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Olumuyiwa's $520,000.00 House - The Truth

Badejo Adedeji Nurudeen

November 20, 2005

Please let me express an heartfelt condolence to this youngman, who is the subject of this piece, over the death of his mother, the first lady of Nigeria, Chief (Mrs) Stella Obasanjo, I pray may the Lord be with you during this period and he comfort you too. But the issue which this piece seeks to address is one which am sure would you have heard of or read about, it is the allegation that you bought $520,000:00 house in the United States, just as you are completing your Law programme. This issue generated a lot of furore in Nigeria with people pointing accusing fingers to the President who claim to be fighting corruption but whose households are suspects, the mouthpiece of the president in person of firebrand Femi Fani-Kayode( who had developed a penchant to attack anybody who say a word against an Obasanjo either right or wrong) was the very first to defend the buying of that apartment, adducing the purchase to a mortgage arrangement, alas! It was debunked, in the melee Dr. John Abebe, the amiable uncle also came board defending the transaction and even going as far as hinting that the ‘struggling youngman’ is getting married soon hence the need for him to acquire such an house, according to him your earning of $200,000.00 per year supports the deal, again this is a white lie, while it is not my wish to insinuate bad feelings, after all the son of the president of the most populous black country plus a rich country for that matter deserved nothing but the best accommodation wherever he might wish to stay and ply his trade.

However the issue is more than that, presently in this country there as being a fierce battle against corruption and other vices by the government led by your Dad, it has led in it trails to the sacking of two full cabinet ministers ( Prof. Fabian Osuji and Mrs Mobolaji Osomo ) including the prosecution of one, resignation of a former senate president ( Chief Adolphus Wabara ) and prosecution of him with other members of the National Assembly, gale of arrests of state’s commissioners and bank chiefs ( Mr. Darlington, Babajide Rogers, Marc Wabara, Ebitimi Banigo etc.) including a former minister who owns a bank, the arrest and prosecution of the son of a former head of state ( Abba Abacha ) in far away Germany, the arrest and prosecution of a former Inspector-General of Police ( Mr. Tafa Balogun )- this man was handcuffed to the court and was at a time being removed underneath a moving vehicle which ran over him, prosecution of a sitting governor ( Chief Joshua Dariye ) in high court in Kaduna State and above all is the recent arrest and prosecution of the governor of Bayelsa state, Chief Dipreye Alamaseigha in London, in fairness, it is good for us as people considering the havoc corruption had done to our dear country.

The point I wish to make here is how did a Youngman just graduating from law school ( even before graduating ) buy such an house without a mortgage plan, how? I presumed we need an answer if and if we are to take the current anti-corruption crusade serious, with due respect, we have had a president who hath belief he is holier than thou, while I am not insinuating that president is not rich( a former head of state, Federal commissioner and a big time farmer for that matter), the position is that we deserve an explanation on how this guy got the fund to acquire that house, if it was Mr. president who gave his son the money to buy the house please let Nigerians know this, thereafter we will leave this issue alone simpicita! and other Nigerians who have the means to do same for their children should go ahead! Why the lies, at least a rich father can buy a house for his son! Who are we deceiving.

I had waited this while to allow the dead to be laid to rest, also those in grief to get over it, so that the timing will not be faulted, just like in Gani Fawehinmi’s case even though the man is saying nothing but the truth, nonetheless the truth is we cannot fold our arms and keep quiet while this go on, questions had to be asked, and in plain language answers had to be offered, even some Nigerian home and abroad had offered opinion, with a particular chap who is based in the United States offering what could be considered a balanced opinion, but Mr. Olumuyiwa Obasanjo had refused to show Nigerian if truly he had got a job which can guaranteed such a mortgage plan, and all investigations shows clearly that the deal is not mortgage but outright purchase, in an American society where Dr Condoleezza Rice the Minister of States earns a little over $180,000. New lawyers who get over $100,000 salaries are usually people who graduated with first class of rare nature from such Ivy League schools as Harvard, Princeton or Yale, Olumuyiwa went to a mere St John’s university, Brooklyn, in New York. The desire of this piece is to seek the truth, for he who must come to equity must come with clean hand. It is morally unacceptable to Nigerians for a leader to be pursuing people around the globe for an offence that is happening in his backyard, this issue can be likened to the Ikoyi housing scam which consumed the former Minister of housing and urban development, Mrs Mobolaji Osomo, where the in-laws of the president were mentioned and nothing had happened to them till date. We as people might be constraint just as the senate president, Senator Ken Nnamani, to consider the present anti-corruption crusade as selective, witch-hunting and a hoarse, Except otherwise proven. The present administration had made corruption an issue, hence the need for Nigerians to continue to be watchdogs of government functionaries and their families.

Let me say that it is worthy of commendation the anti-corruption drive of the present administration for the beneficiary is we Nigerians, what must not be tolerated or accepted is while the citizens is made to bear the brunt of government reform policies, leaders and their families must not be seen to displaying riches and opulence even when were are told they too are making sacrifices for the development of our dear country. Until President Obasanjo or Olumuyiwa position is made known on this issue, the debate will linger.

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