₦airaland Forum

Launching of the Kano Foundation in 1986

Look at the names of the two highest donors: Alhaji Aminu Dantata and Alhaji Isyaku Rabiu. Aminu Dantata's grandnephew, Aliko Dangote, is currently the richest man in Nigeria, while Khalifa Isyaku Rabiu's son, Abdulsamad Isyaku Rabiu, is currently the second richest man.

Alhaji Dan Kabo of Kabo Airlines also donated some money in the name of Kabo Holdings.

I told you that President Babangida would usually personally donate a few thousand naira and then donate a few million on behalf of the Federal Government. Gani Fawehinmi sued him because of the donations on behalf of government ( "Where did the money come from? How can you donate money that is not budgeted for"? ).

However, in this case Generals Babangida and Abacha only donated personally, there was no donation on behalf of government (probably because the institution was not a government institution).

This was an event for the Kano Foundation which was launched on March 1st, 1986.

Triumph Newspaper is owned by the Kano State Government. It was established by the administration of Governor Rimi in 1980.

This post was part of my MKO Abiola series which I originally posted in 2018.

naptu2:
Post 1 B

Donation circuit

The donation circuit was not a formal organisation, but it’s the way that I refer to a phenomenon that occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s (the Babangida era).

Some of Nigeria’s wealthiest men were often invited to specific events in which they donated large sums of money. These events included fund raising in churches and mosques, university convocations, book launching and fund raising activities by universities, secondary schools, community development associations and charities.

It was usually the same set of people that were invited to these events. The president was usually the special guest of honour (when he was invited), the governor was usually the chief host, the head of the institution was usually the host, Chief Abiola was usually the chief launcher and other members of the donation circuit were usually special guests.

There was a day that I watched the 9 o’clock news and there was an advert for one of these events and the invited guests were listed. There was another advert immediately after and the list of invited guests was almost exactly the same as the list in the previous advert.

The members of the donation circuit included Chief MKO Abiola, Alhaji Aminu Dantata, Chief Sunny Odogwu, Chief Gabriel Igbinedion, Chief Molade Okoya-Thomas, Chief Razak Okoya, Prince Adedapo Tejuosho, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki, Prince Adekunle Ojora, Chief Onwuka Kalu (Onwuka Inter-Biz), Alhaji Ahmed Mai Deribe, Chief Michael Ibru, Dr Alex Ibru, Chief Sunny Okogwu, Chief Wahab Iyanda Folawiyo, Alhaji Grema Mohammed, Chief Francis Arthur Nzeribe, Alhaji Isyaku Rabiu, Dr Olusola Saraki, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, etc.

Members of the original committee that was set up by President Babangida to build a new national stadium in Abuja were drawn from members of the donation circuit. Chief MKO Abiola was the chairman and chiefs Sunny Odogwu, Gabriel Igbinedion, etc. were members of the committee (I can still remember the news item about the inauguration of the committee on the Network News). The committee was charged with raising funds for the stadium, selecting a location for the stadium, etc.

The president, who was the visitor to the federal universities, often attended convocations and fund raising events at these universities and he usually donated some money (usually millions of naira) on behalf of the Federal Government and he usually made a second donation (usually thousands of naira) on behalf of himself and his family. The president also sometimes donated money to groups like PMAN and the Nigerian Bar Association.

Chief Gani Fawehinmi sued President Babangida because of these donations. He said that the other members of the donation circuit were private people who were donating their own money, but the president was donating government money. “Were the funds that were donated in the budget? What gave the president the right to spend money that was not in the budget?”

Sometimes, when the event was a book launch, one of the members of the donation circuit would buy a large number of the books and donate them to the libraries of all universities in Nigeria (or the libraries of all secondary schools in Nigeria).

Chief MKO Abiola attended a lot of these events. Quite often in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, the first item on the 9 o’clock news was about President Babangida, while the second item was often about Chief Abiola. I remember a particular day that they showed him attending an event in one city and then the next news item was about another event that he attended in another town on that same day and we were wondering how he went from one event to the other. Well, they showed him getting into a helicopter at the end of the second news item, so he flew by helicopter from one event to the other. Chief Abiola donated to schools, churches, mosques, charities, etc. He donated to causes and institutions across the whole of Nigeria, from Lagos to Maiduguri, from Calabar to Sokoto, from Kano to Port Harcourt and everywhere in between.

These events were not without their controversies and strange incidents.

The protocol back in the day was that the doors were locked whenever either President Babangida or Admiral Aikhomu arrived at the venue of an event and nobody is allowed in or out until either the president or the CGS is ready to leave. There was an event at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) on Kofo Abayomi Street, Victoria Island, a regular venue for these fund raising events back in the day. Both Admiral Aikhomu and President Babangida were already in the hall. Chief MKO Abiola arrived late and the SSS guards at the door refused to allow him into the hall. He identified himself, showed them his invitation card and did everything that he could to get in, but they would not allow anyone in, no matter who the person was. There was commotion at the door. He was eventually able to give a message to someone that was already in the hall and the person got the message to Admiral Aikhomu. The CGS sent his ADC to tell the guards at the door to let Chief Abiola in.

(This is one of two incidents that Chief Abiola had with security agencies c1992. The other was the incident that involved Deji Abiola and an Air Force officer in Ikeja).

There was a funny incident that occurred at one of these events. Alhaji Aminu Dantata was often invited to these events, but he was not a regular member of the donation circuit. He only attended the events occasionally. I remember what happened at an occasion that he attended.

Chief Abiola had already announced his donation before Dantata was invited to make his donation. Alhaji Dantata’s donation was slightly higher than Chief Abiola’s. Sometime later Chief Abiola came back to the microphone and announced that he was going to pledge more money later.

This particular incident is not connected to Chief Abiola in any way, but it was probably the most bizarre incident to happen on the donation circuit.

I was ill and a lot of people came to check up on me. It was a Saturday and the TV was on and the NTA News came on while we were watching it. There was a report about one of these fund raising events. It was a small event, only one of the members of the donation circuit was present and that was Chief Sunny Okogwu (not to be confused with Chief Sunny Odogwu).

They announced the amount of money that he donated and one of the women that came to see me screamed. It was a crazy amount of money. “Where did he get that kind of money?” she shouted.

That incident dominated the headlines the next day and then came an explanation from Chief Okogwu. (I can’t remember the exact amounts, so the figures here are just for illustration purposes). He said that the organisers of the event wanted to raise 50 million naira for a project. The organisers probably did not expect him to actually attend the event. When they saw him at the event, they jacked up the figure to 200 million naira and tried to cajole him to donate a lot of money. This angered him and he decided to punish the organisers. He announced that he was donating 1 billion naira, but, in actual fact, he did not intent to give them a kobo.

Chief Abiola’s donations resulted in the construction of at least 63 secondary schools, 121 mosques and churches, 41 libraries and 24 water projects in states across Nigeria. He was the grand patron of 149 societies and associations and he was conferred with 197 chieftaincy titles from 68 communities across Nigeria. He was also conferred with honorary degrees by many universities around the world.

Previous thread:

Alhaji Aminu Dantata Is Dead
https://www.nairaland.com/8461802/alhaji-aminu-dantata-dead

O boy!,10 meters in 1986? Baba Olowo be hold RBS scatter.

Me seeing Abacha's 5k in the donation 😂😂😂... I know it's big money then sha... But kudos to the Ibo community as at then

10 million naira then is like 5 billion naira today

How many times will this same topic grace the front page this year?

Make Una rest naa.

Imagine 10 million at that year hmmmm🤔

Who messed this country up like this

See money. That money is like 1 billion now o. RIP man

That's huge money back then. This man lived a fulfilling life

Old millionaire.
Many old millionaire are genuine millionaires.
Unlike today where many millionaires are questionable.
Old money have so much value.

oluayebenz:
Imagine 10 million at that year hmmmm🤔

Who messed this country up like this

People were saying the same thing about Nigeria in 1986 that we say today

What messed up the country? Oil dependency

Omo..... See money Na water gang......
1million back then will be like 500million nowadays

udemzyudex:
How many times will this same topic grace the front page this year?

Make Una rest naa.

As in eh

It's a slow news day.

As if the information will bring about end to insecurity in nigeria

oluayebenz:
Imagine 10 million at that year hmmmm🤔

Who messed this country up like this

oil money..
We depend too much on oil money nowadays

Who was that Air-Com. that donated N3k? Boy, I for make history now if I manage to donate 20k then 🤔

Confiture:
See money. That money is like 1 billion now o. RIP man

One Billion ke? That fund should be in the range of 6-10bn in today's Naira.

Nicely done ✔️ 👏.
The Dantata family is a poor house in Nigeria and africa.

oluayebenz:
Imagine 10 million at that year hmmmm🤔

Who messed this country up like this

Babangida started it. He was the beginning of all the problems Nigeria is facing now. Because the Buhari/Idiagbon government before him were so disciplined and working towards making Nigeria great. But you see that man call IBB, is a disgrace to the nation. It was during his era that this 419 guys blossomed and that was a big wrong move for Nigeria. In all, nothing good came out from Babangida rulling for 9 years.

That's like a billion naira now.... Some people Don get money Tey Tey oh... Abacha and banbangida finished dis country.... Imagine 5k and 25k were amongst the big donors

Btruth:
Who is that Air-Com. that is donating N3k? Boy, I for make history now if I manage to donate 20k then 🤔

Air Vice Marshal Hamza Abdullahi was a former governor of Kano and former minister of the FCT.

Igbo community 100k. thats like $100k dollars today

But they can't help a dying individual privately.
Why is life like this?

10millon naira in 1986 is something huge, damn!. This is real wealth..not some broke niggies with a few hundred thousand in their account shouting money na water upandan

Can you imagine in 1986? Oboyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.
This man was really rich

Confiture:
See money. That money is like 1 billion now o. RIP man

Way more than 1 billion naira. 10 million then is likely not less than 10 billion naira 2day.

I would like to know how much the "accomodators" gave?

10million naira in 1986 is equivalent to 8,454,982,866.91naira at the beginning of 2025.

Please Not enough original content
Please take a moment to write a quality post with at least 40 characters.

So Make we fry penipples
Atleast Abiola and Iwuanyanwu were donating for projects across the country then. He was fixated on Kano and surroundings..
I don't rate him..