From ERIC OSAGIE and
IHENACHO NWOSU, Abuja
Elderstatesman and former Minister of Finance, Mallam Adamu Ciroma, has lashed out at the President Goodluck Jonathan administration, describing it as full of “too much corruption.”
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Saturday Sun at his Abuja residence, Ciroma said the subsidy payment scam, pension scheme fraud, alleged mismanagement and corruption at the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), among others, are indices of untamed corruption running wild in the Nigerian field.
Courageous and blunt, Ciroma, a former minister under the Shagari, Abacha and Obasanjo governments, had harsh words for General Babangida’s administration as well as Obasanjo’s. On Babangida, he says: “He destroyed the civil service, he destroyed the economy,”while he describes Obasanjo as a leader “who failed his country.”
Below are excerpts of the Ciroma interview:
What are some of the things happening in the country that make you sad?
I feel sad when I see some awards flying around for some people who clearly do not deserve them. Take the case of Yobe State, where the former governor was recently said to have been given the Mo award for what he did in rural development. I was talking with one man and he said: ‘Look, Yobe is the most wretched of the states in Nigeria; it is the poorest, the least developed.
There is lack of security there.” I said look, this man is one of the worst governors that has ruled any part of this country. But he was given an award in South Africa before; he was given the Mo award. What now happens is that some people who have no honour will meet and create one thing or the other and send it to somebody; ask him to finance the offer. The offer itself is worthless. The man who is receiving it is not worth it; that is what Nigeria is all about. You would never hear or see me accepting this honour or award because a lot of them are worthless. In your own case, you make me change my mind because I am not claiming to be any leader in this country, am not claiming anything; on your own you decided to give me the honour.
In this country, till date, we have not produced Nelson Mandela. Obasanjo, my very good friend, is not worth it. Nobody has reached that position, in terms of keeping to justice, fairness and honesty. Mandela is always concerned about the fate of the masses. We don’t have that leader who is always concerned about the fate of the masses, the ordinary Nigerian, the farmers.
If all of us have agreed that we would work for the good of the poor farmer, if he lives by an inch, it means that all of us would be richer by millions. But are we doing it? What we have is a National Assembly that eats one quarter of the resources of this country. We have a government that is greedy. So many billions of naira go into payment of oil subsidy. The children of big people are involved in these billions. Some people steal billions. And nothing is done to them.
The President says he is fighting insecurity; he said he was going to end it six months ago. Where are we today? He said he was going to stop subsidy. Where are we? Even before people knew how bad subsidy was, he gave impression that he was out to address it. But now he is talking about it again. The individuals in NNPC, look at what they have done with the national resources; nobody has said anything. I pity this country. But I am not hopeless. I believe things will come right some day.
For the time being, we have, individually, got to behave well. It should not be prayers alone. I don’t know of any set of people in this world that are more religious than Nigerians. But they are religious by mouth, not by practice. What they do is different from what they say.
If we want to improve this country, individuals have got to act; they have to begin to do the right thing, even if we see them as being foolish, they should stick to it; they should not say we have to join the majority. Here the majority is not doing well.
Secondly, the ordinary citizens of this country, the farmers, the masses are very good people. If they get good leaders, they will do the right thing. For the time being, they are copying their leaders. They are capable of turning round and doing something wonderful. When that time comes, the world is going to be surprised what Nigerians can do.
Are Nigerians not too docile?
You and I living now have got to stick to the right things, no matter what the other people are doing; then things will change.
Will that make Nigeria to change?
Yes, things will change. It takes time to establish a leader. Sometimes, when someone is in the process of becoming a leader he falters; he goes in the dark to take money. I always tell young people in this country that the difficult thing about leadership is that it is difficult to judge. All the people who criticise corruption, if you put them aside and give them envelops filled with dollars, who among them will have the courage to say no? So, who is not corrupt? Farouk Lawan passed through the temptation and faltered. But, as I said, generally, ordinary Nigerians would like to do what is right if the leaders are doing the right things, they will copy them.
Are you saying that they cannot force their leaders to do the right thing?
They cannot force their leaders to do the right thing.
Can you give us your background? Where did you develop the principles which have guarded?
You know I was telling you earlier about Nigerians and their religious predilection and moral standing. People of my generation, a lot of us, went to school and we were taught how to behave morally, decently and fairly. We didn’t know it but our leaders were there for us; they were treating us well. They protected and promoted our interest. None of my parents actually asked me to go to school and do well, except once.
When I was going to school I was just living my normal life, from the Primary School in Fika to another in Maiduguri, to Barewa College, Zaria, to Nigerian College in Zaria and to University of Ibadan. I believe that UI did a lot in forming my character. By the time I came to Ibadan, I was about 20 years or thereabout. We had fantastic professors. They were honest, hardworking, straightforward, open and we learnt the meaning of intellectual from them. An intellectual is somebody who is honest, who is following logic, obeying the logic even if it does not conform with what he held before.
Then we came to work for government. The month I left the university was the month I got a job in government.
What did you read?
History. Working for government, doing the right thing without knowing anybody was the standard then. It was the policy of the northern government at that time. We were taught three things that must be done. These three things still need to be done today. First, we were taught that the economy was based on agriculture and government’s policy was directed towards helping the ordinary farmer to produce more and earn more to improve his condition. We distributed ploughs, tractors, seedlings and all that were needed to aid agriculture. The second focus was education.
The North was behind, as far as western education was concerned. The government used resources to educate everyone free; they even paid you some allowances for going to school. We were the product of that. We grew up knowing very well that our duty is to help others move from darkness to light. You are from the South; if I talk to you about education, it may not sound wonderful; you will take it for granted. Already you have accepted education; you like it; you even pay for it yourself. But in the North it was not so. I left UI being paid some allowances.
The third issue was about health. If your people are not healthy, they cannot farm; they cannot send their children to school; they cannot do anything. Government considered it its duty to treat people with malaria, all the diseases in the rural area. They set up dispensaries in the rural areas, procuring medicine for the people.
These three things, the northern government pursued then. The total budget of northern government in 1965 was 37 million pounds. The money was available for everything. So, we learnt that you have to use the resources of the people for their benefit; that you don’t have to think twice about that. These were the circumstances we were brought up. Every leader supported you; we never heard about corruption; you just have got to do the right thing.
Was it that there were no corrupt people then?
In every society, there must be people who would not want to do the right thing. But what I am saying is that government did not encourage corruption; it discouraged it. For instance, if you were just a small clerk and you had a bicycle nobody would raise an eyebrow, but if you are seen with a car somebody would ask you how you got it. The system ensured that you behaved well, in line with your status. They promoted any worker who was hardworking.
Are you the eldest child of your parents?
No, no; I came from a very big family. My grandfather was the councillor for education. All of us in our own area went to school long before universal education became acceptable.
How many children did your father have?
He had so many.
Precisely, how many?
Am sure the number is more than 30.
Are there some of your siblings that you do not know?
There are so many of us.
How many wives did your father marry?
Always not more than four
Four at a particular time?
Yeah.
Why did you leave government to go and work in a newspaper house?
In the university I did History, but in our student activity we formed certain groups. We were producing a magazine. When I was in the Barewa College, we were also producing a magazine. When I came to Ibadan, we were producing a magazine. When I left the university and joined the civil service, I was the administrative officer. The New Nigerian Newspaper was set up and government was looking for somebody who had some experience in newspaper production. In those days they did their home work, their research. They identified me and asked me whether I would like to come and work there.
So you were drafted there?
Yeah, I was drafted there.
Were you the editor or the managing director of the newspaper when you were first drafted?
I was drafted as the editor and later I became the managing director.
The military was in power then?
Yes. Gen. Gowon was the Head of State. There were six governors in the North. On many occasions, I quarrelled with them because they wanted us to do certain things, but we did what we believed was right. I had harsh misunderstanding with Gen. Gowon.
Did he summon you?
Yes, he did, but I told him that we were doing what we believed was right; that we were using the information we had. I told him, ‘Sir, you people have some certain information, we have also our own information; they may be the same information but we interpret them differently. We cannot wait for you to tell us your own interpretation; when you tell us we will publish it, but in the interim we will use what is available to us.’
Did you not see yourself taking a big risk, talking to a military head of state that way?
We were in the same Barewa College; he was only two years my senior.
Did you know him in school?
Of course, yes.
But he was then Commander- in- Chief?
It didn’t matter to me; we were in the same Barewa College. I was not afraid of losing my job. After quarrelling with Gowon and Gen Hassan, we kept on quarrelling with the governors over the contents of the newspaper. They didn’t like some of the things we were reporting. When the bickering became too much, I had to resign. I gave them my letter.
Where were you resigning to?
I was determined to work on my own. I was going into private business. When I was the editor and managing director, I was also a director in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). So, when I resigned, one of the textile companies in Kaduna asked me if I would like to work with them as executive director. I agreed. So, I was working for the biggest textile mill in Nigeria. After a while, there was a coup that overthrew Gen Gowon; the coup leaders invited me to put right the CBN.
There were some rumours about shady deals in foreign exchange transactions and things like that. I was called to put things right there. So, in 1975, I became CBN governor. I was there till 1977 when there was an election to the Constituent Assembly. A new constitution was to be made for a return to civilian rule. At that time, every part of the country especially the North was sending their best to the Constituent Assembly. Where I came from, nobody asked me; they just elected me.
Even with your position as CBN governor?
I was governor of CBN and they wanted one of their best in the Constituent Assembly. They elected me without informing me. I had to resign as CBN governor. The CBN law does not allow for a part time in such position; so I had to resign.
You were not a trained banker nor an economist before becoming the CBN governor. How did you cope?
If you work for any institution, you have to find out how best you can contribute. I was appointed CBN governor to put some things right. They knew that I could do it and I did it.
You were working with economists, bankers and so on?
Yes. One thing I experienced in life is that most of the time, I was working and learning. Take the case of the newspaper. I was invited and I accepted to go there. I didn’t know really, on a big scale, about newspaper. I was learning on the job.
From your experience, is it really necessary to be a banker or an economist before holding a position like the CBN governor?
This is what I am trying to explain to you. When you are educated, you can do anything. And the tradition of University of Ibadan, they produced graduates in Classics, who became financial wizards and things like that. Once you are educated, your mind will convince you that you can do anything. Heading the CBN was nothing particularly special; there was nothing impossible about it.
You can learn on the job. What is important is the integrity you bring to bear. If you are an accountant, there are laws governing accountancy; if you abandon these laws, will you still call yourself an accountant? If you are a historian and you are told to come and run CBN and you use the research people, economists, accountants and professionals in all the departments very well, you will achieve results. You would not bother that you are not an economist or accountant. You can learn on the job.
When I came to CBN, I told them: “look, I am a historian, you are the professionals, am here to learn, there are things am going to do to put things right but most of the normal job I am going to learn from you.’ I eventually learnt from them.
CBN governors are known for conservatism. Would you say it is in order for the current CBN governor Sanusi to be making some controversial comments he’s often criticised for?
A Central Bank governor worldwide is not a controversial person. The person is part of the establishment. When he or she says anything people respect it because they believe that you must have given a lot of thought to what you said before saying it out. There are certain things governor of the Central Bank doesn’t need to do.
He doesn’t need to be controversial. Sanusi has a bit of controversy about him, but the most important thing about him is that he is an honest and dedicated man. He has no fear of saying a lot of things. For instance, he does not fear saying things that will annoy people in the National Assembly. He does that because he believes that, yes I am the governor today if you do not want me I go, I am just contributing, I don’t care if you refuse to accept.
Sanusi is an honest, straightforward person who says what he believes. Sometimes people in the National Assembly would want you to kow-tow with them because they make laws and things like that. But if you tell them the truth, you put them right; the laws they will make will be better.
Going to the Constituent Assembly was your baptism into politics. How correct is that?
That is very, very correct.
What is your reaction when people say that you never won an election or stood for an election, that you are a feather weight politician, just grandstanding or making noise. I am sure you have heard that?
Edwin Clarke was the last person to tell me all this. I am not a normal Nigerian politician, you know. Winning election has never been my preoccupation. I have always had something to do, something that is contributory to the development of this country. The only time I sought for an election was in 1978 when I was promoted to be one of the people seeking presidential nomination in NPN. I believed I could do it.
I believed I could contribute; so I decided to do it. At the convention I came third. From there, I started helping the winner, that is Alhaji Shehu Shagari and he won the election. I became a minister in his administration. The Constituent Assembly was really the place I politically got involved.
Former Head of State, Gen. Buhari, said when he took over on December 31, 1983, that that government you served, the Shagari government, was particularly corrupt and directionless and that was the reason it was sacked. Would agree to that assessment?
That was what they were saying; that was the reason they gave for overthrowing the government of Shagari. I was a participant in that government. Shagari is one of the most honest politicians I know in this country. Even Buhari will tell you that some of us worked honestly and effectively. When Shagari was overthrown and Buhari became the Head of State, how long did it take him to remain there? He was there for just 20 months. Shagari was President for four years. So, Shagari was there for a longer period than Buhari, even though the latter was not elected. The people who put Buhari there were the people who removed him. Is that a comment of praise?
He said that they betrayed him…
Well, he can say that, but the truth is that they put him there and they removed him. They cannot do that without a reason. Then, Babangida became the President. Just as Buhari was saying that Shagari was the most corrupt President, my own assessment is that the government that followed that of Shagari has been the most corrupt. Buhari stayed for just 20 months.
Are you talking about the Babangida government?
Yeah. It was the government that ruined the economy of this country because it introduced SAP. It devalued the currency of this country without any reason, without any justification. Civil service was ruined under President Babangida. Since then the civil service has not recovered. It is for history now to examine the kind of things, which we see and say about our friends and about our enemies. Buhari probably complains more about Babangida than he complains about Shagari now.
Why did you serve in the Abacha government that was not particularly popular?
Abacha took over from Shonekan who was a stop-gap. When he took over, he found out that there was a lot of instability in the system. What he did was to invite known politicians since the Shagari days. He brought Jakande, I was there, Rimi was there, Bola Ige and other known politicians. He invited us to participate in the government. I know that he did it to restore stability in the country. We accepted to participate in order to restore stability. I was appointed Minister of Agriculture. I looked at what the problems were and how I could address them. One of the problems I identified was fertilizer distribution. Fertilizer plant in Eleme, I was the one who completed the negotiation for setting it up.
I knew long ago, when I was Minister of Agriculture under Shagari, that fertilizer is so important to agriculture in this country. I proposed certain policies to bring in fertilizer and agriculture equipment as well the distribution of fertilizer. I was appointed in November. I was making plans about the fertilizer to be used the following year by farmers. I took my proposal to Abacha; he looked at it and said no, that he didn’t think this was the right thing to do. He said that we did not need to get fertilizer supplies again, that there was fertilizer in the country.
I had proposed worldwide advertisement for people who would want to supply the fertilizer, that is international supply. He said that he did not believe in that. I said that I was the Minister of Agriculture, I tell you that it was important. When I put my mind to something I focus on it. I told him that there was no fertilizer in the country he still said no. This happened on a Wednesday. I gave the whole thing a thought. On Saturday, I wrote a letter resigning my position. On Sunday, I gave it to Aminu Saleh.
When Saleh gave him the letter he called me and said, ‘ah! Has this come to this?’ I said yes, I have told you my view, how to do it and all my plans but you said that there were a lot of fertilizers in this country. I told him, you are the head of government, my duty is to help you run the government, you do not need my advice, so am off. He said no, no, but I said yes. He said but I will give you another position.
I said but that does not affect my resignation. If you give me another appointment that I like I will take it, but this particular one I am off, I have no reason to stay. Then he contacted some of his senior people, especially Jerry Useni who was minister in charge of Abuja. He told him, ‘look, these politicians, if you are not careful with them, they will throw you into trouble, don’t accept the resignation, wait and sack all of them.’ So, in the end my resignation was not accepted. After sometime he sacked all the politicians in the government.
What kind of person was Abacha?
We got on very well with Abacha; we didn’t have any quarrel or anything. You remember that we didn’t ask to be appointed. Our duty as politicians was to do the right thing. Personally, between him and I, our relationship was always good. But I was not there to be rubbished by a military leader. We got on well and I resigned; he didn’t like it, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Was the sack of politicians in the government the thing that led to the formation of G-19 in the North and later G-34?
We agreed to serve the government in order to serve the ordinary person, the masses of this country. Abacha and his men started playing tricks. He wanted a transition to civilian rule but he wanted to organise it in such a way that there would be different political parties but all the parties must nominate him as their presidential candidate. It became obvious that he was trying to succeed himself. We the politicians in the North, the senior ones, came together and told ourselves that it would not be a good thing for the president to succeed himself. So, we wrote him a letter telling him our views.
Then, we formed the G-18 to work together against Abacha’s self-succession plan. We agreed that only we the northerners were going to do it because if we invited anybody from the South to participate, Abacha and his colleagues were going to say that it was the southern people who were working against him. We didn’t want to allow that room; we decided to restrict this opposition to him among us northern politicians. When it became absolutely clear that we needed the input of other Nigerians, we decided to go a step further to generate a national opposition against him (Abacha). That was why we went to see Alex Ekwueme, Bola Ige and other politicians. We now enlarged the G-18 to G-34.
Did you work for Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar?
Abdulsalami, when he came in, called some of us individually. I gave him my honest view. I advised him to go because Gen. Gowon started this business of reneging, he didn’t succeed. Buhari didn’t even think he was going to leave; Babangida reneged, so also Abacha, but he died. I told him you should complete the process and go. So, he spent nine months and left.
Did you work for Obasanjo’s emergence? What was the logic behind bringing him out from prison to give him the PDP ticket? At what point did you and other northern elite agree that power should return to the South?
Obasanjo’s return effectively to the presidency was the handiwork of Babangida and Aliyu Gusau. They are the people who got in touch with other northern politicians to support their proposal to make Obasanjo the presidential candidate. We northern politicians, in our original proposal, agreed that the military did wrong in cancelling June 12, 1993 presidential election. We believed that since independence to that time, most of the official leaders of this country had been from the North. Abdulsalami was organising a return to civilian rule; we reasoned that it will not be right for Abdulsalami to allow somebody from the North to become the President. We decided that the President after Abdulsalami should come from the South. We were very clear in our own mind on this.
When we said that the President should come from the South, we were aware that there are Yoruba, there are Southern minorities and there are the Igbo. We did not care from any of the three groups that the President came from as long as the person was from the South. After we had taken that position, Babangida and Aliyu Gusau contacted us to plead for Obasanjo. We agreed to support Obasanjo because the candidate of the last presidential election that was cancelled by the military was from the Yoruba west. It was not particularly because he came from Ogun State but just that he was a Yoruba man from the West. It is just an accident that Obasanjo also happens to come from the same state with Abiola. That was how it happened.
From what later happened, do you regret supporting the decision?
No, I have no regret for that. I knew we were doing the right thing, in terms of promoting national interest and cohesion.
What is your assessment of the Obasanjo government?
I was a member of that government. In the end, Obasanjo, as a person failed this country. In 2002, about September or so, I personally decided to leave the government. I told him that I was going to do his budget for 2003. Normally budget is submitted in September or thereabout. I was going to submit the budget for 2003 and I had resolved that after it had gone through the National Assembly I was going to retire.
The reason I wanted to go was that I had noticed a lot of deviation from the way things being done; they were going differently from the way we in NPN wanted things to happen. I would say that corruption had started to rear its head. In our days when you talk with people about issues, you reach an agreement; it sticks. Now things are different. Thirdly, people were no longer reliable, they wanted to be bought.
If someone was in a position to give a position he demanded money before giving it out. For these three reasons I said to them that my stay in the system had come to an end. They were not the kind of things I would like to get involved in. Government is just talking about Contecna and other people who inspect goods at the ports. It started during my time. We had to do some investigations and I made recommendation about the people who should do that job. In the end, Obasanjo asked Contecna to do the job. I could not understand the reason.
He didn’t explain to you?
No, he didn’t, but I discovered subsequently that Contecna is a company which the son of Kofi Annan was deeply involved in. They were the ones that went round to lobby Obasanjo to give the contract. I don’t like that kind of thing.
Did he persuade you not to go?
He asked me to please stay and do his election in 2003, that if I conducted the election for him he would let me go. We reached an agreement on that. I became the Coordinator of his campaign, with Anenih as my deputy. We agreed that after the election I would go.
Was there also an agreement that you should nominate your wife to the cabinet?
No, no, there was nothing like that. She came on her merit.
What role did you play in Yar’Adua’s emergence and government?
You know Obasanjo tried to extend his rule; that is the third term issue. I was against it. I openly opposed it and insisted that the agreement is that somebody from the South does eight years, somebody from the North will do eight years. So, there was no basis for him to want to extend his rule. When he realised that he could not overcome the pressures, he, on his own, decided to nominate Yar’Adua.
You can understand why he chose Yar’Adua. He has always got on well with Yar’Adua’s brother, Shehu. So, when he nominated him, none of us was surprised. I supported Yar’Adua when he nominated him because Shehu Yar’Adua was my friend and Yar’Adua’s father was my political supporter. And this young man was a socialist. I supported his nomination. Obasanjo knew that Yar’Adua was not well.
But he said that he didn’t know. Are you suggesting that he was lying?
He knew; he knew.
Why are you certain that he knew?
He was governor, he was not performing fulltime because he was going to hospitals regularly. It is not true that Obasanjo did not know. He was hoping that because Yar’Adua was not well, he will be able to rule by proxy. It was third term by another means. He didn’t know that things don’t work that way. I like Yar’Adua because he was an honest and straightforward young man.
When Yar’Adua died, Obasanjo told me that Yar’Adua was dead, this man (Jonathan) is the Vice President, what happens? There was a lot of controversy. Gen. Gowon called a meeting of elders mostly from the North to come up with what to do about replacing Yar’Adua. The only non-northerners at that meeting were Alex Ekwueme, Edwin Clarke and Shonekan. We agreed that the constitution must take precedence, that the constitution allows for the Vice President to take over, that Jonathan must be allowed to take over. He was acting then. We told the Senate President that this was our position and the National Assembly acted on it. It was when Yar’Adua died that the PDP started its confusion and scatter scatter.
Why did you insist on power returning to the North?
We insisted on that because PDP had met and agreed that there was going to be power rotation, that there will be zoning. It was under Obasanjo that the meeting held and Jonathan himself was there. We said look, now that Yar’Adua has died the constitutional formality has taken place, the vice-president has been sworn in, in the next election the North will produce the next candidate of the party. We said that the North still has four years remaining in its eight years mandate.
We said that if you do not give it to the North, it means that the South would have had 12 years and the North would have four. We told them that if you want to do anything different, we would have to discuss it. If the southerner was going to be President, it meant that South would have 12 years and North four years and that that would create a problem in the zoning arrangement; so it must be discussed; we must agree on how to deal with the problem.
The PDP leaders started saying other things; they said that the constitution of the country did not stop Jonathan from contesting, that he could contest. I told them, ‘ look. If you cut the term of the North from eight to four, this may adversely affect the PDP power sharing arrangement.’ They went forth and back; they were all confused. I can tell you that Obasanjo and Jonathan went round and bought the people who were going to attend the convention in their states. When the delegates came for the convention in Abuja, again they bought them. The governors ensured that they appoint people to mark the ballots.
Are you saying that the PDP primary of 2011 was rigged?
Completely rigged. They know it; we know it. They rigged it and Jonathan won. That is why I lost interest in the party. I know that if you can buy somebody today, there is no reason you cannot buy him tomorrow. Obasanjo came to my house and said this was where we are, the PDP has just nominated Jonathan and if we handled things well he would win the election. I said that PDP had now spoken loudly, it had decided in an opaque manner who was going to be the candidate and we knew that they bought delegates in their states, bought them also in Abuja. I said to him, a Nigerian president was going to emerge; the delegates who gave him the ticket were bribed in dollars, not in naira. What kind of President will he be? He just got up and walked out.
He did not respond to you?
No, because he had nothing to say. Since that time, he has not told me anything. I have
This man looks like he is in poor health, swollen arms, likely heart failure. Jonathan is entitled to two elected terms if he wins any contested ballot. That Ciroma has a grouse with OBJ is none of our business, that is personal for both men. The man sounds like another senile old man with a beef against the government, but really his time has past. Nigerians will elect whomever they believe can contribute towards building a great country in 2015. I assure you that the next election will be based on party manifesto and performance. If PDP does not perform, a merged CPC, ACN and ANPP will produce the next president. I believe the next election will be a game changer for Nigeria, with social networks disseminating information by the minute, the best man will win. Ciroma is a dinosaur from the past, we can only look and learn from the mistakes he and his cohorts made. Nigeria with 160 million plus citizens, millions in the diaspora, mineral endowment in the ground and a large pool of educated people should be a developed nation by now. We will get there after these dinosaurs have all died out.
Some of these “dinosaurs” are far ahead of us. The so called nigerian youth presently do not give much hope, just take a trip to comments on dis & other platforms. Lets respect some wisdom from elders since we plan to live long, nigerians, lets have a change of heart, a change in behaviour.
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Jo, age or look has nothing to do with this enterview. I believe it’s only those that never read the enterview that engaged in insulting the old man, including you. Go through the contents all over again you won’t have this opinion of him. Where did you find him talking against the government or insulting a group of people unjustly? Unless you are so myopic you could not see that he has told us everything we need to know about this country’s political problems.Though he participated in many governments, yet he always resigns when he discovers things were not done rightly.
When will NIgerian boys stand up and fight for their right. Just look at what these old fools are dong and we are here fighting ourselves over tribes and ethnicity.
Your father is also a fool. This man can even be older than your father. May a youngman abuse you when you reach his age, amen. But I hope you die young.
Just calling him mnames does not do it brother! What alternative views do you have to offer? then state those views and campaign for those views! that is what some of the so called old fools are doing and having been using to control Nigeria.
Adamu Ciroma is a jihadist,and should bury his head in shame.
Is it documented. Can you educate us on why you made this comment about this man.
My friend, will you keep your silly mouth up? are you not in this country? They are using BOKO HARAM to frustrate GEJ administration, just to label him a non- performer. We are watching keenly interesting dramas unfolding in this country. Note: The NIGER DELTA militants are fully alive to their responsibilities, and will definitely respond at an appropriate time to make this Nation ungovernable as well, to will be Northern President, only if…….they will……….be……….any……….?
This man spoke intelligently like a learned man that he is.He who has ears let him hear.People who are honest don’t last in nigeria except you choose the path of deception.Sir i respect your wisdom,as for your dark side which i don’t have a prescient understanding about,the almighty father who is magnanimous will continually keep you by his mercies.May God help nigeria.
Anyone who abuse this man needs help.He has been in government for a very long time and even called babangida a failed govt.How objective can a man be unlike edwin clarke who double speaks.Once again baba adamu bravo.
One of our downfall in this country is sentiment.But here is a northerner without sentiment.Many forsake the content of the interview to make uneducated comment.This man sits with your so called decision maker and come 2015 he will be consulted once again.
That seed of evil discord has been sowed far back. When you guys assembled all the former military big wigs in the north, IBB inclusive to doll out unamazing US dollars in 1999 to chase out DR ALEX EKWUEME in favour of Chief Obasanjo, don,t you have it in mind then that you all are laying a destructive precedence? Pls bring in other relevant issues to be discuss.
What a funny geometry they do with Nigeria politics. Very selfish manipulations. What an arrogant way of saying that you and your clique must determines who rules.
When comments are based on no rational thinking and obvious facts, they become offensive, senseless and reveal the mentality of the commentators. You may not like somebody but you do not start by saying he looks ill and needs to die.
How does that add up and should any rational person be wishing someone dead? And who says death is by age?
You do not just wake up and say somebody is a Jihadist and should bury his head in shame. How does the interview above depict jihad or do we just employ words to appeal to our notion of our intelligence or for the sake of engaging in an important discussion?
Most youths place Nigeria’s problem on the old but their utterances do not suggest a cohesive and vibrantly reasonable group and this is most worrisome because it is from the pool of these incoherent youths that the future leaders are expected to emerge.
It seems that a great number of Nigerian youths are still drenched in tribal and religious bigotry.
Facts, in my humble opinion, should be the basis for making comments on national issues and not religion, tribe or age.
And it is very important that The SUN Editors should vet comments and allow those that are capable of steering nationalism to scale through.
Putting divisive comments on their media is worse than no comments at all. It is true that it could be argued that you want to sound people’s feeling but it is also true that you do not go the zoo to release dangerous animals into the community to gauge their destructive capability. After all, we see governments mop up beggars and mad people from the streets.
The task to evolve a virile nation should be our collective concern and let no group or tribe think that they have the prerogative to irresponsible discussions.
Christ I wanted to tell you something you wouldn’t like to hear, but for the fact that your other name is Onyishi which means a BLIND person then i reserve my comment. I can see that your blindness couldn’t allow you to read the interview rather you asked an idiot same as you to write this nonsense for you
If one Eze is outrageous, it does not make any difference. This is one outlandish Eze I have ever read, if he is an Eze really. But my guess is that he is more suited to the medial era than in this modern time.
But I would urge Eze to google me on the web to have a fair understanding of my person. Its unfortunate that I cannot use Eze to look you up in WWW to see more of the inner short comings of this Eze. Could you give me more facts about you Eze?
The unfortunate thing is that people like this Eze have a way of being smuggled into power position, in bad electoral system, where they unleash their minimalistic tendencies on innocent citizenry.
I stand with you 101%.
U are rich, i admire u.
Onyishi, you are a shinning star. You are right on the dot about the Nigerian youths of today. “…their utterances do not suggest a cohesive and vibrantly reasonable group and this is most worrisome…” I totally agree with you.
Mr. Chris, you are right in your comment. May God bless you. The interview and the political history of Ciroma are very educative. To be honest I got his drift and thinking along the line logically the northern position is clear and honest. The PDP agreed on rotational presidency and suddenly a group of their corrupt leaders turned everything upside down to benefit themselves. I don’t care where you are from or what religion you belong to, an agreement must be kept. Let Obasonjo and Goodluck defend themselves on the allegation of Ciroma that they bought up delegates in dollars to vote for Goodluck at the PDP convection.
God bless you
I would have thought that was an inmate that escaped from his caregivers at a psychiatric facility. So, in spite of all the money this man stole he became for miserable and horrible to behold, with skin disease. That looks like skin cancer.
How evil men dry up even while still vertical. You can see the devil written all over the guy, the same one who vowed to make the place ungovernable. Reading his his awusa logic: “it meant that South would have 12 years and North four years”, one is in no doubt as to the sub-humans we have to put up with. This same imbecile reminds the interviewer of Buhari, Abubakar, Babangida, Abacha -all of them awusa from North. Yet, awusa and North have just only 4-years. Right from bottom up, the awusa argue senselessly. They are ever so unrealistic and blinded by selfishness and greed. The idiotic black asses think they own the place, own our lives, and want to act as though we should be thanking them for letting us live. They better go to hell.
As for this junk, he should do himself and everybody else a favor: kick the bucket. The Sun must learn not to have the freaking image of a horrifying demon emblazoned in its newspaper.
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Chris Onyishi, may you live long. I want these bad commentators on the man’s health to bring their cameras close to their skin, snap and observe it if they will look what they thought they are from afar. People should comment on the subject and leave ethnicity and religions out of the issue.
By the way I do we hope to learn from elders if they don’t voice out to tell us the past. Nigerians could now see why the government of the day fails and past ones failed us because national interests were secondary in their minds. let us wake up youths and give up sentiments in choosing our leaders. whether the person is from the North, South, West or East do not matter any more. Choose a good leader. I rest my case.
John you are very stupid. You can’t even understand simple english. So you didn’t observed that it was the idiot called him self Adamu who brought in ethnicity in this whole issue?
Eze, people like you are easely identified from your utterances which is a manifestation of how poor your level of home training and exposure could be. Does it mean you can not engage in any arguement without using abusive words on people you have not even met? Please, try and sound like educated or civilized human being.
Hahahaha… I de laf. Wonders shall never end. Aboki is now trying to give me lessons on home training and exposure.
aboki usman what do you know about home training since you are from the north?. When was the home training given to you, was it the time you left Kaduna at the age of four to Jos to do almajiri that you acquired the home training?
usman, I dn’t have to meet u before i could know what kind of animal u are. I’ve never met adamu ciroma but just from his words am 100% sure he is an old idiot who supposed to be hiding that his ugly face rather than telling Nigerians rubbish that him and some of the heartless idiots from the North caused to the nation.
Chiroma is among d brains behind Nigerian problms as u can see frm his incoherent speech. Frm history to CBN governor & finance minister.wht made him believe dat d north wil always determine d faith of dis country? Dis northern idiots must join there brother in sahara desert for dis country to move forward.
@ anamco, it is a pity u insult the north for no just cause. Make your contribution clear. The PDP is the problem not the North. And anybody who doesn’t have regards for agreements can not be a good and sincere leader. Tell me, has GEJ been a good and sincere leader ? We must tell the truth always. The home built on a foundation of lies will crumble under the force of lies. Think objectively. Only leaders that win elections fair and clear will work for its people. Riggers are CRIMINALS they will never give a damn!
who ever dat insult dis man can never see old age in his life, just tell what is wrong is dis interview or what did dis man say dat is wrong, everybody knws dat is out off greed dat make GEJ to contest de last election and we are seen de result , we should leave ethnic sentiments out of national issue and discourse what is on ground which is dat de nation is not moving forward and it need to be addressed
Oyii or what ever u call your self i am very disappointed in you. Your father is disappointed in you, your mother is disappointed in you and Nigerians are all disappointed in you if you can open your mouth to insult people who are voicing their anger against this idiot who is behind all the problems we are going through in this country today because he was not allowed to impose one of satanic agents on us during the last presidential election in Nigeria.
Oyii, how did you and this imbecile called adamu forgot so quick that the same group of terrorists he was criticizing their past administration were the same people he tried imposing on Nigerians during the last presidential election?
THIS MALLAM IS DEAD DRUNK,PERIOD.
That means Nigerians fate is been determined by a few cabal,right? oh Lord where is your face,save us from these occultic dominations.
What goes round comes around. Also the evil that one do live before him. A cheater must also be cheated. If only GEJ can wake up from his slumber and start performing extraordinary then all these rubbish will stop. Because this present government is so rotten, I mean over-corrupted that I wonder whether there would be any fund remain in the nation treasury, hence the looting, looting, looting is excess. For me we need change of government and attitudes, otherwise Nigeria will breakup soon.
Sometimes i wonder how some of you think in this Forum,Look at a great and everlasting REVELATIONS that Malam Ciroma has given and yet some of you are Blind to see where the problems of this country`s democracy started, I mean if we can have people more Like Ciroma and Adam Oshimole, OUK telling Nigerians the Truth, then we can start knowing where our problems really began before knowing how to solve them. You see How some of the Elders sold this country to their selfis interests, I have always said it that anything that snake gave birth to must be long —————OBJ——-EGJ. Ciroma is a man of intergrity and that is why he has never won elections, If any of those people mentioned has anything contrary to what he said, Let them tell us. But what can they say, these were necked truth. `Nigeria we Hail Thee`
Mr Green you are an idiot if you are here to give adamu any credit. Did you even read the interview or you just commenting? Do you know that if it wasn’t the issue of ethnicity Obasanja was not gona be preferable candidate for the PDP primary election that brought him into power against Alex Ekwueme?
STUPID MR GREEN JUST READ SOME OF THESE POINTS FROM ADAMU’S INTERVIEW.
INTERVIEWER: Was the sack of politicians in the government the thing that led to the formation of G-19 in the North and later G-34?
ADAMU: We agreed to serve the government in order to serve the ordinary person, the masses of this country. Abacha and his men started playing tricks. He wanted a transition to civilian rule but he wanted to organise it in such a way that there would be different political parties but all the parties must nominate him as their presidential candidate. It became obvious that he was trying to succeed himself. We the politicians in the North, the senior ones, came together and told ourselves that it would not be a good thing for the president to succeed himself. So, we wrote him a letter telling him our views.
Then, we formed the G-18 to work together against Abacha’s self-succession plan. We agreed that only we the northerners were going to do it because if we invited anybody from the South to participate, Abacha and his colleagues were going to say that it was the southern people who were working against him. We didn’t want to allow that room; we decided to restrict this opposition to him among us northern politicians. When it became absolutely clear that we needed the input of other Nigerians, we decided to go a step further to generate a national opposition against him (Abacha). That was why we went to see Alex Ekwueme, Bola Ige and other politicians. We now enlarged the G-18 to G-34.
INTERVIEWER: Did you work for Obasanjo’s emergence? What was the logic behind bringing him out from prison to give him the PDP ticket? At what point did you and other northern elite agree that power should return to the South?
ADAMU: Obasanjo’s return effectively to the presidency was the handiwork of Babangida and Aliyu Gusau. They are the people who got in touch with other northern politicians to support their proposal to make Obasanjo the presidential candidate. We northern politicians, in our original proposal, agreed that the military did wrong in cancelling June 12, 1993 presidential election. We believed that since independence to that time, most of the official leaders of this country had been from the North. Abdulsalami was organising a return to civilian rule; we reasoned that it will not be right for Abdulsalami to allow somebody from the North to become the President. We decided that the President after Abdulsalami should come from the South. We were very clear in our own mind on this.
When we said that the President should come from the South, we were aware that there are Yoruba, there are Southern minorities and there are the Igbo. We did not care from any of the three groups that the President came from as long as the person was from the South. After we had taken that position, Babangida and Aliyu Gusau contacted us to plead for Obasanjo. We agreed to support Obasanjo because the candidate of the last presidential election that was cancelled by the military was from the Yoruba west. It was not particularly because he came from Ogun State but just that he was a Yoruba man from the West. It is just an accident that Obasanjo also happens to come from the same state with Abiola. That was how it happened.
Ciroma is one of the virus infecting Nigeria. He has been a clog in the wheel of progress of this nation. He was the preacher that canvassed for setting Nigeria ablaze after Jonathan’s election. Journalist should direct their attention on other Nigerians and not a tribalist like this.
Stop lashing the old man, he was enjoying his retirement at his mansion when this good for nothing ERIC OSAGIE visited him.
Enjoy your retirement chief and do not allow people like ERIC OSAGIE that have no work to disturb your peace again.
I am neither for Jonathan nor for Ciroma. But Ciroma should be reminded that he is part of the corrupt story of the country. It is only in Nigeria that a man will read history and end up becoming Governor of the Central Bank. Ciroma is today a spent force and should be advised to withdraw and spend the rest of his life quietly. Or else, he should be made irrelevant by simply ignoring him.
@ Simeon, u use my identity?
Fellow Nigerians,our country is in a deep mess and i dont see this country getting out of it soon,especially with the kind of people piloting the affairs of the country. I want to plead that we should intensify in our prayers for GOD’s intervension for our country.May God save us and our country from the distruction of our leaders.
All said and done Mallam is still part and parcel of the pdp that has run Nigeria into the ground and that is the reality not the wish-wash on IBB, Gusau, Obasanjo and JEG! The corruption and the price we are paying for that is just the tip of the iceberg, untril \nigerians can vote and the vote is counted and counts we will be running at the same spot.
Mallam but you were and still part and parcel of the pdp political elites, why didn’t you shout all this while? No.mallam, just leave us in peace and continue with your friends until we have the chance to vote, the votes are counted and count.
This is a master-piece . A must read for true lovers of the country Nigeria.
Adamu ciroma is the best fool this country has produced,a histry student became the cbn governor is that not a mess? i ve said it million of time,the northerners are the brain behind the underdevelopment of this country,they have ruled this country for a decade no good thing to show even in there own states,just be honest and think how many years this northern elements has ruled this country and see that they are the most wicked evil in this country,please mallams alhajis,ibbs atikus,all the northern elements live this country alone or you all must die,ciroma,i swear to god if i come to power i do any thing to eliminate you.
Its also the same reason Gej is treating the nation with DONKEY method because he studied Zoology! Cant you see Gej’s brain has no different to that of baboons!
Adamu Ciroma has forgotten when he was the Chairman of Northern Political Forum and the statements he had made concerning electing any person not from the North. Ciroma statements during and after the election was one of the major reasons why youths from the North decided to take arms to fight against peace in this nation. No problem, all of them involve in causing this troubles in this peace loving nation will surely pay for it. The blood of the innocent citizens wasted are still hoving around them. Their time is up including Ciroma. God bless Nigeria and give the President more patience and wisdom to deliver his promises. Amen
SQUARE PEG IN A ROUND HOLE. HOW COME SOMEONE WHO MEASURED IN HISTORY BECAME CBN GOVERNOR AND LATER FINANCE MINISTER UNLESS HIS EMPLOYERS IS IGNORANT OF PROFESSIONALISM . THIS REALLY IS A TIP OF HOW UNQUALIFIED BOTH THE EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYEE IN THE MANAGEMENT OF NIGERIA’S AFFAIRS HAS BEEN SINCE INDEPENDENCE. MORE OF THIS TYPE OF REVELATIONS FROM OTHER ELDERS.
Please, allow this one to die in piece, not pieces. You can all see he is quarter-to-go. Mere looking at him tells that he already at the departure lounge. If he is lucky, he will find himself in a not-so-hot corner of hell. Nature will rid us of such evil people, one at a time.
Jo n Eze God dam ur stinkingh mouth for insult mallam Adamu Ciroma. Before ur fathers pafuka, which of them look as good as Mallam Ciroma. We all know that u jews we never see anything good in any other race except ur jewish race. Most of what Ciroma achieved while he was in govt, which of ur jewish people achieved it. Ciroma was talking about how to move de country forward, u fools has de mouth to insult him. Don’t blame u afterall u were products of gorilas. Useless race.
Kola u are a bastard in bracket. How comes is now that ciroma observed that the country needs to move forward after he told Northan youths to take up arms against the government simply because a president was not emerged from the northan part of the country.
something that he was unable to do as CBN gov, FM. history turn moni manager/economics
CIROMA WHAT GOES AROUND ALWAYS COME AROUND,YOU WERE PART OF THE TEAM THAT CAMPAIGNED FOR THE EMPEROR OBASANJO,SHARED $35M DOLLARS ORGANISED BY IBB AND DANJUMA THROUGH UBA FOREIGN EXCHANGE BRANCH STAFFERS,LAGOS AT IBB’S MASION AT JOS G.R.A.
IT WAS FUN FOR THE NORTHERN OLIGARCHY WHO WANTED TO GET OBASANJO ELECTED THROUGH THE BACK DOOR AGAINST THE MAN THAT WAS READY DR EKWUEME.LATER,OBASANJO USED THE SAME YARDSTICK TO RECRUIT THE MAN THAT WAS NOT READY FROM THE NORTH UMORU YARADUA AND JONATHAN AS ULTIMATE BENEFICIARY,NOW YOU ARE COMPLAINING BUT YOU GUYS STARTED IT ALL.
A EIGHT YEARS ,WHEN WILL ADAMU CHIROMA RETIRE FROM POLITICS AND RETURN HOME INSTEAD OF THE CONFUSION IN ABUJA WITH JONATHAN THAT IS ABOUT HIS SON’S AGE MATE.LOOK AT HIS COLEAGUE SHAGARI IS RESIDENT IN SOKOTO,WHY CAN’T CIROMA ,OBASANJO ,ANENIH,AHMADU ALLI,ALEX EKWUEME,ET AL LEAVE NIGERIA ALONE? IS NIGERIA CREATED FOR ONLY THEM AND THEIR FAMILIES? WHY CAN’T THE PRESENT YOUNG SOLDIERS DO THE NEEDFUL IN NIGERIA JUST LIKE JERRY RAWLINGS DID FOR GHANA,BY CLEARING THE THESE OLD CONFUSIONISTS, RECOVER ALL OUR MONEY WITH THEM AND DESTROY THEIR HEGEMONY OVER NIGERIA?
Ciroma remains one of the great Nigerian minds alive. Whilst it is ok to disagree with him, it it unjustifiable insulting him based on the issues raised in this interview. If you ask me, this is actually a rich interview, containing information for keeps. A nation that does not value her elders is doomed. There are facts of history that I am reading for the first time today. No, he is not a Jihadist(although many do not know the meaning of the word and its place in Islam. I assume the word intended was ‘terrorist’). In fact , radicals in the North do not regard him as a member of the family. Perhaps commentators should read the interview completely before commenting. Again, when you do not like the face of a man or his religion, that has nothing to do with his worth. The opposition to Jonathan’s emergence was based on principle. PDP which remains the only truely national party agreed on the principle of Zoning. Intelligent persons from different parts of the country participated in the meeting that gave birth to the arrangement. The turn of the North was truncated , and men and women worth their onions had to cry ,’ foul”, from different parts of the country. Ever true to his character Mallam Ciroma championed the cause. If you read the interview well , you’ll see that their campaign was not an obstinate one. He was implying that you can not just throw an agreement overboard without talking with the other party. Although no constitional provision was violated by the emergence of Jonathan, a moral principle was raped . I too was against Jonathan running, and this had nothing to do with where I come from , or the person of Jonathan. I was enraged at the injustice. Suddenly, everyone including President Jonathan who was at the said meeting ,claimed ingnorant of the principle of Zoning. He who was a beneficiary of Zoning, suddenly suffered amnessia .Yet, as soon as he won, zoning returned. Ciroma and co were merely calling for justice. Yes, I know that some very unprincipled fellows joined the team. But as you can read from this interview , he was not necessarily a bird of same feather with them. Where I disagreed with their approach was that they were not discreet enough to protect an authentic agitation from being hijacked by confusionists. Due to the army of almajiris, certain places in the north have always been volatile-unfortunately. Again, We should recall that terrorist groups were already very much around in the North , but at this time, the general feeling of betrayal merely created an opprtunity for them, which they used very well. Security intelligence does not grow on trees. The secret service works with ordinary information from ordinary people. By the time these same people feel dishonoured by the state, they may not fully cooperate with her agencies. That explains the huge breakthroughs the troublemakers began to enjoy. I do not think that Ciroma and co set out to promote terror. Words may have been spoken in anger and emotions may have ran riot. We all have lessons to learn from it all, and there are certainly regrets. Perhaps , the whole matter was Almighty Allah (SWT)’s way of judging the northern establishment for her years of ineptitude and indiscretion . Ciroma is a great Nigerian. I still recall the only time I met him, more than 13 years ago, during the Abacha regime. I was then an undergraduate. He was quiet and unassuming . He had no airs about him and there was no security detail around him. I was very proud to meet him and shake his hand. He was very gracious, friendly and fatherly. We need to read more of this kind of frank interviews from people like him ,who have played important roles in the Nigerian project. Perhaps we can learn from their virtues and avoid their vices.
Mallam Chiroma, what do you expect from Papa Decieve Pikin(PDP)? Because you are no longer previledged to steal from the national cake, you now assume a peoples’ advocate. Thank God it happened when you are alive so that you feel what you made others felt when you had romance with power.
THIS IS A COMPLETE TRUE REVELATIONS OF THE EVIL PDP BROUGHT ON US SINCE 1999,WE ARE TRUSTING GOD IT WILL END COME 2015,JONATHAN AND CO ARE TOTAL EVIL AND WICKED,THE BIBLE SAYS NO PEACE FOR WICKED AND GOD IS ANGRY WITH THE WICKED EVERYDAY,PDP,JONATHAN AND OBJ THEIR END IS CLOSE,IT IS MOST BE IN 2015.
Adamu Ciroma is an agent seeking for political appointment. He had benefitted immensely from d Oil &Gas sector. Now he want to seek another opportunity in ASO ROCK. Adamu Ciroma is one of d founding father of BOKO HARAM. He is also a Complice to his bribery claim, if not, why is he revealing d issues dat happened years ago now. Nigerians re wiser now, so he should go & rest his head with his family.
No news, old man. You have had it all under Shagari, Abacha, OBJ. You are crying because you are now left out of the corruption that is Nigerian government. Shame on all of you.
IT IS ONLY IN NIGERIA THAT A GRADUATE OF SOCIOLOGY BECOMES A MINISTER OF PETROLEUM SIMPLY BECAUSE HE COMES FROM THE NORT. If a graduate of islamic history is imposed as a GOVERNOR OF THE CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA, WHAT DO WE CALL A SQUARE PEG IN A ROUND HOLE THEN?
HOW COULD YOU NOW TALK ABOUT THE PLIGHT OF FARMERS, WERE YOU NOT THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE WHEN 200 MILLION DOLLARS FOR FERTILIZER VANISHED UNDER YOUR WATCH DURING SHAGARI REGIME? USELESS MAN.
chiroma shame to you. You contribute to the problem of this country. God will not forgive you. You are in govt before some of us were born and nothing change. shame, shame.
God save nigeria frm evil. I cal on al brave n rational youths of naija to rise to d cal to sovren national confrence lets see if our leadas who prefa groaping in dis ruderles ship raise guns agains us. We hail naija.
It is really worrisome how these old politicians cause confusion in Nigeria. Mallam Adamu Ciroma said in this interview that……”we did not care from any of the three groups that the Presidency came from as long as the person was from the South”, but I remember when President Jonathan was struggling to contest for the presidential seat, and fighting to stop him Mallam Adamu Ciroma said that he had never seen a country where a person from the minority will come to rule the people of the majority population. And this was equally the time when Barrack Obama, a Kenyan won the presidency of the United States of America. Now, how do we juxtapose all these.
Those who failed to keep to agreements and promises make case worse. Nigeria is too complex a nation to be left to the hypocrisy of the greedy and blind politicians. Time has come for those who really fear God to open up before this country is doomed.
This man looks like devil…!
Obviously one of the dyed in the wool northern religious and tribal apologists, who played God over the affairs of the nation, presently learning his lessons the hard way that, it is not as man thinketh but as God willeth in the affairs of mankind. pray, mallam Chiroma has always been part and parcel of successive governments of the nation both civilian and millitary and always acquiesced with the system whenever his interests are served only to cry foul if otherwise. I guess his present anger is a result of being out foxed by the likes of OBJ over the affairs of PDP, a party in which his wife is the immediate past national women leader. One would like to agree with him on the point of OBJ failling the nation as a leader but also remind him that, OBJ is not alone in that offence, after all he was one of those who installed him president inspite of his status as ex convict ahead of a more suitable candidate, probably for ethnic tribal reasons instead of merit. or maybe for being of the same ocultic ogboni confraternity clique that has held the nation by the jugular for donkey years. Finally, as much as i find it offensive of the youth insulting or wishing death to an otherwise grand old man of Ciroma’s status, I will advise him to retire quietly to the comfort of his home and use the rest of his years to reconcile and make peace with God and mankind instead of rabble rousing trouble for society in the name of power tussle.
I would have love to hear from Alhaji Ciroma the Exchange Rate of Dollars to Naira when he was CBN Governor and the Rate when he became the Minster of Finance. Alhali Shehu Shagari ,as an individual, he is a gentle and humble personality but lacked the background of the enormous portfolio of Presidency .It was the like of Adamu Ciroma,Umaru Dikko Adisa Akinloye etc who were ruling the country then. It was the era of Essential Commodities when Nigerians would have to line up in the Sun/Rain for Sugar,Rice Milk etc and for somebody to score the regime high , is an indication that the sense of assessment of that person is shallow- period . Alhaji Ciroma has been known to be parochial, tribal tendencies , and Religion bigotry which he exhibited glaringly when he was in NNN and hence ,he was in constant disagreement with the Military boys. His Comment now is to leave Good Records behind .
MALLAM CIROMA , DID U DO THE RIGHT THING , WHEN U SAY THE VICE PRESIDENT SHOULD NOT BE SWORN IN AFTER YAR’DUA DIED.
NIGERIAN ELDER STATESMAN , THE SOURCE OF OUR SORROWS.
ALWAYS BICKERING EVEN APPROACHING GRAVEYARD.
LEAVING A CARCASS OF A COUNTRY FOR THE YOUTHS, WE WILL HELP U TO BURY IT .
ENOUGH OF ALL THESE THREATS AND INTIMIDATIONS
Ciroma’s statement is not a bombshell. Every PDP members knows that candidates pay delegates with dollars during nomination conventions. Some delegates boast how they collected dollars from several candidates while the mugus among them collected from only one candidate.
A historian central bank governor. That is what the north banqueted on Nigeria and this man is still dancing naked in the market square fooling himself about Nigerian affairs. All about him in this interview reveals perceived political superiority of the north over the south. That is why they, so called northern politicians, Emirs and Sultan worked hands in glove to create more states and local governments in the arid north to maintain political advantage. Only resource control can solve the problems of Nigeria.
A historian central bank governor. That is what the north banqueted on Nigeria and this man is still dancing naked in the market square fooling himself about Nigerian affairs. All about him in this interview reveals perceived political superiority of the north over the south. That is why they, so called northern politicians, Emirs and Sultan worked hands in glove to create more states and local governments in arid north to maintain political advantage. Only resource control can solve the problems of Nigeria.