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MARADONA SHOOTING BLANKS, ADENUGA ON THE RUN

ho will dare raise his or her voice against the then maximum ruler when he wielded total power? Who will risk his life, his sanity, his family, or his well being when the evil genius was on the throne, and beat the drum of discontent or point fingers at the palace? Times have changed and a lot has taken place in the geographic space Flora Shaw christened Nigeria.

In the thick of his maximum power, Babangida was called Kabiyesi by no other than the then Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Ligali Ayorinde. Justice Ayorinde went on to tell all mere subjects that the Maradona cannot be questioned and that he is the state, and the state is shoulder and head above the law. Long live the king? No, not any more. Times have since changed and the nation is trying to move on and continue its epileptic healing process, only that the king of yesterday would not allow us to move forward. He is anxious to return to the thrown from where he stepped aside, the nation he left in disarray and crises, the nation he left to the hawk. Ah, the king of yore years is now being challenged and questioned. He is being confronted by simple women, market women, and duty-bound wives. A deluge of questions faces him. His lame responses have attracted more fire and volcanic reactions.

There are warnings that the dethroned king might find more expos�s coming his way. How times have changed! But it is not only the king who stepped aside who is facing fire these days. One of his acolytes and friends, Mr. Mike Adenuga is going through a very rough time. His empire (his or the empire he holds in trust?) is threatened and the guy is on the run. Men of the Nigerian Armed Forces are renowned for using fronts and sidekicks to siphon the nation's oil wealth and state governments' funds overseas. Now the doors are opened and every state executive is personally raking millions of dollars across the border to deposit in their foreign bank accounts a la the Governor General of the Ijaw nation.

It is no secret that a failed publisher and socialite fronted for several military men in the seventies and eighties. Mr. Majomi even duped a former, now deceased Lagos State Governor most of the funds he was asked to lodge in secret accounts in Switzerland. It is an open secret. Some retired soldiers have recently taken over control of the companies they long used front men and sidekicks to maintain and manage. A major construction company has now been returned to a retired officer who once used to award hundreds of millions of naira in contracts to the construction company. It is no secret that even the dethroned king who wants to be king again had his own fronts.

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Now that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is taking closer look at Mr. Mike Adenuga's business empire, including the Equitorial Trust Bank (ETB), Globacom, a multibillion naira communications company, Conoil, an oil company and trying to ascertain their ownership(s) and interests in the concerns, more light is being shed into the perceived involvement and collaboration of sidekicks. The heat is getting to the evil genius and his family. His son, Mohammed has been recently invited, detained and interrogated by the EFCC. Mr. Mike Adenuga was also interrogated and released by the EFCC recently, long before he sneaked out of the nation using the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) certificate to cross the border by road into Ghana. It is instructive that Mr. Adenuga chose to travel to the United Kingdom from a third nation rather than fly in his private jet. He knew that the EFCC is still investigating him and his passport is still with the agency.

The evil genius recently has Hajiya Sefina Vatsa to contend with. Hajiya Vatsa is really taking Ibrahim Babangida to the cleaners and the court of public opinion. With no respect for IBB and a philosophical warning, she told the evil genius that he now draw blanks, could no longer score goals nor fool anyone again. "Is he really coming for the presidency? He is a joker. You know the man is a Maradona. He wants to play ball. But he has forgotten that Maradona does not score goals again. He doesn't even deliver in the field of play. So he should go and rest," she dismissed IBB. Hajiya Sefina has the sympathy of the whole nation and she also has history on her side. Her open challenge and demand for justice may yet be one rope Babangida cannot escape from. The rope is rolled around the throat of the bad boy and it may yet suffocate him. IBB is not pitched against just Hajiya Vatsa; he also has the whole of the nation to contend with. Chief Gani Fawehinmi wants the EFCC to review the $12 billion Gulf War windfall, which IBB squandered. Hajiya Vatsa said even IBB escaped prosecution for a coup plot, that of Colonel Buka Sukar Dimka. She said Babangida was involved in the coup but was saved by her husband, General Mamman Vatsa. At the time of the coup the nation was told that it was Babangida who disarmed Dimka. Could that have been a cover to shield IBB from an obvious execution? Did General Vatsa, Babangida's best man at his wedding (and at whose wedding Babangida was best man) put himself and his life on the line to save IBB's skin? There are obviously too much lies dished out to the Nigerian public when soldiers of fortune ran the nation for spoils and loots.

Plotting a coup and using the coup as a weapon for self-aggrandisement and promotion was a big deal among our soldiers, particularly the idle, never-do-wells who account for majority of our Armed forces. Hajiya Vatsa added that her husband helped the king of yester years with his drug problem (remember Gloria Okon?) and that every time IBB has problems "he came to him (General Vatsa) for rescue." She has also warned Babangida that she has all the documents to substantiate her claims and cautioned IBB to think twice before he utter anything or be ready to face more fire. It will be worth a review if more light is shed on the claim that IBB was part of the Dimka coup that took the life of General Muritala Mohammed in broad daylight and with the trappings of raw monstrosity.

As the face-off between Babangida and Hajiya Sefina Vatsa, a woman who obviously has neither regard for Babangida nor fear for the one time maximum ruler, there is a lesson for those who hold temporal power and those who are aspiring to power. IBB the shameless national bully and Nigeria's worst ruler ever, a man who elevated terror to a new religion and abused the nation without remorse is now being kicked around and knocked about. This episode is providing so much fun for all of us. But the next few months will be even tougher for Ibrahim Babangida, his fronts and sidekicks. They should expect more scrutiny directed at them. They should be prepared to explain where the billions they hold in accounts comes from and where they came about the money they invested in several local and overseas companies. Questions will be asked about how several coup suspects were eliminated, how IBB and his sidekicks abused esprit de corps, turned all rules upside down for their personal benefits and agendas. Hajiya Vatsa raised a very sensitive question about the nationality of Babangida. Is it likely that a true Nigerian will do everything to destroy his or her fatherland the same way IBB crushed, annihilated and almost destroys Nigeria? Can IBB stab himself in the leg and not feel the pain? Enough foods for thought for Babangida and his loud mouth promoters, all of them after another looting spree, which will never happen.

Declaring Mr. Mike Adenuga wanted and requesting the assistance of the international police and the Scotland Yard is an option open to the Federal Government of Nigeria and the EFCC. Mr. Adenuga is running from something, or why will be abandon a multibillion-naira empire to relocate to the United Kingdom via Ghana? If the source(s) of his wealth, businesses and the shareholding in his companies cannot be authenticated, then the government can declare them unclean and funds from money laundering. Seizure is a glaring option and forfeiture is inevitable. Mr. Adenuga has to come clean about the source(s) of his wealth and who his co-travellers and sponsors are.