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Economic Confidential,
November, 2009
COVER
No 2nd
Term for YarÁdua – Billionaire Debtors Vow
With almost all the names
of bigwigs in Nigeria’s corporate and political circles published in
the list of Bad debtors in the country, the re-election of President
Umaru Musa YarÁdua in 2011 is in jeopardy due to massive
mobilisation and underground gang up to ensure that he does not
return to power after the first tenure.
The list of biggest debtors
in Nigeria includes top politicians, powerful retired military
general, influential industrialists and public functionaries. While
the central bank has bailed out nine of the country’s 24 banks to
the sum of $4bn, nearly N600 billion the worth of the non-performing
loans of the affected bank was N1.6 trillion. So far only about
N150bn has been recovered while the banking stocks lost almost 50%
of their monetary values.
In the forefront of
mobilisation against the reelection,
Economic Confidential an online economic magazine
gathered, are some powerful members of the Corporate Nigeria, a
mafia-kind of an organisation that had funded the re-election of
former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003 with billions of Naira
and made generous donation to YarÁdua’s election in 2007. There are
also former elected and appointed public officers who have not been
in the good book of the administration and ambitious politicians
even within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) strategising
for relevant in 2011’s election.
The gang-up will see to a
boycott of any campaign funding rally for Yar’Adua’s election. The
aggrieved individuals have marshalled plans to teem up with
opposition groups, especially the anti-government forces by funding
their programmes and also working on some media to discredit the
reform agenda on the economic front. They are also planning to host
websites to play ethno- regional cards through different fronts.
In a finding by the
Economic Confidential, secret meetings have been held
within and mostly outside the shore of the
country from the prying eyes of the security networks. Some of the
meetings were held under the guise of social gatherings in the
United States of America, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates and
even some African countries that include South Africa and
neighbouring Ghana and Benin Republic.
But surprisingly instead of
spiritual pilgrimage for Lesser Hajj, some of the top public
functionaries and politicians were in Mecca during the Islamic Holy
Month of Ramadan to actually strategize on acceptable candidate from
the North to replace YarÁdua due to his ill-health. Though some of
them have sympathy for the President but they believe he is
unsellable for re-election.
Already few of them that
are prominent members of the ruling People Democratic Party (PDP)
are willing to join a new formidable political party being touted by
major oppositions in the country, as more
funds are to be injected to the party by some sacked bosses of banks
axed by CBN.
The most astonishing
development is that some elected officers at the states and National
Assembly are preparing to battle with Yar’Adua for the ticket on the
excuse of his ill-health and lukewarm attitudes to governance. In
fact some former governors are also strategising to save the
situation during the peak of electioneering, starting by middle of
2010 to bring in any member of Governors' Forum
in the past or current dispensation.
During Obasanjo’s tenure,
Corporate Nigeria under all-powerful Ndidi Okereke, the boss of
Nigeria Stock Exchange, influenced and corned for its members’
interests big contracts, sensitive appointments and lucrative
privatised firms. The resolve of some of the members not to support
YarÁdua’s re-election is to pay back the administration in the same
coin for indicting most of them as bad debtors. They also feel
cheated by not being engaged and consulted on economic policies and
reform programmes, like in the past, after pumping billions of Naira
overtly and covertly into the 2007 campaign’s purse of YarÁdua.
While some
billionaire-debtors who are not necessarily full members of the
Corporate Nigeria, are sceptical of workability of the underground
gang-up, in an ironic twist, however, one of the debtors who is yet
to join the clique is planning to flout a national newspaper to
exonerate the debtors against CBN’s action while at the same time
would support the candidacy of YarÁdua for 2011 Presidential
election. The controversial billionaire who likes to go solo told
close associates that he would rather support YarÁdua and condemn
CBN’s actions for blacklisting local investors in its banking
reforms, than joining a cowardly cartel who could not publicly
challenge the government.
It can
be recalled that the biggest debtors of the affected banks
as published by CBN (See the list in the Economic
Confidential link: Big Debtors
in Nigeria) included the major players in the economy
that include Mike Adenuga of Conoil and Globalcom, Aliko Dangote of
Dangote Group of companies, Femi Otedola of Zenon Oil, Jimoh Ibrahim
of Global Fleets, Oba Otudeko of Honeywell Group, Abdul Rahaman Musa
Bashir of Rahamaniyya Global Resources Limited and Prince Fredrick
Akinruntan, of Obat Oil and Petroleum Company. Among the politicians
are Atiku Abubakar, former Vice-President; Professor Pat Utomi of
Lagos Business School and Adetokunbo Kayode, Minister of Culture.
There are also some silent
billionaires in the debtors’ list who were unknown to the public
until the CBN’s bombshell. They include: Peter Ololo, a stockbroker
and the man who brought down the banks, Prince Oyedele of Ankara
Overseas Development company, Carlos Kazeem and Innocent Ezuma of
Platinum Capital, P. S Ugboma of Cogipar Nigeria Ltd and Onajite
Okoloko of Notore Chemical Industries Limited.
Some foreigners were also
listed. They include Salvatore Gitto of Gitto Construzioni Generali,
Jalin Kapoor and S Karana Kumar of Delta Steel among others. State
governments like Bauchi and Anambra are also listed among big
debtors of the affected banks. |
