The Guardian newspaper has demanded a public explanation for the $12 billion believed to have corruptly vanished during the Babangida regime. It wrote: "Babangida owes himself and prosperity a duty to clarify the circumstances involved in the expenditure of $12.4 billion. ... We call on the General and on the government to avail Nigerians of the opportunity to know what happened to the $12.4 billion oil windfall."
The Guardian did not spare the Obasanjo administration for keeping silent on such an important matter, in spite of continued revelations from the Pius Okigbo report, which extensively detailed how Babangida, as a military dictator, spent a great national fortune without having anything to show for it.
This is the editorial as it appeared on web edition of The Guardian on September 13, 2006:
Long before the former military ruler, General Ibrahim Babangida, expressed his intention to contest for president in 2007, his past actions in power have become the subject of intense public scrutiny and debate. This is as it should be since all those who present themselves for public office in a democracy owe society a duty to make themselves available for public scrutiny. The public has an inalienable right to know the antecedents of all those who seek to rule them. This is the quid pro quo, the social contract between the electorate and those who seek their mandate.
One of the issues that General Babangida has been called upon to explain deals with the mystery surrounding the expenditure of $12.4 billion the nation earned from crude oil when he was in power. The issue was raised in the report of the Panel on the Reorganisation and Reform of Central Bank of Nigeria instituted by the regime of late General Sani Abacha in January 1994. Chaired by the late economist, Dr. Pius Okigbo, the panel submitted its report to government on September 27, 1994.
Since then, the Okigbo report, as it came to be called, is yet to see the light of day. Neither the Abacha regime nor subsequent governments including the current democratic government of President Olusegun Obasanjo has deemed it fit to release the report or a government white paper on it. The report mysteriously disappeared from government records. In fact, President Obasanjo is reported to have asked anybody who has a copy of the report to make it available to him, implying that there was no extant copy in government records.
The apparent disappearance of the report has stoked the fires of public expectation and intensified suspicion of a conspiracy to cover up the matter. Babangida's venture into politics has raised the issue to the forefront of public discourse; it has intensified the clamour for the release of the Okigbo report. Finally, snippets of the report, in form of an executive summary, have appeared in the media and on the internet.
In line with its operational mandate, the panel examined and made recommendations on the legal framework, administrative and management structure of the Central Bank; the regulatory framework for the financial system; domestic operations and the management of domestic debt; external sector policies, foreign exchange and external debt management; formulation and implementation of monetary policy; co-ordination and harmonisation of fiscal and monetary policies; and the issue of dedication and other special accounts.
Among these issues, it is the panel's findings on dedication and special accounts that have raised the current controversy. In 1988 then President Babangida authorised the dedication of 65,000 barrels of crude oil per day to finance special priority projects including Ajaokuta Iron and Steel, Itakpe Iron Mining, and Shiroro Hydro-electric project. The Central Bank Dedication Account was also to be used to finance the external debt buy-back programme and to build up reserves. The quantity was subsequently increased to 105,000 barrels per day in October 1989 and to 150,000 barrels per day in early 1994. The government also opened a Stabilisation Account to receive the windfall of oil proceeds from the Gulf War. Three other accounts - NNPC Sales of Mining Rights Account, the Signature Bonus Account and GHQ Special Fund Account - were also opened for similar purposes. The total funds paid into these accounts from 1988 to June 1994 amounted to $12.4 billion.
By June 30, 1994 the accounts had a balance of $206 million; the windfall, on the President's sole authority, had been frittered away on such mundane things as the purchase of television and video sets for the Presidency at a cost of $18.30 million. The money had been spent outside the federal budget at a time when Nigerians were suffering severe hardship under the government's structural adjustment programme (SAP). As the committee lamented, "if only the funds had been regarded as part of the external reserves and had been counted as such, the impact on the exchange rate in the year under review would have been so significant that the Naira would have been stronger in 1994, in relation to the dollar, than it was in 1985."
The mystery that has surrounded the Okigbo report in the last decade has made it impossible for Nigerians to know the details of how the government of General Babangida expended a whopping $12.4 billion. But Nigerians deserve an answer to the question: what happened to the $12.4 billion oil windfall? After all, the money is part of our national patrimony and we as citizens deserve to know what happened to it. The first step in answering that question lies in making the Okigbo report public.
President Obasanjo's refusal to release the report does serious injury to his anti-corruption campaign. The purpose of government is to serve the interest of the people, not stifle it. Releasing the report promotes the public good; hiding it in mystery protects the interest of a few over that of the generality of Nigerians.
How can Nigerians make an informed decision over the choices available to them in the next election if a crucial report on the conduct of one of the presidential aspirants remains shrouded in mystery? As a former ruler seeking to rule us again, General Babangida owes himself and prosperity a duty to clarify the circumstances involved in the expenditure of $12.4 billion. As in other cases involving his conduct in office, General Babangida has asserted his innocence. If that is so, his interest will be best served if the report is made public. We call on the General and on the government to avail Nigerians of the opportunity to know what happened to the $12.4 billion oil windfall.
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