Symphony007: Apparently this poster don't know the meaning of quotes. These are shambolic random sentences. Quotes are powerfull and resonates in peoples mind. "we have nothing to fear but fear itself"- franklyn rooservett, "grief is the price we pay for love"- queen elizabeth ii, "ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country"- john f. Kennedy. Etc! Don't try and hype the intelligence of a relatively sublime man!!

thanks a million times

[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.
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--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

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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]

[size=24pt]Obasanjo's destruction of Nigeria[/size]
These are the rulers of Nigeria up till date: Nnamdi Azikwe/Tafawa Balewa tandem, Aguiyi Ironsi, Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Mohammed, Olusegun Obasanjo, Shehu Shagari, Mohamadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida,Ernest Shonekan, Sani Abacha, Abdusallam Abubakar, Olusegun Obasanjo and Musa Yar’Adua.

Of all these rulers, who has done the most to destroy Nigeria? The answer may vary and it may also depend on whom you ask. This piece has become necessary to answer some questions raised by my previous article “Obasanjo: A digbolugi in the House?” These are my answers to those questions raised as to why Obasanjo is a bonafide “digbolugi.”

I am in agreement with so many commentators on the Nigerian issues that no one man can be solely responsible for the destruction of a country like Nigeria. I also agree that no one can bear all the blame of what has been going wrong and what is presently wrong with Nigeria. But I am very convinced that it is very “establishable” that one man can play more roles than the others.

In my estimation, Olusegun Obasanjo has done more than any past or present rulers of Nigeria to destroy the country. It would be unfair to assume that Obasanjo did not achieve anything in his eight years during his second coming. But the way I see it is like a child who sat for a test and gets 18%. Obasanjo got some marks for his efforts, but he failed woefully.

Here are the kernels of my case not in order of importance or chronology:

It is a matter of public secret that during the trial of Major Buka Suka Dimka who led the assassination of General Murtala Mohammed, it was Obasanjo who reportedly arm-twisted General Theophelus Yakubu Danjuma not to try Ibrahim Babangida for his treachery against the nation for allowing Major Dimka to escape from the Radio Station. How Major Dimka was able to do that without firing a single bullet when Babangida was commanding several mechanized armoured vehicles is anybody's imagination. Yet, Obasanjo overlooked such an act against the nation. This is TREASON.



In the days leading to the elections of the 2nd republic - Obasanjo told Nigerians that they should not vote for the best man who was qualified for the job in Obafemi Awolowo, though he did not mention the latter by name, but every Nigerian knew what he meant. Anyone would think that any patriotic Nigerian would want the best for his or her country, but not Obasanjo. He wanted the worst in Shehu Shagari, imposed him on Nigeria and Nigeria has never been the same since then. This is TREASON.



Murtala Mohammend initially did not believe in Nigeria. He became converted after serving with Chief Obafemi Awolowo in Gowon’s cabinet. Late Brigadier Samuel Ogbemudia attested publicly to this saying that all the great achievements he had in then Bendel State as governor was because of the “guidance” of Awolowo. He said he was expression the “overwhelming view” of the Cabinet members who served during that span of time. Obasanjo had resented this for reasons I have been advised not to make public for now. Ebenezer Babatope had publicly challenged Olusegun Obasanjo to deny it if he did not try to convince Murtala Mohammed to do everything to prevent Obafemi Awolowo from becoming the elected President of Nigeria. It was reported that Murtala was skeptical of Obasanjo’s motive. Obasanjo has not had the gut to deny this allegation up till today. It is one of several pointers why Obasanjo has dragged Nigeria to this tragic state by his actions. If he has the guts, he can still come out to deny and we can go from there. Murtala may be dead, but other actors are still alive to bear testimonies.



The subversion of the Nigerian constitution and law is an act of TREASON. This is exactly what Obasanjo did in 1979 when he changed the rules in the middle of the game, without recourse to the people or any institution, removed a clause, in the middle of the night, from the constitution that prescribed ELECTORAL COLLEGE to determine a winner if none of the candidates meet the constitutional requirement in the first ballot.



e. When the issue was taken to Court based on the abracadabra mathematics of Richard Akinjide, Obasanjo violated another rule of impartiality. He removed the Chief Judge of the Federation, Justice Teslim Elias just days before the case was to be heard and installed one of his henchmen, Justice Fatai Williams who carried out the predetermined outcome of the case.



f. Obasanjo is the one who destroyed the Nigerian Tertiary Education by summarily taking over the University of Ife, Ile – Ife; University of Nigeria,Nsukka; University of Benin, Benin and Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The objective is to help thwart the educational progress of the South in favour of the North. His henchman is retired Colonel Ahmadu Ali who later became his hatchet man to destroy the PDP as its national chairman.



Obasanjo was the first ruler in Nigerian history to borrow money when Nigeria did not need it from the roguish International Monetary Fund. At the time he did it in 1978, Nigeria had about 50 billion dollars in Foreign Account. One would like to ask the purpose of that borrowing if not to steal through the backdoor. It has been alleged that he diverted some of the IMF money to found his Otta Fams. His Operation Feed the Nation Policy was also alleged to be a cocoon of deceit preparatory to his returning to Otta as a farmer. Whatever the case was, it was evident that for him to accomplish borrowing of that IMF fund, he sacrificed Nigerian children's right to tertiary education, and instituted tuition fees in our universities. When the Nigerian students embarked on a peaceful demonstration to make their case, he asked his police to shoot them. That era was known in the Nigerian lexicon of infamy as "Ali Must Go" crisis. Thus by giving up Nigerian interest for that of the IMF and its foreign backers, Obasanjo committed TREASON.



h. As a result of the Obasanjo sell out of Nigeria to IMF, he became the first Nigeria ruler to devalue our currency which the Shehu Sahagari administration later worsened. Even during the Civil War, a crisis situation, the currency was steady. That devaluation to satisfy the IMF was never done with Nigeria’s interest as the motive.



i. Obasanjo is the one as Head of State who forcibly stole the land from the people of Nigeria with his 1978 Land Decree to pave the way for other crimes against Nigerian peasants and farmers. Others have alleged that this also has to do with his establishing his Ota Farms. This decision was the root of the Bakolori Massacre in the early 1980s in Sokoto. I use the words “forcibly stole” because this policy was not arrived at through democratic process but through Military fiat.



j. It was Olusegun Obasanjo and his hatchet man, Professor Aboyade that nailed the financial coffins of the Southern States prepared by Murtala Mohammed to assuage the Northern States. This was through the Aboyade Technical Commission, which recommended the removal of the remaining 20% of the rents and royalties enjoyed by the Niger Delta after Murtala Mohammed had initially slashed it from 45% in 1975.



It was Obasanjo who supervised the imposition of the first unelected Senate President Adolphus Wabara, in Nigerian history because of interests that has nothing to do with the Nigerian people. This is a subversion of electoral process, a subversion of our constitution and a TREASONABLE act against the nation.



If you lead or rule a people, supposedly, you look after their interests, preserve and protect them. Obasanjo has refused to do this for the people of the Niger Delta. He refused to meet them. He refused to listen to them. He refused to consider their pains. He sides with foreign interests represented by Shell, Chevron/Texaco and others against that of Nigerians in Niger Delta. When they complain, he sends soldiers to go and shoot them at sight. When he felt the soldiers were not killing them enough, he wanted to bring in the American marines. This is TREASON. And now, he will go down in History as the ruler of Nigeria after independence, under whose civilian armed struggle against injustice reared its head again after the “Agbekoya” revolution of the 1960s



By April 2004, Obasanjo has succeeded to be the first ruler in history of Nigeria to dole out Nigerian land and people in Bakassi to a foreign country. Sani Abacha, as deranged as he was would not have allowed that to happen. If this is not TREASON, I do not know what it is. I have not heard or read about any leader of any country in World History who would gleefully cede part of his country without any second thought.



n. Obasanjo is the Nigeria ruler who destroyed Nigeria’s secularism. He personally put Sharia in the 1979 Constitution (at least he said this much during his BBC interview, though not that this was unknown before then)without consultation and against the wish of the Constitution Drafting Committee which he himself put together under the chairmanship of Chief Rotimi Williams. The effects of this treachery is still a pain in the neck for Nigeria stability up till today.



Hear President Obasanjo on Sharia applications in September 2002 :



"The fact that people get worried about Sharia, I am not worried about
it, it affects investments into the country."



If I understand the former president very well what he is saying here is that Sharia worries a lot of people who hold back their investments because of it, and this not withstanding, Obasanjo is not worried about it! This is TREASON by NEGLIGENCE. Can any of Obasanjo's apologists convince me that this is a responsible statement from someone entrusted with the welfare of “our” nation? If Obasanjo could be so intellectually limited not to understand the meanings and implications of such statement, he deserves not just serious pity but profound rebuke.



n.
During his first six years in office, Obasanjo spent 512 days - a year and four

months - on hundreds of foreign trips. Obasanjo’s supporters argued that he was trying to convince the creditors to forgive some of our debts. In my opinion, he was not doing Nigeria any favour, he started the borrowing spree any way. Even then, the modalities for the accomplishment of the objective have been questioned for lack of integrity and clarity.



o.
The massacre of innocent citizens in Zaki Biam and Odi, without recourse to their legitimate feelings and grievances.

p.
The “give away” euphemized as “sale” of Kaduna and Port Harcourt refineries to his cronnies. This has already been reversed by Umar Yar’Adua.

q.
Selective waiver on import duties to his friends and cronnies; (the Redeem leader Adeboye’s example). Also a policy already reversed by Yar’adua.

r.
Have a look at this incomplete list of victims of assassinations under Obasanjo out of which not a single one was solved in the entire 8 years of his tenure - Chief Bola Ige (Attorney General of the Federation); Dr. Marshall Harry (ANPP National Vice Chairman for South-South); Chief Ogbonnaya Uche (ANPP's Senatorial candidate for Orlu Imo State); Mr Theodore Agwatu (Principal Secretary to Imo State Governor); Hon. Odunayo Olagbaju (Member of Osun State House of Assembly);Hon. Uche Nwoke (ANPP Senatorial candidate in Imo State); Hon. Monday Ndor (Member of Rivers State House of Assembly); Dr. Ayodeji Daramola, gurbernatorial candidate in Ekiti State; Ahmed Ahman Pategi (State Chairman of Kwara PDP); Hon Schnapps Omuvwiebese (Councilor, Ughelli - North LG, Delta State); Mr. Funsho Williams, PDP governoship aspirant in Lagos; Mr. Barnabas Igwe (Anambra State Bar Association, Chairman) and his wife, Mrs. Abigail Igwe; Mr. Sunday Ugwu, Mrs. Janet Olapade among many others. Readers should remember that Tafa Balogun has impliedly alleged that he was subjected to Ribadu’s rage by OBJ because he refused to carry out the requested elimination of a former PDP chairman! Reliable sources have confirmed that the only reason Balogun had to spend 6 months in EFCC guest houses as opposed to long time imprisonment and deprivation of all the stolen billions was to prevent him from spilling his guts out.

s.
His refusal to give Lagos State its entitlement in financial allocation for several years and in violation of repeated court orders. If Lagos State did not have the means to survive as a rich State, it is better imagined the kind of sorrow and sadness that would have been brought to bear on the people of the State. Obasanjo did not care about decency, etiquette, decorum or self restraint required of a leader in position of responsibility. He was and still is unruly, a thug and above all a “digbolugi” ex-president. He gave Chief Bola Tinubu undeserved credibility and reasons to be forgiven his non-performance.

t.
He behaved like a thug and bandit through out his tenure and he is still behaving the same way out of the office. This is manifested in repeated violation of several Court orders. Cases involving Lagos State, Vice President Atiku and Anambra State are examples.

u.
Allowed Charles Taylor, the Liberian war criminal to stay in Nigeria in opulence.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/751087_Olusegun_Obasanjo_mismanaged___closed__Nigeria__Airways_jpgd57326e8fac1d711eb0d1d3245abec97

v.
He subverted the will of Nigerian’s again by denying them the clamour for SNC to honestly and sincerely look at the structure of Nigeria, resource control, cultural and social issues and as an opportunity to self determine. He organized a kangaroo one instead.



w.
He arm-twisted officials of Nigerian state to raise 7 billion naira for his personal library. This is abuse of power.

x.
He is reportedly worth 25billion Naira in 2007 from his savings of about 20,000 naira in 1999. The issue of Transcorp LLC is still out there. He reportedly bought a farm settlement in Oyo State. He recently moved into a new house. I do not grudge him for this, since I have a couple of mansions myself. But I like to know how he came about this stupendous wealth in which he now revels. How much was his monthly salary for 8 years? Where did the billions come from?

y.
Finally, he organized the worst election in Nigeria’s history in 2003. One of the Governors rigged in then actually admitted this. The governor was upset with INEC’s Iwu for doing a “sloppy job” in this regard in not aligning his total number of votes to that of Obasanjo as President in his state in 2003. Obasanjo improved on this record of worst elections in Nigeria, in 2007.

z.
On top of all the above, add his uncouth public behaviors and pronouncements. Recall his insulting a Priest publicly (even though I am not a fan of Christianity and its adherents); his insult on the injury of the Lagos bomb explosion victims. Rather than showing understanding and sympathy with them he reportedly rebuked them saying "shut up. I took the opportunity of being here to see what could be done I don’t need to be here". (Vanguard, 29th January, 2002). Add to this his deliberate effort to create disharmony in Yorubaland through his revision of Yoruba History as related to Owu.


I like to state here that based on my understanding of the contemporary Nigerian history it is my view that without Obasanjo’s TREACHERY against the people of Nigeria, there would have been no President Shehu Shagari or General Mohammadu Buhari that followed him. Without the BETRAYAL of Nigeria by Olusegun Obasanjo there would have been no Military President Ibrahim Babangida and the Head of Government Ernest Shonekan that followed him. Without the TREASONABLE ACTS of Olusegun Obasanjo against the Nigeria State, there would not have been Head of State, Sani Abacha and Abdulsallami Abubakar that followed him. Yes, there would not have been Obasanjo’s second coming to finish the destruction he started.

I do not like Theophelus Yakubu Danjuma. He is the confessed murderer of Adekunle Fajuyi and Aguiyi Ironsi. He also gave the orders to the “Unknown Soldiers” under Olusegun Obasanjo whom he helped to install, to murder the foremost nationalist, Mrs Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, mother of Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, Dr. Bekololari Ransome Kuti and Baba Africa, Fela Anikulapo Kuti. But despite his criminal tendency to kill innocent peoples, he seemed to believe in fairness to a certain degree.

It was Danjuma who insisted that Obasanjo as Number 2 under Murtala Mohammed ought to be the one to take over after the later was assassinated. But to Danjuma’s dismay, Obasanjo allowed Ibrahim Babangida to go free after his (IBB’s) role in the assassination of Murtala. IBB’s act was his inability to explain the escape of Lt. Col. B. S. Dimka from Radio Nigeria without firing a single shot if he (IBB) was not in the know of the coup while he was commanding armoured vehicles that stormed the station when the coup failed. This is why Danjuma and IBB are not friends till today.

I had the temptation to equally blame Yakubu Danjuma too for the woes of Nigeria for helping Obasanjo to take reigns of power. But the fact that he never sat on that seat as a ruler of Nigeria gave him a lesser level of responsibility and culpability as Obasanjo had. The fact that they fell apart when Obasanjo became untamable wild animal in Aso Rock is evident that Obasanjo always did what he wanted without regard to what others think or what is desirable. One can be assisted to get a job, but he can not be assisted to do it.

If Obasanjo did not allow IBB who committed treason against Nigeria to live, Nigeria would have been saved the 8 agonizing years of his rule. Rather according to Ebenezer Babatope in his “NOT HIS WILL: The Awolowo-Obasanjo Wager” Obasanjo without remorse cast a deciding vote to kill an innocent man whose participation in the coup could not be conclusively proved.

But this is not the only reason Obasanjo is responsible for the locust years of IBB as Nigeria’s ruler. By forcibly imposing Shagari on Nigeria, he pre-planned the coming of Buhari and Babangida and as such he is responsible for the damages they have all collectively done to Nigeria. Shagari created the condition to invite Buhari’s iron rule and bias that led to the advent of smiling self proclaimed “Evil - Genius” in IBB.

Apart from being responsible for the havoc Babangida has inflicted on Nigeria, I also believe that he is responsible for the inflictions of Sani Abacha on Nigeria. These are my reasons:

If Obasanjo, knowing fully that IBB is a traitor to the Nigerian State, had allowed the law to take its course, there would be no IBB today and the course of Nigeria’s history would have been different. But he subverted the law to preserve IBB who in the course of his continued treachery against Nigeria promised fake elections until he was cornered during the June 12 imbroglio.

While the crisis of June 12 was on, he (OBJ) went to Nairobi where he declared that M.K.O. Abiola was “not the Messiah Nigeria is looking for.” Then shortly after his return, a meeting was held at his Ota Farm. At this meeting in his house attended by General Mohamadu Buhari, General Tunde Idiagbon, General Alani Akinrinade, Mrs. Titi Ajanaku and many others. My then Editor-In –Chief, Mr. Bayo Onanuga also received invitation to this meeting. They were there to see how the problem of Abiola’s mandate should be resolved. In the course of his contribution, General Buhari had reportedly referred to Abiola as “my president.” He would be the second person during the meeting to do so, the first person being General Idiagbon. Obasanjo had flared up over this saying that Abiola was not his president and that no one should call him “president” in his (Obasanjo’s) house. He had gone ahead to add that he was “not prepared to fight another civil war.”

This last statement was said to have infuriated General Akinrinade who said that if there has to be another Civil War “so be it.” He was said to have rebuked Obasanjo for his cowardice and for supporting injustice because of his spinelessness. Obasanjo did not take kindly to this, so he went ahead to conspire with IBB to install Shonekan, thus preparing the way for the coming of General Sani Abacha.

It has been reported in some quarters that one of the reasons why Abacha roped in Obasanjo for the phantom coup was because he (Abacha) blamed him(Obasanjo) for not allowing IBB to hand over to him. He believed that Shonekan was recommended by Obasanjo as opposed to him.

With Ernest Shonekan, who was generally seen as a traitor across the board, the nation’s crisis deepened. For the 82 days of his inaction, the context was ripe for an ambitious General Sani Abacha who promptly removed General Dongoyaro on assumption of power. Dongoyaro had initially refused to cooperate with him (Abacha) in removing IBB from power shortly before the installation of Shonekan as Interim Head of State.

In order not to lose focus of the point under consideration, readers should look at the chain of events from Obasanjo to making possible the coming of IBB, through the imposition of Shagari and its corollary in Buhari dictatorship. OBJ’s open collaboration to deliberately frustrate the June 12 mandate (this is not to suggest he is the only culprit in this treachery), and creating the conducive atmosphere for Abacha to step in, make him(OBJ) responsible for the sins of Abacha.

Though, he eventually survived the punishment Abacha planned for him, which in retrospect would have served him (OBJ) well, his second coming is a litany of woes for the Nigerian nation. Some of them are included in the list above and the rest are too current to warrant regurgitation here.

In conclusion out of 47 years of Nigeria’s Statehood, Obasanjo’s acts of omission and commission have negatively ricocheted and haunted for 22 years (1975 -2007) and will definitely do so for several years to come, except if there is a miracle. The evidence of this is the imposition of the Umar Yar’Adua as the president, just like he did Shehu Shagari. Nigerians will regret for a very long time that first day that Obasanjo stepped on the national stage, because the consequences of Yar’Adua Presidency which he once again imposed is going to be dire for the tottering country. I know you have heard about Ribadu’s exit. Illegitimacy can not bring forth any legitimacy. This is the way events are indicating. This is the way History is pointing. This is what can only be. Three plus three has to equal six. If you get any other result, then jibiti or 419 is involved. This is because you can not plant onions and reap tomatoes.

From the foregoing, I can not but submit that Matthew Olusegun Aremu Okikiola Obasanjo-Onyejekwe has done more than anyone to bring Nigeria to the present tragic state.

As a bonafide son of Oodua myself, I cannot point to anything of note or of pride that Obasanjo has done for the Yoruba. If I miss it, I will like to be educated. Rather he has brought ruinous ignominy to our heritage. He has worked consciously to destroy the legacy of integrity and accountability. He has manifested noxious rapacity, crude uncouthness, chronic lack of etiquette, unrestrained odious loquacity, unalloyed wickedness, conspicuous cruelty and brutish banditry in his manners and utterances in and out of power. Though, he claimed to be one of us, I refused to believe so. Then, the controversy about his paternity surfaced only to reinforce my initial belief. But since it is established that his mother was from Owu Quarters in Abeokuta, he can still legitimately claim to be a Yoruba. But this ought not to stop him from bearing his father’s name as in Onyejekwe. Nevertheless, with his behaviors so far, I am still insisting that “Ai kuku bi san se radarada” meaning “Barrenness is far better than an unworthy child.”



Like me, Obasanjo’s fans are all entitled to their own views, but neither I nor they are entitled to our own facts. I can only work with what is in the public domain and what my profession as a journalist has privileged me to know, some of which have been published and some of which can not necessarily be published for reasons that are more than obvious. Or still might be published at an auspicious time. It is my contention that if your child comes back from the school with failed grades as is obvious to overwhelming majority of Nigerians in this case of Obasanjo, I do not think the next thing is to indulge him or praise him, especially when he has shown himself to be unduly stubborn and incorrigible. This is why I agree totally with my own “Albert Einstein,” Wale Adebanwi that “…an Afenifere in which General Olusegun Obasanjo, for instance, sits cannot continue to bear such a name.” There is no other reason other than the fact that Obasanjo is an undesirable and wicked element.

Thus if stating this view and calling Olusegun Obasanjo, who has found it impossible to go quietly after messing up the country, a “digbolugi” is considered “irresponsible,” then I will bear the tag with all the honour and pride I can muster without any iota of remorse.

Here, I rest my case.

remi@oyeyemi.net
http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/remi-oyeyemi/the-nigerian-tragedy-how-guilty-is-obasanjo.html

[size=18pt]The Last Days of Obasanjo's Evil Kelptomaniac Rule[/size]

The Last Days of Obasanjo

By Muhammad Al-Ghazali
culled from THISDAY, March 7, 2006

[size=13pt]
When Abacha expired, the naira had been stable for several years and exchanged for 80 naira to a dollar. The PTF had ensured that drugs were available at designated hospitals and at affordable prices too. Our highways and township roads were being meticulously rehabilitated. High schools and tertiary institutions were also being renovated. Armed bandits, who operate wantonly and with gusto these days, gave our homes and major highways a miss. What was more, the middle-class eventually resurfaced even as inflation remained at tolerable levels. But the greater significance of Abacha’s performance or legacy was that throughout his tenure, his government had to battle the effects of crippling cocktail of sanctions imposed by mostly Western nations.
In addition, unlike now that crude oil sold in excess of 60 dollars per barrel, under the diminutive General, it never rose above 17 dollars per barrel! So how did the nation come to this sorry pass to the extent that the nation even in a supposed democracy, is today, not better than a banana republic? How did we arrive at a situation where a single individual could seemingly hold the nation to ransom, or treat its citizens with so much callous disrespect and insensitivity? How did we come to be under the clutches of a de-facto emperor under whose watch no fewer than 5,000 Nigerians were consumed by ethno-religious crises in less than seven years in supposed peace time? What did Abacha do right that Obasanjo is now doing wrong? Without waiting for the man to expire or leave office, here is my story:


As things stand today, it must be clear to all except perhaps the blind that Obasanjo is not only the most incompetent, but surely the most over-rated president in our history. Before he was thrown into jail after his conviction for coup-plotting, the only thing he had going for him was that he handed over power willingly to the civilian administration of Alhaji Shehu Shagari. General Abusalami Abubakar had since proved that that in itself was not an unusual occurrence altogether. Besides, in 1979, what choices were actually before him? The job, which by his own accounts he accepted soon after coming out of hiding came with its special risks as the demise of General Murtala Muhammed sadly proved. Across the oceans, Margaret Thatcher had just assumed office, and in tandem with Ronald Reagan, soon chorused the yarn about a new international world order, free of dictators, including Olusegun Obsanjo. Definitely, if you happened to be Olusegun Obasanjo at the time; having secured the vast Ota farms, and all that was within it, the lure of tending to chickens more than stopping an assassin’s bullet, was not simply a matter of choice, but actually the only choice.


Not much is known about his service records either beyond the fact that he received the surrender of Biafran forces at the end of the war. Being an army engineer by training, he is unlikely to have been bloodied in the art of combat warfare beyond the construction of Bailey bridges too. But quite typical of the man, up he came to steal the glory from General Adekunle when the latter fell out with authorities and was relegated to the background. As a former head of state and statesman, he spent lengthy periods lampooning the administration of General Babangida for crimes he has since surpassed. These days, the president loves to attribute his reforms, and the tenacity he exhibits in their execution, to his civil war record and high sense of patriotism. But the results clearly suggest otherwise, and nowhere was that truism more telling than in the speech delivered by the publisher of the influential Forbes magazine, Steve Forbes, during the recent THISDAY Newspaper Annual Awards. Predictably, the speech, or rather his message, was given short-shrift by the mainstream media, no doubt on the prompting of agents of the Presidency who were well represented at the event.
Forbes said among other things that the solution to poverty in Nigeria and the rest of Africa did not rest with the World Bank or the IMF because their medicine often tended to do more harm than good. Devaluation of the currency, he equally emphasised, was harmful to developing economies. He also condemned higher taxes, which tended to push more people into the informal economy, and the unequal application of laws. The man was being kind here; otherwise, he would easily have said unbridled corruption at the highest level and the escalating rate of crime we are witnessing presently. He went further to hinge our rapid economic development on five principles, which included a simple and affordable system of taxation, stable currency, the rule of law, and of course, the predictable removal of trade barriers. Perhaps not surprisingly, Obasanjo’s economic reforms appear marooned on the high seas for those simple reasons:


First, as we have seen in Anambra and Oyo states, the rule of law is clearly not visible on these shores. Otherwise, the president would not have allowed his cronies to get away with barefaced treason and murder not to talk of arson in those two theatres. As for equality before the law; well, perhaps we should also ask why Tafa Balogun was gaoled while Makunjuola escaped jail. Why did the president sit idly by and watch the OPC perpetrate genocide especially in his first term? Why did he contemplate the Electoral Bill fraud? Why were the felons who attempted to smuggle a forged draft constitution into the last confab never apprehended or punished? Why have the police so far failed to solve the murders of Asari Dikibo, Marshal Harry or Bola Ige? How did his accused murderer, Iyiola Omisore win an election from within the confines of a high security jail?

As for the economy, well even an idiot should know that the naira drifted and depreciated by nearly sixty per cent soon after Obasanjo assumed office. Unparalleled inflation was never too far behind either. If you bought your 50 KG bag of rice for under three thousand naira in 1999, the same product now sells for twice that amount and still rising. The economic team continues to deceive itself that its blue print is home-grown, but the seeds were clearly sown in Washington, Paris and London. A greater percentage of Nigerians have descended below the poverty line as a result. The middle-class has vanished without a trace, and a new class of bandits with university degrees has emerged to replace them; the obvious result is unemployment and frustration. The only people who cannot stop rejoicing are the multinationals who have acquired much of our progeny for peanuts. They pay the locals slave wages, transport them like sardines, and repatriate their profits in full!

Not surprisingly, with a legacy such as recounted above, the president appears in fear of his won shadow. With 2007 around the corner, and as we contemplate his last days in office, he appears in morbid fear of quitting office and wishes to die in it. But that, God willing, will ultimately be an exercise in futility. He wants to be remembered as Nigeria’s version of Lee Kuan Yew or Mahathir Mohammed, but the images of him that spring readily to mind in all seriousness, include those of Ghengis Khan and Josef Stalin. Even now that the greater majority of his subject are prostrate before him in abject poverty, and with destitution in the midst of plenty, he still plots against them. The third term express has arrived Port Harcourt, home to one of his staunchest loyalists, Peter Odili. As they hatch their endless intrigues against us and revel in obscene greed and lust for power, our collective misery and hopelessness would be the last thing on their minds. All these have naturally led many to rue what would have been had Abacha signed that death warrant in 1995!

http://www.dawodu.com/alghazali1.htm[/size]

wazobia_for_u:

ayo, can you explain yourself better? then i will know how to deal with your word ...

U̶̲̥̅̊ need brain in ur head. U̶̲̥̅̊'ve got none

[size=18pt]Your govt, most corrupt, CNPP tells Obasanjo[/size]

Posted on Friday, May 25th, 2012

Former President looking for relevance – Reps

By Rotimi Akinwumi (Abuja) and Akinwunmi King (Lagos)

Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) has challenged former President Olusegun Obasanjo to render “account of his rogue regime” while he was at the helm of the nation’s affairs.

CNPP in a statement on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Osita Okechukwu, explained, however, that it agreed with Obasanjo that “integrity is necessary for systems and institutions to be strong.”

The group was reacting to a statement credited to Obasanjo at the fourth Academy for Entrepreneurial Studies, Nigeria, Annual National Conference in Lagos on Tuesday where he described both the federal and state lawmakers as lacking in integrity.

He had remarked that, “Today, rogues, armed robbers are in the state Houses of Assembly and the National Assembly. What sort of laws will they make?”

Obasanjo did not spare the judiciary either, as he said the sector “is also corrupt.”

But CNPP said while it was not holding brief for either the National Assembly, the state Assemblies or the judiciary, “However, now that Chief Obasanjo has cast the first stone, we challenge him to render account of his rogue regime.

“A regime that harvested unprecedented oil revenue without commensurate project performance, a regime that bastardised our democracy and a regime which simulated the fault lines hence Boko Haram and other insurgencies.

“Those who live in glass house, the saying goes, should not throw stones, for we recall with pain how Chief Obasanjo, who came out of prison as poor as a church rat, paradoxically has become one of the richest Africans after eight years of looting in power.

“We recall with trepidation, how late Chief Gani Fawehnmi went to Federal High Court challenging the billions of naira which Chief Obasanjo extorted from government contractors to build his Presidential library, contrary to Code of Conduct and ICPC Acts.

“He pleaded immunity and when immunity elapsed he resorted to manipulation of the judiciary,” the statement said.

CNPP alleged that Obasanjo’s corrupt practices are monumental and legendary.

It added that “the stench and foul odour of corruption, which oozed out from the Presidency, when he was in power was one of the factors which made him to lose the MO Ibrahim Annual Award for Good Governance when he left office in 2007.”

CNPP added: “We cannot forget in a hurry how Chief Obasanjo doctored the 2002 Electoral Act, declared the 2007 election as do-or-die election and other uncountable breaches, which debased the integrity of the electoral process and produced 2003 and 2007 sham elections.

“It can be said factually that Obasanjo’s manipulation and subversion of the electoral process denied Nigerians the right to elect people of their choice, hence entry of rogues into the legislature.

“We challenge Chief Obasanjo to explain why all the probes and audit of his regime by the National Assembly, ranging from power to privatisation probes found him culpable.

“Or can it be said that he is antagonising the National Assembly for the probes? Or for stopping his third term inordinate ambition?

“Chief Obasanjo blatantly looted the treasury of the nation, withdrew billions from the treasury without appropriation, corrupted the privatisation process, and serially obstructed justice, which made CNPP to file a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on December 24, 2007, when his immunity elapsed.

“Regrettably, it has become the trade mark of Chief Obasanjo to paint Nigeria black each time he is out of power, a deceptive strategy he designed long time ago to curry the favour and recognition of the international community,” CNPP stated.

Also reacting to Obasanjo’s remarks for the second day running, the House of Representatives on Thursday described him as a man who wants to be noticed at all cost, having lost relevance since he quit power in 2007.

Deputy spokesman of the House, Victor Ogene, at his weekly news briefing noted that the comment by Obasanjo did not surprise the House, as such had been his trademark.

According to Ogene, there is no regime in history of Nigeria that has attempted to stain the image of the legislature with corrupt overtures than that of Obasanjo.

Ogene made reference to how foreign currencies found their way into the hands of past lawmakers in a bid to buy them into Obasanjo’s third term agenda.

He said though there was no need to engage the ex-President in verbal jabs, it was appropriate to liken him (Obasanjo) to an elder who had out of ignorance decided to pee inside his own house thereby expressing concerns over his quality of “eldership”.

He also noted that Obasanjo may have made his statement following frustration he suffered after Aminu Waziri Tambuwal emerged Speaker of the House against his own favoured candidate on June 6, 2011.

“Ordinarily, we should not join issues with the man. We know where he is coming from. If he has issues with one or two people that does not mean he should attack all of us,” Ogene said.

http://dailyindependentnig.com/2012/05/your-govt-most-corrupt-cnpp-tells-obasanjo/

[size=18pt]The Sudden Stupendous Wealth of Former President of Nigeria[/size]
Friday, 17 August 2007 23:54 Africa


If Obasanjo can demonstrate that he managed the feat of turning around his business fortunes without resorting to corrupt means, then he deserves the most prestigious endowed chair at the Harvard Business School. The rest of the world should drink from the spring of his business genius. But if he can’t account for the startling rejuvenation of his businesses, then he may deserve a different kind of endowed chair—back in the hole where Abacha put him. And there are, I hazard, millions of Nigerians who won’t mind seeing that happen—sooner rather than later.
From Founder to Villain

By Okey Ndibe (Monday, August 6, 2007)

My friend and colleague Sonala Olumhense recently offered a prayer for ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo. He wished for the man to live long in order to get a true measure of how Nigerians regard him.

Well, the verdict is not just trickling in, it’s coming in a deluge. Many Nigerians want the man in the dock—to answer for his myriad misacts in office. Last week proved instructive in this regard. First, activist lawyer Femi Falana told an audience that it’s a matter of time before Obasanjo is invited to account for the source of his sudden wealth. Like many Nigerians, Falana is amazed that a man who was virtually bankrupt when he emerged from Sani Abacha’s gaol has turned into a mega commercial farmer. Temperance Farms in Ota, all but moribund in 1999, has become a miracle cash cow, generating—as Femi Fani Kayode told the BBC two years ago—a monthly profit of about $250,000. Besides, Obasanjo has gone ahead to buy choice farmland throughout the country.

If Obasanjo can demonstrate that he managed the feat of turning around his business fortunes without resorting to corrupt means, then he deserves the most prestigious endowed chair at the Harvard Business School. The rest of the world should drink from the spring of his business genius. But if he can’t account for the startling rejuvenation of his businesses, then he may deserve a different kind of endowed chair—back in the hole where Abacha put him. And there are, I hazard, millions of Nigerians who won’t mind seeing that happen—sooner rather than later.

Falana was not Obasanjo’s lone nemesis from last week. An unlikely salvo came from Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, one of the ex-president’s erstwhile acolytes. This is how close Iwuanyanwu was to Obasanjo: he anchored the ex-president’s campaigns in the southeast in 1999 and 2003. He was also one of the misguided champions of Obasanjo’s third term gambit. When the ruling PDP orchestrated one of the political farces of this young century by declaring Obasanjo the founder of modern Nigeria, Iwuanyanwu was there to lend his imprimatur.

In short, Iwuanyanwu, who can’t seem to decide between road and political contracting, is not one to be mistaken for a reflexive Obasanjo-basher. Yet, Iwuanyanwu seems to know a troubled, expired political product when he sees one. Last week, fresh from a meeting with Umar Yar’Adua, the current occupant of Aso Rock, Iwuanyanwu felt a need to disabuse Nigerians of the notion that Obasanjo was the nation’s remote controller. Obasanjo, declared Iwuanyanwu, has no power in the party or government. He stopped short of dubbing the ex-president a spent force.

Last week as well, Pastor Tunde Bakare, for eight years a consistent thorn in Obasanjo’s side, asked his congregants to pray that no corrupt public officer, including Obasanjo, escaped justice. Turning his attention to the ex-president, Bakare said: “We know how much you weighed before you became head of state, you have to give account of how much you are worth now and how you came by it.”

There was more of the same in the Vanguard of last Saturday, August 4. The headline told much of the story: “Probe Obasanjo, others now, Nigerians tell EFCC.” Part of the report disclosed that many Nigerians believe that “what EFCC is doing is mere scratching on the surface of the problem” of corruption until the agency turns “its searchlight…on the bigger boys of the last administration at the federal level for the wanton and flagrant looting of the national treasury.”

Continued the report: “Specifically, many Nigerians are demanding that the

EFCC turns its searchlight on former President Olusegun Obasanjo who also doubled as the energy minister and his vice president, Atiku Abubakar who presided over the affairs of the PTDF and bring them to account for their actions in office.”

Among those who made the cry for justice was Iro Dan-Musa, a member of the Board of Trustees of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party. His exact words: “If the EFCC would be sincere and extend its investigation to all levels of government in the former administration, nobody would be spared. If we look at the resources this country made from 1999 to the present time at all levels, we will agree that there is a problem. In other words, you can hardly let anyone off the hook in this war against corruption and financial impropriety.”

One of Obasanjo’s wives, Major Moji Obasanjo, even lent her voice to the chorus to probe the ex-president. For her, it was appropriate for the EFCC to pry into her husband’s wealth. “It is okay to do that,” she said, “because I have been asked several questions on the official conduct of former President Obasanjo. When I went for a presidential debate during the election, somebody said that Obasanjo has a refinery outside the country and expected me to react to that.” Her reaction? “I told them that I don’t know because really I don’t. We don’t need to bring sentiment in anything that has to do with the nation especially in its fight against corruption. There should be no sacred cows. Yes, former President Obasanjo is my husband but then, justice has to be done. If he has a case to answer, let him be quizzed because I have been asked questions on his official conducts on many occasions.”

Balarabe Musa, former governor of old Kaduna State, was even more direct in echoing Mrs. Obasanjo. The anti-corruption agency’s failure to investigate Obasanjo, said Musa, makes “nonsense of everything the EFCC has been doing.” Then he added: “Former President Obasanjo has many allegations against him some of which have been made public at different times but he made no replies to them. If you ask me, Obasanjo is more corrupt than those indicted by the EFCC who are currently being tried. EFCC, ICPC and Code of Conduct Bureau should probe Obasanjo now that he has lost the immunity that covered him all these years.”

Ayo Adebanjo, a politician and leader of Afenifere, told the newspaper that Obasanjo and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar ought to be queried. “There are many questions begging for answers of these former public officers,” said Adebanjo. “For instance, Obasanjo allegedly had only N20,000 in 1999 when he came out of prison. How did he become the multi-billionaire that he is now? Atiku Abubakar allegedly saved him from bankruptcy but he has not said anything on that. How did he purchase Transcorp multi-million shares with only N20,000? He has questions to answer and EFCC should go after him now.”

One of Obasanjo’s gravest scams was his diversion of the nation’s resources to wangle a constitutional amendment that would have enabled him to own the presidency unto death. It was no secret that billions of naira was spent to bribe legislators into assenting to the rape of the national will. In the heat of the illicit campaign, each reluctant legislator was reportedly offered a bait of N50 million.

Jigawa State’s former governor, Saminu Turaki, has told the EFCC that, at Obasanjo’s behest, he put in over N10 billion of his state’s income in the third term war chest. Turaki specifically named Andy Uba as the man who picked up the money on behalf of the former president. Uba rushed out with a tepid refutation, implying that Turaki’s fertile imagination had run away with him. I’m sorry, but I found Turaki’s claim more convincing than the denial.

In fact, Turaki was far from being the only governor to make a foolish, imprudent investment in the dud that was third term. Many other governors, seduced with promises of getting automatic third term berths, also dipped hands in their state treasuries to support a crooked proposition. Obasanjo and his aides threw slush funds into a diseased political project, but the former president could neither find the money nor the inclination to repair the Sagamu-Ore-Benin expressway—perhaps the most heavily used highway in the nation.

In the past, with Obasanjo still in the saddle, the EFCC had chosen to feign ignorance. The commission pretended not to know that the whole third term charade was sponsored and sustained through corrupt inducement. It is time the commission got cracking, and got to the bottom of this mess. Obasanjo’s depraved pursuit of third term in the face of unmistakable national opposition brought the nation dangerously close to anarchy.

Obasanjo’s major contribution to Nigeria’s political experience may well be as a chastening, cautionary tale about the limits of power. Though gifted with a great outpouring of goodwill in 1999, Obasanjo chose to fritter away his fund of goodwill in pursuit of self-aggrandizement. At each dramatic turn he placed himself on the wrong side of public expectation. He consorted with thugs and more than a smattering of criminals. Then, as he faced the certainty of his exit from office, he began an effete attempt to rig history. He declared himself founder of modern Nigeria. He even suggested that, without him as our perpetual guide, Nigeria was lost.

He has lived long enough after leaving office to grasp the low regard in which he’s held in and outside of Nigeria. Any praise that’s come Yar’Adua’s way so far owed precisely to his reversal of Obasanjo’s policies and renunciation of the ex-president’s odious style. Last week, few Nigerians used a flattering word while speaking about Obasanjo. The delusive founder of modern Nigeria has turned into Nigeria’s chief villain.

http://www.africaresource.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=374:the-sudden-wealth-of-former-president-of-nigeria&catid=36:essays-a-discussions&Itemid=346

[size=18pt]GENERAL OLUSEGUN OBASANJO: A MONSTER AS STATESMAN[/size]



Sometime in the evening of Wednesday, March 18, 2009, at the Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building of the London School of Economics, London , England the crème de la crème of the international community will once again be gathered to listen to the ostensible wisdom of an African statesman. But this man, General Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria’s former president and presently the UN Secretary-General’s peace envoy in the Congo is no statesman. He’s an animal called man, a corrupt and treacherous monster soaked deep in the blood of innocent Nigerians.



As a human being, Obasanjo has had some of the rarest opportunities in public service anybody could get anywhere, which ordinarily should have been a springboard for great things were he someone with an iota of humanity or decency. After a total of eleven years as the head of state and president of Nigeria , the man is only remembered today in Nigeria as a crude, corrupt, lecherous and bloodthirsty tyrant who masqueraded as a democrat and sought at all cost to always impose his perverse will on the nation, even where it is clearly detrimental to national interest.



Before May 1999 when Obasanjo was sworn in as the civilian president of Nigeria , he has had a history of public service at the highest level also as a military head of state between 1976 and 1979. His singular act of handing over government to an elected civilian government in October 1979 was seemingly enough for Nigerians and the international community to forgive him of his atrocities as military head of state. Some of those atrocities include the setting up of the notorious secret detention centre in the island of Ita-Oko, the killing of Nigerian university students in cold blood and the invasion and razing of the home and business premises of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, the late iconic Nigerian musician who was an ardent critic of his military government.



Obasanjo transmutation into a pretend statesman after his military career saw him set up the African Leadership Forum at Ota , Nigeria from where he talked glibly about democratic reform in Africa . But when in 1993, he was presented with an opportunity to back up his talk with action with the June 12 elections, he, not for the first time, shocked the nation with his support for the annulment of the election. He viciously attacked Chief MKO Abiola, the man elected president in the election, despite the fact that the national and international communities overwhelmingly declared the election the freest and fairest in Nigeria’s history. In open desperation, Obasanjo was soon in cahoots with his military friends setting up all sorts of anti-democratic political contraptions to negate the people’s mandate.



Obasanjo and his military friends presided over the succeeding locust years until he fell out of favour with General Sani Abacha, the then head of the military junta who jailed him on coup-plotting charges against his government in 1995. This act by the odious Abacha invariably rehabilitated Obasanjo in the eyes of Nigerians and the international community as efforts were made to first commute the sentence passed on him and then get him out of jail. Thus, in June 1998, as Obasanjo walked out of prison preaching Christ and publishing a book titled, This Animal Called Man (a psycho-analytical study of the nature of human-induced evil from the Christian perspective), Nigerians and the international community felt he’d finally learnt his lessons and found God. No sooner after he was rewarded with the presidency of the country in May 1999, he began once again to show his true colour as a wolf in sheep’s clothing.



Seven months after taking over as civilian president, Obasanjo ordered the military invasion of a community in the Niger-Delta in a vain attempt to send the message to the creeks that his government would not tolerate any agitation for fair distribution of the oil wealth irresponsible exploitation of the valuable resource in the area. Obasanjo’s army razed the whole town of Odi to the ground and killed everyone in sight. The massacre had the world in outrage; but, typically, Obasanjo ignored the cries. Just to make sure the message was heard loud and clear, Obasanjo followed up with more massacres in Choba, Igwuruta, Biogbolo and other places in the Niger-Delta.



By these actions, he succeeded in transforming the essentially non-violent agitation for equity, justice and fairness in the region into a full-blown war needing the permanent location of a huge military taskforce in the area, perennial attacks against communities and running battles between the soldiers and the militants, some of whom are the same criminal elements Obasanjo armed to intimidate his political opponents and rig elections for his party, the PDP. It is in this light we must see last year’s visit of President Umaru Yar’Adua who came to ask Downing Street for military assistance to fight the militants, indicating how escalated the problem has now become. The world may not know it, but the seeds of the present crisis were firmly sown by Obasanjo.



Less than two years after Odi, between Monday October 22 to Wednesday October 24, 2001, Obasanjo repeated the same atrocity in the central Nigerian state of Benue where he sent in his murderous soldiers to kill and burn down the communities of Zaki Biam, Vaase, Agbayin, Gbeji, Sankara and several others ostensibly for the killing of some soldiers. Amnesty International described what happened there as “a killing spree” and appropriately advised that rather than seeking to deny, minimize or justify these extrajudicial executions, “the government of Nigeria must...condemn the killings publicly and make it clear that those responsible will be held accountable”.



When Human Rights Watch wrote its report on the massacres, Obasanjo boasted that he “dismissed the report with the contempt it deserves”. He went on in an interview with the Financial Times of April 9, 2002 to justify sending the soldiers on that mission and supported their action by declaring that when you send in soldiers, “they do not go on a picnic”, proclaiming that “in human nature, reaction is always more than the action”. A few weeks after the killings, Obasanjo was being welcomed by President George W Bush in the White House. At a joint press conference in the Rose Garden, Obasanjo unashamedly defended his actions before a shocked world.



From Kano to Kaduna to Jos, Obasanjo’s tenure witnessed the bloodiest peacetime inter-communal clashes in Nigeria . As strong suspicions grew that these clashes were instigated mainly by members of the new political class, especially top members of Obasanjo-led PDP, Obasanjo himself came out to claim he knew those sponsoring the mayhem. But the nation waited forlornly and hopelessly for him to name or institute prosecution against these people. Despite the thousands of lives senselessly lost in these carnages, not one single person has been prosecuted or convicted. Barely three years into his first 4-yeartenure, Obasanjo was asked how he felt about the fact that more than10,000 Nigerians have lost their lives through these politically instigated communal clashes on CNN (aired September 17, 2002) and his response was to imply that 10,000 people dying in a population of over 120 million shouldn’t be a big deal!



While political assassination perforated the reign of General Sani Abacha and largely accounted for the contempt in which he was held worldwide, Obasanjo surpassed the morbid record of the Goggled One in this regard, not only by the sheer number or the manner of their death, but also in the calibre of people that were assassinated. Still western leaders were falling over themselves to welcome him to their capitals, making him a fixture in high level conferences discussing African developmental needs.



Two days before Christmas in 2001, Bola Ige, a political rival to Obasanjo but at the time an uneasy ally, who held the important portfolio of Attorney-General and Minister of Justice in Obasanjo’s cabinet, was gunned down in broad daylight in his own home in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. In a macabre dance of the absurd, Ige’s death was played out in the full glare of the nation. But his blood was still warm when Obasanjo and his party rewarded those strongly suspected of his murder with political power.



On March 5, 2003, Dr Marshall Harry, who used to belong to Obasanjo’s party, but who defected to the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) and posed a great obstacle to Obasanjo’s agenda in the South-south region as vice chairman of his new party kissed the dust. The man was murdered in his own home in Abuja in circumstances that suggested the involvement of highly trained assassins with military background. The killers stayed for almost two hours in the house trying to get the man, who at a point came out on his balcony to cry for help while the men battered his reinforced door and cut through his ceiling. His house was just a few meters from the Police Command of the Federal Capital Territory , yet no help came.



On Feb 6, 2004, Harry’s kinsman, Aminosoari Dikibo, a national vice chairman of Obasanjo’s party was shot dead on his way to a zonal meeting of his party in Asaba. At the time, he belonged to a rival faction to Obasanjo within the party, was seriously opposed to his meddling in Anambra State and openly supported the Obasanjo-embattled Chris Ngige. Two days after the man’s death, before the police could say anything, Obasanjo peremptorily informed the nation that Dikibo was killed by armed-robbers. This was despite the fact that those who killed the man on the road did not take any valuable or money from him. Of course, Obasanjo’s claim was met with national uproar and suspicion. How did he know Dikibo was killed by armed-robbers that soon when the police were yet to come up with anything? Why is he pointing to that direction if not to divert attention from the real source(s) of the man’s death? Like Ige and Harry, Funsho Williams, PDP’s front-runner for the Lagos State governorship slot met his death in the hands of daring assassins in his own home on July 27, 2006. They came in, tied him up, brutalized, stabbed and strangled him.

Apart from the above, we had the cases of Alabi Hassan-Olajokun, a financier of the Alliance for Democracy in the western states; Dr Ayodeji Daramola, a governorship aspirant in Ekiti State; the activist pilot, Jerry Agbeyegbe; the fiery journalist, Godwin Agbroko; Andrew Agom, a member of the PDP Board of Trustees; Jesse Aruku, a governorship aspirant in Plateau State; Ahmed Pategi, PDP Chairman in Kwara State, Ogbonnaya Uche, ANPP senatorial candidate for Orlu and many more.

In all these cases, the killers made sure they left no one in doubt that these were political murders meant to send a message to certain other elements within the system committed to serious democratic party politics. Indeed, there are those who believe the murders were not unconnected with Obasanjo’s self-perpetuation agenda, as, by this time, his pet “Third Term” project was already in full swing. Curiously, since his Third Term plan was shot down by Nigerians, the political assassinations have stopped as well. Needless to say, these murders remain unresolved till this day. Prof Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Laureate said it best when he described Obasanjo-led PDP as “a nest of killers”.

Not surprisingly, such a regime couldn’t have been sustained without massive corruption, which he spearheaded even as president. Obasanjo’s way of fighting democratic battles within the National Assembly was through massive bribery. For instance, when in 2002, there was uproar for his impeachment following the massacres at Odi, Zaki Biam and so on(amongst 16 other charges), he used money to buy over the legislator sand made sure they didn’t get the needed numbers. At one point, Obasanjo’s bribe money was displayed on the floor of the National Assembly publicly.

Indeed, Obasanjo’s well-known corrupt dealings are legion and it would be a boldfaced lie for those who parade him within the international community today as a worthy statesman to claim they have no idea. The series of revelations of the huge corrupt dealings that pervaded the comatose power sector throughout Obasanjo’s tenure have his imprints all over them. In March 2008, the National Assembly indicted him for supposedly spending $2.2 billion on power without due process. The Transcorp shares, the Obasanjo Library Fund, the COJA contracts, the PTDF scandal, the Siemens bribe scandal, the oil contracts and oil wells allocation done directly by Obasanjo who also doubled as Petroleum Resources minister are all tips of the iceberg. Obasanjo ran Nigeria aground and, when it was obvious to him that his Third Term bid has failed, he vengefully imposed on the nation the seriously sick brother of his late friend, Shehu Musa Yar’Adua as president.

For Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua is the pliable tool he needed to make his getaway. He ensured that the election that brought him in was the worst in the nation’s history. He introduced the principle of “do or die” politics and used the security forces and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to intimidate anyone in the way of his designs. Indeed, he personally supervised the maiming, killing and sheer robbery that ensured Yar’Adua was put there. Nigerians today still groan under Obasanjo’s dastard legacy. The term ‘failed leader’ cannot begin to do justice enough to his legacy, yet those who direct affairs of the international community continue to embrace him as some kind of African messiah, pushing him in the forefront of anything Africa. Today, they have inflicted him on the Congo – a man whose legacy of death, mayhem and spectacular failure has knocked Nigeria into comatose is being depended on to provide a pathway to peace in the Congo ! Talk about pie in the flaming sky!



The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and the international community who are entrusting Obasanjo with the task of bringing peace to the Congo are perhaps seduced by his glib talk. They probably think as one of the oldest and longest serving former ruler of an important African country and a former military leader who as a young officer served in Congo, he would command more respect from the warring factions there. Well, all they need to jolt them to reality is to think of Liberia. Obasanjo’s policies in Liberia made things worse by enabling his genocidal friend, Charles Taylor, who, when the international community finally decided enough was enough, found refuge in Obasanjo’s abode. The man had to be virtually prised away from his hands to stand trial for crimes against humanity. No one should be surprised. What bind them are not only cheap Liberian women, they are kindred spirits who hunt and kill innocents together!



Lastly, it’s important that the world should get an idea of the kind of father Obasanjo is. Just as Nigerians ushered in the New Year in 2008, they were greeted with the shocking and debasing news that Gbenga Obasanjo, the ex-president’s own son, has accused his father of having sexual relations with his wife, Mojishola Obasanjo. The younger Obasanjo was stating this in court papers, asking for the dissolution of the marriage. A nonplussed nation waited for general Obasanjo to deny this publicly. He didn’t, neither did the lady. Gbenga insisted: “I know for a fact that my father had sexual relationship with Moji due to her greed to curry favour and contracts from him in his capacity as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” The divorce was granted on those grounds and its now there in public record that General Olusegun Obasanjo, who has a reputation as a lecherous man of insatiable sexual appetite, slept with his son’s wife!



The Nigeria Liberty Forum considers it a public duty to stop people like Obasanjo representing Africa anywhere, because he represents the same failed face of Africa .We cannot afford for different versions of Mobutu, Idi Amin, Bokassa, Conteh, Marcias Nguema and their ilk representing us at a time the world is yearning for genuine leadership. Obasanjo has the traits of the worst tyrants in Africa, but he seems to have the international community under his spell. They overlook his indiscretions and scandalous crimes and shower him with credibility when he should be cooling his heels in jail or hiding away in one remote corner of the world, far, far from civilization!



Not too curiously, the increasingly retrogressive authorities of the London School of Economics have equally fallen under his spell. They have since revoked all accreditations given to press men for the event and have requested that the Nigeria Liberty Forum pass whatever message it has through them to Obasanjo, all in an attempt to keep the public away. Well, it’s not going to happen, because the world must know who Obasanjo is. We can speak for ourselves in any public space and we can do so via a peaceful protest. Obasanjo is a monster not a statesman and no amount of lipstick or make-up will change him from who he is. We know him and every decent citizen of our world needs to know him for who he truly is as well.



Long Live the United Kingdom!



Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!





Signed: Kayode Ogundamisi

Convenor, Nigeria Liberty Forum



To join NLF UK , send an email to nlibertyforum@googlemail.com



Telephone (Daytime): +447951402986 (Evening): +442030150739

http://www.thenewblackmagazine.com/view.aspx?index=1866

https://www.nairaland.com/792619/obj-looted-200bn-devalued-naira/4

Akshow: it takes a silly Arrow to know a silly quote. @topic OBJ is indeed intelligent and a wise leader. On a related issue, aside 'i once had no shoes', i Dont think Oga GEJ has make any statement worthy of quote.

my friend go to school and strengthen your use of english language. GEJ is a PH.D holder, he merited, PDP did not give it to him

segunn20: 1)My gut feelings and my faith tell me that until God shuts a door, no human can shut it.


2)Corruption, the greatest single bane of our society today.


3)I am a black man inside and outside and you are white men on the outside, but inside, you are Africans like me.

4)I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge that our foreign friends are welcome to join in our endeavor to develop the resources of our country.

5)Nigeria has no business with poverty. With our human and material resources, we shall strive to eradicate poverty from our
country.

6)Pope John Paul II not only visited Nigeria twice but stood by the country in its fight against dictatorship and injustice.

7)What the oil producer gets paid is about 16 percent. The majority of it is tax, which in fairness to the government of this country they have accepted and admitted.

I will not say the fact that there are no European Union observers at an election means that it will not be fair and free.

9)Let me make a solemn pledge before all of you, before the whole world and before God, that I will devote all my energy and all I possess in my power to serve the people of Nigeria and humanity.

10)My joy knows no bounds... I will devote all my energy and all the powers available to me to the service of Nigeria and humanity.

11)Unfortunately, the true force which propels our endless political disputes, our constant struggles for political advantage, is often not our burning concern for democracy, it is often of our dedication to the principle of the rule of law.

12)We will as soon as possible reexamine our laws and policies and eliminate all obstacles to genuine investment.

13)We will work to bring an element of stability to the price of oil.

these aint brainy-more like just making statements.

geeez: Nigeria's best president ever

\
sometimes i wonder what Nigerians really want! when OBJ was president Nigerians were crying, today he is adjudged the BEST president ever!! na wa oh. but what did OBJ really achieved that impacted directly on the masses of this country? now that we have a listening president who stoops to see things for himself and acts to correct anomalies that had existed long before he was even born, we are complaining. Now we can say electricity has improved for the first time since we were born, we are complaining. Now we can travel from Kano to Enugu with very minimal pot holes on the road(I drove from abuja to awka last weekend and back; could go upto a stretch of 50km at constant speed, i will never forget the stretch from 9th Miles in Enugu to Awka which used to take like an 1hr, I made that stretch for less than 20 minutes. what about from Obollo Afor to 9th mile, i did not have to stop except at military check points), we are still complaining. Now that some of our airports have been given face-lifts for the first time in history(I remember some years back Port Harcourt airport was closed for turn around maintenance TAM for more than 1 year,that was when i started using owerri airport, when PH airport was eventually was opened; it was only new paintings we could see),we are yet complaining. Now that we can vote and wait to ensure our vote is counted without molestation( i can never forget the sight i beheld in BMH Port Harocurt on the 14th of April 2007, I saw firewood like looking objects which they said were police officers who were burnt to ashes while on duty by hoodlums in elelenwo police station the previous night all in the name of elections, what about snatching of babies from their mother's back?)we are complaining. Given our prevailing circumstance,GEJ remains the best thing to happen to this shit hole called nigeria take it or leave it

[size=18pt]Obasanjo looted Treasury to start his Farms[/size]

On Dec. 5th, 2005, the European Union (EU) denied giving Pres. Obasanjo a clean bill of health concerning his anti-corruption credentials. This has dented the saintly image the President has cultivated in the past few years.



Elendureports.com can now reveal, according to documents in our possession, that on August 18, 1973, Brigadier Olusegun Obasanjo, the then Commandant of Nigerian Army Corps of Engineers, registered Obasanjo Farms, Ltd. On October 1979, Gen. Obasanjo retired from the Nigerian Army after ruling the country for three years, following the assassination of Gen. Murtala Mohammed. By 1979, Obasanjo Farms, Ltd. started commercial operations with fifty million naira (N50,000,000.00). Given the exchange rate in 1979, the Obasanjo Farms, Ltd. commenced operations with more than fifty million dollars ($50,000,000.00).



Until 1979, Olusegun Obasanjo had spent his entire professional life in the Nigerian military. The natural question is how did this man who is reputed to have been an honest soldier float a multi-million dollar company without partners? Who bankrolled Obasanjo Farms, Ltd.? What collateral was provided for loans, if financing was raised through a bank?



Under duress from the public, following allegations of corruption against Pres. Obasanjo, his spokesman, Femi Fani-Kayode, declared that Obasanjo Farms, Limited, headquartered at the Agbeloba House on Quarry Road, Ibara Abeokuta, Ogun State generates a monthly income of about thirty million Naira (N30,000,000.00)



Obasanjo Farms Ltd. is a success story. Yet, it is not an ordinary success story in the sense that it does not follow the normal patterns of rags to riches; the staple from which typical success stories are made. Elendureports.com was reliably informed that Gen. Obasanjo's pet project as Head of State, "Operation Feed the Nation," was set up as a front to divert resources for the funding of Obasanjo Farms, Ltd. Obasanjo Farms, Ltd., is listed as being engaged in poultry and pig farming, which employees about 3,000 people.



The allegation is that money, heavy-duty machinery, and other materials meant for Operation Feed the Nation were diverted to Obasanjo Farms, Ltd. right from its inception. Obasanjo Farms, Ltd. has a huge abattoir at the back of General Hospital in Otta, Ogun State.



In direct contravention to the Nigerian Constitution, Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo still retains the title of Chairman, Obasanjo Farms, Ltd. This allegation is supported by documents in the possession of Elendureports.com. Other members of the top executive of Obasanjo Farms, Ltd. are Elder Daniel W. Atsu, who is the Managing Director, and Bolarinwa Atilade, who is the Financial Controller. WEMA Bank is the company's major account provider, while it maintains accounts in several other local banks.



Ironically, some elected Nigerian public officials have been dragged before the Code of Conduct Tribunal for operating their businesses while in public service. Recently, the President also warned civil servants to desist from engaging in private businesses.



Soon after the Abacha junta imprisoned Obasanjo on trumped up coup charges, Obasanjo Farms, with operational bases in Owiwi, Igboora, Lanlate and Ibadan, started experiencing a down-turn in fortunes. There is speculation that the Abacha regime discouraged people from patronizing the farm. However, after Obasanjo was released from prison and his subsequent drafting to run for president, the farm saw a resurgence of income. Since 1999, Obasanjo Farms, Ltd. has acquired more assets. For example, the President showed off a huge teak farm to one of his close friends some years ago.



Elendureports.com was authoritatively informed that Obasanjo deposited checks worth millions of Naira meant for his Presidential campaign into various company accounts. There are claims that he did not make this money available to his campaign. As at the time of filing this story no audit of his 1999 campaign organization account has been conducted. A source very close to Pres. Obasanjo said, "Money just flowed in and Baba was just using it as he wanted."



Just recently the former Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Audu Ogbeh, revealed that Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo and his bosom friend, Anthony Anenih, have yet to account for forty billion naira (N40 billion) raised for his 1999 Presidential campaign. Ogbeh insisted that the President, through his Legacy Campaign headquarters, was responsible for appropriating the campaign funds.



Also, Lagos lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi, in recent Court submissions regarding the seven billion naira raised for the Obasanjo Presidential Library, presented evidence linking the President to Bells University and Bells Educational Services, a multi-million dollar institution, wholly owned by Obasanjo Holdings, Ltd.



Contrary to popular belief, President Olusegun Obasanjo has yet to publicly declare his assets. In addition, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has yet to publish its findings regarding allegations of corruption made against the President by Abia State Governor, Orji Uzor Kalu. While Nigerians may disagree on almost everything else, it is reasonable to expect that the unanswered question on the minds of the citizenry is: Is the President's anti-corruption war for real or a charade designed to attack opponents, deceive Nigerians and the international community?


The Joint Development Zone (JDZ) is currently the proverbial money tree for the President. The JDZ is a joint venture owned by Nigeria and Sao Tome and Principe. This venture is supposed to manage the large deposits of oil in the Gulf of Guinea. The company managing the mapping of the JDZ is PGS, a company whose Nigerian subsidiary is managed by the father-in-law of Obasanjo's second son. Obasanjo's cronies, Emeka Offor and Wahab Folawiyo, also has business interests in the region.

segunn20: 1)My gut feelings and my faith tell me that until God shuts a door, no human can shut it.


2)Corruption, the greatest single bane of our society today.


3)I am a black man inside and outside and you are white men on the outside, but inside, you are Africans like me.

4)I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge that our foreign friends are welcome to join in our endeavor to develop the resources of our country.

5)Nigeria has no business with poverty. With our human and material resources, we shall strive to eradicate poverty from our
country.

6)Pope John Paul II not only visited Nigeria twice but stood by the country in its fight against dictatorship and injustice.

7)What the oil producer gets paid is about 16 percent. The majority of it is tax, which in fairness to the government of this country they have accepted and admitted.

I will not say the fact that there are no European Union observers at an election means that it will not be fair and free.

9)Let me make a solemn pledge before all of you, before the whole world and before God, that I will devote all my energy and all I possess in my power to serve the people of Nigeria and humanity.

10)My joy knows no bounds... I will devote all my energy and all the powers available to me to the service of Nigeria and humanity.

11)Unfortunately, the true force which propels our endless political disputes, our constant struggles for political advantage, is often not our burning concern for democracy, it is often of our dedication to the principle of the rule of law.

12)We will as soon as possible reexamine our laws and policies and eliminate all obstacles to genuine investment.

13)We will work to bring an element of stability to the price of oil.

14) Clears his throat, swing neck left then right..."hmmm tell IBB he is a bigger fool"

15) I dey Kampe