage Thief Obasanjo has inflicted on Nigeria is almost unquantifiabley immense.
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 3:19am On May 09, 2013
Just learnt that according to him,Obasanjo's ex-wife Lynda was allegedly shot and killed by armed robbers in 1987.

I wonder whether it was the same type of "armed robber" that Obasanjo claimed assassinated Bola Ige.

hmmm..
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 1:55pm On May 09, 2013
The animal that is Obasanjo!
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by juman(m): 2:32pm On May 09, 2013
The yoruba leaders shared from the failure of OBJ.
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 2:43pm On May 09, 2013
^^It has nothing to do with being Yoruba ooh!

Evil is evil, Babangida is his partner in crime and between them they have kept Nigeria down.
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 3:36am On May 11, 2013
Former Aides Petition National Assembly To Investigate Obasanjo-Era Assassinations, Mega Corruption And Betrayal Of Nigeria
Posted: April 23, 2013 - 21:41

By SaharaReporters, New York

A pro-democracy group, Leadership Rescue Initiative (LRI), has written to the National Assembly to take advantage of the power of the constitutional separation of powers and set up an ad-hoc committee to scrutinize the events of the Olusegun Obasanjo administration so as to grant democracy room to flourish.

In a strong petition to the President of the Senate, Mr. David Mark, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, the Chairman of LRI and a one-time close operative of Chief Obasanjo, Mr. Richard Odusanya, traced the present socio-econo-political crisis in Nigeria to the maladministration of the past, particularly the arbitrariness and corruption in all ramifications of the Obasanjo administration.

“It is highly ironical when these leaders are now grandstanding, heating-up the polity and playing the ostrich,” LRI said, indicating the readiness of its members to assist such an investigation of the National Assembly motivated by the need to prevent a repeat of the past. “The future of Nigeria neither be secure nor prosperous if the defects of the past are not highlighted for necessary corrections to serve as deterrence.”

Among those defects, the petition drew attention to such specific issues as corrupt enrichment by proxy; high-profile assassinations by proxy; and criminal imposition of the personal will on Nigeria by Chief Obasanjo.

“Your Excellency’s intervention is of tremendous importance as the investigation of some of these issues by the police and EFCC have been jaundiced e.g. Chief Bola Ige murder and the cases of corrupt enrichment by proxy,” the petitioners said.

“The constitutional Separation of Power provisions will prevent the use of frivolous court injunctions to prevent the investigations. This would ensure fairness and transparency as well as deepen our democratic values/institutions.”

The petitioners, two of whom appeared on Sahara TV at the weekend to discuss their mission, also pointed out that such a process would afford Obasanjo and his associates the golden opportunity publicly to justify and earn the most often flaunted credentials that are now being put to question. They rejected the suggestion that they were motivated by politics, arguing that the time has come to be motivated by anything other than patriotism, and asserting that they have no fear of anything but God.

With reference to the many high-profile assassinations that took place during the Obasanjo Years, LRI drew specific attention to that of Chief Bola Ige, who was the Attorney General and Minister of Justice when he was mysteriously killed.

Ige, the petition recalled, had uncompromisingly resolved to work to sustain the control of Southwest Nigeria by his party, the Alliance for Democracy. Ironically, the complaint noted, President Obasanjo was bent on capturing the same geo-political area by all means and Mr. Odusanya himself was actively involved in delivering direct bribes from the Obasanjo government Chief Ige.

“The last [of such bribes] being a N50 million cash, Odusanya gave to Chief Ige days before his assassination, at the instance of his principals. The Greek gifts or bribes seemed not to have swayed Chief Bola Ige as he still embarked on the consolidation trip where he met his untimely death,” the petition said.

Similarly, it said of the late Chief Harry Marshal, a frontline opposition leader who was also killed, “Somehow, one of the petitioners (Odusanya) was instructed to deliver gift of money to him similitude of Chief Ige’s case. Instructively, Chief Marshal chose to collect the money at Agura Hotel and it became a surprise that he lives within the vicinity when he was assassinated few days later. Only him could know why he got a hotel room rather than collect the money in his house, but he died.”

Turning to the issue of corruption, the petition described as “laughable” the fact that former President Obasanjo’s is now posing as an anti-corruption figure, saying that as President, he “surpassed the grandiose Babangida’s Hilltop mansion and made Abacha’s love for monetary acquisition a child’s play.”

The former insiders said that Obasanjo was only cleverer than those predecessors of his because he engaged close aides and associates as proxies, a weakness in his plan which is not without traces that they, as petitioners, will willingly provide in the interest of the Nigerian people.

In that regard, the petitioners drew attention to the case of Senator Nnamdi Uba, who was during the period President Obasanjo’s Special Assistant, and now a man of tremendous wealth. They expressed the view that taking advantage of the Freedom of Information law, it should be possible to compare what he declared to the Code of Conduct Bureau when he was appointed the domestic aide and what he declared upon becoming governor of Anambra, as well as when he became Senator.

“The difference will shock and embarrass their greatest admirers,” they said of people such as Mr. Uba. “We can then help him in explaining the riddle including the “nationalistic sale-off” of Ajaokuta Steel Company/Oku-Iboku Paper mill and Nigerian properties sold abroad including those that benefitted in the commission of US $12.5 Billion loan repayment etc.etc.”

The petition also drew attention to the curious statement by Bodunde Adeyanju, another former Personal Assistant of President Obasanjo that he admitted to the police over the Halliburton scandal that he collected US$6 million but that he made sure he did not implicate Baba Obasanjo, and questioned whether Adeyanju, a lowly presidential hand, have collected such a vast amount of money without Obasanjo’s cover, let alone his knowledge.

The LRI petition, copies of which were also sent to the Attorney-General of the Federation & Minister of Justice, as well as the Inspector-General of Police, also dwelt on such issues as the scandalous Police Equipment Fund, which it described as “a disgrace to the sovereignty of Nigeria as a national entity,” and to Otunba Oyewole Fashawe, Obasanjo’s close friend and the dedicated trouble-shooting proxy MOFAS account he ran for Obasanjo at the defunct Trans International Bank (TIB).

Stressing that they are ready to provide authentication of their claims, the petitioners asserted that the inflows and outflows of that account will speak volumes, as it involves Halliburton, NNPC, PTDF, National ID Card Scheme, among others.

According to them, “Interesting disclosures in the [account] that will be difficult for OBJ to disown include serial bribery of House of Reps members with N4 million each to impeach Ghali Nabba leading to the celebrated Ghana-must-go money display at the hallowed chambers. In his erratic decision to detain and prosecute Otunba Fashawe, President Obasanjo ran into problems when EFCC investigations implicated him. Not even with a N700 million OBJ directly paid into the account.”

The petition further noted that the MOFAS account subsequently ran into a N7billion deficit, which contributed to the collapse of Trans International Bank and the loss of jobs to workers. “Acting in concert with Otunba Fashawe to run this account are Bodunde Adeyanju, Pariya Umar and one of the petitioners – Richard Odusanya.”

Calling on the National Assembly to take advantage of the separation of powers to ensure that the errors of the past are corrected, LRI said the kind of investigation it is asking for will prevent the use of frivolous court injunctions to prevent the investigations, but also provide Obasanjo with room to demonstrate that he has not been misrepresented.

“This would ensure fairness and transparency as well as deepen our democratic values/institutions. Importantly, it would also afford President Obasanjo and his associates the golden opportunity publicly justify and earn the most often flaunted credentials that are now being put to question.”

According to LRI, declaring its intentions, “For a nation to be great, the leadership must submit to the rule of law. Whenever illegal activities are committed, leaders must use the authority arising from their exalted positions to further the cause of justice and adherence to the obedience of laws of the land regardless of who is involved.”
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 3:50am On May 11, 2013
Prosecute Obasanjo Now, CACOL Urges Federal Government
Posted: April 29, 2013 - 16:29

Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Ghanaian President elect, John Dramani Mahama-Photo: Reuters
By SaharaReporters, New York

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has called on the Federal Government to expedite action at prosecuting former President Olusegun Obasanjo for the financial malpractices he perpetuated during his eight year regime, and make sure he is adequately punished.

This call followed the statement credited to the former president challenging the federal government to prosecute him for all wrongs done during his administration rather than prosecuting his aides. Obasanjo allegedly made this statement at the 50th birthday anniversary of the former Minister of Education, Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili.

“Now that he has volunteered to face trial, the FG should not hesitate to grant the old man’s request,” the Coalition's Executive Chairman, Debo Adeniran, said in reaction to the news. “It is clear fact that the old soldier presided over scandals of international dimension. It has been revealed that 60 per cent of the Halliburton bribe money was collected during Obasanjo’s regime; the Wilbross Scandal is there, the Siemens Scandal, and even the Pentascope, which was said to have been registered on a Sunday and incurred more debt that the NITEL it came to rescue.”

CACOL said Obasanjo was right in his assertion and should be held liable for every financial malpractices perpetrated in his regime.

“CACOL has in many petitions and reminders provided the anti-graft agencies, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), with all evidences required to investigate the allegations and prosecute the cases against former President Olusegun Obasanjo for corrupt practices committed during his eight years in power,” the statement said. “Our Coalition provided them with enough leads that they ought to have worked with since six years ago, it is baffling that the former president has not been docked [yet].”

The Coalition recalled, for purposes of a prospective probe:

• The Ndudi Elumelu Power Probe Report, where the former president allegedly expended $16bn on Rural Electrification Scheme Project with nothing positive to show for it;
• The pogrom he committed in Odi, Zaki-Biam and the killings of the O’odua Peoples’ Congress members in the South West;
• His do-or-die politics, which led to thousands of lives wasted;
• The land grabbing allegations against Obasanjo;
• Obasanjo’s use of his office to garner illegal donations for his presidential library.

CACOL further asserted that the former president should face trial for the illegal excess crude account opened by his administration.

“It is worthy of note that the so-called Excess Crude Account created by Obasanjo is illegal,” the statement continued, stressing that Obasanjo must tell the whole world why he created the account in the first place and what he used the money for in the face of many sectors of the country.

“The ex-President must also tell Nigerians where monies recovered from Abacha and other looters went to,” CACOL said. “Plunderers of our collective patrimony and national heritage must be brought to book.
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 9:06pm On May 11, 2013
Olusegun Obasanjo: The Great Destroyer Of Nigeria
Post 21 February 2007 Last Updated on 23 April 2008 By Lawrence Chinedu Nwobu

It is important, as the search continues for a new compassionate Nigeria, achieving her potentials and taking her place proudly among the comity of nations, that we pinpoint persons and institutions who played critical roles in the destruction of the nation, if only to serve as a lesson to future generations.Anybody who dares to confront the truth will no doubt accept the fact that Obasanjo and the Nigerian military institution have wreaked havoc and all but destroyed every political, economic, structural or social facet of our nation. The ongoing disaster Obasanjo has become is a disappointment for all those who had hoped that power shift to the South will herald new beginnings. Far from it, he has turned out to be perhaps the greatest dictator ever in our collective history. He has demonstrated an unrivalled and callous disregard for human life. Democracies emphasize dialogue and a respect for the rule of law, but Obasanjo’s democracy or is it Babacracy? has the utmost disregard for this virtues which constitute the main planks upon which democracies are established.

The Obasanjo killing machine went into action soon after he was sworn in. In 1999 beginning with the large scale rape and goring in Odi, moving to the levelling and massacre of Zaki-Biam, graduating to the extra-judicial killings of non-violent MASSOB members engaged in legitimate protests, continuing to the Helicopter gunship bombings of Niger-Delta communities, the recent Onitsha massacre, and the now official target practice which the notorious Nigerian police force uses Nigerians for whenever you refuse to give them 20 Naira. These days the Nigerian police has gone a step further in their impunity, by invading and burning down villages as they did recently in Delta state, and in the Southeast in the continuing culture of violence encouraged and nurtured by Obasanjo’s democracy, sorry "Babacracy". The scale and scope of violence that has largely become the hallmarks and defining attributes of this administration, supposedly a democracy, is comparable to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, and Idi- Amin’s Uganda. Ironically even the British colonial establishment at the height of their power, never subjected Nigerians to this level of brutality.

On the social front, Obasanjo has turned out to be an unrefined, crude, and uncouth persona. Hardly any day passes without registering a faux pas.His frequent abusive, and crude language has become a source of embarrassment to all and sundry. His retrogressive style of leadership which has significantly maintained the status quo injustices and marginalisation of large swaths of the population has left Nigerians increasingly more divided than at anytime in our chequered history. Economically the regime is a non starter. Nigerians have never had it so bad. Poverty stalks the land, while a few government robbers live in lavish opulence, playing God and riding roughshod on the hapless enslaved masses. Desperate poverty has pushed many to the limits of their humanity. Builders now add more sand to cement resulting in frequently collapsing buildings, airlines cut corners by recycling tokunboh spare parts, they now routinely fall of the sky. Desperate citizens answering to the painful pangs of poverty now crack open high pressure fuel pipes, most of them end up in a blazing inferno. At the last count more than 1000 have died in such ferocious inferno in Obasanjo’s Nigeria. The minimal relics of basic infrastructure like electricity, roads, etc that existed before Obasanjo’s emergence has totally crumbled. We are now technically thrown back to the stone age.

Politically Nigeria under Obasanjo has invented a new system of government now known as “Babacracy”. Under this system opponents are witch hunted and disqualified from contesting, while cronies are “selected” into office. The Babacracy system is such that you don’t even need to stand for election primaries to become a candidate. In Delta North senatorial zone Ahmadu Ali’s wife did not stand for election yet she was given the ticket, in Imo state Charles Ugwuh came 14th in the gubernatorial primaries yet he was given the ticket, In Rivers state Celestine Omehia did not even bother to stand for elections yet he was given the guber. ticket all courtesy of babacracy. Under the babacracy variant, godfatherism is the way forward and voter registration machines are found in the “Adedibuistic” homes of untouchable private cronies of Obasanjo.

Sum it all up, and it would be clear that Obasanjo’s exit in may, if he does leave, will be leaving behind, an ethnically divided, bloody, broken, lawless, violent, confrontational, dysfunctional, undemocratic, autocratic, resentful and destroyed nation. His failure to apply the principles of dialogue more so in a democracy, which is capable of resolving all grievances, and his deliberate undermining of democracy amongst others has marked him out as a disaster to have befallen our fragile nation. No doubt Obasanjo is a shamefully failed leader, and the worst so far of all Nigerian leaders. His regime singularly committed crimes against humanity far more than any before him. It would be a miracle if he escapes punishment once he is relieved of the protective cocoon of power.

Conclusions And Recommendations:
All Nigerian army officers, and all ex-combatants who served in the Nigeria-Biafra war should henceforth be disqualified from holding public office. It has been sufficiently established from our collective experience of military rule, and the ongoing Obasanjo disaster, who himself is a product of the Nigerian, crude, inept, and uncivilised military, that the Nigerian specie of military officers are not fit to hold public office at least for now. Until they are sufficiently indoctrinated into humane and civilised methods of human engagement.

Comrade Lawrence Chinedu Nwobu

Email: lawrencenwobu@yahoo.com
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 10:39pm On May 11, 2013
culled from another thread:

OBJ is a total failure here is an extraction from an aticle i saw on the net by one Nigerian suming up the total failures of the old outdated,uncivilised.backward thinking and good for nothing president that claims he has done much when even a mad man on the streets will testify that no positive change has occured.

As Obasanjo packs his luggage, his result card is pathetic given the expectation. I must say that I am not one of those who expected a miracle, but I expected that given the reality on ground considerable progress would have been made rather what we are greeted with is totally disappointment in all ramifications.

Last year alone we earned 131 trillion naira, yet we cannot say that this is the fruit of the earnings. In education the reality is grim with 30 accounting departments, about 41 medical faculties, 25 Insurance departments, 36 law faculties and 45 faculties of engineering, plus countless universities going by the way this government gives them operating licenses, we produce graduates, half, quarter and any how baked with no plans as regarding what to do with them and what future to give them.

In the last one year alone I am loosing count of the number of collapsed buildings in the nation, one only prays that the nation does not fall because these buildings that collapse have the same characteristics with the nation. Dead bodies disappear in the morgue, infant mortality has not reduced, there is a drastic rise in the number of Nigerians suffering High Blood Pressure and what I refer to as Breeze Psycho-mentality, a touch of madness or insanity on daily basis.

In the last seven years Nigerians have witnessed progress in some areas, negative as one may want to appear, the fight against corruption is one, no matter the one sided nature, or the partial justice associated with it, it has produced results. But let it be know that fighting corruption is insignificant if we cannot tackle the mother hen that lays the eggs of corruption.(OBJ is the mother hen of all the corruption in nigeria today) 50 million was given to the national assembly men to support his third term campaing and nothing was said about it. the fomer speaker of the national assembley ghali umar na'abba and some of his friends showed the whole country the money OBJ gave them to impeacheh him then as the speaker of the house of assembly, transperency international still maintained that most of nigeria's corruption takes place in the presidency and still no one is asking questions.


The stark reality is that very little is changing, in Oyo it is Governor Ladoja, Garrison Commander Adedibu, in Plateau, Governor Botmang, President Mantu, in Ibadan Adedibu's son, in-law, godson all will be going to represent the people of Oyo. In Anambra, Andy Uba will or safely may be Governor,Chris Uba showed us the damage a person can do to an entire state once he has the backing of the president and nobody questions why and how.

The energy sector is not left, from the mere 3,000 mgws we had in 1999, the government promised 10,000. Sadly today we have less than 2,000, while tariffs have risen by over 300%. And billions in Naira have grown wings in the name of reforming the sector(over a trillion naira), yet the situation has remained in a state of locus standi and we are selling the company like Banana with groundnuts at less the value in the name of privatization.

The all time corrupt index has remained the Police first, the energy company NEPA or PHCN second while teachers/lectures are third. And this I suppose sums it up because these are the very institutions on which the entire system should naturally revolve around. I have left out the corruption in places such as the NNPC, Aso Rock, the other tiers of government, private sector corruption and individual corruption.

Obasanjo is leaving, will the next President have the courage to probe this man, ask his henchmen questions as to how they governed us and make them accountable? We got about $460 million to combat poverty, HIV/AIDS recently and how these aims were achieved is only a miracle. the close to N600billion spent on roads still leaves us with less than 6% of our roads motorable.For 2 good years the charade national budget has not being implemented because of one silly reason or the other like the nation hosting the CHOGUM and the All african games yet nobody stood up and asked why?

Sometime ago in 2001 I recall that N847 million was released for crime cameras in Abuja and Lagos, where are the cameras. Like the N600M that was released for a brand Nigeria project that we never saw, now it is heart of Africa, when all we can boast of is heartless leaders. The Ethiopian Airlines would be 60 years soon, yet we do not in the real sense have a national carrier. Take a good look at statistics, the good old Nigerian airways for all its faults had an accident occurrence of just two, but sine madam anywhere belle face and messieurs any government in power were allowed, the witches of the air often find weekends on Nigerian airspace lucrative because of our negligence and stiff neck refusal to do anything right.

In this year alone the President has bought himself a new aircraft, new helicopter, the new shoes, agbadas, new women, are just a few of the news I can mention, what new thing would he leave with us as a parting gift that will impact on our lives positively. I end this essay by stating that nothing I have discussed the in last few lines are necessarily new but the fact remains that I will continue to harp on them perhaps, just perhaps they will sink into the heads of our leaders, as regards solutions, cupboards in offices of government functionaries are full of reports, recommendations of panels that only if they could be implemented, we will witness a difference in this nation.
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 2:30am On May 12, 2013
Irate Nigerian Man Rains Punches On Obasanjo At Lagos Airport
Posted: November 9, 2010 - 00:10


By SaharaReporters, New York

Earlier today former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo received a dose of the widespread hatred in which ordinary Nigerians hold him, when a man forced his way into his car. The angry Nigerian believed to be in his 40s forced his way into his car, grabbed him by his "Agbada" and pummeled with vicious punches.

The event took place near the Presidential lounge of the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos. Two eyewitness sources told Saharareporters that the attack on Obasanjo took place shortly after Obasanjo entered his car at MMIA following his return from a trip.

The Sources said Mr. Obasanjo was saved by airforce personel on security duty at the airport. As the man was being pulled away, he was heard cursing Obasanjo that "God will punish for all his crimes against Nigerians."

A police source told Saharareporters that when Obj assailant was brought into the police station and asked by interrogator, "are you crazy", the man replied, " if you say I am crazy what would you say about Obasanjo."

The man then further asked the police interrogator, whether (he) the assailant was the one the looted the funds of Nigeria, rigged elections and slept with his son's wife"

Police authorities are detaining the man claiming that they are investigating his state of mental health.
Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 11:26am On Jul 01, 2013
GenBuhari: [size=18pt]Obasanjo Is The Most Corrupt Nigerian-Gani Fawehinmi[/size]
Posted: June 1, 2007 - 01:00

Finally, Olusegun Obasanjo is on his way out after eight years as Nigeria’s president. Could you assess his tenure?

Eight years of self-centred disposition, eight years of wayo, eight years of deception, eight years of creating a few rich people, eight years of anti-masses programmes, eight years of deliberate junketing all over the world, eight years of make-believe, eight years of dictatorship, eight years of lack of coherent policies, eight years of so much wealth coming to the hands of government out of which Nigerians received aggravated poverty and economic pain.

When Obasanjo first came to power in 1999, many Nigerians had high hopes that they would get rid of dictatorial tendencies which characterised military rule, but unfortunately, we had a tyrant in democratic toga. We expected that the provisions of the constitution vis-à-vis the welfare of the people and their security would be the focus of the government because Section 14, sub-section 2b of the Constitution says that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary focus of government. Alas! it was not to be under the government of Obasanjo. Take security for instance. He opened up the insecurity of this country in November 1999 when he gave orders to shoot on sight in Odi. And more than 2500 Nigerians were slaughtered because, unfortunately, 13 policemen were missing as a result of the protestation of the Odi people in Bayelsa State.
You saw the killing in Zaki Biam in Benue State. We saw him give an order in Lagos State to shoot the OPC on sight and we protested. And since he gave the signal that human life counted for nothing, police followed the queue, extra-judicial killings became the agenda of the government. Every respectable human rights organisation abroad rated Nigeria very low in terms of extra-judicial killing. Thousands of Nigerians were slaughtered without a recourse to the judicial process by the police and other security agencies, to the extent that it became the culture of Nigerians to ritualise human lives. Legs, hands and other parts of human bodies became a common commodity in markets and dead bodies were being picked here and there, headless. That was Obasanjo’s regime and what human dignity meant for that regime for eight years.


For welfare, Nigerians have never had it so bad in their millions. Instead of government to give employment, it became the stock in trade of this regime to send workers to the unemployment market by all sorts of epithet with ignoble description such as down-sizing, reducing the labour force and so on. Unemployment became unbelievably rampant to the extent that workers approached the doors of government offices with trepidation, thinking they would be sacked any moment. Security of employment became nil in government services. In the private sector, profit motive was taken to a most ungodly level. Sack became a culture of the private sector. Whenever the private sector wanted more profit, they resorted to showing workers out without adequate recompense and this was aggravated by the so-called economic reforms of General Obasanjo where the heritage of Nigeria was sold, not even to the highest bidders but to the favoured bidders, contrary to the Constitution of Nigeria.
The major sectors of our economy were placed on the building blocks of rapacious entrepreneurs, many of whom are in government, using proxies to purchase government properties, courtesy of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, and contrary in Section 16, sub-section 4 of the constitution which says that the major sectors of the economy shall be managed, operated and run by the Federal Government of Nigeria, solely and exclusively.

But today, the major sectors are being sold. The latest example is the refinery in Port Harcourt, one of the four refineries in Nigeria. For eight years, Obasanjo did not build a single refinery to ensure a total reduction in the costs of petroleum products. Instead, Obasanjo, contrary to the Constitution of Nigeria, sold and he is still in the process of selling even in the dying days of the regime, the major sectors of our economy at give-away prices. Look at NITEL, another government investment that is relevant to the welfare of Nigerian people, it is still in the same mess. Our constitution says that economy of the country should not be operated in such a way that wealth would be concentrated in a few hands, but we are now having the very opposite of what the constitution says should be done. A company emerged, called Transcorp. There was no Transcorp before Obasanjo but Transcorp emerged from the bowel of Aso Rock, founded with the collaboration, connivance and conceptualisation of General Obasanjo to the extent that he owns 200 million shares. According to him, it will be the pillar of the private sector emerging in Nigeria. There is little difference between Transcorp and General Olusegun Obasanjo, except that a few favoured friends were brought into Transcorp. Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, the Director-General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange who is supposed to be a public officer runs the Transcorp with General Obasanjo. Both public officers contravened the code of conduct in the 5th and 3rd Schedules of the Constitution. Behold! General Obasanjo was never taken before the Code of Conduct Bureau for this. I protested to the Code of Conduct, I protested to the National Assembly, nothing came out of it. Here is a man who abused his office, set up a company to acquire the heritage of Nigerians. Today, Transcorp has acquired Nicon Hilton, and it has acquired NITEL. If this is not corruption, then I don’t know what corruption means.

To me, Obasanjo is the most corrupt Nigerian and I will never agree with anyone who says Obasanjo is not corrupt. We see it everywhere. This man was in prison for three years and his Ota farm which was in bankruptcy then was almost sold. They were thinking of how to sell most of his properties. Today, Obasanjo’s farm is rated as one of the richest in the world, all in a space of eight years that he governed Nigeria. If that is not corruption, then I don’t know what corruption means. If that is not abuse of office, then I do not know what abuse of office means. I protested to the National Assembly, I protested to various organisations, that look, under the Code of Conduct, Nigerians are entitled to go there and ask for all the declaration of assets of any public officer, on conditions that may be prescribed by the National Assembly. We asked the National Assembly to give us the conditions so that we can exercise our rights to know what had been declared by Obasanjo and others, including members of the National Assembly. But till today, they never gave us those conditions. So, Nigerians don’t even have access to the assets declared by the public officers. No public officer’s assets can be examined.


This regime will go down in history as the most corrupt regime in the history of this country in the sense that no regime ever made so much money as was made under Obasanjo’s regime. It got to a point that the price of one barrel of crude oil was fetching $70 and Nigeria at that time was producing 3,150,000 (three million, one hundred and fifty thousand) barrels per day. As we talk, the Federal Government is making more than N200,000,000 (two hundred million dollars) everyday, including Sunday. The more money the Obasanjo regime made the poorer the Nigerian people became. And the more money the Obasanjo regime made, the richer a few people became, including Mr. President himself.

Yes, there was a battle against corruption. A young man emerged like an oasis in the desert, called Nuhu Ribadu, under the auspices of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, which I have often described as a positive accident in this regime. Positive accident because Obasanjo did not plan to fight against corruption because he is corrupt himself. But because he was under pressure from international organisations, like Transparency International that wanted some sort of actions against corruption, he was forced to bring about EFCC. He brought a young man named Ribadu, he never expected that Ribadu would perform that good. So, Ribadu’s performance is an oasis in the desert of corruption. What we are now hoping is that Ribadu, after May 29 will look at the records again, will look at the complaints of Nigerians, including mine, against Obasanjo. For example, his library took me to court. His library which he launched on May 14, 2005 at Abeokuta garnered N8.5 billion. [Femi] Otedola gave N250 million; [Otunba Mike] Adenuga N350 million; [Aliko] Dangote, N220 million; consortium of banks N1.9 billion; consortium of oil companies N2.4 billion and so on. These oil companies we talk about, for eight years Obasanjo was the Minister of Petroleum Resources apart from being the head of state. No oil block was ever given to anybody without the connivance and approval of General Olusegun Obasanjo. He was more active as an oil minister than Mr. President. So there must be more than meets the eye.

I will therefore want Ribadu to dust all files, to look at all records and do a thorough investigation into the administration of General Obasanjo, into the personal fortunes of Obasanjo, into the family fortunes of Obasanjo and into Obasanjo’s fortunes all over the world. And let us come with the correct analysis and truth about Olusegun Obasanjo. So that when the facts are all gathered and known, Ribadu will then take the matter to court and charge Obasanjo for corruption and abuse of office. So that the truth will be told about this man who pretended so much.

1 Like

Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 10:54pm On Sep 11, 2013
Thief Obasanjo - a foolish and shameless thief

Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 10:59pm On Sep 11, 2013
Thief Obasanjo - a foolish and shameless thief

Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 2:55pm On Sep 14, 2013
GenBuhari: Thief Obasanjo - a foolish and shameless thief

Re: Thief Obasanjo - he wrecked Nigeria and stole $200bn by Nobody: 2:39pm On Sep 17, 2013
angry

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