The Many Dirty Deals of Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello

Posted by admin Columnists, P Saturday, January 1st, 2011

By Phil Tam-Al Alalibo, NNP, April 15, 2008 – I have been on record as one of the most ardent advocates for women leadership in Nigeria. In fact, I believe that women are better custodians of the public trust than men could ever boast of, we need not go too far to fetch the evidence of men’s destructive leadership in Nigeria and around the world. In fact, so elated was I that when Mrs. Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson assumed the presidency in Liberia in 2005, I sent her a congratulatory message with the hope that her courage and feat would spur more women across the continent into public office. There is a good reason for this optimism for when women rule, often times, a society is more compassionate to the plight of its masses, and social policies are geared towards the alleviation of poverty and other social ills.

Given their nurturing nature, it has also been proven that women are less prone and indeed more immune (than men) to the corrupt tendencies that often consume their male counterparts. But recent events in Nigeria appear to be diminishing the mass of goodwill that has enveloped women leadership worldwide and any keen observer must not be surprised at these developments for as long as the Nigerian woman is born and bred in the same corrupt environment as the men, we should expect the worst. Nowhere is this more evident than in the senate where Dr. Iyabode Obasanjo-Bello, the first daughter of former president Olusegun Obasanjo, is holding mighty sway. Of late, the news about Iyabo has been anything but encouraging and aware of the tree she fell from we must expect the worst for it is often said that a serpent cannot give birth to a goat. Iyabo’s intransigencies are countless as she has broken every rule there is without earning even a faint rebuke from the senate or the PDP leadership.

Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello Wanted in the US for Child Kidnapping

We remember well her public acrimonious divorce from her former husband, Mr. Bello with whom she had a bitter child custody battle that has transformed her into a fugitive in the United States. Iyabo calls her failed marriage the worst decision in her life and hardly talks about it. The accusation levied against her in US court papers is that she kidnapped her son from his father in the US and has disobeyed court order to return the child and pay child support. Iyabo, it is alleged, owes thousands of dollars in child support even as the US authorities await her arrival to advise her of her rights. When all these are added to the accusations recently made by the Action Congress (AC) that she is an ex-convict in the United States having been convicted twice of serious traffic violations, one wonders about the character of this woman who once had an unfettered access to Aso Rock.

In the face of these unpalatable news that ought to have sobered this incorrigible politician and endeared her to migrate to the alter of mercy, we continue to hear more atrocious business deals credited to the former First Daughter of the land, all these occurring at a time her self righteous, I dey kampe father and the quintessential born-again Christian was preaching the EFCC gospel and prosecuting supposed corruption politicians in the name of fighting corruption. Iyabo’s transgressions include; from attempting to circumvent Senate rules that forbids first term senators from contesting for the senate presidency, to muscling her way to becoming the Chairman of the Senate Health Committee to engaging in unwholesome business practices.

70 Million Naira Contract – Iyabo Obasanjo & Sade Omotade

About two years ago, Iyabo, as a candidate for the senate, using her father’s arduous name and connections secured a 70 million naira contract with one Sade Omotade also from Ogun State as a business partner. While there is nothing egregious about such business, at least, at the face value, the avaricious bone in her body took command and propelled her to greedy heights. The net profit that accrued from this contract was 30 million naira and Iyabo rather than sharing this profit according to pre-agreed margins, gave Sade a very paltry sum. But Sade saw her opportunity to get even with Iyabo when another opportunity came, presented by a wealthy Yoruba businessman who wanted a property sold in Abuja. According to reports, that property was sold to a government agency and Sade this time decided to keep the huge commission at a time when Iyabo needed cash to oil her senate campaign. But Iyabo, encouraged by her father’s tenancy in Aso Rock, ran to Ribadu’s EFCC and reported her estranged business partner who rather than confessing, informed the EFCC of the dubious and unscrupulous nature of the former First Daughter.

$5 Billion Power Contract in Jakarta, Indonesia

And long before anyone knew, this epidemiology PhD graduate of Cornell University had been well involved in the many shady deals in the power and oil sectors that are now threatening her father’s freedom. In February 2006, Iyabo traveled to Jakarta, Indonesia, with one mission in mind, to sell 60 oil blocs in far-away Nigeria to the highest bidders who were there in the thousands waiting for the manna to fall from the Niger Delta. This was a deal that would earn her millions of dollars and possibly make her the richest woman in Nigeria and Iyabo had rehearsed well for this blessing that was coming her way. For good measure, while in Jakarta, Iyabo, who was not an official of the federal government at the time, but rather a mere state commissioner for health in Ogun State, contracted PT MEDCO Energy Company to build power stations and railways lines worth $5 billion in Nigeria, a sum well more than the collective budget of all ECOWAS states. This, in spite of the fact that PT MEDCO Energy’s total worth was less than $500 million, ten times less than the value of the deal. Nowhere in the civilized world would such a colossal contract be offered on an ad hoc, no-bid basis and to a company whose networth is far below the contract value. But with the power of the presidency, Iyabo felt she had the authority to singlehandedly oblige Nigeria in such a costly fashion.

N3.5 Billion and Identity Concealment

Only a few months ago, in December 2007, yet again, Iyabo’s corrupt nature consumed the front pages as she appeared unable to keep her hands clean. This time, the divorced mother was accused of impersonating one Mrs. Damilola Akinlawon with the intention of benefiting from a N3.5 billion power project contract, a project that has been reckoned to be part of the grand fraud of $16 billion that was alleged to have been spent on the power sector, a sum capable of generating lasting electricity even in hell, but not able to solve the country’s nagging power supply. Indeed, this was reminiscent of ex-governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha’s cross-dressing to flee justice in London and as usual, the average Nigerian citizen, the one who usually bears the brunt of fleecing of the country, has come to expect such disgraceful treaties from the nation’s politicians.

Iyabo enticed by the staggering windfall and posing as Mrs. Akinlawon to conceal her true identity, travelled to Austria to put pen to paper on the N3.5 billion contract involving Austrian company M. Schneider GMHB and Co and in the process collect her lion’s share. But the company, uncovering the fraud took the matter to the International Court of Arbitration in Paris, France and also petitioned President Yar’Adua and the EFCC on what it called “the fraudulent, corrupt and criminal nature involving Senator (Mrs.) Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello (alias Mrs. Damilola Akinlawon).” Until date, Iyabo is yet to clear her name from such sordid accusations and still shamelessly gallivants the corners of the earth as a senator of the federal republic.

N300 Million Health Ministry Scandal and Iyabo’s Share

Iyabo’s trip of contumacy continued on a rapacious pace and unabated, I might add, with the recent confession of how N10 million part of the Ministry of Health N300million excess budget was spent to bribe members of the health committee of which she is the Chair. It was stated that Iyabo and her colleagues collected N500, 000 each and an all expenses paid seminar in Accra, Ghana which Iyabo and all members of the committee attended with the exception of Senator George Akume (Benue) and Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani ( Enugu), both of whom did not show interest in the trip. The trip sponsored by the disgraced former health minister, Prof. Adenike Grange’s and her ministry, saw Iyabo and her committee members lodging in the exquisite La Palm Royal Hotel in Accra where they enjoyed all the perks a five-star hotel had to offer.

Even as the former health ministers stand trial over the grand sum of N300 million excess budget which was recklessly spent, Iyabo, in the face of palpable commission of fraud remains defiant. Sensing trouble, Obasanjo recently offered his daughter the services of his lawyer and ensured that the leadership of the Senate gives her a clean bill of health which it recently did. With such a dubious character, it is unbelievable that the EFCC continues to treat this woman with kid gloves. The other day, it said the senator was at-large whereas she was up and about everywhere in Abuja. Why is it that the EFCC could not arrest this woman when it could arrest governors from their hiding places and other highly placed citizens of the land? If there is evidence against Iyabo, she ought to be tried and if found guilty punished to the full extend of the law regardless of her family name. In a most laughable yet ignorant statement, the EFCC stated that as long as Iyabo was physically in the premises of the National Assembly, the law forbids them from arresting her – but does she sleep in her office in the National Assembly? Does she not have a home she returns to at the end of the day and if so, why not arrest her there?

The good citizens of Ogun are hardly convinced of Iyabo’s innocence as she has been anything but exemplary in her political forays having done much to denigrate the good work and public image created by conscientious women such as Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Professor Dora Akunyili and Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, to mention but a few. Even members of her constituency are now talking about recalling her from the senate having only succeeded in developing her bank accounts rather than improving the peoples’ lot. A lawyer recently gave her a 7-day ultimatum to resign or be recalled. The salient issues that are hardly explored in these types of discussions are the fact that Iyabo, a highly educated veterinarian doctor from the University of Ibadan and a PhD from Ivy League institution like Cornell University, (not to mention a masters from Univ. of California – Davies) has ignored all ethos of good leadership, probity and accountability and instead dabbled into the ignoble path of greed and avarice just like the Patricia Ettehs and the Adenike Granges of her time. In the final analysis, however, it would serve us all well to remember that after all, Iyabo is an Obasanjo – corrupt in office, reckless in personal life and defiant all the way, the Obasanjo way.wp_posts

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