In the 'Reformers Circle' in Abuja, a 'bug' is on the loose. It whizzes

around their 'secret' phone lines causing them great discomfort. Of course, when you walk around with a huge cupboard hiding even bigger skeletons, the last thing you need is a pesky little bug asking uncomfortable questions over the phone. Such was the case with Jimi Lawal, the veritable 'national treasure', protected by the Reformers Circle when I called his number two weeks ago.

 

Yet, earlier last year when I called him, he seemed in too jolly a mood to

even find out who was calling first. The mere fact that I introduced myself

as calling from the US let loose his sugar tongue! It was a cool summer day

and, from the way he was talking and the things he was saying, I imagined

him sprawled like a lounge lizard n the FCT Minister's quarters in Abuja

(where he was staying) or the NICON-NOGA suite he's said to be sometimes

based, rubbing his belly, the phone hanging stylishly from his ear, a

contented smile adorning his face as he rattled off his incredible

achievements in turning his fortunes around. A few months before, he was a

fugitive abroad.

 

Ironically, Mr Lawal's earlier troubles started of his own making. After

escaping the cold hands of the Failed Banks Tribunal which on March 19, 1996

sentenced him in absentia for the massive swindle he engineered at Alpha

Merchant Bank, Jimi ensconced himself abroad and frittered away his loot in

comfort. True to his nature, he continued engaging in countless underground

swindlers schemes, breaking the law wherever he went, running from America

to England to Netherlands to Canada with a view to escaping justice. But

with the coming to power of Olusegun Obasanjo, Shakiru Olajimi Adebisi Lawal

sighed in relief.

 

Suave Jimi, who could charm the birds off their perch with his easy manners

and pretentious airs, soon ingratiated himself to the new president. Even as

a convict and a fugitive from Nigerian justice, he became a permanent

fixture in Obasanjo's supposed attempt to 'organize' the Nigerian Diaspora.

Jimi was a founding member of the Obasanjo-created Nigerians in Diaspora

Organization (NIDO) and a member of its boards in America and in Europe. Of

course, the fact that supposedly intelligent men and women of our diplomatic

missions abroad found nothing wrong in hobnobbing with a known crook like

Lawal or leaving him in positions of trust was all part of the grand design

for him to gain official pardon at home, something that was still quite

impossible at the time because of the clear open and shut case against him.

Though, the Abacha government attempted half-heartedly to get him extradited

from the US where he first fled, the government's abominable human rights

record did not give the US authorities much confidence to accede to the

request and thus slippery Jimi blended into decent society where he

continued to unleash his criminal ingenuity on unsuspecting persons abroad.

By 2001, he was already a wanted man in America and was only sneaking in and

out of US even as submissions in court documents in cases against him claim

he was being sighted in various parts of the United States.

 

Jimi's NIDO activities were well designed to position him abroad as the

administration's Man Friday, a fox amongst the pigeons of NIDO. Two months

before the Atlanta event that saw to NIDO's official formation in September

2000 by Obasanjo, Lawal's friends in the administration led by the then BPE

chieftain, Nasir el-Rufai had perfected an audacious plan to pay millions of

dollars of the Nigerian taxpayers' money to Jimi Lawal as his supposed share

from the sale of the controversial Afribank shares. Just how a criminal and

a fugitive from national justice merited to be paid such huge sums in his

hideaway abroad was a mystery, especially as the money used to acquire the

shares belonged to the Alpha Merchant Bank depositors he'd swindled and who

were/are still suffering from the effect of his criminal activities.

 

Nasir el-Rufai did not only pay him, he also ensured that he got all sorts

of commissions from budding privatization deals at the time by imposing him

as "Adviser" on prospective bidders. One of such impositions saw him

promised $2 million by the ill-prepared Investors International (London)

Limited led by Chief Bode Akindele in their bid to take over NITEL. He was

also collecting commissions for government advertising in international

newspapers such as the International Herald Tribune. In short, El-Rufai and

his friends in Nigeria made sure he continued to live off the Nigerian state

while on the run. So, in Atlanta, when he led the Muslim prayers at the NIDO

formation session presided over by Obasanjo, those in the know knew the NIDO

experiment wasn't actually about Nigerians abroad, but one of those

convoluted schemes dreamt up by Lawal and his backers to work his way back

to Nigeria. All they needed was for the right moment to strike.

 

The moment came with the appointment of Jimi Lawal's friends into the top

levels of government after the Obasanjo 419 reelection campaign. Under the

guise of pursuing "reform" in his second term, Obasanjo brought all of Jimi

Lawal's friends into government - Nasir el-Rufai, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Oby

Ezekwesili, Nuhu Ribadu, Abdul Mukhtar, etc. And they didn't waste time to

begin to put Jimi to use. First, it came in

the form of the Rufai-conceived

dollar salary payments to Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Olu Adeniji. He it was who

convinced the president to ditch the Constitution and the statutorily

stipulated salary for ministers and not only pay Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala an

amount that is grossly above those lawfully stipulated, but to also pay this

in hard dollars. They then got the UNDP to give it a veil of credibility

while pretending nothing had happened until the Sunday Guardian began to ask

questions. In answer to those questions, the Secretary of the Government of

the Federation, Chief Ufot Ekaette let the cat out of the bag. When the din

of protest became fever-pitch and it seemed the fiercest opposition was

coming from Nigerians abroad, Nasir el-Rufai and his friends deployed Jimi

Lawal to use the NIDO machinery to garner support for government action.

 

At the time, the international opposition to the dollar salary payments was

being led by Kennedy Emetulu, a UK-based Nigerian who was leading a campaign

to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), asking for a

clarification of its role in the affair and exposing the whole thing as a

charade, especially as the UNDP and the government spokespersons, including

the president, kept contradicting each other over their various roles in the

affair. Jimi rallied other NIDO executives to counter the Emetulu campaigns,

first by releasing a statement in the name of NIDO supporting the

government's anti-constitutional position. But their moves within NIDO was

not supported by the then NIDO Chairman, Mr Emeka Ugwuonye, a

Washington-based lawyer who felt it was absurd for anyone to support such

clearly unconstitutional act by the government. He counseled caution and

offered to find some face-saving way out of the whole thing for the

government, but Lawal and his accomplices within the NIDO board would hear

none of it. They released their unsigned Statement in the name of the

Chairman and NIDO, but the Chairman, Mr Ugwuonye promptly denied it.

 

The whole NIDO dimension to the affair got the Emetulu group suspicious, so

they went on and investigated the organization and in one scandalous exposé

after another, NIDO was revealed as no more than a pro-Obasanjo

appendage-organization, presided over by mediocrities seeking crumbs from

Abuja. As Jimi and Ola Kassim, the then Vice Chairman led a war of attrition

against Ugwuonye for not supporting them, Emetulu continued his exposé of

Jimi Lawal. Far before Gbenga Obasanjo opened his mouth, Kennedy Emetulu had

revealed the connection between Lawal and Nasir el-Rufai, including

revealing how the former goes around presenting himself as the unofficial

spokesperson of el-Rufai with the aim of swindling unsuspecting persons.

There were also stories about a piece of land in Abuja promised NIDO by the

minister which Lawal made into a huge racket.

 

On Saturday, July 10, 2004 Nasir el-Rufai surfaced in New York with his

fugitive friend, Jimi Lawal by his side. By this time, there were no more

pretences as to the fact that Jimi Lawal and the minister are very close.

Ostensibly, el-Rufai was in New York to receive an award from the Nigerian

Lawyers Association for his supposed anti-corruption work. However, in

truth, it was a platform for him to take the battle to those opposed to the

dollar salary. In one of the most tragicomic faux pas in the whole affair,

Nasir el-Rufai mounted the rostrum in front of the whole world and accused

Mr Emeka Ugwuonye, the former NIDO Chairman who refused to play their game

of using the "fake name" of "Kennedy Emetulu" to attack the government and

campaign against the dollar salary abroad. Of course, this raised eyebrows

amongst those who knew Kennedy Emetulu and Emeka Ugwuonye independently.

Ugwuonye, who himself was at the function couldn't believe what he heard the

minister say. Even the attempt by Laolu Akande, the North American Bureau

Chief of The Guardian to let el-Rufai know that he got it wrong, since he

himself knows Kennedy Emetulu and Emeka Ugwuonye independently was rebuffed.

In fact, Jimi Lawal upbraided him for not believing the minister, promising

to send Mr Akande "evidence" to show that Mr Ugwuonye is the one

masquerading as Kennedy Emetulu. Jimi Lawal then left with the minister to

their hotel. The next day, el-Rufai sent one Victor Uzoh who claims to be a

Consul at the Nigerian Consulate in New York after Emetulu. The chap called

Emetulu on phone and claimed to be speaking for the Nigerian government. He

was so inarticulate that Emetulu concluded that his only reason for calling

was just to ascertain that there indeed exists an Emetulu separate from

Ugwuonye - and this after the minister had goofed already! 

 

In the midst of all this, when the heat got too much for Lawal, he had

attempted to sue Mr Emetulu. But after a flurry of exchange between Emetulu

and Jimi's lawyers, they knew their best bet was to take a hike. Emetulu

constantly peppered Lawal with his status as a convict and a fugitive from

justice, urging him to go to Nigeria and clear his name, if, as he continued

to insist, he was innocent of all charges brought against him at the Failed

Banks Tribunal. With his friends in government and the coast seemingly being

cleared with taxpayers money used to limitedly settle Alpha depositors that

he'd duped, Lawal and his friends began to put together his plan to return

to Nigeria.

 

The first indication that Lawal was now in Nigeria came via email to his old

nemesis, Mr Emetulu on 25th of September 2005. Writing from Abuja, he

curiously attempted to present himself as a stranger to the whole issue by

making out he was a different Jimi Lawal to the Jimi Lawal Emetulu had been

writing about. The email address he used was jimi.lawal@budgetoffice.gov.ng