Former military President, General Ibrahim Babangida has described his government as saintly compared to successive administrations in terms of prevalence of corruption.
The retired General, said that he did his best to fight corruption in the country during his eight-year rule as military president by identifying corruption-prone areas and combating them effectively at source.
Babangida made the disclosure in an exclusive interview published in the current edition of Zero Tolerance, a periodic magazine of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) obtained by LEADERSHIP yesterday.
In the publication, IBB is said to have stated that he was able to adequately manage the economy and still ensure that a surplus was left in the treasury, despite having a “paltry” $7 billion oil revenue.
Reacting to a question that his regime institutionalised corruption in Nigeria, he said, “Yeah I know. Maybe I have to accept that, but anybody with a sense of fairness has no option but to call us saints. I think my government was able to identify corruption prone areas and checked them.
“I give you an example, in a year; I was making less than $7 billion in oil revenue but in the same period there were governments that were making between $200 billion and $300 billion.”
“With $7 billion, I did the best I could but with $200 billion there is still a lot to be achieved. I don’t have all the facts but if what I read in the papers is what is currently happening, then I think we were saints,” he allegedly stated.
The report further states that IBB decried the current N193-$1 exchange rate, emphasizing that during his administration, the exchange rate was N22 to $1.
When asked what he did with the $12.4 Gulf War oil windfall, Babangida further said that he used the money wisely on what he described as "regenerative investment," which he listed as including the building of Abuja City, the Lagos Third Mainland Bridge, and other infrastructures.
He also stated that contrary to insinuations in many quarters, the oil windfall revenue was not stolen as, his administration channelled the money into the provision of critical infrastructure that Nigerians were using today.
He said, “I am not an economist but I have an understanding of what this is. Our argument then was if you have the money then why keep it and be looking at it when you have a lot of things to do that will benefit the ordinary man? So that money was not stolen.”
“Let us take Abuja for example. I built it. Today, we have a brand new capital; we used that money. I gave you a Third Mainland Bridge, Lagos, which you cannot build today with all the money that Nigeria is making. And what did it cost me? 500, 600, 700 million naira,” he said.
The former president further revealed that he is the most investigated president Nigeria has ever had.
"Let me tell you something, maybe you have a hand in it. I have been the most investigated president Nigeria has ever had. By now somebody should have come forward to say here it is. Every government that came after me investigated me because of that perception and they wanted to retrieve the billions I stole, " he said.
On why he annulled the June 12 election won by his late friend, Chief M.K.O. Abiola, IBB said he had given the reasons in the past but pointed out that the very people who claimed to support the election were the same who turned round to work with the military junta and made it to perpetuate itself for many years.
He said, "All those who fought for June 12 ended up serving the military government they didn't like and that perpetuated a longer stay of the military in government."
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