03072019 - Buhari's Ruga policy, an explosive issue — SOYINKA

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JULY 3, 2019 — 11
By Charles Kumolu,
Deputy Sunday Editor
Aformer governor of
Ogun State,
Aremo Segun Osoba, has
provided insights into
why some associates of
the late presumed winner
of June 12 presidential
election, Chief M.K.O
Abiola, served in the
regime of Gen. Sani
Abacha, saying Abiola
complained that highlyplaced
members of his
party (Social Democratic
Party, SDP) were making
heavy financial demands
to further his cause.
Osoba explained that
when the debate whether
to allow some SDP
chieftains accept
appointments from
Abacha was ongoing,
some key party leaders
depended on Abiola to
fund their private and
political lives.
He further said if Abiola
had insisted that no one
should take a political
appointment from
Abacha, financing the
personal needs of the key
party leaders would have
become a burden to him.
The elder statesman,
who would clock 80 on
July 15, 2019, revealed
these in his autobiography
titled: Battlelines:
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How financial demands made Abiola
allow associates serve Abacha — OSOBA
Adventures in Journalism
and Politics, which
would be launched on
July 8, 2019, in Lagos.
The event, which would
hold at the Eko Hotel and
Suites is expected to be a
melting point for
Nigerians across various
fields.
Clandestine roles
In the book, which
among other subjects,
detailed clandestine roles
played by some highlyplaced
persons in the
June 12 saga, Osoba, said
Abiola was caught
between his associates
who wanted to serve
under Abacha and those
opposed to it.
Till date, there is a
controversy over who
authorised the
participation of key
associates of Abiola in the
Abacha regime.
The SPD bigwigs, who
accepted ministerial appointments
from the
maximum ruler, had
claimed they did so in
the interest of June 12
mandate, but most Nigerians
felt they betrayed
Abiola.
However, Osoba, who
was not just a witness to
that historical event, but
a key player, revealed that
Abiola told him the
struggle for the
actualisation of June 12
mandate was already
placing heavy financial
burden on him.
Appointments from
Abacha
Excerpts of the book
read: “With Abacha now
in the saddle, the next
challenge among the
Abiola loyalists and the
party faithful, those who
were not part of the
Interim National
Government (ING) was
how to relate with the
regime. We held an
emergency meeting in
Abiola’s house to discuss
our next move, but we
couldn’t reach an accord.
While some wanted Abiola's
supporters to accept
appointments under the
new regime, others
strongly opposed to it.
“Abiola was caught between
the two contending
forces. Apart from
that, Abiola was also influenced
by the heavy financial
demands that the
struggle was making on
him. Even in the postelection
period, some of
the key SDP leaders still
depended on him to fund
their political and private
lives. If he insisted that no
one should take political
appointment from the
new regime, then he must
be ready to finance the
needs of those leaders,
who would ask him for
money. The best way to
free himself from such
moral and financial
burden was to say they
could take up
appointments, if they so
wished.
“I recall the case of one
key Abiola supporter who
came asking for a lot of
money and spinning a tall
story what he wanted to
do with the money to
advance Abiola’s cause.
Abiola obliged him.
About thirty minutes
later, he returned to
Abiola’s house at Ikeja,
shedding crocodile tears
and claiming robbers had
taken all the money from
him at gunpoint. Abiola
knew the man was lying,
because there were no
report of any robbery
around Ikeja that day, but
he still gave the man
another fat sum of money.
“What do I do?” Abiola
told me resignedly
shortly after, a sarcastic
smile playing across his
•Cover page of Aremo Olusegun Osoba's book.
lips.
“Politics in Nigeria is a
big money game.
Everybody wants your
money. Even the highlyplaced
members of this
party all want to bleed you
to death financially. It
can’t continue like this.
That is why I am asking
those who want to work
under Abacha to go
Tinubu urges FG to deregulate oil sector,
discontinue subsidy
By Dave Oso
ABUJA—THE calls
for the Federal Government
to take concrete
steps towards deregulating
the oil and gas industry,
as well as ending the
controversial fuel subsidy
resonated yesterday at
the oil and gas conference
and exhibition in
Abuja.
Speaking at the conference,
Managing Director
of Oando Plc, Mr.
Wale Tinubu urged the
Federal Government to,
as a matter of urgency,
deregulate the oil sector,
lamenting that Nigeria
spent $5 billion on fuel
subsidy last year, a sum
he said could have been
used to finance other
critical infrastructure
needed by vast majority
of the populace.
Tinubu said stakeholders
in the petroleum industry
should support
the deregulation to engender
national growth.
Tinubu said: “The government
has chosen to
effectively subsidise the
price as a social palliative.
Not that I support it,
but we spent $5 billion
last year on subsidy,
which was even more
than what we spent on
education and housing
combined.’’
According to him, other
critical sectors of the
economy like education
and health, among others,
were in dire need of
funding.
He said: ''Such amount
expended on subsidy
should have been directed
to other critical sectors
or towards infrastructure
development.
''At a population
growth rate of three per
cent, the question is what
is the best - to invest in -
infrastructure or consumption?
There is a big
debate that has to be
made around this, and as
stakeholders, we absolutely
need to champion
ahead. I need to free
myself from this heavy
moral and financial
burden of providing for
everybody."
Grab a copy of Vanguard
tomorrow for another
explosive account from the
book.
Published by Diamond
Publications Limited.
•Says Nigeria spent $5bn
on subsidy in 2008
that debate with the Federal
Government.
“The politicians want
this to continue at all
cost, but there is longterm
damage we are doing
to our country and
industry. We need to ensure
that this subsidies
are altered and the
downstream sector
needs to be commercialised.
The refineries need
to function and pipelines
need to function. There
is no logic in is transporting
our products by the
road which is extremely
expensive.”
Tinubu said there was
need to discontinue the
current consumptionbased
government
spending.
He hailed the recent
appointment of Mr. Mele
Kyari as the new Group
Managing Director of
the NNPC, describing
him as an astute technocrat.