IBB report no indictment

Former military president, General Ibrahim Baban-gida yesterday reiterated his defence of what he said was the misconception in the public domain regarding his alleged indictment by the late Dr. Pius Okigbo Panel on the misapplication of over $12.4bn oil windfall. "I was never indicted by the Okigbo report," he said.

Babangida, in a televised programme "The Sunday Interview" aired on the African Independent Television (AIT) also dismissed the allegations that he corruptly enriched himself while in power.

While saying the allegation lacked proof, he said, "I did challenge and still do for anyone who can come forward and look me in the face and say I struck a deal with him to come forward with proof."

On the Okigbo report which purportedly indicted him over his handling of the oil windfall, Babangida said "I am comfortable with the Pius Okigbo report. May his soul rest in peace. I read it and I know he was quoted out of context. Okigbo had a term of reference which was specifically not on oil windfall but on the administration between June 1988 to 1994."

According to him, "there is no way the country could have earned $12.4bn in a year. During my tenure, oil price fluctuated between $8 to $10 and we never received that kind of money even with the so-called windfall."

Babangida said evidence of this "is as simple as arithmetic. This misconception is a product of people who hate IBB with a passion and would stop at nothing to bring him down. I want people to still investigate."

On the recent claim by a foreigner that he had proof that Babangida had laundered over $20 billion while in government, he said, "all these allegations have not gotten to the level of proof. Financial transactions worldwide have changed drastically. You have an elite in the society that is lazy. It should ask if one man can strike a deal for $3bn. Maybe people do not realise what a billion is."

"If you have that kind of money, you would be chased around the world and investigated. But $20bn, there would be no hiding place for such a man. Apart from lawyers and media people, who still dwell on this falsehood, successive governments are aware of these monetary circumstances. Why then do you pursue a non-issue?" he asked.

In justifying why his administration adopted the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), he said, "the programme was an homegrown economic policy which was adopted in the 80's to introduce fundamental structural economic changes that, even though hurt, was designed to change our old habits. We are being vindicated today."

He disagreed with the view that SAP brought about the current hardship on people."No. Any measure you put in place, whether in government or elsewhere, there are unintended consequences that would emanate from them when you start implementing.

"Government started at that time by trying to cushion the effects of SAP to help the low income groups. That is normal in every government. In the 90's the whole world economy was changing, in Russia, we had the perestroika and glasnost. Government could not continue to be the sole motivation of the economy. We adapted to current changes then," he explained On why he threw the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan open to public debate, Babangida said "in 1985 when we came in, there was a lot of debate between 1982 to '84 on the desirability of collecting the loan or not."

According to him, "the General Muhammadu Buhari administration had it on its agenda, so we knew it was an existing burning issue that could not be ignored and we threw it open to debate to provide a forum for even market people to contribute." Babangida rationalised that the essence of the debate was that "we wanted to have the feelings of the people. For one year, the debate raged on in different forms and when eventually it was rounded up, I came and addressed the nation and the popular opinion was that we should not take it and we did not."

He stated that "we made it clear that there would be sacrifices and we came up with our own homegrown economic policies. We reduced our debt service ratio from 44 percent downwards, even though people still said we were implementing IMF prescriptions."

On why the naira started sliding during his tenure, Babangida said "I left office with naira changing at $1 to N18. One basic thing is that to strengthen the naira, we have to stimulate internal production. It was not possible to do this because capacity utilisation was low."

He explained that the recurrence of coups in the polity was as a result of frustration. "People give us legitimacy for a coup to succeed. There must be frustration in the polity. In all the interventions from 1966 to date, there was frustration and the people gave these governments that emerged automatic legitimacy."

On the state of the economy, Babangida commended President Olusegun Obasanjo for the will power to continue with the on-going reform programme. "This is a process we started and left and now we are in the right direction," he said. Babangida however said contrary to misconceptions, "our administration never imported petroleum products even while we were deregulating. It is on record that my administration completed and commissioned one of the most sophisticated refineries in the history of this country."

According to him, "with a team of the best brains including Alhaji Rilwanu Lukman, Tam David-west, Jubril Aminu and S P Chu Okongwu, we mapped out a programme for turn around maintenance for our refineries and only imported products for bridging during the period. The records are there." On the critical position taken against his perceived 2007 ambition by Major General Ishola Williams (rtd), he said, "as a matter of policy, I don't join issues with my juniors. I joined the service before him and retired as a four star general. He left as a two-star general. I don't join issues with my subordinates no matter how highly placed."