31-year-old secret revealed - Why Babangida removed me from power – Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has said he was removed from office 31 years ago because he was planning to purge the military hierarchy of corruption.

Buhari, who has not spared the military even in his ongoing anti-corruption war, said senior military leaders, led by former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida and General Aliyu Gusau, removed him in August 1985, to save themselves from his wrath.

In an exclusive interview published in the current edition of The Interview magazine, Buhari challenged Babangida and Gusau to tell the truth on why they carried out the coup against him.

“I learnt,” he said, “that Aliyu Gusau, who was in charge of intelligence, took import licence from the ministry of commerce which was in charge of supplies and gave it to Alhaji Mai Deribe.

Buhari, Nigeria and the IMF: Echoes from the past by Paul Adams

Nigeria came full circle in April 2015 when it elected Muhammudu Buhari as president, turning in mid-crisis to a former military ruler now convinced of the merits of democracy. Soon after his election, the tortuous course of the relationship Nigeria had embarked upon with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the 1980s, during Buhari’s first spell in charge, looked set for a reprise.

A cycle recurs roughly every ten years in Nigeria. Oil prices weaken or crash whilst the president spends recklessly to try and hold on to power. He is dislodged and a new president declares the treasury empty and holds talks with the IMF. No deal is agreed, but the World Bank and other donors offer bigger loans on less strict conditions. The oil price picks up – and it’s “business as usual” till the next crash. Successive governments have had just enough oil money in times of crisis to say “no thanks” to the IMF’s cash and policies, and to win public acclaim for standing up to it.

IMF policy prescriptions and oversight can affront national pride, especially that of Nigerians. Allowing the IMF to scrutinise the national accounts also threatens the ruling elite, which is reliant on control of the country’s resources. Nigeria’s accounting for its vast oil revenue and expenditure is at best, and by design, opaque.

Crusade against corruption

THE FULANI MILITANTS AND A FRIENDLY CHAT WITH AN OLD FRIEND - Fani-Kayode

The following discusion took place on my Facebook friends page on May 2nd 2016. Since it is already in the public realm I have taken the liberty of.sharing it in my column as well.

Though we have not seen much of each other for a while I have known Alhaji Muktari Shinkafi for the better part of the last 35 years and we are more like brothers than friends.

We spent a lot of time together in our youth and in those heady and blissful days of the early and mid-1980's when I was still at Cambridge University and when I spent most of my leisure time playing polo at the Lagos Polo Club or at the Guards Polo Club in the U.K., eating caviar and drinking champagne. We had great fun in those days and Nigeria was a much better and happier place than it is now.