The EFCC in Lagos had come calling
brusquely on Mike Adenuga (Jnr), Chairman Globacom on 9 July 2006. They broke
his gate, swarmed into his house and kept him under ‘arrest’. When I heard
about the arrest, I called the legal firms, of Ayanlaja SAN & Adesanya SAN
as well as Professor Biodun Adesanya SAN to take up the matter and secure
Mike’s release. They swung into action and gave indication that they would take
the matter to court.
By evening, it was no longer necessary to go to court as
Mike, following his statement to EFCC, had been released with instructions to
report regularly to the EFCC headquarters in Abuja. Mike proceeded to Abuja,
accompanied by his lawyer, Prof. Biodun Adesanya SAN. Indirectly related to
this case, the EFCC had quizzed and released Mohammed Babangida, Ibrahim
Babangida’s son. The EFCC purportedly were on the trail of some money belonging
to the Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF), but there was really more
beneath the veneer.
While
Mike was in Abuja, he was counseled to see Obasanjo to extricate himself. For
four days, he made attempts to see Obasanjo but was unsuccessful. After a few
days in Abuja with no case pressed against him by EFCC, he returned to Lagos.
Not long afterward, and in the heat of this mess, Obasanjo did two things that
puzzled me. He called Mike to meet him at a social event in Lagos –Engr.
Olapade’s birthday celebration. Mike and Obasanjo were both captured by press
photographers in the newspapers at the event. Following the celebration,
Obasanjo asked Mike to accompany him to Ota. It was in Ota that he solicited
for the construction of the Administration Block of his university, Bells
University in Ota. Mike agreed, and Carchez Turnkey Projects Ltd handled the
project for him. It appeared the whole matter, the EFCC hunt, simmered and Mike
continued about his business. On a trip to Ghana, he ran through his Nigerian
daily newspapers and discovered that the situation was unfolding in a more
revealing version. The EFCC had arrested Mohammed Babangida. Mike read between
the lines and proceeded to the UK on exile. When I visited the UK, Mike came to
see me and wanted me to facilitate a meeting with Obasanjo so that he could
present his side of the case. The allegations against him were as follows:
a.
That Abubakar Atiku, the Vice-President, gave Mike Adenuga money from the
Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) which were invested in Mike’s
bank, Equatorial Trust Bank (ETB), and that the funds were used in paying for
the Globacom license.
b.
That as a result of the connection in (a) Atiku was a major shareholder in
Globacom. And Atiku used his clout to ensure that PTDF money got into ETB.
c.
That General Ibrahim Babangida, the former Head of State, was also a major
shareholder in Globacom.
It
was not enough for Mike to merely present his case to EFCC, for it seemed the
EFCC was under some remote control. The Presidency was after Atiku. Atiku at
some point was the Chairman of the PTDF; an attempt was being made to indict
him for alleged illegal and unauthorized channeling of PTDF money into
Globacom. All sorts of rumors were flying around, and the Presidency wanted to
pin down the case against Atiku. If Ibrahim Babangida also fell into the trap,
so much the better.
A
wide opening presented itself, and EFCC seized it.
G.Subair
is Mike’s second cousin. His father died young, and he grew up, just as I did
in my early life, living with Mike’s mother. He worked for Mike and was
seconded, amongst other things, to open the Kaduna office for Globacom. In need
of accommodation or office space, he leased, on behalf of Globacom, a house, at
2-3 Dawaki Road in Kaduna belonging to Mohammed Badamasi Babangida and used
that address in official correspondence and memoranda. Mohammed is the first
son of President Ibrahim Babangida. This was Babangida connection to which EFCC
hung on when they were rummaging through Globacom documents. This was,
according to them, irrefutable evidence that Babangida was a major shareholder
in Globacom and that his son, Mohammed Babangida, or G.Subair or Mike was
fronting for Babangida in this venture.
Mike
told me how he had raised money through the BNP Paribas Bank in France and how
he paid to New York for the Globacom licensing fees. All the money involved
could be traced with supporting documents to France and New York in the form of
a huge loan. The Bank BNP Paribas on its part had a letter stating clearly
their involvement in the transaction and Mike wanted to present this among
other documents to President Obasanjo. I called Obasanjo and relayed the facts
as I had them from Mike to him. I requested for his fax number so that I could
fax Mike’s letter explaining all the transactions and the Bank of Paribas
letter to him. As soon as he gave me the fax number, I faxed the documents to
him. Still, Obasanjo was not satisfied. It seemed that it was all a ruse
because they were really after Atiku and Babangida and wanted Mike to implicate
them. Mike refused to cooperate. If he were not going to cooperate, they
thought, harassment would do it. On 19 August 2006, I made a statement to the
press asking Obasanjo to caution Nuhu Ribadu, the head of the EFCC, about his
mode of operations. I denounced the harassment of citizens by EFCC and urged
them to go to court if they had anything concrete against anyone.
While
Mike was in exile, we shared a moment of relaxation together. We took a holiday
together in the south of France with some members of our families. I had with
me my wife Olori Kemi, my daughter, Ronke and Oba Adekoya, the Dagburewe of
Idowa. Mike came along with his two daughters and his niece.
While
on this holiday, the President of France, Jacques Chirac, was going to be
holding a conference with African Heads of State in Nice. Coincidentally, we
got to know that Obasanjo was booked to stay in the same hotel where we were
staying. Later, we learned he had changed his mind and would not be attending
the conference. Then not long afterward, we were told he had decided to attend
after all. By the time he finally decided to attend, all the rooms in the hotel
were fully booked, and he was now booked into another, Embassy Hotel, which was
a stone’s throw from when we were. I got to know that he would check in at
8.00am on the day of the conference. At 8.330am, I went to his hotel and took
Mike along with me. From the reception, I spoke to him on the phone. When he
asked from where I was speaking, I told him I was downstairs in the lobby of
his hotel! He said he would send someone down immediately to lead me up to his
suite, and he did so. I left Mike behind in the hotel lobby. When I got to his
suite, there were already a number of people in the corridor, in his living
room and the dining room waiting to see him. His ADC took me straight to see
him in his bedroom. I had hardly settled down when he started talking to me
about his deputy, Abubakar Atiku. He was at daggers drawn with Atiku. When he
exhausted all he had to say about Atiku, he jumped on Theophilus Danjuma, his
estranged friend. They fell out after Danjuma had served him as Minister of
Defence. I sat there just listening. He needed to get a lot off his chest. He
told me how would leave the Chirac conference immediately after the opening
because he wanted to attend a PDP campaign in Gombe at 5.00pm that same day. He
was a lead campaigner for the PDP and Umaru Yar’adua for President.
He
reeled off a number of events where he was going to be engaged in the coming
months, including the opening of the Obajana Cement Factory. Wait a minute!
Something struck me at the mention of Obajana Cement Factory.I told him that I
had heard that he and Aliko Dangote jointly owned the cement factory. I told
him that I heard Dangote was fronting for him in the venture. His reply was to
query whether I believed what I heard. I countered by saying whether I believed
it or not was irrelevant to the question that I had asked him. He said nothing
further on this. Before we left his room, I pointed out to him that now that he
was approaching the end of his term in office, there were some people to whom
he owed apologies: Chief S.O. Bakare (Oluwalogbon) was one. Chief Bakare gave
everything to support Obasanjo when he was down. In spite of Obasanjo’s
condemnation by the populace, Bakare still stood by him. I had forewarned
Bakare that Obasanjo would eventually dump him. Notwithstanding, he stood by
Obasanjo. In the end Obasanjo walked away. A few months in office they
separated as friends.
I
told Obasanjo that Mike Adenuga was in Cannes and that I had brought him with
me. He was waiting in the foyer downstairs. I told him that the reason I
brought Mike along was that it was not unlikely that Obasanjo would hear that
Mike was in Cannes while he was in town and would deem it discourteous if Mike
did not show up to pay his respect. Now that I had told him, that Mike was
downstairs, it was now up to him, if he wanted to see Mike, to send someone to
bring him up. Obasanjo objected to Mike coming to see him in his suite.
Instead, he said he would see Mike downstairs on his way to the conference. At
this point, I volunteered to go downstairs and wait with Mike. Obasanjo again
objected, insisting that he and I should go down together. Soon after, his ADC
came into the room to remind him about the time. He went into his bathroom, got
ready, and we went to the lift with his Foreign Minister.
When
we got down, Mike came forward to greet him. ‘I have nothing against you, it is
a matter of principle’ Obasanjo told Mike. Mike, in turn, said, ‘Your
Excellency, I understand. Thank you.’ That was all the exchange they had.
When
Obasanjo left office in 2007, we met at the 90th birthday ceremony for Chief
T.O.S Benson in Lagos on 23 July 2007. As a matter of fact, we sat side by
side. In the course of our conversation, I told him I was going to be in
Abeokuta the following day. He said he would be in Ota when I was there, but
that he would specifically come to Abeokuta to host me for lunch. He kept his
word. So much so that he called me on the phone when lunch was ready! I assured
him that I would not miss lunch and I would be with him as soon as I was
through with my meeting.
I
went as promised for lunch with Oba Adekoya, the Dagburewa of Idowa. When we
got there, Obasanjo also had Alhaji Ola Yusuf from Owu, Abeokuta, who had come
to see him and he too joined us for lunch. We were four at the table. It was
sumptuous lunch, and I had never been treated to anything like it in our long
relationship.
Mike
Adenuga was still in exile abroad, and Obasanjo steered the lunch talk in his
direction. He asked me to ask my son meaning Mike Adenuga, to return home. I
requested that he should leave the matter until after lunch and it would be
tackled on a one-to-one basis between us. He agreed.
After
lunch, we went into his private sitting room. I declared that what Nuhu Ribadu,
Chairman of EFCC, was doing in respect of Mike Adenuga was wrong and he was
doing it at Obasanjo’s behest. I told him that I refrained from interfering
because I wanted to see how the law would pan out on the issue. The kernel of the
matter really, as I told him, was his disagreement with Abubakar Atiku, his
deputy, and they had taken the matter almost life-and –death level. Mike
Adenuga was a pawn in the crisis, and he should be given the right to defend
himself.
I
reminded Obasanjo that he was no longer in office and he should back off in his
pursuit of Mike. I went further to let him know that if Nuhu Ribadu did not
desist from molesting Mike, I would go into the ring with them. Here I made
clear that I would take him and Ribadu to unnecessarily and unjustifiably
pursue Mike. Obasanjo promised to see Ribadu and to ask him to back off. He
further promised to give me feedback on this.
When
I did not get his feedback, I called him a number of times, but the phone would
ring and not be answered. Eventually, I called his aide, Bodunde Adeyanju, who
on picking my call passed the phone to Obasanjo to speak to me. Obasanjo told
me Ribadu was out of the country and he would get back again to me on Ribadu’s
return. I told Obasanjo how difficult it had been to reach him on the phone. I
offered a solution. I would ask Mike to send him a phone which he would give
his aide, Bodunde, as an intermediary. This way, all I had to do was call that
number, and Bodunde would pass it to him if he wanted to speak to me. He
agreed, and Mike sent the phone down the next day. But still, Obasanjo did not
come back to me on the issue.
Mike
remained in exile in London, and nothing much was heard again or raised by the
EFCC about him. Later in 2007, I called Mike in London and told him I wanted to
know why he had refused to return home. Since he had no skeleton in his
cupboard, then he should return home. I explained to him that the purpose of
the wealth with which he had been divinely endowed was to care for his needs,
and his interests. It was also for use to defend his honor and integrity. For
these reasons, I urged him to return home.
Thereafter,
Mike returned home. Nobody touched him, and no institution has prosecuted him
because there was no genuine reason from the onset for anybody to touch him.
However, the construction project at Bells University slowed considerably while
Mike was in exile and a few solicitous calls from Obasanjo to Mike while he was
in exile did not change the pace of work. On his return from exile, the school
Bells University had the temerity to write to him seeking for a meeting to
discuss the continuation of the project. When I got to know, I offered to be in
attendance at the meeting and sent word round that I would be in attendance. I had
the intention to lambast all of them. They must have sensed it because up till
now, the meeting has not been held!
All
the enormous goodwill which Obasanjo carried into office was squandered with a
performance that left him with a second term short of tangible achievements.
Eight years in office was ample time to put electricity on a very strong
footing. Eight years was enough to put down a strong foot against corruption
and make a clear difference. Eight years was adequate for orderliness and the
rule of law to triumph in every facet of our society. These were the basis upon
which I gave him my support for the office. Some new State Governors have shown
how much good can be achieved in a shorter time.
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