Independent editorial Okigbo hunting debt December 28, 2006 | posted by Nigerian Muse (Archives)

Daily Independent

Sunday May 22, 2005

Pius Okigbo: When the dead haunts the living 

Nnamdi  Okosieme

Lagos

  One of the salient features of politics is its accent on the securing of advantage over an opponent. The politician must strive to be one step ahead of his foes at every turn. In Nigeria, politicians use means fair and foul to ensure that they not only secure an advantage over their ‘political enemies’ but also destroy them completely.

The re-emergence into public consciousness of the Pius Okigbo Report on the reform of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), after being declared

‘missing’ by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, has ignited debate as to the timing of its re-appearance. Watchers of politics believe that the report, which is the product of a panel set up on January 19, 1994 by the government of General Sani Abacha under the chairmanship of renowned economist, Dr. Pius Nwabufo Okigbo, to reform and re-organise the Central Bank, is aimed at torpedoing the presidential ambition of former head of state, General Ibrahim Babangida.

Two years ago, leading Nigerian news daily, The Punch, had made frantic efforts to get a copy of the report from the Obasanjo government but had run into a brick wall. Repeated searches at the office of the Secretary to Government of the Federation, Chief Ufot Ekaette, who was a member of the panel that produced the report, failed to yield fruit.

In a letter the newspaper wrote to the government in October of last year, it informed the administration that its search had led it to Alhaji Ibrahim Idah, a former Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance, who was believed to be in possession of a copy of the report.

In a reply to the letter, the government through Ekaette, informed The Punch that, “we have since written to Idah to send us a copy of the report. We are still awaiting his response.

To compound the difficulties the newspaper faced, President Obasanjo was reported to have retorted in response to a question on the whereabouts of the report that:

 “I don’t have the report. In fact, I don’t know if any such report existed. I will be happy if anyone can give me the report.”

Many read in that statement an attempt by Obasanjo to shield Babangida, who apart from being a former military head of state like himself, was rumoured to have facilitated his election as a civilian President in 1999. The President’s response always squared with his stout resistance of the clamour by Nigerians to drag the wily General before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commision headed by Assistant Commissioner of Police, Nuhu Ribadu. The President had told those making the demand to furnish him with details of Babangida’s alleged corrupt practices, as his government did not have anything on the General.

The dramatic appearance of the report in the public domain via publication in one of Nigeria’s leading news magazines tends to indicate that it has become a tool in Nigeria’s politics of blackmail, with Babangida as intended victim.

With 2007 less than two years away and as the scramble for politicians to replace Obasanjo as president intensifies, politicking has assumed a do-or die hue. The President himself has been repeatedly accused of plotting to stay beyond 2007 when his second term in office expires. His critics point to a number of signals to buttress their argument. The National Political Reforms Conference holding in Abuja where a sizeable number of the delegates were directly handpicked by Obasanjo and the dramatic appearance of the draft constitution at the conference are some of reasons Obasanjo’s opponents believe the man does not intend to leave Aso Rock in 2007.

Those who believe the presidency may have had a hand in the release of the report recall the recent drama over comments reported to have been made by Ribadu while attending a conference in South Africa to the effect that Babangida was under probe and that people like him would not rule Nigeria again. Although Ribadu denied making such comments, insisting he had been quoted out of context, there is the feeling in some quarters that Ribadu’s EFCC might be on the trail of those that are likely to imperil the President’s third term bid. This thinking is fuelled by Obasanjo’s recent admission that intense pressure is being put on him by certain individuals to run for a third term. When this is added to the open campaign for Obasanjo to run for office in 2007 by Greg Mbadiwe, a one-time Nigeria’s ambassador to Congo Democratic Republic and son of first republic politician, Kingsley Mbadiwe, then it becomes clear that the publication of the report is clearly a strategic move by those seeking to make it impossible for Babangida to run for the presidency in 2007.

The emergence of the report is bound to take the wind out of the former head of state’s political sails. For years, reports in the media had indicated that the Okigbo Panel report indicted him, Abacha and former Central Bank governor, Abdulkadir Ahmed, for misusing proceeds of Dedicated Accounts made up of receipts from crude oil. The sum of $12.2 billion out of a total $12.4 billion that accrued into the accounts were being expended without recourse to due process.

Today, Nigerians have come face to face with the report, and its contents confirm what had long been reported. In his speech on the occasion of the submission of the report to General Abacha, Okigbo stated:

“Your excellency instructed us to examine the use of  Dedication and Special Accounts. These were established in 1988 to house the proceeds of the sale of crude oil dedicated to special projects and to receive the windfall oil revenue from the Gulf war. Between September 1988 and June 30, 1994, US $12.4 billion had been recorded in these accounts. That US $12.2 billion was liquidated in less than six years; that they were spent on what could neither be adjudged high priority nor truly regenerative investment; that neither the president nor the governor accounted to anyone for these massive extra-budgetary expenditures; that these disbursements were clandestinely undertaken while the country was openly reeling with crushing external debt overhang-these represent sir, no matter the initial justification for creating the accounts, a gross abuse of public trust.”

In the report proper, specifically in Section 7.148 dealing with the scope of expenditure in the Dedication and Special Accounts, the report observed that:

“The use of Dedication Account had been stretched far beyond its original scope. Further, the utilisation of the stabilisation account had completely undermined its fiscal objectives. The list of projects to be serviced from the Dedication and other Special Accounts which had been referred to earlier did indeed contain some projects of importance to the rest of the economy. However, there were many large projects of doubtful viability and many more of clearly misplaced priority. In addition, these Dedication and Special Accounts had become a parallel budget for the presidency.”

The report also vindicates William Keeling, the British journalist who in July 1, 1991 edition of the Financial Times, among other things wrote that:

“As a result of the high level of public expenditure, the potential benefits of the windfall gained last year from higher than anticipated oil-earning resulting from the Gulf Crisis may have been lost. Oil export receipts last year amounted to $13.2 billion, up from $7.5 billion in 1989… As the return to civilian rule approaches, the legacy of the current government is in danger of being that of an economy weakened by a heavy and unjustified spending programme. As recent events bear witness, economic development is not dependent on higher export earnings, but on transparent and accountable government.”

It was a scathing report and one that thoroughly infuriated Babangida that he had Keeling deported.

A master strategist, Babangida is sure to move to repair whatever damage the report may have caused his political ambition. For now, he is taking stock even as Nigerians opposed to his presidential ambition believe that the report could not have been released at a better time.

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