Where ambition begins happiness ends (Czech Proverb)
When you throw dirt, you loose ground. (Texan Proverb)
To be served, you must serve others well (Onye fe eze, eze eruta ya) (Igbo Proverb)
The closest person to you is the most dangerous (Onye ulo ngbu) (Igbo Proverb in Ngwa dialect)
He who fetched firewood infested with ants invited the lizard for picnic (Onye kpara nku ahuhu di, si ngwere biara ya oriri) (Igbo Proverb)
Be brave. Even if you're not, pretend to be. No one can tell the difference. (-- Life's Little Instruction Book)
A hunter is not supposed to come out and say that the feet of his hunting colleague resembles that of an animal (Onye ya na made so nachu ntä adighi nma imputa si na ükwü ya yiri ükwü anu) (Igbo Proverb)

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he news that YarÁdua sacked Kingibe as the Secretary to the Federal Government (SGF) didn’t come as a surprise to many of us. I have written about the need to boot Kingibe out before now and it seems YarÁdua is getting the message. One is down, there are still many to go before YarÁdua can effectively stir the ship of this country towards the right direction. It seem YarÁdua is just waking up from his slumber; it seems his seventeen days sojourn in the holy land gave him an ample opportunity to reflect on the things that are wrong with his leadership and it seems he has appreciated that he surrounded himself with people that are chameleons, people who are only out to satisfy their personal ambition vis-à-vis that of the entire country, people that are so parochial in their dealings while trying to radiate false nationalistic outlook in the open to hoodwink the public.

I wrote this in my article of July 4, 2008 published in this website:

For YarÁdua to get cracking, he must first of all sack some of his ministers and some principal officers in his government: People like the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, the Finance Minister, the head of his Economic Team, the Secretary to the Federal Government must all be toasted for him to have free hands to initiate the policies that will be of benefit to the people of Nigeria. As I have said before, Nigeria has only one problem and that is corruption; it is the primary problem from which all other problems emanated. If corruption is curbed, every other problem will vamoose with a jiffy from the landscape.

Kingibe is gone, we are still waiting impatiently for the exit of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, the Finance minister, the head of the Economic Team etc. Luckily enough, we are told that a cabinet reshuffle is in the offing and that some of the ministers on the sack list are the one that have been misleading the president on some policy issues or making pronouncements that put the administration in bad light and those believed to be simply redundant and incapable of manning the ministries. The Ministers of Justice and Finance fit in well in these descriptions, they should go forthwith.

The question is why was Kingibe sacked so shamefully?

JONATHAN CHAIRS FEC MEETING: Vice President Goodluck Jonathan (right) and the [then] Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Alhaji Babagana Kingibe, at the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council chaired by the Vice President in Abuja, yesterday.

President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua and his Vice President Goodluck Jonathan during the President Campaign tour in Delta State. PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE.

People might be wondering how such a thing could happen to Kingibe of all people. Infact, he was the de facto ruler in Aso Rock. He hijacked the government from the hands of YarÁdua right from the start. For those that read the story by vanguard of September 4, 2008 with the caption "Yar'Adua: VP presides over FEC meeting" must have noticed from the picture of Goodluck Jonathan in that article that Kingibe standing beside him there must have forced him (The Vice president) to put on that Hausa attire, far from his usual Ijaw native dressing he is known for. Looking at that picture, one can see that Kingibe was wickedly watching every action of the vice president through the corners of his eyes and I am sure that everything that the VP did or said that day was scripted by Kingibe. If not, why should the vice president put on Hausa attire in the absence of the president but reverts to his well known Ijaw attire when the president is around, because from the pictures we saw during the swearing in of the service chiefs, he had his usual Ijaw attire?

Kingibe was feared in Aso Rock and in the corridors of power than YarÁdua; he usurped the functions of the president and has been positioning himself for that plum job for ages. Let me make this statement: All those that humiliated Nigeria on June 12 by betraying that cause, will be humiliated until they pass on. They will all be disgraced in one way or the other. Kingibe and Tony Aneih betrayed Abiola when he needed them most, when he wanted to claim his mandate given to him by the people. The trio of Kingibe and Aneih decided to abandon Abiola to work for Abacha; disgrace and humilation will be waiting for them until they repent and apologise to Nigerians and Abiola´s spirit.

The ThisDay Newspapers of September 9, 2008 writing about the role Kingibe played during the June 12 saga wrote:

“A fresh opportunity for Kingibe to bounce back presented itself when a kinsman of Kingibe’s, General Sani Abacha, seized power from Chief Ernest Shonekan’s Interim National Government, in November 1993. Kingibe jumped ship and became Abacha’s foreign minister, thus effectively weakening the agitation for the validation of the June 12 1993 election. Kingibe served in several ministries as minister beginning with the foreign ministry and collected enough political collateral while his presidential ambition was in abeyance. Many insist that Kingibe had never taken his eyes off the presidency. In fact, in each position he occupied, he worked assiduously for his presidential ambition.

It was the same thing under the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua arrangement. Kingibe, it was gathered, had on assumption of office began working towards realising his dream goal if the election of President Yar’Adua was upturned by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.

It was also gathered that based on the alleged stand of Yar’Adua that he would not stand for another election if his mandate was annulled, Kingibe had stepped up preparations to contest the Presidency on the PDP platform. In fact, this landed him in trouble in the early days of the administration.

Sources said that Kingibe had started courting members of the PDM in both PDP and the Action Congress (AC).

But dependable sources alleged that Kingibe did not make much progress because most of the old governors no longer share in his vision. Added to that, the distrust of Kingibe in the Yar’Adua camp had reared its head like a mantra, even a living legend. It was learnt that while his overtures were being politely shoved aside by people who felt betrayed by Kingibe when he hopped on the Abacha bandwagon in what was viewed as treacherous by the progressives for leaving Abiola´s mandate to become a Foreign Affairs Minister. And since then Kingibe oozed of serpentine skin in the eyes of the political class.

The Allegations...

One of the simmering allegations was that Kingibe had also been trying to reach out to former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar. The AC presidential candidate is challenging Yar’Adua’s presidency at the tribunal. It was reported that while Kingibe was sent on a mission to Atiku by Yar’Adua, the SGF seized the opportunity to initiate overtures to the former VP’s confidants on his own ambition. Sources said that this development caused disaffection in the Presidency and PDP, as those loyal to Yar’Adua were uncomfortable that Kingibe could scheme when the battle to win at the tribunal was yet to be concluded.

Kingibe was brought out of political oblivion by President Yar’Adua and was given the position of the SGF. In spite of all, presidency sources say, Kingibe keeps the flame of his presidential ambition aglow. One of his strategies, it was learnt, has been to use the SGF office in fighting the cause of those he believes could be useful in the future. And such friends have been surreptitiously conscripted into his war chest. But the bubble burst yesterday”.

Kingibe committed so many blunders; recounting them will take volumes and a lot of time. His latest undoing started when YarÁdua left for Saudi Arabia. Kingibe connived with people like IBB in trying to scheme YarÁdua out. The Tribune Newspapers of September 6, 2008 wrote that the North, as a result of the dwindling health condition of the president, then was in disarray and were restrategising on how to retain the presidency in the North. The paper stated that the former military president, Ibrahim Babangida was the arrow head of the move. Infact, he was said to have been deeply involved in the move. According to the paper, the plan was to ensure that the Vice President Jonathan Goodluck was not allowed to assume the office of the President as stipulated in the Constitution, should President Yar’Adua voluntarily resign or dies in office.

Even the Northern elders and politicians, under the umbrella of the Arewa consultative Forum (ACF) also resolved to ensure that no matter the health problem of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua and the outcome of the petition challenging his election, the region should retain the presidency. The Arewa Consultative Forum held many meeting when YarÁdua was in Saudi Arabia and they were shaken to the bone marrow because they would never want to give up on the presidency and the death or incapacitation of YarÁdua could change the whole ball game. Besides the issue of President Yar'Adua's health, the northern elders, in their meetings deliberated on how to find an alternative source of revenue to oil and gas with a view to ending the over-dependence of the region on oil.

Kingibe is the man that made YarÁdua to relegate Obasanjo to the worst Background. Kingibe hates Obasanjo with passion and Obasanjo really worked hard to see that he was not hired, but, YarÁdua trusted Kingibe because of the family relationship dating decades between them and had to go contrary to Obasanjo’s wish. Kingibe instigated the rift that developed and is still widening between Obasanjo and YarÁdua. No body can believe that Obasanjo single-handedly installed YarÁdua as the president. Obasanjo should count himself lucky because, had Kingibe still remain as the Secretary to the Federal Government and with all the influences he wielded, he would have convinced YarÁdua to imprison Obasanjo before the former´s tenure runs out.

Kingibe has been all out to humiliate Obasanjo and to make a mince meat of all the good work he put in place. Kingibe was responsible for the reversing of all the nice policies Obasanjo initiated before leaving office, but, the problem has been that Kingibe and his “principal” have been unable to initiate better ones to replace those they cancelled out. Kingibe was responsible for the cancellation of the re-denomination of the Naira the CBN under Prof. Soludo wanted to undertake. A nice policy that would have helped put Nigeria on a sound financial and monetary footing.

Obasanjo is to be blamed; he sold two dummies (YarÁdua and Goodluck) to Nigerians. Let’s look at the no-love-lost relationship between Obasanjo and YarÁdua:

The failure of Yar’Adua and his family members to, at least, inform Obasanjo about the state of his health. Story had it that Obasanjo even told some of his close aides that during his days in power that no one briefed him about the situation with the health of Yar’Adua and that he learnt about his condition like any other Nigerian from the newspapers and other media channels.

Obasanjo seems confused about the turn of events, as he had now been cut off completely from anything pertaining to the President.

Obasanjo felt deceived by Yar’Adua on his health condition as he was alarmed to find the president’s health so bad.

Obasanjo was said to have got wrong security reports on Yar’Adua’s health while in office and that Yar’Adua himself told him he was strong enough to carry the burden of the office before the former president went the whole hog to back his candidacy for the election.

There is now report that Obasanjo told his close associates that he felt bad with the situation because there were many able and competent men who could do the job if he had been given the true picture about Yar’Adua’s health before the 2007 elections.

There were reports that both Yar’Adua and Obasanjo were no longer on talking terms following speculations that the President was no longer picking Obasanjo calls, a sign that he was avoiding his predecessor.

Let us not forget that before Yar’Adua became President, Obasanjo had been passionate about installing him and had waved off advice from top aides to the contrary.

We can’t forget in a hurry how Obasanjo, in April 2007, demonstrated his passion for Yar’Adua as he made spirited effort to douse speculation(s) about his sudden death when he told Nigerians that Yar’Adua was hale and hearty following an urgent trip by the latter to Germany for a medical check-up. At a PDP campaign ground in Edo State, Obasanjo put a telephone call across to Yar’Adua on his sick bed in Germany loudly pronouncing, “Umoooru, they are saying in Nigeria that you are dead, is it true you are dead?” thereby re-assuring the nation that the then candidate was hale and hearty.

Obasanjo led the campaign for Yar’Adua’s election across the federation holding up his hands and those of other PDP chieftains at campaign grounds while dancing humorously on the podium.

Fresh on our minds during the presidential retreat held for all elected PDP officials before the swearing in of Yar’Adua as president in 2007, is how Obasanjo addressed the issue of Yar’Adua’s ill-health and cursed those he accused of spreading rumours of his ill-health.

The gulf between Yar’Adua and Obasanjo began to widen not too long after the President appeared to have tightened his grip on power with the help of Kingibe and began to move against his predecessor by upturning many of the policies the past government had put in place without erecting any of his own.

What appeared to have signified the final parting of ways between the two leaders was the Yar’Adua government’s painting of his predecessor’s government as corrupt through an anti-Obasanjo move being lately pursued by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The EFCC with Mrs. Farida Waziri at the helm, has concentrated mainly on humiliating most of the key ministers in the Obasanjo cabinet by slamming on them a stigma of corruption. So far, the EFCC has put in the dock the daughter of Obasanjo, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, also arresting two of his former ministers, Professor Babalola Borisade and Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, both of whom it charged with allegations of corrupt enrichment. The immediate past chairman of EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, has also tasted a bitter pill in the hands of this government which removed him from office with ignominy and sent him to NIPSS in Kuru for Police training. The officials of the government are still known to be digging information about Ribadu for his eventual prosecution.

The EFCC went after a chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, regarded as the closest confidant of Obasanjo, charging him with alleged mismanagement of the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) funds. Besides, some weeks before Yar’Adua travelled to Saudi Arabia, he scrapped the office of the Chief of Staff which had former aide of Obasanjo, Gbolade Oshinowo, as the acting head, and in the process, sacked nine other officials serving in the office.

His government had earlier humiliated the former Chief of Staff, General Abdullahi Muhammed, who had served Obasanjo for eight years and who assisted his administration in taking off and consolidating, when he announced his retirement without a prior notice.

Yar’Adua also sacked all the Service Chiefs installed by Obasanjo and replaced them in a manner that suggested that something was amiss. (The Tribune, September 6, 2008)

The ThisDay Newspapers of September 9, 2008 wrote about one of the reasons Kingibe was shown the door. The paper wrote “that Kingibe was going to be removed, was a question of time as President Yar’Adua is said to have been complaining about him for some time now”.

According to the paper, the former SGF was said to have played politics with his office, allegedly leaving his work undone. But the immediate reason for his sack is said not to be unconnected with allegations trailing his role in the wake of Yar’Adua’s August 20 trip to Saudi Arabia. It is alleged that files piled up on his table for several weeks and this got to Yar’Adua who was always complaining. Kingibe as SGF was supposed to be coordinating the government’s activities, that of the ministers and assigning responsibilities. But he was always engaged in nocturnal meetings with politicians.

It is alleged that there was one particular Minister of Special Duties that has been appointed and his schedule of duties has not been assigned by the SGF up till the time he was sacked.

The paper wrote that Kingibe lost his job because he was busy politicking and his ambition to replace Yar’Adua as President of Nigeria was also said to be an open secret within the corridors of power. He was said to have been holding a series of meetings and consultations while Yar’Adua was away to Saudi Arabia. Kingibe was said to have used his position as Secretary to the Government of the Federation to position himself to be the next President of Nigeria, should the Supreme Court annul Yar'Adua elections.

The paper made an interesting assertion when it wrote that his appointment as SGF was said to have rankled some people who saw him more as a politician than a technocrat expected to hold such an office.

In my article of February 18, 2008, published in this website, I wrote:

YarÁdua, to my understanding, has resigned his fate to the upcoming judgement of the Election Tribunal and might not contest the presidency again, should the Tribunal annul his election. Having been faced with mountain of problems he never envisaged, he is finding the post too hot to handle and will be too happy to give up his right to contest again due to the enormous pressures he is encountering, taking into cognisance his health situation which seems not to be good. I learnt that the Secretary to the Federal Government, Alhaji Baba Kingibe, is waiting in the wings to step into Yar’Adua’s bogus shoes in the event that the latter decides to call it a day, if his election is annulled. Kingibe is already the unseen hands running the government and have influenced every major policy of the present government. Kingibe should not be allowed to become the president because of his ethnic or parochial tendencies. He was one of those who stamped their feet against an Igbo man becoming the Inspector General of Police at the inception of this administration; he was the person that influenced the giving of all the juicy ministries to the permanent secretaries of northern extraction. He is encouraging the administration to pursue the northern agenda to the letters; he plans, if he gets the chance, to northernise the military again after Obasanjo did a great job in giving the military a nationalistic and professional look. Nigeria don't want Kingibe as president, if it will continue existing as it is, unless, we want it to be wiped out of existence. Nigeria of today is no longer that of the yesteryears, Nigerians will not keep mute and watch a particular people continue lording it perpetually over all others; it is either we exist peacefully with equality, justice and fair play reigning or we agree to disagree and call it a day to this colonial creation called Nigeria. I hope it will not come to the latter.

The Tribune Newspapers of September 9, 2008 gave its reasons why Kingibe was toasted by writing that his sack came to many as a shock as he was said to be a strong force in the current political calculation in the Presidential Villa. For the paper, Kingibe’s sins might not be unconnected with the president’s health condition and the trip to Saudi Arabia where it was gathered that he actually visited the King Fahd Armed Forces Hospital for medical attention. That Kingibe might have incurred the wrath of the president over the allegation that he leaked the story of Yar’Adua’s visit to the Saudi hospital to the press. According to the paper, the Presidency was angry that Kingibe had to disclose this sensitive information without getting clearance to do so. The worst of it all was that while the president was in Saudi Arabia, Kingibe never bothered to phone him (the president) for once to wish him quick recovery and this was said to have angered Yar’Adua.

Another sin of Kingibe, according to the paper, was the fact that he advocated the scrapping of the office of Chief of Staff and the removal of the occupier of the post, Major General Abdullahi Muhammed. This move, it was gathered, was a calculated attempt by Kingibe to become a very powerful force to be reckoned with in the scheming for 2011 presidency. The paper also wrote he incurred the wrath of Vice President Goodluck Jonathan by saying that in the event that the president could not continue in office; power should not be handed over to Jonathan as he insisted that a Northerner should act as president thereby putting him in a strong position to occupy Aso Rock.

The paper made us know that Kingibe saw it come because with all these problems hanging on his neck, he asked to be made the Foreign Affairs Minister rather than being sacked, but that the president was quoted as saying that he could no longer work with Kingibe. We also learnt that the former SGF attended the decoration of the newly promoted service chiefs and must have known at the ceremony that his time was up as he was ignored by the president while he (Yar’Adua) was recognising the top officials present, because, Yar’Adua recognised the other functionaries without mentioning the former SGF.

The Guardian Newspapers of September 9, 2008 wrote the worst about Kingibe:

“Abuja power brokers, who held court in the absence of the President were told last week that the Office of the Vice President was reportedly bugged by some smart State Service officials ostensibly to monitor the kind of politics that was going around the Vice President Goodluck Jonathan in the absence of the President.

That what was withheld in the complex politics of Aso Rock in the defining moment was the allegation that the former SGF was involved in some politics of the alleged "bugging" in order to implicate the Vice President who could be President if Yar'Adua was "permanently incapacitated" in Saudi Arabia and could not return in time. Kingibe's adversaries spread the devastating rumour to the extent that the deal was to get the Vice President to consider him as Vice President just in case....

It was learnt that when Kingibe was told about the allegation he was devastated and tried desperately to dispel the rumours, which had then leaked to a section of the media. The fallen SGF was said to have told those who leaked the deal aimed at implicating him that "there was indeed no bugging of the Vice President's office as alleged and he had met with Jonathan officially and there was no indication that the office was physically disrupted in the course of "de-bugging."

The Daily Sun Newspapers of September 9, 2008 wrote about the next sin of Kingibe:

The paper wrote that there are reports allegedly claiming that Kingibe was the decoy behind several pressures from the North to force Yar’Adua to resign or in the event of his death, put in urgent measures to ensure that if Vice President Goodluck Jonathan becomes president, he would emerge as deputy. The paper wrote that the presidency was unsettled when it received the reports and promptly acted on it. The paper made us know that last December; Kingibe barely survived being sacked, following similar reports of activities bordering on disloyalty and perceived presidential ambition. He has also allegedly been linked to negative media reports on the unstable health of the president. He came close to being accused of helping the cause of the opposition at the tribunal. With such heavy allegations on a man who is like the heart of the government, ceaselessly, the mind of the head of the government may be poisoned against him, so wrote the paper.

The Punch Newspapers of September 9, 2008 gave us more insight on the miscalculations that cost Kingibe his plum job. We are being told that Kingibe was ever present in the Presidential Villa during Yar‘Adua‘s absence. That Kingibe‘s removal might not be unconnected with the hoopla generated by the alleged poor management of information on the President‘s state of health while he was away in Saudi Arabia. The paper further wrote that Kingibe might have drawn the ire of the President with reports that reached him on how the former SGF allegedly behaved like a tin god in the President’s absence. The paper claimed that vice-president, who was constitutionally supposed to hold forte for Yar‘Adua, was relegated to the background in the running of the Presidency during the president’s absence by men like Kingibe. This had given strength to the fear of a constitutional crisis in case of any eventuality.

There is a report that YarÁdua returned to prepare the minds of Nigerians before leaving for his surgery that will take him away for months. Each time he leaves, the business of government grinds to a halt creating the vacuum chameleons like Kingibe rush to fill in. Goodluck Jonathan is not up to his job as a vice president, he can’t step in to fill the vacuum. I wonder who will hold forth in Yar’Adua’s Absence. Nature abhors a vacuum; I think the best for YarÁdua to do is simply to resign and face his health issue squarely without distractions. We appreciate his efforts; we know he wants to contribute meaningfully to the development of Nigeria, but, first thing first. His health is the most important thing now, we all are praying for him. “My people say that a dead person can’t praise Jah”, so let YarÁdua throw in the towel, we can’t afford to be wasting all these time whenever he leaves for medical check-up. Nigeria has mountain of problems that need full time tackling; an invalid or a person that is incapacitated can’t handle them. Even Nigeria’s problems can cause sickness to a healthy president not to talk of a sick one. YarÁdua has performed abysmally low in all fronts. In my article of June 21, 2008 posted on this website, I wrote:

YarÁdua is jetting off to Germany every now and then to treat himself leaving the business of government unattended to claiming that he has been patronising the German hospital since 1986 as they have his medical record, but, he was the governor of Katsina State for eight good years and knowing the kind of illness he has, he failed to establish a specialist hospital in his state then that can handle his kind of illness and that of others. It was not the west that told him not to have foresight to establish a befitting medical outfit in Katsina State that can cure kidney ailments. He has been a president for a year now, that is enough time to put the National Hospital Abuja in a better shape to handle his kind of illness and that of others, but, he failed and I am sure no western government or person advised or forced him not to do the right thing in the health and other sectors.

To sign off, Kingibe is a “green snake” in a green grass. He was supposed not to have come into this government and is supposed not to serve in any future government. He has outlived his usefulness and should call it a day. Kingibe is a “night snake” which nobody can detect where its head actually lies. Kingibe is a “two-headed snake”, when one cuts off one of its heads, the other head will pose for a fight. Kingibe is a dangerous “political harlot”. He “lies down” for everyone as long as there is something to gain.

On behalf Nigerians, I am wishing Babagana Kingibe farewell and a happy retirement. May his last post as the Secretary to the Federal Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria be his last public appointment for Nigeria. May Nigeria never see people like Kingibe in positions of authority again.

Finally, I have a premonition that the real origin of Kingibe should be well trace, unless my premonition misses, I have a feeling that he is not a real Nigerian, that he is from Niger Republic, but, surreptitiously adopted Nigeria (through his grandparents) as his country.

YarÁdua can now reclaim his government that was hijacked from his hands from the onset. It is nice that he found the strength to tell Kingibe goodbye, YarÁdua really pulled a hart trick on this one. I hope he will find the strength and courage to kiss the AGF and Minister of Justice, the Finance , Transport (who told us that we have to wait till 2009 before Ore-Benin Road is repaired upon the daily deaths happening there) Ministers etc, goodbye.

THE THANKS IS ALL YOURS!!!