Iyabogate and Obasanjo's Anti-Corruption Crusade

What has come to be referred to as "Iyabogate" is one in a long string of scandals that has trailed the exit of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, aka Baba Iyabo. While in power, Baba Iyabo strove hard to project the image of Mr Clean. In the dying days of his presidency, he deployed the full force of his arsenal against his deputy, Atiku Abubakar under the guise of fighting corruption.

There has been inuendos circulating across people's paliaments that Baba Iyabo fought corruption with corruption. It was claimed that, as a dirty broom, he left behind more filth thatn he removed. Events and revelation since his exit after the failure of the "third term" fiasco seems to lend increasing credence to this innuendo.





The land is abuzz with scandals, from last minute sweetheart deals to the latest string of scandals, dubbed b commentators as "one month, one scandal"... from wilbros, Siemens, Schneider... Critics claim that this is just a tip of the iceberg, the show is about to start. President Umaru Yar' Adua's team has been kept very busy, reversing decisions made by Baba Iyabo, especially in his last months in power, gaining credibilty in the process. All that the Yar'Adua need to boost the approval rating of the government is to shop for an unpopular Obasanjo policy and reverse it pronto, and they seem to be not hard to find.

Even while in power, there were conflict of interest issues thrown up with the building of a presidential library while still in power, Bells University, awarding oil blocks to Transcorp while still a shareholder, and the controversial sale of Abuja Hilton and NITEL to Transcorp, the miraculous revival of Temperance farms and other business among others. The goings on in the Petroluem Ministry under Baba Iyabo's watch is an untold story. The AP story may very well fire the opening salvo in the story of the activities of "friends and family" of Baba Iyabo in the oil industry.





Of all the wind of scandals blowing across the land, iyabogate seems to be the one that has blown closest home. Baba Iyabo can claim to have done no evil, heard no evil or seen no evil when it came to acts of his men. Convincing Nigerians that he knew nothing about iyabogate will be an uphill task.

The case seems to be very simple and straight forward. Senator Iyabo has admitted that she is "Mrs Damilola Akinlawon", that Prince Albert Awofisayo is her business partner (owner of Vamed Engineering, that won the contract to refurbish some teaching hospitals in the country). She knew that using her real name will throw up a conflict of interest scenario, hence she chose to use an alias. As far as she knows, this is not against the law, Schneider won the contracts through due process and her being an Obasanjo did not affect the process