LETTER TO IBB- Dangers of blind investment.

[Nuruddeen]

This letter was written to IBB by my close companion and confidant.Enjoy.




LETTER TO GENERAL BABANGIDA

DANGERS OF BLIND INVESTMENT

By Mahdi Shehu

shehuks@yahoo.com

May 18, 2005



Dear General I.B.B

This letter can be said to be a continuation of the two hours discussions I held with you, in your minna Hill top country home some times in January this year (2005) in the presence of two people who happen to be close to you. You may recall sir, that we discussed wide ranging issues, both domestic, regional, and global.

Among which were your involvement in all successful military coups in Nigeria from 1966 to 1985. In addition to your share in bringing corporate Nigeria to its present state of despair, despondency, hopelessness and uncertainty. We also touched on your alledged deployment of material inducement in addressing and or suppressing courageous dissenting views, views being expressed about the ways, manners and styles, you adopted in managing people and their resources relying heavily on Callous Market sources. Just like we discussed on your seeming obsession for power in spite of the inherent dangers therein. Similarly we discussed the general public perception about your alleged stupendous wealth and how you came about it. In addition to your sad, inordinate silence on Obasanjos cumulative disastrous outing, behaviors and despotic style of leadership. And we finally discussed your seeming desperation to preside over Nigeria again. And I painted to you a scenario of the likely hood of an Obasanjo scuttling all your come back bids for certain obvious strategic reasons.

My todays letter intends to communicate to you, my impression about you after putting together some silent and loud variables derived from within written records, that have to do with your utterances, actions, inactions and reactions to issues, events and circumstances within time and space.

And I intend to do that by correctly assuming that you are extra rational, just in the same way you are being reported as an extra smart retired general. Again to do that, I will place you within the contents and context of an investor.

When an individual or group of individuals decide to invest resources  either skills, monies or other portfolios, it is logically believed that it is for the purpose of reaping returns immediately or thereafter. Such returns may not neccessarily be in cash but may be in kind. Such as goodwill, prestige, enjoying protection from any form of official insults, assaults, harassment or intimidation. Just like it may come inform of official protection from unfavorable laws which if allowed to operate and apply freely, will not segregate based on social status, training, quantum of wealth or proximity to the seat of power.

Aggregate views of investment exports in political  economy insist that intending investors in business and all other endeavors including partisan politics must of necessity avoid investing blindly. And to avoid that means doing good home-work either directly or through paid expert proxies. It means avoiding open ended assumptions about duration and time frame. Just like the need to weigh properly, and review periodically the associated risks and likely benefits. Provisions must also be made as to how to minimize, avoid or cover those risks. Knowing fully well that there are certain risks that no insurance company will be willing to under write no matter the premium offered. Risks such as those arising from miscalculations that are based on fluid assumptions and blind to historical past.

Common sense demands that people respect the views of experts. Such as consulting you sir when it comes to certain military issues. Like planning against impending enemy attack or involving one self into a military adventure having to do with seizing power in a bloody or bloodless coup at home or abroad, or consulting prof. Soludo, the unqualified CBN Governor, as to how best to strangulate Banks and other financial institutions, without seeming to be selective, segregative, vindictive and or sadistic.

Discounting all the alledged genuine and deliberate mistakes associated with you both as young and senior military officer, inclusive of your eight years as military president of Nigeria, it appears increasingly difficult for one to see much compliance on your part, to the elementary rules of investment, particularly your huge financial and physical investment into Nigerias political activities from 1999 to date. The other day (22/04/05) Brig Haliru Akilu was on the air denying (swearing?) that you did not play a single role in bringing Obasanjo back to power. His stale views are in sharp contrast with that of Majority Nigerians including Obasanjo and your good self. Verifiable evidences abound, that you played prominent and epicentral role in getting Obasonjo released from prison. And thereafter, without counseling him you went ahead and drafted him in to politics, canvassed for selective peoples backing, raised huge sums of money for him and before one says jack, like in a holywood movie style, crowned him as the president of Nigeria.

Many, including this writer are of the firm conviction that while investing into the Gentleman Obasanjo Project, you surprisingly set aside, ignored, forgot and or betrayed the ingenuity you are always credited with even by your most jaundiced enemies, critics and detractors. You did not do your home work very well either. Your pre-investment evaluations and appraisals if any, were hazy, flimsy, clumsy, full of baseless or at best fluid assumptions rooted in unattainable and or out dated and selfish parameters. You did not weigh with relative precision, the short and long term risks, and consequences both on you and the larger society. You seem to have placed yourself and your personal interest first over the rest of us, in your lone desperate resolve to promote on continuous basis an Obasanjo, a man that so far means only trials, tribulations, tragedy and disaster to multitude of Nigerians. Even the elementary history of Paul Biya and Ahmadu Ahidjo of Cameroon have deserted you. You did not project into the future politically, perhaps again on the assumption that you possess the wisdom and ability to check the likely excesses of a wounded lion that you yourself nurtured and help to let loose from a safer custody in yola town.

Sir, there is a linear relationship between the past, present and even the foreseeable future. People who try to rediscover the past and relate it to the present are not likely to belong to the congregation and institution of the confused and the irrational nor are they likely to be found in deep slumber at a time when they need to remain awake, vigilant and alert in addition to the fact that they are likely to project in to the future with relative ease and success.

If you had made wider and sufficient consultations with both the high and the low, the haves and the have not, tested and trusted politicians, experienced public servants, crude oil magnets, the media industry, the wider military constituencies, the manufacturing sector, the voluntary sector, the various security networks at home and abroad, the traditional institutions, the international community etc, you would have acted differently in relation to Obasanjos second disastrous coming. Infact if you had summed up enough courage to shed off what ever genuine or imaginary fear or guilt that you had within yourself, if you had ignored sooth Sayers and praise singers, political lepers and hangers on, if you had reposed all of your confidence and trust in God almighty, if you had placed Mr. Obasanjo in proper historical context, you would have had pyramid  and empire of reasons enough to deter you permanently, perpetually and forever from having anything to do with Obasanjo talk less of supporting him to aspire for any political office even if it is for a councilor in his local government. That you supported him as you did, in such a speed and with often reported huge resources and influence call seriously into question the quality and sincerity of advice available to you if any. Some few examples might suffice to buttress some of my assertions

The PUNCH newspaper in its issue of 19th September 1979 published a headline with an inscription#2841 million oil money missing.   Worried by the latitude and dimension the story was taking by the day, president Shagari appointed a 6 men tribunal with ten terms of reference under the chairmanship of Hon. Justice Ayo irekefe OFR with Mr. V. A. G Warmate to serve as Secretary. The tribunal was sworn by the then chief of justice of the federation on Thursday 17th April 1980 and the tribunal itself commenced work on 22nd April 1980. While it started public hearing on 21st may 1980.

Altogether 64 people were issued with witness sermons to appear before the tribunal in order to give evidence in relation to the #2.8 Billion missing oil money. Those invited cut across the private sector, the public sector, the voluntary sector and if one may add, the gossip and wild rumor sector as represented by chief (late now) Tai Solarin and afro beat Fele Anikulapo Kuti (now late) all appeared in person except yours sincerely, Gen. Obasanjo who declined to appear in person but rather was represented by chief Rotimi Williams SAN (now late).

In his submissions before the tribunal and on behalf of general Obasanjo, chief Rotimi Williams opined and submitted that it would be undesirable for his client (Obasanjo) to testify on the matter before the tribunal, since the evidence sought was official in character and nature and could be tendered by any other official still in Government service.

Chief Rotimi Williams submission was in spite of the fact that  when the then Federal commissioner for petroleum resources and chairman of NNPC board, Brigadier General Muhammadu Buhari went abroad on course, General Obasanjo became the defector Federal Commissioner for petroleum resources in addition to chairman of NNPC board while still serving as head of state during the period 1st July 1979 to 30th September 1979.In addition to another fact that during the public sitting of the tribunal, General Obasanjo on the totality of evidences  before the tribunal, was involved in the fixing of prices for crude oil, granting of premiums and discounts. An observation made by one of the members of the tribunal, Sule A Kurfi.

In fact, in a minority report submitted by Sule. A Kurfi, a member of the tribunal states as follows his name (Obasanjo) has been mentioned by several witnesses in connection with the exercise of his power as head of state and commissioner for petroleum resources particularly in awarding contracts, fixing prices for crude oil, giving premiums and discounts and some appointments on behalf of NNPC  without involving the corporations board as provided for in the decree  setting up the corporation, and I feel it very much in his interest to clear the allegations made against him.

Sir, I went through all of the above if only to bring to you in clear and incontrovertible light certain reasons inherent from the above incidence that should have deterred you from ever contemplating to associate with Mr. Obasanjo talk less of investing in to him in both retail and wholesale measures.  

Obasanjo it was who signed into laws both the 1979 constitution and the decree that established the NNPC and he is therefore expected more any other person to show some level of respect  and compliance to  at least those laws, their provisions and recitals. His refusal to appear before the tribunal in person and the manner and style he Adopted in managing the NNPC and its parent ministry, from 1st July 1979 to 30th September 1979 calls into serious question his leadership ability and raised further questions as to his lack of respect, care and consideration for the laws of Nigeria and for constituted authority. Anybody with that record, history and propensity does not deserve any chance to preside over human beings and their resources.

Because lawlessness is the root of all evils. It breeds pride, in addition to nurturing arrogance and greed. It promotes deception, selfishness and insensitivity to the plight of people, particularly the poor and indigent. Just like it aggravates double standard and lack of respect for people and whatever they hold dear. People with such propensity, tendencies and manifestations do not deserve the confidence of people at all. Yet you peddled Mr. Obasanjo and invested in him, thereby putting greater part of Nigerians into permanent and perhaps irredeemable jeopardy. If this incidence is too old for you to remember, may be another one might refresh your memory.

The guardian Newspaper of 1st April 1990 carried a comprehensive interview they had with Mr. ALLISON AYIDA, a former super permanent secretary, who served as secretary to Obasanjos federal military Government in the late seventies. Same interview was reproduced by TheNews magazine in its January 12th 2004 issue. That interview can be said to be a character sketch of Mr. Obasanjo, the man, the myth and the reality.

Dwelling extensively on the contents of ObasanjosNOT MY WILL, Mr. Ayida at various places in the interview contents asserted that Mr. Obasanjo can go out of his way to misrepresent facts like he did on the issue of late Justice Taslim Elias. That he is abrasive and extends unwarranted attacks on personalities both the young the middle age and the elderly in addition to heaping gratuitous insults on colleagues, friends and foes alike. That as a leader he is only concerned about his personal survival and all other considerations are secondary. That he does not say thank you nor is he apologetic even to glaring mistakes. And that Obasanjo have done more than any other head of state to destroy the ESPIRIT DE CORPS in the public service, attacked defenseless civil servants and destroyed the institution. To date Obasanjo have not refuted any of Ayidas numerous charges as quoted above. I want to believe you read the above referred interview and probably you still have a copy. And in spite of that you invested in Obasanjo for reasons best known to you, reasons that are yet to be made known to the public.    

Sir, most people willfully elect not to believe truly reported incidences closely or remotely related or connected to them unless those they are personally involved in. And I will mention two certain incidences in which you were directly involved and at the center too, and which were to have guided you till death, particularly in dealing with human beings who take delight in violating all valid  contracts including the one they entered with God almighty himself  particularly when  they were in need and in serious distress.



While you were presiding over Nigeria as a military president, the United Nations Secretary General seat became vacant when Boutros Boutros Ghalis second tenure was blocked by the United States. Either out of fear, guilt, cowardice, naivety, large heart or certain other menial considerations, you went out in full force and unilaterally invested huge state resources in your bid to ensure that Mr. Obasanjo is elected to the vacant seat of the United Nations Secretary General ship. A seat you your self knew he does not deserve and was very unlikely to be elected to. Since it was a seat reserved for people with global minds, sound academic and good public or private  sector  service  records, with enlarged and accommodating heart, able to organize team work based on trust, simplicity, capability and competency in carrying out delegated authority. The resources so invested in that bid were colossal just as they were adequate to cushion the large scale effects of your regimes economic management approach predicated on dubious and callous market force.



Inspite of that, this same old man, Obasanjo poured abuses, venoms and invectives on you for the eight years you presided over Nigeria, thus confirming the old saying that teeths first and continuous victims are mostly and always the fingers that feeds it. He used all forums and occasions, at home or abroad to speak about your person in disrespectful and derogatory terms, while you watched helplessly. His (in) famous Arewa house annual lecture of year 2000 completed his selective onslaught on you. In it he painted you in the darkest color and ended up preferring devil than you. That his lecture whose description of and opinion about  you was not truly true, had devastating effects on your personality, integrity and good will at both home and abroad, and for a long time to come, it will remain  as a ready made reference material for your detractors. Yet and in spite of that you elected to invest in Obasanjo.



On Saturday 26th October 1985, while addressing the graduates  of NIPSS- Jos, you spelt out the vision you had about leadership in Nigerian society wherein you said I want to nurture the Nigerian society to a position where it can resolutely  reject anarchy arising from (a) the sickness of the body, spirit and mind (b) where there is no corruption of morals(c) where in there should not exist wide disparity of wealth to the point where the affluent and the poor classes can now live together in harmony. After presiding over for eight years, how very close or how far away you were from achieving those your visions and standards is a topic for another day. Suffice to say however that even according to your own standards and visions as set out above, you ought not to have invested in Obasanjos second calamitous coming. But you betrayed your standards and visions and invested in him.



The multiple results of your investments in Obasanjo are clearer even to the yet unborn. And we are all reaping them in very special paradoxical ways and styles. For majority of Nigerians Obasanjo met us friendlier, more prosperous, more united, more nourished with our lives more secured and preserved. Under Obasanjo hundreds of thousands of lives were avoidably lost and properties worth  billions of Naira perished, melted and wasted away, all resultant and occasioned by his open discriminatory programs, policies,   pronouncements and persecutions. It was not enough that he imposed himself on us with the assistance of people like you in spite of our dissenting votes, votes that were never counted, but he further made it an additional article of faith to insult all of us at any given opportunity and in most cases unprovoked similar to his very recent statement when he was quoted to have said that the North and South-South have contributed nothing in the development of Nigeria except chaos and confusion. It was painful to many of us particularly when documented records can testify that individually your regime that of Abacha, Buhari and Shagari recorded more positive contributions than his in spite of all the hypocritical backing he has been receiving from doubled faced custodians of Democracy.  For many of us Obasanjo will be leaving us as the most insecure people on the face of the earth, the most malnourished set of people, the most disunited people ever to settle on the geographical _expression called Nigeria, the most diseased people with no medical solution at sight and a set of people with glaring multiple mutual suspicion. With industries collapsing, public structures decaying and being sold off not necessarily to the highest bidder, but depending on the buyers   allegiance to Obasanjos PDP faction. Just like he will be leaving us with multiple confusions in our body polity, chaos in our politics and looming uncertainties on the horizon with our future painted by him in black, red, and grey colors. Where black represents doom, red representing violence and grey representing the end of time.



On the international scene, Obasanjo have maximally exposed Nigeria and Nigerians to further global ridicule, insults and suspicion. Everything about us abroad is a suspect because they mirror us through the mirror they use in seeing the conduct, attitude and behaviors of most of our federal, state, and local government self imposed and selfish, heartless and callous leaders. The truth is that our image as a country is declining by the day. Painfully, if you had not invested in an Obasanjo the way you did, the whole story would have been different for us, for you and for all those who mean well to Nigerians.



As it is today, many of us are held hostage and prostate by Obasanjos leadership style, a style that is alien even in animal kingdoms. His home grown democracy is just like communism which is similar to a day without night, an investment without returns, work without an end and constant toiling without results and garden without vegetation. Our jugular veins are held tight. Some of us are feeling asphyxiated, others in coma, yet some gasping and many more dead from mans inhumanity to man as represented by hunger and starvation in the midst of plenty.



Incidentally, funnily  and ironically, you have been reaping the fruits, rewards and dividends of investing in Obasanjo in very striking and paradoxical manner just like the general public. From the day he stated that all those who invested in his political campaign project should consider their investment lost, was the day many of us  knew that more shocks,  sup rises, betrayals, uncertainties and tragedies are in the pipe line. And true, they have been oozing serially and date wise.                        



The same Obasanjo, who blatantly refused to appear before justice Irekefes tribunal for the missing #2.80 billion oil money when he was head of state, was the same man who put in place the comical tragic Oputa panel, primarily to subject you to public insult and ridicule. When you rightly declined to appear legally through a court order, he chided you, called you names and played the king. Not yet done he is now using the teleguided, highly subjective Oputa panel report to deny you a constitutional entitlement. And this is the same man you invested in to against all silent and loud dissenting voices of wisdom and foresight. The current on goings at the national conference is just another ploy targeted at you and the North generally. Current happenings at the venue are enough testimonies.



It is part of his repaying you that he made sure that he gradually incited his vice president against you and ensured that, You Gen.  Buhari and Atiku are never united, because your unity is the only way of checking his excesses, vindictiveness, partiality and holier than though attitude in governance. Abdulsalam Abubakar is not part of his (miss) calculations because the equations he belongs to have been solved since May 1999 when the value of all the unknown variables in the equation were ascertained. Perhaps the biggest disservice deliberately extended to you by Obasanjo in spite of your promoting him is,   his refusal to investigate the so called oil windfall. Knowing fully well that at the end of it all you will come out cleaner that expected. And for Babangida to have a clean record will amount to an Obasanjo swallowing the humble pie of painting a false scenario, thereby misleading the general public.



Indeed your investment in an Obasanjo could be likened to the turkey (tolotolo) investing in Christmas or a Ram investing in big sallah or a butcher investing in a dead decomposing animal or even Bush investing in Fidel Castro.



We are pained, but our pains are less than yours. Because we invested neither our votes, nor our confidence nor our trust in Obasanjo. You invested all of your wisdom, your good will, your physical resources, all of your acumen and the result has been confirming the old fear of dealing with a person whose historical antecedents have been known to many people particularly those privileged to have worn the green uniform.  Whether Obasanjos many paradoxical ways of reciprocating goodwill will allow the prince to become king or the king maker to be denied the crown will soon unfold.  As for now the most timely and generous red alarm call to General Babangida is to say, Sir!   BE WARE OR YOU BECOME RARE concluded



Mahdi Shehu

shehuks@yahoo.com

[neozizo]

A website for those who hate IBB...........or love him as well.:-againstbabangida.com
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