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'Crocodile Hunter' Wouldn't Want State Funeral, Father Says

Wednesday, September 06, 2006


BEERWAH, Australia — "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, killed in a freak stingray attack this week, would not have wanted a state funeral because he wanted to be remembered as "an ordinary bloke," the TV star's father said Wednesday.

In the first public comments by Irwin's family since the hugely popular naturalist died Monday, Bob Irwin thanked his son's many fans for their messages of support, and said his son died doing what he loved.

Prime Minister John Howard said a state funeral was appropriate, calling Irwin a great ambassador for Australia. But Bob Irwin said it wouldn't be what Steve wanted.

"He's an ordinary guy, and he wants to be remembered as an ordinary bloke," Irwin's father said. "The state funeral would be refused."

The 44-year-old TV star was being filmed snorkeling with a stingray on the Great Barrier Reef when it lashed out with its tail, plunging a poisonous barb into his chest. He died minutes later.

Thousands of fans have flocked to his Australia Zoo wildlife park in Queensland state, creating a shrine of flowers and written tributes.

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Ribadu, Charge Obasanjo and the Fraudulent State Governors with Obstruction of Justice
By
Usman Yerima
usmanyerima_mantu@yahoo.com

I commend EFCC Chairman, Ribadu, for the tasking jobhe's done since assuming office as commission chairman against financial crimes. It is apparent that he faces monumental challenges in the effective discharge of his duties, but even then, he has proven to be a very efficient and result oriented administrator...this is performance that Nigerians haven't seen in decades. I am concerned for him however because whenever this dedicated man puts together a case with the intent of going after some undesirable and crooked elements in our government, that farmer from Otta intervenes and impedes the wheel of justice from taking its due course.

Last week, chairman Ribadu briefed the senate on the extent of corruption in the state governments. His report indicted practically all the governors. Less than one day, Obasanjo reacted to the report and made a feeble attempt to downplay the magnitude and seriousness of the problem as reported by chairman Ribadu.

This isn't the first time Obasanjo has directly interjected himself into a process that really shouldn't concern him. In America, he would have been charged with obstruction of justice (which is a very serious crime) and then impeached. When former Minister of Finance, Okonju-Iweala, tried to reform the nation's finances and position the economy on the right path towards visible recovery, Obasanjo came in and impeded that progress by unceremoniously removing her from the finance ministry and as head of the economic team and re-assigning her to a very irrelevant office given what field her background and experience is in. Why? Why give away the goose that lays the golden egg? For Obasanjo that was the height of irresponsibility and a clear indication that this man is actually THE PROBLEM of Nigeria. This noble and dedicated woman committed herself to serving Nigeria, and to her credit was able to negotiate debt forgiveness, and debt reduction. This is a feat her predecessors could never come close to accomplishing. This tell you something about her skills, connections, international standing, and her leadership. Rather than embrace her as a legend and allow her to continue with her good work, the Otta farmer replaced her.

But let's not stop there. When Okonju-Iweala humbly took up her new position at the Ministry of External Affairs, within just a few days, she uncovered several cans of worms. The ministry was practically non functional. It was deficient, and of course, corruption loomed there also. Basic office equipments in the Ministry were non functional or non existent, funds could not be accounted for, and everything was a total mess. She then reported her findings to the Nigerian people via the media as a responsible public servant should do, after all, she was actually serving the people. Guess what? Baba Iyabo jumped right in to downplay Iweala's revelation about the situation she uncovered at the External Affairs Ministry.

Baba Iyabo further defended the previous Minister of External Affairs who apparent should have been held responsible for the mess he left behind. Then there was the case of that $4.9 million dollars that could never be clearly accounted for. Obasanjo just swept that under the rug and dismissed it as a forgone issue which his administration was aware of already. Such stupid and moronic explanation insults the intelligence of Nigerians.

If his administration was aware of the $4.9 million overpayment error to a foreign firm, and had dealt with it as he claimed, how come Okonju Iweala that was the Minister for Finance at the time not aware of any such transaction? Why was she alarmed when she uncovered 'accounting error'. How possible is that? Wouldn't she have known about it? The main reason why Nigeria and by extension Africa will go nowhere and make no improvement whatsoever, is because distinguished and brilliant people like Okoju Iweala, Ribadu, El Rufai, and co, are made to serve in the cabinets of semi literate caricatures like the Obasanjo's, Buharis, IBBs, Abachas, and Abdul-salaams of our nation. What kind of progress can be accomplished from that type of set up. Why on earth should smart people with proven track record in leadership serve under and take directives from total dummies? Imagine a blind person leading someone with perfect sight.

That entire setup needs to change immediately if Nigeria is to survive and become a progressive society. We cannot keep having empty barrels and half educated militicians make decisions for our future. It does not work, has not worked, and will never work. Isn't that obvious by now? It offends me terribly when the name IBB is even brought up in discussions surrounding leadership in Nigeria. That creature should be the least garbage that Nigerians should be thinking or worrying about, yet like a pestering roach, we are still talking about him. That in itself is a tragedy.

I wrote in a previous article that Obasanjo is a total disaster to Nigeria. How is it that when we eventually find a few sincere and qualified people that put themselves on the line to serve the country honorably, as Ribadu is trying to do, and as Okonju-Iweala did, Obasanjo constantly interferes in the discharge of their duties? Why not allow them to perform their jobs to the full extent without restrictions and interference? Apparently, he is covering his ass.

I hope Chairman Ribadu stays the course, but remain vigilant because the minute Obasanjo begins to critic a staff or someone that he appointed into a key office, and that individual is diligently doing his/her job right, it soon becomes a problem for Obasanjo, and that individual is removed thereafter.

One of Obasanjo's empty campaign promises before being 'elected' was to fight corruption. That is like fighting himself because he is just as corrupt as the previous leaders before him. He is just an extension of a bad omen. His entire camp and party (Poverty Distribution Party) is one humongous corrupt enterprise. This is the same Obasanjo that revealed in the media while lashing out at the PDP leadership at the time, that he was aware of the fraud surrounding Anambra State elections. He admitted to being aware that the election was rigged, but as Chief law enforcement officer of the nation, he did nothing. How can such a man lead anyone? In Obasanjo's on-going feud with his estranged VP, Atiku, we have witnessed allegations and counter allegations from both sides. The way I see it, Atiku is corrupt as hell, but I believe his allegations against Obasanjo are very credible. Normally, he would have kept his mouth shut and it would have been business as usual. However, because Baba Iyabo decided to make him a scapegoat, Atiku felt compelled to just expose all of Obasanjo's dirty secrets as well. There is no way everything Atiku has said is made up. This is why they both MUST GO. They are dysfunctional crooks. Because Obasanjo's government was corrupt from the very beginning, he signed into law a useless piece of legislation that protects elected officials from prosecution when found to be in violation of official misconduct. What responsible government does that? How can Obasanjo promise to fight corruption yet approves a constitutional clause that makes fighting corruption in government practically impossible? Where is the logic in that? No serious country on this planet has such fraudulent immunity clause in its constitution. That is a joke, and clear license for public officials to loot to their satisfaction without consequence. What has been the end result of such immunity clause? The results are blatantly obvious. Such immunity has produced men like former Governor Alamasie, plateau State Governor, Zamfara State Governor, Sanni Yerima, and quite frankly, all the governors in the country have hidden behind immunity and looted their people dry.

One cannot ask any of these governors to point to one accomplishment in office in almost 8 years of their disservice to their people. Some of their so called accomplishments are laughable and embarrassing. There was the case of Gongola state governor who invited Obasanjo to attend the commissioning of one bore hole project in his state. Can you imagine that? In this day and age, digging bore hole is an accomplishment to some people. Wao! There is also that Governor Duke (I will do a piece on him very soon) who misuses the millions of dollars in allocation money that could have gone to solve the real needs of his state. Cross River state records the highest cases of HIV aids infection in the nation, instead some crazy idea enters Duke's head, and he pumps ridiculous money into an amusement park project that makes little economic sense given all other factors in the State and Nigeria as a whole.

There is also the case of the Niger-Delta issue. The popular claim by OBJ's government is that the FG does infact allocate huge sums of money to the region, but that their leaders are the ones siphoning the money. Duhhhhhhhh!!!!!! Again, if the administration knows very well that once allocated money reaches the state accounts in that region, that the money simply disappears into individual off shore accounts, why keep allocating federal money to the same recipients knowing what the outcome will be? That is just like trying to fetch water with a basket and when that doesn't work, for obvious reasons, you blame the basket for not retaining water, and then turn around and defend your effort, and then commend yourself with a pat on your back for at least trying. Strange isn't it? Nothing makes sense in that country. Governors are given the green light to loot state treasury without any consequence. It gets so bad that some of them actually get arrested abroad and thrown in jail temporarily. Upon release on bond, they jump bail and return to Nigeria with every intention of assuming their regular duties in the state house as Governor as if nothing ever happened. How shameful can it get? Then we wonder why Nigerians are treated with scorn and disrespect at foreign embassies and at entry ports of foreign courtiers. Finally chairman Ribadu has compiled an extensive case against these looting fraudsters in preparation to indict them, and guess who the governors have approached for intervention? Obasanjo!!!!! I have never seen anywhere in the World where a defaulting public officer runs to the president for protection when under investigation and possible indictment for financial crimes. If this was America, the white house would immediately distance itself from any republican governor, senator, or congressman that is reported to be involved in any scandal. In Nigeria, the opposite is what happens. The Presidency comes to the aid of scandalous officials.

These vagabonds that we call state governors refuse to be accountable. They abuse their authority, dishonor their offices, loot public treasury, but are reluctant to face the consequences after depriving the people whom they swore to serve. That should never happen. They should be indicted, and sentenced to jail accordingly so we can begin the process of cleaning up our political and economic system and image.

One of the confusing things about this lame duck Obasanjo government in their war with Atiku is how they've suddenly found a way of trying corrupt public officers despite the immunity clause in effect. According to them, VP Atiku can be tried for corruption by the code of conduct bureau. So how come all the known corrupt public officials that hide behind immunity have not been tried by this code of conduct bureau? What a joke!

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PDP contests court verdict on Atiku's suspension
By Ise-Oluwa Ige

Posted to the Web: Thursday, November 09, 2006

ABUJA— THE ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has instituted an appeal to challenge the ruling of an Abuja High Court, Gwagwalada which said that Vice President Atiku Abubakar could challenge in court, his suspension from the party (PDP) by its leadership. The party in the appeal lodged by Chief Afe Babalola (SAN) accused the trial judge of bias.

The party raised 12 points and, therefore, wants the appellate court to strike out the vice-president’s case or return the case to the Abuja High Court for another judge for a denovo trial.

The PDP said the trial judge was wrong to have assumed jurisdiction on an issue that bordered on the internal affairs of a political party. The party argued that the dispute between a political party and its members had nothing to do with the Constitution of Nigeria .

PDP said it was not the duty of the court to run the affairs of a political party, adding that having subscribed to the membership of the party, Atiku was bound by the provisions of the party’s constitution…

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Man arrested with $78,000, nuclear info

Court records say suspect was carrying cash, data about nukes and cyanide

Updated: 10:06 a.m. CT Nov 16, 2006

DETROIT - A man was arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after officials say they found him carrying more than $78,000 in cash and a laptop computer containing information about nuclear materials and cyanide.

Sisayehiticha Dinssa, an unemployed U.S. citizen, was arrested Tuesday after a dog caught the scent of narcotics on cash he was carrying, according to an affidavit filed in court.

When agents asked him if he had any cash to declare, he said he had $18,000, authorities said. But when agents checked his luggage, they found an additional $59,000. When they scrolled through his laptop, they said they found the mysterious files.

At a court hearing Wednesday, Dinssa was ordered held in custody until at least until Monday at the request of prosecutors.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Leonid Feller argued Dinssa was a potential risk to the community and federal agents want to get a warrant to search his computer more thoroughly, The Detroit News reported Thursday. U.S. Magistrate Donald Scheer approved Feller’s request to detain him.

Dinssa, who is from Dallas, arrived in Detroit from Nigeria by way of Amsterdam and was headed for Phoenix, Feller said. He is charged with concealing more than $10,000 in his luggage, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, the Detroit Free Press reported.

A message seeking comment was left Thursday with his lawyer, Leroy Soles.

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If we sent El-Rufai to Lagos…
Friday, December 08, 2006 Friday with Pini Jason

To many people, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, the Minister responsible for the Federal Capital Territory is public enemy number one. The world is not in the habit of falling in love with a man who bulldozes people’’s houses, for whatever reason. It is the unenviable lot of el-Rufai that he has to keep Abuja sane. Sanity itself is not a common attribute out here. At best Nigeria is one huge asylum. The only difference is that this asylum, is run by the inmates. And that reflects on most of our cities and on virtually everything we do. But Abuja is one asylum where we needed the maddest of all mad men to keep it the way we want it. And we found one in el-Rufai. And is he mad or is he! If you want to rile him, suggest to him to do anything that alters the original plan of Abuja. You will see the red of his eyes! And if you know how much some Nigerians hate clean and orderly environment, you will appreciate el-Rufai’’s daunting task! But today we have a city we can show off to the world and not scratch our brows!

Lagos is one of such asylums in dire need of a madman to run it. Everything has gone berserk in Lagos. As I go round the mad city, I keep wondering if some of the things happening in Lagos would be possible if we sent el-Rufai to Lagos! For example, would el-Rufai abandon the administration of Lagos to any other authority? Five groups define life in Lagos today. Area boys are the law in Lagos. In many parts of the city, especially at roundabouts, they set up business imposing unknown traffic laws and harassing motorists. If you are not strong willed, you fall prey to them. After area boys come street traders. Would el-Rufai construct roads and abandon them to street traders? After street traders, okada riders are next menace in the pecking order. It is no use asking how el-Rufai would relate with the almighty okada riders. We already know how he coexists with them in Abuja! The next authority in Lagos is exercised by refuse mountains. Refuse competes with the greatest architects in defining the skyline of Lagos. In some places, refuse dumps put the entire institute of architects to shame in the matter of skyscrapers! And lastly, the other authority in Lagos is that inflicted on citizens by danfo/molue drivers.

The guys in Alausa are no longer pretending that they are in charge in Lagos. Lagos is a place where anybody can take his household effects, set up home and start cooking right in the middle of the road. If nobody stops him, (and often, there is nobody to stop him) the second, third and fourth family follow the bad example. And in a matter of days, the road has become a new settlement! Go to a place called Boundary in Ajegunle and see how a major road can be converted to whatever the madmen in Lagos want. Boundary is a place where a major road is now a huge market. It started by the secondhand clothes sellers taking a slice of the road to exhibit their wares. Then tomato sellers lined up in front of secondhand clothes sellers. Meat sellers took position in front of tomato sellers. Vegetable sellers commandeer the front of meat sellers. Egg sellers are in front of vegetable sellers and pepper sellers dig in, in front of egg sellers and so on till the once wide and motorable road disappears under the wares of mad Lagosians! And next to the market that has grown out of the road is a mountain of refuse. If you have not visited a part of Lagos for three months, by the time you do, you discover that the whole area has changed and you are missing your way!

In some places, you may wake up to find that okada cyclists have taken over a good chunk of the road as their park! Danfo bus stops in Lagos are wherever danfo drivers decide to drop or pick passengers. The outer Marina Street in Lagos is a nightmare because of danfo buses of assorted colours. When Alausa was in charge of Lagos, the government sent its Transport Managers there to keep order. But former Minister of Works, Senator Seye Ogunlewe was not particularly keen on anybody other than madmen asserting authority over Lagos. So he moved in with his own area boys who had better aprons, uniforms and federal might to slug it out with Governor Tinubu’’s men. Remember, Ogunlewe wants to be Governor of Lagos, and his understanding of the needs of Lagos does not seem to include law and order. At the end of the Ogunlewe versus Tinubu battle for the insane soul of Lagos, Marina fell effectively into the hands of danfos and molues! Today it takes at least one hour to snake your way from Apangbon to Bonny Camp just because the bus stop is a clear kilometer away from where the danfos and molues stop to pick and discharge passengers.

On your way out of Lagos Island, you spend at least three hours to squeeze your way out of the traumatic traffic jam. At the Apongbon end, one lane of the already broken road is now used as car park by patrons of the nearby market. The stretch of the Eko Bridge from Apongbon all the way to Ijora power station has been converted to a park. A market is gradually but steadily growing on the bridge. At the Carter Bridge side, the extension of Oyingbo market onto the bridge has since become an established fact. Iddo Motor Park has also been relocated to the Carter Bridge. Buses of all types routinely drive against the traffic and make u-turns on the bridge. You are lucky if you don’’t run smack into a vehicle coming at you from the opposite end. Traffic out of the Island through the Carter Bridge has been reduced to a daily agony characterized by overheating cars and accidents. If you are unlucky to have a breakdown on these bridges, the area boys descend on you. They dictate who among them would repair (actually ruin) your car and how much you must pay. They push your car whether you asked for their help or not and impose area taxes, area fees and area rates on you. When it gets late, they raid motorists and dispossess them of their properties. I read the other day in a newspaper that the danfo drivers and street traders have defied the Lagos State government on the use of the Bridges as parks and markets. Can they defy or dare an el-Rufai?

The Lagos State government had shadowboxing with the tanker drivers who have taken over major roads and flyovers in Apapa area as tanker parks. Notwithstanding that the Lagos State government provided a park for them somewhere at Orile Iganmu, the tanker drivers and their powerful owners have continued to defy the state government. If el-Rufai were in charge of Lagos, would these tanker operators defy him, no matter how powerful their owners? Talking of powerful owners reminds one of the inexcusable lawlessness that obtains at the Yaba roundabout in front of Ifesinachi Transport offices. There is an X-junction under the bridge there. The traffic there is therefore ordinarily difficult for the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency, LASTMA people to manage. But right in the middle of the road, in front of Ifesinachi Motors, is a park created by danfo operators. This worsens traffic at that junction. I was forced one day to challenge the LASTMA people why they allow such clearly illegal park. They told me that they are helpless because all the danfo buses that use that spot are owned by retired military personnel; that they once tried to stop them and got the beating of their lives! Can that be the end of the matter under el-Rufai? At the other end of Yaba bus stop, street traders have completely taken over the rail line. The trains have since abandoned the rail lines to street traders. You can now understand why the trains are no longer running!

Lagos was a place certain things were never done. For example, bicycles were not allowed beyond Iddo into the Island! There were areas in Lagos you were not allowed to hoot your car horn. Residents of parts of Surulere, where they sell tokunbo cars now, used to organize annual flower shows! And that means that they had enough water to drink and water their gardens! Urinating in the open was unimaginable. Today, people bare their arse by the Lagoon in broad daylight to defecate, all the while pretending that nobody is seeing then! You may not blame them, if you remember that it was actually the Lagos State government, under Lateef Jakande, that turned the Iddo water front into disposal point for conservancy! In plane language, Jakande started pouring **** into the Lagoon front at Iddo! And the practice has not stopped. Refuse mountains were unknown in Lagos of the sixties and seventies. Traffic jams were abnormalities that attracted prompt reaction from the police and the army! But today, Lagos is where the abnormal has become normal.

Alausa’’s lame excuse is urban growth! But the same urban growth is posing a threat of insanity on Abuja and el-Ruafai is fighting it and winning. The case of Lagos is that of total abandonment of governance! Nobody seems to be in charge except area boys, danfo/molue drivers, street traders, okada riders and refuse dumps! If you want to know how much we are under-governed or how much our governments are under-performing, Lagos offers a good case study. There are so much to-ing and fro-ing in Nigeria but hardly any meaningful management of the affairs of the people. In most cases, the presence of government the ordinary Nigerian feels is the sound of the sirens! And for many so-called politicians, including those burning houses and killing people in order to get into public office, all that matter are the paraphernalia of office and the fast money they can make. Government is nothing but a highway to get-rich-quick. Ineptitude, absence of creative ability, lack of vision and lack of will have reduced governance to rocket science, which should not be so. El-Rufai and the challenge of Abuja have shown what willpower can achieve. Lagos is an ugly contrast.

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E A R S H O T
Will Elections Hold?

This has become the question everybody has been asking lately. INEC has broken every provision in the constitution and Electoral Act so much so that all that is required to stop the coming elections now is someone simply walking into any court to get an injunction on grounds of the breaches.

But even if that happens, Obasanjo’s contract with Nigerians still ends Tuesday, 10am on May 29. He cannot benefit from the confusion that he has masterminded to get a tenure elongation. It is like a boy who killed both his parents, and pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he is an orphan.
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LAST WORD

Danjuma’s Mea Culpa
By Sam Nda-Isaiah
samndaisaiah@yahoo.com


"We must be humble enough to admit that only God knows the hidden thoughts and character of man..." Historians will be grateful to him because he has made their job simpler. General T.Y. Danjuma’s speech penultimate Saturday at the Conference of Northern Christian Elders in Kaduna has given the verdict on General Olusegun Obasanjo. It was actually delivered like a confidential report written on someone by his boss. There is no one in the world that is more qualified to write Obasanjo’s confidential report. In a very real sense, if Obasanjo has any godfather at all, it is General Danjuma.

It all started on February 13, 1975. The soldier that was sent by Lt. Col. Bukar Dimka to assassinate General Danjuma, the then chief of army staff, saluted him instead. The head of state, General Murtala Mohammed had been killed a few minutes earlier and Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, the chief of staff supreme headquarters and the No. 2 man in government had gone into hiding. He was so frightened that when he called M.D. Yusuf, the inspector-general of police later in the day from his hole, he refused to disclose his location. Danjuma was therefore the only one left on that fateful day to crush the coupists.

After successfully doing that with the help of officers like Col. Ibrahim Babangida, as he then was, Obasanjo came out of his hole with his tail between his legs with only one thing in mind. He had decided to voluntarily quit the army. The Nigerian military was for tough men and he had just realised he was not man enough to belong. Meanwhile, while the coup was going on, Joe Garba, a colonel, and then federal commissioner of external affairs ran to Gen. Danjuma and asked him to take over as head of state immediately, since it was clear that Murtala had been killed. Garba, who belonged to the core group of officers that led the coup that overthrew General Yakubu Gowon six months earlier and ushered in the trio of Murtala, Obasanjo and Danjuma, was probably speaking on behalf of his colleagues, as an Obasanjo presidency was the last thing they had hoped for when they ousted General Gowon. Danjuma refused flatly and told Garba there and then that they were going to follow hierarchy. If the head of state had been killed, then the number two in the perking order must take over.

But this number two was too cowardly and too frightened to be of much use to the nation. By the evening of that day, northern officers like Colonel Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, Group Captain Mukhtar Mohammed and others had regrouped and insisted that Gen. Danjuma take over. Danjuma still would have none of that. By the time Obasanjo resurfaced, the first thing he said was that Danjuma should take over, as he would be handing over his retirement letter the following day. Yes, Obasanjo himself offered the job to Danjuma. He had also informed his family members that he would be retiring from the service the following day and they were pleased to hear that.

But it was AVM John Yisa Doko who had the strongest case for the Danjuma rulership. AVM Doko was the chief of air staff and as a service chief, his voice was quite weighty in the schemes of the supreme military council. The airforce chief said the Danjuma rulership was the surest guarantee for stability in the country. And for good measure, he added that it would be difficult to guarantee the loyalty of the majority of the arms-bearing soldiers to an Obasanjo rulership. In spite of the enormity of the pressure, which even bordered on blackmail, Danjuma insisted on Obasanjo taking over because he thought that was the right thing to do. In fact, he added, that because of the religious sensibilities of the country (especially as some people had started giving religious colouration to the failed coup), he would even remain number three and look for a suitable Hausa/Fulani Muslim to fill the number two position. That was how Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, a much more junior officer became the chief of staff supreme headquarters and political number two. No wonder Adamu Adamu writing in his column in Daily Trust last Friday said: "By common consent, Gen. Danjuma is the finest officer produced by the Nigerian army and one of the best and most stable personalities produced by the Nigerian public service."

It is important to recall these in order to appreciate the extent of kinship between Obasanjo and Danjuma. Obasanjo only accepted to be head of state after Danjuma had assured him that he would hold the military in check for him. And that was what Danjuma did for Obasanjo between February 14, 1976 and October 1, 1979.

Then came 1998. General Abacha had just conveniently dropped dead while Obasanjo was serving his much deserved jail term for attempting to wage war on the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Abacha was merciful not to have applied the full weight of the law that Obasanjo himself had signed into effect in 1976 when he was head of state. Obasanjo had in 1995 committed the same offence as J.D. Gomwalk did in 1976. Both were privy to a plot to overthrow the government and didn’t report. The only difference was that as head of state, Obasanjo made his own law retroactive. Danjuma was one of those whose intervention with Abacha saved Obasanjo and others from the firing squad. While Obasanjo was in prison, Danjuma was one of the few who visited the former head of state from time to time and also helped in paying the school fees of some of his numerous children. At that time, Obasanjo farms had virtually collapsed and some of his family members were already selling his property because they thought it had all ended for the former head of state.

A day after General Abdulsalami Abubakar took over power, he released Obasanjo and others from prison. Danjuma immediately sent enough money to him to clean up. Danjuma’s money was the money he received out of prison. Within a few days, General Danjuma placed a call to his friend, Ahmed Joda, a retired federal permanent secretary and broached the idea of the need to repackage Obasanjo for the presidency of the nation especially as talks of power shift to the south had filled the air. Between then and February, the following year when Obasanjo was finally elected president, Danjuma had spent close to a billion naira of his own money. He so much believed in the rightness of what he was doing that at a stage he threatened to go on exile if for any reason Obasanjo did not become president. When he was told that General Ishaya Bamaiyi, the then chief of army staff was opposed to the Obasanjo ticket, he walked straight up to him to enquire why. Bamaiyi thought it didn’t make sense for the same government that had jailed Obasanjo to hand over power to him. Danjuma then brokered a meeting between Bamaiyi and Obasanjo where Obasanjo promised Bamaiyi that "bygones shall be bygones". Obasanjo eventually took over on May 29, 1999. And Danjuma was appointed defence minister. A few weeks later, Bamaiyi was arrested. He is still in detention.

It didn’t take long before Danjuma knew that the Obasanjo he had helped to power was diametrically different from the one he knew. The Obasanjo he was now confronted with was a counterfeit. One of Danjuma’s first acts in office as defence minister was to get his permanent secretary, Julius Makanjuola arrested on grounds of corruption. He took the anti-corruption war to heart. He didn’t know Obasanjo was only playing to the gallery. By October of the same year (1999), barely four months after his appointment, Danjuma had handed over his letter of resignation. But the intense pressure from service chiefs and other top members of the government forced him to rescind his decision. He eventually left at the end of Obasanjo’s first term.

Danjuma might have been aware that many people have been blaming him for foisting Obasanjo on the nation. To that, he has given a very acceptable alibi in his message to the Northern Christian Elders. He confessed the dilemma of trying to be a kingmaker. You may mean well as a kingmaker, but the king may eventually become king kong.

He didn’t mention Obasanjo’s name anywhere in the speech but it is clear who the missiles were meant for. "If a crusader is deficient in integrity, who will believe the gospel?" Who doesn’t know who this deficient crusader is? "The wheel of our national progress that was steered from the edge of chaos is regrettably being pushed back to the precipice". Are we not back to the precipice? "It could also be said that the highest form of corruption in a democracy is electoral fraud." Is Obasanjo not the greatest electorate fraudster in the nation’s history? This is a man who actually forged the electoral law in order to give himself a head start in 2003. And the forgery and the rigging continue.

But the most touching portion of that seminal speech – a speech that should be laminated and kept as part of our valuable collections – is the one that exculpates us all of the collective guilt of bringing Obasanjo upon ourselves. "We must be humble enough to admit that only God knows the hidden thoughts and character of man. Only God knows the future. The danger of trying to be a kingmaker is that while you may sincerely think that your preferred candidate will be the best for the society, the candidate as king may become king kong, trying to destroy not only the kingmakers but also the larger society. Some of the champions around whom we built much hope for the nation have turned out to be fake intellectuals, fake statesmen, fake men of God and even fake friends."

May God give us more leaders and more genuine statesmen like General Danjuma, and may He deliver us from fake statesmen, fake friends and fake born-again Christians!

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