Tag Archives: bABANGIDA

IBB: I knew Buhari would crush Boko Haram

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Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), former military president, has restated his belief in the ability of President Muhammadu Buhari to crush Boko Haram.

In a statement issued by his media office obtained by PRNigeria, on Monday, Babangida said “President Muhammadu Buhari and the  military are capable of crushing any challenge of the territorial integrity of Nigeria”.

He said he was delighted about the news of the successful military operations in Sambisa forest.

“May I rejoice with the government and Nigerians on the successful dislodging of Boko Haram from their base in Sambisa,” he said.

“It is a sign of relief that the military has finally smoked out Boko Haram terrorists from their notorious enclave of Sambisa forest.”

He saluted the courage of the president, the army and other security personnel for their sacrifice in the liberation of the area.

Babangida expressed hope that the remaining Chibok girls would be located and reunited with their families.

He urged the military “to unveil a new strategy of further defeating pockets of insurgents, armed bandits and cattle rustlers all over the country”.

Buhari announced the fall of Ground Zero – a key insurgent camp in Sambisa forest – on Saturday.

IBB Reveals His Toughest Duty In The Military

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Former Nigeria military head of state, Ibrahim Babangida, has said that his toughest duty in the army was trekking from Enugu to Umuahia where he sustained injury during the Nigeria civil war.

Mr. Babangida said this when he spoke to journalists to mark his 75th birthday in Minna on Wednesday.

“Movement from Enugu to Umuahia was very tough and challenging because you need to be physically fit to be able to undertake that kind of journey on foot.

“We had to go through the jungles and the hills. I think it was my toughest encounter in the army because that was where I got wounded in April 1969,” he said.

Mr. Babangida said he joined the army to protect the country.

According to him, being in the military means that you must subject yourself to a constituted authority to execute all the tasks assigned to you by the government.

He said the constitutional role and international treaties made it possible for military personnel to serve anywhere in the world.

Mr. Babangida said the military job was more challenging than being the president of a country.

 He said an army officer would lead men to danger because your life and their lives depend on you as the commander.

“If they have faith in you they follow you. If you have faith in them you go along with them.

“So, it is more challenging than being a president,” he said.

Mr. Babangida said a head of state will seek people’s advice, interact and discourse with them to get solution based on the prevailing circumstances.

“Being a military officer you are the only one leading your troops hoping on you. If you lead them wrongly you will kill many of them.

“So, I consider the military more challenging than the political job,” he said.

Credit: NAN

Buhari Will Not Probe Obasanjo, IBB, Abacha’s Govt, Only GEJ’s – Presidency

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The presidency says President Buhari will only be probing the immediate past administration and will not probe past administrations of Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha and others. Speaking to newsmen, the special adviser to the president on Media and publicity, Femi Adesina says that President Buhari had stated during his campaign that his probe will only be limited to the immediate past administration.

“If you recall, that was already settled before he got inaugurated as president. He has said he will not waste time digging into the far past. The far past will includes Obasanjo and others. But the president has said he will not waste time to go that far.”he said

Former President Jonathan had stated before leaving office that any probe focused on his administration will only amount to witch-hunting.

How Babangida, Abacha, Obasanjo Shared Nigeria’s Oil Wells- Obinna Akukwe

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The process of sharing Nigeria’s oil block national cake is as fraudulent now as when Ibrahim Babangida started the process of discretionary allocation of oil blocks to indigenous firms. Discretionary allocation of oil blocks entails that a president can reward a mistress who performs wonderfully with an oil block with capacity for cumulative yield of over $20 billion dollars without recourse to any process outside of manhood attachments. Babangida, Abacha, Abdulsalami and Obasanjo awarded discretionary oil blocks to friends, associates, family members, party chieftains, security chiefs and all categories of bootlickers, spokespersons and cult members without any laid down procedures.

The recipients of such oil blocks will get funds from ever willing offshore financiers and partners to graciously settle the benefactors, the awarders, facilitators and the Commander-in-Chief through fronts. These settlements mostly paid into foreign accounts runs into hundreds of millions of dollars according to the potential yield of the block. Sometimes, the awarder (sharer of national cake and direct intermediaries) demand additional stakes in the bidding company. The awarder sends fronts as part of the directorship and management of the bidding firms without leaving a link to them. That is how the oil block national cake is distributed to a few Nigerians.

Signature bonuses which are paid when an investor successfully bids, wins and signs agreement with the petroleum ministry, running into tens of millions and sometimes hundreds of millions of naira ,is often waived off. There is actually no waiver; rather a diversion of what would have been paid to government t coffers is paid into private purse as appreciation gifts. That is why those in the Petroleum Ministry dread retirement as though it signifies going to hell fire. No matter how little your influence, something substantial must enter your hands especially in hard currency. The nation loses billions of dollars in diverted revenue whenever any round of auction occurs.

OML 110 with high yield OBE oil fields was given Cavendish Petroleum owned by Alhaji Mai Daribe, the Borno Patriarch in 1996 by Sanni Abacha. OBE oil field has estimated over 500 million barrels of oil. In layman’s language and using average benchmark of $100 dollars per barrel, translates to $50 billion dollars worth of oil reserve. When you remove the taxes, royalties and sundry duties worth about 60% of the reserve payable over time you get about $20billion dollars worth of oil in the hands of a family.

OPL 246 was awarded to SAPETRO, a company owned by General Theophilus Danjuma, by Sanni Abacha in 1998. Akpo condensate exports about 300,000 barrels of crude daily.

OML 112 and OML 117 were awarded to AMNI International Petroleum Development Company owned by Colonel Sanni Bello in 1999. Sanni Bello is an inlaw to Abdulsalami Abubakar, former Head of State of Nigeria.

OML 115, OLDWOK Field and EBOK field was awarded to Alhaji Mohammed Indimi from Niger State. Indimi is an inlaw to former Military President Ibrahim Babangida.

OML 215 is operated by Nor East Petroleum Limited owned by Alhaji Saleh Mohammed Gambo.

OML 108 is operated by Express Petroleum Company Limited is owned by Alhaji Aminu Dantata.

OML II3 allocated to Yinka Folawiyo Pet Ltd is owned by Alhaji W.I. folawiyo.

ASUOKPU/UMUTU marginal oil fields is operated by Seplat Petroleum. Seplat is owned by Prince Nasiru Ado Bayero, cousin to the Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi. This oil field has the capacity of 300,000 barrels of oil daily. This translates to $30million dollars daily at average benchmark of $100 dollars per barrel. Deducting all sundry taxes, royalties etc , this field can yield $12billion dollars daily for the owners.

Intel owned by Atiku, Yarádua and Ado Bayero has substantial stakes in Nigeria’s oil exploration industry both in Nigeria and Principe and Sao Tome.
AMNI owns two oil blocks OML 112 and OML 117 which it runs Afren plc and Vitol has substantial stakes in oil blocks. Afren plc is operating EBOK oil fields in OML 67. Vitol lifts 300,000 barrels of Nigerian oil daily. Rilwanu Lukman, former OPEC Chairman has stakes in all these named three companies.

OPL 245 was awarded to Malabu Oil& Gas Company by Sanni Abacha. Dan Etete, Abacha’s oil minister owns Malabu Oil. In 2000, Vice President Atiku Abubakar convinced Obasanjo to revoke

OPL 245 given to Malabu Oil. Etete had earlier rejected Atiku’s demand for substantial stakes in the high yield OPL 245 and it attracted the venom of Ota Majesty who revoked the licence. However, in 2006, Obasanjo had mercy on Dan Etete and gave him back his oil block worth over $20 billion dollars.

OPL 289 and OPL 233 was awarded during Obasanjo era to Peter Odili fronts, Cleanwater Consortium, consisting of Clenwater Refinery and RivGas Petroleum and Gas Company. Odili’s brother in law, Okey Ezenwa manages the consortium as Vice Chairman.

OPL 286 is managed by Focus Energy in partnership with BG Group, a British oil concern. Andy Uba has stakes in Focus Energy and his modus operandi is such that you can never see his name in any listings yet he controls OPL and OML through proxies.

OPL 291 was awarded to Starcrest Energy Nigeria Limited, owned by Emeka Offor by Obasanjo . Immediately after the award, Starcrest sold the oil block to Addax Petroleum Development Company Limited (ADDAX) Addax paid Sir Emeka Offor a farming fee of $35million dollars and still paid the signature bonus to the government. Emeka Offor still retains stake in ADDAX operations in Nigeria.

Mike Adenuga’s Conoil is the oldest indigenous oil exploration industry in Nigeria. Conoil has six oil blocks and exports above 200,000 barrels of crude daily.
The oil block national cake sharing fiesta could take twists according to the mood of the Commander-in –Chief at the particular time. In 2006, Obasanjo revoked OPL 246 which Abacha gave to Danjuma because he refused to support the tenure elongation bid of the Ota Majesty. In 2000, Obasanjo had earlier revoked OPL 241 given to Dan Etete under the advice Atiku. However, when the Obasanjo-Atiku faceoff started, the Ota Majesty made a u-turn and handed back the oil block to Etete.

During the time of Late President Yarádua , a panel headed by Olusegun Ogunjana was set up to investigate the level of transparency in the award of oil blocks. The panel recommended that 25 oil blocks awarded by the Obasanjo be revoked because the manner they were obtained failed to meet the best practices in the industry. Sadiq Mahmood, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum endorsed the report to then president with all its recommendations. As a result of the report Yarádua revoked eleven oil blocks.

In April 2011 Mike Adenuga attempted to buy Shell’s OML 30 for $1.2 billion dollars. The Minister for Petroleum and Nigeria’s most powerful woman refused the sale of the OML30 to Adenuga citing national interest. This block was later sold to Heritage Oil for $800 million dollars eleven months later.

This oil block business is so lucrative that Danjuma’s Sapetro divested of its investment in Akpo condensate for $1billion dollars. This business is second to none in Nigeria. That is why any attempt to investigate the activities in this sector will always be futile. The money is so much that they give bribes in millions of dollars. A birthday gift or child naming gift from an oil block owner to a government official could be as paltry as $2million dollars, and if the official’s father died, the condolence gift could reach mere $3 million dollars. When they want to bribe legislators, it is in millions of dollars and any ongoing investigation ends within weeks. They are so confident that with excess money they can buy up Nigeria and they are succeeding. In the name of competitive bidding, which Obasanjo introduced in 2005, Officials bring companies overnight and through processes best described as secretive and voodooist they award blocks to party faithful, fronts and phoney companies.

During the third term agenda, Obasanjo was deceived that the allocation of oil block to party faithfuls is to fund the third term agenda. With the failure of the third term, the beneficiaries went home with their fortunes and thanked God or Allah for buttering their bread. Senator Andy Uba co ordinate the award of the last rounds of oil block by Obasanjo in 2005 and 2007. The then minister of petroleum, Edwin Daukoru was a mere errand boy who took instructions from the presidential aide.

The regime of President Goodluck is not showing any signs of changing the status quo. Controversies have trailed the activities of the Minister of Petroleum and many players in the Industry accuse her of demanding stakes from every oil deal. It is hoped that President Goodluck Jonathan will remember his transformational promise to Nigerians and endeavour to face the hawks in the oil industry. The angst in the air is so much that if this monster of illegal allocation of oil block is not addressed, the much touted revolution could begin all of a sudden and all who condoned this illegality at the expense of hungry Nigerians may have nowhere to hide.

The religious leaders should tell these oil block beneficiaries, awarders, fronts, brokers and all involved in short changing the Nigerian people to find means or returning all these back to the Nigerian people, through massive development projects. The voice of impoverished Nigerians is crying daily and if care is not taken the God who delivered Nigeria from Abacha dark days will visit them with calamities untold. With the rot in this oil block awarding system and other loot all over the Nigerian nation, something worse than revolution may happen.

Credit: nigerianbulletin

PDP Has Stabilised The Polity, Achieved Significant Milestones In The Last 16-Years, Says Mu’azu

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National chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Dr. Adamu Mu’azu, has described Presidential Goodluck Jonathan as a true democrat and elder statesman for conceding defeat to Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) of the All Progressives Congress.

In a statement, which he personally signed on Wednesday in reaction to the defeat suffered by the PDP in the just concluded presidential and national assembly elections, Mr. Mu’azu went down memory lane, recalling how the ruling party has impacted positively on the lives of Nigerians and strengthened institutions in the last sixteen years at the helm of affairs.

The statement reads:

“Sixteen years ago, Nigerians gave our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the mandate to build, nurture and deepen democracy after three decades of military rule in our country.

“That historic mandate was freely given in recognition of the courageous and patriotic role of the founding fathers of our party whose resilience and doggedness championed the return of democracy and the personal freedom we all enjoy today.

“Within this period, our party worked very hard in rebuilding and strengthening democratic institutions, tenets and norms while lifting our status as the leading democracy in Africa and one of the best in the world.

“It is incontrovertible that under the PDP-led government, our nation moved from a near pariah status to a strong actor in the international democratic arena, a product of various electoral reforms and our iron-cast commitment to transparent, free and fair electoral process at all levels.

“Even in the midst of obvious threats to our democracy, the PDP and the government it sponsored continued to stabilize the polity through strict adherence to rule of law and liberalization of the political and economic space.

“In the last 16 years the PDP-led administration achieved significant milestones in our social and economic lives. We moved Nigeria from a debtor nation to Africa’s largest economy and one of the fastest growing in the world, a feat, which is accompanied with unprecedented expansion of the private sector as well as multi-sectorial infrastructural development, all, great legacies we achieved for our nation.

“Presently, our nation is at the threshold of history and its defining moment for the future. As you are aware, in the early hours of Wednesday, April 1, 2015, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) returned the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari as winner of the 2015 presidential election.

“However, we have received reports of serious irregularities that characterized the conduct of the election and we shall channel our protests to the appropriate quarters in line with our profound respect for the rule of law and democratic ethos.

“Our party comes with great values and tradition and we will adhere to them and ensure that nothing is done to truncate our democracy, which we have proudly worked so hard to nurture and sustain to maturity.

“Therefore, if the outcome of the election is truly the reflection of the wishes and aspirations of our citizens, the PDP will most willingly respect that wish.

“What is paramount to us is the survival of our democracy, the unity, peace and progress of our dear nation and the happiness of all our people. Nigeria is bigger than any political party, individual or group and her overall interest must be our priority at all times.

“It is in this light that we as a party commend our flag bearer, President Goodluck Jonathan for his heroic act in conceding to the voice of the people, an action that stands him out as a true democrat and a statesman.

“We also congratulate the APC flagbearer, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari for his resilience and victory in this election while wishing him success in the onerous task of leading our nation once again.

“On the same note, we wish to also commend the electorate for the peaceful manner with which they conducted themselves in the course of this election.

“For us in the PDP, we want to state in very clear terms that we are not down. We are only at our redefining moment. Rather than demoralize us, this election has afforded us great lessons and we are now more than ever before reinvigorated for the race ahead.

“As we return to the electorate for the April 11, 2015 governorship and state assembly elections, we go recharged with faith in our heart. We assure all our candidates in the remaining elections that the party will stand with you, campaign with you and work vigourously to ensure your total victory at the polls.

“Finally, we call on our party faithful to remain steadfast in our renewed effort to deliver our flag bearers in the remaining elections”.

Signed:

Ahmadu, Adamu Mu’azu, CON.

National Chairman

Babangida Blasts Jonathan

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Former Military Head of State, Ibrahim Babangida, lambasted President Goodluck Jonathan and those promoting his re-election bid. He accused them of undermining the military institution by embarking on mudslinging campaigns against former presidents and leaders of military background.

Babangida, who was reacting to a one- hour documentary sponsored by supporters of President Jonathan, said Jonathan’s campaign handlers were out to demonize and stigmatize former military leaders and cast aspersions on them in order to malign their reputation.

He stated that the message aired by the documentary, which was aired by Silverbird Television on Tuesday night, was undermining the sterling contributions past generals such as Olusegun Obasanjo, Muhammadu Buhari, late Sani Abacha, Abdulsalami Abubakar, and T.Y Danjuma had made for the nation.

Read More: Vanguard

“Jonathan is Experienced”, IBB Urges Nigerians to Support GEJ

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President Goodluck Jonathan visited former President Ibrahim Babangida in Minna  in what the President said was to appreciate the former military President and consult with him after his recent medical trip abroad.

Gen. Babangida who emerged from the closed door meeting with Jonathan urged all Nigerians, who mean well for the country, to support the President.

In an interview with journalists after the closed door meeting, President Jonathan said  the meeting was to seek his input as a former leader on how to solve the myriads of problems confronting the country.

He said: “First and foremost, I have to use this opportunity to appreciate our leader, President Babangida for his leadership. His commitment to ensuring that this country is united and we live in peace.

“Of course, you know that this is the end of the year. Within this period, people pay visits. So I have come to visit him. You know he just came back from a hospital abroad, not too long ago. Since he came back, we have not seen. I need to see my father to know how he is feeling. I am quite pleased the way I have seen him.

“Of course, you all know that as a nation, we are facing challenges: security challenges all over, not just in the North. Yes, Boko Haram in the North. The South is not safe: commercial kidnapping and robbery.

“He is one of our experienced leaders. As somebody who is sitting where he was before, I need to see them from time to time to listen to their suggestions. That is one of the areas how we can collectively move the country forward and ensure that Nigerians live in peace.

“That is the key thing and I am quite pleased that we had a fruitful discussion” the president said.

Also speaking, the former head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida said the president means well for this country and every Nigerian who means well for the country should support him.

According to General Babangida, “what I will say is simple: The President means well for this country and he is working well for this country. Anybody who means well for this country should support the President to make sure that Nigeria survives as a united country”.

Credit: vanguardngr.com