Obasanjo, Ribadu And Ikoyi Houses Scandal

By Tony Eluemunor

This is for those who have questioned why I have been focusing on the anti-corruption hypocrisy exhibited by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his so-called anti-corruption tsar, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu. 

Consider this, from THISDAY newspaper of 3 April 2005, “Uncovering Osomo’s Dirty Deal” by Olawale Olaleye. 

It began authoritatively: “Barely two weeks after the N55 million bribery scandal which rocked the executive and legislative arms of government, President Olusegun Obasanjo, has again uncovered another deal that runs contrary to the transparency posture of the present administration. 

“The Housing Minister, Mrs. Mobolaji Osomo, has been found to be less than transparent in the sale of the Federal Government landed property in Ikoyi, Lagos State. This report chronicles the series of war against graft in the country and the latest action of Osomo. 

There is no doubt that the writer was taken in by the hypocrisy inherent in the Obasanjo administration, and blamed a hapless Mrs. Osomo, a woman who was totally blameless. But he was not alone, most journalists and most media houses were equally deceived. Some persons though were induced. 

This is exactly what happened. President Olusegun Obasanjo was in Asaba, Delta state capital, for his much planned and much postponed official visit when a fax message arrived. It was a statement from a media aide of Vice President Atiku Abubakar. The statement had contradicted the government’s release on the sale of government Houses in Ikoyi, making it clear that Atiku was not a beneficiary as the President’s office release had claimed. 

The aide who signed Atiku’s statement, the late Dr. Adinoyi Onukaba Ojo, was a journalist that knew his reportorial onions. He did not just stop at saying that Atiku did not buy the Vice President’s official residence in Lagos, the release said Atiku was actually the one who blew the whistle on the deals. Ojo was not done yet; he said that “Atiku alerted the President to the unacceptable moral burden the deals could bring on the government, if the sales were allowed to go on like that.” Then he went on to mention Atiku’s belief in transparency and accountability in such matters as the sale of government houses. 

Atiku’s belief in transparency and accountability? And what about the implication that by allowing the sales, Obasanjo may have lacked transparency and accountability? 

In just a few paragraphs, and with very few words, Ojo was showing the world another picture of Atiku, one different from a grab, grab insatiable man aquiver with covetousness. Some presidential aides have spent the better part of the last six years trying to paint a contrary picture of Atiku. 

Right there in Asaba, Obasanjo called on Atiku to sack Ojo. That call would be repeated severally times. Again and again, Atiku pleaded with Obasanjo to save Ojo’s job. At last, Obasanjo threatened “If you refuse to do it, I’ll sack him on Monday”. By mid afternoon on Monday, newspapers Editors were calling on their Abuja Correspondents to confirm if Ojo had received the sack. 

That afternoon, Ojo wrote out his letter of resignation and handed it to his principal, Atiku. The Vice President took it with him when he went to visit the President that night. In the end, Atiku succeeded in delaying his loss of staff by just a day. 

Ordinarily, that press statement would not have raised any dust. But in Aso Rock, these were not ordinary times, and even mundane things were given critical meanings as far as Obasanjo/Atiku relationship was concerned. 

As usual, it began from some tale-bearing aides with some scores to settle. Thus, Ojo’s press statement got to Asaba within an hour after it was issued. And it was interpreted in such a manner that Obasanjo would not spare Ojo. The plot worked and Atiku lost yet another media aide. 

The questions are, was the Vice-President made the offer to buy his Lagos lodge? And did he turn down the offer? Presidency sources said yes, and that Atiku not only rejected it but told the Chief of Staff that it was immoral to sell such a building that should be kept for the use of future Vice-Presidents. That was in February 2005. This is a fact, and I challenge any of Obasanjo’s former or present aides to refute it. 

Yet, the Guardian newspapers of the Monday after Ojo was fired referred to a letter dated March 17 from the COS to Atiku where Abdullahi Mohammed conveyed to Atiku a message from Obasanjo to Atiku. What was the message? That Atiku should not buy the VP’s Lagos lodge but that another should be allocated to him. 

Obasanjo might not yet have seen the implication of that letter that was leaked to the Guardian. It meant that Obasanjo was in the picture all the while and that he Obasanjo actually partook in the allocations. Also, if the President had directed that another building was to be found for Atiku “nearby”, why was that order disobeyed? In the end, no building was allocated to Atiku. 

Did the Chief of Staff actually sign that letter? Then, there was no need to crucify the Housing Minister, Mobolaji Osomo. No wonder she wept very profusely when she received the sack. Yes, I visited her house at Abuja and she was lamenting her fate, especially as the widow was not ready to call a press conference and tell the world the truth about the sordid events. She was hoping to get a reprieve from Obasanjo. I left her knowing Obasanjo would never do that, instead, he would rather push her into a hot water. 

Why did Obasanjo react so drastically to such an innocuous press statement from Ojo, a man he had mentored? And why the sledge hammer on Osomo? The answer: 1. There are many things wrong with this latest wave of anti-corruption crusade. 2. At the time the events took place, especially on the Monday, the Chief of Staff made his explanations; Obasanjo was a worried man, very and visibly worried. 

For once, the names of his children and close aides were mentioned as having something to do with unwholesomeness. The state governors very close to him were involved too while those he chose to deride as corrupt were not mentioned in the house purchase. The hypocrisy was beginning to end. 

Obasanjo spent that night worried about what to do if the scandal developed a life of its own and if it was proven that either any of his children or the First Lady, seven of whose family members that benefited from the sales was directly implicated. He mulled with the options including that of sacking of all the ministers and aides involved. 

He needed not have worried; the “boys” would take care of the problem by Tuesday. And thus, a release came from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation sacking the Housing and Environments minister on the very day she was to address a press statement, saying that those who received allocations applied for the very buildings allocated to them. Her personal aides said she had a heap of those applications still in the files. 

Then, to finally bury the scandal and to forever hide the truth, the press statement apologised to the government officials involved in the deal, as according to the statement, they were allocated buildings they never applied for. And that ended this wave of anti-corruption fight with an apology from the Federal Government. 

How many people were allocated buildings without their asking for it and how many applied? Who owned the corporate bodies that were allocated buildings in direct contravention of the rules guiding such sales? 

It is true that the sale of those Ikoyi houses were discussed and approved at a Federal Executive Council meeting. It is also true that the Minister was never given a free hand to dispose of them as she deem fit and to whoever she fancied. Instead, a committee was set up in which the SGF had a representative. He was supposed to brief the SGF who in turn was to brief the President on all developments on that front. 

The rules were supposed to be clear; that in the sale of government property, occupiers were to be offered the first choice. If they could not pay and the property went to a public bidding, the occupier still had the option of first payment. But in the Ikoyi houses, most of the buyers never occupied those buildings, yet they got them without going through a public bidding. 

Put simply, the Obasanjo administration that sang the transparency and due process mantra, refused to look the way of due process in the sale of Ikoyi Houses. 

The names of his close aides were nearly all there. The deal gave a picture of a “business as usual in government”. 

Well, Ojo and Osomo lost their jobs. Osomo was denied the chance of giving her own side of the story. 

In the end Nigeria is the ultimate loser: the truth was not looked for and so was never found because the EFCC never picked up interest in the matter. Who applied and who did not apply for the Ikoyi Houses? Who owned those business names that received allocations? How come state governors received applications of buildings that were meant for Civil Servants? How much of the allegations were true and how much were lies? Did Obasanjo’s family members apply for the buildings? 

The truth may never be found. And Nigeria and the anti-corruption crusade have lost another opportunity to straighten things up. For Obasanjo, he has acquired another question mark that may go with him all through life; just like the rigging of the 2003 elections. 

And that is not just tragic for a supposed moral crusader, and the country that was unlucky to have him as President. 

There are just a few questions left to be answered on the Ikoyi properties sale scandal. How much did President Olusegun Obasanjo know, when did he know it and what did he do when he knew it? Same goes for his principal staff aides; the Chief of Staff (COS) Gen. Abdullahi Mohammed (rtd) and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation Chief Uffot Ekaite. 

Yet, there is this other question; is it true that when the President announced the revocation of the sales, he was merely taking the wind off the sail of the House of Representatives members who have uncovered the deal and were hell-bent in using it against Obasanjo in the Presidency versus National Assembly face-off they wanted to champion when they returned from 2005 Easter recess? 

An Osita Izunaso-led House of Reps committee had uncovered some shady deals concerning the sale of Federal Government houses in Lagos. One of such deals concerned the sale of 1004 Flats complex. Then, surprisingly, Izunaso’s name featured in the National broadcast where the fallen Senate President, Adolphus Wabara, the sacked Education Minister, Prof. Fabian Osuji and others were mentioned in a bribery scandal. 

The following day, Izunaso, refusing to be frightened, said that no security agent, whether from the Police, State Security Services (SSS) or the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had ever invited him for any interrogation. So, how did his name get into the list of disgraced and disagreeable persons the President presented to the entire nation that evening? Grand hypocrisy was in full sail! An attempt to blackmail Izunaso and certain others into recoiling from the exposition they had wanted to do on the Lagos land deals, including the Ikoyi houses, was on. 

This injustice which happened to Osomo, and which caused Atiku to state his innocence, and for which Ojo was sacked, also happened to some other persons such as Chief James Onanefe Ibori, the former Governor of Delta State. Some persons were simply targeted for annihilation for reasons far from corruption and journalists joined in their high-tech lynching.