Former Military Head of state, Gen. Ibrahim
Babangida described members of his
administration as saints and angels compared to
those in power today. IBB made this remark
during an interview with EFCC's internal
correspondence "Zero Tolerance"
"Let me tell you something, maybe you have
a hand in it. I have been the most
investigated President Nigeria has ever had.
By now, somebody should have come forward
to say here it is. Every government that
came after me investigated me because of
that perception as they wanted to retrieve
the billions I stole. Well, we had different
approaches. I think my government was able
to identify corruption-prone areas and
checked them. If you remember in this
country, there were things they call
essential commodities. These are also sources
of corruption. You go and buy Omo or food
or whatever it is and we got government to
take its hands off such activities. Let people
use their own brains, hands and labour,
nobody has to do it for them. So we did but
I am proud to say that was much more
effective. I don’t have the facts but if what
I read in the newspapers is currently what is
happening then I think we were angels” he said
IBB says the perception that his government
institutionalized corruption is incorrect, arguing
that with the little his administration was making
from oil they could do what they did but with the
much the present administration is making from
oil, much is still left to be desired
"Yeah, I know. Maybe I have to accept that
but anybody with a sense of fairness has no
option but to call us saints. I give you an
example, in a year I was making less than
$7billion in oil revenue. In the same period,
there are governments that are making
$200billion to $300billion. With $7billion, I
did the little I could achieve. With
$200billion, there is still a lot to be
achieved.”he said
On the $12.4billion oil windfall from the 1991 Gulf
War which many believed was stolen by his
government, Babangida insisted the money was
not stolen.
“First of all, that war lasted three months,
about ninety something days. It didn’t last
up to a year. So get the facts straight.
Secondly, the oil price at that time was below
$18 per barrel. So, there is no way you could
make $12.4billion in three months. We could
not have made that amount of money but
Pius Okigbo knew what he was doing.
He had
brains and he said between 1986 or 1988 to
1994, monies accrued to the Federal
Government at that time was about that
money you are calling windfall. He said so. It
is there in his book. Then the other thing he
said, the monies could have gone into
generative investment. I am not an
economist but I have an understanding of
what this is. Our argument then was if you
have the money, why keep it and be looking
at it when you have a lot of things that will
benefit the ordinary man. So that money was
not stolen. It is what you see now in the
country. Thank God most of the
infrastructure we put in place are what you
are using today and proudly so.”
Gen Babangida says the gains from the oil boom
was used in the development of infrastructures
such as the FCT Abuja and the third mainland
bridge in Lagos amongst others
“Abuja for example, I built Abuja.
Today, we
have a brand new capital. We used that
money. I gave you a Third Mainland Bridge in
Lagos. You cannot build it now for all the
money Nigeria is making. And what did it
cost me? N500million, N600million,
N700million. For the first time, a dual
carriage way was seen in the Northern part
of the country between Kaduna and Kano
and then linked it up from Abuja. You cannot
afford to do it now; you cannot even afford
to touch it because there are a lot of
competing needs.”he said
IBB who announced the annulment of the June 12
election in which business mogul Late Chief
Moshood Abiola was adjudged the winner, accepted
that the election was a credible election
"Yes, it (June 12) is a day in the history of
Nigeria and the day the most credible
election was held. We gave you a lot of
reasons but I understood the passion.
At
that time, everybody was fed up. The
sentiment was: just pack your things and go.
Our thought process is very limited.
First of
all, on June 23, 1993, I was on the air and I
told Nigerians why we had to do what we did
but I was sensible enough to know that
whatever I said nobody was interested. So,
the important thing is get out.”he said
Speaking about his investments, Babangida said he
is a major shareholder in a bank but failed to
mention the name of the bank or the value of his
shares in the bank.
On how he built his Hilltop Mansion in Minna,
Babangida said:
“I cannot estimate because it has
appreciated. I know what my friends spent.
No, my friends contributed. They were
friends before we came into government and
friends while I was in government. I started
building it in 1991, took two to three years
so that by the time I finished, I would have
a house to sleep in.”
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