₦airaland Forum

I just installed the pc version of fifa 13 but I can use the popular Ucom pad with it. Can anyone help me out on how to reconfigure the ucom pad to work with the fifa 13

Noted

Is it a must that my car must steam or pour water from the exhaust in the morning? If it does not steam, does it mean the engine has begin to wear.

What are the thing that can make car engine to wear easily, will carrying four person at the back seat of a car (Camry 96) have a side effect on the car engine.

I need answers to this questions pls.

Since Ribadu didn't compromise his stand they have find a way to rubbish the report through a former head of service. God is watching us in 4D

Lol

I know this is a very intrigue and controversial issue which I don't like discussing but this have been on my mind since the news of the four uniport students killed some days back.

We've being made to believe that what have been destined to happen to us will surely happen, we've also been told that it can be delayed but will surely come to pass. Some people are of the opinion that with prayers your evil destiny can be turned to good. My question is how do we know that what we believe prayer changed it to wasn't what was destined for us in the first place?

Karma is payback time according to what we are told. Any evil men do same will be melted out to them if not more.

Now, let's look at the gruesome killing at Aluu, are those boys destined to die the way they did? Is it Karma that caught up with them? Have the killers being destined to kill those boys? Will karma caught up with the killers of those boys if they were not destined to kill them?

Let's discuss this without insult and tribal sentiment.

I’m sad. The spade of insecurity in this country is alarming and this has forced citizens to take the law into their own hands. JUNGLE  JUSTICE we call it. I call it MURDER.I don't want to dwell on the reasons why these four University of Port Harcourt students - Ugonna, Ilyod, Tekana and Chidiaka had  their lives cut short in this barbaric manner. No1 has the right over another man's life.These boys were caught for alleged theft and tortured for hours and killed. That is the logline.

Despite various recounts as to what might have happened, multiple sources have claimed they were cult boys who went to claim or attack some 1. They didn't meet the person at home and went to the bush to chill and smoke.Then the vigilante were tipped off that robbers were in the area which resulted in them being rounded up.
Another story claimed they were cultists who went to attack a guy and he shouted for help and this drew the attention of the vigilante's in the area."My source who spoke exclusively to me, and confessed to being part of a group called Mafia;s said“These boys are 200 level students of the University of Portharcourt. They were part of a cult group” THE MAFIA’S”. They are not even hardened enough to kill .What they do is collect dues from defaulting members etc.So on this faithful day, they went to Aluu village to ruffle a particular guy who happened to be a rival cult member(Vikins).On getting there, they didn't meet him at home so they decided to chill in the nearby bush.

The word got out that they were around and  a Vikin member ran to the vigilante guys to report that the thieves terrorizing the neighborhood were spotted.Knowing if they were spared,they would retaliate,the Vikin members posing as ordinary students called for teh head of these boys and accused them of orchestrating several robberies in the area.They even arranged for some girls to claim they had been raped"
Ok PAUSE.



Many of us have heard of mob actions before,we have seen alleged thieves paraded on TV.There is something which is never absent"The weapons used,the item stolen/the person attacked.Why were all these components absent?Why didn't we see any reference in that video made to the fact that these boys were thieves?
Who brought up the story of theft in the first place?A cover up?A frame up?Were the vigilantes used as a tool to perpetrate the heinous crime orchestrated by others?

-Why didn't any 1 in that footage say""Stop"?Where were the women of that community.The community head?
-All the voices in that footage called for their heads.One kept ringing in my ear"The yellow one no wan die,die,die,die"".I dint hear a single"NO".
-For a torture session which lasted for hours,why didn't anyone call the police on time?
-Was it a case of jealousy or envy caused by class segregation?

A few people have backed the killings.One said "Na because they be fine boys" Another said"All of you condemning this killing don't know what it means to encounter an armed robber".There was an interesting one"Why all the fuss?This is not the first time,mob killings occur in Nigeria"

True!Let me tell you why this has driven deep into the core of my soul and other Nigerians.There are killings which are done in the spur of the moment,and there are premeditated murders,carefully planned and executed.

Mob actions are usually carried out in the spur of the moment.The thief is usually caught red handed in the act.The beating, torture, burning is done in a twinkle of an eye.So fast that even the fastest reacting police squad wont get there on time.
This is different,there was time,they were paraded,taken from one scene to the other.Yet,no sign of what they did.

This means,are the people Aluu made up of monsters or were their minds infiltrated with such hate against those boys by some 1?Have they been covered up murders in the past?

The callousness and wanton disregard for human life exhibited by those who did this didnt potray them as novices.They have done this before
I have several theories and none would be as legit as the truth(sadly enough,just the 4 of them know what really happened)
But for the benefit of those who are heartless enough to justify these killings

http://misspetitenigeria..co.uk/2012/10/the-uniport-mob-actionthe-untold.html?m=1

Can married couple applied twice I.e the husband as a primary applicant in one with the wife and kids as secondary applicant and the wife applying as the primary applicant in another form ith the husband and kids as the secondary applicants.

The President Still Doesn’t Get It

Mon, 24/09/2012 - SAM NDA-ISAIAH
The Monday Column - Last Word

Again, last week, President Goodluck Jonathan uttered words that have angered Nigerians and which clearly show that our president is living in a different world, all by himself. There are two sore points he raised. First is that the fuel subsidy protests of January were sponsored by opposition politicians. So what’s wrong with that? The second one is that the media have been too critical of his government. The president has lately been working extremely hard to get into a fight with the media. So far, members of the Fourth Estate have largely ignored him. But the way the president has been talking about the media and spoiling for a fight, his wishes would be granted much sooner than later. And when push comes to shove, I wonder how he intends to survive it, considering the serial scandals that have defined his government, most of which are not even in the public domain yet.

And one really wonders why the president is so surprised that the media should be criticising him. He wants them to clap for him after such a huge mess he has made of the country? He expects plaudits from the media after the unprecedented theft of N2.6 trillion under his watch? Under which of his predecessors has this kind of money been stolen in the name of fuel subsidy payments in one year? Somebody should tell the president that the media have, in fact, been too soft on him. If the Nigerian system were working properly like in other countries, the media would have been singing the music of his impeachment and removal from office by now. The most annoying thing is that the president is not even sorry for presiding over that level of thievery, which, even by Nigerian standards, is clearly beyond the pale.

No criminal or murderer has been tried and sentenced in Nigeria since Jonathan became president. Nothing has happened to the MEND murderers who killed several innocent people in Abuja on October 1, 2010, and nothing has happened to the several Boko Haram elements that have been arrested and ... heck, nothing has happened to the several armed robbers and kidnappers that have been apprehended since he became president. And the president does not expect to be criticised for such a laid-back and I-don’t-give-a-damn attitude to governance?

The president went to Malawi a few days ago and told the country to start exporting rice to Nigeria, and he expects the media to give him an award for that? Under President Jonathan, Nigeria started importing fuel from Niger Republic and he thinks people should be laughing with him?

Is there anything Jonathan has done right since he became president? Only recently, it was exposed that he pays bandits N7 billion annually to protect our oil facilities; and these bandits have done the job so well that the theft of Nigerian oil has never been this bad.

Regarding the sponsorship of the January fuel subsidy protests, the president is still talking after it has been exposed that N2.6 trillion was stolen in the name of fuel subsidy? Words fail me in this one. Is the president’s statement not an insult to Nigerians who have consistently been short-changed by his government? And if it was the opposition that organised the protests, so what? What was the opposition supposed to be doing? Watching him and his contractor cronies do as they like with the nation’s wellbeing and do nothing? This president doesn’t just get it and I don’t think he will ever benefit from good counsel. The truth is that he shouldn’t have been president in the first place.



EARSHOT
Grounding Arik Air

Arik Air has been offering a strategic service to Nigeria that no other airline has nearly been able to do. Without Arik Air, there would be many state capitals in Nigeria that would not be served with commercial air travel. Arik Air is the only airline that plies several routes that are considered unprofitable in the business. At the best of times, the commercial airline business is more of a service than a business, but Arik Air has even taken that service responsibility to a higher level. Only in Nigeria would such an airline be grounded for reasons other than safety.

In the course of its work, Arik Air has understandably accumulated a lot of debts. In a serious country, because of its place in the economy of the nation, Arik Air would have been qualified for a bailout. It is for that same reason that President Barack Obama bailed out the auto industry in the United States, an action that has made General Motors become the number one auto manufacturer again, after it was beaten briefly by Toyota of Japan during the US economic crisis. There are basic principles of running a government; no serious government grounds a company as strategic as Arik Air even if it is privately owned. But what do you expect from a government that appoints commodity traders as ministers?

@ Ops, how do I contact you. Send me a mail odukoya@live.com

Any link to watch the match online

No Comment

Something like this happened to me early this year, I just met this lady not as pretty as my wife but something just attracted us together and we started dating, lo and behold I lost interest in my wife completely, I even went to the extend of pushing for divorce, I tried all the trick I knew even to the point of telling my wife that I have a girlfriend that I intend taking as second wife just for her to leave me. One thing I noticed is that she moved closer to God, her prayer was answered as I broke up with the lady some two months later. I worked on my marriage and we are better, stronger and happier than before.

My take is that, there's somebody outside that the Op's friend thinks is better than his wife, and the earlier he broke up with that girl the better for him.

One thing I also noticed about we men is that, we have this tendency to cheat on our wives. 95% of married men cheats on their wivies either once or everytime. If in doubt sample opinion of men at your workplace and you will be surprise with answers you will get but thats another topic for another day.

PART ONE:

The formerly secret files on the Nigerian civil war in the late 1960s show very clear British complicity in the Nigerian government’s aggression against the region of Biafra, where an independence movement was struggling to secede from Nigeria. This brutal civil war resulted in between one and three million deaths; it also significantly
helped shape modern Nigeria, and not least the division of oil revenues between the central government and the regions and people.

Background to civil war

For those in Britain old enough to remember the war in Nigeria in the late 1960s, ‘Biafra’ probably still conjures up images of starving children – the result of the blockade imposed by the Nigerian government in Lagos to defeat the secession of the eastern region, Biafra. For Biafrans themselves, the period was one of immense suffering – it is still not known how many died at this time as a direct result of the war and the blockade, but it is believed to be at least one million and as high as three million.

For those seeking to understand Britain’s role in the world, there is now an important side of the Biafran story to add – British complicity in the slaughter. The declassified files show that the then Wilson government backed the Nigerian government all the way, arming its aggression and apologising for its actions. It is one of the sorrier stories in British foreign policy, though by no means unusual.

The immediate background to the war was a complex one of tensions and violence between Nigeria’s regions and ethnic groups, especially between those from the east and the north. In January 1966 army officers had attempted to seize power and the conspirators, most of whom were Ibos (from the East) assassinated several leading political figures as well as officers of northern origin. Army commander Major General Ironsi, also an Ibo, intervened to restore discipline in the army, suspended the constitution, banned political parties, formed a Federal Military Government (FMG) and appointed military governors to each of Nigeria’s regions.

Ironsi’s decree in March 1966, which abolished the Nigerian federation and unified the federal and regional civil services, was perceived by many not as an effort to establish a unitary government but as a plot by the Ibo to dominate Nigeria. Troops of northern origin, who dominated the Nigerian infantry, became increasingly restive and fighting broke out between them and Ibo soldiers in garrisons in the south. In June, mobs in northern cities, aided by local officials, carried out a pogrom against resident Ibos, massacring several hundred people and destroying Ibo-owned property.

It was in this context that in July 1966 northern officers staged a countercoup during which Ironsi and other Ibo officers were killed. Lieutenant Colonel (later General) Yakubu ‘Jack’ Gowon emerged as leader. The aim of the coup was both to take revenge on the Ibos for the coup in January but also to promote the secession of the north, although Gowon soon pulled back from calling explicitly for this. Gowon named himself as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and head of the military government, which was rejected by the military governor in the eastern region, Lieutenant Colonel Ojukwu, who claimed, with some justification, that the Gowon regime was illegitimate.

Throughout late 1966 and 1967 the tempo of violence increased. In September 1966 attacks on Ibos in the north were renewed with unprecedented ferocity, stirred up, eastern region officials believed, by northern political leaders. Reports circulated that troops from the northern region had participated in the massacres. The estimated number of deaths ranged from 10,000 to as high as 30,000. More than one million Ibos returned to the eastern region in fear.

In January 1967 the military leaders met in Aburi, Ghana. By this time the eastern region under Ojukwu was threatening secession. Many of Ojukwu’s eastern colleagues were now arguing that the massacres the previous September showed that the country could not be reunited amicably. In a last minute effort at Aburi to hold Nigeria together, an accord was agreed that provided for a loose confederation of regions. Gowon issued a decree implementing the Aburi agreement and even the northern region now favoured the formation of a multistate federation. The federal civil service, however, vigorously opposed the Aburi agreement and sought to scupper it.

Ojukwu and Gowon then disputed what exactly had been agreed at Aburi, especially after the Federal Military Government (FMG) issued a further decree in March which was seen by Ojukwu as reneging on the FMG’s commitment at Aburi to give the eastern region greater autonomy. The new decree gave the federal government the right to declare a state of emergency in any region and to ensure that any regional government could not undermine the executive authority of the federal government. Ojukwu then gave an ultimatum to Gowon that the eastern region would begin implementing its understanding of the Aburi agreement, providing for greater regional autonomy, by 31 March.

PART TWO:

While Biafra was threatening to secede and declare an independent state, the FMG imposed sanctions against it to bring it into line. On 26 May the eastern region consultative assembly voted to secede from Nigeria and the following day Gowon declared a state of emergency throughout the country, banned political activity and announced a
decree restoring full powers to the FMG. Also announced was a decree dividing the country into twelve states, including six in the north and three in the east.

On 30 May 1967 Biafra declared independence and on 7 July the FMG began operations to defeat it. It lasted until January 1970 as an extremely well-equipped Nigerian federal army of over 85,000 men supplied by Britain, the Soviet Union and few others, took on a volunteer Biafran army, much of whose equipment initially came from captured Nigerian supplies and which only later was able to procure relatively small quantities of arms from outside.

The background is therefore very complex and it remains far from clear cut as to where the ‘blame’ lay for the failure of peaceful negotiations and the resort to war. It does appear, however, that the FMG did go back on its agreement at Aburi on the extent of regional autonomy it was prepared to offer the easterners. Before they began to back the FMG unequivocally once war began, British officials had previously recognised the legitimacy of some of Ojukwu’s claims. The High British Commissioner in Lagos, Sir Francis Cumming-Bruce, had told Gowon in November 1966, for example, that the September 1966 massacres of the Ibos in the north ‘changed the relationship between the regions and made it impossible for eastern Nigerians to associate with northerners on the same basis as in the past’. The issue was one of basic ‘law and order and physical safety throughout the federation’. He told Gowon that the FMG had to go ‘a considerable distance to meet the views of Colonel Ojukwu’.

British officials also recognised that the Aburi agreements were ‘extremely woolly on many important points and lend themselves to infinite arguments over interpretation’. By end January 1967 Cumming-Bruce was saying that both Gowon and Ojuwku were ‘seriously at fault and they share responsibility for poisoning of atmosphere [sic]‘.

Then there was the wider question of whether it was legitimate for a region to secede and whether Biafra should have been allowed to establish its independence. Again, a lot of complex issues are involved. British officials feared that if Biafra were to secede many other regions in Africa would too, threatening ‘stability’ across the whole of the continent. Most of the great powers, including the US and Soviet Union, shared this view largely for the same reason.

Yet there appears to be no reason why Biafra, with its 15 million people, could not have established a viable, independent state. Biafrans argued that they were a people with a distinctive language and culture, that they were Christian as opposed to the Muslim communities lumped into the Nigeria federal state, which had, after all, been a colonial creation. In fact, Biafra was also one of the most developed regions in Africa with a high density of roads, schools, hospitals and factories. The struggle for an independent state certainly appeared to have the support of the majority of Biafrans, whose sense of nationhood deepened throughout the war as enormous sacrifices were made to contribute to the war effort.

What is crystal clear is that the wishes of the Biafrans were never a major concern of British planners; what they wanted, or what Nigerians elsewhere in the federation wanted, was simply not an issue for Whitehall. There is simply no reference in the government files, that I have seen, to this being a consideration. The priorities for London were maintaining the unity of Nigeria for geo-political interests and protecting British oil interests. This meant that Gowon’s FMG was backed right from the start. But the files also reveal astonishing levels of connivance with the FMG’s aggression.

Nigerian aggression, British support

British interests are very clearly revealed in the declassified files. ‘Our direct interests are trade and investment, including an important stake by Shell/BP in the eastern Region. There are nearly 20,000 British nationals in Nigeria, for whose welfare we are of course specially [sic] concerned’, the Foreign Office noted a few days before the outbreak of the war. Shell/BP’s investments amounted to around £200 million, with other British investment in Nigeria accounting for a further £90 million. It was then partly owned by the British government, and the largest producer of oil which provided most of Nigeria’s export earnings. Most of this oil was in the eastern region.
Commonwealth Minister George Thomas wrote in August 1967 that: ‘The sole immediate British interest in Nigeria is that the Nigerian economy should be brought back to a condition in which our substantial trade and investment in the country can be further developed, and particularly so we can regain access to important oil installations’.

Thomas further outlined the primary reason why Britain was so keen to preserve Nigerian unity, noting that ‘our only direct interest in the maintenance of the federation is that Nigeria has been developed as an economic unit and any disruption of this would have adverse effects on trade and development’. If Nigeria were to break up, he added: ‘We cannot expect that economic cooperation between the component parts of what was Nigeria, particularly between the East and the West, will necessarily enable development and trade to proceed at the same level as they would have done in a unified Nigeria; nor can we now count on the Shell/BP oil concession being regained on the same terms as in the past if the East and the mid-West assume full control of their own economies’.

PART THREE:

Ojukwu initially tried to get Shell/BP to pay royalties to the Biafran government rather than the FMG. The oil companies, after giving the Biafrans a small token payment, eventually refused and Ojuwku responded by sequestering Shell’s property and installations, forbidding Shell to do any further business and ordering all its staff ou
t. They ‘have much to lose if the FMG do not achieve the expected victory’, George Thomas noted in August 1967. A key British aim throughout the war was to secure the lifting of the blockade which Gowon imposed on the east and which stopped oil exports.

In the run-up to Gowon’s declaration of war, Britain had made it clear to the FMG that it completely supported Nigerian unity. George Thomas had told the Nigerian High Commissioner in London at the end of April 1967, for example, that ‘the Federal government had our sympathy and our full support’ but said that he hoped the use of force against the east could be avoided. On 28 May Gowon, having just declared a state of emergency, explicitly told Britain’s Defence Attache that the FMG was likely to ‘mount an invasion from the north’. Gowon asked whether Britain would provide fighter cover for the attack and naval support to reinforce the blockade of Eastern ports; the Defence Attache replied that both were out of the question.

By the time Gowon ordered military action in early July, therefore, Britain had refused Nigerian requests to be militarily involved and had urged Gowon to seek a ‘peaceful’ solution. However, the Wilson government had also assured Gowon of British support for Nigerian unity at a time when military preparations were taking place. And Britain had also made no signs that it might cut off, or reduce, arms supplies if a military campaign were launched.

The new High Commissioner in Lagos, Sir David Hunt, wrote in a memo to London on 12 June that the ‘only way… of preserving unity [sic] of Nigeria is to remove Ojukwu by force’. He said that Ojukwu was committed to remaining the ruler of an independent state and that British interests lay in firmly supporting the FMG.

Before going to war, Gowon began what was to become a two and half year long shopping list of arms that the FMG wanted from Britain. On 1 July he asked Britain for jet fighter/bomber aircraft, six fast boats and 24 anti-aircraft guns. ‘We want to help the Federal Government in any way we can’, British officials noted. However, Britain rejected supplying the aircraft, fearing that they would publicly demonstrate direct British intervention in the war and, at this stage, also rejected supplying the boats. London did, however, agree to supply the anti-aircraft guns and to provide training courses to use them.

The Deputy High Commissioner in Enugu, Biafra’s main city, noted that the supply of these anti-aircraft guns and their ammunition would be seen as British backing for the FMG and also that they were not entirely defensive weapons anyway since ‘they could also take on an offensive role if mounted in an invasion fleet’. Nevertheless, the government’s news department was instructed to stress the ‘defensive nature of these weapons’ when pressed but generally to avoid publicity on their export from Britain. High Commissioner Hunt said that ‘it would be better to use civil aircraft’ to deliver these guns and secured agreement from the Nigerians that ‘there would be no publicity’ in supplying them.

Faced with Gowon’s complaints about Britain not supplying more arms, Wilson also agreed in mid-July to supply the FMG with the fast patrol boats. This was done in the knowledge that they would help the FMG maintain the blockade against Biafra. Wilson wrote to Gowon saying that ‘we have demonstrated in many ways our support for your government as the legal government of Nigeria and our refusal to recognise the secessionists’. He also told him that Britain does ‘not intend to put any obstacle in the way’ of orders for ‘reasonable quantities of military material of types similar to those you have obtained here in the past’. Gowon replied saying that ‘I have taken note of your concurrence for the usual purchases of arms supplies to continue and will take advantage of what is available now and others when necessary’.

By early August Biafran forces had made major gains against the FMG and had invaded the mid-West region. Commonwealth Minister George Thomas noted that ‘the chances of a clear-cut military decision being achieved by either side now look rather distant’. Rather, ‘we are now faced with the probability of an escalating and increasingly disorderly war, with both sides shopping around for arms’. In this situation, he raised the option of Britain launching a peace offensive and halting all arms supplies. But this was rejected by David Hunt in Lagos and others since it would cause ‘great resentment’ on the part of the FMG against the British government and be regarded as a ‘hostile act’. Instead, the government decided to continue the flow of arms and ammunition of types previously supplied by Britain but to continue to refuse supplies of ‘sophisticated equipment’ like aircraft and tanks.

The decision to continue arms exports was taken when it had already become clear in the behaviour of the Nigerian forces that any weapons supplied would be likely to be used against civilians. It was also at a time when Commonwealth Secretary General Arnold Smith was making renewed attempts to push for peace negotiations after having been rebuffed by Gowon in a visit to Lagos in early July.

PART FOUR:

By early November 1967 the FMG had pushed back the Biafrans and captured Enugu; British officials were now reporting that the FMG had ‘a clear military advantage’. Now that our side seemed like winning, talk of reducing arms to them disappeared; George Thomas now said that ‘it seems to me that British interests would now be served by a
quick FMG victory’. He recommended that the arms export policy be ‘relaxed’ and to supply Lagos with items that ‘have importance in increasing their ability to achieve a quicker victory’. This meant ‘reasonable quantities’ of equipment such as mortars and ‘infantry weapons generally’, though not aircraft or other ‘sophisticated’ equipment.

On 23 November 1967 the Cabinet agreed that ‘a quick Federal military victory’ provided the best hope for ‘an early end to the fighting’. By early December, Commonwealth Secretary George Thomson [sic, not Thomas. need also to check cos he may have been FO minister at this time' he certainly became CW sec by mid 68] noted that the ‘lack of supplies and ammunition is one of things that are holding operations up’. He said that Britain should agree to the FMG’s recent shopping list since ‘a favourable response to this request ought to give us every chance of establishing ourselves again as the main supplier of the Nigerian forces after the war’. If the war ended soon, the Nigerian economy will start expanding and ‘there should be valuable business to be done’. Also: ‘Anything that we now do to assist the FMG should help our oil companies to re-establish and expand their activities in Nigeria after the war, and, more generally should help our commercial and political relationship with postwar Nigeria’.

He ended by saying he hoped Britain could supply armoured cars since they ‘have proved of especial value in the type of fighting that is going on in Nigeria and the FMG are most impressed with the Saladins and Ferrets’ previously supplied by Britain.
As a result Britain supplied six Saladin armoured personnel carriers (APCs), 30 Saracen APCs along with 2,000 machine guns for them, anti-tank guns and 9 million rounds of ammunition. Denis Healey, the Defence Secretary, wrote that he hoped these supplies will encourage the Nigerians ‘to look to the United Kingdom for their future purchases of defence equipment’. By the end of the year Britain had also approved the export of 1,050 bayonets, 700 grenades, 1,950 rifles with grenade launchers, 15,000 lbs of explosives and two helicopters.

In the first half of the following year, 1968, Britain approved the export of 15 million rounds of ammunition, 21,000 mortar bombs, 42,500 Howtizer rounds, 12 Oerlikon guns, 3 Bofors guns, 500 submachine guns, 12 Saladins with guns and spare parts, 30 Saracens and spare parts, 800 bayonets, 4,000 rifles and two other helicopters. At the same time Wilson was constantly reassuring Gowon of British support for a united Nigeria, saying in April 1968 that ‘I think we can fairly claim that we have not wavered in this support throughout the civil war’.

These massive arms exports were being secretly supplied – indeed, massively stepped up – at a time when one could read about the actions of the recipients in the newspapers. After the Biafran withdrawal from the mid-west in September 1967 a series of massacres started against Ibo residents. The New York Times reported that over 5,000 had been killed in various towns of the mid west. About 1,000 Ibos were killed in Benin city by local people with the acquiescence of the federal forces, the New York Review noted in December 1967. Around 700 Ibo males were lined up and shot in the town of Asaba, the Observer reported in January 1968. According to eyewitnesses the Nigerian commander ordered the execution of every Ibo male over the age of ten.

Nigerian officials informed the British government that the arms were ‘important to them, but not vital’. More important than the actual arms ‘was the policy of the British government in supporting the FMG’.

This support was now taking place amid public and parliamentary pressure for a halt to British arms to Lagos, with 70 Labour MPs, for example, filing a motion for such an embargo in May 1968. Yet the real extent of arms supplied by Britain was concealed from the public.

Throughout 1967 and 1968, Ministers had been telling parliament that Britain was essentially neutral in the conflict in that it was not interfering in the internal affairs of Nigeria but simply continuing to supply arms to Nigeria on the same basis as before the war. As the declassified files, referred to above, show, this was simply a lie. For example, Wilson told the House on 16 May 1968 that: ’We have continued the supply… of arms by private manufacturers in this country exactly on the basis that it has been in the past, but there has been no special provision for the needs of the war’.

One British file at this time – mid-1968 – refers to deaths of between 70,000-100,000 by now as ‘realistic’. The Red Cross was estimating around 600,000 refugees in Biafra alone and was trying to arrange desperately needed supplies to meet needs, estimated at around 30 tons a day.

PART FIVE:

Humanitarian suffering, especially starvation, was severe as a result of the FMG’s blockade of Biafra. Pictures of starving and malnourished children went around the world. The FMG was widely seen as indulging in atrocities and attacks against civilians, including apparently indiscriminate air strikes, in an increasingly brutal war in
which civilians were the chief victims.

The files show that Wilson told Gowon on several occasions in private letters that he had successfully fended off public and parliamentary criticism in Britain, in order to continue to support the FMG – clearly showing where the government’s priorities and sympathies lay. As in Vietnam at the same time, Wilson was not going to be deflected by mere public opposition from backing ongoing aggression by key allies, whatever the level of atrocities and casualties.

With federal forces in control by mid-year of Port Harcourt, the most important southern coastal city, British officials noted that ‘having gone this far in supporting the FMG, it would be a pity to throw away the credit we have built up with them just when they seem to have the upper hand’. Britain could not halt the supply of arms since ‘apart from other considerations, such an outcome would seriously put at risk about £200m of British investments in non-Biafra Nigeria’, George Thomson explained to Harold Wilson.

It was also at this point that British officials sought to counter widespread opposition to the Nigerian government by conniving with it to improve the ‘presentation’ of its policies – another example of Britain’s past ‘information operations’ described in earlier chapters. Britain urged the FMG to convince the outside world that it was not engaged in genocide or a policy of massacre and to make public statements on the need for a ceasefire and humanitarian access to Biafra.

High Commissioner Hunt suggested to Gowon that the federal air force be used for ‘psychological warfare’ and to drop leaflets over the Ibo towns which would help the FMG score a ‘propaganda point’. Officials noted that their support for the FMG was under attack and that ‘our ability to sustain it… depends very much on implementing enlightened and humane federal policies and securing public recognition for them’. What was needed was ‘good and well-presented Nigerian policies which permit that support to continue’. Wilson therefore urged a senior Nigerian government official, Chief Enahoro, ‘to make a greater effort to ensure that their case did not go by default’.

The files indicate that these ‘presentational’ issues were much more important to British officials than any actual suffering of the Biafrans themselves. London never did anything significant to press the FMG. British officials ruled out threatening to cut off, or reduce, arms exports to force the FMG to change policies. The issue that most concerned the government at the time was that it would be forced to withdraw or reduce its support for Gowon in the face of public pressure. This, therefore, had to be countered, and the FMG needed to make greater efforts.

By mid-1968 British officials had still had no contacts with Ojukwu and other Biafran leaders; offers from the latter had been refused. So supportive was Wilson of the FMG that he even asked the Nigerians in advance whether they would have ‘any difficulties’ if a British official met a Biafran representative. Chief Enahoro replied that this would be acceptable provided the contacts were ‘strictly private and had no formal character’.

In early August FMG forces had retaken the whole of the southeastern and Rivers states and the easterners were now confined to a small enclave, blockaded from the outside world. Commonwealth Minister Lord Shepherd minuted Harold Wilson saying, that 14 months since Biafran secession: ‘Our support for the FMG finds us in the position in which we are on comparatively good terms with the side which is in an overwhelmingly advantageous position… It is important, therefore, that we should not be manoeuvred by pressure of opinion inspired by Ojukwu’s publicity, into abandoning at this late stage all the advantages which our policy so far seemed likely to bring us’. The same month, the Red Cross estimated 2-3 million people ‘in dire need’ and a similar number were facing shortages of food and medical aid.

Wilson did not succomb to public pressure. The following month he told Gowon that: ‘The British government for their part have steadfastly maintained their policy of support for Federal Nigeria and have resisted all suggestions in parliament and in the press for a change in that policy, particularly in regard to arms supplies’. The Foreign Office argued that ‘the whole of our investments in Nigeria and particularly our oil interests in the south east and the mid-west will be at risk if we change our policy of support for the federal government’.

In November, Lord Brockway and his committee for peace in Nigeria met Wilson and urged him to halt arms sales and to press for a ceasefire, estimating that there could be two million deaths from starvation and disease by the end of the year. Wilson not only rebuffed this plea; the files reveal that two days later he agreed to supply Nigeria with aircraft for the first time in a covert deal.

The Nigerians had been pressing Britain to supply several jet aircraft, specifically to attack the runways used by Biafran forces (and which also needed to be used to deliver humanitarian aid). Wilson said that Britain could not supply these directly but there were such aircraft in South Yemen and Sudan previously supplied by Britain. The Nigerians, he said, should procure the aircraft from them which ‘would not directly involve the British government’. The company to deal with in those two countries was Airwork Limited, which was later to be again used by the British government to conceal its involvement in its covert dirty war in Yemen. The British government also agreed to put the Nigerians in touch with ‘suitable pilots’.

PART SIX:

British arms supplies were stepped up again in November. Foreign Secretary Michael Stewart said the Nigerians could have 5 million more rounds of ammunition, 40,000 more mortar bombs and 2,000 rifles. ‘You may tell Gowon’, Stewart instructed High Commissioner Hunt in Lagos, ‘that we are certainly ready to consider a further application’
to supply similar arms in the future as well. He concluded: ‘if there is anything else for ground warfare which you… think they need and which would help speed up the end of the fighting, please let us know and we will consider urgently whether we can supply it’.

Other supplies agreed in November following meetings with the Nigerians included six Saladins and 20,000 rounds of ammunition for them, and stepped up monthly supplies of ammunition, amounting to a total of 15 million rounds additional to those already agreed. It was recognised by the Defence Minister that ‘the scale of the UK supply of small arms ammunition to Nigeria in recent months has been and will continue to be on a vast scale’. The recent deal meant that Britain was supplying 36 million rounds of ammunition in the last few months alone. Britain’s ‘willingness to supply very large quantities of ammunition’, Lord Shepherd noted, ‘meant drawing on the British army’s own supplies’.

At the same time the Foreign Office was instructing its missions around the world to lie about the extent of this arms supply. It sent a ‘guidance’ memo to various diplomatic posts on 22 November saying that ‘we wish to discourage suggestions’ that the Nigerians, in their recent meetings with British officials, were seeking ‘to negotiate a massive arms deal’. Rather, ‘our policy of supplying in reasonable quantities arms of the kind traditionally supplied’ to Nigeria ‘will be maintained but no change in the recent pattern of supplies is to be expected’. So great is the culture of lying at the Foreign Office, it appears that policy is even to keep its own officials in the dark.

By the end of 1968 Britain had sold Nigeria £9 million worth of arms, £6 million of which was spent on small arms. A quarter of Nigeria’s supplies (by value) had come from the Soviet Union, also taking advantage of the war for its own benefit and trying no doubt to secure an opening into Nigeria provided by this opportunity. British officials consistently justified their arms supply by saying that if they stopped, the Russians would fill the gap. It was Britain’s oil interests, however, that was the dominating factor in Whitehall planners’ reasoning.

By the last two months of 1968, with hundreds of thousands dead by now, the fighting had reached a stalemate. The FMG had taken all Biafran territory apart from a small enclave within it consisting of 3 million people in an area the size of Kent. Biafrans were now dependent on two airstrips for outside supplies which were limited by both Gowon’s and Ojukwu’s refusals to allow sufficient numbers of aircraft to land. Humanitarian agencies were continuing calls for a ceasefire as suffering, especially starvation, had reached crisis proportions. ‘We shall continue to maintain our present policy, despite these heavy pressures on us’, Wilson told Gowon in November. Foreign Secretary Stewart instructed Lord Shepherd, on a visit to Lagos, to tell Gowon of the extraordinary steps Britain was taking to support him. Gowon should realise, Stewart said, that opposition to British policy ‘cuts right across the normal political or party divisions in the country and is especially strong in the various churches’. He also interestingly said that ‘similar feeling is also expressed within the Cabinet itself’ – such was the extremely thin base on which British support for the FMG was being provided. (One wonders about similar memos being written by Tony Blair to George Bush in 2003).

The Wilson government was keen to present itself as engaged in the search for peace – the files show that officials did so knowing that without appearing to be active they would not have been able to justify their support for the FMG. British government activity in peace negotiations invariably sought to avoid the involvement of the United Nations and was intended to support the FMG to maintain a united Nigeria and to achieve a solution on its terms only.

In public, British statements consistently blamed only the Biafrans, not the FMG, for obstructing peace negotiations and the delivery of humanitarian aid. On the latter, there were numerous proposals and counter-proposals made by both sides on the issue of night or dayflights, and river or land routes into Biafra, which obstructed the delivery of humanitarian aid to millions of suffering people. The FMG feared that the Biafrans would use the cover of humanitarian aid supplies to slip in arms deliveries; while the Biafrans believed the FMG would poison the supplies. There is no doubt that Ojukwu and the Biafran leadership were partly responsible for the failure to deliver adequate humanitarian aid, yet so were the FMG. Starvation of the Biafrans was no accident or simply a by-product of the war; it was a deliberate part of the FMG’s war policy.

Several memos by British officials that reached Wilson and other ministers painted a more accurate picture than the one pushed in public. These said that it was as least as much the FMG that were to blame as the Biafrans. Yet this never upset British policy to side unequivocally with Gowon’s FMG.

THE END:

In March 1969 Wilson gave a public interview and lied that ‘we continue to supply on a limited scale arms – not bombs, not aircraft – to the government of Nigeria because we have always been their suppliers’. Not only was this untrue as a result of the agreements late the previous year; on the very same day as this interview, the governm
ent approved the export of 19 million rounds of ammunition, 10,000 grenades and 39,000 mortar bombs – bombs, that is, that Wilson had said Britain was not supplying at all, still less on a vast scale.

A day before the Wilson interview, a Foreign Office official had written that ‘we have over the last few months agreed to supply large quantities of arms and ammunition’ to Nigeria ‘to assist them in finishing the war in the absence of any further [peace] negotiations’. He also noted that ‘we have flown small arms ammunition to Nigeria… using Manston airport in Kent without attracting unfavourable press comment’.

It was therefore perhaps no surprise that Gowon could write to Wilson in April saying that ‘of all the governments in the Western world, yours has remained the only one that has openly maintained its policy of arms supplies to my government’. France, Belgium and the Netherlands, among others, had all announced a halt while the US continued its policy of not supplying arms to either side.

Two senior British RAF officers secretly visited Nigeria in August 1969 to advise the Nigerians on ‘how they could better prosecute the air war’. The main British interest, the files make clear, was to provide better protection of the oil installations, but the brief for the two officers stated that this impression should not be given to the Nigerians. The officers subsequently advised the Nigerians on a variety of tactics on ‘neutralisation of the rebel airstrips’. It was understood that destruction of the airstrips would put them out of use for daylight humanitarian relief flights. It is not clear whether such advice was put into action.

Britain armed the federal government all the way. In December 1969, just before the FMG’s final push that crushed the Biafrans, Foreign Secretary Michael Stewart was calling for stepping up military assistance including the supply of more armoured cars. These supplies by Britain, he wrote, ‘have undoubtedly been the most effective weapons in the ground war and have spear-headed all the major federal advances’.
Biafran resistance ended by mid January 1970. Wilson then sent another message to Gowon saying that ‘your army has won a decisive victory’ and has achieved ‘your great aim of preserving the unity and integrity of Nigeria’, adding: ‘As you know I and my colleagues have believed all along that you were right and we have never wavered in our support for you, your government and you policy, despite the violent attacks which have been made on us at times in parliament and in the press as well as overseas’.

The Deputy High Commissioner in Lagos added: ‘There is genuine gratitude (as indeed there should be) for what Britain has done and is still doing for this country, and in particular for Her Majesty’s Government’s courage in literally sticking to their guns over Biafra’.

The toll of the war was counted in a report for the British High Commission at the end of the month. It referred to a relief agency report estimating 1 1/2-2 million people were being fed with food relief supplies, around 700,000 of whom were refugees in camps dependent entirely on food aid. Three million refugees were crowded into a 2,500 square kilometre enclave in which not only food but medicine, housing and clothing were in short supply. The Biafran economy was shattered, cities were in ruins and schools, hospitals and transport facilities destroyed.

http://markcurtis./2007/02/13/nigeriabiafra-1967-70/

Thanks

I will like to know the difference between these letters on vehicle.
XL, LE GLS, LS etc

What will it take for us to click on the link and read the full interview rather than commenting on just a single line in the whole article.

I need a 96 Camry otherwise known as Orobo, I have a budget of 500k but can increase my offer a little depending on how neat, clean and year of use of the car.

Am waiting.

Kindly send the link to odukoya@live.com

Can it go for 500k. Let me know to arrange for inspection.

Am not the type that like discussion on religion or ethnic issue cos I know how far people go in defending what they believe in even if that thing is wrong.

I can't go home tomorrow cos the Redeem Christian Church of God is having her annual convention. That's bad enough for traffic going to Mowe tomorrow night and coming to Lagos saturday morning. Add that to the fact that Nasfat is holding her own yearly Ramadan night of magesty prayer tomorrow as well you will understand what I mean.

This will affect not only resident of Mowe, Ibafo, Ofada and its environ but other road users traveling out of Lagos.

What can we do to stop this from happening again cos it has now become a monthly occurance.

nolongtin: can any body upload the following if u gat it pls..
FELA UNRELEASED TRACKS-
1.COP-COUNTRY OF PAIN
2-CRFJJ-CLEAR ROAD FOR JAGAJAGA
3-CACMAINHNSFS-CHOP AND CLEAN MOUTH NA NEW STYLE FOR STEALING.
4-CONDOM SCALLYWAGGY AND SCATTER.
5-AKUNAKUNA
6-GOC

My guy these songs were never released, they were strictly shrine songs you can only get them from close pal of Fela (Baba Ani) just like look and laugh but that one manage to get out.

Forever Lives Abami Eda

Messi is ridiculous. Those stats are insane (281 goals, 70 caps, 21 trophies, 77 awards & 19 world records). Best player ever in a few years

Facts emerged in Abuja on Wednesday that the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party was instrumental to the exposure of the $620,000 bribery scandal currently rocking the House of Representatives.

Investigations by our correspondents showed that the party was aware of the bribe from the initial stage and agreed to the deal.

It was gathered that the PDP was targeting the Speaker of the House, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, for removal because of the belief that he was too “independent for the party leaders.”

Sources within the top echelon of the party informed our correspondent that members of the committee probing the fuel subsidy payment met with the party’s leadership and they agreed that the investigators should soft pedal on those they said were financers of the party, who also benefited from the subsidy payment regime.

The committee members, led by their chairman, Mr. Farouk Lawan, were said to have been persuaded not to indict these influential members in their report.

Before arriving at this, it was learnt that the leadership of the party had asked the committee to suspend its sitting or stop the probe entirely.

But when it was apparent that the committee members would not allow that because of the pressure from the public and the leadership of the House, the two parties were said to have agreed that the major oil marketers would not be indicted.

A top member of the party said, “We agreed that the money be given to them for logistics as they claimed. We agreed that the committee members should not be hard on the major marketers in their report.

“This is because the party produced these members of the committee. Without our slot, will they be able to be at the National Assembly?

“There is no way that a ruling party will not have a say in the running of the House, especially when its leaders are members of the party.”

The source added that the party was astonished when the report of the committee was released and almost everyone was indicted.

This, the source said, was contrary to the agreement the party had with the committee members, led by Lawan.

He said they recorded the transaction because the party’s leadership suspected that the committee members could renege on their promise.

The source said if the committee members had agreed to the deal, it was possible the deal would not had been made public “now.”

Asked why Lawan was not arrested by security agents at the point of collecting the money, he said there might not be any prove to show that the money paid Lawan actually came from the security agencies.

He said the party’s leadership and the Presidency were further angered when Tambuwal, at the first anniversary of the President Jonathan administration at the Presidential Villa, accused the President of not signing bills presented to him by the National Assembly.

According to our source, exposing the bribe would attract public ridicule for the entire leadership of the House.

“We expect the public to call for the resignation of the Speaker and the entire leadership,” the source added.

Meanwhile, legal practitioners, under the aegis of Public Interest Lawyers League, have demanded the resignation of the Speaker of Tabuwal.

They also demanded the questioning of oil magnate, Mr. Femi Otedola, to determine his level of complicity in the saga.

President of the group, Mr. Abdul Mahmud, said this at a press conference in Abuja, on Wednesday.

However, another group, the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, has raised the alarm over a plot to use the fuel subsidy bribery scandal to remove Tambuwal.

A statement by CISLAC’s Executive Director, Auwal Musa in Abuja, on Wednesday alleged that the executive and some oil thieves were involved in the plot.

It said the two had never been comfortable with Tambuwal’s style of leadership.

In a related development, elder statesman and former Federal Information Minister, Chief Edwin Clark, on Wednesday called for the immediate arrest and prosecution of Lawan and Mr. Femi Otedola over their involvement in the $3m scam.

The Ijaw leader also called for a total overhaul of the way the Federal House of Assembly is currently run, saying the activities of the house had become a shame to the nation.

Clark, who spoke in his Kiagbodo home, Burutu Local Government, Delta State, maintained that the two chambers of the National Assembly, by their actions, had shown that they could not be trusted to make laws for the good governance of the country.

http:///CwITiFug

1)  And it came to pass after these things, on the first day of the first month of the twelfth year after the second millennium, that king Jona son of Bele announced to the people saying; there is no money left in the royal treasury, and the future of the kingdom is in great danger.

2) Therefore, a measure of oil shall no longer sell for three scores of silver and seven, but shall now be seven scores of silver and one. But the people grumbled aloud, and said unto another, what shall it profit our king to gain all these oil money and lose his throne?

3) For it is appointed unto him to reign but once, and after this prison, for many are the atrocities which he has committed.

4)  So they said unto the king, eat thou thy food in peace in the palace, and surround thou thyself with thine women, only touch not our oil price and do thy people no harm.

5) But the king would not listen, and said unto himself, I know my people, they shall only grumble for a while and soon they shall forget.

6) But the people would not forget, for the burden was too much for them to bear, and they said; now unto him that is able to increase the price of oil exceeding abundantly above all that his people can bear or think, according to the greed which worketh in him;

7) Unto him be curses in the streets by the masses throughout all ages, protests without end.

So they took to the streets and gave the land no peace, and there was no going out or coming in throughout the kingdom for two weeks, and the king feared greatly and said to himself, surely these people shall overturn me if I answer them not.

9) So he called the head of the labourers unto the palace, and gave him bags of gold, that they might turn off the wrath of the people against the king.

10) So the king assembled the people and said unto them; a measure of oil shall no longer be seven scores of silver and one, but shall now be four scores of silver, one dozen and one, to this your leaders have agreed. Praise me now therefore for I am a benevolent king.

11) And after all these, the Loudspeaker of the House of People said, let us inquire into the king’s claim that there be no money in the royal treasury. So they appointed Farcrook, son of Lawal.

12) And said unto him, gather ye now all the oil sellers, that we may know who stole from the kingdom. This did him with diligence, and came back with his report saying

13) Thieves abound in the land, and so have the oil sellers stole from the people, and gave them not oil, this they did with the help of Aliyaro the king’s mistress; and the amount he mentioned was unheard of in the land.

14) When the people heard this, they were dismayed, and sorrow gripped their hearts.

15) But the oil sellers went in unto the king in his chamber, and said; rememberest thou O king that the what we stole did we made available to thy campaign, and by thus did we make you king.

16) If thou deliver us unto the people that they may punish us, we will hold not our tongue to tell the people that thou art one of us.

17) And they said unto him, how else shall we destroy the message if not to destroy the messenger? Let us therefore implicate Farcrook the son of Lawal in this matter.

18) So they sent a certain rich man from the West by the name Otedollar, and he took Farcrook into his house and gave him some money, that he may alter the report which he had set before the people.

19) And it was that Otedollar went before an assembly of the people and said unto them, trust ye this man who said we stole from the treasury? Surely he is one of us, for he came unto me in the middle of the night, and he left with his pockets full of money.

20) And the people where amazed, and their hearts bled, for Farcrook was a man in whom they had to their trust.

21) So Farcrook arose, and said; Otedollar is my briber, I did not request. He maketh me to sit down in his Maitama house; he leadeth me beside the chilled champagne.

22) He exploited me greed; he leadeth me in the paths of marked dollars for subsidy’s sake.

23) Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of EFCC, I will fear no arrest: for bribes are with me; my loots and my kickbacks they comfort me.

24) Thou preparest the dollars before me, in the presence of the SSS: thou anointest my mouth with wine; my pocket runneth over.

25) Surely the shame and reproach shall follow me all the days of my life, but I will dwell in the house of PDP forever and ever.

26) And the people wept, but there was no one to console them.

Ogunyemi Bukola

Got this messages from a reliable source now. Early Today: Internecine fracas breaks out between Yoruba, Hausa in Yaba area of Lagos state, around CAC office near Unilag. 13 persons feared dead also another reported fights btw Hausa and Yorubas in Agege area, no casualties reported yet. Details later..,hmm..just hope my country is not drifting towards another failed country, Somalia? Rejoinder!! Pls Disregard the last update, as I reported the internacine wars in Yaba and agege, the Special adviser Lagos state to HE  Information and commissioner for Local Govt and chieftaincy just pinged me, to debunk the story as false and wicked rumours. They told me to inform the general public that they should go about their businesses and personal issues as nothing happened at all at those locations. Pls note at all....

We all know that June 12 is the ultimate culmination of the 1985 coup of survival which Babangida staged for self – preservation.

Let us be frank, the man did not want to leave the place. He was coming out with the idea of diarchy. He sent people like Mukoro Tony Nyiam to study the idea in Egypt, Santiago in Chile, and an admixture of civilian and military leadership. That was what the man was planning until Abiola decided to contest. Of course you know the story of how Abiola emerged as the candidate of the then Social Democratic Party S.D.P. Abiola was able to emerge as the presidential flag bearer as the SDP in Jos as late Major – General Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua discovered that, Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe was pealing away votes from Atiku Abubakar for Abiola.

The forces of Atiku and Abiola teamed up and worked for Abiola’s victory. What they did was that six people met at the residence of Ambassador Yaya Kwade on Ibrahim Taiwo Avenue in Jos, M.K.O. Abiola, his first son, Kola, Dr. Jonathan Zwingina (later became a senator), Major General Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua himself, Atiku Abubakar and Yaya Kwande. And they agreed, and Abiola himself appended his signature that the forces of Atiku Abubakar will co-operate and that when Abiola emerged as the flag bearer that he would make Atiku Abubakar his running mate. Abiola agreed. He became the flag bearer of the SDP.

While they were there, because we have to be frank, it was not actually a primary, for those of us who were there, Abiola bought the ticket, because of his money power. Where Ambassador Kingibe was spending N500, N2, 000 to buy delegates, Abiola upped the stakes to N10, 000, N20, 000 per delegate. Unknown to Abiola, Babangida’s agents were filming everything live. They captured everything on tape. For example, Abiola gave N10m cash to Lamidi Adedibu. And the late Adedibu was captured on tape with wads of Naira notes shouting to Oyo State delegates “Eyin ara Ibadan, Owo Abiola ti de”, meaning “Folks from Ibadan, Abiola’s cash has landed” (laughs) openly. You know the man was a political jobber, half-illiterate. And suddenly, delegates for Atiku and Kingibe moved and switched to Abiola. Abiola instructed Kola to increase the stakes to N20, 000 against N500 from the others. It was cash and carry for Abiola. They were all caught on tape
and that was the tape that Babangida sent to the State Department here in the United States to justify the annulment among other reasons
So all the trips to Abuja where he allegedly accused Abiola of operating for CIA….

No. He did not even give that reason. It was his crony, Sani Abacha, I am coming back to that issue, and it was Obasanjo who prompted Sani Abacha to stage the November 24, 1993 coup.

There were basically three reasons Babangida annulled the election.

First, the man didn’t just want to go. He wanted diarchy. That was why Olumilua, Adeleke, Ebri, Osoba, Otedola ruled with him for two years.

Secondly, there were deep – seated animosities between him and Abiola. Most Nigerians do not want to hear this that the money kept in Abiola’s account through an arrangement brokered by Babangida was one of the reasons that caused the problem. And of course when Maryam Babangida went to Beijing in China, there were reports that Abiola slept with the woman, which no one knew. Whether it was a lie, it was going to be a lie. These were the personal reasons. Babangida’s personal self entrenchment and the betrayal of each other over Sergeant Samuel Kanyon Doe’s money.

Doe was looking for where to keep the money he had stolen from the Liberian economy. He was looking for a place to keep the money for his wife Nancy and his children. So he approached Babangida. And Babangida told him “hey, I’m president here and I don’t want to put the money in my account. We have a friend who we can use”.

That was how he suggested Abiola and of course, Abiola had investment in Liberia. So the money was paid into Abiola’s Swiss Account.

After Doe died, Nancy, his wife came all the way from London to Nigeria. No Nigerian newspaper, most editors knew, but did not want to carry it. None of them could carry the story, the plan was for…. Babangida had suggested to Doe to go on exile at the thick of the Liberian war. He felt he could go to Saudi Arabia. The late Idi Amin also came to Nigeria and stayed in Sheraton Hotel during that period. Idi Amin called and advised Doe not to go on exile, that with timing, the war may eventually favor Doe. Idi Amin was the one who told him not to go on exile.

The Saudi authorities were ready to take Doe. As it eventually turned out, Doe was killed by Yormie Johnson’s soldiers. So his family, Doe’s families were now in need and they came to Nigeria to ask for what their bread winner had kept for them. Babangida welcomed them, and then he sent for Abiola. Abiola replied that, well the money was paid into the late Simbiat Abiola, his first wife’s account. And that he wasn’t the person holding that account, that it was Kola Abiola and that Babangida should call his first son, Kola. So Babangida felt insulted that this was a friend of both of them who was in need so that he could take care of his family and Abiola was saying all those kind of things. You know how I was able to authenticate the story? Through the late Shehu Musa Yar ‘Adua, because Chris Mamman, who eventually became Chief Press Secretary to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar took me to General Yar’ Adua’s office in Victoria
Island. Nancy Doe, the wife of late Samuel Doe of Liberia is in London, you guys should track her down for an interview. Nigerian newspapers don’t have the resources in the first place to pursue that kind of story and secondly, no editor in Nigeria will dare venture to publish such a story. I told you that Babangida has corrupted virtually all of them either directly or indirectly. It’s just so bad that most editors are on the payroll of the SSS while some are moles in the newsroom. Some editors have to be looking over their shoulders when they are planning stories because you just don’t know who would betray you to the soldiers in power. I doubt whether that culture has changed much. As I have said, we have the finest and the best journalists in the world but the institutional obstacles in media houses are formidable. Nigerian Journalists are poorly paid, there is no insurance and the tools are not there for them to work.
Was Mr. Mamman there during this conversation?

Yes. It was General Yar’ Adua who gave us the story. And he also said it that when Abiola ran into trouble, that he said, that he, Yar’ Adua had warned Abiola that “are you sure”, he was telling Chris Mamman that he told Abiola “are you sure that our friend Ibrahim was ready to leave?” That was what he said he asked him when he wanted to run for the presidency. “I wanted to be president too, the man banned me. Are you sure you would not be banned?” That even if you win the election, are you sure that Babangida was ready to go?” All that with the Doe offer…” and Abiola assured him that he too had done a lot of favors for Babangida in the past, he was the one who gave him money when he struck in 1985, that the two of them had extended favors to each other, and that he did not see a reason why Babangida would not want him to succeed him. This was from the mouth of Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua in the presence of Chris Mamman. But
most newspapers would not carry this story in Nigeria.

Babangida had been saying that Abiola would not last more than sixty days, ninety days. No soldier, no person put any gun on his head.

Have you met Babangida in person before?

I wouldn’t say that I met him one on one. The first time I saw him was in 1985, while I worked with Concord. One of Abiola’s wives had a baby and they were having the naming ceremony. Virtually all the top editors of Concord titles were in Abiola’s house that night at Moshood Abiola crescent at Ikeja; that was the first time I saw Babangida afar. In fact it was at that ceremony, the naming ceremony, that the details of the August 27, 1985 coup were fine tuned. That was where they planned everything. That was where Abiola released the money for the boys…

How much?

Ten million U.S. dollars cash. They wanted money. Babangida and his boys never knew whether the coup would succeed or not. And they needed money. There was no other safe meeting point were Babangida and Abiola would have a conversation. Rafindadi, the National Security Organization, NSO’s boss, had already bugged Babangida’s telephone lines. They used the innocent child’s naming ceremony as a cover – up. Duro Onabule was there that day. I think it was Ebenezer Obey that entertained, there were lots of musicians. I think Sikiru Ayinde Barrister also played that night. So while guests were in front of Abiola’s house, the military guys who came with Babangida, Abubakar Umar and the others retired to the back of Abiola’s house. It was in that place that they struck. They had chosen October 1 st, 1985 as I told you before but acted faster. Buhari is still alive; he should confirm or deny what I am saying… They knew the details. I
am issuing that challenge. Up till today Buhari has not spoken on why he was toppled. He should speak out. Top editors can corroborate what I am telling you now. They know it. May be they’re waiting for Babangida to die and then they would come out with their “exclusive.”

This Interview is long but I will implore you all you take time and read through it.


Apart from Obasanjo, Babangida is the greatest evil ever to befall any country in the world)‐All that Babangida, (nicknamed IBB), has to show for his over eight years in power in Nigeria, is private colossal wealth, and the edification of corruption in our body politics. Yes, he is richer than many African governments and can buy who ever he wants, but he ruined our lives to reach there. The book, The Sink, by Jeffrey Robinson, an American writer, says it all about Babangida. “Of the $120 billion siphoned out of the Nigerian treasury into offshore accounts by dishonest politicians, $20 billion is allegedly traceable to IBB directly as president from 1985 to 1993.” The World Bank and other international sources of information put his total loot from the Nigerian treasury at over $35 billion.

He is now threatening to use a fraction of his loot to return to power and a figure of N400 billion has been mentioned by his cronies as his campaign chest. We ought to be worrying now about how to survive this viper’s poisoned food. We are desperately hungry but if we eat, we die immediately. If we don’t, we die slowly from hunger anyway, terrorized by the viper’s fang. We are trapped. We can’t get up to look elsewhere for food or do anything else. The evil genius has hijacked our destiny.
Fortunately, there are still principled, conscientious and patriotic Nigerians, determined that if they must die, it must not be without a fight. Babangida would not return to rule over one Nigeria. If he does, lovers of Nigeria would, at least, make Nigeria ungovernable for him, failing which, they would emigrate. I would definitely renounce my citizenship of Nigeria if nothing else.

The Yoruba have a proverb about: ‘a person about to be roasted, who rubs his body with fat and goes to stand by a raging fire.’ This must have influenced the following remarks on IBB by our popular human rights lawyer/activist, Mr. Femi Falana: “I am not quite sure that Nigerians can stop him from exposing himself to ridicule. He has been lucky that he is not in jail now. His coming out to contest will provide an opportunity for Nigerians to deal with him squarely and confront him with the annulment of June 12 election, the murder of Dele Giwa, the Ejigbo tragic plane crash, the destruction of our values as a people, corruption, and massive violation of human rights.”

M. D. Yusufu, a former Inspector General of police said in Karl Maiers book, This House has fallen, that: “Babangida went all out to corrupt society. Abacha was intimidating people with fear. With him gone now you can recover. But this corruption remains and it is very corrosive to society.”
Professor Akin Oyebode of the University of Lagos law department describes IBB’s attempt to return to power “as a colossal assault on the national psyche. At the end of the debate on the IMF conditionalities, he clamped on SAP, which was more draconian than the IMF conditionalities. Because he has a 50‐bedroom house at Minna, he thinks the world is his oyster. He latches on the popular yearnings to launder his image. He has dirty rotten underwear that he wants to clean so that people will give him a new improved IBB. IBB is a bad statement to the whole world that at the end of the day we again brought Babangida to the scene. I don’t want my children to live under Babangida. I won’t live under Babangida.”

If all he could deliver, as a young man was to loot our treasury dry, what is he bringing to the table now? He does not even have the basic education or the intelligence. To be an expert at maneuvering a people and their treasury does not demonstrate intelligence as much as lack of moral fiber and self‐discipline. Babangida is an empty barrel midget, robed in threatening vulgar giant frippery of evil exploits.
He lacks respect for democracy and worth of human life. He killed Dele Giwa. He closed down Ogun state radio; Concord, Guardian, Punch and Sketch newspapers; Newswatch and News magazines, during his time. He treated with contempt the Justice Chukwudifu Oputa led Human Rights Violation Investigation Commission (HRVIC), when summoned to answer charges on the murder of Dele Giwa. He also rushed to the court to prevent the implementation of the report of the Commission as it affected him.
Perhaps he wants to come back to rule so that he can retire with the biggest loot in history? But according to the book: The Sink, and International anti‐corruption agencies reports, he has achieved that status already so why does he not want to leave us alone?

Speaking obliquely a few months ago in Babangidaspeak, he threatened that when he would speak on the June 12 annulment issue, Nigeria would shake to her foundations. In an interview in late May, 2004, on Channels TV, Babangida spoke on the June 12 issue, and no feathers were ruffled. Instead, Babangida admitted toothy smile and all, that he made a mistake but that he did it in the interest of Nigeria.
That was the same argument Mariam Abacha used when asked about her husband’s loot stashed away in his foreign accounts. She said her husband was saving the money for Nigeria. On hindsight, we got some of the money back didn’t we? That is more than can be said about Babangida’s loot and the political turmoil he plunged Nigeria into since his selfish, irresponsible, June 12 annulment.
On why Babangida ignored all pleas not to kill Mamman Vasta, the master dribbler said that Vasta’s death was a painful decision for him, but that he had no choice in the matter, because he was following military rules, and he did it in the national interest. But Vasta, his fellow infantry soldier and childhood friend, was hurriedly killed and his body dumped in a mass grave on the night of the announcement of his sentence, (i.e. early morning of 5th March 1986), to prevent last minute pleas for reprieve. Acid was poured on the bodies, including Vasta’s and burnt, so one must ask, was the rush to kill Vasta and burn his carcass sanctioned too by the military laws? The whole thing smacks of envy, apart from being hideous and barbaric. Babangida used the phantom coup allegation to remove or marginalize the Middle Belt military top brass in his government.

Babangida said that he brought Obasanjo back to power to stabilize the polity. What he was not telling, was the apparent deal between the two of them not to probe each other in power. Otherwise, why would Obasanjo ignore the bigger rogues to vigorously pursue the return of Abacha’s loot of a mere US$5 billion relatively?
Babangida on the Channels‘TV interview said he wants to return to power to correct Nigerian problems because he has been there before.
The man has no shame. Our most critical problem as a people is the rampant and systematic looting of our treasury by our successive leaders. Babangida was no exception, and he is being accused of the biggest loot of all, so, is he now saying that he wants to voluntarily refund whatever he is being accused of diverting from our coffers while in power? I have written personally to him before to do this, and he did not answer. He does not have to return to power to help Nigeria pay off her staggering foreign debt.

In a country of over 140 million people, what makes Babangida think he alone deserves to rule for perhaps seventeen or more years? What is he bringing to the table now if he never had it in the first place? Don’t we deserve better than our past illiterate leaders who could not differentiate between the national and their private purses?
Of all the Nigerian military dictators, Babangida was the most desperate for power, and for attempting to hold on to it for life, apart from being the most flamboyant, cunning, callous, ruthless and deadly, about how they went about achieving their goals. Babangida grew on Nigeria slowly and quietly, with a deceptive toothy smile.
Babangida first came into serious political reckoning with Buhari’s misleading coup of December 31st 1983. In reality, power was seized for the opportunity to destroy documents relating to the NNPC’s missing USA$2.8 billion oil money, and punish all those involved in the unraveling of the scam. Politicians and critics, including Fela Anikulapo‐Kuti, notorious for clamouring for the exposure of the oil money rogue Minister of an earlier military epoch, were locked up without trial.
After consigning the vexatious matters that brought him to power to administrative oblivion with the help of Shinkafi, his Secret Service guru, Buhari announced his readiness to quit office. Idiagbon, as Buhari’s lieutenant, naturally insisted on taking over as head of state from his apparently prematurely retiring boss. Babangida, who was Chief of Army Staff at the time and a member of the Supreme Military Council, insisted it was his turn to rule because he had been involved in virtually every military coup. The quarrel split the Supreme Military Council members almost equally behind the two principal combatants.
Akilu had just returned from a military training in India at the time and Babangida recommended him for appointment as the head of the Secret Service. Idiagbon by‐passed Akilu and slighted Babangida by not consulting with him to confirm the new head of the Secret Service from the army.

Gloria Okon was arrested at the Murtala Mohammed Airport trying to smuggle cocaine out of the country. Gloria claimed to be a courier for the family of one of the two high ranking military officers deeply involved in the Supreme Military Council’s palaver. Gloria was quickly smuggled out of the country and a carcass burnt beyond recognition of a human body, was left in her prison room to
deceive the authorities. As Gloria’s drama was playing out, Abiola brought a large consignment of banned newsprint into the country, forcing Idiagbon to insist on the arrest of Chief M.K.O Abiola.
All sorts of calamitous events kept rolling out at the time, including the arrest of one Ikuomola for trying to smuggle a large consignment of cocaine out of the country. He indicted a son of one of the Dantatas and they were both tried and sentenced to death. The Dantata family mounted pressure on the Supreme Military Council to commute the sentence to life. The issue heightened the division among the Supreme Military Council members, with the Gloria Okon’s high ranking military benefactor, siding with the Dantatas naturally.

Idiagbon insisted that if poor people found with cocaine could be punished with death sentence, why should the rich and affluent be spared? Idiagbon also wanted the lawyer, (a Rivers state chap who had received some four million naira as legal fees on the case at the time), to be shot along with the drug barons for benefiting from the evil.
The schism between Idiagbon and Babangida totally paralyzed the Supreme Military Council and it could no longer function. Idiagbon forced compulsory leave on Babangida, under close surveillance with tapped telephone lines and all. Chief M.K.O Abiola saw the opportunity to save his neck from the newsprint saga by teaming up with his friend, Babangida, and he provided the seed money for a coup.
Through the facilities of Abiola and the Dantatas, Yar Adua was brought into the picture to help influence the Saudi Arabian monarch to extend a special invitation to Idiagbon as a guest of the monarch, to perform the 1985 Lesser Hajj in Mecca. Idiagbon felt greatly honoured by the invitation and took with him to Mecca, most of his supporters on the splintered Supreme Military Council, including Mamman Vasta.

With Idiagbon (who was the head of the Buhari’s regime in every sense of the word, and was very popular because of his transparent honesty, patriotism, and discipline), out of the way, Buhari (who was ready to vacate office anyway), was picked up like a helpless chicken at Doddan Barracks, and dumped in jail. Idiagbon, against the coupists’ advice, returned home a people’s hero, although locked up for several months too by Babangida.
The day after Babangida’s coup, I attacked it on the front page of the Sunday Punch newspaper, as a ploy by the (IMF and the World Bank) to marginalize the naira and destroy our economy, and Babangida was described as a snake by nature and a stooge of the West. The Editor of the Sunday Punch and his deputy at the time, Ayo Osintolu, and Bob Opone, respectively, were suspended from their jobs. Ayo for six months and Bob for three. I was unemployed as usual at the time, so, Babangida was handicapped about how to deal with me immediately. I heard later that I was blacklisted for all future government contracts and positions, even though my secondary school classmate Rear Admiral Aikhomu (rtd) eventually became Babangida’s deputy in office. I never tried to find out.
Because of my reputation as someone you could persuade with superior argument but impossible to bribe out of his conviction, my best friend who was like a twin brother to me at the time, Com. Wole Bucknor (rtd), was detailed to plead with me to drop any further development of the IBB matter. Their strategy was to admit to me that my observations were absolutely correct but that Babangida
meant well for Nigeria. With Babangida’s antecedence, it was difficult for my friend to persuade me, but Nigerian newspapers in general at that early stage of the regime, were a little scared to publish and be damned.

Luckily, it did not take too long for Babangida to begin to reveal his secret agenda. He had removed Idiagbon/Buhari from power to douse the heated allegation at the time about illegal drug links and to help the IMF/World Bank ruin the naira and open up the Nigerian market as dumping ground for American and European junk and decadence. The marginalization of the naira suited Babangida’s Machiavellian streak to blunt prospects of mass protests with abject poverty, hunger, and basic survival pre‐occupations. For example, the terroristic power of massive foreign exchange loot in a private hand, is limitless as a tool for forcing pauperized populace to acquiesce to the self‐perpetuation antics of a potential despot.
Babangida’s first pronouncement in power was to shock the nation by adopting the civilian title of president. He did this because of a secret personal ambition kept to himself, to transit into life president in the mould of Presidents Nasir of Egypt and Eyadema of Togo, and also because of his agreement to make Chief Abiola his Vice President for collaborating over their 1985 coup. Abacha kicked against Abiola becoming Vice President because he was eyeing Babangida’s seat in a possible future coup of his own and wanted to remain the defacto next in command, in military terms, for eventual easy take over excuse.
Babangida promised Yar Adua a short‐lived military transition after which he would hand over power to Yar Adua. That was why Yar Adua kept boasting during the early stages of Babangida’s regime, that no force on earth could stop him becoming the next president of Nigeria. This prompted Obasanjo’s statement at the time that Yar Adua must have forgotten something at the state house.
Babangida was so single minded, self‐centered, and power‐drunk, he single‐handedly forced OIC membership on Nigeria without respect for our supposed religious secularity. He used every means imaginable to assert his power. Spiritual, criminal, everything was fair in his ruthless power game. The gods of the Marabouts became privileged guests at Aso Rock, lacing it with severe witchcraft, which was later vigorously sustained by Abacha.
If the physical failed, the metaphysical was handy in the human blood bath for power. Blood was the language in the cultish game for total control. Fear gripped the land. Who was going to be the next victim? Life was scary and worthless. I bet, corridor of power social acolytes of the time like the Arisekolas, Adedibus and the Akinyeles, could write blood‐cuddling masterpieces on the mysteries of the season. Assassinations were rampant, sophisticated and comprehensive, incorporating bombings and dare‐devil forages. Media houses were burnt or closed down, and critics of government were murdered, incarcerated or hounded into exile. Plane loads of promising young army officers lost their lives in questionable circumstances. Others appeared to have been sacrificed in distant land civil wars.
The Ejigbo military Hercules crash that killed an elite corp. of army captains and majors returning to their Jaji training base, is a typical example of the terrible human carnage visited upon us at the time by a desperate tyrant bent on holding on to power indefinitely at all costs. The plane was doctored and it crashed a few seconds after take‐off from the Murtala Mohammed airport. No rescue attempt was ordered or made until 24 hours after the crash and even then, the inadequate facilities
of a private company, (Julius Berger), were relied upon. Forty‐eight hours after the crash, a warm body was still found suggesting that some lives could have been saved if rescue operations had commenced minutes after the crash.

Apart from the needless assassinations of possible opponents and rivals for power, there were totally senseless ones too, such as the death of Murtala Mohammed’s first son immediately after visiting the seat of power. It was generously reported in the press at the time. The allegation was that during the friendly, private visit, the young man was asked if he would be prepared to do a job. The young chap said he could not say until he was told what the job was. When told that he was to help facilitate the elimination of Chief Abiola, the young man said he couldn’t because Abiola was like a father to him. The host then quickly dismissed the suggestion as if it had been a joke and asked how the young man travelled to the state house. “By private car,” the young man said. “You are going about without security?” the host asked, pretending to look alarmed, and detailed some security officers to escort the young man to his Minna destination. The body of the young man was later that day found in his car on the route between the seat of power and Minna.
Bongos Ikwe’s son by a girl friend, who later married Oga, also lost his life in suspicious circumstances. Bongos, in press interviews at the time, denied knowing his son’s mother who, in fact, is the junior sister of Bongos’ best friend and music partner on an RKTV programme in the early 60s. Despite denials, Bongos’ most popular recorded song ‘O Mariana’ could not conceal the anguish of the jilted lover.
Perhaps the most silly, irresponsible and callous murder of them all was that of Dele Giwa. The death was a classic example of desperate, high‐handed, dirty and mean, under‐the‐carpet cover‐up state terrorism.

Dele Giwa‘s problem was that he stumbled on some documents about Gloria Okon in London and after interviewing her, threatened to publish the story while allegedly letting it be known that he could be persuaded to withdraw publication with a cash bribe of US$21m plus N200m. Alternatively, he was ready to settle for the position of Information Minister, which Tony Mommoh was occupying at the time. Dele Giwa’s blackmail unfortunately misfired unlike an earlier one involving Mr. Lawson, the founder of the Nigerian Grail Movement who was alleged to have been arrested and locked up in London for money laundering problems. Mudashiru, the military governor of Lagos state at the time of Lawson’s travails, was alleged to have stopped the publication of Lawson’s story by bribing Giwa with the land and C of O of the Newswatch plaza.
Dr. T.C. Nwosu, the renowned Nigerian author, and I, came out in defense of Mamman Vasta, (when he was arrested for coup plotting), in a joint statement published as a news item at the time, in the Nigerian Guardian newspaper. We said it was a lie to accuse Vasta of trying to stage a coup to take the IMF conditionalities. This was the first time anyone, (civilian or military), would come out openly to defend an alleged coup plotter in Nigeria, and Vasta who was our friend and colleague in the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), took our support to heart, and arranged for some documents on his kangaroo trial for coup plotting to be smuggled out to us.
One of the documents we received was on Gloria Okon. We could not use the information in Nigeria at the time because no newspaper would dare publish it, so I arranged for Ejike Nwankwo, my bosom friend, to take the documents to his senior brother, Chief Arthur Nwankwo, who was in
political exile in London at the time. The idea was for Arthur Nwankwo to have the Gloria Okon’s story published in the Manchester Guardian, but Arthur decided to delay publication until he could use the immunity of the Nigerian Senate, which he was aspiring to join in Babangida’s best time as a member, to make the story public.

Senior members of the Ministry of Information, and of the Daily Times at the time, and a director of Newswatch, were not totally ignorant about what was going on in Babangida’s government. In fact, Abacha at a point, asked the boss of the Ministry of Information to frame up Dele Giwa. The boss being a principled and die‐hard journalist, argued that it was difficult to frame up journalists.
Babangida’s boys went ahead to frame up Giwa anyway. Three days before they killed Dele Giwa, Col. A. K. Togun, the deputy Director of Babangida’s State Security Service (the SSS), invited Giwa to his office and accused him of involvement in the importation of arms while linking Giwa with other persons alleged to be trying to stage a socialist revolution in Nigeria. At the meeting, agreement was reached, and Babangida, through his emissaries, promised to meet Giwa’s terms. Two days before Giwa’s murder, Akilu allegedly phoned Giwa’s home to ask for direction because Babangida’s ADC “has something for him, an invitation or something.”

Dele Giwa allegedly invited the overseas editor of Newswatch at the time to be around. Obviously, Giwa took the president’s promise more seriously than his colleagues at the Newswatch. This was why, when Giwa received the parcel and confirmed that it was from the President, his guest’s first reaction was to dash off to take cover in the toilet adjacent to the room where Giwa opened the parcel bomb. The guest escaped death by the whiskers and blasted eardrums. Tagum, when asked by Airport Correspondents on October 27, 1986, about Giwa’s bombing inadvertently confirmed the blackmail reason for Giwa’s death when he said: “We came to a real agreement and one person cannot just come out and blackmail us. I am an expert on blackmail. If a motorcycle man suddenly dashed in front of a car and the driver kills the motorcycle man, another motorcycle man who was there would not say the motorcycle man who dashed in front of the car was wrong. He would say the driver killed him, not that he killed himself”
An Arab terrorist, who was recruited to collaborate with a University of Ibadan chemistry don especially for the task, produced the bomb. The terrorist is alleged to have gone with Major Buba Marwa, Ogbeha and Gwazo, in a Peugeot station wagon car with fake license plate numbers, to deliver the bomb at Dele’s home. On arrival, they were told that Dele was not in, so they laid ambush near‐by to watch movements in and out of Giwa’s premises.

As soon as Giwa was spotted entering his house, the allegation continues, the Arab terrorist offered to go and deliver the bomb, but his colleagues in crime stopped him on the grounds that a white man would look too suspicious for the job. Marwa, accompanied by Ogbeha, are alleged to have delivered the bomb to Dele’s son at the door, after which the crime team drove off to Mafoluku where they burned their delivery car. The same day, the Arab terrorist was flown out of Lagos, first to Kano, and eventually out of the country.
Major Buba Marwa was at the time rewarded with the rank of Lt. Col. and posted to the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, USA, as the new Military Attaché. His rise in the Army was extremely rapid and as Col. retuned home to be Governor of Lagos State. Armed robbers welcomed him to his new office with the kind of daredevilry never before experienced in Nigeria. Violence begets violence
they say. The armed robbers raided from Mile two to Ikeja, even as he was passing by. Marwa panicked, so Babangida pumped unusual resources into Marwa’s coffers to ensure his success, which is the genesis of his tramping around as an achiever today. His private life does not suggest that he suffered in fool’s paradise.

Marwa, Ogbeha, and Gwazo, have since denied their alleged involvement in Dele Giwa’s murder. Marwa, who now owns an airline and, therefore, knows that it takes less than eight hours to fly across the Atlantic to Nigeria, argued that he was studying in the USA at the time. The implication of this, of course, was that it was impossible to take a few days off his studies.
Marwa, who rose to fame through IBB’s benevolence, is considered in military circles as one of the IBB boys, made up principally of the trusted cronies of the retired dictator. Accused of laundering money for IBB, Marwa again relied on the puerile argument that he was the Borno state governor in 1990, as if state governors are too busy governing diligently to travel out of Nigeria for a day or two, or even a week, on private businesses.
In December, 2005, when Marwa was detained for a couple of weeks by the EFCC, for laundering money for Abacha, he allegedly admitted that he had no choice in the matter as a military officer. He was only doing his duty. Of course, doing illegal duties loyally often goes with silencing, mouth‐watering pecks, if nothing else.

In the area of managing the national economy, Babangida bestowed his adroitness and moral degeneracy. His economy was dominated by male‐wives, particularly in the banking and oil sectors. Women often brag about the efficacy of ‘bottom’ power. Feminine men sometimes flaunt it too as their passport to economic liberation. Between them and the suddenly very lucrative 419 business of the time, industry was complete. IBB’s chiefs, allegedly colluded with 419 criminals to create the over‐night semi‐illiterate money‐bags without class or shame, (including the 150 members of the National Assembly, that in 2005 sent IBB a birthday card), and who together now form the bulk of his supporters and campaigners, to return him to power.
New York—new shocking revelations show that “IBB killed Abiola, Abacha, Idiagbon, Ige and Elewi – Abacha died of spiked viagra – SSS kept Abiola’s sex tape – Abiola kept Samuel Doe’s money in Swiss Bank – Abiola funded 1985 Coup with $10 million – Nigeria might break up soon”, reports say.
But RepublicReport was first to report that not only did Babangida kill many innocent people, he sometimes killed double agents that worked for him, he, Babangida is also alleged to be a CIA agent. Reports alleged that IBB also recruited Orji Uzor Kalu as a go between agent for IBB and CIA during 1980s Nicaragua WAR in Latin America when US Congress caught funding to fight US secret wars in Latin America including Nicaragua, Panam, without the approval of the US-Congress.

Reports alleged when funds was caught by US-Congress, CIA turned to drug trafficking and due to chaotic nature of Nigeria political landscape picked & used Nigeria as shipment and supplies conduit for drug trafficking, with funds accrued from the drug-trafficking used to prosecute Nicaragua war and other wars in the 80s.

These and many other reports about alleged IBB-CIA links, is why United States trust Babangida more than Goodluck Jonathan to lead Nigeria come 2011 general election. Indeed, if anything, America would even use ”by any means necessary” to impose IBB, regardless whether 2011 presidential election is free or not, if US have their way.

Nevertheless, with massive publications and increasing publications by other media outfits out there, aggressively exposing so-called strategic interests of the US may force US to stand-down from overtly & overtely backing IBB, but I doubt it. We must brace for an impact, because anything, if not earthquake, something terrible will happen that will change forever the geo-political equation of what is called Nigeria very soon.

Already IBB’s side-kick, Orji Uzor Kalu is a mess at hoem and abroad, with recent death of one Chinwe Masi [Ogbonna] in his US-Mansion with him smuggled out of the US shores, that was widely covered and expository reports electonically mounted telling about his fraudulent and criminal baggage, efficiently and effectively circulated in the US and in the homeland makes OUK and IBB a dead wood but don’t count anything over, until it’s OVER.

Read more…

From the Excerpts we learn that: – IBB killed Abiola, Abacha, Idiagbon, Ige and Elewi – Abacha died of spiked viagra – SSS kept Abiola’s sex tape – Abiola kept Samuel Doe’s money in Swiss Bank – Abiola funded 1985 Coup with $10 million – Nigeria might break up soon

No other journalist in Nigeria would challenge his impressive fearless reportorial style with which he took on the military for a deceptive transition agenda in 1993 Nigeria. The 1988 graduate of Education and Political Science from the University of Lagos, Nigeria threw himself into the thick of the effort to dislodge the military from power.

Long before many of his contemporaries understood the game of deception foisted on his native country Nigeria, by gap-toothed sly by smiling Babangida, husky trimmed Egba Lawyer Ernest Shonekan, and the dark goggled General Sani Abacha, Fayewimo clearly interpreted, investigated and reported how Nigerians had helplessly turned to pawns in a complex political chess manipulation.

He used his media, Razor, to monitor and expose every move of the 14 year Nigerian military dictatorship.

The military was irreverent and extremely stubborn in tormenting Nigerians. Fayewimo was a consistent and dogged nemesis. He used the power of words to expose the stealing and plundering military politicians. He was always publishing their secret and coded foreign accounts containing money stolen from Nigeria.
The military caught him and kidnapped him from exile in neighboring Benin Republic in 1997. He did not see the light of day light until after Abacha’s death. Abacha would not release him even after Pope John Paul II came to Nigeria and entered a plea on his behalf.

Since he left Nigeria in 1999, he has not returned to the country of his birth. As a matter of fact, he said he may never step his foot on Nigerian soil again. But he has done well with himself. An holder of three masters degrees, one in MA Journalism (2004) from University of South Florida at Tampa, another one from State University of New York in Information Science (2006), and yet another from the same University in African History. He is also finishing his PhD in Public Administration and Public Policy even as he has just started another doctoral work in law Juris Doctor (JD). He finds time to practice as an International Consultant, writes a weekly column for pointblanknews.com and has also worked as a journalist with The Informed Constituent of Albany, New York, The Crow’s Nest Newspaper, Florida and The Works Magazine.

This is his first major interview since leaving Nigeria in 1999. When he came to pointblanknews.com’s corporate headquarters in Manhattan, New York last week, he was again his characteristic self. He held nothing back. He confessed the undue favors extended to him by some of the key actors in the Nigerian intrigue. And issued a range of challenges to living Nigerian leaders to speak up on their atrocities and rape of the country.
He was interviewed by POINTBLANKNEWS Managing Editor, OLADIMEJI ABITOGUN.

Excerpts:

You got into student union politics very early. How did that happen?

I was interested in politics immediately I entered the University of Lagos. University of Lagos, as you know, was very unique and strategic in Nigeria, not because of anything, but because of its location close to the government, because Lagos was where the seat of government was then.

So very early during my undergraduate years I was involved in students’ union politics. In 1983, one of my friends, actually I was his campaign manager, Lateef Gbadamosi, became the president of University of Lagos Students’ Union. If you could remember, his secretary-general was late Chris Imodibe who eventually died in Liberia while working at the Guardian as Foreign Correspondent.

Mr. Imodibe was part of our group and it was the first time I met Chief Abiola. It was Gbadamosi who invited him to our campus. He was with us at the Students’ Union Building. From there we went with him to Eni Njoku Buttery he ate with us and addressed us. That was my first time of meeting Chief M.K.O. Abiola in real life. Gbadamosi later graduated and left the University of Lagos. I participated in politics and became the president before I was eventually removed.

What led to your removal and how were you removed?

Well, we had problems. When Abiola learnt that I was preparing to play politics in UNILAG in 1984, he sent for me. But I ran into problems with the administration of the then Vice Chancellor, Prof. Akin Adesola as a result of my principled opposition to some of the policies. I was banned from contesting the presidency of the Students’ Union. I had problems at the University. I almost became a permanent student. It was hot (laughs). So I took a year off. And I went to Abiola’s house and explained my situation.

Were you on suspension or you acted on personal volition?

I was not on suspension. I acted on my own because I was also having some academic problems. Let me just say that I was not in a hurry to graduate. That is why I said it was fun. Well I had an interesting meeting with Chief Abiola who, having listened to me, gave me a letter to the then Deputy Editor of National Concord, Mr. Ismaila Mohammed. That was in 1984. That was how I knew and witnessed the Babangida coup of 1985. You want us to continue from there?

What kind of personality did Chief Abiola project when you first met him?

There were many students. We all surrounded him at the Buttery. Gbadamosi brought him. So many people hated Gbadamosi because there was the erroneous impression that the students’ union was being sold to the government of National Party of Nigeria (NPN) led by Shehu Shagari. Lateef Gbadamosi had gone to congratulate Alhaji Shagari for being re- elected in 1983 shortly before he was removed by the military.

Abiola was a very simple person. He ate with us. He waited in line. Everybody saw him in queue, he was served. He projected a populist personality. He made people laugh. People liked him. That was my first time in his company. He took and shook my hand after I was introduced to him by Lateef Gbadamosi. And that was it.

Nigerians often complain about falling standard of education. I feel it has always been that way. How were things during your time?

I was president of UNILAG Students’ Union from 1985 to 1986. To me, I think Nigerian students can hold their own anywhere in the world. Pointedly, it was General Babangida who spoiled the Nigerian educational heritage. His pathological hatred for any organized opposition made him to move against the educational system. That was why he targeted students’ unionism.

Student union association was not voluntary during our time. So long a student was duly admitted, such a student was made to pay the union fee alongside the university tuition. Students cannot aspire to full leadership training without a rallying point like the union. The cults mushroomed because Babangida sacrificed the union.

Administrators, professors and every other component of university system are in place because students came to school. When students are denied their rights to associate, when the platform for such association, the union is destroyed, something so important for students to agitate for their interests, students become cultists. You are here in the United States; you see how Nigerian students excel. But the Babangida regime was very silly. The man systematically destroyed our schools and he destroyed our heritage as well.

But the man had his argument. He said some professors were “extremists” who were teaching what they were not paid to teach. He felt that unionism was being democratized when students had options of joining or not joining but strictly listen, learn and graduate…

He was only trying to run Nigeria like a military barrack. He could not expect to arrive at a consensus on behalf of 120 million Nigerians. He also could not assume that Nigerians, 120 million, would have consensus on an issue. That is what society is about. What is a university? The university is supposed to mould its products to have questioning minds. That is what the university system is supposed to teach, to develop minds to such a degree where they can question things.

There is no way you proffer solution to the multifarious problems of modern societies if university students do not have questioning minds. So it is mere bunkum. Universities are not supposed to be military academy where ideas have to be regimented and you have to regurgitate what your professors are teaching you. That has been the tradition. All over the world that has been the tradition of the university. Babangida and his cohorts, all these people they never attended a traditional university, so what do you expect?

They wielded out radicals like Patrick Wilmot and Festus Iyayi from what should be a natural environment.

Who should decide what university students are supposed to be taught?

You had met Abiola. You later became the president of the students’ union government of UNILAG. You have not explained what actually led to your removal from office.

There was a contemporary called Panaf (shortened form of Pan Africanism). His real name was Olajide Olakanmi. He was the president of ULSU (University of Lagos Students’ Union) in 1981. Unbeknownst to most students of University of Lagos, he was, and I think till today was an informant for the State Security Service, SSS. He was given some money; most students would not know this that is why I am disclosing this, after almost twenty years. He was parading himself at UNILAG as a radical but he was actually working for the SSS. He first brought some money when I was contesting for the presidency to assist me in order to become, purportedly, the president of the students’ union. They claimed they embezzled some union funds but my budget had not even been passed by the Student Union Senate but every right-thinking person at Unilag at that time knew they orchestrated my removal because Akin Adesola, the VC knew I was too tough for him. That was the whole
truth.

How much?

At that time, it was two thousand naira. Meanwhile, my friend, Lateef Gbadamosi, had warned me about the foggy moves of Panaf. Elsewhere, in some of the places we used to go, we had tips that Panaf had collected money from the SSS. He had assured them that he could influence political events at UNILAG. Things were usually super-charged in those days and the security service were always interested in who should become the leaders in those days. And actually, I was approached after I became president, if I was interested in becoming an operative or informant. And since I was not interested, they demanded to have a nominee from me. I gave them the name of one guy we used to call Tonee. He was my campaign manager.

Was this another payment apart from what Panaf was to pay your campaign?

Panaf had already graduated and he was actually working with UNILAG then. He read integrated social science. He served as president and graduated. Then he went back to the university as a worker. As a matter of fact, Olu Shodimu, the present Registrar of the University of Lagos, was actually a student leader, later worker for the SSS. The point is, at the University of Lagos, if you become a student union leader, the SSS would approach and try to recruit you. So there are many student leaders who the Nigerian masses often take for radicals, even activists out there. They are mostly phonies (laughs). So, Panaf Olajide Olakanmi got the money and used the money to buy himself a Citroën car. Anthony Kayode, whom I had nominated for the SSS job did not get the job because at that point, there were serious disagreements and we were sacked.

How much was involved sir?

Well, I would not know. But Panaf brought to me two thousand naira. And Alozie Ogugbuaja, the then Police Public Relations Officer told Lateef Gbadamosi and I that we used to visit Ogugbuaja, the man who accused the military of always idly drinking pepper soup and had the time to stale cups. He was removed. But because I had the information and I travelled to Bayero University Kano for NANS convention and before I came back, Panaf Olu Sodimu and the students’ union authorities colluded and removed me before I came back from Kano. This was in February 1985. That is exactly what happened.

Would you say if ULSU was an exception or was it the standard practice all over Nigeria for the SSS to aggressively recruit students’ leaders?

Hmn, I think throughout the 80’s down to the time Babangida came after Ahmadu Bello University, ABU crisis of 1986, when students were killed in Kaduna and Babangida set up a panel led by Segun Okeowo and some leaders, up till the time that the Justice Akanbi panel recommended voluntary unionism, I think they felt the need was no longer strong to compromise student leaders. Uptill my time, it was standard practice like I explained UNILAG being the cynosure of all eyes, due to its strategic location, I think that they did that in other universities, Ibadan in particular.

They say NANS president now has escort cars with sirens. Was it also like that in your time?

No. I am sure they are doing that because of politics. That was not the practice. Students’ union officials may be important to them now because of politics. And of course some of these so-called student leaders, there are other things they do now, take university girls and go and give them in Abuja. Things do not happen in Lagos anymore. It is now Abuja. And I read many heart breaking things from Nigerian news papers. But my conclusion, before I left Nigeria ten years ago was that, students’ union is dead in Nigeria.

How did you come to know so much about the August 1985, Babangida coup d’etat?

I had left university of Lagos for one year like I said. I lived in a military barrack, the Ikeja cantonment. I lived there with an uncle and that was when I started working with the Concord. I actually had three people in Ikeja cantonment at that time. I do not want to mention their names because one of them is still in active military service. One is here now in the United States, came originally as a political assylee. The other one has retired. I would not like to mention their names. But I was living with them. The Babangida coup was planned around Ikeja cantonment. I have to tell you this General Muhammadu Buhari, the then Head of State is still alive, he knew it two weeks before the coupists struck. And for the first time, Nigerians should be able to know why Babangida staged the coup, because we have heard so many stories. There have been several guesses all over the place. Of course I am not a coup plotter, but we heard the real truth because we
lived in the barracks.

My senior colleague, Dr. Taiwo Ogunade of City University of New York has been able to also disclose some of these information. Basically, what I want to say is that Chief Abiola was the one who sponsored the Babangida coup in 1985. And the reason Babangida struck was because he had been marked down by Buhari and Idiagbon for drug running. For posterity reasons, all these things should be disclosed to Nigerians. Brigadier Aliyu Mohammed, you have heard of his name. He later became a Lieutenant–General. He was brought back by Babangida to become National Security Adviser, NSA to Obasanjo. This man and Babangida were actually involved in drug running when Babangida was chief of Army Staff to Buhari regime.

Babangida has been amply rewarded as one of the arrowheads of the coup that toppled Alhaji Shehu Shagari.

The other key players in that coup were Late Tunde Idiagbon, Mamman Vatsa and late Brigadier – General Ibrahim Bako. Buhari was brought in as the head of that government as a compromise leader after Bako had been killed in the coup at the presidential palace in Abuja while attempting to arrest Shagari. Idiagbon became Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters for ethnic balancing. Remember? He was a Yoruba from Kwara state. The coup plotters ran into serious problems. Major Jokolo, who became the Emir of Gwandu, was one of them. He threatened them that none of them would leave Dodan Barracks alive after the takeover. Idiagbon had made a broadcast to the nation. That was 31 st of December, 1983. Buhari was then the General Officer commanding in Jos, Plateau State. They were deliberating on who would step into Bako’s shoes. Jokolo insisted…

Point of observation, sir, General Babangida, in an interview with Point Blank News/people’s magazine, said that Brigadier General Bako was never in consideration for the exalted office of Head of State.

Then who were they considering for that position? As usual, the deceptive general said Buhari was the first choice Buhari was never part of the original plotters of the coup.

He said Buhari had always been the first choice. No question. Number two, you said there was an ethnic balancing, but that was not obvious. Buhari/Idiagbon was a moslem/moslem and North/North ticket. Ilorin was in the North.

Remember I was not in the military, I am a civilian. I did not take part in their coup. But you know Ilorin people. When things are robust they claim south. When things ¬twist otherwise, they claim north. The name Tunde Idiagbon, is a Yoruba name, the man wasa moslem. They put him there to look like geo-political balancing. The point is that Buhari was not one of the ring leaders of that coup.

He came in as a compromise candidate. The composition of that government was changed because Bako died at the presidential palace. I was twenty three or twenty four at that time. It wasn’t as if I knew much.

The one I knew very well the coup that Babangida himself planned. The coup was neither motivated by altruistic motive nor by patriotic motive. It was a self survival coup d’etat. That is the point I want to stress. There are different ways coups take place in third world countries. It could be to reject oppression, change a bad direction for a country or to serve patriotic purpose on how a nation should be governed. None of these reasons motivated Babangida to organize his coup.

His career was on the line. He had his back to the wall, because of his activities as a former GOC and as the Chief of Army Staff under Buhari regime.

You should also know that Obasanjo knew and subscribed to the coup that toppled Buhari. Like Babangida, Aliyu Mohammed was also a drug baron that was well known to Buhari and Idiagbon. Aliyu Mohammed was slated for retirement as well. Babangida and Mohammed were both marked down for retirement and possible trial.

Ambassador Mohammed Rafindadi was in charge of the then National Security Organization, NSO, now known as State Security Service, SSS. He, Rafindadi was an uncle to Buhari. When they came into office, a lot of things were going on and they discovered Idiagbon insisted on death penalty for drug pushers. And most of the drug peddlers and international couriers were Babangida’s boys. As a matter of fact, Babangida’s clique introduced drug-running into Nigeria. When Buhari regime uncovered the elaborate entrenched Babangida drug-running network and the rumor of his wife, Maryam’s involvement as well, they penciled him down for retirement. We shall talk about the Gloria Okon connection later.

The Babangida’s removal announcement had been scheduled for October 1, 1985. Babangida knew and staged the coup to pre-empt the calamity of October. They had the coup plans. They wanted to strike in October, but with Babangida’s pending retirement, they quickly brought the date back to August.

After they had agreed, the boys, Abubakar Umar, Abdul Aminu, Lawan Gwadabe and Anthony Ukpo went to Otta to inform Obasanjo that they wanted to remove the Buhari/Idiagbon regime. Any military coup also needed Obasanjo’s clearance. There is no coup in Nigeria, either successful or abortive that Obasanjo does not know of. You know he had this phony organization called African Leadership Forum. It was all a ruse He used that organization for anything but leadership training. He came here to the Council of Foreign Relations to collect the initial money to set up that clandestine organization. Anyway, that was the body they used to plan anti-people policies at Ota including coup planning.
Nzeogu’s coup as well?

I am talking of anything that happened after he became Head of State in 1976. He was even in the know about the coup that killed General Muritala Mohammed.

You mean he knew about the Dimka’s plot?

Yes of course. That was why he left for Abeokuta that day. The CIA has documents in the United States here about this.

But he maintained the face of the avenger of his boss’s death to all of us. Are you accusing Obasanjo of hypocrisy?

Yes. He became the Head of State and checkmated the other plotters. He knew of the 1976 coup. That is why I said he always knows about every coup plot including that of Abacha.

Well maybe because he would have access to intelligence estimates as a former leader of the nation.

We shall talk more about that. So the boys went to him in Otta. They gave him a note to know if he had a candidate in office. He did not want any obvious association, but he gave them the name of his cousin, Onaolapo Soleye who was a lecturer at the Department of Economics at the University of Ibadan to become Buhari’s Minister of Finance. Buhari drifted and his economic policies were harsh. Obasanjo tried to advice him then, they snubbed him. He was annoyed and that was why he said he would never talk to a “deaf regime”. He had a pre-existing axe to grind with the Buhari regime.

So when the IBB boys came to tell him that they wanted to remove Buhari, he asked to know who they had as Buhari’s substitute. They said Babangida. He said o.k.

He said that? Would he not have had intelligence that IBB was a drug baron?

He said o.k. I don’t know what he knew or what he did not know. He gave them his blessings. They told him they had a problem. What was the problem, he asked? They said with Buhari, it would be very easy to topple the government, but with Idiagbon, they did not want to kill anybody. How would they get Idiagbon out of the way? They want Obasanjo to call Idiagbon to lure him to go out of the country to go to Saudi Arabia on Umrah, the lesser Hajj. Obasanjo invited Tunde Idiagbon. Tunde Idiagbon came to Obasanjo’s farm at Otta. It was the first time Idiagbon smiled to journalists. He was always frowning, but he laughed for the first time in Obasanjo’s farm. Obasanjo gave him the bogey advice that it was time for Nigeria to court the economic co-operation of the Saudis and the Middle East, so that the economy of the country could be revived. It was a dummy idea of the Babangida boys to get Tunde Idiagbon out of the way. And when Tunde Idiagbon was
going, they were also afraid of Vatsa, he was in charge of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT. Vatsa was asked to go with him on Holy pilgrimage to Mecca. During the Sallah celebration, they took over power. The coup was staged on a Friday. It was at Ikeja cantonment.

The private jet that conveyed Babangida from Lagos to Minna where he went for the Sallah holiday was an Abiola personal aircraft. Abiola had travelled out of Nigeria a week before the coup which took place on 27 th of August, 1985. Abiola had walked into our newsroom at Concord to address all of us in the newsroom and that was where he told us “we should forget about this government”.

Most people did not know what was happening. I was working at Concord and was in the news room when he said it. He said that the government was gone. A week later, the coup was staged and Babangida became the Head of State.

The point I want to make was that the coup was that of a self- survival. It was not patriotically motivated. It had nothing to do with nationalistic agenda. It was selfish and that is why Babangida exhibited the kind of evil reign that we witnessed for eight years. That is the point I want to make. Buhari-Idiagbon came to rescue Nigeria from the destruction of Shehu Shagari. 22 months later, Babangida came not for any reason but for his own survival because he was about to be tried for drug-running.

It is not so obvious to the general public that IBB was a drug dealer. We heard of his wife and Gloria Okon, Dele Giwa’s connection. We do not have any fact of IBB’s direct involvement. How is it hidden from us?

No. It is not hidden. I don’t know why in Nigeria. The press is there, the newspapers are there. It is not hidden at all. All the top journalists are there and nobody is talking now because IBB is still alive. You will see them talking immediately the man is dead. He has interests in virtually all the newspapers. You know what I mean?

Let all these people talk. Segun Osoba, Farouk Mohammed, Yemi Ogunbiyi, Ajibola Ogunsola, Sam Pemu Amuka, Stanley Macebuh, Patrick Dele-Cole, Imeh Umanah, Alex Akinyele, Tony Momoh, Doyin Abiola, Felix Adenaike, Banji Kuroloja, Dan Agbese, Yakubu Mohammed, Soji Akinrinnade, Raymond Ekpu. Let all of these people open up. And they all know why Mr. Dele Giwa was killed.

Infact, the story you are talking about that Dele Giwa was killed over, these people, top journalists they have it in Nigeria. If I could have it then, I was the first person to go public with the story in September 1993 before my senior colleague; Dr. Taiwo Ogunade of CUNY now came out to corroborate it. I was the only person through Razor, who came out to stick my neck then.
Sir, that was the story?

It was Babangida who planned the death of Dele Giwa. It was Babangida that killed him. It is very obvious. Senator Florence Ita – Giwa, Dele Giwa’s former wife knew. The one they now call Mama Bakkassi was a girl friend to Aliyu Mohammed, the one I just told you was to be retired with IBB, although he later changed his name to Mohammed Gusau just to deceive Nigerians.

You sure he is the same person?

Oh sure. He is the same person because immediately Babangida became Head of State, Babangida brought him back. Gusau Mohammed was about to be gazetted by the Buhari regime. I just told you why they struck. Babangida left him with Abacha, and Gusau later became a Lt-General. He was the person whom Babangida brought back to become National Security Adviser to Obasanjo. That is why Obasanjo was governing but did not rule and Nigerians did not know for eight years. Every step that Obasanjo wanted to take Aliyu Mohammed Gusau was always there. I mean your national security adviser is your life. Don’t you know? That is why IBB foisted the guy on Obasanjo. There are a lot of things in Nigeria, that Nigerians cannot hear about now until when IBB is dead. That was why he spread his tentacles all over the newspapers. And those whose names I have mentioned are alive…

What is the deal that IBB made with those notable journalists?

Immediately Babangida came into power, he knew that any journalist who was about town had the story. The first thing he did was to make Aliyu Mohammed (Gusau) the Directorate of Military Intelligence man. He surreptitiously was Babangida’s National Security Adviser, NSA. They had to cover their past dirty stuff. The man called all the top journalists in Nigeria, all these names that I have just given you, they assembled at the DMI, there was no DMI before IBB took over. He set up the Directorate of Military Intelligence at Apapa where they took me to under Abacha (Lagos).

So he now called them and said gentlemen, we want to cultivate the friendship of the press. If there is any story that is incriminating, we want to be sharing ideas, let us know. You understand now? You know they have their press briefing, media chat. Exactly. I have told you that there are always two stories in Nigeria: the official story, which they want the people to hear and the unofficial underlying real story that they do not want you and I to know.

Are you saying, sir, that the media is guilty of mediocrity in all of this?

No. I have told you of the institutional problem of media operations and ownership. The guys who are stealing the money are the ones rich enough to set up newspapers in Nigeria. And who will pay the piper would dictate the tune. Look at all the newspapers in Nigeria. Tell me which one is not being bank-rolled by these bad guys. That was why when I set up the Razor, it became a phenomenon in Nigeria, besides being modest. If I had one of the Generals as my chairman, do you think I would be able to publish all those stories? This is the problem in Nigeria. Nigerian newspapers are owned by the same set of people who are causing the problems; they have control over all the newspapers. Tell me which paper, tell me in which paper does Babangida not have shares in Nigeria, by proxy?

After killing Dele Giwa, he told one of his guys, Mike Adenuga, to go acquire shares in Newswatch. Babangida has shares today in Newswatch. Let Ray Ekpu, Soji Akirinnade, Dan Agbese and Yakubu Mohammed come out and tell Nigerians. That is why those guys can’t do anything.

Is it Vanguard you want to tell me about? He has shares. Let Amuka come out and deny it. How much did he have when he left Olu Aboderin’s The Punch? VANGUARD was about to die. Are you listening to me? VANGUARD was about to die when Babangida came and injected funds into the place.
O.K. Is it Tony Momoh? IBB knew that Tony Momoh knew about the death of Dele Giwa, he made him Minister of Information. Is it Alex Akinyele? Akinyele was a Director on the Newswatch’s board. He also made Akinyele Minister of Information.That was why IBB said “Oh, I know Nigerians very well”.

What of Guardian? Do you know that the Dasuki family in Sokoto has shares in Guardian? I am telling you that they sit on the board. And you know the closeness of the Dasukis and the Babangidas. How would Guardian write anything? You know the owners, the Ibrus collected contracts from the Babangidas too.

Is it Ajibola Ogunsola of The Punch that would go against Babangida? There is only one news organization in Nigeria that can rattle the government, perhaps, maybe The News.

All of them. Is it The Sun? It just came out through Orji Uzor Kalu. Kalu was also a Babangida boy. The Daily Independent is owned by Ibori. James Ibori was an Abacha goon. He has not spoken up on his connection with the death of Chief Alfred Rewane. Which other one? The Nation owned by Tinubu?

Sir, Tinubu was a democracy crusader…

He said he was (laughs) He was.

You were part of the movement, how sincere was he?

There was no movement really. We were fractured. We shall get to that later. It was a loose coalition of like minds. There was no platform that we really had. Even NADECO (National Democratic Coalition) itself was a contraption. We all just felt there must be a way for us to resist the Abacha INSULT, the dictatorship. We were so disjointed. Everybody had different agenda. There was not concerted effort.

Let us go back a little bit on your allegation that prominent journalists benefitted over the death of Dele Giwa. Investigative journalists like us find it difficult to connect the dots.

What dots?

Yes, it was not so obvious that the letter bomb came from IBB. Gani Fawehinmi and many other theorists said it did come from “C-In-C”, Halilu Akilu, Col. Togun are not talking.

Let me clear that one for you. Buhari wanted to make Dele Giwa Minister of Information. Buhari actually granted his maiden interview to Dele Giwa, Ray Ekpu and Yakubu Mohammed for the Concord in February, 1984. In the interview, Buhari said “I would tamper with the press”. That was how Decree No. 4 was promulgated.

After the interview, Buhari made overtures to make Dele Giwa the Minister of Information. Buhari called M.K.O. Abiola and said “I want to make your editor the Minister of Information”, because Dele Giwa was editing Sunday Concord then. M.K.O. Abiola said Dele Giwa would not be interested. That was one of the reasons Dele Giwa left Concord. He was not consulted before Abiola determined his fate.

His fate was determined just like that?

Exactly. Meanwhile Dele Giwa was married to Florence Ita – Giwa. The one who later became a Senator. Ita – Giwa was annoyed that Abiola could not own Dele Giwa’s life even if he was working for him. She wanted him to leave and set up his own. Don’t forget the two, Dele Giwa and Florence Ita had met shortly after Dele returned to Nigeria. They met in Surulere. There was the lady called Ani Okpaku that Dele had separated with. They were in good company with Vera Ifudu. Her other sister was Dora Ifudu at the then NTA. It was Vera who had a birthday celebration party. She invited all the big guys. The late Chris Okolie was there, Sam Amuka – Pemu was there. Florence attended. She had just had a problem, frustration with her former guy here in the U.S. There at the birthday gig she met Dele Giwa and they went home and became so close and that was how they later married.

Dele Giwa only knew of what Abiola did through Florence. Florence was going out with Aliyu Mohammed. Mohammed was the one who told her that Buhari planned to make her husband Minister of Information. Florence was still a lady in town. Several of the top military brass were having a good time with her. She was generous with her endowment around then. Thank you very much, and would then get her contracts. This was one of the reasons Dele Giwa divorced her. They both could be intimate and in the heat of that moment one General or the other would be on the phone with her. Her Husband could be hearing the voice of a General underground. Dele was annoyed. But he bargained for it. They met at a party and went from there into marriage. She would tell Dele to “shut up, I have known these people before I knew you”.

When the parcel bomb that killed Dele was to be delivered, they did not know Dele Giwa’s house. Dele had moved to a new place in Opebi area in the same Ikeja. Abiola had told him to leave after he left Sunday Concord. He had a Mercedes Benz given to him by Abiola. He moved because they now believed so much in their new project, Newswatch. They did not know his new house.

Aliyu Mohammed was the one who volunteered the information that he knew his former wife, Florence. He sent for Florence and when she came, he asked for Dele Giwa’s new residential address. He knew they still saw from time to time though they were no longer married.

She described the new address to them. She pointed her former husband’s address. She did not know that they were after his life, that they wanted to kill him.

She said oh, she normally goes there but that he had moved from Adolphus Davis and that he now lived at Opebi. They said they needed to know the place that was how the babe volunteered the address at Opebi.

The lady knew a lot. That was why Aliyu Mohammed (Gusau) brought her into the strategic position of Presidential Liaison Officer in the National Assembly during Obasanjo’s regime. They were the ones who gave her money to go and contest in Akwa Ibom. Florence Ita – Giwa should speak up. Why has she kept quiet for almost twenty three years?

So this is a challenge for her to speak up?

Yes. I am throwing her that challenge. If the incident I have just narrated is a lie, let her come out and say so. But you see it is the truth. Nigerians must know. She should be able to tell us what happened to her former husband like that. Do you know, she has not granted any interview to anybody?

But she is media savvy. I am surprised she has never spoken about this, if it did happen?

Yes. The press in Nigeria will not ask her such questions (laughs). This is the tragedy of the Nigerian press. They would not ask her. They would be shouting “Mama Bakkassi” with those inconsequential questions. They should be able to ask her “what do you know about the death of your former husband”? “Why, all of a sudden, was she so close to Aliyu Mohammed? She lived far away from her home base. How did she work it and become a Senator? How did she do it and hold the position for eight years? She was in Aso Rock. Obasanjo’s Presidential Liaison Officer, National Security Matters. I have just told you how she got there. It is just to shut her mouth up.
You said that the pro-democracy movement was not organized as such, that it was a loose coalition. Could you please explain what you are talking about?

How do I mean?

I need to be educated further, because what Nigerians saw was organized onslaught against the military.

It was an ad-hoc movement. It was an emergency set up. The arrow head was the late Papa Ajasin (Adekunle) Ajasin, who felt the stupidity of the military must be stopped. As a young Nigerian then, that was the only Nigerian that I had seen that had Nigeria’s genuine interest. He loved Nigeria as a nation. That old man was very committed. Very very incorruptible. If there was any Nigerian who lived what they preached, it was that man. He was transparently honest. There are only very few Nigerian politicians who will be placing phone call on the Inland Revenue to demand when his next pension would come. Only very few people would be chairman of a Local Government Area in Nigeria or Governor in a state without a private generating set. He did not have a generator. NEPA would take light and that was it. Baba would call for the candle to be lit. This is not what I read or because we were from the same hometown, I studied him at close range. Several times he
would be sleeping, Abacha would call. He would say that they should tell him he was sleeping. They could not wake him up. That is Baba for you. Remember that he was older than Awolowo.

Yes, he was born in 1908 and Awolowo was born in 1909.

It was Baba and Abraham Adesanya who championed the cause of NADECO. When I met Pa Adesanya in Obalende in 1994, before I left Nigeria, I told him once Abacha got one or two of you guys, that would have been the end. The people who were really committed were Ajasin, Adesanya, Dan Suleiman. The other guys who we are praising today, I don’t know where they belong because I would disclose to you today that Lt. Gen. Alani Akinrinade they are talking about, some of them I don’t know how committed they are. My picture that was taken and sent from prison to Alani Akinrinade in London eventually landed on Abacha’s desk. How that happened, how the photograph got back to Abacha, he never knew.

So you think there was a mole in the house?

That’s right. There were some photographs I took in detention insideAlagbon Prison with Major Kosoko, we were planning to send them to CNN or BBC and I sent them to Mrs. Alice Ukoko-Ugono, a Nigerian-Briton attorney in London, under diplomatic cover. Mrs. Sugono, you would recall was the founder of Women In Nigeria International, WIN, Women International of Nigeria, WIN, in London. That woman really played a great role that was heroic. There were lots of people who championed this June 12 struggle in Nigeria and we never hear of them. They were outside the country and they fought brilliantly.

She braved all odds and came to Nigeria. The pictures were smuggled to her. And she took the pictures to Lt. Gen Alani Akinrinnade. I was shocked when they showed me the photographs when I was eventually captured and kidnapped. How did the photograph that was sent to London under diplomatic cover get to Abacha and his agents? The woman told me that the only one who had custody of the pictures was Alani Akinrinnade. He was the only one they said asked to just see the picture. Well if Akinrinnade is reading this, because I am sure he must be back in Nigeria…

He was at Alausa Democracy fiesta.

That is why I am saying this. Most of these people… By the time I got to Ghana and I called Tokunbo Afikuyomi in Radio Kudirat. He was my colleague at UNILAG. I called him and I asked him what was happening, his excuse was incoherent. That is why I am saying openly now, everybody was just fighting here and there. The only movement that was solid was NALICON that was set up by Prof. Wole Soyinka.

Was that one formidable?

Oh yes, it was. The movement added fillip and energy to our struggle back home, otherwise Abacha wanted to crush all of us. It was a coalition of disparaged ideological minds.

But the story was that Senator Tinubu, who later became governor of Lagos State, did make limitless funds available for the struggle. How true is that?

Yes. Bola Tinubu was an individual. You asked me for a movement. There were more other individuals too like Prof. Banjo who used their resources. But was there any movement? There was no movement. Tinubu made some financial contributions. Other people also did. He was close to Abiola. He accompanied Abiola to Abacha’s office where they discussed that Abacha should stay for six months. And when Abacha reneged, that was how Tinubu ran away from Nigeria.

Was that deal not like a dinner with the devil?

But Abacha told them. He gave them the impression that he would stabilize the place and bring up Abiola. It was a charade.

Was Abiola naïve or he was acting in the best interest of the country?

Not an issue of naiveté. Abiola was trusting. He was an unorganized and indisciplined person, because of money. I mean for someone to live that kind of life. Can you compare between Abiola and Awolowo for instance? Abiola wasn’t organized. He wasn’t a disciplined man. But he was very trusting. We are talking of politics and power.

Do you think he was ever transformed by the betrayals of June 12?

We never knew and we would never know if he had Survived his incarceration. Prison has a way of bringing one’s real character.

How about his tenacity?

Tenacity has nothing to do with discipline. One becomes disciplined while alive.

You had your reservations about his life and you still had your weight and skills behind him?

It was a systemic change. If Obama’s election was annulled because he was black, that would have been the end of America. It is not about personality. A lot of presidential candidates came and were banned before him, nobody fought for them because there was no general election.
I want to know what the holding cell looked like.

It was a gulag. Rodents co-habit with humans. Once you entered the place, you can’t know your way out. It was a real dungeon. An underground tunnel. I was there by myself. When I got here, to the U.S., I was still having flashbacks and nightmares. It was a harrowing experience. I’m o.k. now. It was not a pleasant experience. (Voice increasingly became pensive) I was there for two years. I was quarantined. I did not have any contact with any human being. I was thinking that they did not want to shoot me but knew a civilian would not survive the place because that was the same place they kept late Gen. Mamman Vatsa.They just wanted me to die somehow and that my body would be collected and that would be it.

Understand that one of my cousins was one of those who interrogated me. They did not know. He is still in the system. He pretended that he did not know me. That was the cousin with whom I lived when Babangida took over power. He did not torture me. He pretended that he did not know me.

So you did actually drive Professor Banjo to Ghana?

I did not drive him. I ordered a cab for them. I took them to a hotel. It was a non-descript hotel. Nobody knew that they were there. The UNHCR guy wanted me to take them out at night. I made up my mind that I would take them out in broad day light.

The Nigerian Security people didn’t know that they could come out in the afternoon. Bad things happen at night. They were waiting for them at night. We got to Benin Togo border at 11 a.m. The Nigerian goons were there from 12 midnight to 6 a.m. I hired the taxi like any other passenger. I did it through my United Nations Card.

They stopped us at the border, I flashed my card and I said I was taking U.N. Official to Ghana, they waved us on. And then I returned.

Were you indeed suspended, hanged downwards to roast gradually on a burning stove while at DMI dungeon? Was it that bad?

(Laugh) It borders on exaggeration. You know I said it in my column. It was exaggerated.

You mean that never happened?

Well, I wasn’t tortured to that level. All that fire thing, no, no.

You were only released after Abacha died?

Remember there was a fight at DMI. They were not coordinated. Sabo was the second in command to… There was a lady military officer that used to come to me at night. We were exchanging information. She could not have access to my place. She was the one who went to Bamaiyi to tell him about my case.

Remember Alima Asuku from Kogi state, a girlfriend of Abacha’s was there. She had four children for Abacha. The lady was from Okene. She was detained with us. She was very nice. She was nice to me.

Ishaya Bamaiyi was the only military officer who visited me in the underground tunnel after my case had been presented to him by the lady military officer. We spoke. Bamaiyi thought that if Abacha died, he would step into Abacha’s shoes. God had shown me that Abacha would die.

Did you tell him that?

Yes. The message was open. I told the lady as well. Omenka and all of them heard me when I said that Abacha was going to die. I started saying it in 1997. Almost a year before Abacha died. It was an open thing.

And it was not as if you had any clandestine plan with anybody?

No. Just a vision from God.

When you said that to the military intelligence people, did they accuse you of treasonable felony?

They thought I was crazy. They asked if it was going to be through a coup. I said I don’t know but that the man was going to die. And it happened like that. And I made up my mind. From there, we knew they were going to bring… Up till today, Nigerians do not know how Abacha and Abiola died and how they arranged for Obasanjo to become the President. I shall now place that information and the dots to connect it all at your disposal. It was Babangida and the northern oligarchy that planned it all. Obasanjo is just an Uncle Tom. The slave in the house. He is not in the inner caucus of anything. He is a cannon fodder.
You don’t see the names of those Hausa Fulanis who rule Nigeria on the pages of Nigerian newspapers. They do not speak Hausa. They speak Fulfulde. They speak the language of the Fulani. They traced their lineage to Othman (or Usman) Dan Fodio. They are sworn to rule Nigeria from the North until they deep their Koran inside the (ocean) and make all Nigerians to become Moslems. They are still active inside Nigeria today.

Most Yorubas, Urhobo, Edo, Ibos, Deltas, Ijaws, Efik, Ibibio and Nothern Minorities do not know what is happening. There is internal colonialism going on in Nigeria. All the talk of Adamawa, Sokoto, Bauchi is rubbish. There is only one Hausa-Fulani oligarchy.

That is why people much resist the attempt at making our children second class citizens in that country. Awolowo saw it very early in the life of the Republic. Abiola saw it too. When you have your own money, you will have a voice. The only person that they have even been able to buy over is Obasanjo. He is their errand boy.

But Obasanjo would argue to the contrary, sir.

It doesn’t matter. It is like saying there is no God. It does not remove the fact. You wake up in the morning; you see His creation, the sun and daylight…

Nigerians in my generation think we should stay inside one nation and engineer a good political culture.

For eight years that Obasanjo governed, he could not do anything. All these things you are hearing from me, if we were in Nigeria, no newspapers would carry it. This idea of Babangida’s past was what Bola Ige had when he became Attorney-General and Minister of Justice. He had all the papers on Babangida and his gang. He was coming to the U.S. to expose him and they had to kill him. Did you know that?

Not exactly. So you are saying that was why he was assassinated?

Yes. Obasanjo knows this fact. Let him speak up. He said it himself that Bola Ige did not know his left from his right. These are some of the dirty things that they needed to perpetuate. That was why Babangida brought Aliyu Mohammed (Gusau) back. The story could not come out now in Nigerian papers. It is when the man dies that Nigerian journalists would be pretending to be investigating.

Are you saying that Nigerian journalists are lazy?

The so-called Nigerian mainstream media has always been like that. That is why Babangida always says “I know Nigerians”. He has spread his tentacles and has bought into all of them.

We know credible Nigerians like Professor Wole Soyinka and even leaders from the North are talking about these things.

Why are they not saying it openly? Prof Soyinka, I respect. He has international clout, but he had one or two things to do with Babangida. Although his intentions were pure, Babangida granted him some favors in order to later arm string him and shut him up.
Do you know what those one or two things are sir?

Dr Yemi Ogunbiyi was one of Wole Soyinka’s lieutenants. Ogunbiyi’s job was on the line at the Guardian. I worked in the Guardian then. His appointment was terminated. He approached Alex Ibru that Ogunbiyi should be retained and nothing was done. He was annoyed. So Soyinka approached Babangida. And that was how Dr. Ogunbiyi became the Managing Director of Daily Times. Ogunbiyi eventually gave me a job at the Daily Times. I am confessing that. Ogunbiyi went to Daily Times and made his money. Babangida knows how to apply rude squeeze. Soyinka does not owe him anything. At least he did not collect anything directly from Babangida. I know that alright. But like I said when you do me a favor, you could expect something in return.

Even in the death of Dele Giwa, Prof. Soyinka and Dr. Ogunbiyi would have known. Remember that Ogunbiyi was the Master of Ceremony at the funeral of Dele Giwa. And he was the Director of Publicity at the Guardian.

Sully Abu, Stanley Macebuh, Andy Akporugo, Ogunbiyi were all close to Dele Giwa. They knew why IBB killed their friend. Nobody wants to talk. They are all still alive. That’s why I am talking from the U.S. now. This is a challenge to them.

Andy Akporugo is dead. Segun Osoba is still alive. They should come out and tell Nigerians what they know. They know why Babangida killed Dele Giwa. They all had the story that Dele Giwa had. But they can’t publish it. And I was the only one who published it. That is the truth.

Let us go back a little bit. The lady, Gloria Okon, identified as a drug courier for IBB and his wife, who was she? Is she still alive or not?

Well Dr. Taiwo Ogunade, like I said, my colleague, has already told us the whole story. What else would you want me to add?

What did he say?

He said that Gloria Okon is still alive and that she changed her name and lives in London.

You want to challenge her to come into the open and say what she knows?

Well, Dr. Ogunade said it and nobody has contradicted him. I am waiting for the day Babangida will come into the U.S. He goes everywhere and he doesn’t come here. His wife did, but we want him to come and then we shall dock him…

But he can argue that his situation is about subverting civil governance and not about being a drug baron or a murderer?

Let him come here and that issue would be … Do you know how many people he killed? Idiagbon is dead. But Buhari is still alive. He should speak up. He knows why his government was toppled. I challenge him to come out and speak out about why he was toppled.

I disagree with you on how you trump Buhari as honest and all that. He was in Abacha’s government. He served as Head of Petroleum Trust Fund. Idiagbon’s son also served with him. They were part of the looting gang…

You see, among thieves, there is honor. Tell me who doesn’t steal in Nigeria. When I say I respect him, Local Government Chairmen, they all steal. But you cannot compare between how Buhari would steal with Abacha’s voracious hunger for money, power, women and all of that. In the company of thieves, there is always a little bit of honor.

Like Babangida and Abacha, these are sophisticated highway armed robbers. They are rapacious looters. Their level of corruption you cannot compare with that of Buhari. That is what I am saying. Abacha, Obasanjo, Babangida are international highway robbers.

You can’t redeem Obasanjo and Babangida.

How did your family cope during your incarceration?

I have acknowledged my gratitude to a lot of people. Dr. kayode Fayemi, Prof. Wole Soyinka, people in the pro–democracy fold. People in Republic of Benin – especially the Yoruba speaking area. The West African Journalists Association, my friend, Bunmi Aborishade, Mr. Amikal Kabrah in Ghana,… Reporters Without Borders, Committee for the Protection of Journalists.

You haven’t gone back to Nigeria since you came in 1999.

Yes. And I am never going to go back. I am a U.S. citizen forever.

But you can be told that your struggle has culminated in democratic rule?

No. Which democracy in which Babangida still rules by proxy? In which David Mark who once said that telephone is not for the poor is leading the senate? Mark who stole the telecommunications sector dry is ruling again in our time. You say that is democracy? You know Muktar, one of the Babangida boys is now at the NSA. The same set of deceptive characters is ruling.

Which democracy? The one in which election results are ready before people go to cast their votes?
What should we do to earn the respect of the world?

There is no leadership in Nigeria. It is an organized chaotic place. The followership should push for complete reorganization of the country. Northerners demonstrated on June 12 that they cannot release people from servitude voluntarily. They are still in control. I don’t know why we suffer from collective amnesia. Everybody is suffering from attention deficit disorder (ADD). They merely brought Obasanjo to assuage the injustice. Obasanjo was governing but he was not in power. He thanked them for the eight years they gave to him and they said “thank you boy”. That’s all they did (laughs).

If you own a house, you go into any room. You tell your tenants where they have as their own place. You don’t jump anyhow. They collected the keys from Obasanjo. That’s what they did. The Southerners are tenants in Nigeria, the Northerners are the landlords.

So they gave it to Obasanjo, supposedly on behalf of the Yorubas because of the death of Abiola. And then everybody started shouting and said eh! Look at the man who midwife the so-called democracy. Abdulsalami Abubakar, it was Babangida who planted him there. He wanted to retire, Babangida said don’t leave, you will still do one thing for me (laughs). And then Babangida called all the Generals and said they no longer needed to stage coup anymore.

We know who they would want to give power to because results were ready even before elections. That’s because the media is owned by the big guys. Most of the guys in the media are hungry. How much do they pay them? Once you lose your job that’s it. You saw how Godwin Agthey treated Godwin Agbroko. No insurance, nothing. Your family would just suffer. It is just struggle for survival in Nigeria, that’s all.

How many Nigerian newspaper houses have insurance for their workers? Is there any culture of insurance ever in Nigeria? The question is that how many of the journalists are even being paid what they are worth? Everybody is just doing it to put food on the table. Take your children to the school. Everybody is in survival mode. So which media? That’s why they carry same headline all the time (laughs).

Do they even have the money to look for stories? That is why they have myriads of awards. “Governor of the Year”. It’s all rubbish (Laughs). How many of them have the money to investigate stories? Is it Compass that is owned by Gbenga Daniel? People are suffering. Unless you are in government, you have to steal. It is that bad.

That is why I asked why my friend Dr. Fayemi should go and stay in Nigeria. There is no newspaper in Nigeria. Look at the way you guys are serializing the Biography of M.K.O. Abiola. I issued the challenge to Nigerian newspapers to serialize it free. None of them has been able to take up the challenge. Nigeria is a failure. That is why I am one hundred percent behind the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND). I don’t hide it. That is what we need in Nigeria. Until the landlord/tenant relationship between the north and south stops, the problem would continue. The North wants to corner power for life, that is not a nation, even if it happens like that in America, people will fight. You remember how the blacks rejected slavery here.
MEND may be accused of anarchy and brigandage…

No. The brigands are in Abuja. Those leaders in Abuja are the brigands. MEND is what Nigeria deserves. Those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable. Should you and I be outside Nigeria if we have good leaders and good governance? If not for divine intervention do you know what Abacha was planning for Nigeria? When I published it that Abacha had stolen three billion were they not calling Razor junk publication?

All the stories that we are just hearing now, do you know that I carried them almost twenty years ago, while the so-called mainstream press were blackmailing me that my stories were junk. If Abacha did not die, would we have known that he coveted 7 billion out of Nigeria? That was a man who spent just five years. Do you know how much Babangida stole in eight years? Do you know how much Obasanjo stole in eight years? Plus the one he stole when he first came? How much were they paying him in the military that could make him own that Otta farm? So we know those who were stealing in Nigeria.

Just give me the opportunity and I would release the list of Nigerians and how much they own in their foreign accounts. When I published it in Razor in 1994, were they not blackmailing me?

All those stories that later came out at Oputa Panel in Nigeria, I was the first to publish them.

This disclosure after years of the fire-bombing of Dele Giwa, I was the only one who carried it in Nigeria. The so called established press, even his friends and partners were scared to touch it. They only wanted money to take care of their families. None of them could come out to say “ah why? Why did you have to kill our colleague?” The worst that could happen would be to go into exile. Must they practice in Nigeria? But because of money. And Babangida had the audacity to go to Newswatch and buy shares and they allowed him. That is how you know that most of Nigerian journalists are stupid. They cannot fight for anything. They are only interested in money. That’s all. There is no one who is interested in honest leadership in Nigeria.

Why would you consider it fair to pin all the mis-governance on Hausa/Fulani area. You know other individuals from other tribes and parts of Nigeria are guilty as well…

People who are students of history, especially those who have studied the Hausa/Fulani oligarchy, if you have read a book by J.F.A. Ade – Ajayi, Africa in the Nineteenth Century, it is about the history, explained the history of Hausa State, talks of the arrival of one Baya Jida from the Middle East who married the Queen of Daura. I think from the present Katsina State.

And between them they had seven Hausa sons who are called the Banza Bakwai. And then there were seven other illegitimate sons of same man. The seven illegitimate sons later formed the fourteen Hausa States. Daura, Katsina, Zau Zau (Zaria), Kano, Rano and Biram, Gwandu

The Fulanis arrived in the Northern area and conquered the Hausas. Hausas and Fulani had historically been separate people. I studied African History at the graduate level and learned from respectable and unbiased professors; the best in the field. It is important that people understand this story, and eventually, the Fulani legitimized their power over the Hausas and imposed their religion and ways of life on the Hausas. Historically, Hausas were not Moslems; their religion was what they called Maigazuya or Maigazurra kind of religion. This comprised magic, witchcraft and all the rest, mixed with Islam. The Fulanis came and emasculated the Hausas, changed their religion and even their ways of life. Today, these Fulanis who speak Fulfude are in Northern Nigeria. They became Hausa-Fulani and are determined to turn Nigeria into an Islamic enclave. This is the war that Chief Obafemi Awolowo fought to resist; we are still fighting it today in Nigeria.
People do not know what is happening and that is why I said those who are ruling Nigeria, who are destroying that nation, you can count them, a handful of them. What they do is that they believe that political, religious and economic powers in Nigeria belong to them. They see others as second-class citizens, they are full of hubris. The way they operate is to plant Emirs in even non-Moslem and non-Hausa-Fulani towns and villages. Can you believe that Lafia in Nassarawa State with just a handful of Hausa-Fulani should be governed by an Emir? I served in Ilorin, Kwara State during my NYSC and could count the number of Hausa-Fulani resident in that city yet they are ruled by an Emir.

While we, in the South are running after money, not yet able to put our acts together, these people have perfected how they are going to rule Nigeria forever. Yorubas, Ibos,Ibibios, Efik, Benin, Kalabaris, Itshekiri and the rest in the South should wake up otherwise our children and grandchildren will curse us in our graves after we have gone. They will ask just as my children are asking me now in America; Daddy, what did you do? Are you just watching?. There is discrimination in Nigeria to the level that since the 1960’s no person outside the Hausa – Fulani oligarchy has ruled Nigeria. The two periods under southern leadership was more or less accidental.
The death, the assassination of Muritala Mohammed paved the way for Obasanjo to rule in the 1976 and after a democratically acclaimed election was held in 1993, the only person who could represent the genuine aspirations of Nigerians, M.K.O. Abiola was stopped by the oligarchy. They brought their man, Olusegun Obasanjo, to rule again. Between 1976-1979, Obasanjo was not even ruling; the power really was in the hands of the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, the elder brother of the one there now; Umaru. The late General Olufemi Olutoye once narrated a story in his autobiography where he said, immediately Obasanjo was sworn into office in 1976 following Muritala Muhammed’s death, he came to Doddan Barracks and explained the situation of other ethnic tribes to him in federal appointments and the need to redress anomaly. He left after his discussions with Obasanjo and few hours later, Obasanjo set for him. The late Gen. Musa Yar’Adua, the then Chuef
of Staff Supreme Headquarters was already waiting and in the latter’s presence, Obasanjo asked him to repeat what he had just said few hours earlier. He, Olutoye repeated what he told Obasanjo. The following morning, Olutoye’s retirement was announced on the FRCN. It was so bad in the 1970s down till the 1990s that some Southerners in the Nigerian Military had to change their names to Mohammed, Umaru and even converted into Islam to get promotion. I knew those Southerners who left the Nigerian Army out of frustration because of this nonsense. The fact of the matter is there is no Nigerian Army, what we have is Northern Nigerian Army. We cannot continue like this as a people, Southerners must assert their legitimate rights in their own fatherland or we go our separate ways, period.
Do you know I have more rights as a Nigerian-American here in the United States than my native land Nigeria?

So look at Nigerian history, by next year, we shall be fifty years old as a nation. No non-Northerner has always earned a genuine mandate for the aspirations of our people. They control the military; this is the reality, the internal colonization of the country that I am talking about.

The southerners must sit down and organize and say that it is either they are accepted as equals or everybody must go his own way.

What is the real legitimate reason for the annulment of June 12 elections? What do you know in view of the fact that some people claim IBB had intelligence, almost incontrovertible that Abiola was a CIA operative?

Some analysts say Babangida was pressurized, this and that, in annulling that election. That was hogwash. A person, a rogue, a coup plotter like Babangida, a former drug baron like Babangida, could not be pushed by anybody. They even said what they wanted you journalists to believe that some officers in the military put a gun to his head. That did not happen. Which officer could do that so that he could annul the election? These are the rubbish they are feeding Nigerians. It is so sad that those who called themselves leaders appear on television and lie barefaced to Nigerians and we believe them. These are not men and women of honor, I tell you. They lie, they steal and they kill. Since 1960, the act of governance, administration has always been in secrecy. There are two stories to every government decision and policy in Nigeria as I have pointed out to you. Two levels of information exist in Nigeria, to create a façade and avoid public
scrutiny. Political actors give us two stories, the official story and the unofficial story. And the Nigerian press goes with the official story. They are part and parcel of the official. That organized conspiracy was elevated to official pastime during the disastrous years called the IBB years. You know they always appeared on television or during their media chats with these ludicrous epithets; “We do not run our government on the pages of newspapers.” Remember?

Even the so-called Obasanjo “elected government, you hear them telling Nigerians “oh this government is not run on the pages of newspapers”.

Why should government not be run on the pages of newspapers? In a democracy? That is why you will know that there are two versions of stories. The truth, which only few people would be privy to are the official stories that they use the media to push out to the Nigerian Public. That was what happened on June 12.

We all know that June 12 is the ultimate culmination of the 1985 coup of survival which Babangida staged for self – preservation.

Let us be frank, the man did not want to leave the place. He was coming out with the idea of diarchy. He sent people like Mukoro Tony Nyiam to study the idea in Egypt, Santiago in Chile, and an admixture of civilian and military leadership. That was what the man was planning until Abiola decided to contest. Of course you know the story of how Abiola emerged as the candidate of the then Social Democratic Party S.D.P. Abiola was able to emerge as the presidential flag bearer as the SDP in Jos as late Major – General Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua discovered that, Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe was pealing away votes from Atiku Abubakar for Abiola.

The forces of Atiku and Abiola teamed up and worked for Abiola’s victory. What they did was that six people met at the residence of Ambassador Yaya Kwade on Ibrahim Taiwo Avenue in Jos, M.K.O. Abiola, his first son, Kola, Dr. Jonathan Zwingina (later became a senator), Major General Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua himself, Atiku Abubakar and Yaya Kwande. And they agreed, and Abiola himself appended his signature that the forces of Atiku Abubakar will co-operate and that when Abiola emerged as the flag bearer that he would make Atiku Abubakar his running mate. Abiola agreed. He became the flag bearer of the SDP.

While they were there, because we have to be frank, it was not actually a primary, for those of us who were there, Abiola bought the ticket, because of his money power. Where Ambassador Kingibe was spending N500, N2, 000 to buy delegates, Abiola upped the stakes to N10, 000, N20, 000 per delegate. Unknown to Abiola, Babangida’s agents were filming everything live. They captured everything on tape. For example, Abiola gave N10m cash to Lamidi Adedibu. And the late Adedibu was captured on tape with wads of Naira notes shouting to Oyo State delegates “Eyin ara Ibadan, Owo Abiola ti de”, meaning “Folks from Ibadan, Abiola’s cash has landed” (laughs) openly. You know the man was a political jobber, half-illiterate. And suddenly, delegates for Atiku and Kingibe moved and switched to Abiola. Abiola instructed Kola to increase the stakes to N20, 000 against N500 from the others. It was cash and carry for Abiola. They were all caught on tape
and that was the tape that Babangida sent to the State Department here in the United States to justify the annulment among other reasons
So all the trips to Abuja where he allegedly accused Abiola of operating for CIA….

No. He did not even give that reason. It was his crony, Sani Abacha, I am coming back to that issue, and it was Obasanjo who prompted Sani Abacha to stage the November 24, 1993 coup.

There were basically three reasons Babangida annulled the election.

First, the man didn’t just want to go. He wanted diarchy. That was why Olumilua, Adeleke, Ebri, Osoba, Otedola ruled with him for two years.

Secondly, there were deep – seated animosities between him and Abiola. Most Nigerians do not want to hear this that the money kept in Abiola’s account through an arrangement brokered by Babangida was one of the reasons that caused the problem. And of course when Maryam Babangida went to Beijing in China, there were reports that Abiola slept with the woman, which no one knew. Whether it was a lie, it was going to be a lie. These were the personal reasons. Babangida’s personal self entrenchment and the betrayal of each other over Sergeant Samuel Kanyon Doe’s money.

Doe was looking for where to keep the money he had stolen from the Liberian economy. He was looking for a place to keep the money for his wife Nancy and his children. So he approached Babangida. And Babangida told him “hey, I’m president here and I don’t want to put the money in my account. We have a friend who we can use”.

That was how he suggested Abiola and of course, Abiola had investment in Liberia. So the money was paid into Abiola’s Swiss Account.

After Doe died, Nancy, his wife came all the way from London to Nigeria. No Nigerian newspaper, most editors knew, but did not want to carry it. None of them could carry the story, the plan was for…. Babangida had suggested to Doe to go on exile at the thick of the Liberian war. He felt he could go to Saudi Arabia. The late Idi Amin also came to Nigeria and stayed in Sheraton Hotel during that period. Idi Amin called and advised Doe not to go on exile, that with timing, the war may eventually favor Doe. Idi Amin was the one who told him not to go on exile.

The Saudi authorities were ready to take Doe. As it eventually turned out, Doe was killed by Yormie Johnson’s soldiers. So his family, Doe’s families were now in need and they came to Nigeria to ask for what their bread winner had kept for them. Babangida welcomed them, and then he sent for Abiola. Abiola replied that, well the money was paid into the late Simbiat Abiola, his first wife’s account. And that he wasn’t the person holding that account, that it was Kola Abiola and that Babangida should call his first son, Kola. So Babangida felt insulted that this was a friend of both of them who was in need so that he could take care of his family and Abiola was saying all those kind of things. You know how I was able to authenticate the story? Through the late Shehu Musa Yar ‘Adua, because Chris Mamman, who eventually became Chief Press Secretary to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar took me to General Yar’ Adua’s office in Victoria
Island. Nancy Doe, the wife of late Samuel Doe of Liberia is in London, you guys should track her down for an interview. Nigerian newspapers don’t have the resources in the first place to pursue that kind of story and secondly, no editor in Nigeria will dare venture to publish such a story. I told you that Babangida has corrupted virtually all of them either directly or indirectly. It’s just so bad that most editors are on the payroll of the SSS while some are moles in the newsroom. Some editors have to be looking over their shoulders when they are planning stories because you just don’t know who would betray you to the soldiers in power. I doubt whether that culture has changed much. As I have said, we have the finest and the best journalists in the world but the institutional obstacles in media houses are formidable. Nigerian Journalists are poorly paid, there is no insurance and the tools are not there for them to work.
Was Mr. Mamman there during this conversation?

Yes. It was General Yar’ Adua who gave us the story. And he also said it that when Abiola ran into trouble, that he said, that he, Yar’ Adua had warned Abiola that “are you sure”, he was telling Chris Mamman that he told Abiola “are you sure that our friend Ibrahim was ready to leave?” That was what he said he asked him when he wanted to run for the presidency. “I wanted to be president too, the man banned me. Are you sure you would not be banned?” That even if you win the election, are you sure that Babangida was ready to go?” All that with the Doe offer…” and Abiola assured him that he too had done a lot of favors for Babangida in the past, he was the one who gave him money when he struck in 1985, that the two of them had extended favors to each other, and that he did not see a reason why Babangida would not want him to succeed him. This was from the mouth of Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua in the presence of Chris Mamman. But
most newspapers would not carry this story in Nigeria.

Babangida had been saying that Abiola would not last more than sixty days, ninety days. No soldier, no person put any gun on his head.

Have you met Babangida in person before?

I wouldn’t say that I met him one on one. The first time I saw him was in 1985, while I worked with Concord. One of Abiola’s wives had a baby and they were having the naming ceremony. Virtually all the top editors of Concord titles were in Abiola’s house that night at Moshood Abiola crescent at Ikeja; that was the first time I saw Babangida afar. In fact it was at that ceremony, the naming ceremony, that the details of the August 27, 1985 coup were fine tuned. That was where they planned everything. That was where Abiola released the money for the boys…

How much?

Ten million U.S. dollars cash. They wanted money. Babangida and his boys never knew whether the coup would succeed or not. And they needed money. There was no other safe meeting point were Babangida and Abiola would have a conversation. Rafindadi, the National Security Organization, NSO’s boss, had already bugged Babangida’s telephone lines. They used the innocent child’s naming ceremony as a cover – up. Duro Onabule was there that day. I think it was Ebenezer Obey that entertained, there were lots of musicians. I think Sikiru Ayinde Barrister also played that night. So while guests were in front of Abiola’s house, the military guys who came with Babangida, Abubakar Umar and the others retired to the back of Abiola’s house. It was in that place that they struck. They had chosen October 1 st, 1985 as I told you before but acted faster. Buhari is still alive; he should confirm or deny what I am saying… They knew the details. I
am issuing that challenge. Up till today Buhari has not spoken on why he was toppled. He should speak out. Top editors can corroborate what I am telling you now. They know it. May be they’re waiting for Babangida to die and then they would come out with their “exclusive.”
You promised me you would reveal the story behind Abacha’s coup and how and the way he died.

Oh yes. Not only that, let me also tell you how Abiola died. When Babangida was chased out, his tail between his legs, or whatever he chose to call it, “stepping aside”, he had lost the initiative, right? They put up the contraption called ING (Interim National Government). He knew that his friend, the Chief of Army Staff and the Defense Minister, Sani Abacha would stage the coup. There were some young Army Officers led by Col. Bello Fadile, who wanted to stage a coup, to pre-empt Abacha’s take over. Those guys went to Ota farm to inform Obasanjo. Are you listening to me? Those guys were between the ranks of majors and colonels. They were young guys who wanted to stage a coup and remove Shonekan. We don’t know whether they were planning to revalidate June 12. They went to Obasanjo at Ota Farm, Ogun State to tell him and when they left, Obasanjo wrote a personal letter to Abacha. When Obasanjo saw that the boys, he knew they were
radicals. He knew that if those guys succeeded in their coup, there would be a lot of things that would happen in Nigeria which he did not like. So he wrote a personal letter to Abacha to do something about it. And that was more or less a coded way of telling Abacha to stage a coup. It was that letter that Abacha used to rope Obasanjo into the coup saga later on when Obasanjo snubbed Abacha. That letter got him in jail.

Abacha had also sworn to have his day against Obasanjo for spiting him by declining a ride in the presidential plane with him to Mandela’s inauguration in South Africa. He invited Obasanjo for a ride. Obasanjo said he would not be going. When Abacha staged his own coup in November 17, 1993 because of the personal letter of instigation from Obasanjo, Obasanjo refused the presidential ride. When Abacha got to South Africa, he saw Obasanjo and he said “ha ha”. When he came back, he had this attitude like Idi Amin that “if you are not my friend, you must be my enemy. And if you are my enemy, you must die”. (Laughs) So he got the message that this guy was trying to avoid him and that was why he did not ride with him to South Africa. That Obasanjo’s snobbery was what landed him in trouble. He was double-dealing. Consulted for Abacha in secret and avoided and distanced himself in public. For Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, he got into trouble for
sponsoring a motion calling for return-to-civil rule in 1998 at the so-called Constitutional Conference set up by Abacha. He went to the NUJ Lighthouse to address a press conference and later that day, as Abacha’s hit men were after him, he jetted out of the country to Saudi Arabia. Three weeks later when he returned to Nigeria, Abacha ordered he should be picked up and you know the rest of the story.
So, how did Abacha die?

Remember there are two story lines to events in Nigeria. The official one that they dish out to you journalists which they use to hide the real truth, and the unofficial one which is the real thing but which would not be published in the newspapers. That is the real story which is usually unofficial. It still happens today. Remember how they desperately denied your story that Yar’ Adua was sick? You see that the man still looks very sickly. You cannot rely on government spokesmen or their ubiquitous press releases.

They want Nigerians and the international community to think that Abacha died in the hands of two Indian prostitutes. It is a lie. I was kidnapped and kept by the Directorate of Military Intelligence, DMI, at that time. You know being detained by DMI allows one has a peep into the real happenings in Nigeria. That is the secret of government. The DMI is where most intelligence stories come out.

This is the way Abacha died. Abacha was eliminated by the Hausa/Fulani oligarchy. There were three reasons why they took him out. When he came into power and removed the ING and refused to revalidate June 12 election, the Northerners were happy. While he was clamping the NADECO people and was hounding most of us in the radical media and threatened to destroy and kill people in Lagos, the oligarchy and followers were happy and cheering him.

But when Abacha decided to attack Yar’ Adua by administering toxic injection on him and the man was killed inside Abakaliki prison, killing the head of the Kaduna Mafia like that, the Northerners now knew too late that Abacha was not fighting for the oligarchy. It was the death of Musa Yar’ Adua that opened their eyes; that this so called Abacha had a personal agenda.

You know they were hiding his real identity. They were shielding his background that he was not originally from Nigeria. He was not Hausa/Fulani. He was Kanuri. They were not part of the Hausa/Fulani oligarchy. Although he adopted Kano as his home town he was originally from Chad. His family migrated from Chad. There are many of them in the North who joined the military at that time. There is no serious journalist in Nigeria who has been able to trace this guy’s background at least to three of four generations. If you go to Owo or Akure today, at least I would know the Abitogun family. Right. I would be able to tell the world that your great grandfather was a king of Ijebu – Owo… Nobody has been able to do that concerning the Abachas. In Nigeria, nobody is interested in all these kinds of things.
So the man…

Have you done that yourself?

That is why I am telling you that the man was not a Nigerian. If a child’s father died… I lost my father early in life, but when you hear, you know that there are only two Fayemiwos in Yoruba land. One family in Ilesha and our own in Owo. And then the Ogedengbe Yoruba intra tribal war happened, and was displaced.

But in the case of this man, Abacha was not a Nigerian. The Nigerian army was anything goes. When Yar’ Adua was killed by Abacha’s agent, if there was any godfather of the Hausa/Fulani, it was Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua. He was the head of the Kaduna Mafia. He was instrumental in advancing and placing many Northerners in the civil service. The current president Umaru and the former Chief of Supreme Headquarters, Shehu, were both born by the same man, Musa Yar’ Adua who was the first Minister of Lagos during Balewa regime under the Northern People’s Congress Government.

Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua was the only Nigerian Military officer promoted from a colonel to major general. He was never a brigadier.

The man was powerful and killing him because of political differences was an eye opener. And they said Abacha himself must go.

Abacha was planning to achieve three things by October 1, 1998. He was planning to remove the Emir of Kano, Ado Bayero, because Ado Bayero did not come to Aso Rock to commiserate with him over the death of Ibrahim Abacha, his controversial first son who died in the plane crash. That was another story on its own.

Abacha wrote it down.

Secondly, he was to move and arrest Babangida on October 1, 1998, as he would have been sworn in as civilian president. Babangida was to join Obasanjo and Abiola in prison.

Thirdly, he was planning to remove Abubakar Abdul Salam as Minister of Defense. These were the three things on his list of things to do. He wrote it down and it was on his table.

The people leaked out the information. His Chief Security Officer, CSO, Major Hamzat Al – Mustapha saw the information and went to Kano to leak the information to Ado Bayero. Brigadier Sabo who was in DMI came to Abuja to brief Abacha and he saw the information. Abacha had excused himself in the middle of a discussion with Sabo. He looked at what Abacha wrote down that Babangida would be arrested on October 1, 1998. Sabo was afraid. It was Babangida who helped him into his position. Immediately, he left Aso Rock Presidential Villa, in Abjua, Sabo went to Babangida in Minna and told him what Abacha was planning to do. So the mafia went to work. The mafia and Babangida pulled resources together. They made up their mind that Abacha must be removed as early as January 1998. They were planning how to remove him. Babangida knew him very well that he loved women.

So that man did not die in the hands of two Indian women. That was a lie. It was a Nigerian who was used. His estranged girlfriend. Babangida and Abacha did not talk; they were not on speaking terms in the last two years of the regime. I knew that as far back as 1996, Babangida and Abacha were not on speaking terms. So when Sabo took the story to Minna, that this was what Abacha was planning, to arrest Babangida before October 1 st, Babangida and the oligarchy teamed up, a coalition of forces. They knew that if they had acted earlier, that Diya would likely become the Head of State, so they waited and removed Diya, who was pro Abiola first before striking against Abacha. Do you understand the story of Nigeria now? They knew Diya was pro June 12 and they had to frame him up and discredit him thoroughly so that he could not succeed Abacha…
Are you saying that Al – Mustapha’s tale about Diya’s cowardice was more baloney?

Al – Mustapha spoke within the limits of what was immediately open and obvious to him. He himself did not know the complexity of the situation of what we are talking about. Mustapha who came from Kano only knew that Abacha wanted to remove his Emir and told the Emir, so that, perhaps that one could initiate reconciliation. Babangida knew Abacha very well.

There were no two Indian prostitutes. They found the old girlfriend of Abacha and they gave her spiked Viagra.

Following the script crafted by Babangida, the lady went to Jeremiah Timbuktu Useni and told him that she wanted to settle the lingering squabble with her boyfriend, Abacha. Useni brought the girl and genuinely thought she actually came to make up with Abacha.

He took her to Abacha’s guest house, and from what I gathered, the lady was probably a friend to Useni’s daughter. Useni has a daughter; his first daughter, Hadiza who graduated from the University of Jos and she was a friend to Abacha’s girlfriend that the Babangida group used. Useni may not be aware that the lady and his first daughter Hadiza were friends. These guys are dirty, I tell you. They sleep with their friends’ wives and their daughters. And you can understand Abacha’s sexual escapades if you have read Dr. Taiwo Ogunade’s interview. Usually by one or two pm, Abacha would have left the office. The man would just go to his guest house and then the easy virtue ladies would be taking a queue. The man had high libido. So when Jerry Useni brought this lady, she apologized, and she made up with Abacha. So Abacha said it has been a long time they did it and that he wanted to do it from the anus. Abacha liked sodomizing his women.
Then the lady said if he wanted to do it that way and for her to enjoy it, Abacha needed to use Viagra. Are you following me now? It was the lady who gave Abacha Viagra. These are stories that no Nigerian newspapers would publish but had relied on Abdusalam Abubakar version.

May be they don’t know about it?

I don’t know what is wrong with them. It is an international story, but they won’t publish this kind of story. Besides, if anyone gave it to them, they would be afraid and lamentably, they don’t have the resources to investigate. They would give you the official story that is the story everybody would run away with “oh two Indian prostitutes”. Where are the Indian ladies? It’s all rubbish. So once you are given spiked Viagra, you can’t survive it. Immediately Abacha started jerking, the lady just vamoosed. The security details came and wondered what was happening. Abacha died before 12 midnight. They brought him to Aso Rock around 11 pm. They didn’t know what to do.

Meanwhile, Useni had gone home after delivering the lethal lady to Abacha. He had gone his way after delivering the cargo. The man did not know what happened. He too was a useless man. He’s alive. Let him corroborate what I am saying.

Jeremiah Useni is still alive. Let him tell Nigerians what happened that night. No Indian prostitutes. Nothing happened. Abacha died in the evening. We heard about his death very early in DMI. The three guys who would have been president were Omenka, (please emphasize this place) Abubakar Abdulsalami would not have been Head of State. Al – Mustapha, Omenka and Sabo were the three guys. They would have seized power. Abacha actually died inside his private car in the guest house. He was foaming. He was very loose during that period. He was always moving about in unmarked 504 without any security detail. You would think he was an ordinary person in the tainted glass car. He was very loose. The Peoples Liberation Army of Nigeria was able to tail his movement in Abuja. They knew where the man was going; they knew everything that was happening. Of course, Prof. Banjo can corroborate what I am saying. The man was very loose and not very
security conscious, even at night.

When his remains were brought to Aso Rock, Al – Mustapha completely took charge. He allowed Sabo and Omenka to come in around one or two a.m.

Babangida called from Minna, because he knew what he had done, the call was so coincidental because Mrs. Maryam Abacha took the call, not knowing what had transpired, broke the news to Babangida. And Babangida landed at Aso Rock that night. And Babangida took over Aso Rock. He was the one who allowed Abubakar Abdulsalami inside the Dome. Abubakar Abdulsalam was completely oblivious of what had happened to Abacha. Babangida entered Ask Rock before Abubakar. Omenka is in Brazil with his wife, you guys should call him and let’s see if he will talk. Al-Mustapha is in detention and I hope the young man will regain his freedom so he can talk.

In the hierarchy of military seniority, Useni should have become Head of State immediately Abacha died but be was not allowed in until around 7 a.m. He wanted to come in but Babangida said he should be disallowed. Maryam Abacha was annoyed with Useni, because she saw him as the enabler, who was teaching her husband all the bad things. Useni was really loose when it came to women. Useni did not know what was happening. He came to Aso Rock with the mind to enter, Babangida was inside. So it was Babangida who now proclaimed Abubakar the new ruler.

Babangida had told Abdulsalami few months earlier not to retire because he still had one more thing to do for him (Babangida), in other words, I’m going to “remove Abacha, remove Diya and I would bring you in”. That was how Abubakar Abdulsalami became head of state.
Is there a way to know this Abacha’s alleged girl friend?

I don’t know. There are lots of mysteries happening in that country. There is no Indian prostitute. Women are so many in Nigeria, that Abacha would least think of any expatriate prostitute. You too should think about it. No Indian prostitute (laughs). They had already made up their mind that this was the story they want to sell us.

The same thing about Abiola, Babangida knew that if Abiola survived, Abiola would possibly put him on trial. Abiola would have tried Babangida. Babangida could have been killed or put in prison. Immediately after Abacha’s death, they made up their mind that they had to kill Abiola. That is why Babangida is infecting a lot of people. So after his death only few people would be able to talk. If I were to be in Nigeria, I would not be able to say all this but I would probably have published it anyway. The man has done a lot of damage to that country. I am telling you, a lot of people have died in the hands of IBB. He is trying to cover it all up. Do you know how Gen. Tunde Idiagbon died? Obasanjo called Idiagbon in Ilorin and hinted that he was considering him as new Chief of Army Staff in 1999 immediately he was sworn in. Babangida advised against it and his Man Friday, Aliyu Muhammad Gusau objected against it. Obasanjo was hell bent and
invited Idiagbon to Aso Rock. The poor man was served the same tea Abiola was served and Idiagbon returned to his home at Adeleye Crescent in Ilorin. About 21 days later, the man died; no sickness, no headache, no illness. Babangida was afraid of Idiagbon becoming COAS under Obasanjo. Throughout the time Idiagbon was in detention after they were toppled in 1985, in all the letters he wrote to his wife in Ilorin from detention, his pleading was that his wife should not fly aircraft or travel out because some people were planning to put hard drugs in her luggage in order to blackmail her. When I was serving in the NYSC, I lived in the next street to Idiagbon’s house and I used to visit the family regularly after leaving Gen. David Jemibewon’s house on Umar Audi Road, G.R.A. along Take Road, Ilorin.

It was because Bola Ige wanted to expose Babangida’s drug activities that they killed him. The man was coming here to take up appointment at the United Nations and he had some files with him incriminating Babangida and some of his cocaine boys but you see, they had to use Deoba Omisore as a cover. Obasanjo himself was cautious during the 8-years he was in Aso Rock, I am sure he looked the other way and that was why he castigated Bola Ige that the man didn’t know his right from his left. In other words, Bola Ige was naïve, you know, Obasanjo is a survivalist, a very wily and dubious man. He knows how to dine with the devil and come out unscathed.

They also killed Haruna Elewi, the former Minister for State for Communications. They used him to bring the boys who killed Bola Ige, because he knew Bola Ige’s house. They killed Bola Ige and removed the file. And after accomplishing their objective, they also got rid of Elewi. They killed Haruna Elewi himself.

Why didn’t Nigerian journalists hear of Justice Ubahomu Commission of Enquiry? Did you hear of it? That was the commission Buhari set up to try drug pushers. Immediately Babangida staged his coup, we heard no more of the commission. There are stories in Nigeria; there are lots of cover ups. Babangida scrapped the commission. And I don’t know if the man is still alive. A lot of people died to cover him up. He was there for eight years, and he is still covering up. Maybe when he is dead all these things that I am telling you, would be blown open. When I was publishing Razor in Nigeria, all those stories of Justice Chukwudifu Oputa panel, I had already published them and were not new. They described them as junk when we were publishing them. But all the stories have been confirmed.
How was your detention experience in Alagbon before you escaped to Benin Republic?

There were the other people I was detained with, Dr. Wale Babalakin, Dr. Femi Adekanye of defunct Commerce Bank, Ralph Osayemeh, Polycarp Nwite, Duro Emmanuel, Machan Zoaka, Chuma Nzeribe, Chief Femi Ajayi, Mr. Arigbe, Hasan Sani Kotagora, Kola Abiola. I was the one who gave Kola a mattress to sleep when they brought him to Alagbon. Kola Abioa was a very useless guy, very stupid, an ingrate. I was the secretary-general of Alagbon Detainees Association at FIIB, Alagbon, Bisket, Bisi Okeowo, then Bisi Shaba now Mrs Dan Musa and the late Kudirat Abiola.

Mrs Kudirat Abiola told me to watch out for her when she was brought to FIIB. She said “Ah Moshood, this is where they kept you?” “Why didn’t you send your wife to me?” And I said “auntie I don’t want to disturb you”. She gave me some inside stories too when I was publishing Razor. I would come to her house and I was always sending my wife to her, my former wife.

Besides what we have heard and read, what was the real reason Abacha ordered her assassination?

When Abiola was arrested and taken to Abuja in 1995, Abiola requested that he wanted one of his wives to come and cook for him for the Ramadan fast and he made the proposition to Abacha in the spirit of Islamic brotherhood and Abacha said “ok, which one would you want?” And Abiola said Kudirat Olayinka. So Abacha said fine.

So they gave Kudirat the message from Abacha to tell Abiola to drop his mandate. Kudirat herself told me that she replied to them that she would try to convince Abiola. Are you following me? She said she went there, cooked for Abiola and of course they had sex. You know what the security guys did; they captured everything on tape, ok?

After 1995 when the Ramadan fast was over, Kudirat left Abuja and returned to Lagos. The journalists were after her. What happened? Instead of her to say that she had access to Abiola and that things were being worked out between Abacha and Abiola just as agreed with Abacha, the woman was her principled self. And Abacha was expecting her to say that Abiola had renounced his mandate, the woman said no and told us that the man was committed to his mandate more than any other thing.

Abacha got mad that this was not the agreement. So he now sent words to Kudirat to apologize for all press interviews. He wanted Kudirat to apologize to him for what she said to journalists. Abacha called the late Oba Oyebade Lipede, the then Alake of Egba. Abacha instructed the Oba to personally bring Kudirat to Aso Rock to apologize for the public disgrace. Haven’t you seen the Nigerian constitution? A monarch virtually has no power. A Local Government Chairman can remove a king. So Abacha was so audacious and wanted Alake of Egba to do a police job. They had no power under Abacha. Abacha arrogated absolute power to himself. That is why he was able to steal. If you became an ordinary governor in Nigeria, you would never be poor. There were no check and balances. Very lawless.

So Alake now sent for Kudirat to come to Abeokuta and when she got to the palace, Alake now told her that this is what Abacha said “you have caused problem again oh, Abacha said I must bring you to Aso Rock”.

Kudirat said “over my dead body. I would prefer to die than going to see him to apologize”.

Oba Lipede relayed the message back to Abacha. Abacha now sent words back to Kudirat through Oba Lipede that was what she would get… that she would die. This is the story as Kudirat told me during the few minutes we were able to talk in Alagbon.

She was planning to go to Canada on exile. I met the Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria; Dr. Gerald Olsen before I left Nigeria. Olsen was one big guy like this. I asked what he felt the Canadian High Commission could do for me and it was the man who gave me a note to the Canadian High Commission in Ghana, that there was nothing they could do from Lagos that I should look at the pathetic case of Kudirat. She came the same way I came, expressed her fears that she feared for Abacha’s plan to kill her. Olsen said Canada was willing to risk her relations with Nigeria to help her out because she was afraid of what happened between her and Abacha. The man has since been posted away from Nigeria. Dr. Gerald Olsen. She came to see him a week before she was killed. He was telling me that I had to first escape from Nigeria to get any assistance. He gave me a note to their office in Ghana.
Hassan Sani Kotagora was generally believed to be a hate theorist for the cabal and the oligarchy. How did he end up being detained with you?

Thank you very much. There were several Igbos too. Several bankers were clamped into jail thinking they were the ones giving us money. What Abacha was doing to the South was what Hitler did to the Jews. He thought they were funneling money to us in the trenches. I told you that Abacha and Babangida had that animosity in the last two years of the administration. I got to know in Alagbon while I was there.

Hassan Sanni Kotagora owed some money, about N76m. He was arrested for owing that much. Some Northern leaders intervened on his behalf, Abacha refused saying he had to cough out what he owed.

So the leaders were now sent to Babangida to assist in talking to Abacha. And Babangida allegedly said he had not been talking to Abacha and that he would prefer to pay the money. He sent the check and the money was paid. And that was the ransom for Hassan Sanni Kotagora’s release. He did their dirty job and that still did not save him from their anger.

That is the tragedy.

Now to current events; do you think President Obama will ever visit Nigeria?

What are you and I here for? You think we’ll be watching? Why am I in Chicago? Both in his first and second terms, Obama will never go to Nigeria. Are you even sure there will be a country called Nigeria by 2016 when Obama would have finished his second term?

Why did you say so? What will happen?

You wait and see. Events will happen at such a dizzying speed that Nigerians themselves will be so shocked and surprised that they won’t believe what is happening. Let me tell you, a nation doesn’t fall and disintegrate at once, it first begins to crack and all of a sudden, it’s no more. Leave through history and review how nations fell and eventually disintegrated. Those who are still holding Nigeria together as a nation are not more than a handful, praying for that nation; Adeboye, Ukpai, Okonkwo, Oritsejafor, Akinola, Abiara, Makinde, Oyedepo and others. That is why that country is still intact; I am talking to you spiritually now. That grace will soon be removed and you wait and see.

Do you mean the Niger Delta crisis? You think it will not be contained?

A more deadly crisis is in the offing, in fact, there will soon be series of crises that those who are milking Nigeria will be taken aback. That country will soon divide, mark my words. I want you to go and note this interview. It shan’t be long.

Are you saying there is nothing that can be done to reposition Nigeria?

Not in the current situation, not the way the few cabal destroying that country is burring its head in the sand like the proverbial ostrich pretending all is well. The nucleus and life wire of Nigeria is oil; very soon, that spigot won’t pump oil any more. Meanwhile, people in the Western world will not need oil anymore. You live here in the United States and you know what I am talking about. Nigeria is not the giant of Africa. I don’t know where we got this funny idea from, at best, Nigeria is a big for nothing country. If population is what a nation needs to become a world leader, China and India should have been world leaders. Nigeria swaggers on the world stage as the giant of Africa because oil is a powerful tool in international political power equation. Those days will soon be over and by the time the leaders have nothing to steal any more, the party will soon be over. If those curmudgeons in Nigeria have senses, they should read and read the
speech President Obama delivered in Accra, Ghana last week.
Do you think General Ibrahim Babangida will ever be brought to book?

As long as he stays in Nigeria, fly to Monaco where most of his loot is hidden and Switzerland. But we are waiting for him in America. All the houses he and Abacha and their cronies bought in Arizona, Washington DC, Texas and Virginia through fronts are under watch. We are waiting for him to step into the US soil. There are tons of documents we have on him and we’re waiting for the day he will enter America. Don’t ask me who are the “they.” I won’t say more than that.