07 Nov 2009 |
|
No 2nd Term for YarÁdua – Billionaire-Debtors Vow By Economic Confidential 
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.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
# 
Your Comments
Please make The Square an enjoyable experience for everyone by refraining from gratuitous ad-hominem contributions, defamatory comments and off-topic posting. Such posts will be removed.