Merry-go-round nation (I) -By Sesugh Akume

1977, Muhammadu Buhari was the first Chairman of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation when created by Decree 33. Earlier in 1976, General Olusegun Obasanjo the head of state, had appointed him as the federal commissioner (now called minister) for petroleum and natural resources. He was in office till 1978. In 1979 following an audit by Coopers and Lybrant news went round that 2.8 billion naira (roughly US $4 billion) had not been accounted for by the bank records of the NNPC. This amount was equal to up to 1 full year of oil sales.

The Crude Oil Sales Tribunal of Inquiry of 1980 headed by the Honourable Mr Justice Ayo Irikefe, then a Supreme Court judge, who 5 years later became the chief judge of the nation investigated the allegations of N2.8 billion misappropriation but said they found no truth in the allegations. Some however found it curious that the Irikife Tribunal did not summon General Buhari and Olusegun Obasanjo (who had left government in 1979) as they were responsible for supervising the NNPC and controlled oil sales within the period in question. Others have issues with the obtuse legalese of the report which wasn’t in plain language.

The tribunal findings notwithstanding, the allegations never died. Some believe that the 1983 coup overthrowing the civilian government may not be totally unconnected with the fact that investigations were closing in.

General Muhammadu Buhari, the new head of state wasted no time in enacting particularly 2 decrees: the Nigerian State Security (Detention of Persons) Decree Number 2, and the Protection Against False Accusations Decree Number 4 of 1984. Decree 2 allowed for detainees to have no right to be informed of the reasons for their arrest and detention; had no right of access to family, lawyers or private medical treatment; detention orders were renewable, thus permitting indefinite detention on grounds of ‘state security’ without charge or trial. The courts were helpless with regard to anything done under this decree.

Decree 4 considered by pundits as the most repressive press law ever enacted in Nigeria provided that ‘Any person who publishes in any form, whether written or otherwise, any message, rumour, report or statement […] which brings or is calculated to bring the Federal Military Government or the Government of a state or public officer to ridicule or disrepute, shall be guilty of an offense under this Decree’. It really didn’t matter whether report was true or false, as long as it offended some official one was liable.

These Buhari decrees were seen by some then and till date as an attempt to prevent the press from digging further or and the public talking about this and other scandals which Buhari was involved in or was supposed to have known something about.

General Buhari is again head of state, and again himself minister of petroleum, again having oversight of NNPC. Again, NNPC is embroiled in a scandal this time of $25 billion, which is more than Nigeria’s 2017 budget which General Buhari’s government says it can’t fulfill but will have to roll over to 2018 due to paucity of funds.

Karl Marx wrote, ‘History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.’