Footprints of a Financial Journalist

The Royal Bank of Canada also had a department to offer complete advice and assistance to clients in countertrade deals. Countries such as Jamaica, Malaysia, Turkey, Algeria, Egypt, Germany, the then Republic of Yugoslavia, Mozambique, Libya, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Zambia, and Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) were doing countertrade deals as far back as 1985. Oil producing countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Abu Dhabi were the pioneering OPEC nations in countertrade. Saudi Arabia was known to have bartered two billion dollars of crude oil for 10 Boeing jumbo jets from the United States. Kuwait paid for the sophisticated French mirage fighter jets with export of crude oil. Iran, Sweden, Cuba, and Venezuela were engaged in countertrade. Nigeria was excited to discover this life line away from the IMF loan as an alternative for its survival. Despite its late discovery, countertrade was a welcome development. The expectation was that if well managed countertrade could give the Nigerian economy the breather it needed, and the oil price that had plummeted from $40 per barrel to less than $20 per barrel, could have time to recover while Nigeria was still a going concern. With countertrade, the Buhari government had truly checkmated the IMF, freeing the Nigerian economy to recover at its own pace. Economic editors and financial journalists led by Newswatch had a field day analysing the consequences of the various economic revitalisation options.

While the government was stabilising the macro-economic environment, the private sector was struggling in the face of lean resources. My contact with Odze Distilleries Limited, a local wine producing company, based in Gbagada, Lagos, was my first test of integrity in journalism. I was given a guided tour of the company’s premises. I had a two-hour interview with the German-trained Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Godwin Ene, a clear-headed, focused, and strategic thinker. The interview was arranged by the company’s public relations consultant. After the interview, the company gave me a few cartons of white and red wine, being products of the company. The consultant then extended to me an envelope that obviously contained cash. I did not bother to count how much was in it. I flatly rejected the envelope but accepted the company’s products. In the same period, there was a labour crisis in Bendel Brewery Limited, Benin City. I travelled there to investigate the crisis in one of the oldest breweries in Nigeria. After a series of interviews, it was clear that the management team of the company at the time was trading in the company’s products and diverting the proceeds. When I reported the story, hell was let loose. The company’s public relations consultant stormed the Newswatch newsroom, threatening to cut off advertising contract with Newswatch for running such a damning story. In error, he confronted me. I told him that in Newswatch, advertising revenue would not stand in the way of publishing the truth. He stood speechless as I left him.

The episode of a product recall by Premier Brewery, Onitsha, was interesting. When I visited the company, the frightened Chief Executive Officer calmly assembled his management team to explain the problems they had and what they had done to prevent a recurrence. When the story was published, the company was excited that it received a commendation rather than a condemnation. I had an encounter with the Managing Director of the Nigeria Airways, Air Commodore Bernard Baffa (Retired). The airline was having problems meeting its debt service obligations. The lending institution, International Merchant Bank (IMB), was piling pressure on the airline. When I called on the airline, I was taken to the office of Air Commodore Baffa. He was so furious that he had me detained for well over three hours. He also threatened to arrest Dele Giwa and my other Newswatch bosses and submerge them in a bathtub filled with hot water. My crime was that I came to ask what the airline was doing to pay its debt. I covered the conferences of the Nigerian Economic Society (NES) in Lagos, Kaduna, and Enugu. In the conference held in Enugu, Prof. Pius Okigbo, the erudite economist, gave a lecture on “How Nigeria Was Building from the Roof Top.” It concisely explained the dilemma of the Nigerian economic development paradigm which could have been corrected over time.

Up till 1985, Nigeria had perfected the concept of five yearly national development plans. This planning framework was the basis of the country’s development, beginning from 1962 when the first national development plan was launched.12 The First National Development Plan was to last from 1962 to 1968 but, because of the unexpected civil war, extended to the end of the war in 1970. The Second National Development Plan ran from 1971 to 1975;13 the Third from 1976 to 1980;14 and the Fourth from 1981 to 1985.15 The plans always started from January of the commencement year to December of the closing year. The Buhari government was vigorously making efforts to conclude the formulation of the Fifth National Development Plan, which was expected to run from January 1986 to December 1990.

In the context of the Second National Development Plan, the first indigenisation programme transferred ownership of certain businesses from foreigners to Nigerians. Then, in the life of the Third National Development Plan, the second indigenisation programme transferred greater and higher value of businesses to Nigerians. Most of the developments in the old federal capital city of Lagos and major infrastructure across Nigeria were developed within the development plans. The Nigerian Economic Society organised a conference to discuss the methodology, objectives, priorities, strategies, and policies for the Fifth National Development Plan. In addressing the conference, Chief G. P. O. Chikelu, as president of NES and permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Employment, Labour and Productivity, advised that the estimation of available resources and size of the plan should be realistic. He appealed that the private sector share of the plan must not be crowded out by the public sector. The conference was addressed by the Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, Majorgeneral Tunde Idiagbon. There was high hope that a coherent document to respond to the economic challenges was in the offing. Neverthelsess, the extent to which the Fourth National Development Plan had resolved Nigeria’s economic challenges was something still in the air.

I had access to men of power and influence who were engaged in the running of the economy in government and business. I conducted a lot of interviews. Because I was always in business cocktails and dinners, it was easy to catch newsworthy ideas as they dropped in discussions from the lips of men. At such cocktails, interview appointments were easy to arrange. Similarly, I had friends and university schoolmates in the leading enterprises in Lagos: Chase Merchant Bank, ICON Merchant Bank, NAMBL (Nigerian-american Merchant Bank Limited, First Bank or IBWA (International Bank for West Africa). I also had good contacts in government. Furthermore, my years in CMD gave me access to economic departments of government and business organisations. Very often, as I sat in the Newswatch newsroom, breaking news always came knocking on my door. One of such was the news from IMB and its Managing Director, Ebitimi Banigo. Two senior level staff of the bank came to me with two giant sized envelopes asking that I should reveal the sordid tales at IMB which was about the most dynamic merchant bank at the time. I promised to study the materials and if I needed more information they would be contacted. However, I undertook to write a story that would meet the time-honoured journalistic value of balance, requiring that both the accused and the accusers would be interviewed. My informants were afraid that their identities would be revealed but I promised them that they will never be known. The envelopes contained very damning details of a story told by one party to a dispute but I found lots of gaps and missing links. I needed to probe further. I went to IMB to see its Managing Director. I had never met Ebitimi Banigo before then but Newswatch editor-in-chief, Dele Giwa, a man who knew every mover and shaker in Nigeria, had called him up to say I was on my way for something important. When we met, I challenged him with the information at my disposal. He brought out a pile of records to counter what had been handed to me. I interviewed two other senior management staff, Mr. Odunayo Olagundoye, General Manager and Mrs. Evelyn Brume, assistant General Manager. I later went over to see Macaulay Iyayi, also an assisitant General Manager. After these interviews, I wrote a story “IMB Sits Atop The Ladder.” In truth, that was what my investigations revealed and, rather unexpectedly, I built a life-long friendship from the encounter. My trip to IMB was very productive and I was very pleased that no one made any effort to influence me through the offer of any material gift. In the end, I refused to dwell on the initial story that was lacking in credibility and objectivity, a story that looked more like a lynch mob determined to inflict maximum destruction on an institution. Maybe the youthfulness of Banigo, 38 years old at the time, made a wonderful impression on me. At IMB, I also met University of Lagos schoolmates who subsequently became part of my sounding board on government economic policy discussions.

In the political environment, the military government of General Buhari and his second in command, Tunde Idiagbon, remained relentlessly brutal and despotic. Even amongst their colleagues, the duo never had a smooth ride. In-fighting and bickering over policy differences was commonplace. The government began to experience internal dissent. In the larger society, the public was disenchanted with the poor economy and a brutal government that had only recently murdered three young men in cold blood. It was always rumoured that the Buhari administration was in a life and death combat with its Chief of Army Staff, Major General Ibrahim Badamasi Babaginda (IBB). It was also reported by correspondents in Dodan Barracks, the seat of government in Lagos, that the tension whenever the military council met was palpable. It was predicted that a shoot-out could erupt in any of these meetings. And, not surprising, coming sooner than was thought, the nation woke up to martial music on radio and television in the early hours of August 27, 1985; a clear sign that all was not well in Nigeria. Then came the voice of Brigadier Joshua Nimel Dongoyaro, who announced to an expectant nation that a military coup had taken place and the Buhari military administration had been overthrown. The reasons he gave were not important. What was evident was that the in-fighting in the Supreme Military Council (SMC) had produced a winner and a loser. Buhari had lost and, in a few hours, the name of Major-general Ibrahim Babaginda was announced as the new Head of State and Commanderin-chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria. He was thenceforth to be known and addressed as the President of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria. Babaginda created a new ruling council known as the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and reconstituted the cabinet of ministers. The new regime released all detainees under the Buhari administration, freed many politicians that had been sentenced to long jail terms and promised to re-open the IMF discussions so that Nigeria could decide whether it truly wanted the IMF loan. The obnoxious Decree 4, which muzzled press freedom, was abrogated and the two journalists jailed under it were released. Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu, an Economist formerly with the IMF, became the finance minister while Dr. Chu S. P. Okongwu, a consultant to the World Bank, was named minister for economic development. These appointments were early indications of the possible directions of President Babaginda’s economic policies.