When the CBN team was to discuss the third National Development Plan, 1975-80, with the then Head of State, General Obasanjo, while others were reluctant, you reportedly told him bluntly that what would be spent in the first year of a four-year plan was more than 50 per cent of the whole four years. Please expatiate?
The third National Development Plan, 1975-80, was to be debated with then the Head of State, General Obasanjo presiding. He had late Chief S. O. Asabia, MD, First Bank plc, sitting on his right and Chief S. O. Falae, a permanent secretary then, sitting to his left, Mr. Ola Vincent, deputy governor and I represented the bank. All permanent secretaries and senior government officials were at the meeting. Earlier, with my staff at the Central Bank, we had assembled all the papers and inputs of all stakeholders. The plan was to cost N47.5 billion; the submission of all stakeholders exceeded and doubled the plan and what would be spent in the first year of the plan was more than 50 per cent of the whole plan. He started from his right, calling for presentations and comment. He finally got to the Central Bank and said, ‘Let us hear what the Central Bank would say, since they claim to have monopoly of inflation management.’ My governor gave me the floor and I threw the bombshell – that what would be spent in the first year of a four-year plan was more than 50 per cent of the whole four years. I expected the worse – my dismissal – but all of a sudden General Obasanjo said, “Eh, Olu (that is Chief Falae), Eh Sam (that is Chief Asabia), is that true? Both of them answered in affirmative and he adjourned the meeting immediately. This was later followed by my letter, dated 22 May 1979, of secondment to the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria as the Managing Director and I was subsequently appointed the Managing Director of the bank dated 28 May 1979.
According to reports, you raised the N15 million, 9. 5 per cent half debenture stock of 1982/1988 to finance a 25-storey FMBN building at 23 Marina and it was over-subscribed by N1.8 million. How did you achieve this?
Despite the rapacious elements and the ravaging opposition, I was able to record some measure of success in my odyssey at the bank. One example is the N15 million 9.5 per cent stock of 1982/1988. I make bold to say that by God’s grace, I made – I have not seen evidence to the contrary – the first public offer to take a federal government parastatal, FMBN for that matter, to the Capital Market in Nigeria to successfully raise a debenture – the N15 million 9.5 per cent stock of 1982/1988. It was to finance a 25-storey FMBN building at 23 Marina. It was not only fully subscribed but was over-subscribed by N1.8 million. The over-subscription was what the board shared among themselves when I was sent on compulsory leave earlier referred to in my letter of resignation. The proceeds of the debenture stock that were used to finance what was called General Mamman Kontagora [House] at 23 Marina, Lagos (having modified and reduced drastically the building from 25-storey to 15-storey). My sad reflection about the building each time I pass by is why it was not named after Alhaji Lateef Okunmu. He was the Federal Minister of Housing who helped FMBN to acquire the land. Or in the alternative, after Dr. Wahab Dosunmu, also Federal Minister of Works and Housing, who not only worked and approved the FMBN House at 23 Marina but gave total support for the raising of the debenture stock from the capital market. It is part of our misplaced judgment and of our servile mentality down South here.
During your days as Director of Research, CBN, you participated in the negotiation of a $1 billion loan between CBN and a team of lenders from London. You stated in your memoir that a clause – that if Nigeria defaulted it would forfeit her assets, including the unexplored underground assets – was cleverly introduced in the terms. Please shed more light.
It is true. In fact, I learnt from that experience that in any negotiation, you must never fear to negotiate nor must you negotiate out of fear. The team of lenders with whom we were negotiating the $1 billion loan cleverly introduced a clause which in effect meant that if Nigeria defaulted on any aspect of the loan, Nigeria would forfeit all her assets, including the unexplored underground assets. I couldn’t control my anger at such a condescending and insulting proposal and I gave it back to them, informing them of what the implications were and I asked them why they did not attempt to recolonise the whole Nigeria? It was a pleasant surprise to me, however, to be handed a gold-plated fountain pen from the London team by Dr. Imeh Ebong, a director of Finance, Federal Ministry of Finance, who attended the loan-signing agreement held in London in appreciation of my contribution to the negotiation. They had arranged a BBC interview for me, expecting I would be at the signing ceremony but felt disappointed I could not be present. In Imeh’s words, he said they intoned: “That is the man who called us avaricious bloodsuckers and did not allow us to wriggle Nigeria’s neck.”
You wrote you were arrested by the SSS on 4 January 1984 and taken to Alagbon to explain a N1.8 million you referred to in your letter of resignation. Can you briefly narrate your ordeal and the lessons?
There was a coup against the government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari on 31 December, 1983 to 1 January, 1984. It was on 4 January after my return to Nigeria that I was arrested by the SSS at my residence – CBN flat in Victoria Island. My wife was not in and I was hemmed between two of those who came to arrest me. As they were driving me out in the car, my wife drove in and I just waved to her and shouted that I would soon be back, without letting her know that I was being taken to Alagbon. When I got to Alagbon, I met my board members who had been earlier arrested. I was called to explain the amount of N1. 8 million I referred to in my letter of resignation. I drew their attention to the date I was suspended from the bank, the date I was recalled, the date the money was withdrawn by my board members and the date I resigned from the bank; all showing that the money was withdrawn in my absence and I knew nothing nor was I involved in the withdrawal. There I watched my board members put in a Black Maria and taken to Kirikiri in Apapa while I was allowed to go home. My wife was so embarrassed and frightened when I told her what happened. One of the officers who arrested and later effected my release saw me on another occasion on another case when he told me that he used my book, Redesigning Nigeria’s Financial System as one of his textbooks for his degree in Economics at Obafemi Awolowo University. What eventually happened to the board members taken to Kirikiri did not excite me other than to see the hand of God at work with deep appreciation.
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