"Now listen to that part next sentence as you read it yourself "
"Yeah'I remember we clapped and thanked him in the executive council meeting.When Buhari moved into dodan barracks, he never changed the furniture or the curtains.When I asked him why ,he said 'look they are usable.Why spend money unnecessarily?'
If you send Buhari a memo within a few hours you ll get a reply.Throughout that particularly general idiagbon without fail to the country and the world on national television:This is the amount we made and this what we are spending '.Transparency and accountability....I went to work for seven days a week because my leader would be there.He would always telephone me.On Saturday and Sunday I staggered my staff.
Question: Would you then say Buhari played into the hands of Babangida?
Answer: Babangida had no programme .I worked for him .He is a public relations man.He is glib.He has the gift of the gab.The economy was looking up during Buhari's time.We were down ...."wait a minute
"See that was exactly what Bakare said."at a time Nigeria resorted to barter"So he was right Nigeria was down during the period.Continue please".
"listen '......and everything was done to bring us down.There was the rumour that they would overthrow Buhari within three months.When we cut our oil price we shock the world.They wanted to price is out of the market.For the first time a despatch rider had to take me to doddan baracks.Buhari was once oil minister so he knew the intrigues.I told the commander in chief:'We have three moves .First don't move.Second,shave off exactly the same price as the competitors.Third,schock the world!'He laughed and said:'Shock the world to show them we can survive;shave off two dollars!'
We shaved off double the amount that the rest did,and consequently they panicked.Britain never expected this nor Norway.
Those people who wanted to bring us down never expected this.Buhari I can walk through the fire for him...."
"See that!.....he can walk through the fire with him.uhhhhhhhmmmm.interesting! "
"He says and continue.'That's leadership.Sheikh Yamani had to fly in here to Lagos.We had to meet later in a secret place on the outskirts of Geneva,the world press was focusing so much on me.I had to change cars three times for camouflage.Then we sat down to negotiate whether Nigeria would get in line.I said we would not do so.I asked the British oil minister:' Mr Walker is it true the Americans gave you two billion dollars or one billion dollars to undercut us?'He laughed it off with an :'i hope it is true....'But I noted that he never said an outright,'No'.
Question: From what you are saying you and Buhari stood up to the most powerful nations in the world.What then explains the cult of mediocrity in Nigerian leadership?'
Answer:The cult of mediocrity and corruption came later.In the history of OPEC it has never happened that one country was singled out and given an increase of a quota of 150,000 bpd.when we accomplished this in 1984.
So to round off on Buhari,had every one of our major projects become tied to oil barrels, Nigeria would not have had any problems.We would have been able to make the IMF irrelevant,...and I can tell you that we were in the process of doing so.We had already received 2 billion naira through what I called our 'repayment strategy '.London Financial Times of May 1984 said it was an extraordinary strategy.If Babangida had not overthrown Buhari Nigeria should have seen the light I told OPEC that counter trade was a program for survival.Saudi Arabia traded with billions of dollars worth of crude oil not in their quota ; they started before us.We had everything numerous resources yet our industries were closing down.We had no spare parts industry; there was no money and the plan of certain nations was to overthrow us.But we shocked the world with good leadership and good program.
Question:So everything changed once Buhari was overthrown?
Answer:Yes Babangida had no program.Admittedly he is a good PR man and this has cost the nation dearly because of his self interests.One of the reasons he gave for overthrowing Buhari was that Buhari was applying 40% of our revenue to the servicing of debts....."
"Stupid but all of them are doing the same now even worse".
"Let me read hear:'Babangida 'complained it 'was too much .But the first budget Babangida was to broadcast to the world was the same amount 40%."
"Why? because he had seen it and done calculation he could not change it so why the overthrow?See I could have said like David west said of Murtala that had Murtala ruled or lived much longer he would have been judged differently and I think the same applies to Buhari:Had he ruled much longer who knows he might have been judged differently too.If it happens the other way round then it means such monumental scale of phenomenal projects that Babangida did might have been impossible for Buhari."
"Nope I disagreed with you and agreed with Tam David West .You know why late Moses our father said he wrote MAMSER project for Babangida."
"I saw the letter he was right and I will never doubt.So I agree he's PR man.So continue let's finish the interview "
" Reads 'The brilliant navy from Lagos in council observed this as I similarly noted it.He looked at me and smiled then mentioned It to Babangida who said:'What page is it? Take 10% off.'..."
"You see selfish interest.So he wouldn't have shaved off that 10percent if not for the monumental embarrassment?"
"Exactly!he says'Babangida inherited what Buhari had set in motion.When Buhari was forcibly removed we had some money in an Austrian escrow account through counter trade between Austrian company Voest-Alpin and Nigeria.When I Tam David West went to inquire about the money I discovered...."
"It was stolen.You see! "
"....'i discovered that the money was used up and I reported this to Babangida and Abacha.Today I don't know where that money is.
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