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16 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2022
AHEAD of the 1993
presidential election,
General Ibrahim Babangida, the
then military head of state, made a
profound statement. He said: “I
don’t know who will succeed me,
but I know who will not.” Sadly,
that statement panned out with the
annulment of the June 12,
1993presidential election. Yet, in
principle, it was a perfectly
reasonable statement.
Here’s why. If General
Babangida had damaging
intelligence on MKO Abiola, the
presumed winner of the election,
an intelligence that could bring
international shame on Nigeria, he
had a duty to stop him from
running for president.
Babangida’s eternal mistake,
assuming he had such intelligence,
was to allow Abiola to run,
encourage Nigerians to vote and
then annul the election. But there
was nothing wrong with saying “I
don’t know who will succeed me,
but I know who will not,” provided
it was in the national interest. Of
course, in a democracy, a president
cannot simply say: “I know who
will not succeed me.” But a
president should signal a nation’s
values.
Yet, President Muhammadu
Buhari says he doesn’t care who
succeeds him. Channels TV asked
Buhari: “Are you interested in who
succeeds you?” He responded: “No,
let him come, whoever it is!” That
response has twointerpretations:
one positive, another negative.
The positive interpretation is that
President Buhari would ensure
next year’s presidential election is
free and fair, a point he has, indeed,
made. But the negative
interpretation is that he doesn’t care
about the integrity, characterand
honesty of who succeeds him.
Tinubu as president? Buhari
must really hate Nigeria
That negative interpretation is
my concernhere, and it’s premised
on Buhari’s support for the
election of Bola Tinubu as
Nigeria’s next president. It
concerns me because I’m fully
convinced that a Tinubu
presidency would not only
destabilise Nigeria internally, it
would damage Nigeriaglobally,
making it a big laughingstock, a
butt of dark international jokes!
Truth is, next year’s presidential
election will have huge long-term
implications, its outcome will
affect Nigeria for decades.
Therefore, no patriotic Nigerian
should sit on the fence; that
patriotism is what underpins this
intervention. To be sure, the
presidential election should be as
much about character as
manifesto.
The presidency is too serious an
office to be invested in someone
with serious integrity deficit. Those
ignoring character and integrity
should remember the Turkish
proverb: “When a clown moves
into a palace, he doesn’t become a
king.
The palace becomes a circus.”
Returning to Buhari and Tinubu,
there was a Faustian pact between
them in 2015. Tinubu put it
pointedly in his famous Abeokuta
outburst. “Without me, Buhari
won’t be president,” he said,
adding memorably:"Emilokan! It’s
my turn!” Well, Buhari now
accepts it’s payback time. He’s the
chairman of Tinubu’s presidential
campaign council, PCC; his wife,
Truth is, Buhari
is wrong to
campaign for
Tinubu to
succeed him; it
betrays the
national interest!
Aisha, chairs the PCC’s women
wing. Both Buhari and his wife say
they want Tinubu to become
Nigeria’s next president and are
mobilising the North behind him.
But here are questions for
President Buhari: Is he aware of
the damaging allegations swirling
around Tinubu? Given what he
knows, does he think Tinubu is a
fit and proper person to be
Nigeria’s president? Is he happy
that Tinubu’s life, pedigree and
backstory are veiled in secrecy or,
as someone puts it, a “miasma of
dubiety”?
In the US, every major
presidential candidate is an open
book. But not Tinubu. He
arrogantly refuses to answer
uncomfortable questions about
his past. Instead, he uses
surrogates – Festus Keyamo, Femi
Fani-Kayode, Bayo Onanuga –
who see him as their route to
advancement and are blatantly
lying to Nigerians, treating them
as morons. Recently, they came full
throttle with deliberate untruths
about the drug allegations against
Tinubu.
Briefly, here’s the case: Between
1988 and 1991, Tinubu deposited
$1.4m in different bank accounts,
despite earning just $2,400 per
month and despite confirming he
had no other sources of income.
The US concluded the funds
represented “proceeds of narcotic
trafficking and money
laundering,” derived from his
dealings with two drug traffickers,
Mueez Akande and Abiodun
Agbele.
Put simply, Tinubu was alleged
to be a bagman handling and
laundering drug money.
Tinubu claimed the funds
belonged to Kafaru Tinubu and
Alhaja Habibat Mogaji, even
though, years later, he told The
News magazine that all the money
belonged to him.
In the end, Tinubu forfeited
$460,000 held in his name by
Heritage Bank, where he and
Akande had strong links. “Why did
they return $1m?” Fani-Kayode
asked. The remaining funds were
released to Kafaru Tinubu and
AlhajaMogaji, who claimed
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ownership interests. That’s the
nature of settlements: Abacha
allegedly stole $5bn; half of it was
returned to his family!
The biggest lie, peddled by
Keyamo and Fani-Kayode, is that
the $460,000 forfeited by Tinubu
was a tax.
The cover sheet of the certified
true copy of the settlement, issued
on August 10, 2022, explicitly states
under “Nature of Suit” that it’s
forfeitureunder “Code 625: Drug
related seizure of property 21 USC
881.” The two boxes under
“Federal tax suits” were not ticked.
So, the $460, 000 was not a tax but
a drug-related forfeiture.
Tinubu’s surrogates and spin
doctors say he wasn’t indicted or
convicted. But no rational
individual would forfeit $460,000
of his hard-earned money,
especially when linked to drug
trafficking, without fighting to
clear his name.
By having a “drug related seizure
of property” recorded against his
name, Tinubu is seriously tainted
as a presidential candidate, and
would cause Nigeria huge
embarrassment if he became
president.
Which brings us back to Buhari.
As military head of state in 1984/
85, his regime executed eight
young Nigerians for drug
trafficking. How could he, in good
conscience, campaign for Tinubu
to be president without
apologising to the families of those
young Nigerians. Also, given
Tinubu’s stupendous unexplained
wealth, does Buhari regret jailing
governors for hundreds of years in
1984 for corruption? Truth is,
Buhari is wrong to campaign for
Tinubu to succeed him. It betrays
the national interest!
Wike and 13 percent derivation
By OSE UMUKORO
IT is now obvious that some politicians
in Nigeria prefer the gutter of infamy
to the hallway of integrity and honour. If
not, how do you place the blatant lies and
obvious misrepresentations by the
governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike,
former APC chairman; Adams
Oshiomhole, and the deputy president of
the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege? The trio and
their army of recruits went overboard with
their spin of falsehood over the status of
the 13 percent derivation arrears.
Wike, the emperor of Rivers State, whom
his constituents have accused of running
the state like his fiefdom, set the ball
rolling when he declared that all the money
he’s using to build flyovers was from the
accumulated 13 percent derivation, which
the previous governments refused to pay
but was paid by the Muhammadu Buhari
government. This is sheer fallacy. Sadly,
some Nigerians have bought into this
cheap lie, meant primarily for the selfglorification
of Wike and to discredit the
previous PDP governments as well as the
governments of the oil-bearing Niger Delta
states.
For the sake of decency and the sanctity
of facts, it is imperative to present the true
picture. Records at the Federation Account
Allocation Committee, FAAC, show that the
Federal Government has not paid 23 years'
worth of derivation fund arrears. What was
paid to affected states was only ten months'
worth of installments in accordance with
the order of the court, which ruled that the
arrears be liquidated "in sixty equal
monthly installments" and disbursed to
states quarterly, starting in February 2022,
the first quarter being February to April
2022.
This means that only 10 months out of
the 60 monthly installments have been
paid, with the remaining 50 months yet to
be paid.
The story of the 13 percent derivation has
a history. In 2021, some states approached
the court to press for the payment of
outstanding deductions on the derivation
fund, which the Federal Government was
reluctant to pay. In June last year, a Federal
High Court sitting in Abuja ordered the
Federal Government to pay $951 million
to the Bayelsa State government as arrears
of the 13 percent derivation sum due to the
state. Within that period, another court
ordered the Federal Government to pay
over $3.3 billion to the Rivers and Akwa
Ibom states, as their share of revenue from
crude oil sales. The court cases were
sparked by the $62 billion that the federal
government had recovered from some oil
companies but had yet to distribute to the
states. Justice Taiwo Taiwo ordered that
$1.114 billion be paid to Rivers State, while
$2.258 billion be paid to Akwa Ibom State,
being their claims from the $62 billion
recovered from oil companies.
The court further awarded post-judgment
interest of 10 percent in favour of the
plaintiffs until the final liquidation of the
debt. Plaintiffs in the suit were the attorneys
general of Rivers and Akwa Ibom states.
Also, in November last year, a Federal High
Court in Abuja ordered the Federal
Government to pay the sum of $1.638
billion to Delta State, which is the 13
percent derivation sum due as arrears to
the state. Justice Donatus Okorowo, while
delivering the judgment, held that Delta,
like other oil-bearing states, as part of the
Federation, deserves its share of the oil
revenue.
In all these cases, the Attorney-General
of the Federation, AGF, Abubakar Malami,
was the sole defendant, meaning that the
President Buhari government was
unwilling to pay the arrears.
The truth is, the Buhari government is
too broke to even attempt paying the
arrears in one fell swoop. No governor in
the Niger Delta has received the entire
arrears. Wike should explain to the world
how he was able to receive his state’s
arrears, which were premised on a court
judgment from last year, as he claimed. Did
the Federal Government single out Rivers
State for a special favour? As a lawyer, Wike
should know that the court order said
payment should be made "in sixty equal
monthly installments," meaning over a
period of five years.“ Both Akwa Ibom and
Delta have said they started receiving the
arrears this year after the judgement last
year. It, therefore, amounts to mischief for
anyone to insinuate that all the arrears
have been paid.
How could any governor
have received all the arrears
when the judgment was only
delivered last year with a
caveat for the arrears to be
paid over 60 months?
As it now stands, only 10 months out of
the 60 monthly instalments have been paid,
with the remaining 50 months yet to be
paid. So, how did Wike, Oshiomhole and
Omo-Agege invent their spurious figures?
Governor Wike was obviously playing to
the gallery, as usual, when he asked other
Niger Delta state governors to explain what
they did with their money. He has ipso facto
constituted himself as an ombudsman, a
foreman supervising other states. By
commissioning flyovers and streaming the
event live on at least four TV stations, he
thinks of himself as a superstar governor.
This is the hallmark of an egoistic, power
drunk leader intent only on selfglorification.
Somebody should tell the governor that
the flyovers he celebrates on TV are being
built, some even better, by the governors of
Delta and Akwa Ibom without attracting
undue attention to themselves. He should
know that in terms of the Human
Development Index, especially in
education and healthcare, he does not
come close to the Delta and Akwa Ibom
governors. The well-structured small and
medium enterprise scheme in Delta is
second to none in the country. Aside from
winning both local and international
awards, it has empowered the youth of Delta
State such that yesterday’s job-seekers have
become today’s wealth creators.
But it’s obvious why the Rivers State
governor is tearing himself up. He is a sour
loser. Since he lost the presidential ticket
of the PDP, deservedly, and the vicepresidential
slot, more for his intemperate
character than anything else, he has gone
wild like a sheep in a salt market; eating
every salt in sight without knowing when
to stop. How could any governor have
received all the arrears when the judgment
was only delivered last year with a caveat
for the arrears to be paid over 60 months?
By giving glory to Buhari, the governor
further exposed his mischief. The judiciary,
not Buhari, deserves the glory because the
judgement was delivered against
opposition from the Buhari Federal
Government. In all of this, the biggest loser
is Omo-Agege, the APC governorship
candidate in Delta. Omo-Agege is telling
Nigerians, particularly Deltans, that the
snatching of a mace incident linked to him
in 2018 is nothing compared to the massive
damage he intends to do to democracy in
2023 by spinning lies and dishing out
blatant lies. Little wonder Deltans have
roundly rejected him before ever the first
ballot is cast.
•Umukoro, a social commentator, wrote
from Warri