OBASANJO, HAPPY OVER WESTERN COUNTRIES ECONOMIC TROUBLE?

 Icheoku is at a lost that former Nigeria President Olusegun Obasanjo felt elated over the economic woes militating against many Western countries of Europe. The former Nigeria president speaking at his investiture as the First Grand Patron of Nigeria-China Business Council (NCBC) Lagos Nigeria recently, expressed gratitude to God for Western countries economic quagmire. According to Olusegun Obasanjo, “While Europe is wobbling and fumbling; thank God for that; America since 2008 has not come out of economic recession. I doubt if it will not affect Obama’s second tenure.” 

So Icheoku asks Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, what is it to be grateful that people are suffering and why he is rejoicing for the deep six most economies of the West are in or is he manifesting his notorious sadistic behavior, jubliating at other people's tribulation? Such expressed lack of empathy is rather unbecoming of a former president and an aspiring world's statesman and should be condemned. Icheoku therefore decries Mr Olusegun Obasanjo's remarks as being off the mark, having strayed off the reservation of diplomatic speaking. It is indeed very careless and reckless a statement to make.

OBASANJO DESERVES SADAM HUSSEIN'S FATE?

If anyone was in doubt why the struggle for a third term by Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo was a do or die situation for him, this will clear it up! If anyone was still questioning why the erstwhile chairman of EFCC, Nuhu Ribadu deserved to go or the wisdom behind his reassignment to a policy school, this will also explain it; as the hitherto clean bill of health he gave to his mentor, Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo, clearing him of all corruption was ill conceived and not based on reasonable grounds whatsoever. The mask is now off and the face of corruption personified has been revealed in the person of Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo.

The news commentary titled " Probe noose tightens on Obasanjo" written by one Ikenna Emewu of Sun Newspapers, Nigeria is very insightful of the abyss wherein the medicine man of Otta, Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo drove Nigeria into. Should Olusegun Obasanjo be held accountable for his atrocious regime? You bet! Should Olusegun Obasanjo be made to pay restitution for all the Nigeria State's misappropriated resources under his regime, speedily! Should Olusegun Obasanjo be sent back to prison wherein he came from to Aso Rock in June 1999, there is nothing wrong with this line of action; considering the flagrant abuse of human rights and economic pillage witnessed under his regime. As you have noticed, his government is herein referred to as a regime - this is because he ran a one man show, he operated as the king of the manor, the alpha and the omega whose wish must be carried out without any question. In other words, Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo was imperial! He ruled Nigeria by fiat and terror was his beloved weapon of choice. Where is Attorney General Bola Ige, Funso Williams, and a retinue of other deads who mysteriously were killed under his regime? This army mechanic from Otta, Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo deserves all that is being thrown at him, and this is simply the beginning of dirts yet to come his way. Let no eyelid bat should he end up back in prison where he came from or better still in the gallows for his crimes of extermination against the Odi community of Bayelsa State and genocide against the Zaki Ibiam people of Benue State. In the Philippines, the conviction of their erstwhile 73years old President Estrada for crimes while in office, shows that economic crimes is a serious crime against a people and Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo is as such, vulnerable. Please enjoy the chronicle of Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo's lack of love for country, Nigeria! Happy trails! What is your verdict? What do you think will be the most appropriate punishment for this megalomaniac despotic sadist? Please share your thoughts with Icheoku and together we shall fight the good cause - the ills of Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo's regime from June 1999 to May 2007! Always remember that silence is a tacit acquiescence so don't be a corroborator, take a stand and speak up! Here now following is the referenced news commentary:-

"Take an analysis of the contents of newspapers in the country in the past four months. By the time you have a closer observation of the news content, you would find out that matters relating to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the former president constitute the bulk of the news. But funny enough, most of those news items don’t say well of the man. Most times, with the exception of a social/moral scandal that was in a family nature, others have been on corruption, sleaze, truncating of due process and unhealthy details involving conducts in office. These allegations portray the man who crowned himself the guardian angel of anti-corruption in a pitiable light.

While Nigerians expected to see garlands for him when he leaves office as a reason of his loud mouthing of the war against corruption, it has been an antithesis.With these bad developments all around Mr. Ex-President, it is possible the future of his freedom from stains of confirmed corruption would soon get foggy and at last shattered. Obasanjo has been on the firing line for too long over the role of his government in condoning corruption and the disregard for order in official transactions when he was in Aso Rock. Although it had been very bad before now, but the probe of the power sector scandal under him actually ripped open the underbelly of eight years of institutionalized corruption. It has been the tenure of dirges at the House of Representatives as everyday of the panel’s sitting brings fresh news of how one man stole and the other caught him in the act. When we are not told of how contracts running into hundreds of millions of dollars were awarded and approval given on phone under a mango tree, we will go home with tales of how certain ‘sacrifices’ were offered in Aso Rock to appease some gods of that area who needed raw money in billions of naira to stay out of the way.

The barrage on the former president comes in all directions and there seem to be no hiding place for him. A little before President Umar Yar’Adua came to power, a prominent politician from Ogun State told a pressman in confidence that he is praying that Obasanjo hands over power to Yar’Adua. The reason for his prayer being that the pressure Nigeria will bring on the new president would be too much to bear and there will be no alternative to probing his days in office. While it looked like there would be a hiding place for Obasanjo from public fire, the probe of the power sector came like a bang, and the rump of the fowl looked bare and scorched. The tip on the power sector decay has triggered off a typhoon of other odds in almost all facets of that regime that bedeviled Nigeria for eight years. There seem to be one thing or another to probe in all major sectors of the former regime of Obasanjo.

NNPC: In about 2003, after the elections, Nigerians were confronted with a strong rumour that the Obasanjo’s government laundered money through the NNPC when Jackson Gaius-Obaseki was the head of that milking cow. The gist was that N320 billion missed their way from the coffers of NNPC, and many insisted that was the money funneled into Obasanjo’s presidential campaign in 2003.We heard then that the House of Representatives was set to probe Gaius-Obaseki’s tenure and what happened to the money. At last nothing came out of it, and the matter was buried as usual. In Obasanjo’s days, there were some contracts for turn-around maintenance for the refurbishing of the refineries in Kaduna and Port Harcourt. But at last, none of the contracts was done. Funny enough, at the eve of Obasanjo’s exit in 2007, he approved the sale of the Port Harcourt Refinery to people believed to be his cronies at a sum far less than what he paid a contractor to refurbish it.Just last week, Engr. Lawal Yar’Adua, the GMD of NNPC lamented at the Kaduna Refinery at the commissioning of the rehabilitated facility that Obasanjo messed up the NNPC. He was specific to say that the former helmsman made sure good people were shut out in the management of the oil upstream sector, while he had preferences for acolytes who managed the place for personal interests.All the cries of Nigerians to relax the policy of import of refined petroleum products never touched the anti-corruption agent as those that got the license to import fuel were men of his kitchen cabinet.

PTDF: The worst public scam Nigeria ever witnessed was in the PTDF probe by the Senate. That probe was a mega waste where the Senate at last just patted Obasanjo on the back and lightly cautioned him to be more careful next time. Truly, they admitted he was wrong in his approach to approve monies for every kind of frivolous projects including a 607 car bought for her girlfriend according to Atiku Abubakar’s revelations. The same man was indicted for paying certain lawyer a staggering N250m as professional fee for the registration of a company, Galaxy Backbone that no Nigerian knows its destination till date. If this sector is to be probed now, there will be enough skeletons to fill a bottomless pit.

Ajaokuta Steel Company: That project which started in the 1970s remains the highest loss the state of Nigeria ever incurred. From inception till now, it has been from one tale of woes of how a Russian firm refused to build the plant according to agreement or how debts got so huge like a mountain and someone had to buy it back or front. It became a sinkhole that never got filled. First of all, Obasanjo approved the debt buy-back for the Ajaokuta steel mill in 2000 from evil foreigners who had taken possession. The real irony is that late Gen. Abacha who was reputed for evil and corruption had refused to touch the debt buy-back fraud with the longest pole imaginable. But that which Abacha loathed because it was dirty, Obasanjo embraced. Likewise, while no TAM contract for the refineries was executed in Obasanjo’s days, but the nation still believes that the TAM contract awarded certain Chrome Oil by Abacha for the PH refinery remains the best work done there.After the debt buy-back, another deal was struck in Aso Rock where people believed to have been Obasanjo’s aides brought in other Indians. One of such aides was a very powerful one who operated for Baba at home and later wanted to be an oga in a political field. At a point, the speculation was that the Obasanjo Empire bought the Steel mill through one of the sons. But later, the son who was always pointed at as the agent denied, saying that his name was wrongly used as a front in what he was never part of.A little before the final pronouncement that died the Ajaokuta sale, there was a spree of looting of even railway line iron bars by those who bought it over. They had been anticipating that the deal would go awry, as a result, there was a free for all stealing and recovery of anything retrievable. It is believed that the despoliation of Ajaokuta Company, which is close to, Ogaminana in Kogi State led to a clash between youths of the town and the police during which about 50 of the villagers were felled by police bullets sometime in early March. The people of the town wanted to protect the facilities and the looters had to bring in marksmen to shoot them down.

Railways: One of the major privatisation hypes the Obasanjo regime stouted was the letting out of the railways to Chinese firms. The value of the privatisation was in billions of dollars. At last nothing, not even a bar of iron was brought into Nigeria by any Chinese firm. The project died a natural death after the Aso Rock agent who was in charge died in a plane crash in Lisa. The money realized from the sale supposedly and the shady transactions would shock anybody when exposed.

Airways: Between 1999 and year 2000, the Obasanjo’s regime set up the Justice Obiora Nwazota Panel to look into fraud in Aviation, with special focus on the Nigeria Airways. This reporter covered the sittings of the panel at the premises of the Ikeja High Court annex. The panel took its time to review the issues and at last made recommendations. But unfortunately for Justice Nwazota and his colleagues, one of the persons their findings indicted was named as a major financier of the Obasanjo campaign in 1999. The panel had recommended that the man refund money he stole and should be prosecuted. But nothing beyond that report happened as some of the indicted persons were already sitting pretty as members of the Obasanjo’s regime.Instead of the report implementation, Obasanjo’s regime later brought up the sale of the Nigerian Airways. We were later told that two bodies became beneficiaries of the left over of the properties of the rested airways. There were also reports that the man formerly in Aso Rock was a major backer. After some more hoodwinking, one of the arrowheads of the new beneficiary firms had to find his way into import and installation of turbines to power the IPP project that is now a major source of bad blood. It has not been clear the relationship IPP turbines hawking has with metal kites, which the man also has interest in other than the avarice to dominate all sectors of the economy by one man.

Transcorp and NITEL: Transcorp was like the icing on the cake of the looting goons to make sure every juicy sector was cornered. There was hyper hype when Transcorp came on board. The picture created before Nigerians was that it would do wonders and make jobs available to every Nigerian. But no matter the names that were touted as directors and the brains behind it, it did not take long for Nigerians to see through the façade and decode the owners. Transcorp later had a major shareholding from the Obasanjo Farms in Ota and handled the procurement of its machinery.Today, we hear some interested persons who are now out of power later admitted to having hands in Transcorp and have been arm twisted to forfeit their bulk shares in the company.As the fire of the angst raged over how Transcorp bought over NITEL without paying a dime, as against other buyers who had money to pay, workers in NITEL, Transcorp and Mtel still scream in empty stomach in protests everyday.

COJA: Nigeria hosted the All African Games when Obasanjo was in power and it was another great opportunity to siphon the nation’s economy. Every conceivable member of the Obasanjo immediate and extended family, including the dead and the living got contracts to either furnish apartments or supply toilet tissues. The contract sums came in billions and hundreds of millions.There was a joke then of how one of the masterminds of COJA from the sports ministry complained to another Aso Rock or near Aso Rock henchman that Baba was no longer picking his calls. The near Aso Rock man chided him for not living up to his bidding in rendering proper account to Baba. Just a day after, the same man whose calls had not been picked called Baba from Bauchi during a facility inspection only to be shocked by the alacrity with which his call was picked. Not just that, he got kind words from Baba who asked how he fared in the preparations. That was actually after something had been remitted by this servant who valued good advises.
Import waiversThe Nigeria Customs was in the thick of the gang-up with the presidency to make sure import waivers introduced in the Obasanjo days was used as settlement package. Many who got such waivers used it to import all manner of things including plastic chairs and canopies. The ploy was to get a waiver to import raw material that has little or no duty while the material actually brought in will be different. Revenue loss from this deal to the nation ran into hundreds of billions of naira, a fact the Customs has been very busy burying. Saturday Sun sometime in the past exposed part of the deal.

EFCC’s "questionable" clean bill of health: In the face of all these open and patent crimes and absurdities, the EFCC, the agency Obasanjo set up to fight corruption sometime last year, in the days of Nuhu Ribadu as leader gave the former president a clean bill. EFCC insisted that there was nothing wrong with Obasanjo’s record, he was far from corruption, and indeed, nothing bad happened to Nigeria during his days.Surprisingly, EFCC recently said again that it is investigating Obasanjo again. We are all waiting and watching for the day the next clean bill will come his way. But it is possible the noose tightens everyday around Obasanjo’s neck and some day we will see the ‘clean’ man in dock facing trial for corruption and abuse of office."