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Iyabogate and Obasanjo's Anti-Corruption Crusade
What has come to be referred to as "Iyabogate" is one in a long string of
scandals that has trailed the exit of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, aka
Baba Iyabo. While in power, Baba Iyabo strove hard to project the image of Mr
Clean. In the dying days of his presidency, he deployed the full force of his
arsenal against his deputy, Atiku Abubakar under the guise of fighting
corruption.
There has been inuendos circulating across people's paliaments that Baba Iyabo
fought corruption with corruption. It was claimed that, as a dirty broom, he
left behind more filth thatn he removed. Events and revelation since his exit
after the failure of the "third term" fiasco seems to lend increasing credence
to this innuendo.
The land is abuzz with scandals, from last minute sweetheart deals to the latest
string of scandals, dubbed b commentators as "one month, one scandal"... from
wilbros, Siemens, Schneider... Critics claim that this is just a tip of the
iceberg, the show is about to start. President Umaru Yar' Adua's team has been
kept very busy, reversing decisions made by Baba Iyabo, especially in his last
months in power, gaining credibilty in the process. All that the Yar'Adua Team needs to boost the approval rating of the government is to shop for an unpopular
Obasanjo policy and reverse it pronto, and it seems they don't have to look far to find one...
Even while in power, there were conflict of interest issues thrown up with the
building of a presidential library while still in power, Bells University,
awarding oil blocks to Transcorp while still a shareholder, and the
controversial sale of Abuja Hilton and NITEL to Transcorp, the miraculous
revival of Temperance farms and other business among others. The goings on in
the Petroluem Ministry under Baba Iyabo's watch is an untold story. The AP story
may very well fire the opening salvo in the story of the activities of "friends
and family" of Baba Iyabo in the oil industry.
Of all the wind of scandals blowing across the land, iyabogate seems to be the
one that has blown closest home. Baba Iyabo can claim to have done no evil,
heard no evil or seen no evil when it came to acts of his men. Convincing
Nigerians that he knew nothing about iyabogate will be an uphill task.
The case seems to be very simple and straight forward. According to her, "I know Prince Awofisayo. Sometime ago, he invited me to be part of a business he wanted to do. Some of these proposals work, other times they don't. Prince said I should not worry, that he would fund the entire project. I told him since I was a commissioner, it could raise issues of conflict of interest. We agreed to go into the business all the same. Prince formed a company and did all the ground work. We agreed that I should use a different name, yes, because in law there is nothing wrong with that. Even the arbitration panel in Paris, on which a judge of the high court of England sat, agreed that legally, there was nothing wrong in that."
"The company put in bids for the power projects without any input from me. It went through a normal, transparent process. I didn’t even know anybody at NEPA, so I could not have influenced anything. The company won the contracts. It is true that I used a pseudonym. It was Prince Awofisayo who funded the whole project. I did not put in a penny and I did not receive a penny from it."
"The truth will come out someday. This is pure blackmail. Because their business relationship has gone bad now, they now want to drag me in an unnecessary controversy. This is unfair. They are trying to use the media to destroy me because I am Obasanjo's daughter. Does it mean because I am Obasanjo's daughter, I cannot do anything again in this country? I have worked hard all my life. I am a PhD holder by dint of hard work. Does it mean I cannot even do anything again in my life without people trying to make a big issue out of it?"
Continued on Page 2
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